It's Deception, Indeed Fin - PV

After Dee's first experiment with Polyjuice Potion and @Pericles Dralt's hair had been... well, she wouldn't call it a disaster, but rather more eventful than anticipated, one might expect that she would not be too eager to impersonate her dorm mate and friend again.

One might also be wrong.

Fine, so her first attempt, from the moment she'd plucked the hair off of Peri's pillow to her stumbling half-blind across the grounds and getting tackled by a mountain lion, hadn't been particularly well-planned. That just meant she had an opportunity for improvement here - and Dee was nothing if not stubborn. She'd learned from her mistakes, too, had changed into Peri's clothes first this time, and done a decent approximation of his usual slicked-back hairstyle after the transformation was done. The potion had stung just as much this time as before; she wondered if that was an effect of the potion itself or of Pericles in particular. She hadn't been able to make herself use one of his prosthetics this time, either, even after two long minutes of staring at them trying to psych herself up, so she'd resorted to one of the eyepatches again. All in all, she'd looked significantly more Peri-like than the first time around. She'd also gotten the hang of walking without clinging to a wall with only a bit of practice this time, before she'd ambled out of their common room and down into the castle. Clearly, she was much better prepared this time. And what were the chances she'd get tackled by Eve again, right? Right.

Unlucky for her, it turned out that Evelynn Decipio was not the only pitfall the universe had in store for her. Dee had just turned into the Great Hall to grab a snack before returning to the Martial Eagle dorms - Polyjuice didn't last forever - when someone called after her. It took her a second to register that yes, right, 'Peri' was referring to her, before she slowed her pace to check who was trying to get Peri's attention.

The voice wasn't familiar, and neither was the face, blond curls and pretty blue eyes. Or was it? Had she seen him before? He was a bit shorter than Peri, although Dee would've certainly had to look up at him in her own body. She had the vague sense that she should probably recognise him, but the context eluded her. (Not her fault, really - she'd barely caught two glances of Harlan during the broom race, and for one of them, he'd been on fire.)

Peri, however, was not the type to forget people's names, inconvenient as it was. So she just smiled her best Peri smile, amiable and polite, and tilted her head slightly to one side in acknowledgment. "Oh, hey." At least she didn't jump at the sound of her own voice this time, way to go. "I do know about camp. I'm on the committee, in fact." Both Peri and her were, so that wasn't even a lie. She suppressed the urge for a very un-Peri-like wink. "You'll come, right?"

At the mention of checking out the other races, her smile twitched slightly into the hint of an edged grin that was more Dee than it was Peri - just for a second, before she schooled it back into a softer smile. Racing? Was that how Peri and this guy knew each other? Her eyes flicked down to the crest on his chest. There had only been two guys on the Gryffindor team... Ooooh. Was this the kid that had set himself on fire? She'd thought that had been a first year, but up close, he seemed too tall for that. "Scoping out the competition, eh? I like that."

@Harlan Montgomery

Dee would need to do a better job of paying attention to the other house teams. Curse Pericles for being so sociable - she'd thought that picking him over Aly for her experiments would mean she'd be less likely to have to maneuver through situations like this, talking to someone she didn't know who clearly knew Peri, but apparently, she'd been wrong. She could, however, coast along on chatter and compliments, even if the compliments were meant for Peri. They applied to her, too, she reasoned, both for camp and for kicking ass at racing. (Gryffindor ass in particular.) Therefore she was entirely justified in feeling flattered as well.

The Gryffindor seemed happy enough to carry the conversation, which probably aided her questionable Perimpression. Boh-dun-zeh? Dee blinked at the unfamiliar sounding word. German, presumably? She opened her mouth to ask a question, before thinking better of it and shutting it again. No matter that she was itching to ask whether that meant that he spoke German, whether he'd grown up in Germany, why he wasn't going to Durmstrang then or wherevery German kids usually went. Peri maybe knew these things, after all, and she was having too much fun impersonating him to blow her cover just yet. She'd question the blue-eyed blond about the languages he spoke another time if they met again. "Absolutely worth it. Couldn't pick a better camp to start," she quipped, her eyebrow twitching up slightly at the flattery. (Fine, maybe her Perisona was slipping a little.)

Outwitted, outplayed, and outmatched, indeed, Dee mused, but shook her head at the assumption that watching a few of the international kids race would help him at all with that predicament. "It'll take more than that to catch up with us, I'm sorry." She wasn't. "Though you're always welcome to try."

So this was the guy who had set himself on fire, or so she concluded. Amused, Dee gave the teenager a once-over, then straightened up and tried, but didn't quite manage, to even out the corners of her mouth. What an unexpected discovery, a veritable treasure of opportunities to tease the poor boy in front of her, who was likely entirely unaware of what he'd stumbled into, because Peri would never... Ah, screw it. She was going to have to confess after this, anyway - didn't want anyone asking about the strange holes in Peri's memories - so might as well make the most of it. "Why, couldn't handle the heat? No burning ambition to beat us?" she asked with a straight face but mischief gleaming in her eyes. "I thought it looked pretty hot, personally."

Shifting on her feet as she tried to think of the next bad fire joke she could throw into this conversation, Dee suddenly became aware of the apple she was still carrying, and, consequently, where she'd been going when she'd swiped it from the Great Hall. Also, more importantly, why she'd been going there. It was hard to guess how long it had been since she'd swallowed the potion up in her dorm room, but she might be due to turn back any minute now. And yet... she was having too much fun to cut this conversation short.

"Jokes aside, I'm always up for a bit of training," she replied to the invitation, although he might not quite get what he bargained for if Dee showed up instead of the silver-haired wizard he'd invited. Twisting the apple in her hand, she nodded in direction of the staircases. "I have to head back to my common room. Walk with me?" Assuming he hadn't gotten fed up with her teasing yet, that was.

@Harlan Montgomery

A little surprised, Dee took the offered hand and shook it firmly, her features softening into something gentler, more genuine after her relentless teasing. There was something in this boy's eyes, a spark she recognised - more than ambition or determination, the relentless need to prove herself, to stretch beyond her limits; seeing someone else's achievements and feeling in her bones that she wanted to match them. She'd felt that way about Phaedra, about Meenauh. She supposed it made sense that people would look at Peri the same way, now. "Guess we'll be waiting for you to catch up, then. You need to hurry, though; I'll be gone in a year." Not a lot of time to go from setting yourself on fire to duelling-and-broom-racing legend.

But first, there were interesting observations to be made. Curious, Dee watched the young man's features turn bright red in response to one of her comments - embarrassment, perhaps, for being caught out on his mistakes? She'd meant to fluster him a bit, sure, but...

Wait. Wait. Shameless flattery, calling after Peri with what was, looking back, clearly an excuse to talk to him, an invite to a personal training session, and now blushing a furious, glowing red? Dee's eyes widened almost imperceptibly, a suspicion wiggling itself into her thoughts. ([d20: 14] + 15 = 29 Wis) Dee might not have caught on as quickly if her last Peri excursion hadn't ended with some suspicions about another Gryffindor's feelings for her white-haired friend, but Merlin - she'd never known Peri was such a flirt. How glorious, how utterly delicious, this would give her material to tease both of them for months. (Even if she still didn't know Harlan's name.)

It took some effort to keep the glee from her face, but some of it would shine through in her eyes, anyway, badly hidden by the small pout she put on in her own defense. "Ow, no need to resort to violence! Although, I did finish first in my first race..." Peri had, at least, even if he'd tied with Dee herself; he was annoyingly perfect like that. Dealla, on the other hand, had spent half of her first race at the starting line after being disarmed and knocked off her broom seconds after the whistle blew. And before that, there had been plenty of mishaps during her duelling career, most memorably knocking herself out with her own spell not once but twice during her first year on the team. But this kid didn't need to know that. "You go and do that," she agreed easily. "Which captain are we talking about, exactly?" Lavinia would be gone in a month, and Aston was both new to the job and not particularly scary as a third-year, so Dee wasn't very worried about either of them reprimanding her. Although Peri would probably feel even worse over the fact that a thirteen-year-old had to educate him on sportsmanship...

Her invitation accepted, she started walking up the main stairwell - was she just imagining things, or were the tips of her fingers starting to tingle? Perhaps she should speed up a little. For this, at least, Peri's overly long legs were very convenient. "I'm just teasing. Sometimes I think catching fire once or twice is a sort of initiation rite, it just happens when you live this close to magic? I've been set on fire before, too. I know it's not fun." Even though the last time had been during her first summer at Hogwarts; she'd made sure to avoid that particular experience afterwards. She paused as she turned a corner, glancing at the Gryffindor from the side, then winked, unable (or unwilling) to help herself. "You're just cute when you're blushing."

@Harlan Montgomery

"If you're planning to win any races, I'd say forward's the better direction than up. But what do I know?" Anyone who knew Dee would easily be able to tell that she was enjoying herself to a concerning degree - assuming, of course, they could recognise her wearing Pericles's face. The quips came easily, and she'd stopped holding back - they were approaching the end of their conversation with every step that carried them closer to her common room. The remnants of her mask were slipping more and more as she relaxed; perhaps a little too much, so the Gryffindor's next comment almost tripped her up.

Wait, what? "I'm not-" She stopped herself just in time, stuck between her automatic protest and the realisation that she'd been half a second from blowing her own cover. "I mean, yeah. Dee, our broomracing captain. Of course." Her eyebrow twitched with the effort of keeping her expression under control. Mean mug? What a lovely description. Her lip trembled as she bit down on the urge to burst out laughing. Well, this lad clearly wasn't harbouring a crush on her. "No, we are. She's, uh, a lovely person. Despite the ... bushy eyes." Talking about herself as an outsider was somehow one of the more bizarre experiences of her life - odd, considering what this day alone had already entailed.

Switching back to digs at his flammability was the easy out - it just offered a never-ending supply of material. "Oh." Dee's face scrunched up. "Yeah. I have some burn-healing paste I can offer if you're planning a repeat performance." Baird had been bad enough when he'd been Astronomy Professor. She could understand wanting to avoid the Hospital Wing at all costs. One of the perks of not having been seriously injured in a while was that she hadn't been forced to visit the infirmary. Nothing she couldn't fix herself, with her ever-growing stash of healing potions.

"Dated..." Dee trailed off, blinking slowly. Dated who? Her? In general? Peri was pining after Eve, last she knew. Who came up with these rumours? She chose to misinterpret the statement as badly as she possibly could. "... the nurse?" she finished, stretching the words out and cocking her head. "Not that I know of." Well, at least she hoped she'd misinterpreted the comment.

And that was the moment she ran out of time. She'd almost made it, too - they had almost reached the foot of the spiralling stairwell that led up to her common room when the tingling in her fingertips turned into something more distinct and more insistent. Spreading up to her hands, then her elbows, she could feel her skin starting to shift. "Bugger." She flexed her fingers, uncomfortable. Well, there was no avoiding it now. "Uh, hold on a moment, please."

Turning back into herself was not nearly as painful as the initial transformation, but it wasn't pleasant by any means. Feeling her hair grow from her scalp at a rapid pace while her body started shrinking - bones condensing, limbs shortening, skin pulling taut over a shape that was narrower and softer, a sensation like pins and needles on her skull while her facial features rearranged themselves. An eye filling space that had previously been empty led to frantic blinking, hiding the transformation of her irises from silver to blue - but when it was done and she straightened up, Peri's sleeves were hanging past her fingertips, and she had to hold up his trousers to keep them from slipping. "Oops." Brushing her waves back from her face, she gave the Gryffindor a dazzling smile, packing it with every ounce of charm she could muster, just in case he had any urges to strangle her after her... performance. She had to look up at him now, having lost five inches of height in less than a minute. "Surprise? Hi, I'm Dee, the brunette with the mean mug. And you are?"

@Harlan Montgomery

Of all things Dee might have anticipated when she'd swallowed the Polyjuice Potion earlier today, she hadn't thought she'd be having this much fun. Being Peri was great, especially when you weren't actually Peri. If she transformed into him again, she wondered, would she accidentally stumble about a third Gryffindor with a crush on her friend? An interesting concept.

But really, it was Harlan's fault for being so entertaining. Whether her jabs were directed at his racing mishap or his feelings, he kept playing along, projecting slight offence but ultimately seeming to take her words as a challenge; one he intended to live up to. It was refreshing. Who knew, maybe Gryffindor would put up more of a fight next year, if this kid set his mind to it? "Unrecognisable would be disappointing, I quite like you as you are," she mused, but shot him a smile to indicate that she had understood the intention behind the words. "Can't wait to see your miraculous transformation, eh?"

But first, Harlan would witness a very different miraculous transformation, which left Dee very much recognisable. Admittedly, it was satisfying to see the stunned expression on the Gryffindor's face, although she had hoped to break the news a little differently. Gentler, maybe. At this point there was nothing left for her but to own it and, like everything else she'd thrown at him, he took it well, finding his feet quickly. "Maybe not by name," she pointed out impishly. "But I do remember you, that counts for something, no?" Even if that memory was likely not the impression he would like to leave on his opponents. At least this conversation had left him in a much better light, as far as Dee was concerned. Maybe the only way was up, after all.

She took his hand and offered a sunny smile as she shook it. "Nice to meet you, Harlan. You made my afternoon much more interesting. Sorry I'm not Peri, though." That was a blatant lie, she wasn't sorry, and her tone indicated as such, entirely too self-satisfied. A step closer suggested secrecy, and she pushed herself up on her toes for a conspiratorial whisper. "Your secret is safe with me." She wouldn't be telling Peri anything, mostly because she still hadn't confessed about her excursions and the hair she'd pinched from his pillow. That was a conversation she should have at some point... but not now.

"And now..." She backed away and raised a hand to show off an oversized sleeve. "I should go before anyone sees me like this. It would spoil my fun pretty quickly if everyone knew I could do this, so I'll trust in your secrecy, too." A last wink, this time from bright blue eyes, and Dee sauntered away, up the stairs that would lead her back to the safety of her dormitory.

She really should tell Peri about this, though. Soon.

@Harlan Montgomery
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