When Harry woke up the next morning, he was exhausted. He looked around him and noticed something was different. No... Everything was different. Ginny's grave that Harry had fallen asleep on was gone! The flowers that he left for her were gone! What the hell? He went to his parents' gravesite and noticed it wasn't there either! He distinctly remembered leaving flowers for them and all the Potters resting there, but all it was gone!
"If this is some kind of sick joke I'm going to beat the crap out of whoever did it!" Harry exclaimed to whoever was pranking him.
Then he noticed his voice... it sounded like a little kid. Slowly but carefully he looked down at his body and noticed that he had shrunk!
"What the hell is going on?!" Harry screamed in frustration.
It took Harry 10 minutes to calm down, during which time he examined himself. A few conclusions were self-evident. He had shrunk big time! Ginny and his parent's graves weren't there, so... it was probably some sick joke – wasn't it?
He was not wearing any of his gear. His weapons were gone, heck – even his wand was gone. And no one could take his wand without alerting him to it as there were dozens of wards in place to make sure of it. Moody's lessons had paid off in that regard at least.
The clothes he had on fit well but they were for a slightly overweight boy of around 10 or 11 or so. There was a broom nearby, but when Harry went to investigate he found it broken. "Figures," Harry groused. "Just keeps getting better and better with my luck."
Harry took a mental inventory of himself. He could clearly remember going to classes, learning magic, and discovering his shadow abilities. That ruled out him simply having dreamed his life while sleeping in a graveyard. The sun was already up and the temperature outside reminded him of May or June so he wouldn't freeze. He walked over to a tree and slipped into the shadow it cast only to reappear near a mausoleum about 20 meters distant. Those powers were still intact.
"Accio wand!" Harry summoned. Nothing happened. The wand must be out of range, he thought.
Harry had no idea why someone would go to such steps to create an elaborate hoax like this, but once he found out who it was, a beating was going to be too good for them. Ron; it was probably Ron. Jerk.
I just don't get why he decided to shrink me down to a child again. And how did he get my armour off without me knowing it? Did Fred and George help him?
A rumbling in his stomach indicated that Harry needed to get something to eat. Not trusting himself to shadow to Hogwarts and not put Ron into St. Mungo's for a fortnight, Harry opted to walk off some of his anger before heading back to school. And meeting with his former friend. Jerk.
Harry had never really explored Godric's Hollow much beyond the gravesite. It was a small town with a quiet atmosphere.
"Hi, Harry, how are you today?" a middle-aged man asked while walking his dog alongside the road.
"Uh… fine, sir. Yourself?" Harry replied guardedly.
"Just taking little Archie here out for his duty walk. You okay there?"
"Sure. Fine," Harry answered.
"It's just you look a little pale. Well, come on, Archie, let's allow this boy to get home. See you around, Harry. Come on over next time you want to see Paul." The strange man left with his dog in tow.
That was odd, Harry reflected. Odd that the man wasn't surprised to see him but he greeted him like they knew each other when Harry was certain he'd never met the man before. True, he could have felt that he knew the Boy-Who-Lived like many other stalkers did, but this guy didn't look at this scar or anything. And he wasn't fazed that Harry was no longer a 17-year old but instead looked like he was 10 again.
How strange...
While he was walking, someone tackled him and both of them fell. He was set to pull out his dagger, but a couple things stopped him. First, Harry remembered that he had killed all the death eaters and he was pretty certain that no one would attack him in broad daylight. Second, he remembered that his dagger was gone. Ron probably took it for this prank. Jerk. And third, he had been tackled by a kid.
"Ouch! Hey, you should watch where you're..." Harry's smile faded as got a good look at his 'attacker'. The person that tackled him to the ground was now sitting on his chest. It was a girl around 8 or 9 years old with red hair girl and green eyes. She looked like his mum.
"Harry! Where were you! Mummy and daddy are searching all over for you! You know how worried we've been?" she said through tears.
Harry was shocked. What the hell was she talking about? Seeing that she was about to cry again, he immediately hugged her. "I'm fine, Sheila, don't worry," he soothed. Then it hit him. How did he know that her name was Sheila?
When he let her go, she gave him an odd look. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, sis," he replied. Sis? What the hell?
"What happened to your forehead? It's bloody," she said.
He touched his scar and true enough there was crusty blood around it. Touching the tender area made him wince.
"I knew it, you're hurt, big brother," Sheila said. "What happened? Where've you been? You've been missing since yesterday! Uncle Sirius and Remus..." But Harry didn't hear the rest.
He froze. 'Big brother, Uncle Sirius, and Uncle Remus?' This is taking a prank too far! Ron was going to be lucky if he ever got his face put back to normal after he got through with him. Bloody jerk.
"Look, I'm fine now. Why don't we just worry about getting you back home," he placated, hoping to find out what this prank was all about. He didn't know what was going on, but he was going to have to go along with it. For now that is.
"Ok!" she said excitedly while dragging him by his arm down a street, then up another one towards the house where his parents once lived. Only… this house was not a burned out shell like he had see last February. It was intact.
And inhabited.
"Hey, Harry?" the red head said excitedly.