Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
The Reversal Spell
The four of us; being Fred, George, myself, and Lee, stand around a desk in an empty classroom. Each of us holds our wands vertically in front of our noses as we squint our eyes and wrinkle our faces. On the desktop, is the center of our focus; a scurrying, zigzagging beetle. November had flown by, and the date of our transfiguration project was drawing closer. McGonagall had already come around and collected the names of the Gryffindors staying over the holidays. So, we knew that it was time to put the finishing touches on our presentation. Blue light, the kind of color that reminds me of a computer that is booting up, shines out of the tips of our wands. Resembling lasers, four beams of blue light convene on the beetle engulfing it. The beetle is lifted, levitating about a foot above the desk. It started to twitch, and turn in the middle of the blue light; reminiscent of what I must have looked like when I was having a fit in Quirrell's class.
Seconds in, I start to feel the strain of the spell. The boys must be too, judging by the twitching of eyebrows and the sweat dripping down the sides of their faces. As our concentration wanes the light beaming out of our wands starts to flicker. Not long after, all blue glowing light vanishes, and the beetle plops back down on the desktop, completely unchanged. Not that we were expecting anything to happen to the beetle. It is, after all, an everyday beetle. I took a deep breath once we were no longer maintaining the spell. "How long?" I asked, lowering my wand.
Panting, Lee lowers his wand and glances down at this wristwatch. "About forty-five seconds" he reported.
Fred nods as he rolls the wrist of his wand hand as if casting that spell was causing it to go stiff. We're close but no cigars. "We need to get it up to a minute". Fred said. "It will be more effective if we can hold it for at least a minute".
"Why?" Lee asked. "We're just using it as a visual aid. It's not like we actually have to force an animagus to turn back into human form".
In a moment of panic, my fellow triplets and I exchanged looks. What do we say? What is a valid thing we could say to explain why we need to maintain the reversal spell for a full minute? "Umm," I started, even though no answer had come to me.
George comes to the rescue. "Exactly, it's a visual aid. If we can hold it for a full minute that's one less minute we have to spend speaking".
Fred and I latched on to that immediately. "Yeah, I think if we can hold it longer it will really impress McGonagall", I said.
"We've been running short in presentation time anyway". Fred added, giving Lee what he thinks to be a confident look. Us Weasleys have many talents; a sense of humor, reasonably intelligent, and the ability to budget. Acting is not one of those talents.
"Alright". Lee drew out the word. He's been with us triplets long enough to know not to take the majority of the things we say at face value. But our deceptions do seem to amuse him. At least when the end results turn up to be humorous. "Go again?" He asked.
My fellow triplets and I nod as we turn back to the beetle wandering on the desktop. Lee leads this round by raising his wand first. Just like last time, our faces scrunch up and our brows wrinkle. As if we've been holding our breath for too long. We cast the reversal spell five more times. And after the fifth, we managed to hold it for fifty-five seconds. "Same time, same place tomorrow?" Lee asked as we set the beetle free and packed up.
"Yeah", George said as he shouldered his book bag. "There's no quidditch practice tomorrow".
"That way we can practice the spell a couple more times before the presentation," Fred said. "George and I are almost done with the essay".
Lee nods as we head for the door. "Everyone heading back to the common room?"
"I am," I said, as I opened the door. But I don't walk through it. Instead, I lean against it to talk to my brothers and Lee. "I got a Little brother to see about borrowing his rat". Of course, borrowing is probably not the right word. I will be taking his rat and I have no intention of giving it back to him. It's for the greater good. So, I'm sure Ron will forgive me.
But Fred shakes his head. "Better go to the library then. I overheard Ron and his friends this morning. They've been spending a lot of time in the library as of late".
So, I guess I am going to the library then. "Fred? George? What about you?" Lee asked. "We could break out the exploding snap cards."
"Sorry, Mate," George said as he walked past me through the door. But he doesn't go far, he turns and leans against the door as well, looking into the classroom at Fred and Lee. "But we got a man to see about his book bag".
Lee and I look at each other. That seems too random to be anything less than mischief in the making. "Yeah, we need to inquire about his ink". Fred included.
"Make sure it's up to par."
"Wouldn't do for the man to fall short".
"Especially if he wants to hang with us,'' George said. At that statement, I understood what they were going on about. After the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin quidditch game, I told Fred and George I wanted to give Pucey a chance. The discussion that followed was probably one of the most heated talks that we have ever had. There was a lot of hand waving, exclamations of 'Merlin, Holly!', and a list of every possible negative scenario on their part. My end of the discussion contained many scoffs, eye rolls, and 'yeah, buts'. In the end, I got them to concede by stating that this might be my only chance to have a friend who went through reincarnation as well. However, since Fred and George agreed to not hold Pucey responsible for his past life's actions and to give Pucey a chance they have been pranking the poor boy ruthlessly. So far, they have set Pucey's quill on fire while he was writing, charmed his seat to make flatulence sounds whenever he sat down, dropped a couple of firecrackers in our cauldron during potions, and a few other things.
"We have to make sure he can keep up with us," Fred said, purposely smiling at me with a wide grin.
The worst of it all is that I am supposed to be on Pucey's side, so I can't laugh. Even though I really want to. "Be nice" I ordered my brothers before biting down on my bottom lip to keep from smiling. It also didn't help that Lee was on Fred and George's side. So, he could laugh as much as he wanted. Have you ever tried not laughing when someone else is? It's like trying not to breathe.
"We are nice, Jolly Holly," George said over a snickering Lee as he bumped me with his shoulder.
"It's just a bit of hazing".
"A rite of passage". Fred walked around Lee on that he was standing on my other side.
"He'll be a different man by the time we're done with him," George said, leaning down so our eye level was equal.
Fred does the same, causing me to turn my head to look at him. "A better man".
"One who we can trust with our sister", George said.
"Since you refuse to accept Lee," they said at the same time. Annoyance hits me the same moment their words do. We all know, even Lee knows, that I will never have an interest in him outside of friendship. These three idiots just keep bringing it up because they think it's funny. I can't wait for the day they all get a little older and find girls they'll actually have feelings for. Then it will be my turn to make jokes. Fred and George lean forward and kiss both of my cheeks in quick succession. "Good luck with Ron". They said as they officially walked out of the classroom and down the hallway.
I turned to Lee. "Did they haze you when we all became friends?"
It takes some searching before I find Ron and company. I had to peer around the bookshelves and walk up to tables containing first-years to see if my younger brother was amongst them. But I finally find him sitting in the back corner of the library with Harry at a table covered with books. "What are you two doing?" I asked, coming up behind Ron. I wrapped my arms over his neck and pulled his back into me for a hug. At the contact, the boy immediately complains.
"Get off!" Ron demanded as he tried to shrug me off his person.
"No," I said, hugging him tighter. From the other side of the table, Harry watches us with a light expression. He smiles slightly as Ron tries to wiggle away from me. "I can't stop. I love you too much".
From my place behind him, I know the moment Ron's ears start to match his red hair. "Holly" Ron sputters in complaint.
"What, was that embarrassing?" I asked, but I am not fooling anyone. We all know that a big sister claiming her love for you in front of your best friend is blush-worthy. But I can't help it. Ron just makes it too easy. "Don't be embarrassed. Harry knows I love you. Right, Harry?" I asked the bespectacled boy. Harry opens his mouth to respond with a slightly uncomfortable look on his face. He probably has not seen many sibling interactions like this before. But I don't let him respond. "Besides, it is impossible not to love your little brother when he is such a carrot top".
This comment steals Ron's ability to form actual words. For several seconds he just makes random syllables. Harry covers his mouth with the sleeve of his robe, as his shoulders shake. Such a nice friend Harry is. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn't have to attempt to subdue a laugh. I was always the type of person, in both lives, to laugh at a friend's expense. This time when Ron tries to shake me off him, I allow it. Releasing the hold, I have around him, I fall into the bench seat beside my brother. Now able to see his face, I instantly crack up. He's so red that he really could pass as a carrot. Regaining the ability to speak, Ron turned to me and said, "We have the same hair color!" I just smile broadly at him in response. I probably only have one more year after this one of him being this cute. After that, he would turn into a surly teenager and become a lost cause. When I don't answer him, Ron takes on a distrustful expression. "What do you want?" He asked, shooting a warning look in Harry's direction. He probably wants the boy who lived to be on the lookout for Fred and George. A lot of our pranks involved me being the distraction, while Fred and George delivered the punchline. But the joke is on Ron. Our brothers are currently busy terrorizing someone else.
"I need to borrow Scabbers," I said, getting straight to the point.
"What? No" Was Ron's automatic answer.
"Please" I responded at once. I definitely cannot accept no as an answer for this one. "We need an animal for a project in transfiguration and Scabbers is the perfect size."
Ron looks horrified. "I'm not going to let you transfigure Scabbers!"
"Well, why not?" I asked. "Didn't you try to turn him yellow?" I looked in Harry's direction for confirmation. Harry nods and I turn back to my brother in triumph.
"Yeah, but it was a dud of a spell that you gave me!" Ron retorted.
"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked. It would be easier if Ron would give me Scabbers. But in the worst-case scenario, Fred, George, and I would steal him. "Scabbers will be fine. McGonagall will make sure that nothing bad happens to him, and I'll make sure that you get him back right after our class", I lied. I had no intention of Ron setting eyes on that mass murderer ever again after transfiguration on Friday. Ron still doesn't look convinced. I need to up the ante. "If you let us borrow Scabbers, the next time there is a Hogsmeade weekend I'll buy you whatever you want and whatever I can afford from Honeydukes or Zonkos", I bribed. And it worked.
Ron's face lit up as he licked his lips. "How much do you have?"
"Five galleons", I said honestly. I had been saving them through Christmas and birthday money. "I'll spend it all on you if you let us use Scabbers".
"Alright," Ron agreed after a moment of contemplation. "But you promise that nothing will happen to him?"
I give Ron a solemn nod. "He will be perfectly safe" I lied.
"When do you need him?" Ron asked, getting all the important details.
I stand up from the bench seat. "Friday. Can I take him before classes that morning?" Ron agreed with a quick incline of his head. "It was a pleasure doing business with you Mr. Weasley," I said in a prim voice. But Ron scoffs instead of joining in. He hadn't inherited the same sense of humor as me and my fellow triplets had. As Ron turns back to Harry and all the books they had laid out before them, I turn to go. As I walk away, I hear a third person join them.
"Can't believe I hadn't thought of this". I recognize the voice as Granger's. Good to know that all three of them have finally hit it off. "I checked this out weeks ago for a bit of light reading". I was out of hearing distance before I could listen to the response. But I recognized that line. So, the three of them were researching Nicolas Flamel. Good to know.
Exiting the library, I ran into one more individual. A very spotted and agitated individual. Pucey stands a couple of feet away from me with an expression on his face that gives me the impression that he would very much like to throttle someone. And I could understand why. All over his person were splotches of black ink. It was on the toes of his leather shoes, and all over his robes like a dalmatian. I could see splotches on his hands, in his hair, and on his face. It was like face paint gone wrong. I snorted and clapped my hands over my mouth and nose. Though that couldn't snuffle out the waves of chortling that followed. It was strong enough that the force of my laughter had me bending at the waist. "I don't know how they did it," Adrian said with a strange mixture of rage and resignation. "I don't even know how they found me. How they keep finding me!" Adrian complained, talking right over my amusement. Of course, I know how Fred and George are always able to find him. It's all thanks to our friends; Moony, Prongs, and Padfoot. "But they managed to curse the inkwell I keep in my bag to splatter ink all over me when I went to use it!" His explanation made it more difficult to compose myself. Which is a fact that made me feel guilty. I am Pucey's friend. I shouldn't laugh at his misfortune. Unfortunately, that fact just made it funnier. Why is it that things you aren't supposed to laugh at are the funniest? "Weasley!" Pucey barks at me before I make an honest attempt to control myself together. Pucey waits until I am standing upright again, with only sporadic waves of giggles shaking my form before he said, "I thought you three decided to give me a chance." He sounds like he is accusing me. "We are," I said, biting my lip between words to keep the chuckles on the inside. "Honestly, I'd be more concerned if they weren't pranking you. If Fred and George hated you completely then they would ignore your existence". Of course, I don't think there is anyone at the moment that Fred and George absolutely hate. I don't think that will happen until Umbridge and they unleash a portable swamp. Or until Malfoy says horrible things about our Mum and they beat him up… But Pucey doesn't need to know that they turn out to actually be quite aggressive with people they hate. "This is a good thing", I said.
The unimpressed look on his face tells me exactly how Pucey feels about that. At least, I've stopped laughing. "Weasley," Pucey said lowly; at the end of his rope. "Make them stop".
"I can't," I said, shrugging. "That would be like denying fish water. But you can always prank them back" I suggested. It definitely would be a way to gain my brothers' respect. And it would also show them that Pucey is as much a human being as they are. Even better, a human being with a sense of humor.
Pucey reaches up with an ink-stained hand and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Unlike some", he said before sending me a very pointed look. "I do not feel the need to take such childish actions".
"Pity," I said, unaffected by his connotation. You learn to have thick skin to guard your feelings when you're from a family of ten. "Childish actions are a lot more fun". But then I give Pucey another shrug and smile at him. "Fred and George won't stop until they're bored. So, you might as well get a couple of laughs out of it too". I gave him my advice and started to walk around him. I give Pucey a wide berth. I wouldn't want to get any ink on me. "Just don't kill or seriously maim them" I threw over my shoulder as I started the trek for Gryffindor tower.
Our four-foot essay is turned in and now my brothers, Lee, and I stand in front of our transfiguration class; lecturing about how to tell an animagus apart from normal animals. "Animagi will have similar features that carry over between their human and animal forms," George explained to the class. Meanwhile, I keep my eyes focused on Scabbers. As promised, Ron had handed him to me this morning at breakfast. Fred, George, and I had a jar all prepared for him. Last night we had decided that a jar would be better than a shoebox or the like because Pettigrew wouldn't be able to chew through the glass. We made sure that the jar lid had plenty of air holes. We, ourselves, wouldn't want to be convicted for murder. But we also taped the lid down with layers and layers of spell-o-tape. The only way Pettigrew would be able to get out of the Jar before we let him out was if he transformed back into his human self. Which he couldn't do without showing himself to the student body anyway. At the start of the presentation, we had placed the jar on top of McGonagall's desk. And I have been watching him ever since with my heart pounding in my chest. Moment of truth.
"Like, if an animagus wears glasses, they may have marks around their eyes in their animal forms" Lee adds as an example.
It's my line next. I force myself to look away from the mass murderer in the jar in favor of making eye contact with my classmates. That is what you are supposed to do during classroom presentations, after all. "It will be difficult, however; to spot an animagus in animal form if you don't already have an idea of what you should be looking for. Especially if you don't know what their animal form is." My piece done, I look back to Scabbers on McGonagall's desk. He had been calm all morning. Didn't even squirm when Ron had handed him to me. Fred, George, and I had been careful about not mentioning the transfiguration project just in case he heard us and put his guard up. But after we had brought him out before our transfiguration class and started talking about animagi, Pettigrew had become increasingly agitated. He kept scampering from one side of the jar to the other. As if he was trying to get it to topple over and fall off McGonagall's desk. It was the most active any of us had ever seen him. He must know that things are about to turn badly for him. My palms start to sweat in anticipation and I quickly dry them on my robes. It wouldn't do if my grip on my wand was weak when we did our demonstration.
"There is a way to force an animagus out of their animal form" Fred takes over. "It's called the reversal spell. It only affects animagi and is completely harmless to normal animals".
"But this spell can only be used non-verbally," George added.
"We've been practicing it for our visual aid," explained Lee.
"This is just a normal rat", I said as the four of us started to shift around so McGonagall and our classmates could get a good view of Scabbers. Fred and Lee stand to the left. George and I are on the right. "So, you'll get to see what the spell looks like, but Scabbers will be perfectly alright", I lied as the four of us pulled out our wands. From her desk chair, McGonagall leaned forward, intrigued. So far, all of the other presentation visual aids had been posters. One very motivated group of Ravenclaws had performed a skit. But we were the first group to use a spell for our visual aid. And a non-verbal spell at that. McGonagall was probably skeptical if we could pull it off. We weren't the most academic of students, after all.
As we held our wands vertically up in front of our noses, Fred said, "We're going to leave him in the jar so he doesn't get loose". At this point, Scabbers was squeaking up a storm as he tried to throw his weight around to get the jar to fall over. Just like in practice, the four of us, scrunch our noses and squint our eyes. For a moment nothing happens except for a Ravenclaw coughing from somewhere in the back of the room. We probably look ridiculous standing up here and making such silly faces. But the next moment, blue laser-like light shoots out of our wands and merges at the jar. Scabbers gives a terrified squeak before he is engulfed with the blue light. Please, let this work. I think as both Scabbers and the jar are lifted a few inches off McGonagall's desk. The whole classroom gasps. A second in Scabbers' form starts to get bigger. He twitches and twists in the blue light as his form transfigures itself. McGonagall stands up all of a sudden. And it's a good thing too because at that moment Scabbers gets too big for the jar.
The jar bursts, sending shards of glass cascading down McGonagall's desk and onto the classroom floor. In the back of my mind, I hope that no one gets hit by any miscellaneous glass. But I can't think too much about it. We must remain focused on the reversal spell. Still encased in the blue light, Scabbers becomes less and less rat-like. In a way, this spell kind of reminds me of evolving Pokemon from that cartoon Jessie used to watch after school. Soon, we see a human arm instead of a paw. Then a foot. The intensity of the spell light picks up. It gets so bright that the whole class is blinded. We can't see each other. And we can't see Scabbers. The light lasts for at least five more seconds. And when it fades the four of us lower our wands, panting and sweating from all our efforts. But there, squatting on McGonagall's desk is a shaggy grown man with poor hygiene and rotting teeth than none of us have ever seen before.
"Merlin, what have we done!" Lee exclaims between his labored breath as he stares at the stranger. "Ron is going to kill you three".
The rest of the class fell silent at the grand reveal, but at Lee's words, everyone started to talk amongst themselves with a fervor rarely seen in McGonagall's class. Fred gives George and me an accomplished nod while George grabs my wandless hand and squeezes. We did it. There would be no more murderers sleeping in our brother's bed. Pettigrew stares at his hands as if he can't quite believe they're there. It's a fair reaction, I suppose. His hands had been paws for many years. But when he realizes where he is and what he is, he tries to clumsily climb down from McGonagall's desk. But his limbs don't seem to be obeying him. It must be difficult going from scampering about on four paws to walking on two feet. However, McGonagall had come to her senses a lot faster than Pettigrew or any of us students. Leaning slightly over her desk, McGonagall pressed the tip of her wand at the pulse point in his neck. Pettigrew stills his escape attempt at once. "Don't move" She ordered in the most dangerous voice that we have ever heard her use. And that is coming from the students who regularly have detention with her.