Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, any of the fictional locations or characters from the Harry Potter series or any other authors work. This is a work of reworked fiction using the world of Harry Potter. However, I do own this plot and any original characters hence forth created for the purposes of this story.

Shifter

III

"Finally. After so long. I'm free!" Harry-Hermione muttered, smiling at the disgusting looking pub entrance, but it was better than many alternatives; it wasn't as bad inside as out, and the rooms were always clean, bright and fresh; the pub aesthetic only had that dark and grubby look, and the outside had to look unappealing to assist in the wards keeping underage muggle-born children from giving it much of a thought as well as their muggle parents.

"Wow; that line sounded like a cheesy thing some immortal daemon would give after being freed after a few thousand years of being sealed away somewhere."

Harry-Hermione chuckled thoughtfully as she-he walked into the Leaky Cauldron pub. It was smoky and grimy, as per its look, but she couldn't smell any smoke thankfully; she would have totally gone for a more welcoming theme inside rather than that medieval fantasy inn thing – well – that could work if they went with a more fairy tale video game fantasy world pub look rather than such real world. Anyway, it was better than nothing because it had wards to protect him-her until she-he found a place he could use and set up some wards of his own.

He was glad it was crowded with dinner time patrons (people did enjoy the food), as he managed to get a room without the man behind the bar even looking at her more as he was so swamped and the Magical World did things differently – plus he was swarmed with other customers too. She walked into room 9 a few minutes later after paying for a week's stay so far, closing and locking the door behind her. He sighed in relief; she may have gotten away with his 'murder', and Uncle Vernon's real murder. But she had to wait to be sure; she just knew he couldn't be seen again – well Harry couldn't.

She flopped back, laying on the huge bed. It had huge covers of pure white cotton that were soft and so very comfortable. It was squishy to the touch, and the room was spotlessly clean and bright, just his sort of place without being too tidy as it mixed up more modern Magical World and the medieval Magical World aesthetics. It even had a homely feel to it. He felt exhausted and sweaty so as soon as she, or he was different, or there about, after a good long rest in the bed he would have a nice long shower in his private bathroom.

"Wow," he whispered to herself smirking smugly about her newfound freedom. "So, time to see Hermione starker's," she giggled as she hopped off the bed.

She hesitated for a moment before she shrugged as she investigated the body length mirror, and stripped down until she was naked, blushing brightly. He looked down her smooth body, stroking her fingers down her soft flesh from her small, growing breasts to her smooth 'area' wondering why he felt so embarrassed when he felt his touch, not Hermione.

"Hermione need NEVER know about this!" he said to herself giggling in more embarrassment as she felt tingly in her lower region, as he quickly pulled her clothes back on through embarrassment. He wasn't sure how girls solved 'that' problem, and it would take some self-investigation another time to figure it out.

He honestly hadn't thought that Hermione got those feelings. Though, he was sure he wouldn't be able to play with himself as Hermione because her annoying conscience told him that it was naughty and wrong and that it was her form, not a toy, and he didn't want to feel awkward doing 'that' because he figured it was supposed to be fun.

Harry-Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes while thinking. He needed to learn how to control his shifting power. Therefore, he concentrated on thinking about his other best friend, Ron, and being Ron because he was the first person who popped into his head, destroying any mood she might have previously been in. The light burst through her skin in moments as he felt his body reforming, getting taller, it stung in a strangely pleasant way, even around the Gryffindor robes of black and red as they folded out; even looking second-hand if that was a thing as they didn't quite fit, and then it was done.

Staring in the mirror, he shook his head, trying to not look so dopey, but he could feel the lack of - what - intellect? Thought? There was certainly an abundant lack of common sense too, and no matter what he couldn't wipe that stupid look off his face.

"Wow, Ron..." he mumbled to himself in Ron's voice, shaking his ginger head as he even sounded dim if that were possible. "You look like an idiot. I wonder why I never noticed before. You got a small dick too… no wonder you always covered up and wore pants in the showers," he laughed, amused with himself, but he didn't like Ron's laugh; it was, he couldn't tell, but reminded him too much of Dudley.

He shifted his form again, and this time it took little thought on his part to turn into one of the Weasley twins. He frowned as he suddenly had the urge to cause someone some mischief. He wondered whether that was his own father coming out in him, as he was a mischief maker too, or some kind of pranking gene the twins had that he never inherited from his father, and the strangest thing was he couldn't tell which twin he was. Was it possible the twins had played the switch-a-roo prank so many times that they had confused themselves?

Shrugging Harry-Fred/George shifted again into Mr. Weasley. "Ha-ha, I'm thinking about muggle things but have a feeling like I won't ever understand them, odd… the only time I touched him was when we first met; I shook his hand, and he asked me about a rubber duck. I thought he was joking but he really was seriously asking what muggles did with them. This is brilliant, now who next? Mrs. Weasley," he shivered in disgust. He had nothing against the woman, but she ate too unhealthily for his liking and he would rather not deal with giant old - well, no.

"Um… Ginny…?" he suggested to himself as she wouldn't have that problem, and if she stayed thin and healthy and got blessed with, large, assets – well that would be awesome, but she did seem too petite, but she was cute, so that was awesome too. He took a quick breath before shifting into her and relished the shift again.

Ginny was small and wearing her Gryffindor robes like the one's she wore when he saved her life from Riddle and the diary a few months back. The cute red-haired girl in the mirror looked concerned and frightened; her brown eyes were wide and tearful as she felt fear, shame, guilt, and anything in-between.

"She-she feels so unhappy, scared, worried. Holy crap, I-I didn't think about her, she must be terrified of what she did in the chamber," he sighed sadly in Ginny's clear and surprisingly confident voice, and it made him smile a little to hear her properly before Harry-Ginny brightened as a clear thought came to mind, and it didn't hurt that Ginny's mind was surprisingly as smart as Hermione's in a more imaginative way, but thinking about it he was surprised that Fred/George was secretly smart, which should have been obvious with their pranking talents.

"I know. I'll find a way to cheer Ginny up!" She grinned. "I wonder whether I could shift into someone who doesn't really exist. Someone I could just make up from scratch? And then I could become her friend and go to Hogwarts with her, as a girl friend, or girlfriend if she was - well. No. That's kind of silly. She probably wouldn't want to be with other girls, and we're probably a little young to think about that sort of thing anyway.

"I don't think Ginny has any friends… I could feel a connection with the others, but not her. Though, could I really hide out as a girl...? Well I suppose it makes sense nobody would ever expect me to be the new girl? It might even be fun to have a… new experience that isn't terrifying and involve Voldemort trying to kill me?"

She took a deep breath, concentrating on a girl in his head. Her eyes shifted emerald green, and her hair darkened; the cute freckles around her nose and cheeks disappeared, and her uniform changed into black and blue with Ravenclaw crest; his choice because he wanted a change, and stealing a few other peoples smarts called for the blue house. Her skin got a light tan, and her nose shaped slightly differed from Ginny's. Her hair flared out naturally, longer. She was still around Ginny's age and had small feet and small soft hands; she was pretty.

"You're not a very imaginative creature?!" sang a highly amused voice. "But for a first go… yes… still not good."

She froze for a moment before she spun from the mirror in shock. She had never imagined being found out, yet at least, but sitting on the bedpost was Fawkes, Dumbledore's phoenix familiar staring at her. He had only just arrived as she saw the flaming embers flutter to the floor around him as they faded away. He was staring at her. He was quite the beautiful bird, scarlet and gold, and she was sure the bird had just talked to her.

"D-did you just speak to me Fawkes?" she asked with an uncertain waver in her new softer voice as she felt stupid asking a swan sized legendary bird whether he could speak when she had super powers and magic and could speak snake, so of course the bird could speak, or she could speak bird - well he was the only other creature in the room, and it was a male voice, so she felt validated that she was correct.

"Yes, of course," the bird chirped with a regal and smug tone. "You are the first creature even similar to yourself that I have met to just make themselves into the female version of themselves to hide from their problems. They'll think Lily and James had another baby before they died. In fact, if I'm not mistaken you have only taken your mothers form when she was twelve. I would try again if I was you and go for something different rather than making Harry Potter into Harriet Potter," he chuckled amused with her.

She looked back into the mirror, surprised the bird was right, and smiled a little as her mother was really cute, but no wonder her mother was so good at magic, now she took note that her mind was better than Hermione and Ginny's, but in a different, more scientific way where Hermione was the research, Ginny was the imagination, and his mum was the experimentation: the practicality.

She scrunched up her face and concentrated again. She couldn't let a stupid bird make fun of her like that, so she had to do it right this time. She could feel the change again even as she felt tiredness creeping up with hunger as she hadn't eaten anything since the Leaving Feast at Hogwarts, and she was using so much magic it was tiring.

Her eyes changed from emerald green to a sharp and deep silvery grey colour, which held an odd and unusual pigmentation that seemed both wild and deceptively innocent at the same time, and a beautiful shine to them as she mix and matched her mothers, Hermione, and Ginny's intelligence and added to it with her own; Harry's untapped mind held potential he had never noticed before he looked inside himself and others that she wanted to keep.

Her hair increased in length down to the small of her back, and slowly shifted colour, turning a black so deep it almost swallowed the light, smooth, curved, wild and loose down her back with two long tails of hair falling over her shoulders and chest, framing her face perfectly, and her fringe was loose and even with a wildness, falling gently just above her brunette eyebrows.

Her teeth straightened to near perfect white, but not so they shined or looked too perfect. Her skin was the perfect balance between white and colour with a gentle tan to the pale colour. Her nose was small and cute, and her lips a perfect red like the colour of fresh blood, and sweet and small dotting's of freckles just dotted over her nose and under her eyes.

She was going for twelve so she didn't have much in the way of chest as the feeling of the light washed over her, pumping her heart and sending that pleasant pain through her body, through her very core, and she made sure she would never have to deal with errant hairs when she got older. However, she concentrated on drawing in errant DNA from some of the stronger beings she had touched before, strengthening her body, but making sure to keep herself small – small was unassuming – unthreatening.

Her clothes shifted next. She wasn't sure how well she did the underwear as she hadn't ever thought about that sort of thing much before, but figured she got it right. She wore blue trousers with silver button tight to her small bottom and legs that ended just above her bare ankles with a tight white tee shirt with a limy green around the edges, and blue elasticated braces like straps with silver ajustable clasps attached to her completely sleeveless top holding it up over her chest. She wore small brown walking boots on her small feet with black soles and small white socks just poking up from her boots under her ankles.

Then a coat of black flowed out and around her towards her ankles, and fitting her perfectly, thin, tight and airy with a high collar, snuggling with her small body as she admired herself in the mirror.

She turned and smirked smugly at the bird. "Now tell me that anyone will ever suspect a cute, beautiful, hot young lady like me of ever having anything in common with Harry Potter, let alone blood," she asked. She had even changed her accent giving it a common royal flare to accentuate herself as more than she ever was.

"Okay, Child... that is a lot better," agreed Fawkes, surprised with her quick grasp of her new powers.

"Yeah, but how can we speak to each other? I've never heard you chatting before, and Dumbledore never mentioned phoenixes talking," she asked worriedly when that made her frightful. "Y-you're not gonna tell Dumbledore, are you?"

"Even if I could communicate with him, I wouldn't tell him anything of worth, lest of all about you," the phoenix said. "I can only speculate as to why you and I can communicate has something to do with this… power of yours," he suggested thoughtfully. "Maybe it has a huge grasp of the languages of beings you have… touched… though, you do not have the vocal capacity to speak Phoenix… but with your power, maybe you do. I cannot tell… it could be through some psychic connection for all I can tell."

"Huh? I don't quite understand," she replied, frowning in confusion as she wasn't sure she had read anything about this ability before, and she had read up on a lot of weird powers, making sure she kept Harry's parseltongue ability as it could be useful talking to snakes, but she didn't remember incorporating phoenix into her new body, but talking phoenix seemed useful too.

Fawkes sighed. "Neither do I. However, it seems that you can take the form of any being you want… probably only after you've touched them skin to skin… or I suppose skin to feather would work as well. So, you likely have all of the powers of a phoenix hidden away inside yourself somewhere."

"Oh, so I could really change fully into a Norwegian Ridgeback Dragon if I wanted?" she asked eagerly, as the thought honestly intrigued her as dragons would be cooler if she could turn into one, though frowned thinking about it as she realised Norbert the dragon was female, odd how she just knew, and maybe she would drop hints to Hagrid one day that the dragon would need a new name. She looked to her small right hand with slight-long perfect nails thinking about that claw she struck her uncle with, and the flames; she had almost transformed into a dragon then; that could have seriously been bad.

"Yes," Fawkes agreed. Though, he looked disapproving at the mere thought, or at least sounded it, as through in the song notes she could hear of his real voice and language; it may be a part of that expression?

"It also appears that you can manipulated the matter around you too," he said while she listened with rapt attention, "such as clothes and possibly even other people. You could probably shift the wind around you into a weapon if you chose. Whatever you are; you are a rare being.

"I sensed something different about you, as soon as I saw you in the Chamber of Secrets. I'm afraid that I was too out of it to notice the first time we met, and after that was still immature from after the burning as my kind, Birds of Rebirth grow up fast because of necessity or senses lack until maturity, so we're at a disadvantage for a few months. I decided to let you be and discover yourself for yourself as it would be a growing experience.

"Though, looking at the circumstances everything may have worked out if you discount the original beating because now you have no desire to tell Dumbledore of your abilities for him to try suppressing them, afraid of you growing a mind for yourself, and I don't have to try persuading you to see him for the silly old fool he has become in the past twenty or so years."

"Oh, well that's cool, I suppose, if a little - well..." she smiled as she pulled off her coat as it was hot inside and hung it on the coat peg by the door before she sat on the bed beside the post the bird sat on. "Anything else you think I should know that you might have figured out?" she asked as she leaned back on her hands and swung her legs as she tried hard to pretend she still wasn't confused by everything that was going on, but if she went with the flow she would figure everything out eventually.

"Yes, maybe you should name this new form of yours?" he suggested reasonably. "Humans tend to like names, but I suppose it is better than just calling out because then everyone nearby would turn to you too, and even phoenix take names, which become a part of us, which is why magical's can sense our names in their language," he added amused as he foresaw her question about Dumbledore knowing his name.

"Oh, okay, and you're right. I need a new name," she said with a small nervous giggle, hoping the bird didn't think she had too much time on her hands that she had thought about it before, while still a boy.

"Um… err well, how about… ...Senna?" she suggested with a grin. "After all my mother's family seemed to go with the plant name thing, and its more uncommon than something like Rose, and I don't know any other Senna's, so I figured it was kind of fitting I suppose," she laughed sheepishly, but Fawkes secretly agreed with her. "Well… umm… how about my full name being Senna… umm… and to add more flare… uh… Nightly… just because it sounds cool! Senna Nightly has a nice ring to it."

She said the last and Fawkes was startled as her accent changed further with little effort as a stream of white light momentarily caressed the girl's thin neck. She now sounded cooler - smoother than she had before with less of that posh edge she had before; it suited her better than before. She wanted to strengthen the accent to make her stand out a bit more, and honestly, it sounded a bit intimidating before, she just wanted to push the level down a little.

"Yes, well - anyway if you're done trying to become someone you were not," retorted the bird, ruffling his feathers in mild fascination. "I have a friend for you to meet…"

To Be Continued…