dealing with the rat
“Yeah . . . it was . . .” admitted Harry. “But I didn’t want to remain male any longer than I had to. I guess we should see about changing my name, now that I am physically my true gender . . . Harry . . . Harry . . . Harry . . . . I guest I could change my name from Harry James to Hariet Jamie and still be called Hari for short.”
“Very well,” huffed Dumbledore. “I will see that your school records get changed.”
“Oh! I almost forgot!” Exclaimed Hari, as she pulled the rat out of her pocket. “I bought this rat from Ron Weasley. When I scanned him, I found he had the mind of someone named Peter Petigrew. He’s the one that told Tom where to find my parents . . . well, Harry’s parents at least. But I guess you knew this already.”
“What! . . . “ gasped Dumbledore as his face went pale. When he regained his composure, he drew his wand and told her: “set the rat on my desk.”
After she did so, he waved his wand over it and it gave off a red glow.
“It IS an Animagus!” Exclaimed Dumbledore. “But if you’re correct about who this is then that means Sirius . . . . . Sirius may be innocent! . . . Toffy?”
“Yes mister headmaster wiskers sir?” Said the house elf when she appeared.
“Take this student to the Slytherin Common room,” commanded Dumbledore. “I must go to the ministry immediately!”
The house elf took Hari by the hand and popped her away as Dumbledore took a jar of the mantle and threw some powder on the fire, producing a green flame.
They reappeared in a room all decorated in green and silver with snakes carved, painted or embroidered everywhere. Sharing the room with her were a large number of students in their black robes with green and silver cravats. Also present was Severus, who had been in the midst of giving an orientation to the new, 1st year students.
“Ah yes, mister Potter, our new celebrity . . “ sneered Snape.
“It’s Ms.” corrected Hari. “Ms. I’m a girl now.”
“Preposterous! Everyone knows Harry James Potter is the boy-who-lived!” Snarled Snape. “What kind of prank are you trying to pull? Trying to get into the girls dorms? Well it won’t work! In Slytherin we all sleep in the same barracks!”
“No prank,” corrected Hari. “I have long been a woman trapped in a boy’s body. Principal Dumbledore gave me some sort of potion that made my physical body match my self image. I’m a girl now. Soon to be a woman . . . I hope.”
“You’re a typical Potter! Always having to ask the authorities to make exceptions for you. And this isn’t MACUSA. Here we call Professor Dumbledore: the Headmaster, not the Principal! The rest of you, Catch him up on what he missed. I”m going to take this up with the Headmaster!” And with that, he turned and stormed out of the Slytherin Common Room.
“All right,” said an older boy as he drew his wand and stepped forward. “Now it’s my turn . . .”
“Oh really?” Said Hari as she patted her thigh TAP TAP TAP TAP. “Your turn for what, I wonder.”
“My father served the Dark Lord,” snarled the boy, as he pointed his wand at her. “Now I will get my chance to avenge him. They’ll call me Marcus Flint . . . the man who killed the boy-who-lived!”
TAP TAP TAP TAP everyone in the room was patting their thigh in the same pattern, simlutaneously.
“Do really think you can take down me . . . the girl who had destroyed your Dark Lord two or three times, depending on how you count it?” Said Hari as Flint’s wand flew out of his hand and her eye’s started to glow.
TAP TAP TAP TAP
By now, even Flint was patting his thigh in the same rhythm as the others.
TAP TAP TAP TAP
(You can not harm someone who has been touched by the Vorlons!) Harry projected into all thier minds.
TAP TAP TAP TAP
She kept them there tapping for several minutes. But when she started to smell that some of them were starting to wet them selves, she released them.
“I trust that I do not to reinforce this lesson more forcefully . . or painfully?” Said Hari. “And by the way, I’m a girl now. Hari is short for Hariet. But If you need to be formal I prefer to be called Ms. Potter.”
Looking around the room, almost all the lower years were people she had met at the pure blood parties she had attended with Neville.
“Tracy, why don’t we look for our rooms?” Offered Hari.
“Y-y-yes Ms. Potter,” said Tracy Davis as she went with Harry to look for their rooms.
As it turned out, All the Slytherins slept in a single long room filled with bunk beds on each side. The person on the top bunk had their trunk at the foor of the bed and the person on the bottom had their trunk on the right side of the head of the bed between two of the beds. When she went to take a shower the next morning, she discovered that the shower was a one room shower and both genders used it at the same time. There seemed to be no provacy in the Slytherin dungeon. Except . . . . Harry noticed that the older students were giving off some sort of telepathic signal not to notice them when dressing or in the shower. She easily batted it aside. But perhaps for most the students the older ones WERE getting privacy via a telepathic suggestion?
As soon as she was groomed and dressed, Hari headed for the Great Hall. She hadn’t had any supper last night and was hungry. It took her a while to find the Great Hall. And by the time she did, Neville was already eating his breakfast at the Gryfindor table.
(Good morning Neville. How are you this morning?) telepathically sent Hari.
(Very good,) sent back Neville. (The others had a lot of questions about you. They can’t decided it you are good for fighting you-know-who or evil for being a-)
“What is this Slimy Slytherin doing near are table?” Demanded Ron Weasley. “Go slither over there with the other snakes!”
“He’s my brother! Well, sort of brother,” defended Neville. “And he can visit me when ever he wants!”
“Not your god-brother any more,” pointed out Hari. “I’m your goddess-sister now.”
“What?” Asked Neville.
“Sister,” explained Hari. “Dumbledore gave me a potion that turned me into a girl.”
(Show me) sent Neville.
Hari projected a bit of her memory of the conversation with Dumbledore, the part where he explained about the potion and she took it. She also gave him a glimpse of her in the bathroom mirror this morning. Enough that he could see she no longer had male parts.
“Will you two stop staring at each other!” Yelled Ron. “And go away snake!”
(You really did it . . .) thought Neville.
(You knew how I felt. About being a boy. Is it really so suprising?) thought Hari. “Anyway, I just wanted to see how you were doing. After we get our schedules we can get together and study.”
“Sure thing!” Replied Neville.
Hari left the Gryfindor table and stopped by the Hufflepuff table to greet Susan and Hannah before stopping by the Ravenclaw table to greet Hermione and fianlly settled at the Slytherin table to break her fast. No one wanted to sit near her. Before the meal was finished, Snape came by and gave everyone their schedules. First class was Potions with the Gryfindors. It was no surprise that Snape insulted Hari and called her ‘mister Potter’. But Hari was able to partner with Neville and caught him before he could make mistakes. Somehow it all seemed familiar to Hari, like she had taken the class before but didn’t remember unitl he needed the knowledge.
The next class was Charms. It was easy for Hari to fake Charms via telekinesis. But when she pretended to wave her wand as if she were using it, the movements the professor was teaching came easily to her . . . as if she already knew it but had forgotten it.
Transfiguration class started with McGonogal pretending to be a cat, an illusion that Hari easily saw through as the cat had the mind of her professor. After a stern lecture, they were given toothpicks to turn into needles. The wand movements they were taught seemed familiar to her. But she wanted to do it wandlessly. Steel was, after all a mixture of iron and carbon. The toothpick had plenty of carbon, but not enough iron. For safety reasons, she put her toothpick in a telekinetic bubble to contain the radiation before attempting to pull apart the atoms into protons, neurons and electrons so she could telekinetically recombine them. She’d pulled atoms apart before but recombining them was more difficult. A blue flash of light told her that she’s failed and disintergrated her toothpick.
“Professor, could I have another toothpick? Mine fell apart,” said Hari.