"Ditto?"
The trio looked at Neville in confusion.
Of course they knew what a Ditto was—it had been covered in their first-year textbooks.
Ditto's body was a soft, elastic pale purple, with a pair of small black eyes. Its true strength lay in its ability to instantly replicate the cellular structure of an opponent, reshaping its own body to perfectly mimic the target before it.
"That's a brilliant idea!" Harry's eyes lit up, but Hermione, recalling the textbook details, quickly shook her head.
"Will that really work? I remember each Ditto has certain things it's good at transforming into, and certain things it struggles with. The accuracy varies from individual to individual, and once it's exhausted, it'll revert to its original form. Not every Ditto can perform a perfect transformation. What if it fails to become what we need?"
"And even if it can, the moment a Ditto is startled or laughs, it'll lose focus and revert to its natural shape. Plus, it can only transform into things it can see—if it's working from memory, it often makes mistakes."
"Besides, we'd need four Dittos! The book said they have terrible relationships with each other! When two Dittos meet, they'll fight intensely, each trying to transform into the other more accurately."
Hermione rattled off a string of facts, effectively dismantling Neville's idea. Most of what she said, Harry and Ron had long forgotten—the only part they'd remembered was that Ditto could transform at all.
Even so, they weren't very keen on Neville's proposal.
"That's not even the biggest issue," Ron said, shaking his head. "The biggest problem is—we can't even find a Ditto!"
"Come on, has anyone ever seen a Ditto in the Reserve?" he said dramatically. "I'm starting to think they don't even exist!"
"You're saying the professors made them up for the textbooks?" Hermione frowned at him. "Dittos absolutely exist! But Ron's right about one thing—they disguise themselves as other Pokémon or even as rocks to protect themselves. That's why no one's spotted one."
"Finding a Ditto might be harder than finding a Dratini or Larvitar!"
Dratini, Larvitar, Beldum, Bagon—these Pokémon were listed in the textbooks as extremely rare and full of potential.
Ever since the curriculum update this year, Ron had dreamed of having one of those late-blooming powerhouses. He wasn't picky—Larvitar, Beldum, Bagon, even Gible—he'd take any of them.
Unfortunately, no one in the Reserve had ever spotted one.
"No, I don't mean finding a Pokémon," Neville clarified. "I mean finding a potion. Professor gave Snape some Ditto material recently. I heard in the Reserve that after returning from the Extraordinary Potion-Makers Association, Snape and Professor Slughorn invented a new potion together."
Harry suddenly felt a pang of envy.
Because Neville practiced swordsmanship in the Reserve, he always had access to more Pokémon-related news than he did.
"The potion doesn't have an official name yet," Neville continued. "But I think the Professor wanted to call it the Shapeshifter Potion. Its effect is simple—after drinking it, you can transform into anyone you can imagine for up to three hours."
"Transform into anyone for three hours?" Hermione's eyes widened.
That was far stronger than the Polyjuice Potion!With Polyjuice, once you added the hair of your target, it was fixed—you could only become that person. But this potion would allow them to change freely within three hours! The possibilities were endless.
Except—
"Where are we supposed to get this potion?"
They didn't have the ingredients, nor the recipe. Honestly, that sounded harder than finding a Ditto.
"In Snape's office," Neville said. "I saw it last time he left. The bottle was still half-full—he said he needed to make a few adjustments… I think we could steal it."
At that, Harry and Ron's faces fell in despair.
After all that discussion, they were back to stealing from Snape. How was this any different from before?
"Forget it," Hermione sighed. Since Harry and Ron clearly weren't eager, she was ready to drop it.
"Wait, Hermione!" Harry quickly grabbed her arm. "I was just complaining, I didn't say I wouldn't go!"
"Yeah! Getting caught would be suicide—aren't we allowed to complain a little?" Ron added.
"It's fine, I'll go," Neville offered. "I've never broken a rule before—if I get caught, Snape might let me off for the Professor's sake."
"Perfect! Our Potions class is on Thursday. We can create a distraction in class, and while everyone's distracted, Neville, you sneak into Snape's office," Hermione suggested. Originally, she had planned to go herself, but with Neville volunteering, things became much simpler.
Except—
"Thursday?" Neville asked. "Why do we have to steal it during our own class? He'll notice someone missing!"
"That's why we'll cause a distraction! So he won't notice you," Hermione said matter-of-factly.
"But we could just go when he's teaching another year. No one would notice then—why take the risk?"
"Yeah, why?" Ron said, nodding enthusiastically at Neville's logic before turning to stare blankly at Hermione, making her visibly irritated.
In the movies, the trio had to act during class because Snape's office was inside the Potions classroom. But that wasn't the case here—they didn't need to risk it at all.
"Because I didn't think of that, all right?" Hermione snapped through gritted teeth. Determined to regain some dignity, she turned to Harry.
"I remember you have a cloak."
"Yeah, so?" Harry looked puzzled.
"Then why haven't you used it yet?"
If there was ever a time for an Invisibility Cloak, it was now.
Harry's face flushed red. "I—I already thought of that!"
Neville, who didn't know about the cloak, didn't pry. Instead, he refined their plan.
"The first-years have Potions tomorrow," Ron said.
"No, we should wait for a better time," Neville said. "There are too many people around right now—it'll be hard to make the Slytherins disappear for a while so we can spy on Malfoy."
With over a thousand students in the school, sneaking around unnoticed would be tricky.If they planned to impersonate Crabbe and Goyle, they couldn't exactly knock them out in front of everyone.
"So what then? Wait until Christmas? But Malfoy went home for the holidays last time—no way he'll stay again," Harry said in disappointment.
"And that's over a month away!" Ron added. "We can't wait that long!"
"No, I mean next weekend," Neville corrected. "Once the clubs open, there'll be far fewer people in the Pokémon Academy."
The others nodded.
Friday.
Harry and Ron had found out that the fourth years had Potions that day.
The four of them gathered outside Snape's office, with Harry and Ron keeping watch. Neville pulled on Harry's cloak and vanished from sight.
They saw the office door creak open and then close again.
"So," Ron muttered, "if we're not even in class, why does Neville have to do it? Harry could've gone himself."
"He doesn't know what the potion looks like," Hermione said, feeding a Poké Puff to Pikachu. Since Slughorn had joined the staff, Pokémon roamed Hogwarts more freely. Still, many Fire-types were restricted to prevent the school from burning down.
Pokémon taller than two meters were banned from hallways.Any Primeape or its evolutions were banned entirely—too much chaos. Shellos were forbidden inside the castle (too messy), Dugtrio and Sandshrew were banned for fear they'd dig into the foundations, and Exploud—far too noisy.
Most of the new rules targeted Pokémon, but there was one that targeted students:
"Fred and George Weasley are strictly forbidden from releasing their Pokémon inside the castle."
The twins naturally protested, but the professors all agreed it was a wise rule.
Before long, Snape's office door opened again.
"Let's go," Neville's voice whispered beside them. The door shut once more, and something invisible brushed past.
"Go, go!" Ron urged, bolting forward—only to bump straight into invisible Neville, nearly spilling the potion.
"Careful!"
"Sorry! I can't see you!"
They stumbled their way back to the common room. Neville went upstairs, lifted the cloak, and came back down holding the potion bottle.
Now everyone could finally see it.
It was blue—thick and viscous, like syrup.
"So this is the Shapeshifter Potion? If it's really that powerful, then the name suits it," Ron said, leaning in with wide eyes.
"I'm not entirely sure," Neville admitted, scratching his head.
For a moment, Harry thought the old, clumsy Neville was back.
"But you saw it before, right?"
"I did. But back then, the potion was pale purple—just like a Ditto. Now it's blue. Maybe… a shiny variant?"
"Or Snape modified it?"
"Modified it…" Ron gulped. "Are we sure he succeeded? What if it backfires and we can't change back?"
The room fell silent.
Finally, Hermione clenched her fists, her expression fierce."Well, are we drinking it or not?"
Her tone said plainly: If you refuse, I'll make you.
"Drink! Drink, drink, drink!" Ron said quickly, pouring the potion evenly into four cups. "Tomorrow, we drink together. We'll have only three hours—so we'd better make them count!"
The next day, the four conspirators once again arrived at the Pokémon Academy in the Reserve.
Today's class was led by Professor Kukui.
"Generally speaking," Kukui explained, "Pokémon moves are divided into three types: Physical, Special and Status. For Physical and Special, the power of these two types is closely related to a Pokémon's Attack and Special Attack stats. For example, Fighting-types like Machamp have tremendous physical strength, so their physical moves are much more powerful. Meanwhile, Psychic-types usually rely on Special Attack, so their special moves hit harder."
"Do you all understand what kind of attacks your Pokémon specialize in?" Kukui asked, scanning the students. In truth, Charles hadn't planned to teach about base stats—he didn't want the young wizards to fall into the trap of worshiping high numbers and forgetting the value of strategy.
But understanding one's Pokémon's strengths was still vital.
More than half of the hundred-plus students raised their hands.Answering questions was an important way to earn points—and points meant Poké Balls, and Poké Balls meant more Pokémon.
"All right, Percy Weasley," Kukui said, choosing the most confident-looking student.
"Special," Percy said at once. His Pokémon was a Cubone he'd caught on the plains—its bone club made it look like a wizard with a wand, so he assumed it must be good at magic-like special attacks.
"Especially its signature move, Bone Boomerang! It can hit twice, and most of the time the second strike lands perfectly—that must mean it's using some kind of psychic power to guide it!"
Kukui couldn't help laughing.
"Hahaha, mistaking Bone Boomerang for a special move? I'm afraid not, Mr. Weasley. Bone Boomerang is a physical attack. In fact, Cubone focuses far more on physical strength."
"Among the special moves Cubone can learn naturally, there's only one—Mud-Slap. Power: twenty," Kukui explained.
With so many Pokémon and so many moves, the young wizards clearly still had much to learn.
(End of Chapter)