Chapter 11 Back to Fool (School) Sleeping was quite an ordeal. Cate had no trouble sleeping really; she took to the usual flopping around, as if expecting Bellum to be right beside her, then rolled around on her stomach. This made it impossible for Meagan to sleep; hence Cate was in control of sleeping habits for some odd reason... Needless to say, Meagan didn't sleep. Cate seemed normal, though the left side of Meagan had a dark circle under her left eye. Cate was determined to make the right side (the side she had more control over) look better than the side Meagan had more control over. "I never realized how completely awful you look in red..." "Ha, ha funny... That's the only color you know. Are you colorblind or something? I mean literally... Seeing Red..." "No, you're just jealous..." Cate hissed. "I've got a color that looks best on me. You seem to have tried many times to find yours..." Cate chuckled, looking at Meagan's colorful wardrobe. "Too bad they haven't made one that looks right on you yet..." Meagan chose to ignore that comment, and drag herself and Cate down to breakfast...With Harry. Cate was sick of seeing so much of Harry. To prevent another kiss, she kept Meagan as far away as possible. When Meagan kissed him, it was partially her too... She could feel it, and in her opinion, Harry was a bad kisser. "We've seen enough of him today. We've seen enough of... AHH! One of your revolting children!" "Hello Jess." Meagan's voice said. "Ugh..." Cate's voice added. "I'm Jo." Jo said. "Sorry, Jo." "Uh... Mum, is there something wrong?" said the confused girl. "Oh no..." Cate said. "I'm just sharing this here demented body with your mother..." Jo grabbed some cold cereal and a bowl, and took off. A few minutes later, she realized she had forgotten milk, and scooted back into the kitchen, where she found Meagan and Cate arguing about what to eat. "I don't like cold cereal! It's disgusting..." Cate complained. "Well, I don't want pancakes. Harry can't make pancakes..." Meagan added. "Well, if he made them, I wouldn't eat them anyways. I won't eat unless-" "Oh big threat. If I eat, then we're both full... Besides, there are MY taste buds anyways..." "Ugh..." Cate growled. She could see a few children watching out of the corner of her (Meagan's) eye. But forced to eat cold cereal; Frootloops, she was trying to forget everything. "We spend the day at my house." she ordered. "We spent the whole day with Harry pretty much yesterday." "That's because Bellum avoids me. That has to include you this time, because WE'RE IN THE SAME BODY, MORON!" "So, I can still see him. We look at Mr. Ugly all day, because he happens to live in this house! I want to see MY husband for once!" "Why would you want to do a thing like that?" Meagan asked sarcastically. "Well, he's better looking." "Oh contraire..." "I mean really, I'm scarred for life after the pool at the World Cup! SWIM TRUNKS! How horrible was THAT?" "You just don't see Harry the way I do..." "That's disgusting... Ugh... You must have a highly active imagination to have to look at him, and all the other stuff that you generally associate with being married to him..." "Fine. We'll make camp at your house today." "Can we sleep on my bed? It's loads comfier!" "Isn't there someone called Bellum Pugnare that occupies it?" "Well, it's not like I'd let you sleep with him! I'll have him sleep on the couch... Er... One of the couches..." "Well then, that's great." After another scene deciding the clothing for the day, they managed to get out of the Potter house. Meagan felt very strange. Cate was still determined to make her side look better, and she had succeeded. The make- up was much better on Cate's side. Cate was an expert with beauty products, having used them most of her life. So her make-up wasn't balanced, and looked quite interesting.... No knock was required. Cate let herself and Meagan in, and found the house silent. Of course it was though, Felicity and Ethan were at school... It was always quieter without them. Bellum was sitting on the floor, playing with Jack and Paige. Marie and Dominic were also there, entertained by Paige. "Eeeeeek!" Paige squealed, wondering why Meagan was once again at her house. The last episode had scared her... Dominic and Marie followed her. Bellum shrugged, and sighed, looking skeptically at Meagan/Cate. "Erm..." "Yeah, I'm still here too..." Cate mumbled. "Sadly." Meagan added. "Well, what's on your fascinating agenda for today?" Bellum asked, moving up to a chair with Jack, who was making an attempt to get away. "Aw... he's adorable..." Meagan cooed. Bellum stared at her, then at Jack. "Looks like dad." he said. "I should hope so..." Cate remarked. "Imagine if he didn't..." Meagan heaved a sigh, and tried to catch up on sleeping. This didn't work well. Cate was wide awake, and talking to Bellum non-stop. This was going to be a loooong day... ~*~ It was another quiet night in the common room... Or so they all thought. Brynn, Bryce, Mac, and Ethan were all out. It was ten times quieter than usual but... Crystal, Brian, Fred, and George were still there... Felicity was absent, as well as Blick. "Peace and quiet! HA!" Crystal laughed. "I find it very hard to believe that Neil is your brother..." Brian said, looking over at Neil, who had a book propped open. "Me too!" Crystal said. "He's far too quiet..." Fred threw a firework across the room, and grinned rather innocently. He pointed to George. George pointed at a random person a few yards away. Crystal didn't care who threw it. All she knew about it was that it made a loud noise, and exploded. There was the excuse to start the chaos... ~*~ "Headmaster, sir?" Felicity asked Dumbledore a bit after the feast. Blick was right by her side. Her voice was also sweeter... Ten times sweeter. "Ahh... Yes, Miss Pugnare? Mister Blick?" Dumbledore replied, his misty blue eyes meeting Felicity's deep brown ones. "I'd like to ask you something. And then if you reply the way I hope, I'd like to make a request." "Shoot away..." "Is it possible to... Switch houses? Isn't it possible that the Sorting Hat can be wrong?" She said this very fast. "Take me for example. I was put in Gryffindor, just because I'm along the bloodline. But I think I belong in Slytherin. Just listen to me! Please? I know the only reason I was placed in Gryffindor is because I'm related!" "Miss Pugnare..." "No, I can't focus there! I know it isn't right! I can't do it! Everything is strange, and weird! Please, I know I'll do better in Slytherin!" "Let me finish my sentence..." Dumbledore sighed. He started again once Felicity had stopped babbling. "You have a point, but the Hat hasn't even been wrong..." "Well, there's a first for everything! Gryffindor just wanted his heirs to stay in his house. He didn't want Slytherin getting hold of them! I'll bet you that none of my family has been put into any other house but Gryffindor!" "I must admit you are persistent. That is exactly the way that was supposed to work. Do you want to be in Slytherin that badly?" "Yes. I'll never ask for another thing!" Felicity choked, sounding desperate. "Then I cannot stop you. Mr. Blick, I suppose you'd like to go with her?" Blick nodded. His black hair was shiny, and looked as if it were constantly being hit by light. His dark eyes were shining now. Felicity tossed her hair. Her eyes were glinting, as her mother's eyes did. She grinned like her father did, though managed to look less innocent... "We're off to Slytherin... We've done it!" Felicity said, actually jumping for joy in the hallway. She made sure no one saw that... "No more Creepy Crystal!" "Exactly... Why does life suddenly seem so much better?" "Because it is?" "Good point, we need to find Ariana and Malicia!" ~*~ "She's WHAT?" Brian, Crystal, Fred, George, Brynn, Bryce, Mac, and a few Gryffindor bystanders all practically shouted at once. "Switched to Slytherin." Ethan shrugged. "Maybe Dumbledore felt sorry for us all... Now the Slytherins have to put up with her... And that Blick." "Lucky them..." Crystal half-laughed. Truthfully, she was happy. This was one of the best things that had happened so far in the entire time she had been in school. In fact, the whole common room looked happy. There would be a constant better mood, and they wouldn't have to put up with her sitting around and glaring at everyone any longer. That was all she was good for in Gryffindor anyways. ~*~ "Do you contradict everything I say?" Meagan shrieked. "No." Cate replied. "There, you did it again!" "No I didn't!" "Yes you did!" "No I didn't! "I said you always contradict me, and you said you didn't and you DO!" "I do not understand what you just said so I'll just... disagree." Meagan happened to say that very fast. C ate didn't understand her. "If we keep going on like this, we'll always be stuck like this!" "No we won't... I'll kill the both of us before that happens..." "Stop it!" "I wasn't doing anything!" "Yes you were!" "Now look who's contradicting..." "Just stop talking." "No. I happen to like talking." "SO do I... Let me think of something we agree on!" "We don't agree on anything." "Yes we do!" "No, we don't. We just don't mix..." "Stop acting like your father..." " I am NOT acting like my father!" "Yes you are." "Am not." "Are too!" "AM NOT!" "Yes you are! C'mon... I know Sirius. He acts like this all the time. He's impossible..." "No-" "STOP IT!" "You stop it." "I think your bed is more comfortable. You were right." "But it's hard to sleep when you're TWO PEOPLE!" "Just AGREE WITH ME!" "What? I was being honest." "Too honest. This is not the time to be honest. Lie. Lie like you've never lied before! Just agree with me!" "Mother says lying is bad..." "Your mother... ARGGHH..." Cate thought it was funny. Even though she had to put up with it too, it was fun making Meagan squirm. She could be annoying too... This is where being Padfoot's daughter came in handy... But she still missed her body. This is it... I'm sick of this!" she said. She concentrated with all her might on her body. She was going to possess her own body... and get them both out of this mess... But it didn't work. There was some sort of strong force field surrounding her. "Dammit! Damn, damn, damn, damn, DAMN! Your turn Meagan..." "Oh... Um... damn?" "Very good. That helped a lot." "I bet it did." "In cease you didn't notice, I was trying to ESCAPE!" "Yeah, I noticed. It hurt my head." "Good." "Thanks. I appreciate pain a lot..." ~*~ "Do you ever wish we led normal lives?" Bellum asked Harry thoughtfully. They were sitting in a small pub, discussing things over drinks. Bellum was staring at Meagan/Cate, who were arguing profusely-again. "Nah, that'd be boring." Harry replied, looking at his half-empty drink, and then gulping the rest of it. "Good point Mate." He paused after that for a second, then continued on. "But don't you ever wish they weren't..." He looked over to Meagan/Cate. "Enemies?" "It would make like a lot easier. No daily rant about how much Meagan hates Cate, and how much Crystal hates Felicity... Are we the only people in these families that get along?" "Aye. It seems that way." Both men shrugged. "Barkeeper, we'll have another round, it's on me..." "Look at them." Meagan said. "Drinking. They do look rather miserable..." "No, I think they look perfectly happy actually... Look, after a few more dinks they'll be really happy... Then that's the time to get them out of here before they remember they have wives... That are in the same body." "Hey, Cate, we're talking out loud." "Oh. Well, they'll think you're schizophrenic, not me." "Great... Wonderful..." "Hey... those two remind me of something... This isn't my body! This isn't my pregnant body... BARKEEPER!" "Oh dear..." "Look at them again, they're fighting..." Harry sighed. "I'll put 20 Galleons on Cate..." Bellum said. Meagan's right side threw a punch at her left side. The left side punched back. Entertained bar customers watched eagerly. No one tried to do anything. Wait- no one wanted to do anything. Nasty comments being thrown, Bellum and Harry began to wonder what had started the fight. But in the end, the body was... unconscious. There was no telling who had won... "That your wife?" The barkeeper asked. "Yes." Harry and Bellum answered. The Barkeeper stared. "I've seen my fair share of loonies here, but this almost tops the chart... Schizophrenic woman with a husband for each personality..." "Oh, not really. See, my wife is trapped in his wife's body." Bellum said. "His wife is trapped with her." "I won't ask... I never should have in the first place, Blimey!" "Good idea." Harry and Bellum sighed, picking up Meagan/Cate to take home... The left side of Meagan had more bruises. The right side had more scratches. Bellum and Harry didn't clarify a winner, and just kept their money... ~*~ "Dominic, No!" Marie shouted. "This is Uncle Sirius's house!" "So? He is our Uncle..." Dominic grinned. He had a bird in his right hand, and something in a black box in the left. He had dark brown eyes too, like most of the other people in the Black family. Marie, however, had blue eyes. His hair was lighter brown than most of the other members though, because his father was practically blonde... "Mum'll be mad! Doooooooominiiiiic!" Marie shouted, jumping in attempt to catch the bird and the box. "Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum!!!!" "Marie, what?" Athena shouted from the kitchen. She was having a long discussion with Sirius and Lizzie, along with Ryan. "Dominic let the bird go, and the box, and-" "Dom... What was in the box?" Athena said, cutting Marie off. "You'll see. I suggest you.... TAKE COVER!" Dominic shouted, diving behind the large sofa in that particular room. Something had exploded. Not only that, but there was a runny black liquid all over everything. "It worked! I achieved covering the whole room!" Dominic danced around, covered in the liquidly black substance. Athena stood there, disgusted, and Marie looked ready to cry. Athena wiped some of it off her face and smelled it. Then she tasted it. "Melted licorice, Niccy?" She sighed. "Yeah... Start cleaning up Marie... You can lick it off the floor!" Dominic said, looking rather pleased with himself. He looked around with satisfaction and nodded. "Yup... Think Uncle Sirius'll be proud?" "Dominic, this isn't funny... It would have been okay if it had been OUR house..." Athena glared. Then she smiled mischievously. "Really? I think you could have done better. I should make you clean it though... I can think of better tasting candies..." Right then and there, the door burst open, and Meagan/Cate skidded in, slipping on the floor, nailing Dominic with the door, and sliding into Marie. Bellum and Harry skidded in too, but they each managed to stay on their feet. "The twins aren't around... What caused this?" Bellum asked, looking at the melted licorice. "Dominic..." Athena replied. Dominic sat up, and rubbed his head. Harry had already pulled up Meagan/Cate. Bellum took this opportunity to look around for Ryan. "I'll be in the Kitchen..." he said, speeding off. " Fine." Cate's voice said. "What is this... Oooh.... Licorice!" Meagan said. "Disgusting... That was on this floor! No, don't put it in-" It was too late. Meagan had taken a taste of the licorice. Not that this tasted awful to Cate, the taste buds still being Meagan's. But Dominic was staring. "Erm... Aren't you Meagan?" he asked, his mouth open slightly. "Don't stare Nic." Athena scolded. "Yes, that is Meagan... Speaking of which, why are there two voices?" "Because I'm trapped in here. Her head." Cate's voice answered. "I'm Cate... remember me?" "Erm... yes. Sirius is in the kitchen, if that's why you're here." "Do you need help with this?" Meagan's voice asked. "No. I can wave my wand and clean the mess nicely..." Bellum seemed to have clarified the situation to Sirius, Lizzie, and Ryan all. "Hello Megan- err- Cate- Erm... Cate and Meagan." Sirius said, a little confused. "Hello," responded one cheerful, and one annoyed voice. The annoyed one was clearly Cate's; the cheerful one belonging to Meagan. "Do you know what's become of my body?" Cate said, before Meagan had a chance to start a pleasant conversation. "Hospital darling..." Lizzie said. "Being watched by the usual doctors..." "We're off!" Cate said, appearing at the hospital before Meagan had a chance to do anything about it. The doctors gave them a funny look. Cate looked around the room. She saw her body and sighed. "I miss it. I never realized how beautiful I was... Until the first time, when we actually switched bodies... Now, I miss my hair, my eyes, and all the other lovely aspects of... me." Meagan snorted. "Don't be so humble, you're not that great." "Yes I am. Who are you to contradict me? Let's compare ourselves right now...." "No thanks... I'm just fine. So are we here to stare at you?" "No, we're here to see what's happening to well, me." "Wonderful..." "Doctor..." This led to a very lengthy explanation of everything that had happened, and why Cate should get her own personal information. It turned out though, that it was like she was sleeping. The baby (which had gone through a lot now, before it had even been born) was still fine. "Got any ideas for names?" Meagan asked dully. "Not really." "It's a girl, right?" "Yes..." "Call it Jacklyn." "I don't like that name." "Why?" "Because I don't." "Nice reasoning, Cate." "Why thank-you... At least my kids aren't called Crystal, Neil, Jo, Jess, and Nita!" "Well, yours are called Ethan, Felicity, Paige, Jack, and whatever you decide upon for this one..." "Well, I happen to like what I named my children." "I like what mine are called..." "Well fine." "Your husband is called Bellum though." "Yours is called Harry!" "At least it's a normal name..." "A very ugly normal name... Besides, Bellum means something in Latin... I forget what it means. he told me a long time ago... I think it means fight..." "Well, that's lovely. Fight. Just what..." "Oh, just shut up." "You sound like me now..." "Don't say that either, because I don't. No one can be that demented." "I can name a few to start..." "I bet you can..." Cate said, with a slight tone of sarcasm. This was really getting to the both of them, and neither of them wanted to be the one to agree with the other. But they both wanted to get out. "Don't you just think red is the best color?" Meagan said rather stupidly, wanting it to end finally... "Not on you." Cate retorted. "Fine. Be that way. We'll just stay like this." "I already told you I'd kill us before that happens." "Exactly. Then that would be the rest of our lives. I want to at least have my own thoughts and such." "Good for you." ~*~ "Fight, fight, FIGHT!" chanted most of the Great Hall. There were two people fighting between the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables... Two certain people... "Stop stealing my look!" Brynn shouted, pulling hard on the other girl's hair. "I wasn't! It isn't MY fault we wore the same thing on the train yesterday!" the other girl, proving to be only Reina, shoted as she dug her fingernails into Brynn's arm. "Yes it is. I saw you shopping! After I bought my clothes, you went in and bought identical ones!" "Well, I bought mine first! I had to return and get a different size!" "FIIIIIIIIGGHT!" echoed still the bystanders. Brynn wasn't really listening anymore. She was a lot stronger than Reina, and wasn't going to take this any longer... She was a year younger, and a whole lot brattier... She threw a punch and hit her hard in the nose. "My nose!" Reina cried. "I think you broke it!" She took a few quick breaths, and kicked Brynn as hard as she could, but missed. "Yeah, that's good." Brynn grinned (yeah, that rhymed... I know...) and appeared a few feet behind her, tapped her on the shoulder, and appeared back in front of her. This time she wasn't quick enough to dodge all of Reina Cortez throwing herself at her. She was knocked down, and with an "Oof." She struggled to regain her breath... "Oh God." Mac and Bryce muttered when the caught sight of Brynn and Reina. "Brynn!" Mac scolded, pulling Brynn off Reina. Both girls were scratched up quite badly. Reina's nose was deformed-looking, and one of Brynn's perfect teeth had been moved... "Let, me at her..." "No! No more fighting, get up, before one of the Professors comes..." Once Mac and Bryce had steadied Brynn and Reina, they took them off separate directions. Reina was still shouting that she was reporting Brynn to Professor Snape, and Brynn was shouting profuse words at her. "I swear, I'm gonna..." "Calm down... You're alright..." "She's evil... She should be disposed of... Not really that, but removed from school anyways..." "Brynn! Just try and get along." Mac said, ducking the punch thrown at him. "She IS Bryce's girlfriend..." "Well, too bad. I hate her, she hates me!" Brynn was starting to think that the advice the Voice was throwing at her was useful... mostly ideas for curses and violent hexes. The Voice could be good for something... She cackled aloud evilly, and Mac looked at her funny... "I think I'll go erm... Do my homework... That I er- left late... Bye, bye!" he said rather fast, and took off. This left Brynn alone with the voice to plot what to do to Reina... ~*~ Meagan sighed. At least she thought she did... Now it was hard to tell if it was she or Cate doing some things... She was losing her mind... It was starting to become Cate's! "How about we just agree to disagree." she sighed. "Sounds good to me. We might as well just accept the fact that we're different, no argument." "Fine with me." Maybe it had been the fact that they were half asleep, or that they were going insane, but they had agreed on something. Yes, Meagan and Cate actually agreed. Cate appeared across the room, in her body. She looked down at it, and actually did jump for joy. "MY body! MY body! MY beautiful body! I have it back! I missed it so much! Well, bye, I'm out of here to clear things at the hospital as fast as I can!" "Er... Bye." Meagan secretly danced around, singing, until Harry came in and noticed her. "She's GONE! She's got her body back, now we can go back to our LIVES!" She laughed, rather insane-like. "That's great..." Harry smiled. "Nice to have life back to normal... If you call it normal..." ~*~ "This is a cause for a celebration, darling." Bellum said to Cate. She had just gotten back from the hospital, and was changing from the ugly light blue robes she had been put in. She still didn't look pregnant; it had only been a few weeks. So she didn't feel the need to dress for it... She was in the process of changing. Her top laced all the way up, and her pants were red (typical) and quite tight. "I just put my clothes on... Do I want to take them off so soon?" Cate responded. She had to smile though. "Sorry, I've been around Meagan too long, I was getting used to being the annoying one..." "That's fine..." Bellum half-laughed, shaking his head. Cate smiled, and stood up, after pulling on her last sock. She sighed, and put her arms around Bellum's neck. She moved her face in, and stood on her toes slightly, so her eyes were right in his. She could see herself in his eyes. She closed her eyes and kissed him softly. "That's a bit more romantic, don't you think?" she asked softly; her voice barely a whisper. "Yes indeed, though it didn't take much to top the goofy stage..." Cate stopped the talking by kissing him again. He responded to this quite well with another kiss. "Remember our first kiss?" Cate asked then again, starting conversation. "Oh yes, very clearly." he smiled, and flopped them both over on the bed. "It was awkward... I was actually rather surprised you didn't reject me..." "You were weak..." Cate chuckled. "That little kiss..." "Hey, you have to give me a break... Believe it or not, that was actually my first kiss..." "Oh, no way!" "I was locked up in that castle all my life, with Dolere and Facere as company, can you blame me?" "Well, no... But I still think-" "Well, I'm better now," he chuckled, kissing her again. "Yeah. I was." "I was a bit doubtful... You know, the 'take it slow we just met' kind of thing..." "Well, it didn't end up slow, did it?" "No." Bellum sighed. "I mean we- well..." "I don't take things slowly... I decided I liked you... You liked me... Alone... In a rather empty castle... Empty room..." "Hmm... Sounds a lot like now..." "Why, could you be getting at something?" Cate grinned. "Oh look, you top laces up... But even more fascinating... It unlaces!" he exclaimed suddenly, giving the string a tug... "Hey... You are one weird guy... But I love you-"