It turns out that Sirius was stuck in the kitchen for a while, not wanting to show off his new face for two whole hours until he knew for sure that the Potion had worn off. I had of course told the other boys and, when I was about to fall asleep, I had told the girls about the situation. All of whom found it entirely amusing.
Then, I had slept for hours, getting in my rest for the start of the Quidditch season, where I would be training for the first time this year.
I had told James the plan of Gideon being Captain this season, and the fact that the team was staying the same. We were both rather pleased with the decision, and was glad we didn't have to re trial, or it would be a nerve - wrecking nightmare.
I woke up to Marlene sat on the end of my bed, a mirror propped up by my feet, and the blonde putting on gold eye shadow. "Good morning Athena, I hope you don't mind but by your bed there is wonderful lighting, so I just thought I'd use it."
I rubbed my eyes and told her it was okay, but as I got up and the mirror fell over, she tutted and held it up using her legs instead. I changed into my robes for breakfast and the school day, training would be after all of our lessons and before dinner. The only change to the school day this morning, except from Quidditch, would be the Potion added to the breakfast Pumpkin juice.
I changed from my pyjamas into the school robes and got myself ready, walking down the stairs to the common room to meet Aafiya and Mary as we walked down to breakfast together. It also turned out that Peter would be walking down the stairs to the Great Hall with us, and I made sure to warn them all about James' little prank, not wanting them to get in the firing line, especially when they were innocent.
I also wanted to tell the others, but I hadn't seen them that morning, so if they turned into James it wouldn't be my fault - or mostly my fault.
Getting down the familiar marble staircase and into the Great Hall, we sat down with each other and started to eat some breakfast. I filled myself up with a buttered croissant and some fruits, and I avoided the pumpkin juice and instead just stuck to the water that we had. It was only around five minutes of normality before someone screamed and I turned around quickly, wanting to see the results.
The scream belonged to an older Ravenclaw, who was now touching their hair and breathing deeply in horror.
After a few more minutes, it seemed that a great chunk of people were all suddenly changing into replicas of James Potter, and as soon as McGonagall found out what was causing it, she loudly told all of the houses to avoid the pumpkin juice for their own good unless they wanted to turn into James Potter.
I was looking straight down at the table, trying to keep a neutral face, but as Mary nudged me and pointed next to McGonagall, I saw a teenage James Potter where Dumbledore had been only two minutes earlier. That was an interesting sight, and one that made me make so much noise even the morning post owls screeched.
It only seemed fitting for what I gathered as the real James Potter to walk over to us, and I suspected this because of him walking in with Remus and Sirius by his side. The black haired boy had transformed fully back to normal and had all of his swagger back, unfortunately for us.
A Slytherin boy (I could only tell by his robes and his snide voice) had spotted him too, and walked boldly over to James just to threaten him, "Turn me back now or I'll curse you so bad even Grindlewald couldn't have come up with it." James feigned a look of surprise and confusion and exclaimed, "But I'm Fabian Prewett!"
The Slytherin double of James pulled an odd expression and asked, "Why are you with Potter's friends then?" The curly haired boy sighed dejectedly and said, "I guess I was trying to have friends and to fit in, but everyone's against it, and I guess I'll have to limit myself to my brother, and never have new friends."
The Slytherin blinked, bemused at the spectacled boy, and then mumbled a quick apology, turning back and going to his own table, head hung low as his friends jeered. I shook my head and rolled my eyes as James muttered to his two friends, "You'd better keep your distance for a while until everyone's potion wears off."
"When will that be Mr Potter?" Someone that I hadn't noticed had stepped behind us all, and glared down at James with a certain look that you just knew he was in trouble. Professor McGonagall. James jumped and looked towards her and muttered, "Hello Minnie, doesn't the room look better? Filled with your favourite student?"
She looked like she was about to smile, the corners of her mouth certainly twitched, but McGonagall ended up saying, "No, Mr Potter, detention."
After five lessons and some breaks, the spells had all worn off by then and everybody affected by the Polyjuice Potion had turned fully back into their own body, everyone was certainly a lot happier then. Well, there was obviously the odd exception, and the people who wanted to now target James for what I called a good potion, and then there was the fact that we had Quidditch training.
It was with a huge difficulty that myself and James lugged ourselves into the changing rooms after dinner, trying to avoid every person that had the goal of coming up to him and jinxing him back for his prank.
Once we emerged from the changing rooms and onto the pitch, we were both greeted by Gideon and the rest of the team who already had their brooms. "Hello team and welcome back to training. I will be your Captain for this year, Gideon Prewett, I hope you have a wonderful time and work hard. If not, I'll boil all of you in frog spawn."
The motivational speech was over, and it was clear we were all very inspired by it, especially the way that Richard Carter was looking, and by Natasha laughing at the boy.
We had all done some very specific drills so that each member of the team or each position could practice their skills and what was necessary for them to do. For example, us Chasers all took turns in throwing the Quaffle at the Keeper, and therefore two positions practiced at the same time.
Since none of the other balls would have been let out, the boys practiced their batting skills with Muggle 'tennis' balls, and our Seeker practiced catching the balls when we threw it at a high speed or distance.
We had finished practicing after a few hours, and the sky was now getting quite dark, almost so much so that the stars sparkled brighter than Sirius after he had come out of the shower. That was when we had finished flying a few laps to cool off and called it a day. "Good practice team, I'll see you next week, same time, same day, same place," Gideon called.
We all walked into the changing rooms and got ready to go back inside of the castle, and as I got changed, I was only thinking about the warm common room and the fire that blazed in it's grate. Maybe even a chat with the girls was in order.
Walking back up to the Entrance Hall with James, he started a small conversation as we walked through the main entrance doors, "Found a boy yet Thea?" I glanced at him, wondering if his question was serious, surely he knew that the only boys I speak to are the Marauders and a few of the boys in the year above us - Fabian, Gideon, Leon and Frank.
He laughed at my expression of confusion, but waited for me to answer anyway. I obviously shook my head, "Of course not, do you ever see me interact with any boys? I think I'm a repellent."
James smiled, "I'm honoured to be one of the girls." I burst out laughing at him, slapping his arm lightly, telling him, "I meant any other boys idiot, but James, if you want to be one of the girls I'm not going to stop you, be who you want to be. And I'd appreciate the female company."
James was honestly like the older brother I never had, he was annoying of course, but he was caring, and funny, and sometimes I wanted to strangle him, but it was only normal, only out of affection. We walked up the staircases to the common room and opened the portrait hole with the password - homunculus.
"How was practice?" It was the first question that we were hit with as we walked into the common room and it was asked by a very eager Sirius. "It was fine, Gideon's not a bad Captain," James responded, throwing himself onto the nearest armchair.
The black haired boy frowned at James and said, "I wasn't talking to you, I was asking Thea, how was practice?" He directed the question towards me, and I smiled saying, "It was fine thanks, Gideon's not a bad Captain." Sirius swatted my shoulder and passed me a bottle of butterbeer.
James scoffed, "I said exactly the same thing and she gets special treatment, that's favouritism and sexist, and not very fair." Sirius ignored his best friend who suddenly stood up, energy back in his bones and started to wrap his arms around his friend's neck. I sat down on the recently vacated armchair and sat in it comfortably.
I was glancing at the boys who were now chasing each other around the common room, watching as Lily, who was stood in front of them, shouted at them to stop being so loud. Marlene was behind her on the stairs, creasing with laughter, grinning at the scene. The fact was, that the more she told them to stop, the more noise it created and by the end, I stood up and said, "Shut it you two and go to bed or get changed, James get a shower, you smell."
They both silenced quickly, and Sirius smirked at the brown haired boy who suddenly complained and asked me why I wasn't doing the same. Lily stared at me like I'd completed God's work, and I just shrugged, telling her, "It's pretty easy to shut them up if you insult them. Oh, and James, I was just about to do the same in fact."
I turned to the girls and linked arms with Lily as I walked up the stairs to the girls dormitory, grinning as I heard James begin to complain about how easy it was for me to talk to Lily.