Year Three
After a year, they had finally found it. The switching spell. Somehow, out of all of them, Barty had been the one to find it. Sort of. Barty had met a girl– Dorcas Meadows– and befriended her. They had started hanging out, and soon enough he introduced her to the rest of the group. But one day, when it was just her and Barty, they were scheming for a way to ditch classes, when Dorcas suggested the switching spell. Barty had looked at her with wide eyes, not realizing she had known how to do the spell the whole time. Which led them to gathering in the slytherin common room, where they knew no one cared enough to snitch about what they were doing.
“Ready?” Dorcas asked the twins, looking between them. She was still nervous about the whole thing, she had never actually done it on humans before. Only on the pets she had back home. She used to switch her pet mouse and snake’s bodies, to see how they’d act as the other.
Evan and Pandora both nodded, almost in unison. They had both waited so long for this day; They were more than ready. Neither of them had a reason to be afraid. If they were still in their original bodies after this, sure they would be disappointed but they could live with it. And if they switched… They knew that there was no one else they’d rather give their bodies to. Evan trusted Pandora with her life, as did Pandora with Evan. Pandora nor Evan had any reason to be scared doing this spell, everything they ever did, they did together; And this was no different.
Dorcas began to chant the spell, flicking her wand between Pandora and Evan. A light shot out of it, splitting into two and hitting them both. Evan gasped at the sensation, while Pandora’s eyes simply widened, watching as their bodies blurred. There was a pressure building up in their heads, akin to a budding migraine. Pandora held his head, squeezing his eyes shut as everything went black.
It felt like a dream. Everything was dark and warm. It was soothing. Pandora didn’t want to wake up. But somewhere in the darkness, he could have swore that he saw Evan. He moved towards her, and that’s when he woke up.
Pandora gasped as he jolted awake, sitting up immediately. “Be careful! For fucks sake, you’ve been passed out for an hour!” Barty held Pandora steady, worry in his eyes. Pandora stared at him, realizing that’s the first time he’s ever seen Barty worried. And it was because of him. That thought made Pandora feel weird– feel happy– but he couldn’t dwell on it long. Not when Barty had just said he’d been passed out for over an hour. Looking around, Pandora saw that they had now been moved to the dorms. Dorcas was on the bed, her eyes red and teary. Regulus was next to her, patting her awkwardly as he seemingly tried to comfort her. But where was Evan? Pandora looked next to him, and saw himself.
Wait. Himself? Pandora saw his long blonde hair splayed out on the ground next to him, still unconscious. “It worked.” Pandora said softly, looking to Barty in awe, “It worked Barty.” Barty’s mouth opened slightly, an exhale leaving him as he held Pandora’s shoulders.
“You’re Pandora?”
He nodded. “Oh my fucking gods, it worked!” Barty’s voice grew louder with excitement. He turned to stand up, going to get Dorcas and Regulus’ attention, “Guys it worked! Pandora is in Evan’s body!” Their heads snapped up, their faces in matching looks of shock. “It worked?” Dorcas asked softly. Barty and Pandora nodded.
“Holy shit, it worked.” Regulus parroted, still in disbelief. All three of them had thought they had killed Pandora and Evan.
A groan next to them caused all eyes to turn towards Evan. Slowly, she rose from where she lay, rubbing her head. “What happened?”
“It worked.” Pandora repeated, looking at his sister. “We switched.” Evan’s eyes widened as she looked down at her new body– her right one. “I’m you.” She said, smiling at Pandora.
Pandora shook his head, “No, you’re you. And I’m me.” He smiled at his sister. Pandora was elated, he was finally– finally in the body that was his, and so was Evan. Whoever gave them the wrong bodies at birth was an asshole, but now the mishap was fixed. Evan had her body, and Pandora had his. But seeming to only realize it after the fact, Pandora had one question–
“Are you still going to keep your names? Or switch with each other?” Regulus questioned, voicing Pandora’s exact thoughts.
The room went silent. Everyone had been so focused on finding the spell, along with schoolwork(except for Barty), that no one had thought about the fact that their names were now assigned to different bodies. Pandora looked to Evan, his eyebrow raised in a silent question: What do you want to do?
Evan shrugged, “I’m fine with taking your name. I mean we share a bunch of dna anyways, and now we share our bodies. Why not switch names too?” Pandora smiled at his sister.
“We’ll switch names too. So I’m Evan now.” Evan looked at them, pointing to himself.
“And I’m Pandora now.” She smiled, looking at her brother.
Everyone nodded; Barty was grinning at the two of them, Regulus had a small smile, and Dorcas gave them both a thumbs up, smiling as well. The twins looked at each other once more, looking at themselves through the other’s eyes. It felt surreal, seeing their twin in the body they had lived in for so long, but it felt right. It felt better than all those years in a body that was wrong for them, that wasn’t theirs. Now, that body belonged to its rightful owner.
Evan stood up, helping his sister up once he was standing. They moved over to the mirror, looking at themselves.
“I’m so going to change this dreadful style of yours now, thank the gods!” Pandora laughed, looking down at the plain shirt and trousers Evan had been wearing before her. Evan rolled his eyes at his sister, “Yeah, same here. There’s so many colors on me right now…” Evan exasperated playfully, elbowing his sister in the ribs. Barty laughed at that, and Evan threw him a side eye. “I don’t know why you’re laughing Barty, I’m stealing your clothes until I buy some new ones.”
Barty stared at Evan in fake horror, “No the fuck you’re not.” Evan raised an eyebrow at Barty, and Barty folded immediately, grumbling. “You’re lucky that you’re my best mate.”
They all fell into a silence after that, basking in the relief and excitement of the fact that the spell worked. Evan and Pandora had gotten their bodies, and no one got hurt. They didn’t even have to worry about a teacher finding out and getting mad– No teacher would ever believe that a couple of reckless 13 year olds pulled the spell off.
Out of nowhere Barty started laughing, and everyone looked at him with raised eyebrows. “What’s so funny?” Evan asked. “I’m just realizing how confused everyone will be with the personality switch.” He laughed, pointing between Pandora and Evan, “Evan going from being loud and hyperactive as fuck to quiet and stoic, and then Pandora going from quiet and stoic to loud and all over the place. People are going to be hella confused. It’s gonna be so fucking funny.”
Regulus sighed at Barty and Dorcas rolled her eyes. But Pandora and Evan cracked smiles as well, knowing it would be funny to see the look on everyone’s fac
es when they start acting differently in class.