✧SOLUTIONS AREN'T ALWAYS CORRECT✧

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For the plan to work, Aria had to be invisible. She spent a good time at the academy, and that worked in favor for them as Harper started to turn greedy.

And the first time she had approached Rabastan without a shift to grey hair, he realized that he should've seen it from the beginning.

Aria was shy in the bedroom, she wouldn't have just jumped into bed with him on a whim. Not even to get back at her boyfriend, if anything she had waited a good while before going on a date with Aidan when she was in America getting over Rabastan.

With the snakes and lions all in knowledge, it was easy to keep an eye on Harper. Until she had the nerve to show up as Aria in class for Transfigurations. As either Izzy and herself knew she'd be called out in potions.

Rabastan had kept direct eye contact towards the witch and when she just smiled at him without any sort of hair shimmer he realized that their plan was far from over.

Lestrange had done the hardest thing he's ever had to do—Write to Sirius and pass it to him now without detection.

Though Clem was brilliant in distracting Aria with simple questions that wouldn't hold anything accountable, just 'how was class,' and things of that nature.

Sirius turned in confusion towards Lestrange but opened it anyway, his eyes widening when he realized that Aria was not sitting in front of her.

Better to test that theory...

Sirius winked off towards Rabastan before tapping Aria's shoulder, leaning forward to whisper into her ear.

"Wouldn't mind the night up in the astronomy tower again Ari? For old times sakes love, you look stressed." The words felt vial in his mouth, talking to his sister in such a flirtatious way. But he managed to be convincing enough as she smirked and nodded.

It was the final confirmation that they needed and he nodded towards Rabastan.

By the way the students were acting and the absent seat of Ms.Harper, it didn't take all that long for Professor McGonagal to realize the impersonation of it.

A forbidden act and she was surely going to make sure Ms.Harper was going to be punished for it, but the issue here was—That the photographs were still in question, and involving the ministry meant involving parents and the perfect revenge of releasing said pictures.

Aria deserved more than just a quick and swift shot of her career tumbling before she even managed to graduate, the young witch was almost finished for goodness sakes.

Oh how Clem wished Aria would just walk into the classroom and blow the entire operation. It would've been hilarious, but alas—Aria was at the academy.

But it was the perfect excuse, for Sirius to distract Harper while Aria went ahead into Izzy's room with Amelia's face. She would simply make a fuss on the pictures and bam, the evidence is in her grasp and away.

Aria made diligent work on watching Harper on the map, funny how the polyjuice potion didn't cause any disturbances in the map's projection on who and where.

While it was Clem who fixed Aria's morphed face to appear much more like Harper—Her hair for instance, as well as the attire.

When school robes weren't necessary, the bird was unlikely to keep them on any longer. Making it difficult, but thankful Clementine came prepared.

"Remember, act like a brat. Repeat yourself...Just get the pictures and then go." Clem felt strange in talking to Harper the same way she spoke to Aria—This entire thing set up a massive headache and it wouldn't rest until after the pictures were collected and then burned.

Aidan had received twenty pictures, and while he was suspicion and knew that something going on...He still wasn't all too thrilled at the reminder that Aria had slept with Lestrange all that time ago.

Not that he could really say anything, he was the one to sleep with others as well.

Yet this night needed to go well, if they broke character—Her or Sirius then it was over. It was signing a label on her.

And better yet, either Rabastan and Sirius had agreed...At a good distance away of course so they couldn't be inspired to choke one another out.

With a final breath, Aria—or Harper had entered into the room. "We have a problem!" She shouted, and Izzy stood up from the vanity table and swore. "You—You look like you!"

"I can see that! Thank you! And I almost blew the entire thing." It was quite easy to play the part of a very erratic Harper, not taking much acting as Izzy scrambled for the necessary ingredients.

"I knew we took too long in taking those photos!" Aria's heart stilled, there were more?

As Izzy was busy adding the hair—Her hair—into the potion bottle, Aria looked upon dozens and dozens of photos of herself. And the whole vial of hair nicely in a jar.

"We only have a few bottles left, next Hogsmead trip we'll have to buy more." Aria nodded her head and knew well enough that she needed to morph herself back into herself. Strange but it worked beautifully as Izzy hadn't noticed anything different.

"Merlin why didn't we ever do this before! It's brilliant! It's—" Aria silenced her with a slight sleeping jinx as her body hit the floor.
"It's against the law sweetheart, and I plan to take you both to fucking court." She said, grabbing the box of potion bottles—All riddled with Harper and her's fingerprints. As well as the book with countless pictures.

They wouldn't be smart enough to have anymore...Would they?

After tucking Izzy into bed to make it look like she simply fell asleep normally, Aria searched the room top to bottom. And low and behold, there were about a dozen of her and Rabastan.

Her stomach churned at the idea of this, but jokes on them that it was their room that the poses were in. Their camera. Their fingerprints all over it and as she took the wooden and book she hurried on out without a problem in the world.

While Sirius had received the flashing light from Aria's bedroom that she secured the object in question.

He only had to wait a few more minutes, and it was getting to be bloody torture. Course Harper couldn't break character, she thought Aria was a chatterbox anyhow and managed to delude the conversation with quidditch and America.

Though they were all lies as Harper couldn't think about Aria's life in America, all she could think about was Sirius' cock.

Clementine had taken a look at the pictures, especially after Aria had been close to tears in seeing what the girls had done. It was awful—Despicable. And there was no way in hell that she was going down without a fight.

One of Harper's biggest flaws is that she thought herself perfect, that she could do no wrong. So when she saw Aria walking up the Astronomy tower, her heart stopped and she couldn't believe it.

"Hey Siri, I got your note...I—" Her brother smirked, but turned over in complete and utter shock as he looked between the two. "Aria?"

"Yes?" The two said in sync, and it was starting to freak Sirius out as he tried to find the visible differences, all he could manage was the clothes. The clothes were the biggest indicator.

"Siri, for gods sake it's me...That's—That's Harper! I wanted to tell you that I think she's been impersonating me!"
"Really going to cry wolf Harper? Tisk tisk...At least come better prepared." Aria said, letting her hair fall from her pony tail as it turned into an instant shade of grey.

"You see love, it was quite easy to tell that you weren't Aria...Aria would never sleep with me...Isn't that right sweetheart?" She made a face, a rather easy expression as he felt the disgusting shiver followed up the same way.

It just felt wrong.

Aria splashed her with the reversal potion and close to instantly did she watch her face reform to Harper. Such a familiar scowl was thrown, but Aria simply smiled.

"Would you like to tell me what the hell you are doing with my face?" She shot out first, and Harper threw her arms over her chest and shook her head.

"So you didn't fuck Rabastan, try to sleep with Sirius—Almost get me expelled from Hogwarts and take provocative photos of both 'myself' and basically documented pornography?"

"You're missing one thing...Roswell." Aria blinked up towards the bird and smirked.

"Aidan didn't believe the pictures, dumbarse."
"Better watch that pretty mouth sweetheart, I have just the pictures to ruin your little career. Starting with the ones with Lestrange, what would his parents think that he was shagging a half-blood?"

Aria shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know love, I suppose they won't find out...Because two can certainly play it that way." She said while morphing into Harper once more, and Sirius was about a second away from throwing himself off the astronomy tower.

This was too much shifting and face-swapping for one day—Lifetime.

"YOU WENT INTO MY DORM?!"
"It's against the fucking law to keep multiple grams of one person's hair, and that's the least of your concerns you bloody dimwit!" Silence fell over the room, and a clearing of the throat had ushered in the audience.

Luckily Aria's exhaustion aided her return to her own face, and the stern expression from McGonagal was going to aid her tenfold.

"Ms.Harper...Would you like to explain yourself for this...monstrosity?" Harper had opened her mouth much like a fish, it gaped and gawked but she realized that with the album and trunk in her professor's hand...She was going to face some serious crimes.

*

Aria's hair turned into a wisp of grey. "What do you mean she's not getting in trouble?!" She shouting off towards Dumbledore, and the old man simply sighed.

"Ms.Crawford, the compelling case involving two Hogwarts students does not need to go to the Ministry courthouse."
"Is that another fancy way in saying that her lawyer from daddy's paycheck are coming and settled matter with a bribe?" Albus remained silent, leaving her question answered.

So she rose from the table and was about to walk out of the headmaster's study. "That does not mean, Ms.Crawford, that she will be getting 'off the hook' as you called it...Here in school."

"Professor Dumbledore, sir, I've felt safe in less places than I have on my fingers. And the fact that she is going unscathed yet again just knocked down another one. So excuse me as I find myself elsewhere." She said before slamming the door and hurrying out, the news had been all over the castle already.

How vial and cruel Harper had turned, but Aria felt conscious. It felt as though Amelia had an obsession, what did the witch want?

In the end, Aira informed her professor that she was going to spend a few days at the academy, and while Minnie tried to talk her out of it, Aria stood her ground.

Hogwarts was finished in her mind, she was done and nobody could tell her otherwise.

The first week that Aria was absent, none of the professors batted an eye. But a number of her friends already knew what was happening.

She was separating herself because Harper was off the hook, though the Marauders and the Slytherin's took joy in making Harper's life a living hell.

When Easter was on the horizon, Aria made the decision that she wasn't going to America—She had simply too much to do and it was simply easier if she stayed in Britain.

Besides, they would have the given month in the summer before she needed to come back to her summer classes and such. But that meant her dad sent a parcel to Newt.

Leaving Newt, Tina and Randall to demand that she spend Easter with them. And while she didn't want to say she wasn't a religious nut, she did want to find some joy in a partial break.

And so she joined the family and slept over a night, however with Walburga still in Germany and it only being the Black men in Grimmuald's place, Aria came prepared with a platter of cookies and a smile on her face as Kreacher greeted her and announced her to the house.

And the footsteps had come from all over the place, upstairs to around the corner. Sweet Merlin it was sort of scary.

"Ari!" Regulus had been the first and tackled her with a hug, and she simply rose the plater up and managed to tighten her hold on him.

"Stop growing on me Reggie, you're almost taller than me and I don't like it." He grinned in satisfaction before turning to his uncle and father, and while it wasn't Easter Day—they still found merit in her visit.

Alffie especially as he couldn't get enough of the cookies she baked, nor her brothers.

"Sirius told me that you've been having some trouble with a...Ms.Harper this semester?" Aria stilled and her eyes glared off towards Sirius, who simply rolled them.

"Father could help Ari...Not like the school even tried." Regulus knew only a fraction of what happened through rumors, as nobody in his brother's year—Slytherin or Ravenclaw alike had told him.

"And what type of trouble did she pose Aria?" Alffie had offered an encouraging smile as she sighed.

"She managed to get my hairbrush from my dorm room and used it to create poly juice potions—Allowing her to be me." There hadn't been a any sort of sound following Aria's explanation, but there was one that caused her heart to break further.

"Why didn't you tell me Ari? I could've helped."
"It was bad enough that she took pictures with an ex of mine that she was snogging with. But then she took it a step further." Her cheeks blushed, and it was clear what was being insinuated there.

"Orion don't—" For the next hour Aria had to beg her biological father not to cause havoc on the Harper family. As she didn't want to be known as a Black, and it would look highly suspicious if he took Aria on as a charge.

Especially if word got out later that she was his daughter.

Soon enough the children had been ordered to bed, and Alfred had taken that time to enjoy it with his niece. Settling for a glass of wine and talking like Ravenclaws do.

"And this ex of yours, no name to give me darling?"
"No, because then you'll just tell father."
"I promise on Roweana's lost diadem that I won't tell your father a bloody thing." She sighed in defeat and whispered out his name.

And it earned her both a scoff and a shake to the head. "What'd the bastard do sweetheart?"

"Cheated on me...With his betrothed that I didn't know he had. Sure father told you I was the one dancing with Sirius at that masked ball during the summer?... I found out then." Alfred had his head hand long, and not soon after did he produce a small booklet—And in that booklet was a picture of a younger version of herself and Rabastan.

Posing for a photo but otherwise happy.

"He'd follow you around like a lost puppy whenever there was a party."

"And fate threw him in my face to rip him away, it's alright. He helped me figure out the whole Harper incident. Can't let his parents know what he's up to at Hogwarts anyhow."

"Don't say things like that darling, Aidan sounds like the perfect fellow for you. Much better rounded, and a healer! The best Rabastan is going to do is—"
"Is take his father's spot at the ministry with absolutely no law background other than his name? Yes. I'm aware. Which brings me to the explanation of why I can take my old name back." Alfred knew it was all too good to be true, so he kissed her forehead and made his way to the guest bedroom.

And within two minutes either Sirius and Regulus snuck into their sister's room, and they had their own easter celebration. Since Aria's room had been stuck in time, there were dozens of board games and her brothers were excited to teach her how to play.

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Date Posted: 08-26-2020

Time: 12:20

Words: 2769