Truth or Dare
The Gryffindor common room was filled with gloomy students who were preparing for their upcoming exams. Ron knocked over his ink which spread like black blood over his parchment. Barely taking her eyes away from a large book, Hermione cleared it up with a swift flick of her wand.
"Thanks," Ron mumbled, "Hey, I have an idea. Let's take a break-"
"You always think we should take a break," Hermione interrupted, finally lifting her eyes to give him a sharp glare.
"I think we should play truth or dare, maybe perk up our spirits. You don't have to join in if you don't want to Hermione. You'd probably just pick truth every time anyway."
"Hey, I can have fun! I just prefer to do it at the appropriate times," she shot back.
"Appropriate and fun can never go together. Count me in, Ron," said Fred.
Once the Weasley twins had decided to join, a bunch of others followed. The group sat in a circle in front of the fire place which made shadows dance across their now cheery faces.
"Okay, I'll go first," Ron announced, looking around at the group, searching for his victim. He finally rested his gaze on Harry, "Truth or Dare."
"Dare."
"Okay. I dare you... to sneak out with Hermione's cat and find Filtch. Then tell him that you think Crookshanks has a serious thing for Mrs Norris."
"What? What is that?" Harry exclaimed.
"I dunno. But I bet you won't do it."
"Of course he won't. Crookshanks isn't going anywhere," Hermione insisted from across the room.
"Step aside, little brother and let the masters show you how it's done," George said.
"Harry, I dare you to break into the Slytherin common room and leave them a little present."
He handed Harry a little maroon box.
"What is it?" Harry asked nervously, half expecting it to blow up in his face.
George wiggled his eye brows mysteriously.
"Alright. But you have to come with me."
"Oh, there's no way I'd miss this!" George said enthusiastically.
"Man, I hope it works!" Fred added.
Sneaking through the Hogwarts corridors at night turned out to be surprisingly easy with the Weasley twins. By the time they had reached the dungeons Harry was convinced that the twins must have concocted some sort of Fitch and Peeves repellent. They could make galleons selling something like that on the black market.
Just as Harry was trying to figure out how exactly he would get into the common room, a plumb fourth year with short black hair walked past. Harry barely recognised him but was pretty sure he was a Slytherin.
"What are you doing down here this time of night?" The boy asked.
"Hi. Um, I was wondering if it would be possible if you could give this to, um, my friend, please," Harry stammered.
The Slytherin boy eyed him suspiciously, "What is it? And whose it for, you haven't got yourself a boyfriend down here do you, Potter?"
"Wha- I... no, I um, I'm not, I don't-"
"Because it looks pretty gay to me."
"Look. Please see that it goes to Draco Malfoy," Harry said, shoving the box into the boys hands and turning on his heel before his face could turn the same colour as the box.
Harry and the Weasley twins dashed off down the corridor.
"Oi, that wasn't the dare! You were supposed to go in there yourself!" Fred exclaimed.
"Yeah and since when are you friends with Malfoy?" George asked.
"I'm not. It just slipped out. I didn't really know what to say."
"We got that. But now we don't know if it works or not," said George
"So is in it anyway?" Harry asked curiously.
"Nothing. The lid can't be removed but whoever touches the box becomes infatuated with Gryffindor. It's pretty potent. Our hope is that it will be passed around Slytherin with everyone trying to get the lid off," George laughed.
"If it works out how we planned, there will be a mass exodus of students from Slytherin all insisting that they can be re-sorted into Gryffindor. It only lasts for a couple of days, just long enough to damage their pride. With the school year almost coming to an end, we need any help we can get to win the house cup. We're in a dead heat with Slytherin right now," Fred explained.
"But what if we get caught? Dumbledore will probably take away all of our house points, plus Snape will probably want us expelled!" Harry shouted, forgetting that they were supposed to be sneaking.
Quick footsteps rattled towards them.
"Shit, hurry up, before we get caught," Fred whispered as the trio quickened their pace.
But not quick enough.
"Hey Potter, wait up!"
It was the black haired boy from Slytherin.
"Hey, why'd you just run off like that?" he asked, gasping for air.
"There was nothing left to say," Harry replied simply. He noticed the absence of the maroon box.
"Yeah but you and I don't talk enough. I wish you'd stayed a bit longer."
"You and I never talk. At all."
"Right. But I think that should change, Potter. I think you and I should really get to know each other. Don't tell me it's just me. I know that I'm not the only one feeling this connection."
"Connection? I don't even know your name!" Harry said in confusion, accidentally letting his voice raise over a whisper.
"And that you're in Slytherin, right?" George asked, glancing sideways at his twin.
"Yeah, what's it like in Slytherin? Probably not as good as Gryffindor, yeah?" Fred continued, attempting to gauge how well their hex had worked.
"What?" The boy asked, noticing the twins for the first time, "Yeah, it's alright, I suppose."
"Well, I guess you'd better head back. You don't want to be caught wandering around out of bed," Harry said as they approached the entrance to the Gryffindor common room.
"Yeah, you're right. Maybe I should just stay here with you tonight," the Sytherin replied, putting an arm around Harry's waist.
Harry shot the twins a horrified glare and then, through gritted teeth said lowly, "What did you two do?"
The twins glanced at each other nervously and then back to Harry who was attempting to free his scruffy hair from the boys fingers.
"I guess it worked a little differently from how we planned," Fred mumbled.
"You think?" Harry yelled, no longer caring who heard them.
"I guess they become infatuated with the Gryffindor who gave them the box?" George suggested.
Harry's eyes bulged as he turned to the dark-haired boy, "You didn't give that box to Malfoy, did you?"
"Your eyes are so dreamy," the boy mumbled.
Harry started to panic. The sytherin boy was attempting to lick his earlobes. Fred and George were torn between fighting off laughter and feigning concern for Harry.
"Look, how about we deal with this inside," Fred suggested, leading them inside after muttering the password to a disgruntled Fat Lady.
Just as Harry was about to replace the painting back over the entrance, a voice said, "Hey, this is the entry to Gryffindor, right?"
Harry lifted up the painting to reveal a group of Slytherins.
"Thanks for that, Potter," Pansy Parkinson said, taking the painting to allow the others to enter. They pushed past Harry and bustled into the common room.
Before anyone could explain, Pansy crash tackled Lee Jordan and began kissing him, without any objection on his part. Lavender and Parvati seemed far less enthused about being hugged by Crabbe and Goyle.
"Oh... I think I know where we went wrong. They're not infatuated with Gryffindor. They have become infatuated with a Gryffindor!" Fred clarified.
"Can you fix it?" squealed Ron trying to dodge a very determined Millicent Bulstrode.
"Fix it? Why? This is freaking hilarious!" laughed Fred.
"Malfoy, get off her!" Harry yelled vehemently, pulling Ginny away from him.
"Oh, come on Potter, it's not like you ever stood a chance. Besides, you've got yourself a boyfriend already. Although I'd have thought Ethan would have had better standards."
"Really Fred, this is getting out of hand – wait! Luna? What were you doing in the Slytherin common room?" said Harry incredulously.
"I got locked out again. And what can I say, I guess I just love the bad boys," Luna replied in her usual day dreamy tone.
"I wish I'd have known that sooner," Neville smiled, interlocking his fingers with hers.
"George, please! You have to fix it!" Harry begged, batting away Ethan's puckered lips.
"Sorry mate, I'm a little busy," George's voice murmured from underneath a blonde Slytherin.
"What is all of this racket?" Hermione screamed.
"Hermione, save me!" Ron pleaded, trying to dislodge Millicent from his neck.
"What is going on? You were playing a childish game five minutes ago, what happened?"
"Fred and George kind of screwed up. Now everyone who touched their stupid box is infatuated with somebody from Gryffindor," Harry explained.
Ethan had removed Harry's robe and was starting on his shirt.
"See, this is exactly why you shouldn't mess around like this. Especially on a school night!"
"We get it Hermione but not everyone is as perfect as you!" Ron shouted.
"Oh but Ron, you are perfect," Millicent swooned.
Hermione giggled and folded her arms, "Actually, this is kind of entertaining."
"Please Hermione, I want this creep to just leave me alone," whined Ginny, kicking Malfoy away from her naked toes.
"Okay, but you're all going to owe me big time. Quasi repentarum!
With a pop, Hermione was surrounded by brightly coloured balls. Sighing, she loaded the green ones into her arms and headed out into the hall where she spied Peeves. He was overjoyed to take them from her.
"Just promise that you return them all to the Bloody Baron by morning," she said.
Peeves floated away giggling and showing off his juggling skills.
"Peeves, you hear me? All of them!"
After apologising to the Fat Lady, she walked back in with a stern look upon her face.
"If I turn you all back, you need to promise not to disturb my studying again for the rest of the school year. Got it?"
She glanced suspiciously at the one blue ball in the sea of maroon. Shrugging, she turned them all back with a flick of her wand.
A chorus of voices rang out, some angry but most sincerely grateful.
"That was uh... never talk about that again?" Harry said awkwardly.
"Agreed," said Ron.
Ginny ran off to wash her feet, followed by Lavender and Parvati who looked like they wanted to vomit.
"So... what did we miss?" Harry asked Ron.
"Seamus asked Dean who he thought was the hottest teacher and Ginny had to kiss Trevor."
"Trevor? As in Neville's toad?"
"Yeah and he is still a toad, in case you were wondering."
"And which teacher does Dean have the hots for?"
"Hooch! We spent most of the time you were gone teasing him about it."
"Wait, so this is just a hex? How long will it last?" Neville asked as Luna combed her fingers through his hair.
"I dunno," replied George, "But hopefully I'll run into that blonde again before it wears off."