The Blossoming Rose

Harry stared intently as the potion before him bubbled. This was the most complex potion he'd ever tried to brew, and while he wasn't as smart as Hermione, he liked to think his brewing skills were at least adequate enough for this. Honestly, if it wasn't for Snape, he'd probably enjoy potions a lot more.

As it was, he was only two weeks into his fourth year and he was already sick of the greasy bat.

Finding somewhere quiet where he could not only brew a potion, but then spend the night had been harder than getting the ingredients. In the end, he'd been forced to ask the Weasley twins for help. They had jokingly suggested the kitchen, which wasn't much use as the elves wouldn't let him brew a potion near the food, but they had happily pointed him to the 7th floor corridor and what they called 'the come and go room'.

The room was amazing, located in an out of the way corridor and shaping itself to match his needs. He'd have to show it to Ron and Hermione later, of course, but for now he wanted it to himself.

Currently, the room looked like a cross between a potions lab and a bedroom. A workbench ran the length of one wall with plenty of space for him to prepare the ingredients and a large cauldron sat above a small fire pit at the end of workbench.

A full sized mirror was on the wall behind him and a four poster bed sat next to it as he didn't plan to leave the room tonight. He'd had enough foresight to at least grab some food from the kitchens before shutting himself in for the night.

The hourglass next to the cauldron let out a little chime and Harry quickly grabbed a spoon and started stirring the potion.

'Six clockwise…' he recited to himself as he worked, 'Two anti-clockwise… a half turn and...' Reaching out, he grabbed the orchid root extract from the side and dropped it into the potion. The liquid bubbled, its colour shifting from brown to a deep, rich red smelling strongly of blood.

From the descriptions in the book, it had the right look and odeo. A deft wave of his wand extinguished the fire and he started to tidy up the workbench while the potion cooled. There was more than enough to last him an entire year if he took a full dose, but as that was impossible at the moment, it would probably last even longer.

He tried to concentrate on what he was doing, but his mind kept drifting back to the potion cooling nearby and he could barely keep his hands from shaking.

He was really going to do it. After years of feeling like a stranger inside his own body, he was finally going to know what it felt like to be whole.

Putting down the knife he'd been cleaning - lest he cut himself - Harry forced himself to calm down. This wasn't magic… okay, yes, it was, but this wouldn't just fix everything. Come the next morning, he'd be wrong again.

Shaking himself, he forced the thoughts down. He would deal with tomorrow when it happened.

With everything sufficiently clean, he dumped his robes and tie on the floor by his bed, along with his shoes, leaving him in his shirt and trousers. He didn't know if it was normal for the room, or something it had added for him, but the stone floors here were actually pleasantly warm on his bare feet.

Walking back to the cauldron, he carefully double checked his measurements. One dose was supposed to last twenty four hours, but if he didn't show up to breakfast, people would get suspicious so he tipped most of it back into the cauldron and drank what was left.

At first, nothing happened and Harry started to worry that he'd made a mistake, before a wave of agony ripped through him and he was on his knees.

The pain was incredible; his skin felt it was being pulled taut across his body and his insides felt like a sack of snakes, coiling and twisting in on themselves. Clenching his teeth, Harry forced himself to breathe normally, even as he felt something in his rib cage shift.

Reaching out, he grabbed onto the bed with one hand in an effort to keep his balance as he felt his body shifting. Beside him, the bed seemed to grow and his clothes loosened as he shrank. He noticed his hands were changing, becoming smaller and more delicate.

Trying to stand, he wobbled as his waist pulled in, causing his already loose trousers to fall, exposing slender legs that, even as he watched, were starting to thicken and reshape as his hips began to widen. Wiggling out of his boxers, he found his penis already gone, replaced with a feminine slit, and he had to fight the urge to touch it, to see if it was real.

The pain was finally starting to ease, replaced with a cold tingling, electric sensation that was centered on his nipples and groin. Fumbling slightly, he undid the buttons of his shirt and dropped it to the floor.

The body in the mirror wasn't exactly what he was expecting. He, no she, was clearly female, but she looked young and underdeveloped. His nipples felt huge, even if they didn't look it, and that tingling was still there, but his breasts were non-existent and his groin was completely hairless. Is this because I changed the dose?

Still unsteady from the transformation, Harry stumbled over to the book and read back through the description. His worries eased when he found a line he'd previously overlooked. The first transformation was always painful and it could take up to thirty minutes for it to finish.

The tingling continued to intensify, causing Harry to look back at herself in the mirror. It was faint, but now that she was aware of it, she could see her breasts steadily expanding, slowly pushing outwards, and growing steadily heavier. Her lower regions were also affected, with the outer lips swelling slightly and dark hair starting to become visible.

"It..." Harry coughed, clearing her sore throat. "It worked!" she cheered and then gasped at the sound of her voice. She had known it would change, but actually hearing it was another matter. Thankfully, her voice didn't have any of the shrill grating tone like her aunt.

Watching her body continue to change, tears started to build up. It had worked, her body finally felt right! She giggled quietly at the thought, only for the sound to make her giggle more, leading to full-blown laughter.

Painful transformation aside, she felt incredible. This was how she was supposed to look, this was how things should have always been!

"Harry, are you in there?" Harry froze when she heard Hermione's voice. Spinning round, she tried to run for the door, only to see the door swing open.

"Harry? I've been look..." seeing Harry's nude form, Hermione gasped in shock.

##

Looking at the parchment in front of her, Hermione frowned. The Marauder's Map was an impressive piece of charms work, but she was starting to think it was broken. Apparently, Harry was in a room that should be right in front of her, or at least, that's what the map said. But all she could see was a solid stone wall.

Maybe he got stuck in a hidden passage? She thought to herself as she paced up and down the corridor, looking for a possible way in. God knows, Hogwarts had enough of them. But it wasn't like Harry to walk blindly into one without knowing where it went.

The last student - Neville of course - who did that ended up emerging in a classroom on the far side of the castle. That wouldn't have been a problem, except for the rather amorous sixth-years who were using the room at the time.

Still, Harry had been acting oddly lately. Just before last year ended, he'd started spending a lot of time alone in the library, and when she asked, he refused to tell her what he was looking for. Then, once school had started again, he'd started sneaking off and exploring odd parts of the castle and getting packages delivered by Hedwig most mornings.

Ron was convinced Harry had a secret girlfriend, but she doubted it. Harry barely spoke to anyone outside of her and Ron, and she was fairly sure that any girl who 'bagged' the 'boy-who-lived' would be quick to brag about it.

Actually, now that she thought about it, Harry always seemed to get embarrassed and uncomfortable whenever Hermione overheard Ron and the other boys discussing girls.

At one point, she'd suspected Harry might be gay, but then Susan Bones had worn that shirt that was far too small for her and Hermione dismissed that idea.

The poor girl had apparently hit a serious growth spurt, pushing her bust from the realms of 'average' into 'good grief'. The sight of her sitting at breakfast, the buttons of of top straining to remain closed had attracted the attention of almost every boy - and a few girls - in the hall.

Her head of house had eventually taken to one side and taught her how to resize her clothes. But the way Harry had been watching the rise and fall of Susan's breasts had been enough to convince her of Harry's sexuality.

Still, Harry's behaviour was worrying her and while she wanted to respect his privacy he was one of her first, and still very few friends and she didn't want to see him hurt.

She was just about to give up and walk away when a door appeared on the wall, right where the map said Harry was. Muttering about castles, wizards and secret doors, Hermione tested the door and found it unlocked.

"Harry, are you in here?" She called out as she pushed the door open. She glanced at the map as she walked in, "Harry? I've been look..."

Glancing up, she saw a girl standing naked in the middle of the room staring at her like a deer caught in the headlights. Flushing with embarrassment, she quickly checked the map, seeing only herself and Harry in the room.

Looking back up again, she recognised the messy black hair - even if it was longer - and green eyes.

"H-Harry!? What… what is this?"

"It's not... I mean..." the girl, Harry?, said quickly, movements panicky as she backed away and tried to cover herself up. Her ramblings were cut off as she bumped into the bed. Looking between it and Hermione, Harry sighed and sat down heavily. Grabbing one of the sheets she wrapped it around herself protectively.

"I'm sorry… but I can't do this… I couldn't keep pretending… " slowly, hesitantly, Harry started to talk about the confusion growing up, feeling like he was in the wrong body. He kept stopping, looking either at her or the floor as he tried to gauge her reactions.

At some point, Hermione realised she'd joined Harry on the bed. Sitting next to the girl, she'd eventually fallen back on old habits and pulled Harry into a hug. She'd expected Harry to tense up, he always did when someone touched him. She didn't expect the girl to suddenly turn in her arms, bury her face in Hermione's chest and start crying.

"I couldn't keep pretending," Harry said as tears fell down his face.

Confused, Hermione could only hold Harry as he, she?, cried herself out, she didn't say anything. She just held the girl in her arms, trying to comfort her as best as she could.

Eventually, Harry's sobs lessened, and she lifted her head. Her face was tear-streaked, her eyes red and puffy. "I'm sorry," she said in a half-choked voice. "I didn't mean to..."

"It's all right," said Hermione gently, trying to desperately to think of something, anything to say that would help. "Harry, how long have you felt like this?"

"I don't know. Since ever. I've always felt wrong, I used to watch the girls at school and find myself wanting to be them. To wear dresses or grow my hair. I used to wonder why I had a thing between my legs instead of it looking like the girls in Dudley's magazines. I suppose, eventually, I just assumed the problem was with me, that I was broken or something. I just learned to accept that boys... that they usually liked being boys. But I still didn't."

Harry drew a long breath. "How was I to know differently? I never had any other boys to talk to except Dudley, and talking to him about anything was useless. Eventually, I overheard my aunt gossiping with a neighbor about a story in her magazine. I pulled it out of the rubbish and hid while I read it."

Realization began dawning on Hermione. She still wasn't completely sure what to make of this, but odd bits and pieces sounded familiar. She had a guess what sort of magazine he was talking about; her Mum often read them or brought them home from work. Amongst the makeup adverts, gossip and body tips, there was always one story or another about boys wanting to be girls, or girls becoming boys.

She'd never admit to reading those magazines, and she certainly never expected to find herself in this situation, but a lot of things were starting to add up. Things she hadn't even thought of at the time, but which in hindsight made a lot more sense now.

"So," she said, "that was when you discovered that other boys could feel the same, that they wished they were girls?"

Harry nodded and sniffled. "I thought about talking to Ron once, but I wasn't sure he'd get it. Or worse he'd…" Harry shook his head. "Sometimes, when I was in my… room, I could hear my uncle watching the tele. Once, the news was talking about a man that was killed for dressing like a woman. My uncle spent all of dinner and most of the night talking about it. Saying the 'freak' got what he deserved… in the end, I couldn't tell him, or you. I was scared you would hate me…"

As Harry was finally settling down, Hermione took a deep breath and prioritised. Her friend needed help, so that's what she would do. First, however, she needed information.

"Harry," she asked, forcing herself to not ask a dozen questions at once, "where did you find this potion?"

She decided not question his apparent ability to brew the potion.

Still pressed against her side, Harry shrugged. "It was in a book in the library. I've been looking since second year. When you mentioned polyjuice potion, I realised it might be possible to become a girl. For longer than an hour, I mean."

Harry smiled at her, albeit weakly, "I actually found the book in the human transfiguration section. I think it was misplaced," Harry whispered conspiratorially, probably thinking the idea of a misfiled book would bother her.

Actually, it probably would have, if she wasn't more focused on other matters at the moment.

"Is it permanent?" She wanted to support hi-her, but Harry suddenly turning up to breakfast as a girl probably wasn't a good idea.

Harry shook her head and Hermione noticed her hair was almost down to her shoulders now.

"No, well yes, but not in his case. The book said you have to take the potion once a day for a year for it to become permanent. I only took enough to change for a few hours. I-I just wanted to try it, for now. Then, maybe after I left school, I could make the change permanent. That way, I could get away from my fri… family.

"I know the Dursleys won't like this. They don't like anything… unnatural. But I'm not sure how everyone else would react."

Harry never really spoke about his family, and when he did, it was never in good terms. So Hermione didn't doubt they would react badly. She also frowned at his fear of their reaction. Of course they'd support him, they were his friends.

But then, having a sex change was barely spoken about in the muggle world. How would wizards react? Especially older ones like Sirius and their teachers. This would take some research.

Coming to a decision, Hermione nodded to herself. "Alright, if this really means that much to you, I want to help. God knows, you can barely get to classes on time, nevermind find a bra that fits. And you are going to need one by the way."

Looking down, Harry noticed the blanket had moved, exposing a surprisingly large, pale, breast. Blushing, she pulled the blanket closed.

"Did you even think to get some alternate clothes before doing this?" Hermione asked, already knowing the answer.

"Umm… "

"That's what I thought." Pulling her wand, Hermione summoned Harry's clothes and held them up. "These aren't really going to fit, but with a couple of charms we can make do for the night."

And first thing tomorrow, Hermione was going to send a letter to her mum asking for help and possibly some of her old clothes. Harry looked like she was slightly shorter than her, but with a larger bust so it looked like both of them were going to have to learn some resizing charms.

Maybe she could ask Lavender for advice? Shuddering, Hermione pushed the thought away. As much as she cared for Harry, if she turned out to be another gossiping twit like her roommates, Hermione was going to hex the girl silly.

"Unless you can think of anything else you need?" Hermione offered.

Smiling faintly, Harry nodded. "Thanks Hermione… actually, can you call me Rose?"

Giving Rose another quick hug, Hermione smiled herself. She wasn't sure what the future would hold for her friend, but she was going to stay by Rose's side the entire time.

End of part 1