Just a quick note, none of my stories are abandoned, and none are affected by HBP.

Harry nearly vomited from the pain when he woke up. Everything hurt, his bones felt like they had been rearranged, and his muscles felt like someone had squashed him.

"Oh fuck. Mum didn't say it would hurt," he said, and nearly gasped at the sound of his voice. He didn't sound even a little bit like he had the day before. His new voice was husky, but smooth, like smoky velvet.

Forcing himself to sit up, he took stock of his body from bottom to top. Feet, slim and small, smaller than they had been, and he'd never had big feet. His legs were still extremely thin, but his knobby knees were gone, replaced with well-shaped ones that fit his legs much better.

Harry glanced at his hands, only vaguely aware of how small and thin they were because at that moment his attention was stolen by something brushing his hip. It was his hair, still black, but with a red undertone now rather than a brown one. The length of it was what captured his attention, though. In his seated position, it touched the bed, if he stood it would be down to his backside.

Startled, Harry jumped up, hissing and nearly falling to the floor from the pain in his ribs. 'Right, it certainly didn't fix my ribs,' he thought while he gasped for air. When he could breathe again, he made his way slowly to the cracked mirror that was inside the door of his wardrobe.

Only the jaw that dropped on the image in the mirror convinced Harry that the boy in the mirror was him. His appearance had changed so much that he didn't think anyone would be able to recognize him. After examining his looks more closely Harry decided that he really liked the changes, except for one: he'd shrunk, not a lot, but considering how small he had been, this was ridiculous.

Pale skin, graceful limbs (despite their painful thinness), and a face that could only be called beautiful was only the beginning. His hair was no longer wild, but thick, shining, and healthy. Harry smiled, but then frowned.

"Merlin, I'm the size of a first year! And I look like a girl to boot!" Harry had to admit that he was doing himself an injustice with the latter comment, while he was undoubtedly beautiful, it was not a feminine way. Actually, it wasn't a very masculine beauty either, more of an androgynous, feline, predatory look that was as dangerous as it was enthralling.

He looked more closely at his face, trying to decide which of his four parents he got his features from. Hermione had spouted off about magical adoptions once during third year, and Harry could remember that the child who was adopted could take on both the physical and magical characteristics of the adopting parents.

The eyes were still his mum's, though their shape was different now, tilted rather than round. Their color had shifted slightly, too. Before the change, his eyes had been emerald, now they were the lurid green of the killing curse. His eyelashes were long and dark, drawing even more attention to the eyes that were already the focal point of his face.

Dragging his attention away from his eyes, Harry looked intently at the rest of his features. He found plenty of traits from his mother, Snape, and James Potter, but very little from Sirius. 'Wonder why that is? Maybe because Sirius didn't feel the need to stamp me as his,' he thought, dredging up more memories from Hermione's lectures. He laughed, then hissed from the pain, as he noticed one area that he could see Sirius's influence.

His hair, although it had red undertones that could only have come from his mother, was in all other respects Sirius's. 'He was probably afraid that I'd get Snape's hair. Oh, Padfoot, I miss you.'

It suddenly hit him that he wasn't wearing his glasses. 'Thank Merlin,' he thought. 'If I had to lose anything, I'm glad it was those glasses. I could just see myself dueling with the dark idiot, and him summoning my glasses right off of my face.'

Harry looked at himself again, still in shock about his new appearance. The thing that bothered him the most was how fragile he looked. He'd never looked like that before. It was apparent, for the first time in his life, that he was mistreated, and had been for a significant portion of his life. Scars littered his arms and hands, and he knew that if he examined the rest of his body, he'd be covered in the evidence of his relative's abuse.

'Damn it,' he snarled mentally. 'How in the fucking hell am I supposed to hide this now? I live in a dorm with four other boys, sooner or later someone's going to see this.' Harry's thoughts stopped dead. Harry Potter lived in a dorm with four other boys … but was he Harry Potter anymore? 'Not like it isn't bloody fucking obvious whose child I am,' he thought, cringing a bit.

To get his mind off of the disturbing thoughts of being known as Snape's child, he pulled his mother's letter out again and reread it, mind sifting the information a bit more thoroughly than before. 'Sanitized,' he thought, 'that's what this is. Mum didn't feel she could tell everything to me, even in a letter I would only get if she was dead. There's more to this story, but I doubt anyone will tell me. Fuck it, I don't need to know, and I don't really care. Snape hates me, and all of my other parents are dead. Joy. Can't imagine that this will get me out of here any quicker. Oh fucking hell, what are the Dursley's going to do?'

As if his panicked thought had conjured his very fear, Harry suddenly heard the stomping footsteps of Vernon Dursley coming up the stairs. 'Oh Merlin,' Harry thought, 'I'm dead.'

The door crashed open before Harry even registered the locks clicking open. Vernon stood in the doorway, breathing hard, face nearly puce from exertion. He didn't even look at the boy in the room as he began his rant, screaming about how Harry and his freaky friends were keeping him from getting a new job.

Harry backed himself into the corner, knowing this was likely going to hurt quite badly, and with his smaller, more delicate frame, do a lot more damage than usual. He curled into a ball before Vernon got into striking range, but Vernon apparently wanted a bit more than the normal few blows today.

The obese man yanked Harry from his defensive ball by one arm, and Harry shrieked as something popped in his shoulder and cracked where Vernon held him. The cry drew Vernon's attention, and he looked down at the tiny boy.

"What did you do, freak?" he screamed, shaking his nephew by his freshly broken and dislocated arm.

Harry tried to defend himself, but the pain in his arm robbed him of speech. All he could do was scream, and scream he did, hoping to Merlin there was an Order member watching his house who would hear the screaming. He didn't care if they found out Vernon beat him, he didn't care if they found out Snape was his father, all he wanted was the pain to end before Vernon ripped his arm off.

His scream cut off abruptly as Vernon walloped him upside the head with his closed fist. Harry saw stars as his stomach heaved. Burning acid escaped his mouth, and the next thing he felt was his whole body slamming into the wall as Vernon flung him bodily away because he'd vomited.

The battered boy slumped against the wall, praying to any deity he could think of that Vernon would be so disgusted that he'd leave. 'Please, please, please go away,' he thought desperately. 'Go away you son of a whore, I can't take anymore, you're going to fucking kill me this time.'

Bleary eyes watched in resignation as Vernon's foot drew back for a kick. A cry of "stupefy" stopped the kick from landing, and Harry's eyes slid closed as he passed out, thinking 'well, that was too fucking close,' as the darkness took him away from the pain.

That's it for now. Sorry it's been so long... I've been lazy, and things at home haven't been the best. Anys, enjoy, and review! Suggestions are always welcome, even if I choose not to take them.

BTW, choices 6 should be out soon, as well as a lost child 2. I am getting sick of puttering with choices, so I think I'm just gonna post it.