"No way." she almost shouted.

"Oh, c'mon, Hermione! What's the worst that could happen?" her best friend was trying to appease her.

"Well, you could be pug-faced Parkinson for a whole week. Wouldn't that be great fun?" she retorted.

Harry chuckled. "Well, the worst I could do is Cormac McLaggen." He remembered the Christmas Party Hermione was so eager to forget. She made a face.

"You know we'll only be changing into someone of the same gender, right?" continued the raven-haired boy.

"There are some pretty vile women out there, Harry. What if I get, say, Lavender Brown???" She shuddered.

Harry never understood her intense dislike to this somewhat okay girlfriend of Ron's. It could be something due to that fact, though. He suspected Ron was being held up somewhere with Lavender. He never seemed to have time for them anymore.

"You were the one always excited about school projects." Harry raised his eyebrows at her.

She snorted at the true statement.

"Well, that was before someone came up with this insane idea."

----------

The great hall was filled with the seventh, sixth and fifth year students. The headmaster was in front, patiently waiting for every student to settle down. Soon, silence reigned, for everyone wanted to know about this little experiment of Professor Dumbledore and Professor Slughorn. Professor Dumbledore's voice boomed through the hall-

"Children-" each seventeen, sixteen, fifteen year old student looked at him in disbelief.

"Ladies and gentlemen, then. I believe you've been hearing some rumors about this 'experiment'. Some even hearing it from Professor Slughorn, here." The Slug Club, which sixth years Hermione Granger and Harry Potter were part of, had, of course.

"Now, if you remember, you were taught to make a certain concoction that goes by the name Polyjuice Potion, am I right?" Noise filled the hall.

"Your guardians have been notified, and none have expressed serious aversion to the idea… We had requested the permission of the Ministry of Magic, also. You are to transform into one of your fellow students, and the effect will last about two weeks, at the most and a few days, at the least. It depends on the quality of your potion." Neville Longbottom shifted uncomfortably in his seat, as did some others who were thinking about how they would just be able to scrape a low score on this test, or worse, fail completely.

"This is more like a social experiment." The headmaster said, with a twinkle in his bright eyes.

"That will, of course, promote inter-house unity and sensitivity towards others. Only when we step into each other's shoes, do we become more open-minded to different viewpoints and are able to unite as one."

And everyone in the great hall had mixed feelings of suspicion and excitement.

"There are some rules, though. You may not put in a strand of hair of any person of authority, a teacher, perhaps, in your potion. Any kind of animal hair will lead to disastrous results. Hair strands will be restricted to the students, and only to your gender. During the experiment, you will not be able to reveal who you truly are, only after. Everyone will be informed when each student has changed back. You will only be required to reveal to the person you became how it felt to be as him or her. Then you will write 2 feet of parchment on that, to be passed to Professor Slughorn. Thank you for your time, students."