Disclaimer: Less than a month until Deathly Hallows! If I were J.K. Rowling, I'd be off in the Caribbean somewhere relaxing after finishing such an anticipated book. Seeing as I'm lying in my bed in California and definitely not in the Caribbean, it's safe to say I'm not Rowling.

A/N: Thanks so much to the following reviewers: Missscarlettbelle, CaramelBoost, laxrules18, Mrs Claire Potter, MarisAlexia, the ramen ninja, -Jeisa-, Acelinn, Cristipotter, pigs can fly, Princess of Brooklyn, Isolde Eris, Sogno di Felicita, hermione-G-wanna-be, SweetSouthernGal, SweetSummerx3, rubic-cube, Morrisburger, novel-writer92, hushpuppy22, and Bingo, Right through that hoop. Seriously, I love you. Hm, that sounded wierd, didn't it? Considering I don't really know any of you...aw well, from an author's stand point, you guys ROCK!

Wowee! Look at that! Only a two weeks wait! For some reason, it felt longer than that. Maybe it's because it's summer time and I'm lazy. But, you see, I have this wierd writing style. I have to write a whole chapter all in one sit. Like, I can't write some and then come back to it and pick up. I dunno why. I have to do it all in one go, otherwise I lose my train of thought. So, this chapter would have been up sooner, but my first attempt of the chapter turned out very bad. So I had to start from scratch. Anyways, I just realized I'm rambling like a mad woman. lol

So, let's just dive back into Lily's confusing world of bets and dares. Have fun reading!

Chapter 9: Call it Intuition

"You know, I've been thinking," Lily said thoughtfully, lowering her potions textbook away from her face slowly.

She and her friends were currently down in the common room, finishing their last minute homework before the weekend ended. Normally, they would have migrated out towards the Hogwarts' grounds, but the bleak November weather proved that to be difficult. Fall seemed to be turning into winter as December approached.

Marlene sucked on the end of her quill, apparently trying to find the right way to describe the effects of the Duplicate spell they'd been learning in Charms. "About what?" she asked, scribbling out a word in her response.

"Getting my own broom," Lily answered.

Eyes shinning excitedly, Dorcas whipped her whole body around in order to view her redheaded friend better. "Are you serious?" she asked.

"Why does that come as such a surprise?" Lily wondered elusively, twirling the ends of her hair around her fingers idly.

Alice looked up from the letter she'd just received from Frank. "Well, it's just that you never really cared for Quidditch that much before."

"And now suddenly you're on the team and all for buying yourself a broom," Dorcas finished, smirking in quite an annoying fashion.

It was as if they thought she had just started liking Quidditch because of Potter. Lily scoffed, crossing her arms. She had never hated Quidditch; she had always come out to support Dorcas at every single game. Granted, she'd always refused to ride on Dorcas's broom over the summer, but that didn't mean she disliked flying. Honestly.

"You're to blame," Lily retorted, picking up her book again. "You were the one who handed me this wretched dare."

Marlene took the quill out of her mouth. "Falling for the sport wasn't part of the dare though."

Lily looked around at her three friends' faces. They were all smirking at her, like they knew what she was thinking better than she did. "Fine; I like it," she admitted.

"Obsessed with it more like," Dorcas corrected.

"I am not—"

"You woke me up at five o'clock in the morning yesterday to go flying with you," Dorcas corrected.

Marlene snickered and Alice immersed herself into Frank's letter once again. Grinning, Lily dipped her quill into her pot of ink. "I'll just ask Potter to come with me next time," she mumbled to herself.

The moment she'd said that, the moment she wished she could take it back. "Hey, now there's a thought," Marlene said. "A nice, romantic broom ride—"

"—watching the sunset—" Dorcas jumped in, clutching her hands to her heart dramatically and batting her eye lashes.

"—sharing a kiss as the wind blows your hair about—"

Ugh, all this talk about her and Potter was causing her arms to erupt into unpleasant goosebumps. She yanked the pillow from out underneath her back and raised it up into the air, high above her head, just in the right position to strike—

"Now, I quite like the sound of that."

Lily yelped in surprise as the pillow she'd been about to pummel her friends with was yanked from her hands. Oh Merlin…James Potter was right behind her. If there was ever a time where Lily wished she hadn't been born, it was now.

"Bugger…"

She glared at her friends, clearly telling them she'd deal with them later, before she turned to face him. The Marauders had just returned from Merlin knew where and were standing behind the three girls. Sirius was arguing with Remus about something that sounded like it had to do with itching powder; Peter was standing beside Sirius, obviously spurring the argument on. And James was…staring straight at Lily.

"So, how 'bout it, Evans?" he asked playfully, jumping over the back of the sofa and landing beside Lily.

Her friends nodded encouragingly at her. Merlin, was she really going to have to flirt with him? "Sorry, I kind of have a busy schedule," she said lightly, waving it off, intentionally egging him on and hoping he'd take the bait.

Surprisingly, however, he merely shrugged. "Aw, well, worth the try."

Lily slumped back into her sofa, peering at him closely. Dang, he was good. A little too good. By appearing to not be interested was always a good way to get a girl to come crawling back to you. Potter was on a role.

"…Naw, Moony, I'm telling you. Putting itching powder in pepper opposed to salt would do more damage."

"Why would you want to though?" Remus was arguing.

"Moony, Moony, Moony, you may be a Marauder, but you don't think like a true troublemaker."

Lily watched Sirius and Remus's argument for a while. "What the heck are they on about?" she asked James.

"No idea," he answered amusedly, jumping off the couch and brushing his pants off. "I better go supervise before things get nasty." Lily watched as he approached his friends. "Oh, Evans, if you change your mind…"

She rolled her eyes, laughing quietly. "Goodbye, Potter."

There was silence as the Marauders departed, still arguing as they climbed the staircase leading to their dormitory. "They are a strange bunch…" Marlene commented, scribbling away at her homework again.

"You should have taken the opportunity though, Lily," Dorcas said casually, "a sunrise broom date would have been perfect."

"Speaking of brooms," Lily said, switching the topic swiftly. Their conversations were too much Marauder-based lately. "I still want one."

Dorcas seemed to be contemplating something, her fingernails tapping the small table between them distractedly. "Well, you could duplicate mine," she said after a while.

"If you did your Charms homework, Dorcas, then you would know that duplicating spells are illegal on things that are manufactured for sale," Marlene said, reading from her essay.

"Shoot…"

Now that she thought about it, it would be so much easier if she could just duplicate Dorcas's. She didn't fancy having to figure out which model was the best and safest. Not to mention cost would be a huge factor. Would her mother even agree to put money towards a flying household appliance? Petunia would probably try to talk her out of it…

"You don't have a catalogue or something, do you?" Lily asked.

Dorcas shook her head. "Try Potter."

Argh, that was not the answer she wanted. She could just picture his face now, smirking at the fact that little Evans actually thought she was a permanent member of the team and wanted her own broomstick. He couldn't really be mean to her face though, if he was trying to win the bet and all. Part of her even doubted whether or not he really was that cruel in general. And it would be a good excuse to butter up to him more and ensure a good spot for her dare.

Five minutes later, Lily found herself standing outside the boys' room, Marlene, Dorcas, and Alice giving her the thumbs up from the bottom of the staircase. Really, she was just going to ask him for a magazine…

Wait…should she knock first? Or just walk right on it? It was polite to knock, right? Or would it seem like she was uncomfortable—which she was—but she wasn't meant to be. Right?

No, knocking was good. What if they were…changing, or in the shower, or—Lily controlled a shudder—coming out of the shower? Oh Godric, she did not need to see Sirius Black in the nude. Come to think of it, she didn't need to see any of them stark naked.

Okay, it was settled. She would knock, but she found she didn't need to. Just as her fist was about to pound on the heavy door, it swung open and James stood in the doorway. So much for worrying…

He grinned at her. "Want to go for that broom ride now?"

She chose just to ignore that comment with a roll of her eyes. "How'd you know I was here?"

"Call it intuition," he replied, swinging the door wider and allowing her entrance.

Lily brushed past him and into the Marauders' lair. "Intuition?" she replied doubtfully, smirking slightly. If James had any intuition at all, he'd know that the niceness with which Lily was treating him with was somehow off.

Sirius looked up from his bed where he was reading what looked like a piece of rather thick parchment. "Don't give him too much credit," he said, stuffing the brown piece of paper out of sight, "it will go to his head."

"Like it hasn't already," Remus said under his breath, not breaking his concentration on his homework in the slightest.

"Hey! I resent that," James said, chucking a sock at his friend's head.

During this mayhem—well, at least that's what she viewed the Marauders' interactions as—Lily took a chance to survey the guys' room. There had only been one time before this when she'd stepped into the bewared guys' dorm, and that time was way back in fifth year. Potter had stolen her Charms book in order to get her attention. Prat. It didn't seem like much had changed—the room, not Potter. Clothes were still strewn across the floor haphazardly and candy wrappers seemed to litter their bedspreads. Poor House Elves—they had to clean this dump every night.

She was pulled out of her laments for the poor creatures by the curious voice of James Potter. "So, what is it that I can do for you?"

"Who said I came for you?" Lily asked, smiling coyly and flopping down on a lone chair by a forgotten desk just beside the door.

Sirius barked a laugh. "Who else would you come for? Wormtail?"

Peter looked up, his round nose splattered with ink. "Say what?"

"My point exactly," Sirius said, waving his wand casually through the air as if that settled the matter.

They were slightly amusing, she had to give them that much. It was almost good just to hang out with them for that reason. If they weren't such trouble-making prats who had made her Prefect years ghastly—not to mention Potter's random outbursts of suspected love towards her since fourth year—she thought she would actually have befriended them. Some point or another, that is.

"Anyways," James said, drawing out the word while shooting an amused glance towards Sirius and a shrug to Lily, "what do you need, Evans?"

This was it. Maybe if she just said it really bluntly and quickly they wouldn't have time to respond. They'd probably think she was off her rocker, just like her friends had thought. Oh, bugger, why the heck did she care anyways? She didn't.

"I want to get a broom."

There. That was good. Part of her wanted Potter to be impressed. She really was serious about this Quidditch thing. Maybe she'd gain the team's trust more. And Potter's. She needed his trust—for the bet, not Quidditch. But she was quickly learning that the easiest way to James Potter's heart was through the Wizarding sport.

Sirius snorted into his hand. "Pardon?"

This was her time to shine. She was gonna shove her words right up Sirius-bloody-Black's buttocks. Her hands clasped her hips in an annoyed fashion. "A broom, Black. Is that too big of a word for your vocabulary?"

"Probably," Remus grinned, earning yet another pillow throw at his head.

"No," Sirius responded, crossing his arms across his chest casually, "but in my dictionary you and brooms just don't go together."

Incensed, Lily glared at the handsome boy. He was so dang annoying. Merlin! Somehow, and somewhere, within those few seconds Lily had jumped out of the chair and onto her feet. Sirius was grinning at her in a weird way—a way that Lily definitely didn't like. It was as if he knew something that she didn't. Remus was watching her apprehensively, his face half hidden behind his Transfiguration essay. Peter was still scribbling on his Potions homework.

"Maybe if you had seen the tryouts, Padfoot," James began, "you would know that Evans is bloody good."

That odd sensation erupted down her shoulder and back again as James placed his hand on her upper back. It was like he was trying to calm her down—and defend her. Wait! Defend? He was defending her? And touching her! What was he doing?

Oh yeah, the bet. She had momentarily forgotten about that. Strange, since the thought usually haunted her. Bloody Marauders.

Sirius picked at something on his fingernail. "Yeah, maybe," he said with a shrug. "Hopefully she does well under pressure."

Godric, Sirius was being annoying. Well, more annoying than usual. Now, what was his deal? And then it all clicked. Sirius wanted Potter to lose the bet. Sirius was trying to get Lily angry. Sirius wanted Lily to not want anything to do with the Marauders. Sirius wanted Lily to hate Potter. Hmm. Smart plan.

James hand tightened on her back. She really didn't know how she could tell, since he wasn't really holding onto her or anything, but he definitely was tensing. Maybe it was the not-so-subtle glares he was sending towards his best friend. Or maybe it was the way his jaw had clenched more tightly than normal.

"You know," Lily struck up, stepping closer to James just to mess with Sirius's head, "if I didn't know any better, I would think that you were rooting for me to fail."

Remus glanced up from his homework. For a second he glanced at Sirius, who was leaning against his bedpost, to Lily, who was closer to James than she normally would ever find herself to be.

A sound like a plunger that had just been sucked off a hard surface broke the split second silence. Peter's head came up from his homework, a blood-red candy stick in his hand; he had been sucking on it.

"Well," he began, his watery blue eyes wide with interest, "of course he doesn't want you to do well. Sirius and James—"

Chaos immediately erupted.

Sirius flicked his wand, and the spell resulted in a dirty sock being stuffed into Peter's open mouth, cutting off his words. The poor guy started sputtering and drooling all over his newly-completed homework. Remus was shaking his head in disbelief. James, meanwhile, was standing at complete ease.

Lily found that odd. If she wasn't very much mistaken, she was sure that Peter was just about to blow their bet they had made. The person who should be freaking out the most was the guy who still had his arm on her back and was simply watching the scene amusedly. His hand started to burn her. She could feel her temper rising. At the moment, she just wanted to get out of that dorm.

Bloody pompous, over-confident, self-centered, git…

"So, do you guys have a broom catalogue, or what?" she said brusquely, steering the conversation back towards the reason she'd come up here in the first place.

For a moment, it looked like all the boys had forgotten Lily's original purpose for gracing them with her presence. "Er—right. Yeah, I think I have one," James said, the first one to get his head back on straight.

She breathed a sigh of relief as his hand left her body, and Potter walked over towards his trunk. How could he just stand there so calmly when Peter had almost blown his cover? She just didn't get it. He was either way too confident for his own good, or he just didn't care about Lily's feelings. Honestly, suppose she didn't know about the bet and suppose she really was falling for Potter—and then, Peter would have just basically blurted out that James was using her in order to gain five galleons.

Any girl would be crushed if that happened, but Potter had just stood there, like it didn't even matter!

"Here ya go, Evans," he said, handing her a surprisingly slim magazine entitled Which Broomstick.

She took it, glancing at Sirius, who was currently muttering to Peter. "Thanks," she said, turning to leave. To say she was slightly confused and angry didn't even match what she was feeling at the moment. She wanted to get Potter back, but at the same time she just didn't.

"Wait, Evans," James said from behind her, hurrying towards the door. "If you wanna try out my broom, you can."

The dare still in the back of her mind, Lily shifted her weight to her other foot. "What are you suggesting here, Potter?" she asked.

"I can take you out."

Whoa, she hadn't expected that one.

He must have known he started out too fast. The look on her face must have given it away. "I mean—er—I can take you out to the pitch, you know, so you can try out my broom. To see if you like it."

Lily quickly surveyed her options. She could take the catalogue and run without a backward glance. But what good would that do? Or she could accept his offer and agree to the Quidditch date—or whatever Potter wanted to call it. She looked at him. His hazel eyes were watching her, waiting for her answer. Her anger at the way he seemed not to care about her feelings—for Merlin's sake, he hadn't even seemed to care that Lily had almost found out that she was being used for a bet—had made her want to forget the dare completely.

But the dare was meant to get him back. That was the whole plan. Duh.

"Alright, Potter."

Sirius spluttered. "What?"

"I believe Lily just agreed to go on a rendezvous with Prongs," Remus answered. Lily could have sworn he was watching her suspiciously.

"And again—I say, what?!"

Lily smirked. Sirius thought he was losing. Potter thought he was winning. It was perfect. Her confidence rose. She had just made the right decision. She knew it.

Call it intuition.

"Name the time and date, Potter."

OOO

Lily sat with her head resting on her fist, watching as Professor Slughorn wrote the instructions for that day's potion on the board. For some reason, she was feeling pretty spaced out. Maybe it was because she'd only gotten about five hours of sleep last night. N.E.W.T year really was difficult; the horror stories had been true.

"And then, after stirring your solution clockwise three times, you're going to add a pinch of Hickle Twig—"

Hmm. Twigs? Brooms were made out of twigs. She wondered what her future broom was going to look like. She shook her head hastily, trying to focus on Slughorn. Her mind was being poisoned with too much exposure to Quidditch. This dare was definitely going to be the death of her.

"Miss Evans, you must know the answer. After all, you are one of my brightest students," Slughorn said, ignoring the raised hands of Remus Lupin, Rachel Smartley, and Kevin Michaels. Darn it; why'd her professor have to like her so much?

Lily smiled sheepishly, a faint blush creeping onto her cheeks. "Sorry, Professor, must have missed the question."

Whew, she really had zoned out.

"Don't worry, Lily," Slughorn beamed and turned to Remus. "What about you, Robert? Know the answer?"

Perhaps she should start paying attention.

But that feat deemed almost impossible as soon as she tried to look at the instructions on the board.

Messy black hair was suddenly blocking her view of the blackboard. Lily felt her focus slip, again. Oh, Merlin, today was Thursday. That meant tomorrow was Friday. That meant that she was twenty-four hours away from her little Quidditch rendezvous—as Sirius was calling it—with Potter. Hopefully he didn't think it was a date. What if he tried to make a move on her? She definitely wasn't ready for that! Phase three hadn't even started yet!

Her friends, of course, had been thrilled with the way Lily's trip to the boys' dormitory had played out. Dorcas was over the moon, since she and Marlene had been the ones who had wanted a—and she quoted—'romantic broom ride' to happen in the first place. However, Lily was strictly against the whole romantic part, and it definitely wasn't going to happen during the sunrise, or sunset for that matter.

But despite that, Lily found herself sort of—kind of—an eensy-teensy bit—looking forward to it. This would either make the dare or break it. This was the first official outing since Potter and Sirius had made the bet, and since Lily's friends had dared her. If it went well, the dare would move forward. She would be nice, she would be fun, she may even flirt with him a bit, but if he tried to get too touchy-feely with her…that's where it would turn ugly. And if their 'rendezvous' went bad—well, Lily hoped it wouldn't.

She wanted to beat James Potter down. She was determined to make the date thing go well.

The bell rang, pulling her from her jumbled up thoughts. She realized she had been watching the back of Potter's head for the last fifteen minutes. Yikes, she needed to save her Potter-energy for tomorrow.

"So, Lily," Marlene said, pulling Lily by the elbow out of the classroom, "we came up with Phase three."

Dorcas grinned, nodding. "Your little Quidditch date with Potter is the best setting for this to happen. It'll really mess with his head."

Lily couldn't help but grin excitedly. "The kind of messing with his head where he'll think I'm actually starting to like him?"

"That's the plan," said Alice.

James was a little bit ahead of them, strolling down the corridors in the middle of his three friends. Lily nodded to herself. Her head was in the game now. It was completely in the game.

"What do I have to do?" she asked.

And then Marlene said the three words that sounded extremely alien to Lily's ears. It was like she was from a different country and didn't speak Marlene's language. That's how foreign her friend's next statement sounded.

"Call him James."

Phew, that was a long one. I'm quite excited for the next chapter...I think it should be a good one. Bwahaha. Alright, I'm done being random for today. I'm going to bed. 'Night everyone!

Next chapter: Lily and James's Quidditch rendezvous AND phase three...Remus comes into it as well. Dun dun dunnn.

Thanks for reading! Hopefully you enjoyed it and hopefully I gave you something to do while you wait impatiently for Deathly Hallows to come out! Only a month to go! It would be absolutely spiffy (haha, don't you just love that word?) if you reviewed!

Until next time...

--HeyLookTheSnitch