Twins: A Different Life (Book one)

26

Harry choked violently when he saw Rosina enter the Great Hall on Monday morning, coughing and spluttering as he tried to regain control of his breathing and eventually having the air clearing spell shot at him by an amused Daphne Greengrass.

"What in Merlin's- dear sweet mother of Circe!"

Harry had forcefully turned Draco's head to show him exactly what had caused his reaction and the rest of the first years followed his line of sight. To put it mildly: Rosina Potter looked awful. Her long auburn hair was a livid green, matted together in greasy clumps. Her skin had a sickly yellow tinge, appearing cracked in some places, though her palms were a bright purple. Whether it was nerves or sheer embarrassment, Rosina had paused in the entrance of the Great Hall, and, at the worst possible time for her, when the Hall burst into loud laughter, the glue from the previous day kicked in and she found herself unable to move over to the Gryffindor table. Harry was in pain as he tried to control his laughter, and Draco was pink in an effort not to laugh, but it was just too much. They both rose, moving from the hall as fast as they could without breaking decorum, and as soon as they were clear they burst out laughing, collapsing against the nearest wall and laughing until tears streamed down their cheeks.

"Oh Merlin," Draco gasped, "That was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my entire life."

"On Circes Magic, I didn't know it would come out like that." Harry laughed, and then his eyes widened. "It's set to develop as the week goes on."

They shared a wide-eyed look and then fell about laughing again.

All through the week, Rosina kept being transformed every time she walked through a classroom door or entered the Great Hall, and many times Draco and Harry had to excuse themselves simply because it got better each time it happened. Rose had confronted them, blaming them and screaming about how they were going to pay for what they did. Her red-headed sidekick, the Weasel, as Draco had so tenderly named him, had tried to hex them. Harry and Draco had returned fire, hitting him with a spell to give him spots and a colour staining charm, making him walk around with carrot orange skin and pulsing yellow spots all over his hands and face. James tried to give them detention, but they wormed out of it by stating they had airtight alibis and they couldn't have got into the tower.

When he tried to get them for jinxing Weasley, they produced several witnesses, not only from Slytherin, who swore it was self-defence. Fred and George also caught up with them and congratulated them thoroughly on the genius idea, welcoming them to the pranking world. When Samhain rolled around, while Harry was disgruntled that he could not perform the ritual he usually would, he was feeling positively evil as he knew the tripwires and the strength of their prank on Rosina were at their height. What he didn't realise was how bad it would actually be as a result, so when Rosina walked in, Harry gaped.

"Lady Magic herself, what have we done?" He breathed grabbing Draco's arm, the blonde looked confused until he spotted her and his jaw dropped.

"What in the name of Merlin's mighty magic did we do?"

"Remember I said it would be at its strongest today...?" Harry trailed off. Rosina looked like an ill stereotypical muggle witch. Her hair was black and lank, her skin was a pale green, her nose had lengthened and on her face, she had two pulsing warts on her chin and nose. Her hands had gone crooked, her fingernails her brown and long and her teeth had turned yellow.

"I am a horrific genius," Harry whispered unable to take his eyes off of Rose.

"Agreed," Said the first years, looking from Rose to Harry and shuddering. Harry spent the day staring at Rose and hardly paying attention to anything, Draco had to forcibly move him out of the way of solid objects. He had finally snapped out of it when he entered the Great Hall for the feast, he was blown away with the decorations. He may be very disappointed on not being about to perform the Samhain ritual, but the modern time definitely got the feasting right. They were happily enjoying the feast when Quirrell burst in screaming about a troll in the dungeons. Mass panic broke out and Dumbledore shot out purple firecrackers to silence the room.