Author's Notes:

As usual, Ms Rowling maintains total control over her characters and the Harry Potter epic, and I am writing within the context of the Fifth Year (second half of 1995 through first half of 1996 - Order of Phoenix through Half-Blood Prince).

Be warned. I do not stick to canon and may drift way off of the original storyline. I also have an annoying habit of misspelling words, using the wrong name and screwing up Japanese names and usage.

Feel free to post reviews and commentaries, but I insist that you login and post it under your real account name. Guest or anonymous reviews are subject to being designated troll-bait and will be moderated to death.

AN APOLOGY, I've just noticed that I'd written several chapters ahead of my storyline and have posted them to before I'd written the intervening chapters. This is one of those intervening chapters that really needs to be slotted in rather than using the trope of sudden memories. What I will be doing is removing the out-of-order chapters, inserting the new one and then placing the other chapters back in close to the order that they should be.

_ooo_o_(OgO)_o_oooo_

(Kilroy was here)

Great Hall, Tuesday, October 31st, 1995 5:30PM

Hermione leaned over and whispered in Harry's ear, "Watch out, here come the Twins, nine o'clock high."

Harry, Myrtle, and Ginny swiveled their heads to look at the oncoming Weasley Twins while Ron continued to gorge himself, flicking his eyes in their direction and not-so-discretely shifting over to block the open space beside him.

Ignoring their younger brother, they slid into the barely open space directly across from Harry and placed a flat box in the middle of the table.

"My lords, ladies and gentlemen, you too, Ronnikins. I place before you the first offering of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezies Masquerade Gumdrops," they chimed together, making no effort to whipsaw their statement with twin-speak. "From the far Orient, from the Valley of the Pools of Sorrows, Jusenkyo, we bring you these treats. Have no fear. The Masquerade Gumdrops are made with the finest ingredients and the active ingredient is instant curse powder which is a temporary version of the original spring waters. We have a selection of various springs: Nyannīchuan (Girl), Nannīchuan (Man), Fūshannīchuan (Buddhist Priest), Ashiuruonīchuan (Warrior Goddess), Tontsūnīchuan (Child), Shuanshontsūnīchuan (Twins), Shonmaonīchuan (Panda), Heitowennīchuan (Black Piglet), Maonīchuan (Cat), Yazunīchuan (Duck), Shanyuinīchuan (Octopus), Chiwanīchuan (Frog), Niuhōmanmaorennīchuan (Yeti riding a bull while holding an eel and crane), and Akanenīchuan (Akane Tendo). The latter requires the permission of both Ranma AND Akane Saotome before it can be provided,"

Fred drew a deep breath and continued. "The effect of the Gumdrops is limited to six hours or the first hot shower. With this being the launch of the product,"

Geroge quipped in at this point. "The cost of the Masquerade Gumdrops is the one-day-only special price of ..."

"Five sickles!" they both synchronized with a grin.

Harry quirked an eyebrow. "and how many attempts did you make before you got that speech down pat?"

Both Twins placed a hand over their hearts. "You wound us, Harry Potter," started George.

Harry raised his hands. "OK, OK, OK! I'll bite. Which one do you recommend?"

"Well, Gred, my boy,. We had talked about this last night."

"Oh yes, Forge, and we came up with the perfect ones for Harry and his wonderful ladies."

"You mean that one for Harry, and a blend for the ladies?"

"Yes, THAT ONE" as George reached out, opened the box, reached in and placed a pink Gummy-Bear in front of Harry.

"And, THOSE for Hermione, Myrtle, Professor McGonagall, Ginny, and Mitazuki-san" as Fred pulled the box, extracted a box and shook out five smaller black cat-shaped Gummi-Bears and placed them in front of each of the female students and handed one to Professor McGonagall as she walked up behind them.

"For you, Harry and ladies, we offer this opportunity to be"

"The first partakers for the super-special"

"Once-only"

"Time-limited"

"Within the next ten seconds, actually"

"One Galleon for the whole lot!" the Twins chimed together.

"And that's about to convince me to pay for this with you two pranksters having complete control over what we're about to take?"

"Told you Forge that he wouldn't bite" George looked at his brother and sighed. "You fess up, it was your idea in the first place."

"OK, Harry. The ladies are going to be nekomusume for the rest of this evening."

"We manged to alter the full-fledged instant Maonīchuan to a reduced form. So you wind up with ears, fur and tail but keep your original body."

"Sounds innocuous enough, but what about mine?" as he reached out and tapped the table beside the pink Gummi-Bear that resembled a female figure.

Both of the Twins blushed and looked at each other with a "you tell him" expression. George blinked and sighed.

"OK, we were going to prank you and sneak this on you. Actually, we thought that you should deserve to spend at least an evening ... Uh... Play, play, play... YOU tell him Fred."

Fred looked at his feet, and mumbled "Well, you see... It's a long-standing tradition of cross-dressing in masquerades, and we thought that we'd take it to a whole different level. Give you a chance to really see what it feels like to be a member of ... of... George, help me, please?"

"Oh bloody hell, mate! You told the great story about how great a prank this would be and you come up getting all nervous and innocent that you're actually channeling Ronniekins here and getting all tongue-tied." George fumed at his brother and glared at him.

Harry stood up and leaned across the table, resting his knuckles on the edge. "And you two pull this stunt on Halloween? On the night that saw my parents die, the night where Voldemort has tried FOUR TIMES to kill me? So I'm going to wind up with a different body that I don't know and will have to fight whatever comes at me with all of my defenses down or out of sync? Not only that, but we'll have four of the best witches in the school being cats, and heaven knows that they won't be off chasing after mice or butterflies or rolling in catnip... Really, are you two going to face Voldemort or whatever he throws in my direction for the night?"

The twins looked absolutely woeful and apologetic. They started to collect the Gummi-Bears. "Sorry, Harry, we really weren't thinking. Just excited that we'd managed to get this all working and wanted you to have some fun this evening."

"Yeah, we really screwed up this up royally, Harry."

Fred picked up the box and tucked it under his arm as the Twins backed up and started to slowly walk away, despondency flowing from their very posture.

Hermione held up her hand, fingers open and started pulling her fingers down one by one, mouthing the words "five, fourth, three..."

Harry shouted, "And where do the two of you think that you're going?"

The Weasley Twins stopped and slowly turned to see Harry smirking at them, holding up a Galleon coin.

"We'd figured something was up, what with it being Halloween and you'd been working on some special super-secret project with Cologne and kept whispering between yourselves whenever we were around. So we did the Slytherin thing, and asked Cologne what you were working on. She clammed up. So we did the Gryffindor thing and burgled your workshop. We then read your notes that were just lying around. Hermione and Minerva checked your spellwork, Ginny and Mitazuki-chan checked the packages for cross-contamination. We then discussed the whole thing in the Solar and decided that we'd prank the pranksters. We kept Ron out of the loop so all of his reactions would be normal. Gotcha, you two. You have just been the recipients of a finely-crafted counter-prank."

Putting the coin on the tabletop, he pushed it towards them. "Come on, you two. You do have a satisfaction-guaranteed, money-gladly-refunded-if-not-100%-satisfied, don't you?"

"For you, Harry Potter, only for you." The Gummi-bears were again extracted from the box and returned to the appropriate parties.

The ladies all looked around each other and Ginny quipped, "Any screw-up on this, brothers, and Momma will be sending you the Howler of all Howlers. You know that?"

The Twins glumly nodded while the ladies all popped their Gummi-Bears, chewed and swallowed them. Those sitting down suddenly sifted their positions and all reached under their robes and fiddled with the backs of their underwear while fur broke out all over their bodies, and their ears shifted up unto the tops of their heads and changed shape.

They looked at each other and nodded and looked at Harry.

Harry picked up his pill, sniffed it and gave it a lick. Grinning at the ladies, he quipped "Over the and past the gums; look out, tummy, here it comes" and popped his Gummy-Bear.

The effect was more immediate. Massive amounts of bright red hair replaced his usual messy black moptop and he shrank by about six inches. His robe shifted and slowly billowed out in front of him. Harry reached up and gently squeezed them and grinned. "Can I play with them now or should I wait until later?"

_ooo_o_(OgO)_o_oooo_

(Kilroy was here)

The Solar, Tuesday, October 31st, 1995 10:00PM

Harry looked down at the night-shirt and shrugged, then climbed into the bed and shifted into the middle of it. The five nekomusume dropped their robes, climbed in on either side of the bed and snuggled up to him, or rather, her.

Hermione was snuggled into his back and blew into Harry's ear. "You didn't mean that crack, did you?"

"Which crack?"

"Oh yeah, you know exactly which one I'm referring to: 'Can I play with them now or should I wait until later'. THAT crack."

Harry snickered. "Honest! It was a spur of the moment thing. Their brains were totally fried, and poor Ron even stopped feeding his face. It was worth it."

Minerva had Harry snuggling into her back and twisted around a bit. "So, are you or are you going to see what cat-girls have to offer?" Wiggling her bum and whisping her tail up between them.

Harry sucked in his breath.

"You're going to have your way with me, aren't you?" Five fur-covered heads nodded. "No chance of us just going to sleep and waking up bright and early?" Heads shook.

Harry sighed. "OK, what's your game? I've been good all evening and did everything you wanted."

Hermione snickered. "True, but you never answered the really, really, really important of Harry Potter as a female."

"And that is?" he/she asked, already dreading that they'd decided on something embarrassing.

Minerva rolled over and started kissing Harry's face. "Are you or are you not a screamer?"

_ooo_o_(OgO)_o_oooo_

(Kilroy was here)

Great Hall, Wednesday, November 1st, 1995 8:00 AM

Ranma was heads-down and enjoying his second breakfast of the day when someone gently coughed from in front of him.

Looking up, he was surprised to see an angry-but-embarrassed red-haired, fairly short and large-chested young lady standing in front of him.

"Pro-pro-professor S-s-s-sao- Saotome..." she started.

"Ranma. Call me Ranma. Aren't you supposed to be male by now?"

The head nodded. "I've taken three hot showers already but I keep changing back."

"Nani?" Ranma placed his fork and knife down and looked intently at the young person standing in front of him. Seeing obvious water stains on her robe, he stood and picked up his cup of tea and walked around the table and slowly poured part of the cup over her head. The young lady immediately transitioned into Harry Potter who reached out for the napkin that Ranma handed to him. Holding up a finger, Ranma turned around and reached over the Staff table and grabbed an jug of water and a fresh goblet. Pouring a healthy dollop of water into the goblet, he swallowed it and then poured another one and flipped it into the air well to the side of Harry and watched as it swung though the air and splashed into Harry's face; prompting another transition, this time back into the young lady who'd just been standing before him. Harry again used the napkin to wipe his face and then saddled Ranma with the look of death that Harry usually received from Hermione or any of the other members of his "harem" as some students had started calling them.

Ranma looked over at the Chinese Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor and quirked an eyebrow at the wizened old lady. Barely straightening up, she directed a glare at the Gryffindor table and bellowed in a candle-shaking level without using a sonorus spell. "WEASLEY TWINS! FRONT AND CENTER, AND I MEAN NOW!"

The twins leaped to their feet and dashed to the front of the hall, falling over their feet at least twice before they skidded to a halt in front of her, who then pointed to Ranma who then directed them to Harry.

Cologne then grabbed their attention by saying in very quiet and extremely chilly terms. "Where the hell did you get undiluted waters of Nyannīchuan? Alternately, what did you do outside of the very specific instructions that I gave you two yahoos? Fred, you answer and no twin-speak."

The twins looked at each other and shook their heads, then turned back to look at Cologne. Fred licked his lips. "Honest, Professor Cologne! We double-checked all of your instructions, double-checking each other to make sure that we got it right, and we didn't do anything that wasn't in them and made sure that we didn't do anything magical, even using new unused cauldrons just in case of cross-contamination. Heck, we even hung unto the packets."

Cologne's eyes flicked to the other twin and she whispered, "get them, George."

George spent all of a minute to leave the Great Hall, dash to the unused classroom that was their laboratory, unseal the door, grab the empty packets, and reverse the process; arriving back at the staff table where he placed the empty packets in front of Cologne. She quickly examined each packet, looking for the Nyannīchuan pictogram. Spotting the single packet, she examined it, front and back, and then compared it to another packet, actually one of the Maonīchuan. Sighing, she leaned back and sighed again, then looked at the Weasley Twins. "Go and sit down, not your fault."

As the Weasley Twins headed back to their seats, Delores Umbridge leaned forward and stage-whispered but loud enough that her voice carried to everyone in the Great Hall, "what are you going to do? You've turned one of the top students at Hogwarts into... Into... Into a freak!"

Cologne fixed Umbridge with a scowl that stopped her dead, then flicked her eyes over to Ranma and whispered, "show her, son-in-law."

Ranma poured another dollop of water into the goblet and dumped it over his head. Within seconds, he was six inches shorter, had a massive head of flaming red hair with a long ponytail, and breasts that were easily the equal of any others in the room. He smirked at Umbridge, "Jusenkyo magical curse, not a freak." Dumping the remainder of his teacup over his head, he transitioned back and grabbed a spare napkin from the staff table and wiped his face, then tossed the napkin back on to the table, and glared at Umbridge then smirked at her discomfort.

Cologne turned to Misuzu and Ranma. "Please take Harry and his girls outside and explain everything to them. Harry, I will apologize for what has happened to you shortly, once I have found out exactly why this happened. Professor McGonagall, I know that this places you in a conflicted situation and I sympathize. I will ensure that all staff and students will be informed of what happened and provide any assurances that last night's events do not go beyond what has happened to Harry. Son-in-law, please go with Harry, he needs your support more."

- Five minutes later, in the Entrance Courtyard -

Ranma pointed to one of the stone benches and quietly said , "please sit and make yourselves comfortable. We could be here for quite some time."

Once the four students, reanimated ghost and one professor had settled themselves, Ranma picked up and dragged over an ornamental planter and seated himself on a corner, with Misuzu sitting behind him on the adjacent edge.

Ranma took and deep breath and said, "OK, where do you want to get started, or do you want the bad news straight up and hard and fast."

Misuzu smacked her hand on the back of the nearest shoulder. "You could be gentler than that."

Ranma looked at her. "Yeah, like my Dad in his younger days before Mom decided that he needed a close introduction to the family honour sword. Relax! They're shocked and need to know."

"Yes but not quite the way that you're making it sound. You know, your mother is going to hear about this and start muttering about 'man amongst men'."

Ranma flinched and looked back at the six-some now regarding him with worry in their eyes. He shrugged. "Family history there, not that this will be happening to you."

"OK, here's the hard bit. Somehow, you got dosed with pure dehydrated Nyannīchuan water when you should have been given the temporary version."

Another deep breath and he leaned forward towards Harry. "The worst-case news is that this is a permanent condition, though I think that Cologne will be bending arms and smacking heads left, right and center at Nyuchiehzu which is the home of the Joketsuzoku or the Chinese Amazons to find out how this happened in the first place and if it is permanent or just temporary. The curse is old magic, we're talking over 5,000 years old, and is sneaky and can't be worked around. Resisting the curse is possible but only as a temporary measure and has a rebound effect when it gets its way finally."

Misuzu elbowed Ranma and started in. "Now, before Ranma gets you really, really freaked out, let's take a couple of steps back. The curse itself moulds itself to the person it is visited upon, which explains why neither you nor Ranma really look anything like the Chinese maiden who actually drowned in the pool around about 500BC. It also ensures that you spend some portion of the day en femme or in your female form. The actual amount of time is generally random and is dependent upon factors such as how little time has been spent in your female form, how often you've been dosed with cold and hot water, how hot or cold the water was, and how embarrassed you get over the situations that you get involved with. Long story short is, the more you fight, the more it fights back."

Harry raised a hand part way, "how much time is that, usually?"

Misuzu glared at Ranma. "In the case of Macho Man here, we're talking between three and six hours a day. But then, he's been fighting it tooth-and-nail for a decade now. It's lately gotten sneaky and refusing to trigger when he's within eyeshot of an ice-cream shop and is trying to con the staff out of free sundaes."

Ranma crossed his arms and huffed. "I thought that you were supposed to be keeping secrets? Isn't that under professional secrecy?"

Misuzu shoulder-shoved him. "Not with you, kiddo! Should I tell them about your fiasco in trying to supercharge your time by doing maid cosplay, and it stuck you and changed your voice into the breezy, whispy stratosphere for the better part of a week?"

"And you guys paid me back by entering me into a bridal show as a bride and made sure that I came in first place?! Really, I think that you are having more fun with dressing me up than helping me deal with this!"

Misuzu leaned forward and regarded the Hogwarts crew. "Actually, the best advise that we can give is to relax, let it take its own course and adapt. It's when you try to force the rules that it operates under that you'll just embarrass yourself even further."

Harry lifted his hand again. "What about ... Um... Behaving as a male versus... You know, sex?"

Ranma rammed into the conversation."What? You mean will it change you into a flaming lesbian? Got news for you son, you were a lesbian to start with and no one thought the less of you..."

The massive wooden mallet appearing out of nowhere in Misuzu's hand and intersecting the back of Ranma's head shocked the Hogwarts Six almost as much as what Ranma had said.

"Jeez! Give you a serious topic that needs a gentle hand and understanding and you have to go and screw it up. You wonder why Cologne made sure that I came with you?"

Ranma slid off of the planter and face-planted into the courtyard's cobblestones as Misuzu flipped the mallet and it disappeared.

Sighing, she looked at the crowd facing her. "I'll explain about the mallet later but let me ask a question and we'll take it from there. Harry, do you like girls? Even when you're in your female form, do you still like girls?"

Harry slowly nodded and whispered "both".

Misuzu nodded. "Nothing wrong with either answer, and nothing would be wrong if you'd made a different reply. The curse doesn't change you, it just throws random circumstances at you when you least expect it. Having said that, how you react to those circumstances depends on what you are comfortable with. Also, no one should expect you to behave any differently, regardless of what your outside looks like at any given moment. You don't have to be super macho when a guy or all girly-girly when en femme, you just have to be Harry Potter, no titles or adjective phrases. Anyone who thinks otherwise can just go hang."

Hermione raised a hand. "What about us? What do the rest of us do?"

Misuzu smiled. "The easy answer is to ask yourself that question? Did your experience last night really change yourselves?"

The genetic females all blushed and looked at their hands or their feet.

"Oh-ho! Did something happen last night in the Solar? What did you do, tie Harry down on the bed and had your way with him or rather her?"

If nothing else, the group blush got even deeper and several sweat-dropped, including Minerva.

"Ahhhhhhh... Harry. How did you feel when this happened?"

Harry twiddled her fingers then looked up. "I initially didn't want to but we talked about it a bit and, uh, well, uh... We took it slow and easy and everyone was comfortable with it. I was concerned that their Imperious curses were pushing them to do things that they didn't want to. I mean, I wasn't making them do it and some were nervous about whether or not they would like it, and ... I really did enjoy myself, and everyone else seemed to enjoy themselves; but I'm afraid that... That... That ... Uh, I'd like it too much to go back."

Ranma chose that moment to groan and try to sit up, only to run into the wooden mallet a second time. He returned to his previous position on the cobblestones.

Misuzu rubbed her chin. "Good question, and one that only the six of you can answer when Harry gets back to his male form. Notice that I didn't say 'back to normal'. I think that this will be your New Normal for some time. So here's my advise: Don't be in a rush, take your time and discuss things amongst yourselves. Remember that you're in a loving relationship, which means that you can be free to share with each other if something is bothering you. You alos have the right to express your feelings and have them respected if things go way beyond what you or any of you are comfortable with. Also, remember that I'm around to listen to you when you want to, either individually or as a group."

A knocking came from the cobblestones. Everyone looked down to see Ranma holding one hand up. Misuzu asked, "yes, Ranma darling?"

"Full moon next week."

"And what does that have to do with our conversation?"

"Just a warning to load up on herbal teas. You know, THAT time of the month? IS that discrete enough?"

Misuzu blushed and looked at the shocked expressions on the genetic females. "Harry, not to totally freak you out, but what do you know about the monthly cycle of women?"

Harry frowned. " I know that Myrtle, Hermione and Ginny can get real cranky, and sometimes they cry a lot over the smallest things, and... Oh crap! You mean I'm going to..."

Ranma edged himself up to the edge of the planter again and nodded. "Just because you change sexes, doesn't mean that you scan skip THAT experience. You'd better be having THE TALK with your ladies tonight, or rather, they will with you."

The mallet appeared for a third time. "One guess who gets all clingy and self-conscious when her turn comes..."