Hi! If you're wondering about the next chapter for Weasley Girl, it's about half-written and shouldn't take too long in the coming. I just got hit with the inspitation/desire to do something slightly different...

Hermione Granger's Guide to
GENDER-FLIP FANFICTION

A Study in Writing Fanfic Where One Or More Characters Are The Opposite Sex From Canon

"Wait. Gender-flip fanfiction?" Harry looked up at the title with some confusion, re-reading it in order to make certain he hadn't misread something. "I thought fanfics where someone is the opposite sex from what they are in canon were called gender-bender or Rule 63 or something like that."

"Well," said Hermione. "Technically, you're right. Both those terms are common, though they are both much broader and used in many other contexts. 'Gender-flip' is a little more specific. I will admit I borrowed it from TV Tropes, but —"

"Hang on." Ron raised a hand, looking around with a puzzled expression. "Before we continue this, I have two... no, wait, three questions."

Harry and Hermione both looked at him.

"Question number one," said Ron, counting on his fingers. "Where exactly are we?"

They all looked around.

"I have no idea," Harry finally admitted. "The scene hasn't been established yet. Could be anywhere. The narrative hasn't exactly provided a lot of details."

"Right. Okay. That brings me to question number two." Ron raised a second finger. "How come we know what the narrative has or hasn't provided? We're not supposed to know what the text says. Hell, you just read the title. Who are you, Deadpool?" He paused, then raised a third finger. "Additional question: how do I even know who Deadpool is? I'm not supposed to know about Muggle pop culture, and yet I understood everything you two were saying when you talked about fanfiction and TV Tropes and Rule 63. How come?"

"I think this story's just extremely meta," said Harry. "For the sake of the narrative, we all know things we wouldn't otherwise. Sorry, mate, that's the best answer I have."

"Thanks," said Ron, with more than a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Third — no, sorry, fourth and final question." He held up four fingers. "This isn't canon, is it?"

"No, Ron, this isn't canon," Hermione huffed. "Honestly. If this was canon, do you think I would even be talking about fanfiction in this way?"

Ron shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe if Jo felt like playing a joke on us, or lost her mind, or something like that."

"Jo's not writing this!" said Hermione. "This is a fanfic, Ron! Posted online because some fanfic writer was thinking about gender-flip fanfiction and decided to write about it in the form of a fanfic instead of a normal rant. It might be slightly unorthodox, but it's hardly the first time any of us have been used to express a fanfiction author's ideas and opinions before."

"So you're basically the author's mouthpiece in this story?" said Harry, trying to hide a smirk.

Hermione huffed. "If you absolutely have to put it that way. I do like to think that I don't share all the author's opinions, though. I know for a fact we disagree on a number of things. Now, can we just get on with it? We've wasted fourteen paragraphs and close to five hundred words on all this, and I would like to get to the point."

"Can we at least establish where we are first?" said Ron. "I hate being in a scene and not knowing where it takes place. Feels eerie."

"Oh, all right." Hermione sighed. "Let's say we're in the Room or Requirement. It's a bit of a cliché to use, but it's flexible."

The Room of Requirement formed around them. Possibly because it was Hermione who had suggested it, the Room had taken form of an empty classroom, with an oversized teacher's desk overflowing with books and scrolls, paper and parchment. On the wall behind said desk was a huge blackboard proudly sporting the text:

Hermione Granger's Guide to
GENDER-FLIP FANFICTION

A Study in Writing Fanfic Where One Or More Characters Are The Opposite Sex From Canon

Just like the title of the story, in fact, only represented by italics instead of bold text.

Hermione looked around with some satisfaction, before turning to look at Harry and Ron. "There," she said. "Happy now?"

Ron breathed a sigh of relief, sank down in the chair that materialised just behind him, and gave her a thumbs-up.

"Glad to know it," said Hermione. "Now then. Let's get started. New paragraph, please."

One new paragraph later, she strode up to the blackboard, where the text was written. She took her wand out of her pocket and used it as a (rather short) pointer, indicating the words as she spoke: "Gender-flip fanfiction."

"Gender-flip fanfiction," Ron repeated.

"Thank you, Ron, but you don't actually have to repeat what I say. Gender-flip fanfiction. A term used, as I said before, on the TV Tropes site, for fanfictions that depict an alternate universe in which one or more characters was born as the opposite sex."

Hermione tapped the blackboard with her wand, and the written text vanished, replaced with the word REASONS.

"Let's discuss, briefly, the reasons for the existence of such fanfics. Why do you think some people write fanfiction in which, say, Harry is a girl? Yes, Harry?"

Harry didn't quite know why he'd raised his hand. Must be the classroom environment. "Er," he said. "Maybe the author is a girl and decides to write me as a girl to better identify with me?"

Hermione nodded and tapped the blackboard with her wand again, and the word IDENTIFICATION appeared. "Very good. Though it seems that a majority of female fanfic authors tend to identify more with me and so make me the main character, even if they have to severely warp my personality for some of the plots they have in mind... but yes, valid reason. Can we think of anything else?"

"Maybe they want Harry to get together with, er, Fred or George," said Ron, "but don't wanna write slash, so they just change him into a girl?"

"Romance," said Hermione, tapping the blackboard so that the word ROMANCE appeared underneath IDENTIFICATION. "One of the most popular, if not the most popular, reasons for a gender-flip. In fact, it's so common that a lot of readers just take it for granted that the change in sexes has been done for the sake of a romantic pairing. Excellent, Ron. More reasons?"

"Er..." Ron hesitated. "They just wanna write a kick-arse girl as the main character and don't think any of the canon girls will do?"

Tap went Hermione's wand, and the words FEMINIST FANTASY appeared.

"Or they just wanna write porn and think a girl Harry would make for... sexier porn." Ron's ears turned pink.

Hermione looked about as embarrassed as Ron did, but added SEXUAL GRATIFICATION to the list.

"Maybe," said Harry, trying to put words around the idea floating around in his head. "Maybe they would see what it was like for a Girl Who Lived... Like, how would Muggle and wizard society treat me if I was a girl? Would it be the same, or would I be treated differently... Like, given how boys and girls tend to get different responses, they'd probably talk more about how pretty or charming I was..."

"Yes!" Hermione beamed as if Harry had said something particularly clever, and added EXPLORATION OF GENDER ROLES IN MUGGLE AND WIZARD SOCIETY to the bottom of the list.

"Now, there are probably more reasons, but I think this should make for a good representative list. As we can see," (she motioned to the entire list) "there are several reasons why an author might write a gender-flip fic. And of course, it doesn't have to be limited to just one reason either; it's perfectly possible for an author to have several goals with the same story."

"Like a romance story that also examines gender roles," said Harry.

"For example," Hermione agreed. "There are a lot of stories that can be told just by changing the sex of one character, or of course several characters. Any questions before we move on? Yes, Harry?"

"Er," said Harry. "Just wondering. You call it 'gender-flip,' but you always say 'opposite sex.' Are they the same thing, or what?"

"Ah." Hermione nodded, as if pleased. "Good question. And the answer is that no, they're not. The two terms are often used interchangeably, but a little simplified we can say that 'sex' is about biology and physical differences, while 'gender' is about identity and social factors such as values, perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes."

Harry and Ron stared blankly at her.

"That's simplified, is it?" said Ron.

Hermione sighed, muttering something under her breath about ignorant oafs. "My point is that 'gender' is a very complicated social construct, based on but not necessarily the same as 'sex.' It's certainly very possible for the two to clash in one person - like for example a person being born male yet identifying as female, perhaps feeling like they were born in the wrong body. This is known as 'gender dysphoria' and is a rather big topic which we don't have time to go into detail about now."

"Oh yeah," said Ron, looking like something was dawning on him. "That'd be like my cousin Jack. Much older than us. Was born a boy, but always wanted to be a girl, so two years before she started Hogwarts, she managed to convince her parents that she should be a girl —"

"Wait," said Harry. "He became a girl and you still call him Jack?"

"Her," Ron corrected. "It's short for Jaqueline."

"Oh."

"Anyway, what happened was that she got this sex-change potion. At first she had to keep taking the potion every couple of days to avoid turning back into a boy, but after a few years on the potion the effect was permanent, so now she's a full-time girl."

"Sounds a lot easier than what transgender Muggles have to go through," said Hermione.

"Yeah, well, it's fantasy, innit?"

Harry was about to laugh, but then thought better of it. "Ron," he said. "Was any of that canon? At all?"

"Nah." Ron grinned. "Far as I know, there's no Jaqueline Weasley on any canon family trees. Or any transgender Weasleys, for that matter. Still — you never know. Now that we've invented her, maybe she'll show up in a fanfic sometime."

"Sex-change potions aren't strictly canon anyway," said Hermione, "but given the existence of Polyjuice Potion, which has been shown capable of altering someone's physical sex, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine that purely sex-change potions might exist as well."

"Fair enough," said Harry.

"You wouldn't believe how many stories have you transform irreversibly into a girl because of an accident in Potions," Hermione went on. "But that would be a gender-change story. It covers some similar ground, but isn't quite the same as a gender-flip story, which would have you born a girl from the start. Though," she added thoughtfully, "a gender-change story often does deal with gender dysphoria at least on a shallow level, as you tend to react rather negatively to being a girl, and continue identifying as a boy, at least at first. That said, the treatment of the gender dysphoria tends to be rather poorly-researched, if at all, and the resolution tends to be... extremely simplified."

"I turn back into a boy?"

"No, you get used to being a girl, decide you like it and end up romantically involved with Draco Malfoy, or with Professor Snape."

Harry grimaced, demonstrating that in this author's stories at least, the Harry/Draco and Harry/Snape pairings were extremely unlikely to ever happen, gender or sex notwithstanding. "Ugh."

"Agreed," said Ron, demonstrating that he at least in this story shared the author's opinion on the Harry/Draco and Harry/Snape pairings. "Oy," he suddenly said, frowning at the narrative text. "Are you implying I'm a homophobe?"

The narrative hurried to add that Ron had no problems with, say, a Harry/Cedric or Harry/Neville pairing, and might even approve of a Harry/Ron pairing, as long as neither Snape nor Draco was involved.

"Well," said Ron, slightly mollified. "All right, then."

Hermione sighed. "Ron, if we're going to keep having these pointless asides just to demonstrate how metafictional we are, we'll never get to the point."

"Sorry."

"Suffice to say," said Hermione, trying to get back on track, "when I talk about 'gender-flip stories,' I mean stories in which a character does not change sex during the story itself, but rather is presented as having been born that sex. I suppose we use 'gender-flip' (or 'gender-bender' for that matter) because 'sex-flip' sounds more like it would be a rather adult-rated story... Is that funny, Ron?"

Ron tried to stifle his sniggering, but then gave up. "Er — yeah, it kinda is. Especially since we talked about... porn... earlier..."

Hermione rolled her eyes and cleared her throat loudly. "The thing about gender-flip fanfiction is that it takes a bit more preparation and planning. Changing a character during the story itself allows you to start out with the canon character and then document the changes in the writing... But starting the story with the character having been born the opposite sex, you need to take into account that said character's life and history probably won't have been exactly the same. I think we need a demonstration. Ron, stand up, please."

"What?" Ron had stopped laughing. "Er — you mean, you're going to change me into a girl just because I was annoying you?"

"No, that's not the only reason," said Hermione. "And I'm not exactly going to turn you into a girl. I'm going to change you into someone who's always been a girl."

"Right. That makes perfect sense."

"It will in a moment," said Hermione, pointing her wand at him. "Don't worry, none of this is canon, remember? Nothing that happens in this story will affect us, either in canon or in other fanfics."

"Yeah, okay, but why me and not Harry? Harry's the one they all turn into a girl in their stories!"

"That's why we're going to get to Harry later," said Hermione. "There's a lot more ground to cover with Harry, so you make for a better introduction. Now, if you'll forgive a blatantly non-canon spell... Puella Transmutatio!"

With that hastily-put-together spell created with a English-to-Latin dictionary, a jet of pink light shot out of her wand and hit Ron, who jerked and shot up off his chair.

Almost before he was fully on his feet, the transformation was almost complete; it was like watching someone take Polyjuice potion except instead of changing into a different person altogether, Ron simply grew more feminine-looking. His face turned slightly softer and rounder, and while his characteristic freckles remained almost unchanged, his features turned marginally more delicate and his short ginger hair shot out and lengthened to reach down past his shoulders. He shrank perhaps an inch, which wasn't quite enough for his too-small, second-hand robes to fit perfectly, especially since his general body shape also altered, just a little...

The entire thing took perhaps three seconds. The Ron who stood there, swaying slightly and blinking in mild confusion, was still tall, thin, lanky and freckly, and would probably not have won any beauty contests, but there was no mistake: He — she — was decidedly female.

"Bloody hell," she said, in a voice that absolutely did not belong to a male, but in a tone that was still unmistakably Ron. "That felt weird."

"Errr... Ron?" said Harry, a little uncertainly.

She turned to look at him, and a wry smirk spread on her lips. "Yeah, that's me! Well, kinda."

"Kinda?!"

"Well, there are one or two obvious differences from before, right?" she sniggered. "Right now, I'm Fem!Ron."

Harry rubbed his forehead slightly. The girl in front of him was — well, it was Ron, and yet it wasn't. Her eyes were Ron's, and her expression was exactly like the one Ron always had whenever he thought something was amusing. Even the posture and the way she gestured was unmistakably Ron-like. But...

"...Fem!Ron," he said.

"Yep. 'Fem' for 'female,' of course. Good pronunciation there, by the way. Not many people get that exclamation mark right on the first go."

"You're Ron as a girl."

"You've always been quick on the uptake, haven't you?" The girl grinned in a very Ron-like fashion. "My real name's Veronica. Call me 'Ronnie.' That's what you usually call me."

"What d'you mean, it's what I usually —"

"Don't worry, Harry," said Hermione, placing down her wand and looking like she was trying very hard not to smile. "Remember, 'gender-flip' means that she character was born the opposite sex. So now she remembers always having been a girl."

"Because I always have," said Ronnie.

"No, you haven't!" Harry insisted. "Hermione just turned you into a girl! I saw it happening!"

"Yeah, but she inserted a new personal history with that." Ronnie shrugged. "So now I'm Veronica Weasley. First-born girl of the Weasley clan for generations. Fem!Ron."

Harry rubbed his scar. It wasn't that it was hurting, it was just that this was getting rather confusing. His best friend suddenly turned into a girl now insisting he had always been a girl, even if —

"She," Ronnie interrupted the narrative, demonstrating that she could still read the text of the story no matter what else had changed. "I'm a she, not a he."

Harry was starting to get a little annoyed at the meta levels of this story, but he still tried to make some kind of sense of all this. "But — you remember being a boy, right?"

"Yeah, but you said it yourself: This story's meta. Hah!" Ronnie pointed triumphantly at him. "Got you back!"

Harry briefly hid his face in his hands. The next time someone told him that girls were naturally more mature than boys, he thought, he'd laugh in their face.

"If you two are quite finished," said Hermione dryly, "I was about to say that the reason I turned Ronald into Veronica is because our author has a bit of experience writing a female Ron, or to use the official term, Fem!Ron."

"Yeah, I'm from a story called Weasley Girl," said Ronnie. "Alternate-universe written by the same author who's writing this story right now, it was mentioned in that brief message to the reader at the beginning. And in that universe I was born a girl. You first met and made friends with me on the Hogwarts Express, just like in canon, except, well, I was a girl."

Harry tried to mentally swap out his best friend with a female version, but couldn't really manage.

"Lots of people thought it was a weird idea, actually," said Ronnie. "You should have heard them. What's the point in turning Ron into a girl, when we already have Ginny? Others seemed to like the idea, though."

"Wait," said Harry. "So you're essentially a replacement for Ginny?"

"Course not. Ginny's still in the story. If she wasn't, then I would essentially just be an older Ginny, wouldn't I? This way, I'm not just an older Ginny, I'm unique. I'm Ginny's Big Sister." She carefully inserted the capital letters on those last two words. "And at the time of writing, trying to get her to admit to you that she fancies you. Wouldn't call myself a matchmaker, but, you know."

"No," Harry admitted. "I don't know."

"Well, a lot of the readers seem to want us to get together," said Ronnie. "There's been a lot of reviews asking for it to happen. Author even ran a 'shipping poll' for fun, asking which couple the readers would like, and Harry/Ronnie was by far the most popular."

"That," said Hermione, "does touch on what we said earlier, about how gender-flip fanfics are so often used for romance that a lot of readers take it for granted that romance will happen. Or at least consider it a waste if it doesn't."

"Well, you don't know," said Ronnie stubbornly. "Currently, in my story, I just think romance is a bloody waste of time. Besides — not saying you're completely without charm, Harry, but despite what a lot of fanfic writers seem to think, you're not so hot that every single girl goes nuts over you."

"Right then." Harry tried to hide his embarrassment, but then realised that everyone would be able to read that he was embarrassed and trying to hide it, so he gave up.

Ronnie turned to face the readers. "I'm sorry people, but I really wouldn't hold my breath. The shipping poll was just for fun and not likely to influence the story much. Weasley Girl isn't about romance, and just cause I'm a girl it doesn't mean that I'm gonna fall for Harry. That said, those reviews where you had Harry singing I Wanna Know What Love Is were pretty funny."

"Currently, in your story, you're twelve years old," said Hermione, somewhat dryly. "I wouldn't rule out the possibility that you come around to the idea later. But let's cross that bridge if and when we reach it. As for now, Ronnie, as an example of a gender-flipped character, can you tell us a little about yourself?"

"Er, okay," said Ronnie. "Like I said, I'm from the story Weasley Girl, where the premise is that Ron Weasley was born a girl, and given the name Veronica. The story's kinda like the author's response to all the Fem!Harry stories out there, because while there are a couple of Fem!Ron stories there aren't all that many, and —"

"I meant, tell us about yourself as a character," said Hermione. "How has being a girl made you different from canon Ron?"

"You mean apart from the fact that canon Ron's unlikely to grow tits any time soon?" said Ronnie innocently.

"Yes, apart from that," Hermione sighed. "I'm so glad we're treating this subject with maturity."

Ronnie giggled — a bit of a girlish giggle, really — but then grew a little more serious. "All right. Let's see. Well, right from the start, being a girl gave me a somewhat different outlook on things, as well as a better sense of my own worth. I mean, look at canon Ron. Poor bloke's the second youngest of seven siblings, all his older brothers are supremely talented in some way or other, and Ginny's not only younger than him, but the only girl in the family, and, it's hinted, also more talented and gifted than him. He grew up, overshadowed by everyone in his family, and that wreaked havoc with his self-esteem."

"But you don't have that problem?" said Hermione.

"Hah! If anything, I think too highly of myself," said Ronnie. "In my case, Percy and Fred and George are kinda really overprotective, even if Fred and George spend about as much time teasing and pranking as they do protecting. Kind of annoys me that they see the need to protect me just because I'm a girl, so I tend to think I can do anything. And I'm more impulsive and often get myself into difficult situations because I bite off more than I can chew." She paused, frowning slightly. "So actually, the protectiveness makes a bit of sense. Maybe it's not 'cause I'm a girl at all, maybe it's because I'm just reckless. Blimey, this 'being meta' thing is weird. I'm not usually this insightful about myself."

"You get used to it," said Hermione. "Continue, please."

"Right, well, er, Fred never changed my teddy bear into a spider, so I don't have canon Ron's arachnophobia. I like spiders. Actually, I like all animals."

"Yes," said Hermione. "Don't you have a rather uncanny way with animals? They all tend to like you, as I understand it."

"It's kind of an exaggeration of something the author saw in canon Ron," Ronnie explained. "You know in the books how occasionally an animal would take a liking to him? It's like that, except it's a major trait of mine. To compensate for it, because the author didn't just want me to be 'better than Ron in every way,' I lack a couple of his strengths. I don't have his skill with chess, for example."

"So you love animals and hate chess?" said Harry. "We're not exactly rocking any gender stereotypes here, are we?"

"I know," Ronnie muttered. "If it helps, the story depicts Charlie as having the same gift with animals. Backstory pretty much implies that in canon, Ron took to chess because it was the only thing he found he had a talent for, that none of his family could do better. In my case, I was busy with my animals, so I never developed a taste for the game."

"Hmm." Harry thought about this, but then another thought struck him. "Wait — if you don't like chess, how did we get past the giant chess set to get to the Philosopher's Stone?"

"Er — well, the story kinda went very differently in the first place." Ronnie counted on her fingers. "First of all, Quirrell was exposed earlier. You see, at the Hogwarts Express, since I'm not afraid of spiders, I took you along to take a peek at Lee Jordan's tarantula, which means we never talked about the Gringotts break-in on the train, and you didn't get the Chocolate Frog card that mentioned Nicolas Flamel because we weren't in the compartment when the trolley came by, and our first meetings with Hermione and Neville went differently, which meant that we were friends with Hermione and Neville from the start, and that meant Snape was even more horrible to us because as a gang of four we reminded him of the Marauders, and that meant —"

"Never mind!" said Harry hurriedly. "I get it. Small changes lead to bigger changes, which lead to a different story."

"Also known as the Butterfly Effect," said Hermione. "After the idea of chaos theory, that a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world might eventually cause a storm in another part. For the story of Weasley Girl, you could view Ronnie's birth as the butterfly which inadvertently alters large chunks of how the story goes. Not all of it, mind you — Harry still grew up with the Dursleys, Quirrell still got himself possessed by Voldemort and tried to steal the Philosopher's Stone, Dumbledore is still Headmaster of Hogwarts and I'm still the first in our class to get the Wingardium Leviosa charm right, because those are things that wouldn't be affected by Ron being a girl."

"So is that the point of that particular story?" said Harry. "Just to introduce that one change and see what happens because of it?"

"Largely, I think," said Hermione. "I believe the author took it as a bit of a challenge to see how big the changes could get while remaining plausible within the world depicted in the canon books."

"So that's yet another reason for a gender-flip fanfiction," Harry concluded. "Just to see what happens."

"Yes... But in essence, most if not all fanfiction is based around the question 'what if,' so it's hardly unique there," said Hermione. "But that's Ronnie. As you can see, she has a lot in common with canon Ron; blunt and sarcastic, not always very sensitive, a little lazy when it comes to schoolwork, fiery temper, a tendency to judge too quickly..."

"Flatterer, aren't you?" Ronnie muttered.

"But a very good friend all the same," said Hermione quickly. "Protective of her loved ones, loyal and witty." She cleared her throat. "But she's also very different from canon Ron in many ways, in addition to her sex and her exaggerated affinity for animals. Largely because her upbringing was slightly different. Because she is a girl, and always knew she was special, she is more self-assured, more impulsive, more... Hey!"

"Cuddlier!" said Ronnie with a smirk as she pulled Hermione into a big hug.

"Yes, that — you can stop hugging me now."

"I'm a girl, I'm allowed." But Ronnie did let Hermione go.

"Yes. Well." Hermione straightened her robes a little. "Society certainly allows for girls to express physical affection more often, and in more blatant ways, than boys."

"Are you saying that if society allowed it, Ron would go around hugging people?" said Harry.

"He could certainly do with a few more hugs in his life, if you ask me," said Ronnie.

"Thank you, Veronica," said Hermione with slight annoyance. "So. Veronica Weasley. An example of a gender-flipped character and how the change of a simple chromosome might result in a lot of changes. Any questions so far?"

"Yes, one," said Harry. He turned to Ronnie. "What did you see when you looked into the Mirror of Erised?"

She blinked, and then turned a rather bright shade of pink that clashed rather horribly with her ginger hair. "Er. Are you so sure I ever looked into the Mirror of Erised? Story developed differently, remember?"

"It's a very convenient tool for character exploration and revelation," said Harry, secretly impressed at his almost Hermione-like vocabulary. "I don't think the author would have passed up the chance. Besides... you're blushing."

"Damn," Ronnie muttered. "Can't go a single chapter without turning pink. Not even in a blatant non-canon appearance. What a stupid running gag."

"Sorry," said Harry. "It's a personal question, I get that. I still want to know, though."

"Well... actually, what I saw wasn't that different from what Ron saw. I saw myself as grown-up, accomplished... my family all really proud of me. Er... I kinda saw myself as really beautiful too. "

"I doubt Ron saw that last part," said Harry. "Unless there was something he didn't tell me."He paused, thinking back to the scene from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. "Now that I think about it, he didn't really go much into detail."

"It's an interesting distinction, though," said Hermione. "The fact that you distinctly mentioned your family being proud of you, while Ron did not, suggests that there is a slight difference in otherwise similar desires. Ron always felt overshadowed by his older brothers, while you always felt overprotected by them."

"So?"

"So, it means that Ron wants recognition, while you want respect. Similar, but different — and understandable, given your similar, but different upbringings!" Hermione nodded in satisfaction and went back to the blackboard, tapping it with her wand.

The list disappeared and left the blackboard blank once again.

"So," said Hermione, Encouraging Teacher, "what have we learned from all this?"

Harry and Ronnie exchanged glances.

"That Ron's got emotional insecurities and I need a reality check?" said Ronnie.

"I meant about the — oh, never mind!" Hermione tapped the blackboard with her wand again, and the words SIMILAR, BUT DIFFERENT appeared. "These are important words to consider with Ronnie's type of gender-flipped character... Or for that matter, most types of gender-flipped characters. Similar enough to her male counterpart that she can occupy roughly the same role, but different enough that she's her own person and not just a carbon copy. Of course, just how similar or how different will vary from story to story. Sometimes the differences are barely even noticeable — sometimes they're so vast that the character is completely unrecognisable."

"All right," said Ronnie gleefully. "Is there a story where I'm — I mean, where Ron is..." she paused, clearly trying to think of something ludicrous. "A green-skinned alien girl from the planet Wongo... mmm... who eats cutlery and has the, err, ability to communicate with... socks?"

"I doubt it," said Hermione dryly. "I wouldn't be surprised if there was a story out there where Harry was like that, though."

"Really?!" said Harry.

"Well, as far as I know there isn't, but you have been getting a lot of rather strange gender-flip treatments in various fanfics." Hermione shrugged. "Speaking of which: Now that we've had Ronnie presented to us, it's your turn."

Harry blinked. "Errrr... my turn?" He looked nervously at her, then at Ronnie. "I'm really quite happy being a boy, you know! Besides, haven't we already demonstrated what a gender-flipped character looks like?"

"True, but we haven't gone through all that many of the possibilities," said Hermione. "Ronnie's a preview, so to speak, She's an established character for this author, so we didn't really go through the creation process. With you, we're going to!"

"Besides," Ronnie sighed, "It's you the readers all want to see as a girl. Nobody cares about Fem!Ron, if there's going to be a gender-flip it's Fem!Harry they want and expect!"

"You are the one character in the franchise who gets gender-flipped the most often, Harry," said Hermione. "It's quite rare for someone else to get the treatment; and even when they do you usually change as well. Weasley Girl is one of relatively few exceptions. Don't worry, it's quite painless."

"I suppose," Harry sighed. "Can't we take a break first, though?"

"A break?" Hermione blinked. "We've only just started. There's a lot more ground to cover."

"Which is why we should take a break," said Harry. "You'll end up tiring out both us and the readers if we do this all in one go."

"He does have a point, y'know," said Ronnie. "We have been at this for over five thousand words, and I don't know how many paragraphs."

"One hundred and seventy-three, including this one," Hermione muttered under her breath.

Ronnie blinked. "You know how many paragraphs — what am I saying, of course you know. You're scary sometimes." Her voice was just awed enough, however, that this sounded like a compliment rather than an insult.

Hermione blushed, but looked pleased. "Well, you knew the approximation of how many words it had been."

"Yeah, but I used the word counter."

Hermione shook her head and smiled."Oh, all right. A break. There's nothing wrong with a little study break every now and then, to help gather focus. Then we'll start a new chapter, and we can present Fem!Harry, and the process of creating a gender-flipped character, in that next chapter."

"Right," said Harry, though less than enthusiastically. At least this isn't canon, he reminded himself.

"In the meantime, " said Hermione, "how about some refreshments?"

All of a sudden, a table materialized to one side, upon which was a large silver plate filled with sandwiches, and three bottles of Butterbeer.

"I like the way you think," said Ronnie. "Wait, I thought the Room of Requirement couldn't provide food or drink? It's to do with that Gaunt's Law of Exceptions to Tranfiguration thing..."

"That's Gamp's Law," said Hermione. "The Gaunts were Voldemort's family. And you're right, canonically the Room can't provide food or drink. But as we've repeatedly stated, this isn't canon. In this story, anything a character requests can be provided; Food, drink, living creatures. It would be a huge deal-breaker if this story hadn't been so meta, but since this is only a lecture and the three of us are the only ones here..."

"Good enough for me," said Harry, deciding to enjoy the break while he could. "Pass me a bacon sandwich, please."

As they tucked in, the text on the blackboard changed, all of its own accord, to read:

TO BE CONTINUED...

Author's Notes: So, this was really just going to be a one-shot, but it got a little long, and then —

"Do you mind?" said Ronnie. "We're trying to eat here."

Ah. Sorry.