𝓢𝔂𝓶𝓹𝓱𝓸𝓷𝔂 || Marauders

After Dark

Spin the bottle, a classic, a party favourite. But what no one tells you about the game is that most of the time, the bottle never lands on the right person.

Dorcas came back from a family vacation today. She had only missed a few weeks of the school year, but since we didn't see her over the summer, it felt like ages. We wanted to make her feel welcome, so we all spent the day hanging out in the boys' dorm, including Marlene, Regulus, and Amos, the new part-time member of our friend group.

As nighttime neared, things started to fade, as they usually do. Running out of stories to tell and jokes to make, and in a desperate attempt to save his friend's "party", Peter suggested we all play spin the bottle.

After a little bit of dispute, mainly from me, Sirius, and Amos, we just all agreed to play.

Marlene drank the last few sips of beer left in her bottle, and then we all gathered on the floor in a circle around the bottle.

"Okay, here are the rules" James started, but Sirius interrupted him.

"Prongs, we're already playing spin the bottle like it's year 3, we don't need rules to make it worse. It's spin the bottle, the rules are you spin the bottle and kiss who it lands on. It's not difficult to understand."

"Fine, if you want it to be more mature," Remus said, sparking curiosity in all of us for what his next words were going to be. "if the bottle matches up the same 2 people twice, the two of them have to go to the closet."

We were all shocked that Remus was the one to suggest that rule, but after a few seconds of teasing him for it, everyone accepted.

"Alright, I get to go first." Dorcas announced. I was to her left, that means there was a pretty good chance I would have to go right after her.

She leaned over the middle of the circle and spun the bottle. It landed on Marlene.

"No way," James said. "you cheated. You put a charm on it or something."

"I didn't do anything to it." Dorcas protested. "The bottle isn't magic, but it does know what it's doing."

Marlene scooted over to Dorcas, kissed her, then let out a soft "done" while blushing more than I've ever seen.

"Alright, Rose is next." Lily said.

I knew there was little that could be done in the way of protest, so I complied and spun the bottle, crossing my fingers. There was only one person I really wanted to kiss here.

Regulus, it landed on Regulus. I was dreading having it land on him, Sirius' brother, especially after hearing him say he likes me. I forced a smile for the moment and swallowed my pride.

"Alright," I said nicely. "Let's do it."

I moved over to where Regulus was sitting and kissed him. Not a good kiss though. A low effort, apathetic, spin the bottle kiss. I shouldn't have moved over to Regulus, I should have let him come to me. Because there, I was 2 feet away from Sirius, and he was the first thing I saw when I looked up.

Seeing him looking at us, trying not to look jealous but failing, sent a wave of guilt over me, and I couldn't fake a smile anymore.

"Alright, you're up." I told Peter, who was right next to me.

He went, the bottle landed on Amos, who was across the circle from him.

"Pass." He said.

"Offended." Amos joked. "But I'm fine with it, I don't want to kiss him either."

"No, you have to kiss whoever the bottle lands on, it's the rules." Marlene instructed.

"We get one pass." Amos said.