Shifting Perspectives

Chapter 1: The Potion of Perspective

"Twenty points from Gryffindor!" Snape bellowed.

Hermione hissed over to where Harry and Ron where frantically trying to mop up the urn of salamander blood that they had overturned.

"Take this," she whispered, handing Ron the special Potions towel that she had charmed to get up the most stubborn messes.

"Eech! Ron, you've got it all over me, now!" Hermione whined. She looked longingly back at her Potions towel which Ron was currently overextending.

"Granger! Pay attention. You've got to add the hellebore powder while I'm stirring," came a harsh voice.

Sighing, Hermione scooped up the precisely measured five grams' worth of hellebore powder into her hands. She held the powder over the cauldron while her Potions partner continued to methodically stir. In 15 second intervals, she let a little of the powder drift into the potion. When most of the powder had been added, she let out a small shriek.

"Ow! This burns!" quickly she brushed her hands together to get the rest of the powder off her fingers.

"What's your problem now, Granger? A little hellebore powder too much for your goody-goody hands?" came the sarcastic drawl of her Potions partner.

"Shove it, Malfoy," was all he got for an answer. She ignored his taunts and returned her attention to her meticulously copied instructions.

Hermione was practically an expert at ignoring Draco Malfoy. After all, she saw him more than anyone else in their 7^th year since they had the same classes, were bench partners in Potions, and shared the Head Dormitories.

"We need to let it simmer for another 7 minutes, stir it counter-clockwise 5 times, and then reduce the heat completely. When it turns slate gray, we'll know its perfect," she intoned. She didn't bother looking at Malfoy, though he nodded his agreement.

Hermione looked back at her two best friends. They had finally cleaned up the salamander blood and were now trying to make up their lost time with the potion. From the looks of things, Hermione deduced that they'd probably be able to finish in time, as long as nothing else happened.

"It's been seven minutes, Granger," Malfoy snapped. Hermione looked at her wristwatch and pursed her lips at him.

"Not quite," she said, holding her hand out. When the second hand finally reached the twelve, she signaled to Malfoy to begin stirring. She was mildly shocked when he waited for her signal. She watched him perform the precise counterclockwise movements. Then she pointed her wand at the flame and muttered the words that would quickly remove it.

"Now we wait for it to turn gray," he said dubiously at the salmon pink bubbling liquid. He sank back onto his stool, slouching his elbows on the counter.

"Slate gray," she corrected.

"Whatever," he retorted. Hermione suppressed a snicker at his childish attitude. Malfoy give her a quick look, though.

"What?" he said challengingly.

"There's quite a difference between gray and slate gray, Malfoy," she paused, giving him a long look. "And you should know." Then she did allow herself to snicker.

Malfoy opened his mouth to return some kind of insult but then shut it quickly as he realized her meaning. He turned away from her then, and resumed staring at the now-red potion.

Somewhere behind them, Hermione heard a rather helpless whimper followed by a loud set of "Tut-tuts." Hermione turned around to see Neville cowering as Professor Snape peered into his cauldron.

"I see that you have once again made me doubt the Headmaster's ability to spot magical children, Longbottom. Another 10 points from Gryffindor for botching up your Potion of Perspective. Now add 4 grams of asphodel root to correct for your overzealous administration of hellebore, bring it to a rolling boil for precisely two minutes, remove the heat, and pray that you are lucky enough not to force Miss Patil to fail yet another daily assignment!" As soon as Snape swooshed away, Hermione gave Neville a small smile. She nodded at him in encouragement when he picked up the asphodel root.

"Is this it?" Malfoy asked in a bored tone, bringing her back to her own Potions assignment. She turned and peered over their cauldron.

"Hmmm...maybe another minute or two. It's almost there," she said with just a trace of irritation. Hermione expected the potion to be completed by now. Yet the liquid was clearly still a slightly brownish gray and not yet a slate gray. She reached for her Potions text book.

"We did everything correctly, Malfoy. It shouldn't be taking this long," she said, not taking her eyes from the textbook. She skimmed the passages quickly. "Furthermore, it shouldn't have been a brownish gray at all- it should have had bluish tones in it- not brown," she said worriedly.

"Time! You should be finished with your potion." At his pronouncement, students, Hermione included, begin preparing to flask some of their potions to turn in.

"Be still! I have not asked for you to do anything, least of all turn in a sample flask!" he shouted. All the students put down their glassware at once. Hermione looked up at Snape and noticed his trademark lip curl.

"The Potion of Perspective, sometimes called the Mind Swap potion, is a fascinating concoction. Obviously, it is a potion that, when administered with the appropriate incantation, causes two people to swap bodies for a limited time. However, it is not often used because of the rather interesting side effects. To what I am referring?" Snape snarled. He looked around the room, blatantly ignoring Hermione's raised hand. When it became obvious that no one else was going to answer, he sighed and looked pointedly at Hermione.

"Very well. Miss Granger?" he snapped.

"The Potion of Perspective does cause two people to swap bodies, as you explained, meaning that the minds or personalities of the two people are exchanged. But this is a most simplistic explanation of the potion's function. This potion challenges our understandings of the division between mind and body- between personality and behavior- or most appropriately, between socialization and genetics. Throughout the history of the potion's use, there have been numerous reports of persons swapping bodies only to find that they then behave in surprising ways- ways that seem inappropriate to their personalities. Thus, the theoretical explanation is that while most of our behavior is determined by our personality, undoubtedly some of it is also derived from our physical bodies- most specifically, our genetic make-up," Hermione explained, as usual sounding as if she'd swallowed the entire textbook.

"Most thorough, Miss Granger," Snape scowled. "Indeed, researchers of this potion have been most interested in why those who switch bodies sometimes engage in behavior that seems contradictory to their own personalities and more appropriate to the personalities of the person with whom the body was swapped. Each of you will also engage in this research." Snape looked around the room with a sneer, waiting for the implications of his words to sink in.

"He wouldn't!" Malfoy breathed next to her. She gave him a quick sideways glance before looking back at the rather dark expression on Snape's face. Then she understood.

"You will each take a sample of your potion, look at your partner, and say the incantation from your text. You will take no more than 3 centiliters which will give you approximately 18 hours to exchange bodies with your partner. For you dunderheads," he looked sharply at the Gryffindors, "who have likely botched your potion, you will feel a little nauseous. This will pass after about an hour. You are to keep a detailed journal of your experiences and behavior. I expect 12 inches by the beginning of class on how your behavior over the next 18 hours differs from what you would ordinarily expect from yourself." He looked around the room. "What are you waiting for?" he yelled.

Hermione quickly poured three centiliters of the slightly brownish-gray potion into two small glasses. She slid one across the bench to Malfoy and took the other one in her left hand. When he had his glass in his right hand, they raised their glasses and said the incantation.

"Muto Prospectus," they said in unison. Hermione only had time to note the dark scowl on Malfoy's face before she gave in to the compulsion to close her eyes. She sat back onto her stool, eyes closed, and tried to ward off the bout of nausea she felt. She inwardly grimaced at the thought of failing the day's assignment. She took a couple of deep breaths and tried to be very still until she finally felt the dizziness pass.

When she opened her eyes she immediately felt the dizziness return and fell off her stool onto floor, landing on her butt. She pushed herself up with her hands but overcompensated with a little too much force and then ended up on her hands and knees.

What is going on with me? She thought wildly. I can't fight this dizziness. My body won't behave! She closed her eyes again and gingerly applied pressure through her hands to push herself off the floor. She used the stool to slowly pull herself up to a standing position. She gratefully leaned on the bench to keep herself upright.

She thought she'd better see about her Potions partner. Malfoy must be pretty bad off right now if he hasn't been making fun of me, she thought.

She turned to her left to look at Malfoy. But he wasn't where he was supposed to be. She was too discombobulated to wonder how he'd gotten on the other side of her. She turned to her right. If she hadn't been leaning on the bench for support, she would have fallen over again. She gave a surprised yelp.

But it came out sounding like a deep coarse guttural noise. She was looking at herself!

Rather she was looking at her body- her body as currently inhabited by one Draco Malfoy.

There he was, sitting in her skin, still calmly upright on the stool. He was looking closely at her body's hands. He began to glide each one over the other, as if he was admiring the smoothness of their touch. He stopped abruptly when he saw his own eyes staring at him.

"Granger," he began in a confused voice, "you're very small," he finished stupidly. Hermione just goggled him.

"Granger...Granger," he said, sounding out different tones with her vocal chords. Then he laughed. Hermione couldn't help but notice that he made her laugh sound more forceful and deeper, as if he was straining the muscles of her throat.

"I am not small," she answered. He laughed again, this time much more deeply which resulted in him unsettling her body from its perch on the stool. Hermione moved before she even thought about, stretching out a long strong arm and catching him before he took her body down into what would have surely been an undignified heap on the floor.

"Great reflexes!" he sniggered at her as he allowed her easily pull him upright. Hermione quickly removed her new arm, looking at it carefully.

"Yeah," she said quietly. With one hand she traced the curvature of her other arm- or rather Malfoy's other arm. She squeezed as she ran her hand up the arm and then lingered on the broad muscled shoulder.

"Interesting... I thought you were just skinny," she mumbled, as she took in the deep muscles etched out across her shoulders and then behind her neck. Not that her curiosity had been piqued, she ran her hands quickly down her new torso and then down her long legs, noting all the distinct musculature.

"And you're very tall, Malfoy," she said. When she finished her quick physical investigation, she looked back her own body. With a start, she realized that Malfoy had been doing something very similar to her body!

"Get your hands off my -" she began. Malfoy looked up quickly, a blush creeping over already rosy feminine cheeks.

"You blush easily," he smirked, as he raised one hand up to his cheek. "And who are you to say anything? I saw what you did to my body, Granger. I always knew you couldn't wait to get your hands all over it!"

Then Hermione become aware of the rest of the class. All around her people were investigating each other's bodies. Some were laughing, some were shrieking, and some were just looking nauseous. Harry and Ron were in this last category and Hermione figured that they hadn't been able to finish their potion after all. She decided to find out.

"Don't do anything to my body," she hissed before seeking out her two best friends.

Walking in Malfoy's body was quite a discomfiting experience. She just couldn't seem to locate her center of gravity. Thus, to anyone who didn't know that she was now in his body, Malfoy would have seemed to be swaggering far more than usual! So without meaning to, she sashayed past an apparently very giggly Neville and a tongue-tied Pavarti to where her friends were sitting.

"So what happened? Did you run out of time with the potion?" she asked.

Harry and Ron both gave her incredulous looks.

"Hermione? Is that you?" asked Ron hesitantly, his voice sounding a bit deeper than normal.

"Yes- weird, isn't it? Malfoy is really tall. His body doesn't make sense to me." She answered, stretching her long arms as if to hold them out for inspection.

"Bloody hell!" Harry exclaimed, before leaning in close to her face. "You don't really sound like him, you know. You've made his voice sort of different-"

"Oh! You did get it to work," she said merrily, looking from one face to the other.

"Yeah- Ron's tall, too," said Harry from Ron's body. "I fell out of my chair as soon as we switched."

"Oh, me, too," Hermione giggled.

"And wearing glasses in really funny, Harry. I feel like I've got something on my face!" Ron said in a slightly annoyed tone. This made both Harry and Hermione chuckle. None of them noticed a shorter brown-haired girl stride over to their group.

"So Weasel- you've finally gotten what you want, eh? To be the Boy-who-fucking-Lived," Malfoy sneered, hands on hips. He then gave Harry a withering look before turning his gaze back to where Hermione stood in his own body.

"I must say, I am a handsome devil," he said snidely before sauntering off. When he was just a few benches away, he turned back to them. Hermione watched in shock as Malfoy made her body strike a pose she'd never put it in. He stood there, with one leg out, shifting all his weight on it, thrusting his hip to one side and then crossing his arms over his chest. Hermione was reminded fleetingly of a Spice Girls Album. Then he smiled, a great dazzling flashy smile. Hermione found herself once again grateful that Madame Pomfry had corrected her front teeth so nicely.

"Bet you wish you could do this, Weasel!" He quickly opened the front of his robes, exposing a prim white button-up oxford shirt, and then cupped his hands around a set of full breasts. Still smiling, he turned and sauntered off.

Hermione was too shocked to say anything. She felt as though the image of her body standing like that- touching herself like that! - would be forever emblazoned in her mind! She felt a strange rush of warmth flood her which she attributed to being extremely angry at Malfoy's misuse of her body.

"That was--- that's just not right!" Ron sputtered angrily, clenching and unclenching Harry's fists. Hermione watched the telltale signs of Ron's temper as they were filtered through Harry's body. Two bright pink spots were high on his cheeks now.

"Yeah, that just didn't sound right coming out of your mouth, Hermione," Harry said, exasperated. "Those words from those lips were just--wrong!" Hermione noticed that Harry's own rising temper was resulting in the reddened face and ears.

"Hold on. Both of you. What are you going to do? Hit him? Fight him while he's in my body?" she reasoned. They both turned their attention back to her, clearly still angry.

"The voice of reason? Coming out of Malfoy's mouth- this is so strange!" Ron said. But Hermione saw that he seemed to be calming down.

"Ha! You're looking flushed, too, Hermione. You're wearing Malfoy's angry expression. I know that ruffled look anywhere!" Harry guffawed. Hermione just stared at him, trying to channel one of her "Oh Honestly" looks through the blond boy's aristocratic features.

Hermione glanced down at her watch only to discover that Malfoy apparently didn't wear a watch. So she concentrated on the way his clothing seemed to fit him and then she felt it. Reaching into the pocket of his trousers, she pulled out a heavy gold pocket watch. Gingerly, she opened the beautiful antique.

"What a treasure..." she murmured, running a long slender finger over the watch's delicate filigree design.

"We only have another minute left of class. I'm going to check on my body before Malfoy does any lasting damage. Have fun at Divination," she said, before returning to her bench.

"See you at dinner, Hermione," Harry answered, stretching his now freckly face into a wide smile.

Hermione swaggered, though not as violently as before, back to the table she shared with Malfoy. He was already there, still looking over his new hands.

"How can you do anything with these?" he asked in a surprisingly serious tone. He picked up the remainder of the asphodel root. "I can't even get your fingers all the way around this root. How can you function with such a small hand?"

Hermione sighed, wishing to return to her own body. She looked up to see their Potions professor giving them a scathing though amused look.

"Miss Granger, Mr. Malfoy. Remain here after class." Snape said sharply.

"The rest of you, bottle up a sample of your potion in a clearly labeled flask. Bring it to me. Clean your benches and get out of my classroom!" Snape barked.

"I'll bottle, you clean," Malfoy demanded. Hermione giggled just a bit at the harsh tones delivered in her voice while she packed up their leftover materials.

When Malfoy had turned in their potion and their station was spotless, the two walked up towards Snape's desk. Once the classroom was empty, Snape addressed them.

"Now, about this week's patrol. I have convinced the Headmaster that dungeon patrols should be conducted by at least two persons, one of whom should be a Slytherin" He turned towards Malfoy, or rather Hermione's body. "I'm sure you understand the need for this, Draco," he sneered at his favorite student.

Draco returned the sneer with a short harsh laugh, though it looked a bit out of place on Hermione's face.

"After all, we wouldn't want anything bad to happen to anyone, would we, Miss Granger?" he said maliciously to Hermione, turning towards the tall blond boy.

Hermione didn't answer. She arched a pale eyebrow in what felt like an altogether familiar movement.

Snape peered at her for several minutes. "I must say, this whole thing is very strange." He paused, giving them both another once-over.

"Well. Off with both of you, then. I'm sure you've had enough of each other so far," he snickered, before collecting the box of flasked samples and exciting to his office. As soon as his door closed, Hermione turned sharply to Malfoy.

"Don't you pull another stunt like that with my body- what you did earlier was vile," she said in a low tone, pointing a long pale finger at him.

Malfoy said nothing. He gave her a slow smirk and then went to gather his books together.

Hermione found his smirk, his behavior, and his very gait to be entirely infuriating. Without thinking too much about it, she picked up her bag, slammed it roughly on the counter, and violently tossed her books in. She swept up the bag onto her shoulder and hurried out of the classroom, loudly slamming the door, and not noticing the slightly surprised look that followed her.

She got as far as the stairwell before the strangeness of her new long limbs unsettled her. She was so angry that she didn't realize how forcefully she was walking. She placed far too much force on her ankle as she started up the stairs. When Malfoy reached her, she was sitting on the floor, hugging a swollen ankle and bruised knee to her chest.

"What are doing to my body?" he yelled. "You can't sit around like that! You look- you're making me look like some kind of sissy! Now get up!" He offered Hermione his short arm. But when she pulled it, putting all of her increased body weight behind it, she ended up pulling Malfoy down on top of her.

A long minute ticked by before Hermione was able to make sense of what was happening. On the one hand, despite the newness of her body, she could clearly feel herself trapped underneath someone else, laying in a heap at the foot of the stairwell. On the other hand, the body lying on top of her was absolutely familiar- it was her body, after all.

"This is just so weird," she whispered, gently pushing some bushy brown curls out of her mouth. Hermione lay still as she felt Malfoy shift around on top of her, trying to gauge where to put his feet to get up. When his foot found the strap of Hermione's overloaded book bag, he only fell more snugly into Hermione's much larger body, lodging his hips between her legs.

As soon as he fell on her a second time, she felt the strange warmth again. It seemed to shoot directly from her brain to her----

"Oh, my!" she breathed. Without gentleness this time, she shoved Malfoy off of her. She pulled herself up, and then carefully arranged her robes. Briefly, she wondered if that qualified as the bizarre behavior that Snape wanted them to report on.

She easily picked up both of their book bags and then set up the stairs- albeit at a much slower and more controlled pace. About midway up, she turned around to see Malfoy still at the bottom of the stairs with a confused look on his face.

"What is it?" she asked. "And straighten that skirt! It's all bunched up on the side- I can see all the way up--oh! - Malfoy- you're showing everyone my underwear!" She stopped, still aware of the increasingly uncomfortable situation in her trousers.

Surprised, Hermione watched a deep blush creep climb up her former face as Malfoy quickly struggled to straighten his skirt and robes. Again, he put his hand to his cheeks and seemed to ponder the flushed warmth.

"I don't know what's wrong with your body, Granger. You must be very hot natured," he seethed as he walked up the stairs. "The longer I stay in your body, the more likely I'm going to end up in St. Mungo's!"

Hermione didn't give his comments too much thought as she followed him towards the Head Common room. However, she did try to keep her eyes from watching the body moving in front of her.

Geez! Malfoy's right! We've got to switch back- I'm losing it! She thought as she forced her eyes to the stone floor.

They both were visibly relieved to finally be in the safe confines of their Common room. Hermione throw herself on the couch, letting her long legs splay out in front of her. She watched amusedly as Malfoy attempted a similar pose on the couch across from her.

"Girls do not sit like that, Malfoy," she teased. He merely sulked in response. Hermione couldn't help but chuckle when he not only brought his shapely legs together but also pulled his skirt and then his robes down over them.

"What? It's not like I haven't seen them before, you know?" she said, giving in to a fit of giggles.

"Boys do not giggle, Granger," he retorted sharply. Hermione just giggled harder.

"Not a boy," she said between her heavy breathing and laughter.

"Stop it!" he yelled. "How much potion did you pour anyway? This had better not last any longer than it's supposed to! And I need to go to the bathroom!" he said quickly, again blushing crimson.

Hermione stopped giggling at once. "What? You can't do that in my body! You aren't allowed to see my body!" she raged.

Evidently, it was Malfoy's turn to laugh.

"I see," he said simply. "And you'd have me just piss myself then? You want to go to dinner in piss-soaked knickers, Granger?"

"No!" she shouted. "Okay, fine, just go. Just don't - touch- anything," she said through gritted teeth.

"As if I want to! As if I'm not completely disgusted to be stuck in your body, forced to do banal urges like taking a piss..." he growled, as he picked himself up off the couch and walked over towards his bathroom.

He was gone a lot longer than Hermione thought he should have been. And when he returned she could see the remains of another round of blushing. She watched as he calmly returned to his desk, and took out his Potions notebook. She felt another wave of fury wash over her as she deduced that he was including a trip to the bathroom in his journal. She clinched her fists in rage.

"Bugger this! I've got to study!" she exclaimed, as she rose from the couch and headed over to her desk.

"Language, Granger," Malfoy hissed. But he, too, picked up his bag of books and prepared to study.