Twelve Way Body Switch (!)
Summary: What happens when Voldemort deliberately traps Harry and his friends in the bodies of Death Eaters? Each of them is trapped in the body of the Death Eater they hate the most. And Voldemort and his Death Eaters now get to control Harry and his friends' bodies. If his plan goes off right, Voldemort (in Harry's body) would be hailed as the hero of the war while Harry & co will be arrested as Death Eaters!
REVISED/UPDATED – follows Book 7 up to Peter Pettigrew's death. In this version, Wormtail is not killed by his silver hand, and participates in the Final Battle as a Death Eater.
Chapter 1
Voldemort looked around. He was surrounded. Only a small number of his most capable subordinates still remained; sparing a quick glance behind him, there was Wormtail on his right, reflecting every oncoming spell with his silver arm; Antonin Dolohov on his left keeping several opponents back with a sea of purple flames; then Rodolphus Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy lighting it up with Imperios and dark magic; then Bellatrix at his back stoutly holding a strong Protego against a withering barrage of the children's Expelliarmuses and Stunners. Only these five remained at their Lord's side, the bodies of nearly three hundred fallen Death Eaters scattered throughout the battlefield.
Everything had gone as well as could be expected up until a few minutes ago. The Death Eaters were slowly but surely winning the battle, and they closed in on the Great Hall from all sides the end was clearly near. Then, suddenly, Voldemort's men were surprised from behind by dozens of Order of the Phoenix reinforcements pouring in from Hogsmeade. Now it was the Death Eaters who were surrounded, and while Voldemort himself continued to dispatch all comers, his Death Eaters inexorably fell one by one against the sheer numbers of their enemies.
Voldemort had anticipated this possibility, and prepared a last-resort spell for just this situation. "Death Eaters!" he yelled, "Retreat to the Forbidden Forest!" He raised his wand high in the air and shouted an incomprehensible incantation that none of the teachers or students had heard before. Suddenly a big flash went off from the tip of his wand, illuminating the bodies of the Death Eaters as well as everyone around him. When the flash of light had died down, the last six survivors of the dark army were gone.
Among the circle of Hogwarts students, relatives, teachers, and Order members, the jubilation was muted. Voldemort, though defeated, had escaped to fight another day. The survivors of the Light immediately began to organize for a massive search. Kingsley Shacklebolt had overheard Voldemort's last orders to his followers. The school grounds and the Forbidden Forest were cordoned off in short order, and now began the harrowing task of closing the cordon around the escaped Death Eaters.
The Death Eaters had, in fact, returned to Malfoy Manor; Voldemort had been bluffing to misdirect the inevitable search for them following their hasty retreat. It had worked better than any of them thought; they had hidden for some five entire days at their old headquarters – the one place they would be least expected to hide – as the Order and the Aurors combed every inch of the Forbidden Forest looking for them. "The curse is going to take effect tonight, then?"
"Yes," Voldemort said, "I had not thought we would escape for so long. I had anticipated it taking effect a few days into our prison sentences. So tonight we will sleep well. Tomorrow, be prepared to awake in the bodies of our enemies. We shall be heroes to the world for the next hundred years. Our enemies shall answer for our crimes. And we will have a fresh start, you may choose to live out the lives of heroes, or ruin them, however you wish."
Voldemort turned to three other men who had fortituously turned up after the battle. These three Snatchers had escaped from Hogwarts separately, having been stunned near the outskirts of the grounds, and Voldemort planned to reward them for all they had done for his lost (for now) cause. "Tomorrow, Potter and his friends will wake up in our bodies," he told them, "they will be disoriented and should be easy prey for you. Use some of our masks to confuse them further. Capture them and turn them over to the Aurors, and receive your reward from the Ministry. May your lives be fruitful."
It was not a moment too soon; that night, the Aurors finished their search of the Forbidden Forest, and had come up empty; Kingsley and his newly reorganized Auror department was planning to raid the old pureblood families the next day to look for their prey.
Lucius Malfoy had only two remaining ties to his old life. It had been a hard life recently and he was eager to start over. One final owl to his wife and son safely hidden at their summer house in France carried the legal documents, by which Lucius would formally divorce Narcissa and sign his entire estate over to Draco – including the owl, which he had ordered not to return. Whichever of Harry Potter's friends ended up in his body would find himself a destitute, hunted fugitive.
Lucius cackled to himself quietly as he blew out his lamp and went to sleep.
The next morning, Voldemort awoke in Harry's bed at the Burrow.
Ah, so Harry's been living with the Weasleys, he thought. If he had known before, he could have organized a summer raid on the Burrow. He looked around, then at his new body. He felt a sense of youth and vitality that he had missed for many years, and he felt invigorated with a tremendous amount of energy. He jumped out of bed excited, looking for a bathroom. He found one soon enough and looked at himself in the mirror: green eyes, messy dark hair, a handsome figure that quite resembled his original form as Tom Riddle. Satisfied, he returned to his room and put on some of Harry's clothes.
In the room right above Harry's (or now, Voldemort's), Rodolphus Lestrange opened his eyes. He looked at himself. He didn't feel as pronounced an improvement as Voldemort, as he was originally younger, but he still felt some of the vigor of youth. He rose and went downstairs. "Why Ron, you're up early today!" said Mrs. Weasley, who was making breakfast in the kitchen.
"Uh..." Rodolphus didn't know what to say. "Well, I just feel more energetic today."
"That's wonderful, dear. I'll have breakfast ready soon. In the meantime, I was going to have you de-gnome the garden today, and since you're up early why don't you go do that now."
Rodolphus grumbled in Ron's voice as he shuffled out to the backyard, found the garden, and set to work. He hated chores every bit as much as any teenager but he didn't want to give himself away just yet.
Elsewhere in the house, Bellatrix also woke up. Like Voldemort, her first impulse was to look at herself in the mirror. She went into the bathroom and examined Ginny's body. She was still beautiful; indeed, Ginny was possibly almost as beautiful as Bellatrix's original body had been before she went to Azkaban for the first time. After admiring herself in the mirror for a while Bellatrix dressed and also went downstairs. Of course, she was a bit early and only ended up having to help "Ron" de-gnome the garden.
She went outside, unhappy at the prospect of having to do work but hopeful to see a fellow Death Eater. She entered the garden just as "Ron" tossed a gnome over the wall. Approaching him, she whispered quietly, "I'm Bellatrix, which one are you?"
"Rodolphus," Ron's voice whispered back. "Who are the others?"
"Our Lord's taken Potter's body for himself. As for the others, it was left to chance."
Rodolphus and Bellatrix de-gnomed the garden together.
In another house far from the Burrow, Lucius Malfoy opened his eyes and looked about for any sign of his identity. He got up, noticing that he was more overweight than before and missing much of his hair. He rolled out of bed and proceeded to look for a mirror. He finally found one and looked.
Neville Longbottom's face looked back at him.
Lucius smirked to himself. Neville had been arguably the true hero of the recent war, the leader of the Dumbledore's Army resistance during the year before the final battle, the one who inspired children to stand against full-grown murderers with his bravery and also personally killed the Dark Lord's fearsome pet snake. Lucius would enjoy the spotlight. The Longbottoms were not particularly wealthy, but Lucius was confident he could make them so quite rapidly, taking advantage of his borrowed fame and courage. This was a promising life, and losing the Malfoy fortune – which was now besmirched with disgrace in the community, anyways – was not a terribly great price to pay for it.
Meanwhile, in Malfoy Manor...
Harry's eyes opened on a large, spacious room with no desk. The walls were all painted white, and the window wasn't where he remembered it to be. Quickly he realized that this wasn't the room he had gone to bed in last night.
How did I get here?
He decided to explore around. He slipped back the covers and sat on the side of the bed, looking for his glasses. Suddenly he realized that he could see clearly, despite not having glasses. He found his wand under his pillow and stood up, looking out the window. Outside there were no houses nearby; the nearest city seemed to be almost at the horizon. Harry turned back towards the door, pulling open the door with his left hand—
He stopped. Then, carefully, he examined his left arm, making sure he wasn't hallucinating. He touched the small picture of a skull with a snake coming from its mouth.
No. This can't be! he thought. However, the Dark Mark stayed on his arm, no matter how he looked. He was a Death Eater. Then, as he examined his left arm further, he noticed that it ended in a gleaming silver hand. He knew whose hand that was.
No! I'm trapped in Wormtail's body!
Neville slowly stirred awake and opened his eyes. He was about to move to get up and dress, when he suddenly noticed that he was sleeping on a large king-sized bed, considerably larger than his own. He looked around the room and suddenly noticed a man sleeping next to him under the covers.
He blinked, wondering how he had come here. This was clearly not his own bedroom. The man next to him, however, did look vaguely familiar…
He decided to get up and explore the new house. Perhaps he could figure out where he was. As he dragged himself to a sitting position, he felt some extra weight dragging on his chest. He looked down—his eyes widened in shock—he noticed that he now had rather large breasts. He was wearing a red tank top and a thong, in place of his own pajamas that he had been wearing last night. Seeing that made him notice that he was missing a few parts from his lower region…
Neville screamed.
No, this can't be…It has to be a dream…
Neville pinched himself, seeing if he could wake from the "dream". But as he moved to pinch himself, he noticed something on his left arm. He pinched himself and nothing happened, but he quickly looked to see what was on his left arm.
It was a small picture of a snake coming out of a skull's mouth. A Dark Mark.
For the second time, Neville screamed.
I'm not only a woman now, but I'm also a Death Eater?
Suddenly Neville realized that he could figure out who he now was. Almost none of the Death Eaters were women. He knew of only one woman who qualified to serve the Dark Lord; he had seen her at the Department of Mysteries—
Bellatrix Lestrange!
She tortured my parents!
For the third time Neville freaked out.
The man beside him started to stir. Neville hurriedly repressed his scream, but it was too late—he had woken up the other person. The other man sat up and looked around as well, also with a puzzled expression on his face. Then he looked over and saw Neville—and froze.
They stared at each other for seemingly several minutes of silence.
"W-what were y-you screaming about?" the stranger asked Neville shakily.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the other Hogwarts students who were waking up, Ginny was also in this same house. She awoke to find herself in an enormous king-size, plush four-poster bed, far bigger than the one she had in her room at home. It was easy for her to deduce that this wasn't her home. She got out of bed and looked around, finally finding a closet in the wall. She started to open it to look for clothing, but she suddenly noticed something wrong.
Her hand was large and ghostly pale, with long and spindly white fingers, certainly not the hand she had had when she went to bed the previous night.
She felt it urgently necessary to see herself in a mirror. She needed to find out whose body she was in. Fortunately, there was a door across the room that led to a bathroom. She hurried in and looked in the mirror.
A tall, gaunt figure, with all his skin uniformly white and showing the wrinkles of age, stared back at her with frightening red eyes. It was a figure recognized everywhere as Lord Voldemort.
Ginny screamed. And even then noticed that her scream, in Voldemort's voice, was strangely masculine.
"What was that?" Neville asked, in his room (that didn't really belong to him), as he heard the holler of fright from a nearby room. Neville almost recoiled in shock as he heard the sound of himself speaking. It was very different from his voice, and (as he realized) much more feminine.
"Uh…Let's find out." The man stood and went to a wardrobe standing in the corner, looking for some clothes. He pulled out a pair of pants, a shirt and a robe and dressed. Neville did the same. As he pulled on the robe that didn't belong to him, he noticed the other man apparently searching for something. After pulling on his robe, Neville realized that he needed something before he went to find the source of the other scream.
Suddenly Neville knew what the other man was looking for: a wand.
"You—you can't find your wand?" Neville asked matter-of-factly.
The man froze and looked up at him fearfully. "Uh…well…I, uh, kind of forgot where I—put it last night…" he trailed off.
Neville breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, I don't know where mine is either. Let's look together." It was the stranger's turn to sigh in relief as he nodded and went back to searching.
After a few seconds of searching…
"Aha!" The stranger retrieved two wood sticks from inside the wardrobe he had taken his clothes from. He tossed one to Neville. "Alright, let's explore." They opened the door and walked out together, wands in hand…
When he stepped out, Neville noticed a darkened figure waiting in the corridor with his wand raised. "Stupefy!" the figure suddenly shouted.
Neville quickly replied, blocking the Stunning Spell with a shield.
"Sectumsempra!"
As Neville blocked the spells, he suddenly noticed the Death Eater mask and robes his opponent was wearing.
"Incarcerous! Incendio!" the Death Eater shouted as fast as he could. Neville shielded off the rope spell, but a stream of fire blasted out of the Death Eater's wand, setting Neville's robe on fire.
A few minutes previously…
Luna was jolted out of her blissful slumber by the loud scream of a woman's voice. She sat up hurriedly, looking for the source of the voice. Finally, she saw an apparently frightened woman sitting next to her in the bed. The woman stared back at her with shock-widened eyes. Luna froze. She had a definite feeling that she didn't belong here. That was especially confirmed when she glanced at the woman's arm and noticed the Dark Mark. With some trepidation, she checked her own arm and found that she, too, had a Dark Mark, although she also had considerably more hair on her arm than before. She knew this body did not belong to her.
Am I having one of those dreams again? she thought. She occasionally dreamed of becoming other people, so she guessed that this might be a dream. However, by pinching herself discreetly she confirmed that it was not a dream, this time.
She thought quickly, deciding that the correct reaction to the scream would be to ask what had happened. "W-what were y-you screaming about?" she asked. She noticed that her voice was much deeper than normal. Her ploy worked—the other woman seemed to freeze again.
Suddenly there was another cry of fright somewhere else in the house.
"What was that?" the woman asked.
"Uh…let's find out!" Luna replied brightly, standing from the bed and walking over to a wardrobe in the corner. As she did so she noticed a few extra organs attached to her lower region. She wasn't surprised; she had already guessed that this was someone else's body. She looked through the wardrobe and found a suitable shirt, pants, and a robe, and quickly put them on. Then she realized that she didn't know where this person kept his wand.
Damn. I guess I'll have to search. She quickly started rummaging around, trying to discreetly feel under the pillows, then looking under the nightstand, in the drawer, hoping against hope that the other person wouldn't notice.
"You—you can't find your wand?"
Damnit!
"Uh…well…" Luna quickly tried to think up an excuse, but couldn't find one. "I, uh, kind of forgot where I put it last night…" She carefully concealed her fear. She was deathly afraid that the other Death Eater would realize that she wasn't the owner of this body and kill her, or worse.
"Well, I don't know where mine is either. Let's look together." Luna let out a breath she only just realized she had been holding and she more confidently returned to searching for the wand. She finally found two wands in the back of the wardrobe behind a pile of boxers.
"Aha!" She took the wand that felt more natural in her hand, throwing the other to the woman. "Alright, let's explore." They opened the door and walked out together. Luna looked to her right. A corridor, with several rooms, greeted her.
"Stupefy!" A voice came from her right. Luna jumped in surprise, and then heard the woman who had just been in bed next to her say "Protego!" and deflect the Stunning spell. She looked up and saw another Death Eater about ten feet away, throwing spells and curses at the woman. Luna watched her deflect each spell the attacking Death Eater sent, until the Death Eater managed to set her robe on fire with an Incendio spell. The woman started flailing helplessly.
Luna thought quickly. She surmised that her roommate might be in the same situation as herself, judging by the fact that they both had displayed fear when they saw each other and both had to search for their wands. Figuring that the other Death Eater was probably more likely to attack her next than was her roommate, she decided to help.
"Aguamenti!" The voice came from behind him. Neville turned and saw a spout of water emerge from the wand of his roommate (which he didn't realize was actually Luna). The water quickly extinguished the fire.
"Thanks!" Neville said.
"Stupefy!" Luna called, while acknowledging Neville with a nod (and not knowing it was Neville). The Death Eater put up a shield. Neville joined in, casting a body-bind which the Death Eater also blocked.
Suddenly another door in the hallway opened, between Neville and the Death Eater, and out stumbled Lord Voldemort himself! Yet Voldemort did not immediately help the Death Eater. Neville became puzzled, wondering why Voldemort was hesitating—and he noticed that roommate was equally puzzled. In fact, they were puzzled because neither of them realized who was really in Voldemort's body.
"Expelliarmus!" "Petrificus totalus!" Neville and Luna each said a spell at the same moment. The Death Eater fell, petrified.
Voldemort (or more precisely, Ginny in Voldemort's body) looked back and forth from the petrified Death Eater to the two other Death Eaters who had been dueling him. Herself unaware of the true identity of the victorious Death Eaters, but recognizing them from the previous battle at the Department of Mysteries, decided to act like (she hoped) a Dark Lord.
"What is the meaning of this?" she demanded shakily.
"Uh…" Neville and Luna both cowered before the Dark Lord. They, like the rest of the wizarding world, had heard of Voldemort's legendary cruelty and mistreatment of his Death Eaters. Both of them independently racked their brains for an excuse, under the mistaken impression that their lives were at stake.
What do you think? Please review!
Author's Note: This story was inspired by several stories I read where Hermione switches bodies with Snape or Draco. I noticed that few stories do large-scale body switching; usually they only involve two people. This story will be a twelve-way body switch eventually.