- Day 55 of 366 Days of Writing Challenge: Illusion
- The Emotion Challenge: Insecure
- Hogwarts Funfair/Hedge Maze - Right Turn: (plot point) Character uses Polyjuice Potion
- Chocolate Frog Cards: (Bronze) Septimus Weasley - Write about a character luring a member of a Pureblood family into a relationship, when they themselves are not exactly relationship material for them (Half-blood, Muggle, Muggle-born, etc).
Pairings/Characters: Andromeda/Ted
Word Count: 767
Chemical Disaster
We're a match made in heaven, if they're gonna talk let them, if they don't think we're good together, baby just forget them.
Ted carefully dropped the hair in the potion that he had spent the last month preparing. It was the hair of a wizard he'd spotted in Hogsmeade last weekend, and that wizard had seemed the perfect ideal of who he should be, if he wanted to win himself a date with Andromeda.
He knew he was playing a dangerous game, and that he couldn't hide under the illusion of Polyjuice Potion forever, but he'd made up his mind. He couldn't lie forever, but at least it would be a start. Andromeda, with her purest of pure blood, would never look at him twice, otherwise.
Taking one last look at his familiar reflection in the mirror, he ladled up a serving of the potion (which had turned a dark, glittery blue), and downed it in one, making sure not to cough up any of the odd-tasting substance.
The skin on his face began to bubble and pop in front of his eyes. His jaw widened, his height soared, his shoulders spreading. His thin, mouse-brown hair thickened and darkened until it was ebony black, and grew down to his chin. His face lined a little, and Ted began to worry—he'd not noticed how old the man he'd stolen the hair from had been when he'd done the deed. Hopefully, Andromeda wouldn't notice. The man couldn't be much older than thirty-five.
Puffing out his chest when the transformation was complete, he scurried out of the Hufflepuff Common Room and headed down to the secret tunnel to Hogsmeade which he, and only a few of his friends knew about. Luckily, no-one crossed paths with him and questioned who he was, and he managed to get into the town with no problems.
Things were going well so far—but that was as good as the day would get.
Ted found Andromeda in the Three Broomsticks almost immediately. Usually, he would be quite nervous about approaching her, but with his new appearance came a new found confidence. She was deeply engrossed in a book, her thick, dark brown hair hanging over her face, and there was a small on her face. Ted's heart fluttered.
"Well, hello there, gorgeous," he greeted, trying to deepen his voice. He sat down opposite her. "Can I buy you a drink."
Andromeda tore her eyes away from her book. A series of emotions passed across her face: confusion, recognition, and then confusion again. "Uncle Alphard?" she replied, closing her book. "What are you—why are you talking to me like that?"
Ted's mouth dropped open. Uncle Alphard. Of all the people he could have picked, how could he have made such a huge mistake?
"Uncle Alphard?" Andromeda questioned again, one eyebrow raised. "What's the matter?"
His mouth continued to open and close, and he knew he must look quite a lot like a goldfish. Finally, he threw his hands up in the air, and dropped the deep voice he had been trying so hard to impersonate. "No. No, it's not."
Both eyebrows soared up this time. "Ted? Is that you?" When Ted nodded, she shook her head. "What are you doing impersonating my Uncle Alphard?"
He thought about lying, he really did. But with the way Andromeda was looking at him, he just couldn't keep lying to her. "I wanted to ask you out on a date. But I didn't think you'd go with me. So I snatched the hair off some Pureblood-looking guy last weekend, and used a Polyjuice Potion I'd been brewing to make myself look different. It wasn't supposed to be your uncle, I swear."
Andromeda was quiet for a moment, but then the corners of her mouth twitched. Within minutes, she was laughing uncontrollably, tears streaming down her face. When she composed herself, she cast her eyes on Ted, quite pitifully. "Why didn't you just ask me out?"
Ted looked down at his fingers. "I guess I'm insecure about myself. Because I'm...a Mudblood."
The humoured expression on her face froze instantly, and she reached across the table to snatch his hand. "Don't call yourself that," she chastised him. "You're just a person. We've all got the same blood. You didn't need to go through all this," she gestured wildly with her free hand. "Just to ask me out. But I am flattered," she added, as an afterthought.
Ted smiled. "Shall we try again next week?"
"I'd love to." Andromeda paused. "But no Polyjuice Potion, this time."
"I wouldn't dream of it."
