Katie sat crisscrossed on her bed with Lily Evans and their two new dorm mates, Penelope Alistair and Malinda Goodenburg.
"Alright Penelope," Malinda said, "Truth or Dare?"
"Oh, um," Penelope's innocent blue eyes scanned each girl, "truth?"
"Have you ever been in love?"
Penelope stared downward, a pink flush inching its way onto her pale skin.
"Well, I, there was this boy."
The other three girls' eyes were now all glued to Penelope, waiting for details.
"Go on," Katie urged eagerly.
"Well, I had the hugest crush on him, I thought I was in love, and one day I just blurted it out, and," Penelope paused to stare dreamily out the window, a small smile playing on her lips, "and then he kissed me."
"How romantic," Lily sighed.
"Ok, Lily," Katie bounced up and down excitedly, "Truth or Dare?"
"Truth," Lily answered automatically.
"Oh, come on, you ran out of truths."
"Fine, dare."
Katie grinned, "Alright I dare you, all of you, to come explore the castle with me!"
"We'll get caught!" Penelope pleaded.
"It's only our first night!" Lily argued.
"You sound like a lot of chickens to me! Come on, we won't get caught, I promise."
*
Sirius was restless; he couldn't stop thinking about the girl. He glanced around his dorm.
James was lying on his bed looking up at the ceiling, while Remus was getting acquainted with their new dorm mate, Peter Pettigrew.
Sirius didn't quite like Peter; he was too nervous and twitchy. His Chubby stomach lolled out in front of him and his small rat like eyes were always too frightened.
"Alright," Sirius announced, "I'm going exploring, who's with me?"
"What if someone catches us?" Remus asked, wanting to make sure their plan was fool-proof.
James jumped up and started rummaging through his trunk. The rest of the boys followed him with their curious eyes.
"I've got just the thing," he declared, as he knelt down and pulled out a cloak.
"What's an old cloak going to help?" Peter asked.
James rolled his eyes. "It's not just any old cloak, it's an invisibility cloak." With that he flung the cloak around himself and suddenly vanished.
All three boys gasped in awe.
"Imagine that Groddy man - Filch, that's it - finding us," Malinda giggled.
"Shh!" Lily spun around harshly, "It's like you want us to get caught!"
Katie rolled her eyes to the other girls. Lily was clearly on edge about breaking the rules.
The four of them tip-toed down the corridors, keeping close to the walls in case they needed to hide.
"Ow, Remus, get off my bloody foot!"
All four girls stopped in their tracks.
"What was that?" Lily whispered.
"You're one to talk Sirius! Stop jabbing me with your elbow!"
"James, Sirius, would you kindly shut up; you're going to get us caught."
Katie pulled out her wand, though she knew it was useless on account of her not knowing any spells. "Who's there, show yourself!"
All four boys were now silent. Still hidden beneath the cloak they slowly turned around.
Standing there with her wand at the ready, stood the girl Sirius had seen earlier.
Unable to hold in the urge of meeting her, Sirius slowly took off the cloak. He took a quick glance at Peter and Remus; they were both staring at the ground in embarrassment. He took a glance in the other direction at James. He was gaping with his mouth wide open at a red headed girl, like a fool.
Well no girl - no matter how pretty - was going to make a fool out of him! So Sirius pulled himself together, rested his back on the wall and said, "Hey Ladies, you're up a little late aren't you?"
"So are you," Katie pointed out.
Sirius tried to ignore the quickening of his heart beat at the sound of her voice. He walked over to introduce himself.
"Hi, I'm Sir-," just then he tripped on a suit of armor and found himself falling on to the girl.
For a moment he was stunned. He could feel the warmth of her breath and the pounding of her heart. He could stay in this blissful happy place forever.
"Um," Katie managed, she was lying on the floor with some clumsy boy on top of her and her head really hurt from being knocked down, it was enough to make her very grumpy, "Would you kindly get off of me?" Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.
Now Sirius heard the laughter. Even James had broken out of zombie mode to laugh madly at Sirius like the loon he was.
"Oh, right, right." Bliss had run away and now embarrassment was flooding in. Sirius got to his feet and felt hot blood pulsing to his cheeks. He was blushing! Sirius Black didn't blush! Trying to keep his cool he helped the girl to her feet.
"Anyway like I was saying, I'm Sirius, and you are?"
"Katie," she replied curtly as she brushed herself off. "So, are you always that clumsy?"
His friends were off again, obviously enjoying his humiliation.
"I'm not clumsy!" He protested.
"You just fell on top of me, "Katie reminded him. It appeared the boy was stupid as well.
"You shouldn't have been in my way!"
"In your way?" Katie shrieked she was infuriated and so was Sirius.
The two were so caught up in their fury, and their friends so amused, that no one noticed Filch making his way down the hallway, firmly gripping his lamp, and followed by his meddlesome cat.
"Ah, what do we have here? First years wandering the castle after hours. Naughty, naughty, naughty. All Gryffindors I see wonder what McGonagall will make of this."
The children were silenced by that dreadful voice, goose bumps making their way across their arms and legs.
"It's only my first day and I already have a detention," Lily cried as the eight children were being led to McGonagall's office.
"It's alright Lily, maybe we'll be left with a warning," said Penelope as she patted Lily on the back.
"Well none of us would be in this mess if it weren't for your loud mouth friend over there," snapped Sirius as he shot Katie a death glare.
"Me! You were the one who woke the whole bloody castle up because you can't even manage to walk without tripping!"
"Here we are," stated Filch, a rather nasty grin on his face.
Edited by the fabulous pieface