The afternoon sun shined lightly through the tall windowpanes of the Hospital Wing, illuminating three tomato-red Slytherins. They sat grumpily, and quite bare, in their individual porcelain tubs filled with a paste-like potion. They were red from head to toe, even Malfoy’s trademark blonde hair was crimson. Malfoy and Goyle had been bickering just before Malfoy stopped to vomit in a bin next to his tub. A few moments later, he sat back up, glaring at his comrade.
“Alright you worthless dimwit, you think you’re funny?” Malfoy said venomously, his silver eyes glistening. “Truth or dare?”
Goyle furrowed his brows. “Truth, I s’pose.”
Malfoy gritted his teeth, lowering his voice so Madame Pomfrey wouldn’t hear. “You’re supposed to say ‘dare’, idiot, only silly girls pick ‘Truth’!”
“Dare, dare!” Goyle stuttered, desperate not to be thought of as a silly girl.
With a smile, Malfoy leaned back in his tub until his shoulders dipped down into the potion and disappeared.
“Goyle, have you ever performed the Imperius Curse?”
Goyle’s mouth hung open blankly as though a response would come to him. He was saved, however, by a scattered round of knocking on the heavy wooden door. When Madame Pomfrey opened it, a swarm of Slytherin girls came running in. Much to the dismay of Crabbe and Goyle, all the girls crowded round Malfoy’s tub. The two outcasts pouted sullenly. The only time they were surrounded by Slytherin girls was when they were standing with Malfoy.
“Oh ladies, don’t,” Malfoy feigned dramatically. “I can’t bear you all seeing me this way…”
“Are you naked in there, Draco?” asked Megan, tucking her long brown hair behind her ear. “Would you like us to leave?”
“Sod that,” Maddie exclaimed, inching closer to Malfoy’s intricate porcelain tub. Her eyes were dark green, the same as their House color. “What is this hideousness?” she continued, pinching her nose. “Are they trying to drown you in Muggle paste?”
Madame Pomfrey scurried over, waving her hands about. “Young ladies shouldn’t be in here, these boys are still recovering!”
“Oh, just a few visitors?” Malfoy asked with a charming smile. “I’ve been cooped up all alone, all day…”
Madame Pomfrey put her hands on her hips and sighed. “I suppose, with all you’ve been through, you could have a moment with your friends. I’ll be just down the hall, so do behave and I’ll be back shortly!” With that, she slipped out the door of the Hospital Wing and shut it behind her.
“Finally,” Malfoy drawled, “I thought she would never leave. The boys and I were just starting a bout of ‘Truth or Dare’, if you girls are interested.” He was answered by a round of squeals.
“I’ll start,” Giselle said wickedly, her blue-green eyes flickering. “I dare you to come out of that tub!” The other girls squealed, but Malfoy shook his head with a taunting grin.
“As much as I know you ladies would love to have a look at my bits and pieces, it won’t be while I’m blazing red and covered in glue!”
“I’ll take that as a postponement, not a refusal!” Giselle said smartly, winking at him.
“Actually,” Malfoy said coolly, looking over at Goyle, “I was just in the middle of giving Goyle here a dare!”
Goyle sat up a little, his mouth still hanging open.
“I dare you to cast Imperio on one of the Gryffindors… tomorrow morning at breakfast!”
The girls gasped, while Goyle simply furrowed his brow and managed to look even more dumbfounded.
“That’s an Unforgivable!” Megan hissed, always the voice of reason.
“Thanks, genius,” Giselle replied coolly. “It’s bloody brilliant, if you can get away with it.”
Goyle shrugged and nodded hesitantly before scooping up some more potion and rubbing it over his left shoulder.
“Your turn,” Malfoy reminded him icily.
“Right, right,” Goyle stuttered, looking blankly at the faces of the Slytherin girls in front of him.
“Oi, Crabbe, truth or dare?”
Crabbe raised an eyebrow as though he’d just been asked to define the Pythagorean theorem. His face went blank.
“You can think on it, then,” Goyle said politely. “Uh… Maddie, truth or dare?”
Maddie looked around, her hunter-green eyes scanning the faces around her. No one seemed to care that Malfoy looked like a skinny lobster.
“Giselle, truth or dare?”
“We’re Slytherins. Dare, of course!”
“Alright, you sassy witch!” Maddie said with a grin. “I dare you to sneak a Jarvey into Professor Binns’ history class!”
Malfoy flinched for a moment. Jarveys resembled ferrets, and Draco did not want to be reminded of ferrets.
Giselle folded her arms. “You call that a dare?”
“You’ll never pull it off; it’ll chew through your book-bag before you even get it into the castle!”
Giselle cocked her eyebrow wickedly. “We’ll see about that!”
“Alright, ladies, get on now," Draco warned flirtatiously. "But remember… we should be back to our normal colouring by tomorrow morning, and Goyle has a dare to fulfill…”
Goyle looked down fretfully into his tub of paste as the girls left the Hospital Wing.
“I’ve got it,” Crabbe said suddenly, looking quite hopeful. “I pick ‘Truth’!”
“Why are you so stupid?” Malfoy snapped at him.
Crabbe hesitated, thinking it over with a pained expression. “I shouldn’t have picked ‘Truth’,” he moaned.
•
They still had fifteen or so minutes until dinner, and Ron was using what little time he had trying to figure out how to apologize to Hermione.
“I hate when she’s mad at me,” Ron groaned, throwing himself dramatically across his bed. He pulled his pillow over his face. “I don’t think anyone gets as mad as she does!”
“It’s just you,” Harry said with a laugh. “You’re the only one who gets her this angry!”
“Why me? You fellows think I’m alright; what’s her problem?”
“The problem is she’s not one of the fellows, Ron. Also, it certainly didn’t help that you had someone write a testament to your bum on the back of her robes!”
Ron kicked his trunk angrily, but stubbed his toe in the process. He sat down on the edge of his bed, pouting while he rubbed his foot.
He held out his hand and began counting off on his fingers. “I sang to her in front of the entire school, I told her she was pretty, twice, and-”
“Do you see a pattern here?” Harry interrupted. “All that stuff you did because of a dare. Maybe you ought to do something nice for her without any… prompting, you know?”
Ron stood up, buttoning his robes over his t-shirt and jeans. “Harry, you’re right. This is why you’re my best mate. I’m going to be the most devilishly romantic, charming, suave, doting-”
Thud. Ron lifted his face off the floor as he realised he'd just tripped over his trunk again.
“Good luck, Don Juan!” Harry laughed, pulling Ron off the floor.
As they descended the stairs down into the Gryffindor common-room, Ron saw Hermione standing by the fireplace talking to a girl named Kathy with cropped blonde hair. Somehow, he had to get Kathy away from her so they could be alone.
“Harry, call over that Kathy girl will you? You know.. so I can talk to Hermione!”
Harry scrunched up his face, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. “What’ll I say to her?”
“I dunno,” Ron shrugged, “ask her where she got her shoes, something girly like that. Just hurry up, will you?”
Harry hesitantly waved Kathy over, who excused herself from Hermione. She was standing alone by the fireplace, staring into it, when Ron swooped in.
“Can I carry your books to the Great Hall?”
Hermione frowned. “I’m still mad with you, Ronald. Besides, I’m not bringing my books tonight!”
“But you always bring your books to meals; It’s what you do!”
“Well, I’ve finished my work for tonight!
"You're never finished working! You're already doing homework for classes you haven't even had yet!"
"Ron, what are you on about? I don't have any books with me at the moment, now stop pestering me!”
He hesitated, running a hand through his shaggy red hair. “Got anything else I can carry?”
Hermione grabbed a dusty book off the mantle and shoved it at Ron, who barely caught it.
“There, happy?”
Hermione began to storm away, but Ron dropped the dusty book on the floor and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her back to him. In one swift motion, he tossed her over his shoulder and started to walk towards the Portrait.
“Ronald Weasley, put me down this instant!” she screamed, kicking her legs.
“I’m going to make it up to you, Hermione, whether you like it or not! And if I have to carry you to every meal and every class for the rest of the term, that’s what I’ll do!”
As Ron walked out the portrait with Hermione thrashing over his shoulder, Harry cracked up laughing. That is, until Hermione caught his eye and glared at him. Harry immediately doffed his glasses and began shining them diligently on his sleeve.