And so, with this exciting new discovery, the Fateful Eight eagerly awaited their third year at Hogwarts.

To celebrate their finding- well, Eddie's finding, but he considered it a team effort- of the surprise treasure chest, they decided to host a game of Truth or Dare after the other Hufflepuffs had left.

"Ooh, exciting…" Lily spoke up, rubbing her hands together. "Who'll go first?"

"I suppose I will." Eddie spoke up."Victoria, truth or dare?"

"Truth. I'll start small."

"Ah, well, looks like it's time for the mother of all Truth or Dare questions…" Eddie sighed, leaning back in his chair and glancing at Nathan. He had a hunch. "Who do you like?"

Victoria turned an amber shade of red. "Er- no one-"

Eddie had seen this before. "Come on..We won't make fun."

Victoria, if it were possible, went even darker. She sighed. "Fine...Nathan."

Nathan looked like he didn't believe her. "Wait, me?"

Victoria looked at him exasperatedly, then smiled. "Of course, idiot!" She gave him a playful punch in the ribs.

Now, it was her turn. "Tom, truth or dare?"

Tom happened to be reading. "Sorry, what?" he said quickly, hastily closing his book.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Truth or Dare?"

Tom thought for a moment, then decided. "Dare."

"I dare you to….say five factually incorrect things." They all knew that Tom loved facts, and hated being wrong. He groaned.

"Fine. Neil Armstrong was President of the United States, JK Rowling is an Italian plumber, the Nazis won World War 2, Russia borders France, and Harry Potter was born in midwinter. Happy?"

"Very." Victoria smiled. "Now it's your turn."

Tom chose Lily.

"Lily, truth or dare?"

"Dare, of course," she snickered.

"All right. You have to go one day without telling us a useless sports fact." Lily looked highly affronted at this.

"B-but.." she sputtered. "How will I ever be able to tell you guys about Japanese baseball legend Sadaharu Oh, who hit more home runs than anyone else in the world? Or how the Boston Celtics won 9 straight NBA finals between 1958 and 1966? Or-"
Claire put a hand over her mouth to shush her.
Tom pulled a stopwatch from his pocket.

"Your timer begins...now."

Lily huffed as he stowed it away and crossed her arms.

"Sean, truth or dare?" she snapped.

"Dare," he shot back unflinchingly.

Lily smirked, and Sean realized his mistake.

"Kiss Claire," she smiled. This made both Slytherins go red.

"Wh-wha?" Claire stammered. Before she could say anything more, Sean swept over and pecked her on the cheek. Awkwardly rubbing the spot where he had done so, Claire smiled a little.

"Alright then," Sean continued as though nothing had happened. "Natalie, truth or dare?"

"Dare," she said instantly. She had vowed long ago never to pick Truth in this game, she considered it cowardly.

"Hmm…" Sean thought for a second. "Run around the house until you tire yourself out."

"Alright, I'll be a while," she sighed, and took off.

Five minutes she returned later, huffing and panting with her hands on her knees.

Sean looked impressed. "Wow, that really did take a while. Anyway, it's your turn."

Natalie thought for a moment. "Eddie, truth or dare?"

"Truth," he said casually.

"Alright," Natalie smirked. "Have you told Hannah you liked her- in person?"

Eddie's cheeks tinged red. "Erm-no."

"Why?" Lily asked. "She seemed into you when we had those conversations in the girls dorm-"

Eddie blushed. "R-really?" His face was now nearly the color of his hair.

"Well, she didn't say outright that she liked you..but there's hope."

"Nate, truth or dare."
"Dare!" he shot at Eddie.

Eddie grinned. He knew Nathan didn't fear much. "Go down an entire can of Coca-Cola. You have…" he pondered for a moment, "thirty seconds. If you fail, you'll have to owl Snape and tell him you love him."

Nathan paled, and chugged the soda in seventeen seconds out of fear. That prospect was something he did fear, Eddie mused.

Nathan then asked Victoria.

"Truth," she answered simply.

Nathan hesitated for a second before asking- "What- What made you like me?"

She blushed. "Well..it was a bit of everything, really...personality...humor...and yes.." she went redder still, "looks."

Nathan looked away for a moment. When he wrenched his eyes back to Victoria's, he noticed that the room had gone very quiet.

Eddie cleared his throat.

"Well-" he said, not meeting Nathan's eyes, "Should we just- leave you guys- alone?" he asked nervously.

Neither of them said anything. The others got the feeling that yes, they did want them to leave, but they were being too polite to speak up. One by one, they rose and left. Eddie winked slightly at Nathan as he walked out, which made his stomach squirm a little.

Victoria sighed and looked down at her feet.

"Nathan, I- I'm sorry.." she forced out.

"No, it's okay.." he replied, looking down as well. "I shouldn't have asked. Not in front of everyone."

Victoria looked like she wanted to dispute this but allowed herself a nod. Nathan bit his lip.

"So where do we go from here?" he asked. He looked at the calendar on the wall they were using to mark the days down to September 1st.

"July 13th…" he muttered to himself.

He looked up, and was slightly taken aback to see tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

"V-Vic?" he asked, not sure what was wrong. Before she said anything however, she threw his arms around him and held tightly.

"July 13th…" she sobbed into his shoulder… "T-that's t-today?"

Unsure of what to say, Nathan replied, "Y-yeah? Wha- What's wrong, Vic?"

She let go of him and sat up. Wiping her tears, she choked, "It's the day my mother died…"

"Ohhh…" Nathan felt bad, but he didn't exactly know how to handle this, so he stayed quiet and let Victoria collect herself. She sniffed.

"You..gonna be okay?" he asked with concern. She nodded.

"Are you going to be fine if I tell the others they can come back?"

"Yeah..wait...one question."

With one hand on the doorknob, Nathan paused. "Yeah?"

"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade together sometime?" she asked.

Nathan grinned.

"Of course."