1
Hermione stared at the reflection in the mirror. This couldn’t be right. Not at all. She was meant to be with Ron and Harry on their quest to infiltrate the Slytherin common rooms and discover Malfoy’s secrets, not hide away in the bathroom having a full blown panic attack.
Her breaths were coming out hard and fast. Her body felt so wrong and disjointed: her arms and legs strangely gangly, now felt too long for her new body. Just moving to sit on the toilet caused her to wobble like a newborn lamb. Myrtle’s laughter clattered around her mind as she moved through the stall door. “Not so pretty anymore!”, she giggled.
“Are you alright, Hermione?”, Harry called from the other side of the stalls. Well she assumed it was Harry. The voice she heard matched the vague grunting noises Goyle made in class when asked a question. Hermione went to speak but couldn’t seem to get any breath in her lungs. Myrtle decided to do so for her: “She looks hideous!” she giggled to the boys as she pulled her head back through the door.
She could still hear them both muttering to each other and just wanted some peace whilst she collected herself. “Y-You both go on without me, I’m not going!”. The voice that left her lips left her startled. Deeper than her own, though not by much, rumbled through her chest in a way she had never felt before.
Once the boys had finally left the bathroom after much insistence, she gathered herself to stand and discover who she had transformed into. This she discovered, made an even worse problem than her appearance known: there was definitely something between her legs that had not been there 10 minutes ago. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to forced her mind onto anything other than the bulge she now sported in her boxers and reminded herself that the potion only lasted one hour. She could do this.
After finally stepping out with the help of Myrtle’s incessant laughter from the stall, she gather a deep breath and willed her eyes to meet her reflection.
Her bushy brown hair had receded into glossy umber strands that settled just above her eyes, the sides and back were closely cropped to the skin, making her neck and ears feel strangely cold. Her eyes now a dark blue than their usual honey. Her button nose had straightened and sharpened more at the tip, and her face had hardened to become rectangular instead of heart-shaped. Her shoulders had broadened and stretched her Gryffindor blouse uncomfortably. At 13, with puberty having only just made its presence known, she was disappointed to see that the minimal growth her breasts had made over the summer had completely disappeared. As her eyes moved further down, skimming over her now slimmer hips and more stocky build, they flicked past the new addition between her legs and she realised how strange it now felt to be wearing a skirt. It was too breezy down below and made her feel strangely exposed.
She spotted Ron and Harry’s discarded clothes from their own transformations and decided to change out of her now uncomfortably tight uniform.
Hermione couldn’t believe she had made such an avoidable mistake! She had plucked a hair from Millicent Bulstrode’s robes and hadn’t even glanced at the length. Bulstrode’s long, black hair was vastly different from the cropped dark brown she now sported. She looked again at her reflection and couldn’t place the face staring back. Perhaps he was third year Slytherin or a Ravenclaw boy. He looked vaguely familiar but was clearly not someone she shared any classes with.
Once fully dressed in Ron’s abandoned clothes - Harry was still frighteningly thin, his uniform looking even smaller than Hermione’s. She looked again at her reflection and felt the tiniest bit better. At least the clothes actually fit her frame now.
Now that she had taken time to digest the effects of the potion and the panic had worn off. She felt much more comfortable in the stolen body of a boy.
Sick of Myrtle’s shrill laughter in the background, Hermione decided to go for a stroll around Hogwarts. Why not? She was meant to be with Harry and Ron and now that she was alone she wanted to explore Hogwarts from a different perspective. Life as a Muggle-born girl who was friends with Ron and Harry wasn’t exactly peaceful. Plus anything was better than spending the whole hour in Myrtle’s shining company. It’s not like she was some hideous half-beast! No-one would know any different. This was purely scientific research.
With a firm nod and her mind set, she left the abandoned bathroom behind with her head high and her mind filled with curiosities.