InsaneJournal

Polyjuice took a damn long time, but Seamus was glad they'd decided to do it a while ago. With NEWT stress higher than ever and a whole bunch of other stuff happening, a light bit of mischief was needed more than ever. All that was left to finish off the potion was the last few steps before adding any of the hairs, though they were leaving that to when they decided to actually use the potion.

The rest of the study group was occupied, but Padma was at least free to come with him to finish the potion off. Really she was the best one for it anyway, she did have the highest marks in potions out of any of them and had an internship lined up in a potion shop for the summer. So if anyone should be there for making sure the last bit went smoothly, Seamus figured it should be Pads.

"I swear this is all going to be worth it in the end, Pads," Seamus grinned as he brought over the jar of lacewings to the cauldron. "Have you and Vati made plans on who gets to be me and who's Dean and what havoc you'll wreck?"

“Not yet.” Padma carefully measured out the lacewings and added them to the bubbling potion. Deciding who she was going to turn into for an hour was low on her priority list, and she hadn’t had a chance to think about whether she’d rather turn into Dean or Seamus. Either way, it was going to be a bit odd, and really, it was probably going to be up to Vati if she’d rather turn into her boyfriend or have Padma do it.

“I’ve been too busy worrying about other things,” she said as she stirred the potion. “NEWTs and securing a job and all that.” She was glad she’d started early, seeing the flurry of people applying for positions on the journals and hearing the chatter in the hallway. There were a lot of people graduating and only so many jobs to go around, after all.

Seamus made a face while taking back the jar once she'd gotten the lacewings. "Don't remind me. Besides, you've got a summer job set out at least so there's that. Three anti-clockwise now, right?" The last bit was referring to the next step in the potion, he was going off memory but leaned over to check the textbook he'd set out earlier in front of them. "That, then we're about done. Minus the hairs of course." He didn't want to think too much on the job thing, though it bothered him too. The journals were full of recruiting but really most only had a few positions and many of them were open to people who'd graduated in previous years. The competition was tough and he just had no idea what he wanted to do still.

“Yeah, three anti-clockwise.” Padma looked at Seamus closely, taking in how nervous he was about the whole job thing. “And I think maybe I should remind you. Have you applied for anything yet? Do you even know what you want to apply for?” She hadn’t actually heard Seamus talk about his future beyond the trip he and Dean were taking, and she didn’t know if he’d thought about it a all. As stressful as all the early preparation had been, Padma was definitely glad for it now that she had a job and was confident she’d do well on most of her NEWTs.

Seamus sighed, like he'd been reminded hundreds of times about this, and he had almost. "No, no idea what I want to do. Just been looking at those journal ads for ideas. So far just the cursebreaking and DMAC have popped up. But I don't have ancient runes and I think Mr. Potter has seen too many of my less controlled explosions." He plopped down on the stool by the cauldron with some frustration. He didn't want a desk job, and sure something like cursebreaking seemed like it'd be amazing...but he didn't feel ready to go away for that long.

Padma did not want Seamus to be a cursebreaker. Sure, it would be fun and he’d probably have a blast, but Vati was… really excited about the date she’d had with Seamus and Padma knew that Vati wanted to keep the relationship going. That wouldn’t work if Seamus disappeared to Egypt for five years.

“I”m sure Mr. Potter will give you a fair chance. You’d be good at stuff in the DMAC. Especially reversing magic. You have a lot of practice with that. Besides, his wife likes you.” Padma nudged Seamus’s shoulder. “You should apply with him.”

Seamus smiled back slightly at the nudge. "Yeah? I don't know if he'd take me. I might bomb the interview or something for all I know...not literally of course. But I'll apply to whatever, nothing to lose there. I told Vati she should try too, because neither of us have any real ideas so...might as well try whatever there is." He shrugged again and watched the bubbling potion. "Are you set for a job, Pads?"

“Yeah. I’m working for Mr. Snape. He’s at Arsenic and Old Lace right now, but he’s opening a new shop this summer, and I’ll be working with him.” Padma bounced a little on her toes. “He’s working on experimental potions, which is fascinating. I’m going to learn so much!”

Seamus grinned, he wasn't in the best mood when it came to future plans for himself, but he could certainly be happy for Padma's success. There was no question she deserved it and if her cute bouncing excitement couldn't put a smile on his face then something was wrong. "That's great Pads! Feck, that's amazing really, you're gonna have to tell me all about the experimental potions you know?"

“If I can. Mr. Snape might not want us talking about them, since they’re experimental, you know? If we tell people about them, they might copy them--or try to, anyway--and that wouldn’t be good for business.” Plus, Seamus would probably try to find ways to blow stuff up with any information Padma shared, and she was fairly certain that wasn’t what Mr. Snape was intending any of his experimental stuff for.

She looked over at the potion and started pulling out small containers to divide it into. They would wait to add the hair later, but other than that it was just about ready now. “Five containers, right?”

"Spoilsport," Seamus teased but took a few containers out too. "Five is good, do we want to set aside an extra few in case we think of more ideas or something goes wrong with the hairs?" Hey the potion took long enough to brew, might as well have backup in case something messed up on the last step or if they came up with last minute brilliant ideas. "Speaking of...we should check to make sure it works, shouldn't we?" He grinned over at her and waggled his eyebrows. "What do you say, Pads?"

“Hey, I’m not risking my job just so I can pass information on to you, Seamus.” Padma gave him a stern look that faded when he suggested that they try out the potion. It would be unfortunate if it didn’t work. And it would be better to find out now. “Okay, but then we have to use the rest of it for the five of us. Otherwise the effects won’t last long enough.” She selected two small containers and poured just a small amount of the potion in. She didn’t want to be Seamus for long.

"Wait....really?" Seamus had a massive grin on. Whatever moping state was left from the topic of future jobs was now gone. He was ecstatic, he hadn't thought she'd actually go for it. "Oh you're the best Pads!" Padma would get an enthusiastic hug before she got to pouring out the potion, and Seamus bounced back to give her space to pour. "Tester round! It might not last long enough to do anything with, but hell yeah this'll be good!"

“Yes, really. Now hurry up before I change my mind.” Padma finished filling the small containers, handed one to Seamus, and pulled out a small hair from underneath in the back. The potion changed to a dark purple as the hair dissolved in it and she held it out to Seamus when it was done. “Here.”

The massive grin didn't go away but Seamus scrambled to pluck one of his own hairs out and drop it in. His potion turned a cheerful mint grin and seemed to have a bit of a fizz to it. Exchanging potions with her, Sea had to stop and give her a cheeky grin. "Wonder if you and Vati taste different." Cue wink to go with the dirty joke.

“I’m sure I don’t know,” Padma said primly. Then she took a deep breath, and downed the tiny amount of potion as quickly as possible. It was surprisingly not bad, minty and creamy, almost like melted mint ice cream, though like someone put a shot of fire whiskey in it. She grimaced, and then she felt her body start to shift. Her hair shortened, her chest flattened and became more muscular, her feet got bigger and… “Merlin this is weird.” Her voice sounded different too, not quite like she was used to Seamus sounding, since it echoed in her own head, but close. “It’s definitely working. Go on, drink yours.”

"Cheers!" Seamus downed his own potion like a shot right after she did hers. Light and flowery, bit of a fruity sweetness to it. Not his sort of drink usually but he liked the smell and that slight hint of liqueur, like someone had added a few drops after just to make you try and figure out all the flavours there. He was in the middle of looking thoughtful as he tried to figure out what the fruit was when he felt a jolt and had suddenly lost a chunk in height. He could feel hair flow down around his ears and his whole body shrink and become slighter. Well...except for his chest. "Whoa! Okay this is seriously-ha! I sound so high pitched now!" He grinned over at her, the cheeky Seamus grin looking rather odd on features that were now become decidedly more Padma-like. "So is that what I'd look like as a Ravenclaw? Man, gotta say Pads, you're really filling out that sweater." While his felt baggy around him, huh. "Got a mirror? I need to see this."

“You look like me.” Or like Vati, which meant this wasn’t as odd for Padma as she imagined it was for Seamus. Seeing Seamus’s clothes and expression where she was used to seeing Parvati’s was a little strange, but she, at least, was used to seeing someone else look exactly like her.

She wanted a better look too, though, so she waved her wand at the back of the door, transfiguring it into a full-length mirror. As she looked at herself--and okay, that was weird, seeing Seamus when she looked in the mirror, especially when the reflection followed her movements--she kicked off her too-tight shoes. The rest of her clothes were too tight too, and her bra felt odd without anything to fill it out, but she didn’t want to be naked when she changed back, so it all stayed on.

She touched her newly-short hair as she looked in the mirror. “This is so weird.”

"Tell me about it," Seamus laughed as kicked off his too big shoes and jogged up beside her to look at himself in the mirror. "Okay and that bit of jogging just explained to me the need for bras. Gotta say, long hair is so weird, gets everywhere..." He brushed the hair out of his face as he leaned in closer to see, his grin and movements still decidedly Seamus just now with Padma's body. "I'm like drowning in these clothes," he smiled as he looked down at his new body and flapped the bottom edge of his jumper to see how much space he had there. Yeah these clothes were too big.

Seamus stopped and looked over his shoulder, and up (how weird), at himself or well...Padma. "So this is what I look like to you guys huh? Well alright Seamus 2.0, I'd say we aced the practical portion of this potions practice. Feck yeah! Put it there!" Huge Seamus grin on a Padma face and he raised his hand for a high five.

Padma instinctively reached up to high five Seamus, and then had to lower her hand so he could reach it. This being taller thing was trippy too. “You’re going to have to work on your expressions if you want anyone to believe you’re me! Even as wrapped up in studying as they are, the other Ravenclaws won’t buy that look on my face!”

Seamus, well Padma, made a face in response. "Well I'm not trying now!" He straightened up to imitate her usual posture then put on a less cheeky smile, though it was still a bit wide for a moment and looked far more Vati than Padma. "Oh shoot wait wait..." He fixed the smile to be smaller and more reserved and sighed deeply. "Seamus...explosions outside please."

Instantly his impression of Padma dissolved and he gave her his usual cheeky grin, with her face on though. "Better?"

Okay, now that was weird. For a minute, Seamus looked exactly like Vati, and then he looked like her. Maybe they would be able to pull this crazy stunt off. “That’s… yeah.” She wasn’t sure that better was really the right term, at least not from her perspective, but it was a better impression of her. “If you can maintain it, you’ll be golden.”

Padma was pretty sure she was going to have to pretend to be Dean when she and Vati changed into the boys. There was no way she’d be able to be as exuberant as Seamus was all the time. Even now, her reflection looked oddly subdued, and she was sure people would think something was wrong if she went out looking like this. She tried to brighten her smile, to imitate Seamus, but it looked all wrong. “I think Vati is gonna have to turn into you, though. I’m just not that jubilant.”

As she spoke, she started changing back. It felt weird, as it had before, but looked even stranger. She could see her hair grow shorter and darken as she shrunk down and her boobs filled out her bra. As she changed, she glanced at the clock on the wall, noting how long it had been, and tried to calculate how long they’d have when they tried this for real. “So, I think we’ll have about an hour and a half when we do this for real, but we’d better count on an hour, just to be safe.”

Seamus grinned and gave her a double thumbs up, though he was sure that looked very weird considering he'd never seen Padma do that. "Aww, Pads, you make a dashing serious Finnigan. If a prof saw you like that you'd just have to say it's what I'd be like if I buckled down and 'applied myself'." He could already feel his feet growing out again as he said the last part, and soon he was gaining height and filling out his sweater again. Though he had to say the weirdest part was his hair growing...shorter, it was a rather trippy experience, though plenty of fun. "Excellent! I think I can be a great Pads for an hour. Bet you'll do fine as Dean but remember...he's way more pro- crazy Seamus ideas!"

Padma thought about all the crazy ideas Seamus was sure to try to convince her Dean would agree to and shook her head. "If I'm Dean while Vati is you, I won't have to agree to any crazy ideas." Otherwise, she'd have to be Seamus, as the real Dean wouldn't try to convince her of anything too terrible. She gave Seamus a stern look as she slipped her shoes back on. "Besides, I agreed to this, didn't I?"

"Ooh that's a good look. I'll have to try using it when I'm you," Seamus said as he put on his own shoes, running a hand through his now shorter hair. As odd as it was to have his hair suddenly grow out so fast, he had to say that having it grow...shorter was trippier. "And yeah, you did agree, I won't forget! By the way, did you want to hold onto these?" Seamus picked up one of the containers with the polyjuice they'd set aside before. "I figure that the person we're turning into should have them, but mostly they wouldn't think you were up to anything if by some miracle you were caught with them."

"You mean that I won't get in trouble and you will." Padma winked. There were advantages to being thought of as one of the good kids. She gathered up the containers, made sure they were properly sealed, and tucked them in her bag. "All right, let's get out of here." She eyed Seamus as she headed toward the door. "Promise you won't make me regret this."

Seamus grinned at her briefly before putting on a serious face for a moment and crossing himself. "Cross me heart and hope to die or be hexed until I can't tell my nose from my toes. You have my word Pads!"