The Paintbrush Dares, Chapter 2

Hello to all! This is my first shot at writing a fic chapter centered around Ginny and Harry, so please point out any mistakes! Thank you, Book-Grubz, for the prompt and review! I'd like to thank all my reviewers! You lot make me so happy! :D

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, world, or anything recognizable. *sighs* I own another paintbrush, though!

"Okay," said Ron, rubbing his forehead as Hermione finished her story, "all of that actually happened - for a game of Truth or Dare?"

"Yes," Hermione grinned, "but that's not all of the story. After all, the game continued after I got back."

"Wait," interrupted Ron, "don't tell me, let me guess - you got revenge on my sister somehow?"

"Why, yes," Hermione affirmed, grinning even more widely. "However did you guess?"

Ron snickered, "I know you too well." He laughed for a few moments, then asked, "How exactly did you get revenge?"

"Well, this is going off of what Ginny reported…"

*Flashback*

After the laughter had died down a bit, play resumed. In time, they came to what would be the last Dare of the night, which just happened to belong to Ginny. The other girls sighed, saying that they could not think of anything for her to do, so she should draw a Dare from the box.

Ginny reached into their hatbox and pulled out a scrap of parchment; she read it aloud. "'Do a version of the craziest Dare of the night, in accordance to rules set by the group.'"

"Well," Hermione said slowly, an evil smile spreading across her face, "I think that it's obvious which one dare was positively insane."

Parvati, Lavender, and Ginny's friends agreed: The one Hermione had had to do was by far the craziest.

Ginny flinched; her best Dare had come back to bite her. She sighed, then asked, "Alright, what do I have to do?"

"To the Dare box!" giggled Mimi, Ginny's friend.

Ginny groaned, "Not the Dare box!"

The Dare box was a cardboard box in which the girls kept items - such as what had been Hermione's outfit - for use in Dares. Since it consisted mostly of the girls' old Halloween costumes, it was full to the brim with odd things. It was from these that Ginny's outfit was taken.

"Perfect!" Lavender exclaimed, looking at their creation a few minutes later.

Ginny was wearing tall lace-up red sandals, a black short skort tipped with white lace, a halter top that appeared to be made from autumn leaves, bat wings, and a devil's tail and horns. She scowled at all of them; Hermione, grinning, handed her two paintbrushes, red and black.

"Lighten up, Gin," she laughed, "it's only a game."

Ginny rolled her eyes and asked, "What do I have to do?" The girls gave her the instructions and she set off.

About an hour and a half later, she came back covered head-to-toe in red and black paint. She was immediately forced to sit down and tell her entire story.

"Well," she began, "I obviously went to get Harry first. I slipped into the dorms, climbed onto his bed, and poked him. Once he was vaguely awake, I whispered, "Come now, whilst the tortillas are still asleep." "WHAT?" Mimi half-shouted.

Ginny giggled, "Well, you never said how to wake him up. I figured that once he saw my outfit and apparent state of mind, he wouldn't think twice about sleeping tortillas."

The girls laughed and encouraged Ginny to continue her story.

"Well, after that I basically had to drop any sort of 'Olde English,'" she said. "I'm really terrible at it, so I figured that I might be able to make my act more believable if I could talk clearly."

"Aw," pouted Mary, another friend, "I was looking forward to hearing your take on the old language."

"Anyway," Ginny continued, "after that, I half-dragged his sleepy self out of bed and all the way down to the portrait hole. By that point, he had woken up enough to ask me why I'd dragged him out of bed at three fifteen in the morning. I replied by insisting that he must help me search for the portal, or else all hope would be lost. He blinked for a minute straight!" she laughed.

"You timed him?" Lavender shrieked.

"Yeah, I did. I then ranted at him about wasting time. I forced him to take one of the paintbrushes and led him out of the portrait hole. We then ran-crept up to the owlery and gave a very bemused and rather grumpy Hedwig a hug. That's how I got this scratch," she said, pointing to a rather long one on her arm. "Harry was all apologetic about it; I had to paint him a bit to make him shut up."

"Told you," breathed Hermione; this went unnoticed by the others.

"After I'd finished painting him, I led him down to the Stirrer of Paint's 'bedcave,' as you called it."

"Ooh," squealed Mimi, "enter Professor Snape!"

"I'm getting there," winked Ginny. "When we got there, it was open and empty. Harry asked why we were there; I replied by saying that I sensed the portal, and that he must remain quiet so it wouldn't be scared. He then shut his mouth and allowed me to lead him into the inner chamber." She paused for dramatic effect.

After a few moments, she continued, "I told him to ruffle around on one side while I looked on the other. I really only pretended to ruffle, but I'm not sure about Harry. After half an hour, I announced that the portal had moved again. He stood up and we did our best to get things back in order. Then…"

"What happened?" Parvati squeaked.

"Tell us!" Lavender demanded.

"Enter the Stirrer of Paints?" Hermione guessed.

"Right in one," Ginny grinned. "He stared at us for a minute, gaping. Just as he was about to take points or hex us or something, I started hollering about the portal had moved and the Stirrer of the Paints was in cahoots with the anti-portal brigade and then splattered everything with a whole lot of paint. I think that I snitched the paintbrush I'd given Harry back at one point, so I could try that double-twirl thing you did, Hermione."

Everyone laughed uproariously.

Ginny continued, "Before he could recover from the shock of that, I grabbed Harry and we high-tailed it out of there. Once we were a few floors up, I stopped in my tracks; Harry kept running for about fifteen feet before he realized that I had stopped. I then held a finger up to my lips and led the way back up to Gryffindor Tower. The Fat Lady was so tired that she didn't even open her eyes to ask us the password," Ginny laughed. "I then shooed him back up to his dorm and came back here to report to you lot."

By this point, the laughter could not be controlled; it bubbled over and spilled out all around them until Crookshanks hissed at them, fur on end. They then said their good-nights and went to their respective sleeping areas.

*End of Flashback*

Ron, who had been silent during the entire story, burst out laughing at the end. "So the Queen of Dares finally got a taste of her own potion?"

Hermione laughed, "Indeed, she did."

The couple laughed for a while, before Ron asked, "Did Harry ever find out that that actually happened?"

"You know," Hermione said thoughtfully, "I don't believe Ginny ever told him."

Ron snorted.

*Finish*

Thank you for reading this! Please review and let me know how I did with capturing the characters! :D

Love and paint,

Claraowl