Mismatched Identities

Chapter 1 of the Lydia Lye Series

by Lucathia

Part 2/7: Lydia's Fight

"Why am I in your freaking body, Lydia Lye!" The girl burst at me.

I furrowed my eyebrows at her. "Who are you?"

The girl sneered at me and lowered her voice to a menacing snarl. "I'm Severus Snape and you should know that!"

I gaped. Oh my...what on earth is going on?

I stood there and stared at her. What did she mean? I thought I was Severus...at least that's what all the other people called me. Who's Lydia Lye anyway? That name sounds so familiar but I can't place it. She called me Lydia...isn't that a girl's name? I'm a guy...right?

The girl stomped up to me and pointed her finger in my face. "Switch back, right now!" Her layered hair swashed in front of me as she pushed me back against the wall outside the infirmary. "I don't care what you did to me...just get out of...get me out of...WHAT THE HELL, I just want my own body back!"

My head started humming with an eerie soprano sound as I felt myself being pushed down by her weight. Who is she? Why is she pestering me so much? Grimacing, I sprang up from my position and roughly pushed her away from me. Her death-like grip was too much for me to bear.

"Snape! What do you think you're doing to Lydia?" I turned my head and noticed Sirius stalking up towards me. Remus hurried over to the girl and James just stood there, staring at me. "Well?"

How could they not notice that I don't remember anything? How am I supposed to act anyway? I don't even know who I am myself! I gathered up my wits and managed to spell out an understandable sentence. "I wasn't doing anything to her. She was the one who was hurting me." Not like saying this would do any good for me. They'd never believe me.

Sirius rolled his eyes at me. "Yeah right! Why would Lydia hurt you? It's not like you're worth the trouble she'll get if the teachers find out about students fighting!"

Meanwhile, Remus knelt down by the girl I assume is named Lydia. She was fuming and glaring at me with fury, but no one seemed to notice it except me. I scoffed. They probably did notice but they tried to ignore her actions. After all, who'd think a girl would attack a guy first? I returned her glare with one just as violent.

"Are you okay?" Remus asked the brown-haired girl. "He threw you quite hard against the wall. Do you feel all right? Do you think you need to go back to the infirmary?" His eyes leaked warmth as he smoothed the girl's hair.

My heart absolutely shattered at this scene. Why does she get all the sympathy and I get none? Sirius sputtered as I pushed him out of my way and headed straight towards the opened door of the infirmary.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Sirius was about to lunge towards me when James cut into his path and stopped him. He placed a reassuring hand on Sirius's shoulders and pulled him away.

James was the only one who noticed Lydia's threatening glare. "I think this is Lydia's own business." James said in that calm voice of his. "She seems to have unfinished business with Mr. Snape over there. Do you think we should fight her fights for her? I don't think we have to." Heh, go James! James is always the observant one. Now...how did I know he's observant? It must be that my memory is starting to return.

Just as James said this, the girl proved his words to be true. She pushed Remus out of her way and lunged at me again, this time with her wand. Remus's look of surprise struck me as odd, but I had no time to think about him because Lydia started chanting something. My mind snapped at me as bits of memories popped back up. She was performing a spell! Two words were all it took to invoke this poisonous spell and since she was already past the first word, I knew I had no more than two seconds left. My reflexes weren't fast enough for me to pull out my own wand and block it. When I brought my wand out of my pocket, I was ready to get hit full blast by the spell but surprisingly, I only felt a small tingle.

The girl stared at the wand she was holding in her hands and the expression on her face changed from fury to annoyance. "Damn you, Lydia! If you don't switch right now, I'll break your wand in half! I can't even do a stinking spell with your damn wand!" (1)

The marauders stood there gaping at Lydia. Remus was the first to speak up. "Are you okay Lydia?" No one ever saw Lydia this angry before. It really was a one-of-a-kind scenario since the girl rarely lost her temper. Every time someone saw her, she was buried in a book, yet here she was, yelling at Severus Snape! Wait, that wasn't right. She was yelling at herself! She even threatened herself to break her own wand in half.

I stood there, holding my wand in my hand. I felt no happy sensations traveling through my arm as I held the wand. It felt...how should I say it...dead? The wand was just another piece of dead wood with some pretty ornaments lying in my hands. It was a dead weight...it felt so lifeless...I glanced at the girl standing in front of me. She was extremely angry and she threatened to break her own wand up. When my eyes passed over the wand in her hands, a glimmer of recognition passed through my eyes. That wand in her hands felt more right. Immediately, I extended my hands to snatch the wand away from her.

Sirius wanted to slap my hands away from Lydia, but James stopped him. Remus didn't do anything. I think he was just waiting to see my next move.

When I took the wand away from Lydia, I felt a sense of belonging. This must be how it feels to have the right wand.

While all this was happening, Peter stood in the shadows, slowly inching away from the fight. Sensing his fear, I glared at him and he yelped. He whisked by us quickly after that.

Sirius returned my glare because he thought I was glaring at him. I ignored him and instinctively started painting on the wall with Lydia's wand. It felt so right doing this! I must love painting a lot. Slowly, I sketched a pair of glowing eyes and then whiskers. The drawing slowly came to life as I added in the bushy tail. When I finished, the drawing was meowing and playing with the dust that settled onto it.

I blinked when I looked at the drawing that I painted. Yes...I painted it. Somehow, I remember something about art, painting, motion pictures... I had a grandfather who I never knew and he was a great artist. He lived in London for some time with my grandmother Jane but he then divorced her to marry Ann. His name was Len Lye. Wait a minute, Len Lye?

Remus looked at the drawing and then looked back at me. I saw the same confused look on James face. Suddenly, the girl jumped at me and pulled me into the infirmary. Remus, James, and Sirius were about to follow her, but she quickly shut the door and sealed it with a charm. She also yelled at them to leave.

I don't know if they left or not, but I knew we were alone in the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey wasn't here for some reason so all that accompanied us was the smell of antidotes. The girl glared at me and started hissing.

"Lye, change us back now! There's no one here to disrupt us, so I demand you to change us back now! Get me out of your body and into my own body! Do you hear me? The girl hissed with venom.

I did not know what she meant before...but now I have a fair enough clue. I'm not Severus Snape. Somehow, I have gotten the real Snape kicked out of his body and I have entered his body. I'm really Lydia Lye...but why don't I remember any of this?

"Lye? What are you waiting for?" The impatient voice nagged at me.

"I'm sorry, Snape, but I don't remember how I've gotten us to switch personalities. In fact, I think there's a memory charm on me that's blocking my memory because I don't even know who I am myself. I thought I was Severus Snape." Surprisingly, my voice sounded calm and collected even though I was scared to death inside. What am I doing in someone else's body anyway?

"What?" His voice was full of fury. "What do you mean a memory charm? I want you to get the hell out of my body and that's final! I don't believe a word you said."

Oh great, how can I prove to him that I don't know who I am myself? I can't, that's for sure. There's one thing that I am sure of though...and that is that Snape wouldn't want to get embarrassed.

"Snape, I'm telling you that right now, no one knows of this conscious-changing thing and no one needs to know. I'm sure you don't want to get embarrassed in front of the whole class? I'm the only one who can give your body back to you. If you keep pestering me about this issue, I'll go and suicide for you. This means, yes, if you keep bothering me again, I will stab your precious body to death and then my consciousness will flee out of your dead body and enter my own again. This also means you will die. If you prefer something less bloody, I can choke you to death or jump off the cliff for you. You get what I mean, don't you?" All this time, I stood next to the closed door with my arms crossed and a smug look on my face. Ha, I finally got him there!

The man in my body grinned at me. Hm...apparently, he figured out the flaw to my threat. I'm doomed.

"Well, well, Lye, thanks for telling me a way to get out of your body! I'll go and kill your body and then my mind can escape your body and re-enter my own. I don't care what I have to do, as long as I don't have to stay in this body!"

I knew he would figure it out, but I still rolled my eyes at him. My memory of my previous years at Hogarts slowly seeped back into my mind. I know why Snape can't kill my body and then flee back to his own.

"Oh yeah, whatever! You won't succeed, I'm telling you that."

"How come?" Snape was starting to get impatient.

I smiled secretively. He'll never guess...he never will guess why unless I tell him.

end part 2

(1) Snape's consciousness is in Lydia's body and Lydia's is in Snape's body. This means that they are not in their own bodies and therefore, Snape who is in Lydia's body has Lydia's wand. Lydia who is in Snape's body has Snape's wand. Snape could not perform the spell because he had Lydia's wand. Lydia's wand is accustomed to Lydia's mind, yet since it couldn't tune into her thoughts, it refused to perform a spell. This means that Lydia's wand would not obey Snape's commands.)