Chapter 1 - A New Player
James Potter and Lillian Evans.
If ever you were to see the two together engaged in a conversation that did not lead to any insults, hexes or cruel jokes, then you, my friend, would be the first to witness such an event.
It was a fact known among the entire student body that Potter and Evans did not go together at all. They despised, hated and loathed each other. They could not stand within 5 metres of one another in fear of being contaminated- though many people in the school thought this was completely stupid. Everyone knew he was one of the most popular and handsome boys in the school while she was the prettiest, yet neither James nor Lily couldn't see that at all. In short, if you said that James Potter and Lily Evans would one day get married, you wouldn't live to see tomorrow.
Of course, it was nothing a little `Truth of Dare' game can't fix, right?
~~~
"How about…paying Peeves to drop a bucket of water on Snape?" Sirius Black, with a rather excited expression, asked the somewhat bored and uninterested James Potter, who simply looked at him with dead eyes and sighed.
"What's he on about now?" asked Remus Lupin, who just came in and sat opposite James at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.
"He's trying to think of the 5 most humiliating ways to embarrass Snape", replied James nonchalantly.
Remus rolled his eyes and smirked.
"Wait", exclaimed Sirius with a big grin, "instead of a bucket of water, how about a bucket of dung!" Sirius squealed as if he were a five-year old girl.
"Ok that's it," James muttered. Then he smacked his best friend hard behind his head, "Black, step out of it, you're 16 for crying out loud!"
Remus gave a small laugh.
"OW!" Shouted Sirius as he held his head, "What the hell was that for?"
"To wake you up from your unintelligible phase of giggling like a girl", James answered, smacking him again in the same spot behind Sirius' head.
"All right that's it. Tonight, ten o'clock, Common Room, be there!" Sirius said trying desperately to sound threatening but miserably failing.
"For what?"
"For the continuation of Potter and Black's (and Lupin's, if he wanted to) Dare or Truth. I'm sure you can learn a lesson or two from that, to never again slap Sirius Black's head again. Deal?" Sirius asked, extending his hand to James.
"Deal", James replied, taking his best friend's hand, while grinning from ear to ear.
Lily Evans looked down the table and saw James and Sirius shaking hands. Oh no, she thought, they are up to something again.
~~~
Potter and Black's (and Lupin's, if he wanted to) Dare or Truth is a game invented in their fourth year to challenge the boys, stretching them to their limit mentally and physically. Neither of them admit that they get very competitive, however anyone will say that they do, just wanting to prove they are the better one. The game, although called "Dare or Truth", really was just "Dare", consisting of challenges such as running to kitchens and back in record time or seeing how far they can get up the stairs to the girl's dormitories before it turned into a slide (so far they had only gotten up to the third step), or even things such as how many detentions they could possibly get in a week (which currently stood at nine).
This time however, Sirius was already planning his dares against his friend and knew exactly what to ask him…
~~~
"Ready mate?"
"As I'll ever be".
They flipped the coin to see who would go first.
Tails.
Sirius grinned broadly and gave an evil look to his friend.
"It's tails, my beloved James. I believe that means I go first".
Uh oh, thought James, here it comes. He prepared himself.
"Dare or Truth?"
"Do you honestly have to ask, you know he's going to say dare. It always is", Remus said as he emerged from the stairs and sat down on one of the squishy armchairs. Remus would never miss another episode of the phenomenal game between the two because even he had to admit that the results were almost always quite amusing.
And this would be no exception.
"All right then", Sirius continued, staring at James with his dark eyes that matched his dark hair, "go…kiss…Evans".
All life stopped.
James couldn't blink.
"WHAT?!?!?!"
Sirius had given weird dares every time they played but this was a bit extreme. Kissing Lily Evans?
The last time Sirius gave James a dare that dealt with Lily was in their fifth year. He had dared James to take her out on a date and since James didn't want to seem a coward, he did. Lily was surprised and turned him down, so he just kept hassling her for half a year, trying desperately to make her say yes. One afternoon, after an OWL exam, he had almost gotten her to say yes but alas, it was not to be.
Remus couldn't hold back the laughter.
Sirius would have been peeing in his pants if the water weren't coming out of his eyes from laughing. He was on the ground holding his side.
"Sirius, buddy, Padfoot, that is just…" but James didn't finish. Calling Sirius his animagus name had given him an idea, "alright, I'll do it".
Silence.
"What are you three doing?" asked a voice a few feet away from them.
It was Lily.
"Evans! What a surprise!" Sirius exclaimed while nudging James.
"You didn't answer my question".
"Please take a seat, James will tell you all about it", Sirius grinned, "or rather, he will show you".
"Black, not yet", warned James.
"Not yet what?" asked Lily while curiously looking at Remus who was again laughing quietly on the side.
"If you will excuse me, I'll be right back", James said standing up and heading towards the boy's dormitories.
Halfway up the stairs, he transformed into a brilliant white stag then came prancing back down to the common room.
He saw Sirius' jaw drop and Remus' eyes wide. Lily however was standing on the couch screaming.
"Get it away from me! GET IT AWAY FROM ME!"
James moved toward Lily (who was still screaming), leaned in and licked her cheek, which in the case of an animal would mean kissing.
There, I've done it. I have kissed Lily Evans…sort of.
Lily got out her wand and planted countless hexes on James, who tried valiantly to run away but she persisted.
Different coloured lights shot out the end of Lily's wand as she slowly backed the stag in a corner.
James couldn't take it much longer. He was in pain and he couldn't run. The only way this would stop is if Sirius or Remus did something (which he highly doubted) or if he transformed back into his human self.
"AHHHHH!!!!" he screamed and with that he became James again.
Lily's eyes were surely about to pop out of her head. She dropped her wand.
"James?"
He was now on the ground waiting for the excruciating pain to end. He looked up at her.
"Yeah", he puffed out.
"I'm so sorry", she whispered.
"Don't mention it", he said as he stood and made his way to the couch, the pain slowly going.
When it was gone, she hesitantly asked him, "Two questions. The first is are you a…um…an animagus?"
"Guilty".
"The second is why did you lick my face?"
"Sirius dared me to".
"What?" she said, slowly turning her head to look at Sirius, "you dared him?"
"We were just playing an innocent game of truth and dare".
"Innocent?" Lily repeated, "look what happened to James here. He's got bruises galore!"
"I agree," said James, "this is all his fault". He pointed a finger at Sirius.
"This is as much your fault as it is his, James Potter".
James shrank as far into the couch as he could when she stood up, towered over him and placed her hands on her hips, looking very much like a very threatening mother.
James expected she would curse him into oblivion, when she did something else that shocked him so entirely.
"While I am a prefect and know this is utterly foolish, I also agree that this game is quite an amusing one", Lily said very calmly sitting back down, "I know for a fact that I rule this game whenever, wherever and whoever I play it against".
Sirius sported a comical smirk, "is that so Evans?"
"That is so Black".
"Care to join us?"
"Only if you insist"
"Oh, we insist", James smiled evilly.
"As you wish…prepare to die…"
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