Okay, so this is my first fan fiction and I am very nervous. Please bare with me. I am not the greatest writer in the world. I just thought this would be fun. I read so many fan fictions that I wanted to take a shot.

Disclaimer: Any and all related characters and locations of the Harry Potter world are owned and copyrighted by J.K. Rowling and Warner Brother's Studios. No money was made in this endeavor nor will it ever. This is just for fun. There! Obligatory disclaimer out of the way!

A/N: This story is AU. I know this. I accept this. I completely disregard books 6 and 7 in this story. If this makes you angry or immediately turns you off of my story then best if you turn back now because past 5th year this story is non-canon. I am just lazy and don't want to go back and figure out how to make it work AND stay canon. Also, I bet you have heard this story before. It is probably the most cliché story ever. I will try to give it my own twist but I make no guarantees. I believe there are no really truly original ideas. There are just so many of them. So if this story sounds like one you have already read or one you have written I promise I did not copy. I am just not very uniquely imaginative.

Warnings: This fic will be slash. (At least that's how the story plays out in my head. We shall see how it ends up). I don't think I am a capable enough writer to write any mature scenes, but here is your big warning: M/M! This is a quirky romance where two males fall in love! If this offends your sensibilities or moral standings then another story would be better suited for you.

With this all said and done—on with the show!

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Prologue

Harry Potter was short.

All stories should start out with a bold statement that grabs the audience's attention. "Call me Ishmael", "It was the best of times it was the worst of times", "One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking from his anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug"—the point is that a story should have a great opening line and for this story that's it: Harry Potter was short.

It could have come to pass that this story began by waxing poetic about how Harry Potter was the brave, noble hero; having defeated Lord Voldemort—plague of wizarding Great Britain, hater of all things muggle, and general-all-around-baddy-man—during his sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But such statements have been and are still used ad nauseum in the Daily Prophet and Harry will be the first to tell you vehemently that he had not defeated Voldemort alone, but only with the help of the whole Order of the Phoenix and his friends. In fact he went one step farther and adamantly argued that they, not he, were the true heroes of the war, thank you very much. So an opening line about that is just straight out.

Maybe a statement about his other, more endearing or attractive features should be a better way to begin such a saga, since being short is not generally an adjective a now seventeen year old boy wants to be described as, but this particular seventeen year old would simply scoff if any of his other physical traits were described as attractive or endearing. He had heard way too many talking mirrors in his day to think for even a minute that he was anything other that a scruffy, skinny, nerd. However, he was okay with that assessment because although he may be a scruffy, skinny nerd for the first time in...well, his whole life he was a very happy and content scruffy, skinny, nerd and that made all the difference.

So why does this story start out the way it does? Why the blunt statement of the stature of our modest hero? Well, for one thing it is true. Thanks to the neglect from his relatives during the first eleven years of his life Harry seemed to be rather stunted in the growth department. Even though he finally received proper meals once he came to Hogwarts it did not ever seem to be enough. The result was that Harry was the shortest of all the boys in his year...and the year below that...and very possibly the year below that even. A fact that his friends never let him live down. It is because of this that Harry was always very aware of his stature and his perception of the world. Constant vigilance and all his training probably contributed to this as well. This explains the second reason behind the opening line. Harry Potter knew how short he was, so when he woke up the morning after the opening feast of his seventh year at Hogwarts a whole six inches shorter, trust me...he noticed.

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Reviews? Yes, please.