shy ↳ Scorpius Malfoy

Chapter Twenty Two

It's hard for Alice to keep up with what's going on. She does know, however, that what they are doing is good, not bad. They are helping a good man get his son back, which, in Alice's mind, is a generous thing to do.

"So, we just take it?" Scorpius squints at the bottle of Polyjuice Potion.

"Scorpius, so I really need to explain it to you— übergeek and Potions expert— what Polyjuice does?" Albus says. "Thanks to Delphi's brilliant preparation work, we are going to take this potion and be transformed, and thus disguised we will be able to enter the Ministry of Magic."

"Okay, two points, one, is it painful?" Scorpius asks.

"Very— as I understand it," Delphi responds.

"Thank you. Good to know," Scorpius says. "Second point: do any of you know what Polyjuice tastes of? Because I've heard it tastes of fish and if it does I will just vomit it back up. Fish doesn't agree with me. Never has. Never will."

Alice smiles at him.

"Consider us warned," Delphi says. She drinks her potion. "It doesn't taste of fish." She begins to transform. It looks painful. "Actually, it's quite pleasant, yum. It is painful, but..." She burps loudly. "Take it back. There is a— slight—" She burps again. Then, she transforms into Hermione Granger-Weasley. "Slight— overpowering— fishy residue."

"Okay, that's, wow," Albus says in awe.

"Double wow," Scorpius agrees.

"This doesn't really feel how I- I even sound like her!" Delphi, who now looks and sounds like Hermione, says. "Triple wow!"

"Right. Me next," Albus says.

"No," Scorpius cuts in. "No way, José. If we're doing this, we're doing it—" He smiles as he takes a familiar looking pair of round glasses from his pocket and puts them on. "—together. You, me, and Alice."

Albus doesn't argue. "Three, two, one."

All three of the Hogwarts students swallow their Polyjuice potion at once.

"Ugh," Alice says after a moment, when she begins to feel a rippling pain all over her. "That's horrible."

The kids begin to transform. Albus turns into Ron Weasley, and Scorpius turns into Harry Potter. Alice turns into Ginny Potter.

"This is going to be slightly weird, isn't it?" Albus, who now looks like Ron Weasley, says, flickering his gaze back and forth between Alice and Scorpius, who look like his mom and dad.

Scorpius is grinning. "Go to your room. Go straight to your room. You've been an incredibly awful and bad son."

Alice laughs.

"Scorpius," Albus says, chuckling.

"It was your idea," Scorpius says, tossing his cloak over his shoulder. "I be him, she be her, and you be Ron! I just want to have a little fun before I..." He burps loudly, interrupting his own sentence. "Okay, so, that's utterly horrible."

"You know," Albus/ Ron says. "He hides it well, but Uncle Ron's got a bit of a gut growing."

"We should go— don't you think?" Delphi/ Hermione says. Alice/ Ginny nods.

"Yes, let's go," she agrees, following Delphi onto the street. The boys trail behind them. The four of them enter a telephone box, squeezing in to fit everyone. Albus dials 62442 on the telephone.

An automated voice echoes inside the telephone box.

"Welcome, Harry Potter. Welcome, Hermione Granger. Welcome, Ron Weasley."