This year would be different. James took deep breaths before walking through the barrier to Platform 9¾. As soon as the scarlet Hogwart Express came into view, memories surged up inside James and made him feel a little nauseated. Last year had not ended well. After the fiasco following the O.W.L.s, Lily wouldn't even make eye contact with him. She had completely dismissed his presence, only scowling at the floor when she noticed him. On the train, James had tried to say goodbye, but had mucked it up as usual, mentioning something stupid about coming to see her this summer and how they wouldn't have nearly so much supervision as they did whilst at Hogwarts. In that moment, she had stopped ignoring him. However, the icy silence he had endured before was broken only by yelling, and Lily thereby made her thoughts on seeing him during the summer quite clear. A desire that James wisely decided to respect. For the first summer since second year, he did not so much as send her a letter. He sighed. His relationship with Lily had always been tenuous at best, but was now at an all time low. Really hoping the summer had cooled her temper a bit, James moved toward the train with his trolley. Uneventfully, he crossed the platform alone and boarded the train. His parents were away on Auror business, and so were unable to accompany him this year. Not that he minded much, as he could take care of himself.

As soon as he ascended the steps into the train, he saw her. Summers always agreed with Lily. Most things did. The sun kissed her pale skin, and a couple freckles spattered her arms. Her dark red hair seemed to glint with more coppery highlights. Additionally, the muggle habit of wearing shorts and tank tops during the summertime wasn't a practice that James disagreed with.

Lily looked up from the group of girls she had been chatting with, and to her surprise, James Potter was standing there down the corridor. Their eyes locked for a brief second. Her surprise turned quickly into a nervous sort of resignation when she realized he would come over shortly with a loud "All right, Evans!" and try and give her a hug or something. However, before her trepidation could even fully develop itself, James forced a small smile, before darting his eyes away and busying himself with finding an empty compartment and loading his bags up onto the luggage rack. Huh.

Not long after he had established a compartment, Remus Lupin found him and greeted him with a brotherly hug and a grin. Not that it had been long since they'd seen each other. All four of the Marauders had spent quite a bit of time at James' this summer, playing quidditch and otherwise mucking around. Shortly thereafter, the other Marauders joined James and Remus in their compartment, departure time came, and with a loud whistle, the Hogwarts Express was off for James' sixth year of school.

Although his mates had spent quite a bit of time hanging around with him during the summer, with his parents gone frequently, James had still had plenty of time to think. Of course, the big fight with Lily was almost always what came to mind during a free moment. He had spun the entire scenario around in his head time and time again, and it had only gotten slightly less painful. The way she had looked at him….like he was dirt on her shoe. On yet another night of such thoughts and subsequent insomnia during June, James made a decision. One that he specifically went out and bought a journal for, at 2 am, and wrote down. This year would be different. Whatever he had been doing was clearly not working, it was killing him, and there were only two full terms left before she might be out of his life forever. He would find out exactly what is was about him that she did not like, and he would change those behaviors. He would become someone she wanted to date. And so, on a fresh page of his fresh journal, James entitled the first page The Plan. Then, he started to brainstorm.

His brainstorming, unfortunately, did not get him very far. Arrogance, he knew, was a clear point of dissonance between them, and so that got written down. He moved to the next page so as to leave plenty of space for notes under each category. Pranking, he supposed, was not her favorite activity of his, and so that became the next title. After a second's thought, the title got changed to Pranking/Bullying, and underneath that as a bullet point, he wrote leave Snivellus alone. Then, feeling guilty, he crossed out Snivellus and wrote Snape instead. Although, could going after the Slytherins even be considered bullying? Beyond that, he was not really sure. Was it his hair? His smile? Did she hate quidditch? Or his mates? Because, some things weren't negotiable. Rather than write down several categories with question marks, James left what he had and closed the book, placing it in his nightstand. As he laid back down to sleep, he realized that if he was going to get this done, he was going to need some help from friends. And not from his mates, either. From hers.