Seamus is Seamus and You are Yourself

SEAMUS IS SEAMUS AND YOU ARE YOURSELF 1:

HERMIONE.

Now. I don't want you thinking that I fancy Harry or anything like that. I don't. I definitely don't. I've got a boyfriend who I'm very happy with, and Harry is just like a brother to me. Thinking of him any other way simply seems to me terribly wrong.

But as a person with eyes, I have to concede that Harry... Harry has turned out, in our Sixth Year at Hogwarts, as just... good-looking. All right. EXTREMELY good-looking. Alright! If the cliched words "breathtakingly beautiful" had to be applied to anyone, I have to say that they would have to be applied to Harry.

It wasn't expected, I'll be the first to admit that. I remember Harry from the first train ride to Hogwarts. Not ugly, certainly, but not handsome. He was very thin and short- probably due to the fact he had never had a proper meal- his hair was in absolute tufts and his NHS-style glasses really didn't do him any favours. At a pinch, you could say that he was sweet. At a very, very large pinch. He was just normal. An average boy, you might say.

In Fifth Year things began to change somewhat. I didn't notice really, because Harry's one of my best friends. I see him every day. There was no drastic change. He was still extremely short- almost the shortest in the year. This annoyed him to a colossal extent, of course. But everyone, especially the girls, only saw his scar. They seemed to skim over his other features. He wasn't usually the talk of the girl's dormitories, if at all.

Then something very disturbing happened, towards the end of Fifth Year, which made me look at Harry again.

As usual, Harry and Malfoy were having yet another slanging match. You know the kind- mudblood-lover, Death Eater-in-training, your mother's a whore, blah blah BLAH. No different than any other fight they'd had for the last five years.

But as Harry turned away, I noticed it. If I hadn't been looking at Malfoy disgustedly at that precise second, I would have missed it.

In a millisecond, Malfoy had looked Harry up and down. His eyes had flickered from Harry's feet up his torso to his turning head.

He- sickened as I am to admit it... it's MALFOY, in case you hadn't noticed- he had... checked Harry out.

Now, as much as I hate Draco Malfoy (the slimy git) I'm not one to lie. Yes, he's awfully good-looking in a very evil Prince of Darkness sort of way. There, I've said it. I'll never, ever repeat that sentence.

And if he was looking at Harry...

The next few days I watched Harry. I tried to see him from an outsider's point of view, not as one of his closest friends and basic sister.

It hit me. Despite the fact that Harry was still tiny, despite the fact that his glasses were, in one word, dreadful and his hair a mess, the material was there. I realised that with a little nudge in the right direction, Harry could be...well, he could be gorgeous.

Then, a few weeks later, Harry got rid of his glasses. Sirius had sent him contact lenses, and he had duly worn them.

By the end of Fifth Year, quite a few girls were saying that Harry could be presentable, if he tried. If only he grew a bit, they said.

I didn't see Harry for the entire summer holidays. Voldemort had gained even more power, and Dumbledore had told Harry that he would have to stay at his relatives for the entire summer.

So on September 1st, myself and the Weasleys waited at the Platform entrance for him. I was looking around the other way, saying, "oh, where is he? We've only got a few minutes!" when there was a noise behind me, I turned around and my mouth dropped open. I couldn't even stop it.

"Hiya, Herm."

"HARRY??!" I squeaked. I know that I sounded like a complete idiot. But I couldn't help it!

Have you ever met someone that was so... beautiful, sexy, whatever you wanted to call it, that even if you were straight and they were the same sex as you, even if you were in a perfectly happy relationship and weren't even thinking of straying, the person made your stomach hop sharply up to your throat, and you suddenly got. rather warm for absolutely no reason at all?

Marilyn Monroe had It. Paul Newman had It.

And Harry Potter definitely had It. In bucketloads.

He had grown his hair, and it curled over his collar. The blackness of his hair seemed to make his eyes stand out even more. He wasn't tanned despite the warm weather, (he told us later that his uncle had kept him locked in his room for most of the holiday) and his skin seemed almost luminescent, like it was glowing. He had finally had his growth spurt and he towered over you and all this seemed to hit you like a warm, solid mass. I found that I was leaning backwards from him even though he wasn't even close to me.

He didn't have that comfortable, earthy kind of beauty that you saw more often. He was... no other world for it, otherworldly. I felt very uncomfortable in his presence.

I looked around at the Weasleys. Mrs Weasley was actually fanning herself very rapidly with one hand, her cheeks rather pink.

Ron was staring at him slightly incredulously. And Ginny...

Well, I don't think we need to go there. Let's just imagine that your long- term, rather average-looking crush suddenly turned into someone with 'It' practically overnight.

Not very pleasant, to say the least.

Harry stared around at all of us, looking very confused.

"What?" he asked suspiciously.

After a few more seconds gawping, Mrs Weasley pulled herself together enough to bustle us towards the train. When we had loaded our trunks into a compartment she had gathered herself together enough to smile mistily at Harry and tell him how he had grown into such a handsome young man. Harry blushed bright red.

By the time we were approaching Hogwarts, I had just about gotten used to Harry. And when we arrived at Hogwarts, it was absolutely hilarious from my point of view, since I had adjusted myself. As we entered the Great Hall, a few heads turned in our direction, then the whispering broke out. Everyone, girls and boys, were staring at him. Even the staff table. Most of them didn't let their reactions show, but Professor Sprout turned bright red. Snape scowled even more than usual.

The entire Gryffindor table silently watched our approach. As Harry sat down, Seamus, being... well, Seamus, broke the spell.

"Look at you, Harry!" he called out.

Harry looked up at the staring eyes, and began to get a panicked look in his own.

"What?" he asked. "What?"

He turned to me. "Is anything wrong with me, Hermione?"

Then it hit me. Harry had no idea that he now looked like... how he did. It was obvious that the Dursleys had told him how freakishly worthless he was so many times that he now actually believed it. Subconsciously, he has been affected. Perhaps it was a good thing he didn't know how he had changed- it seemed to add to his absolute adorableness.

It's halfway through Sixth Year now. I've tried to tell him what he looks like. I've pointed out that all our female Professors, including McGonagall, look visibly flushed when he stands too close to them. I've pointed out all the girls that huddle around in groups and stare at him.

"Oh, don't be silly, 'Mione," is all he says.

The only thing that backs up his statement is the fact that no girls do approach him. I know why. They're too scared. Even Parvati, who's known Harry for years and is one of the prettiest, most confident girls in the school gets tongue-tied in his presence. Only Seamus seems brave enough to do anything.

"Ah, but your gorgeous, Harry," he says at regular intervals, mussing up Harry's hair, while both girls and boys look on rather wistfully. Harry laughs and flushes, but certainly doesn't take it seriously. Because Seamus is... well, he's Seamus.

So, despite the fact that Harry is the most beautiful person in the entire school, he remains the most innocent 16-year-old in the entire world. It's rather sweet, in a way. But Harry has a bigger problem. One that's been plaguing him for months now.

The Wizarding press.

It was bad enough when Harry was an average-looking Boy-Who-Lived. But now he's turned into the Boy-Who-Lived-Who's-Got-IT it's completely impossible.

Harry would always receive press attention as the Defeater of Voldemort. But now he was an absolutely gorgeous wizard in a society just looking for a pin-up. It's reached huge proportions now, getting attention from every country in the world. Soon girls from other countries were simply begging to attend Hogwarts because of Harry.

The final straw came when Witch Weekly got hold of some photos of Harry emerging from the shower after Quidditch practice. It was an inside job; I suspect Colin. Anyway, the combined charms of Harry in a very small white towel with steaming, curling hair and a bare, wet chest made the issue the highest seller in the magazine's history. They had to print thousands more copies to keep up with the demand. The magazine was passed round the school for weeks and I know it's now been hidden in most people's trunks.

Harry had never been so embarrassed in all his life before. Ah, the price of fame. But I think the population of Hogwarts is getting restless. The 'pretty girls' as I call that group are looking particularly wild-eyed, staring at Harry.

I think they're going to try something to get Harry's attention soon. What they'll do, I really couldn't tell you.