In Some Other Existence
Anonymous: Since you're accepting prompts, how about one were Seamus and Dean switch heights for a day? I saw this short post where Seamus interrupts Dean's class to switch heights, then skis out the door laughing. I need to see it in fanfic form now. So please, fulfill my wishes.
Originally posted July 30, 2017, on tumblr
13: Human Transfiguration
"Transfiguring a human body is the most difficult form of transfiguration," McGonagall lectured. "This is why I save it for my sixth year students. As such, I remind you all to take great care when practicing, unless you would prefer to take the risk of becoming stuck in a botched form."
She nodded her head at the images on the wall, the tip of her hat pointing at where the projector had been flipping through various horrifying images of human transfiguration gone wrong.
"This is the one kind of magic I will ask you to not practice on your own until I deem it safe for you. Now, find your partners and begin. Remember to discuss the change you'll be making to each other, visualize clearly, and articulate your vision."
Seamus turned to Dean with a smile. "So, what does yer dream bloke look like?"
"I'm looking at him right now," Dean replied suavely.
Seamus laughed. "I'm serious!"
"So am I!"
"Alright, well, how about something outrageous?" he suggested. "Give me green skin or something."
"McGonagall said to stick to simple things," Dean said. "Eye color, hair texture."
"Scared ye'll get me stuck with green skin forever?" Seamus teased.
"Hmm, then I could say I was dating Martian Manhunter," Dean mused.
Seamus looked at him with confusion. "That a Muggle thing?"
"Ah, yeah, I'll explain later," Dean said with a laugh.
An explosion of giggles occurred to their left, and they turned to see Hermione lengthening and shortening Ron's nose like an overactive Pinocchio. She'd also turned Harry's hair flat and platinum like Draco's; it was actually quite a disturbing sight.
"Miss Granger, you may practice outside of the classroom," McGonagall told her.
"As if we're surprised," Seamus said.
Dean grinned at him. "Okay, um…make me short."
Seamus goggled at him. "Really?"
"Yeah, I want to see things from your point of view," Dean said with a laugh.
Seamus rolled his eyes and then closed them, concentrating on making Dean short. He imagined the two of them side by side, the same height. Dean with a squatter torso, shorter arms, their heads at the same level.
"Maleocorpus!" he commanded, trying to remain focused on the image of Dean in his mind. But the more he focused on Dean, the more he thought about how much he liked Dean as he was - lean legs, wiry arms…
"Uh, Shay?"
Seamus refocused and saw that he'd succeeded in making Dean's torso shorter - but everything else was the same. His arms went past his knees, and his hips were by his elbows.
"This isn't exactly what I had in mind," Dean told him.
"Uh, Prof - "
McGonagall materialized in a second and with a swish of her wand Dean was back to his normal self.
"Remember to focus, Mr. Finnigan," she said sternly. "And perhaps try something a bit simpler."
Dean twisted his torso about, making his spine pop, then grabbed his wand and looked at Seamus with a glint in his eyes.
"So, green skin, was it?"
HPHPHP
That evening, Seamus was doubled over his transfiguration book, trying to focus and make sense of the method behind human transfiguration. Transfiguration was a scientific type of magic, with equations and variables that a wizard had to figure out and adapt to. Seamus just wasn't equipped for that. Still, he'd made it to the N.E.W.T. level, and he felt a sudden need to prove himself.
"Are you still studying?" Dean asked, looking up from his sketchbook.
"Yeah," Seamus replied. "I think I understand now. C'mere."
"What? No."
"Why not?"
"You're going to do something to me, and McGonagall hasn't given you permission yet!" Dean said.
Seamus frowned. "Ye don't trust me."
"That's right, I don't."
"How can we have a relationship without trust?" Seamus sighed dramatically, throwing himself down on the bed.
"You're ridiculous," Dean said.
Seamus sat up. "I'll do ye if ye do me."
"We already do that, Shay," he replied with a salacious grin.
Seamus found himself blushing, then shook his head to clear it. "Come on, please? Ye can try to make me tall. Ye'll probably mess it up, and then it'll be revenge."
"Probably mess it up?" Dean repeated with narrowed eyes. "McGonagall said I might have it down by the end of the week. If anything I'd do better than you did."
"So prove it."
Dean wrestled with himself for a moment, then shook his head. "No, I see what you're trying to do."
But Seamus wasn't listening to him. He was concentrating on what a short Dean would look like.
"Shay? Are you hearing me? I - "
"Maleocorpus!"
Suddenly Dean's limbs were disappearing into his now-baggy pajamas. Dean started to shriek, but then the shrinking stopped.
"What in Merlin's saggy backside made you do that?!" Dean screamed.
"Oh, that's brilliant," Seamus said with a smile as he leaped off the bed. "Stand up! Let's compare."
Dean did stand up, but menacingly. He started to stoop over like he normally would and quickly realized he was talking at Seamus' stomach. He looked straight ahead, and there were Shay's baby blues.
"I kinda like ye like this," Seamus said. "Makes it easier to kiss ye."
He began to lean forward, but Dean put a sleeve-covered hand up to stop him.
"Nope, none for you," he said.
"What?!"
"You're not supposed to be doing this outside of the classroom, and I didn't agree to it!" Dean exclaimed. "I'm not talking to you the rest of the night, and then we're going to see McGonagall to set me right."
"I could prob - "
"Your success rate is 50/50 right now, so forgive me if I don't trust your ability," Dean snapped, clambering back into his bed and pulling the curtains shut.
Seamus sat back on the edge of his bed and looked at the textbook. He slammed it angrily and threw it off the bed.
HPHPHP
"I'm really not sure about this."
"Come on, look at me! He deserves it."
"But Professor Mc - "
"If he did it, certainly you can."
"Well, yes, but - oh, alright. Maleocorpus!"
Seamus realized what the whispering meant a second too late. He tried to scramble away from the spell, but he was too late. Suddenly there was a slight burn in his body, and his clothes were very tight. When the burning stopped, he realized his feet were hanging off of the bed.
"Oh, Hermione, you did it too well!" Dean groaned.
Seamus slowly stood up and looked down at the people beside him. Looked down.
"I'm tall!" he exclaimed.
"You were supposed to just make his torso taller," Dean said.
Hermione surveyed her work with a pleased expression. "Well, I'm off to breakfast."
"Wait, put us back!"
"No, leave me be!" Seamus countered, stretching his arms above his head as well as he could in the tight, restrictive clothing.
"I don't feel comfortable reversing it," she said primly. "Speak to Professor McGonagall."
She strode out of the boys' dormitory without another word, her bushy hair bouncing as she walked.
Seamus turned to Dean, who pouted and looked away.
"So this is what it's like up here," he marveled. "Ye can see the tops of so many things!"
"I'm going to find McGonagall," Dean said, following after Hermione.
Seamus watched him leave and began to think that maybe, just maybe, transfiguring his boyfriend without consent wasn't the best thing to do.
Much to their chagrin, they quickly found out that McGonagall was away from school for the day. Dean tried to go to the Hospital Wing as a last resort, but Madam Pomfrey turned them away, saying that Detransfiguration is what they needed, not a potion.
"Well, come on, let's make the most of it!" Seamus said resting his arm around Dean's shoulders. He'd never been able to do that to anybody.
Dean shook his arm off. "Is that what it feels like? Merlin, I feel like a child."
"'S not so bad," Seamus replied. "Just wait till someone asks ye what the weather's like down there. That's annoying."
"I never realized how much more I could see from up there," Dean remarked. "D'you know what the top of anything looks like?"
"Har har," Seamus said dryly. "Ladders and levitation spells, mate."
Dean laughed. "The last time you tried a levitation spell on yourself you lit your shoes on fire."
Seamus smiled at the memory, then looked up - no, down - at his boyfriend.
"Listen, Dean, I'm sorry," Seamus said. "I shouldn't have done it. I could've messed up and hurt ye, maybe - "
"Maybe lit me on fire?" Dean teased, then sighed. "It's alright, Shay. I know you just wanted to do well. And you did a bang-up job, honestly. This is Hermione-level work."
Seamus brightened. "Ye really think so?"
"Merlin's beard, can you not hear me all the way up there?" Dean said with a wink.
Seamus rolled his eyes.
"Let's go to class, yeah?"
"Yeah." Seamus leaned down to kiss him, stooping at the waist.
Dean curled his fingers into Seamus' too-small-for-him robes to pull himself up, and they pressed their lips together.
"Godric, this angle hurts my neck," Dean mumbled.
"I got used to it," Seamus said. "But I never realized how far ye have to bend over!"
"It's worth it," Dean said, then kissed him again.
"Alright, alright, you'll be late for class!" Professor Sprout admonished as she shuffled by them, levitating numerous potted plants in front of her. "And no displays of affection in the corridors!"
"Sorry professor!" they shouted, then started walking, their hands fumbling as they tried to reach out for each other.
They were the last ones to arrive in the Charms classroom, and everybody immediately began giggling at the sight of them. Everyone except Hermione, that is, who rolled her eyes but still looked please at her work.
"Practicing our transfiguration, were we?" Professor Flitwick tittered.
"Sorry, professor, we were going to set it right before class, but McGonagall's away," Dean said.
"Well, you run along and see Dumbledore, and then come right back," Flitwick said.
"Dumbledore?" Seamus repeated.
Flitwick raised his eyebrows. "The Headmaster was Professor of Transfiguration before Professor McGonagall, you know."
They looked at each other in shock. "Of course!" they exclaimed before turning tail and sprinting down the corridor.
The two boys arrived at Dumbledore's office just as the elderly man had spoken the password to the stone gargoyle that guarded his office. He looked tired and grayer than usual, but he brightened with amusement upon seeing them.
"I see Professor McGonagall has begun teaching Human Transfiguration, has she?" he said.
"Please reverse it," Dean said, slightly out of breath. "We don't trust ourselves. Not even Hermione would do it."
"Well, if Miss Granger couldn't accomplish it, I'm flattered you turned to me," he said with a twinkle in his eye. He twitched his wand in their direction, and instantly their robes were fitting again. "Now, back to class."
They thanked him enormously, then began meandering back to the Charms classroom.
"I kinda miss bein' tall," Seamus sighed, looking at everything around him.
Dean stretched his arms above his head, then settled one of them around Seamus' shoulders, pulling him in for a kiss.
"Well, I think you're perfect just the way you are."