30th October 1981

Dumbledore has just left with James cloak. We've been living under fidelius charm for a week now, and true to what Dumbledore told us before he cast it and we went under the charm, only people told by Peter can find us. But that doesn't mean that it's wise to let him take away our last fool proof method of escape/survival. To be honest, if Tunie hadn't changed since she married Vernon I'd have made James move there with me and just use this house as a place to come and go from.

31st October 1981

This is just a quick note. He's found us and it's too early to use the dream to escape, even if James could hold him for long. I am going to prepare a ritual to shed my body and bind my magic to Harry. Harry, if you're reading this then I succeeded, and according to Grandma Ami if you go to the fae realms or deeper I'll be able to form a body. However, while I'm.

Hermione closed the journal and looked up at Harry the countryside of the Scottish lowlands rolling past as they neared Hogsmeade, "We'll practice and we'll start delving, we'll find your mother I promise."

"But we've already been there and she wasn't there."

"Maybe it will take time for her to form a body and you weren't in one place for long enough. You said that Karen met someone that lives out there, so we know that it's possible to exist there."

Their conversation was cut short when Parvati looked in and shouted to the next compartment "She's finished reading guys."

Lavender, Parvati, Susan, and a few more first year girls all squeezed into the compartment to fit 3 hours' worth of grilling about their holiday into the last hour of the train ride, and harry needing to show off her base female form. This lead to Susan suggesting that she try to add the hair without the sparkles to her normal female form, as well as some of the features so that they could tell what they should be calling her at any particular moment, all of them extracted a promise from her to do so. They also thanked Harry and Hermione for their gifts and got thanked in turn.

The opening feast was spent reacquainting themselves with the people that stayed over the holiday, and having Ron alternating between thanking Harry for his gift, bemoaning that he couldn't use it till he got home, and complaining that it wasn't like his wizard chess set. A couple of goblets and plates disappearing up and down the table revealed two things, the first being that Chirpy was starting become more independent, the second being that the school made use of conjured cutlery and crockery for food, which meant that them being made out of gold was a demonstration of skill rather than wealth. Which then lead to an animated discussion over at the Ravenclaw table where a few of them tried to finite various things with varying success.

At the end of the feast the headmaster stood up and informed the school that in the future anyone that dispelled one of the plates or goblets would lose 15 points from their house and also have detention with one of the teachers until they had replaced the item they destroyed with an equivalent item. A lot of the lower years laughed at that, while the upper years looked at how ornate the goblets were and blanched at the idea of needing to replace one.

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Finally they were allowed back up to the dorms, where the Gryffindor Girls gathered to appropriately gush over the presents that Lavender and Parvati had received from Harry. Including a thorough questioning about what Liberty was. Hermione pulled out a couple of catalogues one for Harrods and one for Selfridges. Which lead to further gushing over the things that they could buy in one store. Harry pointed out that wizarding equivalents could be found in Diagon Alley for most of the non-electrical stuff. Then allowed herself to be carried along in the conversation. She noticed that Hermione was the same, just enjoying being included, so she reached over and gave her hand a squeeze and a smile. They gave it another few minutes before going over to Harry's bed to meditate. Once there they found Chirpy sleeping on a pile of silvery material.

"Hey girls, did any of you see where this came from?"

Slowly the conversation over the catalogues and the possible uses of some of the things inside petered out as they registered what Harry asked and they filtered over to his bed. The general answer was no, though Fay thought that there might have been a Christmas present there when she came in, but wasn't sure.

"Is Conjured stuff used for wrapping paper and labels a lot?" asks Hermione.

"Oh yes, Scribbulus' usually has a seasonal selection by talented wizards for the week running up to Christmas." Lavender responds.

"I think it was a late Christmas present from someone that couldn't get it to you for the day."

Harry looks puzzled when she responds "Why didn't they just give it to me?"

Melissa suggests, "Maybe they wanted it to be a surprise, or a secret."

"Could be, though given that Chirpy's now sleeping on it, it should be safe whatever it is." Harry then gently moves Chirpy over to Hermione's pillow and picks up the item. After a bit of moving it around with the rest of the girls they finally had it upright and revealed that it was a full circle hooded cloak.

"That looks really pretty, put it on!" Lavender pushes in excitement.

Harry swings the cloak over her shoulders and pulls it closed; everything covered by the cloak disappears once the front meets.

"Woah, it looks like that's an invisibility cloak." Melissa whispers.

"It's more than that, it's better than house elf invisibility." Hermione adds.

"What do you mean?"

"Harry and I can both see house-elves and Chirpy all the time. House elves need to do something with their magic and their eyes in order to see Chirpy a little. I know, Mipsy"

Mipsy popped in "Bright witch calls for Mipsy?"

"Mipsy, I know that you can do something that allows you to kind of see Chirpy as Ceeley and Soopy do it occasionally, would you be able to explain how you do it to us so that they can try to see him too?"

"Mipsy not sure how to explain it, elves just put a bit of magic in eyes and they become visible."

"That's brilliant, thank you Mipsy"

"Mipsy know Mipsy not going to get any peace after this" she said before she popped away.

"I think that you're going to have to be able to touch your magic during the meditation for this, who has got that far?"

Lavender raises her hand.

"Lavender, would you mind meditating until you can feel it, and then trying to draw a little of it up into your eyes?"

Lavender does so and then opens her eyes, "Merlin, it's so beautiful, and I can see Chirpy, he's so cute didn't you say he had stripes?"

"He does, I think you can just see the magic around, not the details."

"Put your cloak back on. That's so freaky, I still can't see your body" Harry obliges.

She then glances up at the clock.

"I think we should be getting to bed now unless you want to test just how good your meditation is, as it's getting late."

Everyone hurried to bed at that, the story of what happened to Karen over the holiday still fresh in their minds.

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The next morning, after they'd finished practicing their meditation, Hermione noticed that Harry was rubbing at her chest.

"Are you OK?"

"Yeah, it's just my chest itches and rubbing doesn't seem to help."

"That's great news, your breasts are starting to bud, my periods started first, but you'll get used to it."

"Great. I suppose I've been lucky enough to have a few months to get used to this body and the fact that I'll be going through two puberties at the same time. But did you have to remind me that I've got periods to look forward to."

Hermione stick her tongue out, "Glad I could help."

"Would you help me get my hair right, I'm not sure it's a good length yet. I also need to fix it in my mind."

"Sure, I wish I could do that."

"Are you sure you can't?"

"Well no, being a metamorph is something you're born with."

"But I change gender, and mum became younger and more beautiful. So I don't think our magic has the same constraints as normal witches and wizards. Even there, have you noticed Lavenders hair?"

"I have, I thought she was using her wand for that."

"So, did I until I saw it happen while she was working on a transfiguration problem, she buried her face in her hands and her hair changed."

"We should tell her so that she can learn to control it, she has that voucher that she's going to want to be able to use, and she can't do that if she doesn't have a handle on it."

They then started working on Harry's new female appearance. Once the other girls woke up it quickly became a communal effort and once she'd got her hair to the right length and look she diverted attention away by pointing out that Lavenders hair had started to restyle itself. They continued to do that while taking turns washing and getting dressed.

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After breakfast Harry followed Hermione as she went to visit the library, still getting over the week and a bit that they'd been unable to see each other while she was skiing. Her hand found its way into Hermione's hand as they allowed the touch to reassure each other that they were still there. Hermione didn't show it, but she'd missed Harry just as much.

As they were taking a detour because the stairs weren't being cooperative, Chirpy climbed onto Hermione's shoulder before sniffing the air and chirping excitedly, then jumped off her shoulder before she could catch him. He then ran off down the corridor following some unseen scent and Harry and Hermione hurried to follow him. When he darted into a disused classroom they lost him for a moment before they saw movement underneath a sheet covering a mirror. Harry flicked off the sheet in a billowing mass while Hermione stood in front of it ready to grab Chirpy before he damaged anything. When she didn't move to grab Chirpy, Harry came round to the front of the mirror to check on her only to freeze himself as he saw himself and Hermione stood amongst his family, his mother resting her hands on their shoulders with Petunia, Karen, and Dudley to side. He wasn't sure how long they'd stood there, but the sound of a stone hitting the floor snapped both of them out of the trance that held them and they looked down at the Blood red fist sized gem that now lay on the ground.