I've had a few requests for oneshots in the Parsel universe, and I decided to oblige. I think I'll continue doing this as long as I get or am given ideas by you lovelies, but we'll see. This is the first one I decided to do – Harry's first shower. Happens the same day as chapter 8. Hope you enjoy!
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For a day with strangers, Silas' day had been going alright so far. He was of course displeased that he had been forced to put on clothing – "pants", they were called – and later a "tee shirt" that only served to make him fidget uncomfortably through the day. Everything was so new and strange, even more so than when he had been in the "hospital wing", and so many things could make him uneasy or wary. The "toilet" had made him nervous when he saw the bowl full of water, but after Sirius explained to him what using it entailed, he had decided it wasn't too bad.
But this…this was something else entirely.
"What's wrong – Silas?" Sirius caught the right name just in time, oblivious to the terror Silas was feeling.
He shook his head rapidly back and forth, taking a step back from the doorway to the bathroom. Sirius rose from his crouch and gazed at him confusedly.
"Silas?" he said again.
:I'm not getting in that!: Silas insisted agitatedly, hardly noticing his instinctive use of Parseltongue. :Land snakes don't belong in water!:
Sirius looked between him and the bathtub filling with water from the faucet, and seemed to realize what he was fighting against.
"The water's not gonna hurt you," Sirius tried. "Look – see?" He bent down a bit to splash his hand in the water as though to prove his statement. "And you haven't had a real wash yet – Madam Pomfrey's scourgify won't cut it for more than a couple of days, and you need to be clean."
But Silas kept shaking his head and backed quickly away from the door, tripping on his feet and catching himself on a table beside him at the last second. Sirius just didn't understand – and why should Sirius putting his hand in prove anything? He wasn't a snake.
Before Sirius could have a chance to catch him, he turned heel and ran back to his room, brushing past Shyam-Seff on the way and ignoring the startled exclamation from him. He closed the door and turned the dial that made it impossible to open the door from the outside, and then went to the bed and curled himself into a ball in the corner.
:Silas?: Sadi's voice called, and he turned and saw her sitting beside the vent above the desk that let out warm heat. :What happened?:
:They want me to get in the water,: Silas hissed in agitation.
Sadi made a hiss that translated into a frown. :Why?:
:He said I need to get clean, but I'm not dirty! I don't need to get in the water even if I was! I can't go in the water or I'll die! I can't swim!: His voice was bordering on hysterical, but he didn't care and hugged his knees tighter to his chest.
:But you're in human form now – shouldn't you be alright then?: Sadi said logically, slithering down from the desk to the bed. She moved to be next to him to try and provide comfort. :It sounds like they acted as though it was something normal, so it probably won't kill you in this form.:
Silas hardly heard her as he buried his face into his knees so he couldn't see anything. He couldn't help the panicked gasps from escaping, but a tight, almost painful squeeze to his wrist brought him back to the present and he looked up to see Sadi curling her body around it.
:I'm sure you'll be fine, Silas,: she told him when she noticed he'd finally looked up. :They haven't hurt you so far.:
Whatever he might have said was interrupted when he heard a knock on his door. His breathing immediately went up again and he pressed his body further into the corner as though to escape.
"Silas?" Sirius' voice called outside the door. "May I come in?"
Silas said nothing however, hoping that if he stayed like that long enough that the man would leave him alone. He stared at the door, unmoving, perfectly silent.
"Silas?" Sirius said again, and when there was no response once more, he sighed and said, "I'm not going to make you get in the bath, kid, but I do need to come in and talk."
After another several seconds of no speaking, Silas heard a mutter and then the door opened. His eyes widened – he'd forgotten that the sticks could unlock doors – and he buried his face in his knees again as Sirius came in.
Something dipped the edge of the bed, and Silas peeked out to see that Sirius was sitting on the edge of it, looking at him in concern.
"Hey," he said. "Why are you so scared of the water? It's not going to hurt you."
"I…dtuh-www-owww-unn," Silas offered tentatively, knowing that he was mispronouncing the word but not really caring.
"You'll drown?" Sirius echoed, and then shook his head, lips twitching slightly before becoming serious again. "No, H-Silas – no. The water is so shallow it would only go just past your waist. Babies take baths all the time, but…" He stopped suddenly, and then cocked his head as he appeared to get a sudden idea.
"Is the rain okay?" he asked him. Silas lifted his head fully and stared at him in confusion, not sure if he understood right. "Is it just bodies of water or are you afraid of the rain, too?"
"Wwrw-aaaain – oooh-kgkk-aaayyy," he stuttered confusedly, hardly noticing Sadi slipping down from his arm to rest on the bed alone. Was going out in the rain enough to clean him? He'd never thought so, but humans did have different rules, after all.
"Then I know just the solution!" Sirius beamed, and jumped to his feet, holding out his hand for Silas to take. Silas gave him a confused look but held out his hand. Sirius grabbed it and pulled him forward, surprisingly gently. Silas climbed off the bed and then let go of the man's hand, following Sirius down the hall – and slowed when he approached the bathroom while Sirius went inside.
Sirius poked his head out the doorway a moment later and looked down the hallway at Silas, apparently having noticed he was no longer following him. "Come on," he encouraged. "You won't have to get in the bath, promise."
He popped back inside, apparently expecting Silas to obey, and after a moment of hesitation, he did, not knowing what the man was up to but crossing the rest of the distance and stepping inside the bathroom anyway.
The first thing he noticed was that there was no longer a tub full of water – now the edges had been vanished away – presumably with magic – so that there was only a bit of space coming up, not nearly enough to hold the amount of water that had been there just minutes prior. There was also now a clear door where the curtain had once been, and some sort of metal contraption above his height, connected to the wall.
Then he noticed Sirius at the cupboard, pulling out two towels. But that wasn't the strange part – the strange part was that he was wearing nothing but a pair of short trousers that ended a bit above the knee – and he hadn't seen these types of trousers before. These were bright red with large golden stripes going across them. He noticed that Sirius' back wasn't as smooth as his own as well. He wondered if he would have marks like that when he was older – rows of parallel white lines as well as the random diagonal lines that occasionally cut across the others. He hadn't known that humans had any sort of markings like that, and supposed that they must grow on as you aged.
Sirius turned around and smiled when he saw Silas standing there, seemingly oblivious to Silas' speculative stare when he noticed a knot of distorted, roughened flesh the size of his fist in the center of his chest.
"Alright, then – Silas," Sirius said, "You've got to take off your clothes now."
Silas didn't even bother to wonder or ask why – as soon as he received the permission, he was yanking at his shirt to try and get it off. The problem was, he didn't know how, so Sirius stepped forward with a smile.
"Lemme help you there, kid," he said, and took hold of the bottom of his shirt in both hands and lifted up. "Arms up – there we go." He dropped the shirt to the ground, and Silas was already pulling the sleep pants off, these much easier as they had an elastic waist.
"Alright, now we take a shower," Sirius explained, going over to the area the bathtub used to be in and turning a metal handle. Water immediately flowed from the metal contraption in the ceiling, and Silas took an instinctive step back. "It'll be alright, Silas – it's like having rain in one centralized location. People do it all the time – me an' Remus do it every morning. And just so you can be sure, I'll be right in there with you to make sure nothing happens, alright?"
After a long pause, Silas nodded reluctantly. Sirius stepped into the shower, immediately drenching his hair, and after another moment of hesitation, Silas climbed into the shower beside him.
He slipped a bit, not expecting the slick surface of the tile after the water had soaked it, and Sirius' arms shot out to catch him.
"You alright?" he double-checked to be sure, and Silas nodded, staring unblinkingly at the running water, heart going a tad faster than normal.
Sirius removed one of his hands from Silas' arm and used it to pull the glass door closed, presumably so that the water wouldn't get out.
"Alright, then," Sirius said, "Come on, under the water you go."
Silas obeyed his directions, strangely comforted by the grip Sirius kept on his arm. He flinched when the spray of water touched him, but he kept going, and allowed his head to be guided underneath the flow of water, thoroughly drenching it.
This isn't so bad, Silas thought after a few moments, relaxing marginally.
"Alright, Silas, can you close your eyes?" Sirius said after a few moments. At Silas' look of confusion and slight panic, he explained, "I need to shampoo your hair"—he held up a black bottle in his hand that Silas hadn't noticed before—"and if it gets in your eyes, it'll burn and sting and just be generally uncomfortable."
Silas obeyed his directions, pulling his head away from the spray of water and flinching again when something cool dropped on his head. Then Sirius' hands were massaging his scalp, and Silas felt something foamy at his ears. He supposed it was the "shampoo" – humans had such strange ways of washing themselves. Honestly.
After Sirius had finished with his whole head, he directed him to tilt his head back into the water, and then his head felt strange and tingly as he felt the "shampoo" wash out.
"Just a quick wash of the rest of your body and we'll be done," Sirius told him cheerfully. "You can open your eyes."
Silas opened his eyes to see Sirius squeezing some sort of shiny white liquid onto…something fluffy that he couldn't identify…from the black bottle he'd showed him before.
"Step a bit away from the water," Sirius said, and after he'd obeyed, Sirius rubbed the fluffy thing over his arms. Silas was surprised to see tiny white bubbles appear.
"Wwww-yyyyy…?" he pointed at the bubbles with the arm not getting scrubbed.
"Why does the soap bubble?" Sirius clarified. Silas nodded, staring in fascination as bubbles appeared on his other arm when Sirius rubbed the fluffy thing down that one.
"I'm not sure, to be perfectly honest," Sirius said with a shrug, and moved the fluffy thing over his chest. "That's something I'll have to find out myself."
Silas tensed when the fluffy thing went to his stomach, still wary because of the lack of ribs to protect his vital organs there, and then relaxed again as it was scrubbed down his legs.
"Alright, under the water again now," Sirius directed, dropping the fluffy thing off to the side. "No need to soap your back – the shampoo washing out would've done just fine."
Silas didn't really care why the man didn't soap his back, and simply stepped back under the water, watching as the bubbles disappeared under the stream.
After he was all rinsed off, he looked up to see what was expected of him next.
Sirius turned off the water and stepped out of the shower, and Silas followed more slowly, trying not to slip on the slick floor. When he got to the door, Sirius was already there, holding a large fluffy red towel with a gold circle connected to…wings?
Before he could really wonder what the image on the towel was supposed to be, Sirius stepped forward and wrapped him in it. On him, it was very large, coming up over his head and still going down almost to his ankles.
Then the world swooped, and Silas instinctively grasped the towel – the only thing his hands could reach, trapped as they were – and he realized Sirius had picked him up, carrying him securely in his arms.
"I used to give you baths as a baby," Sirius told him when he caught him staring up at him in confusion and a bit of apprehension. "You always liked to be carried back in a large towel that totally snuggled around you. Feels much like a large hug, doesn't it?"
Silas said nothing, shifting a bit but finding he didn't really mind getting carried. It was just the suddenness of it that had scared him, and seeing as he was just going back to his room, he figured he was safe enough. He blinked, and suddenly his eyes felt heavy and he was ready to go to sleep. He fought to keep his eyes open as Sirius toed the door open, and then he felt himself turned and set on his feet, Sirius' arms steadying him as he stumbled a bit, still getting used to walking and standing.
Sirius rubbed the towel all over his body to dry him off, even massaging it a bit through his hair to catch stray droplets. Silas blinked at him sleepily, letting himself be dried off and only making a small groan of protest when Sirius retrieved a new pair of pants, though these ones were white and much shorter.
"Leg up, kiddo," Sirius said with a chuckle, squatting in front of him and holding the clothing's leg open. Silas reluctantly let them be pulled to his waist, and discovered that they stopped at the crease where his torso met his thigh.
"They're called underwear, mate," Sirius said at his confused look. "Because they go under"—he summoned another pair of pants with a wave of his wand, these ones more recognizable as they were identical to the ones he'd worn earlier—"the rest of your clothes."
More clothes? Why?! Silas thought frustratedly, letting out a hiss this time to express his displeasure. This time he refused to pick up his feet to let Sirius slide the pants on, no matter how he cajoled and persuaded.
Finally Sirius seemed to understand it was a useless effort. "Alright, you win – this time!" he enunciated. "But only because you're going to bed and no one will see you under the blankets. But when you go out you have to wear both of them – got it?" He waited for Silas' grudging nod before sending the pants back to the drawer they'd come out of.
After Silas had climbed into bed, he saw that Sirius was still standing there, watching him with a soft, somewhat sad smile. Silas gazed at him unsurely, wondering what he was thinking with that expression.
Seeing the look and somehow understanding it, Sirius smiled a bit more and sat at the edge of the bed right next to him. He reached out as though to brush a lock of hair from Silas' face, but then seemed to think better of it and pulled his hand back.
"I know you're very confused right now, and probably a bit scared," he told him. "What with a new, strange life and all, but – I think you should know that if there's one thing you should never doubt is how much we love you. After missing you for years, it seems a miracle for you to be back here with us, and…" He took a breath, seeming fighting tears and then continued, "I hope one day you can realize and believe that." He leaned over and pressed a kiss to Silas' forehead before rising and going to the door. "Good night, Silas. I love you."
Silas said nothing, blinking at him, and Sirius pulled the door closed, shrouding the room in darkness.
He felt Sadi slide up next to him on the bed to go to sleep, but neither of them said anything. Silas' brain turned Sirius' words over in his head, analyzing them and poking for flaws. When he found none, he sighed and turned on his stomach to go to sleep.
Just after closing his eyes, he opened them again when something felt wrong. With a huff of exasperation, he reached to grasp the waistband of his "underwear" and pulled them off, letting them drop to the side of the bed. Really no point to covering up when he was trying to go to sleep. And Sirius wouldn't know – he'd said himself that no one would be looking at him while he was asleep.
With a sigh of relief at being released from the underwear's confines, he snuggled back down into the bed. Sadi slithered so she was alongside his forearm, soaking in his natural body heat. He closed his eyes, and his thoughts finally quieted as he fell into a deep slumber.
…
I couldn't find a place to say that Sirius dried himself with his wand, but let's assume he did before sitting on Harry's bed.
Hope you loved it – thanks for reading!