Prompt:

Friday 31 October 1997

Something always happens on Halloween. Without the threat of Voldemort, he was destroyed when he attacked Hogwarts at the end of their sixth year, Harry is hoping for a quiet day. Perhaps he will make it a good memory and finally ask out the girl he likes.

Too bad for the occupants of the castle as they all wake up switched with someone else! Who wakes up as who and what will they do?! Can Harry find his secret crush and still ask her out, what if they are all trapped in these new bodies?

In response to a prompt by Sorvik_Corsair in the Hhr_Harmony_Hollow collection. N.B. I diverged a little from the actual prompt, but I still hope you enjoy the finished product!

Harry woke up with a sudden start. Taking a moment to compose himself, he tried to remember what made him wake up. He had been having a rather odd dream, he remembers, but he'd completely forgotten what it was about. All he knew was that it felt very realistic, sort of like an out-of-body experience.

Sitting up slightly, he rolled over to search for his glasses on the bedside table with his eyes still closed, his mind still trying to recall what he had been dreaming about.

Yet his glasses didn't seem to be there. Huffing, he sat up a little more to have a better look, and as he finally opened his eyes, he realised the edges of bedside table were not blurry.

Did I sleep with my glasses on? he wondered.

He immediately put a hand up to his face but did not feel them there. Feeling very confused, he quickly leaned over and checked the floor beside the bed, but he couldn't find them there either. Finally giving up, he settled back down into bed, and was about to try and fall asleep again before he realised, he could not hear Ron's usual loud snoring from the next bed. Surprised that his best friend hadn't tried to wake him up, he opened his curtains and was shocked to see Parvati Patil's face nestling in her pillow, her long hair strewn all over it.

Feeling slightly panicked, he managed to quietly get out of bed and was about to see what was going on when he caught sight of himself in a full-length mirror on his left-hand side. As he stared at his reflection, he did his utmost to stifle a surprised yell. In the mirror, it wasn't himself that he was seeing reflected back. Yet as he ran his hand gingerly through the long, bushy brown hair, the face he was seeing was almost as familiar.

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Oh, Merlin, thought Hermione to herself again as she ran her hand once more through Harry's black, messy hair in the boys' bathroom mirror.

'Do you think the boys are in our bodies then?' Ginny asks her in a hushed tone. Hermione turned around to face her, only to be reminded yet again Ginny was still inexplicably talking out of Ron's body. It had only been a few minutes since Ginny had shaken her awake to tell her the seemingly impossible; that through some inexplicable means of magic, they had woken up in the bodies of the boys instead of their own. She then had proceeded to drag her into the bathroom. Hermione's first thoughts immediately went to Polyjuice Potion. Was it possible that this was some silly Halloween prank on them involving the illegal substance? And yet, that didn't make any sense. Transformation using Polyjuice Potion is instantaneous, and neither of them had anything to eat or drink after dinner last night. The potion would have worked on them immediately, and not have had such a prolonged delayed reaction.

Besides, pondered Hermione, the taste is so foul that they would have realised if they had ingested some.

'Hermione,' asked Ginny again urgently. 'The boys?'

'Oh, right,' said Hermione. 'Um, well, it's certainly a possibility. It's only logical that they're in our bodies if we're in theirs.'

'I can't believe I'm stuck in my brother's body of all people,' grumbled Ginny.

'What about me? I'm stuck in Harry's,' said Hermione shrilly.

'At least you're hot,' snorted Ginny.

'Ron's hot too,' mumbled Hermione.

Harry is much hotter though, said a snide little voice in her head. Hermione, who had long nursed a crush on her best friend, couldn't help quietly agreeing.

Ginny mimed throwing up. 'Please never call my brother hot again. It's disgusting that you'd think something like that.'

Hermione rolled her eyes at her friend as she checked out her reflection in the mirror again. Harry's face stared back; his mouth pulled into a slight frown which made him look both a little intense and inexplicably appealing.

It's the eyes, thought Hermione, her cheeks feeling a little warm. He does have rather beautiful eyes.

'Are you done checking Harry's face out, Hermione?' smirked Ginny.

'I am not – '

'Oh, please, like you haven't looked into that mirror twenty times already. If you really want to check yourself out properly, take your shirt off. Let's see if all that Quidditch playing's given Harry some abs.'

'I will do no such thing,' said Hermione firmly. 'I will not flaunt Harry's body like that. It's demeaning.' Yet it did not mean that she couldn't feel his muscles rippling underneath her clothes. For someone who was spent a lifetime being skinny, he had certainly filled out rather well over the past couple of summers. In fact, judging from her new additional parts, Hermione was fairly confident that puberty has been just a little too kind to Harry overall.

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Harry kept staring into the mirror, his best friend's face gazing back at him as he did. Hermione's brown eyes, filled with uncertainty and trepidation, grew wider when Harry realised that they were now his eyes.

This is mad, Harry thought desperately. Is this some sort of horribly weird dream?

'What the bloody hell is going on here?!' a female voice cried from the doorway and suddenly Ginny was standing beside him.

'Ginny. Hi,' Harry replied in Hermione's voice. He could feel his face burn.

'I'm not Ginny!' she wailed. 'I'm Ron. I'm Ron, in my little sister's bloody body!'

'Oh, thank Merlin,' cried Harry in relief. 'It's not just me then. Ron, I'm Harry. I'm in Hermione's body!'

'What? Prove it.'

'I…' Harry struggled to find a perfectly acceptable thing to say before blurting out, 'I know you have the hots for Lavender Brown! You told me last night before we went to bed!'

'Keep your bloody voice down, you prat,' Ron hissed. 'Merlin, couldn't I wake up in her body instead? I can't stand the idea of seeing my little sister starkers if I need to shower!'

'So, you'd rather see Lavender naked?' snorted Harry, trying very hard to ignore the sudden influx of suggestive musings that his brain was offering up to him that concerned showering as Hermione Granger.

Ron flushed. 'Rather her than my sister,' he mumbled.

'Um, guys, why am I in Parvati's body?' came a whimpering voice that was very distinctly –

'Neville?!' cried Harry and Ron together.

'I'm here as well, you mudbloods,' said a different voice from another bed over.

'Wait … oh, no,' groaned Harry.

'Malfoy is in Lavender's body?' wailed Ron. 'Just my bloody luck.'

'Is this your idea of a joke, Potter?' sneered Malfoy. Harry couldn't recall ever seeing Lavender giving him such an ugly look before. It was rather unnerving. 'Perhaps I have underestimated you if you've managed to sneak me some Polyjuice Potion without my realising. Although why you'd transform yourself into that mudblood Granger is beyond me!'

'It wasn't me, Malfoy,' sighed Harry, swallowing the rage bubbling inside of him. He then turned to Ron and gave him a look. 'Speaking of Hermione, we should go look for her. If anyone can fix it, it'll be her.'

'I wonder whose body she woke up in,' mused Ron as they made their way out of the girl's dormitory, with Neville hightailing it after them. All of them ignored Malfoy's comments about how much more grandiose the Slytherin common room. They didn't have to go very far, however. Harry and Ron immediately spotted themselves in the Common Room, sitting on the cosy armchairs near the fire. Before Harry could acclimatise himself with the bizarreness of the situation, Ron yelled out a rather loud 'Oi!'

The Harry and Ron in the Common Room both jumped as they turned around.

'Harry? Ron?' Harry saw himself say.

'It's us,' nodded Harry, before his six-foot self-tackled him into a very tight embrace. 'Guessing you're in my body then, Hermione?'

'How did you guess?' said Hermione as she gently let go.

'Only you are capable of nearly squeezing the life out of someone when you hug them,' laughed Harry as he saw Hermione's cheeks, which are technically his own, redden in embarrassment.

'So does that make you my little sister then, Ronald?' said Ginny impishly.

'Shut up, Ginny,' said Ron gruffly. He turned to Hermione. 'So, any ideas as to what happened?'

Hermione shook her head. 'No idea, I'm afraid.'

'Granger has no idea?' drawled Malfoy. 'Well, would you look at that. Maybe her looking Potter made her dumber than she already was.'

Before Harry knew what he was doing, his hand flew through the air and landed on Parvati's face with a resounding smack.

'Oww,' wailed Malfoy.

'Harry!' Hermione admonished him.

'Nice one, mate,' grinned Ron. 'Just like in third-year, eh?'

'You filthy mudbloods!' cried Malfoy. 'Let me out of here! Now!'

Ginny rolled her eyes and grabbed Malfoy by the arm as she marched him to the portrait hole. After pushing it open and shoving him out, the portrait closed behind him, and she turned back to face the others. 'Shall we go down to breakfast then?'

'Already?' wondered Hermione.

'Why not,' Ginny shrugged. 'If even people like Malfoy are experiencing this, then maybe this is a lot more widespread than we thought.'

'Honestly, I'm starving,' said Ron.

'Aren't you always, you pig?' snapped Ginny

'Hey!'

'For goodness' sake, stop it you two,' snapped Hermione. Harry was suddenly struck at how deep his voice sounded. And how much shorter Hermione was to him. He almost had to strain his neck to look up at himself. 'Fine, let's go to the Great Hall. Just don't argue.'

'Fine,' mumbled Ron and Ginny.

Harry glanced over at Neville, who seemed very deep in thought. 'You alright there, Neville?' he asked him quietly.

'I'm just thinking about who could possibly be in my body,' he mumbled. 'It's probably Parvati, right? I mean, if you all switched with each other, it makes sense, right?'

Harry shrugged. 'None of this makes any sense, Neville. Just keep calm, okay? We'll figure this out. We always do in the end.'

Neville gave him a small, appreciative smile.

As they finally made their way to the Great Hall, there was already a large number of students still in their pyjamas gathered in a cluster in the middle, much to their surprise. Every one of them was looking every bit as worried and confused as they felt. The House tables weren't in their usual place, but instead were lying neatly off to the sides. Most of the teachers were already there as well.

As the last of the students made their way inside, Hagrid got to his feet and approached the headmaster's stand.

'May I have yer attention please?' he said. 'I am sure this is rather confusing for everyone, but I am afraid we have little to go on so far. What we can tell yeh is that there has been a magical incident that has somehow caused us all to switch bodies with each other. Why I may look and sound like Professor Hagrid, I am really Professor Dumbledore.'

Gasps and whispers were quicky uttered amongst all of the students.

'Blimey,' muttered Ron to Harry. 'If they got to Dumbledore, then everyone's probably swapped bodies.'

'In fact, Professor Hagrid is currently the one who is in control of my body,' continued Dumbledore, ignoring the reaction that he had just caused.

Everyone turned to look at Professor Dumbledore, who was sitting where Hagrid usually sits. He gave them all a very sheepish look.

'From what we can gather so far, the person whose body you've switched with is the person who is currently inhabitin' yers. So, if you manage to locate yourselves amongst yer peers, we encourage yeh all to stick together in pairs until such time that we can reverse this situation. All classes and Hogsmeade trips are cancelled until further notice. Thank you!'

'Can you believe this?' Hermione exclaimed. 'What kind of sick, twisted person would do such a thing? It's disturbing. It's so violating.'

'It's a little funny too,' said Ginny, a small, mischievous smirk playing her mouth. 'Sure makes going to the bathroom more entertaining.'

Ron spluttered. 'The hell is that supposed to mean?'

'You know exactly what I mean, my darling brother,' said Ginny in a sickly-sweet voice.

Harry watched as Ron went purple. 'You didn't,' he growled.

Ginny giggled. Hearing it sounded rather odd in Ron's voice. 'Oh, I did.'

'You - '

Harry didn't get to hear the rest of it, as Hermione had grabbed him by the arm and frogmarched them out of the Great Hall. Resisting was futile, seeing how much physically stronger Hermione was now that she was inhabiting his body.

'She saw him naked, then?' said Harry. Hermione flushed dark red, but she didn't say anything.

His heart suddenly skipped a beat. If Ginny had looked, really looked, then -

'Um, Hermione?' said Harry, his throat feeling very tight.

'Never you mind,' Hermione forcefully insisted. 'Come on, let's go outside.'

'Hermione, did you see me naked as well?' Harry demanded in Hermione's bossy tone.

Harry saw his own face get darker. His heart sank. 'Oh, Merlin,' he groaned loudly.

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She didn't really mean to look. Yet it was impossible not to. Going to the bathroom necessitated a much more hands-on approach than what she's used to, which was certainly an eye-opening experience. Despite her best attempts, she saw a lot more of Harry than she ever thought she would get to see. She vowed to keep it to herself, but Ginny's direct line of questioning was enough to make her squirm uncomfortably and blush so deeply that she ended up telling her everything she wanted to know. Gossiping about Harry's masculinity was the last thing she wanted to do, but Ginny can be awfully persuasive.

She scolded herself afterwards for falling for her persuasion so easily. Hermione couldn't help a naturally curious person, and it certainly did cross her mind that a situation would sooner or later present itself that she would have to make use of the facilities and risk exposing herself in the manner that she did. She tried to downplay the whole situation by rationalising it as a once in a lifetime experience. After all, how often do you get to wake up as your own biological opposite? But Harry was her best friend, and best friends don't leer at each other the way that she did.

Although it didn't help that a small part of her kept snidely pointing out that she had undeniably liked what she had seen.

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'It was - erm - hard not to,' admitted Hermione, as Harry saw her get redder. He was about to die of embarrassment. 'You guys' sort of have to guide it along, and – well, girls don't have to.'

'I really don't want to talk about this,' groaned Harry.

'Neither do I,' agreed Hermione. 'I'm sorry, Harry. I really am. But hasn't it crossed your mind that you have to do the same thing as well? You have to bathe and use the bathroom as well at some point, especially if this situation drags along.'

Harry grew very quiet. Up until that moment, he hadn't given it much thought.

'I guess I didn't really plan on doing any of that,' he admitted.

'My body does need to pee at some point, Harry,' said Hermione gently. 'Holding it in is bad for you, in case you didn't know. And I would thank you to not inflict any damage to my body whilst you're in control of it!'

'Yeah, but – it's awkward Hermione.'

Harry saw that his face had Hermione's unmistakable signature frown somehow etched into his features.

'There really isn't much I can say or do to help, Harry,' said Hermione firmly. 'You just have to get accustomed to the fact that you're in my body for the time being.'

'Fine,' snapped Harry. 'Just drop it, okay?'

Hermione gave him a hurt look, but she nodded. 'You want to go outside? We should probably change though,' she added before waving her wands and transforming their pyjamas into muggle attire.

Harry nodded and they set off together quietly. It was so bizarre to be wearing girls' clothes, Harry thought. Not to mention girl's underwear.

He sighed quietly. This was their seventh and final year at Hogwarts. They had managed to defeat Voldemort after he attacked Hogwarts at the end of last year, and Harry had been looking forward to having a perfectly ordinary year at Hogwarts for a change. Moreover, he had set himself a challenge.

He was going to ask out Hermione Granger.

Hermione had given Harry an incredible amount of support over the years, and last year alone she had gone above and beyond to ensure that he'd survive his final battle with Voldemort. Without her, Harry was convinced that he almost certainly would not have made it.

The summer following was the greatest summer that Harry could remember. Celebrations were rampant, with people all over the country over the moon at finally being free from Voldemort's wrath. Somewhere in between all those festivities, Harry had found himself drawn closer to Hermione. They had always gotten along well with each other, much like siblings would. But the feelings that had suddenly surface were about as un-sibling-like as they would get. After trying to rationalise his feelings all summer (and consulting the book Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches that Ron had gotten him for his seventeenth birthday), he realised that he was irrevocably in love with Hermione.

Nobody knew, of course. He kept it to himself all summer long. He watched as other boys his age and men struck up conversation with Hermione all summer, all gawping and hanging on to her every word as she answered all their questions. Harry hated it. More than once, he wished he could just forcefully charm all those guys away. The only thing that kept stopping him was when Hermione would catch his eye when a guy is trying to flirt with her, and giving him a look that told him how ridiculous she found the whole situation to be.

That's why, Harry had decided, to finally pluck his courage and ask out Hermione as soon as there was a Hogsmeade weekend. There was one the very next day, which happened to be the day after Halloween. It was also on a Saturday, and Hermione had taken to taking it a little easier on Friday evenings lately. He figured that then would be the perfect time to ask her out. And he was absolutely going to ask her out. He was sure of it.

That said, he was absolutely panicked though; utterly terrified of what her reaction would be. In a way, Harry was almost grateful that he could get to postpone his proposition. Almost.

But now, all that has gone out of the window. There was no way he could ask out Hermione now. Certainly not until this whole fiasco was reversed. Then he'd bide his time and hopefully ask her out in time for the usual Hogsmeade weekend that comes around Christmas time. He'd just have to keep an eye out for any eager blokes who might potentially beat him to asking her. Of course, he could always abandon all sense of rationality and cool, and profess his undying love for her, but Harry figured she'd probably run for the hills if he did that. Or maybe laugh in his face. He wasn't sure what would be worse.

'Are you alright, Harry?' said Hermione with a look of concern on her – his – face.

Harry nodded. 'I'm fine, don't worry.'

'You're sure? It's not because of the whole ... um, thing?'

Harry hesitated before nodding. While it wasn't really what he was thinking about, it was certainly something that he wasn't going to forget in a hurry.

Hermione frowned. 'There has to be way to make you get over this.'

'Just forget it,' Hermione, sighed Harry. 'The less we talk about it, the better.'

'Fine,' she said, rolling her eyes. They didn't say anything after that, choosing to instead to aimlessly wander the Hogwarts grounds until they stopped to sit close to the Black Lake. They watched the Giant Squid briefly surface before diving back below the depths. Harry briefly recalled the Second Task, his thoughts drifting to Hermione and how embarrassed he felt after trying to save her before realising that it was Ron that he should be saving -

'I know!' Hermione suddenly said, interrupting his thoughts. 'Let's make a pact!'

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'A pact?' repeated Harry. The expression on his - her - face was of confusion. Not a face she was used to making.

'Yes,' she nodded. 'A pact.'

'A pact about what, exactly?' asked Harry, still looking very much lost.

'Well, until this whole thing is reversed, and we are back in our bodies, we'll make a pact to avoid looking each other in the nude.' For some reason, she was about to say admiring instead of looking, but the very thought of saying it made her tummy do summersaults.

'Oh,' Harry said.' 'Erm … okay, I guess.'

'And no funny business,' she suddenly added without thinking. She saw Harry flush.

'W-what?' he stammered.

'You heard me,' she said, trying to sound more confident than she was feeling. It didn't help that the back of her neck was feeling uncomfortably warm. 'No funny business. At all. Promise me.'

Harry looked at her like a deer caught in headlights before he quickly nodded.

'Now, let's change the subject. How's your Potions essay coming along?'

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Considering the events of the day, going to bed that evening was rather uneventful.

Following their morning stroll, Harry and Hermione eventually went up to the library to get started on some homework. Along the way, they found a rather sulky-looking Ron who flatly refused to join them, and whom they didn't see again until later that evening. There were a handful of saving graces however, such as watching Madam Pince attempting to stroke Mrs. Norris whilst Filch was sorting library books. Or when they finally left the library and saw Snape, who had the misfortune to swap bodies with Professor McGonagall, dock points to any student who so much at glanced at him. Both he and Hermione were docked a total of 50 points, which Hermione furiously whispered to Harry that she'll be reporting to McGonagall as soon as she can.

Dinner itself was mostly a quiet affair. There wasn't much talking, as everyone still seemed rather unnerved about the whole incident. There were a handful of announcements, mostly concerning around the fact that they still had little idea on what caused the incident or how to reverse it. For the time being, students up to fifth years will have to go to sleep in the Room of Requirement, which has somehow managed to transform into a massive dormitory that was big enough to let everyone sleep under one roof. However, all older students were allowed to spend the night in their own dormitories.

Harry didn't give his much though, as he had spent the majority of the time puzzling over the pact that he had made earlier with Hermione. Truthfully, he'd been thinking about it every spare second, enough so that when they finally went to bed, Harry decided to try and avoid showering or going to the bathroom as much as possible if need be. It was easier said than done of course, as Harry felt the urgent need to go to the toilet as soon as he lay in his bed that night. Ron, who still had his curtain open, gave Harry a knowing look and told him to just keep his eyes shut when Harry forced himself to get out of bed went into the bathroom.

Harry nervously twiddled his pyjama bottoms, unsure how best to proceed. Finally, he yanked both them and his underwear down in a sudden move. He hesitated, furiously wrestling with himself to not look down. He reminded himself that Hermione had already looked herself, but it doesn't mean that he should do the same. Still, the temptation was rather strong, and he looked down for the briefest of moments.

Well, that confirms it, he thought. It's no dream. I'm definitely a girl now.

Not that he'd had any doubt, of course. He could feel the absence of his manhood all day, but seeing its obvious absence just made it sink in more. And at least he didn't see everything, which was a bit of a relief.

Now - how do girls ... aim?

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Hermione knew something was wrong the second she woke up. It didn't take her very long to realise what the problem was either. Unfortunately for her, the problem was rather obvious.

She dashed into the bathroom and yanked her bottoms and underwear down. Her first thoughts were how prominent it was. More than she'd thought it would be. And despite willing it to, it wouldn't go away. It somehow seemed to have a mind of its own.

Hermione wanted to cry. Why was Harry's body being so cruel?

She couldn't stay in there forever. Who knows how long it would take to naturally deflate? It's not like she's ever had an appendage like that before. Or even seen one before yesterday.

Although, she supposed she could always – no, it's not an option.

But it's the only way to make it surely make it go away, and maybe even prevent it from popping up again during the day. But she'd promised Harry that she wouldn't disrespect his body, yet his body was clearly in need for exactly that. And it didn't help that the entire situation was maddeningly stimulating for her.

What am I going to do? she silently screamed to herself.

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'Morning,' yawned Ron.

'Morning,' said Harry as he picked up his old wristwatch and put it on Hermione's much thinner wrist. 'Guess we slept in a little.'

'Who cares? It's a Saturday!' yawned Ron.

Harry shrugged. 'I suppose.'

Ron yawned again. 'So, breakfast?' he suggested.

'Sure,' Harry nodded.

They were alone in their dormitory, so they quickly got dressed and headed downstairs. When they arrived, they immediately spotted Hermione and Ginny in their usual seats. They had already finished eating, and Ginny left the table as soon as they arrived (after taking time manoeuvre Ron's long legs out from underneath the table) to go catch up with some of her other friends. Hermione had a book with her that was possible the largest that Harry had ever seen. The image of him reading such an enormous tome was rather unnerving, especially since Harry knew that he would never be caught dead doing something like that.

Hermione seemingly squirmed uncomfortably as he sat down opposite her. Harry gave her a curious look, but she only kept looking at her book. Her face, on the other hand, had turned red. He kept throwing curious glances at her while he ate his porridge, whilst Ron stuffed his face with enough bacon and eggs that would have likely fed a small army. After he stifled his second belch, Hermione finally lowered the book she was reading to criticise his disgusting eating habits and to tell them that she was heading off to the library. It was then Harry seized his chance to corner her by telling her that he'd like to join her. The look of dismay that appeared on her face was more than enough to concern him, but she quickly masked it with a neutral look and nodded.

Harry waited as long as he could

'Why are you acting so weird around me?'

Hermione immediately turned red. 'What are you talking about?'

Yes you are, Harry whispered. You didn't even look at me this morning. Seriously, what's wrong? Did I do something wrong?

Hermione sighed. No, it's not you, she mumbled.

Harry felt slightly relieved. 'Okay, so what is it?'

Hermione gave him what he thought was an impassive look, but it was with a pleading tone that she said, 'I'll tell you later, okay? Just drop it for now.'

'But - '

'Harry, please don't push me,' she begged. 'I'll tell you later, just not now.'

'Come on, Hermione. What's the big deal?' said Harry, his voice getting louder.

'Fine,' she snapped. 'I woke up this morning, and - I broke our pact.'

Harry's heart stood still. 'Which part?' he asked nervously. Hermione kept quiet.

'Hermione, which part?' he demanded again. His loud tone was attracting several curious onlookers, who had turned their heads to look at him. He had momentarily forgotten how far Hermione's voice can travel.

'The funny business one,' she finally admitted in a low tone, avoiding his eyes completely.

Harry froze. Did she mean that – no, there was no way –

'I woke up, and it was right there, and I thought it was just easier to help things along, okay?' she hissed.

Harry sank into his seat. 'Oh, no,' he moaned, putting his head into his hands. He couldn't believe his rotten luck. Hermione had seen him in the most embarrassing of states. Not only that, but she'd dealt with the problem head on. Frankly, he was speechless.

He suddenly wished the ground would just swallow him up whole already. Anything would be better than this. He'd rather face the Hungarian Horntail ten times over if it would get him out of this situation.

'Harry?' Hermione's voice had now softened, which made Harry feel brave enough to look up. He was shocked to see that she was looking a little tearful. 'I'm sorry, okay? I'm really sorry, Harry. Believe me, I was mortified, but I didn't know what else to do. Please don't be angry with me.'

Feeling tongue-tied, he shook his head. 'Don't worry,' he croaked. 'I'm sure you did what you thought was best.'

Hermione shrugged lightly and carried on working. Harry instead stared at his parchment, trying to sort his thoughts. It was one thing to get a look at him, but this was beyond anything that he'd have imagined. Even though he loved Hermione very much, the fact that she had already experimented with his body was still nerve-wracking. Did she even like how he looked? He never once gotten any him that she liked him more than just a best friend, despite having gotten even closer during the war.

Maybe this is all a sign, he thought. A sign to give up on asking her out.

'Is it – um – normal? For you, I mean?'

'Huh? What do you mean?' said Harry.

Hermione was giving him a look that he couldn't quite place. 'Um, I mean – well, does it happen often? Waking up like that?'

Harry stared. Hermione's expression seemed to etch itself well into his features again, and he could tell she was fighting to not bombard him with questions. Although why she was pursuing this particular line of conversation was beyond him.

'Um, I suppose,' he finally stammered out. Truthfully, his dreams have lately been plagued with reflections of her curly hair, lithe figure, and warm hugs, and his body had taken to reacting accordingly every other morning, it certainly seemed to still be running on autopilot in these matters despite that he was no longer in his own body.

Hermione nodded. 'Well, that's healthy.'

'Right,' agreed Harry lifelessly, trying to ignore how hot he was feeling.

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'I just mean,' continued Hermione hurriedly. 'I mean, well – it's not really a big thing, is it?'

'What?' spluttered Harry. Hermione's eyes went wide as she realised what she may have just insulated. 'Puberty! I mean, we all go through with it!' Hermione cried out, causing a few curious eavesdroppers to turn and look at them.

'Puberty,' repeated Harry dumbfoundedly. 'Right. Sure.'

Hermione sighed inwardly. She could see how uncomfortable Harry was feeling and tried to think of something to say that would make him feel a little better. Unfortunately, what she blurted out of her mouth next certainly wasn't it.

'I do it as well, you know,' she said.

Harry's eyes went wide. 'Erm, excuse me?'

Hermione felt her cheeks grown hot. 'What I did to you, I do as well,' she mumbled. 'It's perfectly normal, like I said,' she added.

Harry's eyes were still wide. She saw him swallow and nod before turning to look back down to his parchment.

What the hell is wrong with me? she angrily thought.

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What I did to you, I do as well.

Those are the words that kept echoing in Harry's head for the rest of the morning. Hermione's seemingly frank honesty had sent him into a spiral that was making him feel very strange. Was she coming on to him? It certainly wasn't in character for her to be so outright about these things. She didn't even want to confirm or deny if she had kissed Viktor Krum back in her fourth year, but she was telling him - well, that?

Lunchtime was a fairly quiet affair. Both of them sat with a wide berth from each other, trying very hard to not look at each other. Ron noticed their weird behaviour, but he didn't comment. Harry figured he was still too caught up with this body swap fiasco. He was sick of it too.

He tried to sneak off quietly after lunch ended, but Hermione cornered him. It was hard to break away from her, since she was so much taller than him now. She offered a hand, and he took it as she led him outside to the same spot where they sat yesterday. The same spot where they made their pact yesterday.

'Listen,' said Hermione when they sat down. 'I've been thinking about what happened, and it's only fair that I let you do the same thing that I did this morning to you. What do you think?'

Harry didn't immediately reply. He wasn't even listening to what she was saying. Instead, he was looking out to the Black Lake, trying to reason if the Giant Squid would happily eat him to spare him further embarrassment.

'Harry? Are you listening to me?' said Hermione, shaking his shoulder slightly.

Harry turned with a start. 'Sorry, no.'

Hermione huffed. 'Look, just don't make me say it again, alright? I messed up today, and I give you full permission to do what I did this morning to you. Okay?'

'What?' gaped Harry. 'Hermione, no. No, that's insane.'

'It's only fair, Harry,' she said in a tired voice.

'No,' he said loudly. He got to his feet. 'No, that's not right. Hermione, I respect you too much to do that to you. You made a mistake, it's fine. I don't care. But I don't want to do the same thing to you just because you messed up. You're too important to me for that.'

He wished he could say more, but he held back. Now wasn't a good time to say what he'd been longing to say for months.

'Harry, honestly, you can,' said Hermione. 'I'll probably feel those feelings someday. It doesn't make sense to constantly ignore them.'

'But Hermione, I – '

'But what, Harry?' she said impatiently.

'I - love you.'

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Hermione's brain stopped working for a fraction of a second, only for it to go into absolute panic.

He - LOVES me? What?!

It couldn't be true, could it? No, she must have misheard. Harry probably meant that he loves her like a sister, or something like that. Yet the look he was giving her, that sweet, adoring look mixed with fear in his - her – eyes told her that she was very, very wrong.

Which is why she felt confident enough to stand up and do something that she'd been secretly wishing would happen for a very long time and kiss him.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Harry couldn't explain the feeling of what it was like to be kissed by Hermione. The added fact that it was his own lips kissing him was too bizarre to contemplate, except that whatever Hermione was doing was causing his - her - body to react in a sudden feverish longing that made him clamp his lips on hers even deeper.

When they finally broke apart, Harry was mildly disappointed to see that they didn't swap bodies after their kiss. Then again, he figured that just because a kiss can fix things in Muggle films it doesn't mean the same could be said for things in the wizarding world.

'Well,' Hermione began. 'That was very – um, nice.'

Harry nodded.

'I have to say though,' she continued. 'I'm a little disappointed that we didn't switch back into our bodies like in that Freaky Friday film with Jodie Foster. Do you know it?'

Harry shook his head in amusement, thinking how funny it was that Hermione had thought of the same thing that he had.

'I mean, they were mother and daughter in that, and they didn't kiss or anything, but – well, it doesn't matter, I suppose,' she ended with a sigh. She sat back down and gave him a small smile. 'You really do love me, Harry?'

Harry sat next her and gave her a shy look before nodding. 'I've been thinking about asking you out to Hogsmeade for ages, you know,' he said. 'I was just waiting for the right time. I thought I'd do it yesterday, but -' He paused, gesturing to themselves. 'Well, this whole thing happened'

Hermione gave him a bright smile. 'Well, aren't you sweet,' she said, leaning over to kiss his cheek. 'I would have definitely said yes, you know.'

'Maybe when this wears off, we can go out a proper date then?' Harry asked, barely containing his grin.

'We can, but why not have our first date right here?' Hermione suggested.

Harry beamed at her. 'You always have the best ideas,' he said, before sealing her lips with a loving kiss.

Many thanks goes to my fellow AO3 user (and real-life darling girlfriend) replicationspell21, as she was the one who had started and abandoned a version of this very fic some many months ago (which was based on a somewhat similar body-swap prompt). I managed to find the few parts that she had begun working on and scattered bits and pieces of it throughout this fic. If it weren't for her abandoned work, I probably wouldn't have had the motivation to finish this fic, as I was determined to present a complete version of it as a little Halloween present for her.