Author's Notes: Here's chapter three, sorry for the slight delay!
Harry Potter does not belong to me but to J.K. Rowling
Chapter Three
Heather found staying at the Burrow to be almost as much fun as she remembered from previous years. The afternoon after she arrived their O.W.L. results did too. Hermione had been a nervous wreck opening her envelope, convinced that she had failed every single exam. Heather hadn't done too badly, having secured almost all of the grades needed to continue on her chosen path to being an Auror. As she looked down at the very short letter, her eyes stayed fixed on the small 'E' next to Potions. Snape had clearly stated before that he never accepted students in N.E.W.T. level that hadn't achieved an 'Outstanding" in their O.W.L.
Heather, Hermione, and Ron spent most of the rest of the day sitting on a nearby hill in the sun, enjoying the beautiful weather. Ginny had tried to join them but it seemed that Mrs. Weasley wasn't keen on being alone with her future daughter-in-law, and kept Ginny close at all times. Hermione finally felt safe enough referring to Heather as "she" and by name, with no one around. Ron was having difficulty remembering, and kept mixing up the names. After an hour Heather finally said, somewhat exasperatedly, "Ron, just call me Harry. It's ok."
"Thanks, mate." Ron replied, turning slightly pink.
"Heather, are you planning on coming out at school as yourself?" asked Hermione.
"No way. I want you, Ron, and Ginny to know, but for right now it's staying that way. The last thing I need is that unnecessary drama in my life. After all, I just got done trying to convince the entire school that I'm not crazy."
"I thought that would be what you'd say." She replied, nodding. She paused and looked at Ron, her face turning a slight pink with embarrassment. "Because, that brings up the potions you said you wanted to start taking."
"What do you mean?" asked Heather
"Yes…you see, it's not that hard to brew, far easier than Polyjuice Potion, but…" she paused again, as if considering her words very carefully..
"Just spit it out, Hermione" said Heather.
"It's just, Ron-"
"What about me?" Ron cut her off.
Hermione's face went completely red now, "It's just, what these potions will do is very…personal, and I didn't know if you really wanted to hear all those details.
"…oh…OH" said Ron, catching on finally and turning red himself. "Actually yeah, I think you're right, Hermione. I'm going for a walk. Just wave or something when it's safe to come back."
With that he hurried away from the two girls. Heather almost giggled. "It's almost as if he's scared!" she laughed
"He's a boy. They feel like the less they know about what a girl goes through, the better." Hermione replied, also smiling. After a moment she gave Heather a serious look. "And that reminds me, Heather, up until now you've gotten to enjoy many of the fun parts of being a girl, but if you're serious about becoming one of us there is a lot you need to learn, and not all of it's pleasant."
"I am serious" replied Heather evenly, sobering up.
"All right then," and she pulled a piece of parchment from her pocket that looked like it had been copied from an old textbook. "This potion will permanently transform you into a girl over a period of time. When it's done your body will have completely changed, and almost be as if you had been born a girl."
"So, what does that exactly mean?" Heather asked looking at the parchment. It was more complicated than anything he had ever tried to brew before, and off to the side Hermione had copied what appeared to be a complex chart of amounts and timeframes.
"Well, if you take the potion as directed, which is once a week, then in about a years time your body will be female, from head to toe. Your features will shift, you will grow breasts, your body will reshape itself, and…." She trailed off and did her best to point at Heather's lower regions without directly doing so.
"Essentially" she continued, "It will have the exact same effect as you went through when you took Polyjuice Potion last year and turned into me, just over time rather than in a few seconds."
"But, you said that would be in a year or so. I can't be a girl in a year!" exclaimed Heather, a sinking feeling filling her stomach. She had been so excited about starting these potions and now it looked like they would have to wait.
Hermione reached out and put her hand on Heather's arm comfortingly. "Yes, if you take them once a week then it will take a year. However, based on what the book said, for those who aren't ready to fully transform, you can take a reduced dosage every two weeks instead."
"What will that do?"
"Small things really, your body will start the process of transforming, without most of the obvious results. At most your face and body will change slightly, and you'll probably grow small breasts. As for…down there, it won't change until you're taking the full dose. You'll also start to experience random mood swings as your hormones try to find their new balance."
"Sounds fun." Heather said dryly.
"No one said being a girl was always fun" said Hermione, "just wait till you get your first monthly."
That thought hadn't even occurred to Heather. Last year Hermione had sat her down and explained all about that, as part of her girl education, but Heather had done her best to forget a lot of that very awkward conversation. Now the full realization of what becoming a girl would mean hit her. As if Hermione could read her thoughts she asked "Having second thoughts?"
"No, I still want to do it. I'd just never even thought of that before."
"I know. That's why I wanted to be clear from the start about what all of this would mean." Hermione said.
"Now I really know why you sent Ron away" said Heather, laughing slightly to calm herself.
"Exactly." Hermione laughed too.
"So you can brew these for me?"
"I can, I just need a few things from you."
"Like what?" Heather asked.
"One, I need you to pay for the ingredients. Nothing it will need is expensive, it's just that we'll need a steady supply and I don't think we can keep taking what of it we can get from the student stores without someone noticing."
"Yeah, the last thing we need is Snape poking around" said Heather.
"Once we get to school I can start working on them, it takes about a week to brew, but it lasts for a while once finished so I can make several doses at a time." Hermione continued.
"Just so I know, not that I'm having second thoughts or anything but…how long before the effects are permanent?" Heather asked
Hermione arched an eyebrow, "If you were taking them at the full dosage, I'd guess that around eight months in you would have some very serious side effects if you tried to stop the process. Taking the half dose, you should be able to stop anytime without any noticeable repercussions.
The intimate details having been discussed, they waved Ron back over. He returned with an air of forced nonchalance. "You two done?" he asked.
"Yeah" said Heather, "Are you really ok with all of this?"
"What? Oh yeah of course. Just a lot to take in, isn't it." Ron replied, almost too quickly.
Heather shot Hermione a concerned expression, to which Hermione nodded as if to say "I'll talk to him."
The following days were just as enjoyable, with the only exception being the continuous news of mysterious deaths and disappearances. Unlike the other girls Heather enjoyed spending time with Fleur. She knew how overwhelming her veela powers could be on boys, and giggled often at Ron's continued attempts to impress the veela. The fact that she would soon be marrying Ron's older brother didn't seem to enter into his mind whenever they were in the same room. It was also nice getting to know Bill more. He was working locally to support the Order and was staying at the Burrow. At night he would entertain them all with stories of his days as a cursebreaker in Egypt, giving Heather insight into another career option since she couldn't become an auror anymore. She thought it might be fun to go live in another country, get away from being 'The Chosen One."
On her birthday Mrs. Weasley went all out. The entire kitchen had been decorated with scarlet and gold banners and ribbons, and her usual enormous birthday cake hovered over the center of the table. Heather opened her presents from Ron, Ginny, and Hermione in private, not knowing if they would be too noticeable to Mrs. Weasley's all seeing eyes. Thankfully however, she hadn't needed to worry. Ron and Ginny had gone in together to get her a new servicing kit for her Firebolt, and Hermione had given her a book on defensive charms.
That evening for dinner Lupin turned up, looking gaunter than he had the last time that Heather had seen him. To Mrs. Weasley's displeasure, conversation remained on the sole topic of what was happening in the world. Bill and Lupin informed them all that Florean Fortescue and Mr. Ollivander had both disappeared from Diagon Alley. No one was surprised when the party broke up early, none of them being in much of a mood to celebrate.
The next day their letters and booklists from Hogwarts arrived, with a surprise for Heather. A shiny badge fell out of the envelope, and a note informing her that she was now Gryffindor Quidditch Captain.
"That puts you on the same level as prefects! You'll be able to use our special bathroom." Exclaimed Hermione.
Heather remembered quite well the extravagant bathroom that prefects got to use, having spent a very nice evening in there trying to figure out a clue during the Triwizard Tournament. Looking at the four letters, Mrs. Weasley commented saying there was no point putting on a trip to Diagon Alley any longer. She had been waiting for a time when Mr. Weasley could accompany them for added security, but he had been working late almost every night since Heather had arrived at the Burrow.
Two days later the six of them stood outside under an overcast sky as one of the Ministry of Magic cars pulled up in the front yard. The journey to London took much less time than heather had expected and soon they were pulling up in front of the dilapidated pub that served as the entrance for the wizarding shopping district. Hagrid was waiting for them on the curb, assigned as added security, and happily embraced Heather.
Once inside and out onto the street, the party broke into two groups. Hagrid escorted Heather, Hermione and Ron to Madam Malkins, Ron needed new school robes and Hermione wanted new dress robes. Inside they found Draco Malfoy and his mother, trying on new dress robes of their own. A brief but decidedly rude encounter followed, which resulted in Heather drawing her wand on Malfoy, and he and his mother storming from the shop.
After they were done, they found Mr. and Mrs. Weasley waiting outside for them, Ginny in tow, all of them laden down with textbooks. Their next stop was the apothecary, which took some careful doing. Mrs. Weasley wanted them to all stick together tightly, which made Heather rather nervous. While Mrs. Weasley probably wouldn't be able to tell what the extra ingredients that Hermione was going to pick out were for, Heather doubted they would be able to pass them off as normal purchases for N.E.W.T. level Potions. Thankfully the store was too busy for the adults to accompany them inside, and instead Heather, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny went inside to complete their purchases while the rest of the group took up station on either side of the door outside.
Hermione quickly grabbed what she would need to brew a years worth of Heather's potion, with some extra in case of accidents. At the counter Heather pulled out her pouch to pay for them. She hadn't gotten anything for herself as she wasn't going to be taking Potions this year. The old man who owned the shop raised an eyebrow at their purchases but said nothing.
The last stop before they left for the day was Fred and George's shop, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Unlike the rest of the alley which was dark almost neglected, the twin's shop was a vibrant shade of orange, large posters covering the windows full of shooting stars and advertising "You-no-poo."
Inside the rows were packed full of Hogwarts age kids, gawking over the wide variety of products for sale. It seemed that Fred and George had used their last year at Hogwarts well, developing everything a prankster could want.
In a far corner, Heather was drawn to a display marked "WonderWitch Products." Checking to see if anyone was watching her, she perused the items and grabbed a bottle of lotion and pimple vanisher. Not entirely trusting anything Fred or George to not have a nasty, but hilarious, secondary effect, she decided to give these two a try before purchasing anything else.
Together with Hermione and Ron, Fred and George swept her into the backroom, showing off their higher end merchandise. When she started pulling her money bag to pay for the items in her hands, neither of the twins would accept it.
"You don't pay here" said Fred adamantly, shoving her hand of coins away
"Yeah, you gave us our start up money, we haven't forgotten" added George.
Fifteen minutes later Heather was standing by the front glass waiting for everyone else when she saw Draco Malfoy slinking off down the alley. Curious as she ever was, Heather quietly grabbed Hermione and Ron and slipped out of the store under the invisibility cloak. Hagrid, who was on guard outside didn't notice them pass, even though Heather was sure their feet might be seen. With Ron having grown so tall and none of them being as small as they used to, it was difficult to completely conceal the three of them anymore.
Malfoy was clearly in a hurry, but at the same time doing his best to not be noticed. Glancing around for any sign of pursuit, he ducked down the side passage at the end of the row into Knockturn Alley. This only confirmed Heather's suspicion that whatever Malfoy was up to, it was nothing good. With the alley being emptier than it usually was, it wasn't hard to them to follow their quarry. That is, until he entered a shop near the end of the dark street, Borgin and Burkes. Heather had seen him before in this store with his father, selling things to avoid ministry attention. Her pace quickened as she saw the door slam shut, making Hermione and Ron stumble as they tried to keep up with her.
Trying to overhear whatever was happening inside was impossible through the thick glass, until Ron pulled out one of Fred and George's Extendable Ears. He hadn't necessarily paid for them, but Heather was sure in this circumstance the twins wouldn't mind. Together they snaked the flesh colored string under the door and held their breath.
"…you know how to fix it?" asked Malfoy
"Possibly. Can you bring it in to the shop?" Mr. Borgin replied in his greasy voice.
"Of course not. I've already told you it has to stay put."
At this Mr. Borgin seemed to hesitate. "Perhaps this will convince you" said Malfoy, icy steel in his tone. A small gasp later and Mr. Borgin began stammering his complete support. "Anything you need Master Malfoy, anything at all, just ask."
"I thought that would be what you said. Now, be sure to keep that one safe." With that he swept from the shop in a passable imitation of his father's manner, and disappeared up the alley.