Childhood Days

Disclaimers: I do not own Harry Potter

15 Going On 5:

Professor Severus Snape, the Hogwarts Potion Master, looked at the Fifth Year Gryffindor Potions students with unspoken yet obvious distaste and at the Slytherins with pride.

'Today,' he started, 'we will be making a Shrinking Potion. It would be fairly easy if you weren't the dunderheads I am forced to teach.' He directed the last comment to Neville Longbottom, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley in particular (he loathingly admits that he thinks that Hermione Granger was quite competant in making her potions). The Slytherins smirked and sniggered.

'I will pair you off and you will start on the potion. Bear in mind that the grades you get will be shared with your partner, and you were supposed to have read up on the Shrinking Potion.' With that, he started pairing people off, 'Granger and Malfoy, Weasley and Thomas, Potter and Longbottom, Finnigan and Patil, Zabini and Parkinson, Nott, Golye and Crabbe. Well, what are you waiting for? Move it!' He barked when they didn't immediately move to their appointed partners.

Scrambles filled the dungeon as the students struggled to get to where they were supposed to be. Ron shot a look of pity to Hermione as she moved to sit next to a disgusted Malfoy.

'Neville, you go get the ingredients okay? Leave the brewing to me,' Neville nodded and went to the cabinet. It wasn't that Harry was very confident of his brewing, but Neville is a little... clumsy. Well okay, not a little but he tended to blow up his cauldron. Harry could imagine that over 30 cauldrons have been blown up in the last 4 years.

A surprising quiet and uneventful hour passed by as finishing touches were made to the potions. 'Alright, bottle up your potions and put it on your desks!' Snape sneered at them. Colourful were the final product of the students' brewings. Blue, green, pink, purple. You name it, the colours were there.

'As always, I only see two potions with the correct colouring and one surprising close-coloured potion. 10 points to Slytherin for two correctly brewed potions.' Draco Malfoy smirked at Harry, who ignored him.

Snape turned to the Gryffindor side. 'Weasley! Bring up your potion!' Ron muttered some curses under his breathe before putting a rather dark green potion on the teacher's table. Snape looked at it with the utmost disgust.

'Why, pray tell, is yours disgusting green when it specifically states in the book that it was supposed to be violet?' Ron stumbled over himself for an answer while Malfoy smirked, amused, to see his enermy being humiliated by his favourite teacher.

'Well, well, it would seem,' Snape's voice went dangerously low, 'that you and Thomas had failed to read your texts. 5 points from Gryffindor. Potter! You will try out the potion.' Harry stared in horror at the obviously wrongly brewed potion as Ron looked apologetically at him.

'But sir...', Hermione tried to reason with the professor only to be cut off by a sharp voice.

'Ms. Granger, nobody gave you permission to speak. That would be 3 points from Gryffindor. Potter, test the potion or the points I would take off Gryffindor would not be able to be replaced in a hundred years!' Harry grudgingly stepped up and took the potion. He pulled out the cork and drank it, holding his breathe.

The last thing he saw was Malfoy's pleased smirk before pain surged through him like a sharp knife. He sunk onto the floor, holding his chest and sweat running down his face and back. He squeezed his eyes as tightly as possible as he curled up into a ball.

His memories started fading as fast as his body was shrinking. After a minute of horrified looks and agonizing pain, it finally stopped.

Oversized cloth covered his head, hiding him from the crowd around him. 'Move away, move away!' Snape ordered them as he pushed his way through the crowd. The crowd moved back.

'Potter?' A small face poked through the cloth as he looked around in curiousity and fear.

The child looked no older than 5 and he looked liked he was made up of skin and bones. The girls cooed at the now deaged Harry Potter as the boys looked on in curiousity. Snape stared at him.

'Um... hello? May I know who you are and do you know where I am?' Came a timid and almost scared voice.

End of Chapter

A/N - No, I have not forgotten about my other fic. In fact, I am almost done with the fifth chapter. Believe me when I say that I am very disappointed at this chapter.