She loved the feeling of wind in her hair. There really was nothing better than when it was being swept from her face because of the high speed. She could easily steer; a little nudge to one side and the reaction was immediate. It came only all too natural to lean to the side and follow the movement. Balance was not a problem. And the best thing was that it was actually something she could share with her family, something they understood. After she had gone to Hogwarts in her first year, she had realized there were so many things her parents and Petunia would never know about, and it would be impossible to fill them in on all of it. Instead of the magic world becoming her entire family’s world, it had become her world, and it wasn’t until a couple years ago she had realised that it had created a distance between herself and her family that wasn’t there before she had gone to Hogwarts.

She understood now that her parents had realised this much earlier than she had; that must have been why they gave her that present in the summer before her second year. She hadn’t really appreciated it at first. She never was the sporty type, and a new bicycle didn’t exactly have her squealing with joy, but she appreciated it all the same and used it whenever she was going downtown. And now she loved it. Her father had the same love for his bicycle. It was his idea that she should have one too. It was something for them to share. Not that she hadn’t had one before, but it was old and rusty, and the brakes weren’t totally up to date, so she hadn’t used it that much. Then she got a shiny new red bicycle with a basket at the front. A red bicycle for a redhead, her mother had said. So they could always tell her from afar.

Unfortunately, she could only use it when she was home on holiday from Hogwarts. And as far as she was concerned, a bike was her special thing from the Muggle world. It also had one major thing in its favor: she never left the ground. She could get off it any moment she liked, and she wouldn’t ever have to look down at the ground from high above. It wasn’t that she was afraid of heights; it was just that it didn’t seem secure enough to be high above the ground on a broomstick that could go as fast as her bike. So she had never resorted to use a broom when she was at Hogwarts. She hadn’t ever felt a strong desire to try it, either. And since James Potter started chasing after her in fifth year, using a broom was definitely out of the question. No way was she going to give him that satisfaction. He was sure she was afraid of using one or hated them, probably because she had never stopped yelling at him every time he felt like showing off on his broom in front of her.

James Potter. Conceited, arrogant idiot. He always thought he was better than everyone else. He was just not going to grow up. And worse than that, he and his family had moved to a house only ten minutes from Lily’s, just five minutes away from town. The last summer holiday while they were at Hogwarts, and he had to move here. She couldn’t just enjoy the holidays alone and endure him at school; no, he had to come annoy her before school as well. Weird as it was, he hadn’t been to see her yet, and they had moved here a week ago. She knew because Remus had been kind enough to warn her.

Today, though, she wasn’t going to think about that. It was a sunny day and perfect for a little trip. She was just getting her bike out of the garden to go down to the abandoned farmhouse outside of town, wondering how many apples she could get from the apple tree before others plucked them, when he showed up. He just came strolling down the road, hands in his pockets and talking to Sirius Black. Those two didn’t do anything alone, it would seem. Lily was debating whether she could make it on her bike and get away before they noticed her, or if she should just give up plucking juicy apples today, but James spotted her before she could make a run for it, as she had just decided on.

“Evans! What a surprise to see you here! I thought you’d be waiting patiently inside your house until I would visit you." He grinned, or rather smirked, in a very supposed-to-make-girls-swoon-over-him way. But not me. Nope, not working on me. Conceited git.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Potter,” she replied through gritted teeth. Great, she would have to endure it. Perfect.

“Hello, Evans,” Sirius greeted her with a grin not much unlike James’s.

“Black." She nodded in acknowledgment. Okay, so she hated them, but that was no reason not to be sort of polite. When they deserved it, anyway. Or rather, hadn’t done anything not to deserve it. Even though they were conceited gits all the time.

“What’s that?” Sirius asked, suddenly interested, seeing Lily’s red bike.

Lily rolled her eyes. Honestly, he had been taking Muggle Studies at Hogwarts the last two years, and he still couldn’t recognize a bike when he saw one.

“I know what it is,” James suddenly said proudly. "It's one of those bikey things. For transport.” This statement earned another eye-rolling look from Lily.

“Glad you noticed. Please excuse me, I’ll have to go now,” she snapped, her patience suddenly used up. But they weren’t going to let her go that easily. Of course they aren’t going to do that.

“How does it work?” Sirius inquired, walking around the bike and looking up and down at it.

“You step on the pedals, those right there, and then you sit on the saddle. You must have seen people in the city use them,” Lily explained, wondering how they couldn’t have noticed them before.

“Nah, we just got here a week ago, and I prefer Diagon Alley for my shopping. Let me remind you that I usually spend most of the year at Hogwarts,” Sirius stated. This time it was James who rolled his eyes.

“Okay Padfoot, you’ve obviously been blind for the past seventeen years. I’ve seen them all over the place. They’re sort of like the Muggles’ idea of a broomstick, I think. Never dreamed of using anything else than my faithful broom though. Besides, they should be pretty exhausting to use, and they don’t go that fast.”

Lily could feel her temper boiling. How dare he insult her bike like that? Before she knew it, she had begun yelling at him. Well, there was something she hadn’t done before outside Hogwarts. It felt good either way, though.

“Here we go again. Always about the stupid bloody broom. What’s so great about it anyway? I’ll bet you my bike is at least just as fast. In fact, I bet it’s even faster,” she announced, halfway about to pull her hair out in the process.

Where did she get these things from? Why did she rile him up as well? It wasn’t like she enjoyed arguing with him. That would be bloody stupid. It was a stupid past time activity, anyway. She normally only bothered to yell at him when she caught him bullying Slytherins, which he hadn’t really done in a while, she remembered. She noticed that Sirius looked like he knew what was coming next. He had an annoying smug smile on his lips. Later, she realized that it was pretty obvious. She just didn’t see it at the time.

“I’ll take that bet, Evans,” James replied, a grin on his lips. Lily paled. Oh, no. She had not just said she would race against him, had she?

“I see. Sadly though, it can’t be done here. There are way too many Muggles around for you to be flying on a broom,” she exclaimed triumphantly. Now they couldn’t race, so he had no choice but to leave her alone.

“Scared you’ll lose, are you? 'Cause you know we can easily look up a spell suited for taking care of that problem. We’re all legal adults now, so there’s no problem,” he said smugly. Sirius just looked amused. Lily could have killed either one of them. Mostly James, though. In that moment, she made a quick decision.

“Of course I’m not scared of losing. All right, have it your way. Find a spell to disguise yourself so the Muggles won’t notice you. But I want to decide on the rules here.”

“I actually already had a spell in mind. And about the rules, I think that’ll be both of us agreeing to those, don’t you?”

Lily could feel her cheeks getting warm. Now she was blushing. In front of the almighty James Potter and his moronic side-kick Sirius Black. Merlin, this day was just turning out for the worse. She decided to pretend as though he hadn’t just out-smarted her. Which he never would be able to do, anyway.

“Of course. I was thinking we could race to the abandoned farmhouse just outside town? That is, the other side of the town. We have to go downtown to get there. And, once you’ve cast your disguising spell, there will be no more wand work except in case of an emergency. I’ll want to check that you followed the rules of course. And I imagine you might want to check my last spell as well. Other than that, the winner is the one who gets there first from here. Can you agree to that?” she rambled, hoping he had caught most of what she had just said.

She wasn’t sure since both he and Sirius looked a bit dumbfounded, but then he smirked and she knew he had got it.

“Didn’t know you were that fast with making rules, Evans. But aren’t you forgetting the prizes?” Sirius interjected just when James had opened his mouth to say something. James looked at Sirius with a glint in his eye. Lily had a bad feeling about this.

“I agree to the rules, Evans. But, Sirius is right. How about if we say the winner gets a kiss?” James said. Lily felt stunned. She had to prevent that from happening.

“Yeah right, Potter. That’s something you want, so it’s win-win for you. How about we just bet three galleons or something?” She would rather lose the money she had wanted to spend on a new dress than having to kiss James Potter.

“Agreed if I lose. If you lose, you have to go to Hogsmeade with me next time there’s a Hogsmeade weekend.”

Lily could have punched both of them. It was just typical of James to use everything to his advantage. However, she saw no other option than to agree with this. If he did win, he should get a prize he wanted. She could see the sense in that. She would just have to make sure he didn’t win, then. She nodded her agreement, and Sirius high-fived James.

“Okay, I’ll just go get my broom then. Wait here. Actually, maybe Sirius should stay with you. I’ll be back in a minute!” James announced, and he ran down the street like his life depended on it. Lily looked after him, a bit surprised.

“Wouldn’t it have been faster for him to Apparate to his house?” she asked Sirius, who looked at her somewhat shocked.

“Lily, you are absolutely right. He’ll love that piece of information when he gets back. In the meantime, is there really no way to avoid having to tread the pedals of that bike?” he asked, again eyeing her beloved bike with interest.

“Well, yes, but then you would have to use a motorbike or something. You must have had about those in Muggle Studies, Black, not to mention bikes.”

Then it looked as if he had remembered something.

“Of course! Those that run on petrol or whatever it’s called. Fabulous! But where do you get those from?”

“Well, in a store that sells them, I suppose. I don’t know. I haven’t ever felt the need for a replacement for my bike.”

Just then, James returned. He looked like he had just run a marathon, which in Lily’s opinion he must’ve. It had only been five or six minutes since he had run to collect his broom. She decided not to inform him about the Apparation shortcut; it didn’t look like he needed to know that right now.

“There! Sirius can be the judge, he’ll be fair,” he stated, shooting Sirius a look that clearly said 'or else…'

“Okay, let’s get to it then. Sirius, you can Apparate to the farmhouse from my house so none of the neighbours notice. Then just wait there until we arrive, and you can see who’s first. You can see a picture I have of it so you know where to go. Okay?” Lily asked, hoping that he would be a fair judge.

She was sure James wouldn’t actually cheat by using magic, but she didn’t trust Sirius not to name James the winner if it happened to be a tie or something. Sirius just grinned and nodded. After he had Apparated there, Lily went outside to find James waiting for her.

“Well, it’s generally in that direction. You'll be able to see it from the air; it’s a whole bunch of trees and a small house with holes in the roof. It’s not too big an area, probably why it’s never been bought, now I think about it,” she added as an afterthought.

James just nodded and started casting a disguising spell. Lily almost gasped as he practically disappeared. She then saw that wasn’t the case; he had just turned the exact shade of colour that everything directly behind him had; his head had turned the same blue as the sky, his legs and feet matched the road, and his upper body was green exactly as the garden he stood in front of. Although she was surprised he knew of such a spell, she wasn’t about to let him know she was impressed, so she kept her cool and mounted her bike, while he mounted his broom.

“On the count of three then,” James said on her left. She nodded.

“One…” She grabbed the handles tightly with her hands.

“Two…” She put her foot on the pedal, ready to take off.

“Three!”

As fast as she could, she started treading the pedals. She couldn’t see James, but she wasn’t looking either; she was focused on the task at hand. She realised that a broom was in fact a lot faster than her bike, but she had the advantage of knowing her way around; she knew the city like her back pocket, which meant that she knew which way was the fastest. Besides, James didn’t know exactly which way out of town it was they were headed to. And even though she had described the place for him, she hadn’t told him that it was near impossible to see from the air since the house was squeezed in between two giant trees that covered the whole place up pretty good.

Making her way towards town, she dared a glance up trying to spot James, but he was nowhere near in sight. Not surprisingly, since she wouldn’t be able to see him while that disguising spell was still in effect.

It was now going uphill; in a few moments she would reach the first few shops of the main road. She smiled at the old man who owned the bookstore; he had always been kind to order books for her that she was dying to read. She then took a turn left and put it in the highest gear; this was her chance to really win some time. It was an old neighbourhood with not that many cars around and nice broad roads, which meant that she could really pick up some speed. She was at the top of a hill and her hair was flowing behind her; this was what she loved about cycling. At the bottom of the hill she took a turn right, and after a good five minutes she was out of the neighbourhood and at the outskirts of the city. It was a good thing that the city wasn’t that big; she lived in the neighbourhood just out of the central area and there were practically only two other neighbourhoods besides the farmhouses on this side of town.

The trees were now lining up ahead. There wasn't a lot of time left now. She slowed down a bit as she got on the old road; there was gravel everywhere. Finally she reached the apple trees at the old farmhouse and she hurried to the front door where she could see Sirius sitting lazily with a bunch of apples in front of him and a magazine with motorbikes next to him.

”Ha!” she yelled as she was almost there: James was not there yet, which meant that she had won. Sirius looked up and smiled, and then he laughed at pointed his finger to the air; she turned around and saw James landing right behind her, also looking triumphant and back to his normal appearance.

”I won!” he said gleefully. Lily nearly punched him when she heard that.

”Did not! I was here first! Just ask Sirius!”

”You weren’t! I was here first, I was just having a hard time landing because of those trees.”

”As if. You just can’t stand that I actually got here faster than you!”

Just then, Sirius decided to intervene. ”If I may say something on behalf of my role as judge in this matter, James was here first…”

Lily was just about to protest, but he wasn’t done.

”… if you believe that being here, as in the air as well, is enough. If the winner is who was first here on the ground, then that would be Lily. Since I do not recall any rules being made about this, I’d say whoever was first closest to me is the winner. And that would be Lily. Sorry, Prongs,” he added, and took a bite from an apple. Lily let out a triumphant ’ha’ and James looked completely downhearted.

”Now, as fascinating as this is, while I was waiting for you two, I got an idea. So if you’ll excuse me, then I think I’m off,” Sirius finished, and decided to stroll away from the house. James shouted after him where he was going, and Lily heard Sirius mumble something in reply that she didn’t quite catch.

”What’d he say?” she asked James, picking up one of the apples that Sirius had left behind.

”I dunno, something about combining the best with the best. Anyway, congratulations on winning,” he said as if it was the world falling apart around him, making Lily actually feel sorry for him.

You’ve got to be joking. Was he seriously that positive that his broom was the fastest thing in the universe? Merlin, that boy is so immature.

”Oh, cheer up Potter, your broom was the fastest, okay? You technically got here first, so stop looking like your life just ended. You won, alright?” she admitted, trying to swallow a big bite of the apple at the same time that she was convincing herself she was too mature not to let him win. Although, she really had been just as fast as him. Immediately after hearing her say that, James cheered up.

”I won? So you’ll go to Hogsmeade with me?”

Damn it! That’s why he was so down.

But looking at how happy James looked about the prospect of going to Hogsmeade with her, she couldn’t be mad or annoyed at him. Maybe he was all right after all. She couldn’t help but smile at him.

”You are so stupid, James. All right, I’ll go to Hogsmeade with you. But you have to promise that you’ll buy me a butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks and some chocolate in Honeydukes. I want my three Galleons one way or another. Deal?” she asked and put out her hand for him to shake.

”Deal,” he grinned and shook her hand.