Behind the smiles

The Switch I

Today was supposed to be a normal day. First quidditch match of the season, two days before the full moon, no detentions (yet), just an average day in a third-year marauders life. Well, it was supposed to be.

James Potter woke up feeling sick. He groggily reached out for his glasses but his whole arm felt heavy. His head hurt, and he felt like gravity itself was working against him. This wouldn't do. Not today. Groaning, still half-asleep, he tried to sit up but was immediately rewarded by an ache in his chest and a lack of air in his lungs. Opening his eyes, gasping for breath, he noticed something off, something not right. He could see. Clearly. And his hair, it was...brown?

Three words were at the tip of his tongue, but someone else managed to say them first.

"What the hell?"

The voice of Peter Pettigrew, coming from the bed to his right shouted out. Peter didn't shout. James knew that. Why was he doing so now?

Wait. To his right? Peter's bed was supposed to be across the room from his, beside Remus'. Did Peter fall asleep on Sirius' bed?

This was confusing. James tried to sit up again. It worked this time although, he was pretty sure the room was oriented differently. That or he had fallen asleep in Remus' bed. Wait. He looked down. These sheets weren't his. This bed wasn't his. It was Remus'! That would explain Peter beside him but...

"Bloody Merlin! I'm, I'm--- No way!"

If Peter hadn't been the one talking, he would've thought it was Sirius. Sirius always managed to insert a 'bloody Merlin' into his sentences. Peter never really talked much. What had happened now?

"What's wrong?" He tried to ask, although his voice came out like a whisper, sounding...odd.....wrong...not his. Probably the sickness...

"Remmy!" The face of Peter Pettigrew popped up in front of him, a weird expression of horror and dismay on his face. "I LOOK LIKE PETTIGREW!"

James frowned. "Wh'd you call me Remmy, Peter? Where're my glasses? I don't--"

"WHAT THE--? I AM NOT PETER REMUS."

James frowned, the loud voice of Peter making him feel faint. With all his strength, he tried to shout.

"WELL I'M NOT REMUS EITHER, PETER, YOU IDIOT! DID YOU DRINK TOO MUCH BUTERBBER OR EAT A BAD CHOCOLATE FROG??"

Shouting was a bad idea. HE felt like his voice wouldn't work anymore, not after that.

Peter's face had an odd look, a questioning one. James still felt dizzy, light-headed even. He was about to say something else but a voice from across the room, from his bed interrupted him.

"Good Godric, I've gone blind!"

Peter, or not Peter, started to run towards the voice. James could barely stand up. He did, holding onto a bedpost for support.

"JAMES! I'VE TURNED INTO PETER!" James could see Peter (or not Peter, he wasn't really sure anymore) run up to a bed, grabbing his glasses from the bedside table and throwing them to whoever was in his bed.

James coughed. Maybe he was hallucinating? "This is wrong...what is going on?" His voice failed him, even he had a hard time hearing it.

"I-I'm not James Peter, what are you...."

James tensed up. His voice. That was his voice. Peter was claiming not to be Peter, talking to a person in his bed who was claiming to be blind and not James. He was James. HE, the person who woke up in Remus' bed, feeling sick, was JAMES POTTER.

A figure moved towards him, he stood there, not looking up, clinging onto the bedpost. If he let go, he really might faint. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

Standing in front of him was someone who looked like him, wearing his clothes, and his glasses.

"Sit down."

Dumbfounded, James complied, feeling the world around him spin again.

The person who looked like him turned to Peter (who was...or was not...Peter??)

"If you're not Peter, then who are you?"

"I'm SIRIUS. WHA THE--"

"No. Don't swear, Sirius. I believe you. I...I'm not James. I'm me...I mean, I'm Remus Lupin."

Both people, Sirius who looked like Peter and Remus that looked like...well, him, turned to him.

"Who are you?"

"I'm James...." The room was definitely spinning now.

"Okay, So i'm you...I, Remus Lupin look like you...or am you, Sirius Black is, or looks like Peter, and you're me."

James looked up, making eye-contact with, well, himself. "I feel--"

His eyes (Remus...Remus in his body's eyes? Polyjuiced eyes???)  stared back at him, widening with comprehension. "Okay James, lie down for now. Full moon's in two days, and you probably feel like throwing up." The hand on his shoulder, his hand (or Remus' disguised as him????) pushed him to lie down.

Peter (or Sirius who looked like Peter) was about to say something, but he was interrupted by...well, Sirius' voice.

"WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT?"