Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I hope that's pretty obvious by now. lol

A/N: A very gratefuly thanks to all of you who reviewed! Sarcasticrules, pigs can fly, Horsebookworm -Prongs's Girl-, -Jeisa-, Isolde Eris, wonky, laxrules18, Cristipotter, Brianna Katelyn Evans, Xx-BlueFox-xX, hermione-G-wanna-be, the ramen ninja, hermy permy, SweetSouthernGal, messyblackhair66, mauraudersminuspeterarehot, Mrs Claire Potter, MarisLily, and Acelinn. Thanks a bijillion times three! Also, thank you to everyone who added me to their story alerts and such! It means a lot!

Sorry for the wait. Since it's summer, you'd think that I'd have more time to write and update...surprisingly, that's not the case. I'll try to do better though.

Before we get back into the story, a reviewer thought it'd be a good idea if I reminded you all of Sirius and James's bet. Well, from what Lily overheard, the bet is that James can't get Lily to go out with him. If James loses, he has to pay Sirius five galleons, and vice versa.

A few last thoughts. I thought Order of the Phoenix (the movie) was very good! The beginning I didn't really like, but after it got going I really enjoyed it. Probably my favorite so far. Also, THREE MORE DAYS UNTIL DEATHLY HALLOWS! I CAN NOT wait. Like seriously. I think I might just do my happy dance right now...

Chapter 10: Phase Three: What Did You Just Call Me?

Bloody Sirius Black needed to die.

Thanks to him, Lily had to endure countless whisperings from her classmates the entire school day Friday—"Did you hear? Potter fed Evans some love potion and they have a date tonight". Conversations such as that one followed Lily around everywhere she went: in the library, at lunch, in Charms, and even in the loo for crying out loud! How her wand just itched to cross paths with a certain Black family child, and it wasn't Regulus.

Of course, she didn't really have any proof that it had been Sirius who had spread the word that Lily Evans had actually agreed to an outing with James Potter. In fact, the only proof she did have was something that she wasn't supposed to have found out at all—the bet. But she didn't need proof. Sirius had wanted to scare Lily out of this relationship—or whatever it was these days—with Potter. That's why he'd told everyone under the sun about Friday's rendezvous. He had hoped to scare her off.

Stupid Black.

"Are you ready?" Marlene asked, finishing off Lily's French braid.

"Can I kill Sirius first?" she asked, grinning despite herself.

"Later—perhaps," Dorcas answered, throwing a pair of shoes at Lily who caught them clumsily. "But now, you're supposed to be—"

"—with Potte—" her friends gave her a pointed look—"James. I'm supposed to be with James," Lily finished, nodding.

Alice smiled. "You're getting better at it every time."

In preparation for the third phase of her dare, her friends had forced Lily to begin calling Potter by his first name even when he wasn't around. It hadn't been as teeth wrenching as she thought it would have been, but she had yet to try it while in Potter's presence. She had made it this far though, hadn't she? She didn't doubt her skills…much.

"Alright," Lily said, taking one last look in the mirror, "wish me luck."

"You don't need luck," Marlene said, pushing her friend out the door, "I hope," she mumbled, finishing her sentence as the door closed behind Lily.

OOO

As he came into view, Lily debated whether or not she should start off with phase three right off the bat. It would kind of ruin it though. She had to put it into effect at the best time, not just throw it out there first thing. Doing that would be like throwing a weapon to an enemy before the battle even begun.

"Hey."

"Hey, Evans," James responded.

Lily eyed him. He was dressed….smartly. And it looked like he had even attempted to tame his wild hair. A faint scent of cologne was drifting around him as well—it did smell rather nice actually. Merlin, he did think of this as a date, didn't he? Well, she supposed that was better for her. He already thought she was falling for him if he counted this as a first date.

But one false move on her…She had to keep the boundaries drawn.

"So…" Lily began, wanting to break the silence. It was getting kind of awkward, much like a first date would be. No! No. This was not, under any circumstances, a date. Barriers up!

"Are you ready for this?" he asked suddenly, pulling Lily out of her crazed thoughts with a wide smile on his face.

Why was he smiling like that? What was he so excited about? Oh Merlin, he was going to try to kiss her…Godric, what could she do? Oh no, what if he was going to kidnap her, throw her on his broom, and make her elope with him. Okay, now she was just being delirious. Maybe she was overanalyzing things.

"Ready for what, exactly?" she asked apprehensively, biting her lip and readying herself just incase he did try something.

"I thought you wanted to try out my broom?" he answered, slightly confused.

"Oh, yeah, right," she laughed to herself. Why was she acting so weirdly? She needed to get her head back on straight. This was not a date—well, it wasn't a real date. There was no need to be so apprehensive.

"So, I figured you're kind of used to going slow—"

"Excuse me?" Lily said, her hands on her hips as she jumped back into the conversation. It should have been obvious he was going to insult her sooner or later. Polite conversations just never lasted for more than two minutes between the two of them.

James chuckled. "I meant you're used to the school brooms which, despite what Madame Hooch says, are old and not capable of flying like they used to."

Feeling slightly stupid, Lily nodded and tried to smile. Calm down. She inhaled deeply. "You make it sound like yours is the fastest broom there is."

Nodding, James raised his wand arm. "Well, it kind of is." He shrugged. "Accio broomstick!"

Merlin, he was arrogant. Perfect Potter had the perfect broom for the perfect Wizarding sport. She crossed her arms out of annoyance, making it seem like she was simply cold, as a whooshing sound came from near the Quidditch changing rooms. A few seconds later, a dark-stained broomstick halted in front of James, at just the perfect height for him to climb onto.

"This," he said, patting the handle of his broom as if petting a dog, "is my broomstick—the Starshooter."

Lily snorted. "You make it sound like it's your kid, or something," she joked finally feeling more at ease with this situation. Oddly enough, Potter's jokes were soothing her nerves.

"Don't insult it!"

Her mouth twitched at his reaction, but she tried to hold in her laughter to pacify him. "Fine, sorry. So, this is your pride and glory?"

"In a matter of speaking, yes," he said, taking the broom in his hand and walking towards Lily. It was the first time since her arrival that he'd moved closer towards her. Her heart flipped rather uncomfortably. "Now, this is quite possibly the best model out to buy these days," James explained, holding it out to Lily so she could admire the stick.

Honestly, Lily did find the broom extremely sleek-looking. It's rich, deep oak was perfectly smooth and not one single twig was out of place. On the side, in silver letters, were the words 'Starshooter.' It was a very handsome broomstick. "It's nice," she commented, grinning at him.

He humphed. "Just nice? It's bloody amazing!"

"Fine, it's 'bloody amazing' then."

She watched him as he nodded, apparently satisfied with her response. "The English National team just recently put an order in for these babies. Like I said, they're the best brooms around."

"Sound expensive."

James shrugged, but Lily noticed the tips of his ears were turning a faint shade of red. "Well—I mean…yeah," he finished lamely. "But it's not a totally unreasonable price," he added quickly.

Aw, was Potter actually embarrassed that his family could afford to buy him such an expensive broom? That was cute. And totally un-Potterish. He must have taken acting lessons sometime in his past life…

"Now," James began again, "here."

He placed the Starshooter in her hands.

Confused, Lily looked at him. "What am I supposed to do with it?"

A smirk flickered across his lips. His earlier embarrassment was gone. Typical. Perhaps she had just imagined that blush… "Come on, Evans. You're on the Quidditch team now; you have to at least pretend you know what to do with a broomstick."

Oh, she was supposed to ride it. Duh. She fingered the smooth surface of the wood, and it seemed to vibrate underneath her touch as if it were excited for the flight. While she observed the broom, she couldn't help but think about the dare. Pretend you know what to do with a broomstick. Yeah, she had to pretend to be good at Quidditch—although maybe she really was good, who knew?—and pretend to be interested in Potter. Phase three still needed to commence and there hadn't been very much…flirtatious tension between them yet. She had to build up to the phase otherwise it wouldn't have the desired affect she was wanting to go for.

She glanced at James. He was looking at something over her shoulder, his jaw clamped tightly as if he was doing something against his better judgment. It was then that she realized neither one of them wanted to be there with the other. He was there to try to win her over for the bet, and she was there to try to help him win only to crush him in the end.

Wow, talk about a confusing love triangle-shaped object thing.

It was time to move things along a bit, just to mess with him. "So, how fast did you say this goes, exactly?" she asked, feigning a hint of nervousness.

He immediately shot his attention to her. "Naught to fifty in fifteen seconds," he said proudly.

"That's pretty fast then?" she asked, taking half a step to him.

"Pretty fast, yeah."

"Hmm…"

He continued to look at her blankly, not totally comprehending what in the world she was playing at. Men, they never catch on to anything. It was time to drop all pretense and subtleness. She held in her sigh.

"I dunno if I can handle it."

Part of her could not believe she was showing weakness in front of James Potter, even if she was just acting it. Ever since fifth year they had always been—whether the other one acknowledged it or not—academic rivals. One week Lily would be the top student, and the next James would be up there. That was just how they were. And now, here she was, practically admitting to Potter her fears—no matter how false they may be.

Apparently, Potter couldn't believe her sudden openness with her emotions either. He watched her quietly for a while, his eyes squinted behind his round glasses as if he had never been able to see her properly. She stared back at him, making sure to keep her nervous smile from turning into a deep scowl.

"You don't think you can…." James began, not knowing quite what to do or say. Man, and she thought Potter was the big ladies man; he was clueless. Or maybe he just wasn't used to this "new Lily".

"Well," she said, glancing at the broom, "like you said, I'm used to going slow, and well…Perhaps you should, well, you know." She deserved an acting award, if she did say so herself—which she did.

"I know?"

"Yes." She refused to ask him for his help…again. Hopefully he would catch on; hopefully being the key word.

"I do?" he asked, scratching his head and unintentionally messing up his recently tamed hair.

"You should," she snapped back at him, her hands on her hips. Well, so much for that future acting award.

Dang, how did their conversations always wind up with her angry and raising her voice? This had been her idea in the first place, and now she wanted nothing to do with it. Maybe if he wasn't so annoying and slow she wouldn't get so frustrated with him! He was so—so—she couldn't even come up with a good enough word to describe him.

"Er…" James looked from her, to his broom in her hands, to her again. As if a light bulb had just gone off in his head, James's eyes widened significantly, his eyebrows disappearing into his mass of black hair.

"Oh," he said deeply. Blast that smirk. "You want my help."

What had she just gotten herself into? "Well, I wouldn't call it help, exactly," she mumbled.

"What would you call it?" he asked mockingly.

She clenched her jaw, determined to not let him get the best of her. "Assistance."

With a roll of his eyes, James reached out and pried his broomstick from her hands. "Right, well, allow me to assist you then."

He mounted the broom and scooted up further from where he would normally sit. Once he adjusted himself, he turned back to look at Lily. Her heart began pounding unpleasantly and even though this is the kind of thing she had been going for, she suddenly wished she could run into the Forbidden Forest and never be seen again.

"We'll fly together first just so you can get the hang of it, okay?"

What was she doing? A very numb part of her mind suddenly felt herself nodding. She was losing control of her body; her feet began guiding her up to the side of the broomstick. Oh Godric, what was happening? It felt like—she mentally gasped; Potter had put her under the Imperius Curse.

Get a hold of yourself; even Potter wouldn't do something as illegal as that.

She straddled his broom behind him and sat down roughly. Her hands remained by her side. She could not believe this had been her idea in the first place. There was just no way…

"You might want to hold on."

This statement pulled Lily straight out of daze-land and snapped her right back into reality. "What?"

He craned his neck to look at her, a pointed look on his face. "You don't want to fall off, do you?"

No. She most certainly did not. She had watched Potter fly billions of times and she knew he liked to perform spins and tricks while up in the air. Psh. What a show off.

But, she'd rather not spend her night in the Hospital Wing from a stupid decision to ride a broomstick handless. Back when she had been ten years old she had attempted to ride her brand new bicycle without hands—she still had a scar on her knee. There was no way she wanted an accident like that to happen again.

As much as she knew she'd hate herself for doing this, she knew she must touch him. For the dare. All of this was for the dare. She was being held under a Truth or Dare contract. This was, by no means, her own doing.

Attentively, she touched the side of his waist with both hands, just barely placing them on his black robes like he was the plague and she wanted to avoid him at all costs. She knew he was chuckling before she heard it; she could feel his stomach moving with his contained laughter. How odd…and extremely unnerving.

"I won't bite, you know."

She gritted her teeth, but held him tighter nonetheless. Be comfortable, be comfortable…don't blow it! "Somehow, I'm not so sure."

And without giving her even a tiny clue of what they were about to do, he kicked off from the ground—very hard she might add—and they shot up into the air. The abruptness of what had just happened caused Lily's heart to shoot up into her throat. Lily jumped at the sudden motion and instantly clung to James tighter, hugging him around the waist and burying her head into the back of his robes.

"Evans, please tell me my new Beater isn't cowering back there."

His joking voice fought to be heard over the howling wind as James maneuvered his broomstick through the air with ease—with extremely fast ease.

"I wouldn't have to tell you anything if you had warned me before taking off like that," Lily fought back, releasing her hold on him slightly and taking her face away from his robes. Truth be told, she was still slightly shaky, and Potter's robes had been so warm…

Wait. Hold up. Scratch that. They had only been warm because it was so cold outside a few hundred feet up into the air. Yeah. That was it.

"Rule number one," James yelled over the wind, "there are always surprises in Quidditch and the players, especially you as the Beater, always have to be ready to face them."

Since when had this turned into a Quidditch lesson? It was rather annoying. Had he lured her out here just to make sure she'd be a good Quidditch player so they would win the Quidditch cup?

"I wasn't aware our date was actually a Quidditch practice, Potter," Lily remarked.

"Oh, so this is a date."

"Er—what?" Lily said, not catching her fatal mistake.

"Remus just said it was a "rendezvous". You know? A get together, but Peter—"

Merlin…she hadn't? Had she? Oh dear…this could not be good. She had just broken down the slim barrier that had been between them. Now, this little outing was officially going to be known as James Potter and Lily Evans's first date. Why couldn't she ever just keep her big mouth nicely shut? Why? Why? Why?

But maybe—just maybe—this was good for her. Should she play this off? If she played along, the good part would be that Potter would most definitely think that she was finally starting to see him as an actual human male being; the bad part would be that Potter would think that she had started seeing him as an actual perspective male. In what kind of sick situation was the upside ever the same thing as the downside? Well, apparently in this situation.

"…however, Sirius said you had probably been blackmailed, but—"

"—James!"

Poof! Just like that everything seemed to slow down. It was like the world had suddenly been plunged into slow motion. The wind stopped blowing into her face and the trees even stopped whipping by them. All the noises that broke through the night slowly died down until all she could hear was the rustle of the trees and her quick breathing. Everything had just…stopped. It took Lily a few seconds to realize that all of that was happening because James had actually pulled the broom to a standstill.

They hovered in midair for a while. "What did you just call me?" James asked, still facing forward. It was probably a good thing he'd stopped flying, because he probably would have flown them straight into the Whomping Willow out of pure shock.

Forcing her heart rate to return to normal, Lily grinned widely, hidden behind his back. She hadn't exactly planned to do phase three like that, but Quidditch was always full of surprises; Potter was actually an okay teacher.

"James," she said again, moving her hands slightly from around his waist to reposition them, unusually pleased with herself, "if you don't shut up, I think I might have to hex you, and who wants our first date to end up with you in the Hospital Wing?"

She could just imagine the smile on his face—actually she pictured it more of a smirk; his lips curling upwards, his eyes shining with triumph. She knew that he must want to pump his fist up in the air in celebration at finally getting things to where he wanted them to be for the bet, because that's exactly what she herself wanted to do.

Phase three had worked.

"No, I definitely would rather stay out here with you than end up in the hospital wing, Lily."

She blinked, momentarily stunned. "Since when is it Lily?"

"Since when is it James?" he quipped back, finally turning around to face her.

Aw. Good point. Very good point indeed.

"Touché."

With one last grin, James turned back around to face forward and slowly guided the broom back towards the ground. They landed with a light thump and Lily quickly untangled herself from James and stumbled off the back of his broomstick. James hopped off with perfect balance and ease.

"Well," Lily began, brushing her pair of jeans off, "thanks, James."

She turned to walk away, not wanting to give him any change to make a move on her. She figured that since she just took the leap that pushed the two of them into a more complicated and intimate relationship, James would want to move things further along. Faster is always better, was his motto. For Lily, kissing, and even hugging, was strictly off limits. And besides, she had accomplished her mission, and leaving him there would be irresistibly mysterious.

"Lily! Wait," he called, grabbing her by her arm and slowing her to a halt, affectively ruining her sexy getaway.

Turning, she looked into his face and took a quick step back, noticing the small distance between them. "James," she made sure to use his first name, "really, I'm quite hungry and—"

"How'd you like the broom?"

Startled, Lily blinked…twice. In rapid succession. This was not what she had expected would come out of his mouth. "Er—excuse me?"

"My broom—did you like it?"

Lily planted her feet firmly in the ground and squinted at him. What in the world…? "Yeah, I suppose…" Where was this leading to?

"Good, because my Beaters need good brooms." He winked at her and released her arm from his soft grip.

Slightly confused—actually, make that extremely confused—Lily nodded dumbly. "Right…" she shifted her weight from one foot to the next, "well, goodnight, James."

She was halfway towards the castle when James called out to her. "I like your name, by the way. Lily."

For a split second she wanted to shout at him for his good acting skills; she wanted to tell him to drop the act and just give it up because she was totally on to him. If any boy was genuinely like this to her, she would have fallen head over heals for the bloke ages ago. It was driving her up the wall.

She had to admit though…calling him James was a nice improvement, and it really hadn't been that hard of a transition.

OOO

Lily strolled down the corridors, approaching the library with the goal in mind to finish her Transfiguration assignment. It was early in the morning, the day after Lily's date—rendezvous—get together—whatever people these days wanted to call it, with Potter. No, with James. Since it was so early, no one had approached her and interrogated her about it, with the exception of her friends that is.

"Hey, Lily."

Correction. With the exception of her friends…and now Remus Lupin.

"'Morning, Remus," she greeted as he fell into step beside her. "What are you doing up so early?"

He shrugged. "I tend to get up this early; I'm a morning person."

"Aw."

There was a brief silence, but Lily knew that Remus—one of James's best friends—would soon break it. The reason he had chosen to catch up with her was about to be brought out into the light.

And sure enough, the sandy-haired boy shot a look at her and opened his mouth. "So, your…rendezvous, shall we call it, with James went well?"

Lily sighed. She knew this would be brought up sooner or later. "He's really not that bad," she said cryptically, picking up her pace to try to shake him off.

"Listen, Lily…"

He slowed to a halt and Lily knew she had no choice but to abide to him and slow down as well. Well, she could have always sprinted off to the library and leave him standing there like an idiot, because that wouldn't have been obvious at all. Cough, sarcasm, cough.

"I know what you're going to say," she sighed, cutting him off.

"Do you?"

"That I'm only giving him the time of day because I have some mysterious gain for doing it," Lily continued, readjusting her bag casually, attempting to appear cool.

Remus peered at her closely as if he were trying to see straight through her. "You promised you'd back off."

At the moment she remembered their conversation that day after potions. He thought she was trying to find out what the Marauders had to do with Remus's full moon transformations. She had almost forgotten about that.

"I haven't asked James about why he gallivants off with you while you're in your…state," she said simply.

Remus rubbed the temples of his forehead soothingly with the tips of his index finger, his eyes closed for a moment. Then his eyelids shot open and he stared at her with an intensity that he'd never looked at her with before.

"He really likes you, and if I find out you're using him…"

James really liked her? That meant only one thing; that Remus must have been in on the bet as well and had bet against Sirius. Remus was hoping that James would get the girl. Jeez, where did Peter stand in all of this? Was she going to have one Marauder pretending to date her, two egging her on, and one trying to shake her off by the end of this?

"It's my duty as Head Girl to keep students out of danger," she kept her voice even, staring at him, "but I am not using James to find out your secrets."

"I really hope so."

"I'm not that low."

But you four are, Lily thought as she watched Remus walk away a few moments later after a few polite sentences. You four are the ones all ganging up against me for a few galleons. And though it could be argued that Lily was just as low as she claimed not to be, she knew that she was simply sinking to the Marauders' level. Sometimes you had to fight fire with fire in order play dirty.

Well, I'm officially tired as it's midnight here in sunny California...well, actually it was a bit rainy today. Which is totally odd weather for us. Meh, anyways, I'm off to bed.

I know this chapter may have been a let down for some of you who were hoping for more romantic Lily and James action, but Lily has to take it slow...otherwise it just wouldn't be believable and James would be just a little bit freaked out--though a bit overjoyed as well. lol

So, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! And, if I don't update before Deathly Hallows comes out, ENJOY READING! I know I'll be enjoying myself...! Oh, and it'd be great if you could review! Have a great week!

--HeyLookTheSnitch