Chapter three – Truth or Dare
On a clear skied Friday morning, Sirius awoke earlier than usual but he couldn't understand why. He had been having a peculiar dream about the moon shining upon the grass and the stars joining in the sky. Why he had been dreaming about moons and stars, he didn't know but it had confused him greatly.
He glanced over at James' bed and noticed that he was not there. 'Must be already at breakfast. There was me thinking I'd gotten up early' Sirius thought to himself. He walked into the bathroom and had a quick shower. Sirius dressed himself and dried his silky, black hair with a drying spell.
There was suddenly a strange noise from Remus' bed which included creaking and squirming. Sirius hurried over, pulled the curtains open and saw Remus squirming and twitching in his sleep. Panicking that he might harm himself, Sirius quickly shook Remus awake.
"Remus! Remus! Wake up!" Sirius yelled. Remus made one last twitch and jerked awake. "Huh?" he said puzzled when he saw Sirius' kind face looking at him. "You were having a nightmare" Sirius explained. Remus seemed to be out of breath and he was extremely pale.
Without thinking, Sirius began stroking Remus' brown hair gently. "Shh, it's ok. It's all over now" Sirius said soothingly, still stroking Remus' hair. Remus closed his eyes in contentment as Sirius' gentle hand caressed his hair. "Hey! Are you guys coming to breakfast?" James' voice yelled from down the stairs.
Sirius and Remus snapped back to reality and Sirius jumped up. "Yeah! Be there in a minute mate!" Sirius yelled back. "I'm going to get dressed" Remus announced. "Um yeah ok" Sirius replied awkwardly. When Remus was in the bathroom, Sirius began hitting himself in the head.
"Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!" he said between hitting himself. The bathroom door opened and Sirius stopped abruptly. "I'll meet you at breakfast, ok?" Remus said. "Yeah ok" Sirius replied. The door closed again and Sirius began hitting himself again.
"Hi Padfoot" James said as Sirius walked into the common room. "Hey" he said quietly. 'If only James knew what he interrupted'. "Are you ok Sirius? Your forehead looks a little red" Peter said. "Oh" Sirius said, touching his forehead. "Don't know how that happened".
"Is Remus coming down?" James asked. "He said to meet him at breakfast" Sirius replied, blushing at the mention of Remus' name. While the three of them walked down to the Great hall, Sirius couldn't help but wonder what on earth was going on.
'First, I get all weird when I see him topless. Then I hope he was jealous by me flirting with those girls and now I start stroking his hair! What is going on?!' Sirius thought. Sirius bumped into a tall figure which he recognised as Snape. "Watch where you're going Black" Snape spat. Sirius could have sworn he seemed more irritable than normal as he stormed away with his black robes billowing behind him.
James looked at Sirius with a confused expression. "That's odd" he said. "What is?" Sirius asked, puzzled. "Usually you have something nasty to say to Snape or at least give him look but you did nothing" James said, then he laughed. "Sorry, you must be growing!" he said. Sirius laughed but knew the real reason he didn't say anything was because he had his own problems to think about right now.
Sirius had just begun to eat his toast when Remus arrived and sat next to him. "Hi, sorry I took so long" Remus said. "That's alright mate, are you going to eat anything?" James asked, seeing Remus ignore the plate of food in front of him. "I'm not really hungry" Remus replied. "You have to eat something" Sirius said with concern. Remus looked at him deeply and said: "Thanks but I don't really feel up to it" he smiled warmly at Sirius and took a swig of the pumpkin juice in front of him.
The morning went by as normal without any incidents and by lunchtime, the marauders where found sitting under a large oak tree. "What are we doing tonight then?" James asked his friends. "I can't do anything. I have detention, remember?" Sirius asked. "Oh yeah, where do you have that?" Peter questioned. "In Caleb's classroom. That's going to be a lot of fun" Sirius said sarcastically.
While James, Peter and Sirius were talking, Remus sat silently in his own thoughts. 'Why was Sirius like that this morning? It was almost as though… No! I can't even think that. It's not true; he's been pretending nothings happened all day so what am I supposed to think? I could ask him about it but that would lead to awkward questions, he might start thinking it meant something to me. But I think it did…'
"Remus…?" Sirius asked, waving a hand in front of his face. "What? Oh sorry" Remus said, realising that Sirius had been talking to him without his knowing. "Moony, why are you being so quiet?" Sirius asked. "Aren't I usually?" Remus replied. "Not like this. Is there something wrong?" Sirius questioned with concern.
"No, don't worry about it. I'm just going to go to the library. See you in Transfiguration" Remus said, getting up and leaving the puzzled marauders. "I don't care what he says, there's definitely something bothering him" Sirius said.
Remus was quiet for the remainder of the day but know one knew why. After dinner, Sirius made his way to the dungeons and Peter, James and Remus went back to the Gryffindor common room. Sirius wrapped his cloak around his body tightly as the dungeons were quite cold. He arrived to see Caleb sitting at his desk writing a letter.
"Ah Mr Black, here for your detention I presume?" Caleb asked. "Yes sir" Sirius replied, deciding not to be cheeky for once. "Good. You have to clean the tables with those" Caleb said, pointing at a bucket full of water with a sponge next to it. "No magic. I'll be back in an hour" Caleb said and he left the room and left Sirius by himself.
Sirius picked up the sponge and plunged it into the bucket of water and began cleaning the tables. "This is going to take a while" he muttered to himself. Whilst he cleaned, he thought about Remus and what happened this morning. 'Why do I feel so weird around him? I always get a weird feeling in my stomach every time I'm close to him. This morning was strange, I felt as though I wanted to hug or kiss him. When did this start happening?' Sirius shook these thoughts out of his head and carried on cleaning.
Meanwhile in the Gryffindor common room…
"I'm bored" James announced. "Me too" Peter replied. "What can we do though?" Remus asked, putting his book down. "Hmmm…" Peter said. "Hey, we're about to play truth or dare. Do you three want to join in?" Lily said to James, Peter and Remus. "Yeah ok" they replied in union.
The three of them sat in a circle which also included Lily and her friends Amanda, Kieran, Tylon and a few other Gryffindor sixth years. "Who wants to go first?" Lily asked. "I will" said James. "Lily, truth or dare" he asked. "Because you're a marauder and I don't trust you, I'll take truth" Lily said. "Ok" James said and taking a deep breath he said: "Who do you like?"
Lily blushed and looked at the floor. "Do I really have to tell?" she asked. "Yes" replied Amanda. "I'm sure James would love to know" she added, winking. Lily glared at her but she smiled. "Ok, fine. James I like you. Next person" Lily said in a rush. "You like me?" James asked, blushing slightly. "Yeah" Lily replied with a smile. "Didn't you notice?" she asked. "No…" James said trailing off.
"Anyway, Amanda. Truth or dare?" Lily asked. "Dare" Amanda said with a smirk. "Ok, I'll get you back for that comment you made a minute ago. Kiss Kieran and I want to see some tongues!" Lily said, laughing. "Fine" said Amanda, turning red. She moved closer to Kieran and kissed him lightly on the lips. "Done" she announced when they had broken free.
"Ok, Tylon. Truth or dare?" Amanda asked. The arrogant but friendly Tylon replied with: "dare". "Ok, you see that 7th year over there?" Amanda asked. Everyone turned around and looked in the direction Amanda was pointing in. A seventh year girl with long, blond hair was sitting in the corner reading her history of magic book and twirling her silky hair between her fingers.
"You have to go and ask her out. Say whatever you want but you have to ask her" said Amanda. "Ok, I accept" Tylon said, strutting over to the girl. Everyone watched as Tylon began talking to the girl and smiling. She however, looked outraged and slapped him hard across the face. Everyone laughed as Tylon took his seat next to Amanda and put his hand to his face. "Ow".
"Ok, my turn now. James, truth or dare?" Tylon asked. "Dare" James said. Tylon charmed a chess piece on a nearby table into a can of whip cream. "Little trick my father taught me" Tylon said. "Spray this on the top of your head" he said to James.
James took the can of whip cream and sprayed it all over his head. Everyone laughed at him because he looked like Father Christmas. "Ok, Remus. Truth or dare?" James asked. "Truth" Remus replied. "What's been bothering you?" James asked. Remus suddenly became slightly nervous as everyone in the circle was staring at him.
The portrait opened and Sirius entered looking quite tired. "Hi everyone. What you doing?" Sirius asked. "Truth or dare, want to join in?" James asked. "Ok" Sirius said, taking a seat next to Peter. "Whose turn is it?" he asked. "Mine. But you can have it, I'm going to bed" Remus said, standing up and walking up the stairs.
James looked after him perplexed but just shrugged and turned to Sirius. "I guess it's your turn then" he said. "Ok, James. Truth or dare?" Sirius asked. "Dare" James said. "Ok, nice hair by the way. Anyway, you have to skip through the corridor with your pants on your head" Sirius said, smiling evilly. "Damn you Sirius" James said.
James went upstairs briefly and came back with his pants on his head. The group went out into the corridor and watched James skip looking very funny with his pants on his head. They all went back into the common room and sat back down and continued with the game.
"Alright Sirius, truth or dare?" James asked. "Dare" Sirius said. "Ok, tomorrow at breakfast. You have to go up to Snape, slap his ass and say: "kinky little bugger aren't I?" James replied. Everyone in the circle laughed hysterically, even Sirius. "Ok mate, fair enough. Lily, truth or dare?" Sirius asked. "Uh… dare" Lily replied.
"I want you to sit on James' lap and kiss him" Sirius said. Lily blushed slightly but went over to James (who thought it was best to sit on a chair) and sat on his lap. She pulled him closer and kissed him passionately and when they broke apart, Lily took a little bit of the whip cream off his head and licked it. Funnily enough, Lily did not leave from James' lap.
"Sirius, truth or dare" Lily asked. Before Sirius replied, Remus walked down the staircase. "Sorry, forgot my book" he muttered. "Are you ok Remus?" Sirius asked. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Remus replied. Remus turned and went back up the staircase.
"Truth" Sirius said to Lily. "Ok, do you like anyone?" she asked. Sirius looked up the staircase Remus had just gone up. "I'm not sure, but I think I'm beginning to".
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A/N: What did you think of that? Please review!