The Split by Bandgeek252
Chapter 5- Truth or Dare
Harry walked the long way to Hermione and Ginny's room. While Harry couldn't be called an idiot unless it was Professor Snape, he knew he wasn't particularly brilliant. The raven haired boy followed hunches and listened to his gut. That was, of course, both a good thing and a bad thing. Yet something was plaguing him.
The past couple of months dating Ginny had felt like a dream come true. She was fiery and strong willed. She fought with everything she had and her kisses had been like delectable flames, but recently the fire was cooled. It felt like an echo anymore. What if... doubts and fears seeping into his skin she just wanted the Boy Who Lived and now doesn't find that it lives up to expectation? What if I'm doing something wrong? He tried to shake his darker thoughts and quell them with the knowledge that Ginny was his girlfriend and it was probably just stress or school that had her less excited to see him.
Putting those thoughts to bed he gently knocked on Hermione's door. A soft 'Come in' ushered him into their comfortable bedroom.
Hermione sat there on the bed looking so forlorn, Harry wanted to pull her into a tight hug.
"Why are you so sad?" he asked.
She snorted most unladylike. "That doppleganger is ruining everything! I have NEVER had romantic feelings," she sniffed back a tear. "for Professor Lupin, but she doesn't care. She puts on airs and everyone is having more fun with her than with me."
Harry would have laughed at how adorable his best girl friend was pouting if it wouldn't have gotten him a curse or two thrown at him.
"Hermione, they love you! Remus and Tonks know you... I mean Mya was only doing that to get a rise out of Sirius." Harry patted her head affectionately. "You and Mya are the same person. We all know that."
"I know that!" she shrieked tears streaming down her face. "It's just... it's so hard watching her laugh and joke and knowing that is within me!"
"Why, Hermione? Can you even answer why it bothers you so?" Harry gripped her shoulders tightly and giving her a slight shake trying to shake some sense into her.
Hermione felt hot tears run down her cheeks. "Because I think she's a better me than I am."
"I'm not as brilliant as you. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Mya you?" Harry asked easing his grip slightly, but refusing to let go. "You're going to talk this out Hermione Granger."
"It's just that I've always been so controlled and responsible, I thought when I entered the Magical world I would belong somewhere, but then I got to Hogwarts and found out that I still didn't belong. After Ron said that horrible comment." she brushed her tears angrily.
Harry sighed, "I know we were both idiots. Forgive us? We were both idiot eleven year old boys with no clue about girls or manners or really anything." Harry smiled at her. Hermione's brown eyes warmed a bit as a smile crept into her frown.
"I know. You two really were impossible."
"And we stayed friends! Bossy, brilliant, and all."
"But Harry, Mya is still me. I had no idea I could joke like that or tease Sirius like that. Although after how many times he's taken the mickey out on me, I suppose it is justice that he got some of his own!" Hermione Granger scolded like always.
"Hermione, no one is just one shade of person. We are all different inside ourselves. What we show the world is just one part of us. Like take me for example. I'm the Boy Who Lived, but is that all I am?"
"No, you're such a good friend."
"And a seventeen year old boy with a saving people complex. I have dashed into the fray so many times that my enemies have picked up on it. I can be demanding and not listen to others when they try to tell me that this is a trap." he smirked at his curly haired friend. "See I am not just one thing and neither are you. I am just glad that I don't have my other self out there. What if something hidden me was really out there, like gay and in love with Malfoy*"
Hermione choked on her laughter snorting until she was on her back laughing.
"Feel better?" Harry asked.
"Immensely. Thank you! You're a good friend."
"Anything for you!"
"So gay and in love with Malfoy, eh?" Hermione teased raising an eyebrow.
"Hey!"
"Speaking of love, how are things with Ginny?"
"Uh," Harry nervously ran his fingers through his messy black hair. "I don't know."
"Is something wrong?" Hermione asked now concerned.
"Well there... it's silly really. It's just that the spark isn't there anymore. I mean we still spend a fair amount of time together and it's great being together, but when I kiss her I used to feel her passion." Harry stopped instantly beet red from using the word 'passion'.
"Come on Harry, I talk to Ginny too. You can say the words, I've already heard most of them from her anyway." Hermione openly admitted trying not giggle at her best friend's embarrassment.
"It's just that her kisses feel off and I know that I may be looking far too deep into this, but I have survived most of the things in my life by paying attention to my hunches and this is one of those hunches. I can feel it in my gut that something isn't right."
"Have you tried talking to her about it?"
"I don't want to come across all demanding. It could be nothing and if it is I'll feel relieved but like a big idiot."
"Well I can't say anything since she's mostly normal around me. She hasn't said anything about it. Maybe she's trying to work something out on her own and when she's made up her mind she'll tell you."
"Sounds like logical, just like you."
"Well part of me anyway," Hermione smiled warmly at her friend.
"That's our girl!" he pulled her into a hug. "Knew you were brilliant."
HGMGHGMGHGMG
Once the teenagers were settled and out of the parlor, Remus sat down by the fire and put up his tired feet. Feeling the warmth of the fire seep into his chilled toes especially the foot that had a large hole in the bottom, he sighed and started to get engrossed in a book. The house always felt so full of life now that it was Headquarters. When Sirius had described the place during their boyhood years, he had always said it resembled a cave full of bats. Blood sucking bats had been his exact words. And just look at it now. Full of rambunctious teenagers and adults with no roots or homelife. It warmed his heart to see a bat cave become a home.
"Whatcha doing?" came the cheerful perky voice of his lover. Why he got involved with that little pink haired minx, no one can say, but Remus thinks that it might have something to do with the fact that she was always so warm, open, and loving from the first moment they met.
Not taking his eyes off his book, he smiled, "Reading, Dora. It's what some of us do." He teased her about her lack of books. She always scoffed and said, 'give me real life.'
"Bah! That's not nearly as entertaining as messing with these young impressionable youths wandering about." Tonks dipped her shoulder length pink hair to brush against his ear as she started to nibble on his neck. The old wolf might have been old, but he was far from dead.
He growled tugging on her hair lightly, "Don't start something you're not going to finish, Dora."
He could feel the blood rush to his lower half when she whispered, "I do intend to finish... if you'll put that book down."
In a flash, he had set the book down and pulled his lover into his lap. She shrieked in delight. "I love it when your wolf side comes out to play."
"Don't push it Dora!" he snarled a warning.
Putting on her sexiest pout, she whimpered. It made Remus want her all the more. Wanting her, needing her... it was all beginning to blur. He felt his wolf side urging him to pin her against the wall and fuck her senseless.
"Push it? Me!" she feigned shock and innocence.
Remus could feel his desire. It was so loud, it was like a loud drum in his ear. "You better watch it, Tonks. You may not like what you get." he gave her a feral warning. To which she merely smiled.
"I'll tell you what I'd like... I'd like for you to take me against the wall right here and now. No locking charms or silencing charms. Let's see if you're up to the challenge."
His wolf growled and threw his sexy lover on the ground and landed almost instantly on top of her. Thankfully the carpet was soft enough. "I don't play by your rules Tonks!"
She couldn't hide her delight as the pink cheeked beauty grew her hair out and turned it a vibrant red. Remus couldn't help but smile. No one saw Tonks in red hair. That was for him and him alone. He drew her into a passionate deep kiss. The kind that turned her insides to molten lava. She moaned softly.
"Shh, my dear. They will hear you." Remus gave her a wolfish grin.
"I was actually kidding about that." Tonks tried to say softly, but it came out in a moan as her older lover gave her breast grope and peppered her with kisses.
He smirked at her, "Well now where would be the fun in that?" And that was the last coherent thought either of them had.
HGMGHGMGHGMG
The meal was thankfully uneventful except for the flushed and glowing expressions coming from Remus and Tonks. Molly gathered the children and practically force fed Ron who tried to get her to back off, but to no avail. She tried to urge Harry and Ginny's appetite, but both seemed to be in a fairly somber and quiet mood. Hermione and Mya were trying their best to ignore each other's existence.
Sirius kept giving Remus a not so subtle waggle of his eyebrows while Remus promptly ignored his oldest friend. If he looked he knew he would not be able to contain a wolfish grin. Sirius had always been able to ferret out that kind of information much to Remus's annoyance. He tried his best to pay attention to Hermione's career plans.
"I always thought about getting involved with the treatment of magical creatures. It would be fascinating to learn more about other creatures and ensure they have rights." Remus couldn't help but smile over this. He knew his being a werewolf influenced her opinion after she learned about what terrible laws were out there for werewolves. Well that and house elves were the two big influences in her career path. "I would love to see House Elves be able to take vacations and have some say over the people they serve. Like Dobby, who wanted to leave the Malfoys employ. Why shouldn't they be able to choose who they work for?"
"Have you considered anything else? With your mind you could do almost anything you wanted." Remus asked curious about her response, but was slightly distracted by Mya's almost incredulous glare.
"I haven't thought about much else. Maybe I'll get into something different later. After I save the elves, of course."
Mya snorted angrily, "That's a lie."
"It is not!" Hermione hissed.
"Like you haven't thought that helping the elves to be a bit pointless or the fact that you'll be positively bored once you accomplish that little goal. You know you dream of bigger things!" she snapped. Hermione turned a dark shade of purple.
"Now girls!" Molly scolded. "Eat up!" As if food was more important than this! The entire group stopped eating and watched the argument between the two Hermiones unfold.
"Helping the elves is NOT pointless!" Hermione shrieked.
"You can lie to them all you want, but I know you... I am you!"
"You're just trying to start something. Listen, I know I have wavered in my pursuit of equal rights for house elves, but I still think it is a worthwhile pursuit." Hermione tried to reason with her other side, hoping that Mya wouldn't mention the other career options she had considered.
"Think about it, Hermione. People have been telling us for years that they are happy serving others. Who are you to criticize how they seek their happiness. I know why! It's because it's not in accordance to your perception of happiness. That is why we are terrible at Divination and the like... we need structure and rules."
Hermione could feel her anger roar, but she didn't know what to do with it. If it were Harry or Ron, she'd cry or hex them and stomp off for a little bit, but with herself? She had no idea. Feeling the tears start to prick her eyes made her more annoyed. She was crying in front of herself. And as much as she wished to deny it and had denied it, inside she couldn't.
After a few moments of awkward silence, Remus tried to bring the two bushy brunettes back around, "So Mya, what has your side of Hermione's personality considered going into?"
"Lots of things. I would love to work in a library, but that wouldn't be quite as stimulating for me. I thought about many subjects and working under as an apprentice and then trying for a Mastery in something. Trouble is that I don't know quite what to do into." Mya blushed slightly. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. At least she didn't say which subject she had been heavily considering.
Hermione glared at her counterpart to drop the subject and thankfully Mya took the hint. The conversation then flowed into Fred and George's latest experiment while Molly fettered about as always.
As evening set in, Molly and Arthur turned in making Remus promise to ensure that the children behaved. Sirius promised, but unfortunately his word didn't mean much to the great Molly Weasley.
"So what shall we do with our time?" Sirius clapped his hands together in anticipation.
A chorus of moans filled the parlor. While the teenagers were close to Sirius, Remus, and Tonks and loved them all, they were teenagers afterall. Adults meant nothing fun.
"How about Truth or Dare?" Mya pipped up smirking at Sirius in a most mischievous way. He had to admit, Sirius loved Mya's attitude. For a moment or two he completely forgot that it was Hermione he was dealing with.
"Let's make it even more interesting." Sirius waggled his eyebrows at the group. Remus sat up a little straighter alarmed for he knew first hand what that look meant!
"Now Sirius..." the responsible Remus tried to deter his oldest friend, but Sirius was not a force to be stopped so easily.
"Oh hush you old fusspot! I just meant we take a mild dose of vertiaserum. It will just compel us to tell the truth, but not divulge your soul." Sirius winked. "Isn't there some questions you've been dying to know about everyone." The temptation was too great. Ron wanted to know why it would never work out with Hermione. Harry wanted to know what Ginny was up to. Mya wanted everyone to learn something new about her and Hermione just wanted to run for the hills.
"Well let's get this party started!" Tonks chirped after everyone had taken their bit. It would only last for an hour.
"Who goes first?" Ginny asked.
"Any volunteers?" Sirius scanned the group of teens.
"I'll go!" Tonks volunteered. "Alright, Remus," she smiled sinfully. Remus' ears reddened as he hoped and prayed there was a benevolent diety out there which would forbid Tonks from asking any personal questions especially about sex. They may be teenagers, but he knew they didn't want to have mental pictures of their old werewolf professor getting it on. "Truth or Dare?"
"Uh, truth." he responded softly his eyes begging Tonks to walk carefully.
"First crush?" she asked her eyes twinkled.
Remus turned red as Sirius started to snicker. "Lily." he said softly. Harry looked up at him in surprise and then glared.
"You had a crush on my mum?" he asked his voice tight. Hermione, Mya, and Ginny giggled. "What?" he snapped at his friends.
"It's nothing Harry." Hermione said. Thankfully Mya and Ginny were more honest.
"It's just that you have this whole complex that your dad was the only one with your mum. It's adorable." Mya said chuckling into her pumpkin juice.
"To be fair, I was only 13 at the time and James hadn't made a move on her yet. Obviously the crush didn't last." his cheeks flushed as Sirius stopped holding back his snickers and laughed so hard he had to brace himself. "It wasn't that funny, Sirius!" he snapped at his oldest friend.
"Oh that's not as funny as when you tried to ask her out!" he said between gasps.
"You asked her out?" Harry's expression darkened.
"Just think Harry, you could have been Remus' kid instead of James'." Mya said with a giggle. Harry turned a little pale at the thought.
"Nothing against you Professor, but I..."
"No need to explain. That's quite alright. I didn't have a shot with her anyway. There was no chance of you being mine. That was for sure."
Sirius continued to laugh as he added, "Especially after the way you asked her to Hogsmeade."
"What happened?" Ron asked.
"Well let's just say I was not the most articulate 13 year old boy." his ears reddened.
"I'll say," Sirius dried his tears. "he stuttered so badly that you could barely make out what he said and then James came by wanting to hide from Filch and she got so caught up with yelling at your dad, she forgot completely about Remus asking her out. And he didn't try again because she swore she would never go out with anyone who hung out with James Potter."
"Didn't that make you angry with James?" Mya asked.
"No, well at first yes, but then I realized that I was too shy to ask her and it probably wouldn't have worked out anyway. Years later she told me she was going to turn me down anyway if James hadn't interrupted." He coughed lightly and then continued the game. "Sirius, truth or dare?"
"As if you have to ask, dare!"
"Redo that dance you did to impress Helen Sparks in fifth year." Remus said with a sly smile. This was payback, 100% payback and Remus was not above enjoying it!
Sirius paled for a moment. Everyone thought for the briefest of moments that Sirius Orion Black was honestly going to back out of a dare, but true to Black's style he shook it off. "Clothes are staying on. My cousin is present."
"And she appreciates it!" Tonks giggled.
Sirius waved his wand and cued up some music. It had a disco beat as Sirius muttered something about the 70's and backed up. Ginny, Hermione, and Mya couldn't hide their blushes. Not that any of them had a huge crush or anything on Sirius, but he did exude a ton of sexual tension and flirtatious innuendos that made it hard not to flush when he cranked up the heat. No woman was a immune with the exception of Tonks, but they were cousins so... no!
He turned his back to the group and began to shake his tight bum with small jerky shakes making his bum jiggle as the teenage girls went crimson. The boys could only laugh with pink cheeks. Sirius turned to his side and did some pelvic thrusts and then licked his finger like it burned. Shaking his hips in almost perfect rhythm with the disco beat, he waved his arms up and then down as he reached for his belt buckle. Ginny about died as she closed her eyes willing herself not to look.
"Gotcha!" Sirius smirked at the girls. Harry suddenly noticed the effect it was having on his girlfriend and the laughter died.
"Honestly Black, must you do that here!" a hard rich voice sneered at him. The group turned to abashedly stare at Professor Snape glaring at Sirius and then at Remus. "You're supposed to be adults. Well I can see Black never will be, but I had thought better of you Wolf!"
"Back off Snape," Sirius snapped. "We were just having a little fun. Nothing too serious." He smirked a bit at the pun.
"I can see that your ability to thrall a crowd hasn't changed, but do you honestly need to do that in front of my students." he snapped tiredly. Hermione got up enormously embarrassed. Mya simply smiled at him.
"Honestly Professor we're not that impressionable." she smiled ruefully at him. The entire room was still in surprise. No one talked to Professor Severus Snape like that. Ever! And here was the other half of Hermione acting like it was nothing out of the ordinary. Snape scowled at her.
"Granger!" he bellowed. "You two meet in the library in five minutes." And with that the dungeon bat was gone.
"Uh oh, Hermione, he looks down right vengeful." Harry commented with his sincerest condolences.
"He's probably angry about the potion mix up." Hermione sighed. This was not how she wanted to explain the problem to Snape. Mya just stood and straightened her clothes and smoothed down her hair, as if it would help much.
"Let's go see what's up Snape's arse?" Mya said with a giggle.
"Honestly, girls! I'll never understand 'em." Ron said confused.
"Me either." Harry commented as they watched their best friend head towards the library. "Ginny, a minute will you."
"What is it Harry? I'm tired and all I want to do is go to bed." Ginny sighed.
"We need to talk. Is something going on? I just have this feeling that something isn't right and if it isn't then we need to talk about it." Harry tried to ease the topic down gently, but knew he was failing miserably.
"You want to do this now?" Ginny whined slightly.
"Yes!" Harry snapped. "Something is going on! I know it, in my bones and my hunches have rarely been wrong. I want to know why things between us have suddenly cooled. Is it me? What's going on?"
"I don't know." Ginny sighed. She really didn't want to do this now, but Harry deserved the truth. "When we started going out, it was a dream come true for me. I had been dreaming about us for years, but I guess feelings change. It's not you. Honestly! You are a wonderful boyfriend, but I think we waited too long or missed the boat or something, because it doesn't feel the same anymore."
"The spark is just not there, is it?" Harry frowned slouching his shoulders in defeat.
"No it's not."
"Is there someone else?" Harry asked as Ginny's face became a brilliant red.
"Not really no!" she said quickly. The last thing she wanted Harry to think was that there was something going on between Neville and herself. There was nothing going on, but there was the glimmer of something.
"So we're done then." Harry sighed his eyes heavy and dull.
"Yes, I think so. I am so sorry to spring this on and during the Christmas holidays too. Can we try to be friends?"
"Friends?" Harry said incredulously. "No, not right now Ginny. Maybe... someday, but right now you're an ex and what I need is some space."
"Alright, space I can do." Ginny turned towards her door her eyes filling with tears, but she refused to let him see her cry and because she knew he'd be crying too.
TBC
AN: I really wanted Harry and Hermione to have a touching friendly moment together. I love these two as friends and even as a romantic pairing. The on screen chemistry between Dan and Emma was so warm and sexy I have fallen in love with Harmony pairing. As I say on my blog, don't knock it until you've tried it.
I know the truth or dare thing is a bit lame, but I wanted to write one and since I am writer and master puppeteer here, I made one! I had channel the dance that Hugh Grant gave in Love Actually. If you haven't seen that movie, please stop reading this and go watch it. It's amazing!
*That was a shout out to the fanart of the fanfiction that inspired me for this fic. Couldn't resist.
Read and Review... please!