A/N: Genderbent!AU. It's Rhonda's time of the month, and it's not a good time. How will Herman make things better? I tried to make the character's names as close as possible to the original, so I hope you guys can easily identify who's who. Either way, it's still a fun story. RxR. FxF. I do not own Harry Potter.
Submission for:
Hogwarts Fair 2014 Challenge/Competition: Balloons- a gender bend of all characters
Represent That Character! Challenge II
The Gender-Swap Boot Camp Challenge: Chocolate
Rhonda woke up in a lot of pain early one morning, clutching her hands to her stomach. It wasn't even 6 o'clock yet. Her head felt hot and her long red hair was plastered to her scalp. She groaned and turned onto her side wishing it would just go away but it was persistent. She sighed before rising from her bed and creeping to the bathroom slowly.
Her abdomen contracted again and Rhonda knew: it was that time of the month. She rifled through her little area in the shared girls' bathroom and discovered that she was out of napkins. There was another pang. She had to act fast.
She stuck her head out of the bathroom, her eyes running across the sleeping forms of the other girls before whispering to the one closest to the door. "Harley!" Rhonda whispered loudly. Harley groaned before looking at her friend with squinting eyes. Her shoulder-length hair was mussed up from sleeping on it, not that it was any better in the morning.
"What do you want, Rhonda?" Harley groaned, while turning to lie on her back.
"I need a napkin," Rhonda asked, her voice harsh. There was another contraction. It was close. "Now!" Rhonda stressed.
"Oh!" Harley said. She kneeled on her bed and bent low into the trunk at the foot of it. "Here," Harley said, handing her little bag to Rhonda.
Rhonda took it graciously and then disappeared into the bathroom. Harley lay back down on her pillow, ready to fall back to sleep and get in a few more hours when she heard an soft anguished, "Oh shit," from the bathroom.
"I can't believe I messed up the bathroom again," Rhonda said with a scowl on her face. Harley was still giggling at her friend and her predicament but Rhonda just glared and sat down grumpily at the Gryffindor table. Their best friend Herman was already sitting there with a cup of warm coffee and a bagel. His curly hair was parted on one side neatly combed, but a stray curl always seemed to fall into his face. Normally, this would drive Rhonda positively crazy and she'd just want to put her hands into his soft locks, but not today.
Herman looked at them boredly from behind his book before asking, "What's her problem?"
Harley shrugged as Rhonda glumly scooped some eggs onto her plate, "Hormones."
Herman looked a bit uncomfortable, his eyes looking nervously towards the still-glaring Rhonda before clearing his throat and saying, "Splendid."
Deana and Shea walked past the Golden Trio to their usual seats a bit further down the table. They were chattering away when Deana remarked, "And there was this odd red stain in the middle of the bathroom. Did you see it?"
Rhonda just groaned and hid her red face in her eggs, Harley still laughing and Herman shifting in his seat and looking anywhere but at the distressed redhead.
Rhonda's day just went from bad to worse. She had to keep checking her skirt to make sure there were no 'accidents'. She couldn't focus in Charms because of the pain. She had trouble making up smart comebacks when Darcy Malfoy insulted her messed up hair in Potions. And she kept falling asleep in Transfiguration because of the weakness from the blood loss. Herman was giving her pitying looks and Harley tried to cheer her up throughout the day but it was hopeless. Being a girl sucked.
They were walking back through the halls and up to their dorms to put down their bookbags. Harley was rubbing her friend's back consolingly. Cramps were not a fun thing, though Harley's were never as bad as Rhonda's. Rhonda would envy her friend, but she didn't have the strength right now. She just wanted to sleep, probably straight through dinner.
They opened the portrait hole and they saw Herman sitting on one of the couches in front of the fireplace, his textbooks and homework strewn around him. His eyes turned slightly at their entrance before he looked swiftly away from the pair. Harley raised her eyebrow at her friend's behaviour but then shrugged. Boys were always awkward when it came to these sort of things.
The girls were about to run upstairs when Herman said, "Rhonda, can you come here for a second?"
Rhonda handed her bag to Harley who headed upstairs with the two bags. Rhonda hoped that Harley also had a spare pain-relieving potion in her trunk, or else they'd have to head down to the Hospital Wing for one.
She walked over to the couches and sat carefully on the couches. She hadn't checked her skirt in awhile and she was a bit paranoid. "What's up, Herman?"
Herman blushed before riffling through his bookbag and then handing her a small wrapped rectangle. Rhonda took it and realized it was her favourite chocolate from Honeydukes. She looked up at Herman with wide eyes.
He blushed again before saying, "I've heard it helps some girls with their... times of the month. And you looked really horrible today, like you would have bit my head off if I even looked at you funny. So I got one of these from Parker. He loves chocolate. And-"
Rhonda had thrown herself across the couch and hugged Herman around the neck. "Thank you, thank you, so much!" she practically screamed into his ear, giving him a quick peck on the cheek before unwrapping the chocolate bar, eating half of it in one bite and then running up the stairs to the girls' dorm.
Herman placed his hand on the spot where her lips had made contact, rubbing it slowly. He smiled to himself at being able to make her so happy. "Anytime," he whispered before continuing his reading.