Boys Will Be Bugs

Chapter 86: Truth or Dare

Remus reluctantly handed over fifteen galleons to his friends. They had managed to achieve not speaking for a month, and once Remus had calmed himself down enough to stop being angry at them, he was actually quite impressed.

"I don't think you changed anything about the Ministry, but the effort is admirable," he stated.

"Oh shit yeah, I forgot we were supposed to be protesting," said Peter. "I just thought it was a dare now."

"It basically was," replied James. "Can't really have a protest if the Ministry doesn't actually know about it."

"Well, regardless, I'm down fifteen galleons now." James rolled his eyes and gave the money back.

"I don't exactly need it," he said. "You can keep it." Sirius followed suit and returned the five galleons. Peter just stood there.

"Oi, I'm not rich like you two, I'm keeping the money," he replied defiantly when James and Sirius turned their attention to him. Remus laughed.

"Keep the money, it's fine." He wasn't exactly broke, all those long nights at the bar had racked up a small fortune (well, a small fortune for a fifteen year old), and he was still struggling to spend anything on helping his dad without his dad actually noticing. He had to be subtle, a meal here and there, a newspaper with the job section open, a new pair of slippers because Lyall had worn a hole through his old ones. Now that he was fifteen, Remus thought that he was old enough to tell his dad that he had a job, although he declined to go into much detail. He didn't even know if he should admit that Selene had hired him, since Lyall could be a bit funny about the family supporting each other when none of them had much money to begin with. Instead, he just gave a vague description of a pub in Hogsmeade that he worked weekends at, just as a waiter. Luckily his dad wasn't much up to asking him loads of questions about it or even visiting the place, but he did say he was proud of him, which was nice to hear.

Gryffindor had won another match against Slytherin; by that time it was May and the weather had been holding up nicely. Everyone was in pretty good spirits, and a win for Gryffindor left a good excuse for a party. The fourth years hung around in their usual spot near the fireplace, which had been taken over by a few fifth years, who luckily let them stick around since Dorcas insisted that they were cool enough. They didn't exactly need to prove this, half of them had a lit cigarette hanging from their mouths and James was sporting some nail varnish that Remus had given him. Apparently James had taken a liking to it, both with how it felt and how it looked, so he kept it on whenever he had a chance, sometimes even wearing it to class and ignoring the whispers from the kids in other houses. Luckily for him, he was too much of a respected Quidditch player for anyone to really lay into him, and he used that to his advantage.

"Anyone for truth or dare?" asked one of the fifth years whom Remus vaguely knew to be called Rob Laurier and only because he had heard him being yelled at by multiple teachers for doing magic in the halls. He never listened. He was also a muggleborn and tended to wear graphic t-shirts of violent films into class for no other reason except to piss off the teachers. He was a bit of a loose canon and Remus couldn't tell if he liked him or not. He was like a male version of Marlene, but a bit meaner and rougher around the edges. At the very least though, he didn't say anything about James's painted nails, so perhaps he wasn't as scary as Remus first thought.

"Alright but last time we played that I had to cut my hair off," said Sirius. "And I'm not doing that again."

"Fine, no hair cuts," assured Rob. "But everything else is on the table." Remus didn't much like the sound of that, but for fear of being ousted by the cooler fifth years, everyone accepted the terms. Most of them went for dares, if only to avoid having to spill all their secrets to a bunch of nosy fifth years, and none of the dares were particularly that bad. James had to chug a full bottle of firewhiskey, Sirius had to scream the word "fuck" to the entire common room and more than one of them had to get up and sing along to whichever song was playing at the time. Given the fact that the music had been chosen by some random kid with shitty music taste, none of them really knew the lyrics and had to mumble most of the song. With it being a party and everyone being at least a little bit drunk, they got away with all their random outbursts and escapades with little complaint and only a few dirty looks.