PRANKSTER [1] ↝ C. DIGGORY

forty-six

"Now, who can tell me the proper incantation for transfiguring one's hair?" McGonagall asked from where she was perched at her podium, peering through her spectacles at her sixth year class, a small number of hands reaching up to attempt answering the question. "Mr. Davies," she called out, looking at where Roger Davies sat near the front of the class with his hand raised.

"Crinus Muto," Roger said matter-of-factly, reading from his notes, and McGonagall nodded approvingly.

"Correct," she said. "Five points to Ravenclaw," 

Clary watched as Roger smiled smugly at the prospect of earning points for his house, and she turned to look back at Professor McGonagall, who was launching further into her lecture on that day's section of human transfiguration, the coloring and styling of human hair. Personally, she thought her and her brother's Colovhairia charm had worked just fine on Cedric last year, even if Cedric himself didn't agree, though it could only change the color of a person's hair, not the style as this charm could.

"Now I'd like all of you to get with a partner," she announced, each of the students beginning to look around at their fellow classmates to choose someone to work with, Clary's eyes falling on where Cedric sat at the desk next to hers, "and practice the charm to change the color of their eyebrows only." she stressed the last two words, looking directly at where Clary and her brothers sat, the three of them looking back at her with sickeningly sweet grins.

"Yes Professor McGonagall," the triplets muttered, causing Cedric to smirk softly to himself in amusement.

"Alright," Cedric said, his eyes scanning over the description of the spell in their textbook for what Clary could guess was most likely the thirtieth time since class had begun twenty minutes before and picking up his wand. "Any special requests?" he asked, looking back up at her. 

"Hmm," Clary mused thoughtfully. "How about a nice green? Really goes well with my hair, I think."

"Very well," Cedric said, raising his wand and aiming at Clary. "Crinus Muto," he said, and Clary shut her eyes as she began to feel her eyebrows change, the tingling sensation going away a few moments later as the transformation completed.

"Well?" Clary asked, her eyes opening again slowly as she reached for the mirror McGonagall had provided at each desk that afternoon. "How do I look?" 

Clary picked up the hand mirror, staring at her reflection and laughing in response. Where her usually red-haired eyebrows rested above her eyes, matching her fiery locks, now sat a pair of bright green eyebrows, matching a villain Clary remembered from an old muggle comic book her father had brought home from work for Ron a few years ago, the Joker, she was pretty sure he was called.

"You look..." Cedric trailed off as Clary looked back up at him, trying his hardest not to laugh. "...interesting."

"Are you saying you wouldn't date me if I looked like this?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest and furrowing her bright green eyebrows at him.

"I..." he trailed off again, searching for the right words, "I'm not saying that I wouldn't  date you if you had bright green eyebrows, I'm just saying I'm very glad I can change them back when we're done here."

She shrugged in response, turning back to the mirror. "I don't know," she mused, studying them with a smile. "I like it. I think I might keep them for a bit. But anyways," she said, raising her own wand and looking back at him. "Your turn. Any requests."

"Hmm," he mused, "how about indigo?"

"So pretentious," she said disapprovingly, though a devilish grin began to surface, "But I always knew you liked when I turned your hair blue. Like I said back then, it suited you." she aimed her wand at the space just above his eyes, channeling all her focus into the incantation to get it correct, and not manage to somehow make the boy go blind before he was set to compete in the Third Task, as it might add to the difficulty of navigating through the maze. "Crinus Muto,"

Clary watched as Cedric's eyebrows slowly began to change color, their usual brown beginning to darken, shades of blue blossoming until they turned a dark indigo color, and he continued to watch her expectantly, waiting for her reaction. As the amused grin spread across her face, he took the mirror from her hands, staring into it himself. 

"It's really not that bad," she assured him as he stared at his reflection. "I'm a bit offended, honestly, that you look that good with dark blue eyebrows."

"Hey, Clary!" Fred called from where he and George sat on the other side of her, and Clary looked to see purple eyebrows adorning the top of Fred's face, while George's were a bright, snowy-white color, reminding her of their incident with the beards when they attempted to cross the age line to get to the Goblet of Fire earlier in the year. As she turned to face them, they took in her bright green eyebrows, doubling over in laughter.

"We'll have to practice this for the joke shop." George insisted, scribbling down the name of the charm onto a spare piece of parchment before stuffing it into his bag. "Maybe create an Eyebrow Changing Powder or something like that."

"Which I'm sure our wonderful guinea pig would love to test out for us." Fred added, watching Clary as his expression turned to one of begging, complete with puppy-dog eyes.

"Oh, no," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "The last time I tested one of the pranks, I fell in love with Newt for an afternoon and almost cut off Vas's finger in Herbology."

"Pshhhhh," Newt scoffed from the other side of Cedric, and Clary turned to look at the boy who stared back at her with a set of bright orange eyebrows. "You say 'fall in love with Newt' as if it's a bad thing. You weren't complaining then, Mrs. Scamander."

"But cutting off Vas's finger in Herbology was definitely a bad thing," Vasantha added, vibrant red eyebrows raised.

As class began to near its end, Clary and Cedric used the charm on each other one last time, returning their eyebrows back to their normal color. Although Clary was relieved they were turned back to normal without any issues, and not missing like a Slytherin student's in the back, whose partner managed to mess up the spell drastically, resulting in the boy being sent to the Hospital Wing for Madame Pomfrey to grow his eyebrows back, she was going to miss the bright green, and vowed to try the charm on herself again one day, maybe also changing her hair to match. They quickly began to pack up their things as Professor McGonagall announced the homework for that weekend, joining the line of students piling up around the doorway, eager to get out of the classroom and back to their dormitories.

"I'm off to meet up with Katie," Newt announced as the group of friends finally managed to reach the corridors, Cedric's hand intertwining with Clary's as they walked. "See you lot for dinner later?"

"Yeah," Clary confirmed, nodding. "We're headed out to the Black Lake. The weather's finally nice enough, and this one's got some studying to do for the Third Task."

"You've got three weeks," Vasantha assured him. "It's going to be fine, Ced."

"I want to make sure I'm at my best in every area of magic that I can." Cedric explained. "We don't know what we're going up against in there, and I can't let any of it get the better of me. Not if I want to win, that is. And besides, I've made it this far. I'd really like to be the one holding that trophy in the end."