Disclaimer: Dumbledore is gay!?!? What?! If I were J.K. Rowling, I think I wouldn't be so surprised by that piece of information. Totally didn't see that one coming!

A/N: Tehehehe (that's me giggling excitedly after reading your reviews). Thank you so much to: Jedi Knight Revan, Etar, Mrs Claire Potter, Emma Knightley, Luminous Star, tashville007, mini-cactus, Missvee, Cristipotter, Cristipotter, pigs can fly, TwinkieTUTUS, LyLMystiKeLf, Red n Black Roses, chili's-girl, Sprut, Ace-reporter, silly sarahhh, Mouse and Stupid Productions, Jessiquie, stardust718, serenity12345, CaramelBoost, overboard on exclamation marks, Woot!, and Literati and naley forever. I wonder how many times I've thanked you all, but no matter the number, it probably hasn't been enough. For you guys rock so incredibly hard that it amazes me! So, thank you!

And look at that! I'm actually keeping up on the updating every two weeks thing that's been going on. Weeeee! This chapter is shorter than usual (GASP! Only seven pages!), but I felt like if I didn't leave it where it was and kept going it would be way too much and drawn out. So, unfortunately, this chapter is just a lead up to the actual plan that James's has of proving his honesty (Aw, how sweet!), so the good, juicy stuff will come later. Sorry folks! But I hope you all enjoy this chapter anyways. Oh, and I should mention that I'm thinking there's only a few chapters left of this story. Maybe five. Or six. Or seven. Alright, so I don't really know how much longer, but it's not going to be like...ten chapters longer. Goodness me, that would be a doozy! (I don't even know if that's a word!)

Yay! So, let's get reading! Have fun!

Chapter 15: A Lesson in Irony

She had a small desire to go check on Severus in the hospital wing, where it had been rumored that it had taken three teachers and Hagrid to hold Snape down while Professor Slughorn poured the medical potion down his throat. Somehow, Lily thought the rumors had probably escalated the real events which were probably a lot more dull and uneventful. Nevertheless, her feeling of needing to see him dwindled as she wondered what words they could possibly exchange. He had chosen his own path, she had chosen hers, and they just so happened to differ…in a major way. Surprisingly, it hadn't been that hard to come to terms with; she was used to it by now. However, Lily was usually pretty good at forgiving people, but with this particular situation it would take a lot for Snape to redeem himself. In her old mid-teens fantasies it had involved him risking his life to save someone on the correct side—aka, the Voldemort fighters—of this war.

And besides, she had more important things to do tonight.

As the short hour hand on the clock inched closer towards eleven, the variety of people relaxing in the Gryffindor common room began to filter out. Since tomorrow would be the first day back at lessons since Christmas holidays, students had begun heading up to their dorms at ten, would probably chat until around eleven, and then would most likely fall asleep to insure a good seven hours or so of rest before early-morning classes. After the Quidditch discussions had ended and the gossiping girls had retired to their beds, Lily had found herself quite alone in an abnormally quiet common room.

The fire crackled warmly and Lily stared into it, hugging her knees to her chest. Her emerald eyes were focused on the flames, but she wasn't really seeing them. With a hint of extreme realization—which made her feel rather bright—she vaguely realized that it was the other way around with James Potter. She had always seen him, yet had never really focused on his intentions. Was that wrong? Was she doing it all over again now? After that retched dare in fourth year, he had occasionally asked her out; Lily always thought he did it purely to annoy her because, after all, he had said that the kiss had been the worst in his life. But what if he had really liked her? Then she had been a heartbreaking prat. What if he still did? Then she was royally screwed. And why the heck was she even bothering to think about him at all?

He doesn't like me, she scoffed, he's in it for the gold, not my heart.

Despite her attempts to shove Potter out of her mind, her thoughts suddenly launched an epiphany. A light bulb seemed to explode over her head, casting an illuminating glow that the fire, oddly enough, couldn't.

James Potter could like her; she had thought she felt something at the New Year's party. If he did, that led to one horrifying question that Lily really wished she didn't have to ponder. This was her epiphany: had she seen the bet as she had wanted to perceive it? Or rather, had her negative thoughts about everything she thought James Potter was—rude, arrogant, a bully—distorted an innocent bet into something grander? It was possible that she had manifested the bet with all of her pessimistic thoughts because that was what she had expected James to do; to use her in his arrogance to win gold. Oh, holy Merlin. If that was all true—did she want it to be true?—that meant that she had created this whole mess herself. Potter had nothing to do with it. Shoot. She'd never thought of it like that before.

Her chest pounded painfully as she bit her lip, hugging her legs harder and closer as if for protection. Her mind continued to spiral deeper and deeper into a terrifying abyss. What if there hadn't been a bet at all? Maybe this whole thing had been thrown out of proportion…by her! How incredibly stupid it would be if it turned out that she had made this all up? Not only would she have screwed with Potter's mind, but she would have irreversibly messed up her own—

No, she did not like James Potter. A small voice in the back of her mind wondered, if that were true, why she had to keep reminding herself that she actually hated him. Denial, denial, denial.

No, not denial. The truth. It couldn't be denial because she simply had fallen for the person he was pretending to be, not the real him, right? Right. But if the bet had never existed—

—But it had. She had heard it! There was no way she could have dreamed it, otherwise these past three months would have all been happening inside her head. She felt like her thoughts were going around and around in a circle. No, the bet was real. Reality could not be all a dream. Don't think so absurdly, Lily. She had pure concrete proof. Bloody James Potter was screwing with her mind. There had been a bet, she had heard it, and he most definitely wanted the money more than her. She was nothing but a pawn.

That was that. No more doubts; no further questions. All systems closed. Circles did have an ending, and she had found it.

Or so she hoped.

Sparks flew up the chimney and Lily watched the burning logs dwindle into ash as the minutes passed. Against her better judgment, her mind irreversibly traveled back to the spawn of evil, the devilishly good Quidditch player, the epitome of a girl's fantasy, as she began to wonder what it would have been like if she hadn't found out about the bet. Would she have believed his change of maturity level, or would she had scoffed at him, blown him off, declined him like she'd done for the past three years? Hopefully she would have been a good enough of person to give him a chance, to see the real him, and to fall for him without a hope of climbing back up.

Get a grip on yourself, Lily, it wouldn't have mattered.

The sad truth was, it wouldn't have been "the honest him" and she would have ended up with her heart broken once he dumped her after Sirius coughed up the five galleons.

How sad, and incredibly ironic, that it seemed she was heading down that path anyways. Except, she was going to be the one doing the dumping.

She glanced at her wrist watch; it was five minutes until eleven. Where was he? He had wanted to prove his honesty to her, and yet he was on the verge of showing up late. Again, how ironic would it be if he never turned up? She snorted softly. Well, there went his chances of ever proving his loyalty and truthfulness, no matter how untrue his honesty that he planned to prove to her probably was.

She had to re-think that last thought twice. Wow, she could practically feel the wheels in her brain turning to understand that one.

However, she hoped he'd show up. She sighed, resting her chin, once again, on her propped up knees. Her agreement of meeting him wasn't part of her dare because this was something Lily needed for herself, and therefore this secret meeting would remain confidential between her and James. Her friends didn't even know about this one. She needed a clarification, a little glimpse of a fault in this new James, which would completely and utterly turn her off from him.

Funny, really. He used to ask her out, she had rejected him. He had made a bet to win her over, she had found out and hated him more for it. Her friends had dared her to break his heart, she began to think she was falling for him.

How ironic—Don't say that word, Lily, just don't say it.

"Lily?"

She jumped, her chin hitting her knees painfully, as James Potter literally seemed to appear out of nowhere. See? There was something devilish about him. Okay, so maybe it was some type of paranormal force, not really pure evil.

Rubbing her throbbing chin, oddly enough, reminded her that she was supposed to be angry with him. And she was, really, honest! "Where did you come from?" she asked bluntly, cleverly getting the point across that, yes, she was still not on good terms with him.

His hazel eyes swept around the empty common room, before they landed on her figure, arms crossed. His forefinger beckoned her and he merely uttered two quick words. "Come here."

Her eyebrows shot up her forehead. Did he think he was honestly going to win her obedience over that quickly? She scoffed at the idea, giving him a pointed look to reveal her private thoughts. "Why?"

"Just come here."

"I'm not coming anywhere near you until you give me a reason why."

"Dear Merlin, Lily, just get over here."

Their current bickering would probably seem pointless to any eavesdroppers, perhaps even humorous. People would probably even be wondering whether the two head students were being serious with their fight of it it was all for fun, that's how immature Lily knew this conversation was. But she was determined to hold her ground, because it was all James Potter's fault that her mind kept going in circles as it tried to answer the question of whether she liked or disliked the boy in front of her.

"If this is your way to show me how honest--" she air-quoted the word--"you can be—by not telling me what's happening—then you are sadly mistaken," she said.

Huffing out of irritation, James ruffled his hair impatiently. He crossed his muscular arms over his broad chest and observed Lily for a few seconds. "I really don't understand you," he said shortly.

Well, that makes two of us. Of course, she didn't say that out loud. So, instead, Lily shrugged cockily, hands on her hips. "Yeah, well—" She really wanted to throw something in like, 'too bad for you,' but she just couldn't bring herself to be that rude. She did have her standards. But her comeback had ended up sounding pathetically weak. Blast it.

After a few more seconds, in which they both contemplated each other, James broke the silence subtly by reaching into his bag and pulling out a silver robe. It caught her attention, and he took notice to the fact that it had. He held it up without saying anything for Lily to observe, as if offering up his belongings to show that he really was safe to approach. Her eyes flickered from the robe, to the boy, and back again.

James, apparently, thought that her confused eye flickers were a good sign. "Now will you trust me and come here?" he asked.

Was that his attempt of acting with chivalry? Lily wondered sarcastically. What a nerd. "I don't need your robes; the temperature is very comfortable in here at the moment, thank you," she said curtly. What in the world did his cloak, and the chilly air temperature, have to do with anything?

A pang of annoyance swept through Lily as James rolled his eyes. It was as if he was mocking her for her ignorance, like he knew something she didn't. Arghhhh. "This," he began with a superior chuckle, indicating the silvery cloth, "has more uses than just warming someone up."

With that, he threw the cloak over himself. Lily gasped, her anger and annoyance forgotten for the time being. James, the very solid and real person who she had just been arguing with, had disappeared. Poof! Gone! Ahh, paranormal forces were back again! She gasped again—this time in surprised fright—as something, or someone, tapped her on the back. Spinning around she found James's disembodied head floating behind her.

Okay, calm down, there has to be a rational explanation for this.

"How in the name of Merlin's socks did you get an Invisibility Cloak?" she finally asked him incredulously, her lowered jaw snapping back up to its normal position for speech. Nonetheless, she was rather creeped out by this talking head, even though she saw ghosts, poltergeists, and other variety of magical things every day of her life.

"Father to son inheritance," he answered, unwrapping the cloak from his shoulders so his whole body—thank Godric—reappeared. "It's been in my family for years."

She touched the edge of the cloth hesitantly, as if she were touching something very delicate and old, which was a very good possibility if it had been in his family for generations. "Odd," she started, gazing at it, "most Invisibility Cloaks tend to lose their concealment charms as the years go on…"

James shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah, I dunno, my great-great-great-great grandfather or something must have done something to it…Anyways, that's beside the point." He threw the cloak back over his head and shoulders and propped it open like a tent, apparently waiting for her to join him underneath it.

There was no way on her life that she was getting underneath that cramped spot with him. Too many risks. To give herself some more time to think about this sticky situation, she immediatly began questioning his intentions. "This is how you plan on proving your honesty? By showing me how you sneak about the castle?" she asked suspiciously. Ha, she hoped he'd realize the irony in it all. Jeez, what was with that word at the moment?

"No," he said dumbly, drawing out the syllable, "but we need this to get where we're going."

The situation that she could potentially, and was about to, get herself into had a flashing warning sign painted all over it; however, he had said it so simply, so innocently, that Lily couldn't possbily question him any further. She looked up into his face. He was watching her steadily, a small, inviting smile upon his handsome face. Something about his appearance put her at ease. Darn him and his soothing antics!

"Where are we going, exactly?"

"Just trust me, okay?"

Wow, what a big thing to ask of her at a time when he was supposed to be proving to her that he was trustworthy. Yet, for some reason she didn't think of the irony—what was that? Like the fifth time that word had come up?—of the question and, strangely enough, she stepped forward and stood at his side. The silvery material floated down around her, covering the both of them. A slight breeze at her ankles told her that her feet weren't hidden.

Apparently, James noticed the same thing. "You're going to have to come closer," he told her. Yep, somehow she had known it would come to this. This had probably been all part of his evil little plan. Before she could protest, he had grabbed her wrist and pulled her right up against his left hip. Perhaps he had known that if he had hesitated, she would have argued against their current arrangement. Her shoulders rubbed against his uncomfortably, and his arm innocently slid around her waist to secure her. Oh, jeez, what had she gotten herself into?

Trying to pull her mind away from this rather awkward situation, Lily got her breathing back to normal, and asked, "What if we get caught?"

It was only a split second after she had asked it that she realized how ridiculous of a question it was. They were invisible for Pete's sake! Her nerves really were getting the better of her. "Oh, right…" she mumbled rather sheepishly.

"And besides," James said, stuffing his free hand into his pocket and pulling out, what looked liked, a folded up and quite weathered piece of parchment, "I have a back up."

She watched curiously as he pointed his wand at the parchment and mumbled something incoherently under his breath. Deciding that maybe this wasn't such a good idea, she opened her mouth to demand exactly how a uselessly blank piece of paper could possibly help them escape McGonagall. But then, before she even had the chance of getting an unidentifiable gurgle out of her throat, lines began to stretch across the paper which formed into words and outlines of what looked like buildings. Huh? Had she missed something?

James shot a prideful look at her before returning his attention back to the map. Yeah, that was right. That 'uselessly blank piece of paper' was actually a map of what looked like all the nook and crannies of Hogwarts. "But—how did that—what?" Lily spluttered, apparently too surprised for words, because she had just noticed two dots labeled 'Lily Evans' and 'James Potter' positioned exactly where the real-life Lily and James stood.

"McGonagall's in her sleeping quarters," James said quietly, tracing the map with his fingers and purposefully ignoring Lily's fragmented questions, "and Filch is in his office. Our way is clear."

Lily's mind was practically exploding into a million bazillion pieces. "Are you even going to bother to explain?"

He laughed quietly. "Marauders' secret," he answered, "can't."

"You know, you really haven't started off so well. First you show me a cloak that un-honestly—" she put emphasis on the last word—"helps you sneak around Hogwarts. Then you show me this map of our entire school that most likely helps you, very untruthfully, spy on people's whereabouts."

"And regardless all of that, you still haven't left me to go back up to your dorm," he pointed out, smirking at her and giving her a very pointed look.

Lily shut her mouth.

And thus, James led the two of them through the portrait hole and out into a deserted, dark, castle, on their way to—to what exactly? She didn't know; he wouldn't tell her. Psh, some honesty. His arm gripped her hip closer as the blackness of the empty hallway pressed down upon them. Her spine tingled with pleasure, or repulsion, but she had a pretty good idea of which adjective she knew it was and which she desperately wanted it to be.

And the wheels started turning in her head again.

I hate him. His breath tickled her neck. I hate him. His fingers started tapping against her waist in a very pleasing rhythm. I hate him. He smiled nervously at her. I hate—Oh, screw it.

Why the heck had she agreed to this again?

Ohhh poor Lily. Although, I don't know why she's complaining. Being under a steamy cloak with a hot guy kind of seems like fun to me. lol. Anyways, thanks for reading! Next chapter will include a much anticipated second kiss and will reveal how James's did exactly win over Lily's trust. Oh yay (claps hands happily). Wow, okay it's time for me to go to bed.

Goodnight everyone! Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite! (The disturbing thing is that I've actually had bed bugs before...shudderrrrr.) It would make me smile if you reviewed:)

--HeyLookTheSnitch