Disclaimer: All main characters belong to the wonderful J.K. Rowling. I don't make any money out of this. Any infringement is not intended.
Author's note: This idea is most probably not original in this forum. However, I haven't come across it yet and any crushing similarities to other stories are purely accidentally. Secondly, English is not my native language and I'd like you to be kind and somewhat lenient with me on this matter, when you hopefully review this ficlet.
Summary: When in doubt …. turn to your friends!
Time frame: Harry Potter III, the moment Harry and Hermione sit in the Forbidden Forrest and wait for the dementors to show up during their time travel.
The side effects of time turning
They sat in companionable silence lost to their own thoughts, waiting for the events to unfold. A bit of warmth generated by Hermione's elbow penetrated his sleeve. She fiddled with a small twig she'd broken off of a branch next to her. He thought about if his godfather would prove to be a good cook – if not, he would gladly offer to return at least partially Sirius's generosity to take him in. Just as he was imagining a cosy little house in the countryside with many large windows to look out, maybe a bit crooked like The Burrow and definitely with a Quidditch pitch in the backyard, he felt Hermione getting restless. She threw her twig away only to break off another one a few heartbeats later. She stretched out her legs and pulled them close again, hugging her knees.
"Har…" she croaked and cleared her throat to begin anew.
"Harry?"
"Hmh?"
He would want to have a comfy bed, not a cod like at the Dursleys or just an old mattress like in the cupboard under the stairs. And Hedwig would get an extra large cage and he'd install in all rooms little bars and poles for her to rest on when she wanted to keep him company. And he would never have worry about owl droppings. He'd just clean up after his girl.
"Harry!"
"Yeah?"
He growled, a bit annoyed to be dragged away from his musings of a better life. Hermione's courage faltered.
"Nothing."
She sighed softly, but Harry completely ignored her and frowned as an unwelcome thought entered his mind. Would Sirius allow him to keep Hedwig out of her cage and around in the house? Or would he demand that she stayed out as Uncle Vernon wished to, if it wasn't for the neighbours? Yes, he would let Hedwig hang around freely and come and go as she pleased, Harry decided. His father had been a really cool guy. The Marauder's Map proved it. And therefore Sirius couldn't be a stuffed shirt either. Life would be just over all great for the first time since his parents died.
As Hermione turned her head to admonish him for not paying attention to her she saw him looking far beyond the horizon into the future with a happy smile gracing his face. She smiled inwardly. Probably already gone off on adventures with Sirius, she deduced correctly. She couldn't begrudge him his daydreaming at this nightly hour. Her friend had experienced so little true happiness in his life. Still, him gallivanting around the world didn't help her with her little predicament. She needed him focussed. On her.
Ever since she had seen herself from behind a few hours ago, she couldn't shake loose this video repeating itself in front of her eyes and driving her slowly out of her mind. She felt disgusted with herself. Hadn't she sworn to herself that she would never turn into one of these 'things' for lack of a better word that gave the term 'girl' a bad name? Her dormitory sisters Lavender and Parvati came to mind. Always giggling their heads off over the silliest things, reading the Teenage Witch Weekly, spending hours in front of their mirrors and their closets, worrying endlessly about their weight, their looks, their wardrobe and whether the flavour of the week might fancy them as well as they did them. She felt like gagging. And yet, here she sat in the Forbidden Forest long after curfew, biding her time until Harry and she could change history and instead of devising clever escape plans, all she could think about was if her butt was really as fat as it had looked!! To verify or hopefully falsify this, she needed a second opinion – Harry's. He was the only one she could trust with this.
She was determined. She needed to know. This was vitally important!
"Harry?"
"What is it?"
"Do you think my butt is fat?"
"Huh?"
Harry looked as if she had just declared to drop out of Hogwarts to pursue a career as a waitress at a Muggle junk food restaurant.
"I just…Never mind."
Never, never ever in her life she had felt as humiliated and embarrassed as right now. WHAT had she been thinking?! That was it. She hadn't been thinking at all! That was what you got, when you decide in one weak moment of low self-esteem to become a 'thing'. It served her so right that Harry thought she'd gone mental. What on heaven's Earth had made her think that Harry, whose thoughts gyrated around the planet Quidditch at the best of times, would be of any help? He was by far too immature to discuss something as important as this adequately with his girl friend. She doubted that he had even the faintest idea yet what it really meant that there were girls and by extension women in this world. She accepted that girls matured earlier than boys and most of the times it was okay for her. It gave her the advantage over them she needed to keep up with them. But right now she really wished that Harry was a bit older, a bit more mature.
"Well…okay, if you're sure…." replied Harry confused. That was surely one of these moments Fred and George had talked about. One of these moments you had NOT the faintest idea, what She was talking about, yet you had to give the impression, that you'd understand Her completely. The twins advised Ron and Harry to simply agree with the girls in those situations with no further questions asked. Most of the times it was just something as trivial as whether they should take an umbrella with them, because it might rain later or if they should get a new hairstyle.
Still, he felt a bit uncomfortable and cold. In fact, it WAS getting colder by the second. Realising what this meant he jumped up at the same time as Hermione, who had caught on immediately. All thoughts of houses and butts were left to be forgotten as more pressing matters demanded their full attention. They ran towards the small lake where the unconscious Harry and Sirius had been found earlier in time.