The Odd Combination of Fate and Humor

Notes:

Disclaimer:

You know the drill already: I do not own Harry Potter in any way; those rights belong to J.K Rowling. The plot and any extra characters are my own though.

Warnings:

This story WILL contain slash! (I know this piece has become something akin to a template in each chapter that I write, but just bear with me)

This means that this story will be purely male x male slash regarding the main characters. Please do not read if you find it offensive to read about two guys kissing…etc.

Everyone else… please enjoy

Key:

"speech"

"soft spoken or seemingly vague speech"

'thoughts'

- Parseltongue -

'Latin words'

Mental messages

Chapter 6: Settling in

Harry opened his eyes and squinted a little when things seemed too bright in the early morning light. He had slept well enough and was now practically itching to get out of bed to do something. Instinct told him that he was alone in the room, but the sound of a door opening echoed around the room before he could get too worried.

He glanced towards the door and saw that it was Narcissa. A slight smile appeared on his face as she neared the bed and he could see that she was carrying something in her hands. Her mind seemed preoccupied as she placed the small object down on his bed and he laughed when she suddenly jumped in fright at seeing him awake. "Harry! You scared me!"

He laughed before answering. "It's not my fault that you didn't see that I was awake." He looked at the object on the bed and found that it looked like a very small trunk. The kind that he would imagine the mice in those cartoon character shows, that his cousin loved to watch, would use.

Narcissa saw that his attention was on the bag and she smiled. "I bought you a few clothes along with a few things that you are going to need. It's not much, but it will do until we can take you shopping for the rest of your stuff." Harry felt like someone had slapped him through the face. This had to be some kind of joke they were pulling on him, right? There was no way that a single shirt would fit in there, not even to mention a few clothes.

He didn't mean to sound picky. He really didn't expect them to give him anything, but giving him a small suitcase and saying that it held most of what he would need was downright mean. It reminded him of the rare occasions when his aunt gave him Dudley's damaged and dirty clothes while acting as if it was such an honor for him to receive them. He didn't know why his new family would play such a mean prank on him.

His expression must have revealed his thoughts, because Narcissa suddenly burst into laughter. Harry could even feel Tom's laughter through their bond as the dark haired man listened in on the conversation, but it stopped when the man seemed to sense his jumbled emotions.

Harry felt confused and hurt. He knew it wasn't his fault that he didn't know why they found the situation so funny. He also knew that they were probably laughing at the situation and not at him personally, but it was clear that they had forgotten that he hadn't been brought up around magic.

A glamoured Tom swiftly entered the room and swept him into his arms. The glare he sent Narcissa's way, quickly brought the woman out of her laughter and guilt set in as she realized that Harry didn't understand why they were laughing. Harry hesitantly put his arms around Tom's waist and snuggled into his chest.

He knew that they were supposed to get to know each other first, but he didn't care at the moment. He needed a little comfort and he was getting it from the most important person in his life. Luckily Tom seemed to understand and the man didn't even try to remove him from his lap. In fact, Harry could sense that the man was actually happy to have him on his there.

He could hear Narcissa walking closer to him and he felt her hand on his shoulder a second later. Harry could hear that she was about to speak, but Tom gently cut her off when it seemed like she didn't exactly know how to explain. "Harry, we weren't laughing at you. Narcissa should have explained that she had used magic to shrink the bag in order to make it easy to carry around."

Harry nodded slightly before sitting up and Tom took it as a sign to continue. "The reason we were laughing is because the Malfoys usually go extremely overboard…" Narcissa glared at Tom as he spoke and Harry could feel himself calming down as the humor of the situation actually sunk in.

"Don't glare at me like that 'Cissa, you know it's true." He turned back to Harry. "You can be lucky that you only got one bag of clothes. The last time she decided to go shopping, it was for me and she came back with ten bags full of clothes that I'm pretty sure will take about three lifetimes to wear. Not to mention the fact that most of the clothes are so stuffy that I feel like I'm trying to hang myself every time I wear them."

Narcissa's glare intensified, but Harry could see the humor in her eyes as she spoke. "Yes, well you needed a wardrobe makeover and those 'stuffy clothes' as you put it, is a prerequisite to your 'Lord' status. So whether you like them or not, you are required to wear them when attending a social event."

This made Harry look at the suitcase on the bed as if it was about to swallow him whole. "Please tell me you didn't get stuffy clothes for me too." Narcissa grinned evilly as she un-shrunk the suitcase. When Harry looked inside he only saw one bag and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Unfortunately he felt Tom go rigid behind him and it dawned on Harry that it wasn't a good thing. He looked back and saw that Tom had a slightly fearful expression on his face as he subtly tried to scoot backwards on his seat in order to get away from the danger that lurked in the form of a bag.

Narcissa took out the bag and held it out for Harry to examine before explaining. "This is a bottomless bag. It's really handy for when you have a lot of things to carry around and it also helps to keep your most important things by your side, just don't put anything that lives, inside of it."

Harry nodded and waited for her to continue. Narcissa started packing out small box-like things until there were fifteen of the strange objects on the bed. A closer glance revealed that the objects were small boxes and both dread as well as excitement damned on him as he figured out what Narcissa had done.

She had tricked them both into thinking that she hadn't gone on a crazy shopping spree and now instead of having ten suitcases like Tom, he possibly had fifteen boxes full of clothes that Narcissa had picked out for him. He realized that Tom had expected this when he saw the bag and he tried to copy Tom with subtly shifting backwards. He found himself pressed tight against Tom's chest and the man's laughter shook slightly against his back.

Narcissa gave both of them a scolding look before shaking her head in mock defeat. "Don't worry Harry; Draco was the one that picked out the clothes. I only went with him for safety sake." Both Tom and Harry visibly relaxed, but Harry immediately tensed up again when he guiltily thought that he was making his surrogate mother unhappy.

He looked up in order to apologize, but the humor in her eyes allowed him to see that she knew exactly why they acted like they did. Harry felt his tense body relax and a smile crept over his face as she winked at him. Her face then took on a thoughtful expression as she spoke.

"We will have to go fetch the rest of your stuff when we go to Diagon Alley, but the first thing on the agenda is the visit to Gringotts. I don't want you to worry too much about it, so I'll tell you beforehand. We plan on letting them do an evaluation ritual on you that will allow us to see what's going on with your magic and your mind. This is just a precaution, since we don't want to ignore the fact that Dumbledore might have placed a few tracers and other spells on you before he placed you with the Dursleys."

Harry frowned at the unsavory thought and Tom hugged him close before speaking. "There are a few families under Dumbledore's control, but there is one family who are currently acting as spies. We won't tell you who they are yet, since we need to teach you Occlumency and Ligilimency first, but they will be around to keep an eye out. Draco will be keeping close to your side as well, so please don't go anywhere without him."

Harry nodded and smiled. It was strange to think that he didn't have to go back to the Dursleys, but something kept nagging at his brain when he thought about Dudley and he didn't like not knowing what it was. Tom gave him a nudge and they brought their attention back to the small boxes that still littered the bed.

Harry knew that Narcissa could have easily returned all the boxes to their original sizes at once, but she seemed to take pity on him and only concentrated on one box at a time. Both men were pleasantly surprised to find that the clothes suited Harry's tastes perfectly and Harry confessed that Draco had asked him about what he liked and didn't like when they were speaking.

Since he never owned new clothes while he was staying with the Dursleys, Harry had to point out the clothes that he had seen other people wear and Draco had apparently remembered everything he had either listed or spoken about. Harry was ecstatic about the clothes and he turned towards Tom to hear his opinion, only to find that the man was deep in thought.

He touched the man's hand and the man jolted, but the smile he gave Harry, instantly relaxed him. Tom extracted himself from their embrace before placing a kiss on Harry's forehead. "I'll be right back. I just realized that I still had something important I had to do today."

With those parting words, Tom exited the room and Harry was confused when he saw that Tom had grabbed both Severus and Sirius by the arms. Remus seemed to follow them just out of curiosity, but before he could see where they were going, the door closed.

He turned back to Narcissa, but she just shook her head before smiling. "Once that man gets something in his head, he doesn't let up until he gets it." She looked around at the boxes now strewn across the room. "Shall we clean up? I guess it's safe to tell Draco that he was spot-on with the clothes he chose."

Harry nodded and then stared longingly at the door. He hadn't really gone out of the room since he arrived and since he was now fully healed, he was itching to explore. Narcissa smiled. "You're not a prisoner here Harry, you can roam about wherever you want. Just tell us before you go out of the house and stay away from the Dark Arts section in the library. As much as you might want to learn, I would suggest that you wait until one of us can personally teach you the darker side of magic and its side-effects."

He didn't really like the sound of experiencing whatever side-effects Dark Magic would have, so he nodded and proceeded to pack away the clothes. Tom had actually conjured a cupboard for him where he could place his things and it felt amazing to be able to call something his own.

Harry then decided to roam around the house before he came to an old looking door. When he pushed it open, he was shocked to see a huge library that seemed to go on forever. To the left-side of the room there was a fireplace and a warm and inviting fire had ignited itself the moment he entered the room.

He was awed to see so many books and the urge to take a seat in the comfy looking chairs in front of the fireplace, overcame him. He sat down in one of the chairs and it almost felt like sinking into heaven. A book had been left on the table next to the chair and Harry grabbed it.

When he realized that it was the second volume to the theory of potions, he happily snuggled deeper into the cushions and started reading. The book was a lot more in depth in its knowledge and Harry found himself unable to stop reading. He was about halfway through the last chapter when he suddenly felt his eyes getting heavier.

He tried to shake it off in order to continue to read, but he found that he couldn't concentrate anymore, so he placed the book down after marking his place and then snuggled into the cushions. A nap seemed like a great idea at the moment and Harry gave in to the sensation of sleep.

He was that he hadn't slept for long, but when he opened his eyes again, he felt pleasantly warm. He realized that someone had covered him with a blanket while he'd been sleeping and a glance around the room revealed that Sirius was sitting in the arm chair opposite the couch he was laying on.

The man's concentration was glued to the book, but the moment Harry moved to get up, the man set the book down and smiled before speaking. "I must admit that I'm really not into books, but once in a while I find something that can actually hold my attention for more than a few minutes."

Harry returned the smile as the man set the book down. The title read 'Pranking Pranksters' and he couldn't help the laugh that escaped his mouth. The man really was a child at heart. "So you are my Godfather?" The man nodded. "How exactly did you get to know my parents?"

The man looked deep in thought and it was a while before he answered. "I met your father during the sorting. It was clear that he came from a distinguished family and me being the black heir, I decided to befriend him. We met Remus when he was being bullied and your dad and I easily set the bullies straight before we invited Remus into our Group."

Sirius laughed at the memory before he continued speaking and Harry listened with rapt attention. "We learned later that Remus had been protecting Peter that day and it wasn't long before we dragged him into our group as well. We became known as The Marauders and since then there has only been two others that were worthy enough to take the title. You will mean the Twins soon though I would suggest that you decline anything they give you to eat."

Harry couldn't wait to meet the twins if they were as fun as Sirius described. He motioned for the man to continue. "Well, it wasn't long after that when your dad noticed your mother. Your dad and Severus had been rivals until he realized that Lily thought of Severus as her brother and whenever James accidently took his pranks too far, Lily would give him a good tongue lashing. Severus paid James back for his pranks one day when James tried to string him upside down in a tree. Severus deflected the spell and it hit James instead."

The laugh and amusement that the man emitted was contagious and Harry had to wait until he was calm enough to speak again. "James and Severus made peace that day and Lily finally accepted James' proposal to court her. Since then, Severus practically became our go-to man for potions. He claimed that it was a challenge to find antidotes to whatever pranks The Marauders concocted and that it gave him the opportunity to get further in his potions research. We didn't know if this was true or not, we were just glad to have someone that could keep us from getting into too much trouble."

The sound of the library door opening went unnoticed by both occupants until a drawling voice interrupted the story. "And you would have been expelled halfway through third year already, if I hadn't been there to cover your tracks. I should have known that I would find Harry here, since he seems to soak up information like a sponge, but I didn't expect to find you here Sirius."

Harry looked up to see Severus standing in the doorway with Tom and Remus right behind him. Tom winked at him as Sirius playfully glared at Severus. "It's not my fault that you and Remus made me allergic to books. I swear it's been years already, but if I ever see another six-inch essay again, it would be too soon."

Severus laughed out loud before smirking. "Am I to assume that you will neglect your teaching duties then? You will be expected to hand out essays after all and you will have to mark each and every one of them fairly and equally. There will be no prejudice against Slytherin's allowed."

Harry smiled at the friendly banter and his smile only grew wider at Sirius' whispered words. Not that Sirius actually knew that he could hear him while he muttered the words under his breath, but Harry clearly heard him say "How can I be prejudices against Slytherins when one of the men I love, was in Slytherin."

The man raised his head and smirked evilly at Severus. "Well then I'll just have to lessen the workload. I get less to mark and the students get less work to do." It was clear that Severus took his job as headmaster seriously because he cast a deadly glare towards Sirius.

"I would advise against that Sirius. You might find yourself staying at home instead of Hogwarts if you don't take this seriously. The students need to know how to defend themselves and we need to protect Harry along with the many other students who could be in danger through Dumbledore's misguided reasoning." That said the headmaster stormed off, clearly forgetting that there was a reason why he came to the library in the first place.

Harry glanced towards Sirius, who seemed to realize that he had just greatly angered the potions master. He looked longingly towards the direction that Severus had stormed off in, but he didn't move until Harry stood up and pulled him towards the door.

The man was confused until Harry huffed and explained his actions. "If you don't go after him now to apologize then you may have just messed up one of the good things in your life. I'm new here and even I can see that Severus has a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders. You might have intended it to be a joke, but it's clear that he didn't see it that way."

The dark haired man nodded with wide eyes before practically running in the direction through which the potions master had just stormed off in. The rest of the occupants gazed at Harry knowingly and Remus stepped forward to speak. "We were actually on our way to tell you that we are going to Gringotts in about an hour's time. The goblins have granted Tom permission to enter the bank after hours and they will do everything they can to help us."

Harry felt confused as to why a bank would help them until Remus saw his confusion and then explained. "Gringotts Goblins are against the ideals that Dumbledore is trying to spread. He believes that all races are better than 'animalistic' races and that those races should be made slaves to serve the wizards."

Harry gaped at this, but nodded and moved towards his room to take a shower. He said goodbye to Tom and Remus at the door, but instinct made him run back to hug his mate. He then turned back and ran into his room to stop himself from turning back once again.

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