protect me?

Chapter 1- Nevilles mistake

Harry walked into his first potions class of this year and no surprise all heads turned in his direction, he had saved the wizarding world only a few months earlier and had 'died' in the process, his eyes scanned the room looking at all the familiar faces of my classmates and they flickered over Draco Malfoy, the boy he had spent loathing ever since that day in Diagon Alley, Draco was looking at Harry with the normal sneer of hatred so out of instinct, Harry returned it. 

Ron, Hermione and Harry walked to a table at the back of the class waiting for Slughorn to come and talk to us about today's lesson, Harry looked up from his potions book he had just taken out and a few eyes were still looking at him including a few Slytherins like Pansy Parkinson who was glaring at him like he had just poured acid on her favorite dress, Harry looked over to Malfoy who was now preoccupied reading something in a book he had grabbed out of his bag.  Harry was about to say something to Ron about Parkinson glaring when Professor Slughorn came through the door. 

     "So sorry I'm late 8th years, now how is everyone?" A few murmurs of 'good' or 'fine' went through the room while Professor Slughorn walked to his desk. "Alright everyone, today we are going to be making an aging potion this will, if done correctly make the drinker turn precisely three years older in age and after about five minutes they will turn back into the age they are currently at, alright so you are going to be having partners for this potion and I'll go and read them off now right, Nott and Weasley, Granger and Patil, Malfoy and Zabani, Longbottom and Potter, Thomas and Finnigan, finally Parkinson and Brown, alrighty everyone get to work the aging potion is on page 198 of your books." Harry internally groaned, Neville wasn't the best at potions and nor was he so the percent of this potion going right was pretty low. 

     "Hey Neville" Harry said when he sat down next to him where he was reading over the instructions in his own book. 

     "Heya Harry, how was your summer?" He asked quickly before returning to his book.

     "Great, really great" he responded dryly, Neville didn't seem too interested in the conversation but more interested in making the potion so Harry got up to get the ingredients for the potion. When he got back to the desk the burner was on under our cauldron and Neville was sitting looking anxious. 

They began to cut, chop, and dice their ingredients and poured them into the cauldron. The cauldrons in the room sizzled and bubbled, the temperature was consistently getting warmer and Harry could feel the collar of his shirt start to stick to his neck. Harry had been trying his hardest to help Neville so they could get a better grade but when Harry left Neville alone so he could get another ingredient Neville started stirring the potion counter-clockwise instead of clockwise and added eight fairy wings instead of six, by the time Harry had came back Neville had stopped stirring to let Harry help him, they continued to make the potion correctly until Neville accidentally spilled some weird green substance into the cauldron without either of the boys noticing. 

    "Okay class, your potions should be done by now so everyone grab a vile a fill it up with your potion." Harry grabbed the vile that had been sitting on the table and poured the aging potion into it, the potion was a darker purple while it was supposed to be about three shades lighter, Harry really didn't care though and as soon as Slughorn said, "Go ahead and drink the potion once you've decided who'll be drinking it" he poured the potion into his mouth.  

Harry swallowed the potion and it left a burning feeling in his throat, he made a face and put the vile back onto the table with a clink. Neville was looking at him worriedly and Harry looked around, he saw that only two people's potions had worked, Hermione and Pavarti's potion had of course worked and Malfoy and Zabani's had also, others like Ron (who had taken the potion) had side effects, Ron's nose had started to bleed and Seamus had rushed out of the room saying he thought he was going to be sick, Pansy Parkinson had started to scream as large boils grew on her face, Slughorn told her to go to the hospital wing to get taken care of. 

     "I don't feel any different"  Harry told Neville who had been looking at me like I might explode the past few minutes. Hermione who looked not much different just with longer hair and slightly tanner skin, changed back to her 17 year old self, Blaise Zabani also changed back losing a little bit of muscle and height. 

     "Any change Harry m'boy?" Asked Slughorn looking at him, his prized student.

    "No, I don't feel anything different, to be honest I'd rather something happen then just...nothing" Harry answered.  

    "Yes, that is rather...odd, I'm not sure if that has ever happened to a student with this potion before. He gave Harry a puzzled look before turning back to the rest of the class, "This is the end of our class, you are all free to go, and Mr. Weasley you might want to head to the hospital wing for that nose, and Mr. Potter the potion effects might come late so look out for that, goodbye everyone, see you next class." Harry turned to leave, saying goodbye to Neville. Ron and Hermione followed me out the class room we started on our way towards the Gryffindor  common room. 

     "Nothing happened? are you sure you just didn't feel it?" Hermione badgered, Ron had left to go to the hospital wing when they got back into the common room and now Harry was left with Hermione asking millions of questions about the potion. "Do you think you made it right?" 

     "Not sure honestly, I think I did my part right but not sure about Neville" he admitted. We were sat at our normal chairs in the common room working on some work we'd already gotten (it was a free period) when suddenly Harrys head started to hurt, he tried not to think too much about it as he continued my transfiguration essay but then it really started to hurt, it was like no pain he had ever felt before not even when his scar would hurt. Harry looked around the room, it was just him and Hermione I figured everyone else was outside, I winced at the pain. "Hermione," He slurred, "my head." he could barely focus on his words and his vison started to go in and out. 

     "Harry? Are you okay? Wait, what's happening what's wrong?" He slouched onto the ground, his head in his hands "what's going on?" Harry could barely hear her, the pain in his head got worse and he yelled out. Harry could hear someone saying something, they sounded worried and he wanted to help them but everything was so dark and getting so quiet... 

That was the first chapter and I hope you enjoyed (as if anyone's going to read this lol) I'm happy with my chapter but you know everyone makes mistakes and I've never written a fanfiction before, although I have read a fair few I just don't really know how to word specific situations, sorry the genderswap didn't happen in this first chapter I'm saving it and giving you some normal Harry for a moment before he becomes a girl. Whelp I really  hope this does well but if it doesn't then that's okay too. I'm thinking of making another chapter as soon as I post this but no promises, if you see this then enjoy my story and have a nice day. (Hopefully this makes you happy during quarantine if that's when you're reading this) also if you're wondering about the picture for this chapter, I just found it funny so I added it, I didn't want to leave the chapter with no picture but it doesn't have any specific meaning. Oh and sorry for the pov change, it's difficult to write about what Neville is doing from Harry's pov if Harry isn't watching. Lavender Brown is still alive also btw. 

-the author 

Written: April 28th 2020

Edited : February 28th 2021