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“Potter! Looks like puberty has yet to hit you at age 17?” Harry turned around to look at Malfoy, look up at Malfoy. God, how he hated that he was shorter than his boyfriend. “Still as short as you were when you were a mere firstie, aren’t you?”
Harry fought the blush coming up on his cheeks, he hated it when Draco teased him about his height. But it was inevitable, with it being one of Draco’s favourite taunts ever since they were eleven year-olds. It only got worse after they started dating. Every single one of the pet names he had gotten from Draco had involved some type of short joke. My little saviour. My pint-sized love. Draco was a half a head taller than him and he loved reminding him of it everyday.
Harry grumbled under his breath, although taking the extended hand of his boyfriend and allowing him to escort him to their little picnic date. Draco would never admit it but he loved doing the sappy things in a relationship. Harry would never admit that he loved doing the sappy things with him either. It was secretly great to have someone put in that much effort to spend time with him, something they both lacked growing up, he mused.
Pushing Draco’s hand away from his hair, he resolved to find a way to grow taller than Draco, or at least lessen their height difference, they had magic for a reason right? There has to be some type of spell of rapid height growth.
“Watch it Malfoy, your words might come back to bite you in the back!” Harry snarked back.
/break\
Three hours, three whole hours. That was how long Harry had spent voluntarily in the library searching for spells, potions or whatever method that could help him gain some height. But for some reason that was beyond him, not even the extensive library of Hogwarts had one single book on height growth, how is that even possible?
Harry started banging his head on the table, hoping to annoy his library partner enough to take pity on him and offer him her glorious almighty help. It was by the fifth bang that Hermione had slammed her book shut and by the seventh that she finally spoke up in the three hours that they were there.
“ The reason there are no wizarding books on magical height growth is because it.. Well it never goes well. It's widely discouraged worldwide to use magic to fundamentally change your appearance, which is why you would not find any books on such things here.”
Harry stared wide-eyed at her for a second, “ So what I’m hearing is that you, Hermione Granger, my self-proclaimed best friend, had just let me search this library blindly for three hours all the while beholding the knowledge that what I was finding simply didn’t exist! ”
At least she had the decency to look slightly sheepish at this Harry huffed. He was getting bullied today, first by his boyfriend and his endless teasing, now by his best friend and her withholding of knowledge.
“ You do know there are muggle methods to grow taller right? ”
Harry’s head snapped up at that, no in fact he didn’t even consider any muggle methods to begin with, he was so convinced that there would be a spell for it.
“ Muggle methods? Like what?” He questioned.
“ Exercising, meal plans, workout out. You know the whole muggle health idea?” Hermione replied and at Harry’s puzzled look, continued on, “ Go ask Seamus about it, heard his dad’s a big fanatic about these things.”
“ But you're my best friend,” Harry began to drawl, even batting his eyelashes for good measure “ and wouldn’t you want to help your friend, who is missing a few inches and pounds due to the abuse he suffered as a child under the hands of his relatives.”
Hermione stood up and made a motion for him to follow. Grinning, Harry quickly packed up their things and hurried after her, knowing that he had won. Using his abuse against his friends always proved to be effective.
/break\
A week later, Harry was met with the force of Hermione and planning. She had woken him up at six in the morning, proclaiming the start of his height increasement programme, as she called it. Let it be noted down that Hermione never half-assed anything, as can be proven by the thick binder placed in front of him, detailing every single aspect of his programme, from meal plans to exercise routines, all planned to perfection.
Harry found himself being put on a vigorous routine by Hermione to facilitate his growth. Sleeping at ten sharp and waking up at six, a full eight hours of sleep. Then, laps around Hogwarts ground, jump-roping, followed by a session of yoga. Not to mention the hours they put in in the room of requirement, now featuring its left half as a fully equipped gym and its right half as a library for Hermione.
His meals now contained a healthy portion of proteins, whole grains and vegetables. Ron had taken one look at his meals and fled, afraid that he would too be put into the same routine if he stayed near too long.
He had a feeling that Hermione’s participation in his plan to increase in height was more out of motivation for him to grow out of the abuse from the Dursleys rather than to spite Draco, as was the reason she now claimed. But as long as the end result was that he could gloat about his new height in front of Draco, he didn't mind much and Hermione on his side was always helpful.
Harry found himself enjoying the routine too, it made him feel like there was something to look forward to each day, the rinse and repeat of it all. It helped him cope with the sudden emptiness the end of the war brought to him. Don't get him wrong, Voldemort dying was great, but with the last year being filled with a marathon of one death threat after another, when everything stopped he felt restless. He always felt like he should be on the move, helping someone or doing something. Mindlessly sitting and studying for NEWTs were not good for his nerves.
This was good for him, it gave him an outlet for the endless amounts of energy he seemed to have these days. He liked that by the end of the day, he would be tired, parts of his body aching from the exercise, mind too tired to drift off to some horrid nightmare. Of course there was the benefit of growing taller, not to mention the big plus of him getting ripped.
/break\
Three months and a half into this new muggle-wizard mixed routine ( Hermione was providing him with wizard protein shakes ) and he was seeing progress already, mentally and physically. Harry Potter was no longer the scrawny boy who wandered into Hogwarts halls seven years ago, he had finally grown into his body. His arms had filled out considerably and he now was sporting a nice six pack, both things which Draco seemed to greatly appreciate.
In fact, Draco has now opted to join Hermione’s library section of the room of requirements during his workout sessions, although he has been reading the same book for a considerable amount of time, with his eyes trained somewhere else and all.
Harry had given Draco the reason of wanting to fill out into his frame, no longer wanting to be small and scrawny as the reason for his sudden passion for exercise, omitting the wanting-to-grow-taller part. Draco seemed to buy it, or is simply much too appreciative of his new physique to comment anything.
Casting a spell to measure his height again, he sighed, looking at the same number that had been staring at him for the past week or so. Hermione had told him that the growth spurt would stop at some point of another, and he was fine with it, that is if the height he stopped at was taller than Draco’s.
But luck was yet again not on his side, he was an inch shorter than Draco, which meant he needed at least two more inches to have a notable height difference than Draco. Because that was the ultimate goal, to be taller than his boyfriend such that he could do the same things Draco had been doing to him, tease him in the same way he had teased. And with Harry being stuck with an inch shorter than Draco, the dream was so close but yet so far, he had to do something about it. Damn.
Stuffing his books into his bag, he set off towards the library, hoping to catch Hermione on one of her many visits there to ask for any more pointers that could help him gain the last few inches he needed. He was desperate, muggle, magic, hell tie him to a chair and stretch him from both ends.
“Harry! Wait!” Stopping in his steps towards the library, he saw Ginny coming out of the Gryffindor dorms. “ You’ve stopped growing.”
“ Gee thanks Ginny! I didn’t notice and am not on my way to remedy that. A very rude way to start a conversation might I add, but yes thank you for pointing that out. That was just what I needed ” Harry replied, irritated that someone had pointed it out to him, was it that obvious?
Rolling her eyes at him, Ginny thrust a bottle of greenish-silver liquid towards him, a suspicious potion, his mind supplied, “ Cut the sass, Harry. You’ve been trying to out grow Malfoy in height right? I’ve kept an eye out for your progress, you’ve had a nice growth spurt going on for you but you haven’t grown at all in the last week, contrary to your record the last few months”
“Is there a point to this conversation or are you just going to continue upsetting me?”
“ This is a growth potion, it’ll help you gain like two, three inches instantly. That’s what you need right? A few more inches to be taller than Malfoy?”
“Why do you have this? Hermione said there weren’t any direct magical remedies to grow taller. ”
“ It isn’t exactly the option to go for, the Ministry banned it a long time ago. In fact, only really old pureblood families have the formula anymore, to make sure their heirs are at a respectable height. There’s an ingredient inside that might cause hallucination or death if you have too much of it. That’s why it was banned and banished out of existence and all. People wanted to grow taller too desperately and over-consumed, But you won’t do it, yeah?”
“ Yea...yea, i survived Voldemort… I’m not dying because of some stupid potion. But why are you helping me?”
“ Harry, you’re like a brother to me and now that you're dating Malfoy, I can't directly assault him. So this is me, assaulting his ego through making you taller than him, it’s like a side ‘fuck you’!”
/break\
Harry was pacing in the abandoned classroom he had asked Draco to meet him at. After ingesting the potion Ginny had given him and marvelling at the effects it brought, he had immediately asked Draco to meet him here to gloat.
He couldn't decide on the one-liner to use to show-off his new height, which was why he was pacing, there were just so many options. There were the classics, Hey there shortie ones or the infuriating pet names Draco used, Hey there little Slytherin. Okay that one didn’t sound right.
But apparently he didn't have time to make a choice, because Draco had arrived, making his presence known as always, opening the door wide and sauntering in. And without a solid line to go on, Harry decided he would just stand and let Draco stare.
And stare Draco did, Draco stared up at him, with a slight tilt to his head. A memory that Harry needed to possess forever. But annoyingly he didn't seem too bothered by the fact that Harry was taller than him, in fact Draco maintained that same old infuriating smirk on his face and continued to saunter over to him and planted a firm kiss on his lips, a kiss where he had to tilt up for mind you.
Leaning down into the kiss, Harry marvelled at the need to lean down to kiss Draco, but he was confused, why wasn't Draco more concerned with the new difference in height? No there had to be some catch, there was no way Draco wasn’t even slightly peeved about his new predicament.
Slightly reeling from the spectacular kiss he was given, Harry watched doe-eyed as Draco pulled a potion out from his pockets?
The potion was green-ish silver and looked exactly like the one Ginny had gifted him. No, no, no. He watched horrified as Draco gulped down the potion and grew exactly three inches taller. Three inches he had just grown, making Draco once again taller than him.
No.
No fucking way.
“ You really thought that you could be taller than me Potter?” Draco’s smirk seemed to grow larger as Harry had to look up him again, “ I had a back-up plan all along, I overheard Ginerva’s plan to give you the potion and decided that it would be smart to have one myself.”
“No… How?”
“Yes, Harry. You must have heard the part where she explained how old families have the recipe right? Very sorry that your efforts have been in vain, love. But I must say I am appreciating your new physique.” Draco ended the sentence by gripping his biceps, shameless groping them.
Pissed off that he would be stuck shorter than Draco forever, he pouted petulantly at his boyfriend, who was still groping his arms. Well, he tried to pout at his boyfriend, before his lips were captured in a kiss by said boyfriend, before he had to tilt his head up to kiss said boyfriend again.
Damn it.