Can You, Can't You?

By Kate Karson

Bonsoir, once again, and welcome to my latest! The idea for this game comes not from the depths of my mind, but the catacombs of my younger sister's, who kindly allowed me to write the story around it for her, since she doesn't usually like to, and I do. So, all game-making credit goes to Emily Karson… well, it would do, if that was my real surname.

I realise it might be a slow starter, but I think it'll turn out pretty well when the rules and things are established. So hang in there for the first chapter! I promise it will be way better than this.

Chapter One

Crazes often swept the corridors of Hogwarts, and then passed again quickly, but this one was taking far more time than it should to bore the majority of the older Gryffindors.

As newly appointed Head Girl, Lily Evans disapproved. As newly appointed Head Boy, James Potter most certainly did not.

"Come on, Prongs, go for red!" Sirius Black grinned and stroked his fringe down with his fingers. "Stop being a coward, you pansy."

"Alright, alright. A genius needs time to choose." James threw him a look, and grinned right back. Suddenly, he jumped onto one of the plush armchairs by the common room fire and grabbed a red paper aeroplane from the air mid-flight, inducing cheers and ominous 'ooh's, which he silenced as he touched the paper with his wand.

The aeroplane unfolded, and assembled itself into an A4-sized sheet of white parchment with a red border. It hovered in front of the head boy's face, and glancing over his shoulder to check that his audience were still captivated, he took it.

He paused a few seconds to give the paper a first glance.

"Get on with it, you incessant attention seeker," shouted Sirius; the only person who could have gotten away with saying it, and the only person who could have sped up the process.

Rolling his eyes at his best friend, James cleared his throat, and began to read out the inked violet handwriting. "Are you charming and brave? Do you have a strong stomach? If so… can you kiss Professor McGonagall?" There were sympathetic groans, and James winced playfully. Sirius, it appeared, couldn't stop laughing. "You'll need all the tricks in the book to pull this one off. Can't you do it within an hour? Then pay the price of the points… points that had you won the challenge, you could have added to your total. Good luck! Worth 1000 points."

There was uproar amongst the players. "One hour? No way!" a blonde fourth-year boy asserted.

"Sirius Black, this is obviously one of yours." James jumped onto his friend's chair and ruffled up his hair crazily, the latter laughing like a madman. "But I'm having those points." He slumped down onto the table in front of Sirius. "The question is – how do I do it?"

"You could," commented Lily, who was sitting in the quieter corner of the common room, reading a book, "just forget about it and cancel the game."

"Come off it, Evans, even you know this one'll be worth watching." Sirius had stopped laughing now, and was sorting out his precious hair. "My stomach's churning, and it's not me that's going have to kiss her. I know I set it and everything, but in all fairness, I haven't got a clue how I'd do it."

James pretended to fall back against the wall, and cupped a hand around his ear. "Do my ears deceive me? Has Sirius Black just attacked his own ego?"

"Shut up, you, and get on with snogging Catface."

"I will, Pad, because unlike you, I know exactly how I am going to do it. And you are all welcome to spectate from the comfort of your seats in the great hall. Anyone got something relatively neat to write on?"

A couple of minutes later, tongue poking out from the side of his mouth, the Hogwarts head boy had written out his prop, returned the remaining parchment and ink to the original owner with a grateful nod, and had also sent Peter on a mysterious errand. "Right."

It was with confidence in his task that he stepped out of the portrait with a small crowd following him, and the scroll of parchment rolled up and held tightly in his left hand. Without realising, he passed a very confused Remus, who was coming out of a corridor on his way back from the library. The sandy-haired boy managed to make his way over to Sirius, who took him by the shoulders and turned him around, frog-marching him along with the crowd. "Potter's got a red," was all he offered by way of explanation, but Remus understood.

James stood at the doors to the great hall, and made sure everyone was sitting down before he took off quickly to the owlery, the marauders minus Peter right behind him. "It has to fly in, or it won't work," he kept saying, until Sirius forced him to shut up with a soft slap around the head. He grinned and carried on walking until he reached his destination. "Artemis?" he called, and a majestic brown owl fluttered down to the perch standing next to him. James stroked his father's old owl. "Hello. I need a favour…"

Thirty minutes saw all four marauders united again at the foot of the Gryffindor table, which was the end furthest away from the Professors'; this was tradition, because it meant that they could get away with more, but it would also 'give the show-off a nice long catwalk to strut down', according to Sirius, who received a punch on the arm in reply.

Sirius tapped his watch, carved from dragon fangs. "Fifteen minutes, Prongs."

"I only need five." James glanced over at the hole in the wall through which the post was delivered. "Et voila! Here comes my post."

"From you, to you. You must be used to that by now, what with Valentine's Day."

"Ha, ha, you're so funny, aren't you?"

Sirius thought for a moment. "Well, I think so, yes." This raised a laugh from a sixth-year brunette, who he winked at, before turning back to James. "Point proven."

"Touché." grinned the Seeker, and caught his letter easily. "What's this, then?"

A few of the Gryffindors watched his eyes scan down the letter with amusement. His years of entertaining his peers had trained him, and now he was a terrific actor – the excitement in his eyes was undeniable, and even hawk-eyed Professor McGonagall wouldn't suspect anything was amiss. Suddenly, he crowed animatedly, jumping up, and forced the letter into Sirius' hands.

Sirius knew what to do. With his best friend dancing around behind him, attracting as much attention as possible, he began to read aloud. "Dear James - We were happy to hear that your effort and knowledge for Transfiguration has improved over the last few weeks! We're very proud, and since you've worked so hard, we've decided to buy the new broomstick you wanted as a reward – the Cleansweep six? Well, whichever the best model is. Your father isn't completely sure we're not up to the seventh model by now. Anyway, we hear the Cleensweeps have the best handling in the market, and the top speeds and maximum heights, too! Hopefully this new broom will help you to enjoy Quidditch – and excel at it – even more than you already do! Lots of love, Mum and Dad. You lucky bugger, James Potter."

James himself was hardly listening. He glanced quickly at the Professors' table, and was pleased to see that Peter had done his job, and that Professor McGonagall was sitting in her usual seat. He took the letter from Sirius and scooted up the aisle between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables, making his way up to his target. As was his plan, he had the attention of the great hall – albeit not the entire student body, as it wasn't a mealtime. "Professor!" he shouted as he got nearer. "Professor McGonagall!"

"Potter?" she replied, not knowing quite what to expect.

He reached the table before her, and extended his hands. "Without you, Professor, my parents would never have… I mean… not even for my birthday… but you have made my day, my week, and my year! You, Professor, have made this broom upgrade possible, and for that, I love you." With that, quickly, before he didn't dare, he leaned in and pecked McGonagall on the cheek. "Thank you for being you, Professor." He nodded sagely, and saluted, before turning around and announcing to the great hall, "Hey! I'm getting a Cleansweep Six!"

Unable to contain his 'excitement', he cheered again, leaping into the air, and ran out of the great hall.

Almost the entire Gryffindor table was in stitches, Lily Evans included. She had to admit, however ridiculous and boisterous this silly 'Can You, Can't You?' game was, James Potter had definitely hit the mark with this dare. She shook her head as she picked up her bag and returned to the common room with the rest of her house, leaving a stunned and bewildered great hall behind.

---

Back in the common room, James was being given the hero treatment, which did nothing for his inflated ego. Everyone cheered as James' points were added to the mini-hourglass that belonged to him, and he sank into a chair. His housemates surrounded him, and he kept insisting that it was nothing, really, and he could do much better.

"Oh, honestly!" said Lily, annoyed by the over-reaction. "It was just a dare."

"You thought it was hilarious! You were laughing!" countered Sirius.

"I didn't say it wasn't funny – it was. What I meant was that someone must have done something more difficult, or more embarrassing, before. You've been playing this game for weeks. Is that all the guts you've all got?"

It was quite quiet now. The players seemed to have sensed that something interesting was about to happen.

"Do you think it's easy, then?" grinned Sirius. "You think you could do better?" He advanced on her slowly, almost threateningly, and flicked his wrist. A white piece of card folded in half appeared between his extended middle and index fingers. The others laughed, knowing now what he was leading to. She reached out cautiously and took it. "Then play." he whispered.

Out of the blue, a strong sensation of wanting to belong gripped the redhead, and as much as she hated the idea of being lumped in with the rest of the players, the longing to join in was far more overpowering. She straightened, a small smile on her face. "Alright, then. I will." This brought more cheers. She looked at the card Sirius had given her, and sat down, pulling a quill out of her bag.

Can You, Can't You?

Invented by Sirius Orion Black, in his sixth year, and it's still played in his seventh! Ha!

Hi, fill this in. Why? Because I said so, and I'm sexy and brilliant.

"Debatable." commented Lily.

"Not." Sirius called back, without looking up from examining his nails.

Name: Lily Evans

Year: Seven

Preferred hourglass colour: Does it matter? Oh, fine, pink.

What are you scared of?: You're going to use this against me, aren't you?

What are you scared of?: Losing my family and friends.

Something more general, sil vous plait.: The dark.

Would you accept personal CYs sent by other players?: Assuming a CY is a 'Can You?', I'll say yes.

So, can you?: Um…

So, can you?:I don't get it.

So, can you?: What?!?

SO, CAN YOU?: Yes! Dear me. Better.

You know the basic rules of the game, right? When you feel like it, pick one of the paper aeroplanes flying around the common room, and it'll have a challenge on it, which you can complete for points. We have a sort of colour scheme going for us; when you write out a Can You? it'll grade itself according to how difficult or embarrassing or whatever it is. The colour scheme goes like this.

+ Grey – Something spineless even Snivellus or a troll could do. Not even worth the measly points you'll get for it. Don't do it! It'll damage your reputation!

"For goodness' sake." she said, shaking her head. "What is it with Severus Snape?"

"What is it? What do you mean, what is it? He's a slimeball!" erupted Sirius.

"Worse than that. He's a…" replied James, but Lily had no interest in what James Potter thought Snape was, and went back to reading the white card.

+ Purple – Boring, and pretty pointless, too.

+ Blue – Easy for a beginner. Sleep-inducing for a pro.

+ Green – Like a warm-up. These are middle ground.

+ Yellow – Now you're talking!

+ Light orange – Bound to cause embarrassment.

+ Orange – Eye-watering stuff. High points!

+ Red – For professionals only! Can cause premature death, or at least total humiliation, but the points will make up for it!

Yeah, so that's that. The game operates on a points system, and players get their own little hourglasses, which is charmed (thanks to Remus) to count their points. So you'll get one too. And they're all minimised (Remus) to fit into the box, which is fixed to the table by the fire in the common room, so if you want to check your score, or anyone else's, that's where you should look.

There won't be a game to play unless you submit challenges, so do it, damn it. And keep doing it. Just write out what the person has to do, as creatively as you want, so long as they know their task and time limit. You don't need to write your name; most people prefer to let everyone guess. Then you'll need to charm it, which is easy. The incantation is Assemblus, so just prod the paper and say that and it'll add the amount of points the challenge is worth to the end of your description, and fold and colour itself. It's a clever little charm.

To be fair, I'm cleverer, because it was me that made it up, but there you go.

If you can't complete a challenge within the time limit, or can't complete it, full stop, then you'll usually have to lose as many points as the challenge is worth. Other times, though, you'll just have to do some sort of forfeit – things like mass Honeydukes purchases for everyone to share, or taking another Can You? involving something you're scared of. So think about the consequences before you FAIL!

You can send challenges to other players, personally, if you really want to. The only thing is, personal 'Can You?'s can't have forfeits attached to them, whether it's point loss or otherwise. So there. If you want to send one, then you write PCY - INSERT NAME HERE!!!! at the top of your piece of paper before you write out the challenge, and just charm it as normal.

This is boring me now. I'm gonna wrap up. Any questions, ask me in real life when you give this back. I prefer talking to writing.

You do know this is Sirius writing, right?

Lily smiled faintly as she put the quill away. "Done." she said, and suddenly, she found herself encircled by the other players. Sirius reached out a hand to take the card, pressed it with his wand, and tucked it into the back pocket of his jeans.

He raised an eyebrow. "Go on, then."

"Go on, what?"

"Take your first challenge." James answered from his seat next to her. He gave her a reassuring smile, which infuriated her. She didn't need his comfort! But in truth, she was quickly regretting her decision to play.

After her short pause, Sirius cut in. "Might I suggest you take purple first, just to start yourself off? Don't want to break a nail, do you?" He smirked, causing the exact reaction he wanted as she flared up.

"As if." she snapped, and stood on the floor, high on her toes to choose the first red she could reach, stunning everyone, including Sirius. "I wouldn't want to degrade myself." Smiling at their silence, she unfolded the plane, and read aloud. "I fancy taking being a teacher's pet out of all proportion, so you might have a hard time with this one. Can you obtain a sample of Professor Slughorn's lovely moustache? Don't bother wasting your time sucking up; you've only got one day! Can't you do it? You'd better start saving the galleons for a nice big box of chocolate frogs – enough for every Can You? player. Worth 1000 points." She looked up from the paper. "Easy. I'll do it now."

"Wait!" piped up Peter as she laid the challenge neatly on the table before her. "You need a witness."

"I don't need a witness. I'll just bring back the sample."

"Yeah, but it might not actually be Slughorn's." blundered Peter, who was in the mood to find fault, which was unfortunate, as Peter wasn't intelligent enough to find fault. "You won't be able to prove it."

"Surely the points wouldn't be added if the sample wasn't from Slughorn? If it wasn't his, I wouldn't have completed the challenge." she pointed out.

This rendered Peter frustrated, and he opened his mouth to retort, but James stood up. "That's true. But I'll come with you, just so everyone's certain. I can help, too." He looked at the rest of them to check that no-one objected, hoping they wouldn't, and then turned back towards the redhead. "Okay?"

"Yes, I suppose so. Alright."

"Well, that's settled, then." He smiled warmly, and nodded towards the portrait. "See you in a bit." They reached the corridor, and headed towards the dungeons. "Okay, what's the plan?"

---

"My, my, such dreadful spelling, but, yes, a good answer." Horace Slughorn was marking homework, and was surprised to hear a knock on the door. He cleared his throat. "Come in!"

James Potter and Lily Evans entered the room together, and the latter smiled politely. "Good evening, Professor."

"Good evening, Miss Evans, and good evening, Master Potter."

"Evening, sir." James grinned. "We've got a favour to ask. Ah… can we have a bit of your moustache?"

There was a stunned silence. Slughorn didn't know quite what to say, but it appeared he didn't have to speak; Lily interjected hastily in order to explain. "We're organising a school event, Professor, and we can't really tell you much about it, because it's not definitely going to happen, yet. The thing is, we need-" she nodded towards his face, "-because the event involves Polyjuice potion, and we wanted to test it out without using samples of ourselves. We knew we could trust you to keep it a secret, sir, so…"

"Oh! I see." he nodded, glad that he finally thought he understood the purpose for the head students' strange request, and gave a wide smile. "Shouldn't be much trouble for you, should it, Miss Evans?"

Lily smiled. "Well, we've studied the theory in class, Professor, so I think I'll be able to manage it, and I'm sure you wouldn't mind lending a hand if we ran into any problems."

"Not at all, not at all. I'd be delighted to help! Yes, a project indeed. If I just…" he raised his wand, and efficiently cut a small amount of his facial hair off. He offered the clippings to Lily, who took them in her hand, and closed her fist tightly.

"Thank you, Professor." She nodded to excuse herself, and turned to leave.

"Miss Evans? I just have one question." She turned back around. "Why my moustache?"

Lily was lost for words, but recovered very quickly. "No reason. I suppose it's just a prominent feature of yours, Professor." Before he could reply, she dashed out of the room, James hot on her heels.

As soon as they were a safe distance away, James laughed whole-heartedly, and Lily couldn't help but join in. "Excellent." he said, and breathed out heavily. "Don't deny you enjoyed that."

"I won't." she said, her hesitant laughter fading. "It was good. I only hope I don't get anything like that again. Imagine having to ask him for another sample!"

"I don't think he'd fall for it again."

"No." she confirmed, and realised that despite the thoughts she usually found swimming around her head, here she was having a civil conversation with James Potter, and he hadn't even brought up-

"Lily." he stopped walking and turned to face her, a few corridors away from the common room. "See, we don't have to argue. We could be friends. You could come to the Magpies game with me on Saturday."

She rolled her eyes and carried on walking. "You would have to spoil things."

He caught up with her easily, and then slowed down to match her pace. "Sorry. Can't help it." James grinned, and ran a hand through his hair. "Forget I said anything."

"Potter," she said as she came up to the portrait, "I already have." The fat lady smiled down at her, proud that both head boy and head girl still came to visit the common room she guarded. "Richmond the Regal."

The portrait swung open, and Lily climbed through. James grinned uncontrollably as she closed it again. "Brilliant." He looked at the fat lady. "Isn't she brilliant? Um, Richmond the Regal, isn't it? Thanks."

He followed her into the common room where the head girl was getting an excellent reception – her first challenge, a red, and completed easily with over twenty-three hours to spare. "She'll give you a run for your money, Sirius, I'm warning you." said Peter, grinning. "You couldn't have done that."

Sirius only laughed. "Not as quickly, no. But I would have done it eventually, mark my words. Oh, here's Jamie-boy. What took you so long?"

James shrugged. "Met a friend in the corridor."

"Was she a blonde, a brunette or a redhead?" Remus asked wryly, slumping down into a chair with his new Transfiguration book. "Wait, don't tell me. Only red is hot enough, right?" Even though he had noticed the feeling welling up for days, he couldn't quite explain why he felt so bitter all of a sudden, and in order to prevent himself from snapping at James, he buried himself in the third chapter.

Sirius and James shared a look, and the head boy took the seat next to Remus, interrupting his reading by pushing the book down with his finger. "Rem, are you OK? It isn't close, is it?"

The werewolf shook his head, more annoyed at his reading being interrupted than anything. "No, it's not that. I don't know." James gave him a sceptical look. "Well, I do know, but I don't want to talk about it, and that's that, so can I read now?"

"No."

"I don't know why you're so bothered. It's just a thing. It'll tide over." The werewolf and the head boy looked at each other over the book for a few moments, and eventually, Remus relented. He closed the book, moved slightly closer to his friend and lowered his voice to just above a whisper. "Alright. I'm lonely, okay?" Even his draping fringe couldn't hide the blush that was beginning to dominate his face. "You and Sirius have girls all over you, all the time! You can even choose which ones you want, depending on your mood, but I can't, because for me, there aren't even any horrible ones to say no to." He struggled, but managed to meet James' eyes. "Happy now?"

"Not really. I never really… realised. I'm sorry." He ruffled up his friend's hair in an attempt to cheer him up. "Hey, you never know. Something might come up soon."

"If no girls have liked me for six years running, I see no reason why they'd start liking me now."

"They'll definitely like you if you just let them get to know you." the dark-haired boy said, but kindly. "Who do you like? Anyone?"

Remus shook his head. "No-one in particular."

They both knew it was a lie, but James decided not to press it any further. "Alright, then." Seconds later, however, he broke out into a wild smile. "Sorry, Moony, got to go."

"That'll be a potential conversation with Lily, then," muttered Remus under his breath, re-opening the book, but for once in his life, he was wrong. Over the other the side of the common room, James was scribbling madly on a piece of spare parchment.