"There's no way I'm letting my mouth touch that thing!" Diana retorted, staring up at Remus.
"It's doesn't taste as bad as it looks!" Remus encountered as the two of them stood in an empty and narrow corridor near the dungeons.
Remus had an odd drink in his hands, thick and dark, bubbling slowly. He claimed that drinking this was how he could sneak Diana inside the Gryffindor common room for one of their famous parties. It had been a few years since Gryffindor had won the Quidditch Cup, which meant that their party that night was going to be grander and wilder than ever before.
"Remus, it looks like someone melted mud, poured it into this cup, and then tried boiling it," said Diana, grimacing as she took the cup from him. "Ugh, it even smells terrible!"
"That's just how Polyjuice Potion works." He shrugged, grinning at the expression on her face.
"How did you get this, again?"
"Don't worry about it."
Diana arched up an eyebrow at him suspiciously. "Just tell me!"
"Okay, okay!" Remus laughed, throwing his hands up in defense. "There's a secret trapdoor in the Potions classroom's floor. Slughorn had made this Polyjuice Potion for his seventh year students last week, so I just snuck in there a few minutes ago to get a bit of it for you."
"Can you at least tell me who I'm turning into?"
"There's only one way to find out," Remus said playfully, gesturing at the drink in her hand.
Diana glared at him. "I don't like it when you get mysterious, Lupin."
"You and I both know that's not true."
Diana tried to suppress a chuckle, but a smile crept through her face all the same. "Fine."
With extreme dread, Diana held her nose with two finger, and with her other hand she carried the disgusting drink closer to her mouth and took a large sip.
"UGH!" She grimaced in disgust, quickly handing the drink back to Remus.
Soon, Diana forgot all about the terrible smell and the sickening taste when her insides started writhing and a burning sensation began to spread rapidly through her whole body.
Dizzily, Diana back away until she hit the wall, leaning against it for support as she felt like she would throw up any moment now. She groaned when her skin began to bubble and an odd feeling dawned on her. She felt her body expanding and her fingers and hands thickened, her height shrinking slightly. Even her hair began darkening before slowly becoming short until it disappeared from her shoulders.
And then, as sudden as it had all happened, everything abruptly stopped. Her skin felt normal and the sickening feeling in her stomach had ceased at once. But she still felt odd.
Diana turned around and walked toward the closest window she could find, but she yelped the moment she saw her own reflection. She had transformed into Peter Pettigrew.
"MERLIN'S BEARD!" Diana yelled in shock. Remus burst into laughter behind her.
"Don't be so mean. Peter's not a bad looking boy," said Remus, trying to keep his voice as serious as possible, but he couldn't help but to snigger.
Diana glared at him again, through Peter's eyes. "This party of yours better be worth it, Lupin."
"It is, it is. I promise." Remus chuckled before taking a small flask out of his backpack and pouring the rest of the Polyjuice Potion into it. He then handed the flask to Diana. "Here. Take a sip from it every half-an-hour to make sure the effects don't wear off until the end of the night."
"Is it going to feel this bad every time I drink from it?" Diana asked, throwing a worried glance at the flask.
"No, it won't be as bad." Remus then took his wand out of his cloak's pocket. "Now, for the finishing touch..." He waved his wand at Diana's direction, turning her green and silver tie into red and gold.
"There we go," Remus said with a satisfied smile at his clean work. "Now you're a true Gryffindor."
"What a disgrace," Diana said jokingly, making him laugh.
***
Diana and Remus walked their way up to the Gryffindor tower. Diana felt like her robes were too tight around her and slightly longer for her now that she had taken Peter's form.
When they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, Remus turned to look over at Diana with a teasing grin. "Hold your ears."
"Excuse me?" Diana folded her arms. "Like you said, I'm a true Gryffindor now. I deserve to know the password to our common room."
"Fine. But stop looking so sassy. Everyone will know you're not really Peter," Remus whispered to her.
"All right, then. How about this?" Diana bore on a confused expression, which was a close impression of what Peter always looked like.
Remus chuckled. "Much better."
After saying the password, the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open, but the moment it did, Diana nearly fell backward in shock when a loud music erupted from inside the common room, mingled with the loud shouts and cheers of the people inside.
"Welcome to the Gryffindor House," Remus said with a grin, putting a hand behind Diana's back to push her forward, seeing as she was too shocked to move on her own.
She walked through the portrait hole until the round room came to sight and she could now fully see the inside of it. They had dimmed the lights, a loud and odd music was playing, and the Gryffindors were all dancing and jumping around with drinks in their hands. A few were even dancing on top of the couches, armchairs, and even tables.
Some were singing loudly along with the song, and others were chanting, "GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR!"
Walking a little closer, Diana realized that in the middle of the chanting crowd were two boys, chugging down an extremely large bottle of Butterbeer. She didn't need to see their faces in order to know that they were James Potter and Sirius Black.
"So? What do you think?" Remus shouted at Diana over the loud sound of music, his voice barely reaching her that she had to mostly read his lips.
"I can't even hear myself think!" Diana shouted back, laughing.
"What?" Remus frowned, unable to understand what she was saying. He shook his head. "Nevermind! Do you want a drink?"
"Sure!" Diana yelled, nodding excitedly.
Trying to squeeze her way through the dancing crowd, Diana followed Remus to the corner of the room where a large table was set, filled with snacks and different drinks they had probably snuck from the kitchen.
"What kind of music is this?" Diana asked Remus as he handed her a small bottle of warm Butterbeer.
"It's a Muggle song," Remus explained, grabbing a chocolate fudge for himself.
"Really? I didn't know Muggles had music. I thought it was a Wizarding thing."
Remus laughed. "What did your parents teach you about Muggles, exactly?"
"Other than the fact that Muggles used to hunt witches and burn them alive, nothing."
"Well, trust me. The music will grow on you. It's good," he said, smiling. "Sirius enchanted the Wizarding Wireless Network radio to play his favorite songs."
"But why would Sirius know about these songs? I know his family. There's no way they listen to Muggle music."
"Yeah, exactly. That's the point." He nodded. "Sirius started listening to these at home to piss his mother off, but he began to like the music, so he came up with a way to play them at the Gryffindor par —"
"Well, well, well! Look who decided to leave hospital wing for the party's food!" a voice said behind them, cutting Remus off. Turning around, Diana saw James and Sirius walk toward them.
Speaking of the devil... she thought to herself bitterly.
"How are you feeling, Wormy?" James asked, clapping a hand behind her back, causing her to almost hurtle forward.
Afraid that she would say something to rise suspicion, Diana merely shrugged. But that was enough for James and Sirius to look sideways at each other curiously before narrowing their eyes down at Peter Pettigrew.
The next moment, James smirked in realization. "And what brings you to our humble lion's den, Miss Greengrass?"
Diana blinked a few times in surprise. "How — how did you —?"
"How did we know it was you and not Peter?" Sirius scoffed arrogantly, moving past them to pour some Fire-whiskey into a small golden goblet. "Easy. A, Peter's robes aren't as tight as what you're wearing right now. B, when he shrugs, he raises his right shoulder higher, but you didn't. C, at a party, Peter never goes for the drink; he starts with the snacks. And D, Remus is probably the only one other than James and I who knows how to flawlessly steal a bottle of Polyjuice Potion, and you're the only one he would risk the trouble to give this drink to and bring you here."
"And E, you still need a lot of practice to be able to fool a Marauder," said James, grinning. "Or has Moony not taught you that?"
Remus laughed when he saw the shock on Diana's face. "Yeah, I should've warned you about them."
"I don't know why I always forget how smart these two actually are," Diana grumbled.
"Because they're a bunch of immature idiots who always break the rules?" Remus said as he calmly sipped on his Butterbeer, causing James and Sirius to glare up at him sharply.
"You're no better, Moony. So don't act all high and mighty," James retorted, pointing an accusing finger at him.
"Exactly." Sirius nodded coolly. "You're acting too innocent for someone who has just given Polyjuice Potion — an illegal drink — to his girlfriend, only to bring her up to the Gryffindor common room for the party."
"Speaking from experience, that's breaking at least fifty school rules," James said with a mischievous grin, winking at her.
"Ah, fourth year..." Sirius sighed dramatically at the thought. "Good memories, indeed."
Diana raised a curious brow at Remus, secretly amused. But ignoring his friends, Remus turned to face Diana, saying, "Wanna dance?"
"Sure!" Diana said excitedly and put her drink down on the table, walking to the dance floor with Remus.
"Oi! No smoochy business!" James yelled after them. "Peter will freak out if he wakes up the next morning and hears that he had been snogging Remus all night!"
"Yeah, but imagine how funny it would be to see the look on his face." Sirius sneered. "We can tell him he'd been sleepwalking and kissing all the Gryffindors."
"Hmm... Good idea." James nodded thoughtfully, before yelling after Remus and Diana from afar, "Okay, do the smoochy business!"