A Magical Game of Truth or Dare
Chapter One: a Muggle thing
'The power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance-'
"Come on Lily, it's Sunday!" cried Hestia, creeping up on her unsuspecting friend.
Lily was snuggled up against her favourite reading perch – the infamous Willow tree – and visibly jumped at the shrill voice, which had interrupted the empty school grounds, causing several robins to whisk themselves away.
"Geesh, next time, would you mind giving a girl a warning? You know, I don't quite fancy having a heart attack just yet- I'm not even of age."
"You will be by this time next week, Lils! We're going to throw you the best party that Hogwarts has and will ever know!"
"I guess it's lucky that I'm head girl then, isn't it? Who else would have been able to ensure that the Hogsmeade trip falls on their birthday?" Lily smirked, turning fondly to face her eternally dexterous best friend. "Anyway, we both know full well that party planning is not why you're here. There's no way you'd risk your hair in the January weather just for that. Cut to the chase. I was just becoming reacquainted with my beloved Mr Darcy."
"Well-" Hestia begun, wrinkling her nose as usual at Lily's choice of words. "Who?"
"Pride and Prejudice..?" stated Lily as though it was obvious, and then sighing as she recognised Hestia's common confused tone. "Classic muggle book."
"Oh, okay... but my point is that Sundays are for either sleeping away hangovers or for socialising- but they are most definitely not for studying."
"I'm not studying Hest, it's a book- as in fiction. Maybe you should try it some time."
"Hey, I read books!"
"Witch Weekly doesn't count."
"Stop changing the subject. You shouldn't waste your youth staring at flimsy pieces of paper- it's already six o'clock and I for one am extremely bored- Marlene ditched me a couple of hours ago for some new fitness training thingamabob that Potter has probably imperiused the whole Quidditch team doing," Hestia stopped to take a breath. "My point, is that it is your job - as my very best friend - to satisfy my needs."
"I thought Sirius had the whole satisfying your needs thing covered," Smirked Lily cannily. "What even are you two nowadays? Same old broom-closet-buddies? I know that's where you disappear to at night."
"You- are- go- ing- to –come- with- me- whether - you - like it or not!" Hestia exclaimed, completely unfazed by Lily's remark, huffing and puffing as she dragged her perpetuity stubborn friend to standing position. "Do not make me hex you, Lily Evans."
"Fine," Lily sighed, brushing down her robes and grabbing her satchel. "I'll have you know, I'm bound to feel pretty claustrophobic in broom cupboards, but if you like it like that..."
Hestia stepped back as Lily practically skipped away into the evening, slightly put-out for a minute, processing what had just been said. She chuckled to herself and shook her head, deciding that she never really would get used to her best friend's witty antics. She spotted Lily's fiery auburn hair as it flew around a corner, and scampered after it, thankful to be out of the cold.
"You know," Hestia began nonchantly, panting slightly as she caught up to Lily, and began to stride alongside her. "Sirius never feels claustrophobic. He has really great stamina too. It must come naturally with being a beater. I mean, when we're really going at it, he'll just let out these little short pants, the sexy little breaths you know? Not like some of those loud moans that some guys do. I swear Diggory thinks it's foxy, but it's not, seriously, he just sounds like a porn star."
"Seriously Hest! There's a crowd of fifth years in Gryffindor common room who would be more than willing to hear you out, but if you continue with that sentence I assure you that you will be mopping up my breakfast."
o.O
"Have you guys ever heard of truth or bare?" ask Mary, bringing her dorm-mates out of their bored stupor. "I heard some of the students at my dad's university talking about it at the Winter Lecture that he took me to. It sounded pretty fun."
The seventh year girls were sprawled across their dormitory in Gryffindor tower in some poses which would make their divination teacher proud. Professor Woodward made them do some ridiculous stretches at the beginning of each lesson, as she thought that 'a relaxed body means a relaxed mind'. She made no sense whatsoever, and Mary was relieved to drop it at the end of their fifth year. Mary McDonald was half-blood, yet in a sense she was as much muggle as Lily was, having grown up in a Muggle Suburb in West Yorkshire, England. She had lived with her muggle father, and she loved him dearly.
Mary had never attended her local primary school as every other child on her street did, as it was simply too dangerous, what with Mary's underage magic literally exploding out of her at the worst possible times. Her father, being non-magical had never truly known what to do with her, but as he himself was a tutor at the different universities in their county, and after going through countless despairing nannies, he eventually decided that his best bet would be to take her along with him instead, where he could keep an eye on her.
Mary would lounge around all day, and so naturally she became particularly knowledgeable in the arts of Mathematics and Chemistry, the two subjects her father specialised in. These served her well in her OWLs, as she gained Outstanding's in Arithmancy and Potions, and mostly Exceed Expectations in everything academical. The subjects that Mary wasn't so good at was more hands on subjects, like Herbology and Divination. Yet she still passed every OWL. Mary was happy with this, and intended to do the same on her NEWTs, and so had been trying to work hard all year. This was a rarity that she had some free time, and she wanted to have some fun with her friends.
"Well I would, but not all of us have inside knowledge to the weird workings of a Muggle mind." Alice Prewett, a clumsy but loveable girl asked, motioning in circles to herself and Hestia, both of whom were had grown up around Wizards- Alice being pureblood and Hestia half. "Fancy filling us in here?"
"I think she means Truth or Dare," Lily corrected, giggling. "We used to play it occasionally back when I went to my Muggle primary. I remember it being very funny to a group of rowdy Year Fives."
"Yeah," snorted Hestia. "And when have you, little miss perfect, ever been considered 'rowdy'?"
Lily lunged at Hestia, who immediately started shrieking and screaming, causing Mary to cover her ears and Alice to wince. Lily wasn't bothered by it though and raised her arms in what seemed to be a threatening way, before digging them into Hestia's elaborate updo and messing it all up.
"Do carry on, Mary," Lily said, grinning as she sat back down on her own bed...
"Well it's pretty simple," Mary explained, once the laughter had died down. "We take it in turns to choose either truth or dare. If you choose truth then the rest of the group ask you a question, to which you must answer honestly. Hence the name. If you pick dare, then you must fulfil something that the other players dare you to do. Right, Lily?"
"Why must you do the dare?" asked Hestia, obviously trying to find some unforeseen loophole.
"Because those are the rules." Lily replied firmly.
"Well, I'm up for it," Grinned Alice, rubbing her hands together. "Who wants to go first? Nobody? I vote Hestia."
"What! Why me?" Hestia cried.
"You're the eldest." Shrugged Alice.
"That is so not fair." Hestia tried, but she was overruled by Mary and Lily.
"I disagree, I think it's pretty fair to be honest." Stated Mary with a sly wink at her friend.
It was only when she felt comfortable that Mary ever came out of her shell properly, and the truth was that she never really felt comfortable around most people. It had taken two years and a lot of persistence on Alice's behalf to get Mary to open up to them, to let her hair down, to trust them not to poke fun at her, or judge her, just simply be there for her and enjoy their company, solely as friends. They all knew Mary must have had a good reason for not trusting anybody enough to be herself around them. The three of them had made some pretty half-hearted attempts to get Mary to confide in them, but in the end all that happened was that Mary would get upset and close up again, and so all of the girls had learnt not to ask. They didn't want her to recoil back into her shell like a snail again.
"You would say that!" Cried Hestia. "Your birthday is in July!"
"Blame my parents," She shrugged, earning a raised eyebrows and a small choked giggle from Alice.
"You'd have thought somebody who's in a steady relationship of two-and-a-bit- years would have a bit of a higher maturity level than that." Lily chuckled, poking Alice in the stomach, making her giggle.
"Speaking of which," Hestia begun, her big blue eyes sparkling. "You and Frankie-boy- have you ever, you know-"
Alice squirmed uncomfortably on her bed, on which they were all perched, lying in various positions. She threw a badly aimed pillow at Hestia, which missed its target completely and instead hit an unfortunate box of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, sending them reeling into every nook and cranny of the room.
"Thank Merlin for that," Lily grinned. Her hatred of those beans was well known, ever since the Marauders had used this against her in a prank around Christmas of third year. When asked why she disliked the sweets so much, Lily often replied with something about the unpredictability of them, and how it was pointless when you could otherwise have a box of Jelly Beans with flavours of your choice. It made sense really, at least to her.
Alice was obviously thinking along those lines; "Do you guys remember that time when the Maraud-"
"Yes, yes, we all remember." Brushed off Hestia. "But you, my friend, are not getting out of this one. Have you and Frank ever 'done the deed'?"
Alice blushed and opened her mouth to say something, but Hestia cut in front of her again.
"And don't you even bother saying 'no' to this one. You two have been best friends since you were born, flirting and crushing on each other since your hormones kicked in, dating for what, two, three years now?"
"On top of that, he tells you sincerely that he loves you every night before you separate, you trust him, and I quote 'more than anyone else in the world'-" Continued Lily.
"You're very pretty Alice, in an innocent way, which I guess would be good for role play," Hestia pointed out, acknowledging that Alice was turning purple from embarrassment. "And hell, you cannot deny that puberty has treated that boy well. So please, feel free to continue." Hestia crossed one leg over the other and sat up straight, looking expectantly at Alice.
Alice genuinely had no reply to that. She was no prude but she knew Frank wouldn't want her sharing their secrets, and neither did she. It was too private, too special, too vulnerable a thing to go waving about. It was theirs, something only the two of them shared, and although neither had said anything specifically about keeping it to themselves, they knew each other so well, it was a given really. So instead of forming words, Alice simply opened and closed her mouth a few times, like a fish.
After several long seconds of this, sensing her discomfort Mary stepped in. "Save it for the game, shall we?"
Alice shot Mary a grateful look, making a mental note to select dare for her next few goes.
"So Hestia, enough of the prolonging. Truth or dare?" Alice asked, her blush fading away rapidly as they begun the game.
"Let's take it easy for the first one, yeah? Truth."
Lily's eyes lit up immediately, a gesture that Hestia knew from impatiently waiting for Lily whilst she was studying was bound to be an idea. She didn't like it.
"Hestia Jones, seeing as you avoided my question earlier on, what are your intentions with our dearest Sirius?"
"Erm, Sirius Black?" Hestia tried.
"The one and only."
"You know, by saying 'intentions', you're hinting that I'm only using him?"
"Well, aren't you?"
"Humph." Replied Hestia, stumped. "Touché"
"So..?" Pressed Alice.
"So what?"
"Answer the question, woman!"
"But I don't understand what you're asking," Hestia whined.
'What you plan on doing with him, how long you plan on using him for, the extent of your feelings for him, et cetera. . ."
"We're just ... friends with benefits?" Hestia stated, voice creeping up the Sopranos. It only became higher in pitch when she was either lying or trying to hide something.
"Lies," sang Lily.
"No I'm not, we are only broom-closet-buddies, as you so kindly put it Lily." Hestia sighed, looking down, clicking her bright pink manicured nails against one another.
"But you're not content with that, are you Hest?" asked Mary quietly. It was strange, how Mary worked. She was often timid and trying to stay out of the limelight, but when she spoke she had a deeming quality that made everybody pipe down and listen to her, and she didn't even know. Even though Mary wasn't loud and controlling you just couldn't help but try to listen, for she was very insightful.
"Okay if I answer your specified questions, can we just leave it at that?" Hestia asked sharply, making it obvious that anybody who tried to continue with the subject would regret it. "I plan on going all the way with him. Merlin knows he'll be great in bed, and hey, I'm a hormonal teenage girl-"
"But-" began Alice, obviously confused.
"Before you ask, of course he's up for it, he's made that much obvious, but I have to make him work for it, don't I?" She said with a cheeky wink. "The second and third part to your question is where things get confusing… for me at least. I don't really see myself as using him, although it sure started out that way - for both of us, I'm sure. My feelings for him? Nothing more than lust..? Or at least, that's how it used to be… all I know is that he's hilarious, good company and a good kisser. Scratch that. Great kisser. Usually you only get one."
"Has our little Hestia, dare I say it, developed feelings for a boy?" Alice asked, feigning a gasp of shock.
"Hey, that's technically your fifth question." Hestia replied, attempting and failing to make her voice lower again. "It's payback time now. But no, you know I don't do relationships . . . Alice, your birthday is in April, right? And little Mary's is in July- lucky thing. So that means Lily, truth or dare, my dear friend?"
"I am so going to regret this but . . . dare."
Her three dorm mates squatted together, whispering intently whilst Lily leaned back against the head board of Alice's' bed and wondered what on earth had compelled her to pick dare - playing with Hestia of all people.
She turned her head lazily and looked around the dormitory. It was circular shaped, which was obvious since they were all in Gryffindor tower, with a big circular heater in the centre of the room. Mary and Marlene's bed were situated about five feet apart, one on each side of the door. Mary took the other bed next to the door simply because the rest was taken and she really didn't mind. Marlene had chosen her bed 'just to be prepared'. None of the other girls really knew what she meant by that, so they just nodded and smiled, which was what they usually did when it came to Marlene. It had worked out best that she was closest to the door anyway, because she was always dashing in and out, usually with a quaffle, doxy, or something of the sort tucked under her arm. She really was a hectic, crazy type of girl.
Next to Marlene was Alice's bed, on which they were all sat. She and Lily had traded a few years back to prevent Marlene from 'whispering' (more like yelling in a hissing tone) across the room whenever she wanted to communicate with Alice after light's out. It was usually Marlene who did the talking, and Alice never got a word in edgeways, so she just nodded along until she fell asleep and Marlene would continue, talking to herself. Eventually the pair learnt that a tired Lily was not a happy Lily, which would always result in the torture of whoever had the misfortune to be in her presence the next day. The same went for Hestia, who 'needed her beauty sleep', and so Lily offered (demanded) to trade beds.
The two still whispered, although rather more quietly, up until late fourth year, when Severus had taught Lily an unfamiliar spell, 'Muffliato'. She had taught it to the two, and nowadays all she could hear was a faint buzzing noise whenever the two put up the charm. It was better than nothing, Lily supposed.
Next to Alice's bed, in the middle of them all, was Hestia's, which was rather fitting as Hestia thrived off being the centre of attention.
And lastly, between Mary and Hestia was Lily's bed, and unsurprisingly it was the neatest of them all, closely followed by Mary's, then by Hestia's, who had outfits strewn all over it. Next came Marlene's, who, predictably had not even bothered making it, had random pages from school books dotted around, a few odd trainers around, a blue robe lying in a wrinkled pile, a mound of discarded Chocolate Frog wrappers, feathers still there from her pillow, a green… food stain? Presumably from that morning, and various pads from her Quidditch attire- it seemed that Potter hadn't deemed it necessary for them. Lily shook her head fondly at her crazy friend, and turned her attention back to the game, just in time to hear them all coming to a conclusion.
"I can't wait to see the face on Sirius!" shrieked Hestia through her laughing.
"Never mind about him, how d'you reckon Marlene will react?" giggled Mary.
"Care to fill me in here guys?" Lily said, mimicking Alice from earlier on.
"I'd be delighted," she grinned back. "We, dare you, Lily Evans, to . . . spur on the Quidditch players."
"Oh, that's easy." Lily shrugged, thinking how her friends were clearly inexperienced at this game.
"And what we mean by that," continued Hestia. "Is that you have to take that Muggle record player thing or whatever it is, down to the Quidditch Pitch where Gryffindor are training, get on a broom, bop around and play some encouraging song-"
"- I vote 'Let's get physical' by Olivia Newton-John, to be that song," chimed Mary.
"Muggle thing? Yeah sure, whatever," Brushed off Hestia, obviously eager to continue. "And fly around on the broom, with it playing at a magically enhanced volume, circling the players – 'encouraging them' to train."
"The looks on their faces will be hysterical," Alice giggled.
Lily knew that this was potentially going to be pretty funny. Also potentially embarrassing. But she was a proud Gryffindor, and so she was not going to dwell on that. As Mary had pointed out, Marlene would definitely have a funny reaction, and she was one of her best friends. Sirius too, would be funny, and as they were in the eldest year at the school, the look on the younger student's faces would be priceless. She couldn't get too told off for doing so, at least, not enough to ruin her clean detentionless state. Well, that was a lie.
She had had three, just three (!) detentions before, but none were directly her fault. They had all been Potter's and Black's doing. Also, it was Potter who had annoyed her so much that she simply had to throw a teacup at him in divination in their third year.
The two were supposed to be working on a paired assignment, but Lily simply couldn't bear being around him, so they split it in half. Lily was going to write about the theory of them, and although Potter was undeniably smart, Lily noticed he never tried for homework, so she gave him the easier task of writing about an example. Lily didn't have time to read through their work as Potter had shown up late to the lesson, so she stuck them together and handed it in. When they got it back, sure they got a fairly high grade- an Acceptable (not quite Lily's standard, but she could live with it), until she scanned through Potters work and read how his tea leaves showed him and Lily getting married in the close future, and how there would be ten little auburn-coloured, crazy-haired kids running around their shared home. Yes, Potter really had that tea cup coming. It had only taken the matron to a couple of hours to have his pretty little face back to normal.
Unfortunately.
And Black had most definitely had it coming when he almost killed Snape. That had been completely out of order, yet Lily was surprised when Black just let her hex and curse him to her hearts content, he didn't fight back at all. Either way, she would have won the duel. Her and Snape were childhood friends and had always been close friends. Well, up until a few months after that incident; Lily would never forgive him for calling her a mu-
Anyway, her third and final detention to this date had been about two weeks after that incident when Potter had apparently been trying to 'comfort' her, by telling her that Snape had no right, how he was blind if he refused to see past her blood heritage, etc. But Lily had been trying to forget all about it, admittedly a terrible job at it, but Potter had bought it up when it was all so fresh and raw that all of her anger from the incident and her betrayal just boiled up inside of her and she simply couldn't help screaming at him so loudly that several teachers had come to inspect. Okay, maybe that one wasn't Potter's fault. It was slightly hers. But mostly Snape's, now she thought about it.
"Okay, I'll do it. Can I borrow your broom, Hest? Yours is faster than mine." she said slowly, contemplating the dare.
"Sure- it's under my bed. Lily?" Hestia asked curiously. "I don't mind you borrowing mine at all, but I can't help wondering how come you never bothered getting your own broom?"
Lily blushed and muttered something incoherent. The truth was that Lily simply could not afford it, but by answering that question truthfully, so many more would be asked.
Lily hated it, truly she did, lying to her friends, but it was better than the alternative. She could not, never ever, let her friends figure out her biggest secret. She told them most things, but this was simply something that they could not know. She didn't want their pity. Nor did she want them to look at her differently, which was something Lily knew for sure that they would. They already did in a sense, although they tried as hard as they could not to show it. Lily was different to them; muggle born. Everyone knew what that meant in those days and age, what with stories of Voldemort haunting the pages of the Daily Prophet...
The burden of her secret had been weighing on Lily's shoulders since she was only nine years old. Lily had let her life be shaped around her secret, it was the reason she immersed herself so far into her studies, it was why her walls were so often up, it was why she had strived to be head girl; so that she could do well in life, make a name for herself, it was the ultimate reason as to why the Sorting Hat had placed her in Gryffindor instead of Ravenclaw.
When a thought had crossed her eleven year old mind about how she mightn't live up to its glorified reputation, the Hat had said how Lily had most definitely proved herself to be Gryffindor-worthy already.
You see, Lily's beautiful, intelligent, beloved mother, her teasing, strong, cheerful father and her incessantly chuckling, two year old baby brother had all died, been killed, murdered, by a devastating house fire. It had turned their once smiling faces into nothing but ash. Ash which officials had been unable to decipher between bodies and furniture. But Lily could not, would not let it define who she was. Or so she tried. Lily shook away the ghosts of her past, and reimbursed herself to the game at hand.
"I'll pretend I heard what you said," Hestia shook off, noticing the common faraway look in Lily's emerald eyes. "But, we're not finished. You're going to do it in your underwear."
Ah. There were the friends Lily knew and, at this moment in time, hated.
"I. Am. Head. Girl!" She exclaimed. "I am not frolicking around the school grounds in my underwear!"
"We don't mean you need to walk through the school in your underwear," Mary attempted. "Just from the moment you start playing the song."
"Absolutely not."
"C'mon Lils, don't be a pansy," chided Hestia.
"I'm not being a 'pansy', but there is no way that Potter, or Black for that matter is going to see me in my knickers and bra."
"Undoubtedly Potter already has – in his dreams at least," giggled Hestia. "So much for being a Gryffindor, Lily."
That stung Lily slightly. She had spent the best past of six years trying to prove to the rest of the school that although she was muggle born, she was damned proud of it and she deserved to be at Hogwarts as much as anyone else did. That loyalty also covered her being a Gryffindor, something which Hestia knew full well.
"How long for?" Lily asked with gritted teeth.
"Just the duration of the song," replied Mary innocently, fighting back her smile. They had won.
Lily grabbed her black Hogwarts robe, and flounced into their en suite bathroom, slamming the door for good measure. She stripped out of her weekend clothes, down to her underwear. Lily wasn't self-conscious of her body, but had never been one to flaunt it. Lily remembered a quote that her deceased mother had once taught her. 'Lovely Lily, you just remember this, if you ever start to like a boy, just remember, you don't need to get his attention; you need to make him vie for your attention.'
But funnily enough most of the boys she had ever felt attracted to suddenly seemed to become the new targets of the Marauders pranks, and so she had never really held onto a boy for too long – they had all been frightened away by Potter, who seemed to think that he had some sort of damn claim over her.
Thinking about it, Potter hadn't really been quite as tiresome in the past year. He had seemed to have grown up quite a bit. He didn't hex random people whom he passed in the corridor anymore, yet he still hadn't lost that mischievous side of him. He and his cronies still played the occasional prank, although they were rarer, although Lily thought regretfully, they were usually on a much grander scale. She had to admit it though, they could be funny. Sometimes. Rarely. Okay, on a weekend perhaps, or maybe outside after lessons. But what really irked Lily, was when the marauders took their pranks into the classroom. She wanted to learn, and the bloody so-called-Marauders assured that the lesson went to waste. It was then that Lily got frustrated. However, since the professors had laid on the work about the NEWTs, the pair had at least acknowledged the workload, and had been at least a teeny bit more responsible. By that, Lily meant that Potter actually took most of his Head boy (Lily still couldn't fathom how on earth he made that role) duties seriously, although, she hastened to add, he had undoubtedly abused the position of authority at least once this year. It was annoying though, how he wasn't as committed to monitoring the halls. He managed to worm himself out of a night duty at least once a month, and whenever he did show up, he was always done within half an hour. It was as if he had some sort of spy which showed him all of the snogging hotspots.
'But then again,' Lily thought snidely. 'He's probably well acquainted with them all.'
Lily looked into the bathroom mirror and inspected herself. She didn't consider herself particularly pretty; her dark red hair and emerald green eyes were too festive for her taste, and it was difficult to find outfits that wouldn't clash. Yet she wasn't ugly either, she was perfectly normal.
She had a slim waist, not toned though, for although Lily enjoyed flying, she dedicated her time more to her studies rather than to sports. She was wearing a simple lilac bra, and she was grateful that she hadn't chosen a more revealing one. Her breasts were perky and a rather average size, a fact that she couldn't bring herself to really care about. Her bottom was fairly rounded, yet not as much as Hestia's toned booty (her pride and joy), and she had short slim legs which she never really flaunted for the fact that she really didn't need to emphasize her height – or lack thereof.
Lily sighed as she shrugged on her robe, the sensible part of her begging her to tell her 'friends' that she was out of the game, but the more adventurous, true Gryffindor part of her was whispering obscenely that if she did this right, then even she might get a kick out of watching Potter's reaction.
She tightened her robe and stepped out of the bathroom, making sure she gave all of her dorm-mates well deserved evil glares, before picking up Hestia's broom in one hand, her mother's old record player in the other, and stalked out of the dormitory. Lily rarely used it anyway, as the Head boy and Girl had a Head Common Room and their own private bedrooms.
Alice, Hestia and Mary soon caught up with Lily, but they were held up by the fact that Alice fell into every trick step on the rotating staircases that they encountered ("Honestly Alice, how does Frank cope with you?" Hestia would ask.), and it was ten to eight by the time the four of them reached the Quidditch Pitch. Much to Lily's disappointment, the team were all still outside, working up a sweat, most of them looking worse for wear, including the energetic Marlene, although she looked to be enjoying herself? Even the fit as can be Sirius Black looked like he wanted to drop dead, and Potter wasn't far behind him, yet they persevered.
Marlene's face brightened up as she waved and called over to her friends, attracting the attention of the whole team. Potter glanced up and nodded acknowledgement in their direction before calling back his squads attention to him. He then made the team start to do fitness exercises which he was clearly the best at; showing off. Lily rolled her eyes and turned back to face her friends, paler than ever, taking in their expressions. Mary was looking anxious, Alice; slightly apprehensive, and Hestia; fighting back giggles.
"I guess we'll just go and sit up there then," grinned Alice, motioning to where Remus was sat doing homework and Peter was sat, pointing things out to Remus who nodded every now and then, clearing not listening to his friend.
Mary blushed at the sight of Remus, and tucked her hair behind her ears, ducking her head. Lily grinned knowingly at her. She obviously liked him a lot, but she would never do anything about it, yet nor would he, for that matter. Marlene and Hestia were completely oblivious to it, but judging by the smug look on Alice's face, she had an inkling too.
She watched with baited breath as they made their way up the stands and approached Remus - Mary lagging nervously behind.
"Here goes nothing," Lily muttered to herself, as she stepped into the shadows. She put her wand to her record player and muttered a spell, whilst swivelling the knob to a volume so that everyone within a fifty feet radius could hear it.
Outside the magic didn't affect the electrical current as much, so the song played fairly smoothly. As the volume cranked up, the Quidditch team looked over in surprise to see it was their head girl playing the unfamiliar song. To everyone's amazement, Lily then shrugged out of her robe and straddled the broom, and began to rise unsteadily into the air.
I'm saying all the things that I know you'll like, makin' good conversation
I gotta handle you just right, you know what I mean
I took you to an intimate restaurant, then to a suggestive movie
There's nothin' left to talk about, unless it's horizontally
Lily was hovering a few feet above the Quidditch team just as the chorus started up. Lily braved a glance down. The youngest players - both girls – had covered their eyes prudently, Marlene was laughing her head off, hollering 'Shake what your mamma gave ya!', and every single male Quidditch player was ogling up at her, as though Christmas had come early, and although Potter's brow was furrowed slightly, he was certainly enjoying the show. Lily was suddenly thankful that she had worn girly boxers that morning otherwise she was sure that they would have been able to see what she had for breakfast. Lily gulped.
Let's get physical, physical, I wanna get physical, let's get into physical
Let me hear your body talk, your body talk, let me hear your body talk
"Come on guys! Weren't you just saying that we weren't to be distracted by anything, James? Yoo hoo, James? Anyone home?" Cried Marlene, waving her hand about in front of James.
"Oh – erm – yes, where was I . . . I . . ." James tried, but yet again failed to form words as the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life was circling around him, like his own personal angel.
"Guess I'm taking over then. Boys, get your butts in gear! We even have our own private cheerleader to encourage us now!"
Reluctantly the boys began their work out again, although this time most of them opted for sit ups – anything to look upwards. That was when James finally came round to his senses and realised that it was his Lily that they were all fantasising about.
"Press ups! Everybody! I want one hundred before training finishes in five minutes!" He yelled, ignoring the protests. "Come on don't make me-"
"Lily Evans!?" A shrill shriek interrupted James' order. "What on earth do you think you're doing up there? Come down this instant!"
Lily blanched, her heart suddenly dropping to her stomach and doing summersaults.
How had they not known that Madam Hooch was there?! She was going to get in so much trouble for that. She was going to kill Hestia, Alice and Mary. Marlene too, for good measure. Lily lowered herself to the ground, and knew it was a lost cause even bothering to try and hide her burgundy blush. Damn her ginger genes.
"Y-yes, Madam Hooch?"
"What do you think you're playing at, Miss Evans? Get your robe – it's straight to the Head Teacher's office for you!"
The music suddenly went off, and Lily looked over to see Mary taking it away, probably so that Madam Hooch didn't get even more riled up. Mary then began scrambling around for Lily's cloak, but apparently it was nowhere in sight.
Lily was just contemplating how much trouble exactly she could get into for what she had just done, when she felt a warm, toned arm around her bare shoulders- Potter. Lily grimaced and felt the urge to squirm away from him, but the sincere look on his face prevented her from doing so. He gave her shoulder a subtle squeeze, all the while looking at the sports teacher in a friendly manner.
"Is there a problem, Madam Hooch?" He asked, flashing her his toothy, charming smile which most girls couldn't help but fall for.
"Yes, in fact there is. I cannot have Miss Evans here putting on that display. It's unacceptable."
"Oh, my apologies, Ma'am."
At this statement, both Lily and Madam Hooch looked at him questioningly.
"I don't understand, Potter?"
"You see, my uncle took me to see the English muggle football team play in the summer, and they had beautiful girls called 'Cheerleaders' doing routines, encouraging the men to play better, you know, similar to what Veela's do at Quidditch matches. I thought it was an excellent idea, and Lily here was willing to lend a hand, and as you saw, everyone started working much more efficiently. I apologise if you took offence, I just want to make sure that Gryffindor win the cup again this year, and so does Lily."
Lily looked at him, her pink lips transformed into a comical 'O' shape, eye brows raised. Madam Hooch shuffled about uncomfortably.
"I should have known it would be your doing. Detention, Potter. You must ask my permission of these things. There were second years about! Miss Evans, next time . . . wear more appropriate attire."
Lily squeaked out an agreement, standing there shocked as James checked his watch and told the rest of the team that they were dismissed, before turning to look her up and down. Lily watched, avoiding eye contact, as he shrugged out of his deep burgundy and gold Quidditch robe and draped it around her shoulders. It was only then that she realised she had been shivering.
"You shouldn't have taken the blame for me," Lily said, coming to her senses. However much she was thankful to be out of trouble, she hated being in peoples debt – especially Potter's.
"Forget about it, it was worth it," He winked. "Anyway, another detention isn't going to kill me, but it looked as though it might just finish you off. And we couldn't have that now, could we Lilypad?"
"Guess not." She replied shortly, ignoring the pet name. "Besides, you're the cause of my only other detentions."
"Oh, so it was me who hexed you, right?" he snorted.
"I said 'the cause', didn't I?"
"I'll give you that one." He asked, flashing her that smile again, as he lifted one of her numb arms into the arm hole. "Not that I'm complaining, but do you fancy telling me what all that little show was all about?"
"Not really, no," She replied.
"C'mon Evans, you owe me"
Lily scowled. "I was playing a game."
"Looks like a fun game..."
"It is." Lily bit her lip. "Usually."
"In return for my saving your arse right then, how about you let me play?"
"Not gonna happen Potter."
"Too scared that I'll beat you Evans?"
"Dream on." Lily jeered. "It's not that sort of game anyway."
"I'll win whatever game it is." Lily had to grin at his persistence. He really was stubborn, of course she knew this from experience; he hadn't been thawing over her for the past few years for anything less than his stupid stubbornness. "How about you let me prove that to you?"
"You want to play with us girls all on your own? Can you really bare to be apart from your precious Sirius for so long?"
"Don't be ridiculous- of course i can't." He deadpanned, making Lily laugh. "I'll be bringing the rest of the Marauders along with me! ... As long as that's okay with you?"
Lily felt fairly surprised that he had been polite enough to ask her permission, and she found herself agreeing to him.
"I guess that would be okay . . . I mean, Hestia would like that."
"Great, well as I said, we are just finishing up here, so we'll just nip back up to the changing rooms, have a quick shower, and be up with Sirius and Marlene in twenty minutes."
"You called?" Grinned Marlene, slinging an arm around each of their shoulders. James and Marlene's families were very close, and so the two of them had been bought up together. Naturally she felt very comfortable around him.
Lily felt Marlene's Quidditch bag bump into the back of her leg, and judging by the distinctive gleam coming from her forehead, Marlene hadn't showered yet either. As if she knew Lily's train of thoughts, Marlene continued. "I'll wash back at the dorm. I wanted to catch up with you, y'know, check and see if you'd survived Madam Hooch. Figured it would probably be best for me to break the news to the girls if you hadn't…"
"I'm very much alive." Lily replied drily.
"That's good, because I wanted you to let me know next time you plan on repeating, though, I might just join you. It looked fun."
"Let me know too," Grinned James. "I'd participate."
"So long as you won't fall off of your broom James," laughed Marlene freely. "I wasn't sure whether you had been confunded into thinking that Christmas had come early, or whether you'd just been stunned?"
"Oh, I was most definitely stunned," James replied, wriggling his eyebrows suggestively at Lily.
"So, are you wanting to meet in the common room?" asked Lily over her shoulder as she tried to ignore James' comment and reached for Marlene's hand. She turned to walk away, unable to get her mind around the whole fiasco.
"Sounds perfec…" replied James quietly, as he watched the rhythm of Lily's swaying hips as she walked off into the night.
o.O
Lily and Marlene walked in through the portrait hole, only to be met by four anxious faces. Hestia was drumming her fingers on the table in an impatient manner, Alice was gripping the hand of her long term boyfriend Frank Longbottom, taking comfort from him, and Mary was slumped in an armchair, feet tucked up, looking even more nervous than usual. Mary was the only one who noticed them at first, the other three were urgently muttering something about how much trouble Lily would be in.
Mary bolted upright as soon as Lily came into view, causing the other three to turn around. Lily smiled at them all to show that everything was okay, as Marlene dragged her over to their usual fireside perch.
"We're so sorry Lily," gushed Mary, as Hestia and Alice begun their own apologies. "We had no idea that Madam Hooch was overseeing practise!"
"You can do anything to us for payback!" but in Alice.
"We'd totally deserve it!"
"We wouldn't even complain!"
"..Well not anything… we have out limits…"
After another minute of this, Marlene grinned and turned to Lily. "Do you think it's time to put them out of their misery yet?"
"Nah, I could get used to this grovelling. It's fun" she replied.
The three grovelers paused.
"What?" asked Hestia, evidently confused.
"…She got off scott-free!" laughed Marlene.
"How in Merlin's name did you manage that?" Asked Frank, clearly astonished.
"Let's just say having Mister James Potter worship the ground you walk on comes in useful at times," replied Marlene, only to be met with a glare from Lily.
"Potter got you out of this?" asked Alice, not hiding her surprise.
"How did he do that?" Wondered Mary.
"What, and he didn't demand a romp in the broom closet for doing so?" cried Hestia, a little too loudly, attracting curious stares from the younger students.
"Shh!" reprimanded Lily, remembering her head girl status. "Not exactly, he just wants to play with us."
"And what did you say to that?" Alice asked.
"I said he could," Lily replied, upon seeing the smirks on all of her friends' faces, she carried on. "What else could I say? He'd just saved me from having my 'Head Girl' badge taken away from me!"
"Chill Lily," Sighed Marlene. "It'll be fun!"
"Oh yeah, fun for you! You like the Marauders."
"You would too, if you gave them a chance." Countered Hestia.
"They have never given me reason to give them a chance. All that James Potter - occasionally with the help of Sirius Black - has done to me for the past few years are things that they know will tick me off. They both have a huge ego, which is probably because they're both filthy rich and have most likely always had everything handed to them on a silver platter. So give me one reason that they deserve for me to give them a bloody chance?! They've blown it."
"Breathe, Lily." Said Mary calmly. "We're only saying how you could easily learn to like them. It's your choice on whether you do or don't, we're not making you."
"Good."
"So does Potter even know what we're playing?" Asked Hestia. "I mean he is pure-blood and all."
"When it comes to Lily, you could have been playing with your dollies and he'd be there," Grinned Frank.
Ignoring this comment Lily marched on. "I didn't mention it… he just said that he'd be there with his friends."
"Oh, so I guess Remus will be playing, right?" asked Mary, a little too nonchantly. She glanced at Hestia before adding. "And Sirius and Peter, too?"
"I guess…" replied Lily grinning fondly at her innocent friend. "I'm not going to back out of my promise to Potter, but mark my words- this will only result in trouble."
"So what?" smiled Marlene. "Getting in trouble is fun. Live a little, Lils."
"Anyway, by the sounds of it, you owe it to Potter." Continued Hestia, grinning. She knew Lily too well. She understood her weak points, and knew that she detested owing anybody anything. "Plus, playing dares with boys? Who knows where it will take us?"
"Hey!" protested Frank. "What am I?"
"You, my friend, are taken." Replied Alice, pressing a chaste kiss to his lips.
The girls barely had time to grumble at the thoroughly loved up couple to 'get a room', as they were distracted by raucous laughing coming through the portrait hole. Lily didn't need to look towards the noise to know who it was. Fighting the urge to roll her eyes she raised her head, to see the Marauders heading their way, all smiling- nothing new there.
o.O
"Ah. So that's why you're out of the changing rooms so quickly, I'd of thought you needed a nice, long, cold, shower after Lily's little… show, earlier on." Sirius Black said in reply to his best friend, as he flicked his long black tresses idly out of his face in a way that made girls crumple to their feet all around him. The four Marauders were traipsing back up to the Gryffindor common room after training, and James had just explained that Lily's prior actions were down to some game she and her friends had been playing, the very game that the four of them would soon be joining in with.
"Tell me how you managed to bribe Lily to let you spend time with her?"
"She invited me," grinned James.
"Likely story," Snickered Sirius.
"And by that you mean that you invited yourself." Stated Remus at the exact same time.
"It's the same thing!" protested James as Remus recited the Gryffindor common room password. James' expected answer made the other three boys burst out laughing as they had heard him say that phrase too many times. James himself had to chuckle at the sight of his best friends.
'Probably pulled another successful prank,' Lily thought sourly.
"Ever get that feeling where you're missing something?" Hestia mused.
"All the time," Frank replied, as his four dorm mates approached them.. "Fancy sharing the joke?"
"They all think that they're amusing." Sulked James, as he sunk down into the couch next to Marlene.
"Oh Prongsie, we are amusing and you know it." Sirius stated. He sat on the floor, beneath where Hestia was sitting. He lolled his head back and oh so casually flung his arm onto the sofa so that his fingers were trailing in a circular motion on the tanned skin of Hestia's exposed thigh. Her skirt had ridden up, much to Sirius' advantage, as a result of Hestia being sat down for so long. She shivered with pleasure, and let her own hands and delicately caress his gloriously long thick hair. Their exchange was practised and discreet, so that nobody other than the two knew what was happening, which simply encouraged the two teenagers.
"I think his head needs deflating somewhat," Continued James, knowingly using one of Lily's most famous lines, which made them all laugh.
A quick battle had gone on inside of Lily's head, where she was unable to tell whether he was making fun of her, but she soon realised that the joke was more pointing towards himself, and due to the twinkle in his hazel eyes, creased up from happiness. Lily joined in with the chuckles after only a matter of seconds. James noticed this and it delighted him to know that he could make her smile. He could never explain the effect she had on him by doing such minor things.
She was so beautiful, her deep red hair cascading down her slim shoulder blades, accentuating the heart shape of her head.
The rarity of her laughter certainly was a shame, James conceded. The amount she laughed had been decreasing notably in the past few weeks, whereas the bags under her eyes were forever increasing. James had an obvious theory for the reason this, but he knew better than to confront her about it, it was much too personal for someone like him to ask her, and there was also the fact that she didn't even particularly like conversing with him. But hey, it was an improvement from the previous year when she couldn't even stand looking at him.
"So I heard we were going to be playing a game?" Peter piped up after the laughter had died down.
"Well it's getting quite late-" Lily started.
"Peter, we were playing Truth or Dare." Hestia said, cutting Lily off, before she could get started.
"What's that?"
"It's pretty self-explanatory, to be honest," replied Lily.
"We take it in turns to choose either 'truth' or 'dare'," continued Mary. "If you choose truth, then the rest of the group ask you any question they like. If you choose dare, then the group decide on something which you must do."
"We've played this before!" exclaimed James.
"We have?" asked Peter, crinkling his forehead as he tried to remember.
Sirius grinned and nodded, the memory flooding back. "Well we never really gave it a name, and it didn't have the whole 'truth' element to it, but do you remember that summer when we all went to stay at the Potters' Mansion in France-"
"You have a Villa in France?" Hestia asked incredulously. James replied with a small shrug as if it was no big deal.
"That's nothing," replied Peter for James. "His family have a Villa on a beach in the Mediterranean, one next to some skiing resort in Switzerland-"
"Wormtail!" exclaimed James, throwing a cushion at his head so as to make him shut up. As proud as James was of his heritage, he didn't like flaunting his money. It was an embarrassing concept, and he didn't want people to think that he would have his life bought for him, his parents had already made it clear that although they would support him, they'd only put in as much effort as he would.
"And you have not lived until you've seen the view from the Potter mansion in Spain!" Added Marlene, ruffling James' hair, enjoying his discomfort.
"Guys," James stated in an exasperated tone.
"So are you gonna tell the girls about our game of dares with the French muggles, Sirius?" Interrupted Remus, changing the subject back to its original.
"I don't know, I enjoy annoying Jamesie boy," replied Sirius, earning himself a shoulder punch from his best mate. "We went to the beach that time and there was some French muggle girls who offered us a game. It was fun whilst it lasted-"
"- but we had to call it quits early because you ended up going into one of the girls houses and not coming back out." grinned Remus. "So I'm guessing that Lily chose Dare earlier on?"
Lily burrowed her face into a nearby cushion, hiding her blush. "You guys are never going to let me live that down, are you?" She groaned in a muffled voice, met only with chuckles. "Can we just restart the game already?"
"I'm in." decided James immediately, followed by the rest of the seventh year Gryffindor's.
So, first chapter's up! Anything you liked/disliked about it? And if you have any ideas for truth or dares then feel free to let me know and i'll give credit to you :-) thanks for reading!