Want to Play Catch?

"I don't wanna be old any more!" little Ron wailed.

"Change me back!" Draco screamed.

Professor Snape looked slightly taken aback at the sudden mood change of the children. "Uh, let me rephrase," he began.

The crying stopped and the only sound heard was the kids sniffling once and a while.

"There is no antidote," he repeated and held up his hand as the chins began to wobble and the eyes began to tear. "But, the spell will wear off. You will turn into your normal selves in two to four weeks."

The tears forgotten, the children decided to yell in relief instead.

"Yay! I'm cured!" Ron cheered.

"I can go back to my house!" Hermione said, dancing around.

"Excuse me," Little Harry said softly, tugging at Dumbledore's robes. He was by far the quietest of the four. "But my Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia will be angry with me if I'm not there to set the table for dinner."

Dumbledore looked down at Harry, a little sadness in his eyes. "Not to fear, Harry. You will be returned intact with no time lost from when you left. This is correct, Severus?" He asked, looking at the Potions Master.

Snape swiftly nodded his head.

"So you see, Hermione, you will be returned right in the middle of your piano recital. And you Harry, will be home in plenty of time for dinner," Dumbledore said, patting Harry on the shoulder.

"Will we remember any of this?" Hermione questioned. "Being here, I mean?"

"No, you will not," Snape answered.

"So, what are we going to do for two to four weeks?" Draco questioned, lazily leaning back in his high black chair and making a move to put his tiny size two feet on Dumbledore's desk.

"Think carefully before you make that move, Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore cautioned.

Draco thought for a moment and looked as if he was about to lay his feet on the oak tabletop anyway before placing them on the floor where they belonged.

"Excellent move, Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore said with a smile. "And to answer your question, we'll keep you occupied here in the castle. You can attend a class, maybe fly with a student on a broom, and fill up on all the sweets you want. I guarantee these weeks will fly by and you will find yourself in familiar surroundings in no time."

By this time, the children had grown rather bored of Dumbledore's speech and were anxiously looking around for something to amuse themselves with.

"Would you like to go see a class now? I believe you are supposed to be with Professor McGonagall for Transfiguration," Dumbledore suggested, sensing their restlessness.

"Yeah!" Hermione agreed, her eyes bright. "I would love to learn all I can while I'm here."

"I don't know," Ron said slowly. "Can't we play with the brooms?"

"Can you really fly on a broom?" Harry asked in awe.

"Yes, it's fantastic!" Draco said, eager to input something. "I've been flying since I was three."

"Can we go flying?" Ron pleaded.

"After the class you may," Dumbledore said, looking at Hermione's look of disappointment about missing the class. "Trust me, you will get to try anything you want during your stay. I really think you should go to Professor McGonagall now so she can Transfigure your robes to fit you."

The children's robes were the same ones from when they were older and were many sizes to large on the youngsters.

"Oh, okay," Ron said, exhaling loudly. "If we must."

"Good. Before you go, I must caution you. Under no circumstances are any of you to leave this castle. There are some bad people out there who, if they knew what condition you were in, would take full advantage of that. You are safe as long as you are here so please, don't set foot outside these walls. Understand?" Dumbledore was in particular looking at Harry and nodded in acceptance when Harry said "I understand."

"Also, I know you, Ron and Draco, know about using owls to send letters to your family. You are not permitted to send anything telling about your condition as of yet. I don't want to letters falling into the wrong hands." Ron and Draco nodded while Hermione and Harry just looked at each other and shrugged.

"Thank you. Now, Professor Snape, would you pleases escort our guest to Professor McGonagall?" Dumbledore requested.

Snape looked with distaste at the four pairs of eyes staring at him. "As you wish," he said, clearly wishing he was elsewhere. "Come along, children. Keep up with me."

The kids had to practically run all the way to McGonagall's classroom to keep up with Snape's quick pace. "Here you go, Professor McGonagall," Snape said as he opened the door to her room. "These children will be with you."

"Oh my!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed. "Whatever happened?" She asked as she recognized three of her own House students and Draco Malfoy.

"They had an accident with their potion," Snape said dryly. "They'll turn back in two to four weeks. Good day," he said, quickly turning on his heel and leaving the doorway.

The class was silent once again as they saw their classmates as miniature replicas of the students they knew.

"Wow! Is that a wand?" The silence was broken by Hermione's look of astonishment at Lavender's wand that dangled from her relaxed hand.

"Can we do magic?" Ron asked.

"Yeah! That guy said we could do whatever we wanted as long as we're here," Draco said making as to take Parvati's wand from her.

"Now, now," Professor McGonagall said, getting her voice back after the shook of seeing her students so different. "You can watch. Look, I'll make those robes of yours smaller."

"Me first!" Ron said rushing up to the Professor.

"No way! She was talking to me," Draco exclaimed.

"I'll do Harry's and then Hermione's because they haven't fought," Professor McGonagall said reasonably. The four students watched in awe as she made all their robes their perfect size.

"Wow! I'm not tripping over them anymore!" Hermione said giddily.

"We'll have so much fun here!" Harry said, getting excited about the prospect of making actual friends and getting away from his horrid aunt and uncle.

"Yeah! Let me try to change something!" Ron said.

"No me!" Draco said and this time he took Neville's wand from his desk.

"Give it here!" Ron yelled.

And then they both proceeded to yank on the wand furiously.

"It's mine," Draco said through clenched teeth.

"No. It's. Not. "Ron yelled back.

A loud CRACK was heard and both boys fell backwards, each with a piece of Neville's wand. They had broken it in half.

"Good grief," McGonagall said. "This is going to be a long month,"

~

"Vroooom!"

Little Ron was currently running around the Quidditch pitch with a broom between his legs, making flying noises as he tried to lift off the ground.

"Mr. Weasley! Please come back!" Madam Hooch shouted, chasing behind the six-year-old.

Ron gradually slowed down and looked inquiringly at the flying instructor. "Why?" he asked, his blue eyes huge.

"Wait until the students are here to fly with you," she puffed out, tired from running after him.

"Why do I have to wait?" Draco whined, coming up to the pair. "I know how to fly."

"I'd prefer you all fly with an experienced Quidditch player," Madam Hooch responded. "Now, no more complaints. I'd sick of hearing about how you already know how to fly, Mr. Malfoy. We are all beginners today, okay?"

"Fine," Draco said with an exaggerated sigh.

"Good," Madam Hooch said with a nod and noticed Hermione and Harry standing quietly together, holding their brooms uncertainly.

"Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger, please come join us," she yelled, beckoning with her arms. She waited until the two came up to her and smiled at them gently.

"Don't be nervous. Flying is very safe and I assure you that you'll have a great time," Madam Hooch said. "The students I've picked to fly with you are much more skilled in the air than they are with telling time. I was sure I told them to come right - Oh! Here they are!" Madam Hooch waited until Ginny Weasley, Cho Chang, Andrew Kirke, and Jack Sloper met them in the middle of the field.

Ginny stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Ron.

"Ron?" she practically squeaked. "I can't believe it."

"Who are - Ginny?" Ron asked, his look of confusion disappearing. "Wow, you're old."

"And you're a squirt," she said with a smile. "I can't believe it."

"You already said that," Hermione informed Ginny.

Ginny's eyes went from Ron to Hermione to Draco to Harry. "You're all so..so.. little!" she exclaimed.

"Can we fly now?" Draco said, clearly bored with Ginny's wonderment.

"Yes, yes. My, you're an impatient one, Mr. Malfoy," Madam Hooch answered. "Ginny, I suppose you can pair up with Ron. Cho, you go with Hermione. Andrew take Draco and Jack, you're with Harry. I'll be here supervising."

The children, some more eager than others, got on behind their elder and took off.

* * * * *

"Wow, that was amazing!" Little Harry said as he collapsed in a chair in the Gryffindor Common Room. "I wish I could fly all day."

"I told you it was the best," Ron said smugly.

"I didn't think it was the best," Hermione announced.

Harry, Ron, and Draco looked at her like she'd grown a second head.

"I don't mean that it wasn't fun," Hermione explained hastily. "Because it was. But I don't think it's the greatest thing on earth. I'd be just as happy with a copy of Roald Dahl's Matilda and a cup of hot cocoa."

The boys were quiet for a few seconds.

"You're weird," Ron said turning up his nose. "Who wants to read when you can go play outside?" he asked, making a face as he said the word 'read.'

"Those of us who want to go to Oxford and become successful read at every chance we get," Hermione responded, turning her nose up at him.

"What's Oxford?" Ron asked, confused.

Hermione tisked. "Obviously if you don't even know what it is, you won't be going there."

"You don't want to go there, Weasley. It's full of disgusting Muggles," Draco said, venom clearly heard in his voice.

"What's a - " Harry's question was cut off as the Common Room became alive with chatting that stopped once the students got a glimpse of the kids.

"See," Ginny said loudly. "I told you they were little." All her Fifth Year peers were crowding around the youngsters as if they were on exhibit.

"Move out of the way," Seamus yelled as the Sixth Years entered. "Give them some room to breathe. Haven't you people ever seen kids before?"

"Not these kids," a Fifth Year answered. "And what's a Slytherin doing in the Gryffindor Common Room?"

"Madam Hooch said Dumbledore wants them to stay together," Ginny responded.

"Well, it's almost time for dinner," Lavender noted. "Hermione, do you want to come with Parvati and me to get freshened up?"

Hermione looked at Ginny who nodded affirmatively to her. "Okay," Hermione said as she stood up and took Lavender's extended hand. She took one last look at Harry, Ron, and Draco before going up the stairs.

"Do you boys want to get cleaned up before dinner?" Dean offered. By this time, most of the students had gotten over the shock at seeing four midget-sized people at their school that weren't First Years, and had scattered about to their rooms.

The boys looked at one another and collectively said "No," ending all attempts to clean them up.

"Let's play a game!" Ron shouted.

"Like what?" Harry asked quietly. He didn't want to make too much noise to disturb all the people.

"How about a game of Exploding Snap?" Draco lazily asked.

"Sure!" Ron said. "Here, Harry, we'll show you how to play."

Harry smiled. "Okay, thanks." He couldn't believe his good fortune in meeting three new friends today. When the two weeks were up, he worried that he would never want to leave this place to go back to Privet Drive.

~