#many prayers

The night felt almost felt like a bit of a masquerade, and lucky for him he had the good fortune of drawing a pretty good mask to wear. After throwing back the frothy polyjuice potion, Andrew was pleased to find none other than @ask-alsius-vafer's fine bone structure staring right back at him.

His usual deep blue eyes were now much more piercing and lighter, his features were sharper, and Montrose's golden blonde had transformed to a neary white blonde. He nodded in approval.

Handsome bastard.

It was an odd feeling, but perhaps a few hours of not being himself would do him some good. A fake sort of freedom. But besides being handsome, Als's face was also a trusted one, being one of the most talented healers training in the hospital wing. Maybe he could use it to his advantage.

And maybe he could see if he could get Will to play Doctor with him later. He couldn't wait to see if his Fox would be able to tell who he really was. Will always did have such great ideas when it came to these types of events....Montrose just hoped he could make it through the night without anyone actually needing medical assistance from him. His hands were talented, but not in that way.

As "Als" walks into the Great Hall, there are several people already passing him far more friendly smiles than usual. At first, Montrose had to fight the urge to demand to know what they were looking at, but then again….he was Alsius. So Monty tried smiling back, even if it felt somewhat weird on "his" face. Did Als even smile when not around Felix? Montrose was probably biased considering his first introduction to his fellow Ravenclaw was when he was teasing their mutual friend about...erm...belts.

Finally, a familiar face distracted him. "Als" spots Lilith over by the stained glass windows, and what better test to see if he could pass for someone else than to approach the no nonsense witch? Lilith had certainly been able to see through him before, but she had no bread this time!

As he approached, he couldn't help but notice she did seem slightly preoccupied. Lilith was too busy shifting this way and that as if trying to get a better view of her thighs…. she didn't even notice "Als's" appraoch.

“Lilith, are you alright?” 

Her head snapped up, an odd noise squeaking out of her as if she had just been caught doing something she shouldn’t. 

“Yes, I'm all thighs! I mean yes, alright. I’m alright!”

Montrose wasn’t sure what to be more concerned about, how flustered Lilith looked at the moment….or the uncharacteristic blush on her face. Never the less, Lilith finally seemed to remember who she was talking to before straightening her shoulders.

“Oh, Alsius. Good to zee you. Hope your hospital ving has recovered nicely from my beans. I’ll try not to accidentally send anyone else your way tonight! ” 

Monty’s mind struggled to find any concept of what on earth she was referencing, but it was hard to tell what she was even saying through what seemed like a poor imitation of a Russian accent. 

Before he could put two and two together, Lilith punched his arm in what might have been a playful attempt, but had Montrose rubbing the sore arm that was slightly slimmer than he was used to. 

“Ow!” 

Lilith's eyes went immediately wide in panic, accent completely gone

“Oh hell - I didn’t mean to.. Are you okay?!”  Als's face just reflected a very, very raised eyebrow. Monty knew Lilith’s particular brand of tough love, and this wasn't it.

“I’m fine, Lilith." "Als" didn't bother to hide the the accusatory tone he used while saying her name. "How very nice of you to ask...." Maybe it was something in the way he had let the sarcasm sneak back into his voice, but all of a sudden Lilith’s own eyes narrowed in return.  

“Montrose?!” Lilith hissed incredulously, and he had certainly heard a certain witch say his name said that way before. 

“Theo?!”

At his response, “Lilith”  was quickly hooking her arm around his neck and yanking him into the corner hurriedly,

“SHHH not so loud!!! I don’t know if the others know yet. You got Alsius? Really? Of all the people....don't do anything stupid. People actually like him."

"Als" gave "Lilith" a dirty look before continuing with pure sarcasm, “Oh, sure. Why not!! I'll promise to behave if you can stop staring at your own thighs for one second, you’re not exactly doing a great job as passing as Lilith either.” He pointed out, effectively offended. 

Theo used the newfound strength she had in Lilith's body to bop Montrose a little harder on top of his head. “Noted.”

She gritted between her teeth, before rolling her eyes and looking around the room. “I….I haven’t seen where “I” am tonight yet….have you seen any sign of me? I’m starting to get worried….” 

"Als" shook his slightly throbbing head, “Not yet. Maybe they decided to hide in the bathroom once they found out who they were transforming into.”  He teased cooly, and "Lilith" hit him again. 

“Okay!" He hissed, "...Merlin, it’s one thing when it’s you….but Lilith’s punches hurt.” 

"Lilith" crossed her arms stubbornly, “Aren’t you a healer, Als? You’ll be fine.” 

Montrose grumbled, he was wasting precious time bickering with Theo/Lilith and had to find Will and the others. He had a lot of people to sing his own praises to tonight, after all. 

“Your concern is touching, as always. If I happen to see “you” show up, I’ll send them your way. Now, excuse me…Als has some compliments he wants to share about …well, me. Who wouldn’t trust this face, after all?” 

“Lilith” rolled her eyes again, declining to respond and deciding there was no need to put Montrose in his place for a third time. Someone else would surely take care of that for her this evening. If only she had some wet bread to smack him with to truly do her current body justice. 

For now, Theo just waited anxiously as she peered into the crowd of hundreds of faces except her own. It was going to be fine, right….???? 

“Als” left “Lilith” to her own devices, turning only to find @adallegra right by the snack table. Oddly enough, she seemed to be very preoccupied with admiring the cream on the cupcakes. “Als” shrugged, deeming it as good of a time as any to approach her. 

“Allegra, how good to see you! I’ve been meaning to find you. Did you hear what an impressive job Andrew Montrose did the other day during Defense Against the Dark Arts class? With that, and his proficiency in arithmancy ... surely he’s going to make a wonderful curse breaker…don’t you think?” 

It wasn’t until he was done flattering himself that he noticed “Allegra” still seemed more preoccupied with looking at the dairy products on the table, rather than her usual response of pointing out several areas in which Montrose could improve, or correcting him in any fashion. 

In fact, she hadn’t negated a single point he had made, which felt oddly disappointing. 

Unless it wasn’t really Allegra. Perhaps….the polyjuice potion was going to make things trickier than he thought.