The Ole Switch-a-roo

CHAPTER 4

Ginny knocked on the unisex bathroom door at the foot of the two adjoining staircases that led up to the dormitories. "Seamus? Are you in here?" she asked hesitantly opening the door and stepping onto the tile floor.

"Ginny? Is that you?" came Seamus's voice from one of the stalls. "What is the matter with me?" he asked in a voice that was shaking with fear.

Ginny chuckled to herself before saying, "Nothing is the matter with you. It happens to girls every month so stop acting like it's the end of the world," she said, crouching down under the sink and looking for the 'feminine products' that the girls kept under there. Deciding that a pad would be the lesser of the two evils she pulled out a whole pack and handed them to Seamus under the door, trusting him to figure it out rather than trusting herself to go through the mortifying task of trying to explain it to him.

"Ginny, what am I supposed to do!" came his exasperated voice from the stall.

"Just read the instructions on the package," she said, trying to stop herself from cracking up.

A few minutes later, Seamus came out of the stall, looking pale and staring quizzically at Ginny, who in turn, stared back before grinning and laughing.

Seamus was now about 5'4", had thin lips, accompanied by sandy brown hair that came a little past his shoulders in waves. He still had his Irish blue eyes and freckles covering his face. Ginny had seen pictures of his mom before. He looked exactly like her.

"Thanks, Ginny," he said, walking over to the sink and washing his hands.

"No problem, Seamus; one last thing though," she said, reaching into the medicine cabinet. "Midol, it will be your best friend. Trust me," she said, grinning.

A few minutes later, the two of them walked into the common room to find the others involved in this experiment. It was quite odd to walk into a room that held only six people but contained enough sound to shatter anyone's eardrums.

"Look, there they are!" Hermione said between gasping breaths, trying to stop laughing. "Now we can get down to business," she said, then turned around and whistled to get everyone's attention.

When everyone had sat down on the couches and chairs scattered around the fireplace in a haphazard circle, Hermione stood up and began to talk.

"Alright," she said looking out at the unfamiliar, yet familiar, faces, "It seems that Professor McGonagall has given us the day off to explain to the staff who we really are and to explain to the students that the real us have gone off to visit some other country."

"So first things first," she said, turning to the short sandy-haired girl, " Seamus, we all feel your pain." which caused a howl of laughter from the girls and a beet red glow to appear on Seamus's cheeks.

"Next, we need to figure out names. Any ideas?" she said, looking from face to face.

"Well I think that we should try and keep the names similar so we don't get confused," Ginny said, looking thoughtful. "Seamus can be Shay, easy enough."

"Ooh! Can I be Larry?" Lavender asked, giggling.

"Umm...sure," Ron said, looking at Lavender strangely.

"Ron can be Rowena," Dean said, trying to think of a good name for himself.

"Yeah and I can be Godric," Ginny said, jokingly.

"Ginny that's perfect! You and Ron are still going to act like siblings, so we can just say that your parents went on a Hogwarts founders binge," Parvati said, giggling.

"I wasn't.....being serious....but okay," Ginny said, looking flabbergasted.

"Parvati...Peter?" Harry said, thinking about Pettigrew.

"Nice one, hmm.....Dean... Delilah?" Lavender said.

"Um...okay, I guess. Now all that's left is Harry and Hermione," Dean said.

"Well, easy enough Harry can be Harriet," Seamus said. "Hermione, why do you have to have such a confusing name?"

"My name is not confusing, I can be Hayden," she said, looking satisfied.

"Okay. So what do we do now?" Harry asked, plopping down on a chair, accidentally sitting on his hair and pulling it.

"Now?" Hermione said, looking at all of them, "Well, it's almost two o'clock in the afternoon. Classes let out at three so we have to go up to our dormitories to hide from the other students 'til dinner when Dumbledore is introducing us to the school. Then we go out and the school gets to see us."

"Ooh! You guys have to look nice!" Lavender said, looking at the 'women' across the room. "We'll have to help you with makeup, otherwise you'll end up putting mascara on you're lips."

"Fine," Harry said to the protest of the boys. "But you guys can't act all girly and fuss over your clothes, we don't want you looking like poofs."

"You're no fun at all, Harry," Parvati said, frowning.

"We'll come to your dormitory in three hours," Ginny said. "And don't dress like skanks!" she added to the retreating backs to the boys, who looked slightly crestfallen.