Chapter 2 – In which many disagreements are had, much shouting occurs, and where conditions for the bet are (finally) set

James's eyebrows shot so far up his forehead that Lily was amazed they didn't give his fringe a bit of a haircut on the way up.

"You're challenging me?" he asked, disbelievingly.

Lily stared right back at him. "And why not? It's about time someone had the gall to cut you back down to size."

James laughed at her. "Well, prepare to be embarrassed then, Evans."

Lily smirked right back. "Oh, I won't be the one embarrassed. I think it's about time we set conditions."

James shrugged, uninterested, and ran a hand through his hair to mess it up a little. "Go ahead, Evans."

"When you lose, I'd like you to publicly announce, to the entire student body of Hogwarts, that you have indeed lost this bet and that you are in the habit of giving out cocky and entirely untrue boasts about yourself. Let's give everyone a laugh at your expense for once, shall we?"

James gaped at her. "Are you mad?"

"No, I'm quite sane actually. What do you say, Potter?"

"Absolutely not!"

She laughed at him. "What Potter," Lily wheedled, "worried you might fail?"

James set his teeth and sized her up. "Fine! If I lose - I'll be a gentleman and warn you now Evans," he added in an undertone, "which I won't, I will announce I've failed."

"To the whole school," Lily reminded him.

"To the whole school," he growled back.

"But if I win-"

"But if you win, you get the satisfaction of knowing you've won," Lily interrupted.

"Oh no, Evans," he laughed. "You got to set the conditions if I lose, so I get to set them if I win. It's only fair."

Lily narrowed her eyes at him, but acquiesced. "Fine. What do you want?"

"One kiss," he leered at her. "From your good self, if you'll be so kind!"

There was a moment of deafening silence within the common room.

"Don't be ridiculous, Potter," Lily fumed. "There's no way I'm going to agree to that!"

"Fine. Then the bet's off, I suppose. And since everybody here will never know how it turns out, they'll just have to take my word for it that I can walk around Hogwarts blindfolded." He paused to meet her eyes and gave a small smile. "After all - Innocent until proven guilty - isn't that one of your favourite sayings, Evans? Right until proven wrong?"

Lily whirled away from him, enraged. Then just as quickly, she whirled back. "Fine-"

"Fine?!" James interrupted immediately, a delighted smile spreading over his face. "You mean you'll kiss-"

"But I'm adding to my condition," Lily continued, forcefully ignoring him. "When you lose, you also have to give a public apology to Severus Snape."

James yelped, the smile dropping from his face like a stone plunging to water. "What for?!"

"For everything you've ever done to him, of course. For all the fights you've needlessly picked, based on the arrogant attitude that you were better than him!"

"I am better than that slimy worm!" James roared.

"You're worse!" Lily shouted back.

They didn't get much further, however, because at that precise moment Heather Dreamwright, best friend of Lily Evans, hurried up to her, wrapped her arm bodily around Lily's waist, and dragged her backwards towards the stairs to the girls' dormitories.

Simultaneously, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, best friends and co-marauders of James Potter, placed a hand on each of his shoulders, while Sirius Black muttered, "James, mate, I think we need to have a talk."

"Lily, what are you doing?" Heather interrogated her, anxiously wringing her hands. "Challenging that idiot, making a scene like that in the common room, it's not like you, Lily!"

Sitting on her bed, safe inside the dormitory, Lily took several deep calming breaths. "I know, I know, Heather. Thanks for coming and getting me. I just… he just makes me so angry! I just… lost control for a moment there."

"He's been making us both angry for six years now. Don't let him start getting to you now, Lily."

"I know, I know, you're right," she sighed. "I just really want to teach him a lesson, show him, and everyone else, that he's just a pathetic little attention seeker at heart."

"Well maybe they already know that – we've figured it out, after all," Heather reasoned.

Lily snorted at her. "Have you seen the way they look at him in the common room? Him and the other three he hangs around with. The first and second years especially; they idolise him, and I just want to shake them and get them to realise that he's just not worth it."

"Well, that may be true," Heather said matter-of-factly, sitting down next to her, "but all you succeeded in doing out there was embarrassing yourself. You're a Prefect for goodness sake's Lily! And you're acting worse than a horny second year on love potion – shouting and fuming in front of everyone, making up silly betting conditions, and generally making a big scene out of yourself."

"Oh God," Lily cringed, fighting the urge to bury her face in her hands.

"Now, you'll just have to go back down there, apologise to the rest of the common room, tell them to forget the whole thing and try and restore some order."

Lily looked at her aghast. "I can't do that!"

"You can't go through with it!" Heather retorted.

"If I don't he's won, though," she replied, frustrated.

"Does that matter?"

"Yes!"

Heather sighed, and gently ran a hand down her best friend's hair. "Lily, you're never going to get people to realise what he is, love. He's the Quidditch star of Gryffindor, the boy every first year girl has their earliest crush on and the ringleader of a group of lads that every first year boy aspires to be like." She snorted, and then continued. "Fighting that opinion would be like trying to push a mountain troll up the marble staircase, with one hand tied behind your back."

Despite herself Lily smiled at her friend. "I know. I know all that, I really do, Heather. I'm not quite that blind yet."

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, before Lily sighed roughly, clenching her fists in her lap.

"But I can't let him win this one, Heather," she whispered, closing her eyes. "I just can't. And I know it's idiotic, immature, very slightly vindictive and very largely pathetic, but I just can't back away now."

Heather sighed and gave her friend a weak smile. "Well, my shoulder's here for you, Lily. I have a feeling you're going to need it before this is over."

"Prongs, mate," said Sirius, as soon as the three of them had tossed the black haired boy through the entrance to their dormitory. "What're you playing at?"

"What?" said James innocently. "She promised to kiss me!"

"I don't really think," began Peter, "that manoeuvring her into kissing you is the best plan if you want to get her to go out with you."

"Ha!" proclaimed James. "She'll change her mind about wanting to go out with me as soon as I've kissed her."

Remus shook his head in disbelief. "You think one kiss is going to undo six years of squabbling?"

"You obviously have no idea about the power of my kisses, Moony," boasted James.

Remus rolled his eyes at his friend. "Look, you've got the perfect opportunity here to make her change her mind about you. Just go back out there, tell her you're sorry, that perhaps she was right and that you got a bit carried away with yourself. She'll thank you for getting her out of a sticky situation, and you won't look like the arrogant bastard she obviously thinks you are."

James glared at him. "I'm not an arrogant bastard."

Remus sighed. "Then prove it to her by dropping this whole charade."

"You're such a spoilsport, Moony," James huffed, and then turned to Sirius for support. "You think this is a great plan, don't you Padfoot?"

Sirius looked torn. "Depends how you look at it, mate."

Then, when James looked hurt, carried on. "I think it's a great idea for a laugh, marauder-style, and if you were betting against someone like Snivellus, then I'd be in there with you and we'd do a blind three-legged race around Hogwarts!"

"But?" asked James.

"But," said Sirius, "and I never thought I'd say this, mind, but Evans didn't look too amazed with you out there. If you really want to impress her, then I'd go with Moony."

There was silence for a moment, as James looked backwards and forwards between his three friends.

"But if I do that, then I don't get a kiss," he said finally, he voice a little plaintive.

The marauders looked at each other.

"Oh, by Merlin's spotty underpants," exclaimed Sirius, suddenly. "Are we the famous marauders or aren't we? Do we duck out of bets? Do we bow down to a girl? Do we throw away the opportunity to have a bit of fun and make a bit of mischief? No! We don't!"

Peter grinned around at the others. "I think it's time we came up with a plan, boys."