A/N: Hello! Yes I know this is another totally different story, and I really have no business starting this when I still currently have two unfinished and still in the process, but that's all IRRELEVANT.

This is only going to be a 7 or 8 chaptered jily fic, and I'm posting it just because.

Hope you enjoy!

"The Bet"

"Merlin's beard!" Mary MacDonald exclaimed in the relatively quiet Gryffindor common room. Beside her, her best friends Lily Evans and Marlene McKinnon jumped at this outburst.

"What?" hissed Lily, a little annoyed to be roused from her reading of Explorations in Advanced Potion making.

"Sorry." Mary said, face a little pink as those who were sitting at the tables next to them glared at her, and then returned to their work. Due to the fact that the library was currently closed for re-stocking, students were frantically looking for places to study.

"It's just that… I thought was writing all the uses of the Black-fire potion, but I was really looking at the list of uses for the Fire-replenishing potion." She fretted. "I've got to get down to Slughorn's. He has the right book in his classroom I think."

With that, she scooped up her bag and ran out the portrait hole.

"He's doing it again." Marlene whispered to Lily, pushing her long blond hair behind her ear.

Lily brought her green eyes off the page to face her best friend.

"What?"

"Staring at you." She hissed, cocking her head inconspicuously towards the sparse bookcases in the corner of the common room.

Lily slowly turned toward the direction Marlene was staring.

Sure enough, she found a pair of hazel eyes staring back at her.

The hazel eyes belonged to a boy by the name of James Potter, the long-time bane of Lily's existence (and more recently, her co-Head and, much to her chagrin, friend).

He smiled back at her, while at his side, his best friend Sirius Black was trying to recount a seemingly exciting story. Their other friends, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew leaned against the bookcases behind them, half-listening and half-looking for a book in the stacks.

Pre-seventh year, she could often find the boy staring at her. However, when they created a kind of symbiotic relationship at the beginning of this year, due to the fact that they were chosen as Head boy and girl, he had taken to having civil conversations with her. This was quite different from his previous behavior of taunting her, sending her gifts publicly, pulling pranks on her, and staring at her constantly.

This is why it surprised her greatly to watch him exhibiting such an "old-James" habit.

She raised her eyebrow at him, which caused him to bark out a laugh and move from across the room to where she was sitting.

"Hi Evans." He said in his low voice, taking the seat that Mary was previously occupying.

"You should probably look into that staring problem." Lily said. She leaned into him, and whispered, "It's starting to freak people out."

Marlene guffawed loudly from beside her.

He straightened up. "Didn't know you cared so much."

He'd caught her there. It had always been like this between the two of them, a battle of wits.

They were caught in a staring contest, silently daring the other to break first.

Marlene coughed. "Well, I'm going to go." She said, chair making a scraping noise as she exited the table.

Lily was the one who finally looked away. "Come now Potter, you know I couldn't care less about you."

He smirked. "Puh-lease Evans, you can't deny that we're friends."

She rolled her eyes but didn't say anything.

"And you know what I think?" He asked.

She said nothing.

"I think that if you actually gave me the chance, you'd fall madly in love with me."

She burst out into laughter, throwing her head back against the back of the chair and laughing so loudly she was thrown multiple death glares from around the room.

"Laugh if you will." He said, taking off his glasses and polishing them on his shirt. He smiled calmly and put them back on. "But it's true."

Still tittering a little bit, she rested her head on her hand. "Wow Potter. You've got a bigger head then I thought."

"You think you'd be able to resist me Evans?" He countered.

"Somehow I'd find a way." She said dryly.

"See, I don't think you could." His face suddenly stretched into a smile. "Care to bet on it?"

"Oh Potter, you don't want to do that." She said, waving her hand noncommittally.

"Why? Because you might actually give in?"

She sighed dramatically. "It's not really a fair bet. It'd be like taking candy from a baby."

He just smiled cajolingly "I think you're just scared."

Her smile fell into a straight line. "Why would I be scared?"

"You're scared that you might actually find that you like me." He said evenly.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Alright Potter, if you're so intent on losing money, let's do it."

He waggled his eyebrows.

"Ugh, stop it." She said, huffing angrily. "So, what're the conditions?"

He thought for a moment.

"Five days." He said finally. "You give me five days, and I get to do whatever I want with you."

She rolled her eyes. "Potter, I'm not going to agree to that. I'm not that stupid."

"Why not Evans?" He asked innocently.

"Because it'll give you the right to grope me at every turn."

He exhaled. "Fine. I'll do no physical things, unless you give permission. Ok?"

Yeah, like I'd ever give permission for Potter to grope me. As if. She thought.

"And what do you get if you win?" She asked uncertainly.

He held a small smile. "I get you."

Something in Lily's stomach flipped, but she ignored it.

"And if I win?"

He looked at her seriously. "I'll stop bothering you. We'll only ever talk for Heads Duties and that's it."

For some strange reason, the thought of the absence Potter's incessant bothering made Lily a little uneasy.

But she replied, "Oh Merlin, this is going to be so easy."

"It'll start next Friday, then." He said.

"You're staying over Christmas?" She asked incredulously.

His lips curved downwards. "Yeah. My parents are off on an Auror mission. So I've got to stay here. You're staying too, right?"

"Yes, unfortunately." She said curtly.

He smiled again. "Alright Evans, do we have a deal?" He asked, leaning back in his chair. He sat, arms folded across his chest, eyes challenging her.

She knew she should have thought rationally about this. But something about proving him wrong made her desperately want to agree.

He held out his hand, which she gripped back.

"Deal."

Review please!