A/N: Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition.
Wimbourne Wasps - Beater 2.
Prompt: Thumbelina.
Optional Prompts: 2. (word) sore; 11. (word) underhand.

Harry Potter closed the front door to his flat. The first thing he noticed was a small pile of junk mail that lay untouched on the doormat; the second thing that struck him was just how quiet the flat was, normally there would be some sound of general bustling, but today there was complete silence. Well, silence apart from the low sound of traffic rumbling by on the street outside.

"Draco?" He called, bending down to pick up the pile of letters to dispose of them and walking into their living room. Nearly ten months ago, Harry had moved into this flat in Central London – it had just seemed to make sense for the both of them. Harry was working in the Ministry of Magic in the auror department, and Draco was a healer who worked part time in St. Mungos and spent the rest of his time researching and developing new spells and treatments for the more complex illnesses in the wizarding world. London was the logical place for them both to live – and commute to and from work. It was obscure enough that most of the wizarding press hadn't quite been able to track them down, which meant their flat afforded them the luxury of privacy, something which neither of their other houses – 12 Grimmauld Place or Malfoy Manor – had ever been able to do. "Draco, you in?" Harry shuffled through the letters – something from the council, a leaflet from a new takeaway and an advert for a window cleaner – and deciding there was nothing interesting he dropped them onto the slightly crowded coffee table. Perhaps Draco had been called into work? But Draco normally left a note when that was the case – even just to let Harry know when he would be back to eat. There was no such letter in here, maybe it would be in the kitchen – he could find out whilst he made himself a cup of tea.

There was no Draco in the kitchen, but Harry was shocked to see that there was a cauldron set up on one of the worktops, a small flame hanging suspended in mid air underneath it; the contents bubbling merrily away inside it; and lying on the kitchen floor was Draco's wand.

"Merlin!" Harry exclaimed, extinguishing the flame and removing the cauldron into the sink. "Draco! Where are you?" He knew that Draco must be somewhere in the flat – he would have never left with that still on, he was slightly neurotic about things like that, and where could he have gone without his wand? Harry went from room to room searching for Draco, and increasingly he felt more and more panicked as each room yielded no result – where was he? "Draco! Where the hell are you?" He wasn't in their bedroom, there was no one in the bathroom, where on earth had he gotten to? He returned to the kitchen, totally baffled as to where Draco had vanished. Then something caught his eye that left him temporarily dumbfounded. Curled into a sort of semicircle, about a fingers length from one of the legs of the tripod that held up the cauldron, was Draco. Harry didn't know how to react, whether to laugh or not – Draco was roughly four inches long and by the looks of it he was fast asleep.

"Draco?" Harry reached out one finger and gently prodded the tiny Draco, who stirred instantly and sat up.

"Harry!" Draco's voice was several octaves higher than normal, and Harry could not help but collapse into a fit of laughter. "Hey! Stop that!" He put his hands on his hips the way he normally did when he was annoyed with Harry; but Harry couldn't stop. There was something so endearing, and hilarious, about the tiny Draco standing on top of the work top counter. For over a minute Harry tried to regain his composure; the muscles in his stomach were sore from laughing and he was breathless.

"Sorry…" Harry wheezed, straightening himself up and trying to stop laughing. "Sorry!" He was wiping his eyes which were watering from the intensity of his laughter. "What happened?"

"I… I… that potion!" Draco exclaimed, he was looking up at the top of the tripod stand. "Where is it? Where has it gone?"

"In the cauldron? I put it in the sink," Harry answered, "I didn't want to leave it on the flame… But what happened Draco?!" Even the tiny shrunken Draco still did all of his usual guilty mannerisms; on the worktop he shuffled from foot to foot and looked down. "Draco…" Harry said warningly.

"I was testing it." Draco admitted quietly, but the pitch of his voice made it easily audible.

"Draco!" Harry reprimanded, this was a discussion that the two of them had had several times before. Harry didn't like it when Draco tested the potions that he made on himself, there was no guarantee that they were safe – and for some reason whenever the discussion came up Harry was reminded of Luna. Luna's mother, who was gifted and inquisitive and wanted to invent new spells, and who died because of an accident with one of those spells… Harry couldn't bear something like that happening to Draco. "Draco you promised!"

"I know, I know!" Draco said, "I'm sorry, but I just couldn't wait!" Harry shook his head, running his hands through his hair; if he had done this with this potion how many times had he underhand tested things that he had made before?

"I can't believe you Draco." Harry shook his head.

"It won't happen again, I promise!" He implored.

"I know it won't! I'm not going to let you!" Harry demanded.

"I'm sorry." Draco repeated.

"But how – how do we get you back to normal?" Harry asked, panicking slightly about the whole situation.

"It'll wear off." Draco tried to reassure Harry. Harry was always the one to panic, he was the flapper.

"In how long?" Harry said.

"A couple of hours." Draco replied.

"A couple of hours? Are you sure?"

"Well… more than likely. A day at the most." Draco wasn't actually very sure, but he hadn't taken that much of the potion – he had simply tested it, so surely it would wear off in the next couple of hours.

"Are you definitely sure?" Harry repeated, Draco nodded.

"Positive." He answered, hoping beyond hope that Harry couldn't quite see the unsure expression across his face.

"Okay, okay…" Harry said several times as though reassuring himself. "You're so tiny!" Harry commented and Draco couldn't help but giggle; Harry placed his hand on the counter and Draco clambered up onto it.

"This is a first for you, picking me up!" He laughed and Harry relaxed slightly. Being very careful to not tip his hand he carried Draco through to their living room and sat down on their sofa. Draco climbed his way down from Harry's hand and sat upon Harry's leg; he was so light that Harry could hardly feel his weight. There was a small silence as Harry just stared down at tiny Draco and then he began to laugh again. "What?" Draco stood up and balanced rather ungainly, looking up at his partner. "What's so funny?"

"You just remind me of something." Harry grinned.

"What?" Draco asked, crossing his arms across his chest.

"When I was at school – at primary school I mean," Harry started, "We read this story once called Thumbelina."

"What's that?"

"Well it's a kind of fairy tale…" Harry explained, "It begins with a woman who wants a child, and she goes to a witch because she can't get one."

"Wait!" Draco's voice rang out over Harry's. "This is a muggle story? With a witch in it?"

"Lots of muggle fairy tales have witches in them, or other things that are magical!" Harry answered, smiling. "In the story, the witch gives her a flower to plant, and inside the plant there's a tiny little girl who they call Thumbelina because she's so small!"

"Like I am just now!" Draco exclaimed.

"Exactly! That's what reminded me of it!" Harry agreed, softly putting out his finger and touching Draco's little chest.

"What happens in the story then?" Draco inquired, actually sounding interested now.

"I think… um… I think it goes through the adventures that Thumbelina has with lots of little animals." Harry muttered, "I can't really remember most of the story."

"Why does that not surprise me?" Draco muttered.

"Hey! Don't be cheeky! I could squash you if I wanted to!" Harry joked.

"But you don't want to really." Draco told him. "Really you love me!" Little Draco had settled himself down onto Harry's leg, lying lengthways across Harry's skinny thigh.

"I can't deny that!" Harry agreed, "I certainly do." They were quiet for a long time – and Draco seemed to have fallen asleep upon Harry's leg, Harry watched him for a while, then rested his head back onto their sofa.

When Harry woke, the light from outside his window had dimmed; clearly several hours had gone past and he had fallen asleep lying on the sofa. The non-existent weight of the tiny Draco seemed to have been replaced with a heavier presence; opening his eyes Harry saw that Draco had returned to his usual size. He smiled and placed his hand gently upon the sleeping Draco's cheek, he really was amazing – and the escapades of this afternoon would surely become a story that he could tell to his friends. With Harry's touch Draco stirred, waking up from his slumber; his eyes opened and a smile spread across his face.

"I'm back," He murmured rather sleepily; his voice back to its normal pitch now that the rest of him had returned to his full size.

"You are." Harry agreed, leaning sideways to kiss Draco's cheek. "I much prefer you this size." Draco smiled, and his eyes showed how content he was.

"I do too."

A/N: So this is a bit different from what I normally write, and I'd love to know what you guys think of it :)