Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter no matter how much money I offered

One of the Guys

Chapter Fifteen:

Sick

'Dear Diary, # 3

The date (even thought it was only clothes shopping)! I went into this not knowing what to expect. I think its common knowledge that we all subconsciously fall into classic rules of the quidditch jock and the cheerleader or whatever you want to call it. I kept wanting to take the lead and pay for everything (good thing I didn't or I would be broke (Matt's an expensive date) and be the big 'manly' protector.

If being friends with Lavender is worth anything, then I should know that (in her opinion) men are fast to put the moves on a girl but with Matt…'

Harry dropped the quill he had been holding off the side of the bed and stared blankly down at his half written entry. He felt a little lame and awful for writing about his experience with Matt in a diary entry that would soon be read by the rest of the school as soon as he took his disguise off.

Lavender and Ron had decided that he should express his feelings and reaction to anything shock worthy but all he felt and experience he believed would only be valued by him. 'What would the rest of the school learn from this?' Harry thought as shoved his journal away from, 'except for the fact that I have a penchant for cross dressing.'

As loath as he was willing to admit, Harry, shamefully, did find the breeze under his skirt quite nice.

But what had really stopped Harry from finishing his entry was the thought of Matt. The 'date' or whatever it was suppose to be had been nice, very nice indeed. He felt relaxed and safe being around someone who knew so much more than he did, and yet managed to seem so normal and cool at the same time. He felt he finally understood the feelings of a girl when she was in the arms of the man she loved.

'Not that I'm in love,' he thought uselessly, but he knew whatever he felt it was strong. He thought back to when he had licked Matt's nose. It was soft and tasted of butterbeer but that was to be expected and the way that Matt blushed and stumbled for words before giving up completely and settled on just drinking made Harry feel fuzzy inside.

But all the same he knew he shouldn't get too close to Matt, because Matt was a boy and probably straight at that. Harry frowned at that realization. To think his first romance would be a gay romance. He blushed and realized that at every turn he would have to tackle his feelings and lock them away. In a few weeks this would all be over and he could go back to normal. Maybe with this newfound knowledge of having walked in women's shoes he could get a steady relationship with a nice girl.

'Yeah,' Harry thought, 'that sounds nice.'

"SO!" He heard a voice jerk him from his thoughts. Harry turned his attention to see Lavender standing in the doorway. "So," She repeated, "Back from shopping, Oh I don't know, after nightfall! All the shops were closed at least two hours ago."

"Yeah…" Harry said. He had forgotten about Lavender.

"And?" She prompted. "What did you do then? No kissing or anything, right?"

"Right," Harry said, ('does licking qualify as kissing?'), "No kissing. We just walked around…and stuff."

"Good," Lavender said sternly before she broke into a smile, "So what did you buy?"

At her sudden mood swing Harry gave a loud gulp and rubbed his aching stomach, nervously.

Hermione had barely settled into her bed before she became aware of the intense gaze she was receiving from Seamus. She was still a little uncomfortable about sharing a dorm room with boys but that was still no where near the awkwardness of sharing a bathroom with boys (and all the mechanics that follow with it) but that was another story Never mind that fact that Seamus would stare at her intensely in the bathroom also.

She had long since come to the conclusion that Seamus was a voyeur, but she still couldn't get use to his staring.

"What are you looking at?" she asked as she adjusted her pajama shirt collar and crawled under the blankets of her bed.

"Where were you tonight?" he asked.

"Out, why?" Hermione asked, "Did you need me for something?"

Seamus blushed and mumbled, "Yeah you could say that."

Hermione was barely able to understand his words but sent him a worried look. She noticed he was slightly pale and his cheeks were flushed. He also, she noted, looked exhausted and sweaty.

"Are you ok, you're very pale?" She said. She kicked her blankets off and made her way towards him. Up-close she could see how red his face was. She gently placed her hand on his forehead and face went even redder. "You're not burning up…" she mumbled.

She noticed that Seamus squirmed beneath her hand and she couldn't get rid of the feeling that something was very wrong. "I'm…fine," His voice squeaked.

"No, you're not, you're very pale," She said, "I'm taking you to the hospital wing. No buts."

She grabbed Seamus's elbow and began to pull him from the bed. Seamus was pliable as he let himself be lead around by Hermione. She gently pulled him out of the Gryffindor tower, careful to go at a comfortable pace.

Harry groaned as pain he had never felt before struck him in a frenzy. He felt like his stomach was trying to eat itself in vane. "Oh Merlin, why is this happening to me?" He asked pointlessly.

"Is something wrong with you," Lavender asked. She had stopped her barrage of questions after she seemed satisfied that nothing had happened between Harry and Mathieu and began to paint her toenails. Harry noted that she had stolen the bottle from Parvati.

"I-Merlin! My stomach is going crazy!" He cried out.

Lavender looked thoughtful, "Do you have diarrhea?"

"NO!" Harry moaned irritably. "Just don't speak, its painful to listen too."

Lavender huffed angrily and quickly screwed the cap back on the nail polish, "I was just trying to help, but since you're so high and mighty, deal with it yourself."

She angrily walked out of the dorm and slammed the door shut.

"Women," Harry sighed and let out deep moaned. He massaged his stomach gently and lightly sagged in relief when the pain lessened slightly. "Maybe I should go see Madame Pomfrey?"

He rolled out of bed and began his trek towards the hospital wing. As he walked down the empty hallways he almost doubled over in pain and that's when he saw it.

Blood.

Hermione helped Seamus onto a bed and pulled up a chair beside him. Madame Pomfrey was nowhere to be seen but she wasn't worried. The old woman may be crabby but she was skilled and could heal anything in a jiffy.

"Mathieu?" She heard the Irish boy ask weakly.

She glanced at him with soft eyes. She always pitied the weak. "Yeah?"

"I…" He quieted and his face got redder.

"I swear, you must have a fever, but you're not hot at all," Hermione cried. She placed her hand back on his forehead to see if it had grown hot but once again it hadn't.

Seamus then leaned into her touch. "I need to tell you something," He whispered.

"What is it, Seamus?" She asked.

"I think I like you…" He mumbled, "a lot."

Hermione pulled her hand away and stared at the boy. How could he like her? They were both boys at the moment, and he didn't even know that she was once a girl. She had to be misunderstanding him. "What do you mean?"

Seamus went so red in the face and that's when she realized what was going on. He wasn't sick at all, was he?

"I mean…I like you more than a friend," he said. He was staring at his hands before he took a deep breath and looked up to meet her eyes. "and maybe-I thought-we could, I don't know…go out sometime?"

"Oh, Seamus, I don't know what to say," Hermione said quietly. She new she had a growing attraction to Evie, but Evie was a girl and Seamus was a boy, a boy who thought he was going gay but a boy nonetheless. "I-"

"AHHH!" Someone screamed behind Hermione. "I'M BLEEDING!"

Hermione jumped and glanced behind her to see a short, black haired female come screaming into the wing.

Seamus groaned in annoyance and at the girl's bad timing. He glared at the girl even though she seemed not to be aware of their presence. She was pale and panicking about blood, which at that moment he noticed was rolling down her legs.

"Evie!" Mathieu cried. He promptly turned away from Seamus which made him sad and turned to the girl who literally crumbled into his arms.

Hermione felt her body freeze up when she saw the blood on the girl's leg. Evie was hanging off his arm and looking like she was about to pass out.

"What happened?" Hermione asked as she hugged the girl. "You were fine a few hours ago."

"I don't know, it's my stomach and now the blood," Evie cried. "It came on so suddenly, I don't know what's wrong."

'Stomach? Blood? Could it be…' Hermione pulled away from the other girl and stared at her from arms length. "Evie, are you…?" Hermione blushed. "Are you on your period?"

Evie's face went blank. "My period?"

"Is this your first time?" Hermione asked completely shocked that a 17 year old girl had not hit puberty yet. 'Well, no wonder she acts like a flat chested 12 year old boy.'

Evie laughed nervously. "No, of course it's not. I have had my period plenty of times, I just didn't…think it was that…this time." She finished lamely.

Hermione could tell the girl was lying and felt bad for even asking. 'Of course you shouldn't ask, you sick perve!' She screamed internally at herself. She stopped her thoughts when she heard a chuckled from behind.

Hermione let go of Evie and turned to Seamus who was staring darkly at Evie but managed to have a slight smirk on his face all the same. She had completely forgotten that Seamus was in the room, and he had heard the embarrassing conversation they had just had. 'Poor Evie, now I feel really bad.'

"Hey, Seamus," Evie mumbled and disentangled herself from Hermione. She stepped awkwardly aside and Hermione felt cold all of a sudden.

"Evie," He mumbled.

Hermione could feel the awkwardness and tension rise in the air. Seamus had admitted his feelings to her and Evie who Hermione thought she was in a relationship of some form were both in the room. Granted that Evie didn't know about Seamus, but still the awkwardness was undeniable.

"What are you doing here?" Evie asked. She moved around Hermione to go stand next to Seamus.

He looked over at Hermione who blushed still remembering what he told her.

"Look," She grabbed Evie's hand and pulled her towards the exit. She didn't like the two of them together. "Since no one is sick why don't we go head back to the common room?"

"NOT SICK!" Evie screamed irrationally. She pulled her hand away from Hermione and glared at her. Hermione was stunned by the girl's scream. "I'M BLEEDING FROM MY VAG-FROM MY …FROM DOWN THERE! NOT SICK HE SAYS." Evie walked away and slumped onto a bed. "I never knew you were sexist. Of course you've never had a period. You don't know what pain I've gone through you insensitive jerk. MEN!"

Hermione blushed at the irony just spoken and was maybe just a bit angry. She's suffered her periods in stoic silence. How dare this 'child' yell at her for sexism…but then paled when she saw the anger in the girl's eyes. She also didn't want Evie mad at her

Harry slumped on the bed and let out a heavy breath. He didn't know where that rant came from but he felt his blood boil and a passion was awoken in him, but now he felt exhausted. He glanced at Matt who was staring at him with shock and hurt.

"I…I'm sorry," He choked out, very pale. "I…I'll go." He then quickly turned and ran from the room.

Harry sat there and stared at where Matt previously stood. "Oh shit, what did I just do? Why did I say that?" 'What is wrong with me?' He thought sadly.

He heard footsteps and looked over at Seamus who was leaving the hospital wing.

"Where are you going? I thought you were sick…"

Seamus didn't respond because he had already left the room and Evie found herself very alone in the hospital wing. The very white hospital wing.

This was probably my favorite chapter. Harry's been turned into raving feminist after he recieves his first period...but honestly can't do a gender bender without the puberty escapade.

Thank you all for reviewing, but lets try to break 90 reviews this time!