A/N: Like I said in the summary, this is based within my Harry Potter story, Rebellion, but it isn't totally necessary to read the story. This is a sort of missing scene from Rebellion and the events in this story do take place within chapters 36 and 37 of Rebellion. So, you might want to read the story to get the whole story, or you might just want to just know that Rebellion is about Harry acting fairly insane and driving Umbridge and Snape crazy. The first half of this story is copied over from chapter 36 of Rebellion, so that should give you a good idea of what is going on.
To those who have traveled here from Rebellion: Ron kept avoiding this in the main story. Of course, Harry also took over the majority of the chapter, but I still realized that this hadn't happened, even though I tried to lead up to it. But, with the help of Pansy, I have pinned Ron down and made him tell this story. Enjoy!
-
A Dare and a Date
-
"You're not fooling me, Potter, just because you're acting goofier than normal doesn't mean that I won't get more information out of you," Pansy said. She pinned Harry with a look and stepped closer to him. "In fact, we could hold an interrogation right now. That will certainly keep us busy."
"Ooh, truth or dare," Lavender squealed as she clapped her hands.
"A marvelous idea," Pansy said as she gave Harry a wicked grin. "We have enough people for a game and there is no way that this could interrupt the exam."
Pansy chose a relatively clean place on the ground and sat down. The other girls in the group eagerly joined her on the ground, but the boys only reluctantly joined them.
"Who goes first?" Parvati asked.
"Harry: truth or dare?" Pansy asked.
"Dare," Harry confidently stated.
"Fine, I dare you to kiss Luna when she gets here," Pansy said and the girls of the group burst into giggles. Ron laughed at the expression that appeared on Harry's face and Harry glared at Ron in reply.
"I will then." Harry crossed his arms. Kissing Luna wouldn't be that bad, she wouldn't get upset with him over it and she certainly wouldn't cry while he did so. "Ron, truth or dare?"
"Er, dare," Ron chose.
"Since you thought that my kissing Luna was fun, why don't you kiss Hermione when she gets out of the written exam?"
"Shoot," Ron muttered as he reluctantly nodded his agreement to the dare. "Crabbe, truth or dare?"
"Truth," Crabbe grunted out after some contemplation.
"Er, what kind of music do you like?" Ron asked, clearly not expecting that answer.
"I like heavy metal the best, but the wizarding world just doesn't do it properly." Crabbe sighed in disappointment, not noticing that he practically admitted to listening to muggle music. Crabbe looked around at the choices in people who hadn't gone so far and he settled on a fellow Slytherin. "Tracey, truth or dare?"
"Truth." Tracey grinned.
"What's your favorite snack food?" Crabbe asked after some thought.
"I like cherry pie the best. Lavender, truth or dare?" Tracy shot the question right after answering her own.
"Dare," Lavender answered.
"I dare you to clean off your make up and go natural for the rest of the day," Tracey ordered after a bit of a thinking period.
"For the rest of the day." Lavender stared at Tracey in shock before sighing. She spoke a quick cleaning charm and the makeup faded from her face. Harry spared her a glance, but Lavender didn't really look too different. "Goyle, truth or dare?"
The large teen stared at her for a minute before hesitantly answering, "Dare?"
"I dare you to kiss someone in this group. Male or female, it doesn't matter." Lavender grinned at the looks that she received.
Goyle shrugged and got up from the ground. He lumbered around them and Ron gave Harry a panicked glance. But, Goyle stopped beside Lavender and dropped down to peck her on the lips. He smirked at her before heading back to his previous spot beside Crabbe. "Parvati, is it? Truth or dare?"
"Truth," Parvati hesitantly answered.
"Do you ever switch places with your twin? During classes or during a date?" Goyle asked.
"Sometimes," Parvati admitted with a light blush. "Sometimes we switch when our classes align right and none of us are really missing any classes and I'll sometimes scope out a guy for my sister. Pansy, truth or dare?"
"Dare," Pansy answered.
Parvati leaned in to whisper her dare into Pansy's ear. Pansy nodded in agreement to whatever it was, but no one could hear what Parvati had asked and Pansy didn't move to fulfill that dare. Instead, Pansy just smirked at the group and turned to Harry. "Truth or dare?"
"What about your dare?" Harry warily asked.
"I'll do it later. So, truth or dare?" Pansy grinned at him and Harry winced, knowing that he was dead no matter what he chose.
He gathered together all of his Gryffindor bravery and named his choice: "Dare."
"I dare you to let us make you up." Pansy reached into her purse and pulled out a tube of lipstick.
Harry blanched and he tried to scramble back, but Crabbe grabbed a hold of Harry's ankle and cut off his escape. "I think we're done with this game, why don't we just call it quits?"
"Ah, come on, Harry. We all know that you're with Luna, so you're not going to be seen as gay and Luna won't care if you're wearing makeup." Pansy grinned as Lavender and Parvati started emptying out their makeup supplies onto the grass. Even Tracey added a few items to the collection.
"I'm not getting away from this, am I?" Harry asked as he stopped trying to leave. Pansy firmly shook her head and Harry slumped in resignation. "Get on with it, then."
"Good, hold him still, will you, Vincent?" Pansy asked.
"Sure," Crabbe said, switching his hold so that he was holding onto Harry's shoulders from behind.
Pansy uncapped the first piece of makeup equipment and moved forward to make the first marks on Harry's face. Harry suffered in silence as Pansy put on the foundation, eyeshadow, mascara, a bit of blush and lipstick onto Harry's face. It took her a few minutes, with a lot of input from the two Gryffindor girls and the one other Slytherin girl, but Harry's face was finally done and they handed him a mirror.
Harry frowned at his reflection, not totally happy with the makeup. It was strange, seeing himself look so pretty; he almost looked like he was female. It made him look kind of freaky and he grinned as a thought occurred to him.
"This isn't going to cause trouble with the exams, will it?" Pansy asked, recognizing the look on Harry's face.
"It really shouldn't, though, maybe it would be best to unveil it tomorrow so that Hermione won't kill me anyway," Harry admitted.
"So, spill," Ron said, grabbing onto Harry's sleeve.
"What do you think Umbridge's reaction to the way I look right now would be? Especially given the fact that she seems to hate unnatural things?" He smirked at the expressions that appeared on his fellow fifth year's faces.
"She would be really confused and would have a fit," Pansy nodded as she got the idea that was in Harry's head. "You're right; we're going to need to wait until tomorrow to unleash this so that we can have the proper time to prepare."
"Yeah, I need to think of a few more things before we can go through it; though, it might work to do this tonight during dinner," Harry said. He needed to convince some of the other boys to wear some makeup, but he could get that done by dinner time.
"No, dinner would be too soon, there wouldn't be enough time to find all of the dresses and we'll need muggle suits for the girls," Pansy shot down, and Harry stared at her in bewilderment and horror. "Also, we're going to have to pick out the perfect jewelry and figure out what to do with hair."
"Growing charms might work," Lavender suggested, apparently understanding Pansy's grand idea.
"Yeah, I'd be willing to cut my hair for tomorrow if someone will lengthen it for me after we're done," Parvati added.
"And we can lengthen the boys' hair for tomorrow." Pansy nodded decisively. "Let's get to work. First we'll need measurements and then I'll be able to Floo my tailor."
"Do we all have to dress in drag?" Crabbe asked, frowning at the thought.
"Think of Umbridge's reactions," Pansy replied. "You did want to get back at her for the Inquisitorial Squad, right?"
"You were the one who was snubbed the worst," Crabbe muttered, but not high enough for anyone but Harry, who was still pinned down by Crabbe, to hear.
"You know, dressing in full out drag is kind of better than what I had planned," Harry finally said. "You are evil, but an evil genius. I will not underestimate you again."
"Thank you." Pansy smiled at him sweetly. "Now, Crabbe, let Harry up so that we can start the measurements. Harry will have to be the drag queen, since he's in charge of this whole rebellion thing. I'm thinking a green ball dress to go with his eyes, what do you think?"
"He looked so handsome in his green dress robes," Parvati answered.
"He really did, but they'll both need some instructions on how to dance," Lavender added.
"I'll take care of that," Luna offered as she approached the group. "Why am I teaching Harry to dance for? Are the bears coming?"
"Bears?" Crabbe asked.
"They like to waltz, and if you're not careful, they will come to fetch you every night to dance with them." Luna gave them a serene look.
"We're going to hold an impromptu ball tomorrow," Pansy answered. She grinned at the Ravenclaw fourth year. "I'm glad that you're here, we need to measure you for your tux. If your date is Harry, then you'll have to look as handsome as he will look beautiful."
"Oh, goody, I've always wanted to dress up." Luna clapped her hands in delight.
"Speaking of going to the ball with Harry, Harry, didn't you have something that you wanted to do with Luna?" Pansy sent him a pointed look.
Harry sighed but stood up and headed over to Luna. "Hi, Luna," he said, stalling for a bit. After all, he couldn't just go up and kiss her, could he?
"You look very pretty, Harry. Were you keeping the Ugly Tomatoes away from you?" Luna asked, tilting her head. "Or did you just feel pretty today and want to express that?"
"Yeah," Harry answered, allowing Luna to think what she wished. He bent down and quickly kissed her before backing away and watching her for her reaction.
Luna looked fairly surprised, but she quickly grinned at Harry. "You're very good at spreading your prettiness, Harry. Thank you."
"Er, you're welcome," Harry answered, ducking his head to hide his blushing.
"Okay, now that that is done, every one line up for your measurements," Pansy ordered and everyone scrambled up.
"What's going on?" Hermione asked as she led Draco over to the group. "I see that you managed to stay away from the Great Hall, but I also know that you are up to something now."
"We're going to hold a ball tomorrow for the rest of the students. We're just doing measurements now, fitting all of the girls with tuxedos and all of the men with ball gowns," Pansy answered.
"Tuxedos?" Hermione frowned before smiling in realization. "We're going in drag, aren't we?"
***"Ball gowns, you mean I have to wear a dress?" Draco fairly screeched as he took a step back. "Are you crazy?"
"No, you are. Potter is as well and we're doing this to get back at Umbridge," Pansy said, darting forward to stop Draco from running away.
"Please tell me that I'm not the only one being made to wear a dress," Draco said. He tried to dig his heels in, but Pansy still was able to maneuver him into the line with the rest of the boys.
"We have to wear dresses, too," Harry solemnly said. He turned to Hermione and gave her puppy dog eyes. "How could you leave us with her? She is evil incarnate."
"You look very interesting, Harry," Hermione said, distracted by noticing Harry's makeup.
"Isn't he very pretty?" Luna asked as she drifted over to Hermione's side.
Hermione raised her eyebrow, but she nodded in agreement. Harry scowled at her, but that didn't really detract from his appearance. "So, this ball, it won't disrupt the exams, will it?"
"It won't, we're just preparing today and only those who don't have exams today," Pansy quickly reassured Hermione. "We're holding the ball tomorrow during dinner, so the students will have plenty of time to study for the next exams."
"I suppose that will work out; we can have a few short study sessions in between getting ready and it will work out." Hermione frowned at Harry, still looking at his makeup. "Are you going to lunch looking like that?"
Harry opened his mouth to answer, but Pansy interjected before he could say anything. "Yes, he is. Besides, Luna likes it, don't you, Lovegood?"
"Harry could probably attract faeries looking like that," Luna replied.
Hermione gave them all an odd look, but Harry ended up going to lunch wearing makeup. The other students and some of the examiners gave him even more odd looks, but the examiners at least dismissed it from their minds. They decided that their old eyes must be playing tricks on them.
-
Ron knew the terms of his dare, but when Hermione reached them his thoughts just blanked out. He was frozen, although he really didn't know why. It was just a dare, Hermione would scold him but she would get over it and the dare would be done. It was just a dare, but he didn't have the courage to go through with it; even with Pansy glaring at him.
Then they started talking about the drag ball that they were apparently going to hold and there wasn't time to kiss Hermione. It would be even odder if he just kissed her out of the blue, and it would be out of the blue with the way the girls were going on about the ball. Even Hermione seemed really into the idea; more so for the spells involved in cross dressing then for the actual ball, but that was Hermione for you.
Pansy kicked at his ankle as she passed him on their way to lunch and hissed for him to "Get it done."
"I'm trying to," Ron hissed back before there was too much space between them for any replies. He sulked his way through lunch, looking for an opportunity, but he couldn't find one.
He thought about doing it when Hermione walked them out of the Great Hall, but he knew that she would kill him if he distracted her before her exams. So, instead he wished her luck with words instead of a kiss.
Pansy punched his arm as soon as they got outside, refusing to give the whole dare up, even when he begged for it. It was only later that he realized that she was a Slytherin, instead of the annoying girl insisting that he kiss Hermione. He thought about the significance of her being a Slytherin, but then decided that it didn't really matter. Slytherin or not, Pansy was still annoying.
Several times that evening, Pansy kept steering him over where Hermione was working on spell work. Each time Ron would find some excuse to get away with not kissing Hermione. Pansy finally dragged him out of the room and pinned him to the corridor wall.
"Why aren't you kissing her?" Pansy asked.
Ron eyed her nervously, marveling at her arm strength. "If you keep bugging me everyone's going to get the wrong idea."
"They wouldn't if you would just kiss her," Pansy hissed out. She did let him go, however, and backed away a little to give him some room. He still couldn't escape her attentions, but they didn't look like they were making out anymore, so Ron gave a sigh of relief.
"There hasn't been a moment where I could kiss her. You know Hermione, you know how she would react if I had distracted her before her exams," Ron explained.
"Then what about after her exams? It's been hours since she came out talking about mixing up her rune meanings and you haven't shut her up with a kiss," Pansy pointed out.
"I forgot, you know how serious Hermione is about schoolwork, but you don't know how serious she is when it comes to any kind of spell work." Ron blinked in shock, wondering how he got used to the Slytherins' presence so quickly. Sure, he had hung out with Draco before, but not the whole group of Slytherins. Yet, hanging out with them was just as if he was hanging out with the other Gryffindors. "She would kill me if I interrupted her now."
"You may be right." Pansy gave Ron a suspicious look, but let that part go. "You two are attending the ball together, you'd better kiss her before then, or else I will make you kiss her."
Ron gave Pansy another nervous look, wondering what she meant by that. He decided that Pansy was one scary person and being Slytherin had nothing to do with it. "Okay, okay. If I get the moment I'll kiss her."
"You'd better." Pansy gave him another piercing look before she headed back into the classroom they were working in. Ron waited a minute longer before he followed after her.
-
Wearing a dress was strange, Ron decided, and dealing with heels was even worse. He had no idea how Hermione did this for the Yule ball. The drag ball was kind of fun, even if his brothers were there and making comments. He was glad that this was just a drag ball instead of a gay ball; his pride wouldn't recover from something like that.
Through the ball, he looked for the opportunity to kiss Hermione, just like he had promised Pansy, but he couldn't find it. The Slytherin girl was paying close attention to him and Hermione and that really didn't help. But, Hermione seemed more content to just chat as friends than consider anything else. He supposed that this was because they had been made to go together for their own event, instead of something that the school hosted. Whatever it was, he really couldn't just randomly kiss her.
So, he ignored Pansy's stares as he danced with Hermione. Hermione knew that there was something on his mind, but even when she asked him about it, he still couldn't kiss her. He was about to, but then she was about to drag him off to the infirmary, so he put it back once again.
Despite the dare hanging over him, he had fun at the ball. He and Hermione danced as much as they could, even if she was leading them just slightly instead of the other way around. Pansy didn't watch them the whole time, having fun with her own date as the evening went on. She glared at him as he left the ball, reminding him of her threat from before.
He spent half the night worrying about it and then let off steam by forcing Harry to wear makeup. They had each been given a small amount of the stuff and been taught how to apply it to themselves for the ball. That way they would be able to fix anything that went wrong during the ball. He decided to help Harry out by making him wear the leftovers.
Harry was insane enough, Ron figured, and he had been the first one to get made over to spark this whole thing. Besides, Harry could have just washed it off, once he managed to escape from his and Neville's hold. Ron had been surprised when Neville came over to pin Harry down when Ron brandished the makeup, but it had worked out.
Harry just took it with a grin, which really made Ron question his mental state. He had known that Harry had been insane for years, one really couldn't say You -Know- Who's name without being mental. Harry told him time and time again that the Headmaster told him not to be afraid of a name, but Dumbledore was just as mental as Harry was, so Ron really didn't think that helped. Harry being insane really didn't bother Ron, even if it meant that his friend got most of the attention again. At least this time it was due to a more humble reason than his fame.
Ron felt better when he went down to breakfast with the rest of his housemates. Who knew that applying makeup to his best friend would calm him down? Of course, the worry reappeared the second he saw Pansy's face. He laughed when Luna redid Draco's hair, but that laughter disappeared when Pansy pulled him to the side.
"You haven't kissed her yet, have you?" Pansy accused.
"No, not yet. There just wasn't a moment when I could do that during the ball, even when it ended." Ron eyed Pansy, wondering how she would react to the news.
"Okay, here's what you are going to do. We're going to head down to breakfast and you are going to kiss her as soon as the food disappears off of the plates. You are going to kiss her, really kiss her, and ask her out on a date." Pansy gave him a pointed look. "I don't care if it's during this summer or if it's for the next Hogsmeade weekend in our sixth year, you are going to kiss her and ask her out. Or else, I might have to sell off some of my blackmail."
"Blackmail?" Ron's eyes got wide at the thought.
"I've got quite the large amount built up over the year." Pansy gave him a smug look. "So are you going to kiss her and ask her out, or do you want the Daily Prophet to learn that the reason none of you are with Hermione is that you and Harry are secretly having an affair?"
"I'll kiss her and ask her out," Ron answered with wide eyes. He looked over at Harry wearing the green eye shadow and shuddered. The way that they had been behaving recently, on Pansy's idea, the Daily Prophet would have no trouble believing this. Of course, the Daily Prophet would believe it even if Harry was kissing Luna in public. Still, Ron didn't want his first article to be about his love affair with Harry Potter.
Pansy gave him another smug look, but didn't say a word as they rejoined the group. Ron was quite surprised to find that they were sitting at the Hufflepuff table, but shrugged it off. The Slytherins really couldn't sit at the Gryffindor table, but the Gryffindors really couldn't sit at the Slytherin table. They could have split up for the meal, but he supposed that they were all following Luna and they ended up at the Hufflepuff table. It didn't really bother him; the food was still good, after all.
Ron shot Hermione a couple of looks throughout the meal, gauging how she was doing this morning. He was still going to kiss her regardless, but he would prefer not to be slapped for kissing her at the wrong time. She seemed to be in a good mood, however, and Ron knew it was because she and the rest of the girls had received points for their spell work. Remus had given the boys points for pulling it off, but Ron knew that the girls really had earned them. Though, those heels were bloody hard to walk in, let alone dance in.
The food disappeared off of the plates and Ron popped a mint into his mouth. It was an attempt to stall, but Pansy was giving him an appraising look, so he thought that he might have gotten away with it. No one seemed to be in any rush to leave the Hufflepuff table, although most of the Hufflepuffs disappeared as soon as the meal ended. Only the fifth year Hufflepuffs seemed to remain and some of the Ravenclaw fifth years even joined their group.
Finally, the mint had been crushed between his teeth and Hermione seemed to be ready to dive back into the group. Pansy's glare was turning hot, so if ever there was a moment, this was it. Ron stood up and everyone looked to him. "Hermione, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Sure, Ron, what is it?" Hermione got up from her seat and walked over to him.
Ron hesitated, but he finally took the plunge. He leaned down and kissed Hermione on her lips. He knew that Pansy would kill him if he just pecked Hermione on the lips, so he made it last more than a few seconds. He pulled back and sent Hermione a nervous look.
"Ron, what?" Hermione broke off and put her hand to her lips, looking shocked.
"Will you go out on a date with me?" Ron asked. He gave her a hopeful look; this was just for the dare, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't like to go out with her.
"I suppose," Hermione answered as she blinked at the suddenness of it all.
"Good." Ron let out an explosive sigh before sitting down once again. He didn't want to push his luck with Hermione by kissing her a second time; her slaps looked like they hurt.
"I knew you could do it," Goyle cheered.
Hermione blinked even more as she finally sat down at the table. "Did everyone know that you were going to do this?"
"They knew that I was planning it, but not when I was going to do it," Ron answered. He kept it vague in the hopes that no one would inform Hermione that it was a dare. He wouldn't get the date if she thought that it was just for the dare and he didn't want her to be mad at him.
"Oh," Hermione replied before she was swept off into girl talk.
"That wasn't that bad, wasn't it, Weasley?" Pansy sweetly asked, but Ron could tell that there was a threat under that sweet tone. Pansy was just plain evil: Slytherin had nothing to do with it!
Still, Ron got most of the attention for the day and he had a date set up with Hermione in the future. All in all, it had been a good weekend.