Disclaimer: Harry Potter and the like are property of JK Rowling, her
publishers, and Warner Brothers. No profits are being made.
AN: WARNING: There is a brief, non-graphic spanking scenes. Before you send flames or really angry reviews, take in mind a couple things: Harry is NOT a real child, but a piece of fiction. Sirius uses the spanking as a last resort and does not abuse the situation. Harry is two years old in this chapter, therefore it is 1982, when spanking a child was not taboo. If you still feel like giving me a piece of your mind, go right on ahead. Just know I'm the type who lectures how wrong it is to spank children, so I know where you're coming from. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ IT, SCROLL DOWN TO THE FIRST ROW OF EIGHTS. You've been warned.
Chapter Five: Development and Dreams (Dedicated to my wonderful beta, Emily)
"Harry, come clean up your toys."
"No."
"Harry James, I'm giving you until the count of three to get over here and pick up your toys."
"NO!"
It had been going on like this for the last few weeks. Sirius would make a simple request, and Harry would refuse to comply, and often throw a temper tantrum.
-Flashback-
Harry and Sirius had found themselves at Hogwarts, and whilst Sirius talked tothe headmaster and that greasy git Snape, in his office about Order issues, Harry was spending the day with Hagrid.
"So you can see why your house is going to need these extra wards, Sirius."
"Yes, indeed." Glancing at his watch, he saw that he was running 15 minutes late in picking up Harry. "Oh bugger, I've got to go get Harry. Is that all, Headmaster?"
"I think we covered all the bases, yes. I've been meaning to have tea with Hagrid, why don't you and Severus join me?"
That was the last thing Sirius wanted to, and from the look of it Snape returned the sentiment, but one simply did not refuse the Headmaster, especially when it came to tea time. Pasting a smile on his face, he grounded out, "That would be delightful, sir."
"Wonderful! Come along then. We don't want to keep young Harry waiting, do we?"
Exiting the castle and going down to Hagrid's hut, they arrived to find Harry munching away happily what looked vaguely like a rock with chocolate chips.
"Daddy! These taste like your cookies!" Great. And here Sirius thought his cooking skills were improving.
"Would ye like some, Sirius?" Hagrid asked, offering a plate full of them.
"Er, no, thank you Hagrid. But—I'm on a, a diet. Yes. One has to keep very fit to keep up with toddlers. I'd be absolutely doomed if I let myself go like dear Severus here."
"Right," scoffed a scowling Snape. Apparently Sirius found yet another weak point. Brill.
"Could we trouble you for some tea, Hagrid?" the Headmaster asked, quite obviously trying to change the subject. Wouldn't set a very good example for the two year old watching their every move with rapt attention.
"Oh, yes o' course. Earl Grey good, Perfesser?"
"That would be fabulous. Thank you."
"How has Harry been Hagrid?"
"Good. Hardly even noticed the tyke."
"We played dragons, Daddy!"
"Really? Sounds like fun!"
It's amazing the boy's head didn't fall off he was nodding so vigorously.
Turning his attention back to the adults, they proceeded to discuss the potion Snape was developing to help with a werewolf's monthly change. Sirius was willing to help financially back the research if Remus had access to the finished product once a month.
An hour passed, and Sirius thought it best Harry and him started to head home, as it was nearing the child's bedtime. "Come along Harry, it's time to leave."
"Nooooooo! Daddy, let's stay!"
"Harry, it's past 8 o'clock. It'll take us about an hour to get home, we need to leave."
"We can have a sleepover! Pweeeeeaaasseee!"
"Another night maybe. But you've got to get up early to go to your art class with Miss Amy."
"I hate art! I wanna stay here!" Harry was screaming by this point.
"I told you, another time. Now come on." Picking Harry up off his chair, the two year old began to pound his fists into his godfather's chest.
"Let me go! You're mean!"
"You handle him sooo well, Black," Snape's voice dripped like acid into his ear.
"Shut it, Snape. Harry, stop hitting me!"
The hitting ceased, but unfortunately he started kicking, and his foot slammed into Sirius' most valued body parts.
"Ohh! God!"
Harry saw his godfather's temporary disability as a chance to run, and nearly made it to the door when Dumbledore cast a well placed sticky floor spell, making it impossible for the boy to lift his feet off the ground.
After a few minutes, Sirius managed to recover enough to walk, though he rather looked like a duck, to where Harry was stuck, mutter the counted curse, and swing the child over his shoulder.
"Thank you for watching him Hagrid. Goodnight." And with that they were out the door, Harry screaming about how it wasn't fair.
-End Flashback-
That had been the first full-blown tantrum from the boy, but they only seemed to get worse. Time outs were not working, and neither was threatening to take toys and privileges away. It was really starting to tax on Sirius' patience. Not to mention his wardrobe space has been cut in half by the number of confiscated toys he had to stash away in there.
"One."
Harry simply set his face into a scowl and crossed his arms over his stomach.
"Two."
"I don't wanna."
"It's not a matter of wanting to or not. Now I asked you to put your toys away and either you get over here and do it or you'll suffer the consequences."
Harry simply sat down on the floor where he was standing, giving the most defiant look a two year old could.
Closing his eyes and taking deep breaths—yelling would get him nowhere—Sirius muttered, "Three." Walking to the toddler he lifted him up and walked to the bed. Standing him in front of him, he looked Harry squarely in the eyes. "Now, either you start putting those toys away, or you will be sorry."
Harry's glare faltered slightly, but came back full force when he stomped his foot down and nearly screamed, "I WON'T!"
Sirius really didn't want to do this, but nothing was working with the boy. So he grabbed him and laid him across his lap, and proceeded to smack his bum. Not hard enough to hurt for more than a minute or two afterwards, or make sitting difficult, but with enough force to let the child know he meant business. After ten smacks, Sirius lifted the boy and sat him gently on his lap, murmuring words of comfort to calm the boy's wails while wiping the couple of tears away that were sliding down the his face.
"Harry, you know why I had to do that, right?"
Nodding into Sirius' chest, Harry mumbled, "Because you hate me."
"What? No! I love you with every inch of my body! I just hate you not doing as I ask."
"But you could have just magicked the toys up!"
"I could have, yes, but that doesn't matter. What matters is I wanted you to pick up your toys and you didn't listen to me. And if you don't listen to me when I ask you to do something as simple as that, then how can you listen to me if there's something really important? Understand?"
"Yes, Daddy."
Kissing the child's head, he whispered, "I love you, Harry."
"I love you too, Daddy."
"Now, what do you say we pick up these toys together, and go get some dinner in town?"
Smiling, Harry nodded.
888888
It was a few weeks since the spanking incident, and Harry's behavior was starting to show improvement. Sirius was glad to say he hadn't had to resort to spanking again, and had found that "corner-time," where Harry hadto stand in the corner, facing the wall for a couple minutes, was usually quite effective in getting his point across. So was focusing on praising Harry more often when he did do what Sirius asked of him.
While Harry's behavior was looking up, the potty training was still not going very well.
"You know Sirius, he just may not be ready," Molly said over a cup of tea.
"He's nearly two and a half, Molly. Shouldn't he be able to do it at least some of the time?"
"Every child is different. Why, Bill was four years old when he finally got it down pat. Just encourage him, show him how grown up it is, maybe show him how to wee and such."
"Wouldn't that be a bit, weird?"
"Honestly, Sirius! He'll never learn unless you show him it's perfectly natural."
"Daddy! There was a bunny in the garden!" Harry came running in, dirt smudge on his forehead.
Leaning down to sit the boy in his lap, Sirius wiped the dirt away. "Really? A real live bunny?"
Nodding excitedly, Harry had a gleam of pure wonder in his eyes. "It was brown and white and was in the vegibowl garden. Snitch chased it 'way though."
"Probably for the best though, can't have the bunny eating all our food!"
"But if the bunny can't have our vegibowls then how's it gonna grow up big and stwong?"
Sirius smiled at the boy's worried curiosity over the rabbits nutrition. "Hmmm, I'll tell you what, how about we put a bowl of carrots in the backyard for the bunny to eat? Think he'll like that?"
Breathing heavily in excitement, Harry ran to the refrigerator—quite an ingenious invention considering it was muggle—and standing on his toes, pulled open and retrieved a bag of carrots. "Can you spell the carrwots cut like you do for when we go out and want snacks?"
"But of course." Pulling out his wand and casting a basic kitchen spell, there was soon a bag full of carrot sticks. "Let's grab a bowl to put them in. The bags not safe because the bunny's head might get stuck in it and he could get hurt."
"Okay."
The look on Harry's face completely made Sirius' day. The child was absolutely glowing. Pouring the carrots into the bowl, he handed it to Harry who promptly ran out the door all the while yelling for the bunny not to worry because his daddy said it was okay to eat the carrots in the bowl.
"He's a very caring child, isn't he?" Molly asked from her seat at the table.
"And nutrition smart, apparently. Guess all my lectures about him needing his vitamins to grow big and strong have paid off."
"You know Sirius, I think you got pretty lucky with him. Even if he can't use the loo."
8888888888
It was well past two in the morning when Sirius was roused by Harry calling out his name in a tone that one could really only describe as pleading. Rubbing his eyes and swinging his legs out of bed, he stumbled to Harry's bedroom. Seeing that Harry was crying he immediately lifted the toddler out of his crib—so far the transition to bed was still a bit daunting—and wiped his eyes.
"What's wrong, kiddo?"
"Bad dweam."
"Do you wanna sleep with Daddy tonight?"
Feeling Harry's nod against his chest, he carried him to his room and laid him down.
"What happened in your dream?"
"I dweamt you went to heaven like my first mummy and daddy and I was left all alone."
"Oh, Harry, I'm not going to leave you any time soon. And if something does ever happen to me you'll never be alone. Aunt Molly and I have talked about it and you'd go live with Ronnie and his family. But I'll do everything in my power to make sure that never, ever has to happen."
"Pwomise?"
"Promise. Come on, let's go to sleep."
Upon waking up the next morning, Sirius found Harry clinging rather desperately to his tee shirt. Gently easing the child off of him, Sirius made it to the door when he heard his godson's meek voice call out "Daddy."
"Yes Harry?"
"Where you goin?" his voice was thick with sleep.
"Daddy's going to take a shower, you go back to sleep."
"Can I take one wit you?"
Slightly worried about Harry's unusual clinginess, Sirius nodded and carried the small boy to the bathroom with him.
Harry's desperation to stay close to his godfather only seemed increase as time wore on, following him around the kitchen while he was making breakfast, sitting not even an inch away from him while they were eating.
"Daddy?" Harry said quietly while picking at his porridge.
"Yes?"
"Do I haft to go to Wonnie's today?"
"Not if you don't want to. But why not, I thought Ron was your best friend?"
"He is. But I wanna be wit you."
"Okay. I'll fire call Aunt Molly and tell her that you'll come over tomorrow, okay?"
Receiving a hesitant nod in return, Sirius walked over to the fireplace, where he promptly floo called Molly Weasley.
"Molly? You there?"
"Sirius! You shocked me! Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing wrong per se, just Harry is having a bit of separation anxiety today. He had a dream about me dying and him being left alone last night. Do you think maybe we can postpone the boys' play date until tomorrow?"
"Oh, certainly, Ron will be disappointed, but this is an important time for Harry. Take all the time you need, our home is always open to the two of you."
"Thanks Molly, see you tomorrow."
Pulling his head from the fireplace, Sirius began to back up when he bumped into Harry.
"Sorry there. So what do you want to do today, chap? We can go to the zoo, see a muggle movie, go to the park, anything you want."
"Can we see the lions at the zoo?"
"You bet! The giraffes, too."
"Okay."
AN: And there you have it. Without disclaimers and author's notes, that's 2207 words. I'm a girl of my word. Thanks to the number of people who reviewed. I tried to work in Snape, as it was requested a couple times, and there will probably more of him in the future. As I mentioned earlier, I've found myself a beta! So, hopefully the quality of the chapters will improved, but they will most likely take longer to get out (but not by too much!). Thanks Emily.
AN: WARNING: There is a brief, non-graphic spanking scenes. Before you send flames or really angry reviews, take in mind a couple things: Harry is NOT a real child, but a piece of fiction. Sirius uses the spanking as a last resort and does not abuse the situation. Harry is two years old in this chapter, therefore it is 1982, when spanking a child was not taboo. If you still feel like giving me a piece of your mind, go right on ahead. Just know I'm the type who lectures how wrong it is to spank children, so I know where you're coming from. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ IT, SCROLL DOWN TO THE FIRST ROW OF EIGHTS. You've been warned.
Chapter Five: Development and Dreams (Dedicated to my wonderful beta, Emily)
"Harry, come clean up your toys."
"No."
"Harry James, I'm giving you until the count of three to get over here and pick up your toys."
"NO!"
It had been going on like this for the last few weeks. Sirius would make a simple request, and Harry would refuse to comply, and often throw a temper tantrum.
-Flashback-
Harry and Sirius had found themselves at Hogwarts, and whilst Sirius talked tothe headmaster and that greasy git Snape, in his office about Order issues, Harry was spending the day with Hagrid.
"So you can see why your house is going to need these extra wards, Sirius."
"Yes, indeed." Glancing at his watch, he saw that he was running 15 minutes late in picking up Harry. "Oh bugger, I've got to go get Harry. Is that all, Headmaster?"
"I think we covered all the bases, yes. I've been meaning to have tea with Hagrid, why don't you and Severus join me?"
That was the last thing Sirius wanted to, and from the look of it Snape returned the sentiment, but one simply did not refuse the Headmaster, especially when it came to tea time. Pasting a smile on his face, he grounded out, "That would be delightful, sir."
"Wonderful! Come along then. We don't want to keep young Harry waiting, do we?"
Exiting the castle and going down to Hagrid's hut, they arrived to find Harry munching away happily what looked vaguely like a rock with chocolate chips.
"Daddy! These taste like your cookies!" Great. And here Sirius thought his cooking skills were improving.
"Would ye like some, Sirius?" Hagrid asked, offering a plate full of them.
"Er, no, thank you Hagrid. But—I'm on a, a diet. Yes. One has to keep very fit to keep up with toddlers. I'd be absolutely doomed if I let myself go like dear Severus here."
"Right," scoffed a scowling Snape. Apparently Sirius found yet another weak point. Brill.
"Could we trouble you for some tea, Hagrid?" the Headmaster asked, quite obviously trying to change the subject. Wouldn't set a very good example for the two year old watching their every move with rapt attention.
"Oh, yes o' course. Earl Grey good, Perfesser?"
"That would be fabulous. Thank you."
"How has Harry been Hagrid?"
"Good. Hardly even noticed the tyke."
"We played dragons, Daddy!"
"Really? Sounds like fun!"
It's amazing the boy's head didn't fall off he was nodding so vigorously.
Turning his attention back to the adults, they proceeded to discuss the potion Snape was developing to help with a werewolf's monthly change. Sirius was willing to help financially back the research if Remus had access to the finished product once a month.
An hour passed, and Sirius thought it best Harry and him started to head home, as it was nearing the child's bedtime. "Come along Harry, it's time to leave."
"Nooooooo! Daddy, let's stay!"
"Harry, it's past 8 o'clock. It'll take us about an hour to get home, we need to leave."
"We can have a sleepover! Pweeeeeaaasseee!"
"Another night maybe. But you've got to get up early to go to your art class with Miss Amy."
"I hate art! I wanna stay here!" Harry was screaming by this point.
"I told you, another time. Now come on." Picking Harry up off his chair, the two year old began to pound his fists into his godfather's chest.
"Let me go! You're mean!"
"You handle him sooo well, Black," Snape's voice dripped like acid into his ear.
"Shut it, Snape. Harry, stop hitting me!"
The hitting ceased, but unfortunately he started kicking, and his foot slammed into Sirius' most valued body parts.
"Ohh! God!"
Harry saw his godfather's temporary disability as a chance to run, and nearly made it to the door when Dumbledore cast a well placed sticky floor spell, making it impossible for the boy to lift his feet off the ground.
After a few minutes, Sirius managed to recover enough to walk, though he rather looked like a duck, to where Harry was stuck, mutter the counted curse, and swing the child over his shoulder.
"Thank you for watching him Hagrid. Goodnight." And with that they were out the door, Harry screaming about how it wasn't fair.
-End Flashback-
That had been the first full-blown tantrum from the boy, but they only seemed to get worse. Time outs were not working, and neither was threatening to take toys and privileges away. It was really starting to tax on Sirius' patience. Not to mention his wardrobe space has been cut in half by the number of confiscated toys he had to stash away in there.
"One."
Harry simply set his face into a scowl and crossed his arms over his stomach.
"Two."
"I don't wanna."
"It's not a matter of wanting to or not. Now I asked you to put your toys away and either you get over here and do it or you'll suffer the consequences."
Harry simply sat down on the floor where he was standing, giving the most defiant look a two year old could.
Closing his eyes and taking deep breaths—yelling would get him nowhere—Sirius muttered, "Three." Walking to the toddler he lifted him up and walked to the bed. Standing him in front of him, he looked Harry squarely in the eyes. "Now, either you start putting those toys away, or you will be sorry."
Harry's glare faltered slightly, but came back full force when he stomped his foot down and nearly screamed, "I WON'T!"
Sirius really didn't want to do this, but nothing was working with the boy. So he grabbed him and laid him across his lap, and proceeded to smack his bum. Not hard enough to hurt for more than a minute or two afterwards, or make sitting difficult, but with enough force to let the child know he meant business. After ten smacks, Sirius lifted the boy and sat him gently on his lap, murmuring words of comfort to calm the boy's wails while wiping the couple of tears away that were sliding down the his face.
"Harry, you know why I had to do that, right?"
Nodding into Sirius' chest, Harry mumbled, "Because you hate me."
"What? No! I love you with every inch of my body! I just hate you not doing as I ask."
"But you could have just magicked the toys up!"
"I could have, yes, but that doesn't matter. What matters is I wanted you to pick up your toys and you didn't listen to me. And if you don't listen to me when I ask you to do something as simple as that, then how can you listen to me if there's something really important? Understand?"
"Yes, Daddy."
Kissing the child's head, he whispered, "I love you, Harry."
"I love you too, Daddy."
"Now, what do you say we pick up these toys together, and go get some dinner in town?"
Smiling, Harry nodded.
888888
It was a few weeks since the spanking incident, and Harry's behavior was starting to show improvement. Sirius was glad to say he hadn't had to resort to spanking again, and had found that "corner-time," where Harry hadto stand in the corner, facing the wall for a couple minutes, was usually quite effective in getting his point across. So was focusing on praising Harry more often when he did do what Sirius asked of him.
While Harry's behavior was looking up, the potty training was still not going very well.
"You know Sirius, he just may not be ready," Molly said over a cup of tea.
"He's nearly two and a half, Molly. Shouldn't he be able to do it at least some of the time?"
"Every child is different. Why, Bill was four years old when he finally got it down pat. Just encourage him, show him how grown up it is, maybe show him how to wee and such."
"Wouldn't that be a bit, weird?"
"Honestly, Sirius! He'll never learn unless you show him it's perfectly natural."
"Daddy! There was a bunny in the garden!" Harry came running in, dirt smudge on his forehead.
Leaning down to sit the boy in his lap, Sirius wiped the dirt away. "Really? A real live bunny?"
Nodding excitedly, Harry had a gleam of pure wonder in his eyes. "It was brown and white and was in the vegibowl garden. Snitch chased it 'way though."
"Probably for the best though, can't have the bunny eating all our food!"
"But if the bunny can't have our vegibowls then how's it gonna grow up big and stwong?"
Sirius smiled at the boy's worried curiosity over the rabbits nutrition. "Hmmm, I'll tell you what, how about we put a bowl of carrots in the backyard for the bunny to eat? Think he'll like that?"
Breathing heavily in excitement, Harry ran to the refrigerator—quite an ingenious invention considering it was muggle—and standing on his toes, pulled open and retrieved a bag of carrots. "Can you spell the carrwots cut like you do for when we go out and want snacks?"
"But of course." Pulling out his wand and casting a basic kitchen spell, there was soon a bag full of carrot sticks. "Let's grab a bowl to put them in. The bags not safe because the bunny's head might get stuck in it and he could get hurt."
"Okay."
The look on Harry's face completely made Sirius' day. The child was absolutely glowing. Pouring the carrots into the bowl, he handed it to Harry who promptly ran out the door all the while yelling for the bunny not to worry because his daddy said it was okay to eat the carrots in the bowl.
"He's a very caring child, isn't he?" Molly asked from her seat at the table.
"And nutrition smart, apparently. Guess all my lectures about him needing his vitamins to grow big and strong have paid off."
"You know Sirius, I think you got pretty lucky with him. Even if he can't use the loo."
8888888888
It was well past two in the morning when Sirius was roused by Harry calling out his name in a tone that one could really only describe as pleading. Rubbing his eyes and swinging his legs out of bed, he stumbled to Harry's bedroom. Seeing that Harry was crying he immediately lifted the toddler out of his crib—so far the transition to bed was still a bit daunting—and wiped his eyes.
"What's wrong, kiddo?"
"Bad dweam."
"Do you wanna sleep with Daddy tonight?"
Feeling Harry's nod against his chest, he carried him to his room and laid him down.
"What happened in your dream?"
"I dweamt you went to heaven like my first mummy and daddy and I was left all alone."
"Oh, Harry, I'm not going to leave you any time soon. And if something does ever happen to me you'll never be alone. Aunt Molly and I have talked about it and you'd go live with Ronnie and his family. But I'll do everything in my power to make sure that never, ever has to happen."
"Pwomise?"
"Promise. Come on, let's go to sleep."
Upon waking up the next morning, Sirius found Harry clinging rather desperately to his tee shirt. Gently easing the child off of him, Sirius made it to the door when he heard his godson's meek voice call out "Daddy."
"Yes Harry?"
"Where you goin?" his voice was thick with sleep.
"Daddy's going to take a shower, you go back to sleep."
"Can I take one wit you?"
Slightly worried about Harry's unusual clinginess, Sirius nodded and carried the small boy to the bathroom with him.
Harry's desperation to stay close to his godfather only seemed increase as time wore on, following him around the kitchen while he was making breakfast, sitting not even an inch away from him while they were eating.
"Daddy?" Harry said quietly while picking at his porridge.
"Yes?"
"Do I haft to go to Wonnie's today?"
"Not if you don't want to. But why not, I thought Ron was your best friend?"
"He is. But I wanna be wit you."
"Okay. I'll fire call Aunt Molly and tell her that you'll come over tomorrow, okay?"
Receiving a hesitant nod in return, Sirius walked over to the fireplace, where he promptly floo called Molly Weasley.
"Molly? You there?"
"Sirius! You shocked me! Is something wrong?"
"No, nothing wrong per se, just Harry is having a bit of separation anxiety today. He had a dream about me dying and him being left alone last night. Do you think maybe we can postpone the boys' play date until tomorrow?"
"Oh, certainly, Ron will be disappointed, but this is an important time for Harry. Take all the time you need, our home is always open to the two of you."
"Thanks Molly, see you tomorrow."
Pulling his head from the fireplace, Sirius began to back up when he bumped into Harry.
"Sorry there. So what do you want to do today, chap? We can go to the zoo, see a muggle movie, go to the park, anything you want."
"Can we see the lions at the zoo?"
"You bet! The giraffes, too."
"Okay."
AN: And there you have it. Without disclaimers and author's notes, that's 2207 words. I'm a girl of my word. Thanks to the number of people who reviewed. I tried to work in Snape, as it was requested a couple times, and there will probably more of him in the future. As I mentioned earlier, I've found myself a beta! So, hopefully the quality of the chapters will improved, but they will most likely take longer to get out (but not by too much!). Thanks Emily.
