Another Night In (Michael/Dare)

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare looked back at Michael, seeing the concern there, and smoothed his hand down the back of Michael's neck to rest against his upper back. "They decorated my bed," he said simply. Dare dropped his gaze to Michael's collar, his hand sliding around to play with the edge of it. "There were streamers and stuff, they'd transfigured the sheets, not like it matters since I'm not sleeping there, hung some stuff up." Dare shrugged. "I got a kick-ass scarf out of it." It was stuffed into his bag at the moment, a long woven rainbow that'd easily wrap around his neck a few times.

"They were pretty stupid, though," he went on. "Left me a package of girls' panties like I wouldn't switch them out for all their stank drawers, which should be pretty much gone in the fireplace about now." Dare said it all matter-of-factly. He'd been pretty damn lucky, all things considered.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael smiled softly and shook his head, leaning forward to kiss Dare lightly. He wished that that was the kind of stuff the Slytherins were doing, he figured he could handle that. His hands spread out over Dare's back and he sighed, "What do you think they'll do next?" He wondered if the Gryffindors were the type to keep going as long as Dare retaliated or if they'd give up once they realized they were running out of clothes.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare shrugged. "I have no idea, but I hope I don't walk in while they're doing it." It was one thing walking through the corridors with blinders on, ignoring catcalls, but it would be entirely another making himself available for them to torment directly. "I'm hoping they get bored." Probably not likely, considering he was fighting back. They'd want to avenge themselves, and he'd want to avenge himself... "They'll run out of money for pranks sooner or later." Pranks. There was a nice way of putting it.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

"Hopefully," Michael said, letting his head rest on Dare's shoulder again. His eyes closed, but the moment there was darkness it was filled with images from his sketchbook, so he pulled them open again and examined the way Dare's hair fell on his neck. After a few moments he picked his head up again and looked into Dare's eyes, "Are you alright?" He wanted to make sure that the pranks hadn't bothered Dare too badly.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare glanced back at Michael before dropping his gaze again. "Yeah," he said, nodding. "I came back and drew for a while, so it's cool." And he'd left all the decorations on his bed, so the other Gryffindors would either have to take them down themselves, or live with looking at them every time they walked in the room. He figured that was punishment enough. Aside from the underwear switch, anyway.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael watched Dare closely for a few seconds to be sure he was telling the truth before nodding. He paused then, not wanting to move on if it was too soon, then met Dare's eyes again. "Can we...do something?" he asked uncertainly. Anything, he just wanted to get everything out of his mind, if only for a short time. He didn't care what it was, but he hoped that, if Dare was ready, they could do something.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare raised his eyes to Michael's again, relieved at his request. "Yes," he said. "Anything." Dare let out a deep breath, expelling some of the tension with it, then looked around the room, carefully avoiding the bed and the items sitting on it. "We could watch a movie," he suggested. "And I brought cards and runes again. Dare didn't really care what they did, whether it was vegging out or messing around, just as long as they didn't have to stand around being miserable anymore.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael didn't care any more than Dare did, but he could admit he was intrigued by the idea of a movie. "I think I could live with one of those movie things," he said, his mind going back to the odd movie book he had gotten his hands on for the Masquerade and on the quotes that Dare and Anna had said to each other. "Can the room do that, though?" he asked, knowing it was something muggle, even if he didn't really understand what it was.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare shrugged and looked around the room. "It can turn into a soccer field or the edge of the forest," he said, "so why not?" Dare slid one of his hands down Michael's back, curving it back around into Michael's pocket, his lips quirking slightly as he closed his eyes, picturing his favorite theater with stadium-style seating and movable cup holders. The room dimmed, enlarged, and a huge screen took up one wall facing the seats. Cheesy music played as advertisements flashed on the screen.

Dare opened his eyes and looked around. "That's about right," he said. "But we still need..." A bucket of popcorn and two sodas appeared in one of the seats. Dare grinned. "There we go." He turned to Michael. "Comedy or adventure? Or both?" he asked. There were a lot of different kinds of movies, but drama just sounded like crap right now, and for Michael's first movie, he wanted it to be something good.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael's eyes widened as he watched the pictures move over the screen. That wasn't strange, what was strange was that every few seconds it would change into something completely different. It took a moment for Dare's words to sink in and even then he still didn't know. "I...I don't know, I just want to have fun." He pulled his eyes away from the screen to look at Dare. "Comedy?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. He knew that at least then he'd laugh, but he knew that whatever Dare chose would be good.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare nodded, his lips curving into a soft smile. "Comedy it is," he said, then leaned to give Michael a brief kiss. God, he loved Michael. When he pulled back, Dare gestured to the screen. "Advertisements," he said. "Something to stare at while you wait for the previews." Dare shifted, pulling Michael lightly along to the seats and moving up the armrest between them. He had to remove his hand from Michael's pocket to pick up the popcorn and sodas, but set them aside and sat, pulling Michael down with him.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael leaned closer to Dare and watched the screen with his head tilted slightly, though he blinked whenever the screen changed again. "What are we watching?" he asked, glancing over at Dare before moving his eyes back to the screen in front of them. He didn't know what to expect, "What is a movie, anyway?" he asked then, without waiting for an answer for his previous question. He knew that it would tell a story, but past that he really wasn't sure.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare had known that question would come up. He turned away from the ads, shifting slightly to face Michael a bit better. "Okay, the closest I can come to comparing it to something is like, a cross between a Wizarding portrait and a book. It's like... if the portraits got together and decided to act out a book for two hours, only...since it's Muggle stuff, the actors can't hear you. You following so far?" Dare asked. He hoped so.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

"So it's like a play?" Michael asked, pulling his eyes away from the oddly fascinating ads to focus on Dare. He pulled his legs up into the chair with him and wrapped his arms lightly around them, but in a way that was comfortable instead of tense. He turned his head towards Dare and rested it on his knees as he tried to imagine what Dare was talking about.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

"Kind of," Dare said with a light nod. "Except the scenes change faster, and it's just a recording...pretty much a moving picture taken of everything that happened. They can't hear you if you heckle or something, because it's just...like I said, a picture." Michael was already on-board, though, so Dare hoped that was enough.

Just then, the lights dimmed, and sound echoed from around the room. Dare wondered what kind of previews showed before a movie in the RoR. He'd have wished to skip them, but it was part of the moviegoing experience. "This is the previews," Dare said, just loud enough to be heard over the sound. Then he chuckled at himself. There was no one to hear. Dare leaned close anyway. "It's pretty much teases from other movies," he explained.