AN: I'd like to thank IndigoSynopsis for her help with the description of how Harry was feeling in the infirmary.


7th November 1971

I think I've just discovered the best thing about the magical world. Contraceptive potions. I was unlucky enough to start during primary school, and thought I was dying. They've only got heavier and more crampy since then. I could have cursed Jenni when she asked as an aside if there was any reason I wasn't using one. It couldn't be because I grew up in the non-magical world and they don't exist there. Anyway, I'm finally feeling human, and I haven't snapped at anyone all day. I asked, but they wouldn't work for Tunie or Mum as they don't have any magic.


The next couple of months passed without much to comment on.

In the first potions lesson Harry attended with her new look, Professor Snape paled while taking the register and stayed silent for the rest of the lesson. Fay managed to talk everyone into visiting Fluffy, after seeing that he was taking his job seriously she was persuaded that she should ask Hagrid to introduce her next year.

One stand out moment was when Hagrid invited Lavender to see Thestrals.

The snow was still thick on the ground, as Hagrid lead the group to a clearing just inside the forest. There was a water trough and a hay basket with wisps of hay still in the bottom. Animal tracks covering the ground showed that the clearing was often used by something. Harry and Hermione could see a small herd of nearly skeletal winged horses on the other side of the meadow eating something. They retched slightly when they realised it was half a dead cow.

Hagrid walked over to the basket and dropped the bale of hay he was carrying inside before turning around, "Oh, yes. Ah forgot to mention that they're omnivores. Can anyone else see them?"

Kellah shakely raised her hand looking ill. She then found herself enfolded in the gentlest and fuzziest hug she'd ever experienced as Hagrid comforted her.

"It's ok, they have a defensive mechanism that means only those that have seen and understand death can see them. I'm sorry that you've had to see someone die so young, but it happens. I'll make ya some hot chocolate when we get back to me hut."

"Lavender, would you be able to do ya thing and see if you can see them?"

She concentrated and then let out a "Woah" as she could apparently see something. They spent a while petting the invisible horses before heading back to his Hut. There Hagrid made Kellah hot chocolate and placed a pot of tea for everyone else with a plate of his rock cakes. He then launched into telling them about Thestrals and their origins.

"… Legend has that it that the original breeding pairs were taken as spoils of war from Sidhe wild hunts. Now, no one has seen any of the higher fae for at least 600 years, so the story is suspect. But it makes for good fireside stories around 'alloween."

Harry and Hermione shared a glance before Harry spoke up, "Do you know many of those stories?"

"Aye, ah do. Ain't much ta do after the sun goes down round 'ere so most head down to the pub and swap old stories. O'course as old Finnigan is nearing 200, those are some really old stories."

Kellah speaks up quietly, "Do you think you could share those stories?"

"Ah don't rightly know, some of em ain't for little ears ya know."

Parvati joins in as if it's a foregone conclusion that he will, "We could do it Fridays instead of the chat, then we'll have the fire in the great hall, and I'm sure we can all have a hot chocolate to drink while you tell them."

"Well I dunno."

"Right it's settled then, I'll talk to McGonagall and get Susan and Padma to talk to their heads so that it can be sorted out."

It took her a lot of wheedling and wrangling, and maybe a little blackmail when Hagrid approached Lavender on tips for how to go about learning to meditate. But most of the first years and some of the later years got to enjoy story time around the fire by Hagrid. That expanded to include the other older teachers like McGonagall, Sprout, and Flitwick.

To make matters harder for Harry, Tonks taught her dorm mates how to cast the stinging hex, and told them to use it on Harry whenever they saw that he wasn't in one of his or her new base forms. Even when she complained she just laughed and said that her Mother had done the same thing to her which is why she had as much control as she currently does.

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This, Harry reflected, was probably the worst experience of her life so far. She was doubled over on the floor of the common room holding her abdomen and crying in pain. It hadn't been so bad when she got up and found a bit of blood when she wiped. The other girls congratulated her on becoming a woman. Then it was just a dull ache. But she tried to turn into a boy when she got downstairs and instead of changing her insides cramped like crazy and here she is. Oh look, Ron's just gone back to his dorm room, the coward. She hears someone coming down the girls stairs then hurrying back up. A few minutes later there's a flash of red light and everything mercifully goes dark.

Harry wakes up again on a hospital bed before immediately curling up again. Mary the 7th year prefect is talking to Madam Pomfrey before going off.

"Well young lady, what happened to you?"

Harry tries to explain, she really does, but she's in too much pain.

"Very well, drink this next time there's a pause. I don't like giving them out for issues like this, so don't expect it in future."

Harry nodded, and gulped down the potion as soon as she was able to, the pain dying back to merely feeling like someone was had their fist inside her trying to squash something than someone had placed it on an anvil and was hitting it with a hammer.

"Thank you!" she said with as much feeling as possible.

"Well now that you're able to talk to me, care to tell me what happened?"

She took a deep breath, and then started, "I woke up and discovered it was the first day of my period, it wasn't that bad so I got up and was going to come to you for a potion.

"I then saw Ron and tried to change into a boy as I was going over to say Hi. Next thing I know it feels like someone's trying to beat something inside me into a pancake and all I can do is writhe on the floor in pain."

"Ah, very well, I'll do some diagnostics, but I think I know what's happening."

A couple of minutes later and some humming she finishes, "Yes, it's what I suspected. You young lady need to change back to a girl."

"But I'm already a girl!"

"Your body is still trying to change into a boy, and it can't because your uterus is currently busy expelling the lining that it didn't use. Tell me, were there any other times that you remember when you couldn't change?"

"No?"

"Well humour me and try and change to a girl."

She did and the pain immediately died down to a little worse than it was that morning before dying away completely due to the pain potion.

She let out a sigh of relief "That feels so much better, Thank You!"

"Very well, I want you to start keeping a diary about your body and bring it to me every month, I want you to note when you change and what you were feeling at the time."

"Yes Madam Pomfrey." She said with dejected voice.

"Well off with you then, you've still got a bit of time to grab breakfast if you're quick."

She quickly ran off to the great hall where she was met by the girls looking concerned. After briefly explaining the situation, Hermione pulled out a blank notebook and handed it to her, saying she always keeps a spare as she goes through them so quickly. After some prodding she asked Tonks if she'd ever experienced something like this. Surprisingly, the answer was yes, she once tried to get it over with quicker and her body rebelled until she stopped trying.

The next 5 days alternated between being fine and feeling like her body was the wrong shape and needing to climb out of her skin. After copious journal entries Hermione glanced over it and pointed out that all the bad times were at times or situations when she'd have normally been a boy for something. The only saving grace was that after the pain potion had worn off, she was allowed to take the contraceptive potion that eased period symptoms, so the actual effects felt more like she had mild constipation than even the small amount of pain, and the bleeding changed to just spotting.

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A few days before the easter break, Hermione pulls Harry over to one side.

"Harry, there's something I need you to look at in the Library, do you think we could to it later?"

"Sure, let me know when, I assume it's a private study subject?"

"It is."

It turned out that he couldn't get away on his own until the next day, so Hermione was starting to fret when they met up and she pulled out a book on alchemists of all things. When she turned it around and made him read the text his jaw dropped, and he looked at her.

The philosophers stone is the pinnacle of the Alchemical arts. Its creation has only ever been confirmed once by Nicolas Flamel, who keeps it under lock and key at all times. Reports from those few lucky enough to have seen it say that it is a blood red hexagonal crystal around the size of a man's fist. It has one end cut to a point while the other end looks to be uncut. A philosophers stone is rumoured to be able to transmute base metals into gold, as well as generate the Elixir of Life. Though we can assume the latter is true due to the fact that Flamel and his wife have passed their third century of life as of the writing of this book, he has not allowed anyone to observe while he uses the stone.

"Oh…"

"Is that all you can say, Oh?"

"We never did ask McGonagall about that did we?"

"It's still in my bag."

"Right, so you think we should be writing to Mum, Karen, and your parents and asking to come home for the holiday?"

"And ask them to make an appointment with the Goblins."

"I'll try and get Hedwig, you write the note."

Harry managed to alert Hedwig to his need and met her in the entrance hall while Hermione scribbled a note with a brief outline of what they needed.

"We need to get a reply tomorrow, do you think you can do that? OK, the note is for Mum."