Sleeping Beauty

  “If you think you’re going ANYWHERE wearing that, you have to be out of your mind! Well, of course, we’ve always known that, all your kind are out of their minds!” shouted Aunt Petunia while looking at the rags Harry was wearing. She slammed the door behind her and stomped off to wrap the present.

          Harry was getting ready for a very dull and boring wedding. Uncle Vernon said he had to come, so that he could see a decent, good-people wedding. Harry scoffed at him and put on the best rags that Uncle Vernon gives him.

          “I don’t have anything better! Plus, I’m not getting dressed up for your STUPID wedding! I have a place to be!” yelled Harry.

           Harry had received a letter from Ron earlier after Harry told him about the wedding. Ron offered for Harry to spend the rest of the summer at the Burrow, and Harry agreed.

           “No, we would gladly leave you behind and you can run out naked for all we care, but we can’t leave you. Well, Petunia, it’s not a bad idea, I mean, we can get rid of the rat for one whole month! Maybe you can go, but it’ll only be pleasurable to you! If only we could leave you with Ms. Figg, oh bless her soul. She broke her leg, again! This time it was when she was trying to take out the trash, she’s in the hospital now!” said Uncle Vernon.

            “See, I’m going anyway, it works out for all of us!” said Harry, pleadingly. The Dursleys had changed their attitude towards Harry this year, they were more casual. They still had their mean things, but the worst they can do is yell at Harry. They leave him in his room and he has become a little nicer to them. Things were definitely turning around, but they would never stoop so low as to be nice to him and consider him as family! Never, it just wasn’t in them, since Harry knew this, he would make the most of it. He would mention any word about the other world a lot less, only when he felt like making them mad.

            “Fine, but I’m NOT driving you to that rubbish!” said Uncle Vernon casually. Harry shot a half ‘thank you’ half ‘like I need you to’ look at Uncle Vernon and ran upstairs. He immediately sent an owl to Ron, telling him what time to pick him up.

          Meanwhile, Ron and Hermione were having a pleasant chat.

          “YOU! Where is Crookshanks? You did something to him, didn’t you?” shouted Hermione.

          “Your stupid cat must’ve run away, couldn’t take it anymore! I didn’t do anything to him!” defended Ron.

           “Well, he’ll come back, or else he’ll find a way to fend for himself! He’s a smart cat, he can live, I know what I can try! I highly doubt it will work, but…. Accio Crookshanks!” said Hermione, there was a rumble and the whole Weasley family couch was floating in mid-air, a sleeping Crookshanks underneath it. Crookshanks awoke with an angry ‘meow’ and floated into Hermione’s arms.

            “Oh, Crookshanks! You had me so worried! Why did you do that? Don’t do it EVER again!” said Hermione.

            “I believe you owe ME an apology this time!” said Ron.

            “Oh, right, sorry” said Hermione politely and then scurried upstairs with Crookshanks.

             “You like her, mate, don’t you?” asked George.

             “What? Who? What are you talking about? Hermione, never, she’s my best friend, I admit we have our fights, but I would never like her that way!” said Ron, slowly turning red.

             “You don’t have to lie to us, mate. We’re the one’s who put Crookshanks under there; we wanted to see another of the famous fights! It’s been quite awhile since we’ve seen them. We figured…..” said Fred, but trailed off because a there was a loud boom and a high pitched scream.

              Hermione came running down the stairs, still screaming. She was clutching a blanket around her so that the only thing they could see was her feet.

              “Hermione, what happened, speak, unwrap that blanket!” said Ron, running over to her trying to take it off.

               He kept trying, but she had a pretty tight grip, and she kicked him. Ron only stood back; something obviously happened that is terrible.

               “YOU TWO DID THIS! I WILL GET YOU, EVEN IF IT’S THE LAST THING I DO, YOU TWO ARE IN LOADS OF TROUBLE AND I’M NOT STOPPING UNTIL I GET YOU BACK!” shouted Hermione in a way that was bitter and monstrous, she’s never sounded like this and it was a bit scary.

                “Hermione, have you even seen yourself in the mirror? What we didn’t make you hideous, it was a sleeping beauty spell. We charmed it so that the person who touches Crookshanks will become utterly Gorgeous!” said Fred.

                 “What? Y-Your l-l-lying, I-I don’t need to become beautiful, I like the way I am now!” stuttered Hermione. She was mad at them, and then completely surprised, she was speechless.

           “Hey! They made you look better? WOW! I wanna see!” said Ron, inconsiderately. Hermione shot him a very cold and your-so-naïve look.

               Everybody was so caught up in this beauty business, that they didn’t see Harry arrive by floo powder when Hermione came downstairs. Harry just couldn’t wait until Ron came, so he came by himself, but it wasn’t easy!

              “If you look good, what’s the problem?” asked Harry, trying not to make her mad. Surprisingly, she answered sweetly and sat down.

              “The problem is, Harry, that I’m not myself, and what if I look completely different? When I go back to school, what will everybody say? Wait a second, when did you arrive? How long have you been here, and more importantly, how was your summer?” said Hermione.

                “Oh, the usual, boring summer with the cruel Dursleys. Actually, they’re getting a lot better, not NICE but not cruel, we’re becoming a lot more….subtle” said Harry calmly.

                  Then, Hermione decided that it was ok to remove her blanket, she slowly unraveled herself. Harry and everybody else started at her. She noticed this and abruptly wrapped herself up again. She ran up stairs, dropping the blanket on the stairs. All the boys saw was hair that was flowing and straight, like she had worn at the Yule Ball, except better!

                 “What was that all about? I came in right when she started screaming at you two!” said Harry, completely bewildered.

                 “Well,- you see- in the joke shop – I – we” stuttered George.

                 “We decided that it would be a good idea to make a little section in our Joke shop that has charming spells, just normal ones. But very useful, like beauty, wealth, power, and the exact opposite! We had to test it on somebody, so, since Hermione obviously doesn’t care what she looks like…..we did it on her” said Fred, the whole room fell silent.

                 “I-uh- I dunno what to think, I’m mad because you are playing tricks on Hermione and I’m curious to see what she looks like!” said Harry as he got up and paced the room.

                 “You can! We put a spy cam on her, you know, because we know she won’t show us right away!” said George, a little more confident.

                 They all stared at a big mirror looking abject Fred took out of his pocket. It showed Hermione frowning at herself in the mirror.

             Harry’s jaw immediately dropped, she was drop-dead gorgeous! She still had the same features, but her teeth were perfect, all of them! Her hair was dropping down her back in dainty, bouncy curls that Harry felt like stroking. Her skinny figure filled out into an extremely fit figure, she also had highlights in her hair! The gown she was wearing looked like a sleeping gown, it was lavender lace-up. It hugged her figure so perfectly that you could see her breathing! She had NO makeup on, it was just….Hermione.

             “Bloody hell! Hermione looks as good as a Veela! What did you put in that potion? I want some!” said Ron.

             “It’s only for women, the men’s one is still in the works, and WE’LL be the ones to test it! The good part is, that our potion worked!” said Fred

              “Um, Fred, how long does the potion last?” said Harry, he sounded scared. He spotted a flask of juice and gulped it down.

              “Well, that’s the bad part, if it went wrong, then she’ll be like that forever. But if it went right, she’ll only be like that for a month or two. Depends on how much you take, luckily we gave her 1 drop, that means one month!” said George.

                They were all silent and then they heard Hermione call HARRY up to her room. They started snickering and making cat calls as he went up the staircases.

                When he entered her room, she was wrapped in the familiar blanket, but made no attempt to cover her face. Harry pretended to be astonished at how she looked. She blushed so furiously that she almost matched Ron’s hair!

                “C-could you, um, do me a favor? Could you get my old robes from the kitchen, I left them there” said Hermione.

                “Uh, yeah, sure” he started walking, but then he mumbled ‘theyalreado’ and started running.

                 She stayed in her room, she didn’t know what to do, she wanted to know how long this would last though. So, she ran after Harry.

            “Harry! How long will this last?” asked Hermione.

            “Fred and George said it will last a month…if it went right. But if it went wrong….,” Harry trailed off and looked down at his feet.

            “Oh no!” said Hermione, and she ran into her room and slammed the door.

            Harry went downstairs and snatched Hermione’s robes and ran back to her room.

She had taken off the towel and was lying on her bed with her back facing the door. She had ‘conjured’ a flowing curtain in an open window with sunlight and a wall and replaced it with the normal window.

            “Hermione? This isn’t a bad thing, their potions usually work. They are getting better,” said Harry, reassuringly and he stroked her shoulder. He couldn’t stop staring at her.