Original Character Competition: Romance, Anxiety, Next-Gen, Dancing Pumpkins (bonus).
NGF drabble tag: James/OFC- "I dare you, Potter. Kiss me."
In a game of truth or dare, one must be on their guard at all times.
One must not pick truth if they have something to hide, and one must not pick dare if the Weasley-Potter family is involved. in fact, it is usually wise to steer clear of party games like truth or dare in general if the Weasley-Potter's are around.
This was a lesson James Sirius Potter learnt the hard way.
It was a cool winter evening, the Potter's were hosting their annual Christmas Ball at their manor in Godric's Hollow. As was traditions, all the children over fifteen yet under twenty five snuck off to the garage converted into a multipurpose room, complete with comfortable couched arranged in a circular shape, perfect for a traditional game of drunken truth ore dare. For reason that will never be known although it is suspected a certain Teddy Lupin had something to do with it, anybody older than twenty five was considered 'boring' and 'stuck up' and 'all adulty and mature like' and thus was not allowed.
James Potter was, for once, sober- which was his second mistake (the first was agreeing to this in the first place, especially because she was there).
'She' was Ara Wood, Quidditch chaser extraordinaire, stunning, James' rival, and of the course the girl he was hopelessly in love with.
And she didn't have a clue. Nor did anyone else, for that matter, which is why is came as such a shock when Fred dared him to kiss her.
He froze and looked at Fred with a look of absolute horror on his handsome face, Fred smirked,
"Go on, James, a dare is a dare. Go kiss Ara."
He turned his head slightly, breaking his staring match with Fred to look at the girl in question. Her dark hair fell just below her shoulders, and her piercing blue eyes stared back at him, a small smirk forming on her lips.
"I dare you, Potter. Kiss me. Unless of course you're too chicken..."
He narrowed his eyes and stood up, extending a hand for her to take. There was no way he was turning down such a direct challenge, even if his heart was beating at a thousand miles an hour. Despite his outwardly cool appearance, internally he was more nervous than he had been when he sat on the stool at Hogwarts to get sorted all those years ago. He only hoped his anxiety didn't show on his face.
He'd never been this nervous before, not when he pulled his first big prank at Hogwarts with Fred, using the levitating spell Teddy had taught them they had made all the pumpkins at the Halloween feast in first year dance (Admittedly they had had help from some of the elder Weasley's who were at Hogwarts, namely Louis and Dominique, but no one needed to know that). They had claimed credit for it and been put in detention for two weeks. It had been worth it. He wondered if kissing Ara would do anything other than break his heart as it was after all, only a dare.
She raised her eyebrows but accepted his hand nevertheless, he smirked, regaining his arrogant demeanour. He pulled her up so she was standing directly in front of him, her head coming to a little above his chin.
"Last chance to back out, Wood."
"If I didn't know any better, Potter, I'd say you didn't want to kiss me."
It was his turn to raise an eyebrow. He knew he was only stringing the situation along, prolonging the inevitable, but James never could resist bantering with Ara.
"Who says you do?" He retorted smugly, unable to resist baiting her.
Something unidentifiable flashed in her eyes.
"We'll see when you finally stop stalling and kiss me then, wont we? Let's see if you're as good a kisser as everyone says you are." She tilted her head.
He pulled her closer to him, dipped his head and kissed her for what was probably only thirty seconds but felt like longer. When he finally pulled away his brain registered the catcalls, presumably led by Fred.
"Did that live up to your expectations?" He whispered in her ear.
She laughed lightly. "It wasn't bad."
He raised an eyebrow. "Not bad huh? Was it good enough to warrant me a date for tomorrow night's fireworks?"
She tilted her head, considering. "If you're lucky. Now I do believe it's your turn in truth or dare?"
James grinned as they sat back down. Fred clapped him on the back.
"I knew you were in love with her, honestly I think everybody knew. It was written all over your face, and Roxanne was fairly sure Wood at least liked you back...that's why I dared you to kiss her you know, I wasn't sure if she liked you and what better way to check than watch the two of you passionately snog in front of us all? It's about time you two got together."
Fred grinned. James shook his head in bewilderment. "You're unbelievable sometimes, you know that?"
"Ahh, James, I do, and that is why we are friends."