Summary: Fred and George Weasley plan on selling Polyjuice Potion in their store, Wizard Weasley Wheezes. But they have a problem. They're the only available testers! Fred and George don't think they'll be able to tell if they switched bodies, but fortunately, they know the one person who could tell....
Written by Madame Marauder of Gryffindor for the One-Shot Challenge
Categories: General Fics Characters: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: Series: None
Chapters: 1
Completed: Yes
Word count: 946
Read: 1608
Published: 07/28/06
Updated: 08/08/06
1. One-Shot by Madame Marauder
One-Shot by Madame Marauder
Author's Notes:
I dedicate this story to my parents, the only ones who would be able to tell if I switched bodies with someone. Mom, thanks for being my beta-reader and Dad, thanks for being my Tech-Support Staff. I love you both so much!
Fred Weasley stared into his cauldron. He’d been concocting the Polyjuice Potion inside of it for a month. He and his identical twin brother, George, owned a joke shop: Weasley Wizard Wheezes. The Polyjuice Potion was a product idea, given to them by their younger brother Ron. All Fred needed was a bit of someone to turn into, but the only other on-duty tester he could think of was George. Fred wondered if anyone would notice if they switched bodies. But he had a plan… All he needed was a forgery kit, some parchment and an owl….
***
George Weasley was in the storeroom of Weasley Wizard Wheezes, looking for a Basic Blaze Box a customer had requested. There were none on display so, he had to restock. His brother, Fred, came bounding in.
“George! How delightful to see you! Imagine running into you here!” Fred said, feigning surprise.
George grinned at his brother. “Imagine running into me here, as I also own the store. What an amazing thought, Fred!”
Fred chortled. “Yes, well… I need a favor.”
“A favor?” George asked brightly. “What kind of favor?”
“I need to pluck out a few of your hairs. Then I need you to drink a Polyjuice Potion with my hairs in it. You’ll turn into me, and I’ll turn into you,” Fred explained quickly.
“How will we know that we changed?” George asked. “We’re identical, you know.”
“Yes, but Ron said we’ll know.”
George snorted. “What does Ron know about Polyjuice Potion?”
Fred shrugged. “He had Slughorn for his NEWTS, I had Snape. Maybe Slughorn taught them something Snape never taught my class.”
George bit his lip, and then nodded. He didn’t know what Snape taught Fred because George hadn’t taken Potions for his NEWTS classes.
“I’ll do it.”
And with that, George plucked out some of his own hairs and put them in an empty vial.
***
“To pranks and jokes!” Fred cried, lifting his goblet. He and George had just added their own hairs to the other’s potion. They stood before Fred’s now half-filled cauldron.
“To brothers!” responded George. “Cheers.”
And with that, they gulped down their potions. It was… unpleasant to say the least.
“Blech! This is horrible!”
“Awful stuff…”
“George, we aren’t going to sell this to customers…”
“You’ve killed me Fred! Look!”
Fred looked at his brother, he looked like he was changing, but, George still looked the same. Fred ran to a mirror. He too, looked like he had before he drank the potion.
“Maybe it didn’t work,” George said softly.
Fred sighed and walked to the front desk to help customers. Maybe his Polyjuce Potion hadn’t worked after all. To Fred’s surprise, his mother, Molly, was at the counter.
“I was about to cook dinner, but I got an urgent owl saying that I had to come here as soon as possible. Is everything alright, George? Where’s Fred?” his mother asked, panicking.
“Mum, I am Fred. George is in the back,” Fred said, rolling his eyes.
Molly’s face hardened. “Don’t you dare play that game with me, young man! We’ve been down that road before. You may be grown, but I am your mother. Don’t forget that.”
Fred blinked in confusion.
“I don’t understand you, mum. I am Fred. Can’t you recognize your own son?”
“Of course I can recognize my own son! You think you’re so clever by switching robes with your brother! But that’s IMMATURE BEHAVIOR! You are a GROWN MAN and you shouldn’t be playing such tricks on your mother!” Molly was yelling now.
Customers turned to watch Molly scold her son. Some left the store, afraid fighting might follow.
“Mother?” George asked as he came out of the storeroom. “I thought I heard you yelling at Fred…”
“You mean George, dear. It’s not funny when you two switch places. It gave me a headache when you were still at home, and now you’re bound to drive customers away because of your immaturity.”
George looked at Fred, excitedly.
“We switched places?” he asked Fred. “You do know what this means?”
“It means that you two are behaving poorly,” Molly said heatedly.
“No, Mum,” said Fred, just as excited as George. “It means our Polyjuice Potion worked.”
“You’re what”Good heavens! Don’t tell me you’ve made…”
“Yes, Mum, Fred made Polyjuice Potion,” George explained, patting his mother on the back.
“Come see our latest concoction, madam,” said Fred, taking her hand.
They took their mother to the store room and showed her the cauldron with Polyjuice Potion inside of it. They explained how they tested it on themselves, as they planned to sell it in their shop.
“We were, eventually, going to produce Polyjuice Pills, but the stuff tastes so awful that we’ll have to find a way to keep customers from vomiting,” Fred said.
Molly stared at her sons. It had been about an hour that they’d been explaining.
“You’ve been yourselves for fifteen minutes now, you do know that?” she said softly.
“We have?” George asked.
“Thanks, Mum.” Fred was grinning.
“Thanks? Thanks for what?” Molly asked, surprised.
“We sent that urgent owl. We needed you to tell us if we changed and when we were ourselves again. We figured that if anyone could tell, it would be our mother,” George said. “We figured you’d be the only one who could tell the difference.”
Molly hugged her boys.
“That’s because I’m your mother,” she said. “Don’t you ever forget that.”
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.