The Runaway

by Sunline_Sol

Summary:

Harry Potter vanished. Without a word, without a trace. Hermione's life just wasn't the same.

Until, years later and on the other side of the world, she crosses paths with a beautiful green-eyed girl.

Notes:

Hey everyone! Here's the "oh shit she's hot" trans harry plot bunny that's been dug into my brain for years now.

Chapter 1

It was a sunny Sunday morning and Hermione was feeling damn fine. She woke up slow that morning, lazy and sated. 

 

The reason for that was currently still warming her bed, snuggled tight up to her side. The woman’s dark hair spilled over their entwined bodies, still naked and painted with the evidence of last night's fun.

 

But god was it fun. She was still sore, in the wonderful warm way only a damn fine shagging could leave her. She could see the marks she’d left on her partner’s neck, and she was sure she’d been marked in turn. 

 

It was wonderful. 

 

She really had to find out this girl’s name. She wouldn’t mind a repeat performance some time. As far as drunken hookups go this one went very, very well. Easily the best shag she’d had in her entire life .

She would have been happy to lie there for a while longer, nature waited for no woman. 

 

Extracting herself with care and ignoring the adorable grumble her bedmate made, she took care of that then wandered through her flat to the kitchen. 

 

Coffee sounded divine right about now. 

 

When her colleagues had convinced her to come out with them for a night on the town the day before she’d been… hesitant. She’d never been more happy to have been proven wrong. 

 

She’d never actually done it before, just go out and have fun with friends. With the war and the shattered state of British wizarding society afterwards just getting to be a young woman had gone on the back burner. 

 

So much of her life had, really. Things she’d always wanted to do had been left forgotten in favour of just surviving. The weight of the British wizarding world on three sets of all too young shoulders. But especially on one in particular. 

 

It had been too much. One day, Harry had just… vanished. Left no note, left no explanation. One day he was just gone. 

 

She should have seen it coming, really. He’d been distant for a long time by that point. They’d thought he’d just needed time after he and Ginny broke it off but it hadn’t gotten better. He’d just pulled further and further back from their lives despite everything they tried. 

 

They didn’t notice he’d been wrapping up his affairs at the time.

It was her fault. She should have connected the dots. She should have known . 

 

They’d tried to find him, of course. Most everyone had, but it was no use. He’d hidden his tracks far too well and if her guess was on point left the wizarding world entirely. 

Without Harry everything just felt… wrong. The whole world tilted one degree to the left. It itched . That feeling never went away either. It just sat with her like a hot coal under her heart.

 

Then in the fallout of that whole mess she’d had to make things all the more difficult.
Things with Ron had been good, he was a wonderful man. He was warm, honest, caring and kind. They bickered, sure but it was always a game to them. They were good for each other, they really were.

 

But it wasn’t enough.

 

Their breakup had shattered the shaky cohesion their circle of friends had salvaged in the wake of Harry’s disappearance. It was inevitable they’d drift apart, Harry had always been the glue, the orbit they all floated around. 

 

In retrospect, she was only fast friends with Harry and Ron. If she hadn’t been with them she didn’t have much in common with anyone else they knew. Her priorities were just in a vastly different direction. It was no one's fault, it just was. 

 

Honestly her and Ron’s breakup had just accelerated the inevitable.

 

So she did what she always did. She threw herself into her studies, magical and not. Three years into a transfiguration mastery she was offered an apprenticeship with one of the preeminent scholars in the field. The undisputed brightest mind in human transfiguration. The catch?

Said scholar lived in New Zealand. About as far away from England and the hidebound, prejudiced British magical society as possible. 

 

She had her hand on an international portkey the very next day. She’d never regretted that decision once . Especially not now. 

 

Kettle boiling, she decided to face the music. She dug her phone out of her handbag, tossed aside in a frantic mess of limbs and kisses the night before. Perhaps vanishing on her friends with a stranger in tow was a bad idea, but she couldn’t say she regretted it right now. 

 

Ah. Yep. That was a lot of missed messages. Each individual member of their group and the group chat. Fortunately for their anxiety levels it seemed one of them had seen her leaving. The tone of the messages changed quite quickly after that. 

Dumb Memes for Gay Uni Queens

 

Swish and Flick-her: Sorry! I’m alive and safe!

 

5ft of Fury: oh god, really? you ditched us for a girl? on girls night?

 

Switch and Flick-her: I absolutely did and would do so again. 

 

5ft of Fury: Understandable, have a nice day. 

 

Tome-o Sexual: Okay, one? Gay. Two, we were really worried! 😠

 

Swish and Flick-her: Ah, yes. I am sorry that worried you. 

 

5ft of Fury: was it worth it at least?

 

Swish and Flick-her: I may have seen the face of god. 🙂

 

Tome-o Sexual: Yeeesssssss, get it. 🙌  Do we know her?

 

Swish and Flick-her: I have no idea. I might not… know her name.

 

5ft of Fury: …holy shit hermione

 

Swish and Flick-her: Okay, look I was drunk! So was she! It just… never came up?

 

Tome-o Sexual: Wow. Whore (affectionate) 😂

 

Swish and Flick-her: An oversight I will be rectifying immediately I assure you. Once she wakes up. 

 

Tome-o Sexual: Round two? 😏

 

Swish and Flick-her: You’re the worst, Liv.

 

Swish and Flick-her: …but hopefully. Speaking of which got to go!

 

She dropped her phone back on the couch, ignoring the continued pinging. She’d give them the details later, not that she had much of a choice. They all shared a tiny post-grad office in the Anthropology department, she had no escape. 

 

She had ummed and ahhed about going back to her non-magical studies after the war, but Harry had convinced her to. She’d gotten her Bachelors in England and started her Masters degree here. 

 

Coffee acquired, she took two softly steaming mugs back to the bedroom, where her bed mate for the night was beginning to stir. God she was cute.

 

“Well, look who’s alive.” Hermione said, wandering over to sit next to the woman. “I made coffee, if you want some.”

“Uughhh. Yes please.” The girl grumbled, sitting up and stretching, hair falling cutely over her face in the process.

 

“Here, do you like it black?” Hermione asked.

“Mmmm, sure do. Thanks ‘mione.” She mumbled sleepily into her mug. 

 

Hermione cocked her head. Had she told her her name last night? 

The woman seemed to realise what she’d said, and flinched. “Oh, sorry.” She said, with a shaky laugh. “You just …reminded me of someone.” 

She brushed her hair out of her face and for the first time that morning their eyes met. 

 

Warm, deep brown met shimmering emerald green. 

 

They both froze, and for Hermione it was like the world slammed to a stop. At the same time, her thoughts were spinning like mad. No. No, no, no it couldn’t be. 

Her eyes tore away from the other woman’s as she almost involuntarily shot to her forehead. 

Almost hidden behind messy black bangs, she saw what she hoped for. What she dreaded. 

 

A faded, almost invisible scar in the shape of a bolt of lightning. 

 

“Harry.” She whispered, soft as a prayer. 

 

Harry Potter was in her bed. The wizard she hadn’t seen in years and missed every moment he was gone. And who was also the witch who she fucked into the mattress the night before. 

 

“Oh shit. ” Harry whispered, eyes wide. She looked like she was a moment away from a panic attack.

 

In an instant and with a crack of displaced air, she was gone. 

 

Leaving Hermione alone. 

 

Again. 

 

She sat there for a while, numb as her mind tried to catch up to what had just happened. 

 

Idly she noticed Harry had just apperated. Wandlessly. And had taken one of her favourite mugs with her.

 

That bitch . 

 

 

---

 

 

A huge crash echoed through the apartment. Apparating from a bed was a bad idea , it left her a few feet off the ground and in her haste to be anywhere away from Hermione Granger she’d been… well. Less than precise with her aim. 

 

She’d popped back into her home directly above the coffee table and dropped straight downwards. She landed hard, scattering the remains of last night’s pre-drinks and rolled off with a thud. It was only seeker reflexes and a quick spell that kept her coffee from flying everywhere.

 

She didn’t try to get up. She just lay there, curled into a ball on the floor.

 

Shit. Shit, shit shit. She’d been so careful! She’d covered every track, every trace of where she was going she knew it! She went almost literally as far away from her old life as she could possibly go! How?! How did this happen? How did she end up , after all this time, in bed with Hermione fucking Granger. 

Holy shit. She had slept with Hermione Granger. 

Hermione Granger, one of her oldest and dearest friends, had just spent several hours railing her until she saw stars. 

Fuck. Now what did she do?

 

A sleepy voice interrupted her impending breakdown as her flatmate wandered groggily out of her room. “Holly? Is that you? What happened, what's going on? You alright?” 

She stopped still and stared at the pathetic form on their shared living room rug. “Holly. Sweetheart. Why are you naked?”

 

Holly Lily Potter just groaned weakly. “I’m fucked, Maddie.” 

“Yea. I can see that.” She said flatly, before nimbly dodging a leftover pizza crust Holly sent flying at her head.

“Not like that you arse. Or well, kind of? I ran into someone last night.”

“Pussy first?” Maddie snarked, this time not managing to dodge fast enough as the crust smacked her forehead. 

“Someone from before .” She carried on like nothing happened. 

 

“Ah. I see the problem.” Maddie winced in sympathy. “...do you wanna talk about it?” 

Holly groaned again before sitting up. “Yeah, I suppose I should.” 

 

“Alright, lemmie get myself some coffee. It's way too early. Oh and Holly?” 

 

“Yea”

 

“Please go put some clothes on.” 

 

Ah. Yes. That was probably a good idea. 

 

It was at that moment she realised all of the clothes and possessions she had taken out last night were still scattered around Hermione’s living room. 

Shit.

She was really going to need this coffee.

 

Wait. Since when did Hermione like girls?

Chapter 2: Chapter 2

By the time Maddy came back with coffee in hand Holly was clothed, if her old green Vic Uni hoodie and neon orange short shorts counted as such. She was also in the exact same spot she was when Maddy had left her. Curled into a ball on the floor staring at a mug.

 

Now, they were sitting across the coffee table from each other. Maddy on their old thrifted couch and Holly still on the floor, but sitting upright at least. 

 

Still staring at the mug. Black with little white books on it. She couldn’t help but smile ruefully. Some things never change. 

 

“Same old Hermione…” She murmured. 

 

“Ugh, you’re such a drama queen.” Maddy said, rolling her eyes. 

 

“I just had a drunken fling with one of the people I ran to the other side of the world to avoid! I’d say this is a perfectly reasonable amount of drama!” Holly snapped back. 

 

“Yeah, yeah. Cool your jets Maverick, just tell me about the girl already. She knew old you, right? ” Maddy asked. 

 

“ Knew is a bit of an understatement…” Holly said helplessly, dropping her head onto the table. “She’s probably the worst one for me to run into again.” 

 

“Why? Is she an old flame?” 

 

“No!” Holly shot up, before slumping again. “No. No, we never dated. She was… just a friend.”

 

“ Just a friend?” Maddy asked sceptically. “Yea right. People don't normally make heart-eyes at a mug for ‘just a friend’. And don't think I haven’t noticed that all your exes all have brown curly hair…”

 

“Okay, one? Fuck you. Two? I hate that you have a point.” Holly groaned.

 

Maddy took a victorious sip of her coffee before continuing. “I always do. Now, tell me about this girl.” 

 

“Okay, okay. Her name’s Hermione Granger. I told you I went to boarding school yea? Well we were both at that school together, back in the UK. We were basically inseparable the entire time. Her and Ron were my best friends. We went through some shit , shit I wouldn’t have survived without them.” 

 

“Sounds good so far. What happened, did she not take your coming out well?” 

 

Holly sighed. “No, I… I never told her. I never told most anyone actually. I may have kinda, sorta… run away instead?” 

 

Maddy just stared at her flatly for a few seconds. “Okay. So just to be clear. How old were you when you realised you were cis’nt again?”

“I was about fourteen.” 

 

“So. You realise you were a girl at fourteen. You told no one about that for years and then just… bailed?” Maddy asked, incredulity in every syllable. 

 

“...Okay it sounds pretty bad when you say it like that.” Holly muttered. 

 

“That's because it is bad! What the hell Holly?” 

 

“Look there was a lot going on! And besides, people knew!” She tried to defend herself. 

 

“Oh yea? Who.” Maddy asked.

“I may have accidentally let it slip to a boy in a panic. A few days after I realised.”

 

“What happened then? Did that go okay?”

 

“Oh, yea. Cedric was lovely about it. Only problem was…. Well. He got murdered a few months later.” 

 

“...Holy shit.” 

 

“Yea. Then a teacher basically forced it out of me in fifth year. He was… less good about it. The greasy prick. But he never outed me at least. I’ll give him that much.” Holly said with a shrug.

 

“ Christ girl. I'm almost afraid to ask but…” Maddy started to ask.

 

“He got on the wrong end of a very poisonous snake and fucking died. Like a cuck.” Holly said flatly.

 

They sat there for a few moments, Holly giving her flatmate a few moments to digest that. 

 

“I… I don't… Was that everyone who knew?”

“Oh yea, I told my godfather too.” 

 

“...and?” Maddy asked hesitantly.

 

Holly let her silence answer for her. 

 

“Fuck me running .” Maddy whispered, shellshocked.

 

“Yep. So everyone who knew seemed to inevitably wind up dead. We’d all been through some intense trauma and I guess I just… didn’t want to add to that. I figured it’d be better for everyone if I just… wasn’t there anymore.” Holly admitted. 

 

“Okay. Okay yea I can see the logic chain. Wow. ” Maddy was clearly searching for something, anything to say. Holly could imagine why. It was a lot to drop on someone. 

 

She rallied admirably though. Holly had to hand that to her. 

 

“Right. Okay, I get all that. You had hella trauma-” 

 

“Never had it described quite like that before…” Holly muttered. 

 

“And you bailed.” Maddy continued blithely. “That all made some kind of sense. But it’s been years hun. Why did you say she was the ‘worst one to run into’?” She asked, making air quotes with her fingers. “And why are you acting like you just hatefucked your ex?” 

 

“You would know~” Holly shot back.

 

“I swear to fucking god Holly will you ever get off my ass about that!” Maddy snapped, face burning scarlet.

 

“His name is Brayden and he looks like his blood is made of G-Fuel and vape juice.” Holly said flatly.

 

“We’re not talking about me right now!” She screeched. She took a long, calming breath.

“ Anyway. Question stands. What's so bad about this really?”

 

Holly groaned helplessly. “Because she’s the most stubborn, headstrong woman to ever live. She is also the smartest woman who ever lived. Now that she knows where I am she’s not going to stop until she pins me down.” 

 

“Judging by the state of your neck I'd say she already has…” Maddy cut in with a smirk. 

 

“Shut your face. Point is, she can’t just let this go. She’s going to want answers , and she’s not going to stop until she gets them. It’s how she’s always been.” 

 

Maddy sat with that for a little while, mulling over what she was going to say next. 

“Okay. So skip the inevitable bullshit. Maybe try just talking to her?”

 

“It's not that simple!” Holly despaired.

 

“It really is…” Maddy sighed.

“No it’s really not! There’s a reason I left so completely. I wanted to be left alone for the first time in my goddamn life! To just live for once. Her just being here is risking all of that!” 

 

Holly dropped her head onto the coffee table. 

 

“I hate this! I didn’t want any of this. What do I do?!”

 

“Well, she knows you’re around now. If she’s as bullheaded as you say, isn't it best to just take the wind out of those sails? Get ahead of it? Perhaps by…”

 

“Don't say it.” Holly groaned, unmoving.

 

“Maybe by…” Maddy said, drawing out the words. 

 

“Don't you fucking say it.” 

 

“Talking to the pretty girl?” She finished with a vicious smirk.

 

“I hate you.”

“No you don't.”

 

“No I don't…” 

 

“But yea. Put on your big girl panties and deal with this before It becomes a bigger thing than you can handle. Besides, it’s been a long time, maybe she’ll be cool about this?” 

---

 

Hermione was going to strangle Harry Potter. She was going to pin his ass to a fucking wall and rip the answers she wanted from his goddamn brain if she had to.

 

Her ass? That felt more accurate. 

 

If Harry was still her name. If her is what she was. Ugh, so many questions, so many unknowns! This was why she needed answers damn it!

 

Seething in impotent rage, Hermione was pacing around her flat, Crookshanks idly watching disinterestedly from the couch.

 

Why here? What was it that it was physically so far away from Britain? No, no distance wouldn’t have mattered much, at last not just in a symbolic sense. They were magical, they could teleport. 

 

She dropped down to her couch with a huff, dragging Crookshanks onto her lap. Something to do with her hands helped. 

 

Crookshanks bore it with dignity and grace. Grumpy grace, but grace.

 

A few moments of carding her fingers through sinfully soft fur helped calm her down some. Centre her thoughts. Okay. Start with the facts. 

 

Harry had started distancing themselves after the War. Harry is now in New Zealand. Whether or not that was a long or short term stay Hermione didn’t know right now. 

 

Harry was, at least physically, a woman. For how long? She didn’t know. But at a guess, it was a long term thing. That kind of transfiguration wasn’t easy, she knew that better than most. 

 

A permanent, full functional change like that was a difficult thing to do, even with magic. And it was fully functional, Hermione could attest to that personally.  It would take…

Hermione wanted to slap herself. It would take a very skilled human transfiguration specialist. 

 

Like the one Hermione was currently apprenticed under. That quite often dealt with transgender Witches and Wizards. 

 

Hermione felt so stupid. The answer was staring her right in the face. Harry was trans .

 

It was like a puzzle piece slotting neatly into place. It suddenly all made sense. 

Magical Britain was already a deeply conservative society and hated anything it saw as aberrant. Non-magical Britain was unfortunately very similar in that regard. Neither were particularly kind to queer people. 

 

Add onto that, The Man who Won coming out as trans? Literally the most famous person in the magical world? It would have been a shitstorm the likes of which would have their fifth year looking like a gentle breeze.

 

She would have had her supporters. It wouldn’t be quite as bad for Harry personally as that fifth year, but it would have been madness. Endless madness. All this centred around someone who’s greatest desire was to be left alone . 

 

Yes, Hermione could see why Harry had peaced out so conclusively. She was completely unknown in the non-magical world, and with a body like hers she’d be indistinguishable from any cis-woman. No one would know. 

 

She could live . 

 

Okay. Hermione could understand all that. She could support all that.

What she couldn’t understand? Why she hadn’t told her . 

 

How could she not tell her?! Did she not think she’d be supportive? That she wouldn't be there for her? Did she not trust her? 

 

That thought hurt. After everything they’d been through, the idea burned at her. All the pain, all the joy, trauma and triumph. Did it all mean nothing? 

 

No. No, there must be more to this. More she wasn’t aware of. 

 

There would be answers. Come hell or high water, Hermione was going to get them. 

 

---

 

Maddy (Never Maddison) Caldwell-Song could only shake her head at her flatmate, who was still staring at the now ice cold mug of coffee. She’d never seen Holly like this before. This… unsure of herself. 

No, actually that wasn’t true. It reminded her of the year they met. Holly had been a different woman then. Quieter. Smaller . A woman new to the very concept, desperately trying to find herself. Still building the foundations of the person she wanted to be. 

 

Not that Maddy knew that at the time. The pair had been matched by chance in that most brutal of crucible, a uni group project. She’d been so adorably shy then, a tiny bundle of nerves. But she was smart, insightful and cute so Maddy had decided then and there they were going to be friends. 

 

Introverts beware, resistance is futile. You will be adopted. 

 

Maddy had never once regretted that decision. Watching Holly find her feet and thrive had been a privilege. Even now, watching Holly pathetically pine for this mystery woman. Who she’d just come home from screwing. 

 

God Holly was weird . 

 

“Okay, I have one last question.” Maddy asked, pulling Holly’s thousand yard stare from the mug to her. 

 

“Did you love this girl?” 

 

Watching the blush burst into being on Holly’s face brought Maddy pure wicked glee. That’s what you get for bringing up… prior mistakes . She was never going to live him down, ugh. 

 

“It-i’ts not like that!” Holly had the gall to lie right to her face.

 

Maddy just cocked a judgemental eyebrow and waited. 

 

“Its not!” Holly doubled down. 

 

Maddy continued to wait. 

It took three more seconds until Holly folded like a house of cards in an earthquake.

 

“...Yea.” She said softly, not meeting Maddy’s eyes. “Yea I did.” 

 

“And now?” 

 

Holly didn’t reply. She just turned back to stare at the mug again. 

 

That was an emphatic yes, then. Maddy could only shake her head. Oh Holly…

 

“It… wasn’t to be.” Holly said. “No matter how much I may have wished. She’s straight. I wasn’t planning on staying him, so any relationship I got into at the time would have been built on a lie.” 

 

Holly frowned. “Or at least I thought she was. In any case, Ron had been pining after her since fourth year. Who was I to stand in the way?” 

 

She seemed to realise something. Where moments ago her face was scarlet red it now paled dramatically. 

 

“Oh god.” Holly whispered. “Ron’s gonna kill me.” 

 

A blaring klaxon suddenly split the air, jolting both the flatmates. Maddy muttered a swear, fishing her phone from a pocket and silencing the alarm. 

 

“Shit. Gotta get ready for my shift. We’ll get back to this when I get home?” She asked. 

 

Holly nodded, eyes drawing inexorably back to the mug. 

 

Maddy sighed again, before wandering away to begin getting ready for another day in the ED. 

But first, she had to text her girlfriend. Livy was going to love this drama.