Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall discussing their plans for the day. Hermione and Harry had exchanged schedules and were currently moaning over their classes for the day.
"Honestly Harry, why must you take Divination, it is the biggest waste of time on the planet and Professor Trelawney is a total fraud," Hermione complained, waving Harry's schedule in his face and pointing to the square labeled Divination.
"Oh get real Hermione, look who has all these extra classes, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, they all sound so thrilling, I can't wait," Harry said sarcastically.
"What are you talking about, I love Arithmancy, it's exciting and I LEARN something, unlike Divination, I doubt you've ever done anything worthwhile in that class," Hermione said, picking up her bookbag. "Well, are you coming?"
"Where?" Ron asked.
"To the Library," Hermione responded.
"Obviously, this is Hermione we are talking about, where else would she be going," Harry said, picking up his bag, which was currently full of extra books for Hermione's extra classes.
God, this is heavy, she really needs to cut back on the workload
"Shut up Harry, we need to find out what this curse or charm on us is, I don't much fancy living in your dorm room for the rest of the year!" Hermione began walking out of the Great Hall towards the Library, Ron and Harry trailing behind her.
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Classes had just ended for the day and the trio was once again meeting in the Library. Their previous trips had proven fruitless so they were back, sitting once again at the table in the corner, avoiding Madam Pince who had already threatened to send them back to their dorms if they did not stop talking. Being barred from the Library was the last thing Harry and Hermione needed at the moment.
They were surrounded by various books on such topics as Human Transfiguration, Physical Appearance Magic, and various books on assorted and sundry curses, charms and whatnot. Ever once in a while one of them would find a particularly hilarious or ridiculous spell and they would read it out to the others.
"Hey, listen to this one, palpebra pigmentum mutate, it's a charm that changes the color of your eyelid, this book even lists 243 colors you use. Who would need to change the color of their eyelid." Ron asked, waving a book entitled DIY Makeup: A Witch's Guide to Changing Her Appearance.
Recalling the events in Hermione's dorm room that morning Harry said, "I think it's a girl thing."
He quickly ducked to avoid any flying objects that would be thrown at him by Hermoine, but she was engrossed in a book entitled Human Transfiguration: A Beginners Guide. She did not appear to have even heard either of them.
They remained in the Library until it was nearly dinner time, finding nothing helpful except a few humorous charms (the funniest was one that would cause a person to blow multicolored bubbles out of their mouth whenever they opened it). Just as they were about to leave, Harry spotted Professor Lupin, their Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, returned after a one year leave of absence, walking among the stacks, apparently looking for something or someone. Harry stood up to wave to him and he hurried over, looking slightly uncomfortable.
"Oh, hello everyone, doing homework I presume?" Lupin said, eyeing the stacks of books on the table, "you're just the people I needed to find."
"Oh really, what for?" Hermione said, finally tearing herself away from the book she had been reading.
"Actually, Harry, you're the person I was looking for, and don't worry, you're not in trouble. I just wanted to speak with you for a few minutes about something."
"Okay, um, can Hermione and Ron come too?" Hermione asked, looking at Harry who just shrugged.
"No, I'd really rather prefer if I had this conversation just with you. Don't worry, you can tell them all about it afterwards," Lupin shuffled his feet, "if you really want to, that is."
Hermione followed Professor Lupin out of the Library and towards his office. When they reached his office, Lupin pulled off his cloak and sat down at his desk, motioning for Hermione to do the same. After Hermione was seated comfortably, Lupin began to speak.
"Well," Lupin cleared his throat, "I'm not quite sure where to begin for a conversation like this, but I guess I should start with a small disclaimer. First, this is entirely Sirius' idea, though I think he does have a point in wanting to speak to you about this, and second, this should be entirely James' job, but he obviously is not in a position to do this."
"Excuse me Professor, what are you talking about?" Hermione was genuinely confused by her Professor's behavior.
"You see, Harry when two people like each other enough, and enjoy each others company, they tend to express this love in rather, uh, physical ways. This is especially true among teenagers, such as yourself, and teenagers don't always know what is safe and appropriate."
A sense of dread washed over Hermione.
Oh My God, I'm going to get The Talk from Professor Lupin
"Professor, I already know about sex. Really, I outgrew the stork thing a while ago; I know the whole story of where babies really come from."
Lupin laughed nervously, but he looked noticeably relaxed.
"Well then, I can just skip over the biology lesson, and move right onto the warnings and threats. Please Harry, for my sake and for Sirius' sake, do not do anything stupid with Hermione; do not have sex, do not get even remotely close to having sex, and please, if you're doing anything involving less than 6 pieces of clothing do not tell Sirius or I."
"What would make you think I would do anything with Hermione? I don't have those sort of feelings for her."
At least, I think Harry doesn't have those feelings for me; I have them for him somewhat, but he doesn't have them for me
"You're 15 now Harry; you are changing both physically and emotionally, even though that is the way you feel about her now, things might change in the future, I'm just warning you to be careful, you don't need her parents trying to kill you, enough people are already attempting that at the moment."
"Don't worry Professor; you have my promise," Hermione said, "but you might want to speak with her about this too."
Professor Lupin paled noticeably at the thought of explaining the birds and the bees to a 15 year old girl.
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Meanwhile, back in the Library, Ron and Harry were making no progress. They had covered nearly 25 books already and had found no mention of a curse that would cause two people to switch bodies. Frustrated and tired, they slowly began putting the books they had looked through back onto the shelves they belonged on. As they were finishing up and getting ready to head back to the Gryffindor common room, Draco Malfoy sauntered into the library and walked straight towards them.
"Well, look what we have here, Mudblood and the Weasel," Draco said, smirking, "where's Potter, In detention with Snape?"
"Get away from us Malfoy, I notice that bruise on your head is gone," Ron said, clenching his fists, "pity you missed the Snitch, oh wait, it's not a pity at all."
"Oh shut up Weasel," Malfoy said, stepping closer to Ron. "Just out of curiosity, what did you have to pawn to get that new broom of yours, I don't imagine your house would go for enough gold to buy it. What did you have to do? Sell off your sister to the highest bidder?"
Ron turned bright red. Harry laid his hand on Ron's shoulder to hold him back and prevent any fight from breaking out in the library.
"Oh, look how sweet, Mudblood Granger to the rescue, doesn't want her boyfriend to get himself hurt, oh, but isn't Harry your boyfriend, or is it both?" Draco smirked at him.
Harry took one step forward and punched Draco hard on the nose. Draco stumbled backwards a bit, mumbling something that sounded vaguely like "yup, it worked, only Potter would hit like that, ow dammit". Neither Harry nor Ron heard him because at that moment, Madam Pince materialized right behind them. She grabbed their robes and dragged them out of the library, scolding them loudly.
"Miss. Granger, I do not believe this, a Prefect fighting in the Library, and you of all people ought to know better than that," Madam Pince hauled them out of the door, "just because I heard that last comment of Mister Malfoy I will not be giving either of you a detention, but that is still no excuse for violence, 25 points from Gryffindor and do not reenter my Library until you feel you are able to control your behavior!"
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"Harry, really, you've got to act a little more like a girl," Hermione said after Ron and Harry had explained what had happened in the library, "if anything, slap him, don't punch him."
They were all sitting on Ron's bed in the boy's dorm in an attempt to get some privacy. Hermione had been a little hesitant for all of them to stay in the boys dorm until Ron pointed out that Harry was a guy and she was sleeping there anyway.
"Fine fine Hermione, next time he acts like a stuck-up ninny I'll slap him, would that please you," Harry said sarcastically.
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"By the way, what did Professor Lupin need to speak to Harry about? Is he in danger or something?" Ron asked.
Hermione started laughing, and had to wait a bit before answering Ron.
"No, not at all, Sirius and him had just decided that Harry needing The Talk," Hermione said, "he just wanted to explain everything to Harry and warn him not to have sex with me."
Ron and Harry burst out laughing.
"Honestly? What did he say?"
Hermione put on her best Lupin imitation and repeated what he had said to her earlier. Ron and Harry began laughing so hard that Dean and Seamus came into the room to see what was wrong.
"Hey, Hermione, what are you doing in our room?" Dean said, pulling back the drapes on Ron's bed.
"Yeah, you're a girl, you shouldn't be in here," Seamus said.
The three of them exchanged glances. Harry reluctantly got off the bed and went to his, actually, Hermione's, dorm as it was close to bedtime. As he walked across the common room, he thought about what Lupin had told Hermione.
Why would they think I would do anything with Hermione? We're just friends after all. Aren't we?
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The next day, while Hermione and Ron were in Divination, Harry was sitting alone in the common room near the fire. He was reading another Library book trying to find what curse had been used to make him and Hermione switch bodies.
Not that this hasn't been an 'educational' experience. I never knew Parvati was so obsessed with me.
Harry chuckled to himself at the thought of Parvati. Every night so far she had gone on and on about everything he had done, every time he looked at her, and especially every time he touched her.
If only she knew that for the past week the person she thinks is Harry Potter has actually been Hermione, and the person she's been explaining this all to has been Harry, not Hermione.
"Hi Hermione, what are you reading," Ginny had just come in through the portrait hole, followed closely by Ron and Hermione.
"Oh nothing really," Harry said, shoving the book into his bag, "just doing some of my work."
Ron, Hermione and Ginny sat down near him by the fire. Ron and Hermione began complaining about Divination.
"My god, Trelawney was worse than usually," Ron said, "she predicted that Harry would die again."
Harry laughed, "oh really, what is it this time? Death by asphyxiation from the incense in that attic of hers?"
"Probably; I really regret talking that class," Ginny said, "I'm actively considering switching out, except it's so easy to get good marks."
"Definitely switch out, you're smart enough to get good marks in another subject, unlike those two," Harry said, pointing at Ron and Hermione, who each threw pillows at him, Hermione's hitting especially hard.
"I suppose so," Ginny said, "uh, Hermione, could I speak with you for a moment please?"
"Sure, go ahead, why not?" Harry said.
"In private, we could go up to my dorm, it's about what we were talking about a week and a half ago," Ginny said, winking in Hermione's direction.
Harry followed her up to her dorm, thoroughly confused.
Oh dear, how am I going to get through this, she was speaking to Hermione, not me; I have no clue what this is about; I'll blow our cover for sure.
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Hermione lay in bed later that evening trying to remember what she had been speaking to Ginny about a week and a half ago. When she had asked Harry he had just shrugged off her question saying they had been talking about the possibility of Ginny dropping Divination. Hermione was suspicious. Why would Ginny need to talk about that in private?
She thought about it for a long time, long after everyone else in the dorm had fallen asleep. Listening to Ron's rhythmic breathing from his bed next to her she realized what she had been talking to Ginny about.
It had been at the Quidditch match against Slytherin; she and Ginny had been sitting in the stands, watching Ron and Harry fly. Ginny had seen her watching Harry throughout the entire game. After the game, Ginny had cornered her in the common room.
"Hermione, I need to talk to you," Ginny had said, pulling Hermione down onto the couch next to her, "I saw you watching Harry at the game today."
"So," Hermione had responded, "that's what you do at Quidditch matches; you watch the players."
"No, you know what I mean, Hermione, you didn't take your eyes off of him for a second."
"Ginny, what are you implying?"
"Listen, I know what people act like when they have crushes on people, and you were acting like I was in my first year."
Hermione had flushed bright red
"So, what I'm asking you is: Do you have a crush on Harry?"
"Possibly."
"Aha, I knew it; you should ask him out, I'm sure he'd say yes."
"No, he really doesn't like me like that, plus, I don't want to leave Ron out."
"Yeah right, I'm sure he'd say yes in an instant. Why wouldn't he?"
Just then Hermione had been saved by Fred and George, who had snuck up on the girls from behind, scaring them.
"Remember Hermione, we haven't finished this conversation, we'll talk again next week, and don't worry, I won't forget," Ginny had said before dissolving into laughter as Fred (or George) had started tickling her.
Hermione lay in bed staring at the ceiling.
"Oh dear," Hermione whispered to herself, "I really hope I'm wrong."