I Dare You

Pairing: Theomione

Universe: Hogwarts, Seventh-year AU (no wizarding war)

Rating: T (language)


The game starts with a pretty morning. A pretty box. And a pretty girl.

Theo can hear Potter and Weasley's approach from all the way across the lawn, and he tries to suppress his groan of annoyance that the spring day's peace has been shattered, and by Tweedledum and Tweedlefuck no less. They're arguing about something, and it isn't until they're nearly under the tree that he's sitting in that he realises it's him and nearly falls out of it.

"I just think," Weasley is saying (Unprecedented, Theo thinks to himself) "that we should go bigger in order to get them back for the pixies. You know," he pauses, and Theo, unwilling to risk giving himself away by leaning over to see through the budding foliage, has to content himself with imagining the pained look on Weasley's face as he tries to voice a coherent idea. "Something that'll really wipe the smug looks off of their stupid snakey faces."

Theo catches himself smirking at this, and isn't sure whether to find that amusing or not. He turns over the box in his hands as he listens for whatever fool plan Potter is surely about to come out with, but is surprised when a quieter, female voice speaks up.

He hadn't realised that she was with them, but doesn't know why it comes as a shock.

"You should do something subtle," she says. "Nott was - the pixies were clever, it was weeks before you figured it out."

"Well, no," Potter says, "It was weeks before we told you."

"Yeah," says Weasley. "You figured it out 'Mione -" Theo wants to laugh at this, but he allows himself nothing more than a slight twitch at the corners of his mouth "- so why don't you tell us what sort of prank we should pull to get back at them?"

"Hmm," is all she replies, and Theo catches himself imagining the shape of her mouth as she makes the noise, lips pursing into a perfect rosebud. His fingers tighten on the box that his mother gave him - beautiful, as everything that she ever wanted him to have was, though as usual it is nothing more than a trinket.

"Why don't you let me think about it?" Granger is saying, and he hears the Gryffindor double prats murmur their agreement, and then incredibly they are saying goodbye to her, heading off across the grounds to the broomsheds to practice falling from great heights or whatever it is they do to keep themselves amused.

Theo holds his breath. He hasn't heard her move - wonders if she is getting a book out and if so whether she will be settling in to read for long, because there's only a certain amount of time that one can spend perched in a tree for before it begins to become distinctly uncomfortable.

He's just thinking that maybe he could levitate himself until he's a safe distance away when a throat clears from somewhere below him.

"Nott."

Theo freezes. He still isn't breathing, and it's starting to make him feel a bit light-headed.

"Nott, are you coming down, or am I coming up?"

She would as well, he knows this. Fucking impetuous little Muggleborn, with her stupid hair and stupid face and stupid brain that's apparently the only one clever enough to work out that charming pixies to write rude messages on the bathroom mirror in the Seventh-year Gryffindor boys' dormitory for the last month was his idea.

Vaguely, he wonders if he gave himself away with the accuracy of his grammar.

"Last chance, Nott. Come and have a little chat, I dare you."

Something about this makes him bristle. It's this new-found pertness; the confidence that she seems to have developed over the course of the last year or so. It isn't because of a boyfriend, he's fairly sure. He's heard that she'd stayed in touch with Krum since the Triwizard Tournament, but Blaise has been reliably informed by a cousin at Durmstrang that the whole thing rather petered out when the idiot Bulgarian decided to concentrate on a career in the US League.

Theo tries to forget the teasing light in Blaise's eyes as he had asked just why he was so interested in the love life of Hermione Granger, Queen of Muggleborns, as he finds himself scrambling his legs over the branch and dropping out of the tree to stand before Her Majesty Herself.

She's wearing the exact little moue of amusement that he had both dreaded and secretly hoped she would be.

"You dare me, Granger?" Theo asks, relieved that he sounds as insouciant as he had been aiming to. Absently, he goes to adjust his cuffs, but finds the action impeded by the trinket box that he still holds in one hand.

"That's pretty," she says, not bothering to respond to the question.

"Yes, it is rather," Theo agrees, holding it up so that the inlaid shell pieces catch the morning sunlight. "Japanese raden-work. My mother gave it to me." He sees a flicker in her face and remembers their Care of Magical Creatures class - remembers that she knows his mother is dead. Some unnameable impulse seizes him, and he finds his hand extending towards Granger to let her look more closely. He catches himself just as she reaches out to take it, and his other hand closes over hers.

Theo does his best to hide his shock that he is touching her, years of distance and disdain suddenly falling away with a gesture that, for all that it felt careless, now seems weighty and important. Her eyebrows have quirked together, and she is looking at him with a question in her awful, lovely, deep-brown eyes.

"I believe that I owe you a dare," he says quietly, and she stills, before she tips her chin upwards.

"Is that so?" she asks, and Theo wants to curse her and kiss her and pull her close and run as far away as he can.

"I dare you," he says instead, "To let Potter and Weasley get caught trying to prank me back."

Granger flushes, a bright, angry colour that fills him with satisfaction. "If you think for one second -"

"Here," he says, interrupting her to turn their joined hands over, and leaving the trinket box resting on her palm. "You can have this. Let it remind you of my victory."

"I dared you to come down from a fucking tree -" she hisses, but Theo is already backing away, a smile of satisfaction threatening to unfold itself across his whole mouth.

"So you did," is all he says, as he turns to walk back up to the castle.

OOOOO

He can hardly believe it when he sees Filch hauling Potter and Weasley through the Entrance Hall a week later, both of them covered in what looks like frogspawn, and clearly being marched up to the Headmaster's office.

Granger is doing a spectacular job of looking contrite and worried - she's even wringing her hands - but when he meets her eyes she flashes him the tiniest grin, and he finds himself offering her a slight nod.

When the owl-post delivers the box back to him the next morning, along with a neatly folded note, it is all that he can do not to look up at her. He settles for shaking out the parchment, quickly scanning the lines of small, neat script.

I dare you to announce to the gathered student body that you find Pansy Parkinson to have about as much brain as she does sexual morality.

Theo does look across the hall then; he is so astonished that for a moment he openly gapes. Granger smiles blandly at him, but there is no disguising the glint of victory in her eye as she sips her tea, even from across the room.

He can't let her win. He just can't.

It's only when Theo realises that he's standing up and has cleared his throat that he has a momentary flicker in his resolve not to be beaten, then he looks at Granger again and sees that she has gone completely still; that she is watching him with something very close to disbelief.

"Ladies and gentlemen -" Theo begins.

OOOOO

She comes to see him in the Hospital Wing. He's sat on the edge of the bed, trying to blink away the residual dizziness caused by Pomfrey's businesslike Episkey, and struggling not to be impressed by the strength of Pansy's right hook.

"I didn't think you'd actually do it," Granger says softly, her eyes skating across Theo's face. The bruising will be gone in half an hour or so, but right now he imagines that it must look fairly impressive.

"You shouldn't underestimate me, Granger," he replies. "I had my pride to think of."

"But no one would have known!" she protests, her forehead creasing with perplexity, and Theo feels something uncomfortable squirm to life in his stomach as he considers his answer.

"You would have," he says finally, and Granger looks at him with equal parts shock and something that he doesn't want to name.

He throws her the trinket box, in the hope that it will stop her looking, and is surprised when she catches it. Clearly Potter isn't the only Gryffindor with decent reflexes. "Backchat Snape in Potions this afternoon," he says on a sudden whim. "I dare you."

Granger bites her lip, and he wants to growl with frustration. His father would have a conniption, he reminds himself. And yet.

"This isn't very Slytherin of you," she says finally.

Cunning. Ambition.

"You just haven't figured out what I want yet," he says, as he pushes himself off the bed and brushes past her.

She smells like a garden where it's been raining: rose petals and sharp greenery.

OOOOO

It keeps going over the next few weeks, the dares becoming more outlandish, harder to hide. Theo is fairly certain that Blaise and Draco know something is up, if their comments about 'lion-induced hysteria' are anything to go by, but any sting is removed as Draco rolls his eyes at him, as Blaise grins into his Transfiguration textbook once he sees that their remarks have hit home.

When Granger tells him to throw the match against Ravenclaw, Theo wants to scream at her; wants to grab her and shake her and wrap her in his arms and feel her quake against him.

Thirty minutes in and he's let himself be hit by four Bludgers, dropped the Quaffle twice and has just flown headlong into Draco right as he was about to dive for the Snitch, causing them both to plummet to the ground in a move reminiscent of Potter's usual flying style. A time-out is called and Theo stands, dusting himself down as he watches Hooch marching towards them. Before she can get close enough to start shouting he feels breath on the back of his neck, and there is a whisper in his ear: "I dare you to pull it back."

He turns but there's nobody there. Potter's invisibility cloak, Theo thinks as he swings his leg over his broom and kicks back off into the sky.

He scores fifteen of their eventual nineteen goals, and when Draco finally catches the Snitch Theo looks down to see her grinning up at him, her face a bright spot between Potter and Weasley's matching glum expressions. He grins back, just for a moment, before he flies away to share in his housemates' adulation.

OOOOO

"Get a question wrong," he murmurs, standing behind her in the queue to enter the Great Hall for their Transfiguration NEWT.

Granger spins, glaring at him, even as her fingers close around the box that he pushes into her hand.

"This is my future, Nott, not some fucking -"

"One question," he says softly. "Just get one wrong, I dare you."

They're staring at each other, and he sees a glimmer of something in her gaze. He loves it when he can see her rising to one of his challenges, when he can watch her stunned disbelief morph into defiance, and then resolve.

Her jaw sets, a tiny tell, as she turns away from him, and he can't quite believe that she's going to do it; can't resist leaning to place his mouth beside her ear. "I would have thrown that match," he whispers, "if you hadn't changed your mind. You know I would have."

He's stood close enough that he feels her tremble against him as his lips brush the skin of her earlobe.

OOOOO

The note, and the box, are waiting on his pillow after his last exam, and Theo pulls up short, staring at them. When he turns to look at Blaise the other wizard seems to be suddenly very interested in the pattern on his quilt. "Traitor," Theo mutters, and he hears Blaise snicker from behind him as he unfolds the note.

Meet me in the Astronomy Tower. 1am. I dare you.

He feels a shiver of anticipation, and turns to see Blaise and Draco watching him with small smiles. "Shut up," Theo says, smiling back.

OOOOO

She's there when he arrives, her curls haloed in the moonlight, and he feels as though his heart might crash its way out of his chest at the sight of her.

Theo turns the box over in his fingers, then slips it into the pocket of her dressing gown, letting his hand linger in the warmth for a second.

Granger's hand brushes his when she reaches for the box, and Theo pulls his fingers back as though she has burned him. She pauses for a moment, tipping her head as though to consider him, and he can't make sense of her expression in the low light. His tongue feels somehow too big for his mouth, but he ignores the sensation.

"Spit off the edge," Theo says, laughing as her nose wrinkles with distaste. "Go on Granger, I dare you."

She rolls her eyes but turns, leaning against the balustrade as she hawks impressively, and then spits.

"Happy?" she asks, holding the box out to him. Theo takes it back, somehow comforted by the almost ritual nature of the exchange, but then startles when Granger loops her arms loosely around his neck. "Kiss me," she says. "I dare you."

Theo hesitates for a moment, and he sees triumph flare in her beautiful, caramel-coloured eyes. Triumph, and a terrible sort of disappointment.

"No," he says softly, his hand closing tight on her arm. She flushes and tries to shake him free, but Theo's grip is firm, unyielding. "If I'm going to kiss you, I want you to know that I mean it."

Granger stills in his grip. "How will I know?" she asks quietly. "How will I ever…" she scrunches her eyes closed in frustration, then opens them again, and Theo feels as though he could fall into their depths.

"Tell me you love me," he whispers, imagining himself cutting out his heart and laying it at her feet.

I dare you.

She shakes her head, and he feels momentarily sick before she replies: "Tell me, because if I tell you first I'm afraid you'll think it's a game."

He isn't playing; hasn't been playing for a while now, but he looks into her eyes and sees her laid bare to him. Theo drops the trinket box, hears it shatter on the stone floor as he presses his mouth to hers.

"I love you," he murmurs.


A/N: Written in response to a prompt from clausumcormeum on tumblr, who wanted pranksters, but unfortunately asked for Dramione... I'm afraid this scenario just screamed Theo (both to me, much though I tried to deny it, and to a couple of trusted Alpha readers) so I hope you'll forgive the switch... The storyline is inspired by the film Love Me if You Dare (Jeux d'Enfants) which is a favourite, although there is an allusion to another great film in there too...points if you catch it. Xx Sally