CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHT
"Why do you need to borrow my clothes?"
Jane rummaged through Sirius' trunk, pulling out a shirt and some trousers.
"Because when I'm trapped inside your body for an hour, I don't want to be more uncomfortable than I already will be. In case you haven't noticed, we aren't anywhere near the same size or body type."
Today was the day the students would be taking the train back to London for the holidays. Everyone in Slughorn's sixth year Potions class had to wake up early to test out their potions so they could be graded.
"So, you're just going to show up in oversized clothes?"
"Better than leaving in undersized clothes," Jane said, finding a belt and sitting it on top of the trousers.
"You could always just change after the transition," Sirius said with a smirk on his face.
"I prefer not to undress you though," Jane said, grabbing up the clothes.
"Oh, would that be considered cheating?" Sirius asked wryly.
"Even if I wasn't dating Will, I still wouldn't want to see you naked," she said brushing past him.
"So, do I get any of your clothes?" Sirius asked.
"Not a chance, mate."
Jane felt really weird in Sirius' clothes. The shirt was too long for her, and she kept having to push the sleeves up so they didn't envelop her hands. The belt was on as tight as it would go, but that did nothing for the fact the trousers were also too long. She had looked at herself in the mirror and almost laughed. She looked like a little kid playing dress up in her older brother's clothes.
Luckily, Will didn't have to see her like this. There was still the small problem of being trapped inside Sirius' body for a portion of the train ride; she'd just have to stay away from him until then. Hopefully it wouldn't really last a whole hour.
Jane grabbed the bottle of Polyjuice from the drawer of her nightstand (she hadn't trusted Sirius to keep it) before carefully walking down to the common room, trying not to tread all over the bottom of Sirius' jeans.
When Jane and Sirius got to Slughorn's office, James and Lily were just walking out. Lily had a very pleased look on her face.
"We passed," she informed Jane happily.
"If that's the case then why aren't you all giggly and hysterical?" Jane asked, as that's what the effects of the Alihosty Draught were.
"Slughorn gave us a tonic," Lily said, furrowing her brow as she looked at Jane's choice of clothing. "What are you wearing?"
"It's for the project," Jane said very unenthusiastically.
"Cheer up," Sirius said. "You get to be me today; you should be overjoyed."
Jane rolled her eyes and grabbed Sirius by the arm, pulling him into Slughorn's office.
"Come on. Let's get this over with."
"Ah, yes, my Polyjuice pair!" Slughorn said excitedly as they walked in, grabbing two cups from a cupboard.
Jane sat the bottle of the muddy liquid on his desk, waiting as he poured it into the cups. Jane plucked a hair out of her head and put it into one of the cups, Sirius doing the same. Jane picked up the cup and swirled it around a bit, watching as the thick, brown liquid turned a transparent, light blue colour.
Jane looked up at the cup in Sirius' hand to see what colour "her" Polyjuice was turning. It was a pleasant white opal.
"Janie, you look like sparkly milk," Sirius commented.
Jane shrugged. White opal. Sparkly milk. Same difference. It was kind of pretty in her opinion.
"Well, at least it's more original than blue," she shot back.
They both raised the cups to their lips. Jane winced as it reached her taste buds. It was bitter, but from what the book had described, it could've been a lot worse. Jane sat the almost empty cup back on Slughorn's desk.
Suddenly, Jane's stomach started to writhe and wiggle, and she felt like she was going to be sick. A fire spread very rapidly through her body. Her skin felt as though it were about to melt off her body as it bubbled and moved of its own accord. She was doubled up, still thinking she might vomit and hoping that she didn't.
She became very uncomfortable as she grew taller. The belt she was wearing was squeezing her too tight. She could feel her bra unclasp. She wanted to scream out in pain as her feet outgrew her shoes, and she quickly kicked them off. Her hair seemed to recede until it was hanging very annoyingly in her eyes.
When Jane stood up straight, she was considerably higher off the ground. She looked down her body. Sirius' clothes were no longer too big for her. She lifted her hand and brushed her hair out of her face. She looked in front of her and there stood, well, her. It was weird.
"Oh, excellent!" Slughorn exclaimed, looking at the both of them and scribbling something on a clipboard. "Are you both feeling okay?"
"Other than this belt cutting into me, I'm fine," Jane said.
"Good, good," Slughorn said. "Well, you both pass. Have a wonderful holiday."
Jane and Sirius walked out of Slughorn's office, and Jane happily loosened the belt she was wearing.
"This is weird," Sirius said, looking around. "How do you live down here?"
Jane rolled her eyes.
"I'm not that short. You're just too tall," she said.
"What are you doing?" Sirius asked.
Jane had her hands in the shirt she was wearing, pulling off the bra that she obviously didn't need anymore. Sirius raised a brow before looking down at his own chest and smirked.
"Maybe I should take that," he said, and Jane glared at him, which was just really weird because it was like she was glaring at herself.
"You still manage to be a pig when you're not even in your own body," she said.
"No, it's better because I'm in your body now, and I've never had breasts before, so this should be fun."
Jane grabbed Sirius' wrist before his hand could reach the boobs he now had.
"I will kill you," Jane said, twisting his arm behind his back.
"Ow!" he said, and Jane laughed.
"Oh, this is fun; I'm stronger than you now."
"Yeah, it's just fabulous," Sirius muttered.
"Merlin! Stop stepping on my heels!"
"Sorry," Jane mumbled. "I can't help it that Sirius' feet are gigantic."
On the way to the train from the carriages, she had been stumbling and stepping on the back of Peter's feet. She just wasn't used to them.
"This is just weird," James said. "Couldn't Slughorn have just turned you back to normal?"
"You think I want to be stuck like this for an hour?" Jane asked.
"It's not so bad, other than the fact I have to keep straining my neck just to look at anybody," Sirius said, still teasing Jane about her height.
"If you think it's weird now, just wait until—"
"Will!" Jane exclaimed quietly, cutting Remus off and trying to hide behind him when she saw Will waiting to board the train with Jarod and Brenton.
"Yeah," Remus said, snapping his book closed. "That might've worked when you were in your body, but anyone with half an eye can still see you. And shouldn't you be more worried about hiding him?"
Remus pointed to Sirius whose crossed arms were placing his hands suspiciously close to his—well, Jane's—chest. Jane scowled and grabbed Sirius by the arm.
"Let's board somewhere else," Jane said, leading the boys further down the train.
"This is ridiculous," Sirius said. "He knew you were testing this Polyjuice today."
"That doesn't make it any less awkward," Jane retorted. "I'm not gonna hang out with my boyfriend while I'm stuck looking like you."
Sirius sighed.
"All for the best I suppose," Peter said as the friends boarded the train. "I doubt Padfoot wants people thinking he's a queer."
Jane's mind immediately flashed to Mary and Marlene, and before she could really keep her mouth shut, she blurted out:
"There's not like there's anything wrong with it."
The boys all looked at Jane, and she realised she'd said it far louder than she meant to and that it came out sounding really angry. Peter furrowed his brow as he found an empty compartment.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to offend you?" he said, sounding really unsure of himself.
"That's not it," Jane said as she picked up her suitcase and put it on the luggage rack with ease for the first time in her life. (Meanwhile, Sirius, stuck in Jane's body, was having a more difficult time with his suitcase)
"It's just, I don't know, I just don't really think it's that big of a deal," she continued. "Need help?" she added smugly to Sirius.
He scowled at her and mumbled a quick "No" before going back to struggling with his luggage.
"Something you need to tell us, Jane? Do you have a secret girlfriend somewhere?" James teased.
"No, I just—"
"No, let me guess," Sirius said, forgetting about his suitcase. "MacGregor's actually gay, and you're just his cover."
Jane sneered at him.
"No, I just don't think it's right to judge anybody for that," she said. "I mean, it's not like they can help it. You can't help who you fall in love with, can you? I mean, it's like falling for someone who's already taken or-or—I don't know—accidentally falling for one of your best friends; sometimes things like that happen, and you just can't help it."
The boys just kind of stared at her, not saying anything.
"Do any of you understand any of what I just said?" she asked irritably at their lack of response.
They all nodded, and Sirius finally got his suitcase onto the luggage rack before sitting back down.
"Yeah, I guess I've never thought of it like that," he said, giving her a funny look.
Jane looked at him intently before cringing away.
"Do I really look that awful without makeup?" she asked, pointing to Sirius who just rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, Janie, you're a real hag," he said, earning a kick in the leg.
The train ride home was the same as usual, if one didn't account for the whole body swap thing. You learn a lot when you're stuck in the body of the opposite sex. Like getting hit really hard in the boob does actually hurt and that it's really uncomfortable to have male genitalia and be wearing female underwear at the same time (Jane was definitely throwing this pair away when she got home because it was too weird to think about). Also, if you're not used to having underarm hair, it's really itchy, and this prompted Jane to wonder why guys just didn't shave their armpits.
Jane also had a lot of questions that she thought should really be looked in to, though she didn't voice them out loud. One of these questions were: if a girl uses Polyjuice to change into a guy, could that person then proceed to get someone pregnant? And if so, whose DNA would the child have? The girl's or the guy's that she changed into? These were ground-breaking questions. Sirius was thinking up his own questions, but they were more along the lines of wondering what multiple orgasms felt like, and thankfully, he didn't voice his thoughts either.
However, Jane did ask why Sirius didn't cut his damn hair. It kept falling very annoyingly into her eyes, and she kept having to flip it out of her face.
"My hair is perfect. My hair has always been perfect. My hair will always be perfect," was his response.
It took a while, but finally the potion wore off, and Jane was able to change back into her own comfortable clothes and put her makeup on before parting with the boys to go find Will. For the rest of the ride back to London, she sat snuggled into Will's side, talking about the Quidditch league with him, Jarod, and Brenton.
When they finally reached King's Cross, Jane stood on the platform with Will saying goodbye with her arms wrapped around him.
"I'll miss you," Jane said, hugging him.
"I'll miss you more."
Jane laughed and pulled away.
"Liar," she teased.
Will smiled and kissed her on the tip of her nose, causing Jane to smile like an idiot before kissing him goodbye.
"You two are revolting," Sirius said once Will left as he walked up to Jane with the rest of the boys.
"You're just jealous," Jane said, giving him a quick hug goodbye.
"So everyone keeps telling me," he mumbled into her hair before she pulled away to say goodbye to the rest of the boys and then disappeared through the barrier.