I liked the rough concept behind this one-shot, of Ancestry and Honour, but not its execution - the marriage contracts, 'social rules', etc.

Essentially, James -after being rejected by Lily so many times- is set up by his parents with another girl; he falls for her, forgetting Lily. Lily, however, notices that, in a parallel sort of line of development to canon's back-story, James has grown up, and falls for him in turn.

He rejects her, since he's in love now with another girl, essentially turning the tables on their relationship dynamic pre-7th year.

That's where the concept ended, and the several fic's that followed up on this went to shit, with an OC daughter replacing Harry in a vastly different storyline, post-James/Hogwarts. No further hint of Lily, at all.

I tried doing a search on the internet, but I was literally drowned out with James/Lily/Snape love triangles, "cute" canon-rehashes that have God-knows how many personal views on how/when she finally decided to give James a chance, and shitty self-insert/James Potter paired stories (written by, judging from FFn's new picture feature, 15 year old fangirls) that have the depth of a frying pan.

Does anyone know of any stories where James falls for someone else, either an OC or an OC-with-a-name (example), and Lily is the one trying to win him over? Or situations like that? I would prefer Snape not to have a significant role, if one at all, if possible, though I realise I'm most probably cutting off all and any options by asking that, heh.

Alternatively, I was wondering if there were any stories out there that had an A/U background, starting from when James got on the train or with events prior to that, where he (and the other so-called 'Marauders') develop along different lines (much like the many 'Harry goes into blah-blah House/school than Gryffindor/Hogwarts), and have different relationships with the other characters. I'm hoping for a bit of James/Lily here, that has them together or at least friendly during their pre-7th Hogwarts years.

A third search would be something similar to chapter 18 of the one-shot collection I mentioned above (that contains Of Ancestry and Honour), and the crappy word-vomit I wrote in said thread. Again, I liked the concept, but not the execution.

Can anyone here help me, or am I firing blanks in the dark (again)?