Disclaimer: I do not own anything having to do with Harry Potter.

A/N: Everything is canon up until the summer after fifth year. It's AU territory from there. Also, no horcruxes. I'm tired of having to hunt them down in all my stories :)

Warnings: Not for people who really love Dumbledore. I can't think of anything else important here. I'll add it in later if something comes up.

Harry Potter was beyond distraught. His godfather had just fallen through the veil in the Department of Mysteries, and everyone seemed to think that meant he had died. Harry knew it was all his fault. Was his godfather really dead though? What was that veil thing? If he had just tried harder to learn Occlumency… All this was running through the fifteen-year old's mind as he paced Dumbledore's office where he had been left while the headmaster handled everything at the ministry. His frantic pacing and wringing of his hands took him to a side table where a delicate-looking orb paperweight crashed to the floor and shattered after a particularly wild wave of his arms.

Harry jumped and gasped at the sound of shattering glass in the office and a pain that shot through his abdomen, probably just a manifestation of the shock and grief he was feeling, right? His already hyped-up nerves strained to a new level when he realized that he had broken something of the headmaster's. He looked around and Fawkes was gone, all the headmistress and headmaster portraits were either gone or asleep. Only one headmaster was currently paying attention, it was the headmaster portrait that he had seen in Grimmauld Place…Phineas Nigellas Black if he remembered correctly. Now the stern man was staring him down accusingly with a death glare. Sheepishly, Harry pulled out his wand and cast a reparo charm at the paperweight. It snapped back together, and the teen picked it up off the floor. Something didn't seem quite right about it. Not having studied it before it was broken, Harry wasn't sure what that was, but it seemed to have lost some sort of magic it had been imbued with. It looked the same though, so he placed it back where it had been weighing down a stack of files on the table.

"All better?" Harry asked the scary-looked headmaster that was still staring at him. The man just snorted in response.

All thoughts of the broken paperweight were wiped from Harry's mind when the headmaster flooed back to his office and explained what had been going on for the past year. Actually, since Harry broke all the other trinkets on the headmaster's desk (except for the paperweight) within the next hour, that one insignificant object didn't even need mentioning…right? Harry didn't even notice the glance the headmaster sent to the paperweight as the distraught teen stormed away and the sigh of relief when he believed it to be unharmed.

It was early July and Harry had been at Privet Drive for about a month. He had been drowning in his grief ever since that night at the Department of Mysteries and scared out of his mind at the prophesy the headmaster had shared with him. It didn't help that stabbing pains would shoot through his chest or abdomen at random times throughout the day. He chalked it up to either grief or the side effects of being possessed by Voldemort. The longer it went on, the more he was starting to believe that something really, really wasn't right.

The Dursleys had been almost completely ignoring the teen besides assigning him criminal amounts of chores. He wasn't against this though since he saw it as a penance. It didn't even bother him that they were barely feeding him at all. He wasn't hungry anyway. Actually, he spent most of the day nauseous with his skin crawling. It was the feeling that something wasn't right with his skin and his body that was almost annoying enough to distract him from his grief. He felt uncomfortable all the time and like his skin was a suit that didn't fit him and wasn't even made for him at all.

Harry wasn't one to reach out to anyone when he was sick or injured having been trained from early childhood that no one would help, but as June turned into July and the feeling that something was very wrong began to grow, he was actually considering asking for help from someone. It wasn't until he awoke one Saturday morning that he finally decided that he really did need some help. He had been woken early and finished up breakfast for his relatives, who completely ignored him besides mentioning that the one extra-brown piece of toast was his breakfast and went to the loo to wash his face and brush his teeth. He was scratching at his chest and arms, trying to get rid of the feeling that his skin was too tight and too loose at the same time when he looked in the mirror and gasped in surprise. Staring back at him were two ice-blue eyes, wide with shock where his emerald eyes should have been. The color was similar to Sirius's, which caused another wave of grief to wash over Harry as the shock settled in.

Now, The Boy-Who-Lived knew that people's eye color didn't just randomly change in their teens. Something had to actually be happening to him. His first thought was that his eyes were the color of Sirius's, but his second were that his eyes were the color of the young Tom Riddle he had met in the diary his second year, which was nowhere near as comforting. Granted, their eyes were actually a very similar blue, but since he had been possessed by the Dark Lord just a month before, this change was extremely concerning. What if he were turning into Tom Riddle? He didn't feel like a different person. He checked himself and he didn't feel murderous towards anyone, besides maybe Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort which was completely justified. He didn't suddenly want to rule the world either. He was changing into something though, and what if he did suddenly turn into a young Voldemort?

That thought was what finally got him rushing into his room and grabbing parchment and a quill from his stash he used to inform the Order he was in fact still alive every three days. Hedwig had returned the night before, and he was scheduled to send a letter that day anyway, so he just needed to determine who this one should go to. His quill paused over the parchment and a drop of ink fell to mar the white surface as he considered. Hermione was brilliant, but she was in the muggle world, couldn't perform magic over the summer, and her parents were muggles, so she was out. Ron and his family were amazing, but could they help him any? If he were truly turning into a young Voldemort, would they just kick him out and turn away from him? This cut out Dumbledore was well. He would rather run away and turn into the Dark Lord on his own before reaching out to the man who had kept him in the dark for an entire year, leading to the horrible mistake that cost Sirius his life. It might have been petty, but he just couldn't reach out to the man he was still angry with.

This would have been something he would go to Sirius for…a tear joined the splotch of ink that stained the parchment. He had no one. Well…maybe Remus? He considered reaching out to his old DADA professor. The man did seem very knowledgeable, but they didn't have a close relationship at all. The werewolf had been friends with Sirius and his parents though, didn't that mean he had some kind of claim on Harry as well? Maybe he could at least suggest some reading material about what one should do if they found themselves randomly turning into another person.

A sharp stabbing pain in his chest decided the teen as he put his quill to the parchment and started the letter:

Dear Remus,

I'm sorry for bothering you. I'm not sure if this is something I can come to you about or not, but I had to ask someone, and I didn't have anyone else. Something is wrong with me. I think I'm changing into something or someone else. My skin and my body feel all wrong like this isn't the way I'm supposed to look or be. I really don't know how to explain it, but it feels like my skin is someone else's and that I need to take it off. I know, gross right? I was fine ignoring it, but I woke up this morning with blue eyes instead of green. That's not supposed to happen, right?

Have you ever heard about this happening to anyone before? Please tell me it doesn't have anything to do with being possessed by Voldemort last month! Maybe you could send along a book or two that could have some information if you are too busy to write?

Oh, there are some pains I've been feeling over the past month too. That's probably a symptom I should mention. They are normally in my chest or stomach. Anyway, any advice would be appreciated. Sorry again for bothering you…maybe don't tell Dumbledore about this. I think he's probably pretty angry with me right now. Thanks again.

Harry

There, finished. Maybe he would get some answers soon, Harry thought as the letter disappeared from his sight, carried by Hedwig to wherever the werewolf was currently residing. He stood from his desk to start his chores, having to grasp onto the desk quickly as a wave of nausea washed over him and his vision temporarily blacked out. He looked at his almost skeletal arms and thought that the lack of food he was getting was probably to blame this time instead of the weird illness he seemed to be suffering from. He wasn't in the mood to be locked in his old cupboard or subjected to whatever punishment his uncle could think up for stealing food, but he figured if he didn't actually get some substantial food at lunch, then he might have to risk it. He couldn't very well pass out in the middle of his chores, then he would be punished the same anyway. Better to be punished on a full stomach than an empty one.

Harry was curled up with his knees to his chest in the pitch black of his old cupboard in the evening of the next day. He'd called it. At least he was reasonably full instead of starving since it was stealing food he was caught for instead of passing out and not finishing his chores. He figured it wasn't that bad though since he was getting a nice rest and didn't have to watch the Dursleys eat the dinner he had cooked for them that he wouldn't be allowed to eat. It only sucked that the cupboard had stayed the same size over the past five years while he had grown some. There also seemed to be several more spiders than he remembered from his first long stent in the tiny room.

One positive side to all of the horribleness was that, throughout the day, Harry's eyesight had become better and better. Eventually, his glasses made everything blurrier instead of clearing it up. He had happily tossed the now useless glasses in his trunk before he had been caught stealing food. So, he was sitting without his glasses and able to perfectly see the tiny cupboard and cleaning supplies around him. For the first time seeing perfectly in his life, Harry wryly wished he was looking at something more interesting.

His skin started crawling again, and not from the spiders. He rubbed and scratched, but nothing made the feeling stop, the feeling that this was not his skin but someone else's. He had just resigned himself to rubbing his skin raw ineffectually when there was a loud knock at the front door that he heard even from where he was locked in. No one came to the door after 5pm and it was almost 8pm if he was guessing correctly, the teen thought as he tried to hear what was happening on the other side of his small door.

"Who are you? What d'you want?" He heard Vernon growl after throwing the door open.

"I'm here to see Harry," a familiar voice answered his uncle. Harry smiled when he recognized Remus's voice. The man had come to check on him. He hadn't seen that coming. A letter or even a couple books yes, but coming in person, he hadn't even considered that, and it warmed his heart to no end.

"He's not here. He's at a friend's," Vernon answered in what he must have thought was his most menacing tone.

NO! Harry thought frantically. He didn't want Remus to leave. He didn't want the man to find him in the cupboard either, but as much as he was trying to say everything was fine and he was dealing with whatever was happening with his body, he really wasn't, and it was freaking him out.

"Point me Harry," he heard Remus's voice respond from the door.

Harry breathed out a sigh of relief when he realized the man wasn't going to take his uncle's word as truth. He heard a short scuffle and an indignant yell before soft footsteps passed the door to the cupboard before almost instantly returning. There was a long pause as Harry held his breath, waiting to see what was going to happen. Slowly the locks on the outside of the door were slid back and the handle turned. A very concerned Remus Lupin gazed into the cupboard, amber eyes flashing, as Harry smiled happily at the friendly face in front of him. "Hey, professor," Harry rasped out as he realized he hadn't actually spoken to anyone in at least a week, probably longer. "Thanks for coming, but you could have just sent a letter," he said as he crawled out of the cupboard and slowly stood, willing away the nausea that seemed constant recently.

"Harry…why are you locked in the cupboard?" Remus asked as his eyes went even wider taking in the changes in the young man in front of him. The blue eyes weren't the most striking change as the dramatic weight loss was much more noticeable. The teen also seemed slightly shorter if he remembered correctly, even though he was never tall to begin with.

Harry shrugged as he took in the sight of a purple-faced Uncle Vernon, fuming from where the front door still stood open. "Did something I wasn't supposed to," he answered, not sure what answer would keep his uncle from punishing him more.

"And that was…?" Lupin prodded further, his wand itching more towards the whale of a man he knew was to blame.

"Erm…I took an apple and some cheese when I wasn't supposed to," Harry said, eyes darting back and forth to the man as well.

The werewolf nodded his head as if expecting that answer. "Right, now go grab your trunk and everything you want to keep from this house. You're coming with me," the man said as he slammed the door to the cupboard closed as if he wanted to erase the image he'd just seen of the teen crammed into the tight space with the cleaning supplies.

"Um, but Professor…Dumbledore said…"

Remus growled angrily, but Harry was certain the anger wasn't directed towards him, though Vernon did take a step backwards and Harry saw Petunia and Dudley cowering from where they were spying on the situation from the sitting room. "Harry…pack up all your things. You are never returning to this house," Remus instructed through a set jaw as he stared down the Dursleys.

Harry almost shouted happily but instead ran up the stairs, well, he ran up two stairs and then had to grab onto the handrail and pull himself up the rest of them, but the spirit was what mattered. He was never exactly sure what happened downstairs while he pried up the loose floorboard in this room and threw all of his meager belongings into his trunk, mainly because he never asked. When he finally pulled his trunk weakly down the stairs, he was met with wide and terrified eyes staring at him from where all the Dursleys were seated on the couch and Remus Lupin was facing them from in front of the fireplace with his wand held loosely at his side.

"You have everything, Harry?" The man asked, now completely ignoring the scared family in front of him.

"Yes, sir," Harry smiled at him happily and motioned to his trunk.

"Right, now, no more of this 'sir' and 'professor' business. It's Remus or Moony to you, right?" The man gave him a tight smile and shrunk his trunk before placing it in Harry's pocket for travel.

"Yes, s-Moony," Harry smiled and followed his rescuer out the front door and around to the side of the house.

"You ever side-along apparate before?" Lupin asked as he put his arm loosely over Harry's shoulder. Harry wasn't sure if it was meant as a hug or to reassure the older man he was ok, but Harry appreciated the awkwardness. It actually made him feel better that the other man seemed to think this was all pretty strange and awkward as well.

"Er, no. Only portkey and floo," Harry said as he nervously flattened his bangs over the scar on his forehead.

Remus smiled sadly and instead brushed Harry's hair off his forehead with a tentative hand. "Harry, it's fine. I know I'm not Sirius, but I'm always going to be here for you. I'm sorry I made you feel like you couldn't come to me, but I want to fix that now. Can you trust me? Please?"

This shocked the teen speechless. He was just about to respond as a pain stabbed him in the stomach, and he gasped and doubled over. "Harry!" Remus called out frantically and grabbed his shoulders.

"I'm ok," Harry panted out as the pain passed. "It's been happening a lot, but it passes quickly."

"Grab on," the man instructed in a tight voice as Harry took the offered arm.

The horrible feeling of passing through a small tube was the only warning Harry had before collapsing onto the ground right outside of number twelve Grimmauld Place. "No, not Dumbledore…" Harry gasped from the pavement as he took in their location.

Remus bent down and helped Harry to his feet. "No, he's not here. No one from the Order is," he explained. "Sirius left everything to you when he died, and Dumbledore wasn't sure how that would affect the wards on the house. He relocated the Order to Hogwarts until he could figure it out. I've been staying here because…" at this the man looked at Harry with regret in his eyes. "Well, I've been staying here because I don't have anywhere else to go."

Finally realizing that he and Remus were the same in so many ways and that neither of them had anyone else, Harry reached out and wrapped his arms around the thin man in front of him. "I don't either, Moony," he said from the man's shoulder who had sunk into the hug like it was a lifeline to a drowning man. "Can we…well, can we have each other now?" He asked tentatively, taking the chance that he wouldn't be met with rejection.

"Always," gasped out the man holding onto him as a wet tear landed on Harry's back.

After standing there in the street for several minutes, the werewolf finally pulled himself together and cleared his throat, standing up straight once more. "Right, we need to get you inside, get you some food, and figure out what's going on, ok?"

"Yeah, that sounds good, Moony," Harry smiled at him as they made their way to the door and Remus let them both in.

"Kreacher's hiding somewhere," Remus explained in a whisper as they surreptitiously made their way past the curtained portrait of Sirius's mother. "I don't think either of us would like to see him anyway though."

"You got that right," Harry grimaced, remembering the house elf's part in his godfather's death.

"There's still plenty of food in the pantry," Remus said in a normal voice as they entered the kitchen and he started rummaging through the cabinets. "I'm not the best cook, but we won't starve."

"No worries, Remus. I'm a pretty good cook," Harry laughed and took the bread from the man to make them some sandwiches. "My family hasn't starved yet on my cooking anyway."

"That's for sure," the werewolf growled menacingly towards the front door.

"Besides, if Sirius left me everything as you said, we shouldn't be hurting for money for food," Harry ignored the angry man as he found some meat and cheese to add to the bread.

"Harry…you shouldn't have to pay for things," Remus groaned from the table, knowing he couldn't afford to take care of both of them, not having a job at the moment.

"I'm not, Sirius is," Harry smiled at him, trying to keep the sadness out of his tone. "He'd want to take care of the two of us, right?"

Knowing it was really the only option, Remus just nodded sadly. He couldn't allow the teen to go back to the monsters that had locked him up and were starving him, and he was certain that anyone else in the Order would just send him back. Frankly, if he were being honest with himself, he had just kidnapped Harry Potter, the teen having left willingly with him or not. Turning instead to the other problem at hand, he studied the form in front of him in depth to distinguish any changes. "Your eyes look more like Sirius's now than Lily's," he remarked as the teen turned scared, ice-blue eyes on him.

"You don't think I'm turning into Voldemort, do you?" Harry asked, knife hovering over the bread, finally voicing the question he really didn't want answered. "He had blue eyes when he was young too."

Remus shook his head quickly. "I've never heard of that as a side-effect of possession before," he assured the scared teen. "I don't see why you would turn into someone else. All this sounds more like a spell wearing off than anything else. A spell slowly wearing off of someone that had been under it for a long time would have the symptoms you described to me in your letter. There was a young woman I knew who cast a beauty charm on herself for years, and when she finally decided to remove it, had the same symptoms you described only localized to her face."

Harry grimaced. "Why would someone do that to themselves?"

Remus shrugged. "Vanity I guess."

"Why would I have a spell on me then?" Was Harry's next logical question as he passed a sandwich to Remus and sat down at the table with his own. "And why in Merlin's name make my eyesight worse! I can see perfectly fine now Moony!"

"That, I really don't know," Remus shook his head and watched the emaciated teen nibble slowly at the sandwich, worry written across his face. "Maybe we'll know when all the changes finally settle," he suggested. "At least you don't need glasses anymore though."

"So…this is just going to keep happening?" Harry sighed sadly, not getting the answer he wanted.

Remus thought for a minute as he chewed his own sandwich, which was pretty good he'd admit. "I might be able to speed along the changes," he mused, making some calculations. "I'd need to put you to sleep while it was happening or the pain would be unbearable, but it'd be possible."

Harry thought about it for a minute. He didn't like the idea of changing into something else but getting it over with all at once instead of the constant pain and slow changes sounding like the better option. "Yeah, I think we should do that," he finally decided. "Whatever is happening, I'd like to just get it over with and deal with it all at once. No telling how long it's going to take naturally."

Remus stared at the half-eaten sandwich on the plate. "We need to get you healthier first though," he said, raising an eyebrow at the teen's indignant huff. "If you can eat a normal sized food portion, then I'll do it but not before."

"Fine, but what do we do about the Order and me not being at the Dursley's?" Harry asked, silently admitting that he probably wasn't really all that healthy at the moment.

The man had already thought about this when he had left to go see Harry. He hadn't planned on essentially kidnapping the boy, but he had known that it was probable he'd need to take Harry away, especially as he'd already determined that it sounded like a spell was wearing off, and he didn't want to leave him alone to find out what the spell was. "Dumbledore isn't planning on taking you from your relatives until after your birthday, and I might be able to convince him to leave you for the rest of the summer. As for realizing you aren't there, you hardly ever leave the house anyway," Remus grumbled, now realizing why that was. "Since the guards watching over the house change often, no one will think it strange they haven't seen you on their shift. I'll just keep telling them that I got the letter from you every three days and that you're fine."

Harry smiled broadly at the man in front of him, realizing he really did care deeply for the shabbily dressed werewolf. "Thank you, thank you so much," he breathily sighed out.

Remus gave a quick, awkward nod and pat to Harry's shoulder before standing. "Let's get you to a room to get settled in, shall we?"

"Yeah," Harry nodded and followed him up the stairs.

"You want to stay in the same room from last summer?" Remus asked as he paused outside of the door to the room Harry had shared with Ron the summer before.

First of all, that was the room that Phineas Nigellus's painting was in, and Harry didn't want Dumbledore to know where he was, so the room was out for that alone. However, something about staying in the room just didn't seem right to Harry either. It was almost like Sirius would still be there, waiting at the breakfast table if things were the same as they were the summer before. It was hard enough just being in the same house; he didn't think he could wake up in the same room and thinking everything was as it had been before. Seeing Harry's look, Remus seemed to understand what he was thinking. "You can stay wherever you want to," he assured Harry and let go of the doorknob, knowing that wouldn't be the room.

Harry walked down the hallway taking in the rooms that had once been filled with the Weasley twins, Ginny and Hermione, the Weasley parents, he refused to look at the door to what had been Sirius's room, and he paused. There was a door to a room he hadn't remembered anyone staying in the summer before. Regulus Arcturus Black was inscribed on a silver nameplate on the door. "This was Sirius's brother's room, right?" Harry asked as he placed a hand on the doorknob.

"It was," Remus nodded as he followed Harry into the room that was decorated in Slytherin colors and covered in a thick layer of dust.

Harry didn't know why he was being almost called by the room or why it felt so welcoming, especially since it was decorated almost completely in Slytherin paraphernalia. "Can we spell away the dust?" He asked with a glance behind him to the confused older man.

"We can…but is this really the room you want to stay in?" Remus asked, taking in the teen who seemed to actually relax more as he walked further into the room.

"Yeah, Moony. I don't know why…but this room feels like mine. I know how weird that sounds…" Harry said turning and shrugged helplessly, not being able to describe it.

Remus just shook his head and waved his wand to spell away all the dust and grime. "You don't have to explain it to me, Harry," he said as the teen bounced on the now dust-free bed that was surprisingly comfortable. "If you are comfortable in here, that's all that matters. Besides, it's your house now. You can do with it whatever you want."

"Thanks, Remus," Harry said as he handed over his small trunk to be enlarged. "That's a lot to take in…"

"I'm three doors down on the right," Remus motioned out the door as he turned to leave, pausing in the doorframe. "Come and get me for whatever. If the pain starts up again, if you need to talk, whatever…"

"Goodnight," Harry smiled at him sleepily as he leaned back on the bed, feeling safe and comfortable for the first time in a long time.

Bleary-eyed, Harry stumbled down to the kitchen the next morning and started in on breakfast. He had the same routine every morning at the Dursley's, so he was still stuck in it as he started whipping together some eggs and bacon. It wasn't long before Remus Lupin stumbled down to the kitchen when he was woken up by the tantalizing smell of bacon. He stopped in the doorway and stared at the boy cooking at the stove. Where it was a guess the day before, it was a certainty that morning, Harry was in fact a little shorter. His hair seemed to be darker as well. He already had very dark, brown hair, but it was definitely black now. If he had to guess, he thought the teen might even be a little paler as well.

"Morning," he smiled as Harry jumped and almost dropped a spatula full of egg on the floor.

"Merlin, Remus! Make a little noise, would you?" Harry clutched his chest dramatically. "Ow!" he said in confusion as he rubbed the spot he had just hit with his hand. "That's new."

"Your hair is darker, and you're a bit shorter too," Remus nodded and plopped down at the table.

Harry sighed and spooned up the eggs. "I was already almost the shortest in my year and the same height as Hermione. I'm definitely going to be shorter than her now. That's just not fair! What if I end up as short as Flitwick?!"

Remus chuckled. "I doubt that will happen; both of your parents were fairly tall. I figured you'd hit a growth spurt this year or next. I don't know why you would be getting shorter now."

"Well, that explains why my trousers are even longer than they were before," Harry grumbled as he hitched up the already too long pajama bottoms that used to be Dudley's. "Wait, neither of them had blue eyes, did they?"

Remus shook his head. "No, but James's eyes were hazel, so he could have had a blue/brown gene trait for them. I'm really not good with genetics though, so I don't know how that would work out for a kid. That wasn't exactly something that was taught at Hogwarts."

"Why would someone spell my eyes a different color…or me taller for that matter? You think Mum or Dad did?" Harry asked as he tried to eat as much egg and bacon as his small stomach would allow.

Remus had been asking himself the same question since he had first gotten Harry's letter. That was also why he hadn't told anyone that Harry was now with him. Who would have put an appearance spell on the boy as a baby? And why? He didn't know who he could trust. Harry as a baby hadn't been around many people, and he doubted it would have been done after he went to the Dursley's with how magic-phobic they were. "I don't know, Harry," he finally admitted. "I doubt James or Lily would have done it. And, the fact is, you were only around them, Sirius, Peter, me, McGonagall, Frank and Alice Longbottom, Poppy, and Dumbledore as a baby. With the danger you were in, it's not like a lot of people were allowed around you. Who did this and why is a mystery."

Harry sighed and ate a couple more bites even though he was queasy. He had to get up to a normal amount of food for Remus to remove the spell. "Maybe it'll be clearer once we know what I'm supposed to look like," he said, rubbing his arms that had the crawling feeling in them again.

"That's my hope," Remus agreed, taking in Harry's uncomfortableness.

Finally, the teen pushed away his plate and stood. "I have to do something to keep busy or I'll go crazy. I'm going to tackle cleaning the sitting room and the library today," he announced. "I'll yell if I touch anything cursed, right?"

Three hours later, Remus found Harry on the floor of the sitting room, surrounded by cleaning supplies, crying. "Oh, cub, what's wrong?!" He exclaimed as he rushed in and pulled the small teen into his arms.

Incoherently, between sobs, Harry explained everything he'd been holding in for the last year. He explained how he thought he was going crazy when Voldemort was getting into his head, how it was his fault Sirius had died, how he'd gotten his friends injured, how he was sure he failed his OWLS, how he was scared he would have to fight Voldemort on his own, how his body just didn't feel like his own anymore, and how he didn't know who he was if he looked completely different and was so confused as to why anyone had done this to him. Lupin held him through this all, rubbing his back and listening to the pent-up anxieties that rushed forth as soon as he had calmed down enough for them to break through.

Eventually Harry cried himself out and self-consciously tried to pull away from the older man. Lupin just pulled him back into his arms though. "Harry, stay for a minute," he instructed as the teen stilled. "First of all, you are absolutely not at fault for Sirius's death."

"But…"

"No, Harry. It takes years to learn Occlumency to the level it would take to keep a master Legilimens like the Dark Lord out of your mind. No matter how hard you tried, you were never going to get to the necessary level to keep him out. Also, it was Sirius's decision to go to the ministry, and even knowing he would die, I know he would do it again," Lupin said firmly. "Now, as for everything else, you are you no matter how you look. Yes, it will take a while to get used to it, I'm sure, but you are still Harry, and I will still love you if you are as short as Flitwick, if you fail your OWLS, if you pull another crazy stunt like the ministry, or whatever you do. I know it doesn't answer all your fears, especially concerning Voldemort, but know I'll be standing beside you no matter what happens. We're family now. I know it's probably two years too late, but I want to be your family if you'll let me."

Harry sniffed and rubbed his nose on his sleeve. "I want to be your family too, Moony," he answered with a weak smile. "Are you sure about Sirius not being my fault?"

"With every fiber of my being," Remus assured him. "Now, how about we do something fun instead of all this cleaning. I was going to repaint Buckbeak's old room. How about we paint a mural or a landscape or something there? Would you like to do that? Or we could play chess or something."

They helped each other off the ground before Harry answered. "Yeah, I think I'd like to paint a mural. Where did Buckbeak go?"

"He went back to live in the Forbidden Forest after…well, after Sirius," Remus explained as he led the way to the master bedroom where the hippogriff used to live. "With the ministry acknowledging Voldemort back and all, no one is going to be concerned about a rogue hippogriff."

"Very true," Harry nodded as he watched Remus conjure several pails of different colored paint.

"What would you like to paint on the walls?"

After a minute of thought, Harry answered. "The forest with Buckbeak and the other hippogriffs. I'd like to add in the thestrals and the centaurs and anything else you can think of too."

Remus smiled at him and conjured a few extra pails of green paint for the trees. "Sounds wonderful."

After a pause for lunch where Harry made stew and ate much more than his stomach told him he could, but still managed not to throw up, they were back painting. It wasn't the Sistine Chapel or even a Banksy work, but it was starting to look like a forest by the time they called it for the day. They planned to finish out the forest and start adding in the animals when it was completely dry.

Over dinner, Harry made a decision. They had been chatting all day about Remus's experiences in school and everything Harry and his friends had been up to, and Harry was getting more and more stressed instead of less. He just didn't know who he was anymore, and the feeling that he just wasn't right in his skin was getting stronger and stronger. "Remus," he started as he put down his fork he had been eating pasta with.

"Harry," Remus chuckled as he put down his fork too. "What's got you so serious again?"

"I want you to break the spell tonight," he took a breath and responded. Before Remus could argue, he held up a hand and kept going. "I know it's only been a day and I'm still not healthy, but I have to know. I feel like a stranger in my own body. Please…I need this to be over with," he pleaded.

Remus really didn't want to break such a powerful spell while Harry wasn't at his healthiest, but it could take weeks to get him to where he needed to be. If it did take that long, then Harry wouldn't have much time before he had to head back to Hogwarts to get used to how he looked. Seeing the need in Harry's eyes was what made the decision for him though. "Ok," Remus said simply as Harry laid his head on the table in relief that it was finally going to be over.

"Thank you so much," he breathed out in gratitude. "I can't take this any longer."

"I think I understand," Remus nodded in sympathy, even if he couldn't empathize not really knowing what Harry was going through. "I want you to take a pain reliever and a strong dose of dreamless sleep before you go to bed. I have both from what Severus makes me for after the full moon. It should keep you asleep through all the changes, and we'll figure everything out together in the morning, no matter what, ok?"

Harry nodded frantically. "Yes, definitely."

They both nervously finished with dinner and washed up. Harry took a long shower and thoroughly brushed his teeth, stalling now that the time had actually come to see what he was going to turn into. "We can do this another day," Remus offered as he slouched against the door frame, watching Harry be extremely slow in getting ready.

"No," Harry sighed and made his way back to Regulus's old room. "Let's get it over with."

Remus passed the young man the pain-relieving potion first, they waited a minute, and then the extra strong dreamless sleep. It wasn't but a couple seconds before Harry's eyes began to droop. "Go to sleep Harry," he pushed the teen back on the pillows. "Everything will be fine in the morning, I promise."

"Fanks Mooey," Harry slurred as his eyes closed and he fell into a deep sleep.

Remus took a deep breath in and started waving his wand over the boy. He pulled on the ragged ends of the unraveling spell and started pulling out the threads one by one. It was remarkable how woven into the child the spell was, changing almost every part of his being. It was a long arduous process to sever each thread without harming the sleeping body in front of him. If he hadn't had extensive training in defense and also in some healing magic, then this would have been an impossible task. An hour later, and every trace of the spell was gone though.

With a final wave of his wand, the glowing web obscuring the sleeping teen disappeared. Remus looked down to take in the changes and gasped. He stumbled back a couple steps and collapsed into a chair, his wand falling to the ground beside him. The child on the bed in front of him was definitely not Harry Potter. Who was this child, and what had happened to Harry? More importantly, how could he keep his promise that everything would be ok when it so obviously wasn't?

Up Next: Calming draughts and crazy elves...