Title: Kiss.

Author: AspergianStoryteller.

Genre: Supernatural/General.

Summary: When a dementor tried to Kiss Harry Potter, it got more than it bargained for. And Harry did not walk away unaffected. Don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 25: Two Long-Short Weeks and Miss Evans.

I've had four space outs in two days that felt cold and depressing. I think it's because I'm so depressed anyway.

'I think you're right about that,' Healer Nathaniel said.

Harry shrugged. 'I doubt there's anything you can do about it, unless you can get me out of the Tournament and convince Ron that I didn't enter myself. Or maybe you've got some really powerful happy pills.'

'We'll keep the happy pills as a last resort,' Nathaniel shook his head. 'The best thing you can do for the depression is to focus on positive things and have as much support from your friends as possible.'

'You have my support as well, Mr. Potter,' said Professor McGonagall. 'Even if the rules prevent me from directly assisting you with the tasks, I will do my best to help you and keep you safe.'

Harry smiled weakly at the adults. It was surprisingly nice having some adults he could trust. Even if they couldn't help with everything, it still felt reassuring. Maybe this was why Hermione put some much faith in them?

'Thanks Professor, Healer Nathaniel. Um, can we get the other stuff over with?' Keeping and sharing a diary about his health was weird. But at least they weren't using it to predict a terrible and early death for him.

'Sure.' Nathaniel turned to another page of interest.

When I hugged Ludo Bagman, I had a space out. It felt like a normal one except it felt a bit like I was closer to Bagman, like I knew what he was thinking or something. He felt excited, which was very different to how I was feeling. That's how I knew the difference between him and me.

'What I believe happened,' said Nathaniel, 'Is that you almost astral travelled right into Mr. Bagman.'

'What?' Harry had one eyebrow lifted and a little frown between it and the other one. Minerva remembered Lily wearing that expression.

'You nearly astral travelled into Mr. Bagman,' Nathaniel repeated.

'I nearly went into him?' Now Harry looked very surprised. The wide eyes and two raised brows was how James had looked sometimes.

'Yes.' Clearly Nathaniel was enjoying this too much. 'Not to worry, Harry. It wouldn't have done any harm. Besides, you haven't even completely left your body.'

Minerva wasn't sure were the exact you're kidding me, right? expression had come from.

'And if you do leave your body, it would only be temporary. Unless you died, your soul would always come back to its home.' Nathaniel was being more serious now. 'I've been reading up astral travel. You can take some things back to school with you.'

Unfortunately, Harry wasn't able to get out of competing due to medical reasons. Medi-alert tags had been invented after the Goblet of Fire and were not recognised by it. He had asked Nathaniel, Professor Dumbledore and Mr. Crouch (via owl) about it.

The next day was interesting because of two things. One of them being Professor McGonagall telling Harry the day before that every Sunday he would be expected to join the other champions for a snack somewhere. All part of international co-operation. To get them started, the teachers set up chairs, a table and afternoon tea in an empty classroom.

Awkward. That was how Harry felt as he and Victor sat, quietly drinking down tea and eating chocolate biscuits while Fleur and Cedric chatted. Victor was brooding about something again in his chair. Harry did his Charms homework. This week, Professor Flitwick had decided to be creative and have his students write the theory part of summoning charms as a poem. So far Harry had

Wave your wand like a fish hook and cry

'Accio cauldron!' and duck when it flies to you.

When he got sick of homework Harry wondered if he should try talking to the other champions. Even if his involvement was somewhat unorthodox, they were all in it together. No harm in trying to get to know them, right?

'Um, are you having a good time at Hogwarts?' he asked Victor.

The Bulgarian looked at him and nodded.

'That's nice. What's your favourite part?'

Victor shrugged. 'The library, I suppose.'

'Oh. Yeah, the library's alright. I guess we'll all be spending more time in there this year.' Harry had already been in there more often. It seemed that half his free time now was spent in there with Hermione, learning new spells and anything that might keep him alive during the Tournament.

'Do you like sport? Other than quidditch?' Harry reached for his fifth chocolate chip biscuit.

To his surprise, Victor stopped frowning. His face was naturally serious.

'I like swimming,' he said. 'And boats.'

From there, they talked about sports, which turned to muggle sports. Victor had been in a rowing contest in Bulgaria, which had contestants both muggle and magical, not that the muggles were aware of that. When Cedric and Fleur joined in, closer to the end of their tea party, the conversation turned to French cooking, then on to funny incidents during cooking lessons. Since it was related to several different subjects, the professors taught them simple magical cooking techniques in class and once a term held a shared lesson/competition. Harry was quite decent at the muggle aspects of it.

The second interesting thing about that day was the House competition scheduled the first Sunday after Hogwarts Random Hug Day. All the Prefects and the Head students had to hug a student of each gender in every year group from every House. And each Head of House. So when it was time to go, Cedric remembered his record so far and swept Harry off his feet before he could leave. He then put Harry down and ticked off fourth year Gryffindor boy on his parchment.

'Thanks Harry,' he said. 'Now I've just got to catch Professor Snape. Wish me luck?'

'You'll need more than good luck,' Harry muttered. 'Can I watch?'

XXX xxx XXX

Over the rest of the weeks before the first task, Harry's days consisted of worrying about the tournament, studying in the library (as were the other champions), and practising Dark magic down in the Chamber. He found he was calmer afterwards, and had less depressing sleeps. Hermione was really getting serious about it too; she practised even harder than him, making up for his natural ability. Harry didn't know if Ron was still having a go at Dark magic in one of the other safe areas.

The frantic flurry of fear and desperate study, made the burning shame brought on by Rita Skeeter's article full of BS not any less awful, but pushed it to the back of his mind most of the time. Most of the time meaning, when not surrounded by whispers, sniggers and idiots.

'Ignore them,' Hermione said, and Harry wished he could.

The Saturday before the first task was a Hogsmead day. Despite Hermione's opinion that it was ridiculous, Harry was planning on going under the invisibility cloak after lunch. Unfortunately for him, the cloak had gotten mixed up in the laundry.

'I can't find it!' Harry's voice came out from under his bed.

'Maybe it's been taken in with the laundry,' Hermione stood impatiently by. 'I don't know when it was last washed.'

'I guess it could have gotten mixed in with my clothes,' Harry admitted. 'I wouldn't have seen it.'

And he wouldn't see it again until their clean clothes were returned later that afternoon.

'Bugger,' he crawled out and sat heavily on his bed. 'You may as well go, Hermione. I'm not going if I have to be gawked at from all sides.'

'Oh come on Harry!' She sat down beside him. 'You're being silly. People have stared at you before. They're just being stupid.'

'Well I'm sick of it!' Harry snapped. 'I'm too stressed out to handle it right now, and, it was was only the students before. If I go visible, the Hogsmead people will stare to.' He rubbed his face under his glasses.

Hermione looked at her friend in concern. He really was stressed out. She had to persistently coax him into eating some mornings. If only he and Ron would get their acts together and talk! Argh! Boys were so infuriating sometimes!

...

'Oh!'

Harry blinked and looked at her.

'Harry, I've got an idea! Come with me.'

Hermione grabbed Harry's hand and dragged him out of the boys' dorms.

'Mobilicorpus.'

She levitated him into the air and walked up the girls' staircase.

'Hermione? What's going on?'

She didn't answer until they were in her dorm room. It was very like the boys', only tidier, and the belongings scattered around were hairbrushes, make up and girl's clothes. Harry blushed when he saw a bra on someone's tabletop. Hermione lifted the spell and he landed on a bed.

'I had to levitate you because you wouldn't have been able to climb the stairs,' she told him while closing the door. 'The Founders thought girls were more trustworthy so they put a spell on our staircase. When a boy tries to climb it, it turns into a slide.'

'Oh. Okay. Why did you bring me in here?'

Hermione opened her trunk and started rummaging through it.

'If you're not going to Hogsmead invisible, then you're going in disguise.'

XXX xxx XXX

'Are you mad? This is so not going to work!' Harry winced. He sounded so weird!

'It's working so far and it will keep working if you don't do anything stupid!' Hermione hissed back.

'But if we see someone we know, won't they realise?'

Hermione sighed. 'Do you trust me?'

'Of course I do-'

'Then trust me now. This will work. Stay in character and don't draw attention to yourself.'

Harry felt like an idiot. He felt as though any second, someone would see through his disguise and notice that he wasn't a girl.

Hermione had modified her clothes slightly and made him put on a summery skirt, tights, high heeled boots and a t-shirt. All black, except for a green scarf. She said the colours suited him. On top of that he was wearing eyeliner (Lavender's. The girls shared their make up), subtle lipstick (the shame! Harry refused to think on how it soothed his chewed lips), a skin paling glamour charm, clip on studs, a long, dark wig and a bra stuffed with socks. He was so embarrassed. Hermione had also jinxed his voice box to produce a higher sound and changed his round glasses into more rectangular, frameless lenses.

To avoid having to sign out with Mr. Filch, Harry had taken the secret passage out and met Hermione at Honeydukes. Now they were on their way to the Three Broomsticks.

As his embarrassment and fear of being discovered slowly dimmed, Harry was able to appreciate the feeling of freedom being unrecognised gave him. No staring, no one quoting the article at him...

'Feeling better?' Hermione smiled knowingly.

'... Yes,' Harry admitted. 'Thanks.'

Walking past Ron inside the pub made Harry nervous. He wanted to give the ginger-haired boy a good poke in the head, but then he'd turn around and quite possibly recognise him. So would Fred, George and Lee, who were sitting with him.

Harry and Hermione reached their table and got butterbeer. Hermione looked through her S.P.E.W. stuff while Harry looked around the pub. Most of the people there were Hogwarts students. A few teens from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were there also, and several Hogsmead residents. In this completely magical village there were a rare variety of people, many of them part or non-human. Harry recognised a hag at another table, reading the newspaper.

At one point, Hermione got up to talk to a few villagers about S.P.E.W. Harry stayed at their table sipping his butterbeer and thinking about how he, Ron and Hermione would be excited about the Tournament together if he hadn't been entered. He wouldn't have been dressed like a girl either. He wondered how the other champions were feeling. From what he'd seen of them in school and during the two tea parties, Cedric was usually surrounded by friends and admirers, looking nervous and excited. Fleur was haughty and composed. Victor was often in the library, reading book after book, or exercising by the lake. Maybe he should get fitter? This was a magical competition, but being in physical shape might come on handy too...

Soon after Hermione rejoined him, Hagrid and Mad-Eye-Moody entered the pub. They approached when the teens waved them over. Noticing that Hagrid hadn't greeted him yet, Harry decided to test his disguise.

'Hi Professor Hagrid,' he said.

'Hullo Miss,' Hagrid said friendly. 'Are you in my class? You look a bit like someone I know.'

'I'm Petunia Evans.' Clothes and make up weren't the only things he'd borrowed.

'Nice disguise, Potter,' Moody muttered.

Harry flinched. 'Oh crap.'

The Defence professor grinned. 'Don't worry, lass. Your get up is sound. I can just see through it.'

'Your eye?' Harry asked. 'Can it see through clothes...' Feeling a bit scandalised, Harry held his arms over his chest defensively.

Moody just chuckled.

Hagrid peered closely at Harry and grinned.

'Didn't recognise you Harry. I'm surprised you're not wearing your cloak if you want to hide.'

'It's in the laundry,' Harry mumbled.

'Will you have it back by tonight?'

Harry nodded, wondering what his large friend was thinking.

'Meet me at my cabin at Midnight, with the cloak on.' Then he straightened up and said,

'Nice seeing you Hermione, Petunia.'

When he and Moody left, Harry told Hermione what Hagrid had told him.

'I don't know that you should go, Ha-Petunia,' she said. 'It might make you late to see Sirius.'

'Maybe I'll just see what he wants and get back quickly,' Harry said. Despite his desire to speak with Sirius face-to-face, he was very curious. Hagrid had never asked him to visit so late before.

Later that afternoon, Hermione returned to Hogwarts with the other students and Harry went into Honeydukes and slipped into the secret passageway. He banged his head on the way, not accustomed to being two inches taller.

He climbed out of the entrance statue and made for Gryffindor Tower where he change and be a boy again.

Bump!

'Watch where you're going, Miss- What is your name?'

Oh no.

Harry didn't dare look his Potions teacher in the eyes. Snape was just about the worst person he could bump into dressed like this.

'I'm Petunia Evans, Sir.'

Snape did a double take. He looked very closely at Harry, and pulled his chin up so he could see his face better. The man's dark eyes widened. To Harry's horror, his mouth stretched into a dreadful, gleeful grin.

'Mr. Potter,' Snape drawled. 'Or should I say, Miss?'

Oh no. What was he going to do to him? Harry felt a nervous sweat break out and a blush tint his face under the glamour.

'If you want to be a girl so badly, all you have to do is ask. I could make you a female permanently with a regime of potions and a pair of scissors.'

The sheer horror and pinkness on Harry's face had to be making Snape's day. Harry had rarely seen him looking so pleased. It never boded well for students. And what was it about the name that had tipped him off? Did he recognise it? How? Or was it his voice, even with the charm still active?

'Well? Explain yourself.'

'Um, Sir, it's just that, I wanted to go into Hogsmead today but I hate being stared at, so I thought I'd go in disguise.' Perhaps he'd best be honest here. If he said he just wanted to experience being a girl for a day, God knew what Snape would do with that.

'And you couldn't go under that blasted cloak of yours?'

'It's missing, Sir.' Harry left out part of the truth here. If Snape knew his cloak was in the laundry, he'd almost certainly try to get it. 'I think it must be somewhere in the dorms, only it's invisible so I can't find it.' He had the excuse of sucking at summoning charms if Snape asked, but he'd rather not give him the idea.

'Are you aware, Miss Evans,' ah, he was still amused, 'that students are required to sign out when they leave the castle for excursions so we know where they are in case of an emergency?' Damn, cross-dressing may not be against the rules but sneaking out sure was.

'Sorry Sir.' He had to salvage this somehow. 'I'll do detention, Sir, but would you please not tell anyone about my disguise? It would ruin the point of wearing it.'

'Why should I allow you that?'

'Er, if you don't tell anyone about this, I'll er, I'll take you into the Chamber of Secrets and you can use the basilisk as potion ingredients.' It was a risk, and he'd have to hide the training dummies, but it was probably the only thing that would save his dignity.

Surprise flitted across Snape's face. Then wonder, suspicion and greed. Finally, he said,

'Very well, Miss Evans. I won't tell everyone about your, exploration of your feminine side,' the smile was back. 'But you will serve detention for sneaking out. Your detention will take place tomorrow, starting at Nine o Clock. Wear old clothes and bring your dragon hide gloves.'

'Yes Sir.' Just a detention? Yes!

'Now return to your dormitory, girl.' And Snape left, disappearing around the corner.

Relieved, Harry returned to Gryffindor Tower as fast as he could. Hermione was waiting for him with a bag full of his own, freshly cleaned clothes. With them was his invisibility cloak.

XXX xxx XXX

Next time: Harry's Midnight stroll, and... well, wait until next week. Thanks for reading!