The Dare

EDIT: Yes, I know I've been A.W.O.L for a very long time. A lot of stuff has happened and I lost interest in the Harry Potter fandom for a while. I've been writing for a different fandom under a different name and I like to think my writing has improved. Reading over these stories I feel like I can do better than how they are at the moment, so I'm going over them and rewriting them in my current style. I hope you'll give me another chance, and I'll try to at least finish the stories I've started, but they may not be very good because of my leaving the Harry Potter fandom for so long.

You know I have no idea where this one came from… And that worries me… anyway on with the story.

Disclaimer: You know, as much as I want it to happen JKR probably wont put Hermione with Draco. So this is just yet another product of a deranged mind.

This is my 7th year AU, read my profile for details.

Two seventh year Slytherins sat in their common room, warming themselves in front of the fire on the cold October evening. One lay stretched out across an emerald green sofa and other was toying with the pieces of a wizard chess set. The blonde on the sofa yawned and stretched slowly before turning to the darker haired boy beside him.
"Finished looking at the ceiling yet Draco?" Draco jumped slightly. How does he always know what I'm doing?
"The sofa creaked." Draco laughed at the answer to his unspoken question.
"You're scary when you do that, you know."
"I know. Where's your shadow?" Draco snorted in contempt.
"Off somewhere with her friends, probably tormenting Granger."

The darker boy nodded and picked up the white king, turning it in his hand and ignoring its squeaks of protest at his intent examination. Draco watched for a few moments, but soon became bored. He began glaring at the back of the other boy's head. He sighed and set down his chess piece before turning around to look at Draco.
"Can I help you?" He asked with one eyebrow raised.
"Well Blaise, are you going to give me your next dare, or are we going to skip straight to your forfeit? After all you have been doing a lot of them recently. Honestly, sneaking spiders into Weasel's bed wasn't exactly hard." Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy had been playing this game ever since first year when Draco had challenged the only other powerful Slytherin in his year for dominance. That first dare had been memorable, especially for a first year, but Blaise had managed to complete it, which meant he then had the chance to challenge Draco. It became little more than a game, but neither would back down and so the members of Slytherin had learnt to watch for signs of a new dare, knowing they would be greatly entertained. As the years at Hogwarts had passed the two boys had matured and come up wither harder and harder dares, and a forfeit for those dares not completed. Blaise fixed Draco with an emotionless stare.

"You've been doing just as many as I have Draco. After all, your last dare of convincing Potty that Weasel loved him wasn't difficult, we all know how they really feel about each other." He absently picked up another chess piece as he frowned in thought. Draco left him to think, the better the dare the more fun he had. He looked up with a smirking twist to his mouth and Draco leaned forward eagerly, knowing he had come up with an idea from the sparkle in his black eyes.

"Steal the Sorting Hat." Draco could only stare at his friend in confusion at the flat statement.
"Steal the Sorting Hat?" He repeated not sure he'd heard right.

"That's right, steal the Sorting Hat. Then come back here and wear it around the common room for a while." Blaise was clearly suppressing laughter, which irritated Draco.

"Blaise, that's impossible." Draco was pretty shocked at his friend's cunning.

"Well you said you wanted a more challenging dare. By Monday evening, Draco." Draco thought about it for a few moments and an idea formed in his mind.

"Alright Blaise, I'm game. The usual forfeit?"

"You bet." The two Slytherins leant forward and shook hands, both with a smirk on his face. Draco yawned and stood, stretching again and glancing towards the corridor leading to the dormitories.

"I'm off to bed, I've got double potions in the morning. Coming Blaise?"

"Why not." Draco's yawn had set Blaise off and he packed away his chess set and joined Draco on his way to bed.

Pansy returned to the common room not long afterwards and glanced around for Draco. Millicent looked up from her book and snorted when she saw Pansy hovering by the door.
"You've missed him Pansy. Draco and Blaise went to bed about ten minutes ago." Pansy glared at the girl before sitting down.
"I wasn't looking for them anyway." She said loudly. Millicent snorted again and shook her head.
"You keep telling yourself that." She muttered as she returned to her book.

Pansy sat there for several minutes, acting stiffly affronted, before becoming bored and slumping down in the chair.
"Anything interesting happen?" She asked. Millicent sighed and shut her book.
"Well, Draco's got a new dare from Blaise." She answered.
"What?!" Millicent winced at Pansy's shriek.
"Jeeze, tone it down a little." Pansy wasn't listening to Millicent's whining and her shriek had drawn several others over.
"What is it?" A sixth year asked excitedly.
"Draco's gotta steal Dumbledore's sorting hat."
"What?"
"No way!"
"And how on earth's he going to do that?" Millicent held up her hands to slow the tide of shouts.
"Well, Blaise managed to turn McGonagall's hair pink in third year." She reminded the room.
"Oh yeah! She couldn't get it out for a week!" The Slytherins that had been around for that memorable dare howled with laugher as they remembered McGonagall's outrage.

"Well, I don't think Draco's dare last year can be topped."
"Which one?"
"The one where he locked Snape in the cupboard with that hamster who'd swallowed a love potion."

"That one! Oh god, his face when he got out of there."
"I still can't understand how the hamster managed to get his underwear off."
"I don't think anyone really wants to know." Millicent watched in wonder the hubbub she had unwittingly created. Most of the older Slytherins had a favourite dare and the others each wanted a to comment. She settled back in her chair with a sigh, she had really wanted to finish that chapter.

"Personally, I liked the one with Seamus Finnigan back in fourth year."
"You mean the one where Blaise locked him out of his common room wearing nothing but one of Pansy's thongs?"
"Hey! That was one of my favourite thongs! I could never wear it again."
"Finnigan's expression was worth it though, especially since we got photo's of it. Hell, even some of the Gryffindors laughed at him."
"Well their own pranks suck so they have to laugh at ours."

"You're all forgetting about the time Draco covered the entire Hufflepuff breakfast table with flour!"

"Or the time he put hot sauce in the Gryffindors' meal. They were certainly red that day!"

"What about bewitching Snape so that he thought a pink elephant was chasing him?"

"Oh, and of course there was the 'greasy git' song that played through out potions that day."

"How'd Blaise manage to flood the Great Hall?"

"Same way he flooded McGonagall's office I suppose." Millicent stood up and stalked to her dormitory, muttering about getting some reading done there. The other Slytherin's watched her leave before shrugging as one and returning to their conversation.

XXXXXXXXXX

Draco awoke to a beautiful Saturday morning. The sun was shining down through a cloudless blue sky. There was a cold wind blowing through the trees, whirling the autumn leaves around in complex spirals. Relaxing against the tree he was leant against in the grounds, Draco mused on the plan he had spent all day yesterday thinking about. During his first year Draco had first visited Hogwarts' kitchens on a Saturday afternoon much like this one.

He was cold and wet after failing one of Blaise's dares. He had heard from his mother about Hogwarts' kitchens and decided to visit to get a hot chocolate and warm himself up. Re-entering the castle, Draco had walked past the Great Hall quickly to avoid any Slytherins that may have been in there and reached the portrait of the fruit. Tickling the pear, he waited until the door had formed and then cautiously walked in.

The House elves had looked up briefly, but didn't seem surprised to see a dripping student enter. Obviously in their years at Hogwarts they've seen everything Draco thought as he sat down at one of the small tables lining the sides of the room. One of the elves approached Draco when he had seated himself.

"Is there anything Sparky can get sir?" She enquired politely.

"Umm, yeah. Could you get me some hot chocolate?" Draco asked, not sure how to treat these house elves. Father had always hated him being polite to the ones at home.

"Yes sir." Sparky replied happily before running off towards the centre of the kitchen.

Draco took out his wand and performed a quick drying spell. Most of the first years were not able to do even simple spells when they started here but Lucius had taught his son many spells before Draco started Hogwarts. He relaxed into his chair and glanced around the kitchen. It was as large as the hall above it and he noticed the four tables laid out in the same pattern. On a counter near the centre of one of the walls he noticed two elves filling a bowl with different kinds of seed and nuts. Sparky brought his hot chocolate over to him at that point and he was distracted from the room at the speed Sparky had brought his drink.

"Can Sparky get you anything else sir?" She asked, after giving him his drink.

"Thank you Sparky and no." He took a sip. "Wow, this is great, Sparky." Sparky visibly glowed at the comment, bowed and turned to leave. A curious thought was bugging Draco, begging to be heard, and he called Sparky back.

"Wait, Sparky." Sparky turned back to him.

"Yes sir?"

"It's Draco, Sparky. What is the bowl full of seeds for?" Sparky was almost bouncing around the room at Draco's offhand comment. A student had told her his first name.

"It is for master Dumbledore's phoenix, master Draco." She answered.

"Thanks again Sparky." Draco grinned at her and she grinned back.

"Goodbye master Draco."

"Bye Sparky." Spark ran off back to her chores with a smile Draco thought couldn't possibly be any bigger. He smiled himself and sipped his drink, he had made his first real friend.

XXXXXXXXXX

Draco's memory ended as he brought himself back to the present with a smile on his face It was that meeting all those years ago that had given Draco an idea to help him with his dare. One of Draco's most closely kept secrets was that he was a regular patron of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, under a false name of course, which would now help him as it had with various other dares.

Over the years Draco had spent a lot of time in the Hogwarts kitchens and had come to know a lot more of the house elves by name, but Sparky had always been his favourite and still always greeted him with a smile.

Draco spent the morning outside enjoying the last of the year's sunshine. He strolled around the castle, allowing his mind to wander as freely as his feet. He refined a few of his ideas for completing the dare and by the time he had seated himself underneath a tree he had a fully formed plan. When the time he had decided to be in the kitchens drew closer, he rose from the shade of his tree by the lake and began the walk back to the castle. On his way he encountered three people he'd rather have avoided. The three were so deep in conversation that they didn't notice him until they were almost on top of him.

"So if we use the…" Potter broke off as he saw Draco.

"Watch where you're going Malfoy." Potter said angrily. Draco smirked at him.

"I wouldn't want to hear the sordid details of your's and Weasley's sex life anyway Potter." Draco noticed with some satisfaction that Weasley's face had turned bright red, probably due to the recent rumours that had been flying around.

"Shove off, Ferret." The tone was cold, filled with veiled anger. The words didn't come from either Potter or Weasley. Draco turned reluctantly to the female member of the trio, Her… Granger! It was Granger, not Hermione!

"Maybe I don't want to, Mudblood." Weasley leapt at Draco but Potter flung out an arm and held him back.

"It's not worth it mate, he'll just go running to that father of his. Oh wait, he can't now can he? His father's in Azkaban." Draco flinched visibly at that. No matter how childish Potter's insult was, it still hurt. He kept his eyes on Granger instead of snapping at Potter with a weak insult. The suddenly soft look she was giving him surprised him. She had caught the slight hesitation before Draco insulted her and she had seen him flinch. The two boys saw no deeper than the mask Draco wore and the insults he threw.

Draco turned away before he could reveal anything more and sneered at Potter before walking away, deliberately jogging Weasley's shoulder as he went past. He heard Granger telling Weasley to calm down as he walked away but he ignored it, thinking instead of what Potter had said. There had been a slight inflection to his tone, which had made it clear that Potter thought Draco should be in Azkaban with his father. How would Potter know the internal struggle Draco had gone through during the war. That Draco had never gotten his Dark Mark, and that he wore long sleeves for a much different reason. That Draco was glad his father had been locked up. Or that Draco had fought for the light, deserting the Deatheaters and coming very close to dying with Snape. Potter didn't know because he didn't care. It was much easier to hate Draco unconditionally than to admit that he had been wrong once.

Draco kept his fragile hold on his emotions as he entered Hogwarts and moved out of the sight of the Golden Trio. Once he was past the doors, he broke into a dead run across the hall to the portrait of the fruit on the other side. He slipped into an alcove across from the painting and paused to get himself under control. Malfoys don't show weak emotions in public, damn it! After a few moments Draco slowed his breathing and calmed himself, taking on his emotionless mask once more. He crossed the hallway and opened the doorway, entering the kitchens as he pushed all thoughts of what had just happened to the back of his mind and turned his thoughts instead to the first stage of his plan to steal the Sorting Hat.

And here's the first chapter. Slight angst may be brought into it I have decided but other than that it's gonna be DM/HG and maybe light comedy. Tell me what you think about it. And what you think about Draco and the elves :) I am considering a separate fic about the dares and the forfeit, tell me whether you guys think it's a good idea, and send any ideas you have for dares. EDIT: Wow, I had tense troubles back then… Well I think I've fixed it all up.. I hope. Oh, the dare idea still stands, send 'em in and they might appear ;)
And as you can all see, I put in several of the dares here J But I still have several in reserve XD