#trans!fredweasley

Part 1: Open Wide

As Madam Pomfrey’s apprentice, you spend a lot of your free time helping out sick or injured students after classes or on the weekends. Madam Pomfrey insists that one of you be “on duty,” at all times, although she takes more than her fair share of the shifts, insisting that “you’re only young once,” and you need to get some fresh air and tend to your studies every once in a while.

One day, when you’re alone at the infirmary, Fred Weasley bursts through the door, cupping his face and grimacing. You stand up with a start, surprised at the sudden motion in the still room.

“Is Pomfrey in?” he asks, looking about. 

“No, it’s just me I’m afraid. But I’ll patch you up just fine. Let me have a look,” you say, gesturing for him to take a seat.

“I didn’t know you worked here all alone,” he says, his hand still holding his mouth, muffling his words.

“Madame Pomfrey’s been pleased with my performance lately, so I get to take a few shifts by myself,” you say proudly. “Mostly just bloody noses and stomach flu,” you say. “And people trying to skip class,” you say pointedly, thinking of the havoc Fred and George’s skiving snackboxes wreak around exam time. 

You try to gently move Fred’s hand so you can see what’s going on and he flinches back.

“Ow!” 

“Sorry, sorry,” you murmur as he lowers his hand to reveal a badly split and bruised lip.

“How did this happen?”

“Ran into a door. What do you think?”

“Okay, let me put it another way: who did this to you?” you say, preparing a pad with alcohol to clean the injury.

“Malfoy,” he says, sighing. “And about half of his little pureblood Slytherin clique,” he adds, as if to make it clear he wasn’t bested by just one scrawny asshole.

“Well, someone needs to give that little git what’s coming to him,” you say, laughing. “Don’t tell anyone I said that on the clock.” You dab at his lip and he winces. 

“Hope I don’t go out to find Crab and Goyle bleeding out on the quad,” you add, then use a quick episkey spell to heal the lip.

“How’s that?” you ask.

“Still hurts a bit,” he says, running his fingers questioningly across the soft skin of his newly healed lower lip.

“Open your mouth,” you command, pulling on gloves and sticking a finger inside his lip to pull it back so you can have a closer look at the inside of his mouth. You lean in, his breath hot on your face. Everything looks good on the top, but when you pull back his bottom lip you realize the problem right away.

“Well, the good news is, no more blood and gore,” you say, stepping back and pulling the gloves off.

“The bad news?” he asks expectantly. You pull a mirror from the medicine cupboard and hand it to him.

“You’ve chipped that bottom tooth pretty good. Not much I can do to mend it unless you can get hold of the other half,” you say. “Here’s a tonic that should help with the pain. If you take a teaspoon every day for two weeks, it shouldn’t hurt anymore.”

He studies himself in the hand mirror, baring his teeth to show the badly broken one on the bottom. The light filtering through the high windows falls on his face, and you study his newly mended lips, noticing how pink and full they seem. He smiles experimentally into the mirror, open-mouthed, then closed, then open again. He shrugs.

“Looks a bit roguish, don’t you think? Adds an air of ‘devilishly handsome,’ right?” he asks, smiling cheekily. You smile, the apples of your cheeks full. You gesture for him to turn towards you and take a long look.

“Smile,” you say, as if about to take a picture. He obliges easily and gives you a wide grin, and you study him directly, taking his chin in your hand to inspect.

“What do you think, then? Sort of a fun new look, huh?”

“Sure, if you like bad boys,” you say.

“You don’t?” he says suggestively, looking at you sideways.

“Get out of here, Fred Weasley. And don’t let me see you back next week missing a molar,” you joke as he stands to leave.

“That sounds like a dare,” he says cheerfully, pocketing the tonic bottle. You take a deep breath as you watch him leave, secretly hoping to see him again soon.