章 322: Doppelganger

The beginning of the month of August brought with it the greatest excitement to the wizarding world including the Prince household. With the exception of Rowan, even her grandfather and aunt were excited about the Quidditch World Cup that was to be held the following week. While her grandfather and aunt excitedly went over the preparations needed for the event, Rowan and Severus happily used their magic around the manor. It was a rather freeing experience to use magic during the summer. But no doubt, the novelty would quickly wear off by the time the upcoming Hogwarts school term started up again.

It was a warm summer day with clouds in the distance suggesting a gentle downpour later in the afternoon. The daylight found Rowan sitting at her red oak study desk writing to Terry declining his gracious offer to sit with him and his family or Bethanie, Tiffany, and Silvia's families. She would instead be sitting with her grandfather and Aunt, and she had the rather distinct impression that they detested the parents of Bethanie.

Which had made Rowan ponder a bit on the subject. Out of all of them, Bethanie had been the only one to never ask nor wonder about the circumstances behind Rowan and Severus's childhood. And recalling their conversation back in their second year, there was plenty of worrisome undertones that revealed and suggested that Bethanie understood only all too well.

Still, Rowan wasn't one to pry as she understood the need to keep any wounds out of sight to be licked in private. And she would not betray Bethanie's trust in that manner. But she would certainly offer all of her efforts in order to assist Bethanie in any way possible should the need arise.

Certain that the ink on the letter had dried, Rowan reaches into her desk drawer and pulls out an elegant letter stamp. Slicing off a bit of red, enchanted sealing wax, she holds the seal over the wax. The wax melts perfectly as it was enchanted to do as she presses her personal stamp into the envelope effectively sealing it shut. Letting the wax cool, she tides up after herself, before reflexively glancing out towards the green manor grounds.

Fidel proudly flutters his tail feathers as he surveys his kingdom. Strutting with the confidence only a cocky peacock can have, Fidel tromped forward. He eagerly cried out his disdain and pride to the world.

Shaking her head at the tragic sight, Rowan rises to her feet and heads over to Severus's bedroom to borrow Owyn. Not paying any attention she opens the door to Severus's room without knocking. Suddenly, she freezes in shock at seeing an identical version of herself staring straight back at her.

Swearing, Rowan hurls the nearest object at her doppelganger. The book flies straight into the doppelganger's face as the figure loudly cried out in pain. "Stop, Rowan! It's me!"

Rowan warily freezes holding another book in her hand. Not lowering her hand whatsoever, she suspiciously asks, "Who is this?"

Sounding rather muffled with moisture in their eyes, the doppelganger points its wand at itself and says, "Revelio." The magical transfiguration was removed as the figure suddenly shapeshifted back to its original state, Severus Prince.

"You moron!" Rowan growled as she slowly lowered the book in her hand. "I could have seriously hurt you!"

"I thought it would be funny," Severus grumbled as he rubbed his rather sore nose.

Rowan snorts and tosses the book in her hand onto the bed. Still, rather cross with her twin brother, she says, "So, how would you, do it?"

Severus brightens up and says, "Considering how easy of a time I had on magically transfiguring my hair during the exam, I thought I might be able to actually create an entire physical transformation." It was not fully successful, not that Severus mentioned the fact that he wasn't able to change his gender, just his face and some body proportions.

"I'm actually impressed," Rowan wryly admitted. She had a hard enough time transforming her eyebrows as they were for the exam and Severus had created an effortless magical transformation. The only other wizard that she knew was capable of such transformations was Grindelwald.

Severus beams with pride as Rowan suppresses a token of jealousy. It would figure that Severus would inherit and be in possession of such a useful skill. She would gladly trade her parseltongue any day for that particular set of skills.

Sniffing, Rowan asks, "So who else have you tried?"

"Grandfather and aunt," Severus instantly replied. "I've tried others as well, but I find that I am better at creating the transformation if I personally know them or have observed their mannerisms enough that I can recreate their personality."

"Interesting," Rowan mused. "It would seem that a magical transfiguration requires some knowledge of the individual in order to make the transformation real, unlike the polyjuice potion which requires a single hair of said individual."

"On the bright side, my version of the transformation is instantaneous and does not require any work," Severus proudly explained. "However, the downside is that a simple Revelio charm will nullify the magical transformation."

"Yes, a blessing and a curse," Rowan muttered. "But you do have to admit that the positives greatly outweigh the negatives."

"There is that," Severus admitted as he winced upon wrinkling his nose. "Anyway, what brought you over to my humble abode?"

Rowan holds up the letter in her hand causing Severus to roll his eyes. "You should really get yourself an owl."

"Don't want to," Rowan cheerfully smirked. "Besides, we're twins, and we're supposed to share."

Severus snatches the letter out of Rowan's hand with a grumble and walks over to Owyn's cage. The poor owl was sound asleep as Severus woke the poor bird up to deliver Rowan's letter. Owyn lets out an unhappy chirp, but still obediently sticks out his leg to take the letter.

Opening his windows, Severus tosses the poor Owyn out into the bright light, before closing the window after him. While Severus is pulling his curtains closed, Rowan impishly remarks, "So, if you transform into a female does that change as well?"

Severus loudly begins to choke a cherry red flush rises up his face. "You!" Severus sputtered. "Get your mind out of the gutter!"

"I wasn't suggesting anything perverted, pervert," Rowan snickered. "I was just wondering if the transformation was down to the gender itself."

Utterly embarrassed, Severus is unable to respond for a moment until he finally whispers, "Theoretically, yes."

"How interesting," Rowan mumbled. "I wonder, if it is impossible to become pregnant in that state provided the male in question does not revert back to their original gender?"

Severus goes chalky white as he lets out a fearful squeak, "What foul ideas are you concocting in that evil mind of yours, Rowan!"

"No need to shout, Sev," Rowan said with a bit of a frown. "It was merely a hypothetical question. I am not that insane nor that perverted, if that is what you are so vehemently suggesting. I was just merely wondering what the extent of the magical transformation is."

Severus does not at all appear to be convinced by his twin sister's statement. Rather he is silently vowing to never transform in front of Rowan again. Needless to say, later that evening during dinner, Severus kept a firm distance from his sister, just in case. Because one never knew when an idea might just stick in Rowan's mind.