Spare butterbeer necklace

Chapter One


Harry wrinkled his nose as he brought the goblet of steaming swamp like substance to his lips.

"Ugh, essence of Malfoy, bound to be more stomach upsetting than essence of Goyle." He said.

Hermione regarded him with annoyance.

"Come on, Harry, drink up already. You wanted to find out how Malfoy has been giving those interviews to Skeeter. And if you don't hurry up, his two thick-headed bodyguards will be done eating and we'll have to wait for another chance of them being out of Malfoy's sight."

Harry groaned. Hermione sure knew how to lay down the lecture. Years of practice on the procrastinating Ron and Harry, had refined her technique, she hardly had to glare anymore.

"Fine, fine. Here goes then." He croaked, and quickly added the long blond hair to the potion and took a large mouthful.

"Weird." he finally whispered after a tense few minutes. "It's actually kind of sweet, and I feel all tingly." He didn't even look remotely like the amazing bouncing ferret yet. Harry snickered at that thought, which had happened quite recently.

Hermione, however, widened her eyes at him and turned slightly pale.

"Oh no, Harry! That's how it felt for me as well when I used the cat hair two years ago!" she screeched, grabbing hold of his shoulders.

"Oh bugger." Harry groaned out. "But I . . . I got the blond hair from Malfoy! Right after I stopped him from . . . harassing . . . Luna . . ." damn.

Upon hearing that, they looked at each other with wide eyes once more. "Come on, Harry! Hospital wing!" Hermione stated as she started dragging him out of the second floor girl's toilet.

"No! I'm sure I'll be fine! Look I haven't even changed!" he said, flapping his arms up and down as if to prove his point. Anything to stay out of the hospital wing after all, he reasoned. "Besides, Malfoy doesn't have a cat. And it was a blond hair!" he added.

"You don't understand, Harry! If what I think happened is true, then…" his bushy haired friend hesitated.

"Then what, Hermione?" Harry asked, frustrated at how she tended to keep her theories to herself, at least until she consulted the library of course. Being half-dragged along the corridor by his arm wasn't doing wonders on his temper either.

"You said it yourself Harry. Malfoy was harassing Luna, so what I think happened is, that you managed to get one of her hairs instead."

He blinked at her owlishly. "So? I should just change into her and back again, shouldn't I?"

Hermione growled at the denseness of her friend. At this point however, they had just arrived at the Hospital Wing and she barged in, still with a firm grip on his arm.

Madam Pomfrey spotted them from where she had been directed a House Elf into changing the sheets, and bustled over immediately. She already looked resigned when she spotted Harry.

"Ms. Granger, what did he get himself into this time?" she sighed, pursing her lips. Harry grunted grumpily. Madam Pomfrey just asked his friends directly nowadays, knowing his trademark 'I'm fine' all too well by now.

Hermione shuffled her feet nervously. "Well, Madam Pomfrey, you see . . . we made this potion, Polyjuice . . ." she started, but was interrupted.

"What were you two doing brewing such a restricted potion?" Madam Pomfrey asked. "No wait, I don't want to know. What seems to be the problem this time?" she said, shooting a knowing look at Hermione, who gulped as she was again reminded of her short stint as a cat/girl.

"He . . . a . . . probably used the hair from a girl . . . Madam." Hermione responded, looking down at her feet.

"Oh dear." Madam Pomfrey responded, pursing her lips. She motioned to the nearest bed. "Up you get, Mr. Potter. Let me have a look at you. How long since you drank the potion?" She asked, as she started casting diagnostic spells around him.

Harry reluctantly sat down on the bed. "Err, about ten minutes now?" he said, shooting a glance at Hermione, who shrugged as if to say 'sounds about right'.

"But look" he continued, "I haven't changed, I'm still me. I guess the potion didn't work after all"

The Hogwarts nurse just stared at him. "Stand up, Mr. Potter." Harry stood up.

Hermione, ever the sharp one, immediately exclaimed. "Harry, look! You're shorter than me!"

"I've always been shorter than you, Hermione." He said peevishly. "No need to rub it in."

"No, Harry. We've been the same height for a while now. And look! I think your eyes are getting lighter as well." This was really beginning to worry her, and it showed in her trembling voice. Why was the transformation happening so slowly?

"That's clever, Hermione. I'm supposed to look at my own eyes, easy." He said sarcastically.

"That's enough now, Mr. Potter. Take a look yourself." The medi witch broke in, producing a hand mirror with a wave of her wand, and handing it to him.

He took the mirror and glanced at his own reflection. Damn, he thought. His eyes were slowly turning blue all right.

"Why did you attempt to transform into a female, Mr. Potter?" she questioned him. "The polyjuice potion is not meant for cross gender transformations. This could definitely affect the potion's results. Luckily for you, there is precedent."

"Really? So this happened before? And they were alright weren't they? I really didn't mean too, I just got the wrong hair!" The words were tumbling from Harry's mouth at an alarming rate now. He looked back and forth between Hermione and Madam Pomfrey in apprehension.

"Well, the good news is that the transformation will be complete, even if it is slow to manifest itself. I can see it is even much less uncomfortable than the regular potion's effects tend to be."

"And the bad news is?" Hermione whispered, as Harry kept glancing into the small mirror.

"You will have to wait for the effects to wear off like you would with the normal potion. Except instead of the normal one hour duration, it could take anywhere from a couple of weeks to several years."

Harry went pale, and promptly fainted.

"Well . . ." Madam Pomfrey said. "He took that as well as I could have expected." She started to move him onto the bed proper, using a switching spell to exchange his robes for a clean hospital gown.

Hermione sighed. "Why is it always him?" she wondered, as she gazed down on a perfect copy, of Luna Lovegood.

(A/N)

There we have the first chapter! Hope you like it. I won't spoil anything yet, all I will say is that the pairing will end up Harry/Luna. (het) Please let me know what you think!