Written for Round Seven of the QLFC (Season Nine),

Chudley Cannons, Keeper

Prompt: Write about a transfiguration that goes awry.

Word count: 2597

Loads of thanks to my teammates Fire the Canon and hannahsoapy for betaing!

Born, not Made

In Hugo Weasley's eyes, no one was more fascinating than the person with whom he shared a godfather, a young Edward Remus Lupin.

Now, he had always looked up to Teddy. Hugo was only thirteen years old, but Teddy was twenty-three, and a curse breaker like his own uncle Bill. Teddy was always on wonderful adventures, all over places like South America. Everything about him was cool. His job was cool, so were the places he went to and the stories he told them about the goblins and the Acromantulas he encountered in the Brazilian forests.

But the coolest thing about Teddy was that he was a Metamorphmagus. Hugo probably couldn't spell or pronounce the word even if he tried, but that didn't stop him from wanting to be a Metamorphmagus himself. Teddy could change the colour of his hair, the shape of his nose, the stubbiness of his nails — all in a few seconds, and every time he did it in front of Hugo, his jaw went slack with amazement.

Very few people knew about this particular fascination of Hugo's. He had an inkling Teddy did, though, and so did Lily. She was his age, but loads smarter than him; he would not be surprised if she had guessed already.

And since she was loads smarter than him, Hugo walked up to the door of the Ravenclaw Common Room on a windy Friday evening with the intention of fetching her out and asking her an important question or two.

The blasted door stood between him and the answers for about ten minutes until fortunately and coincidentally, it swung open. Lily stood behind it, her expression changing into one of curiosity.

"Good evening," she said, crawling out of the portrait hole and grinning at him. "What has you coming to see me?"

"I missed you, is all." Hugo slipped his hands into his pockets nonchalantly as they began to walk down the corridor.

Lily poked him in the ribs. "That's not all," she said knowingly. "I know you only ever miss your Cannons jumper."

Well, that was sort of true. The Cannons were his favourite team, ever since they started moving up the League three years ago. Lily had given him that jumper around the same time, and he had wanted to keep it with himself — even when it irreversibly shrunk ten sizes during a burst of accidental magic from his little sister.

"I wanted to ask you something," he said finally.

Lily fixed him with a look that seemed to say 'go ahead', so he cleared his throat.

"Do you, erm, happen to know anything about M-Metamorphmagi?"

"Metamorphmagi?" Lily repeated, raising an eyebrow at him. Hugo knew why, it was very unlike him to ask such questions. He felt his ears go warm.

"Um, yeah."

"Ah, I see," said Lily. They stopped when they reached the stairwell that led to the top of the tower, and she propped herself up on the banister. "I suppose you have an idea about what they are?"

"A person who can change their appearance."

Lily nodded. "At will," she said. "It is a very rare magical ability, and very few wizards and witches are known to have it. Teddy is a Metamorphmagus, and so was his mum."

"I know," said Hugo. "It would be cool to be one, don't you think?"

"Definitely." Lily grinned widely. "Although I don't think there's anything I'd like to change about my looks. But I guess I'd like to disguise myself sometimes."

"It's tiring to be Harry Potter's daughter, isn't it?"

Lily flushed. "I didn't say that."

"Don't worry about it," Hugo smirked. "I won't tell him."

"You wouldn't dare."

Hugo shook his head, then tapped Lily's shoulder. "Another question: do you think Metamorphagi need to register themselves with the Ministry, you know, like Animagi?"

"No," was the prompt reply.

"How can you be so sure?"

"I read about it in an article in the 1926 issue of Transfiguration Today. It was written by Albus Dumbledore himself."

Hugo's eyes widened. "Where'd you get it from?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Honestly," Lily rolled her eyes, "the library has the archives of all Wizarding magazines, dating right back to the eleventh century. I thought you knew that."

Hugo huffed. "Of course I don't know that. I don't spend all day with my nose buried in books like a certain someone."

"Oh, shut up!" she snapped. "Why are you asking so many questions anyway? We haven't got a lesson on Metamorphmagi until fifth year."

Hugo hesitated. "No reason. Just felt curious."

Lily frowned at him from behind her glasses, and Hugo tried not to squirm under her gaze.

"Hm," she said finally. "Do you want to know anything else? I told Professor Hyacinth I'd see her in about ten minutes about some questions I had regarding the last Arithmancy lesson, and I have Quidditch practice afterwards. I can see you after dinner, if you still need me"

"No, it's alright. I'll be fine."

"OK. Who do you think will win tomorrow, then?" There was a glint of mischief in her eyes, and Hugo knew he was being baited.

"Gryffindor, obviously."

"Hardly." Lily raised her chin and grinned. "Let's see."

Then she turned to leave, but looked around at him again once she was down a few stairs.

"Also, Hugo, just remember that Metamorphmagi are born, not made."

And with that, she disappeared around a pillar, leaving Hugo wondering darkly what had made her say that.

*.*.*

"Crinus muto," a few days later, Hugo was murmuring under his breath, "is s'posed to change the caster's hair colour."

He moved his wand in the complicated fashion according to the squiggly diagram in the book while muttering the incantation.

Nothing happened, so he sat up straighter and tried again.

"Crinus muto!"

This time, there was a barely audible sound that told Hugo something must have happened, and he peered into the handheld mirror.

"Wow," he whispered, for his strawberry red hair had just been replaced by a thatch of whiskery, straw-coloured hair. It made him look like a much older version of his cousin Louis, but at least the spell had worked. That was a start.

But it wasn't enough. He needed a spell that allowed him to change his appearance at will. He could've very well asked some of his older cousins to get him some Polyjuice if he had wanted only temporary changes.

This was going to take a lot more work, but for once, Hugo didn't worry about it. He was willing to do whatever it took.

Pity he couldn't ask Teddy about it.

Anyway, anyway, he told himself, turning his attention back to the fat textbook.

"The Mutatis specie incantation will transfigure the caster's physical appearance to whatever they choose without the use of Polyjuice Potion. It is, however, much less effective in comparison in that the spell can only change so much of one's appearance. For instance…"

Hugo sighed. Every spell was the same, it seemed. They all could supposedly only change a little bit, but nothing would give him powers akin to a Metamorphmagus'. He had seen Teddy scrunch up his nose, and the next moment, he would have long green hair and a face as sour as Severus Snape's.

He dragged his finger along the length of the page, barely reading it through. There were so many spells — spells to turn you into a poison dart frog, spells that turned your eyebrows into long vines and spells that made disgusting boils pop up all over your face. None of them were what he wanted.

It was very strange, Hugo thought. It was not like him to be so obsessed with something like this. But he'd looked up to Teddy since he was little, and he'd wanted to be as cool as him.

He flipped the book close and threw it onto the bed, and reached for the larger one, gingerly pulling it into his arms. It was tattered and falling apart at the seams, and Madam Pince's face swam into the forefront of his mind.

"Mutatis voluntatem," was one of the first spells listed. "Said to give the caster the power of modifying their appearance at will."

Hugo's heart skipped a beat. That was it! The spell he had been looking for. There was an even more complex wand diagram next to the description, but it didn't frighten him. Hugo picked up his wand and pointed it at himself. He gave it a flick, then a small twitch, and then drew a circle in the air.

What followed was a cacophony of tiny lights bursting behind his eyes and a series of crackles and pops. Then he felt a tug in his chest, a squeeze in his arms and legs, and the sensation of being lifted off his feet. It all happened in a span of a few seconds.

Then he dropped back to the floor and surprisingly, it did not hurt.

Where am I? Hugo wondered. Before him, there was a gigantic wooden door and when he looked the other way, a tall length of red fabric. It looked disturbingly like the sheets of his own four-poster bed.

Because that was exactly what it was.

Hugo realised, with a wave of horror, that he was no longer a human. Looking at his tiny paws and feeling his tiny snout, it dawned upon him that he was, in fact, now a rat.

*.*.*

Hugo was sure he had fainted away when Lily took one look at his new form and began to scream. He had never heard her scream like that and he made a mental note to get his ears checked if ever he managed to turn back into a human. But then again, everyone knew how much she hated rodents. But honestly, what if someone heard her and then came barging in?!

Thankfully, they were inside the Ravenclaw third year dorm, and there was no one else with them. Lily quickly wrapped her blanket around herself until her screams subsided.

It's me! He tried to say. Your friend, Hugo. Look, my fur is still red.

He tried to wave his arms around and spin on the spot. All he wanted now was for her to understand that he wanted her to follow him back to his dorm so he could let her know what had happened. He did not even have his wand.

He was probably acting far too strangely for a rat, because Lily was now frowning at him. Hugo the rat stopped spinning around and looked back at her instead.

"This — ," Lily began to say, "this doesn't look normal."

She was speaking to herself, but Hugo still shook his head vigorously. Of course it doesn't. I'm not what you think I am!

He waved his paws towards the door, and with the other arm, tried to motion to her to come along with him.

"You can hear me?"

Hugo nodded.

Lily groaned and flopped herself back on top of the sheets.

"Great, now I've done it — I'm talking to a bloody gerbil and expecting it to respond."

At least I'm not a rat, he sighed inwardly. But Merlin's beard, Lily Potter, what will it take for me to persuade you to just follow me!

He foolishly tried to say something, but it came out as a squeak. So he squeaked some more.

"I need to take a nap." Lily shook her head. "Why are you pointing at the door anyway?"

Hugo tried to beckon her to come along once again and scurried towards the door. Lily squinted.

"This is so stupid," she then murmured, and slid off the bed. "I'm stupid. You're stupid."

That's for sure, Hugo thought grumpily.

*.*.*

Lily, because she was Lily, did not take long to understand the matter once she'd managed to sneak into the Gryffindor boys' dorms with him hidden in her cloak. She glanced at the Transfiguration textbooks on Hugo's nightstand and the open one on his bed, before realisation seemed to hit her like Granddad Weasley's Ford Anglia had crashed into the Whomping Willow.

"So you mean to tell me," she said in a whisper, "that you're Hugo?"

He squeaked in affirmation.

"And you also mean to tell me that you were trying to become a Metamorphmagus?"

Lily looked at him scathingly, and he winced, then nodded again.

"You couldn't do with a basic transfiguration spell, Hugo, could you?" She turned a few pages. "And honestly, what were you thinking of when you tried to metamorphose?"

Good question. He shrugged. Now that she had said it, he was supposed to picture a look in his mind while trying to perform the spell. He hadn't thought of anything, and now he was a gerbil. Whatever that was.

"It says here that it might be really difficult to transfigure back if you do the spell wrong, and you can't even hold a wand in his condition."

"Finite incantatem," she said, picking up her own.

Nothing.

"Reparifarge."

Again, nothing.

Lily sat down on the opposite bed with a sigh. "Unbelievable."

Hugo inched over to the edge of the nightstand and peered at her face.

"I'm sorry, Hugo," she told him. "I think this is going to take some time for us to figure out."

Looking at her expression, Hugo felt the twinges of fear for the first time. He had never seen Lily so close to admitting defeat.

But then she jumped to her feet and shook her curly hair out of her face.

"No worries!" she said in what was supposed to be a cheery voice. "We're going to do it. I just hope you don't mind not showing up to class tomorrow."

*.*.*

It was the dead of the night, and Hugo could not help but think that this was a very bad idea. They could get caught, or worse, a Professor or Prefect would know that he'd been up to some weird magic.

"Not that I'm not flattered that you wanted to be like me," Teddy was saying, "but you could've gotten yourself into a pretty tight spot there."

Hugo tried to hide in Lily's hair. He could not believe that she had actually written to Teddy, nor that Teddy had come flying on his Firebolt to his rescue in only a few hours.

"I hope McGonagall doesn't know about this?" he asked Lily.

"I think she might have guessed something was up when I told her Hugo wouldn't attend any of his classes this morning," Lily replied sheepishly, tugging Hugo out of her hair.

Teddy chuckled, then took Hugo into the palm of his hand.

"You make a cute gerbil," he grinned, and Lily laughed. "But let's get this over with before the two of you get into any more trouble."

With that, Teddy placed Hugo on the floor and whipped out his wand. He began to murmur something in a foreign language, and this time, there were no pops or crackles.

Hugo touched his arms. Yes, it was definitely human skin, not red gerbil fur. His red hair was back, and so were his freckles and his lopsided fingers.

"Well?"

Hugo grinned, then stood up and threw his arms around Teddy, who laughed and patted his back.

"Be careful next time," he warned. "I won't always be around to come and help."

Hugo nodded.

"I've made up my mind," he said. "I want to be a Metamorphmagus about as much as I want to be a rat — "

"Gerbil."

"Yeah, whatever. The point is: I don't want to. Not anymore."