"What do you think did this?" she said, her first time seeing death up close.

The deer has been slashed open, its throat a mangled mess.

"I dunno," Harry said, shrugging. He jabbed the end of his walking stick in to the open wound.

"Harry!" Hermonie screamed, backing away as flies and maggots squirmed out from under the flesh. "That's digusting!"

"Dare me to taste it," Harry said, raising the blood and tissue covered end of the stick to his face. It reeked of mortal decay. "Dare me!"

"That's gross, Harry," she said, crossing her arms, but glaring defiantly at him, the twinkle in her eye saying everything she wouldn't out loud.

Later, they pinky swore never to repeat the heinous crime to anyone.

They were only seven.

------

She plucked a cluster of red berries from a dark green bush and wondered if they would make for an exotic looking lipstick.

Maybe she would catch Cedric's eye for once.

"Hermonie!" came a very familiar voice and she jumped, whirling around to find Harry parading toward her, his walking stick bearing a plastic bag flag. "You'll never believe it! I found this giant snake and-Hey, what's that?"

"Nothing," she said, trying to hide the berries, but Harry was faster and snatched them from her. "Harry, give those back!"

"Why?" he sneered. "They're just nothing, after all."

She huffed. "Harry, please..."

"What? You were gonna eat them or something?" He plucked off one ripe, juicy looking berry and his eyes sparkled. "Dare me to eat it. Go on, do it!"

"Harry, I dare you to eat that berry and then give me the other ones," Hermonie said, crossing her arms, and huffing.

Harry laughed and popped the fruit in his mouth.

Later, when Harry's mouth swelled up, they pinky swore never to tell anyone about the act.

And they were just twelve.

-------

"Uhm, my parents are gonna be real mad if they find out about this, Harry," she whispered, beaming her flashlight into the cupboards.

"That's why they're not gonna find out," he said, then turned to her, his eyes narrowing behind his owlish glasses. "Right?"

"Right," she agreed hurriedly. "Of course."

"Good," Harry said, opening the cabinet above the sink. He let out a low whistle. "Jackpot."

He stretched to reach into the cabinets and Hermonie tried to ignore the flesh that was revealed just above the waistband of his jeans.

There was a clinking noise, and then Harry was leaning back on his heels, his grin wide as he showed off the wine bottles. "Harry, I dunno about this..." Hermonie started.

"Don't be a girl," Harry said, his lips wet in the darkness of the kitchen as he popped off the cork top on one bottle. "Now, do you want any?"

"No, I-"

"You think I could drink this whole bottle straight?" he said, staring at the clear, vintage white wine. It was half a bottle.

"Harry, maybe you-"

"Dare me to do it," he said, leaning toward her. Hermonie almost thought he was kidding, but she saw the way his eyes were dancing.

"I dare you," she whispered.

Later, when Harry was throwing up violently in the bathroom, Hermonie swore to herself she would never tell a soul about this.

At sixteen, they were too young.

---------

It was Ron who got Harry in to drugs. Hermonie wasn't exactly fond of the red head, but Harry said Ron was alright.

The two were always cavorting off to something new, but Hermonie didn't mind.

She had other friends, now.

It was two in the morning when he came to her doorstep, laughing with his sleepless eyes and disfigured arms, like a zombie come to tell her a secret.

"Harry," she said, shaking her head, but sat with him on the front porch, her night shirt not sufficient enough to keep her bottom from being chilled.

"Look at this, girlie," Harry said, then chuckled, twirling a syringe in between his fingers. "Deadly cocktail. Poison in a tube. Rainbow up my veins." He looked at her, and in the porch light, behind all those red veins and those dilated pupils, Hermonie caught that crazy twinkle. "Do you," he said, his voice barely a whisper, "dare me to do this?"

"No, Harry," she said, her mouth a line. "I dare you to check yourself in to a clinic. You're sick! Can't you see what you're doing to yourself?"

"One last time, little lady," he said, sucking in a breath of cold air and laying out his arm. "One last dare."

"If I do, will go to a clinic?" she said, hugging her knees as she stared at the network of veins, forever tracked out on his arm.

He nodded, his eyes on the needle point.

A tear slid down her cheek. "I dare you..."

Later, when Harry was somewhere up in space, Hermone was crying herself to sleep, promising never to speak a word of these horrors.

Eighteen's a long way from zero.

---------

"Oh, God, someone please stop him!" she shrieked, watching as her childhood friend teetered between life or death on the edge of the rehab building.

She hadn't meant for it to go this way.

She had only wanted him to get better.

"Harry! Harry, please, don't do this!"

"Someone dare me to jump," he said, swaying on medicated feet. "Someone dare me."

"Harry, this isn't a game anymore!" Hermonie screamed. "Get down here this instant!"

"Hey, moron!" yelled a man behind Hermonie, another one of the patients. "I dare ya! I dare you to jump!"

Hermonie wanted to scream at the man, to kick him in the family jewel's, but all her eyes could see was that crazy grin, and all she could imagine was the shining in his eyes at the thought of a dare.

She wondered if this was him finally being free.

Later, when they were scraping Harry off the pavement and hosing away his bloody remains, Hermonie approached the nearest news reporter.

And told them everything.

Did you like it? It's my first fic ever! :D Please review and tell me what you liked about it the most. :)

Thank you.

EMC