Right Now Could Last Forever

“Oh, do I look like I care,” I hissed to Fred, George and Lee. “We’ll be in there for like a minute.”

“Let me just check there’s no one in there,” said Lee, walking over to the boys’ bathroom, just around the corner from the Fat Lady.

“Sometimes, I wonder why we keep you around,” said George, “you being a girl and all; it really complicates things.”

“OK, it’s empty,” said Lee, appearing again.

I followed the three boys into the bathroom. I wrinkled my nose at a faint smell that seemed permanent in the room, but quickly recovered myself. There was nothing about the boys’ bathroom that would have been different about the girls’ one.

“OK, so who has it?” I asked.

Fred pulled out a glass vial, a light blue potion inside. He took a small sip and handed the vial over to George. We all waited for some sort of change to appear, but the only thing that happened was that his hair grew a few millimetres, maybe. George quickly followed suit, and then Lee.

Once again, there seemed no apparent difference in their appearance, for they only had to age a few months. I knew that it would be different for me; I’d have a lot of aging to do, over two years actually. I had stolen Fred’s Christmas sweater from last year, because I knew that my clothes wouldn’t fit me anymore after a couple years of aging.

“You’re turn, Blondie,” said George. I could tell they were waiting to see what was going to happen.

I took the glass vial that Lee was holding out to me, and, without another thought, swallowed the remainder of the potion. It was cold and it slid down my throat easily. The boys watched me with anticipation on their faces. A thought crossed my mind, but I quickly shoved it out of my mind.

Instead I made my way across the room before the potion could kick in, my back turned to the twins and Lee. I could feel my skin tingling, changing. It was an odd feeling.
I closed my eyes as I stood in front of the mirror, which was above a sink. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. Unlike the boys’ hair, my hair was significantly longer. I was a couple of centimetres taller, and my face had left all traces of childhood behind, a slight glow upon it instead. My hand reached up and touched the smooth skin, a smile spreading on my lips.

“What d’you think?” I asked, turning around. I turned this way and that, as the three of them took in my new, older self.

“I think,” Lee said slowly, “that seventeen would suit you more if you wore something that fit you more.” I shot him a warning look. “I’m kidding, no one will even know you’ve taken the potion unless they already know or concentrate too hard.”

“Let’s go then,” I said.

--

“Bet some of them put in last night after we’d all gone to bed,” said Harry. “I would’ve done if it had been me... wouldn’t have wanted everyone watching. What if the Goblet just bobbed you right back out again?”

Fred laughed as we headed down the staircase towards where Harry, Ron and Hermione were standing. George, Lee and Fred all looked extremely excited.

“Done it,” Fred said in a triumphant whisper to Harry, Ron and Hermione. “Just taken it.”

“What?” said Ron.

“The Aging Potion, dungbrains,” said Fred.

“One drop each,” said George, rubbing his hands together with glee. “We only need to be a few months older. Apart from this one of course,” he added, nodding towards me.

“We’re going to split the thousand Galleons between the three of us if one of us wins,” I said, grinning.

“I’m not sure this is going to work, you know,” said Hermione warningly. “I’m sure Dumbledore will have thought of this.”

Fred, George and Lee ignored her, but I leaned over.

“I know,” I whispered, with a grin.

“Ready?” Fred said, once I joined them next to the Ageline; he was basically quivering with excitement. “C’mon, then – I’ll go first –“

I watched as Fred pulled a slip of parchment out of his pocket, bearing the words ‘Fred Weasley – Hogwarts’. Fred walked right up to the edge of the line, and stood there, rocking on his toes like a diver preparing for a fifty-foot drop. Then, with the eyes of every person in the Entrance Hall upon him, he took a great breath and stepped over the line.

For a split second, I thought it had worded, and I sort of regretted judging Fred, George and Lee’s ability. George certainly thought it had worked, too, for he let out a yell of triumph and leapt after Fred – but next moment, there was a loud sizzling sound, and both twins were hurled out of the golden circle as though they had been thrown by an invisible shot-putter. They landed painfully, ten feet away on the cold stone floor, and to add insult to injury, there was a loud popping noise, and both of them sprouted identical, long white beards.

The Entrance Hall rang with laughter. Even Fred and George joined in, once they had got to their feet, and take a good look at each other’s beards.

“I did warn you,” said a deep, amused voice, and everyone turned to see Dumbledore coming out of the Great Hall. He surveyed Fred and George, his eyes twinkling. “I suggest you both go up to Madam Pomfrey. She is already tending to Miss Fawcett, of Ravenclaw, and Mr Summers, of Hufflepuff, both of whom decided to age themselves up a little, too. Though I must say, neither of their beards is anything like as fine as yours.”

Fred and George set off for the hospital wing, accompanied by Lee, who was howling with laughter, and Harry, Ron, Hermione and I, also chortling, went in to breakfast.

The decorations in the Great Hall had changed this morning. As it was Halloween, a cloud of live bats was fluttering around the enchanted ceiling, while hundreds of carved pumpkins leered from every corner. Harry led the way over to Dean and Seamus, who were discussing those Hogwarts students of seventeen or over who might be entering.

“There’s a rumour going round, Warrington got up early and put his name in,” Dean told us.

“The big Slytherin bloke?” I asked, remembering Warrington from Quidditch. “The one who looks like a sloth?”

Dean nodded.

“We can’t have a Slytherin champion!” said Harry.

“And all the Hufflepuffs are talking about Diggory,” said Seamus contemptuously. “But I wouldn’t have thought he’d have wanted to risk his good looks.”

“Listen!” said Hermione suddenly.

People were cheering out in the Entrance Hall. We all swivelled around in our seats, and saw Angelina Johnson coming into the Hall, grinning in an embarrassed sort of way. A tall black girl who was a fellow Chaser of mine on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Angelina came over to us, sat down and said, “Well, I’ve done it! Just put my name in!”

“You’re kidding!” said Ron, looking impressed.

“Are you seventeen, then?” asked Harry.

“’Course she is. Can’t see a beard, can you?” I said.

“I had my birthday last week,” said Angelina.

“Well, I’m glad someone from Gryffindor’s entering,” said Hermione. “I really hope you get it, Angelina!”

“Thanks, Hermione,” said Angelina, smiling at her.

“Yeah, better than Pretty-Boy Diggory,” said Seamus, causing several Hufflepuffs passing our table to scowl heavily at him.

“What’re we going to do today, then?” I asked, when we had finished breakfast and were leaving the Great Hall. The aging potion had worn off, and I was back to normal; not that anyone but me had noticed.

“We haven’t been down to visit Hagrid yet,” said Harry.

“OK,” I said, “just as long as he doesn’t ask us to donate a few fingers to the Skrewts.”

A look of great excitement suddenly dawned on Hermione’s face.

“I’ve just realised – I haven’t asked Hagrid to join S.P.E.W. yet!” she said brightly. “Wait for me, will you, while I nip upstairs and get the badges?”

“What’s she like?” said Ron, exasperated, as Hermione ran away up the marble staircase.
“Hey, Ron,” I said suddenly. “It’s your friend...”

The students from Beauxbatons were coming through the front doors from the grounds, among them, the Veela girl. Those gathered around the Goblet of Fire stood back to let them pass, watching eagerly.

Madame Maxime entered the hall behind her students and organised them into a line. One by one, the Beauxbatons students stepped across the Age Line and dropped their slips of parchment into the blue-white flames. As each name entered the fire, it turned briefly red and emitted sparks.

“What d’you reckon’ll happen to the one that aren’t chosen?” Ron muttered to Harry and I, as the Veela girl dropped her parchment into the Goblet of Fire. “Reckon they’ll go back to school, or hang around to watch the Tournament?”

“Don’t worry, Ron,” I said. “Madame Maxime is staying to judge; it’d be too much fuss to sent the remaining students home.”

When all the Beauxbatons students had submitted their names, Madame Maxime let them back out of the hall and into the grounds again.

“Where are they sleeping, then?” said Ron, moving towards the front doors and staring after them.

A loud rattling noise behind them announced Hermione’s reappearance with the box of S.P.E.W. badges.

“Oh, good, hurry up,” said Ron, and he jumped down the stone steps, keeping his eyes on the back of the Veela girl, who was now halfway across the lawn with Madame Maxime.
As we neared Hagrid’s cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, the mystery of the Beauxbatons’ sleeping quarters was solved. The gigantic powder-blue carriage in which they had arrived had been parked two hundred yards from Hagrid’s front door, and the students were climbing back inside it. The elephantine flying horses that had pulled the carriage were now grazing in a makeshift paddock alongside it.

I knocked on Hagrid’s door, and Fong’s booming barks answered instantly.

“’Bout time!” said Hagrid, when he’d flung open his door and seen who was knocking.
“Thought you lot’d forgotten where I live!”

“We’ve been really busy, Hag-“ Hermione started to say, but then she stopped dead, looking up at Hagrid, apparently lost for words.