Kaviary

Adeline already regretted agreeing to Garreth’s plan. Professor Sharp had, for all intents and purposes, banned Garreth from being in the potions classroom outside of his required working hours and without the professor’s eagle eyed supervision.

Earlier that day in the library, the redhead had boasted about a new potion he had come up with - without a cauldron. Naturally, Adeline called him on it. The pair had bickered back and forth in potions since she first started Hogwarts in her fifth year.

“You can’t possibly create a potion without ever brewing it, Weasley! It’s like saying you invented a spell without casting it. Without proof, all you have is an idea.”

“Not true. I’ve done all the research on the ingredients and their interactions. I can confidently say I can brew it first try without any issues. No explosions, foul smells, or anything that would draw Sharp’s attention.” He puffed out his chest as he elaborated on his previous statement.

There always needed to be a winner between Garreth and Adeline, so when she challenged him to put his galleons where his mouth was, he took her up on the dare. After hatching a plan, much to the chagrin of the other students trying to study at their table, the two shook on it. They were to meet at the potions storeroom after curfew; it was a trek for the both of them, but the Ravenclaw was used to sneaking around the castle at night. Instead of retiring to Ravenclaw Tower, she snuck out to the greenhouses so it would be a shorter trip once she was sure the professors had retired for the evening. It was also going to be really good for her ego if she beat Garreth to the meeting spot for his own plan.

Disappointment wasn’t a strong enough word for how she felt when she made it to the hallway and already saw the storeroom door open. She peeked around after disillusioning herself to ensure it wasn’t Sharp, and she was greeted by the sight of unruly red hair.

She didn’t say anything until she started looking at the ingredients he had grabbed. They looked familiar and it was going to drive her mad if she couldn’t figure it out. It finally hit her when she saw the boomslang skin.

“You cheater!” She whisper-shouted at him, not wanting to be loud and draw the attention of an errant prefect, or worse, Peeves. “What are you going to do? Speed brew polyjuice?”

The Gryffindor let out an indignant scoff as he turned his head to look at her. His expression was all arrogance and there was a smug grin tugging at the corners of his lips.

“No. It's a derivative of polyjuice, yes. However, I’ve been doing some calculations and with these adjustments, two people should be able to swap places with each other.”

Adeline made herself comfortable as she sat on the edge of a neighboring brewing station. She didn’t offer to help Garreth, and he wouldn’t ask for her help either. He had been so confident about this brew he had created, he wanted to be the only one to work on it and Addie could respect that. As much as they bumped heads and tried to outdo each other, they didn’t steal each other’s moments.

After what had to have been a few hours, Garreth finally called Adeline to the cauldron.

“Now, to ensure the swap will work, the potion needs a piece of each participant.”

“Like polyjuice needs part of the person you want to turn into,” Adeline commented with a nod.

She winced slightly as she plucked a few hairs from her own head and dropped them into the cauldron. Garreth seemed to stop and think for a moment before simply leaning over and spitting into the brew.

He filled two vials and handed one to Adeline, and this was when he saw the disgust and horror broadcasted on her face.

“It’ll be fine,” Garreth scoffed as he all but shoved the vial into the Ravenclaw’s hand.

Famous last words.

The pair swallowed down the mysterious potion, the sound of their distaste of the bitter brew bounced off the stone walls of the classroom. They waited half an hour for something – anything – to happen. 

Time crawled as the students sat on the floor with their eyes trained on the clock above Sharp’s desk. Every few minutes, she felt the weight of Garreth’s stare; his determination and desperation made the air thick. The classroom was silent aside from the sound of their measured breaths. The last time Adeline could remember carrying this much tension, she had been brewing Draught of Living Death. Somehow, just waiting for Garreth’s brew to take effect was worse.

“It’s getting late, Garreth. If we stay out much later, it’ll be harder to sneak back to our dorms.”

Adeline took a bit of pity on the Gryffindor, her tone gentle. 

As much as he didn’t want to admit defeat, Garreth nodded anyway. He was silent in the face of his failure; the resilience he usually carried was absent, and so was the mischievous sparkle in his eye.

There were no smug or snarky comments as they went their separate ways. Even though she hadn’t voiced it, Addie had wanted it to work too. And so, the duo dejectedly snuck through the halls back to their respective common rooms.

~~~

It was bright when Adeline woke up, which wasn’t strange. She was usually up with the sunrise to get a proper start to her day. What was strange was that her pillow was too soft beneath her head, the blankets too thick, she was too hot, and the voices bouncing off the dorm walls were masculine.

She shot up in bed, eyes wild as she looked around. Everything was red.

This wasn’t her dorm.

“Garreth, mate, you alright?” Leander Prewett called out, realizing their final roommate had awoken. “How’d the sneaky brewing go with Addie last night?”

Don’t panic. They don’t know. Play it cool and they’ll still think you’re Garreth. You can do this.

“It went fine.” It was strange hearing Garreth’s voice when she was the one speaking. “The potion didn’t work. I’m going to have to work on the ratios of the ingredients. So I uh – I have to go…”

Leander and Eric Northcott stared as their friend and housemate booked it from their dorm still clad in his pajamas. Their gazes briefly met before they turned back to the door in almost perfect unison.

“What’s gotten into him?”

She heard them question her behavior as she left, but she had to find Garreth. The real Garreth in her body, so… herself? The rationale was too much for her sleep-addled, panicked brain to process as she made her way down the stairs from the Gryffindor common room.

~~~

Garreth laid in bed with his eyes still closed, feeling decently well rested considering how late he and Adeline had been up to brew his failure of a potion. It had been such a disappointment, to sneak back up to Gryffindor Tower having made himself look dumb in front of Adeline. There was a part of him that wanted to hide in his dorm all day to avoid the shame and defeat bubbling in his chest.

His internal debate ended when he felt a hand gently shake his shoulder. It was a rather small hand, too small to be Leander or Eric. 

“Addie, if you don’t wake up, you’ll be late for breakfast.”

Garreth’s eyes shot open, and he was greeted by the sight of Samantha Dale standing over him.

Samantha Dale?

Oh.

Oh.

“Uhm. Thanks, Samantha,” he spoke and Adeline’s voice came out.

He waited until the dorm was completely empty before rising from bed. He knew the looks he’d draw if he went to breakfast as Adeline in pajamas, and as he compared the two options, he decided on the latter. With his eyes locked on the rather bland wooden ceiling of the Ravenclaw seventh year’s girls dorm, he managed to get dressed in a uniform. Once fully clothed, he allowed himself to look in a mirror, and straighten his tie.

He had to find Adeline. It was his sole objective as he made his way down from Ravenclaw Tower.

~~~

The Great Hall was usually lively in the mornings, and this morning was no different. At least it wasn’t until Garreth Weasley entered in his pajamas. A hush fell over the room, but it was quickly filled again with whispers as students across houses began to talk about the Gryffindor wild child.

Adeline didn’t notice her mistake until she saw Professor Weasley stalking towards her down the aisle between tables. Merlin, she had never seen the older woman so angry in her two years at this school. She let out a gasp as her favorite professor grabbed her by the ear and pulled her towards the back corridor of the room.

“Garreth Frederick Weasley, what in Merlin’s name made you think it was acceptable for you to come to breakfast in your pajamas? You are a seventh year! I know your parents taught you to dress yourself. You’ve dressed yourself every day when you’ve been at this school. Why is today different?”

Professor Weasley’s scolding was hushed but that didn’t make it any less jarring and terrifying. In fact, the lack of attention she was drawing while she tore into who she thought was her nephew was the scariest part.

Adeline looked down at herself in the middle of Professor Weasley’s lecture, and she felt her cheeks heat in embarrassment. She had been so preoccupied with getting out of the boys’ dorms that she had forgotten to put on presentable clothing.

“Professor I can explain–”

“Adeline!”

Her plea was cut off by her own voice and she snapped her head over to see Garreth in her body. In a uniform. There was a small solace in seeing the panic she felt mirrored in his expression.

Had she not been so thrown off by how the morning had gone as a whole, she would’ve interrogated Garreth to figure out just how he had managed to dress her body before coming to the Great Hall.

“Aunt Matilda, I can explain–”

“Miss Redferne, while I can appreciate the relationship we’ve developed over your years here, I hardly think it’s appropriate that you call me that. I’m not your aunt, and while you’re a student, you will call me Professor Weasley.” The woman chided her nephew, though she had at least released Adeline when he had appeared.

“I’m not Adeline! That’s Adeline. I’m Garreth.”

The professor looked between the two a few times, appearing on the verge of having an aneurism. The woman huffed a few times, and her mouth opened and closed without a word as she tried to wrap her head around what was going on in front of her.

Adeline Redferne, Hero of Hogwarts, was claiming to be her nephew.

Garreth Weasley, her nephew that she had known since his birth, was claiming to be Adeline.

“How in Godric, Salazar, Rowena, and Helga’s name did you two manage to pull this off?” Her tone was still lethally quiet when she regained the power of speech as she looked between the two in front of her.

“It was my idea, Aunt Matilda. I had been doing some research and I thought I had figured out a way to make a potion where two people could swap places if they both drank it.” He explained the situation as he began to pace in the corridor. “There’s a chance we were out past curfew to brew it, but I won’t confirm that. It didn’t work when we drank it, and then I woke up in Adeline’s body this morning, and as you can see by the state of my body she woke up in mine.”

He took a moment from his explanation to look over at his friend with a smile meant to appease her.

“I got dressed staring at the ceiling. I swear I’ve kept my eyes to myself.”

Her shoulders slumped with relief, and the blush returned to her cheeks. Before she could open her mouth to explain that she hadn’t intentionally left his dorm in his pajamas, he continued speaking to his aunt.

“I was hoping this would kick in and wear off faster than it presently has. I don’t know how long we’re going to be stuck like this. It’s a derivative of polyjuice, all the same ingredients, so it should only last up to twelve hours. The problem is we don’t know how long it took between drinking the potion and switching bodies.”

Matilda Weasley watched as her nephew in her favorite student’s body paced and explained. While she couldn’t admit it out loud, she was rather impressed with how maturely the boy was handling this. Unfortunately, it had been quite a while since she studied anything related to potions this complicated. With a sigh, she transfigured the clothes Adeline was wearing into a Gryffindor uniform and looked between the two once more.

“You will return to your tables, you’ll sit and have breakfast, and then we’ll go talk to Professor Sharp. I’m sure he’ll be able to help fix this. At the very least, perhaps he’ll be able to provide some insight.”

The pair stood in front of her and nodded, one more relieved than the other at the idea of involving the potions professor.

“Oh, Adeline dear. I’m sorry. Is your ear alright? I wouldn’t have grabbed you like that if I had known it was you in there.”

The head of Gryffindor house began to fuss, now that she knew who was currently residing in her nephew’s body.

Garreth couldn’t hide the indignation on his face as he watched it.

“What? Now that you know that’s not me, suddenly you’re sorry for pulling my body by my ear? Honestly, Aunt Matilda. I’m nearly an adult, you can’t pull my ear like that anymore.”

“The only reason I’m not pulling you by your ear now is because I don’t want it to still hurt when you two end up in the right body again.”

The older woman smiled tersely at her nephew before shooing the pair off. They all returned to where they were expected to sit to attempt to enjoy their breakfast before they worked to fix the potion mishap.

~~~

The two attempted potions prodigies stood in front of Aesop Sharp, tails tucked between their legs, while he lectured them on their behavior the night before.

Adeline’s eyes were focused on his desk, an attempt to avoid eye contact. It wasn’t the first time she had gotten on his bad side, and she was sure it wouldn’t be the last; even with only a few months left of her schooling at Hogwarts.

She spared a glance over at Garreth who was looking the professor in the eyes, occasionally nodding as the older man spoke.

Unfortunately for the both of them, the professor didn’t have any suggestions other than waiting it out, as that was how polyjuice wore off.

For the second time in just as many days, the pair left the potions classroom feeling dejected. Due to the experimental nature of the potion they had consumed, it was recommended that they waited for the effects to wear off in the hospital wing. This way, in case there were any adverse effects, they would already be in Nurse Blainey’s care. They were given cots beside each other, but the hospital wing remained as silent as it was when they had arrived.

“What if we both take a nap?” Adeline suggested after staring at the ceiling for what had felt like hours.

Her head turned to look at her own body laying in the cot beside her, meeting her own blue eyes.

“That seemed to be the trigger last night. We went to sleep and woke up as each other. Maybe, if we go back to sleep, we’ll wake up in the right body again,” she continued, her eyes growing wider as she continued to rationalize it.

“Sleep can’t hurt anything. The only problem is I’m not tired, and if I lay here trying to sleep then I’ll feel too pressured to sleep.”

Garreth paused, his head tilted to the side as he tried to recall the lesson on polyjuice in their Advanced Potion Making textbook. If there were any adverse reactions, it would be listed in there. Since he had been the only levelheaded one when they first woke up, they only had Adeline’s bag with them. However, since the two were in the same potions class, it didn’t matter whose textbook he looked at. 

He dug into her bag, pulling out the familiar tome and swiftly flipping through the pages until he found the section he needed. Eagerly, his finger traced along the words on the page. He was looking for a specific word to clue him in, and when he found it a sound of excitement left his lips.

“We can have dreamless sleep!”

He leapt from the bed and his feet clapped against the floor as he hurried to Nurse Blainey’s quarters.

His raised voice had already drawn the woman’s attention and she opened her door before he had a chance to knock. After explaining their theory and subsequent findings, the nurse agreed to give them each a dose of dreamless sleep to test it.

The last thing Adeline remembered before the potion lured her to unconsciousness was Garreth telling her to have sweet dreams. Fortunately for him, she was too far gone to call him a moron.

~~~

The light was warm and golden when Adeline finally opened her eyes again. Her stomach rumbled, and she could only assume they had slept the entire afternoon away. She stared at the wooden, cathedralesque ceiling as she gathered the courage to look around and confirm whether or not the sleep theory had been correct.

She spent five minutes internally building herself up before she turned her head to the right.

The bed was empty.

With a gasp, she shot up in the cot and looked around the room. Her answer was on the bed to her left.

Lying peacefully in his own body was Garreth Weasley. His messy red hair spread on the pillowcase like scattered autumn leaves. She watched his chest rise and fall and there was a small smile on her lips. It was the quietest he had ever been in the two years she had known him.

Her train of thought was derailed when the large doors to the hospital wing opened. When she looked up, her eyes landed on both Professor Weasley and Professor Sharp. The former was carrying food which caused her stomach to once again voice its frustration with only getting breakfast that morning.

“Which one are you?” The potions professor’s low voice bounced off the walls.

”I’m myself. Adeline.” She answered him with a relieved smile before she turned her gaze to the other woman. “Please tell me that’s dinner. I’m so hungry I could eat a graphorn.”

The older woman chuckled as she handed the Ravenclaw a full plate. Her gaze shifted to her nephew, affectionate as she watched him breathe.

“That child could sleep through a stampede of them,” she murmured affectionately.

She gently leaned down and shook his shoulder, holding the plate close to his face, to attempt to lure him into the land of the living.

The redhead awoke with a soft grumble, but his drowsiness was short lived. He slowly sat and rubbed at his eyes, not yet taking the plate from his aunt. As he took in his surroundings, he realized he saw Adeline. In the blink of an eye, he leapt to his feet and wrapped his friend in a tight hug.

“Oh Godric I’m so glad it worked,” he breathed, low enough that Adeline was the only one who heard him.

The moment came to an abrupt halt when they heard Professor Sharp clearing his throat. Just as swiftly as he had picked her up, Garreth set Adeline down. The two students turned to face both professors, now with the decency to look sheepish about their actions the night before.

“Mister Weasley, I have already forbidden you from using the potions classroom for your extra curricular activities. You aren’t supposed to set foot in there unless it is your scheduled class time, or I’m there to supervise your after hours assignment work.”

The former auror’s gaze moved from his problem student to the Ravenclaw that he really should have considered to be an accomplice much sooner than now.

“And now, Miss Redferne, you’ll be subjected to the same restrictions. I don’t want either of you to set foot in my classroom unless I can keep an eye on you. Furthermore, you’ll both be getting detention for this stunt. I have quite a few cauldrons that need to be cleaned, and if you run out of those, I have no issues if any other professor needs assistance.”

The pair apologized and confirmed they understood in unison. Thankfully, Professor Weasley didn’t have much to say about the situation before sending them on their way to their dorms for the evening.

They were silent until they made it to the landing of the staircase that led to the hospital wing. Garreth knew he needed to apologize for dragging her into his mess. It was something that could’ve been avoided if he hadn’t been so stubborn.

“I’m sorry that you also got booted from potions after hours, Addie. I genuinely thought this was going to turn out differently.”

The genuine tone of his voice made her chest feel funny. It was close to how it had felt when she realized that they had returned to their own bodies; when she had laid eyes on Garreth, asleep in his cot, and knew she was looking at him. She didn’t even hesitate to offer a solution to their now shared problem.