A/N: More reviews for moi, thank you! You are propelling me forward like I'm on a rolling chair with a big fire extinguisher poised for blastoff. Ahem.
TheSilverLady- Thank you.
Elderberry- ::innocently:: I dunno.. What do you think will happen?
Enjoy chapter seven!
*****
Alternate Identity: A Polyjuice Potion Story
Chapter Seven: To Be Interviewed or Not To Be Interviewed
At afternoon break the following day, the four rested in the common room over some homework. Neither Ron nor Hermione mentioned anything about Rita Skeeter, her article, or why Ron brought it up. Hermione thought it was of too little significance to be so worried over; Ron just didn't think he could feel any stupider about it.
An owl appeared at the window of the Gryffindor Common Room. Ginny's body jumped up and opened the window, letting the owl in and taking the parchment envelope from its beak.
"Who's that from?" Hermione's voice asked.
"Dunno," Ginny's voice said, frowning. She slipped the owl a knut for the pouch tied to its leg and it flew off.
She turned over the envelope in her hands and opened it. A page of parchment with loopy writing on it was inside. Ginny quickly scanned over it and groaned.
"What?" Ron's voice asked, watching Ginny read. "Who's it from?"
"It's Rita Skeeter-- apologizing," she said, exaggerating finger quotation marks with her free hand. Harry walked over and sat down on an armchair in her body, reading it. The bodies of Ron, Harry, and Hermione came around to look on
Dear Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione,
I cannot apologize enough for what happened with the misunderstanding of our interview, but I can't take responsibility for it. I only used the Veritaserum because I was afraid you wouldn't want to talk much due to our past encounters.
I would appreciate it if we could do a Veritaserum-free interview; one all about how strange you each feel trapped in eachother's bodies, and what the confessions of the last interview mean to the girls inside the boys' bodies. If you're going to Hogsmeade anytime soon, it would be just lovely if we could meet there. I would much appreciate it if you'd give it a go, and we would both benefit from it; the wizarding world would know that Harry Potter and his best friend are, well, just best friends, and I would get a fine article to print in the Daily Prophet, if they'll allow me to. They're not happy with me at the moment, but a good enough article will surely change their minds. It all depends on you.
Sincerely,
Rita Skeeter
"That hag!" Ron's voice snarled, Hermione controlling it. "How dare she ask for another interview after that last one!"
"I don't know," Ginny's voice said thoughtfully. "Hermione, you and Ginny got a shot at the interview the last time, why not let me and Ron and me do it? It'd be nice to let the wizarding world know the truth, for Ron's sake, and mine."
"Yeah," Hermione's voice said, Ron inside it thinking. "Good idea, Harry."
"Don't take anything she gives you!" Harry's voice said shrilly.
Ron in Hermione's body looked, bewildered over at Harry's body, surprised at the sudden outburst. So, Ginny was going crazy about the first interview, too. "Er.. Okay, Gin."
"You don't mind, do you, Hermione?" Ginny's voice asked, already grabbing a spare piece of parchment to write back to Skeeter with.
"Oh.. No," Ron's voice said in the same way she did when asked if she minded someone copying her homework.
"What's the matter?" Hermione's voice asked. "Harry and I have a very.. very interesting image in the world now due to your interview! Can't we fix that?"
"I know, I know, but you'd also be helping Rita Skeeter's career," Ron's voice pointed out.
"Hermione, we're not going to be doing the interview, so it'll be less interesting, " Harry's voice pointed out, Ginny controlling it.
"True," Ron's voice said thoughtfully. "But be careful, then, you two."
"Right," Hermione's voice said, sitting next to Harry as he wrote the letter. "This Saturday's a Hogsmeade day, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Harry's voice replied.
Ginny's hand scrawled down March 18th on the parchment and a fairly short message. Hermione's hand scripted Ron's name at the bottom and Ginny's hand produced Harry's name.
"I'll send it with Hedwig.. We need her to get the reply quickly if we're going to Hogsmeade in two days." Ginny's body left the common room and set off for the Owlery.
Harry's head turned hatefully at the pile of homework on the table. He sighed, scooping it up. "I'm going to do this later," Harry's voice said, Ginny controlling it. He took it up to the girls' dorm.
Hermione's body still stood over the armchair where Rita Skeeter's letter was read by Harry. Ron's body sat at a table where the reply was written. Ron's eyes met Hermione's, but then they both turned away.
"Look," Ron's voice said, "I was wondering about what happened yesterday when you mentioned Rita Skeeter's interview,"
"Oh," Hermione's voice replied. "I-I don't know why I said that, really, I was sort of wondering about what you'd said in it since it came out."
"Oh," Ron's voice said. Hermione became frustrated and embarassed, not knowing what to say. "Well, I was being controlled by Veritserum. I couldn't control what I was saying!"
"All it does is make you tell the truth," Hermione's voice argued. "It's not the potion's fault that that's what you really thought," her voice continued, Ron inside getting more embarassed at what he was saying as the argument progressed. Hermione's ears turned red.
"Well, I'm sorry if it's been upsetting you! If I could have prevented myself from babbling, I would have. And all I said, I remind you, was that I'd say yes to you if you had asked me to the Yule Ball! It wasn't a big deal!" Ron's voice said, flustered. By now, several other Gryffindors had sighed, recognizing another Ron-Hermione row.
"It didn't upset me! It confused me!" Hermione's voice exclaimed.
Harry came down the stairs to see Ron and Hermione staring daggers at eachother and a few other Gryffindors glancing over at them. "Did I miss something?" Harry's voice, Ginny controlling it, asked, looking around at them.
"No," Ron's voice said, breaking the glare.
"Okay," Harry's voice said carefully, not wanting to rekindle any fire that was undoubtfully blazing in the mere minutes she was absent from the room.
Throughout the afternoon classes, Ron and Hermione didn't really speak to one another. Ginny found time to explain to Harry as much as she knew about their latest row.
"It's true, what he said," Ginny said in her own body in the dorm. She sat on her bed in her old nightgown, her legs folded. Hermione had just explained what had happened.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, whose potion also wore off.
"Ron's just confused. He didn't think you would've said yes if he asked you to the ball. I'm sure he wanted you to, you know."
"Oh, please," Hermione said, waving a hand. "Ron? He didn't recognize me as a female until fourth year."
"Give him a break. It took him five years to notice I'm not the seventh Weasley son," Ginny said jokingly.
Hermione cracked a small smile. "Good one, Gin."
"But really, Hermione. It's true, he does like you quite a bit. Remember when those articles by Rita Skeeter were going around about you and Harry, and my mum got mad at you?"
"Yeah," Hermione said, shifting a little.
"Well, put it together, Hermione," Ginny said. "She wanted you to notice Ron, not Harry."
"I know that.."
"And you couldn't have ignored how jealous he was when you went to the ball with Viktor.."
"True," Hermione said, absentmindedly picking at a fingernail.
"Do you still write Viktor?" Ginny wondered aloud.
"When I find time," Hermione said, looking up. "He finds it as awkward as I do that I'm trapped in Ron's body, so he seems a bit different in his letters.."
"Really," Ginny said, half-interested. "Well, anyway, Hermione.. Think about it." She stretched. "I'm exhausted. 'Night."
"Good night," Hermione replied, crawling into bed.
Ron woke up the next day in his own body. He looked around. The dorm was silent, except for Seamus doing some homework on his lap in a rush.
Ron was clad in too-small hand-me-down pajamas and stood up to his full height, enjoying a taste of being himself. He reached for his flask at his nighttable, took a few gulps, and experienced the spine-tingling feeling he'd been experiencing hourly for the past two-or-so weeks. Though he'd been taking it so often, it still felt so odd. He shut his eyes, felt his skin bubble, felt himself shrink, felt the hems of his pajama pants reach Hermione's feet, felt bushy hair bloom from his head, and felt various other things take place as his body warped.
He opened his eyes, and he was Hermione.
"'Morning," said a groggy voice a few beds away. Harry had just woken up. "You're up early," he noticed.
"Yeah," Ron said through Hermione's voice uncertainly. Ron just remembered that he was fighting with Hermione.
Harry didn't bother to put on his glasses before he took some of his potion. Ron watched as his best friend shrunk slightly, his hair growing straight and red, his nose narrowing, his skin paling, and freckles popping up, dotting the face to finish off the process.
"Still feels weird," Ginny's voice said uncertainly, picking up Harry's glasses to give to Ginny in Harry's body in the common room.
Hermione's head bobbed up and down.
"Are you and Hermione on speaking terms?" Ginny's voice asked timidly.
"Dunno," Hermione's voice sighed, taking a set of Hermione's robes. "Guess it's going to depend on our interview with Skeeter tomorrow."
"I hope she got our message," Ginny's voice said, Harry wondering if Hedwig got it to her as quickly as he'd hoped.
Hermione's shoulders shrugged, and headed into the bathroom to change.
As usual, he kept his eyes shut while changing. He wondered what he could do to make things better. Knowing Hermione, she probably just got frustrated about being confronted about that.. Surely she couldn't be embarassed about the interview..
He finished changing and made an attempt and taming Hermione's wild mane, as he did each morning. He dragged a brush through her hair, half-interested, mumbling a series of "Ow"s. After a quick cleaning of the teeth, he got out of the bathroom and Ginny's body walked in. Ron decided to go down to the Common Room. He grabbed his books and left early.
Harry took Ginny's body into the bathroom and brushed her teeth, still half-asleep. He changed, closing her eyes. After sucessfully getting all the right clothes on all the right areas, he opened her eyes. He saw a brush on the counter with curly brown hairs on it that were unmistakably Hermione's. Harry reached Ginny's hand out and held the brush, picking all the strands of hair off of it and dragged it fairly easily through Ginny's red hair. He saw a rubber band on the counter and put it on her wrist. He'd been trying to master the ponytail for about a few days now, but all he got when he pulled her hair back and put the rubber band in it were bumps the hair would form on top of her head.
He continued brushing back and then pulled it together in the back, smoothing the hair on top of her head. He put the brush down slowly and put both hands around the base of Ginny's hair. With one hand, Harry took the rubber band, stretched it, twisted it, and pulled her hair through, repeating the process until her hair was tightly confined to the rubber band wrapped around it. He proudly looked at the sucessful attempt at a ponytail in the mirror without a bump on the top in sight. Harry cleaned her teeth and washed her face quickly, then left the bathroom.
In the girls' dorm, things were going normally. Hermione didn't feel much like speaking about Ron, so she quietly got prepared for classes. Ginny got up at her normal time, changed into Harry, and got into the bathroom after one of the other girls but before Hermione in Ron's body.
"Coming downstairs?" Ginny asked in Harry's voice after she saw Hermione in Ron's body was ready to go.
"Sure," Ron's voice said, picking up Hermione's bag and heading out of the dorm.
Harry's face broke into a smile when his body stepped downstairs. "You finally managed a ponytail," Harry's voice said, examining the hair of Ginny.
Ginny smiled. "I know!"
They continued talking. Ron in Hermione's body approached Hermione in Ron's body. "'Morning," Hermione's voice said unsteadily.
"'Morning," Ron's voice replied, his eyes elsewhere.
"It's still all right if I do the interview tomorrow.. isn't it?" Hermione's voice asked.
"Of course it is. It's not my decision to make. Just watch out," Ron's voice replied quickly.
"Er.. okay. Just checking," Hermione's voice explained. Ron hated it when Hermione was mad at him like this.
All throughout the day, Hermione and Ron were hesitant about talking to eachother. At night, Ron quietly thought to himself that he'd have to be good on the interview.. Hermione would surely read it if it gets published. Maybe she wouldn't be so angry if Ron did a good job at the interview, saying and doing nothing to embarass her..
He fell asleep thinking about Hermione and the interview.
*****
A/N: I am very very open to suggestions! Please tell me what you'd want to see, I need some ideas.
TheSilverLady- Thank you.
Elderberry- ::innocently:: I dunno.. What do you think will happen?
Enjoy chapter seven!
*****
Alternate Identity: A Polyjuice Potion Story
Chapter Seven: To Be Interviewed or Not To Be Interviewed
At afternoon break the following day, the four rested in the common room over some homework. Neither Ron nor Hermione mentioned anything about Rita Skeeter, her article, or why Ron brought it up. Hermione thought it was of too little significance to be so worried over; Ron just didn't think he could feel any stupider about it.
An owl appeared at the window of the Gryffindor Common Room. Ginny's body jumped up and opened the window, letting the owl in and taking the parchment envelope from its beak.
"Who's that from?" Hermione's voice asked.
"Dunno," Ginny's voice said, frowning. She slipped the owl a knut for the pouch tied to its leg and it flew off.
She turned over the envelope in her hands and opened it. A page of parchment with loopy writing on it was inside. Ginny quickly scanned over it and groaned.
"What?" Ron's voice asked, watching Ginny read. "Who's it from?"
"It's Rita Skeeter-- apologizing," she said, exaggerating finger quotation marks with her free hand. Harry walked over and sat down on an armchair in her body, reading it. The bodies of Ron, Harry, and Hermione came around to look on
Dear Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione,
I cannot apologize enough for what happened with the misunderstanding of our interview, but I can't take responsibility for it. I only used the Veritaserum because I was afraid you wouldn't want to talk much due to our past encounters.
I would appreciate it if we could do a Veritaserum-free interview; one all about how strange you each feel trapped in eachother's bodies, and what the confessions of the last interview mean to the girls inside the boys' bodies. If you're going to Hogsmeade anytime soon, it would be just lovely if we could meet there. I would much appreciate it if you'd give it a go, and we would both benefit from it; the wizarding world would know that Harry Potter and his best friend are, well, just best friends, and I would get a fine article to print in the Daily Prophet, if they'll allow me to. They're not happy with me at the moment, but a good enough article will surely change their minds. It all depends on you.
Sincerely,
Rita Skeeter
"That hag!" Ron's voice snarled, Hermione controlling it. "How dare she ask for another interview after that last one!"
"I don't know," Ginny's voice said thoughtfully. "Hermione, you and Ginny got a shot at the interview the last time, why not let me and Ron and me do it? It'd be nice to let the wizarding world know the truth, for Ron's sake, and mine."
"Yeah," Hermione's voice said, Ron inside it thinking. "Good idea, Harry."
"Don't take anything she gives you!" Harry's voice said shrilly.
Ron in Hermione's body looked, bewildered over at Harry's body, surprised at the sudden outburst. So, Ginny was going crazy about the first interview, too. "Er.. Okay, Gin."
"You don't mind, do you, Hermione?" Ginny's voice asked, already grabbing a spare piece of parchment to write back to Skeeter with.
"Oh.. No," Ron's voice said in the same way she did when asked if she minded someone copying her homework.
"What's the matter?" Hermione's voice asked. "Harry and I have a very.. very interesting image in the world now due to your interview! Can't we fix that?"
"I know, I know, but you'd also be helping Rita Skeeter's career," Ron's voice pointed out.
"Hermione, we're not going to be doing the interview, so it'll be less interesting, " Harry's voice pointed out, Ginny controlling it.
"True," Ron's voice said thoughtfully. "But be careful, then, you two."
"Right," Hermione's voice said, sitting next to Harry as he wrote the letter. "This Saturday's a Hogsmeade day, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Harry's voice replied.
Ginny's hand scrawled down March 18th on the parchment and a fairly short message. Hermione's hand scripted Ron's name at the bottom and Ginny's hand produced Harry's name.
"I'll send it with Hedwig.. We need her to get the reply quickly if we're going to Hogsmeade in two days." Ginny's body left the common room and set off for the Owlery.
Harry's head turned hatefully at the pile of homework on the table. He sighed, scooping it up. "I'm going to do this later," Harry's voice said, Ginny controlling it. He took it up to the girls' dorm.
Hermione's body still stood over the armchair where Rita Skeeter's letter was read by Harry. Ron's body sat at a table where the reply was written. Ron's eyes met Hermione's, but then they both turned away.
"Look," Ron's voice said, "I was wondering about what happened yesterday when you mentioned Rita Skeeter's interview,"
"Oh," Hermione's voice replied. "I-I don't know why I said that, really, I was sort of wondering about what you'd said in it since it came out."
"Oh," Ron's voice said. Hermione became frustrated and embarassed, not knowing what to say. "Well, I was being controlled by Veritserum. I couldn't control what I was saying!"
"All it does is make you tell the truth," Hermione's voice argued. "It's not the potion's fault that that's what you really thought," her voice continued, Ron inside getting more embarassed at what he was saying as the argument progressed. Hermione's ears turned red.
"Well, I'm sorry if it's been upsetting you! If I could have prevented myself from babbling, I would have. And all I said, I remind you, was that I'd say yes to you if you had asked me to the Yule Ball! It wasn't a big deal!" Ron's voice said, flustered. By now, several other Gryffindors had sighed, recognizing another Ron-Hermione row.
"It didn't upset me! It confused me!" Hermione's voice exclaimed.
Harry came down the stairs to see Ron and Hermione staring daggers at eachother and a few other Gryffindors glancing over at them. "Did I miss something?" Harry's voice, Ginny controlling it, asked, looking around at them.
"No," Ron's voice said, breaking the glare.
"Okay," Harry's voice said carefully, not wanting to rekindle any fire that was undoubtfully blazing in the mere minutes she was absent from the room.
Throughout the afternoon classes, Ron and Hermione didn't really speak to one another. Ginny found time to explain to Harry as much as she knew about their latest row.
"It's true, what he said," Ginny said in her own body in the dorm. She sat on her bed in her old nightgown, her legs folded. Hermione had just explained what had happened.
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, whose potion also wore off.
"Ron's just confused. He didn't think you would've said yes if he asked you to the ball. I'm sure he wanted you to, you know."
"Oh, please," Hermione said, waving a hand. "Ron? He didn't recognize me as a female until fourth year."
"Give him a break. It took him five years to notice I'm not the seventh Weasley son," Ginny said jokingly.
Hermione cracked a small smile. "Good one, Gin."
"But really, Hermione. It's true, he does like you quite a bit. Remember when those articles by Rita Skeeter were going around about you and Harry, and my mum got mad at you?"
"Yeah," Hermione said, shifting a little.
"Well, put it together, Hermione," Ginny said. "She wanted you to notice Ron, not Harry."
"I know that.."
"And you couldn't have ignored how jealous he was when you went to the ball with Viktor.."
"True," Hermione said, absentmindedly picking at a fingernail.
"Do you still write Viktor?" Ginny wondered aloud.
"When I find time," Hermione said, looking up. "He finds it as awkward as I do that I'm trapped in Ron's body, so he seems a bit different in his letters.."
"Really," Ginny said, half-interested. "Well, anyway, Hermione.. Think about it." She stretched. "I'm exhausted. 'Night."
"Good night," Hermione replied, crawling into bed.
Ron woke up the next day in his own body. He looked around. The dorm was silent, except for Seamus doing some homework on his lap in a rush.
Ron was clad in too-small hand-me-down pajamas and stood up to his full height, enjoying a taste of being himself. He reached for his flask at his nighttable, took a few gulps, and experienced the spine-tingling feeling he'd been experiencing hourly for the past two-or-so weeks. Though he'd been taking it so often, it still felt so odd. He shut his eyes, felt his skin bubble, felt himself shrink, felt the hems of his pajama pants reach Hermione's feet, felt bushy hair bloom from his head, and felt various other things take place as his body warped.
He opened his eyes, and he was Hermione.
"'Morning," said a groggy voice a few beds away. Harry had just woken up. "You're up early," he noticed.
"Yeah," Ron said through Hermione's voice uncertainly. Ron just remembered that he was fighting with Hermione.
Harry didn't bother to put on his glasses before he took some of his potion. Ron watched as his best friend shrunk slightly, his hair growing straight and red, his nose narrowing, his skin paling, and freckles popping up, dotting the face to finish off the process.
"Still feels weird," Ginny's voice said uncertainly, picking up Harry's glasses to give to Ginny in Harry's body in the common room.
Hermione's head bobbed up and down.
"Are you and Hermione on speaking terms?" Ginny's voice asked timidly.
"Dunno," Hermione's voice sighed, taking a set of Hermione's robes. "Guess it's going to depend on our interview with Skeeter tomorrow."
"I hope she got our message," Ginny's voice said, Harry wondering if Hedwig got it to her as quickly as he'd hoped.
Hermione's shoulders shrugged, and headed into the bathroom to change.
As usual, he kept his eyes shut while changing. He wondered what he could do to make things better. Knowing Hermione, she probably just got frustrated about being confronted about that.. Surely she couldn't be embarassed about the interview..
He finished changing and made an attempt and taming Hermione's wild mane, as he did each morning. He dragged a brush through her hair, half-interested, mumbling a series of "Ow"s. After a quick cleaning of the teeth, he got out of the bathroom and Ginny's body walked in. Ron decided to go down to the Common Room. He grabbed his books and left early.
Harry took Ginny's body into the bathroom and brushed her teeth, still half-asleep. He changed, closing her eyes. After sucessfully getting all the right clothes on all the right areas, he opened her eyes. He saw a brush on the counter with curly brown hairs on it that were unmistakably Hermione's. Harry reached Ginny's hand out and held the brush, picking all the strands of hair off of it and dragged it fairly easily through Ginny's red hair. He saw a rubber band on the counter and put it on her wrist. He'd been trying to master the ponytail for about a few days now, but all he got when he pulled her hair back and put the rubber band in it were bumps the hair would form on top of her head.
He continued brushing back and then pulled it together in the back, smoothing the hair on top of her head. He put the brush down slowly and put both hands around the base of Ginny's hair. With one hand, Harry took the rubber band, stretched it, twisted it, and pulled her hair through, repeating the process until her hair was tightly confined to the rubber band wrapped around it. He proudly looked at the sucessful attempt at a ponytail in the mirror without a bump on the top in sight. Harry cleaned her teeth and washed her face quickly, then left the bathroom.
In the girls' dorm, things were going normally. Hermione didn't feel much like speaking about Ron, so she quietly got prepared for classes. Ginny got up at her normal time, changed into Harry, and got into the bathroom after one of the other girls but before Hermione in Ron's body.
"Coming downstairs?" Ginny asked in Harry's voice after she saw Hermione in Ron's body was ready to go.
"Sure," Ron's voice said, picking up Hermione's bag and heading out of the dorm.
Harry's face broke into a smile when his body stepped downstairs. "You finally managed a ponytail," Harry's voice said, examining the hair of Ginny.
Ginny smiled. "I know!"
They continued talking. Ron in Hermione's body approached Hermione in Ron's body. "'Morning," Hermione's voice said unsteadily.
"'Morning," Ron's voice replied, his eyes elsewhere.
"It's still all right if I do the interview tomorrow.. isn't it?" Hermione's voice asked.
"Of course it is. It's not my decision to make. Just watch out," Ron's voice replied quickly.
"Er.. okay. Just checking," Hermione's voice explained. Ron hated it when Hermione was mad at him like this.
All throughout the day, Hermione and Ron were hesitant about talking to eachother. At night, Ron quietly thought to himself that he'd have to be good on the interview.. Hermione would surely read it if it gets published. Maybe she wouldn't be so angry if Ron did a good job at the interview, saying and doing nothing to embarass her..
He fell asleep thinking about Hermione and the interview.
*****
A/N: I am very very open to suggestions! Please tell me what you'd want to see, I need some ideas.