Switching Sides

Switching Sides

*

The Benefits of Lacking Estrogen

*

As the sixth years at last ended their little "meeting," the girls in Remia's new dormitory decided to have a shower before going to sleep.

Juliet was just trying to decide which one of her nightshirts she'd put on after the shower. Her bath towel lay beside her on the bed. Suddenly, she noticed that Remia watching her closely - or, rather, her towel. "Have you done something to your towel?" the other girl asked, frowning.

Juliet glanced at her, surprised. "No - at last I don't think so. Why do you ask?"

"It just - it just doesn't seem right." Taking the large bath towel to her hand and her own to the other, Remia studied them both closely. Then she shook her head. "These are not the same," she said. "Your towel seems to be almost transparent, Juliet."

"What?" demanded the other girl, astonished. "You must be kidding. To me it looks just normal."

Shaking her head again, Remia pursed her lips. "There's something wrong," she insisted. "I wonder if..." She snapped her fingers, her eyes lighting up in sudden realization. "May I check something?"

Juliet looked a bit wondering, but nodded all the same. "Sure, go ahead," she said. "But I don't really see the reason."

As soon as she'd said this, Remia stormed out of the dormitory. Exchanging curious glances, the other girls followed her.

They went down the staircase, then up the one leading to the boys' dormitories. Not even bothering to knock, Remia banged to doors of a particular one of the sixth-year boys' dorm open. Fortunately, none of the boys had taken their clothes off yet. Sirius sat on the edge of his bed, chatting with James, while Peter was searching something from his trunk. As the door opened, all boys looked at them, astonished.

"Remy?" asked Sirius in surprise. "Why are you here?"

"Do you see any difference in these?" snapped the girl, not bothering to answer, merely reaching out the two towels in her hands.

Frowning, Sirius shook slowly his head. "What do you mean, 'these?'" he asked, sounding confused. "I only see one towel."

"Me too," James said, frowning also. "Is this some kind of a joke?" He eyed warily the group of girls behind Remia's back.

"No, it isn't," the former werewolf snapped back. "But I have a feeling that somebody's in for some trouble." With that, she whirled around, the now fuming girls following her.

"What are we going to do?" asked Sarah.

"At first, we're going to have a look at the other towels," Remia muttered. "Then, if there's a single one other charmed like this, we're going to find some professor."

"Right," Lily agreed. "I don't care that it's late, I want justice!"

A quick examination told that all the girls' bath towels, minus Remia's, were charmed the same way. After a peek to the other sixth-year girls' dorms they'd determined that the problem was the same everywhere. Not even bothering to talk to the other years, the girls decided to go and find some teacher.

"I'm voting for Professor Flitwick," said Juliet. "He's teaching Charms. Even if he can't see the towel, he'll surely see the charm on it."

Agreeing to this, they arranged a group. Lily, Remia, and Chloe decided to go from their dormitory, accompanied by two girls from each of the other three dormitories. This vengeful group slipped out of the Gryffindor Tower, one of the charmed towels tightly kept in Remia's hand as a proof.

Coming to the Charms professor's quarters, Remia knocked on the door. After a moment, Professor Flitwick came to open the door. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw the large group of Gryffindor girls.

"By Rowena, my dear girls, why are you here at this hour?" he asked, astonished.

"We think that somebody's charmed our stuff," Lily told him. "And we need your help to figure out who and how."

"Very well," he said. "Come in, girls." As they'd got inside the man's office, he asked, "Now, what is it that has been charmed?"

Every girl turned to look at Remia, who didn't stay wordless. "Look at this!" she ordered, reaching something out to the Charms professor.

Professor Flitwick frowned. "I see nothing," he said warily, eyeing the girls like expecting a prank.

"That's just the problem," explained Chloe. "It is a bath towel. We girls see it very clearly - but boys see right through it!"

Now the tiny wizard's eyes widened. "Very well," he muttered. "Please, place it on my desk. I'll immediately have a look at it."

"Better be so," Juliet muttered. "We've walked to the showers wearing only these about forever. If boys have managed to see us or even to take pictures of us in those, we could have just as well been naked!"

Nodding slowly, the wizard muttered some odd incantation, flicking his wand above the towel. Seeing the results, he nodded. "A truly brilliant charm," he told to the young witches. "The transparency of the towel depends on the amount - or almost the mere existence - of estrogen in the person's body. That's why you could see it, but to any wizard, it could just as well not exist."

"So that's why Remia noticed it," Lily muttered. "Having just recently been turned into a female, her body is still just producing estrogen, so she could see the difference between a charmed and an uncharmed towel."

"That's the most probable reason," the tiny wizard agreed.

"Can you tell who has done it?" asked the mentioned girl curiously.

"Of course. I just need to see the Gryffindor boys so I can compare the magical traces to theirs. Catching the guilty one or ones shouldn't be that hard."

Exchanging delighted glances, the girls smirked. Somebody was going to pay.