Title: To Be A Woman
Author: Batsutousai(duh!)
Beta: magick_maker17
Pairings:  Hermione/Ginevra and Tom/Draco/Harry
Warnings: AU, Transsexualism, Slash, Fem-slash, Child Abuse(mild), Cross-dressing
Summary: Harry's known his whole life that he is different from his male cousin, but his relatives, who take cake of him, did everything to hide it. When given a chance do live as he wishes, what will Harry do?

Disclaim Her: “What sex is Tom?” Nope. Don’t own Harry Potter.


A/N: PLEASE READ!!!

The answers to the most common question I got were on the website I gave the link for at the end of the last chapter. In fact, that website was made to save me from the questions! *scowls* Consider this a round of quick answers to questions that were asked. However, I would appreciate it if you’d all go to the Angelfire site I made for this fic and read up on the stuff there before you ask anymore questions.

 

Annoying Question: What sex is Tom Riddle?

Tom is a GIRL in this fic. Yes. Tom’s also the only character I plan on changing the sex of, though(other than Blaise Zabini, who will also be made a girl), so you needn’t worry.

Also, yes, born female.(Okay, that second bit was a semi intelligent question, actually…)

(Why did almost everyone ask about Tom’s sex? *headdesk* If it squicks you, sorry. I needed him to be a girl to make it work, and it’s my fic, so nah(I’m sooooo mature. NOT!).)

 

Not-So-Annoying Questions:

No magic?

No. No magic. That’s why it’s an AU.

 

Schools:

St. Anthogals – All-male boarding school. Dudley and Ron are starting their first years there in the beginning of this fic. Draco was supposed to, but he talked his way out of it.

Hogwarts – All-female boarding school. Hermione, Ginevra, Pansy, Tom, and Blaise are starting their first years there in the beginning of this fic. Harry and Draco will also be going, despite being boys, for different reasons.

St. Brute – All-male boarding school meant to literally whip troublesome boys into a socially-acceptable standard.

 

Will Abandon be ignored?

This one actually surprised me. I’m touched that Abandon’s so important to some of you. The answer, of course, is no. Abandon is my baby and I don’t plan on ignoring it for this thing. I also happen to have set these fics up on two different computers, so I work on which ever fic is on the computer I’m working on at that time. Abandon also has a few chapters pre-written, whereas this is a post-as-I-go fic. Abandon will continue to be updated appox. once a week, unless I get another case of writer’s block, of course.

 

Is Harry a boy or a girl? Transsexual?

THIS was answered on the site. Harry is a boy, I have yet to decide if I will have him make the transformation from male to female during this story(I doubt it, since the Dursleys would never agree), but even if I do decide to do this, it won’t be for a loooooooong time.

A transsexual person is someone who truly, deeply believes that they’ve been born the wrong sex. It’s generally looked upon the same way as being gay is, except it’s not as prominent an issue today as being gay is.

Please do me a favour and don’t flame me for this, k? Literature was made for us to re-create real life. To flame this is like flaming some kindly transsexual person who just might be a friend of yours. Use common courtesy.

 

Annoying side A/N: Pure curiosity, did you guys realize you’ve been spelling transsexual sans one ‘s’ yet? Just curious. *smirks*

 

To the fic!!(…finally….)


 

Chapter Two: Hogwarts’ School for Young Women

 


 

Harry loved his new school. The teachers he’d met; Flitwick, McGonagall, Sprout, and Fletcher; had all seemed very nice so far, though McGonagall was extremely firm and serious, and he couldn’t wait until term started. It was made even better that he’d landed in the same Dorm House as both Hermione and Gin.

 

Dumbledore had gotten a seamstress to come and fit Harry for his school uniform, as well as a few changes of clothing for the weekend. Hermione had also promised to take Harry shopping during their first weekend escape to the nearby village, Hogsmeade.

 

Harry had also been forced into a check-up with the school’s resident nurse, Madame Pomfrey. She hadn’t seemed surprised at having a boy in the school and Harry assumed Dumbledore had warned her. At any rate, she gave him some medicine for his pain, helped him hide the bruise on his face, and, pursing her lips, let him go when he claimed he was perfectly fine other than a few bruises, which was true.

 

Currently, Harry and Hermione, both in their new school uniforms, were wandering around the school, laughing at little nuances, including the old-fashioned feeling to the castle.

 

“Oh, Har, isn’t this beautiful?” Hermione whispered, running a hand over the tapestry she’d stopped before. It depicted a young man with startling green eyes, round glasses, and wild hair riding a centaur through a dark forest. Something ghastly in a sweeping black cloak rose behind them, a white unicorn at its feet.

 

“It’s bleedin’ creepy.” Harry responded, shuddering. He got the sense that this was not a happy scene, nor was it meant to be beautiful. A warning, more likely.

 

“Hey, Har…”

 

“What is it, ‘Mione?”

 

“The boy, on the centaur’s back, he looks kinda like you…”

 

Harry took a second look and, sure enough, the boy on the mythical creature’s back did look amazingly like him, right down to the lightning shaped bolt in the centre of his forehead. Harry touched his own scar and bit his lip. “Very creepy.”

 

“What do you think it means?”

 

“What do I- ‘Mione!” Harry gave an exasperated sigh. “Not everything has to mean something!”

 

Hermione rolled her eyes and brushed a hand through her wild curls. “I never said it did, Har. It’s just, this feels like it should mean something to me…” She sighed. “Fine, fine. Keep moving, then. I like this one, though.”

 

“Good. Show it to Gin when she comes.” Harry spun around and found himself face-to-face with a girl with seriously short black hair and deep scarlet eyes. “Uh…”

 

“I was not aware there were other students staying in the school.” The girl growled. “Professor Snape forgot to mention that.”

 

Harry took a few steps back until he was next to Hermione. This girl scared him, for some reason.

 

Hermione scowled at the new girl. “Interesting, since Headmaster Dumbledore didn’t mention you either.”

 

Scarlet eyes fixed on brown and the girl narrowed her eyes coldly. “Don’t get an attitude with me, bitch.”

 

Hermione smiled brightly, eyes flashing dangerously. “Don’t call me a bitch, whore.”

 

“Stop! Stop!” Harry cried, getting between the two. He turned to the red-eyed girl, who looked ready to kill. “School hasn’t even started yet and you’re fighting. For that matter, you don’t even know one another’s names. That seems kind of stupid, really.”

 

“Are you calling me stupid, wimp?”

 

“Well I can hardly call you much else when you haven’t introduced yourself.” Harry retorted, then held out a hand. “Harry Potter.”

 

The girl’s eyes widened. “Harry is a boy’s name!”

 

“I’d noticed.” Harry muttered dryly.

 

“Tom Riddle.” The girl took Harry’s hand firmly.

 

Harry smiled. “Oh, and this is my friend, Hermione Granger.”

 

“Trying to forget me again?” Hermione teased Harry, gently poking his side before nodding to Tom. “Hello.”

 

Harry rubbed at his side with a frown. “Well, really, I thought you’d left for Dudley. Coulda sworn I’d heard him down the hall, screaming your name.”

 

Hermione made a disgusted face. “Oh, Har, that’s horrible!”

 

“Boys aren’t allowed on school campus.” Tom informed them. “It’s in the rules.”

 

Hermione shrugged helplessly. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell Har for the past hour. She’s hard of hearing, though.”

 

“Ha-ha.” Harry said dryly, scowling.

 

Tom grinned. “Hey, so, why are the Gryffindor skirts shorter than the Slytherin skirts? Do you know?” She inquired, picking at her own, knee-length green skirt.

 

“Well, I read about it-“ Hermione was cut off by a groan from Harry. “Shut it.” She warned him before turning back to Tom. “Our Founder, Godrica Gryffindor, was a bit of a slut and wanted short skirts. Sally Slytherin, on the other hand, was a very proper young lady and insisted on skirts to the knees. Helga Hufflepuff was too shy to have anything but a long skirt and Rowena Ravenclaw was too involved with her books to care about guys. Each of the Houses’ uniforms mirror their Founders’ personality.”

 

Tom rose an eyebrow at the brunette, who blushed. “Shouldn’t you be in Ravenclaw?”

 

“ ‘Mione’s really bookish, but she’s also really brave and stuff, so she ended up in Gryffindor.” Harry offered. “How do they decide Houses, anyway?”

 

“Ask Headmaster Dumbledore next time you see him.” Hermione suggested.

 

“Perhaps I won’t see him again.” Harry replied through gritted teeth.

 

“Of course you will. You’re not taking physical education with the rest of us, so it makes sense that’d you have independent study with Headmaster Dumbledore instead.”

 

“I’m going to ask if I can study by myself in the library.” Harry muttered under his breath, much to Tom’s amusement.

 

“So, in your wandering, did you find the library?” The scarlet-eyed girl inquired.

 

Hermione shook her head in regret. “Nope.”

 

“ ‘Mione’s been too busy studying the tapestries.” Harry sniggered, earning him a punch in the arm. “Hey! Watch it!”

 

Tom frowned at Harry. “No wonder you’re not taking phys ed. You’re a bleeding wimp.”

 

“Am not.” Harry shot back, rubbing at his arm gently. “My arm just hurts.”

 

“Oh, really.”

 

“Weren’t we going to go looking for the library?” Hermione cut in.

 

“You two go ahead.” Harry bit his lip. “I’m going back to the dorm.”

 

“You’re okay?” Hermione asked urgently, brown eyes worried.

 

“Fine. Just tired.” Harry offered a smile before turning and walking down the hallway slowly.

 

Tom frowned after the other student. ‘Hm.’

 

-~*~-

 

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

 

“Hermione Granger, if you ask me that one more time, I’m going to have to smack you!”

 

Tom smiled over her dinner as the two Gryffindors bickered. From what she’d read in the library, Godrica Gryffindor and Sally Slytherin had become close friends by the completion of Hogwarts, though the two Houses became notorious for hating each other through-out time. Tom herself found this an odd concept, as she had now met two Gryffindors and decided she rather liked them. They were much more open than herself, and she liked that, for some odd reason. Also, neither girl appeared overly rich, which made Tom feel more at home, as she was just a poor orphan herself.

 

“Hey, Tom, what’s going on in that mysterious brain of yours?” Harry inquired, green eyes bright in the candlelight of the Great Hall and the starlight coming through the windowed ceiling.

 

“Just thinking about how our Houses aren’t supposed to get along.”

 

“It’s the personalities.” Hermione supplied.

 

“No, it’s more than that.” Harry ran a hand through his long hair, which hung loose around his face. “I dunno what is it, but it’s something more than that.”

 

“Ancient grievances? I read that Sally left not long after Hogwarts was completed to travel.” Hermione suggested.

 

“Most students wouldn’t even know about that.” Tom muttered.

 

“We could see if one of the Professors know.” Harry suggested softly, watching as a man decked out all in black strode towards them.

 

Tom nodded to the man. “Professor Snape.”

 

The man nodded curtly in response. “Ms. Riddle. Ms. Granger. Potter.”

 

Harry scowled. He already didn’t like this teacher.

 

Hermione pursed her lips at the slight to her friend, but spoke anyway. “Professor Snape, perhaps you could answer a question for us?”

 

Tom slid her Head of House’s deliberate slip, and she was sure it was deliberate, to the back of her mind and nodded. “Please?”

 

Snape frowned. “That depends on the question.”

 

“We were wondering why most Slytherins and Gryffindors hate one another so.” Hermione explained.

 

“I believe most of it has to do with social standing, although, there is the differences in attitudes as well.”

 

“Social standings, sir?” Tom pressed, hoping he didn’t mean what she thought he meant.

 

“Yes, Ms. Riddle. Slytherins tend to have high standings in society whereas Gryffindors tend to be more middle- or lower-class.” Snape offered before continuing his way from the hall.

 

Tom dropped her head to the table. “I am so fucked.”

 

Harry slipped a hand over Hermione’s mouth to keep her from telling the other girl off for cursing. “Tom, what’s wrong?”

 

Tom glanced up at the two and smiled at the scowl on Hermione’s face and Harry’s hand covering her mouth. “Nothing, really.”

 

“Didn’t sound like ‘nothing’.” Harry retorted, wiping his hand on his short skirt to get the slobber from Hermione off.

 

Tom sighed, shaking her head. “I’m not high-class. They’ll hate me.”

 

“Pish.” Harry rolled his eyes. “You seemed pretty high-class to me. If you hadn’t told me, I’d have thought you were rich. These uniforms are good for hiding our class backgrounds, at any rate. No one’s going to know if you’re middle-class.”

 

“I’m not.” Tom growled.

 

“Really? Me neither.”

 

“Har, you are too middle-class.” Hermione frowned.

 

“I am not. The Dursleys are middle-class, I’m no-class.” Harry shot back, glaring.

 

Tom grinned. “No-class? That’s pretty low, Harry. But I’m shoe slime.”

 

Harry smiled at the Slytherin as Hermione groaned. “You’d live in the sewers, then?”

 

“Oh, yes. It’s rather stinky down there, but you get used to it after a while.” Tom snorted.

 

Harry glanced up at the stars. “Hey, at least you have space to run around.”

 

“I suppose. Why? Where do you live?”

 

Harry shrugged. “Closet.”

 

“Got spiders in there?”

 

“Yup.”

 

“Are they as tasty as they’re supposed to be?”

 

Harry made a face. “I’ve never tried them before, actually. They move too fast.”

 

“Scared of spiders, are you?” Tom teased.

 

Harry smiled sadly. “Not for years.” He stood. “I’m heading back up to the dorm. G’night, Tom.” He left slowly.

 

It suddenly hit Tom that Harry may not have been lying about living in a closet. “Hey, Hermione?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Was she being serious about that closet?”

 

Hermione sighed after her best friend. “Sadly, yes.”

 

Tom shook her head. “No-class indeed.”

 

-~*~-

 

“What did you do to him?” Tom asked Harry as the raven-haired Gryffindor stood cautiously.

 

Harry scowled. “Nothing. I have no clue why, but he hates me, okay?”

 

“Well, you must have done something.”

 

“Nothing, Tom. I did nothing to make Professor Snape hate me, okay? Can we drop it already?” Harry finally  asked, exasperated.

 

“I’d like to know what it’s about.” Tom grumbled, leaning down to pick up a book Harry had dropped when he’d run into Snape and landed on his arse in the middle of the hallway.

 

Harry grabbed the book from Tom’s grasp quickly, blushing as he hid it under his shirt. “You’ve been around ‘Mione for too long.” He declared.

 

Tom scowled. “Is that what I think that is?”

 

“Depends on what you think it is.” Harry shot back, inching away.

 

You pulled out a book on social illnesses from the Restricted Section?” Tom hissed.

 

“It is not from the Restricted Section.” Harry replied with a pout. “It was in the normal section, in the 100s, in fact. See.” He showed Tom the sticker on the side of the book with the number on it.

 

“The 100s?”

 

Harry let out an exasperated sigh. “Philosophy and psychology books, Tom.”

 

“How do you expect me to know what the numbers mean?!”

 

“It’s the Dewey Decimal System of Classification for non-fiction books. I thought everyone knew it.”

 

Tom smacked the heel of her hand into her forehead with a groan. “No, Harry, not everyone memorizes sets of numbers they rarely have a use for.” She paused. “Wait, isn’t there a, I dunno, social sciences section or something too?”

 

“Sure, that’s the 300s. The 100s were closer to the door, though, so I just went there.” Harry replied cheerfully.

 

“Closer to the door. Oiy.”

 

“Stop smacking yourself on your head and come on. ‘Mione’s gonna be furious with us if she has to come and find us.”

 

Tom obligingly started walking with Harry towards the Gryffindor common room. “Why wasn’t that in the Restricted Section, anyway? It’s always been considered forbidden material at home.”

 

“Hogwarts makes her own rules.” Harry murmured, remembering something Headmaster Dumbledore had said when he’d inquired as to why he’d been allowed into the school.

 

Tom twitched. “Why do you sound like you were quoting Dumbles?”

 

Harry grinned. “Because I was.”

 

“Uhg.”

 

“There you two are!” Hermione called to them as Harry laughed at Tom’s response. “What’s so funny?”

 

Harry tipped Hermione a wink before continuing past her to the common while Tom stopped and scowled. “She’s laughing because I don’t like Dumbles. Again.” The short-haired girl complained.

 

Hermione rolled her eyes. “Ignore Har, Tom. She’s just being a prat again. Now come on.”

 

Tom sighed helplessly and let the brunette lead her down the hall for their last studying session together before the rest of the school population arrived that very night.

 


 

A/N: Sorry if I was a bitch earlier. I’m just in a bad mood today for some reason. I really do love you guys.(As long as you don’t flame me for a stupid reason. Then I get to take my fury out on your flame, and people who’ve read my and my beta’s attacks on flames know to fear them, I’m sure.)

 

Consider the top the review replies, k? Just know that I love you all, even when I’m being bitchy, and I read every review you write. They’re my life’s blood, those reviews. Please keep them coming?

 

De site, for those of you who are like me and too lazy to go back a chapter and get it: <a href=www.angelfire.com/creep/junk/HP/doll/index.html> www.angelfire.com/creep/junk/HP/doll/index.html</a>

 

Next chapter plans: Everyone arrives. People meet for the first time.

Questions to be answered next chapter(Or, Which questions I don’t want people asking me!): Which teacher teaches what?(I have no clue, yet…) Where does everyone sit? How do the Slytherins treat Tom? Snape’s issues?

 

I know you all are dying to ask about the scar and the tapestry. I just know it! Ha! *smirks* I also know that you all get to wait to find out the answers to that.

 

~Batsutousai