FicFan.org

As per their agreement, she found a girl with lots of bushy brown hair perusing Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much More) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.

She took a moment to observe her own body from the outside. She pursed her lips. Her hair was truly a fright!

It was so strange to be watching 'herself'; a more powerful effect than seeing one's younger self in a photograph: the same feeling of recognizing the once familiar look yet not.

She looked so young. So different from what she had grown used to see in the mirror. So different from how she'd come to think of herself. A child still, hinting at but not yet showing the woman Hermione knew she had been at eighteen.

It hit her hard, however, that the strongest difference was in the way Harry carried himself in her body. Never had she looked so confident in her previous life – certainly not at that age! – so relaxed and self-assured. Bossy, yes, overbearing often, always determined, yet carrying despite herself a deep rooted insecurity and fear of rejection that Harry seemed to lack completely.

She tried to remember if he'd been this confident at eleven; she suspected not, as she vaguely remembered him as timid, but she was too used to Harry as the strong leader of the last two years – albeit an unwilling, often oblivious and even more often unreasonably stubborn leader.

It was that leader she could see shining through her own body now, moving with a poise that caught the eye without effort and made people want to draw closer.

She/he smiled a bit, then put their plan into motion, 'accidentally on purpose' shoving her best-friend from behind, knocking him/her to her knees. Books from the shelves she/he grabbed to break her/his fall spilt over the floor haphazardly, and the bushy haired girl's indignant shout mingled with the dark haired boy's apologies.

They both scrabbled at the fallen books, pulling them frantically into their arms. Hermione came up with Viridian's book held in her hands, intently scrutinizing it; then he/she lifted his/her green eyes to meet the ones that had once belonged to her.

"Curses and Countercurses… Any chance there's something in there about how to curse an annoying bully of a cousin?", he/she asked in a mock-hopeful tone.

She knew her eyes were twinkling with merriment: they had decided not to arrange their conversation, instead trying to 'surprise' each other. By the sparkling in Harry's now-brown eyes, he was more than up to the challenge.

Hermione watched in amusement as she/he drew herself to her full height, exclaiming in mock-indignation: "You can't go around cursing your cousin, not even if he's a bully!" – my, her front teeth had been really large once upon a time! – "First of all it's against the law to use magic outside of school and I don't think Hogwarts would stand for you cursing your own relative anyway and besides, it's really dangerous to cast curses without experience, it could turn out badly and you shouldn't try it for silly reasons!" – was she really in the habit of talking so fast? From the outside it was rather impressive… - "Especially since you wouldn't be able to reverse it if it went wrong! You could even be killed!", the girl concluded sniffing, "Or worse, expelled!"

Hermione's jaw dropped. She couldn't believe Harry had just used her own line against her! And Merlin, but it sounded ridiculous now that she was hearing it!

Thank goodness she knew a good comeback…

"Girl", she said in perfect seriousness, only belied by her mischievous eyes, "you need to sort out your priorities."

A heartbeat.

Then they both collapsed in hysterical laughter.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6685668/6/