A question I noticed people asking: "Why is Harry so short" "He's not a Hobbit you know". I know he's not a Hobbit, guys. If he was, this fic would be vastly different. The reason he's so short is because he was malnourished. Being malnourished stunts the growing process and usually forces the person to be much shorter than they would be usually. All of that is cleared up in this Chapter, as he gets his Inheritance. His Inheritance will change his body and will help him gain that height we all know he needs.

Also, you heard me right. He gets his Inheritance! I'm so excited!

Anyway.

Diclaimer: Anything you see that you recognize, I do not own. Some of the characters in this little Fic of mine are Original Characters.

"Talking"

'Thinking or Flashback/Memory'

Mind Link

~Parseltongue~

Letters or Books

~POV Change~

-*-Timeskip-*-

(^-^)(^_^)(^-^)

Harry Potter and How Things Changed In A Day

Chapter 12:

Education is Important

Harry walked into the dining hall two weeks later, his cloak snapping around him. He looked around the room carefully, and raised an eyebrow at the empty room. Something was up. He walked to the table, looking at the seemingly normal plate of food that sat in front of his usual seat. The black haired wizard picked up the goblet and sniffed the contents. Pumpkin juice- wait a second… He sniffed it again, narrowing his eyes before twirling around and throwing the contents of the cup upwards.

"Ack! Why'd you do that?!" Kat looked at him, taking ahold of her now orange locks and wringing them out of pumpkin juice.

Harry covered his mouth, stifling a laugh. He gave Katerina a sheepish smile, picking up a napkin and dabbing at her wet skin. "Sorry, I thought you were someone else."

"Who?"

"Necu-" He stiffened as an ice cold something went down his spine and Harry let out a small shriek as he desperately tried to get it out of his shirt. "Neculai!"

The male vampire snickered from the ceiling, where he'd been waiting; calmly standing as if gravity had no effect on him, he spoke, "Have you learned nothing? Never let your guard down. Katerina, your hair is turning pink."

"What?!" She summoned a mirror and watched as her hair, not of her accord, turned pink. In response to her hair, her skin began to turn pink as well.

Harry gave her another one of his famous sheepish smiles. "I knew there was something in the pumpkin juice…" Kat gave a hiss of annoyance before trying to force her body to change skin tone.

"It won't work. At least not easily," Neculai supplied unhelpfully.

"And why not?" She continued to try desperately.

"Since Harry has Metamorphagi abilities that he has yet to perfect, I figured the practice would do him good. Which reminds me." With a snap of his fingers and a soft noise, Neculai upturned a goblet onto Harry's head, the liquid inside splashing down against his hair, skin, and robes.

"NECULAI!"

Ever since Harry had started his training two weeks ago, he'd taken a potion every night to get rid of the blocks on his magic and mind. As soon as he'd start showing signs of a trait that had been on the list that Cyrus had been given by Ragnok, they began training that certain area. About two days ago, Harry'd woken up with hair down to his shoulders and started screaming for help when it wouldn't stop growing. Katerina quickly realized what was going on and began training him in the arts of the Metamorphmagis. Due to the fact that Shifters and Metamorphmagis were so similar, it was easy for her to train him in these 'arts'. The other abilities that'd started to appear (both magical and non) ranged from apparently being able to easily communicate telepathically, photographic memory (which really helped when he was reading), and Parseltongue.

He hadn't been able to practice that last one much due to no one having a pet snake, but Neculai had had a laugh when he couldn't stop hissing one morning after practicing his Parseltongue with Katerina. He'd also noticed that the headaches he often got were gone, and that he no longer needed glasses. That helped to showcase his rather green eyes, which seemed to glow whenever he was feeling a powerful enough emotion.

"Well?" Neculai asked, bringing Harry's mind back to the present. "Aren't you going to try to go back to normal?" Harry looked down at himself and noticed that his hands were turning a startling shade of pink. He let out a small growl of annoyance before closing his eyes and beginning to try to change his skin back to its light tan. In his mind, he pictured his arm as if he was looking at it and changed the color in his head from pink to its normal shade of slightly tan. He repeated the slow process a few times before opening his eyes and checking.

His arm still held a slight pink hue, but it was an improvement from the hot pink it had been a few moments ago. There was a soft click from behind Harry as Neculai stopped the stopwatch he'd been using to time Harry. "Three minutes and twelve seconds. Considering the fact that the potion was made to resist the change, I'd say you did well." Harry was smiling happily and about to jump for joy when Neculai added, "Now just work on your hair and we'll be getting somewhere."

Harry looked up, noticing his messy locks were indeed bright pink. Harry grumbled something about stupid vampires before getting to work. After almost five minutes, Harry's hair was back to normal (not counting those few stubborn hairs that just refused to listen to him), and he sat down to have a large breakfast, famished.

He was halfway through with his breakfast when someone sat in the chair next to him. He swallowed his mouthful of eggs before speaking, "What am I learning today, Cyrus?"

The dark chuckle that he got in response made a shiver of horror shoot up his spine

-*-Noon-*-

Harry groaned, holding his head as he relaxed back into the soft armchair he sat in. He'd been practicing Occulumency since the beginning of his 'education', building barriers in his mind and fighting against those that wished to invade it- which at the moment was Cyrus.

Cyrus had told him that some people might wish to invade his mind to gain information, so Harry'd immediately begun learning Occlumency, something that could be used to protect his mind. After meditating for a few hours to build up barriers in his mind, Cyrus began testing these walls using Legilimency (an art that was used to invade the mind). Every time they practiced, Cyrus would find holes in his wall and tap at them, the taps getting harder the longer Harry failed to notice them. He'd stop and move to a different spot whenever Harry fixed the spot.

To say that Harry was tired from the activities was an understatement. "Can't we take a break?" he pleaded, rubbing his temple with a gentle hand. When Cyrus opened his mouth to deny the request, Harry added, "Can I at least get a pain potion and go to use the loo?" Harry'd discovered that Cyrus was no pushover when it came to teaching, always making Harry work harder and harder. After all, they only had a few weeks to cram a boatload of information into his young mind.

Cyrus sighed and nodded, "Alright, but I expect you back here in ten minutes. We have work to do."

"Yes sir." Harry left the private study, quickly retrieving a pain potion from behind the front desk and throwing it back, grimacing at the taste. After going to the loo and scarfing down a quick snack, he made his way back to the room. He quickly began practicing with Cyrus for almost two more hours before he began learning literature and politics from Safi. It was boring, but she taught him all about the Wizengamot, the old houses, and how someone of his 'status' was to act.

After three hours of being taught all about politics, he was released for an hour to eat and relax before he began going through his books. He'd been told by Cyrus that he had an inheritance. Of course, Cyrus had had to explain that to him before he understood it, but once he did Harry couldn't wait. He'd been given some books on his particular inheritance and was told to read through them and then go to Cyrus when he'd finished.

The boy was practically vibrating with excitement when he snapped the last book shut and hurried through the hotel to find Cyrus. After searching for a minute he found him in his study going over some scrolls. "Cyrus!" He slapped the book onto the desk, scattering parchment and quills from where they'd been only seconds before.

The man looked up at Harry from his hunched position before he smiled lightly and straightened up. He looked at the book, reading the cover. "You've finished?" Harry nodded enthusiastically, his eyes wide. Cyrus chuckled. "Alright. Go eat dinner and I'll give you your potion tonight before bed."

"What'll the potion do again?" Cyrus gave Harry a look. The boy was extremely excited over his inheritance but he didn't even… Sigh.

The older wizard straightened up, popping his back before relaxing again, "The potion will break the block that's on your body that prevents you from coming into your inheritance and harnessing the power it grants."

"Oh. When was I supposed to come into my inheritance anyway?"

"When you were ten."

"Oh. Okay!" Harry ran from the room, smiling widely and happily. Cyrus shook his head and rubbed his eyes, ignoring the small smile on his face. Harry's exuberance would get the better of him one day.

The rest of the day, in Harry's professional opinion, passed in a blur. There was study time, then dinner, and then Harry was lying in bed, his blankets drawn up to his neck as he waited anxiously for the foul tasting potions. Annie smiled down at him, running a gentle hand over his hair as she leaned down to press a kiss to his forehead.

She gave him one more smile before gently feeding him a Dreamless Sleep potion, helping him swallow the foul concoction. When his eyes started to droop, she helped him drink two more that would help the change and break the blocks. The dark haired woman pressed another soft kiss to the sleeping child's head before leaving the room, warding the door as a just-in-case precaution.

-*-6:29 A.M. The Next Morning-*-

The sun was just barely creeping over the horizon when the inhabitants of the room stirred for the first time in several hours. It was Aria, who hooted disdainfully at her perch's new tenants. She looked around the room with her yellow eyes, her feathers ruffling at the scene. The floor had become covered in dark green creepers that'd entered through the windows sometime during the night. Said window had creepers hanging over the sill, and every once in a while a creeper would shift towards the bed where her young master lay.

Unlike the floor, the bed was clear of the thick murky colored vines. The boy, however, was exposed to the air, his covers having been tossed off at some point during the night due to him having fits. He seemed to have grown a bit, and his usually unruly locks had put an end their rebellious nature, finally making his hair not look like a rat's nest. His face had slimmed down, losing what little baby fat he had left, his cheekbones now quite prominent.

Her master stretched, the thick vines moving with him in response to the action. She flew over to him, sitting down on the headboard of his bed as she looked down at him. He looked up at her, his bright green eyes cloudy from his sleep. "Aria?" He groaned softly and ran his hand through his hair, the creepers lifting up and then dropping back down in response. Harry didn't notice as he'd closed his eyes when he performed the habit.

When he finally opened his eyes and sat up, he looked around the room, confusion evident in his eyes. It took a total of three seconds before his eyes widened and he smiled brightly, realizing what had happened while he was asleep. "Wicked."

I try to make chapters at least 2000 words each. I, personally, will rarely read a FanFic unless it has double the amount of words as it does chapters. For example, if there's five chapters, I hope for 10K words. Of course, it doesn't always apply because some fics are just too good.

For those of you that don't know, the 'creepers' were vines. I remember reading a book in my English class where it called vines 'creepers'. The name of the book escapes me... Anyway, I apologize that the word 'vines' didn't replace the word 'creepers' anywhere. I'd done that originally, but I suppose I accidentally edited them out. Whoopsie.

Read and Review!

Uri~