House: Slytherin
Category: Themed
Prompt: [Event] A game of truth or dare
Word Count : 2075
Hermione eyed the bottle of fire-whiskey with apprehension. "I don't know about this…"
"It's a dare Hermione, you have to do it." Ginny rolled her eyes at the other girl. "We won a war, defeated a Dark Lord…I think that entitles you to having one drink in the name of house unity."
"Yeah, don't be such a little goody-two-shoes Granger." Blaise drawled from across the circle.
"Bottoms up then, I suppose." She threw the bottle back and took a long gulp, to the cheers of the combined 7th and 8th year students.
With Hogwarts reopening, they'd decided to try and set an example for the younger years, the combined NEWT students made it a point to do something together every Saturday night. The game of Truth or Dare had actually been proposed by Justin Finch-Fletchley, and the other 'Puffs had grasped onto the concept with zeal. So far, Susan Bones was sporting bright Violet Hair, and Theo Nott had duck feet, and more than a few of them had been dared to drink from Draco's stash of top-shelf Fire Whiskey.
"Ok, Granger your turn." Neville smiled, surprised that she'd actually followed through.
"Ok…um…Luna, truth or Dare?" Hermione said.
"Truth." Luna smiled dreamily, sitting comfortably in Neville's lap.
"Who do you think is the most attractive wizard in the room?" Hermione asked.
"Most attractive to me, or most attractive in general?" Luna asked, head tilting to the side as she considered both questions. "Hmm…for me personally, Neville, but in the context of traditional attractiveness and how often all the witches keep looking at him when they think he doesn't notice…I'd say Draco." She pronounced.
In response Neville immediately turned a brilliant shade of red, and Draco seemed to preen.
"You know, regardless of what people say about you, Lovegood…I think you're quite clever." Draco smirked.
"Draco, truth or Dare?" Luna smiled, her features quite serene.
"Truth." He said, not certain he was up for whatever bizarre dare she might come up with.
"Why haven't you asked Hermione out yet? It's obvious that you want to." Luna said.
Draco sputtered, eyes darting around the room. "I-I mean, that's ridiculous." He tripped over his words in a very un-Malfoy-like moment of shock.
"Luna! Why would you ever think that?" Hermione looked stunned.
"He watches you, all the time, and he's the one that's been sending you those chocolates that you get every other Wednesday, so that you'll be happy after you read the letter from your parent's healers. He could see that it always makes you sad." Luna said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Is that true?" Hermione looked over at Draco.
"I…" He tried to deny it, but the mild truth serum they'd all taken together compelled him to speak the truth. "Yes, I started sending them to you. I'd have to be blind to miss how upset you were after getting those letters week after week. I just thought someone should do something." He looked very uncomfortable about it.
"You haven't answered my question yet." Luna said, drawing everyone's attention back to her.
"Because I know she'd say no." Draco snapped. "I don't want to play this ridiculous game anymore." He stood and stormed out of the abandoned classroom, the heavy wooden door slamming behind him.
A tense silence followed in his wake, as everyone shifted on their transfigured cushions. Stunned didn't begin to describe how Hermione felt in that moment. Those little mystery chocolates had shown up at the beginning of October, and they always helped lift her spirits. The letters from the Healers in Australia were…not positive, and after reading them she always felt a wash of guilt for what she'd done to her parents. That Malfoy had noticed, and wanted to do something nice for her, meant something. Decision made, she stood and grabbed a bottle of the firewhiskey.
"You guys continue the game," Hermione said.
"He goes to Snape's old Potions lab when he's upset," Theo said, watching her with a guarded expression. "The password is Asphodel."
"Thanks Theo," Hermione gave him a nod, grateful for the trust he was extending to her. Since the war, Draco had drawn closer to Theo and Blaise, the three rarely seen without one another. The password to Draco's little sanctuary sent a little pang through her chest, knowing that Asphodel meant regret.
She headed out of the classroom and her feet led her down to the dungeons. In her third year, she'd had to bring supplies to the Professor's private lab, so she knew where it was, but most people wouldn't. She whispered the password to the door and it clicked open.
"I'm going to kill Theo." Draco's voice came from a dark corner of the room. "What do you want, Granger?"
"Just to talk,"she said and gingerly walked over to him, sitting at the empty potions bench. "It's your fire whiskey, I thought we could share it."
Draco came out of the shadows and sat down across from her. "You drink too much of that, I'll be carrying you up to Gryffindor Tower." He took the bottle and threw back a swig. "No more truth or dare…alright?"
"How about just truth?" Hermione arched an eyebrow at him. "Is Luna right? You actually want to ask me out?"
"Lovegood's always right, I swear she's either a master Legillimens or a bloody seer." Draco raked a hand through his platinum blonde hair. In that moment, Hermione could see the shadows under his eyes and the stress written in lines around his eyes. She'd never really noticed before.
"I wonder about that sometimes too." Hermione smiled. "Or perhaps she's just smart enough to see through the pretty facade we all put up." She paused for a moment. "By the way, Draco…. Thank you for the chocolate; they really do help. Sometimes, I swear it's the only thing that gets me through those Healer reports." She admitted. "I - I finally told them to stop trying. It's clear that what I did is irreversible, and continued recovery attempts will only do more harm. There won't be any more letters." Her voice began to break, and a single tear rolled down her face. "I haven't told anyone yet."
Draco reached over, placing his hand over hers and squeezing gently. "I'm sorry, I really am." His grey eyes held hers in the dim lantern light.
Hermione felt a little flood of warmth through her chest. She took a shaky breath, and reached over with her free hand, grabbing the bottle and taking a deep drink. The alcohol burned the back of her throat. "Enough of that… Saturdays are supposed to be fun right?" She looked at him and arched an eyebrow, her gaze challenging.
"What did you have in mind then, Granger…because I feel we've played enough childish games tonight."
"I know another game, but we need some shot glasses." Hermione felt a little bit of mischief light her eyes, wanting to find some of the light-hearted fun they'd been enjoying earlier. They'd all had too much sadness to deal with.
"Done." Draco transfigured a couple of glass stirring rods into a pair of shot glasses and set them up, filling them. "So what's this game?"
"It's called, Never have I Ever. I make a statement like: Never have I ever Played Quidditch. If you have, you take a drink." She said.
Draco tossed his shot back. "Ok, never have I ever fallen asleep in the Library." He smirked at her.
Hermione threw her drink back, having a feeling that she was going to possibly be drunker than a proverbial skunk very soon. "Never have I ever, been transfigured into an animal." She tossed back.
"No fair, I still have nightmares about that." He threw the shot back and seemed to think about his question. "Never have I ever snogged Potter."
Hermione just smiled, not picking up her glass.
"Seriously?" Draco looked honestly surprised.
"Nope, it would be like kissing my brother." She rolled her eyes. "After living on the run with him for the better part of a year…there are not enough galleons in Gringotts." She laughed.
"Funny that, alright. Fire away then Granger." Draco grinned.
"Never have I bribed my way onto a team." Hermione blinked as Draco just pushed his drink back and fixed her with a smug grin.
"My father bought the brooms for the team after I got my spot in tryouts." Draco said. "That's why I was so pissed at you when you accused me of buying my way on. I broke my arm in three places during tryouts, but I still caught the snitch." He looked supremely proud.
"I'm sorry…I guess I just assumed…"
"You did, but I guess I can understand. I'd always been rotten to you, and I was a bit a ponce back then." He admitted. "While we're apologizing, I'm sorry about that curse in fourth year…and your teeth." He winced a bit. "The girls gave me hell for that later."
"Why would they?" Hermione frowned, Parkinson and the other Slytherin girls had no reason to stand up for her.
"Because hexing witches with disfiguring curses is…not done." He said. "They told me if I ever did it again, they'd permanently shrink my balls. It was kind of a 'principal of the matter' thing." He chuckled. "Ok…so never have I ever broken into a bank."
"Not fair! That was for the war!" She complained but drank anyway, feeling a little light headed. "Never have I ever kissed a Slytherin." She shot back.
"Would you like to?" Draco grinned, tossing his drink back and waggling his eyebrows at her.
"I'm not entirely opposed to the idea." Hermione blamed her loose lips completely on the drinks.
"Well…I'm not kissing you over the table, you'll have to come over here, unless you're too scared." Draco smirked at her.
Hermione took a deep breath and walked, albeit unsteadily, around the table. She was a Gryffindor by Merlin, and she was not going to let him win this game of chicken, was that what they were playing? She wasn't completely sure, but it didn't matter. She was going to win. Grabbing Draco by his loosened tie, she tugged him into a kiss. Scared? She'd show him just how scared she wasn't!
o.o.O.o.o
"Drake?" Theo popped his head into the Potions lab, followed by Neville and Luna. It's was nearly three in the morning, and when he'd returned to the dorms to find his friend's bed empty, he'd raced back to the empty classroom to see if Hermione or Draco had shown up there. What he'd found instead was Neville and Luna, sitting and talking quietly. He'd enlisted the odd couple to help him look for Hermione and Draco.
He was hoping that they hadn't killed each other in Snape's old lab, but there was that distinct possibility. Stepping deeper into the Potions lab, he stopped dead…Longbottom crashing into him. Luna began to laugh softly at the sight of their two missing friends.
Hermione and Draco were lying on the floor, Draco's shirt half unbuttoned and his tie tangled in Hermione's hand. Judging from the nearly empty bottle of liquor on the potions bench…he had a feeling they'd passed out before they could do anything they'd hex each other over in the morning.
Luna slipped around the dumbstruck boys and transfigured her handkerchief into a soft blue blanket and carefully covered them both.
"Come along, lets leave them be." Luna smiled and shooed them back out the door.
"We aren't going to just leave them like that?" Neville looked over his shoulder as the door closed softly.
"Granger will hex Draco into a million pieces if she wakes up on top of him half-dressed." Theo looked equally concerned.
"No she won't." Luna looped her arms through the two boys and pulled them away.
"And how do you know that?" Theo demanded, honestly afraid for his friend. Granger was bloody terrifying when she was angry, everyone knew that.
"Because silly, she's in love with him too." Luna just rolled her eyes, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Theo blinked, and idly wondered what the hell his friend was going to tell his parents. Granger and Draco… And all it had taken to get them together was a game of Truth of Dare, and a bottle of expensive fire whiskey. Who would've thought?