Letterorum Incedet

By Angelis-Sensei

Chapter 2:

Can it be Any Worse Than it Already is?

!-!

Harry walked to the Great Hall for lunch that day, being excused from his next class by Professor Snape. It was oddly nice of him to do such a thing.

Then again, the Potions Master told him what seemed to be something very secret about him. It might be that since Voldemort was gone he could be more of himself again? He no longer had to spy on anyone nor take orders from anyone, either.

He felt his longer robes billow behind him as he walked. Harry knew that he was getting shorter along with all the other changes. He knew it by his new robes supposedly elongating and that he was now slightly shorter than the Ex- Death Eater teacher of the school, who was about 180 cm in height. It felt odd, being smaller than his professor. But Harry felt oddly comfortable being shorter than he had been. He had grown so much between fourth and fifth year... He disliked being almost as tall as Ron whom was pushing two meters.

Compared to Hermione, before the summer, he had been almost five cm. taller than her. Now, however, as he realized in Potions, was that he was shorter than her. She was a pretty tall for a girl, though. Sitting down, he rolled up his sleeves a little so that they wouldn't drag in his food. Then, he pulled out his Potions book and waited for his two friends, reading.

"Hey ya, Harry!" Ron greeted him, sitting right down next to him. "Say, mate, have you been studying over the break?" He asked, eyeing the book with apparent disgust. "And why Potions!" he spat.

Harry looked over to his best mate and scowled, replied, "Well, I want to be an Auror, so I have to take Potions." He wasn't about to admit that he rather started to like it. Nor would he want to share the depths of his and the professor's talk.

Ron just hated his old teacher, still often calling him "an old, greasy git".

After seeing that side to his teacher, Harry had new-found respect for the man. What he must have to put up with!

When Hermione arrived, however, things took a drastic turn. "Harry! You didn't get in trouble with Snape, did you? You got the potion entirely correct, without my help!" she whispered, thinking that their professor was being unfair again. She had totally forgotten the respect that she usually insisted on the others.

He flinched at the way she said "Snape". "Ah.. He just wanted to know if I was really doing it on my own, I suppose."

"Bloody hell, Harry! Snape wanted to talk to you about making a good potion!" Ron gasped as Harry nodded solemnly. "I feel for you, mate... finally making a good potion and then Snape comes over and wants you to stay after class to make sure that you did it yourself!"

"Well, I'd think that if I saw Ron finally getting a potion correct – totally correct without Hermione's help – I'd be a little suspicious myself. I mean, really... Ickle Ronnikins get a potion right!" Harry chuckled, covering his mouth with his hand, watching as Ron turned as red as his hair.

When he finally calmed down, Harry smirked at the other two, and went to eat the food that was set before them. It wasn't until a little before the end of the Lunch period when chaos finally caught up to our young hero.

"Well... If it isn't Potter!" One of the fourth years, from the class that walked in on him and Professor Snape, apparently. "Maybe you're too good for a romance with one of the students here." They all laughed and chortled at him.

Meanwhile, Harry was sweating. 'What will Ron think of it? Will I be able to explain it on time!'

"Yeah," one of the others chimed in. "What's up with the Golden Boy? Suddenly taken a liking to the greasy," Harry flinched, "Potions Master, Snape..."

That tone stung the brunette deep – how dare they insult him without knowing what their professor went through everyday! They didn't even care that Severus taught them so that they wouldn't gloat on their skills when they did attain them! They didn't care that their teacher was being hard on them so that they would be pushed as far as they could to be great!

"Don't you dare..." Harry whispered dangerously, his eyes turning black with fury. He'd had enough of the insults to their teacher! Their professor! "You should be grateful that he's willing to teach you what he does! Do you understand why he does things that he does!" His tone was bordering on rage.

'I need to calm myself,' he thought, trying to refrain from yelling. He breathed deep, then stood, pushing back the bench a little. He wasn't even as tall as the fourth years, Harry realized when he glared slightly up at the other boy, crossing his arms, scowling.

The fourth year boys were silent, backing away from the Defeater-of-He-Who-Must- Not-Be-Named They finally left the Hall.

When the last of them closed the door behind himself, he sat down again, the chatter returning to it's full volume. Harry sighed deeply, folding his hands over his Potions book, and resting his head down on them, turning to Ron and Hermione. The two said aforementioned people just blinked at him, looks of confusion on their faces.

"Um..." Harry supplied, watching them curiously.

That did the trick – they immediately straightened, and began to ask questions.

"Harry... did you just stand up for Snape!" Ron was the first to get out a real question, preferring to wonder why the bloody hell his friend was standing up for the "Biggest Git on the Planet".

When Harry nodded, Hermione took the chance to ask a more intelligent enquiry of the brunette. "Why did he say that you were 'too good for a romance with one of the students here'? Does this have anything to do with our professor?"

Sighing yet again, Harry looked the frizzy- haired teen square in the eye. "Somewhat. But before you jump to any conclusions, I want you to hear me out, all right?" At both of his friend's conformation, he continued. "As you know from earlier, I was told to stay behind after Potions by Professor Snape. He wanted to know if I received a letter from my Mother this past summer," he paused, wondering how much he should tell them. "I told him that I did, but I never got a chance to read it – don't say anything yet, Ron. I never got to read it because the Dursleys burned it, seeing how it from my Mum, and it came by time-delayed Muggle mail." Harry sat up fully and looked at both of them again before going on.

"Don't tell anyone this, but Professor Snape got a letter from my Mum as well... I don't know what's in the letter, but we were interrupted by his fourth year class that's after ours. Well, after getting kinda... well, upset..." he blushed, remembering back. "Professor Snape was comforting me... and well, he was about to hug me, I guess... and that's when the next class walked right in."

Ron blinked. Then blinked again. "Blimey, mate! You almost got hugged by the greasy git! You would have been covered in oil! I mean, look at your hair, mate!" The redhead exclaimed, tugging at a piece of Harry's now very lanky hair and examined it. "Are you sure that he didn't touch your hair?"

Trying his best to smile, he replied. "Yeah... My hair's been acting up since summer. At least it's not all over the place now, huh?"

"Oh, Harry," Hermione muttered, pushing Ron a little away. "You looked so much like Professor Snape when you were angry... Have you been washing your hair everyday, then? I mean... it didn't used to be this oily before..."

Harry's fake grin fell, replaced with a look of shock at his friend's words. He paled slightly, and collected all of his school supplies, and ran off to the dormitory, grateful that he had a free period next.

He didn't know what to think, standing in front of the mirror in the sixth year boy's bathroom, door locked to the one singular bathroom used for actual bathing. Running his hands over his face, he examined just how much he had changed. When he had looked fleetingly this morning as he got up and brushed his hair and the such, he hadn't noticed anything too different from when he really looked at himself two weeks before. But now, looking closely, he cringed.

His face was defiantly longer than it was before, his jaw well- defined, a more angular shape. His eyes were much more slanted than he remembered, his eyelashes longer and thicker, shadowing his almost black eyes. Harry's eyebrows were thicker and now black, instead of the dark brown. His lips were the same though, maybe a little fuller, if anything. The nose was a bit bigger and more pointed than he recalled as he let his eyes take in the changes. Next was the hair... yeah, it was defiantly as greasy as the Potions Master's.

Overall, it wasn't that big or drastic of a change than he had first thought when he had begun to look over himself. Then he decided to stand back and glance down at his robes. Yup, they were getting much too long for him now. He figured himself to be about 175 cm now, comparing to his previous 184 cm before the summer. Muttering a quick spell to shorten them a bit, just so he didn't trip, but long enough to billow (he chuckled at the thought...). The great Golden Boy was beginning to look and act like the "Most Hated Hogwarts Professor".

He grimaced. Seeing his reflection do the same, he sneered experimentally, imitating his professor. He was scared at how close he looked to said professor when he did. 'It must be the hair,' he thought absent- mindedly. 'I can't imagine how I must have looked in front of Ron and Hermione... Thinking of them, they must be worried from me leaving so suddenly like that!'

With that thought, he unlocked the door, and ventured into the Common Room to see his friends.

fuit continuit...

(To be Continued...)

AN A note concerning the heights in the cm and meters! 180 is about 5'9". This is the height I imagine Severus to be. Now, I imagine Black to be a much taller height... er.. maybe about two meters or 6'6". Now, the book (book three) points out that Black is significantly taller than Severus when they are compared. And I figure that Potter and Black used their height advantage a lot to bully Severus -huffs-. I mean, really... think of how many people bully people taller than themselves, at least physically. From the flames/reviews I got before, you were almost wanting me to make Black a GIANT! Aug! If Severus was 6'7" or whatever, then what would that place the dear ole mutt at? -snickers-

I changed almost all of the italics. Just for you Merlin-damned flammers. DON'T FLAME, I BEG OF YOU!

Reviewing would be NICE, though. -sighs-