"You are so melodramatic."

"Moi? Never." Mary poured herself another shot, the liquid slopping carelessly onto the table. "I only speak the truth."

"A million, though?" Lily raised her eyebrows. "You forget I'm not a pureblood uneducated loon like these lot – I went to primary school, I know place value."

"Um, excuse me," Marlene interrupted. Although she was slouched back against the sofa, her face was entirely insulted. "How dare you, Lily Evans? I may not know what 'place value' means, but I'm not a dullard who can't count."

"Alright," Lily turned away from Mary for a moment. "How many lots of a thousand is a million, Marl? Tell me and I'll apologise for impugning your kind."

Marlene shot Mary a look, then adopted what she probably thought was a knowing, haughty expression. "Easy. One hundred lots of one thousand."

"Hundreds of thousands of years of incredible, life-changing magic," Lily sighed sympathetically, reaching over to give Marlene's knee a reassuring pat. "And you lot don't think of teaching yourselves the basics of maths."

"Eh," Marlene shrugged, her heart not having really been in it the argument to begin with. "There are spells for that sort of thing."

"Anyway," Lily rounded back on Mary, who was taking this all in with undisguised glee. "My point remains. You're an exaggerator and you're wrong."

Mary handed Lily another drink. "I just said that you'd never play truth or dare with us in a million years," she said, sounding much less drunk than she actually was. It was impressive, in a way. "Every time we've tried to play it, you come up with some excuse or other not to."

"I do not – "

"Two months ago, at the end of term Christmas party," Mary carried on, "you said we'd better not play because it was insulting to the beliefs of Christians."

"Well, you know how sensitive people can be – "

"And at your birthday bash, when Marlene suggested we play it, you pretended to see something out of the common room window and kept us all distracted until we forgot," Mary added.

"In fairness," Marlene piped up, "I'm pretty sure there was a dementor out there."

Mary levelled a hard gaze at her. "That was someone's robe, caught on the wind."

"And isn't that exactly what the dementors would want you to think?" Marlene demanded, and knocked back another shot.

"Christ," Lily sighed, and flopped back in her chair. "Fine. Fine! I'll play truth or dare."

Mary's face lit up. "You will?"

"I will," Lily confirmed. "To prove to you I'm not same pathetic fun-murderer, and also to prove you wrong."

"Well, as long as it's about proving me wrong," Mary smirked.

"'Lily won't play truth or dare, not in a million years'," she parroted in what, to her tipsy brain, was quite a good impression of Mary's gentle Scottish brogue. "Ha! Wrong again, Macdonald."

"I suppose I am," Mary agreed. Lily stilled, sat forward – she didn't like the sweet smile on her friend's face. The portent of something to come. "I'll ask first, shall I?"

To her left, Marlene cackled with something like victory, and Lily realised, just a bit too late, that she'd been played like some cheap violin. "Um – "

"Truth or dare, Lil?"

She glanced quickly from Mary to Marlene, deciding that another shot was in order. It might help take the sting off the knowledge that she'd walked right into a trap. "Well, I suppose…truth."

Mary and Marlene grinned at each other, altogether too pleased with themselves. "Do you fancy Potter?"

Shit. They weren't taking any prisoners, were they? This sort of nonsense was precisely why she'd worked so hard to avoid playing this stupid game to begin with. She opened and closed her mouth a few times. "Um – "

"If you don't answer," Marlene said, a picture of innocence, "then you have to do a dare instead."

Lily threw back another shot, wincing as it burned down her throat, and gave a short nod. "Fine. I'll do a dare instead." Anything had to be better than answering that particular question.

Or so she had thought. As she cast the empty shot glass back onto the table, she caught the fire of ultimate triumph in Mary's eyes. "Wait, no, I – "

"Kiss Potter."

Well, fuck. "Hang on – "

"It's a simple dare, Lily."

"What about – you know – consent is everything, ladies – "

"Oh, I don't think that'll be a problem," Mary grinned. "But if it is, I will personally apologise to him on your behalf."

Lily frowned. "Mare – "

"Nope."

She turned to Marlene. "Can you – "

Marlene leaned forward, patting Lily's knee in a mirror of her own earlier actions. "I'd love to help, Lil, I really would," she told her. "But you know what a stickler I am for the rules."

Lily glared first at Marlene, then at Mary, before standing up so abruptly that the glasses on the table were knocked over. "Fine," she muttered. "I hate you both."

"Love you too, sweetpea," Mary beamed. "Make sure to use your tongue!"

With a hand gesture that normally Lily considered to be beneath her, she set off across the crowded common room. It was busy – classic post-Quidditch party, of course, with music and drinking and bad choices abounding – but Lily knew it wasn't so busy that she could get away with pretending she'd done the dare. Mary's armchair had a clear view across to where the Marauders were sat by the windows, engrossed in a game of Gobstones. If she didn't do this, Mary would only find something more mortifying as a punishment.

It was fine. It would be fine. It didn't matter in the slightest, because James was her friend, now, and this was just a dare, it didn't have to be weird, although she had to wonder, then, as she stopped in front of them, why exactly was her stomach twisting madly and why did she feel like her heart, thudding against her chest, could probably be heard all the way in the dungeons?

Okay, fine, she knew why.

"Um. Hello." The boys looked up. "Um. Potter – can I borrow you for a moment?"

James and Sirius shared a look, eyebrows raised, before James stood up. "For you, Evans? Anything."

She cast the other boys a weak, almost nervous smile. "Just, you know, Head business," she said, not sure why she was saying anything at all. "No rest for the wicked, ha ha…"

Sirius smirked; she felt all too seen under his knowing gaze. "Right you are, Evans," he nodded. "Take all the time you need."

She nodded, too, and led James a little way away – still within Mary's eyeline, or she knew she'd have caught absolute hell for it, but at least this way, she didn't have to be mortified right in front of his grinning friends. Just…slightly adjacent to them.

"So," she started, and felt herself blush, even now.

"So," he echoed, hands in his pockets.

"Um, we've been playing truth or dare – "

He raised his eyebrows. "I thought you didn't play that game?" he asked with a smile. "Remember when you pretended there was a dementor hanging around outside the tower to avoid – "

"Yes, alright," she sighed, perhaps more irritably than the situation demanded, "we all remember that." She looked back over her shoulder towards her friends. "Mary goaded me into it, the cunning little sod."

"Ahh," he nodded in understanding. "She's a wily one."

"She is," Lily agreed, and swallowed hard. Well, it was now or never, wasn't it? "I wouldn't answer the truth, so she dared me to – um, to – " Get a fucking grip, Lily Evans. "To kiss you."

His eyes widened; he looked almost nervous. "Is that right?"

"Yes," she confirmed, tilting her chin defiantly. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and all that. Eh, maybe she was more drunk than she'd thought. "So, I thought I'd do that, if that's okay?"

He laughed, but it was a strange laugh – like he didn't quite understand what was happening to him. "Oh, um – yes, okay," he agreed. "Happy to…help?"

She couldn't help a grin at that; he did have a way of putting her at ease. "Thanks, Potter," she said. "You're a true friend."

"Of course," he nodded, and his gaze slipped down to her lips. "I'd do this for…any of my friends."

"Okay." She stepped closer, and hesitantly lifted her hand, placing it on his chest. "Okay. So I'll just…kiss you, and then that's that."

"Okidoke," he said, then cringed. "Fuck, pretend I didn't just say 'okidoke'."

She smiled, leaning in, and when her lips were just an inch from his, murmured, "okidoke…"

He laughed. She grinned. And then, their lips met.

Somehow, her other hand found its way up into his hair. Somehow, he looped an arm round her waist, drawing her in and against him in a way that set every part of her alight. Somehow, kissing him was exactly as amazing – more so, in so many ways – as she'd ever imagined it to be.

She wasn't sure how long it lasted, only that when they both pulled back, they were breathless, lips kiss-swollen, eyes heavy-lidded. She stared up at him, trying to gather her thoughts. "Great," she murmured at last, somehow not quite in control of the words that were coming out of her mouth. "So, um. Thanks, Potter."

He gazed back, looking a bit like he'd been confunded. "Oh. Well. You're welcome, Evans."

She smiled, and turned away, her whole body buzzing – she only made it two steps before his voice caught her again. "Evans?"

She paused, glancing back at him. "Yeah?"

"What was the truth you didn't want to answer?"

She briefly bit her lip, accosted by the memory of his hands around her waist. "She asked if I fancy you," she said at last.

He smiled. She smiled. They just stood there, revelry crashing around them, staring at each other as if no one else was in the room.

"I've always liked that game," he said, hands in pockets.

She raised an eyebrow, tilted her head just slightly. "Maybe you should join us," she suggested. "The more the merrier."

And as she turned to walk back to her friends – friends who were shrieking with delight – she thought that maybe, this game wasn't so bad after all.