Lily & James
The Couple
Spoilers for all books ahead.
Lily and James are Harry Potter's parents.
Lily's maiden name is Evans. She was born in a Muggle family. She has one sister, Petunia. Although her parents were very proud of having a witch in the family, she never got along with her sister who probably was jealous of her and therefore grew up disliking any 'abnormal' stuff - that is, magic. Lily was the brightest student in her year. As recalled by her professors, she was very clever. Harry has inherited her green eyes.
James Potter comes from a pure-blood family. He doesn't have any siblings, but three very close friends from Hogwarts: Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Remus is a werewolf and the others are Animagi. James' Animagus is a stag and his nickname was 'Prong'. The four of them called themselves the Marauders. James and Sirius were extremely popular at Hogwarts, 'the height of cool', as put by Remus. James was an excellent Quidditch player. He and Severus Snape were deadly enemies.
Lily and James went to Hogwarts together, they were both Gryffindors. Up to their seventh year, Lily disliked James because of his arrogant attitude. She thought his pranks to be childish and didn't want to abid by the general adoration for him. James, however, seemed to be quite infatuated with her even then. I like this quote from JK Rowling about these years, taken from a Mugglenet interview:
MA:
How did they get together? She hated James, from what we've seen.
JK Rowling:
Did she really? You're a woman, you know what I'm saying.
They started dating in their seventh year and when they get married, Sirius was James' best man. James and Lily were part of the Order of the Phoenix, the wizards fighting Voldemort. They were both extremely talented. According to the prophecy, they faced the Dark Lord three times before their final confrontation.
Lily and James died protecting Harry when they were betrayed by Peter Pettigrew. They were both killed by the Avada Kedavra spell, from Voldemort's wand.
