Chapter
1: To Polyjuice or not to Polyjuice…
It was breakfast
time in the Great Hall and Harry was busy stuffing his face with everything in
sight. He was very hungry, as he had
spent the previous night training for hours in preparation for the up-coming
Gryffindor versus Slytherin match.
"Harry,"
Hermionie said slowly, "people are going to think that this is the first time
you've seen food!"
Harry
just grunted in reply and carried on trying to spoon as much porridge as he
could into his mouth. Hermionie raised
an eyebrow and turned to look at Ron, who had spent the last ten minutes in
deep conversation with his two brothers Fred and George. The three of them looked as though they were
up to something and from what Hermionie could see they were pointing to a glass
beaker filled with something that looked suspiciously like…
"Polyjuice
Potion!" Hermionie exclaimed, drawing the attention of half the Gryffindor
table and Harry, who spat out his porridge all over Colin Creevey's face.
"Ssshh!"
Ron hissed, as he and the twins looked nervously around them. "Do you want us
to get caught?!"
"
Sorry, it's just that, well…what on earth are you doing with that?" Hermionie
demanded.
Fred
smiled evilly and got to his feet, pulling his two brothers with him. He leaned forward towards Harry and
Hermionie, so that none of the other interested Gryffindors could hear what
they were saying.
"We
are going to pull the biggest prank of all time on two teachers!" He said
gleefully. "Do you remember how Snape
reported us to Mcgonagall for that explosion in Potion's we had nothing to do
with?"
Harry
nodded; it had been about two and a half months ago, right at the beginning of
the new term. During Fred and Georges
Potions lesson an explosion had occurred, it had destroyed almost the entire
classroom and a few students had been injured.
Snape had not bothered to question anyone about it; he had gone straight
to Mcgonagall reporting that it had been the Weasley twins. Professor Mcgonagall had agreed, as the
twins were well known for being pranksters and had deducted 60 points from them
each, given them a weeks detention and promised that if either of them so much
as sneezed at the wrong time, they would be out of the school for good. Ever since then they had both been biding
their time, thinking up different ways of getting revenge on the two
Professors.
"Look, come up to
the Common Room so that we can talk without anyone else listening in." Fred continued, shooting a meaningful stare
at a small group of First years who were pretending they were talking amongst
themselves.
The five walked
quickly up to the Gryffindor Common room, through the Portrait hole and quickly
sat down in the nearest chairs.
"We are going to
make Snape and Mcgonagall switch. We
have their hairs; it took us ages to get them!" Ron said, looking very excited.
"How exactly did you manage to get their
hairs…and why didn't you tell us?"
Harry asked, feeling slightly hurt that he hadn't been included.
"I'm sorry about
not telling you." Ron said looking guilty, "It's just that we thought it would
be better if we kept it to ourselves, and trust me when I say…you really don't
want to know what it took to get their hair!"
George and Fred
both grimaced as Ron said this, and Harry privately thought that it was
probably better that he didn't know much about it. Hermionie meanwhile, was wearing an expression that rather
scarily resembled Professor Mcgonagall when she was very angry.
"You haven't even
planned this out have you?" she said in a very haughty voice, "How exactly do
you plan to get them to drink the potion?
And since Polyjuice only lasts for up to an hour, before you turn back
into yourself again…how do you plan to get them to drink it regularly?"
Harry thought
that those were good points. He could
remember using Polyjuice in his second year when he was trying to find out who
the Heir of Slytherin was. He, Ron and
Hermionie had suspected Draco Malfoy, so he and Ron had changed into Crabbe and
Goyle, Malfoy's thuggish cronies. They
had managed to get into the Slytherin Common room and talk with Malfoy, but
after an hour they had started to turn back into themselves. Polyjuice was also quite dangerous.
Hermionie had also tried to change into a Slytherin but instead of getting a
hair from the person she wanted to change into, she had gotten a Cat hair. She had spent a long time in the Hospital
Wing after that.
"You
underestimate us Hermionie. We have a
plan about how we can give them the potion, and we have made this Polyjuice a
little different to the normal one. It
will last up to a week before it wears off and by then we will have had our
fun!" George said triumphantly.
"Guys, how did
you manage to make it last for that long?" Harry asked. George opened his mouth to answer but
Hermionie cut him off.
"I don't think
that they should tell us Harry. The
less we know about this the better!"
"Lighten up
Hermionie!" said Ron exasperatedly.
"Yeah! It's going to be so great! Can you guys imagine it?" Fred asked them,
trying to control his laughter, "Mcgonagall would walk in being her usual
self…only she'd be in Snape's body…and…" Fred couldn't carry on; the image of a
camp Snape was too much for him. He
burst into fits of laughter, drawing curious stares from other people in the
room.
"Well, I'm having
nothing to do with it!" Hermionie declared as she stood and started walking
towards the Portrait hole.
"Where are you
going?" Ron asked
"To
class…Transfiguration to be precise.
And I'm warning you that if you don't stop this foolish
plan…then…then…I'll tell Mcgonagall!" she said shrilly.
"You wouldn't!"
Ron said rising and looking at her angrily.
"Yes I
would! I wouldn't tell her that it was
you but I'd say that I had heard people talking about doing it. It's for your own good!"
Before Ron or any
of them could argue with this, Hermionie turned and flounced out of the room.
