Chapter 2 – Truth or dare

Once they got back to their dormitory, James collapsed face down on the bed, burying his head in the pillows and trying to quell his queasy stomach.

"Padfoot..." he said after a bit, his voice muffled. "What the hell happened last night?"

Sirius chuckled as James turned to lie on his back. "I'm not sure Prongs but I think that I may have exaggerated a little on the booze."

James glared at him. "You don't say. What exactly did you put in that punch bowl?"

Sirius grinned. "Oh, a little bit of this and a little bit of that-" Sirius ducked as James sent one of his shoes hurtling his way.

"This is not funny Padfoot... my head feels like it's floating in glue and I can't remember shit from last night," said James as he pressed the heels of his hands over his eyes. "Oh did I mention that I'm on Lily's black list once more?"

Sirius looked at his friend with an amused expression on his face but didn't comment about it. Instead he said, "What's the last thing you can remember?"

James sighed and willed his painful brain to work. "Umm... the common room... we were sitting down around the table... we were drinking... you suggested we play truth or dare... Peter got first turn..." James stopped and sat up suddenly realizing something."Peter! Where the hell is Peter... and Remus?!"

He looked around the empty room as if expecting them to pop out from thin air. Sirius slid down the bed to look over the edge and underneath. Finding no-one, he straightened back up to find James staring weirdly at him.

"What?" he said, defensively. "You never know."

"Padfoot..." said James, trying to keep calm. For some reason, this total lapse of memory and the absence of his two friends was making him feel on edge. "We need to find out where they are... Do you remember anything else?"

Sirius flicked his long hair away from his face and frowned. "Only that Peter chose to do a dare... and before you ask, I don't remember what it was. "

James sighed in frustration. "We need to talk to someone... maybe they know where they are."

"No. We need a shower." said Sirius, smelling his clothes and grimacing. "Then maybe we'll go and do some detective work."

James lay back down on the bed and closed his eyes. Leave it to Sirius to think about showering at this moment. What did he put in that drink? He had never been this hung over before and he didn't know what was worse... not knowing what happened or the look on Lily's face earlier this morning.

While Sirius showered, he went down the stairs groggily clutching the banister tightly. He really did not want to top the list of seriously bad things with a broken limb as well. He sat down on an armchair and poured himself some iced water that was on the table next to him. He drained the glass in two seconds and poured himself another one. It was then that he noticed that there was someone else sitting across from him on the other side of the room.

Lily was looking at him with such a look of contempt that he was surprised he didn't feel his skin crawling. He tried to smile but stopped when he saw that Lily's gaze did not waver.

"I'm sorry," he croaked in a weird cracking, half-whisper voice. He cleared his throat and tried again. "I'm sorry about last night... Things just got out of hand but I swear nothing happened between me and Alice."

Lily scoffed. "Why should I care about what happened between you and Alice? Hell, why should I care about anything that happened to you?"

James blinked. "Ouch." Lily just stared at him, green eyes and all, nostrils flared with anger. Being the smarty-ass-pants that he was and too witty for his own good, he couldn't help himself and said, "If you don't care, why are you so pissed at me Evans?"

Lily's mouth fell open a little but she didn't say anything. She just closed her book shut with such a loud snap that sent dust flying out over the table. She stood up and started collecting her things.

Sighing James stood up as well and walked slowly towards her, afraid that she might suddenly try to throw something at him. "Wait... at least tell me what happened last night. Remus and Peter are missing and we have no idea where they are."

Lily shook her head. "I was up in our dormitory last night, Potter. I knew what was coming right when I saw Black coming in with those drinks and frankly... I did not want to be a part of it."

"You mean your pride wouldn't let you take part in that non-headgirl behaviour. So you were better off holed up in your dorm where later you could safely claim that you didn't see or hear anything."

James' grin soon turned into a cry of pain as Lily's hand landed forcefully with the back of his head. An electric shock seemed to traverse his brain just then and a wave of nausea and dizziness overtook him. Seeing that he was about to lose his balance, he grabbed the closest thing to him for support which unfortunately happened to be Lily. His hands landed unceremoniously on her breasts and although he was dimly aware that he was doing something highly inappropriate or in this case downright dangerous, his reactions were too slow at the moment and he did not take his hands off immediately.

Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, as he chanced a look upwards where he saw that Lily's face had turned the same colour as her hair and her eyes were ready to kill. Her hand shot out once more and slapped him across the face. The force of the blow sent him flying backwards and he fell hard, spread-eagled on the floor. He gasped, winded as his vision started blotting over. Just before he blacked out, Lily's face appeared over him, with an expression of manic satisfaction.

"Oops, my bad... you should go check that out at the Hospital Wing, Potter. Peter's there... maybe he'll tell you what really happened last night... and if he knows what's good for him, he'll stay away from the lot of you. "

...

"Prongs...Prongs!... JAMES!"

James opened his eyes to find Sirius looking at him. He was still in the common room on the floor. She had left him there! He pushed himself up on one elbow and promptly cried out in pain as his head felt like it was about to split open.

"What the hell happened to you?" said Sirius as James touched the back of his head gingerly. There was a nasty lump the size of an egg and he was feeling sore all over.

He opened his mouth to say something but his stomach gave an almighty lurch and he turned his face sideways just as his stomach's contents splattered out on the carpet, missing Sirius by a mere inch.

Sirius paled and stepped back. He all but ran towards the window and threw it open. He pushed his head as far as he could outside the window and took several gulps of fresh air.

"I could use some help here," gasped James in between breaths as he tried to get up.

"Oh no," said Sirius, still looking the opposite way. "Not until you clean that mess up."

"Seriously?" said James, disbelieving. He picked up his wand which had slipped out of his pocket as he fell and a few instants later the 'mess' had disappeared. When it was safe to turn around, Sirius went to help James stand up and led him towards the sofa.

"You need to get your head checked out mate," he said uncharacteristically worried.

"Yeah," he nodded and winced. "Peter's there... at the Hospital Wing."

"What?!" cried Sirius as he handed his friend some water. "What's he doing there? How do you know?"

James took a long gulp of water and tried to focus on Sirius' face. "I don't know why he's there. Lily told me just after she beat the shit out of me."

Sirius gave him a low whistle as he surveyed his friend. "You got beat by a girl."

"She's not just a girl!" protested James. "And I might have said something stupid."

"Did you really?" said Sirius sarcastically, raising an eyebrow. "That's new. I would never have guessed."

"Shut up, Padfoot. You're not helping." said James, scrunching his eyes shut.

Sirius grinned and stood up. "Come on. You need to see Madam Pomfrey," he said as he grabbed James by the arm and supported him towards the door. "And we need to find out what happened to Wormtail."

...

They found Peter lying face up in one of the hospital beds. He had a nasty blue and purple bruise right along his left cheek and his neck was wrapped in some sort of stiff bandaged collar. He was also finding difficulty breathing and they could see that his chest, one arm and one leg were wrapped in bandages as well. Sirius and James just stared at him until Peter opened his eyes and managed to smile at them.

"You don't look good, mate." said James.

"You don't look too good yourself, Prongs." said Peter in a quiet voice.

"What happened to you?" asked Sirius, sitting down next to his bed.

Peter was about to say something but Madam Pomfrey beat him to it as she suddenly appeared behind them. "Internal bruising, three cracked ribs, two broken limbs and a strained neck. It's a miracle he's still alive." The boys just stared at her, wide-eyed. "I also don't remember giving you permission to visit and talk to Mr. Pettigrew. He needs to rest. You can come back later."

"No please, we won't be long," said Sirius, giving her one of his charming smiles. "and James needs some medical attention as well." He motioned towards James' head.

As Madam Pomfrey tended to James' head and his hangover, Peter began recounting his end of the story.

"I don't know what I was thinking... well I wasn't actually thinking..." Peter grimaced as the others gave him sympathetic smiles. "All I know is that you guys dared me to jump off the Gryffindor stand at the Quidditch Pitch and ... I did."

For once James and Sirius were at a loss for words, as Madam Pomfrey tsk-ed and tutted behind them. Peter continued. "The last thing I remember is the ground rushing up to meet me and then nothing. I woke up in here this morning confused with a sickening headache and feeling as if I had just been run over by a wild herd of centaurs."

"Same here," said James, sipping the potion Madam Pomfrey had given him.

"Hey at least we managed to get you to hospital wing in time." quipped Sirius, patting Peter lightly on his leg.

"Uh... that wasn't you." said Peter, his eyes betraying a hint of anger for the first time. "You guys apparently thought it was funny to leave me there in a heap in the middle of the pitch at night."

Sirius' mouth formed a wide O and he had the decency to look ashamed. James just covered his face with his palms.

"Yeah," said Peter tightly. "Apparently Hagrid was passing by a while later, saw me there and carried me all the way up here. The rest you know."

"I'm sorry Wormtail," said James after a brief and awkward silence. "We weren't ourselves last night... thanks to Padfoot and his incredibly 'brilliant' ideas."

"I don't seem to remember hearing you complain yesterday," shot back Sirius but then he raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Still... I'm guilty as charged. I'll hold back on the drinks next time."

"I'm not sure there'll be a next time," said James grimly as he remembered Lily and their detentions.

"Fine!" said Sirius, sulking as he crossed his arms and leaned back on the chair.

Ignoring his best friend and suddenly remembering something, James asked, "Do you know where Remus is?"

Peter turned his eyes to look at them seeing as he couldn't move his neck. "I thought he was with you guys."

"Well unless he has suddenly decided to follow us under James' invisibility cloak and give us the silent treatment, he is clearly NOT with us." said Sirius, sarcasm dripping with his every word.

James took a deep breath and asked Peter again, "Can you remember anything?"

"He was with us in the common room and then he followed when we went to the Quidditch Pitch. That's all I can tell you."

"Great." said James darkly.

"Relax," said Sirius, standing up. "He's probably in the library drowning himself in books as usual."

"I hope so... but I have a feeling that that is not the case." replied James, standing up as well.

They made their way towards the door. "We'll see you soon Wormtail," called Sirius.

"As soon as we find Moony." said James following him but when they were at the door, Peter called out to them.

"Hey!" he said. He was looking at a calendar hanging on the wall opposite his bed. "You better find him soon... Full moon's in two days."

"Greater still." said James his hand on the door. "This day seems to be getting better and better."