A/N: As you've seen, the title changed. This was the original title, I was just too tired to
remember the phrase: Big surprises come in small packages. :) Well, I posted this a day early, because I'm going to
be VERY busy over the next couple of months. I thought everyone should deserve the next chapter after all the wonderful
reviews! Don't hate me because of the ending... There's still a few more chapters left (1-2, maybe 3...)
-Curt
Hermione made the trek to Hagrid's hut as soon as she had enough free time. The half-giant laughed at her antics and told her he'd go along with the ploy. Though, at Harry's request, she didn't tell Hagrid about Harry's condition. They both knew how talkative their large friend was and the fact that Harry was the size of a large ant would be too tempting if any of his many enemies were to find out.
Classes the rest of the day were rather boring by Harry's standards. He'd taken a nap during Hermione's Arithmancy class and had quickly nodded off in History of Magic as well. Everything else was a blur as he tried to listen from the sanctity of Hermione's pocket.
Lunch and tea went by without incident when Hermione didn't go to the Great Hall, instead, she remained in her room where Dobby eagerly brought enough food for her and had used his House-Elf powers to shrink Harry's meals to size.
"I wish it were that easy for witches and wizards," Hermione said with a grateful smile. "Food tends to lose its nutritional value when we attempt to shrink it."
"House-Elves have many talents, Miss Granger Madam," Dobby said with a toothy grin. "But Dobby has to return to the kitchens, Winky has been naughty and dipped into the butterbeer again! I hope the meal is to Mr. Harry Potter's liking?"
"He says it is and thank you, Dobby," Hermione said with a wide smile. "He has to shout to be heard normally and if he wants to improve his health, then he shouldn't shout."
"Dobby understands," Dobby said with a flourish of a bow. "May Miss Granger and Mr. Harry Potter have a good evening," he added before snapping his fingers and disappearing from view.
"I'm so glad that Professor Dumbledore pays him," Hermione said with a smile. "I wish he paid him more though, he does great work... They all do."
"Dobby talked the professor down, remember?" Harry piped in after taking a long pull from his pumpkin juice. "Your heart's in the right place, Hermione."
"But?" she prompted as she looked in on her miniscule best friend.
"But nothing," Harry replied with a shrug. "You've got a big heart and one day, I think your ideas will make an impact. It's just going to take time and patience..."
Hermione smiled widely at his words as she rested her head on her hand. "Thank you, Harry," she said after a moment of watching him eat. "You're the first one to say anything nice about S.P.E.W...."
"Well, the timing was a bit off and you wanted instant results," Harry said after swallowing what he'd just been chewing. "You've grown since then and I'm sure you don't expect freedom and wages for House-Elves to happen over night anymore."
"I was a bit impetuous, wasn't I?" she asked with a snort of laughter. "I guess I've grown a little..."
"You've grown a lot," Harry said after pushing his plate away. "Ron and I on the other hand... I've done the inverse and Ron seems to be where he's always been," he added with a chuckle. Hermione laughed with him and sat back when he motioned he was going to change.
"Let me get your medicine ready, Harry," Hermione said after she'd levitated the remains of his nightly meal from his table.
"Ok, I'm just going to get ready for bed," he said then yawned loudly afterwards. He'd just turned down the bed when his a goblet floated to his bedside table. "Ugh, well, here we go again..." he said as he drank down the contents of the goblet. With another yawn, he slipped under the covers and whispered a tired goodnight to his best friend.
"Goodnight, Harry," Hermione said softly as she replaced the cover to his box and set it on her bed.
"Harry? Harry where are you?" Hermione called into the empty room.
Harry watched helplessly as the giant version of his best friend got to her knees and began scanning the floor intensely. He called out her name, but she didn't hear him and crawled farther away from him.
Harry ran after Hermione as quickly as he could, but he found that the legs of someone a half of an inch tall didn't get him very far. Hermione, however, seemed to move away from him at an enormous pace and quickly left him behind.
"HERMIONE!" Harry shouted as he was gently nudged awake.
"Are you ok, Harry?" Hermione asked sleepily. "You were calling out my name in your sleep."
"What? Oh, I just had a bad dream, that's all," Harry said groggily. "Sorry if I woke you..."
"What was it about?" she whispered quietly.
"You were looking for me, but I was too small for you to see," he said with a shrug. "Just a regular nightmare I guess."
"As long as I have my extendable ear, I'll be able to hear you, Harry," Hermione said with a caring smile.
"I know," he said with a smile of his own. "Why don't you go ahead and go back to sleep? I'll drift off again eventually..."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine," Harry said nonchalantly. "I have bad dreams all the time; it just takes a few minutes for me to get past it and back to sleep again.
"If you need anything, go ahead and wake me, ok?" Hermione said with a yawn.
"I will, get some rest."
"Night, Harry," she said tiredly before replacing his roof.
"Night, Hermione."
Harry found that he couldn't fall straight back to sleep like he wanted to so he grabbed a blanket and sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace. He had to admit that spending so much time with Hermione wasn't as bad as he'd thought it might be. True, they spent a great deal of time in the library like they did during Ron's tantrum during the Tri-Wizard Tournament, but that was Hermione and Harry didn't want to change a thing about her. He got up from the sofa with a sudden urge to see her face and opened the door to his small house. He smiled slightly when he found her facing him and he moved his favorite chair to the door so he could sit and watch her sleep for a bit. Before he knew it, he'd fallen asleep with the door open, curled into a tight ball in his favorite chair.
"Why was your door open?" Hermione asked concernedly with a hint of evenness to her voice. "What if Crookshanks had found out?!"
"I didn't mean to fall asleep with the door open-"
"And you were sitting RIGHT in front of it!" Hermione continued in a huff. "Do you want to get better? The draft could have frozen you to death!"
"Hermione, calm down," Harry said frustratingly. "Ok, so I wasn't thinking!"
"You got that right-"
"Hold it right there, Hermione," Harry said as his anger started to rise. "I'm alive, I got one of the best night's sleep I've ever had and everything's going to be fine! There's no need to get angry over it all now."
"What if I'd lost you, Harry?" she asked somewhat taken aback by his outburst.
"You didn't," Harry said comfortingly. "You've shrunk my wand down for me, Hermione. I can take care of myself... listen, why don't we just put this behind us and go to breakfast?"
"Dobby will be here in a few minutes," Hermione explained as she finished getting ready for the day. "I'm not going down to the Great Hall."
Harry shook his head as he slumped into his chair. "If you keep skipping the meals there, questions are going to start flying..."
There was a knock at the door and Harry instinctively looked in that direction but cursed to himself when he remembered his predicament. He heard Hermione leave her table and close the curtains around her bed before opening the door.
"You are here," Ginny said in relief. "We were worried when you didn't come down for breakfast, is everything ok?"
"Everything's fine, Ginny," Hermione said with an exasperated sigh. "Why wouldn't it be?"
"You've been skipping meals..." Ginny said concernedly. "It's Harry, isn't it?"
"WHAT?" Hermione asked in surprise, her eyes glancing to her sealed bed.
"Come off it, Hermione," Ginny said with a soft smile. "I know you miss him..."
"Ginny, I'm fine," Hermione said quickly as a blush started creeping up her cheeks. "We'll all see Harry soon enough."
Ginny sat on the edge of Lavender's bed and looked at Hermione curiously. "Do you know something?"
"No, I don't," Hermione said with a shake of her head as she sat down and continued getting ready.
"And you don't miss him?" Ginny asked skeptically.
"Ginny..." Hermione said with a sigh. "Of course I miss him!"
"You sure aren't acting it, Hermione..."
Hermione put her brush down and turned to properly look at the young Weasley. "Everything's going to be fine, Ginny, I'm not worried..."
"What if he's fighting You-Know-Who right now?" Ginny asked in frustration. "What if I... we don't see him again?! I don't know if I can handle that, Hermione!"
Hermione smiled kindly and sat next to her friend. "He's not fighting Voldemort, Ginny," she said reassuringly as she placed an arm around the younger woman's shoulders. "He'll be back, just like Professor Dumbledore said."
"How can you be so sure?" Ginny asked quietly as she rung her robes in her hands.
"I have faith that Harry will be back soon enough," Hermione said with a soft smile. "I miss him too, Gin, I really do."
Ginny looked to her friend and smiled wanly before standing to leave. "Are you coming down to breakfast?" she asked with a curious glance to Hermione.
"No, I'm going to stay here and read some more," Hermione replied, pointing to her open Ancient Runes textbook. "Dobby has made sure that I get my meals..."
"Ok, I'll see you later then," Ginny said warily before leaving the room.
Just as she closed the door, Dobby appeared and left breakfast before disappearing with a bow. Hermione smiled at the enthusiasm Dobby possessed before she retrieved Harry's box and set his breakfast on his miniature table.
"What was that all about?" he asked as he sat down to eat.
"Ginny just misses you, Harry," Hermione replied as she nibbled on a sausage. "I don't think her crush has gone away..." she added in a somewhat disappointed whisper.
"Well, she's going to be upset to find I don't feel that way for her," Harry said with a sigh. "I really don't want to face hurting her... she's like my sister..."
"Oh?" Hermione asked with a bit of surprise to her voice.
"You know that, Hermione..." Harry said with a soft chuckle. "I fancy someone else anyway..." He dropped his fork and quickly cleared his throat. "Tell you what, I should get some rest, why don't you leave me here and go on to class without me?"
"You fancy someone else?" she asked inquisitively. "And I'm not letting you out of my sight, Harry, you know that!"
"I know," Harry said quickly. "But I don't think you need to watch over me every hour of every day, Hermione."
"Speaking of which, it's time for your medicine," Hermione said with a tender air to her voice. "It's no trouble at all, really, and who is it that you fancy?"
"It doesn't matter," Harry said with a sigh, "she doesn't feel the same way... I think she's already fallen for another bloke."
"Do you know for sure? Do I know her?"
"All the indications are there and it's really not important," Harry said before busying himself with his morning dosage of potion. "We should get going then, before you're late to class."
Hermione looked at him crossly before helping him to her pocket. "We're not done talking about this," she said as Harry's house was shrunk down and placed in her bag.
"I think I'm going to take a nap," Harry retorted as he felt her heart pound through her blouse. He couldn't tell her that it was her he fancied. He couldn't tell her that he rather enjoyed being so close to her every day. And he certainly couldn't tell her that he loved to hear her heart beating next to him or that he felt content when the heat of her body kept him warm. So instead, he pulled the blanket he'd brought with him over his small body and laid his head on the pillow that accompanied the blanket.
Harry had fallen asleep on several occasions that day, but kept waking up when Ginny began interrogating Hermione or Ron once again. Each time she asked them, the two would deny they knew where Harry was and Ron had blown up at her at one point.
"I DON'T KNOW WHERE HE IS!" Ron bellowed at his younger sister. "Quit asking, Gin!"
"Neither of you are acting like you normally would with him gone!" Ginny accused the two of them. "If you know anything, tell me! I'm his friend too."
And so it went through most of the day. Harry had gotten rather tired by time Hermione went up to her room before tea-time and let him into his house again.
"I'm so knackered," Harry moaned as he slumped into bed, fully clothed.
"I'm sorry you couldn't sleep, Harry," Hermione said quietly as his evening meal and potion floated down to him.
"It wasn't your fault," his muffled voice returned from the pillow. "Ginny just won't take a hint."
"She's smarter than to believe what the headmaster said," Hermione said with a shrug. "Go on, take your medicine and eat, you need your strength."
"I'm glad Ron is talking to you again," Harry said as he got out of bed.
"Me too," Hermione said softly. "I hate it when we fight... and thankfully, he dropped the whole Hogsmeade issue..."
"Thankfully?" Harry asked with a hint of surprise. "You don't want to go with him?"
"Honestly, Harry, I thought you knew by now that I don't like Ron that way..." Hermione said as she rolled her eyes.
"But I thought... with all the fighting..."
"We were attracted to one another? That you tease the ones you like?" Hermione rattled off quickly. "Ron's not teasing me, Harry, he enjoys irritating me. I don't want to date anyone like that, ever."
Harry sat in dumbfounded silence. Hermione didn't fancy Ron? This was news he didn't quite expect. If it wasn't Ron, then she must be pining for Krum... He thought glumly. She's always writing to him...
"And before you start thinking about him, no, I don't fancy Victor either," Hermione snapped unexpectedly. "He's just a friend!"
"Ok..." Harry said cautiously. "Why are you mad?"
"I didn't mean to snap," Hermione said with a sigh. "You must have been asleep when Cho asked about you..."
"Cho? Why on earth would she want to know about me?" Harry asked incredulously.
"It looked like she was rather worried for you..." Hermione said in a business-like way.
"Wow, I haven't given a thought to her since she walked by our Hogwarts Express compartment last summer..." Harry said around a mouth full of mash.
"You haven't?" Hermione asked quietly. "I know you changed after that summer..."
"I did fancy her," Harry said with a sigh. "But it feels like ages since then. "I couldn't handle her jealousy anyway. Besides the fact that she is probably still comparing me to Cedric..."
"I'm sorry I brought it up, Harry," Hermione said with an apologetic smile as she looked in on him. Her face went red when she caught him in nothing but his boxers and she hurriedly backed away before he saw her looking at him.
"It's ok," Harry said, oblivious to the slight intrusion, "um... could I ask you a favor?" he asked shyly after slipping into bed.
"What is it?" Hermione asked quizzically as she removed his dirty dishes.
"Could you rub my back?" he asked timidly. "I sort of miss that..."
"I don't want to crush you, Harry," Hermione said worriedly.
"I'll be ok," he said reassuringly. "I trust you won't..."
Hermione frowned slightly before reaching into his box and gently placed her finger on his back. "Is that too hard?" she asked tentatively.
"That's fine," he replied sleepily. "Thank you."
Hermione smiled, though he couldn't see it, as she gently rubbed his back. She was rewarded with soft snores coming from her best friend and gently replaced the box's lid then set it on her bed.
Hermione woke to the sounds of Harry gasping for air and whimpering like a frightened child. Without thinking she looked around to see if Crookshanks was attacking him again and when the ginger cat couldn't be found, she peeked into Harry's house. She found him thrashing under his blankets, face down in his pillow. Hermione jumped when he screamed out, but didn't wake from his deep slumber.
Worried, she tried calming him down with gentle whispers and when that didn't seem to work, she tenderly rubbed his back again.
Almost immediately, Harry calmed down, as if he were a small baby that was being cradled by its mother. Hermione smiled softly at her friend as he snuggled into his pillow and sighed contentedly, a small smile forming on his tiny face.
She looked at him and couldn't help but wonder what he'd been dreaming about. Voldemort, she decided straight away and a sad look crossed her face now that she finally understood what Ron meant by Harry's dreams. She'd always wondered why he didn't seem rested most of the time. Her redheaded best friend told her that Harry rarely slept and the dreamless sleep potions were having less of an effect on their mutual best friend.
Her heart went out to him as she watched him sleep and she wished he was back to normal size so she could hold him properly. After a few minutes of gentle circles being drawn on his back, she withdrew her hand and covered his house once again.
Just as her head went back to her pillow, she heard Harry start to thrash once again. "Oh, Harry," Hermione whispered before removing the lid for the second time. She frowned when she saw him running in his sleep and tried to calm him once again by rubbing his back.
The results were almost immediate, except this time, Harry laughed happily in his sleep. "I caught you!" he mumbled happily. "I didn't think you'd find me, Hermione..."
"Not that dream again," she said softly.
"I was so afraid that you'd leave me behind..." he chuckled nervously before pursing his lips and kissing the pillow. "I know you do," he mumbled in a voice that Hermione had never heard come out of him before. "I love you too, Hermione."