Lily L. Potter

While at Hogwarts, James met his future wife Lily Evans, who was also in his year. Lily was described as having startlingly green, almond-shaped eyes and thick, shoulder-length dark red hair. She was described by Professor Slughorn as having a natural and intuitive ability at Potions, being cheeky, but always seeing the good in others. She was, according to Slughorn, very brave, very funny and very charming, and he could not imagine that anyone who met her would not have liked her. She became a member of the Slug Club, which was run by Slughorn for promising students. Lily was very pretty, and it is evident that James was very taken with her, at least since their fifth year. Lily was Muggle-born, and at home, her sister Petunia despised Lily for being a witch and saw her as a "freak", possibly because she was jealous of how their parents favoured Lily. Petunia told Harry in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone that, "But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"

Lily was Head Girl when she was in her final year. For most of the time they were at Hogwarts, Lily appeared to have regarded James as an arrogant bully and she and James addressed each other only by each other's surnames. James was shown doodling Lily's initials during an examination in their fifth year, while Sirius recalled that he couldn't resist showing off (and making a fool of himself) whenever she was around. However, Lily defended Snape against James's bullying (at least until Snape called her a "Mudblood") and expressed contempt for his behaviour, looking at him with "great dislike" and calling him "an arrogant bullying toerag." After he asked her out in their fifth year, she replied that she wouldn't go out with him if it was a choice between him and the giant squid and remarked that, "I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK!" From this, Harry gathered the impression that Lily hated James, but Sirius and Lupin assured him that she didn't hate her future husband, they simply got off on the wrong foot. J. K. Rowling commented on Lily's hatred of James in an interview with The Leaky Cauldron/MuggleNet:

MA: How did they get together? She hated James, from what we've seen.

JKR: Did she really? You're a woman, you know what I'm saying.

After James matured and changed his attitude, Lily started dating him in their seventh year, eventually falling in love and marrying him, with Sirius as best man at their wedding.

Petunia recalls meeting an 'awful boy' who knew about magic. Lupin told Harry that his parents only became attached in their seventh year, and married soon after leaving Hogwarts. It is not known what careers they took up after leaving school. Rowling has said in an interview that "James inherited plenty of money, so he didn't need a well-paid profession."