Disclaimer: I don't own any of the properties herein nor have any knowledge of proper grammar.
Title: "Padfoot, Docteur D'amour" ch.1 "A Dark and Stormy Night"
Synopsis: Sirius had a lot of time on his hands in Harry's third year, what if he did something with it?
It was a dark and stormy night, matching the dark and stormy day it followed. The sound of the rain was only seldom drowned out by laughter in the Gryffindor common room at Hogwarts School in the highlands of Scotland. The dreary sky was matched by the dreary mood of one Harry Potter. An incident in a Quidditch game had cost his team a victory, and himself his most beloved possession, his Nimbus 2000.
The food and drink which had been nicked for a house-wide victory party had instead been used for a team-only social. This was not the first of these gatherings, team captain Oliver Wood had begun these Harry's first year as "team building exercises". The parties devolved as the beverages were consumed, the butterbeer went first, then the firewhiskey.
Harry had been careful never to drink the more potent alcoholic libation. He knew instinctively if he was found inebriated by his teammates he would be subjected to some sort of humiliation, which would only seem funny to him ten or twenty years in the future.
He had also avoided ever choosing "dare" in the inevitable game of "truth or dare" that the twins would start once they were sure the others were "in the right mood". After the first few uncomfortable stories of his early childhood, the questions asked of Harry were kept light.
Harry was also certain the bottle was spelled, as his spins always ended on one of the girls. As shy as he was normally, he would never even dream of engaging in any "dare" to do with his female teammates, as much for their sakes as his own. He didn't see himself as someone who could afford to lose many friends.
Tonight however, things were different. Still mourning his broom, he had drank the most butterbeer and had also moved on to the stronger drink. His only saving grace being that Fred and George had in fact beat him to inebriation. With the twins quite pissed, and therefore unable to spell the bottle, Harry had become a little too comfortable with the group of older students who comprised the team.
After his first spin had landed on his erstwhile captain, who had only requested to see his basilisk scar, Harry felt good about things. The girls, who had cheered when he chose his first "dare" in almost three years, were also quite pleased. They had let him know his days of hiding behind "truth" were over.
So on his second spin the universe waited as this most conspicuous moment played out. Unspelled, the bottle landed on Fred and the catcalls from the girls began. "Dare!" "Dare!" "Dare!" They exclaimed in unison and Harry, just a bit wobbly but wanting to please, gave in to their pressure.
"Dare!" Harry shouted. Fred seemed confused for a second, like he hadn't really heard that. Then, an awful grin split his face as though Christmas had come early. He called the boy over and in a hushed whisper set Harry to his task. Harry stood there for a moment. Not for the last time that evening, he wondered if Fred was really his friend.
The hard liquor had plowed a road over his normal retiring manner, leaving only his courage, whether supplied by Godric himself or by Old Ogden's, running the show. He screwed up his face and flew out the portrait hole to his destiny. As it closed, the last he heard from his friends was Fred telling them they'd find out, if he returned.
After fumbling around for five minutes he managed to make his way under his cloak to his target, the Hufflepuff dormitories. They didn't have a tower like Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, or reside in a dungeon like Slytherin. As though their accommodations were an afterthought for the Founders, the 'Puffs were housed in the basement.
He stood outside their portrait door, which featured a group of farmers, pondering how to gain entry. They were nice farmers, and tried to give him hints to the password even though he wasn't of the correct house, but as sloshed as he was, it did no good.
He refused to return unsuccessfully and take his penalty. He would triumph. He would find a way in and toward his goal, after all, the elves got in everywhere for their cleaning didn't they? Then so could he! Wait a minute! Elves? He knew one!
"Dobby!" Harry cried out.
The elf appeared not even a whole second later ready to assist his buddy, the amazing Harry Potter. He even offered to get the trophy Harry sought. Dobby was not surprised Harry wanted to get it himself, Harry Potter was so noble in that way. One silent elf apparition later Harry was within ten feet of his goal. The elf even pointed out exactly where his prize was hidden, then vanished, leaving Harry to his task.
The enormity of his challenge hit him, and he took of swig from the bottle he carried to boost his courage. He again doubted Fred was really his friend. The sounds of the dorm room's occupants seemed to almost calm his nerves,
If girls snored or mumbled in their sleep they couldn't be so scary could they? Better still, if they snored it meant they were asleep and unable to alert the staff to his intrusion. Even better still, if he hit each of the others with a stunner.
He inched as slowly and silently as he could toward his goal. She slept soundly it seemed, and made no noise or movement as he peeled back one of her bed curtains to get a better look. He gazed on her and found he couldn't breathe. Harry had never seen her, or any girl, in such repose.
Her red hair, normally bound in a braid, was flowing it seemed around her head. Her skin was aglow, though it was actually the light of the few candles still lit in the room. The warmth of her covers gave her cheeks a slight blush. Even in sleep, she had the smile he had only twice seen leave her face.
Harry was suddenly filled with shame that he would disturb, no, despoil this angel in her slumber. Two quick swigs of Old Ogden's gave him a reprieve from that feeling. Still, he was unsure how to finish his task, the rules Fred gave were quite specific, as though he had been hoping to use this for a long, long time.
His two sources of courage warred within him. His magic though, had most of his life fought to keep him going and broke down the rotgut before it could do any permanent damage. He couldn't bring himself to attack her, but he wouldn't go back a failure.
Three deep breaths and a re-application of the stunning jinx to her roommates later, his plan in mind, he set into motion. Putting himself completely at her mercy, which as beautiful as she looked, he felt safe doing, he moved forward and touched her knee through her covers, giving it a little shake. She murmured a little and stirred. Hoping to avoid any screaming, he whispered her name.
"Susan!"
He shook her knee a little more, and as she first opened her eyes he put his finger to his lips to indicate he'd like to keep things quiet. She stared at the boy in her dorm room, only one boy in school had glasses like those and green eyes. For a moment, till she felt the cold, she was sure this was a dream.
"Harry?...What...What time is it?"
"Sorry to wake you, Dunno what time it is, Sorry".
Susan woke a little more, and realized where she still was, and where Harry was now. The smell of alcohol hit her nose, and as she peered at the boy who was the hero of her people, Susan could almost exactly tell what had happened to him and why he was here in her dorm. She sat up to face him, her nightgown shimmering in the candlelight.
"Chose "dare" didn't you? And do I even want to know how you got in here?"
"I'd tell you if you asked, but would you be able to sleep any better knowing how easy it is?"
Surprising herself by how calmly she was taking this, she accepted his point and changed the subject.
"You're looking for what then?"
"Well...actually..." He couldn't look her in the face.
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Bras or knickers?" He almost jumped out of his skin at the simplicity of this question and she had to quash a giggle in her throat at the idea, a boy, who could face down a basilisk, an evil teacher, and a homicidal ghost, who would be terrified of her underthings. Harry took three swigs of his new best friend and settled his nerves to answer her very basic question.
"Knickers".
"I have a drawer, the top one on the bureau there, and there are some plain ones I use for potion and herbology days". She could see him go to down more of that bottle and stepped in. "No Harry, no more of that for you, it's what got you into this mess. Though I'm a bit nippy now that you've opened my curtains".
She held her hand out much like her Great Aunt had when she had taken a biscuit when she ought not have. Just as she had at age six, he looked down at his shoes and handed her the offending item and the cork and watched her take a swig.
Still looking at his shoes he slowly began to whisper "That's right nice of you... but the rules say..."
"What, you have to steal them? Well alright, I'll turn my back and you can leave however you got here".
"No... Well, yeah... I have to take them, but not...". He couldn't finish his sentence, and now, as she was finally fully awake, Susan understood why you should never choose "dare".
"Which one was it?"
"Huh?"
"Fred or George? I doubt Wood might give you a dare that could get you suspended, Granger wouldn't play this game and it doesn't seem like the girls on your team would send you after MY knickers".
"Fred. I don't think he's really my friend like he says".
"No, I doubt that too, Harry. Well, you're letting my warm air out, why don't you kick off your shoes and climb in here, and we can talk this out".
"In your bed? I don't know Susan...I mean..." Susan was enjoying this very much, and if one had inspected her diary first year, they'd have read that she had dreamt of a situation much like this, though she expected it in their fourth or fifth years.
She felt perfectly at ease and in total control. The poor boy could barely say "Knickers" let alone touch them. She thought about how many more chances she might get at him with Granger and the Gryffindor chasers hawking his every move.
Susan was a member of a generation of girls with a single idol, Harry Potter. As much as she couldn't imagine her life without her parents, she didn't want to imagine her life without her Aunt. She knew the enemy had claimed her uncle Edgar and his family as well as her grandparents. Susan knew her Aunt's job had been dangerous, but Harry's victory over You-Know-Who had eliminated most of that worry.
She had all seven of the books written about his supposed adventures. She had a plush likeness of him. She had her Wedgwood pattern picked out. She took another swig, made her decision and gave him her ultimatum.
"Get in here, close the curtains, or I scream and you can deal with Sprout and McGonagall". Not surprisingly, he complied taking up a spot at her foot board. She cast a sticking and a silencing charm on the curtains so they wouldn't wake up her neighbors, though he looked confused.
"Sticking and silencing charms for privacy are the first things they teach us girls. What? They didn't teach you those?" He shook his head. "What'd they teach you boys?"
"The courtesy flush."
"Oh", Susan would never admit to her Aunt that she was right about boys.
"And to use stunners on the other girls in the dorm room." She couldn't contain that giggle, but tried to settle down. They spoke for a while about the match, the party, his broom, his teammates and his friends. She told him about life as a 'Puff, Hannah's friend, and Amelia Bones' niece. It didn't go unnoticed by her how he avoided as much as possible talking about his muggle relations that he lived with. Finally, they came to the crux of the matter before them.
"Well, down to business then. You need not just any of my knickers. but I'm sure they must be the ones I'm currently in, and I'll hazard a guess and say I can't just give them to you." She took his sad face and silence as a yes. "Puts us in a bit of a spot then, doesn't it, Harry?"
"I'm really sorry, Susan. I just didn't want to go back a failure. It's only my second "dare" and since the first one was so easy, I didn't think he'd give me something like this."
"What was the first one?"
"Just had to show my basilisk scar." She nearly lost her breath at that, but recovered.
"Can I see it Harry? I mean we all heard, but that would be proof wouldn't it?" Slowly the boy lifted up the sleeve on his quidditch jersey and held it out for her to inspect, though being so dark she really could only make out the biggest part, a series of concentric red and white circles. "You really did it. Went down there and fought a monster to save your best mate's sister."
"Anyone would've done the same." She gave him a look he got often from Hermione when he talked about the things he had done. Then her face turned soft for a moment. Susan frowned, then smiled and asked her next question.
"Why didn't you try and take them Harry? I think you could've got them off me and been out before I knew what happened."
"You were so pretty" That was not the answer she expected from him.
"Huh?"
"When I opened your curtain,...in the light,...you looked like an angel,...with your hair down and all." Susan having had seen the covers of, and read the various muggle life and fashion magazines, had in her mind a standard of beauty, what a girl, a woman should look like. She knew, as she'd be lucky to hit five foot three inches and was already eight stone, she didn't match up.
Harry hadn't seen those things. Aunt Petunia didn't leave them out and he was never taken to the store to see them in the rack. He barely got to see stuff on the telly. He only knew what he liked.
"You were smiling...like you always do...you were dreaming maybe, safe and warm in your bed. I couldn't take that from you."
"Take what?" She was smiling much bigger now and maybe tearing up a little. She could stand to hear more about this.
"I bet they were good dreams,...cause you were smiling...because you felt safe. I might've been able to grab them and get clean away, but you would've known I did it. Maybe not it was me, but someone, someone got in here, in your room, in your curtains, under your covers, inside your peejays. I wouldn't have taken your knickers. I'd have taken your "safe" away." If she thought he would take them, she would've given him the damn things right there. He really was this side of perfect. He was not leaving.
"Thank you again, Harry."
"What for? I'm a knicker nickerer after all." Why not to drink, another thing Susan would never let Aunt Amelia know she was right about.
"For thinking of me. I don't know how it is for boys, but it seems all lot of the time, the feelings of a girl don't come into the equation."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"I guess I'll take the penalty and be on my way."
"Wait Harry, I didn't say you could go, and I'll decide when and if you take the penalty."
"I don't want to be a bother."
"Bit late for that, isn't it?"
"Sorry."
"Yes, well, make an appointment next time. I'm not sore about it and I think I have a solution."
"That's okay...I'll just..."
"Freeze, Mister Potter."
"But..."
"But nothing, sit, and as the offended party, I shall name terms." Susan took her time and let him sweat his situation. She wanted him good and willing to do whatever she demanded. Susan also thought outdoor weddings were the most romantic, and July the best month to get married.
"Now, I have no problem giving you a pair of knickers in principle, but in this situation there are extenuating circumstances. One, these knickers are really rather nice as you will see, and two, not only that but they are part of a set that matches a bra."
"Can I...?"
"What?"
"Well, what if I have concerns?"
"Very well, but you may only raise one concern. Think for a minute, this is your only chance. Then I will pronounce judgment."
"I just realized, ... we're friends now, right?" Susan smiled and nodded. "What if I don't want my friend to be thought of as the type of girl who just hands out her knickers?"
Susan was shocked. Did his thoughtfulness know no end? How had Granger not climbed right on top of him by now? This was however, a valid point. In pureblood society, especially as the last of a family, a girl had three things going for her; her name, her dowry, and her reputation.
Aunt Amelia was right, again, boys might ride the team broomstick, but at the end of the day she was left in the shed. Sad, harsh, but true. This too, though, could be made to serve her agenda.
"Well, you'll just have to defend my honor, and my person, while you're at it."
"I promise." Too easy.
"Well then, if there are no further objections, and I'm not letting you have any, I will hand you your sentence."
Susan saw he didn't realize she was joking. He was serious, he would go about defending her honor. She imagined he would be a proper boyfriend, well trained and what not, in but a few weeks.
"One, the defendant shall be remanded into the custody of the claimant until such time as the claimant thinks she can do better. Two, the claimant will place on a plain pair of knickers for the defendant which the defendant can remove tomorrow morning. Three, the defendant shall compensate the claimant for said plain pair of knickers with his house quidditch jersey which shall indicate his custody as being held by the claimant. Any questions?"
"Can you say that in the Queen's English, but slower?"
"I do believe I did."
""Okay then, maybe... dumb it down so I can understand?"
"Well, I'm tired and cold, but still giving up my knickers, just not these ones. You'll get the other pair tomorrow after my roomies go to breakfast. It's Sunday, no one will find it odd I'm having a bit of a lay in. In exchange for not turning you in to the authorities for your sins, you will keep me warm and help me get a good night's sleep. You will also serve as my boyfriend protecting my honor and keeping me warm until I dump you. I also get your quidditch jersey to wear, one, to keep me warm and two, as a sign of my ownership of you."
"OK, so what's my punishment?" Perfect.
"That is your punishment Harry."
"But?..."
"But what? I told you, you would be allowed one concern."
"Well, It's just doesn't seem like a punishment to me...I mean, I get you as a girlfriend, you would be my girlfriend right?" She nodded. "And you're so brilliant and I get to finish my dare, but what do you get? Seems you get the short end of this stick."
"Do I look stupid to you Harry?"
"No. But I can't even go with you to Hogsmeade, no one'll sign my form"
"Well then, trust that I've thought this through. As for Hogsmeade, you'll just have to find some way to amuse me those days won't you? And it might not seem so great when I put my cold feet and bum up on you."
"Wuh?" Was his only response. She half-thought maybe a tattoo, along the lines of "Property of Susan" was in order.
"And I'll take my jersey now, thank you." He took it off quickly and handed it over. The sudden movement though made him dizzy and he feel onto the bed and struggled back up. Susan immediately put it on and in a second had removed her previous top from underneath her new jersey.
Along with the top came the afore mentioned knickers, whose presence completely flummoxed Harry. Susan held them up for his inspection, and enjoyed the effect they were having on him. She might have to remind him to breathe.
Storing the "unmentionables" under her pillow, she motioned for him to come towards her. "If you're gonna keep me warm your gonna have to get under the covers with me, and that means you'll have to lose the trousers Potter." The Old Ogden's having done its sinful business, Harry managed to silently comply.
Shed of his trousers, which she folded and hung from one of the bed curtain rods, he had a plain white t-shirt, boxers and socks on. Susan knew of several owl-order catalogs that would help out there. She patted on the mattress and watched as he cautiously moved to where she indicated. Susan had, by now, named their first three children and had good prospects for their fourth's, especially if it was a girl.
Harry tried really hard, as best as his sloshed mind could, to figure out how his night had ended like this. While the dots were plainly marked, they just didn't seem to flow together. There was no explanation for this. All his attempts at cogitation ceased once Susan snuggled up next to him and pulled up the covers. She was warm and soft and smelled of something he couldn't quite place, though it put him in mind of a beach on a warm island. She put her head on his shoulder and her free arm across his chest. He did not move.
She had crushed on the "boy-who-lived" since she could remember. Tonight though, she had met Harry. The sweet, goofy, shy boy he actually was. Susan didn't think it was possible but Harry was even more wonderful than the "boy-who-lived". She fell in love with him, completely and purely, in the way only a young girl can that first time. He deserved every happiness life could give him. Of course, by "life", she meant herself. She had lists in mind already, the Bones family house elf and probably several owls would be busy tomorrow.
"Well then Harry, you just need to stay put, don't snore and generate heat. I need my beauty sleep, so try not to fidget. See you tomorrow, Harry." She closed her eyes and listened to his heart beat a mile a minute. Another thing Auntie was right about, you have to get them when they're young.
Daddy would just have to get over the end of the Bones family, or convince mum to start trying for a boy. Susan would be Lady Potter or was that Baroness? It took twenty minutes for Harry to relax enough to actually enjoy the position he found himself in and another twenty to fall asleep himself. Before he did, he managed to squeak out one thing.
"Good night, Susan."
"Night, Harry." She on the other hand, would fight the sandman tooth and nail to enjoy as much of her hold on Harry as she could.
A/N: A much shorter chapter two next time as its from Sirius' POV.
