Polyjuice Potion

The next morning, the three friends woke up early and met up in the empty common room to discuss their plans. The morning after the Halloween party, they would take advantage of everyone being barely alive to sneak down to the Slytherin Common Room, hide Parkinson, Crabbe and Goyle, and take their places. They would get all the information they would need before everyone would wake up. But before they could do that, there was one important thing that they had to figure out first.

"Who's going to be Parkinson?" Ila asked her two friends after Hermione had placed the hair pieces into the identical vials of Polyjuice Potion.

"Not it."

"Not it."

"Not – oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Ron moaned when he was the last one to say anything. "I'm not being Parkinson."

"Why not?" Hermione asked.

"Look at me!" Ron said, motioning his hands over his body as if that was enough of an answer.

"Well, you're not going to look like that when you're going to talk to Malfoy, are you?" Hermione said.

"Why don't you want to be Parkinson then?" Ron said accusatorily.

"That's because I was Parkinson last time," Hermione said.

"Technically, you were only her cat."

"It's still the same thing, isn't it?" she said before moving to Ila, who hoped that if she remained quiet, they'd forget about her. "Why don't you do it?"

"Because…no…"

"Parkinson'll have the biggest role when it comes to talking to Malfoy," Ron said. "Besides, I can't do it and neither can Hermione."

"Being a guy and being her cat aren't excuses," Ila said defensively.

"Ila," Hermione said gently, "you're probably the one who's the most capable out of all us…I'll get too nervous and mess everything up while Ron – he'll get too blinded by his rage that he'll forget everything."

"That is very true," Ron said sincerely, nodding along with Hermione.

"I don't even know what to say to him - "

"Ask him about You Know Who."

After her…whatever happened yesterday in the library and the hallway, for some reason, Ila struggled to calm herself whenever she heard his name. At the end of her cry, she imagined all the thoughts that worried her being placed in a box that she then locked and sat on for good measure. She didn't want another one of those happening again. But as Hermione uttered his name, Ila could feel the box rattling beneath her. How on Earth was she going to talk to Malfoy about Him without breaking down was beyond her.

"I doubt Parkinson will be the first person Malfoy'll turn to talk about…you know…." Ila finished her sentence lamely as she walked past her two friends and sat on the couch. Ron and Hermione said on either side of her.

"Just bring it up casually then," Ron suggested.

"And see what his reactions are like," Hermoine added. "See if he gets happy or…or…well, I s'pose that'll be the only emotion he'll feel."

"Unless the plot twist of the century happens and he actually hates You Know Who," Ron snorted.

"I'm not doing it," Ila said, staring at the three vials, trying to remember which had Parkinson's hair in it. Was it the middle…no, it was the left one wasn't it? Hermione moved so that she was now sitting opposite them. They all stared at each other.

Suddenly, their hands sprung to a random vial. Ila took the right one. Each person downed it before they could say anything. The feeling of déjà vu hit Ila as she felt her transformation began. She felt her body stretch. Her hands turned white. Her eyesight was far too powerful with glasses on. She felt her hair get shorter.

Ila took steps to the mirror to see who she was.

"You've got to be kidding," Ila said in a voice higher than her usual one as she stared in the mirror. Staring back at her was Pansy Parkinson, all in her 5ft 6 glory. Ila's skirt seemed to have shrunk, reaching just about mid-thigh. She turned around to face Crabbe and Goyle staring at their hands in slight horror.

"So this is what it feels like to be a guy," Goyle whispered to himself.

Crabbe looked like he was about to throw up and even spat something out into his vial.

"Ron!" Ila said, wrinkling her nose, which she noted was a lot smaller. How was she able to breathe through her nose?

"Did anyone else's taste disgusting?"

"The more horrible the person is that you're changing into, the worse the potion tastes," Hermione explained, walking to the mirror beside Ila.

"Imagine turning into You Know Who," Ron shuddered, standing on the other side of her. Three stared at the familiar figures.

"How long will this last?" Hermione asked, poking a nasty spot on her cheek, some of the pus landing on the mirror. Ila checked the label on the vial.

"A few hours," Ila said, checking the label on the vial before pocketing it. "We have to find the three of them first before we can do anything else." Ila grabbed her Invisibility cloak and motioned the other two to go under it with her. She hadn't realised just how difficult everything would be if she were just a few inches taller. She suddenly felt sorry for Ron. Considering how two out of the three friends had grown significantly, they had to crouch for everything to remain invisible, which meant many knees and legs kicking into places that shouldn't be for kicking.

"Ila, that is the sixth time you've kicked me there," Ron groaned, making everyone stop as he breathed through the pain.

"I'm sorry that I can't control these limbs," Ila said, staring at her map. There were only a few steps away from the common room. In fact, she could see Crabbe passed out outside the door. "They have a mind of their own."

"Where are we going to put them again?" Hermione asked, rather nervous now that the plan was actually going into full force.

"Er…." Ila rechecked her map. "There's an empty room next door." Ila pulled the cloak off her and her friends, finally breathing fresh, dungeon air rather than the one that had cumulated in their cloak. "Hermione, you get Crabbe, Ron find Goyle, and I'll get Parkinson."

They nodded at each other before heading to their jobs. Hermione straight away worked on pulling Crabbe to the classroom. She dragged him quickly by the leg, accidentally hitting his head against the door frame hard.

"Oops!" Ila heard her whisper. Ron and Ila entered the room which was filled with hungover/unconscious students from the night before. It seemed that no one had managed to make the trip back to their dorm room. Ila saw a few familiar faces. Lavender and Parvati were sleeping on a Durmstrung boy's chest. Their dresses had hitched up significantly. Quickly grabbing a cloak off of a boy dressed as a superhero, Ila draped the cloth over their legs. Seamus was sleeping on a couch upside down on the opposite side, with his feet in the air and his red face on the floor. Dean was close to him, with a peaceful Ginny resting on his shoulder, her red hair fanning out like a halo.

Ron also saw this.

As he was about to take his wand out to move the two away from each other, Ila stopped him, getting him back on course.

Besides, sleeping next to Seamus' feet was enough of punishment anyway.

Ila had also walked past the twins, who were sleeping on a table. Unfortunately, it seemed that this was also the food table. It didn't seemed that they mind, perhaps too tired from the night before as Fred rolled over, revealing all sorts of food staining his clothes. Walking further up, Ila stopped in her tracks. Cedric Diggory was also here. He was dressed up as a pirate. His shirt had been unbuttoned a bit too much with his hat was slightly askew and hiding his face. It felt like Ila had been in a trance, the rise and fall of his chest hypnotising her….

Get a hold of yourself! A voice shouted at her.

She shook herself and walked past him, completely missing the hand that was clasped around his. A hand that belonged to none other than Cho Chang.

Ila couldn't walk that much further with the window that had a view of the Black Lake signifying the end of the room. There was one other table. Ila crouched down and pushed back the cloth. Pansy Parkinson was sleeping under the table, clutching onto a bottle of butterbeer.

"Psst! Ila, I found him!" Ron whispered behind her. Ila turned around. Ron was haphazardly dragging Goyle by the arm, not caring if he hit a table or the sofa's leg.

"How does he not feel anything?" Ila replied as she watched him get kicked accidentally by Dean's leg in the face. There was already a bruise starting to form.

Ron shrugged, but as he was dragging Goyle away, Ila could see his wand sticking out the band of his trousers. Ila turned around. She crawled halfway into the table, far enough so that Ila could move Parkinson's' body out of the table. Hitting her head while doing so, it seemed that Parkinson wasn't as unconscious as the other two boys.

"Hmm?" "W-who is that?" Parkinson murmured, and Ila stilled, her hands also wrapped around the bottle of butterbeer.

"Er – this is a dream…." Ila said in a sing-song voice, hoping it would lull her back to sleep.

Parkinson slowly opened her eyes. Luckily she was too tired to register that a version of herself was awake, trying to take her bottle of butterbeer away from her.

"Y-you're – is that - "

"This is your subconscious telling you to go back to sleep," Ila whispered. "Gooo baack tooo sleeeep…." Ila whipped out her wand and muttered 'Stupefy'. Parkinson was soon asleep once more, the bottle of butterbeer slipping out of her hands. Breathing a sigh of relief, Ila got up, cracking her back slightly. "Merlin, I'm getting old…." She grabbed a hand and pulled her out of the Slytherin common room and into the old classroom where Ron and Hermione were there too. They locked the room and headed upstairs to the boys' dorms.

"So you know what to do, right?" Parkinson asked the two boys. They looked at each other before hesitantly nodding. "Just make sure he's awake and get him out of the dorms. I'll do everything else."

Neither of the two boys wanted to enter the room, running behind the other whenever they reached the handle. After a few moments of this, Parkinson cursed under her breath before opening the door herself and hiding quickly after not giving herself away. Parkinson hissed at the boys, and they entered the room, closing the door behind them.

Once shut, Parkinson leaned her head against the door, trying to see if she could hear anything…

Nothing.

There was a keyhole. Ah, she was going to look like such a pervert. But….no one technically knew it was her, so…Parkinson crouched down and peered through the hole.

Crabbe and Goyle were standing with their backs to Parkinson. It looked like they were talking to someone. Parkinson could see Goyle gesticulating wildly.

"Rein it back, Goyle," she muttered. As if hearing the suggestion, Goyle's hands were now glued to his side. They pushed aside as someone walked through them. Draco Malfoy was buttoning his shirt and fixing his hair.

Seeing a topless Malfoy was definitely not on her bucket list.

Once he was clothed, Parkinson looked back. He was in the mirror, talking to the two boys but…he looked tired, as if he hadn't slept for the whole night.

She was sure that she didn't see Malfoy at the party.

Being too far away, Parkinson couldn't hear what he was saying. Crabbe and Goyle were shouting something. They were pointing to the door. Malfoy looked annoyed at one point, pointing his wand towards the two. The two backed away. Parkinson didn't know if they were doing a good job or not. Soon, however, Malfoy moved away from them and was walking to the door. She needed to move now.

Parkinson clambered down the stairs, jumped over a few sleeping students and left the common room. She'd need to find a place where it wouldn't look too obvious that she was waiting for him. There weren't many places considering this was the dungeons. There was the Potions' classroom, but she wasn't going to risk herself to Snape. There has to be someplace where –

"Pansy? What're you doing here?"

Parkinson cursed under her breath. It was probably because of being in this body that made her this slow. She slowly turned around, doing her best to give an innocent smile.

"I – I was getting some breakfast," she said slowly, trying to think of a universal answer.

Malfoy knitted his brows. "Thought you said you don't eat breakfast? Something about some diet you were trying out."

"Well…I – er….there's nothing wrong with a cheat day, is there?" Parkinson barked out a high pitched laugh before slowly quietening herself, realising that she was starting to get a headache from her laugh. She cleared her throat.

"Right…" Malfoy looked confused but, thankfully, didn't question it. Instead, he walked towards her. "Do you wanna walk together?"
How would Parkinson react? Initially, she just wanted to nod her head but remembering that this was Parkinson, "I would love to Drakie!"

She saw the disgust and the instant regret after hearing that response and began walking past her. Parkinson quickly caught up to him, realising that she didn't need to walk as quickly since her legs weren't two inches tall anymore.

"Where were you last night?" Malfoy asked, looking straight ahead.

"I could say the same to you," Parkinson countered. Malfoy looked back at her, a brow raised.

"I asked first," he said.

"Well…I was downstairs, where everyone else was…." Malfoy's eyes were locked onto hers. It felt like he could see who was behind the mask.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure there'll be people that can back me up," she replied.

"You seem to be pretty alright," he noted. "Did you drink?"
Parkinson glanced at the watch on Malfoy's wrist. So maybe they didn't have to be here at seven o'clock in the morning…

"Y-yeah, I – er – I…managed to snag my hands on Daphe's Pepper Up Potion…."

Malfoy hummed in response before looking ahead once more. Parkinson breathed a silent breath of relief. "It's just cos I was looking for you last night…I wanted to talk, so I headed to your dorms, but…you weren't there."

"Like I told you - "

"But someone else was."

Parkinson stopped, only to quickly realise that she shouldn't be shocked. She played it off by tripping over her feet and caught back to Malfoy once more. Shit! He saw her! Shit! Shit! She looked down at her hands. None of the bandages that Hermione covered her wounds with was present.

"W-who was it?" she asked, hoping Malfoy couldn't tell the crack in her voice.

"Potter."

Parkinson was glad that they were on the stairs now. Malfoy had his back to her and couldn't see her reactions which were a mixture of fear and confusion.

"Seriously?" she scoffed. "W-why the fuck would she be in my room? That – that fucking bitch! I swear to Merlin I'm going to kill her!"

It looked like Malfoy had stilled before quickly turning around. "My thoughts exactly…but it is a bit weird, don't you think? She doesn't seem like the type to sneak around…."

"I'm sorry, have you ever met her in the past three years?" Parkinson did her best to sound angry. "She's a liar. She's a bitch. I'm not surprised that she's a thief too!... What did she do exactly?"

"I'm pretty sure she was trying to look into your diary," Malfoy said.

"R-really?" Parkinson muttered and cursed herself inwardly. "Good – well, it's a good thing that I put that curse on it…."

"I'm pretty sure a trail of blood following her when she left the room," Malfoy said. Did he sound sad? Why would he sound sad? "You're welcome for that one…."

"Thank you."

The two walked in silence for the next few minutes as they twisted and turned through the halls of the castle. Her chance was slowly drifting by. She needed to start asking him questions. Hmm…where to start?

"You don't do this often," Parkinson said, breaking the silence between them.

"I don't?" he asked. "I always wait for you to have breakfast."

"…No, I – I meant…talk to me nicely," she said, remembering what Parkinson said last night. "Especially with Potter being in the conversation…."

Malfoy sighed heavily. "I thought we talked about this…I'm don't care about her - "

"You can't expect me to be fine with everything Draco – Drakie…." Parkinson closed her eyes at the sound of his nickname coming out of her mouth. "You never used to act like this before…what happened?"

Malfoy stopped walking. It was then that Ila realised where the two ended up in. It was in a random hallway. It was the hallway she went to yesterday during –

She was pretty sure that it didn't lead to the Great Hall. Parkinson felt for her wand. He slowly turned around.

"I already told you, Pansy," he said, stepping towards Parkinson. "I'm not going to tell you."

"Why not?" she said. He was quite close to her – closer than what she was comfortable with. Her hands sprung up to his chest, and she started playing with his tie. She stared at her hands – no Parkinson's hands.

"Is this because of what happened a few weeks ago?" he said quietly, staring at the hands that were fiddling with his tie. "Merlin, I was going to talk to you last night…."

"What happened a few weeks ago?" Parkinson asked.

She could feel his breath brush against her hands as he sighed. "I'm sorry for saying that Potter was better than you."

Parkinson's hands stilled. She looked up at him, which was a mistake. "W-what?"

He smiled slightly. "I already told you once, Pansy. No more."

She didn't know what to think. Malfoy actually said that about her. She glanced down at the floor – seeing it waver slightly before looking back at him. What the actual fu –

"It's strange," he whispered. He took a step closer to her. She stopped breathing. He leaned his head closer to hers. She didn't move away. She stayed where she was. A hand appeared to the side of her head, pushing a strand of hair out of her face. "You seem different…."

Shit.

Shit!

SHIT!

"I – I do?" her voice barely above a whisper, her hands dropping back to her sides. "How?"

"I don't know," he mumbled. "You're hair seems lighter. Your eyes seem darker…and…I s'pose you aren't annoying me as much."

"How kind of you to say." The words came out of her mouth before she had any time to think.

But he wasn't offended. Instead, the ends of his lips turned up.

"You're never this…quick-witted, are you?" Malfoy stared at her. Again, it felt like he knew who was actually behind her. Come on, Ila, steer the conversation away. Distract him…make him happy…what would make him happy…

"How observant of you," Ila muttered. "Your father would be proud…those are the skills necessary for to be a good Death Eater, wouldn't you say?"
Malfoy's hand dropped to his side. His expressions shifted. "Why would you say that?"

"Isn't it true?"

"That my father would be proud of me or that I'd make a good Death Eater?"

"Surely, they aren't mutually exclusive."

Malfoy took a step closer to Ila. "What makes you think I would care about my father's opinions? What makes you think I'd want to be a part of the Death Eaters? I've never mentioned either of them before."
"Why wouldn't you?" Ila queried. "All this time, you'd always talk about how proud your father would be…since when did you stop caring? You act so differently nowadays…."

Malfoy opened his mouth as if to say something before closing it.

"Since when did you start caring…Pansy?"

He knows.

Only a few more minutes…you'd need to know if he's working with Him.

"Father told me about the rumour," Ila lied – well, only half lied. "He told me that You Know Who's back." The box rattled once more, but Ila pushed all her weight onto that box, making sure it didn't move. Her hands clenched into fists. Ila watched for a reaction like Hermione said, but….nothing. He remained expressionless. "Do you think it's true?"

"Do you?"

"I asked first, didn't I?"

"I don't think it matters," Malfoy said, finally turning around and stepping away from her. "Bastards like him will always come and go…who cares if he's back?"

Did he just call Voldemort a bas –

"You don't sound too happy about it," Ila called out, rooted to the floor.

"Why would I be?"

"Because you're a Slytherin Draco! You of all people should be happy - "

Draco quickly walked back to her, getting close to her face when he stopped. He said in a low voice, "Who the fuck cares? Who actually fucking cares that I'm in Slytherin? Do you seriously think that the house that I'm in will define everything about me? My personality? My morals? My beliefs? How narrow-minded can you possibly believe that just because I'm in Slytherin, I now have to be an evil wizard that will side with the Dark, follow in my father's footsteps and help Voldemort? When are you going to stop being so fucking naïve?"

The two stood there, watching the other for a few moments.

"I think he's back," Ila said in a quiet voice. She didn't know where the need to tell him came from. She supposed she just needed to tell someone after holding it in for so long, and Malfoy just so happened to be the person. She had never voiced her fear out loud before. It was strange not only to hear it aloud but also for Malfoy of all people to hear it. Maybe Malfoy did know it was Ila disguised as Parkinson talking to him right now. Pity seemed to fill his eyes. He no longer looked angry.

But…if he did know it was Ila…

"What makes you say that?"

"Just a feeling…." Ila said before looking up at him. "You never really answered my question…."

"I did," Malfoy said with a tone of finality in his voice. "You just never asked the right one…." He took one final look at Ila before leaving her in the dark hallway.