Team: Kenmare Kestrels
Position: Chaser 1
Prompt: Polyjuice
Optional Prompts: (1) "I'm bored. Play with me!", (6) "On your marks, get set...drink!", (13) Durmstrang
Beta'd By: QueenBookwormtheFirst, I'm a Nerd and Proud, SpacesInMyMind
Word Count: 1675
HPHPHPHPHPHPHP
Blaise threw his textbook at Draco's head with a groan. "I'm bored. Play with me!"
"Really?" Draco raised an eyebrow and continued scratching out the last essay of his holiday homework. "Because I don't think you'd like to see what I'd do to 'play with you'. You may not be in the same condition you were before."
"Just because you're now a Death Eater doesn't mean you have to threaten me all the time." Blaise sprawled himself across the sofa dramatically. "It's not that I don't like having you here by me; I don't want you anywhere closer to the Dark Lord than you have to be and that means not going home. But you're being such a downer this entire Christmas."
"I'm sorry for worrying about my parents' lives!" Draco exploded. "It isn't all fun and games this year, Blaise – "
He held up both hands in surrender. "Okay, okay. But how about some fun, anyway? I've always wanted to visit Durmstrang and most of them stay over the holidays, anyway. We'll blend in."
"No, we won't." The blond gestured to his signature feature. "With this hair and both our builds? Durmstrang students are built like tanks. We'll look both pathetic and completely out of place."
"Then..." Desperately casting his gaze around the room for a solution, Blaise's dark eyes landed on a leather Potions bag. "Snape's potions!"
"What?"
"Don't you see?" Blaise replied with excitement. "He carries some Polyjuice with him at all times and he left his spare bag here last time he came to visit you. We can go as Crabbe and Goyle. They'd fit in with Durmstrang. They don't have the anti-Apparition wards we do at Hogwarts so we can Apparate right there. The underage magic will register there and since it's on Durmstrang's grounds – "
"We won't have a problem." For the first time in a while, Draco felt a grin lift the corners of his mouth. "Let's do it. We can't stay here in your mansion the whole time, especially since your mother is worried about us going out alone."
"We're nearly seventeen! I don't understand why she's being this paranoid." Getting to his feet, Blaise pointed to the leather bag. "You get the potions, since you know how they're organized. I'll go upstairs to my bedroom and get some of Crabbe and Goyle's hair."
Draco's brows furrowed. "Why do you have that?"
"Um..." Blaise's face took on an interesting look, one that told the other teen that he really didn't want to know what was going on. "I just do. Are you in or not?"
"Yes, yes, I'm in. But I still want to know what's going on," he retorted, pointing his finger in Blaise's face.
Ten minutes later, the two sixth years were seated on the white leather sofa, holding matching goblets of what looked like gray sludge. "I guess...bottoms up?" Draco said skeptically, eyeing his goblet with a jaundiced eye.
"On your marks, get set...drink!" As soon as the last word left Blaise's mouth, both teens tilted the glasses and drank deeply.
Draco bent over double and gasped as he felt his bones begin to stretch and reshape themselves. Beside him, Blaise did the same. Finally, after several of tense, pain-filled minutes, Draco straightened up. "That was brutal." It was disconcerting to hear Crabbe's deep voice coming from his throat. "I'm not doing that again. You couldn't pay me enough."
"I'm definitely not going to be the one to make you do it. I don't want to do it either." Getting to his feet and looking down at himself, Blaise realized his robes had split due to his much, much larger...circumference. "Let's get some robes and go. Do you have any Durmstrang robes with you?"
"Yes, Blaise, because I keep robes for foreign schools in my trunk at all times." Draco rolled his eyes and stood as well. "I know what they look like though. I can Transfigure some for us. Get your old robes and I'll do it."
"Fine. But if my mother comes down and sees me like this..." He wagged a finger at the blond. "I will murder you."
"How very un-Slytherin of you. Why would you threaten me when you could simply murder me and be done with it?"
Blaise stomped up the stairs with a groan to go get the robes as well as get away from his oh-so-smart friend.
"Sheesh, it was just a joke. And he wants me to be funnier," Draco muttered.
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The two intruders hid behind a wall of the dark castle that housed Durmstrang. "Where in the world do we go?" Draco whispered harshly. "I don't know how to get around this place."
"Neither do I. But it's dinner time. All we have to do is follow the crowd." The Italian started after the crowd of students, forcing the former blond to run after him. "They're not sorted, so once dinner is over – "
"We can't stay after dinner! We're going to get caught and you know they wipe the memories of people who came here!" Coming up beside Blaise, Draco continued, "I only got away with it when I was ten because they didn't realize I was there and old enough to remember what was happening. You never know when this information can be useful and I don't want to lose it."
"Okay, okay. We'll stay for dinner and then escape. Does that make you feel better?" The pair fell silent as they entered the dining hall.
It was certainly not as large the Hogwarts Great Hall. The ceiling was not as high and it was plain wood, no constellations twinkling above the students. As they had already seen on their little escapade around the castle, it was much smaller and more military-like than Hogwarts. Small balls of magical flame served as illumination at intervals throughout the corridors but didn't give off much light. It made the castle much gloomier than Hogwarts. But what it did have was sophisticated decorations: ice statues stood around the dining hall, enchanted to stay frozen, small lights lit up the area, and the Christmas trees were small and tucked into corners. In Hogwarts, the decorations were obnoxious and in-your-face. But Draco had to admit that while this suited his Pureblood tastes, Hogwarts certainly felt a lot more like home.
Evidently the same thing was going through Blaise's mind as well. "I know that this is much more our speed, but..." His voice trailed off. "I think I may actually like Hogwarts more."
"I know. I think I do as well." Draco's head shot up as he was shoved from behind by another student. "Oi!"
"Vhat, now ve haff English brats?" the older teen grunted. "Go back to Hogvarts vhere you crazies belong."
"What?" Blaise and Draco exchanged a quick look. Hogwarts was considered crazy?
"You English haff Voldemort. He's a...how do you say it...a nutcase." He shrugged. "Keep your problems to yourself. Go back to Hogvarts and your lying, scheming countrymen."
"Er...okay." As the other teen walked away, Blaise whispered frantically, "What's going on?"
"I suppose the Dark Lord is not as popular outside of Great Britain as he assumed he is." Draco played with the fork beside his plate. As opposed to Hogwarts's buffet-style meals, each student in Durmstrang received a plate of food for a perfectly balanced meal. It was certainly healthier than what they had, but he preferred being able to select his own food. "We should get out of here before something happens."
"No one is going to attack us. We look just like everyone else around here. We'll leave straight after dinner. Slip right out, get out onto the grounds, and Disapparate. We'll be back at my place before you know it." Taking a bite of what looked like some sort of fried fish, Blaise patted his friend's arm. "Don't worry so much. It's the holidays – "
"Blaise..."
He continued right over the blond. "So we can and should have as much fun as we can, especially since school is stressful enough – "
"Blaise!" Draco finally shouted.
"What? Wait, why are you using my name?" Oblivious to the panic on the other teen's face, Blaise kept right on eating. "I'm Goyle, I think."
"The Polyjuice – it's been an hour. You're changing back into yourself!" Grabbing the other teen's arm, Draco dragged the two of them out into the corridor. "We have to get going!"
"I'm going, I'm going. You know, you'd be a lot happier if you were less uptight." Nevertheless Blaise followed him outside to the frozen, snowy grounds. Once they were as far out of sight of the castle as they could get they Disapparated and landed on the floor of Blaise's room just in time to turn back into their regular selves. "That was fun!"
"That was close. Too close for comfort." Draco buried his now-blond head in his hands. "At this rate, between you and the Dark Lord, I'm going to have a heart attack within the next few months."
"Ah, well, then you'll be able to miss the war." Getting to his feet Blaise went to his closet to get clothes that would actually fit him. "Go get dressed in something smaller than that and we can talk then."
"No we are not. I'm not talking to you again until I'm rested enough to argue against your stupid ideas. Next time I'm not going along with this." The blond turned on his heel and left the room.
Blaise shrugged. Draco always said that,yet they still had these sorts of adventures time and time again.
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Draco flattened himself out on the bed and pressed his face into the pillow. Today had exhausted him, mostly because of how nervous he'd been, and right now he needed to sleep. Despite his words earlier, he knew he'd be dragged into another one of Blaise's schemes.
There was, after all, the only person who could get him to loosen up and relax: Blaise.