Legacy of the Marauders

Chapter Seventeen Severus' Revenge

James rubbed his eyes wearily and his hand groped around on the bedside table until it clasped around his wire-rimmed spectacles. He shoved them onto his face and out of habit ran his fingers through his hair. Is it longer? No, I must be imagining things... He pulled back his hangings and his gaze fell upon a brown-haired girl. She was the most delicate, graceful creature he had ever seen. Personally, he fancied fiery women with more energy than grace, like Lily, yet just because this girl did not fit his preferences didn't mean that James lacked the ability to recognise a beauty when he saw one. "Excuse me, but what are you doing here?"

The girl spun around and looked at him. "What did you do to your hair?" She clapped a hand over her mouth as if she could not believe the sound of her own voice. She had a calm pleasant voice similar to one James knew very well, but could not currently place.

At the utterance of the female voice the curtains surrounding Sirius' bed opened. James gasped, for Sirius was not in the bed. Instead, a muscular girl with silky black hair was sitting propped up against the pillows staring at the brown-haired girl and licking her lips. "Why who might you be, my vision of loveliness?" she questioned flirtatiously.

"Sirius?" the beauty asked the muscular girl in disbelief.

She stood up and bowed. "The one and only Sirius Orion Black at your service."

Wearing a thoughtful expression that James was certain he'd seen somewhere before, the girl looked from James to the lady that claimed to be Sirius. Then slowly, almost fearfully, she stared down at herself. She screamed, "I'm a girl!"

The silky-haired damsel laughed, "And what else would a pretty thing like you be?"

The attractive one gave the other girl a crooked smile. "Padfoot, do you realise what you're doing?"

"Of course, I-Hang on, how do you know my nickname?"

"I'm Remus, you dolt."

"What?!" James heard himself exclaim in unison with the strong dame. It couldn't be! Could it? She does remind me of Remus and the other acts like Sirius. Maybe- James leapt out of bed and rushed into the loo to the mirror. His face was clearly feminine and his untidy hair had grown past his shoulders. Before he had time to react to this there was a girlish shriek from the other room. James darted back there and saw Sirius gazing down his (her?) pants looking horrified.

"My dick is gone!" Sirius exclaimed, tears welling up in his grey eyes.

"Well, naturally it is," stated Remus, his\her composure regained. "In case you haven't noticed we're all women."

The tears leaked from Sirius' eyes.

James wondered, "What about Wormtail?" Now that he thought about his voice no longer sounded like his own.

Remus gravely walked over to Peter's four-poster and yanked away the hangings. A chubby blonde girl yawned and stared at Remus. "Did I die in my sleep? Are you an angel?"

With a sigh Remus explained, "No, I'm Remus. We all got gender changes."

Peter glanced down at his own body and squealed, "Aaahhhh! How'd it happen?"

"I don't know, but I don't think there's a charm that can do anything like this. It had to be a potion."

"Don't you mean a poison?"

"...If you want to look at it like that."

"Moony, we're cockless!" James said, who was almost as upset as Sirius about it, though at least he was not curled up in a fetal position sobbing. "Of course it was a poison...And even though I'm a girl I barely have any boobs; that's not fair!"

"I hardly think that matters."

"Shut it! The only reason you're not upset is that you look hot," accused James.

Remus blinked. "What?"

Peter piped up, "It's true. Look in the mirror."

The werewolf slowly gaited towards the looking glass and examined the reflection of his long soft hair, full pink lips, and curvy figure. "I guess I clean up pretty good," he admitted. Turning to his friends, he added, "But I already have to suffer once a month and if we stayed girls I'd have to suffer twice each month, so I'd rather we got changed back to normal."

"Why twice?" asked Peter, crawling out of bed with difficulty since his breasts and hips made him weigh even more than usual.

"I'd have Pre Moon Sickness and Pre Menstrual Syndrome."

"Oh...I thought PMS stood for Please Make Shortcake."

James demanded, "Are we just going to stand around talking, or are we going to fix this?"

"But, Prongs, it's harder to get a girl fixed than it is to get a guy fixed," murmured Peter worriedly.

"I meant are we going to find a way to get our cocks back and chests flat, though mine is still pretty flat, or just stand here?"

"Save our manhood! Save our manhood!" cried Sirius, leaping up from the fetal position.

"Let's go to Dumbledore," suggested Remus.

"Can Dumbledore give us our manhood?"

Ignoring how wrong the question was worded, James answered, "I really hope so, old buddy."

"Never call a lady 'old," chided Remus.

James shrugged and retrieved the invisibility cloak so no one would see them walking around as women.

The four of them could barely fit underneath it, but they coped as best as they could on their way to Dumbledore's office. James was Head Boy; therefore he knew the password to cause the gargoyle to leap aside. After they ascended the staircase James threw the cloak off of them and folded it up until it was small enough to fit into the pocket of the masculine pajama pants that were on his female body. Then he nodded at Peter, who knocked anxiously on the oak door.

"Enter," came Dumbledore's cheery tone. They stumbled in and saw that Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall had either just been in a heated debate with the portraits surrounding the headmaster's desk or they'd been snogging each other senseless. Since the portraits were hiding their faces behind their frames the pupils did not want to guess which one it had been.

"Who are you?" McGonagall suspiciously inquired.

"Exactly who we look like, Minnie." James added, "With a few changes."

McGonagall's eyes flashed furiously. "The only other students that have the nerve to call me that are Potter and Black."

Dumbledore regarded the Marauders thoughtfully and turned back to McGonagall. "Precisely."

"What do you mean precisely?" asked McGonagall.

"Who do these youths remind you of?"

Once she had stared at them for a moment she gasped, "Boys, how did this happen?"

"We don't know!" Peter cried desperately.

"We'd never do it to ourselves if that's what you're thinking," mumbled Sirius, hands clasped firmly together to prevent them from traveling below the waist in search of something that was no longer there.

"I know you wouldn't," agreed Dumbledore. "Minerva, please go to the dungeon and see if we have any potions to reverse this."

McGonagall departed and returned in less than five minutes carrying three bottles. "Horace only had these, which is enough for three of you to change back. He says the gender-change potion and the antidote both take months to make, but there is one rare and expensive plant that can be added to the regular ingredients, which causes it to be ready in one week."

"There's bound to be more than enough money in the school treasury to pay for the plant," assured Dumbledore.

"So, one of has to stay a girl for a whole week?!" exclaimed Sirius.

"It's better than months," McGonagall said curtly. "Which one of you is it going to be?"