Loverboy

"Who are you?"

Alice spun the bottle to determine who she asked. It landed on Ollie.

"Truth or dare, Ollie?" she asked.

Ollie weighed the pros and cons in her head quickly. She answered, "Hmm... Dare."

Alice smirked as Frank mouthed something to her. Ollie didn't notice what he was doing until Alice said through giggles, "I dare you to sneak down to the kitchens and get some snacks with one person of your choice."

Ollie laughed. "C'mon, James, put some shoes on," she said, winking. She dashed up and grabbed a pair of sneakers near her bed, hoping they were hers.

When she returned, James had already returned with shoes on his feet and a slight bulge in his shirt. The two clamored out of the portrait hole and once it closed behind them, James whipped out the Invisibility Cloak from under his shirt. They stepped under it, walking silently to the kitchens in the dungeons.

Once they ducked behind the tapestry, they navigated all the elves preparing for the next day's meals. Theyey snatched things like sweets, pumpkin juice, and managed to get twenty bottles of butterbeer stuffed in their waistbands.

After a while James checked his watch and the friends slipped under the cloak and made their way back upstairs. At the portrait hole, they looked around and took off the cloak. Ollie set the pile she was carrying on the floor, folding the cloak carefully under the baggy shirt she was wearing. She picked it up again and said the password- "Pulchritudinous Platipi" - and stepped back into the room. The rest of them were just hanging out and they all looked up when they saw the pair.

Ollie and James dumped their loads on the floor, resuming their spots in the circle. "Ooh, cool," Frank commented, reaching for a butterbeer.

"Well since you did your dare, Ollie, you get to spin now," Marlene said with a devilish smirk.

"Fine, then," Ollie answered, spinning the empty bottle in the center.

"Sirius Black," she said. "Do you choose truth, or dare?"

"Let's do a dare."

I dare you..." Marlene kept mouthing a suggestion at Ollie while she was trying to think. Ollie rolled her eyes, taking the suggestion. "I dare you to write your name on the floor with your tongue."

Everyone let out a collective "ewwwww" at this, amidst laughter. Sirius sighed, acquiescing to the task.

After a while more, the group decided to all go to bed, Sirius still mumbling about the taste left in his mouth.

Lying there in the fluffy sheets and warm blankets, Ollie thought about earlier that day. She still couldn't believe that, of all people, Evan Wells asked her out. Like so many weeks before, she lay there, repressing the giggly excitement rushing through her.

She rolled over, burying her face in her pillow, a wide grin hidden among the folds of the fabric. It was one am, she had class tomorrow, she was pretty sure that McGonagall was going to give them a quiz, and she had a boatload of homework to do. But she was going on a date with Evan Wells, so who cared?

While the butterflies in her gut swarmed, Ollie managed to drift away from the conscious world.

Here she was, standing in the cool night air, facing the castle. A gentle breeze was blowing, ruffling a swath of fabric at her ankles. Ollie looked down; she was wearing a fitted black corset-like top, and a wide, gown-like dress underneath. No- she was wearing a black ball gown with a black corset on top. Reaching her hands to her hair, she felt something stiff on top of her head.

Ollie turned around. The Great Lake was now in front of her. She stepped towards it, looking at the shimmery reflection. Her own face looked back at her, her long, dark hair up in a bun on her head, a small tiara on her head.

As Ollie stared at herself in the moonlit lake, the features began to morph.

Her hair fell down, shorter, and lighter. Her eyes shifted from green to brown. They widened slightly, her eyebrows thickening. Her round face became much more structured, and her fluffy bangs vanished. Her skin seemed to lighten.

An entirely different face was staring at her.

"Who- who are you?" she asked quietly, watching as the gown turned into a yellow, red, and brown striped sweater. But the changes only happened in the reflection.

The mysterious mirage wore the same look of utter confusion. Ollie spoke again, the image in front of her not moving its mouth. "What's going on?"

With no answer, Ollie stood and walked away. She turned toward the castle once again, pushing open the door to the castle. As she did, however, everything turned pitch black, and she felt a shake on her shoulder. 

"Ollie? Ollie! Get up," said the gentle voice of Lily Evans.

Ollie opened her eyes, blinking in the dim dormitory light.

"Good morning to you, too," she said crankily. "What time is it?"

"Seven. We have Herbology in thirty minutes, get out of bed."

Ollie got up, stretched, threw her robes on over the pair of jeans she slipped on and the first tee shirt she grabbed (an old White Stripes shirt that Remus had given her two years ago, and it was still way too big for her), donned a pair of sneakers and rushed down to breakfast.

To Godric Gryffindor himself, Ollie hated going to Herbology.

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887 words

Sorry about the slow updates guys! Right now, I'm working on a lot of projects and some things are going on in my personal life. Fortunately, now we have a new writing software that is free and is not sponsored, but I want to shout out Wordtune, a wonderful chrome extension that you can download for free (although there is a limitation; you can only rewrite a sentence twenty times per day) or upgrade to premium if you wish. As opposed to Grammarly (which I tried twice. Bro Grammarly sucks. ), you have all the features for no charge. It automatically proofreads your writing for you (in the editor) and if you highlight your writing and click "Rewrite," it edits and/or checks it for you. On the free plan, you can do this up to twenty times a day. On Premium (i'm on free so I don't know if there are more premium exclusive features, but i don't think so), you can choose if you want it to have a casual tone or a formal tone, you can pick whether you want your sentences to be more concise or longer (essay word count, get OUT OF HERE), and you get unlimited rewrites. So if you're working on your writing for anything really, give Wordtune a try. Again, not sponsored, just deserves some more recognition. Much love, Cat < 3