Clairvoyance and its Consequences

Chapter 4_______________________________________________________________

Wednesday's session of Double Potions arrived with a groan amongst most seventh-year Gryffindors and Slytherins. The single session the previous day had been bad enough what with Snape deciding to pick on everyone's essay by stating how imperfect it was and had spent the lesson lecturing about how their NEWTs were guaranteed to hold a section on advanced potions, the Polyjuice Potion included. He had then, to make the end of the session much less relieving and somewhat nauseating, announced they were to be beginning the concoction of the Polyjuice Potion after testing some Snape had already created just 'to give them an idea' during their next double session (the next day). Most students (especially Harry, Ron and Hermione, who had been through the process in the past) were not looking forward to it at all.

So Wednesday had arrived and breakfast had finished, meaning the seventh-year Gryffindors and Slytherins were permitted to walk down to their displeasure of the two sessions ahead. The dungeons seemed colder and more miserable than usual, especially when Snape opened the door to the Potions dungeon and ordered them in. They each took their usual seats and stared at the front of the room, trying hard not to imagine what they would go through when they took a swig of the murky potion in the large flask on Snape's desk. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other and gulped.

All three of them really didn't want to go through the experience of the Polyjuice Potion again, Hermione especially. She still distinctly remembered what it had felt like turning into a half-cat, half-human back in her second year when Millicent Bulstrode's hair had turned out to be that of a cat's. It had not been pleasant at all.

Snape cleared his throat and looked around the room venomously. "Today (as I told you yesterday) you all shall take it in turns to test a swig of the Polyjuice Potion I have concocted over the past month," he said smoothly in his unpleasant voice. "I will assign you partners in the same way I did with the Love Potions and no one - I repeat no one - will complain about whom I assign you with.

"This exercise is to make you somewhat familiar with the effects of the Polyjuice Potion, as you shall start concocting the potion today once we complete our session of testing," Snape continued. His tone turned harsher before adding anything more. "Shall I remind you that you will be testing your own potion once it is complete and that if you do not follow the recipe I provide you with at the end of our experimenting today, and a single ingredient is added incorrectly, you will deeply regret it. The Polyjuice Potion is a very advanced potion and one tiny mistake may create more havoc than I am willing to fix. It is a restricted potion for a reason and I seriously doubt any of you would wish to experience why it is restricted."

An extremely frightened whimper sounded from Neville Longbottom, who sat anxiously next to Harry. Harry thought it seemed possible for his friend to wet himself at any moment.

"Now," Snape said maliciously as he picked up an old, ragged wizard hat from the desk in front of him, "I shall pull someone's name from this hat and they will come up here immediately and I shall pour you a small glass of the potion. You shall add your hair and then I shall pull a second person's name out of the hat and they shall do the same to a separate glass of it."

A small, anxious silence filled the room as Snape paused and placed a single hand into the hat as he held it up above eye level. No one wanted to be the first person.

What looked like a tiny shadow of a smile played over Snape's lips as he pulled out a small slip of parchment and read the name scrawled across it.

"Malfoy," he read aloud, looking at Draco expectantly as the blonde, sitting beside Hermione, groaned and stood, dreading what was to come.

Draco headed to the front of the room, a sneer on his face as he pulled a hair from his scalp and added it to the murky substance in the glass Snape was holding out. The Potion hissed and bubbled very slightly before turning emerald green.

"As you can see," Snape said, indicating the glass with a flourish of the hand holding the glass, "the Polyjuice Potion is not clear in colour so it is not simple to add stealthily to drinks like potions such as some love potions and the truth potion, Veritaserum allow. The colour it turns depends on whose hair has been added to the concoction. The colour is rarely ever exactly the same between two different people as the colour indicates the certain person the hair and has meaning behind it. Malfoy's colour is most likely green because of his Slytherin character and perhaps even his family background. It is known for the Polyjuice Potion to turn one of the colours of their family emblem."

A slight murmur of interest ran throughout the room and Snape picked up the hat containing the students' names again, drawing their attention immediately.

"Malfoy's partner for this assignment shall be -" Snape drew out a name and a smirk curved his lips as he read the name upon it "- Miss Parkinson."

Draco looked quickly at Hermione, who was staring at Pansy Parkinson with a look that could kill as she strutted arrogantly up to Snape, whimpering slightly about having to lose a hair as she pulled it out. She added it to the potion and it, like Draco's, it hissed and bubbled ever so slightly before turning a hideous shade of orange in colour.

Hermione watched, slightly disgruntled, as Draco looked sulkily at the orange substance he was ordered to drink. He looked at Hermione and gulped before raising the potion to his lips when Snape instructed him and Pansy to do so and swallowed it down quickly.

Almost at the same time, Pansy and Draco grunted loudly and doubled over in what appeared to be a mixture of pain and nausea. Draco sat down on Snape's desk, clutching his stomach with one hand, the other still holding the glass, while Pansy collapsed to the ground on her knees, her hands spread out on front of her and she looked ready to be sick. Immediately, their skin appeared to bubble ominously and their features started changing. Draco's masculine face turned to that of a feminine, yet pug-like one, previously on Pansy and he suddenly looked too small for his robes. The opposite had happened to Pansy, with her robes ripping around her as she developed Draco's masculine build.

Finally, after a period of less than thirty seconds, they each got to their feet, looking at their new features. To the class, it just appeared that the two of them had changed places, minus the fact Draco appeared as Pansy in overlarge clothing and Pansy appeared as Draco wearing an extremely ripped pair of robes and a pair of rather feminine black cargo pants.

Draco curiously touched his new chest, squeezing lightly on "Pansy's" left breast. A smile curved his lips as he looked up at Pansy. "So it's true then," he said, feeling strange as Pansy's shrill voice exited his mouth, "Parkinson really does use Engorgement Charms on her chest!"

The class, including Hermione who had felt like slapping Draco for touching another girl's breasts, laughed and Pansy's face (currently in the form of Draco's) went extremely pink.

Snape cleared his throat, grabbing his students' attention. "As you saw, Malfoy and Parkinson were overcome by a feeling of intense nausea immediately after taking the potion. This is a natural effect of the potion and every one of you will feel it after you have drunk the potion and just before you transform. As you know, the result of the transformation will last exactly an hour."

The next hour was filled by the sound of Snape pulling names from the hat and reading them aloud. Students, pairs at a time, headed up to the front of the class and went through the same experiences Draco and Pansy did after draining their glasses of the Potion. Finally, there were four students left: Harry, Theodore Nott, Millicent Bulstrode and Hermione.

"Potter, get up here," Snape said in a loathsome tone as he pulled Harry's name from the hat.

Harry stood up and slowly made his way to the front of the room, abruptly taking the glass of potion from Snape's hand and adding a single strand of his jet black hair. Snape watched as it turned a bright green, slightly lighter than Draco's potion and exactly the same colour of Harry's eyes. He stared at it for a moment before placing his hand back in the hat and pulling out a name. A scowl twitched across his face.

"Miss Granger," he said dully, "you're with Potter. Come up here and remove a hair from your head."

Hermione obeyed and made her way up the front, removing a hair from her scalp as she went. She took the glass Snape was holding out for her as politely as she could under his glare and dropped the hair into it. It hissed and turned scarlet in colour.

"Exchange potions," Snape said in a tone that suggested that the two of them were three years old.

Harry handed Hermione his potion with a smile and took hers carefully. They looked into each other's eyes, and raised the glass to their lips in unison. They continued to stare into each other's eyes, silently counting to three before they each pinched their noses and drank down the slimy substance, the horrid taste causing a nauseating feeling within them before it even reached their stomachs.

Together, they fell to their knees, spluttering and coughing, much like many of the students who had tested the potion before them. A warm sensation spread through each of their bodies and their skin started to bubble like the boiling surface of a hot potion and they, like the rest of the class, watched as their features changed into those of their partner's.

The transformation came to an abrupt end and they each, breathing deeply, shakily stood up. Hermione pulled off her robes, straining against Harry's masculine build and then turned to look at Harry.

It was like looking into a mirror. Every last detail, from the hair to the eyes were exactly the same, minus the fact Hermione (Harry) was suddenly wearing glasses and Harry didn't have any.

Harry grinned at Hermione and took the glasses off, passing them to Hermione, who was narrowing Harry's eyes in an attempt to see. She took them and put them on, staring at the figure of herself in front of her in bewilderment.

Snape cleared his throat and Harry and Hermione hurried off to sit down as Theodore and Millicent headed up for the last experiment of the day.

Fifteen minutes later, Harry and Hermione were sitting in their seats at the very back of the dungeon, adding lacewings to a simmering cauldron. Snape had indeed decided to stick to the same agenda as he had with the Love Potions assignments they had done earlier on in the year; every pair that tested the potion together, had to make and work together on their assessment project and potion.

This, of course, didn't really bother Hermione. She saw it as extra time to spend with Harry and try to destroy the awkwardness that had surrounded them since they had rekindled their friendship.

"Hermione?" Harry said suddenly, trying to get Hermione's attention as she began to slowly stir their concoction.

Hermione looked up at him politely. "Yes, Harry?"

"I - I went and saw Dumbledore this morning about our quarters," he said, watching as Hermione raised a confused eyebrow. "Neville asked me yesterday about where we had all disappeared to ... you know, since we're no longer in Gryffindor Tower and I thought I'd ought to approach Dumbledore for some form of excuse."

"What did Dumbledore say?" Hermione asked, continuing to stir the potion. "That we should say we're part of a club or something?"

"Well, yeah," Harry replied in a quiet voice. "He said we should take advantage of the DA and say we've moved into private quarters in order to work together for the future."

"But isn't that a little too close to the truth?" Hermione asked in a slightly anxious whisper. "I mean, our quarters are to keep the goings-on of the Order as secret as possible, and - well - Harry the DA is no longer existent after what happened last year... Most of our members were frightened away with - well - I was almost scared away as well with what happened. Couldn't we just say we're part of a Charms club or something?"

"And have people asking to join?" Harry retorted back quietly. Hermione bit her (Harry's, really) lower lip as she realised Harry was right. "Anyway, most of the people that will ask of our whereabouts are our friends and are likely to join us in the quarters eventually, right? And the Slytherins aren't suspicious about where Malfoy's gone at all, are they?"

"No," Hermione sighed, "they all think he's escaped because of the great lack of friendless being thrown his way from his own house. I heard Pansy taking about it earlier. She did seem a bit interested about his whereabouts, but for the time being, they're not highly bothered about it, really."

"Yeah..." Harry said, looking up at Draco, who was no longer in Pansy's figure.

"Potter - Granger, has my classroom suddenly become a chatting studio?" Snape barked across the room from his desk at the front of the room. "Get back to work before I place permanent Silencing Charms on the both of you!"

Harry and Hermione looked at each other and smiled slightly. They were much too used to Snape's threats to care, really.

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