13. NECESSARY CHANGES
It was the Tuesday after the Hogsmeade weekend and Harry still caught himself, more often than not, foolishly staring out into space with a dreamy grin on his face. Not only had Sirius brought him to Hogsmeade and had shown him everything he wanted to see, had done everything Harry wanted him to do and had bought everything Harry wanted to have, he had also given Harry the feeling of being his absolute number one and the warm and protected sensation hadn't left.
On top of everything else, Sirius had also been civil to Severus and Remus when they had met them in the Three Broomsticks and hadn't reproached Remus at all for going out with his most hated rival.
It actually seemed like Sirius was happy that Severus was together with Remus, if only because that kept him away from Harry. He hadn't protested either, when Remus had brought Severus with him to the Gryffindor common room, though the same couldn't be said about the future Potion's Master, who looked decidedly uncomfortable sitting next to Remus on a scarlet red loveseat, glaring and scowling. However, he still remained.
James had only shrugged his shoulders and had then returned to kissing Lily when Remus had nervously introduced Severus as his boyfriend. Lily, however, had smiled encouragingly at them before going back to being kissed by the eager elf.
Peter seemed to be the only one who had a problem with it, throwing disgusted looks at the couple whenever they did something to draw his attention before he turned the same look back on Harry. The chubby boy hadn't come around to the fact that Harry was Sirius' mate and that Sirius very much enjoyed showing off with that. And though Sirius was content enough with the mumbled acceptance of his apology for his potion-influenced revelation, Peter certainly hadn't forgiven him, let alone forgotten.
Harry couldn't completely suppress a shiver as he felt those burning eyes on him again, which attracted Sirius' attention immediately. "Are you cold, Harry?"
Sirius didn't notice or didn't want to notice that Peter was not at all okay with them and Harry didn't want the other boy to be even more estranged from their little group. He could understand that it was not easy for Peter with everyone else from their sworn group together with someone else. He also understood very well that Peter had been hurt by Sirius' words, but he wished that the other boy would see that it was neither Sirius' nor Harry's fault.
"Just a bit, I'm fine," Harry murmured, snuggling a little closer to the veela. "Will you help me with Transfiguration?"
"Sure, what did you have problems with?" Sirius asked.
"My parrot had the consistency of rubber." Harry pouted, remembering the transfigured goblet bouncing around the room while giving shrill screams.
"Oh, yes, that was funny!" Sirius sniggered, earning himself a glare from angry green eyes. "Maybe if you do the wand movement a bit slower?" He gulped.
Harry was still glaring at him and that meant that Sirius had to work fast to fix his mistake before Harry decided that he needed a bit of time for himself. He grabbed one of the decorative goblets from the mantelpiece and handed it to Harry with an apologetic smile, hoping that his advice would work.
Harry did the wand movement a lot slower than normally and muttered the incantation under his breath before tapping the goblet. The resulting parrot was perhaps a bit on the small side, but to make up for that, it had magnificent feathers and no rubber consistency.
"Oh, thank you, Sirius." Harry laughed, patting the parrot, which mimicked his words.
"No problem. Am I forgiven for my comment? Because I would appreciate it if you helped me with that charm we did in Defence today," Sirius pleaded, knowing that Harry loved to help others and that it made him happy. "You were the only one who managed it." A bit of flattery never did any harm, either.
As he had expected, Harry blushed, but agreed, starting to explain the complicated Shielding Charm to Sirius.
"Wait, Harry," Severus spoke up. "Explain it to Remus and me, too, and I'll help you with Potions later."
Harry grinned, motioned them a bit closer and started explaining again, demonstrating for them to see what he meant. It took them more than an hour to get the charm right and Sirius had to admit that Harry's was still far better.
"It took me three months to get it like this." Harry shrugged to Severus' question. "Help me with Potions now?"
"Sure," Severus agreed. "But I won't do your homework."
"I'm not asking you to," Harry protested. "I just have a few questions."
"Then ask away."
Sirius was struck by the thought of how much like a study group they were as Lily and James interrupted their snogging to listen to Snape's explanations and ask questions of their own, which the Slytherin answered rather civilly and with surprising patience and lack of arrogance.
"Lily," James asked in what he hoped was a seductive tone. "Would you help me with Charms?"
"But of course, James," Lily said, sweeter-than-honey. "I'll just get my book."
"I would almost say that backfired," Sirius teased him as James stared after his girlfriend. "Maybe you should look for another mate."
"Are you offering yours?" James asked testily and Harry tensed. "Though, I'm afraid I like skirts too much."
"Harry should wear a skirt tomorrow then." Sirius laughed. "So that you can compare."
"That would be indeed great." James' glum face broke into a happy grin and then he dutifully turned to Lily as she entered with her book and allowed her to explain the last lesson to him, though it really wasn't necessary.
Only Severus noticed that Harry was more subdued after that and hardly talked anymore, only responding half-heartedly to Sirius' kisses.
"Harry, are you cold or something?" Sirius asked as Harry sat huddled in his chair, his robes wrapped tightly around himself, waiting for their Charms lesson to begin.
"No." Harry shook his head, but only tightened his arms around his torso.
"Then take off your robe." Sirius rolled his eyes. "It's bloody hot in here. The class before us must have practised Warming Charms."
The small boy very reluctantly stood from his chair and loosened his arms before shrugging out of his robes. Sirius gasped, staring at the slender, pale legs of his mate. Slowly his gaze wandered up to the skirt that brushed over Harry's thighs, giving a tantalising view on smooth skin.
"Harry, why...?" he finally tore his eyes away from Harry's legs, noting at last the angry tears that were rolling down his cheeks.
Someone whistled appreciatively and the classroom was soon filled with hoots and laughter, which made Harry's tears come even faster.
Sirius was much too shocked himself to glare at them and did the only thing that seemed sensible at the time: Take Harry and hide him away so that no one would get any wrong ideas. Also, he needed to find out why Harry was wearing a girl's uniform. So he quickly picked up Harry's discarded robe and wrapped him tightly in it, before carrying him out of the classroom and past a surprised Flitwick, trusting James to explain everything and hoping that Harry would explain it to him.
"Harry, look at me." Sirius carefully sat Harry down on one of the windowsills near the classroom, grateful that classes had already started and that they would be relatively undisturbed. "Good, now please, explain this to me. Why are you wearing a skirt?"
"Because you told me to." Harry whispered, pulling his legs to his chest and involuntarily exposing a part of the skirt and his legs once more.
"Harry, no, I didn't. Why would I order you to wear a skirt?" Sirius asked in confusion.
"Yes, you did, yesterday. You said that I should wear a skirt so that James can compare Lily to me." Harry sobbed and Sirius paled.
"Merlin, Harry, we were joking around, I didn't mean it. I thought you knew..."
"No, I didn't," the elf said softly. "How was I to know that you wouldn't force me to wear a dress if you were already offering me around?"
"I wasn't offering you to anyone," Sirius protested vehemently. "You're my mate. I don't even want to share you, let alone give you to someone else."
"Well, it felt like it," Harry muttered.
"I'm sorry, Harry." Sirius sighed. "I didn't think anything when I said that. As good as you look in that skirt, I would never humiliate you like this and I really think that none of them had a right to see this."
Harry sniffed once more before resolutely brushing his tears away. "I thought you wanted to get rid of me."
"No, Harry, never think that." The older boy gently wrapped his arms around Harry's slim waist. "You should have told me that you didn't feel comfortable with this, then we would have found out about the misunderstanding much sooner."
"I wanted to," Harry replied softly. "But then you said I should sleep and I didn't want to make you angry by disobeying you. It's not my fault."
"I sometimes forget how special you are," Sirius admitted sheepishly. "I never mean to give you orders, but it comes out like one and then you have to do it, though it was only supposed to be a joke or a suggestion."
"It's no wonder there aren't many elves," Harry mumbled morosely. "It's annoying and absolutely uneconomic and goes against every instinct of self-preservation to be so dependent and weak."
"You know, I don't think you are weak for obeying me," Sirius murmured, rearranging their positions so that he also sat on the broad windowsill with Harry in his lap. "It's a strength of another kind. Remus is right; you're a very strong person to have got this far and for not taking the easy way out. I admire you for that, especially how you handle the whole Remus-situation, but also how you stay so warm and caring after all the times I fucked up already and hurt you.
"I don't think I can ever fathom with how much fear and pain you cope, much less how you can still care about others. I haven't once seen you shout or lash out at someone and I'm sure I would have done so much earlier. It might be true that you can't get angry at dominants, but there are a lot of human submissives out there and I know that you're helping a lot of people with their homework or with whatever they need, just because it feels right to you to help.
"I don't know if all submissive elves have this inner strength, but I think that there's a reason why so many creature genes stay dormant. They wait until someone is strong enough to bear it. That's why you are an elf, Harry, that's why you are my mate. I wouldn't settle for a weakling or someone without brain or heart."
"Do you want to know why I never stay angry at you too long?" Harry smiled slowly at him. "Because every time you've done something absolutely foolish and inconsiderate you make a speech like this and you make me feel all special and happy and good. I don't think I could hate you even if I was normal."
"How flattering!" Sirius laughed. "But I will still try to better myself. It might get a bit boring for you if I have to repeat myself after a while. Why don't you get dressed in your normal uniform again, hmm?"
"Thank you." Harry sighed in relief before jumping up and running to the Gryffindor Tower before Sirius could offer his help.
But Sirius swore to himself that he would make up for this in some way, a plan already forming in his mind. Nothing made you feel better than a bit of revenge.
The next morning Sirius was up before anyone else, which had to be a first. When Harry woke he found the bed empty and there was no trace of the veela in the bathroom. He shrugged, assuming that Sirius was giving one of the Marauders' infamous pranks the finishing touches, and went to take a shower. After that, he waited for James and the others to wake up so that he wouldn't have to walk alone down to the Great Hall, something that still made him feel nervous.
As they entered the Great Hall, however, it was filled with a lot of giggling and whispering girls, whose eyes curiously enough seemed to be focused on the Gryffindor table, and also with several laughing and hollering boys, who - provided that they weren't rolling around on the floor - were also staring at that table.
"What's the matter, Padfoot?" James asked plopping down in the chair opposite of his best friend, looking up and down the table to find the source of such amusement. "Pulled a prank without telling me?"
"You could say so," Sirius said vaguely, motioning for Harry to take a seat in his lap.
Harry obediently sat down, gasping and jumping up almost immediately, staring down at the grey-eyed boy. "What are you wearing?!"
"Just a bit of compensation." Sirius shrugged with a grin. "I thought it would teach me to keep my big mouth shut from time to time. How do I look?" He jumped up as well, twirling around so that the rather skimpy looking skirt swished around him, revealing his muscular and tanned thighs that were surely the object of a lot of swooning.
James, after a second of shocked staring, burst out laughing, fell from his chair and doubled over with laughter, holding his sides. Peter snickered quietly, trying to produce an a more manly laugh, as Remus looked Sirius up and down, shook his head slowly and turned back to his breakfast and his book. Lily seemed strangely satisfied, though she shook her head as if saying how silly she thought Sirius was behaving.
Harry just stared at him, thinking that Sirius had absolutely lost it even before the veela started to sing "I feel pretty" and danced around the table, acting like a complete lunatic.
"That's for yesterday." Sirius laughed, dropping back into his chair and once again pulled Harry onto his lap. "I don't know what you were complaining about, Harry, this skirt feels rather good and I like the fresh breeze around my legs."
"You're scary." Harry stared at him, wide-eyed.
"And I'm pretty," Sirius declared, sticking out his tongue at him. "You're only jealous."
"Also known as scared, yes," Harry murmured. "Tell me this is only temporary, please."
"Only for today," Sirius assured him, but the clearing of a throat behind him disabused him of this notion quickly. "I think you are misinformed, Mr. Black, you will change now before I decide that a detention would also be in order."
McGonagall glared at him, her mouth set into a firm line that didn't soften any when he smiled charmingly at her, curtsied and danced out of the Great Hall, humming very loudly.
Harry buried his head between his arms and groaned, barely hearing as Lily inquired if he was okay or noticing when James dragged him to his first class that was thankfully without Sirius. After that, however, he wasn't so lucky anymore and every time he looked at the older boy, Sirius did something to bring a blush to his cheeks.
When classes were finally over Sirius made sure that Harry sat in his lap or at least near him, so that he could whisper naughty and all too embarrassing things into Harry's ear, nibble on his ears and neck, kiss the soft lips and caress along the smaller boy's body.
"You're beautiful," Sirius murmured. "Delicious. I can't get you out of my mind. Especially in that skirt."
Harry had lost ground a long time ago, after Sirius' first kiss at the latest, and he wondered vaguely if Sirius was manipulating him now; not that he cared. "'M not a girl."
"Certainly not," the veela replied, kissing Harry's nose. "I think I only liked that skirt so much because they revealed more of you than those jeans. Can I have a picture of your legs?"
"Uh, no?" Harry asked uncertainly, self-consciously pulling his legs up to his chest.
Sirius pouted, but then took advantage of the fact that Harry's legs were now closer to him and gently traced the perfectly curved calves, slipping his hands up under the hem of Harry's jeans.
"Sirius! We're in the middle of the common room!" Harry squeaked, wildly looking around the rather deserted room.
"No one's looking, gorgeous," Sirius murmured before lowering his mouth to Harry's neck to suckle lightly.
Harry moaned, clutching Sirius' arms. "Sirius ..."
"Shh, my sweet. Just enjoy it, I'll take care of you," the veela murmured against Harry's neck, placing butterfly kisses on the flushed skin.
Harry whimpered, happily pressing against Sirius' strong body and heeding his command to just drown in the blissful sensations Sirius' touch invoked in him.
Someone cleared their throat. "I don't mean to interrupt, but firstly this is not exactly suitable for young eyes and secondly, I didn't hear Harry give his consent, Sirius."
Sirius drew back reluctantly while James asked his girlfriend if her intervention had really been necessary.
Lily glared at him. "Of course, it was, James! Harry should have the opportunity to choose if he's ready for this kind of intimacy or if he'd rather wait. And Sirius was losing control."
"Was not," Sirius mumbled defiantly, shrinking slightly under Lily's furious glare.
"Even if you weren't, Harry doesn't look as if he's particularly in control," Lily retorted.
"I never am in control," Harry said bitterly, surprised when Lily's whole demeanour softened.
"But you should be, and Sirius shouldn't take advantage of you, as long as you can't quite say 'no' yourself. Don't you think, Sirius, that you made enough mistakes with Harry already?"
"I didn't mean to," Sirius protested guiltily. "And I always made up for it."
"Oh, and you think making a fool of yourself on a regular basis, which you would have done anyway, will make Harry feel better?" Lily asked, crossing her arms over her chest and tapping her foot impatiently when Sirius didn't find an answer quickly enough. "Merlin, could you be anymore thick-headed? You really think that an apology values anything, when you do the same exact thing moments later?!"
"I don't, do I, Harry? I'm making progress, right?" Sirius pleaded with his mate, who felt the familiar fear built up at him as his human side wanted to give another answer than Sirius clearly expected from him.
"I... sometimes, you aren't very considerate," he whispered, cringing away from the veela. "I'm sorry."
"Sirius should be sorry, not you," Lily stated simply. "How about if James takes you for a little walk while I give Sirius private coaching as to how to treat you right? James?"
"Let's go, Harry, we could walk around the lake. I think I saw a nest of Snicklers the other day," James offered, seeming eager to leave before his girlfriend started her tirade.
"It's okay, Harry," Sirius murmured. "Go with James."
"And again an order," Lily declared disapprovingly. "I think what you wanted to say was that if Harry wishes to join James for his walk, he should do so."
"Yeah," Sirius muttered. "Exactly. I'm sorry, Harry."
"It's fine," Harry answered, hugging the veela tightly. "Please, don't change completely because I like you like this."
Sirius' face brightened considerably at that and he brushed a chaste kiss over Harry's lips. "But maybe if I change at least a little, you'll learn to love me."
He didn't wait for Harry's answer, instead pushing the submissive carefully in the direction of his best friend. "I'll look after your mate, so you'll better look after mine."
"I think you'll be the one looked after." James chuckled, putting one hand on Harry's shoulder to lead him out of the common room; Sirius glared after them. "Don't worry, Harry, she won't hurt Sirius, only scream at him a little, and that's sometimes the only way to make him understand."
"You think so?" Harry asked timidly.
"I know I'm not one to speak, but Sirius needs to grow up," James replied. "Lily can very well speak for herself, and Merlin knows, she does that in abundance, but you can't, so Sirius will have to learn to take responsibility and think about his words and actions."
"I like him," Harry mumbled. "I liked what he was doing."
"I don't doubt that, but would you still have liked it if Sirius had gone further?"
"I might have," Harry argued, burying his chin in the collar of his robes when they stepped outside. "And Sirius would have stopped if I had asked him to."
"Of course, he would have, but what if you hadn't been able to tell him that you wanted him to stop?" James asked, putting an arm around Harry's shoulders. "That's why Lily's talking to him now, so that that won't happen."
"I guess," Harry murmured. "So what are Snicklers?"
James grinned, leading Harry to a large bush. He pointed at a twisted nest somewhere in the middle over the rim of which two feathery heads with overproportionally big beaks peeped at them, twittering and snickering in greeting.
"Those are Snicklers," James explained happily. "And I guess, their name is kind of self-explaining, isn't it?"
"They're so cute." Harry stared at them in fascination, grinning when they snickered again. "Look, there's another one." A third head had popped out between the other two.
They spent almost half an hour, just looking at the Snicklers and sometimes imitating their twittering, before they returned to the castle, the common room, a very pensive Sirius and a satisfied Lily.
"Would you like to sit with me, Harry?" Sirius asked softly, smiling when Harry happily dropped in his lap. "And would you mind if I put my arms around your waist?"
Harry shook his head, snuggling into the veela when he was carefully enclosed in strong arms. "Despite what Lily might have said, Siri, you don't need to treat me as if I was made of glass."
Sirius looked at him in surprise. "I'm not trying to treat you like a china doll, but like my very precious mate. Don't you want that?"
"Yes, but if you always ask me, I'll always be reminded that otherwise I would have no choice, won't I?" Harry asked softly. "I appreciate it, and I like to have a choice. Just don't overdo it, please?"
"So maybe we should set some ground rules?" Sirius suggested after a short pause.
"I want you to hold me." Harry blushed. "And kiss me. And I like to fall asleep and wake in your arms."
"I like all that as well," Sirius offered with a small smile and a gentle kiss. "I also like to caress and pat you. Would that be okay?"
"As long as you leave my clothes in place," Harry added cautiously, relieved when Sirius immediately agreed. "And I like your compliments, but I like them better when they refer to my character and not to my appearance."
"Okay, Harry." Sirius chuckled. "That won't be a problem, I'll do so gladly. May I ask something of you as well?"
"Of course." Harry nodded vigorously. "The same right for everyone, no?"
"Yes, exactly," Sirius replied decisively. "I wanted to ask you to not manipulate Malfoy or James anymore because if you do, I'll become jealous and the desire to bond with you will be almost too much to handle."
"Oh," Harry murmured. "But I'm still allowed to manipulate you, am I not?"
"Of course," Sirius assured him. "As long as you know what you're manipulating me for. Harry, I don't want to take that power away from you, but I just don't have enough control over myself."
Harry nodded before putting his head back on Sirius' shoulder. "Okay, I'm happy with that."
"Good, and if there's something else we'll clarify that on a case to case basis, alright?" Sirius asked, caressing the palm of Harry's hand. "And how about we implement those rules now? Would you like that?"
"Very much so." Harry grinned before melting into Sirius' kiss.