The Ugly Truth
"Mr. Potter, what have you done to your nose?" barked the Potions Professor right in the middle of the lecture.
Harry looked up from his notes, looking absolutely clueless, as usual. "Dunno, Sir." The boy touched his nose with his free hand, to check it. "I was hexed in the face earlier by Malfoy. Nothing happened though, Sir," the boy was unusually polite. The Professor frowned as he continued to stare at the boy's face.
"What hex did you use?" he suddenly barked at the other boy, who was beginning to look rather smug.
"Wasn't a hex at all, Sir. It was the Ugly Truth curse. He was badmouthing your looks, Professor. I thought he should get to experience it for himself," the Malfoy heir snickered arrogantly.
"One hundred points from Slytherin, and a visit to the Headmaster, to start with, Mr. Malfoy," the Professor barked in return.
"What? You can't do that, Sir!"
"You'll be happy if you're not expelled for this stunt, Malfoy! Do you have any idea what you've done here?" He didn't wait for the now bewildered boys to catch their wits. "Class dismissed! Everybody out! Except Potter and Malfoy," he ordered.
They were all happy to get out early, only Weasley and Granger hesitated even as the door slammed shut on their heels.
The Professor stalked up to Potter's table, eyes locked on the boy's steadily changing face. Now it wasn't just the nose changing shape. His green eyes had turned black, his unruly hair was wilting and lengthening, his skin paling, the Professor could easily see his own face in the boy's now, not just his huge crooked nose. He touched the nose with the tip of his wand, trying to catch the dark magic and extract it before it had gone too deep.
The boy squirmed under the harsh scrutiny. "What are you doing?" he bit out through his rapidly yellowing teeth. "Feels like you're going to rip off my face, it does."
The Professor sighed and stopped, defeated. "It's too late, it's gone too far. It will have to run its course now, I'm afraid."
"What the hell is going on?" Potter growled.
Snape snorted. "Oh, nothing much. Malfoy here just decided, on a whim, to turn you into a copy of me. Permanently."
"What?" Harry barked, disbelievingly.
"Permanently?" gasped Malfoy.
"Yes!" The Professor conjured a mirror in front of Potter and whirled around at his Godson. "How can you fling around one of the darkest curses there are, like it was a Jelly Legs Jinx? Haven't I taught you anything?"
"Dad didn't tell me it couldn't be reversed. He just said it made a person take on the characteristics of the one they thought the most ugly. I figured it would serve him right, you know?"
Snape wrote a note for the Headmaster and gave it to the boy. "You are to go directly to the Headmaster's office. Give him this. I'll be up once I've dealt with Potter."
"Yes, Sir," for once Malfoy sounded a tad worried.
Potter didn't even notice the other boy leave, he was staring at his changing image in the mirror. "Finite!" he barked out, aiming the wand at his face. The effect was the opposite to what he wanted. The change accelerated. "Professor, it won't stop!" he moaned in panic. Even his voice was deepening.
"I'm really sorry, Potter. There's no saying how far it will go, the dark magic has to burn out. When there's none left, it should stabilize."
They waited. Soon the boy had to unbutton his clothes and remove shoes, his body grew both wider and taller, to catch up to the Professor's. Eventually, the only visible difference between the two was the clothes and the scar on Harry's head. Pain burned through him when the scar evaporated into the air, like a small cloud of mist, the mist shot through the cloth onto the Professor's left arm. Then it was his turn to scream. More black mist evaporated into the air, then shot through up through the walls of the castle.
Breathing heavily from the residue of the pain, the two now identical men relaxed onto the dirty classroom floor. One last wave of magic, and the former boy was clothed in the same uniform as the Professor.
"Do you think it's over?" asked the changeling. "Feels stable now, somehow."
"I can't say," replied the other.
The both of them got off the floor. The Professor stared at the other, Potter stared at his image in the mirror, at his hand as he touched the smooth scar-free forehead and then turned towards the Professor. "Did your mark disappear too?"
Snape eagerly pushed up his sleeve, revealing a smooth pale arm. No mark. "Yes!" he crowed. "I'm free!" He looked to Potter and his usually dour face cracked into a genuinely happy smile.
"We better go talk to the Headmaster. I have no idea what to do now that Harry Potter is gone," Potter suggested, putting down the mirror on the desk.
"We better take the floo from my office. We can't both be seen like this."
It wasn't far, but the former boy already moved like the Professor and a scowl appeared on his face without further thought. When he called out "Headmaster's office," the cadence of his voice had adjusted itself as well. The spell made sure there were no discernable differences between them.
When they arrived, they stood side by side, arms crossed, both scowling angrily at the young Malfoy sitting in front of the Headmaster's desk, drinking tea.
"Headmaster..." began one.
"...we have been..." continued the other.
"...cursed," finished the first, in true Magical Twin fashion.
"Do not fret, boys," the headmaster smiled benignly. "I am sure we can solve this problem in some way. Mr. Malfoy here told me he didn't intend for this to be permanent, so we should be able to reverse this as soon as the dark magic has run its course." He looked between the two. "Who's who here? Severus?" he asked.
Before anyone could react to stop him. Potter had grabbed Malfoy by his tie and hoisted him up from the chair and back against the nearest wall. He changed his grip and squeezed his throat even as he held him up on his tippytoes. He held his newly changed ebony wand to the boy's temple. "So, this is my ugly truth. I wonder what yours would be, eh, pretty boy?" he hissed in his best Snape-voice. "Will you turn into one of the hags of Knockturn Alley? Or a mirror image of the Dark Lord, perhaps?" He ran the wand down the side of the now sweating face of his nemesis. "What do you say, Professors? Shall we find out?"
"Please, Harry my boy," the old man pleaded. "Vengeance will not solve our problem. I'm sure Mr. Malfoy regrets what he's done."
Harry snorted and tossed the boy away from him, onto the floor. He aimed his wand. "You will not remember what you did and what happened to me, Malfoy. The class was let out early after a Potions accident. Return to your dormitory. Obliviate!"
The boy, dazed from the spell, left the room in a hurry. For a moment Harry seemed dazed as well, then the Professor turned him around. Something drew the two of them together, their eyes connected. Holding onto each other's shoulders, they stood there for several long minutes while the Headmaster looked on, worriedly.
When they stepped apart, they turned and spoke as one to the old man. "The curse is now completed. We are now one."
They seemed to shake off the double voice speak and began acting more like separate beings. "We both have the same knowledge and memories. Our souls have merged."
The other boldly walked over to the liquor cabinet and poured three glasses with fire-whiskey. He handed his twin one and the Headmaster the other, then kept one for himself. "Welcome to the family, brother," he toasted.
They all drank.
One of them fell to the floor, frothing at the mouth, in pain. "What did you do?" he wheezed.
The other two grinned identically. "We are not twins, Headmaster. We are triplets."
Terror overcame the pain of the dying man.
"Indeed, the ugly truth is; Harry Potter, Severus Snape and The Dark Lord Voldemort, we're all one and the same these days. Severus might have an ugly face, but Who did you think had the ugliest mind?"
One of the two sat behind the Headmaster's Desk as they watched the old man's last breaths. "Headmaster Snape, has a nice ring to it, don't you think, my brother?"
"Mmm, yes. I think I'd enjoy Minister Snape myself."
"Yeah, our brother already has the Dark Lord Snape down."
The portraits around them looked on in horror, even as a new one joined them on the wall.
End