But this was taking things too far.
In fact, when he got up that morning, he hadn’t imagined being ripped from his comfortable, well-worn body and being dropped unceremoniously into the body of his long time crush.
“What,” he said slowly, planting his new hands on his small hips, “is in that potion?”
Lily didn’t look too happy either. “Oh my god. Oh my god,” James saw himself say. He looked quite distressed; an expression that rarely crossed his face. As a Marauder, he strived to stay calm and cool at all times. He saw himself start to hyperventilate and fought laugher. This was ridiculous. He was watching himself have a panic attack.
Diverting his eyes for a moment, James gazed around the dungeon. He caught sight of himself in a cracked mirror. God, Lily was pretty. He ran his hands over his face and through his curly red hair lost in thought. He had never touched it before, it was so soft, softer than silk, and it was just so…
“Stop that!”
“Stop what?” he asked confused, hands frozen in their position.
“Touching me!” she yelled, her deep voice outraged.
“Settle down, handsome! I’m nowhere near you,” he sung back. “I’m all the way over here!”
Lily gave him an icy glare that looked ridiculous on his face. “I mean stop touching my body.”
James realised what he was doing. Then he grinned. This was much better than he realised. So much better. He was in the most attractive body in the world. He glanced in the mirror again. Lily grinned straight back at him. Being in Lily’s body was perfect. He could stare and touch all he wanted, and no one would stop him.
“Since you are the one who just showered us in body changing potion, I don’t think you are in the position to request anything.” He tugged on one of his new curls.
“Even if you have suddenly become exceedingly handsome.”
Lily sniffed and placed a hand on her new hip. “It is not a body changing potion ,” she spat out. “It’s a…” she trailed off. She knew she had to tell him; after all he was stuck in this too. She grabbed the potion book and shoved it at him. She couldn’t tell him out loud what she was making. It was too humiliating, even if it wasn’t for her. He would know she had broken the rules. His eyes widened as he scanned the page. He began to read the description out loud.
“Adsum sodalis amans, commonly known as the ‘Caller of Kindred Souls’ is a potion used for summoning one’s soul mate. Popular in the early 19th century, once drunk the drinker’s soul-mate will be transported beside them, remaining there for one full day. ” He stopped reading and looked at Lily, who was avoiding his gaze.
“You were looking for your soul mate?” he asked, unable to keep the slightly hurt tone from Lily’s high pitched voice. Why had she resorted to such drastic measures? Surely, this potion wasn’t even allowed; why would she even attempt to make it? James felt as though somebody had punched him in the gut. Perhaps he would never have a chance.
“It wasn’t for me,” she replied curtly. Relief swept over James and his spirit soared. Perhaps he did have a chance after all. As soon as they reversed bodies he’d give it another go. Euphoric thoughts of chances with Lily were stopped as another thought crossed his mind.
“Who was is for?”
“Can’t say,” she replied, not looking at him.
“Why did they need it?”
“Can’t say!”
James paused. “Why did we switch bodies?”
“Can’t say.” she said again, this time amused at the annoyed expression James had put on her face.
“Lily!” he said slowly, in her most menacing voice. He was starting to sound more like her.
She grinned. “I seriously have no idea what went wrong.”
Lily paused for a moment, her grin vanishing. Scanning the dungeon, she pondered his question. What had gone wrong? She had added everything correctly, right up until the beeswax. It had been the perfect dark purple. All she had to add was the…
With a strangled cry she grabbed back the potions book from James and furiously scanned the page to a small footnote at the bottom. Dumbstruck with horror, she began reading out loud the passage.
“The Caller of Kindred Souls is extremely difficult potion that has a variety of side effects if brewed incorrectly. However, the strangest side effect results from an excess of Inachis Oil. When this rare and powerful ingredient is overused, the potion slightly changes the wording of the effect. Instead of transporting the drinker’s soul mate beside them the potion transports the drinker’s soul mate inside them, causing them to switch bodies. The effects of this modified potion are undocumented, but are said to wear out eventually. Another interesting side note is while the ‘Caller of Kindred Souls’ only lasts a day, the modified potion can last anywhere between four to six weeks, or until the souls reach an understanding.”
Lily’s eyes drifted to a small grey bottle on the floor and gulped. It was a small empty grey bottle. She picked it up and handed it to James. Confused he read the label. Then understanding dawned, lighting up in his green eyes.
“Looks like we're soul mates, eh?” he chuckled. This was brilliant; there was no way she could deny it now.
“I doubt it,” she sniffed, rereading the passage for any additional information. “It only speaks of the drinker. We didn’t drink the potion. We must of switched bodies because we were touching at the time.” Lily’s soul mate was strong and brave, like the hero of a romance novel. He would swoop her off her feet and carry her into the sunset. There was no way Lily would believe that a big-headed buffoon, otherwise known as that James Potter, was her soul mate.
“Believe what you want to believe.” James shrugged. “The point is moot. We can’t get married and have five children until we are back in the right bodies. Let’s go to Madame Pomfrey. She will be able to fix this.”
Lily, inclined to agree with him about Madame Pomfrey, nodded her head once and turned to the door. The sooner she could get out of this body, the better. Hopefully, they could keep this quiet. She didn’t want everyone knowing she had spent the night inside James Potter’s body.
But before she could move any further, a horrible thought dawned upon her. If they went to Madame Pomfrey she would have to explain what happened. She would be in big trouble. Not only was the potion banned, but also she had stolen teachers’ property. She could be suspended or lose her Head Girl badge. With the new security measures, there was even the remote possibility she may be expelled.
She couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t let that happen.
“We can’t!” Lily burst out, grabbing James’ arm to stop him leaving.
“Having five children would be a bit of a stretch, but sure we can. Well, not in these bodies, but as soon as I get back in there,” he pointed at Lily, “I’d be happy to oblige you..”
Lily just glared at him. “We can’t go to Madame Pomfrey.”
“And this is because?”
“I could be expelled!”
James just raised a red eyebrow.
Lily knew she was slightly exaggerating, and that the likelihood of being expelled was very low. But she needed for James to see sense for once. She grabbed the bottle from his hand and held it in his face.
“I took this from Slughorn’s stores.” Lily then pointed to the book, “and this is against school rules.”
“What do you suggest we do? We can’t stay like this forever!”
Lily motioned to the book. “The modified potion can last anywhere between 4-6 weeks,” she read aloud. “If we're lucky, this could all be over in a month.”
James sighed. He knew how much it meant to Lily to stay out of trouble, but a month was a very long time. Yet, he threw a quick glance over at the mirror, maybe a month wasn’t a long time at all.
“Fine,” he said, reaching his decision. He could last a month as a girl, especially one as gorgeous and as well liked as Lily.
She nodded. “We can’t let anyone know! It could still reach the teachers ears. This stays between us!”
James just smiled. “Do you think you can handle being me?”
“Phur-lease, piece of cake!” she said with a wink, before vanishing the cauldron with a flick of her wand and storming out of the dungeon.
Many hours later, as Lily lay in James’ bed, she began to worry. On her way up, she had lost five points for entering the girl’s bathroom, fallen over trying to climb up the girl’s staircase, been hit on by three girls she considered friends and was now pretending to be asleep to avoid interacting with any of James’ friends.
Plus, she was petrified of going to the toilet or having a shower.
It was going to be a long month.