"I – I'm what?" Harry asked in disbelief. He realized his voice had become a tad higher.
"Look at yourself," Dumbledore said.
Harry looked at himself. His butt and chest had gotten bigger, and his waist had gotten thinner. He was a sixteen-year-old girl.
Dumbledore handed Harry a mirror. Looking at his face, he gasped. "What – how – who - ?"
"There must have been something in the medicine," Dumbledore said.
"I have no idea how this happened, Albus!" Mme Pomfrey pleaded. "This has never happened before! I just gave him the correct potion, and – and..."
"I do not blame you for anything, Poppy," Dumbledore said. "The thing we need to figure out now is: How are we going to fix this?"
Harry still couldn't believe that he was a girl. "How am I going to explain this?"
"You won't," Dumbledore said. "You won't tell a soul. Until we find an antidote, I shall inform everyone that you have gone away, and in your place is Holly Palmer."
"Holly Palmer?" Harry asked. "Won't that be a bit obvious? I mean, Harry Potter/Holly Palmer?"
"Well, considering I just thought of it now, I'd say it's quite good, wouldn't you?" Dumbledore replied.
"Yeah, I guess. It's just a name, after all," Harry said. He put his hand to his forehead. Gasping, he said, "My scar! Won't people see it?"
Dumbledore took a little compact powder out from his pocket. "This should do the trick," he said, putting some of the skin-coloured powder on the scar.
"What if it rubs off?" Mme Pomfrey asked. "You bought that from the bargain bin; it won't last very long." Taking a pair of scissors from a drawer, she added, "I'll cut you some nice bangs to cover it instead, hmm?"
"But it's already quite short," Harry said.
With a flick of her wand, Harry's hair grew several inches. "There. Now how about those bangs?"
Harry let her cut his hair. Heck, he'd grown breasts – how bad could bangs be?
"All done!" Mme Pomfrey chirped. "You look beautiful, Har – I mean, Holly."
Harry got out of bed, and headed out of the door. He noticed that he was still his height.
"Wait!" Mme Pomfrey said. "We've got to get you a girl's uniform!"
Following Mme Pomfrey into a bathroom, he emerged 15 minutes later in a skirt and blouse. Looking at Harry's hairy legs in disgust, she added, "Put your robe on too,"
Still a bit shocked, Harry put on his robe, and went to leave.
"Remember!" they called after him. "Not a soul!"
"I won't!" Harry called back.
Ron and Hermione were heading to the hospital wing, and bumped into 'Holly'.
"Sorry," Harry said.
"Hello," Hermione said. "Are you new?"
"Uh, yes!" Harry replied. "My name is Holly Palmer, and I'm here in Harry Potter's place. He's gone for awhile, but he'll be back soon." I hope. Harry thought.
"Nice to meet you!" Hermione replied, smiling. "I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Ron Weasley."
"Hi," Ron said, blushing.
"Which house are you in?" Hermione asked.
"Gryffindor," Harry replied quickly.
"Us too!" Hermione said.
"Where did you say Harry went?" Ron asked curiously.
"Um, he's gone, somewhere... I have no idea," Harry said. "I was heading to the common room. Do you wanna come?"
"Sure!" Ron said.
When they all reached the Fat Lady's portrait, Harry was about to say the password, when he remembered that he wasn't supposed to know it. "Uh, I don't know the password," he lied.
"Balderdash," Hermione said, and the portrait swung open.
"Hey, we've had that one before," Harry said before he could stop himself.
"How did you know that?" Ron asked suspiciously.
Harry mentally scolded himself for being so absent-minded. "Lucky guess," he said quickly.
As they entered, Harry was about to head for the boys' dorms, when he remembered that he was a girl.
"It's not time for bed yet," Hermione said. "How about you sit down and tell us about yourself?"
"It's Saturday, so we don't have to worry about classes," Ron added.
Harry gingerly took a seat. "Well, uh, what is it that you would like to know?" he said, trying to think up some answers for possible questions.
"Where are you from?" Hermione asked.
"Do you have a boyfriend?" Ron asked at the same time.
Harry cleared his throat. He decided that he'd answer Ron's question first, since it was the easiest. "No, I don't have a boyfriend."
A smile spread across Ron's face. Harry shivered.
"And I came from..." Harry tried to think of someplace. "Uh, a cute town a bit south from here." He said, hoping I'd be good enough.
Hermione seemed pleased with his answer. "Do you have any siblings?"
"No," Harry said. At least that wasn't a lie.
Hermione gazed at him. "You know... you remind me of someone..."
Harry gulped. "And, who would that be?"
"Well," she started. "I'm sure you get this all of the time, but you remind me of Harry."
"You mean the boy who I'm replacing for the next while?" Harry asked, trying to sound clueless.
"Yeah," Ron said. "You've got black hair and green eyes, just like him-"
"And you're his height," Hermione added.
"The only thing you're missing is the scar," Ron joked.
Harry was starting to worry. Dumbledore had said not to tell anyone. And that included his friends - the people most likely to recognize him. "Uh, I'm feeling kind of tired. I think I'm going to go to bed." He said, hurrying to the girl's dormitories.
"Well, at least let me show you where you can sleep," Hermione offered, running after him.
Harry figured he'd let her point out an unused bed, and he could just crawl under the covers and wait until he was a boy again.
"Here's a good spot," Hermione said, pointing to a bed next to hers. "It's right by me."
"Thanks," Harry said, getting in. "I'm fine now, you can leave. Thank you."
"All right, if that's what you want," said Hermione, sounding a bit hurt. Harry waited until she left, and then bolted out of bed.
I'll sneak back to the hospital wing, help Mme Pomfrey make an antidote or find one for her, or anything... He looked around the room frantically. What am I going to do...?
"Oh, hello," Lavender and Parvati greeted Harry. They had been chatting in a corner of the room, but Harry never noticed them. "Are you new?" they asked.
"Yes," Harry answered. "I'm Holly Palmer, and I'm replacing someone named Harry."
"Oooh!" Parvati squealed. "Do you like cheerleading?"
Harry shook his head. "Well, not –"
"Great!" she replied. "'Cause there's a Hogwarts cheerleading team, and you could try out!"
"Actually, I'm not really-"
Lavender gasped. "But the try outs are today! We'd better hurry!"
"Come on, Holly!" Parvati said eagerly.
Harry sighed, following them out the door. Here we go.
A/N: ::speed reads the chapter:: How come I'm not putting in funny stuff? I'm really sorry, I know this is a humour fic, but these are just the opening chapters. Just let me get started – I've been planning lots of funny things. Please review me!
In the next chapter of Let's Go Hogwarts 2...will Lavender and Parvati convince Harry to join the squad?