Snape led her all the way down to the main entrance and out the door, and continued walking silently through Hogwarts’ moonlit grounds. Finally, they entered the Herbology greenhouses. Snape pointed his long, cloaked arm toward the first greenhouse, which held a large and slightly overgrown garden. It was lit only by a few sparse torches along the walls.
“Tonight, Miss Lovegood,” Snape said witheringly, “you will be weeding Professor Sprout’s garden. We’ll see how funny you think you are after two hours of pulling up weeds with your bare hands.”
Snape immediately held out his open palm.
“Wand.”
Luna reached into her pocket obligingly, but instead of placing her wand in his hand, she gave him the open compact. Looking down into it, she saw Snape’s angry reflection looking back at her. His large beady eyes were dilating with fury, the nostrils of his giant greasy hook nose were flairing.
“Oh, look at that!” Luna said with a hint of disappointment. “You've got a reflection after all!”
Snape slammed the compact shut in his pale, shaking hand.
“I’ll say this only once,” he growled. “I… am not… a Vampire!”
Luna frowned as she pulled her wand out of her other pocket. “That’s settled then, but there are still so many things about yourself that require explanation!”
Snape snatched her wand away and stormed furiously into the night. Luna shrugged and headed into the dark, glassy confines of Professor Sprout’s greenhouse.
It was nearly 10:30 that night when Luna entered the Gryffindor common room. (Hermione had trusted her with the password.) Everyone looked up to see a very disheveled blonde standing warily by the portrait entrance. Luna’s long blonde hair was tangled and mussed while her robes were caked with dirt. A tiny light blue flower stuck out from a strand of her hair, just above her left ear. Tiny fern leaves hung from her pale blonde locks.
“Crikey, what did he do?” Ron shouted. “Throw you in the compost heap or something? Try to bury you alive?”
Luna replied with a sneeze, causing a puff of dirt to fall off her face.
“He’s not a vampire,” she said sullenly, tossing the compact back to Hermione.
Hermione smiled sympathetically. “That’s alright, Luna. He doesn’t necessarily need to be undead to be the nightmare that he is.”
Ginny reached her hand up and shook her box of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, making a loud rattling sound.
“Truth or dare! Truth or dare!” she announced in a sing-song voice.
“Dare!” Hermione said excitedly. Ever since Ron had apologized that morning, she was feeling much better about everything. Nothing could bring her down now!
“Alright,” Ginny said thoughtfully as she twirled a strand of red hair in her fingers. “I dare you to serenade a random boy that I pick out in the halls tomorrow morning.
Hermione blushed crimson. She wasn’t sure she had a very nice singing voice. Harry and Ron cracked up laughing at the idea of Hermione singing a love song to a fellow student. Hermione fumed, pointing a finger at Ron.
“Truth or Dare?”
Ron crossed his arms defiantly against his chest. “Dare!”
Hermione smiled, standing up to her feet. “I dare you, Ronald Weasley, to serenade me at breakfast tomorrow morning!”
Ron’s face went so pale he nearly lost his freckles. Harry was laughing so hard he couldn’t even hide it. He threw his head back, guffawing. Even Neville was cracking up.
Ginny groaned. “I’ve heard him sing, you know,” Ginny explained. “You may have just done yourself a great disservice, Hermione.”
Hermione laughed at her clever revenge, but Ron was glaring at his best friend. Harry was doubled over with laughter.
“Alright, Harry, Truth or Dare?” Ron said smugly.
“Truth!” he exclaimed hurriedly, fixing his glasses on his face. He certainly didn’t want to sing to anyone.
“If you had to kiss any girl in this room, who would it be?”
Harry’s jaw dropped as his glasses began to fog up. Two Gryffindor girls in the corner playing wizard’s chess perked up their ears. Amanda and Kyra, two very pretty brunettes, seemed quite interested in their game all of a sudden.
Harry stammered a little, running his hand through his unruly hair. He looked down at his hands.
“Well, Ginny,” he stammered. It was obvious what his answer would be, but Ron quite enjoyed the torture of making him say it.
“I’m going to bed!” Ginny announced in an awkwardly loud voice. She practically ran all the way up the stairs to the girl’s dormitory. Harry also got up from the couch and headed for the boy’s dormitory. Ron and Neville were on his heels, talking frantically. Pretty soon, everyone got up and, laughing amongst themselves, headed to their dorms. Eventually, Luna was left standing by the portrait entrance, still covered in dirt and plantlife.
“Suppose I’ll head back to my own common room, then,” she said to nobody in particular.
The next morning, Parvati and Ginny walked arm-in-arm with Hermione through the halls. It was time to get down to the Great Hall for breakfast, but Hermione had a dare to fulfill first. Ginny’s eyes darted from face to face, looking for the perfect victim. Finally she spotted a handsome Hufflepuff boy who had dropped his Runes textbook and had stopped to pick it up.
“Go, go, go!” Ginny hissed, pushing Hermione forward. The Hufflepuff boy straightened up, book in hand, to see a wavy-haired, wide-eyed Hermione staring at him. He jumped, dropping his book again. But before he could pick it up, Hermione cleared her throat and began to sing in a wobbly voice.
“I'll tell my mum when I go home
The boys won't leave the girls alone
They pulled my hair and stole my comb
But that's alright 'til I go home..”
The Hufflepuff boy’s face went red as other students stopped to watch the sight. Hermione knelt down quickly to pick up the boy’s textbook, and shoved it back into his arms before continuing in a trembling, high-pitched tune.
“She is handsome, she is pretty
She is the belle of Belfast City
She is courting 1, 2, 3,
Please won't you tell me who is she?
Before the boy could react, Hermione turned on her heel and ran down the hall, leaving several students applauding and shouting for an encore. As Ginny and Parvati hurried after her, the Hufflepuff boy was left hugging his Runes book like a teddy bear.
“She likes me,” he said dreamily.
Hermione speed-walked all the way to breakfast, Ginny and Parvati at her heels.
“You know,” Parvati said sweetly, “if you weren’t so nervous, you might actually have a proper singing voice!”
Hermione waved her hand with a flutter. “It doesn’t matter anymore,” she huffed. In a few moments, someone else will be doing the singing.” By the time they reached the Great Hall, Hermione pushed the doors open with a new air of confidence. What she saw as she entered, however, stopped her right in her tracks.
Ron was sitting on the floor in front of the Gryffindor table, with Harry and Neville at his sides. As soon as Hermione, Ginny and Parvati walked into the Great Hall, everyone in Gryffindor house turned to face them. Before Hermione could utter a word, Ron got down on one knee and started to sing loudly, and a bit off-key.
“You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips
And there's no tenderness like before in your fingertips
You're trying hard not to show it
But, Hermione Granger, I know it…
Suddenly, Neville and Harry started in with him:
“You've lost that loving feeling,
Woah, that loving feeling
You've lost that loving feeling
Now it's gone, gone, gone!
Harry started to crack up as they went into the “Whoa- whoa-whoa” part. Everyone in the Great Hall was clapping and whistling furiously over their forgotten breakfasts. Hermione’s face was bright red, but Ginny and Parvati pushed her towards the table. Soon, almost all of the Great Hall was singing it at once.
“You've lost that loving feeling,
Whoa, that loving feeling
You've lost that loving feeling
Now it's gone, gone, gone!
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Hermione burst into laughter and ran straight into Ron, hugging him fiercely. Dumbledore only looked on with a smirk, allowing the singing to die down on it’s own. Snape folded his arms across his chest and turned away, as though the entire thing was beneath him. Finally the girls all took their seats, as did Harry, Neville, and Ron. Neville was still blushing.
“Very brave of you,” Hermione said to him consolingly. “It was good of you to join Ron in his dare. You, as well, Harry.” She couldn’t stop smiling.
“You can say whatever you want about me,” Ron announced, “you can even say I sing like a rattled Hippogriff, but I’ll never back down from a dare.”
“I love this game,” Ginny said, leaning forward. “In fact… I think we should expand…”
Everyone had agreed with Ginny’s idea to expand their game of Truth or Dare, even Parvati and Lavender were committed to the group. They decided to meet up in the courtyard later that day during a break between classes. Even Neville was excited… a common-room game of Truth or Dare is one thing, but taking it out on the rest of the school could be absolutely epic. In fact, Neville was still buzzing from nervousness of singing in front of the whole school with Harry and Ron that morning at breakfast.
Eventually, that afternoon, everyone met up in a small, sunlit area surrounded by stone benches. Harry, Ron and Hermione sat on one, while Neville took a seat next to Ginny and Luna on the opposite one. Moments later, Lavender and Parvati came running up, giggling.
Ron, annoyed by the giggling girls, turned to his sister.
“How are we supposed to expand the game? It’s not like we can just go up and ask random people to play with us!” Ron got a look of stupor on his face. “We’re not going to do that, are we?!”
“No,” Ginny laughed, shaking her head. “We need new participants. We can’t just keep daring on eachother, can we?”
At that moment, the thin Hufflepuff boy that Hermione had sung to that morning came walking by with a few of his housemates. He waved shyly to Hermione, who whimpered and waved back obligingly. Cody was so enamored with the delicate wave of her hand that he tripped over a tree root and hit the ground hard with his face. As his buddies lifted him up and walked him away, Harry got a giant, goofy grin.
“What did you do to him, Hermione?”
“You missed it!” Ginny squealed. “Hermione had to serenade someone this morning as well, remember? Well, that’s the lucky guy!”
Ron was fuming, but Harry continued to chuckle. “You actually sang to him?”
Hermione straightened up, blushing lightly. “It was just a verse or two, really… nothing extravagant like you boys did this morning!”
“Oh, you loved it!” Lavender hissed to Hermione with a wicked grin. Suddenly, Ron was blushing lightly as well. Only Ron could fume and pout and blush at the same time.
Suddenly Ginny cleared her throat. “This is exactly what I was going for! The more people the merrier! Unless you all want to continue stripping or singing publicly!”
Harry, Ron and Hermione all shook their heads simultaneously.
“Alright then, who’s first?” Ginny asked with an air of leadership.
“You!” Parvati exclaimed, pointing at Ginny. “You haven’t had any really good truths or dares yet!” The rest of the group nodded in agreement.
“Fine!” Ginny said proudly. “Someone dare me. Anybody!”
“I’ve got one,” Lavender offered. “You know that nosy Ravenclaw, Amy? The one with curly blonde hair?”
Hermione scrunched up her nose. “She’s like a miniature Rita Skeeter!”
“I dare you, Ginny,” Lavender continued, “to kiss her!”
Harry and Ron looked at Lavender like she was insane. Ginny gasped.
“You want me to kiss a girl?” She howled. “Not Amy, any girl but Amy… she’ll tell everyone! She tells everyone everything!”
“That’s the point of the dare,” Lavender responded coolly. “And you’ve got a new victim!”
All eyes were on Ginny.
“Fine!” she said, trying to sound confident. “But if I have to kiss her, and everyone’s going to find out anyway, I’m going to do this right!” Ginny started looking around the grounds at the many groups of students idly enjoying their break.
“You’re not going to do it right now are you?” Hermione gasped.
“Might as well get it over with!” Ginny said with exasperation. “Amy, Amy! Come over here a minute!” she called, waving her arm in the air.
Amy, who was standing with several fellow Ravenclaws by the Hogwarts entrance, came slinking over. She did look like a junior Rita Skeeter, but without the glasses and long, gaudy nails.
“Ah, Hello Ginny,” she said airily. She glanced over at Luna. “Hello, Luna! So good to see you!” Then she nodded at Harry. “And here’s Harry Potter,” she announced to herself. Harry became annoyed with her instantly.
“I’ve, er… got a secret to tell you!” Ginny mumbled.
“Oh, do tell!” Amy said, coming closer.
Without a single hesitation or thought, Ginny leaned forward, scrunched her eyes closed, and kissed Amy right on the lips. Amy jumped back, looking absolutely scandalized.
“Couldn’t resist!” Ginny said sheepishly. Amy immediately speed-walked back to her group of friends, where they began whispering heatedly and glancing with wide-eyes back at Ginny. Ron was guffawing.
“Think it’s funny, do you?” Ginny said with a squeal to her older brother. “Now everyone’s going to think I’m a lesbian!”
Ginny walked up to the bench, shoved Ron aside, and grabbed Harry by the shirt collar. She pulled him up to a standing position, threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him. Lavender and Parvati started whooping and hollering so loudly that people began to stare. When she finished kissing him, Ginny lightly pushed Harry back down onto the stone bench.
“There!” Ginny announced victoriously. “That’ll give them something to talk about!”
Over by the entrance, Amy looked inexplicably insulted.
“I really didn’t need to see all of that!” Ron bellowed. He leaned over and shoved his face in his hands.
“My turn to dare someone,” Ginny said loudly, ignoring her older brother. Ginny looked around the grounds at the hundreds of students. A few yards away, a Hufflepuff girl named Kacey had just dropped a roll of parchment and was scurrying to pick it up off the ground before it got too filthy.
“Kacey, come here a moment, will you?” Ginny said politely. Then, she quickly turned to Hermione and whispered fiercely in her ear. Hermione, looking utterly aghast, pulled out her wand. When Kacey finally approached, Ginny stood up excitedly and walked up to her, pulling her around in the other direction. This way, her back was to Hermione.
“Kacey, can you help me with something?” Ginny said, trying to stall. “I think there’s a bug in my hair, but I just can’t get it out.” Ginny leaned her head forward, shaking out her red hair. “Is there a spider in there? Tell me, I’m freaking out!”
As Kacey leaned forward and inspected Ginny’s red locks, Hermione stood up and silently muttered “Califuego”, causing the tip of her wand to ignite like a match. She quickly traced red words on the back of Kacey’s robes, while Ginny twirled back and forth, keeping the girl distracted. Finally, Hermione sat back down.
“I don’t see anything,” Kacey said impatiently.
“You’re probably right,” Ginny replied with a wide grin. “Thanks anyway!”
As Kacey turned to walk away, bright, fiery lettering was visible on the back of her robes. It read:
Harry Potter
is SO DREAMY!
As Harry read this, his jaw dropped.
“I wonder how long she’ll walk around with that on her before she figures out it’s there?” Ron said with a grin, elbowing his best friend.
Suddenly, Hermione stood up. “Break’s over, it’s time to get on to our next classes,” she ordered. Picking up her book-bag, she immediately started walking towards the Hogwarts entrance. Neville ran to catch up with her, along with Harry and Ron a moment later. Wherever Hermione and her carefully written class notes went, the boys were sure to follow. But the biggest thing on her mind was that it was her turn in the game of Truth or Dare, and she could only think of one person that deserved to be their next victim.