Summary: When Seamus gets bored, all hell breaks lose as he unleashes the one thing that could cast fear into the heart of Hogwart's aging headmaster and bring chaos unto the ancient school: a game of truth or dare.

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Harry Potter, and no, I am not making any money off of this sad excuse for a story.

CHAPTER TWO: DO YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW?

Harry and Ron wondered what on earth was going on when Seamus stepped through the doors leading into the great hall with a ridiculously large, somewhat goofy grin on his face. They turned to each other, silently questioning whether the other knew what was up with their hyperactive house-mate before shrugging in response to one another's inquiries. Perhaps it was better that they not know anyway.

Shaking their heads at Seamus's behavior and wondering if, perhaps, he had had too much sugar again, they returned to conversing about how quidditch practice had gone that afternoon, retelling the incident where Collin had accidentally swallowed a bug many times.

Their conversation was interrupted as Seamus sat across from them and made a slight coughing noise in imitation of their ex-Professor Umbridge in order to get their attention. "Hem, hem," he began, smiling widely and attempting not to laugh as Harry and Ron turned his way with rolled eyes and a snort of amusement respectively. "Now that I have your attention, I have a very important announcement to make," he continued, pausing momentarily for effect, "In case you haven't already heard, tonight at 9:00 Gryffindor is going to be hosting the first ever Hogwart's tru--" Seamus had just been getting to the part where he finally announced what the bloody hell was going on, when Dean interrupted him, and quite rudely too, at least in Seamus's opinion.

"Oh give it a rest!" Dean ordered grumpily, rubbing his temples in an attempt to get rid of the headache Seamus had managed to cause him in the last hour and a half. When it appeared that Seamus was going to pay his words no heed and simply go on talking whether he liked it or not, Dean continued before Seamus had a chance to start up again. "You've been going on about that bloody game for over an hour, Seam; can't we talk about something else now?" he pleaded wearily, giving his friend the 'sad eyes' and hoping that Seamus would fall for them as usual. Seamus merely responded with a sulky look, which Dean interpreted to mean that he had won. "Thank Merlin! So how was practice?" he asked, turning to Harry and Ron to await an answer.

But, they hardly paid Dean's question any heed they were still looking at Seamus with curious expressions on their faces, wondering what he had been about to say before being interrupted. Harry finally managed to respond with an unenthusiastic, "It was fine."

Ron nodded his head in agreement with Harry's uninformative reply, both of them completely forgetting about the 'Collin incident,' as they turned back to Seamus inquisitively. "So, what were you saying about some...umm...Gryffindor hosting Hogwart's...uh...9:00...thingy?" Ron asked unintelligibly, scrunching his nose up as he realized that what he said had made no sense whatsoever. But, just as he was about to try and rephrase his question into some form of comprehensible dialect, Seamus broke in with an answer to his question of sorts; it would seem that he had gained the uncanny ability to understand Ron's jumbled jargon after five years of rooming with him.

"Oh, yes! We're having a truth or dare game in the common room at 9:00!" he blurted out enthusiastically before Dean had a chance to stop him, his Irish accent becoming noticeably stronger with his excitement. He was bouncing up and down again by now, nearly causing him to fall backwards off the bench on which he sat.

Although Dean was sitting right next to his bubbly, Irish friend, he could honestly say that he would not have caught him had he fallen. In fact, he took a sort of sadistic pleasure in imagining Seamus toppling over onto his bum. It would serve the little bugger right, after all.

Cut out of his admittedly not nice, yet quite amusing thoughts by a derisive snort to his right, Dean turned to see Hermione shaking her head in exasperation beside him. "Honestly, I don't know what all the fuss is over," she announced in a superior tone, "I mean, why do you want to play this childish game anyway, Seamus? We all know how it's going to go: a couple of people will have to tell us who they have a crush on, someone else will be dared to kiss another person, then someone will get dared to run around the school in their underwear, another to eat some disgusting concoction that can hardly be called edible, and then there will be a dare somewhat along the lines of 'sneak into Snape's room and spell all of his robes pink for the next week,' and so on and so forth. What's the point?"

Seamus didn't seem to hear Hermione's question or, more likely, refused to dignify such a comment with a response. Instead, he turned his attention over to Ron and Harry, whose reactions to his brilliant idea he was still eagerly awaiting. "So?" he prodded, unable to wait any longer for the praise planning such an entertaining evening would surely get him.

Harry merely shrugged noncommittally, forcing a small smile onto his face for his friend's sake. He remembered playing this game when he was younger at one of Dudley's birthday parties. Needless to say, the experience hadn't exactly been a pleasant one for him; in fact, it was one of those many experiences from his days at Privet Drive that he had tried to block out, though to no avail.

Seamus's anticipating smile faltered, before falling completely in his disappointment. He was about to comment on Harry's disappointing response, and would have, if Ron hadn't spoken up first.

"Umm...what's truth or dare?" the red-headed side-kick asked at last, scratching his head slightly as he looked at Seamus with his face scrunched in obvious confusion. This comment threw Seamus's tenuous composure out the window as his eyes widened in disbelief and he stared blankly at Ron, as if seeing him for the first time.

"You don't even--you've never heard--you haven't..." he stuttered out incredulously, words failing him in his shock. He opened and closed his mouth a couple more times without anything coming out, making him look like fish, before he finally managed a few, desolate words. "...so sad..." he muttered quietly, almost as if speaking to himself.

Hermione rolled her eyes at Seamus's response, unable to believe that he was genuinely that upset over someone having never played, or heard of, some silly little children's game. "Hopeless, the whole lot of them," she muttered to herself in frustration, letting out a slight huff in annoyance.

It was then that Ron decided to speak up once more, tentatively asking, since it hadn't been answered before, "What's truth or dare again?" He quickly shut his mouth, however, as his four exasperated friends turned to give him various versions of the 'Don't-you-know-when-to-shut-the-hell-up?' look. He blushed crimson as he gave them a half-hearted, lop-sided smile in apology. "Geez, what's their problem?" he spoke quietly to himself, shaking his head as if he didn't understand what was going on, not realizing that his friends's hearing wasn't as bad as he thought.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Author's Notes: Whew! Another chapter done and we still haven't even gotten to the actual game yet! Don't worry, it should rear its ugly head in the next chapter...I think. Anyways, I hope you all liked this chapter all right. And thank you so much to everyone who reviewed chapter one!