Chapter one

A Leap of Faith (or rather A Leap of the Bottle)

Brief summary: Fred is the prank-master of Hogwarts, it doesn't matter how weird, rule breaking or dangerous they are. He has done them all. At least before he gets a dare that make all the rest pale in comparison, an action that could change everything. "I dare you to kiss Hermione, on the lips."

The roaring sound from celebrating gryffindors reached Hermiones ears quite a bit from the fat lady. The cheers only increased in strength when she came closer. In todays honor the portrait had dressed up in a golden and scarlet red gown and seemed to be in a cheerful mood, with a giggling she let Hermione in after she'd muttered the password "Quiddich-for-ever". Even though she was prepared for it she drew a gasp after entering the common room. The noise pierced her as the whole student body crowded in the small surface. The room was decorated with red and golden drapes and ribbons. Somebody had decided to sneak down to the kitchens and therefore it was food on every open space. Toasts were held and butterbears raised in the air for their victory. The effect was stunning.

Hermione didn't have time to appreciate it all though, she was mad. Really mad in fact. With a few steps she crossed the room and came up to a certain pair of twins. Without slowing down she hissed with a low dangerous voice that she had to talk with them. Fred and George gave each other a frightened look and gulped. They had both been the targets of her anger before and it was not something they ever wished to experience again.

"It was you two? Wasn't it!?" Hermione yelled just after she'd dragged them into a corner where they were less likely to be overheard. An unnecessary move since she was now so upset that it would be a miracle if the commotion wouldn't attract Dumbledore from the other side of the castle.

"I'm sure we have nothing to do with whatever we are accused of" Fred said with an innocent smile. After looking at George he was encouraged to continue by saying. "Yeah, we have definitely nothing to do with anything other than the things we should be doing. Especially not with the flooding of corridor 5, 8 and 3." Fred grinned a little. "We might have unleashed the very harmless lions in the slytherin common-room though" he continued with a content look on his face. "And it might be the slightest chance that we have something do do with the new colors of Snapes boring black drapes. Even though I'm pretty sure he just fancied a change and decided to go for the Gold and Red look." Giggles were heard all around the room now. Fred was encouraged and continued to milk the crowd. "Yes and I guess we might have something to do with the fact that all students probably will wake up tomorrow with the text Gryffindor rocks written on their foreheads." Cheers and laughter broke out. "But other than that, I'm very confident that we have absolutely no idea what you're talking about". Fred ended with a content smirk.

Hermione knew she couldn't win this one, she had no evidence that they'd done the flooding and therefore she felt helpless despite her prefect pin on her chest. She knew these sort of things always happened during the celebrations after they'd won a quidditch game, that was one of the reasons why she was in such a grumpy mood today. It was a stupid tradition in the gryffindor house. After the game they always got together to celebrate and somehow it almost always ended with a game of truth or dare. Every time the twins decided to join in, the dares became riskier and more rule breaking. Not something that Hermione, as prefect and about-to-be headgirl, appreciated.

After a last frustrated growl she stomped away into the far side of the room where she wouldn't be disturbed.

Harry came shortly after, sitting down on the edge of her armchair.

"Are you okay, Mione?" He asked with a concerned look. Even though he was happy for the winning he still didn't like seeing his best friend upset. At last she looked up from her book with a tired grin.

"I'm fine, just worn out and a bit tired. But I'm fine, you go ahead and enjoy your big day!", she said and looked pointedly at her book. "I already have company". Harry took the hint and with a small smile he turned around to get back to the festivities.

The evening developed just as Hermione had predicted. Fred and George sat in the ring with the rest of their fellow Gryffindors just about to continue their next great dare. It was Lees turn to come up with a new prank and just like muggle Truth or dare a bottle was twisted to see witch one had to do it. But in comparison, the bottle didn't just spin randomly, it always stopped at the witch or wizard who were most likely do go through with it. How the bottle knew who to pick was beyond any of the players but it was way more fun to play this way, since it was highly unlikely that the person the bottle picked was going to chicken out.

"Hmmm, this is going to be a great one." Lee mused. All around the common room people started to give ideas.

"Hex a slytherin so he would only be able to say "Gryffindor is awesome" someone shouted. From an other side of the room an other voice continued

"No that's not enough, the one the bottle picks has to do it on a teacher". This was cherished by others.

"No why not make him do it to all the slytherins AND Snape". The propositions quickly escalated.

"I have an even better idea, that is much more terrifying" Lee said with a certain smug smile. "I dare the one the bottle picks to kiss Hermione, on the lips." The hole common room came to a silence, then cheers began to develop everywhere. This was completely brilliant. No one would dare to kiss Hermione, especially not today when she already was in a horrible mood. It would be like committing suicide. Without waiting Lee spun the bottle. It only went around a few loops until it abruptly came to a halt. With a small gulp Fred realized that the end had come for him.

Fred stood completely frozen but his mind worked harder than ever. He had to find a way to get out of this. He didn't doubt for a moment that Hermione would kill him, and he enjoyed life to much to let such a tragedy happen. But he couldn't chicken out, his honor was at stake. Fred and George were known to NEVER EVER backing out. But he had to come up with a plan, otherwise he could just as well start writing down how he wanted his memorial to be right now.

The mood in the common room were about to peek, everyone started taking bets if he would go through with it. Fred shot a deadly glare at Lee, after all, it was his fault Fred was trapped in this situation. Lee shrugged as if to say that he didn't know the bottle would pick his friend. He started to get out of time, Fred knew the commotion soon would attract a very unwanted brown-headed girl. Frustrated he sat down on the couch in the middle of the room and inhaled deeply. What was he supposed to do?

A very comical vision welcomed Hermione when she reached the center of attention. In the middle sat Fred on a couch with his head in his hands. All around him stood people cheering and flapping with their arms like chicken-wings while making cackling noises. Hermione was just about to ask what was going on when Fred abruptly stood up and quickly approached towards her. Before she had time to think, let along move, his lips met hers.

End of chapter 1, did you like it? Let me know in the reviews! :-)