Chapter 3 – In which the Sirius, Remus and Peter hatch their plan, Lily is cornered into Potter-sitting and the bet finally begins

Sat in a comfy armchair by a roaring fire in the Gryffindor common room, Lily rolled her eyes as her eyes roamed over the scene in front of her. Really, she thought, James Potter could take the lead in any amateur dramatics society which specialised in melodrama and histrionics anywhere in the country, the rate he was carrying on at.

The bet would begin in fifteen minutes time, as the clock struck nine o'clock, and would end at precisely that time the following day. Lily still wasn't quite sure how things had spun so wildly beyond her control; how, of all things possible, she had ended up in a juvenile competition against a boy she had strived to be the polar opposite of for years now, and who, Merlin forbid, she would owe a kiss to if things didn't go as planned. She shuddered – best not to think about that.

Shaking her head at the ludicrous situation, Lily looked up and immediately narrowed her eyes as she spotted Remus Lupin, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew all making their way over towards her.

"Lily!" Remus greeted her in a falsely cheery voice, seating himself on the arm of her chair. The others positioned themselves strategically so that she was conveniently boxed in between the three of them, with no immediate avenue of escape. "How are you this morning? Nervous? Excited? Scared, even?"

"Feeling rather like I'm being interviewed for the Daily Prophet actually," she retorted, and Remus grinned and dropped the act. "Shouldn't you three be getting ready to wave Potter off, giving dramatic speeches and playing up the crowd or something?"

Peter shrugged, and looked over his shoulder. "He seems to be managing that fine by himself."

Lily sat back in her chair and surveyed them suspiciously. "What do you three want with me, then?"

"Want?" asked Sirius, looking shocked. "Now what could possibly make you think we wanted something from you?"

Lily raised an eyebrow at him, and said drolly, "Apart from the fact that you're James Potter's three best friends and you're all wearing expressions of contrived innocence that are not in the least convincing?"

Sirius shrugged. "Yeah, apart from that."

"I'm stabbing my wand in the dark then, and surmising that you do."

Sirius winked at her. "Knew you were top of the class for a reason, Evans."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Spit it out, Sirius. What do you want?"

"It's not so much that we want something… we just thought we'd come over and give you some friendly advice – point some things out, you know."

"Gryffindor to Gryffindor," Remus added.

"Such as?"

"Well, you know, Lily," said Sirius, suddenly very solemn, "James is going to be roaming the whole of Hogwarts by himself…"

"Defenceless," uttered Remus, shaking his head sadly.

"Vulnerable," chimed in Peter.

When all three boys looked at each other with similar expressions of gloom, Lily began to sense two things. Firstly, that this was a very finely tuned routine… and secondly, that something very, very bad was about to happen.

"Who know what sorts of danger he might come across, what accidents might happen…" Sirius continued, trailing off warningly at the end.

Remus nodded. "It would only be right to have someone there with him to make sure he doesn't actually get hurt..."

"It's all very well to take a chunk out of his pride – but how would you feel, Lily, if something took a chunk out of him?" Peter added sagely. "It would be your fault, after all…"

Lily looked affronted. "It would not be my fault! He's the one boasting about how great he is that he can navigate his way around Hogwarts blindfolded."

"Ah, yes," smiled Sirius, putting an arm conspiratorially around her shoulders, which she proceeded to shrug off irritably. "Well, we all know what James is like – tongue bigger than his wand, if you know what I mean," he leered.

Lily looked outraged, but Remus interrupted her before she could rebuke Sirius. "The fact of the matter is, Lily – have you ever known James to fall short of a boast when he's tested on it? He'll make sure he goes to all the darkest, all the scariest, all the most dangerous places Hogwarts offers, completely blind, just to say he's done it. As a fellow Prefect, can you really allow a student to do that unsupervised?"

Lily looked cornered, horrified and furious in very quick succession. "You're all his friends!" she hissed at them.

"And of course we'd look after him if we could, but as it happens I've got detention with McGonagall again," returned Sirius, shaking his head sadly.

"And I'm tutoring some of the first years," added Remus, in a saintly tone that Lily didn't believe for an instant. "Otherwise, of course, I'd be there and we'd never even suggest it to you-"

"Oh, very convenient," she scoffed. Turning to Peter, she narrowed her eyes at the small boy. "And what about you?"

He smiled innocently up at her. "Make-up lesson in Arithmancy – apparently I'm failing so badly they want to give me extra lessons," he laughed. "So, sorry I can't help out, Lily."

"I bet you are!" she sighed, heavily. "Well, just go and ask one of his many admirers – I'm sure some of them will end up in the Hospital Wing, fighting each other for the job."

Peter smirked at her. "You issued the challenge…"

Sirius patted her on the arm. "And as Wizard Law states, anyone who issues such a challenge is honour bound to see through all aspects of the challenge itself requiring maintenance or supervision."

Lily narrowed her eyes and poked him hard in the chest. "That's a load of codswallop, Sirius Black. You made that up just to put me on babysitting duty!"

"Prove me wrong." Sirius smirked at her and winked cheekily.

Lily glared at all three of them. "I am not traipsing around this castle for a whole day with James Potter!"

Peter sighed, and looked tragically at his two friends. "Ah, well, I suppose we'll just have to hope and pray that he'll be okay then."

Sirius sniffed and pretended to wipe his eyes. "Such a good friend! So loyal, always there when I needed him – to think of him blinded, hurt, lost, confused… no one caring enough to stand by him the one time he might need help."

"He'll be okay, Padfoot," Remus said, putting a hand on his shoulder and gripping tightly. "We have to stay strong."

Lily rolled her eyes.

"And if he's not, well, there's always Madam Pomfrey..."

"Yeah," echoed Peter, nervously. "She's a trained Mediwitch; she'll be able to… to… to fix him up properly if something goes wrong."

"Yeah," Sirius nodded. "Come on, guys, we'd better say our goodbyes – just in case."

Lily put her head into her hands. This could not possibly get any worse.

"Fine!" she growled, in frustration. "I'll do it."

She was not amused in the least to see the three of them exchange identical grins of triumph.

"So," Sirius shouted, a couple of minutes later, from his position atop one of the tables in the Gryffindor common room where he had just finished proclaiming loudly all the rules and regulations surrounding the bet to the rest of the house, "it is with much anticipation for the mischief to come that I declare the Blindfold Bet of Gryffindor house officially open!"

Loud cheers erupted from all sides, as James, grinning from ear to ear, saluted to the crowd before sauntering over to stand before Lily.

She assessed him levely. "Now, as this is a magical bet, Potter, the blindfold, once cast, cannot be removed for the full twenty-four hours – even if both of us want to remove it, the charm simply won't break. Are you sure you want to do this?"

He smirked cockily at her. "Get ready to pucker-up Evans – I'll neither want, nor need, to remove it!"

She glared at him. "Fine." Then she twitched her wand rather sharply, causing a silky red ribbon to fly out of the tip of it, wind its way around James head securely, and efficiently tie itself into a double bow.

Sirius whooped. "Let the bet begin!"