Hermione's Furry Little Problem

Harry thought he should have been more startled himself. But after what had just happened, he was pretty sure that Hermione was right; he was her boyfriend. He wasn’t sure if he knew what what love was, he just knew that he wanted to be with Hermione and make her happy, whether she had a furry little problem or not.

Madame Pomfrey eyed the two of them suspiciously, and Harry wilted slightly. She conferred with the Healer in whispers. Then she turned back to Harry and said,

“You may stay Mr Potter. It is Miss Granger’s right to have someone with her during consultations, and as her parents can’t be here, you may stay and take their place.”

Harry and Hermione beamed at each other and he sat back down on the chair beside her.

“Well then...” the St Mungo’s healer began, “The good news is that not all of the fur is permanent. Your human half is asserting itself in that regard. Most of you will be relatively fur free by Thursday...”

“Most of me...?” Squeaked Hermione anxiously.

“Well... erm... yes. That brings us to the bad news, the fur is the only thing that’s going to change. The cat ears, the tail, the erm... dear, are you sure you wouldn’t like your boyfriend to step outside?”

“No, you can talk about my private bits in front of Harry. I don’t care,”

Harry thought that HE rather cared, and wished he could hide somewhere. But Hermione was determined.

“Well, if you insist dear.” The Healer continued. “As I was saying, though you will lose the fur on most of your human body, your cat ears and tail will always be with you, and they will likely remain covered in fur. Also, your eight... er, ahem... nipples, will continue to develop as you go through puberty. Though it is likely that only your human breasts will be functional--but we cannot be certain of that.”

“And... and... Oh please Miss Granger... Must we continue this in front of Mr Potter?”

“YES!” Said Hermione glowering. “If ANYBODY needs to know, it’s my boyfriend.”

“But he’s only 12 and a half...” The healer exploded.

“And I’m only 13. So what?” Hermione responded acidly. “You wouldn’t want us to engage in unsafe behaviours without knowing about any potential problems would you?”

Hermione had the Healer dead to rights on that point. It wasn’t the healer’s place to tell teenagers not to have sex (that was the parent’s job), it was her place to tell them how to be safe. Hermione’s logic actually made the Healer feel MUCH better about talking in front of Harry. Though Harry still wasn’t certain that he felt much better about it.

In fact, the Healer appeared to be regarding Hermione quite proudly.

“Right then, I suppose this makes some of this a bit easier then Miss Granger---you brave Gryffindor--because you will need a boyfriend to settle your urges when you go into heat. But don’t worry about getting pregnant dear. There are magic charms you can use...”

Hermione gasped and Harry hid his face in his hands. Hermione had thought things between them would develop along normal teenage time-frames, Maybe snogging for a year or so, then moving on to more interesting things as they got a bit older.

“How soon?” Hermione moaned.

“Well dear, as you pointed out, you are 13. But you are part feline. Instead of having a period once a month, you will go into heat...”

“But I’m due next week,” groaned Hermione. “I’ve been having my period for the last 4 months.”

“Oh dear...” said the healer, glancing at Harry, who was still hiding his face in his hands. “Well it looks like you and your boyfriend should get a move on then. There’s nothing else for it. We’ve performed all the tests we can, and have determined that this is irreversible.

Hermione felt less upset about that than she thought she would if the news went this way. She had got to like Harry scratching her behind the ear and stroking her tail, and just thinking about it was starting to make her feel excited. Harry too, wasn’t unhappy about the news. He loved Hermione’s ears and her tail.