Chapter 1

It all started with a dare. A dare that would change the course of Natalie Fargo's life forever. She and her fellow Ravenclaws were sitting around the fire in their common room. Natalie was the closest to the windows in her favorite squishy blue armchair, looking outside at the rolling mountains nearby. The Ravenclaws were playing a game of truth and dare, a game which Natalie never took part in. It wasn't that she never wanted to; it was that no one ever picked her. Natalie was not the most popular girl at Hogwarts by anyone's standards. She had one or two close friends, but everyone else steered away from her. In her five years at Hogwarts, she had only ever watched conversations and games progress in her common room, never making a comment. Even in truth or dare, she would not make a sound. She watched for a while during her first and second years. She would wonder why no one had ever chosen her before. She stopped minding once she realized that if you were dared to do something, you had to go through with it. That was the beauty of the magical world. One spell and you were at the mercy of whoever was holding the wand. Even in truth or dare, there were strict rules about following through and severe consequences if nothing happened. However, everyone seemed to always go through with their dares anyway.

So here Natalie was. Looking out onto the twilit grounds and not paying attention to the giggles and shouts from the rest of the group. She only looked around when someone prodded her with their wand. She jumped a bit, then turned around to ask how she was bothering anyone this time (the only time her peers would talk to her during a game was if she was blocking their sunlight, or if she was in the way of something they needed). Natalie raised an eyebrow and looked at Terry Boot, whose wand was pointing towards her. He was grinning from ear to ear.

"Natalie," he smirked. "Truth or dare?" Natalie bit her lower lip. She had never been asked before and had never even thought about an answer to this dreaded question. She chanced a glance at the rest of the group who were all leaning in, on their knees, towards her

"Uh..." she began. Luna Lovegood, who was sitting on her stomach on the floor, inclined her head towards Natalie.

"I think you should pick dare," she chimed in. "It's always fun to do something unexpected."

"With you Luna," Terry mumbled. "Everything is unexpected." Luna didn't seem to notice. She only stared dreamily at a dust bunny making its way across the blue and bronze rug underneath her.

"Well," Natalie started again. She decided to throw caution to the wind. "Sure. Dare." Terry's smirk grew even wider.

"Well seeing as we all know that you have a crush on Neville Longbottom-"

"Hey!" Natalie shot back at him, starting to blush. "No one ever said that…"

"I dare you to kiss Longbottom after Herbology tomorrow," Terry said after blowing off the previous interruption. The whole room "ooh'd" and grinned. Natalie's head turned to look at every smiling face in the room. Surely these people were out to get her. Just because she had helped Neville throughout Potions her whole Hogwarts career didn't mean she had a crush on him. Just because he had tutored her a few times in Herbology didn't mean that she wanted to kiss him. And just because she thought he was the cutest boy in the whole school didn't mean she wanted everyone to know.

"No," Natalie shook her head. "No way. I am not doing that."

"Oh, but you've got to," Padma Patil started to say. She sat up straight and looked around at her fellow Ravenclaws for support. A few nodded their heads excitedly. "If you don't, something terrible will happen to you!"

"What's that?" Natalie asked, unconvinced.

"Dunno," Terry noted. "No one's ever not followed through with a dare before." He leaned back against his elbows, preparing to dare the next person who came to call.

"I heard that your head will forever be infested with wrackspurts," Luna piped in, attention still drawn to the dust bunny.

"Or I heard that all your deep secrets will come out for everyone to hear," Padma continued. The more she spoke, the straighter she sat. Natalie was surprised that her back hadn't cracked yet.

"Someone told me that that's how the Grey Lady died," a second year quipped. Every head turned toward her. "She didn't go through with her dare and then she just...died!"

"That's a load of rubbish," Natalie insisted. She stood up from her chair, only wanting to take comfort in her Potions book. She didn't need to hear this.

"We'll find out, won't we?" Terry grinned slyly as she began making her way to the staircase leading to the dormitories. "Looks like it's either Longbottom, or your life." Natalie did not like those odds.