The pressure was rising.

Noriko squinted intently at the back of her fingers, all of which were outstretched as she held her hands out in front of her.  Eight.  Eight fingers left.  Her right pinky (with a purple nail) and her right ring finger (sort of a orangey-pink) had already been eliminated, which meant that she was losing.  If she didn't come up with something good, she'd never be able to keep up!

She took a deep breath.  "Never have I ever..."

She was distracted momentarily from her thoughts by how beautiful her fingernails looked.  Despite the Trace, Mrs Wintergreen had given them all permission to practice the Color-Changing spell that night on their nails (well, she and Eirene had practiced; Pax hadn't, though Noriko thought that he might secretly want to), so long as Mr Wintergreen was home to supervise in case anything went wrong.  Most of them had turned out perfectly, although the color on her left pinky was still flashing exhaustedly, as if it were uncertain whether it wanted to be pink or purple.  Even if it was happening at a boy's house, this was her second real sleepover, and she felt all the more grown up for having colored fingernails.  But even that wouldn't help her if she couldn't think quickly.

"Never have I ever..."  Noriko bit her lower lip, and then shot a quick look over at Eirene's and Pax's fingers.  How was she ever going to win at this game?  It didn't seem right to pick on Pax for living with Muggles (and besides, Noriko thought nervously, she didn't want Mrs Wintergreen to overhear her saying anything mean about them, just in case she changed her mind about being hospitable and tried to eat her after she crept into her sleeping bag tonight), and Eirene was perfect.  She'd never done anything wrong.

And then it came to her.

"Never have I ever INFLATED SOMEONE'S BUM!"  Before she'd barely gotten the words out, Noriko had dissolved into the helpless laughter of ultimate victory.  "You have!" she shrieked delightedly at Eirene, in far better spirits about the mishap now that it was helping her win than she had ever been while still at Hogwarts.  "You've done it!  You have to put a finger down!"

Pax temporarily lost all his fingers for keeping count of things he hadn't done, when he covered his mouth to stifle a shout of laughter. He blamed Noriko's glee being contagious. He snuck a guilty look at Eirene, hoping she didn't think they were making fun. Holding up his hands again (with one index finger down), he pressed his lips together, trying not to chuckle. It was so nice to hear Noriko laughing about what Pax referred to as The Incident, especially since it had kept her and Eirene from speaking for about a month.

This wasn't Pax's first sleepover, but it was the first time he'd had girls over instead of boys. It was a lot different; he'd never tried nail colours or played Never Have I Ever with his primary school pals. (Although, he hadn't tried to Colour-Change his own nails so much as watch Eirene and Noriko do theirs; Pax's Colour-Change Charm was still rather hit and miss.) Usually Pax's sleepovers devolved into a video-game marathon, but this evening Pax had tucked his game console safely away in his room, away from magic. Besides, too much muggle stuff and Noriko was liable to make a break for it. She was already looking vaguely uncertain about Pax's mum, who had been informed of the girl's 'muggle-phobia' and was being very patient about it.

'Well, never have I ever...' Pax looked from Eirene to Noriko ponderously, then settled on, 'got an O on History of Magic,' he said triumphantly. He was fairly sure that Eirene, and maybe Noriko as well, had got good marks in that class. If they were going to lose fingers, it might as well be for a good reason!

"Nooooo!" Eirene shrieked back, torn between the urge to laugh and whine. "No, that was an accident! It doesn't count!"

A pause, as she glanced around, worried that Pax's parents had heard them yelling. Eirene was still getting used to Pax's muggle mother as well. She seemed so normal and nice!

"Noriko!" She protested, but put a finger down, one finger with one pretty blue nail.

Eirene looked pitifully at Pax, who at least seemed to be holding in his amusement, and hoped he wouldn't come up with something as embarrassing as the Bum Inflation Incident. When he brought up his mark in History of Magic, she sucked in a breath, then remembered - she'd gotten an 'O' in History! It was Transfiguration and Defence that had given her trouble. Eirene put another finger down, so wrapped up in her anxiety about marks that she didn't think to protest over it, or to reassure Pax that he'd get an 'O' next year.

"Can we play something else?" Eirene wondered abruptly.

"I brought lots of things for us to do. If we want to get to all of them before bedtime-- I have a list!"

She drew it out of her backpack, focusing on the parchment instead of her friend's reactions.

"There's 'make posters for Tynan who got kidnapped'," she glanced at Noriko, hoping that wouldn't scare her. "There's 'send nice letters to the professors who must be really sad and bored this summer without us and our- my fruit baskets," she said seriously. "There's," her face brightened, "Send mean letters to the Gryffindors and tell them that the new first-years are going to steal their dorm rooms! And they'll have to sleep by the lake! Also by the grindylows and Heliotrope, who will think it's a family party!" Eirene started giggling, not realizing that for Mairead and the rest, sleeping by the lake would be as exciting as she thought this sleepover was.

Pax's challenge had drawn an ashamed gasp from Noriko, and then a cackle of triumph as she realized that her academic failure had scored her another point.  Two!  Two fingers!  If they kept on at this rate, Eirene's hands would be empty and Noriko would be the winner in almost no time!  The possibilities of other Hogwarts-related options practically danced before her eyes.  She'd never gotten an O in Herbology!  Or passed Flying!  Or -- well, Eirene hadn't really done the last one either, but, Noriko thought happily, at least that gave her one to possibly use against Pax --

Her friend's sudden desire to change the game took all of the wind out of her sails.  Noriko heaved a sigh, giving Eirene and her list an unhappy look.  But friendly loyalty won out even over ambition, and so Noriko sadly shut her mouth, not even giving Pax a look as she resigned herself to cooperate.

Eirene's news, though, was almost as bad as losing.

"Tynan is kidnapped?"  Noriko let out a squeak, her eyes going wide.  Tynan Macfusty was a Gryffindor, which meant he was scary by default, but he was one of the nice Gryffindors.  He didn't threaten to eat her, and he'd punched Erik Collins for her once. 

"Wh-what happened?" she stammered.  She didn't know very much about kidnapping, except it happened to you when you were bad, it was almost as bad as getting eaten by Muggles, and the Ravenclaw prefect that Eirene had a crush on had suffered from it.  "Did someone take him?  It wasn't --"  She dropped her voice to a hush, chancing a look back towards the door where Pax's mother had vanished.  Mrs Wintergreen seemed nice enough, but you never knew which Muggles were in collusion.  "It wasn't the -- you-know-whos -- was it?"

Pax had been all set to share a glance with Noriko at Eirene's, well, Eireniness, but the Slytherin girl seemed to be going along with the change in plans without any trouble, so he just smiled fondly to himself instead. Eirene had to be the only girl he knew who would bring a to-do list to a sleepover.

The contents of the list, however, or at least the part about Tynan, elicited the same sort of reaction from Pax as it had from Noriko, although he tried to remain level-headed, keen to avoid jumping to conclusions. 'You-know-whos?' he puzzled, naive enough not to twig Noriko was talking about muggles. His brain had jumped to History of Magic lessons, and how Lord Voldemort had once been known by that moniker. It seemed unlikely a dead evil sorceror would have anything to do with Tynan MacFusty, though.

'Has he really been kidnapped, Eirene? I mean, I think I remember Dad maybe reading something in the paper about a kid going missing, but...' He scratched the back of his neck self-consciously. 'I mean, you know Tynan. Maybe he decided to go off on his own for a bit, and... didn't think to... tell anyone...' Pax physically slumped as doubt seeped into his voice. The idea of the surly Gryffindor being in any sort of trouble was a disturbing one. He swallowed nervously. 'How long ago was it that he went missing, again?'

Eirene beamed and straightened up at the attention, positively gleeful that she knew about something her friends hadn't heard of.

But when both Pax and Noriko seemed frightened by the idea, that brought her down to earth a bit, and she paused. Her parents had lectured her about kidnapping and stranger danger and the influx of foreign students come August, and now Eirene couldn't quite separate what she'd read in an article versus what she was parroting.

"My parents say kidnapped and the papers say..." Eirene looked confused for a moment. "-But they must be right; they know everything. The Daily Prophet article said he went missing around June 22nd, and that the last place he was seen was Hogwarts," she widened her eyes. "It could be either you-know-whatsits or criminal wizards that took him!"

Having caught Noriko's expression, Eirene knew exactly what Noriko meant by 'you-know-whos'. She then glanced at Pax, recalling how kindly his mother had greeted them, and neglected to act as a dictionary for once in her life.

"No one deserves to be kidnapped," she declared loftily, with a little wave of her to-do list. "Even Tynan wouldn't just wander off. He's not that dumb."

She looked at Pax, then Noriko. "We should make posters for him. Then someone can recognize him if they spot him, and then they can tell a responsible adult. Or us!" Eirene and her friends were very responsible! They could responsibly inform responsible adults! Responsibly!