Disclaimer: If I owned anything of the wonderful world that belonged to JK Rowling, I'd want to own the Invisibility Cloak in order to run away from the cops for not putting this disclaimer up.

A/N: Thank you so much for everyone who reviewed! I got home from vacation and was overwhelmed with the messages that were in my inbox waiting for me! Thanks a bunch!: TwinkieTUTUS, SiruislyBlackHearted, Dishonorable, CaramelBoost, Isolde Eris, -Jeisa-, pigs can fly, Monkinkninja, bandeepthebest, Cristipotter, Jessiquie, Danielle, lambgirl1, Mirrorbay2000, blendernized, hermione-G-wanna-be, SparklingEyesWithACrazyMind, Pyromaniac-Girl, Mrs Claire Potter, stardust718, Crystalsxyz, and C San. Thanks again to everyone who added me to their alerts!

So, sorry for the wait! But, I'm finally back from a very long, exhausting, trip. It was so fun, but it's good to be home. I get to sleep in my own bed! YAY (does a little happy dance). Anyways...on a sadder note, school starts next week...I dunno if I'm excited or dreading it...on the plus side, IT'S MY SENIOR YEAR BABY! WOO

Right, enough of my randomness and on with the story I say! I hope you enjoy it!

Oh, PS--I think this just might be my longest chapter yet! Isn't that spiffy? haha isn't that such a cool word? Go ahead, say it three times fast. Spiffy, spiffy, spiffy. Okay, now my randomness is totally done. Now, go read. lol

Chapter 12: Phase 4: Unorganized Chaos

A sigh.

It's one of those words in the English language that can explain a multiple of different feelings that a person may be experiencing at the given time of the sigh. Depending on the circumstances, a sigh can mean 'Merlin, I have so much homework. McGonagall is a really foul…' followed by a string of words that probably aren't well-mannered enough to write down in this description. It can also be distinguished as 'Oh, look at that Ravenclaw sitting in the back corner…he's totally dreamy.' This would then be followed by glassy eyes and the occasional day dream.

In Lily Evans' case, however, her sigh—as she stood in the corridor being berated by a fifth year Gryffindor—meant 'Why in the name of Merlin am I allowing Amelia Evans to teach me her Beater tactics when I could be doing something more productive with my life?'.

"Now, since you have a tad case of chicken-arms, you might want to hold your bat by your side rather than up in the air; it's less weight for your skinny arms to hold," Amelia was saying.

Lily looked around desperately, looking for someone—anyone—to save her. "You know what, Amelia, I think I have to—" Lily tried to interrupt, but it was to no avail.

"And always try to hit the ball at a ninety degree angle. It goes much farther and will hit your opponent much harder," Amelia continued.

It slightly amazed Lily how Amelia could be so smart on the Quidditch field, yet so daft in the area of school. She supposed she should be grateful for Amelia's small brain, because if it weren't for her poor study skills and short-term memory James would not have had to kick Amelia off the team until she got her grades up. Thus, Lily would not have been able to join the Quidditch team and spend time with James—er…push the dare along.

But just because she was grateful that Amelia was flunking out of three of her subjects—which, as Head Girl, she shouldn't be encouraging—didn't mean she enjoyed being told what to do by the bothersome fifteen year old (who could easily pass as a twenty year old due to her size). That's why, when she heard a voice shouting her name from down the hallway, Lily couldn't help but mutter a "Thank, Godric" under her breath.

"Lily!" cried Dorcas, her blonde curls bouncing along on her shoulders as she skidded towards a halt beside Amelia. "Oh, hey, Amelia," she greeted, taking a slight step backwards as Amelia responded with a killer glare, as if it had been all Dorcas's fault she was failing Transfiguration, Potions, and Charms.

"Meadowes," Amelia nodded.

"Dorcas!" Lily said happily, "what's up?" she asked imploringly, hoping beyond hopes that whatever Dorcas needed her for would take her far, far, away from where she currently was.

With a raise of her eyebrows, as if telling Lily that she should know perfectly well what's up, Dorcas held up her left hand which was holding her broomstick. It was just then that Lily noticed Dorcas's attire; red robes with gold trimming. Her Quidditch uniform. Shoot.

"Am I late?" she asked.

"Just a bit."

Amelia had narrowed her eyes during the two friends' exchange and, at the last statement, had turned her cold glare to Lily. Apparently, the ex-Beater felt that Lily was a poor replacement because she would had never forgotten her practice session. Well, at least Amelia had been able to remember something in that head of hers; that was promising, a bit.

"Is James mad?" Lily asked, ignoring the sound of Amelia's tapping foot and persistent stares.

"Haven't seen him yet; I came to find you. But if we stand here talking he will be," Dorcas said, grabbing her red-headed friend around the elbow and pulling her down the corridor.

"See you, Amelia," Lily called out happily, incredibly thankful for leaving that girl's…er…intimidating presence.

"Try to pull those D's up, yeah?" Dorcas threw over her shoulder, apparently thinking that it was an adequate farewell.

Amelia's only response was to shout, "Remember to tuck in your elbows, Evans!"

Lily's final thoughts, as the two girls rounded a corner and Amelia disappeared from view, were, 'How in the name of Merlin did James handle that girl when she'd been on the team…more importantly, how badly did she hurt him when he kicked her off the team?'

OO

In all his years on the Quidditch field, James had never experienced a worse practice. The lateness of two of his players had set the tone from the beginning, but even that looked like strawberry-flavored Bertie Botts compared to how the rest of the hour session had turned out. Especially since he had scheduled the pitch for two hours, not one.

Mark Botley, one of his Beaters, was having trouble adjusting to Amelia's absence being filled by Lily Evans. James thought that the main problem was that Amelia, being much broader than Lily, had been easier for Mark to spot in the midst of the other players. Lily's slimmer, and slightly shorter form, caused her to get lost within the other five players. Thus, Mark was having trouble deciphering if the Bludger was circling his fellow Chaser—who had no bat to protect himself with—or if the vicious ball was tailing his fellow Beater—who had a bat and could easily swat the offender away.

Quidditch was usually a game referred to as "organized chaos", but after their second match, which would not take place until January, James knew that Quidditch would be dubbed a new name—unorganized chaos. He'd already sent Mary Macdonald, one of his fellow Chasers, up to the hospital wing after a Bludger had hit her in the back of the head, causing her nose to bleed incessantly. James himself had narrowly avoided getting his arm snapped in half, twice! And Lily had nearly collided her bat into Dorcas's head rather than the Bludger that had been two inches to the other side.

Unorganized chaos it was.

After about fifty minutes of this torture, James blew the whistle dangling from his neck sharply, and the shrill sound cut through the air. "Everyone down!" he bellowed, while he lowered himself to the ground and hopped off his broomstick. Five brooms landed around him in a circle.

Lily toppled off hers slightly.

He rubbed his temples soothingly as if her small blunder had hit him with the force of a mallet.

"Right, well, good try everyone," he said, looking around at his teams' downcast faces.

"Oh, don't lie, Potter," Daniel Sparks, the Keeper, said, "this was probably the worst practice we've ever had." The rest of the team murmured in agreement.

Finding no further encouraging lies, James simply shrugged and resumed to rubbing his forehead; he had a headache coming on, he could tell. "We play Slytherin after Christmas holidays," he said. "We only have two more practices before then—" he wished they had a million—"If we lose that match, we could be kicked out of the running. Don't forget, Slytherin creamed Ravenclaw last week. Ravenclaw's out; they'll be back in though if we lose to Slytherin. We can't let that happen."

He looked towards Lily, who was staring at the dirt beneath her feet and whose face had turned slightly pale. "Right, well, go get some dinner everyone, and I'll see you after the holidays."

Everyone trudged back off towards the castle, some muttering about how they were going to go check on Mary and some mumbling about how they were going to go ice their sore buttocks. As James headed towards the changing rooms to think things over, he caught Lily's eyes that seemed to be seeking him out. He gave her a tight, small grin and she simply shrugged in return.

"That was pathetic, mate."

James entered the changing rooms only to find Sirius sitting on a bench, a rather smug smile across his lips. He really didn't want to see his best friend at the moment; not when he was a defeated Quidditch player and captain.

"Shut up, Padfoot."

"How's the bet coming?" Sirius asked, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt and crossing his arms casually. He was still smirking in that self-satisfied way, as if he'd just won some spectacular prize. Sirius wanted to win that bet. James wanted to punch him in the jaw.

"I thought I told you to shut up."

"Sorry, no can do, Prongs," he countered simply.

There was a short silence as James slumped down onto the bench opposite Sirius. He was completely drained; that Quidditch practice had hit him emotionally harder than any he ever had experienced. This was not looking good. James was an optimist, but even the best optimist in the world couldn't have found an upside to his situation.

"So, when is the deadline for this bet, again?" James asked suddenly in a low voice as if he were dreading the answer. Which he was actually. Sirius was bound to rub it in his face. Some friend he was.

Just like he predicted, Sirius let out a bark of laughter. "Given up already?"

"No." James said defiantly.

"Well, I suppose any hope you have is hanging by what happens in the match against Slytherin," Sirius answered.

"Right…"

Their conversation was cut short as someone else entered the locker room. James—already thankful that someone had just cut off Sirius's chance to gloat some more—was even more grateful at seeing the person who'd just entered.

"Lily!" James cried, jumping up from his seat.

"Nice practice, Evans," Sirius said sarcastically, watching her closely as if expecting to achieve a rise out of her.

Lily ignored him and Sirius's grey eyes narrowed. "I just came to put this school broom back," she answered to their unasked question as to why she was there. She walked past James and over to a small cupboard where all of the other old school brooms were stored when not in use. She glanced at James in a rather pitying way before shutting the door of the cupboard shut. James guessed she was just feeling sorry for him about how bad practice went. Honestly, who wasn't?

"Have you decided on what model of broom you want yet?" James asked her hopefully, an idea sparking. Maybe adding a new, good broom would be a good way to raise the team's spirit. And it could only improve Lily's game.

Sirius apparently thought it would be nice to answer for her. "Why bother? It's not like she's a permanent member of the team," Sirius said. James shot him a warning look. Why was his best friend such a tactless idiot?

"At least I didn't blow my tryouts like you did in third year and got banned from ever playing on the school team," Lily shot back. "Too bad, because otherwise you could have had my spot." Sirius gaped at her, for once in his life speechless. "I'll see you later, James."

The two boys watched her walk out of the door, back up towards the castle. James continued to watch her until she was a mere speck in the distance. "So, I've got until the second, maybe third, Quidditch match?" James asked, as he watched Lily's retreating back.

Rubbing his hands together joyfully because he thought James had absolutely no chance at all, Sirius responded, "That's right."

"I haven't given up yet, Padfoot."

Once again, Sirius found himself struck speechless.

OO

"That only gives you like…a month!" Marlene said in a outrage as she paced back and forth in front of Lily's bed.

"That's crazy!"

"Sirius said the outcome of the bet depended on the match against Slytherin?" Dorcas asked, once again making her friend repeat what she'd overheard in the changing rooms. It was sort of like déjà vu; Lily had found herself listening outside the door of the locker room, once again eavesdropping on the two little devil Marauders.

"Why does it depend on Quidditch, though?" Alice asked. Always the practical one, Alice always had to question people's intent.

Lily, who was slightly stressed out due to the fact that she had just figured out she only had a month left to get James to ask her out and then dump him, threw her arms in the air out of frustration.

"I dunno! I don't attempt to figure out the way those boys' minds work!"

"There are few who do," mumbled Marlene. "Hey, maybe, if you guys win the match, James is planning to get you drunk off of Firewhisky," Marlene offered.

Lily shot her a look.

"Don't worry, Lily. Perhaps Quidditch is just a game based on luck and Gryffindor won't win, thus no Firewhisky," Alice reassured.

Dorcas gasped. "That's what Lily and Snape used to say; 'Oh, Quidditch, it's just luck, boohoo'. Please tell me you haven't turned over to the dark side as well!"

"I knew I never liked that guy," Marlene muttered, referring to Snape, as she strongly admired Quidditch players and didn't like it when people said anything against the sport.

"Which is why you made Lily add that rule about kissing Snape to our Truth or Dare guide," Alice said, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, speaking of which, I was almost surprised when you chose to pretend to like James Potter when you could have just given your childhood best friend a nice, little smooch," Dorcas added.

Yeah right, like Lily would have given Severus the satisfaction of a potential sign of truce.

Lily's heart raced even more than it already was at the mention of Snape's name. She hadn't told her friends what she'd seen during patrol with James. She didn't want to hear all of the "I told you so's". As she thought of the patrol in the dungeons, she thought of James, which irreversibly made her think of the bet, which—in turn—made her think of the dare. It was like one big Ferris wheel that never stopped to let its passengers off!

"I'm going to have to start moving things along, aren't I?" Lily said finally, cutting off her friends who were reminiscing about unfortunate run-ins they'd had with Severus Snape over the years. She didn't need to hear them.

"Exactly," Dorcas said, jumping back into the problem at hand.

"Since James wants to win, won't he just ask Lily out sometime soon before the cut-off date anyways?" Alice asked.

Hey, that was true. Lily hadn't thought of it that way.

"Yes, but we want to crush him. Lily needs to show him what he could have, what he will have, before she dumps his Marauding heart," Marlene explained.

Oh, yeah, that was also true.

"But Christmas break is coming up in less than a week; we don't have much time" Alice commented, realizing the problem.

And that is where the main problem was found.

The four girls sat in silence, each contemplating the situation. Lily was at a complete loss. Maybe they should just give up. When James asked her out, she could still say no and cause him to lose five galleons—and his dignity—to Sirius. But that just wouldn't be the same satisfaction. Marlene was right. She had to get his hopes up, get him to want her...

There had to be a way to fix this.

As if answering her pleas, Marlene sat up sharply, a wicked grin lighting up her face. "Lily, what are your plans for Christmas?"

OO

"Pst, Peter."

Peter looked around, confused as to who was "pst-ing" at him. He and the Marauders were walking down a corridor on the way to their Charms lesson. There was no one around except his friends—they had just come from their free period and everyone else was still in lessons—and they were being too rowdy to "pst" at him. So, the question remained, who was calling him?

He soon found out the answer.

"Peter! Pst! Pstttttt."

"Oh, for Merlin's sake," another voice whispered.

And before he could protest or do anything, someone muttered, "Silencio," while someone else grabbed him as the group walked by an empty classroom. He opened his mouth to yelp in surprise, but no one, not even his friends who were less than three feet away, could hear him.

His captors pulled him into the classroom and another person, who wasn't holding him or casting a spell on him, shut the door softly so as to not alert anyone.

"Now, Peter, we're going to take off the Silencio charm, but don't yell, okay?"

Peter relaxed as someone turned on the lights to the classroom. It was only Marlene, Dorcas, and Alice who had kidnapped him. Alright, so he relaxed…slightly. At least they weren't Slytherins. Peter nodded, agreeing to their terms, and Dorcas said the incantation as Marlene released her hold on him. It felt as if something that had been pressing on his voice box had just been lifted away; he found that he could now speak. He rubbed his throat with his short fingers.

He glanced towards the door, but Alice was standing in front of it. "Hey, Peter," Marlene said, as if this sort of thing happened everyday and was completely normal.

"H-Hey," he answered, looking between the three girls. "Er…why did you ambush me?"

"Well," Dorcas began as if she were about to launch into a super long story, "we couldn't' possibly ask Sirius or Remus to do the favor we need of you. Sirius has something against Lily; Remus follows them around everywhere like some poor, lost animal, and James—well, we can't really tell James because he can't know that you know what we are about to tell you."

Peter blinked rapidly, trying to process what he had just been told. It liked like his watery eyes were going through a twitch attack. "Er…can you run that by me again...in English?"

Marlene sighed. "Can you do something for us?"

He shifted uncomfortably. He didn't really like where this was going—even though he really had no clue where this conversation was heading anyways. "Well, as a Marauder, I've been strictly told not to—"

"Oh, please. Don't listen to what Sirius and Remus tell you to do. What we want you to do will help us, and even James—"

"—for the time being," muttered Alice.

"What was that?" Peter asked suspiciously, observing Alice curiously.

"Oh, nothing. So, what do you say, Peter?" Alice corrected herself quickly, arranging her face into a completely, and rather believable, look of innocence. Who knew Peter could be that observant?

"I dunno…what's the problem?" he asked.

"Are James's parents still going to hold their New Year's party this year?" Marlene asked. Close to every year, the Potters—high Ministry officials—hosted a party on New Year's. Marlene, whose parents worked closely with the Potters, was always invited. It was the perfect plan.

"I think so. Prongs just got a letter this morning from his mum, and—"

"Excellent," Marlene interrupted. "Now, Peter, what we are about to ask of you can't be shared with anyone else, got it?" she asked, while fingering her wand and smirking down at the poor, helpless boy.

Peter gulped. "I suppose so." His eyes followed the movement of her wand.

"Tell James to invite Lily to the party," Dorcas said.

"Uh—what?!"

"You know; boy asks girl out, girl says yes, they have a fun time together without hexing each other," Marlene explained.

"I know what 'invite' means," Peter said, clearly stung by the girls' good-natured sarcasm, "but every time James has ever asked Lily out, he gets turned down."

"Where have you been for the past few weeks, Peter?" Alice asked.

"We have good reason to believe Lily will say yes," Dorcas continued.

Peter looked from one girl to the next. "Well…"

"Are you going to help us or not?"

Marlene stared at Alice, who in turn winked at Dorcas, who ended up engaging Peter in a blinking contest. Dorcas peered at Peter, unblinkingly, and he finally cracked.

"Fine."

"Excellent!"

"It shouldn't be too hard to convince him to do it, right?" he asked nervously, running a hand through his head of thick blond hair.

The girls all grinned. Nope, they didn't think that it would be that difficult at all. If all went according to plan, and James was now pressured by this deadline, he would jump at the chance of asking Lily to his New Year's party.

Phase four had begun. Now all Lily had to do was agree.

OO

It was by far the easiest phase Lily had done yet. This time around, her only job was to sit back and wait for James to approach her. The only thing she was responsible for was to answer yes to his question. Like she said, it wasn't that bad. Alright, so there had been a time earlier in her life—fine, a week ago—where agreeing to go to a party hosted by James Potter would have been extremely difficult for her to do. Apparently, her friends had been thinking along the same lines, because they had admitted to Lily that the phase where she'd have to go somewhere with James hadn't been until phase six. However, seeing as the timing had been right—and, not to mention, the impeccable acting skills of Lily—phase six had moved up the list to spot number four.

Lily didn't mind, really. She quite enjoyed James Potter…or, more accurately, the new James Potter. She didn't have to worry about pompous declarations of love, or poorly timed pranks, or anything about James Potter that normally drove her up the wall. And, as an added bonus, she'd be able to attend an all Wizards party, full of Ministry workers who could possibly give her a briefing on different jobs available for after graduation.

So, as she waited for Peter to relay the idea of asking her to the New Year's party to James, Lily constantly made sure that James would have an easy shot of cornering her whilst she was alone. She made sure to lag behind in all of her classes, but James never once took the hint. Sometimes he'd walk up to her, touch her lightly on the small of her back, and say hello to her. Every time he did this, her heart leapt, hoping that he was about to commence phase four—no matter how unknowingly—but she was always disappointed. Never once did she ever hear him mention New Year's.

It was on the last day of lessons, when her friends were about ready to jump Peter and punish him for his poor communication skills, that it happened.

"Studying on the last day before vacation? Now, that's something I haven't seen before."

Lily elicited a grin as she turned around in her seat in the secluded part of the Gryffindor common room to face a happy-looking James. "Only because you've never done it," she joked back, shoving her books and paper out of the way to make a place for him to sit.

"I study," he said, plopping down in a chair next to hers, "I just prefer to stretch it out over a period of time rather than doing it all at once."

She simply laughed, putting down her quill, knowing that with him beside her she wouldn't be able to concentrate. Besides, she had a feeling that phase four was about to be completed.

"So, doing anything special this Christmas?" he asked.

Aha. He was going in for the kill.

"Nothing, really. Going home to the family, where I'll probably be buried by pounds and pounds of wedding details," she answered evasively, giving him the bait to ask her. Hopefully her plans sounded boring enough.

"Planning on eloping with a Muggle neighbor this winter?"

"My sister."

"That would be considered lesbian incest, Lily."

James was grinning at her and she couldn't help but to hit him playfully on the arm. "I meant, my sister's getting married, you dork."

"You make that sound like it's a bad thing," James said, picking up one of her books and flipping through it randomly.

Lily watched him for a while; did he always have to have something to do with his hands? For some reason, she felt like reaching out and grabbing his wrists just to make him stop fidgeting with the book. She quickly shook that thought out of her head. Close contact should be avoided when ever not necessary.

"Her fiancé doesn't really…well, mesh well with me," she answered, deciding not to go into too many details about Vernon Dursley as none of them were very pleasant.

"Anyways," Lily continued, "do you have any plans?"

"Actually, I do."

It was as if she didn't dare to breathe. Her insides squirmed with anticipation. "Oh?" she asked, egging him on.

"You see, every year or so my parents host this New Year's thing—ball, party type thing. Usually it's just me and Sirius surrounded by Ministry adults and their kids…" Lily noticed that he was rambling and really wished that he would just get to the point. "So, to make things more interesting, I was wondering—well, what are you doing for New Year's?"

Her feet actually twitched like they wanted to get up and jump around in a happy victory dance. "James, I'd love to come," she blurted out.

His hazel eyes widened slightly at her abrupt proposal, possibly because he was surprised that she'd answered his question that he hadn't specifically asked yet. He quickly recovered, however, and he smiled in a relieved sort of way.

"Really?"

"Of course. It's either that or spend New Year's with Petunia and Dursley," she answered, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

"Well, then," he stood up and she followed his gesture, "it's sort of a formal thing."

"Afraid that I'm going to show up in sweatpants?" she joked.

"You'd probably still look better than half of the middle-aged women there," he responded, shrugging.

"I dunno if I should be insulted or flattered by that statement."

They both started to laugh quietly. Eventually they settled down and silence followed. "I suppose I'll send you an owl with all the details then."

"Alright."

She stepped up to him and hugged him loosely with one arm around his neck. It was sort of awkward, as if each one didn't know quite how to respond. James settled for patting her on the back with one hand while wrapping his other around her waist. It was brief, but it was enough.

Lily was the first to step back and end that odd moment of intimacy. "I'll see you around, James."

Phase four was officially in business.

J'ai fini! Thanks for reading! Tune in next time to see what happens during Lily's Christmas break and what kind of trouble insues as Lily attends the Potters New Year's party. Oh, what fun!

Ohhh, I'm looking into Trelawney's crystal ball and it's showing people reviewing to a story! Alright, so Divination is usually whack, but just this once help poor Trelawney's prediction come true! So, please review! Thanks for reading and I'll talk to you guys later. For those of you going back to school, good luck and have fun!

--HeyLookTheSnitch