From childhood every witch and wizard will know to never mess around near a faerie ring, fae are incredibly mischievous and cheeky creatures. It is never a good idea to mix with them. Although as our little boy hero knows all too well, every rule has its exceptions. Every blue moon (this being very occasional, bordering on never) a fae will leave its ring and clan to venture out on its own, although this is about as common as a dragon and crup becoming best friends. Anyway back to the story, centuries ago there lived a young fae called Destry Ryanous, a plucky little fellow who was more mischievous than most but as fate would have it he had a curiosity to rival his infamous cheeky-streak. This is something that set him apart from most fae, who were never interested in what didn't venture near their ring. They are a tight-nick race who keep to themselves quite a bit. Destry however wanted to know everything that could be known, he wanted to know about the beyond and so on an early spring morning, he set up his bags and left.
Destry lived happily exploring until one day, while roaming around Clartine woods, was spotted by a near by faerie ring who recognized him as a distant cousin and wanted him to live with them. After realizing that this would keep occurring wherever he went, Destry slightly glamoured his appearance and became Robert Potter, a soon to be famous family line.
Nearly eight hundred years into the future at present time, that being 1996, we meet Robert Potter's great-something-grandson, Harry James Potter. And unfortunate boy who still retained his ancestors' mischievous persona and fae heritage, kept alive through generations of magical blood. For you see Harry is part wizard, 'and a thumping' good'un at that' (in the words of a good friend of his). But Harry'd father had never passed on his knowledge of his family's secret heritage due to his untimely demise along with his wife Lily (Evans) Potter when Harry was just a baby. So to this day, Harry has no clue of his 'extra' magical blood and lives (for most of the year) in his home/ (dangerous) school, Hogwarts school for Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Now I have one more person whom I must introduce to you before I can get on with my tale. Another boy stars in this tale and though he shares in the mischievous/curious side of Harry, the two boys couldn't be more dis-similar. This boys name is Draco Malfoy, he is a pureblooded wizard whose family prides themselves on their riches and power. Draco's father Lucius drove himself mad for power during the first rein of Lord Voldemort or Tom Riddle (the little bugger who killed Harry's parents and many more) but as Tom fell from power because of unknown reasons to do with Harry, the man (after some time) regained his senses and swore allegiance to The Order of The Phoenix (the opposing side). Upon Voldemort's return he once again joined the madman's ranks only this time as a spy for the Order.
Anyway all of that is irrelevant to the current tale. What is, is the family's manor in Wiltshire, which is famous for it's Stonehenge. Now Draco with all of his snobby posh glory is just as mischievous as a common fae yet he is almost as curious as Destry once was (though not quite near enough). Yet aside form this is just about as opposite to Harry as you could be. Draco is just over 6"1 with platinum blonde hair and almost alabaster skin while his eyes were like liquid mercury. One would think he was a cold hearted bastard made of ice when meeting him in public, yet to those who truly know him, they know the annoying 5 year old boy he truly acts like. His status calls for all of this calm and dominating appearance for the public with all of his true emotions and thoughts hidden from those deemed untrustworthy, then there's Harry. His fae gene's have caused his smaller stature allowing him only up to 5"7, he could hardly tower over anyone. Harry's hair is simply just a tangled mess of ebony locks while his eyes are a shock of emerald green, But for Harry there is no hiding his emotions, his heart is on his sleeve just where it belongs.
Due to his magical blood and curiousness Draco would often go up to visit Stonehenge. Which is incidentally where he developed his obsession. Whenever he could he would meet and chat with the fae visiting the Stonehenge, which is sort of like the mother of all faerie rings and was used by the elders who permanently live there as a meeting ground. But for most of the year it is flooded with fae who had come to soak up the pure natural energy of the ancient ring. It was these fae whom Draco loved, after many visit's here as a child, the fae grew to love him too and await his next visit anxiously.
After turning sixteen Lucius finally allowed Draco to come and go into the family library as he pleased. And so he sits there for hours upon hours soaking up all knowledge of fae he can get his hands on. The things Draco had learned boggled him but if Harry's father had not been killed he would have learned all that Draco knew plus so much more. The most significant being that fae have three forms, their true forms- where they are around two inches high and unique markings that are as unique as a human's finger print or tiger's stripes. These markings cover their entire body including their beautiful wings, ones even the butterflies are jealous of. The next is their human form- They only just resemble their fae with their smaller height and more pointy/delicate features. Their final form is the halfling form- In this form the markings from their true form appear on their face, arms, chest and back. Their wings are also present, obviously proportioned to their bodies that is.
On his way back to school Draco was almost jumping in excitement to share his newfound knowledge with his friends, in the privacy of their own compartment on the Hogwarts express of course.
"Draco, you do know that it's a god thing that we're wizards right? My aunt was telling me that it's an incredibly girly thing to be obsessed with faeries in the muggle world." Draco simply stared at his friend, Blaise, with a look of pure shock and indignity.
"Muggles? What do they know? And I'm not obsessed, just curious about them is all." He replied.
"Yeah! There's nothing wrong with being interested in fae anyway. I'd love to learn more about them if I had the time." popped in a new voice.
"Yeah… Pans, not helping." Pansy pouted and sat back in her seat while Draco smirked at her childish display.
"I'm sorry pans. You are always a help." Draco put his best kicked puppy look on and this seemed to melt the girl.
"And don't you forget it." She replied with a smirk.
"Anyway Blaise," Draco continued. "That's the muggle world, they're weird enough as it is. WHat else would they find girly? Unicorns and pixies perhaps?" Draco scoffed as the rest of the group joined in laughing.
Draco loved his friends but no one ever understood their dynamics. Most people would reckon that Draco was the leader, pansy his girlfriend, Blaise his side kick and Vincent and greg were the body guards. Yet they couldn't be more wrong. Draco was more of a body guard to the others than anyone, knowing that they would be pushed around and teased in the case of VIncent and Greg. Pansy was completely smitten with Blaise as he was back, which proved to be a constant source of entertainment to Draco. Blaise and Draco would bicker and play fight like any normal teenagers even going to the point of rolling around the common room wrestling. They all sort of fit. They weren't some sort of battle group with a leader surrounded by his soldiers, they were friends, that was all there was to it. It was perfect.
Harry however was not having such a delightful time on his journey back to school. Now, had Harry been told about his sixteenth birthday it wouldn't have come as such an unexpected shock but obviously, it had.
"HARRY!" Yelled Ron, Harry's best friend. "What's happened to you mate?" Was the (very loud) welcome he got from his friends. Hermione however (Harry's best girl friend) realized this before the slow red-head and jabbed her boyfriend in the ribs, which thankfully stopped him looking like a codfish.
"Hello Harry, have you had a nice summer?" Hermione asked, sending a glare at Ron who immediately understood what he'd done and sent an apologetic look at Harry. Harry however had been smirking throughout the entire affair and was hardly worried about it, waving him off.
"Hey 'Mione, Ron. Summer was pretty much the same as usual. What about you?"
The group spent the next few minutes telling the others about their holidays before Hermione couldn't resist asking any longer.
"So, Harry?"
"Yeah? What's up?"
"What's happened to you? You look…."
"Girly?" Harry supplied, raising an eyebrow/
"Different." Hermione finished sending Harry a half glare.
"Come on 'Mione, admit it. I look girly, Don't I Ron?"
"Well not exactly girly but a little less boyish." He said wanting to appease both of them. "What's happened to you though? Is it a curse? Did someone hex you? I bet it was Malfoy, it was him wasn't it?!" Ron ranted, getting a little carried away with himself. Though Harry just looked bemused and a little bewildered at the sudden interrogation.
"Woah! woah, calm down. Okay, I don't know if it is a curse or not but no it wasn't Malfoy. It sort of just happened." Hermione just looked at him disbelievingly.
"Wait a minute Harry. 'It just happened'? When? Last night?" Harry shook his head.
"No, no. Near my birthday. The day before I was Harry, the next, like this." He said gesturing wildly at himself. The group then spent the rest of the journey coming up with ideas about what could have caused the change. In the end they formed a plan by the time they got to the platform.
'Curious,' Draco thought. 'Very curious. What would keep 'Saint Potter' away from his adoring fans at the sorting ceremony? Probably going to crash another flying car into another part of the school.' Draco scoffed internally at his thoughts but had been pondering this ever since Weasel and Mudblood had come in with out their adored leader. He was positive that he's seen him on the train but was nowhere to be seen now. Soon the sorting started and the feast began, thoughts of the Gryffindor boy fled his mind as he enjoyed the food in front of him.
Harry trudged past the Great Hall, he was very miffed at not being able to watch the sorting (again!) and enjoy the amazing food that the house elves had prepared, but there was something about this time that made walking past even harder. Something that really made his mouth water, it was in the Great Hall and ohhh it smelt good. So good infect that Harry almost turned around and walked straight in to get it. It was like a blend of vanilla and cinnamon ice cream with apple pie and lemon sherbet. Yet with extreme reluctance Harry turned around and set up the huge number of stairs.
After a long walk, Harry made it to the infirmary and it was only then that he noticed the slight flaw in the plan. Originally it would have been to talk to Madame Pomfrey (the schools medinurse) during dinner and have Ron and Hermione bring him some food back to eat after. Harry silently prayed that when he did get back that they would have that scrumptious… whatever it was for him, he was almost drooling at the memory of it. But he now realized that they had all forgotten the fact that the nurse would be in the Great Hall for dinner and not in her office. The Gryffindor sighed and made himself comfortable on one of the beds closest to the office and waited for the witch to come up.