I recently found out that Ch 5 disappeared (Thanks jock1444 & meredith-kun for making me aware of this). Sorry to everyone who has been unable to read that chapter. I have reposted that chapter this morning. Please let me know if you notice any other chapters missing.

BOLD print is basically flashbacks/Harry's diary or a log that lists the details of Harry's days. The chapter begins on 9/13, where they come up with a plan to help explain HP's change of appearance, it then skips forward about 2 weeks, to state that the plan mostly worked & HP's overall change in appearance, the rest of the chapter is like flashbacks, as it goes into the day by day details of those 2 weeks as Harry changed. The chapter ends on Thursday 9/26, ch 26 begins on that day as well.

Chapter 25 nothing stays the same

"Harry?" Hermione asked as she and Ron walked into the common room Friday evening after prefect rounds. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Harry replied. After receiving a look from Hermione, he continued, "It's just that the second adoption spell will start wearing off soon and I still haven't found an explanation for my changing appearance."

Hermione sat down next to Harry on the couch, thinking a moment before turning to Ron, "Can you contact the twins and see if we can get some Looky Lollies, Eye Candy & Mock Locks from them?"

"Hermione," Ron said, "Why are you thinking about candy at a time like this? We need to help Harry come up with an explanation about his appearance."

"Honestly, Ron." Hermione said as she shook her head at him. "That is what the candy is for. I figure if we have some of that candy and have some of the Gryffindor's eat it then their appearance will constantly be changing. When Harry's appearance changes in the next week or so, it won't be as noticeable since everyone's appearance had changed. The only difference is that Harry's appearance won't change back. We might have to provide an explanation later on, but at least it would buy us some time."

"Hey, that just might work! Thanks, Hermione, you're brilliant." Harry said as he gave Hermione a hug. "Ron, I'll contact the twins about the candy."

Hermione's plan regarding the candy worked. Not only were the Gryffindor's appearances constantly changing, but so were the Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's

Harry's appearance was slowly changing. He actually seemed to have shrunk. He was taller than he was last year, but was now a few inches shorter than Ron, standing at a respectable five feet, eight inches. His hair was still long, but now only shoulder length. The most noticeable difference was that the color was no longer black, but instead was a cinnamon brown, it also wasn't wavy anymore, but was as straight as a board. His eyes were back to green, but not quite as intense as they were before. According to Hermione and Ginny, his eyes seemed to sparkle when he laughed or if he was excited about something.

Overall, Harry was happy about these changes, especially since he had a smaller frame that would be better for his seeker position.

Of course, Harry's appearance wasn't the only thing that changed since school started. Apparently Snape, the old Snape, not the Snape Harry knew from the summer was back. And he was making up for lost time.

- - - FLASHBACK sequence begins- - -

9/18 Wednesday

Wednesday morning Harry sat at breakfast between a blonde Hermione and a brown-haired Ron. The minute the two saw Harry with his cinnamon brown, wavy, shoulder length hair, they opened the sweets that arrived from the twins on Sunday.

Their appearance got a few laughs in the common room and soon almost all the Gryffindor's were persuaded to try a free sample of the newest product from the Weasley twins.

"Harry," Ron whispered as he elbowed Harry's side, "Why does Snape keep on looking at you this morning? I thought you guys were getting along pretty well?"

"We are," Harry said. "You must be imagining it." Harry looked up at the head table, sure enough, Snape was looking at him, not just looking, staring, with an expression on his face that Harry had never seen before, although it did remind him a bit of one from Uncle Vernon after he heard Harry make fun of Dudley that one time.

"Maybe it's the changes in our appearances," Hermione said.

"But why does he look so mad at Harry and not everyone? Almost every Gryffindor has changed their appearance this morning because of those candies."

"Because he knows that Harry is familiar with the appearance altering potions and is probably responsible for this."

"Yeah!" Ron said. "He probably can't believe that you would use potions for something fun. Bet he never thought that potions could be fun like that."

"Maybe" Harry said, feeling that there was more was going on with his professor than Harry's ability to 'have fun' with the potions.

During potion class that morning, Harry would catch Snape staring at him from his desk at the front of the room. Harry attributed it to the slight change in his appearance, while everyone else returned to 'normal' halfway through class, Harry's hair stayed cinnamon brown. For some reason, this seemed to cause Snape to stare at him harder, in fact, for a few minutes, Harry thought he could feel Snape trying to get into his mind. At the tingling in his head, he dropped his quill and looked up at his professor. Snape stared back at him, his face void of all emotion, Harry immediately went on the defensive and put up his shields before returning to work on his potion.

As they left class, Hermione asked, "What was that all about?"

"I don't know. He was trying to use legilimency on me, though."

"What?" Hermione said as she looked for a logical reason why a professor would do that in the middle of class. "Maybe he was just trying to test you?"

"Maybe. But why did he wait until now to do so? It's the third week of school and over a month since I've had any lessons in occlumency. No, if it was just a test, he would've done it sooner. Why would the change in my appearance provoke him to try to get into my mind?"

Hermione went silent as the two walked to their next class, for once, she did not have the answer.

9/19 Thursday

Thursday morning, Harry was greeted with the same image in the mirror that he was the night before.

Again, Snape spent breakfast staring at Harry, who was very glad that he did not have potions that day. Unfortunately, that did not keep him from Snape as his professor stopped him in the hall after classes.

"Potter, what do you think you're doing?"

"Excuse me professor?" Asked a puzzled Harry.

"What do you hope to gain by changing your appearance like that?"

Harry remained silent since he knew that his appearance was out of his control.

"Detention tonight." Snape snarled as he walked away.

"What was that about?" Ron asked.

"I have no clue." Harry said as the two of them continued to walk to the Quidditch pitch for practice before dinner.

9/20 Friday

On Friday, Harry noticed that his eyes were back to green but not as intense as before.

"When you get to step six in your potion, you will need to come up to the plant on my desk to pick the gurlzenberries. It is very important that these ingredients stay on the vines until you need them."

Snape spent the majority of the class staring at Harry, not making any comments on his appearance. When Harry reached step six in his potion, he walked to the front of the class to get the necessary gurlzenberries. As Harry picked the berries off the vine, he looked up and green eyes met black.

"Sir? Are you okay?" Harry asked as his professor's face turned white.

Snape closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and placed a hand his desk to steady himself before saying, "Get what you need and sit down."

Harry finished picking the berries and went back to work, keeping one eye on the professor in case he was ill.

When class finally ended, everyone stood up to leave when Snape said "Potter, stay."

With a nod to Hermione to indicate that he was okay, he set his books back on the work bench and walked up to Snape's desk.

"Yes sir?"

"Do you have an explanation for this?" He asked with a wave of his hands towards Harry.

"Excuse me sir? I'm not sure what you mean."

"Your appearance. Do you have an explanation?"

Harry just stared at the potion master. Since his appearance started to changed two days ago, Snape had been the only professor to comment on it. At least, the only one to ask Harry about it directly. Remus had mentioned some of the statements the other professors made during staff meetings and in the teachers break room.

"Well Potter, an answer would be nice. Unless you want detention?"

Harry just continued to look straight at Snape, not answering.

"Fine. Detention it is. I suppose this is some kind of joke?"

"No, sir," Harry replied honestly, willing to tell his professor that much.

"Hmm. Dismissed."

Harry grabbed his books and raced out of the room, wondering what in the world that was all about.

9/21 Saturday

Saturday afternoon, Harry was sitting in the common room finishing his homework while Hermione was reading Cybelle's journal.

"Harry." Hermione said quietly.

"Yeah, Hermione," Harry said, without looking up.

"Can you come with me a moment. I need to show you something."

Harry looked at Hermione and noticed that she as holding Cybelle's journal in her hands. "You've found something."

"I think so." She said as Harry stood up and they walked to the lake.

"This is just speculation, but I'm beginning to think that your adoption by Cybelle wasn't really legal."

"What do you mean? Why not?"

"Read these lines from her journal." With a wave of her wand, select text in Cybelle's journal was highlighted.

'We thought he was unfit'
'he doesn't deserve to have children'
'Why should he have a child when I didn't?'
'I could care for him and protect him'
'so I took you'
'wanted you to be free'
'Safer and better for all if I took him'
'have a peaceful life'
'took him to Sweden to arrange the adoption'

"So?"

"Well, it was all what she thought about your father. Not to mention that she repeated many times that she took you. She never once actually said that your father gave you up for adoption. She gave you a name that meant peace and free, a symbol of the life that she didn't think you would have with him."

"So? That doesn't prove anything."

"How about the fact that she used her contacts in Sweden to adopt you? Since you and your family were residing in England, your adoption would have to be facilitated by the London Ministry of Magic to be legal."

Hermione looked Harry straight in the eye and took a deep breath before continuing, "I think you were kidnapped from your father."

"By Cybelle?" Harry said, "She doesn't seem the type that would do that. She was an auror. Why would she do something against the law like that?"

"I don't think she thought of it as illegal."

"Hermione, how could kidnapping not be illegal?"

"I'm not saying it isn't illegal. Just that I think Cybelle convinced herself that she was doing it to save you. I think that after her fiancé died and she moved to London, she might have had a breakdown or something. Since she was in a new place with new people, no one really noticed what was going on. You read her journal, you had to have noticed how different she was after Dane's death, how extreme she was in going after Death Eater's."

"Hermione, her fiancé was killed. Of course she was different. And going after Death Eater's was natural, first of all, she was an auror and second of all, they killed Dane!" Harry said. He felt that he had gotten to know and care for Cybelle while reading her journal, after all, he did think she was his mother during that time. It hurt that Hermione was blaming Cybelle and thought that she was responsible for this.

"Yes, I know." Hermione said patiently, "But she was consumed, she took outrageous risks, all she did was fight like she personally had to destroy all of them."

Harry was silent since he had had similar thoughts when he first read the journal.

"Then the anniversary of Dane's death came and she remembered all that she lost; not just Dane, but their hopes and plans for a family. Somehow, in the middle of that, from another auror, she heard about you and your sister. She-"

"Wait. Sister? What sister?"

Hermione looked at Harry in disbelief. How could he not remember his sister? Hermione hesitated, not knowing how to continue.

"WHAT SISTER, HERMIONE?" Harry shouted, making Hermione glad that she had put up silencing and privacy charms.

"Cybelle mentions your sister in the journal, Harry." Hermione replied. She hadn't seen Harry this upset since last summer when he arrived at Grimmauld Place.

"Where? Show me in the journal where she mentions my sister."

Hermione opened the journal and held it out to Harry. Harry read some of the words on that page:

'I knew I couldn't care for both of you. As much as I hated to split the two of you up, I knew that I had no other choice. You were crying as I walked away with you in my arms. Your sister sounded just as heartbroken. I had the strangest feeling that the two of you knew what was going on. It made me think that the two of you hadn't been separated since you were brought home from the hospital. But don't worry. I am sure that she is in a good home, as well.'

Harry leaned back against the wall in shock. When Hermione looked at him, she noticed that his eyes were closed and that he had tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Harry, are you okay?"

"A sister. I have a sister. I'm not okay. I'm bloody fantastic. A family. My family includes a sister." Harry opened his eyes and looked at Hermione, "how did I miss that page?"

"The pages were sticking together. I almost missed it myself. I didn't even think that you might have missed it. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," Harry said as he hugged Hermione. "If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have known about her. Not that I know much about her now. I wonder how old she is? I wonder where she is and what her name is? Her favorite col-"

"Harry. I'm glad you're excited about your older sister, but-"

"How do you know she's older?"

"Harry, you were about a month old when Cybelle adopted you, I really don't think your sister could be younger than you and still exist at that time."

"Oh, yeah, sorry." Harry said sheepishly.

"Anyways, as I was saying, Cybelle heard about the two of you from another auror. Since she was in a vulnerable state and desired a family, it was probably easy for him to suggest that she take you back to Sweden with her and adopt you. My guess is that it was her coworker that actually kidnapped you and your sister."

"Wait! If we were kidnapped, then there is a chance that my father is looking for us right now?"

"Possibly." Hermione said, her voice doubtful.

"Hermione? Why wouldn't he be looking for us if we were kidnapped?"

"Harry, you were taken 16 years ago. I am sure that when you first went missing that he looked for you. But because of Novo Visius Adoptio, any spell that they tried to use to find you wouldn't work. The minute the adoption spell was performed, whoever you were ceased to exist, you were legally Aren Brac Swann at that point. It would be as if your original identity had died, no trace of him existing would be found."

"Okay, but what about now? The spell wore off when I found out about the adoption, remember? Now they would be able to find me."

"Yes, if they tried."

"What do you mean if they tried? Why wouldn't they try?"

"Harry, it's been 16 years, since you were kidnapped. When no trace of you was found, they probably declared you dead and a funeral, without a body, was held."

"Oh merlin," Harry said. He hated to think that his father, his family had gone through the same thing that Snape went through. Possibly even worse if no body was found. So his family probably thinks that he's dead. Once he finds out who his family is, how would he tell them? He couldn't just he show up on the doorstep and announce that I'm alive, could he, Harry wondered.

"Harry, there's more."

"What? Did you find out the identity of my father?"

"No, not really." Hermione said hesitantly.

"Clues, then?" At Hermione's hesitation, Harry continued, "Come on, Hermione, just tell me. It can't be that bad."

"Well, assuming that I'm correct and that you were kidnapped, the next logical question is 'Why?' Why would Cybelle and the other aurors believe that your father didn't deserve to raise his own children?"

"I don't know, Hermione. Cybelle mentioned the fact that my mother had died. That seemed pretty important to her. Maybe she didn't think a single father could do the job right or something."

"That might be what Cybelle thought, but I seriously doubt that that was the reasoning behind the other auror's actions."

"Then what? Hermione, if you know something, say it."

"I was just remembering some things I read. One reason is if your father was abusive. You read 'Magic of Adoption', you should know that wizards look down on parents that abuse their children. That would be one reason why they would feel that he didn't deserve to have children."

"Hey, that could also tie in with my name meaning peace. But why wouldn't they just bring my father up on charges of abuse? Wouldn't that seem more logical then kidnapping me, not to mention legal? If we were abused, then we would be adopted and my father would've been punished."

"Yeah. That's what I was thinking."

Harry looked at Hermione, "You have another theory, don't you?" Hermione slowly nodded. "Well, go on, tell me."

Hermione took a deep breath and said in one quick breath "Yourfathermighthavebeenadeatheater."

"What? A little bit slower this time." Harry couldn't recall ever seeing Hermione so nervous, not even before OWLS last year.

"Your-father-might-have-been-a-death-eater." She said a bit slower.

"A Death Eater. Wouldn't Voldemort be surprised to learn that?" Harry said as he started laughing. The boy-who-lived could be the son of one of Voldemort's servants. His father was either abusive or a Death Eater. Harry wasn't really sure why he felt so surprised, this was his life, right? Why would something as simple as finding his father be easy?

9/22 Sunday

"-Anyways,as I told Crabbe and Goyle, I don't need to focus my time and energy on Potter right now. Professor Snape is doing a more than adequate job of it for me. Actually he's doing a much better job then I am. Even though I can deduct points and give him detention, I would need a reason for it. Professor Snape does not. I swear, every time he sees Potter he deducts points. Of course, I can't help but wonder why. What exactly has Potter done to make Professor Snape so mad at him? Of course, I also can't help but wonder, how upset Professor Snape is."

"What do you mean?" Nott asked as Malfoy paused.

"Well, I had been wondering how serious Professor Snape was about sabotaging someone else's potion. Is he mad enough at Potter that he would welcome the excuse to deduct more points and assign detentions?"

"Is it really worth finding out? If it's obvious that you are the one who did it, Professor Snape would have no choice but to stand by what he said on the first day of classes."

"Ahh, yes," Malfoy drawled, "If it was obvious, we will just have to ensure that it isn't."

Nott laughed as the two Slytherins turned the corner, taking their conversation out of earshot from Harry, Hermione and Ron.

"Now what?" Harry asked.

"Now, we'll just have to make sure that you are on your guard in potions class. If we had overheard this during the first two weeks of school, I would have suggested that you talk to Professor Snape about this, but now. Malfoy's right. He has been deducting points from you every time he sees you."

9/23 Monday

Harry woke to discover that the only thing different about his appearance today was that his hair, although still cinnamon in color, was no longer way, but was now straight as a board.

"Potter! Stay."

Harry sighed and turned around to face Snape, as the remainder of the students left the classroom. All the empathy and respect that he developed over the summer for this professor was quickly disappearing.

Snape seemed worse than he was last year, only this time he didn't even pretend to have a reason to assign Harry detention.

"How long is this going to go on for?"

Harry wasn't exactly sure what his professor was referring to, but by the way Snape had been staring at him, Harry suspected it was due to the change in his appearance. "Forever, sir."

Snape got a look of disgust on his face as he said, "Just like your father with his jokes. Detention tonight and twenty points from Gryffindor. Now leave."

Harry glared at Snape before turning to leave, he knew that if he stayed, not only would he be late for his next class, but that he would most likely lose his temper and end up in a lot more trouble then losing points and detention.

9/24 Tuesday

Tuesday, Harry noticed that he was now shorter than Ron. His height was now five feet, eight inches, and he was skinnier, his shoulder's no longer as wide as before.

Much like he had the previous week, Snape was constantly staring at Harry. It didn't seem to matter to Snape that by now over half the school were eating the appearance altering candies, Harry was the only one that received detentions or had points deducted for it. Harry thought it was ironic, since he was the only one not eating those candies. The changes to his appearance were natural.

"POTTER! Enough is enough. Twenty points form Gryffindor and Detention."

Everyone in the corridor stopped and looked between Harry and Snape, wondering what Harry could have done to make the professor so mad. It seemed as if every time the professor saw Harry he was deducting points, assigning detention, or both.

9/25 Wednesday

Harry and Hermione spent most of potions keeping an eye on Malfoy. After the conversation they heard last weekend, they weren't taking any chances. Luckily, it didn't appear as if he had anything planned for today.

As usual, when the class started to leave, Snape called out, "Potter, stay."

Harry stayed where he was. Since he was expecting Snape to keep him after, he hadn't even stood up. After the rest of the class left, Snape closed the door and sat down across from Harry.

"Potter, what is going on?"

"Nothing, sir." Harry replied.

"And that is why your appearance is changing on a daily basis." Snape said sarcastically, before he continued as Harry opened his mouth to reply. "And don't try telling me that it is the candy. No one else's changed in appearance lasted this long nor has anyone's changes been the same two days in a row, let alone a week. This is your last chance to tell me what is going on."

Harry just glared at Snape, without answering.

"Since you won't explain or end this joke, I have no choice but to assign you detentions every night, until you either end this or provide a valid explanation of why your appearance is changing. Dismissed."

Harry just stared at Snape with his mouth hung open. Detention every night! Just because his appearance had changed, something he had no control over.

"Unless you are going to stop this charade, get out of my sight. NOW!" He added when Harry hesitated.

9/26 Thursday, after Harry's detention with Snape

"Harry," Hermione said. "You should just tell him what's going on."

"I can't."

"You really should, mate." Ron chimed in. "At this rate, not only will we not be in the running for the house cup, but Gryffindor will be in the negative point wise."

"What am I suppose to say: 'Professor, please stop assigning me detention and detecting points from Gryffindor simply because you don't approve or like the change in my appearance. I was adopted, hopefully only twice, and this is the adoption charm wearing off.'"

"Sounds good to me," Ron said. "Anything that might keep him from deducting points."

"Actually, Harry, that wasn't that bad. Although I wouldn't say the part about his not approving or liking the changes to your appearance."

"Why not? I mean, what other reason can he have to be so disturbed by the changes in my appearance? None of the other professors seem to care about it. As a matter of fact, Remus told me that most of them believe that either I lost some type of bet and that it is a dare, or that it is one of the twins experiments gone wrong. Why is Snape so concerned that he is constantly giving me detentions and deducting points? Why doesn't he come out and tell me what is bothering him about my appearance change?"

"Has Moony said anything to you about why Snape is so upset?"

"Just that Snape is telling them that it is something personal and between the two of us. But I don't know what it is. I think he's just saying that as an excuse to deduct points and give me detention."

"Hey!" Ron cried, "Why don't you just use a glamour charm to change your appearance back to how it was last year? That would make Snape stop."

"NO!" Harry yelled, then whispered when everyone turned to stare at him. "I'm just finding out what I really look like. I'm not going to change what I look like to please that greasy git."

"Harry!" Hermione shouted, shocked since it was the first time since Harry's birthday that Harry referred to Snape disrespectfully.

"What?" Harry asked. "It's not like he doesn't deserve it. He is acting like a git. He doesn't even pretend to have a reason. If it wasn't bad enough that I have detention with him everyday he is still deducting points every time he sees me. I'm getting sick of it.

"Do you know that yesterday in detention Snape tried spells to end any appearance charms that he thought were on me. I tried to tell him that they wouldn't work, but he wouldn't listen, I spent most of the detention cleaning the desks while he stood behind me shouting spells. Funny thing was, they were actually the same spells that I tried over the summer to change my appearance. Tonight he had me use some of the leftover Revealo potion I made over the summer. It's like he made it his personal mission to find out what's going on."

"You could always tell Dumbledore what is going on."

"No, Snape said that this is personal, so personal it will stay. Beside, it's Dumbledore, I'm sure he knows that Snape has landed me detention with no end in sight. Since he hasn't mentioned it, neither will I. I am not going to go running to Dumbledore with this, neither am I going to tell anyone about something this personal if I don't want to. Sooner or later, Snape will get tired of having me in detention."

As Harry walked up the stairs to his dorm room, Hermione and Ron just shook their heads, at their friends and professor's stubbornness. This could be going on for a while, they both thought. Harry might still be serving detention with Snape next year, as well. Sometimes Harry and Snape could be so much alike, it was scary.

Thanks to everyone who reads & reviews this story.

We will be finding out a bit out Snape's reactions next chapter.

The truth is coming out

Upcoming: Chapter 26 cognatus lamia lector

So, since I couldn't post (partly ff & partly my lack of access to a computer), I ended up revising this chapter, it is twice as long as it originally was, thought about breaking it up into separate chaps, but then I figured you all would kill me if I didn't have someone find out the truth in Ch 26 like I said I was.

gurlzenberries - my own creation (as far as I know), hey if there can be boysenberry, why not this?

Hopefully this chapter answered some questions (while creating others?).