POV: NATSUKI

Why, in the name of Merlin, did the Dungeons have to be so fucking cold?!

I shivered a bit as I inched closer to my cauldron, trying to get just a shimmer of warmth from the thin flame ignited below it. Unless I was much mistaken (which I wasn't) all the potions we'd been making during the winter/early spring days had been of this low-heat, long simmer sort.

No freakin' way that's a coincidence, considering our teacher.

I shot an angry glance towards the sallow-faced, hook-nosed man currently looming over Neville Longbottom's cauldron, one of his all-time favourite students to terrorize.

Oh yeah, there was no doubt about it. Intentionally scheduling things so that we'd have to make the coldest brews during the most freezing times of the year was such a classic Snape move.

Suddenly, as if he could sense my eyes on him, Snape snapped his head in my direction, the motion akin to what you might expect of an owl spotting its prey.

Or a bat.

He narrowed his beady black eyes at me, irritation plainly visible on his pale face.

"Something you wish to share with the rest of the class, Miss Belby?" His droning voice rang clearly throughout the deathly quiet of the classroom, causing all nearby students to look my way.

Ooh, calling attention to me by name! I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, ignoring the crowd of idiots staring at me. How will I ever recover from such humiliation?

"No, Sir. Nothing at all." I replied politely, giving him my best and fakest smile.

"Then I would suggest you return your attention to the elixir at hand."

"Right you are, Professor."

I shot him a knowing wink just to piss him off a little bit more before obeying his command, adding some more mantis shrimp eyes to the mixture.

I loved doing that to him. Making a great git like Snape stew in quiet fury through subtle taunts knowing he couldn't do jack shit to retaliate was the only thing that made these awful classes worth it.

See, most other students tried to avoid even breathing in Snape's general direction out of fear he would take notice and start approaching them like a Grindylow smelling blood in the water. Then, after psyching his target out for a bit he'd find some kind of miniscule issue with their brew, take five points from Gryffindor and be off on his merry way.

But I wasn't scared of him. I figured I was about the only Gryffindor who wasn't, because unlike them, I actually went about things intelligently.

I knew just as well as he that even with all of his bullshit punishments, he couldn't actually do anything to someone for just looking at him. And if I managed to provoke him enough to come my way, so what?

He'd actually tried that a few times throughout this year only to stop when realizing he couldn't do his usual nitpicking with me. Because how exactly was he going to critique flaws that weren't there?

It was actually kinda confusing to hear about the problems everyone at Hogwarts seemed to have with this subject. Shitty conditions and teacher aside, this was the easiest class ever, so long as you did as I and followed three simple rules:

Rule Nr. 1: Just follow the recipe, dummy!

Pretty self-explanatory, really. You had a book, the book has instructions, you followed those instructions, and voila, you had yourself a potion. Seems like the most straight-forward shit in the world, but you'd be surprised to hear just how many people apparently had trouble with that one. Maybe they just had issues reading words, what do I know?

Of course, it wasn't a completely idiot-proof concept, which leads rather nicely to the next rule:

Rule Nr. 2: If the recipe happens to be wrong, ignore it dummy!

I know, it sounds a bit contradictory at first glance, but it's really not. Recipes are great and all, but it only takes the most basic, surface-level knowledge of the ingredients and their effects to tell when the author didn't know what the fuck they were writing about. Like, I once saw an honest-to-Merlin, Ministry approved Potions book trying to convince me to cut a Sopophorous Bean instead of crushing it. I mean, can you believe it?!

Some days I toyed a bit with the idea of one day crossing out all the flaws I could find in my own potions book and write down the correct way of going about things, but honestly, why even bother? Only losers with bad memories scribbled down instructions like that, and it wasn't as if anyone was going to actually benefit from me handholding them.

So yeah, use the recipe, but obviously use your common sense as well. And finally, the most important rule of them all:

Rule Nr. 3: Don't fuck it up. Dummy.

You would not believe how many times I'd seen someone following their recipes to a T, do everything completely right and have a perfect brew on their hands just to blunder at the last moment and ruin their entire fucking potion.

People seemed to have the most immense difficulty understanding that it really only took that one mistake. One stir in the wrong direction, a milligram too much of Bicorn Horn, or just a second too long on the flame, and your hour's work of Pepperup Potion would be nothing more than a cauldron of worthless sewage water.

I'd seen it a bunch in this class alone. In fact, I don't think I'd ever witnessed even one other student producing something truly without flaw. Well, Hermione Granger had come pretty close a few times. And yeah, fair enough, first-year potion mistakes weren't quite as catastrophic as the more advanced ones, but they always churned out a lesser product.

But not me. I smirked to myself, satisfied to see my brew's consistency turn from semi-chunky to smooth and fluid at a twist of my stirring spoon- just as the recipe had described. I don't make mistakes with my potions!

I pointed my wand at the flame beneath my cauldron, making it swell up in size and intensity to bring my brew to a simmer.

And… that was pretty much it. Another eight and a half minutes of letting it rest like that without further agitation, and the potion would be ready for the final two ingredients. After that, I just needed to sample it in a bottle, bring it to Snape's desk and I'd be done with Potions ten minutes earlier than Class was supposed to end.

Freakin' easy.

I glanced around the rest of the gloomy dungeons, passing the waiting time by trying to estimate how far along the other students were.

As expected, I was multiple steps ahead of the other Gryffindors. A good indicator of their collective progress was to look at our local over-achiever Hermione, who was still busy measuring up her mantis shrimp eyes on a set of bronze scales.

Still, from what I could see, none of the others seemed to have failed too hard at their brews. But in fairness, something as simple as the Colour-Change Potion was kinda hard to fuck up. Even Longbottom seemed to have gotten the gist of it.

I turned my gaze away from my own House, and moved on to the other side of the room.

While we usually shared Potions with that lovely crowd from Slytherin, some "scheduling conflicts" (if you're naïve enough to actually believe that) had caused us to combine this particular class with the Ravenclaws.

It didn't change much, really. Potions had always been a pretty non-verbal class apart from when the occasional student would inhale toxic fumes on accident and start choking to death. The only real noticeable difference was in Snape.

Now that he didn't have his preferred House to unfairly favor, it seemed he'd just kinda mellowed out a bit. He was still a miserable twat for sure, but a bit closer to the neutral, unbiased teacher he was actually supposed to be.

I know. Spooky, right?

Similar to us Gryffindors, most of the Ravenclaw students were very much business-oriented, silently concentrating on their recipes and measuring ingredients. It was clearly evident to see they too wanted as little attention from our teacher as possible.

They needn't have bothered, from what I could tell. Perhaps it was just a testament to how easy the potion really was, but not a single damn student in this room seemed to have much trouble with their brew.

And just then, my eyes landed on the desk furthest away from everyone else and the person sitting by it. My eyebrows rose in disbelief as I took in the horrifying scene.

…what the fuck is she DOING?!

Yuri's black hair, usually impeccably straight and elegant had almost turned more bushy and fuzzier than Granger's from all the steam blasting against her face, courtesy of the waaay too intense flame licking the bottom of her cauldron.

And that was just the tip of the many things wrong with the image. I actually had to adjust my position in the seat to better take it all in. It seemed like the more I looked at it, the worse it got.

Her eyes were bloodshot and her irises shrunken as she stirred the potion with wild, manic movements. With her face gaunt and teeth clenched, she looked like someone just on the brink of a nervous breakdown.

And her potion hardly looked any better.

It was as if she'd carefully read through the instructions on the recipe and then proceeded to find every feasible method to go about it in the worst way possible. The flame was too hot for starters, bringing the elixir to an unwanted boil. Based on her clunky stirring, it was clear she hadn't let the ingredients dissolve naturally, leaving the brew way too chunky to be drunk. And strangely enough, the part that bothered me the most? She was stirring counter-clockwise.

I could go on detailing all the things wrong about her potion for literal days, but to briefly sum it up: she was in clear violation of Rules 1, 2 and especially 3.

…how? Was the sole question that echoed through my mind as I started to think the A she'd gotten on her evaluation grades might've been more generous than I'd thought. How can someone possibly mess up THIS badly?!

It was downright painful to witness her reaching out for the final ingredients, a small tray of round, black metallic-looking fruits with short fuse-like stalks and a single, dried lavender plant. But I couldn't look away, move, or even blink. I was seeing a train-wreck happen in real time, and my morbid curiosity compelled me to keep watching.

You can't add Splodii-Berries NOW! My thoughts screamed uselessly as Yuri dropped the lavender into the cauldron, giving the bubbling mixture a brightly purple hue. It's way too volatile! You have to give the brew time to simmer and calm down first!

Naturally, my silent warning went on deaf ears. With a shaking hand, Yuri tipped the full tray of berries into the quote un-quote "potion."

A few deceptively uneventful moments passed. I was afraid to even breathe as I stared at the taller girl peeking into the cauldron, seemingly none the wiser of the impending catastrophe she'd just set into motion. Then-

FWOOSH!

A gigantic cloud of vibrant, purple vapor erupted from the cauldron, so thick it almost looked solid. Yuri's entire frame vanished from view as the gas enveloped her body. A wild, choked coughing could be faintly heard from somewhere within the steam, the only proof remaining of someone sitting there still.

This… isn't good. My thoughts stated the obvious as the gas kept billowing from the cauldron, dropping to the stone floor like foam from a bathtub, each and every drop of the former liquid appearing to have been vaporized.

Gasps of shock and awe could be heard all around the room as the other students finally started getting a clue to the happenings around them, probably from the intruding scent of lavender that'd started spreading from the vapor. The Ravenclaws closest to Yuri abandoned their own brews entirely as they stumbled out of their seats to get as far away as they could from the mist, with not a single one of them even bothering to help their struggling Housemate out.

I felt the familiar tug of anger slowly pulling me to my feet. If none of these cowards were gonna do anything, then I guess I had to be the "hero" for once. I was just about to rush over and pull Yuri out from the cloud-

"Silence!"

All students within the dungeons, me included, abruptly froze on the spot. It was as if someone had hit all of us simultaneously by the Full Body-Binder curse, reducing us to little more than a bunch of wide-eyed statues. No magic had been involved, however. No, it was much simpler and way more terrifyingthan that.

Snape had just raised his voice in Class.

A deathly quiet fell over the room, broken only by the muffled coughing from Yuri's seat. I- I still wasn't scared of Snape. Like, at all. It was just… in that one moment, he'd sounded kinda like Papa, was all…

With a lazy and rather nonchalant hand motion, the Potions Master pointed his wand at the purple cloud.

"Ventus."

A strong breeze grabbed hold of the room, whipping my hair back and forth as if we were partaking in a particularly windy Flying class. The gaseous Potion quickly dispersed into nothingness, fully unveiling the girl at the far end desk once again.

…I had to do a double take.

Now that the initial shock had subsided, I heard a few people snickering under their breath at the sight of Yuri. And though I loathed to admit it, I… couldn't exactly blame them. If you ignored the context, it did look pretty damn funny.

From her forehead and downwards, there was hardly any noticeable difference. Well okay, maybe her face looked a bit redder and shaken up than usual, but I'd say that was pretty much expected from someone who'd just gone through her ordeal.

What wasn't as expected however, was her hair.

More bushy and fuzzy from the vapor than ever, her long hair had rid itself of most of its normal black coloration in favor of a dark purple hue identical to that of the cloud. I watched in real time as the unnatural colour rapidly spread across the lengths of her hair, consuming every inch of the original blackness in a matter of seconds.

The last remnants of purple vapor escaped through Yuri's mouth as she coughed a few more times before finally getting a chance to catch her breath again. She then began nervously glancing around the classroom, only now starting to notice all the attention pointed her way. By the looks of things, she was still oblivious to her new hair status.

That was, until she grabbed hold of a strand for security, a habit of hers I'd noticed whenever she found herself exceptionally anxious. It only took a brief glance at the hairs in her hand for her to promptly let go, followed by a muffled shriek of shock as realization dawned.

I understood her feelings all too well. If I knew one thing about Yuri, it was how much she feared drawing attention to herself, no matter how little. And now all her hair had suddenly become the most noticeable aspect of the entire dungeon. It was as if this situation had been specifically designed to be as cruel as humanly possible to Yuri in particular.

But the horrors were only just beginning, as Snape took a step towards her.

"Miss Dule," He stated in his softest, most dangerous voice yet. "Are you quite done disturbing my class with your antics?"

Yuri's only response was to whimper softly as she tried lowering herself as far as possible into her seat. Her eyes were flickering between the approaching teacher and the strands of purple hair hanging from her forehead, as if she couldn't quite decide which crisis to worry about the most.

Snape very quickly made the choice clear as he unceremoniously placed both his hands on her desk, lowering himself to be at eyelevel.

"Can anyone tell me exactly what Miss Dule did wrong here?" Snape asked the room at large.

There was a moment of deathly quiet. I noted Hermione Granger's hand slowly beginning to rise before realizing the question had been rhetorical, and lowered it once more.

"Everything." Snape said, narrowing his glinting eyes. "Every single action you made in today's lesson, no matter how minor, you did absolutely, irreparably, wrong."

"I- I'm s- sorry, Sir." Yuri spoke in a low, terrified whisper, keeping her swelling eyes cast as far down as she possibly could.

"Did you think pulling a stunt like this would be amusing?" Snape suggested, devoid of mercy. "Perhaps you thought it a good way to get some attention, hm? Well in that case, I'd say your wish was certainly granted. Everyone is looking at you now, congratulations."

"N- no Sir, I- I really d- didn't mean t-"

"Quiet." Snape hissed, silencing Yuri. "Talking back against a Teacher, that's Five Points from Ravenclaw. And unless you want to cost your House even more than you already have, I'd suggest you start looking at me while I'm talking to you!"

Shakily, Yuri raised her head to meet Snape's, her chalk-white face only making the vibrant mane surrounding it even more pronounced than it already was. I noticed even her thin eyebrows had turned purple now.

It was infuriating to look at. No matter how "cross" with Yuri Snape was pretending to be, he had no way of hiding the malicious glee in his eyes. I couldn't even remember the last time I'd seen him this happy, he was in his element!

It was so fucking unfair. Last Potions Class, Crabbe had messed up his brew so badly that he literally started puking into his own cauldron, and all Snape had done was briefly instruct him to go to the Hospital Wing. Because Merlin forbid you try and discipline the morons from your own House, right?!

Why had Potter and Longbottom picked today of all days to produce something serviceable? They were the usual scapegoats for Snape to rail on, not Yuri! She could be a bit annoying at times for sure, but she definitely didn't deserve to be singled out like this and go through what had to be her personal Hellscape all alone, with nobody around to help… her…

…!

I quickly picked up my wand and pointed at the steady flame beneath my cauldron.

"Incendio." I muttered under my breath, only lowering it again once the fire had quadrupled in size and intensity.

An idea had suddenly struck me. A terrible, awful idea that no good could possibly come of, except for the possibility that it might divide Snape's attention enough to ease the pressure on Yuri a little.

Without hesitation, I began stirring my increasingly agitated brew counter-clockwise.

I'm really doing this, aren't I?

Intentionally breaking Rule Nr. 3 felt so wrong, like having every ingrained muscle and reflex in my body scream at me to stop what I was doing at once.

I ignored every last one of them, and turned up the heat even more.

Snape's voice kept droning on, most likely continuing to berate Yuri in his quest to humiliate her in front of everyone. I caught the words "dunderheaded" and "deaf ignorance," but I wasn't really paying attention. At the moment I was too busy searching my closest surroundings for something, anything vibrant.

Come on… I grit my teeth as I rummaged around my rucksack. Gotta be SOMETHING usable in here. What's more attention-grabbing than fuckin' PURPLE?!

Just then, I saw it. There, at the bottom of my bag, almost buried completely by broken quill-feathers and ripped parchment pieces, a flash of screeching, bright pink caught my attention.

Triumphantly, I picked it out into the open and inspected the absolute last of my emergency candies from last Hallowe'en. I couldn't even recognize the brand, and it was probably way past its expiration date, but its colour was as vibrant as ever.

Perfect.

And without further ceremony, I plopped the candy into the brew.

Geez, it nearly hurts to look at. I had to actually squint at the wildly bubbling mixture currently assaulting my eyes with its new-found coloration.

Nobody around me seemed to have noticed any of what I was doing, their eyes too fixated on following the drama between Snape and Yuri. My resolve strengthened upon noticing the latter had started to cry.

Welp, they're going to notice soon enough. And it's going to look so fuckin' silly…

Then, I picked up my own tray of Splodii-Berries, and allowed myself one final second to contemplate the poor life decision I was about to make.

You better appreciate what I'm doing for you here.

I tipped the tray, watched as all the black fruits plummeted into the potion, and leaned my head as close as I could to the center of the cauldron.

I closed my eyes just as the loud FWOOOSH exploded all around me, enveloping my senses with the scent of boiled, artificial, sugary cherries.

Huh, actually tastes pretty good. I opened my mouth, willingly inhaling as much of the steam as I could. 9 outta 10, would steam again.

Eventually though, the gas proved too thick and foreign for even my lungs, and I began coughing much like Yuri had from within the cloud of purest pink.

Faintly, I could hear voices around me crying out in surprise, quickly followed up by a rather outraged yell from Snape.

Let the fun begin... I felt another strong breeze blowing away the intrusive gas and breathed in refreshing gulps of musty old dungeon air.

I blinked a few times, struggling to clear away the residual pinkness left in the wake of Snape's spell, before realizing it was my own hair that'd fallen into my eyes. I quickly brushed it aside to take in my surroundings just as the entire classroom exploded in laughter.

Students all around were pointing at me, howling with laughter or (in Hermione and Yuri's cases) simply staring in utter bewilderment. Normally I'd be bothered by all this extra attention, if not for the fact that I'd been 100% successful in my mission- NOBODY was looking at Yuri anymore.

Nevertheless, I glanced around my desk, searching for any reflective surfaces just to get some idea of how bad the damage really was. I found it in the form of a half-empty glass vial of Dragon's Blood.

…okay, yeah. My own lip curled upward at seeing the pink-haired girl staring back at me, wearing my red hairclip and ribbons. I look freakin' RIDICULOUS.

"Miss. Belby."

The slimy, furious voice immediately silenced the room anew. Feeling it was probably in my best interest, I turned to look in Snape's direction.

I had to swallow my laughter. Seeing the look on his face almost made the whole thing worth it.

"Would you be so kind to explain what could have possibly possessed you to replicate Miss Dule's… failure?"

Snape's voice was quiet and restrained, as though he had to physically force himself to stay calm. But with his pale hands curled into tight fists and his black eyes flashing menacingly, I highly doubted anyone was buying it.

This is great. He wants to curse me so bad!

Deciding not to push his rage any further than was necessary, I flashed him my best approximation of an innocent look.

"Well gee, I don't know Professor! I must have made some sort of mistake!" I gave an over-exaggerated shrug. "I guess these things can happen to even the best of us! Whoopsie-daisy!"

He seemed to be about as convinced of my absolute banger of an excuse as the rest of the class was of his apparent calmness, but I couldn't really give less of a fuck. I was way more interested in Yuri at the other end of the room, looking at me with a mixture of confusion and… gratitude.

Ever so slightly, in a motion I knew wouldn't make sense to anyone else in the room, I twitched my head at her.

You're welcome.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor, and Ravenclaw." Snape's voice was practically dripping venom at this point. The class surrounding us suddenly appeared to find the scene a whole lot less funny now that their precious points were in jeopardy. "And since it appears you and Miss Dule desperately crave the attention, you will both serve detention every weekend for the rest of the year."

Well, fuck you too.

"Yes, Sir." I kept up my defiant smile, refusing to give him the satisfaction of getting under my skin. "Brilliant decision, I can hardly wait to get started!"

Snape's eye twitched, but in a rather shocking twist he started echoing my smile.

"How nice it is to hear that, since you'll begin right away. Miss Belby, you will stay here after class and clean up after everybody, is that clear?"

"Crystal." I said. At this point, it was just a battle to see which of us would lose our nerve first.

"P- professor!"

In a turn of events I never could have foreseen, Yuri had now risen from her seat, still as pale and terrified as before, but eyes flaring with determination. Snape turned towards her, eyebrow raised.

"U- uhm, I'd like to stay and help Natsuki c- clean up." She continued, voice shaking. "I- I think that's only f- fair, considering I started the disruption."

Snape looked at her with consideration, before shrugging carelessly.

"Suit yourself. Class dismissed!"

As the other students began clearing the room, I caught Yuri flashing me a small and grateful smile, as if I'd just done some great and noble deed for her. I felt my face flush up, but shrugged it off.

Moving in unison, we both wordlessly got to work.

"…w- why did you do it?" Yuri's hesitant voice spoke from my side as we finally left the dungeons after hours of hard, non-magical work, only now breaking the silence between us.

The sun had started setting outside, and the evening feast would soon begin. But before we could attend that, we had to make a small stop at the Hospital Wing to set this whole hair situation right.

"Why'd I do what?" I feigned ignorance, wanting more time to come up with an excuse.

"You know what."

"You mean the Potion thing? I dunno, I guess I must've slipped up someh-"

"Natsuki." Her voice was stern, cutting straight through my bullshit.

I sighed.

"I dunno, I guess… I just didn't think you deserved getting chewed out in front of everyone." I shrugged. "Snape's such an arsehole."

"B- but to sacrifice your own appearance like that…" She glanced at my head, sounding absolutely befuddled. "Not to mention the detentions…"

"Oh, right." I grimaced at the reminder. "Detentions. Yeah, those'll be a hoot."

"You really didn't have to go to such… extremes."

"I know, but I don't really care." I grinned casually. "Besides, us Lit Club members' gotta stick together, right?"

"...Lit Club?" Yuri repeated, looking mildly amused. I cringed.

"…that sounded just as dorky to you as it did to me just now, didn't it?"

"Indubitably." Yuri nodded.

Then, in one quick, spontaneous movement, she'd wrapped her arms around me in a tight death-grip of a hug.

"Thank you so much, Natsuki."

Her voice was quivering with emotion, as if just on the verge of tears.

"Uh-" I struggled locating my words, finding it hard to think with my head pressed so tightly against Yuri's body. Talking back to Snape was easy as pie, but how the hell was I even supposed to respond to this?

Like, don't get me wrong, it wasn't really unpleasant per se. Having spent so much time in the Literature Club, I'd gotten pretty used to hugs without warning, to the point where I wasn't even that bothered getting touched anymore. But the vast majority of those had been from Sayori and getting one from Yuri of all people was just… weird.

The scent of lavender still clung to her.

"…c'mon Yuri, it's… really not that big a deal."

"It is to me." Yuri said, not letting up even the slightest.

Welp, can't argue with that, I s'ppose.

"…so, uh, how did you even manage to get the potion that wrong?" I asked, grasping for anything to break the unbearable silence. To my relief she finally released me, giving an awkward chuckle.

"It's… really embarrassing." She said.

"Your hair looks like eggplant entrails." I pointed out. "I strongly doubt it can get more embarrassing than that."

"I suppose you have a point there." She conceded. "I made one small mistake at the beginning of class, but in my efforts to fix it, I inadvertently made it much worse. It kept going like that until near the end where everything got completely out of hand, as you saw."

"Mmm, the dreaded 'Slippery Slope' trap." I nodded in recognition. "I'm familiar."

"Do you have any advice on how to avoid falling into it?" Yuri asked curiously.

"Yeah, actually I do." I said. "In my experience, I've found it helps to just not make that starting mistake in the first place. That way, there's nothing to snowball from, y'see."

"Ah, but of course." Yuri played along, chuckling to herself. "I should have realized, how foolish of me."

Before I had a chance to reply, we'd rounded a corner in the hallway only to almost collide against a small group of second-year Hufflepuffs coming the opposite way.

Silence fell abruptly as all of us froze on the spot, unsure about where exactly to go from here. The Hufflepuffs were all staring blankly at us, reacting pretty much exactly how you'd expect someone to react to two girls looking like we did. Being the first to shake free of this impromptu trance, I managed to glance to my side and see Yuri looking completely mortified at this sudden confrontation.

"All right, let's move it along, folks!" I broke the forced silence as I shook my head in over-exaggerated motions to make my pink hair more noticeable, essentially doing everything I could think of to direct their attention towards me. "I know it's hilarious to gawk at the girls who flunked Potions class, so make sure you drink up the sight while you still can!"

It worked perfectly. While some Hufflepuffs merely giggled at my antics, the vast majority of them became visibly uncomfortable, lowering their heads in embarrassment and muttering apologies as they walked past us.

"You okay?" I asked, glancing at Yuri once the last of them had rounded the corner.

"W- what?" She gave me a blank-eyed stare before blinking in realization. "Oh! Y- yes, I think so. Thank you."

"Don't mention it." I shrugged. "What business did they have anyway, staring at us like that? Buncha mouth-breathers, you ask me!"

"I really wish I had your confidence." She gave a great sigh. "To confront them head-on, looking like that… I could never."

"Eh, it was easy enough. 'Specially since I'm not the only ridiculous-looking gal here." I gestured to her hair. "And besides, it's not as if we'll look like this forever, y'know? Madam Pomfrey's gonna have it fixed in a jiffy, and then everyone will forget in a few days."

"…you're a good friend, Natsuki." Yuri said softly.

"Geez, not so loud!" I gave her a scandalized stare. "I have a reputation to uphold, y'know! Can't ruin it by letting the whole Castle think I'm some bleeding heart softie!"

Yuri smiled.

"I can think of a great many words to describe you, but 'softie' is not one of them."

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow at her. "And what kind of words would you describe me with then?"

To my surprise, Yuri suddenly erupted into a fit of half-choked giggling.

"…what is it?" I watched as the normally reserved girl further devolved right in front of me. "They can't be that funny!"

"…n- no, it's n- not that…" Yuri managed to say with great difficulty, her entire body shaking at this point as she tried to contain her laughing fit. "…Natsuki, y- your eyes…!"

Huh?

"…what's wrong with my eyes?" I said, starting to get slightly suspicious. Even so, I couldn't help but smile at the sheer absurdity. I'd never seen Yuri this amused before.

"H- here…" Still trying to contain her laughter (with very little success), Yuri eventually managed to pull a small hand mirror from her pocket and hand it over to me. Wanting to get to the bottom of this already, I wasted no further time and picked it up to look at my reflection.

…oh.

It would seem the fumes from my failed potion hadn't been content in changing my hair alone, evidenced from how my once blue irises were now staring back at me with the same light pink coloration.

"Huh." I blinked a few times, not knowing how else to react at the sight. I guess it was kinda funny in a way, but hardly worth Yuri's overreaction.

"…wait a minute." I said, something swiftly dawning on me. "Yuri… can you look at me real quick?"

Yuri froze on the spot, laughter ceasing as she snapped her head in my direction.

"Uhm…" I hesitated upon seeing her rapidly shrinking irises. "…yeah, okay so- I think maybe it'd be best if we get moving to the Hospital Wing again. Like, now."

Without waiting for a reply, I started walking down the hall again, considerably faster than before.

"What do you mean? Natsuki?!" Yuri asked from behind me, mild panic beginning to rise in her voice.

"Your eyes are…" I struggled momentarily, not knowing how best to phrase this. Eventually, I settled on just blurting it out. "Your eyes are freakin' purple, all right?!"

"What?!" I heard her shocked exclamation as she too picked up speed. "Uh- s- should we be c- concerned about…?"

"Absolutely not!" I replied at once, completely calm and collected and totally not worrying about which of my body parts would change colour next.

I very casually shifted from a brisk walk into a run.

"Just an unforeseen side-effect, nothing more!" I continued assuring Yuri. "Trust me, Madam Pomfrey'll have this shit fixed in a matter of seconds! I guarantee it!"

"What the fuck do you mean 'you can't fix this shit?!'" I yelled at the elderly woman in the red and white shawl, demanding an explanation.

"Language, Miss." Madam Pomfrey chastised in a stern voice, frowning lightly. As if she had any reason to be upset after the news we'd just received. "And do try to keep your voice down in the Hospital Wing, would you?"

"But it's fucking bullshi-"

"Young lady." The Matron cut me off, placing two hands on her hips. "If you don't settle down this instant, I'll have no choice but to cast a Silencing Spell on you. There are injured students trying to recover here."

I furiously grit my teeth, giving her my very best death glare. Who the fuck cared about some injured fucking students? They probably had nothing more serious than a broken fucking arm or some other trivial fucking shit while we had an actual fucking emergency on our hands here!

I mean what the fucking fuck?!

"You should have come to me straight away." Pomfrey went on, picking up a portable mirror and pointing it our way, showing a purple-haired Yuri sitting on a hospital bed next to a pink-haired Natsuki, both staring right back at us with similarly vibrant eyes. "Splodii-Berry fume inhalation is no laughing matter, and requires immediate treatment to avoid permanent damage. Surely Professor Snape must have informed you of this?"

I stared back in silence at my own reflection, whose eyelids had begun twitching in muted anger as I recalled the slimy smirk Snape had on his stupid face while ordering us to stay after Class.

That fucking bastard!

"It's… permanent, then?"

Yuri's voice was quiet and completely neutral, betraying not even the slightest hint of emotion. Her ghoul-like face however, told a very different story.

"I'm sorry, my dear." Madam Pomfrey said in a much gentler voice. "There's very little I can do once the effect reaches your retinas. The only solace I can provide is to guarantee that it at least won't spread any further now."

Yuri didn't respond, but I could tell she was thinking the same as me.

How the FUCK are we supposed to find solace in that?! We look like characters from some trashy Manga cover!

"B- but-" I took a deep breath, forcing my voice calm. There had to be some kind of simple, logical solution we were overlooking here. Ruining your entire appearance for all of time after one failed potion was ridiculous. Absurd. Mad, even! "…can't we just, I dunno, do it again with a different colour?! If you get a sunflower for me and some coal for Yuri, we can brew the same potion and then-"

"-you'll damage your lungs even further with toxic fumes?" Pomfrey interrupted, raising a thin eyebrow at me. "I think not. Aside from the obvious health violation, the Colour-Change Potion only works once per subject, and cannot be altered by any magic known to Wizardkind."

I stared blankly at her.

"That's- that's so… arbitrary! It sounds like something a bad writer would come up with on a whim to justify some shitty plot point in their fanfiction! It makes no sense!"

"Perhaps so," Madam Pomfrey merely sniffed in response. "But regardless of your personal opinion of the matter, it remains the truth nonetheless."

Bullshit! The word echoed through my mind, repeating itself endlessly. Bullshit bullshit bullshit bullsit bullsh-

"Now, if you'll be so kind to excuse me," Madam Pomfrey said, turning away from us. "I'll go get some anti-dotes so we can clear away any residual toxins from your systems. In the meantime, I'd advice you to try and get accustomed to your new appearances. Because they aren't going away anytime soon."

And without any further clarifications, the Matron walked off, leaving me and Yuri alone with nothing else to do except to stare at our own shocked reflections in the mirror.

Neither of us spoke a word to the other. What was there even to say?

This can't be happening.

It was happening. Had happened, in fact.

This is all Yuri's fault! No, scratch that, it's Snape's! If he hadn't- if he-

...how the fuck had I not known this about Splodii-Berries? I was such an idiot!

I bet I could make a proper reversal Potion. What the fuck does Pomfrey even know about this crap, anyway?!

Y'know, aside from being older than me, more experienced, and in charge of a whole Hospital Wing dedicated to finding remedies to the most obscure of magical injuries…

This… none of this had to happen. If I'd just minded my own business and let Snape grill Yuri for a bit, we'd both be at the Feast right now, eating with our normal hair colours intact! This is all my fault!

I stared at the wide-eyed pink girl in the mirror, trying to picture her in my regular, day-to-day activities. How she'd fare in my classes, at the Literature Club, at home-

…home.

My reflection's eyes widened even further in sudden realization.

…Papa's going to fucking kill me.

16