The Truth (or Dare) Hurts

With the exception of Dean, everyone in their party were grinning happily. No one paid attention as the boys scrambled down their dormitory stairs (again with the exception of Dean, who went as slowly as he could). They got out of the Gryffindor common room without saying anything to each other.

"Still got the magazine, Dean?" Harry asked. He looked around to see that no one was around and he slid on his invisibility cloak onto Seamus and himself.

"Unfortunately, yes," Dean answered, looking in the completely opposite direction then where Harry was standing. "Can't we just dispose of it?"

All the boys gasped. Ron then answered in a horror-struck awe, "You dare dispose of a Playwizard magazine? That book is every wizard's bible!"

Dean chose not to answer, and the boys progressed rather silently ominous to the teacher's lounge. Ron and Neville hid behind the knight in the corridor, and put on the extendible ears, while Harry, Dean and Seamus went all the way to the door of the teacher's lounge.

Seamus whispered, in the exact manner that one would address a soldier about to embark on war, "Well, mate, you know what you have to do."

Dean nodded resolutely. They heard insane laughter coming from inside the staff room, words streamed from the door that sounded suspiciously like, "Go Minerva, go Minerva!" "Take that off Filius. Take it all off!" Dean looked seriously scared now, but he had no choice and he raised his hand and knocked.

A breathless Minerva came to the door. They had never seen McGonagall look so dishevelled, her hair was coming loose out of her bun, and her robes were worn rather looser than her usual prim, neat order. All the boys, including the invisible ones, looked seriously disturbed, considering that McGonagall was really old, and old people weren't supposed to do that. "What would you like, Dean? On a Saturday? Hermione Granger is the only one that contacts us during weekends," McGonagall informed him.

Dean could totally understand why. Hermione Granger would go through hell and high waters to make sure that she would get full marks on absolutely everything. No one else in their right mind would approach the staff room after hearing what he had. He shook that out of his mind, and sounding braver than he was, said, "I would like to speak to Professor Snape, please. For, um, homework reasons."

"You're doing your homework on a Saturday? Are you sure that you don't need to go see Madame Pomfrey?" McGonagall asked incredulously.

Dean shook his head, and a few moments later out came Snape closing the door tightly behind him. He muttered to his self, "They're all crazing. I swear, the soonest moment possible I'm asking Dumbledore for my own staff room..." Snape looked up suddenly and stopped what he was saying. Snape, to the boys' relief was wearing all his clothes as usual and his hair was still as sleek and greasy as ever. He sneered, "So Dean, Professor McGonagall tells me that you needed to see me for homework reasons. You've never been one to prioritize. Why the sudden change of heart?"

Dean looked distinctly uncomfortable, and said half-heartedly, "She told you that I, um, needed you for homework?"

"Yes, Dean, that is what I just said," Snape replied callously.

"I actually came here to ask you if you-if you...oh I am so gonna kill you guys," Dean muttered the last bit.

"Excuse me, I didn't hear the last part," Snape said, in a fake, sweet, voice. Snape prompted, "If you, if you..."

"If you dropped a book," Dean said, his awkwardness was very apparent. He looked totally uncomfortable.

"That's all?" Snape said disbelievingly. Dean was practically pissing himself in fright, and all he was doing was a completely normal activity. "Which book, then?"

Dean lowered his head, and handed over the glossy magazine, which had two very scantily clad witches on the cover smiling and waving up at Snape.

Snape took a look at it and asked, "What do you mean by all this? 20 points from Gryffindor! And be glad that I'm not giving you and your accomplices detention. Oh I know that you're not alone in this. As further punishment, I'm confiscating this. Now be gone from my sight!" Snape started muttering to himself, just loud enough for the boys to hear, "With all I've seen today, I definitely need this." And Snape closed the door, with his eyes glued to the magazine.

Dean broke into a run, and the other boys followed him. Once they got back to the dormitory Dean growled through his teeth, "I seriously hate you guys."

"No, of course you don't. You only hate Seamus, he was the one that came up with it," Ron said grinning. "Besides, it wasn't that bad. You didn't even get detention. Anyways, it's your turn to ask."

"Fine then, Seamus, I deserve to get back at you. Truth or Dare?" Dean asked.

"Dare," Seamus said without a second thought.

"I was sure you would choose that, considering all the stuff I have on you for truth, like that thing with your cat..." Dean said meaningfully.

"Shut up!" Seamus yelled.

"You guys, just get to the dare, already," Neville said, acting like peacekeeper as usual. What else would one expect from a guy who wears dresses?

"All right. Um, all right, I've got one. This is just the first one to come into my head: I want you to go to the 6^th year girl's washroom and clean their toilets." Dean paused for a moment for dramatic effect. He went on, "With their tooth brushes."

"That's seriously not cool," Ron said, uneasy at the thought.

"You're just saying that because of Hermione," Harry said knowingly. "He's got a point, though. If the girls catch wind of this, we'll never get dates from them, ever. Otherwise, this is pretty tame."

"Well the only one that needs to get in trouble at all is Seamus. We're fine, otherwise. They won't know that we made him do it," Dean responded.

"How are we going to watch him do it?" asked Neville. He stooped down to scratch his ankle. His pant lifted a bit to reveal socks that looked suspiciously like pantyhose.

"Well there's that charm that Flitwick taught us. You know the one where you can see what a given person is doing, given that you're in a 20 feet radius of them," Harry said.

"What? There's a charm that we can see people within a 20 mile radius?" Ron said disbelievingly.

"Yeah. Oh I forgot, you were sick that day," Harry answered.

"You're kidding. And we never spied on the girls?" Ron asked struck at how dumb his friends were.

"He's absolutely right, you know," Seamus said, hoping that this would distract them enough to get him out of his dare. There was certain Lavender that he wanted to impress, and cleaning a toilet with her toothbrush was not the easiest way to go about it.

"Yeah only that charm doesn't let us see any good bits. Flitwick even mentioned that, that you can't see anyone doing anything 'remotely intimate or private'," Dean said promptly.

The guys all looked downcast. Seamus murmured to Dean, "You know, you seem to be turning into a male Hermione."

"What's so bad about that?" Ron asked, letting the words slip before he thought.

"You've got it bad for her, don't you?" Seamus asked.

"Aren't you supposed to be doing a dare?" Ron asked.

"Fine I'm going, but I'll need to know the password to the 6^th year girl's washroom, and I'll need the invisibility cloak to get there undetected," Seamus said. He had obviously thought it out.

"Yeah, but I'm going to accio it back after 2 minutes, to make sure that you don't skip the dare altogether," Harry warned.

"Fine!" and Seamus left the room huffily.

"He's a bit of a priss you know, Dean. Why are you best friends with him again?" Ron asked.

"It's nice to know what's really going in women's minds," Dean answered.

And with that they started on the charm so they could watch Seamus in his task. Ron gave an inward sigh of relief, for now he was safe.

~I know this chapter wasn't quite as funny, but it's always really hard to do the second chapter. Next chapter I've got some really good ideas, and it's all planned out. There will be some Ron and Hermione, and hopefully somewhere in there, there will be the house-elf (I love house-elves, I'll put then in here somewhere if it kills me). Thanks to those who reviewed! If you want more chapters, quicker, or if you want new chapters at all, then review! ~