I know the chapters are still short, but they're longer than they used to be!

Chptr3

While Harry Potter was used to open stares and confrontational fans spawned from her lifelong fame, she wasn't so prepared for the silent whispers and the giggling and the surreptitiously pointed fingers following her along the hallway, she felt incredibly exposed in her current state, despite the fact that her feminine figure was obscured by baggy male clothes. Ron, feeling incredibly protective of her – she reminded him of his sister Ginny, whom he'd protect to his last breath – put his arm around her shoulders and steered her towards the Gryffindor common room, past the inconsiderate masses and their penetrating eyes. Hermione followed closely behind and glared at anyone who dared approach her traumatised charge.

Harry's friends chaperoned her into the common room only pausing their frogmarch to declare the password, which was pumpkin pie as it happened, in the spirit of Halloween. Harry stumbled into the room with even less grace than usual, banging her hip on the solid side of the portrait hole. Fuck it all, she thought angrily, she wasn't sure she'd ever get used to her new body.

When she stepped into the common room, Harry was greeted with a rabble of intrigued Gryffindors:
"What happened Harry?"
"Should we call you Harriet now?"
"How long is it going to last for?"
Harry's saviours came in the form of Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown who had ploughed their way through the clamouring masses and linked their arms through Harry's, startling her. They elbowed and shoved their way back to the door to the opposite side of the common room to Harry's usual dormitory, shouting for Hermione to follow. They finally managed to rid themselves of the crowd as they neared the bottom of the stairs to the girls' dorms.

"Whoah there!" announced Harry digging in her heels, not particularly enamoured with the idea of repeating his humiliation from the last time he'd tried to get up there. "The last time me and Ron tried to get up those stairs, they changed into some kind of whacked up slide."

"Yes, of course they did silly!" Parvati exclaimed with a bemused expression on her face, sure that Harry ought to know this stuff already. "That's because you were boys". She said the word delicately as though it were a curse of some description, and by saying the word it might infect her too.

"But now you're a girl, you can room with us!" Lavender added in a similarly chirpy voice, looking positively delighted by Harry's gender bend. "Professor McGonagall already had your trunk moved. She also said she added some stuff you might need now". This sentence seemed to have some sort of amusing connotation, as when she spoke it, Lavender turned to smirk at Parvati who returned the sentiment. Hermione smacked her face into her hand.

"Don't you worry about anything," piped up Parvati, "We're here to help you!"

Harry got the impression that if she engaged in extensive conversation with either of those two – or God forbid, both at once – she would be at risk of contracting diabetes from the extent of the sugary sweetness lacing every word the girls uttered.

"Enough!" Hermione announced, releasing her head from the grip of her hand, "Harry is my friend and I'll take care of her while she is staying with us". She shot the girls a look that said that anyone who disagreed with her would be hexed into the next school year.

Lavender and Parvati stared daggers at Hermione, but, respecting the spellcasting prowess of their rival in this matter, relinquished their grasp of Harry's arm and stomped up the enchanted stairs as though they were toddlers whose favourite toy had been snatched away.

"Are they always like that?" Harry questioned, turning to Hermione, not sure if she could stand any longer in their presence if this were the case.

"Yes, unfortunately," Hermione sighed, sounding as long-suffering as Harry was sure she must be.

"Gosh, it must be terrible rooming with them".

"You have no idea".

If you like my writing, why not take a second to check out my other stories! Pretty please with wolfstar on top? Also, send me your thoughts! I love to hear from you xxx