He tried to make the incantation the only thought he had, but it kept being clouded by another one. Merlin, this is impossible. Why we can't just speak them? I don't think a "split-second advantage" will do much help in Transfiguration, of all classes. Defense Against the Dark Arts maybe, but they day your life depends on your ability to change your nose into a pig's without uttering a word! What would do much help would be focusing properly, however, because he found himself with a startlingly green eyebrow.
Someone laughed. It was Potter and his friends. Like he cared about the opinions of Mudbloods and filth. Besides, his eyebrow wasn't nearly as dreadful as Weasley's mustache. That was downright pathetic. Nevertheless, he was rather annoyed when he heard someone's call of "If you're trying to show your House pride, I think you may want to go a shade or two darker." For once he was glad for McGonagall's presence; for she was sure to quiet the boy immediately with her cold stare.
He tried to change his eyebrow back to its normal color, or, at least, to something less humiliating. Again, hard as he tried, he could not focus entirely on the transformation of his eyebrow; there was too much snickering as students gained ridiculous appearances. He muttered the incantation this time, hoping for better results. Perhaps his combined focus and verbal attempt would result in success.
McGonagall shot an inquisitive glare his way, as though she heard his spell from the opposite end of the classroom. She moved around the classroom in the same silence that was expected of the students, surveying her students' work.
Sure not to look guilty, Theodore studied himself in the mirror. The eyebrow was no longer green. It had become its usual murky shade of brown, which he had never been so happy to see. He held in a sigh of relief at the familiar sight. Thank god.
The moment of relief was short-lived. When McGonagall approached the stringy Slytherin boy, she looked at him to see some sign of change, and then pointed toward the upper left portion of his head. There was something in her voice that annoyed Theodore more than usual as she said, "You may want to take a closer look in that mirror, Mr. Nott."
He did as he was told. Theodore Nott's left eyebrow had become shockingly violet. It was nearly as obvious as the lime formerly making an appearance on the other eyebrow, and quite as humiliating. Lovely.
And try as he might to rid himself of the thing, Theodore remained unsuccessful. It seemed he would be forced to walk around like that until he found a way to fix it. Absolutely brilliant.
So here he was, still going through Hogwarts with a violently purple eyebrow. Theodore Nott walked through the hallway, head down. Hopefully his hair shaded the abnormally colored eyebrow from view. If anyone noticed…
"Hello."
He looked up. "Hello, Loony."
"It's Luna, actually."
Nott snorted. She couldn't be serious.
"A lot of people seem to be calling me Loony, actually. I suppose there's just a rather nasty bout of wrackspurts going around," said Loony—Luna—seeming concerned. Well, for all he knew, a wrackspurt could be deadly. Or, more likely, Theodore concluded, having heard of Loony, the wrackspurt could be imaginary. "Anyway, I really like your eyebrow. Is it a trend? I saw Harry—he's in your year, isn't he?—with one, too. A colorful eyebrow, I mean. But his was yellow, not purple. I like yours a bit better, but that's just me."
He rolled his eyes. This was mad, which was fitting, seeing as she was. "No. Not a trend."
"Oh, well, I was thinking I ought to do mine, too. I think it looks rather nice, personally."
He rubbed his forehead curiously.
Loony nodded enthusiastically. Then, she said, "I think I'll do mine pink."
"You go ahead with that." She was slightly amusing, Loony was. Of course, he'd rather finish the conversation and be able to fix his eyebrow…
"How did it come about, do you know? You didn't do it on purpose it seems, which is odd because it looks splendid."
"Transfiguration." The tone used was bored, masking the embarrassment well.
"Oh. I was expecting moon frogs. Ever since they were brought back, they've been causing quite a bit of trouble," Loony said seriously. "Do you think they've ended up in Hogwarts? They could have been affecting your spellwork, you know. It wouldn't be the first time. In fact, there was an article in The Quibbler—"
"I think they might have affected me. Really strongly, even. There could be large numbers. I wouldn't be surprised." He didn't know exactly how moon frogs could have ended up here, or what they would do; it sounded good, though, so he said it anyway.
She looked not as much shocked, but as though one of her nastiest dreams had come alive. Her protuberant eyes stared at him, taking in what the moon frogs had done. It made Nott rather uncomfortable.
"You'd better go take care of that."
"I will," said the girl, sounding as though nothing could be done soon enough. Then, as an afterthought, she added, "But, I'd keep your eyebrow that way if I were you." On that note, she flounced away in search of the offending moon frogs.
AN: I feel nervous posting something under the humor genre, as I'm nearly always writing death scenes and all of that cheery stuff. Also, I don't really know if Nott was in NEWT level Transfiguration, but for the purposes of this story, let's say he is. Deal? I just thought it made sense, as he's clever enough to get into NEWT level Potions, and Neville, who is often considered to be the worst in many of his classes (especially Transfiguration) scraped an Acceptable. Anyway, thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed.
