Work Text:
*
Potions Beware
It was Halloween, and Sapnap had been handing candy out all night, but now he was thirsty. He was the kind of thirsty that could only be quenched by a nice, cold, refreshing beverage. What said beverage was, though, he didn’t know yet. He was having one of those cravings that was unknown to even him. That being said, as soon as he entered the kitchen and opened the fridge, he knew what he wanted. Inside the fridge, on the bottom shelf, above the crisper, was a jug full of … well, Sapnap didn’t know what it was.
The jug was one that they commonly used for mixed juices. The liquid inside was a deep golden orange, and it swirled around thickly, like a smoothie. The jug was only a quarter-way full, which showed that Dream had probably drank the other three-quarters.
Sapnap pulled it out of the fridge, popped the top off, and took a whiff of the drink.
It smelled fruity.
Mind made up, Sapnap decided to drink straight from the jug. It tasted a bit … strange, if Sapnap were being honest. It was like someone had taken mangoes and chilli and mixed them together; however, weirdly enough, it wasn’t half-bad, and there was a citrus aftertaste. So, Sapnap eagerly finished off the fruit smoothie. He licked his lips afterward, feeling a strange burning sensation in his throat, so he decided to pour himself a glass of milk to chase the burning. It didn’t really work, but Sapnap guessed that was what he got for drinking a mango-chilli smoothie.
It was at that point that Dream walked into the room, scrolling through his phone and not paying attention to where he was going. At his heels was Patches, his familiar. Dream was wearing his Nightmare sweater in the spirit of Halloween. He bumped into the kitchen counter and stubbed his toe on a chair before finally deciding to look up from his phone, whereupon his eyes landed on something behind Sapnap, and he froze.
“Pandas,” he said, and usually hearing that childhood nickname made Sapnap melt (metaphorically), but Dream’s voice was deadly serious. “Did … did you … drink from that jug?”
He pointed to the jug sitting innocently on the counter behind Sapnap.
Sapnap, who was now experiencing some major heartburn, nodded. He felt sweat drip down his neck. He flapped his hand to try and cool down, despite it being late October. “Yeah,” he said, “the fruit smoothie tasted a little funny, but it was good.”
“Sap,” Dream said, looking guilty and – oh no, that wasn’t a good look. “Sap, that wasn’t a fruit smoothie.”
Sapnap frowned. “Then what was it? Some kind of alcoholic mix? Because I could have sworn it had a bit of a kick to it, but I just thought it was a chilli flavour.”
“It was a potion.”
Sapnap choked. “Oh my god,” he said, his throat burning even worse now. “Am I going to die?”
“That depends,” Dream said carefully. “How much of it did you drink?”
“All of it,” Sapnap admitted.
“All of it?!” Dream exclaimed, sounding crazed.
“Well, there was only a quarter of the jug left!” Sapnap defended himself. “How I was I meant to know it was a potion when you put it in the communal fridge, and with no labels! Like, why would you even do that? What was the potion even supposed to do? Because I feel like I’m burning up.” He continued to flap his hands, trying to create a breeze. It didn’t help.
Dream looked guilty again. He mumbled something.
“What was that?” Sapnap asked.
“I said,” Dream spoke up, “that it was supposed to mimic the animagus transformation, but in a potion.” At Sapnap’s confused look, Dream elaborated. “Becoming an animagus takes a lot of work that not every wixen can do. So, I’ve been trying to create a potion to mimic the transformation since my school years, so that others can experience what I do when I transform. I can’t use the potion, because obviously, I’m an animagus myself. But I’ve been paying some old school friends to test my potions, and I’m really close to perfecting the recipe. The last batch gave the testers animalistic traits, like slitted pupils and claws and tails. I was going to test to see if cooling the potion rapidly would have any effect on the outcome, I just didn’t expect you to … well, I’ve never had a human drink one of my potions before. So, I’m not sure what the effects will be, or how it will work.”
Sapnap’s eyes went wide when he heard the last part, and he panicked. “Am I going to explode? I feel like I’m exploding. Are you feeling this heat?”
Dream put his phone down and grabbed Sapnap by the shoulders.
“Looks, Pandas,” he said seriously, “we can fix this. You can – you can induce vomiting, so you throw-up the potion. The less that’s in your system, the better. But it’s probably not going to kill you … I mean, I don’t think I used any particularly poisonous ingredients.”
“Why would you use poisonous ingredients in something you drink?” Sapnap demanded.
“Wixen have a natural immunity to mildly poisonous things,” Dream defended. “But that’s not the point! We need to get you to the bathroom before –” Before Dream could finish his sentence, Sapnap felt like he was melting, there was a loud sound, like bones crunching, and suddenly, everything went black.
*
When Sapnap opened his eyes again, everything looked … strange. He was on the couch, lying on his stomach, and he groaned. It took a moment for Sapnap to get his bearings, but when he did, he realised why he found everything weird looking. For one thing, colours seemed strangely muted; he knew the blanket on the couch was red, but now that he was looking at it, it only looked brownish. And another thing: everything was bigger now, like he had somehow shrunk. Dream walked into the room not even seconds later, looking very guilty.
“Now, don’t get mad at me,” he started.
“Why would I be mad at you?” Sapnap asked. Or, rather, he tried to ask. Instead, all that came out was a bark. He blinked. He tried to speak again, but all that came out was another bark. He tried to push himself into a sitting position, but his arms wouldn’t work. Instead, his arms and legs moved at the same time, pushing him from his stomach to off the couch. He yelped as he went crashing to the ground, though the sound of him hitting the ground was definitely not loud enough for a full-grown man hitting hardwood floors.
Dream’s face pinched and he hurried over to Sapnap, reaching out.
Sapnap thought that he was going to help him into a sitting position, finally, but instead, he picked him up by the armpits, his hands wrapping around Sapnap’s torso fully, and set him back on the couch.
Sapnap yipped in confusion.
Dream frowned. “Hold on a second, you need to see this.”
He waved his hand in a beckoning gesture and there was a crashing sound before a hand-held mirror flew through the doorway and into the room. Dream snatched it out of mid-air, holding it up for Sapnap to see his reflection. Sapnap didn’t know why Dream wanted him to look into a mirror, but – oh, oh no. No, no, no! That was not what Sapnap wanted to see, because reflected in the mirror was not Sapnap, but instead, a puppy. The puppy was small, with a white chest and brown colouring. Its eyes were wide and brown. It would have looked really cute had he not been inside said puppy’s body.
Sapnap barked again, this time in panic and anger.
Dream hushed him worriedly, hand over his snout, looking over at the front door, as if the neighbours would hear. “Shh! I know, I know, this isn’t the best thing, but … well, at least my potion works now?”
Sapnap tried to bite him, and Dream frowned.
“Okay, yeah, I deserved that,” Dream said.
He had no reaction to Sapnap’s teeth, which only infuriated Sapnap more.
*
“Okay, so, the good news? It’s not permanent.”
Dream was reading through one of his journals where he wrote down his potion recipes and observations. That was what he had told Sapnap, at least. He explained how he always tracked how long each batch of potions and their effects lasted, what they did, and what ingredients affected what (apparently, aconite had many different properties and could have a wide range of effects in any one potion it was used in). Dream was a certified potions genius. He invented many different potions and altered many more to enhance their effects and make them more potent. Now, if only that genius hadn’t put a potion in the fridge for Sapnap to drink, then Sapnap would be singing Dream’s praises right now.
“The bad news?” Dream continued, marking something in his journal. He peeked over the page to catch a glance at Sapnap, who growled at him, then went back to writing. “Well, uh … I’m unsure how long this will last. You drank … a lot. Users before you only drank small vials of this potion – exactly 90 millilitres – and it only lasted an hour then. Granted, it was a different iteration of this potion, with different amounts of the same ingredients. But in theory, the effects should only last an hour or so. But …”
Sapnap barked, asking, “what?”
“Well, again, you drank a lot. So, this –” Dream waved his hand at Sapnap’s new body, “could last anywhere from an hour … to several hours.”
Sapnap whined, ears drooping and tail tucking between his legs. It was a very strange feeling.
“I know, I know,” Dream said. He reached over to pet between Sapnap’s ears, and Sapnap was about to bite at him again, only … it kind of felt nice? He would let it slide for now. “But brewing a cure to this would take days to figure out. It’s better if we just wait it out.”
*
Because Sapnap was … indisposed, Dream took up handing out the rest of the candy to the kids that came to their door. While Dream did that, Sapnap tried to figure out how to walk with his new form. He had seen Dream in his animagus form before – a nine-foot-long mountain lion – and Dream was just … wow. He was sleek, graceful, and predatory in his animagus form. Sapnap had seen it enough times for the awe to wear off, but he still had to admit that Dream’s animagus form was impressive. But Dream had also had a lot of time to figure out how to move in that form, and it probably came more naturally to him because of his magic. Sapnap, meanwhile, was human. The animagus potion wasn’t supposed to be tested on humans. Not to mention that Sapnap was still feeling a bit hurt that his animal form was apparently a puppy (not even a full-grown dog!) and that he couldn’t even walk properly in said form.
Dream cooed at Sapnap as he wandered, ignoring the horror movie they had put on the TV, and Sapnap growled at him. Looking back on it, watching puppies stumble around was cute, but not when you were that puppy. It was only frustrating. Sapnap couldn’t even jump up on the couch or table like Patches could – he was stuck on the ground, stubby legs barely getting him around.
There was a knock at the door and Sapnap had to resist the urge to bark.
Strange.
Dream got up off the couch, grabbed the bowl of candy, and opened the door. Sapnap followed behind him for lack of something better to do. Sapnap tried not to pay attention to how he barely came up past Dream’s ankle in height.
When the door opened it revealed three kids dressed in costumes. They were probably five or six years old. One was a witch, one was a vampire, and the other was dressed as Santa Claus. Not the weirdest costumes ever, Sapnap had to admit. He had once seen one person dressed as a telephone pole, another as a ranch bottle, and one person had even dressed up as a nightstand (a “one-night stand,” he had said, giggling). So, seeing Santa Claus – even though the red of the suit was muted now, he could still see the giant beard and hat – was not all that strange.
What Sapnap was not expecting was –
“Puppy!”
Sapnap’s ears perked up and he stared with wide eyes as the vampire reached forward to pet him, chubby hands crowding his vision. He immediately cowered behind Dream’s feet, growling lowly. Suddenly, a parent appeared behind the kid, grabbing them by the bicep and hauling them back.
“I’m so sorry!” She exclaimed. She was dressed in an orange jack-o-lantern sweater. “Billy, we don’t pet stranger’s dogs without asking first!”
“Uh,” Dream said eloquently. Sapnap was still hiding behind him, out of the kid’s sight. “It’s okay. I mean, you can’t pet him, because he’s not … he’s not friendly. I’m still … socialising him. Sorry. Here, have some candy instead. You can pick between a KitKat or a Mars Bar. And they’re full-sized, too!”
The kid, who had been pouting before, seemed properly distracted by the candy, and eagerly grabbed a Mars Bar. The other two kids grabbed their own candy before they left.
Dream closed the door with a sigh.
“Well, that was a close call,” he said. He looked into the bowl of candy he had, seeing how empty it was, then glanced down at Sapnap, who was still shaking. “I guess we can stop for the night.”
He shut the outside light off, signaling to trick or treaters that their house was closed for the night. Then he walked back over to the living room, setting the bowl of candy on the coffee table. Sapnap hurried to keep up with Dream, barely managing to catch up to the witch’s long strides (damn his long legs). Dream sat down on the couch, grabbed one of the last chocolate bars in the bowl, and started eating it. Sapnap saw the chocolate and suddenly got the strongest craving for it. He sat by Dream’s feet and whined in a high-pitched tone, begging for the treat.
Dream started to reach down to hand Sapnap the chocolate – victory, sweet, sweet victory was so close! – but then he aborted the motion suddenly, as if remembering something.
“Wait a second,” he said. “Dogs can’t have chocolate.”
Sapnap whined again. He wasn’t actually a dog!
But Dream only chuckled. “Sorry, Sap. Maybe next time.”
They spent another hour finishing the horror movie they had put on earlier, before Dream shut the TV off. He then turned to the back porch door, holding himself awkwardly. Sapnap wasn’t sure what his problem was until Dream looked down at him.
“I was going to head to bed, but … do you … do you need to go pee outside before I head up?”
Sapnap growled.
*
Yes, Sapnap had to go pee outside. Like a dog. No matter how embarrassing that was, he knew it was far from the most embarrassing thing he had ever done in front of Dream, so he tried to take it in stride.
At the very least, Dream was going to let him sleep in his bed for the night.
*
Once in Dream’s bedroom – Dream had to carry Sapnap up the stairs, which was almost as embarrassing at having to pee outside like a dog – Dream set Sapnap down on the ground. He left Sapnap with a small pat to the head, which Sapnap definitely did not lean into (no he didn’t, no matter what was said). Sapnap explored the bedroom while Dream did his nightly routine. Dream’s room was plain. It had a bed, a dresser, a bookshelf, and a desk. There was a rug on the floor, but that was about as far as decoration went. Even the bed sheets were greyish and muted green (though Sapnap couldn’t see the green at the moment). The best part about it, though, was that Dream had a California King bed – eight feet long, six feet wide – and it was absolutely perfect for cuddling.
Not that they would do much cuddling with Sapnap as a puppy.
If he could pout as a dog, he would have. Instead, he just laid down beside the bed, on the rug, which wasn’t the comfiest place to be. He was unable to jump up on the bed himself, with how it was raised on the bedframe and box spring, but he knew Dream would come back for him.
Finally, Dream finished brushing his teeth and came back into the bedroom. He saw Sapnap on the ground, glanced at the bed, and then hummed.
“Here, why don’t I –” Dream made an aborted motion toward the bed, and right before Sapnap’s very eyes, Dream transformed from a human into an animagus. His form flowed fluidly between one state to the other, until there was a giant nine-foot-long mountain lion standing in the room. Dream the mountain lion stalked toward him, and Sapnap, despite knowing better, cowered. His tail tucked between his legs, his ears lowered, and he whined. He couldn’t help it, okay? His hindbrain, which had become more prominent since becoming a dog, was telling him: big scary predator!
Dream paused, then lowered himself down to Sapnap’s level, letting out a loud purr. He closed his eyes and put his head on his massive paws, allowing Sapnap to come to him. Sapnap sniffed the air, stumbled forward, and then head-butted Dream’s muzzle. Dream purred again and Sapnap let out a little yip.
Then, suddenly, Dream was leaning forward and putting his teeth over Sapnap’s neck.
Sapnap froze.
It wasn’t until he was on the bed, Dream having scruffed him like a kitten, putting him down on the pillow and curling up around him, that Sapnap realised what was happening. Dream wasn’t trying to bite him, just carry him onto the bed, like a mother cat did with its kittens.
Tucked into the side of Dream’s muzzle and between his paws, Sapnap fell asleep quickly.
*
When Sapnap woke the next morning, he was human again.
Dream was not.
But that’s okay; Sapnap quite liked being cuddled by a giant mountain lion.
*
Later, Sapnap would admit while it was not the best Halloween ever, it was certainly the most interesting Halloween he’d ever had. Granted, from that point on, he never drank anything he didn’t put in the fridge himself ever again.
*