Disclaimer: See Prologue

Warning: See Disclaimer which says see Prologue

A/N: I got reviews! You have no idea how happy that makes me! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!*Does the Happy Dance along with the Official Happy Dance Jingle* The main thing that people said was my prologue was too short. I wanted to do just a little teaser to see if anyone would be interested. Interest has been showed so Huzzah! The muse bug hits! I apologize for this chapter having, like absolutely no true value whatsoever except to set up the story. I like character interaction and tend to get carried away. The results of which is around three thousand words where absolutely nothing happens. I promise though, this is going to have many a chapter and actual good stuff is coming. As it is sit back and enjoy Harry's discovery.

I am also not a fan of stories that have to description in them. Action may fill the seats but it's the cinematography that makes a movie great. And that's what a story is. A movie in analog form. So if I get too verbose just let me know and I will try to curtail it.

On with the show!

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Chapter One: Give an Inch, take half a Foot

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"Oy! Mate! You're humming in your sleep again. Come on, get up! I am not missing the first breakfast at this place 'cause your scrawny behind didn't want to wake up!" Ron Weasley hollered next to the bed that belonged to our reluctant and, until a few seconds ago, comfortably snoozing hero.

"I do not," Harry murmured while he was rolling over, "hum in my sleep. And kindly leave my 'scrawny behind' out of your thoughts."

"Oh, yes. You most certainly DO hum! It was the right fifth symphony or something!"

Ron smirked, highly impressed with his wit. He was also impressed that he had managed to wake Harry so quickly. During the summer, especially right after his birthday, it took an act of nature akin to a tidal wave to get the boy to even respond in a half-way awake fashion. But this rolling back over business simply would not do. Hogwarts was known for many things: for being one of the top magical schools in the world, for an amazing headmaster whose powers matched that of Merlin's, for being the current home to the man-boy who surpassed Merlin in power and was, as of present, asleep in the bed next to him, and—by and far the most important thing of all to Ron right then and there—Hogwarts had really, really, good food. Ron was missing that good food right now because a certain green-eyed, messy black-haired friend (who shall remain nameless) was still asleep. So with a flourish that only could have been taught to him by his mother, he yanked the covers back on Harry's bed.

"Now! I mean it! Besides we have Transfiguration first. Do you want to explain to McGonagall why you were late?"

"Alright, alright," Harry groused, lifting himself out of the bed, "I hear you. And I don't hum!"

Ron's eyes went northward, "Whatever you say, Harry. Whatever you say."

"By the way," Harry said, "How in the world do you know about the fifth symphony? Some of Hermione's smarts coming to you through osmosis or some--"

Harry didn't finish this sure to be zinger of a statement because it was at this time that his brain decided to play catch up with the rest of his body and discovered that he was talking to his friend's chest. 'When did that happen?' he thought, 'Usually I am talking to his chin.' He grabbed his glasses from the nightstand to put on and was about to inquire if his friend had another one of his growth spurts and forgot to tell him when he noticed that his pajama pants and shirt had also seemed to grow in the night. As a matter of fact his bed seemed much taller as well. These disconcerting facts led Harry to the realization that Ron verbalized in a way that only Ronald Weasley can.

"Man, mate, you've shrunk!"

"Thanks Ron." Harry said to Ron's tie, "Hadn't noticed."

"You didn't? How could you not I mean you didn't just shrink a little, you shrunk a lot. I mean you were short before, but holy puffkins--"

"Point taken Ron! I have noticed. Trust me."

Harry sat back down on his bed and buried his face in his hands. This is why he did not like mornings. Nothing good ever happened. His logic was that if he slept through mornings he could avoid the nasty events, like this unfurling disaster, that always seem to accompany this supposedly cheerful part of the day.

"What I want to know is what has happened to me," he muttered.

"You know I'm bollocks when it comes to figuring this kind of thing out but we both know who we need to see, don't we?" Ron said as he sat down next to his bespectacled friend.

"Hermione"

"Oh yea, Hermione."

"Give me two point two shakes of a hippogriff's tail and I will be ready to go." Harry exclaimed as he rushed to gather his clothes and toiletries for the shower.

"I will be downstairs waiting" Ron said as he walked to the door, "I have a feeling my clever girlfriend is already at breakfast talking about the new term and NEWTS.... Man, I hate it when she goes into school mode. Just sucks all the fun right outa things!"

Harry smirked at his friends receding back. Ron and Hermione had gotten together right after the war had ended and Voldemort was defeated during his sixth year. A fact that Harry was very pleased with, thank you very much, because they finally stopped tip-toeing around one another. It did not stop the fights, though. In fact they seem to reach a new level of Granger vs. Weasley nastiness since not only did they still fight about things like Ron's lack of homework skills or Hermione's bossiness, but arguments about Ron forgetting anniversaries and Hermione not paying enough attention to Ron because of studies had also joined the ranks. With thoughts of the new school year and his current height problem, Harry dashed to the shower to get ready. 'Why,' he thought, for what felt like the millionth time in his seventeen years of life, 'can't I just have a normal school year?'

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"Hermione!" Ron exclaimed when they got close enough to her at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, "We need your help! We have a..." at this Ron grinned his biggest Weasley grin, "little problem."

"Oh, shut up Ron! You're not clever, I promise you!" Harry gruffed from beside his now very tall, red-headed and "supposed" best friend. Ron had been making short jokes all the way from the common room and if Harry heard another one he may not be accountable for his actions.

"What's the matter?" Hermione asked as she folded up her copy of the Daily Prophet. Ever since the war ended the news had become rather stale. If it wasn't an article about the current day to day happenings of the boy-who-lived-to-destroy-Voldemort-again (Harry hated hyphens. Really. They just needed to go away), then the news was about trivial material that Rita Skeater, bumbling newspaper writer extraordinaire, deemed news worthy. Today's main article was about perfume potions so Hermione could easily skip reading the paper and indulge the boys in their crisis, whatever it may be.

"Stand up."

"Why Ron? Like I said, what's the matter?"

"Just please stand up. Then you will see that the matter is all about."

Hermione sighed as she stood. 'What had the boys gotten themselves into this time?' she thought for what felt like the millionth time in her short six years of knowing Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter. Her musings were cut short however, when after she stood up she finally took in the two boys in front of her.

"Holy cricket, Harry! What happened!?"

"How do you know it's me? Maybe Ron grew or something. He does do that you know. A lot."

"Nope. Not him. Your school uniform doesn't fit anymore." Hermione said as she looked at her friend. Before he was about 5'5" but his spiky hair gave him at least a couple more fake inches. Now it seemed he was about an inch or three shorter than her, putting him at around 4'11". People do not shrink that much normally. This had to be investigated. Hermione quickly surveyed the Great Hall. The other students were all busy eating or chatting to notice it seemed, but just to be sure,

"Here Harry, sit down. It will be harder to tell the height difference sitting. We need to figure this out."

Harry was grateful for Hermione's quick thinking. He had never liked being whispered and stared at and if ever there was a time for those two things to occur, this was it. The poster-boy for the side of the Light suddenly waking up no bigger than a second year at seventeen would just give everyone a field day with rumors and speculations. Harry also knew that unless the brilliant Hermione found a cure for his lack of stature that people were going to notice sooner or later. And knowing his luck, he thought sadly, the former would occur. Shrinking this much could not go unrecognized so he savored his privacy in the matter for a little longer and quickly sat down next to Ron and across from Hermione at their table. Luckily, it was close to the end of breakfast so many of the students and teachers had already left, leaving them some space at the table to talk and not be disturbed.

Hermione seemed deep in thought, trying to hash out this new puzzle before her. Ron, in the mean time, had taken to shoveling large amounts of eggs and bangers into his mouth. Harry, on the other hand, didn't feel much like eating, both from the nerves he had because of his loss of height and the quite disgusting display Ron was now making with what looked like a poor Belgium waffle. So he opted for sitting quietly and watching his friends.

Ron hadn't changed much during the six years that he had known him. He was still the tallest kid in their class, now at an impressive 6'3"; he still had hair red enough to blind and he still had his freckles splattered everywhere. But over the years he had developed those physical features that, to coin a clichéd term, "separated the men from the boys". He was now broad-chested and had a fair amount of muscle from all his Keeper training. He now looked like a rugby player, but since Ron didn't have a clue as to what rugby was the analogy was lost.

Hermione was still Hermione. Her brown hair still was as frizzy as ever and she had long ago claimed defeat over her locks. Most days now she wore it up in a loose bun or twisted back with one of her quills to hold it up. She still had slightly larger front teeth although thanks to quick thinking second year she had managed to get them reduced in size quite a bit. At seventeen, though, she was now a lady, as she termed it, and had the curves to back this statement up.

Harry thought about all his classmates. While they all still looked the same they had inexplicably and quite obviously, turned into grown ups, at least in body. Even Neville had become much taller and had lost all of his baby fat. Harry was quickly falling into a bout of self-pity. He was not, by any stretch, grown up looking. He did not have broad shoulders and even though he had quite a bit of muscle from quidditch and from the work at his Aunt and Uncle's house it was all lean. His voice had gotten deeper since first year, but it was no where near the baritone of Ron's voice and certainly a far cry from Seamus's deep bass voice. His old glasses still perched precariously on his nose. As if a strong wind may shatter them and his hair seemed to stick up even more nowadays, giving him the look of a child who did not and never owned a comb. In short—'Damn it Potter!' a little voice inside his head chirped in, 'Now your making short jokes too!'—even before his sudden loss of those precious six inches of height he had already had a feeling of inadequacy about his appearance ever since they had grown older. Well, he thought, this pity party does me no good. At least I am alive. Voldemort could have seen to that. Might be a shrimp, but I am very much an alive shrimp. He was roused from his internal pep talk when Hermione began asking him questions.

"Did you feel anything during the night?"

"Au ou idding?" Ron said around a mouth full of...what is that? Hash browns? " 'E eeps ike da ead!"

"Yes, thank you Ronald. I am sure Harry does sleep like the dead. I would still prefer if he answered my questions and not you. And kindly keep your mouth closed while you eat. It's disgusting"

Ron gruffed and went back to decimating his breakfast.

Hermione shook her head, the tiniest of smiles play at the corners of her mouth. "Anyway, did you feel anything Harry?"

"No, I sleep like the dead."

"This is no time to get cheeky Harry. Now, what about yesterday? Did you feel something weird or different on the train or at the feast?" Hermione said earnestly. Harry got the impression that she thought this was the key to this whole fiasco.

"No, why? Should I have?"

"Matter of fact mate," Ron said after swallowing for what seemed like the first time that whole meal, "you were acting kinda funny at the feast last night."

"Funny how?" Harry said. He didn't think he acted any different. It seemed like a regular Opening Feast and Sorting. In fact there were a lot more children to sort since the war was over and families felt safe again. "Funny-ha ha funny? Or Funny-'Gee, that's a shame,' funny?"

"Well, neither really. You just acted...well, different, you know?"

"What Ron is trying to articulate," Hermione joined in to save her boyfriend and his lack of eloquence and to save Harry from sure confusion that would result from it, "is that you were acting—well, hyper last night."

"Hyper?"

"Yea!" Ron said, thankful that Hermione had gotten his point across. "Yea, hyper, you know, like you've eaten too much chocolate or something. You were very talkative—"

"—and animated—"

"—and very fidgety—"

"—and you only really ate dessert—"

"—and you were giggling which was quite strange mate."

Harry, who had been getting whiplash from looking back and forth between his friends as they described his behavior the previous evening, had finally caught on to Ron's last statement.

"I did not giggle!"

"Sorry mate, you did. Few times actually."

"Did I really Hermione?"

"I think Ron is over exaggerating a bit, but you did have a very cute laugh going on last night Harry. I don't think I have ever seen you so playful."

Harry groaned and put his head down on the table. Great, just great. 'Cute' and 'playful' two perfect adjectives a seventeen year old boy wants to be described as.

"Fantastic. I'm a girl." Harry murmured from his hunched position. Ron chose this moment to burst out laughing. He also managed to knock his cup off the table in his exuberant reaction. Harry just simply caught the cup before it fell to the floor and caused an even bigger commotion and set it back beside his friend. Ron's reaction was causing several heads around them to turn and stare.

"Ron – be quiet. Harry – it is not that bad at all and the fact that you were acting that way at dinner last night does not mean you are becoming a girl. As a matter of fact, I am offended that all you think of women is that we are twittering, brainless—"

"Whoa, Hermione, slow down," Harry said. He had to act fast and backtrack or the damage from the outburst Hermione was about to extol would be terrible, "I didn't mean it that way. It is just that male pride and ego do not like such words as cute and playful to be used to describe us. We prefer brawny, handsome, rugged..."

Ron snorted. Nearly sending the milk he was drinking across the table at Hermione.

"...yes, I am aware that I am none of those things, thank you Ron, but don't tell my ego that." Harry finished with a smile while he flung a piece of his eggs at his red-headed friend. Ron always made him feel better. Even if it was just to remember to laugh at himself. At this Ron had managed to swallow his milk and was guffawing openly once again. Hermione muttered something dark about male egos, but there was a light in her eyes that told the boys that she was not mad, just exasperated in their silliness. An exasperation that probably would never leave her and one that she hoped never would.

"Anyways," Hermione said trying to steer the conversation back to Harry's predicament, "You were cute last night Harry and it is not a bad thing, Plus, I think the way you acted last night and the loss of height today are related. I am just not sure how. With only those two things to go on it is very hard to come up with a prognosis."

"Could it be a curse or jinx?" Ron said as he returned to his breakfast. Harry, who had been feeling much better, decided to try some eggs. He took one bite and opted instead for the toast since the eggs tasted somewhat bad. He didn't see how Ron could eat so many of them, but maybe he liked his eggs to taste like that.

"No couldn't be a jinx. Most aren't time release like that. If it was a jinx the instant it was cast Harry would have shrunk. Then with curses you need eye contact and unless it was one of the other boys in the dormitory, of which I am highly doubtful, then this happened to Harry because of something else, but just to be sure..."

Hermione whipped out her wand and pointed it right at Harry's face. He was again reminded how scary a witch Hermione Granger could be when she wanted to. She muttered a few spells moving her wand in this formation and that and came back with this report.

"Nope, I didn't detect any curses, jinxes, or any other dark magic. My spells are no where near as powerful as yours are, Harry, but I am willing to bet that if it was cast by anyone here at the castle I would have caught it."

Harry blushed at the compliment and muttered something about them needing to get to class. He was not looking forward to interacting with the other students and hearing their reaction to his new, even slighter form.

"Don't worry mate," Ron said as they were standing up and heading for transfiguration, "people will talk but you always have us Gryffindor. House unity, love and loyalty are important for us you know!" As he was saying this they passed Seamus and Dean.

"Hey, Harry. Hows the Seeker skills? Think you'll get us the cup?" Seamus said with a grin and threw his apple at Harry. He and Harry had developed a game of sorts. Seamus, the ever-obsessed quidditch fan, had taken it upon himself to keep the young seekers skills honed and felt the best way to do that was to throw random objects at him at random times. Today was no different but since Seamus had been kind enough to give a heads-up, Harry was able to catch the apple speeding by in front of his face without even turning his head towards the other two Gryffindor boys.

"Man, how do you do that?" Dean said in awe as he and Seamus approached.

Harry just shrugged and Ron threw his arm over Harry's shoulder, a feat that was much easier since Harry was now half a foot shorter "He is just fast, that's all," Ron said proudly. Seamus and Dean had finally made it up to the trio when,

"Just short is more like it!" Seamus barked out in a laugh, "Holy hell mate – what 'appened to you? You look like a little firsty ya do!"

"Oh yes," Harry said dryly to Ron, "I feel the love and loyalty right now. Quite a fuzzy feeling." At this Harry along with two cackling boys talking about his height, a worried Hermione, and a sympathetic Ron made their way to transfiguration class.

Harry had the sneaking suspicion that this was going to be a very long, long day.

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Author footnote: Wow. This got cranked out faster than expected. I guess I just needed to sit down and type. I will hopefully be able to update often, like at least once a week if not more if the muse bug and I become good friends, but none of this story is written out—at least not all together. Some is here, somes is there. Some is here and there but I can't seem to find it. The vast majority of it is still locked inside this crazy filing cabinet I call a head. So wish me luck 'cause I do not want to be one of those writers that abandons a story. So no writers block for me!

Authors footnote part deux: Also any suggestions about possible things you wanna see maybe happening in the story are encouraged. As it stands right now I am debating who shall be the love interest for young Harry here. I am a fan of Harry/Snape and Harry/Draco and have been debating between those two for a while and have storylines kinda set up for both. So any preferences? Any other ships? May or may not be used in this story but I'm game for feedback. Hmmmm.....I wonder if I could even pull off a Harry, Snape, and Draco fic in this one? That would be most daring.