The Odd Combination of Fate and Humor

by Gambito

Harry Potter is rescued from the Dursleys by an unlikely ally and is suddenly thrown into a world where magic is real and the people around him care enough to try and hide him from his reputation. Unfortunately, a certain old coot is out for revenge due to his plans being foiled. Dark Dumbledore, Light Tom. ON HOLD (for now)

9. Chapter 9 Preparing for Change

The Odd Combination of Fate and Humor

Notes:

Just a note due to a comment - Harry wanted his cousin to be able to do magic so that he wouldn't be so alone, that is why his mind didn't allow him to realize that it wasn't Dudley that fixed it, and instead it was unconsciously done by his own magic.

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! 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

Letters

Chapter 9: Preparing for change

The days before the blood adoption ceremony took ages to pass. At least that was how it felt to Harry. Now it was the night before the ceremony and he felt torn between going to bed early and not being able to sleep at all, so instead, he opted for reading in bed.

A knock ran out and he looked up to see Tom standing in the doorway. "Hey, was there something you wanted to talk about?" Tom nodded and stepped into the room and walking over to the bed before sitting next to him. "Yes, there is actually, but first I must figure out how much you know. You've been reading so many books; even I am struggling to keep up with you."

Harry laughed at the humor in his mate's voice and shook his head. "I'm just trying to learn about everything I should have learned while I was growing up so you're going to have to be more specific." Tom smiled and leaned over to lightly kiss his forehead.

"I want to know if you have done any research on blood adoption ceremonies. I wanted to explain a few things about tomorrow, just to ensure that you aren't entirely shell-shocked if anything were to happen." Harry's gaze grew thoughtful as he contemplated Tom's words.

"I haven't read up on blood adoption ceremonies yet. I just didn't think that I needed to." Tom nodded and moved to lay back onto the bed before pulling Harry into his arms. "I like the fact you trust us so much, but that doesn't mean that you should go through it blindly. Ceremonies and rituals can be very tricky and there are some actions and factors that could seem scary if you don't know or understand the meaning behind them."

Harry's eyes slightly widened, but he nodded. He honestly hadn't thought about it in that way. His only thought had been that his family wouldn't hurt him, so other than his excitement, the rest had been ignored. Tom's words slightly worried him, but he wasn't going to allow it to stop him. "Could you tell me about the ceremony?"

Tom nodded. "It's a basic ceremony that will combine the DNA of both Severus and Sirius within you, but to do that your magic also has to acknowledge their magic. In the past, this would have been done by combining their blood and then transferring it into you while your blood was being transferred into a container. The blood was usually then donated to a place very much like a muggle blood-bank."

Harry grimaced with a slight look of fear entering his eyes, but Tom shook his head. "As you can imagine, the ritual would take a toll on the weaker wizards or witches and their bodies would sometimes reject the blood, which then resulted in death, but as I said, that was in the past."

Harry frowned. Was Tom actually suggesting that there was another, much safer way? He turned to look into Tom's face and the older man seemed to pick up on his thoughts since he laughed. "Yes, they use a different method now. Your Godfather himself actually invented the potion that allowed wizards and witches to add their blood to a potion and the child that would be adopted, only had to drink it. You didn't actually think that anyone in the family would allow you to go through a life-threatening ritual did you?"

The raven grimaced again and he shoved his mate. Of course, he didn't think that. Potions didn't taste good, but he supposed that it was much better than having them remove and replace all the blood in his body. A thought occurred to him. "What if my body rejects their blood?" Tom chuckled. "You don't think your Godfather would make a potion without the antidote do you?"

Harry shook his head then looked at his hands. "What if someone else used the potion to forcefully adopt someone?" Tom placed a finger under his chin and lifted his head so that they could look each other in the eyes. "Severus thought of that as well. Nobody, but a few family members and the top-ranking goblins know that he made the potion. The goblins lock the flasks with goblin magic and there is also a spell inside the ritual room that prevents everyone from remembering about the potion. They will be doing your ritual in a different room since Severus is the one who created it."

Harry nodded in relief and Tom kissed him lightly on the lips. "It's also against the law to blood adopt someone without the Ministry's permission and if someone were to be adopted without that person's consent, their magic would attack the ones behind the crime. To blood adopt someone, both the ones performing the adoption and the person being adopted must completely accept the bond. The ritual is a promise that is made and bound by blood and through it, they promise that they will love and protect you for as long as they are able."

Harry couldn't help but grin at the happy thought. Even though his neck still bore the tattoo-like marks of his new family, he still felt like someone would be able to take him away. He knew it was probably because he grew up with muggles, but he couldn't help thinking that the blood adoption would make sure that no one could pull his family apart.

Tom lightly tapped him on the nose and he was dragged from his thoughts. "Is there anything else I need to know?" Tom nodded and then slightly frowned, which made Harry worried. "The ritual officially starts only after you have taken the potion. You will be placed in the center of a padded circle and goblins will chant with their magic. The padded circle is mainly because you're going to be there a while and it prevents your body from experiencing any unnecessary pain such as lying on the hard and cold floor for a long length of time."

Harry nodded in understanding then froze with his eyes wide. "Causing unnecessary pain? You mean the ritual causes pain?" Tom sighed softly before pulling Harry closer to him and holding him tightly. "As much as I hate the idea of you in pain…yes, it does. Due to the fact that your DNA is going to be changed, you will find that your body will change as well. This process takes about 48 hours to complete. The goblins could make it go faster, but the amount of pain and stress it inflicts on the body would be enough to kill a person if the time was shortened."

Harry gulped then nodded. He understood the theory behind it, but that didn't mean that he had to like it. Tom kissed him again and this time Harry kissed back. He didn't really have any experience in the kissing department so he tried to copy what Tom did. He gasped when his mate lightly nibbled on his lip and he felt his body flush as Tom's tongue started to battle with his own. He started feeling light-headed as the kiss seemed to go on forever until Tom pulled back. He chuckled lightly. "Breathe Harry."

Harry felt himself flush a deep red as Tom reminded him to breathe. "You know, I would say that I just took your breath away…" The raven couldn't help but laugh at the sentence. "…but that would be too cliché." Harry knew he couldn't forget about what the next day held, but Tom had found a way to make him feel better.

"How do you know so much about muggles?" At first, it didn't look like his mate would answer, but the older man settled back instead. "I was born a half-blood and if you like, I will tell you a story." Harry nodded. "My mother fell in love with a muggle man that didn't return her love, so she slipped him a love potion even though she didn't know how it would affect him. They got married and she kept dosing him with it until the day I was born. She somehow thought that he would stay with her and love her then, but the more she dosed him with love, the more the hate in him grew."

Harry grasped Tom tightly. He could feel his mate's pain, but he couldn't do anything to stop it so he just let him talk. "It went fine at first, but as time passed he grew more and more distant. My mother didn't realize that he spent a lot of time away from home since he always worked late. One day while she knew he was out, my mom did the weekly cleaning. She always did it while he was working, since she did it with spells."

The boy could feel the man tense in his arms and he didn't even notice that tears had begun to fall from his own eyes. "My father came home early that day, bringing divorce papers with him, but he didn't even get to hand them over to my mother. He walked in on her cleaning the house and when he saw the broom sweeping the floor by itself and the dishes washing themselves, he finally lost it. The hate that had been growing inside him because of the potion, exploded."

Harry gasped as he saw the pain in his mate's eyes, yet Tom kept on speaking as if he had to get everything off his chest, even if he gave him a slight squeeze. "He choked my mother to death just as I came down the stairs. I hate myself for not going down sooner since I just assumed that they were having another quarrel. Their fights had been increasing since I was three and by that time I was already five years old, so I seemed to be used to it."

Tom hauled Harry softly onto his lap, but he seemed to be in a trance despite his actions. "I vividly remembered that time. My father moved threateningly towards me as he heard my cries and I stepped back in fear. I didn't know this side of my father and it scared me. At first, he looked disgusted by himself but in my fear, a blue shield appeared in front of me and he realized that I was just like my mother."

Harry closed his eyes, but he couldn't find it in himself to close his ears. "He stepped closer to me, but just as he lifted his hand to try and push it through the shield, someone knocked on the door. He was so scared that someone would see what he had done that he fled out the back door. I later found out that some kind of animal had mauled him and I was sent to an orphanage."

Tom smiled then. "I was there barely a week before a man with a young son stopped by. They seemed to be looking for something, but they didn't seem to find it until they stopped by me. The man took one look at me then introduced himself and his son. It was Fenrir Greyback and his adopted son, Remus Lupin."

Harry felt his jaw drop, but he stayed quiet when he saw the amusement in Tom's eyes. "Greyback knew my mother and he was about to visit her when he heard sounds from inside the house. He told me that he intended to bash down the door, but he needed to knock first, just in case the authorities got involved. The police took me to an orphanage and it took a week for Greyback to find me. He asked Remus to obliviate the minds of the muggles at the orphanage and took me to the Malfoy family where Lucius Malfoy and I grew up as brothers."

Harry smiled sadly, but Tom shook his head. "Don't pity me, I wouldn't like it. It was my mother's own fault for using a potion on a muggle and even though I can't see my father as innocent, something good came of the whole ordeal." Harry looked up at Tom in confusion and the man chuckled. "First I met Greyback, and then I met the Malfoys. I met a lot of other important people and then I met you. You somehow found me through Nagini even though I have spent years searching for you, my soul mate."

The raven found himself blushing again despite the situation. Tom was looking at him intensely and he found that he couldn't hide anything from him since Tom had already revealed most of his own life. "We already saw the handy work of the Dursleys, so I don't suppose I can say much, other than the fact that it started when I first started to do magic in a semi-conscious way."

Tom looked at him and raised his eyebrow with caused Harry to sigh. "I was four and they were busy feeding me spinach, which I didn't like. Vernon was a bully even then and he decided that I would only eat spinach and nothing else until I learned to love it." His mate seemed to see where his story was headed because he winced.

Harry nodded. "As you can imagine, I didn't like it and when it came to the third day of not eating, I saw my cousin eating fish and chips, which was my favorite and I kind of freaked since he was never forced to go without eating when he didn't like something. Now before then I only had one or two strange occurrences with my magic, but it was just minor things like a toy moving closer or my food cooling down or warming up the way I want it to be, but that day I duplicated the fish and chips and started eating happily."

Tom raised his eyebrows again and Harry nodded. "I only started remembering these things after the rituals from the goblins. Anyway, everything would have been fine if my aunt and uncle hadn't seen it, but they did and the next thing I knew, I was thrown into the cupboard and being locked in."

Harry could see that Tom was extremely angry so he hesitated to speak further, but his mate gave him a look and he sighed. "Petunia had been friendly to me up until that day. She couldn't tell her husband or her son about magic since it would sort of break the secrecy act even though she herself was a muggle." Tom looked slightly confused and Harry smiled in response.

"Like you said, I've been reading a lot of books. The secrecy act may have been created with witches and wizards in mind, but a small clause was added later on that forbade any muggle or squib family of witches and wizards, to tell the rest of the world anything about magic, if those people didn't know about it already. She thought I was a squib so she treated me like she did her own son and everything was fine until that day."

Tom frowned. "So if they treated you like normal, why did your uncle pick on you?" Harry grimaced at the question. "He's never liked the thought that he had to use his 'hard earned money' to look after a child that wasn't even his own, so he liked to toy with me from time to time by taking away my things and then giving them to Dudley. It wasn't good, but it was a drop in a bucket compared to what they did when they found out I had magic."

He started to play with Tom's shirt absentmindedly as Tom spoke. "We saw your medical history, so I can estimate what happened." Harry nodded and he felt his eyes starting to droop as his body relaxed in Tom's arms. He didn't really know how to ask his mate to stay, but the man seemed to pick up on his thoughts since he also made himself more comfortable on the bed.

"Sleep Harry, I'll stay here for tonight." The raven nodded and allowed himself to drift off. He didn't even feel it when Tom pressed a soft kiss to his forehead and covered them with a blanket. The lights went out and everything was silent.

The next morning…

Harry woke up to the sound of loud whispers in his room. He didn't really want to get up because he was extremely warm and comfy, but he also couldn't just ignore the voices, especially since one of them sounded like Bellatrix. The woman had kind of grown on him with her weekly visits and she insisted that he called her Aunt Bella.

He sat up slightly and smiled when he noted that Tom had held him throughout the entire night and said man was currently watching him as he woke up. "Harry!" was the only sound he heard before he was forcefully dragged out of Tom's arms and out of the bed. He couldn't help but laugh as he realized that it was Bellatrix and the woman was actually squeezing him so tight that he had to wonder where she got her strength from.

"Harry this is so great! We're going to be actual family and I'm going to be your Aunt by blood! Not that it matters whether you are blood or not, you will always be my nephew, but this is amazing! I'm going to spoil you to bits!" Harry smiled as her words registered.

"You already spoil me, Aunt Bella." The woman nodded and set him down. "Come on, you two lovebirds missed breakfast and it's now lunchtime." Harry looked at Tom in shock and the man winked at him. "You fell asleep quite late last night and you need your strength for today's ritual, so I decided to let you sleep in." Harry climbed onto the bed and hugged him gratefully before gathering his clothes and quickly jumping into the shower.

When he came out of his room, he saw that Tom had followed his example and the man was looking hot enough to drool over. He winked at Harry and the raven blushed. He had forgotten that they could now sense strong emotions in each other since the episode with their souls. A strong sense of possessiveness hit him and Harry realized that it was Tom's emotions.

The possessive feeling turned into worry and Harry realized that his mate was worried that he didn't want a possessive mate. The raven-haired boy shook his head with a grin then smiled at Tom before sending a feeling of reassurance through the bond. They sat down at the table and Harry saw that the food was already laid out.

He sat and took a sip of his juice before he looked at Tom and he almost choked in surprise. The man was giving him a smile, but not just any smile, it was a smile that made his knees weak and Harry was happy that he was already sitting down. He looked around the table in order to gain control of himself, but he blushed as he realized that the entire family was looking at him with amusement in their eyes.

Sirius seemed to take pity on him and he caught Harry's eye. "So I hope you are ready for today. We'll be going in about three hours' time so that we can get there early. We will be going under glamours to ensure that a certain bearded man doesn't find anything suspicious. He may usually be able to look through glamours, but we'll be using the same one that you had on previously."

Harry nodded. "How is he able to see through glamours?" The group looked thoughtful, but only Remus stepped forward to answer. "We do not know, but I have done some research and most of what I've found, points to the fact that he may have cast some kind of ancient form of legilimency."

Everyone looked confused at this and Severus spoke up. "I have no knowledge of an ancient form of legilimency. What does it do exactly?" Remus thought for a bit to get his facts together. "It's nothing like the legilimency of today. At that time it was a way to rip through most mental defenses with brute force and as you can guess, it leaves the receiver of the spell with nothing more than mush for brains. It was made in order to be able to gain information while leaving the victim unable to talk about anything, including the attacker or the stolen information."

The thought made Harry feel slightly sick and as he looked around the table, he saw that the rest of his family shared his sentiments. "So you mean to say that he will probably turn our brains to mush if we face him?" Harry didn't like the thought, scratch that, it scared him immensely, but Remus shook his head.

"I think he was only able to partially uncover the spell and so he devised his own form of it, which enables him to see through most glamours. We may not like him, but no one can deny that he is strong. We've been looking into where you lived when we tested your cousin and there were a lot of wards there. The only reason they couldn't have alerted him because of your disappearance is because you didn't initially intend to run away when you exited the house."

Harry nodded in understanding, but then his eyes went wide with apprehension. "You mean that there is a good chance that he already knows I'm gone?" His family winced but nodded. "That is another reason why we want to get the blood adoption done as quickly as possible." Harry slightly felt his face fall, but Draco jabbed him in the ribs.

"Don't even finish that thought. Severus and Sirius have been planning to adopt you for years. I have been told this ever since I was old enough to understand. They even terrorized each other because of it since both of them wanted to be the one to adopt you. Sirius would play pranks on Severus to get him to give up, but then Severus would pay him back with his arsenal of potions. It got so bad at one stage that they had to be tied up and hexed to talk things out and they decided then that you had to be the one to choose."

Harry looked at them in shock and the two men looked down in embarrassment. The raven grinned as he jumped up and gave each man a hug, much to the amusement of the rest of the people around the table. Narcissa then cleared her throat. "I would hope that the three of you are planning to eat soon. You will not leave this table until I am sure that you have eaten enough."

Silence descended as everyone dug into their food. No one wanted to get on the wrong side of Narcissa Malfoy and soon the elves were cleaning the table. Everyone was silent as they sat with their own thoughts until Draco turned to Harry. "I wanted to come with you today, but only one extra person is allowed in the room in order to act as a witness, so we all agreed that Tom will come with you."

Harry nodded happily then glanced over at his mate who was watching him with a strange mix of expressions. He felt the excitement, worry, and tension through the link along with another emotion that he couldn't really name, but it did strange things to his body and left him tingling. Suddenly a thought occurred to him. What if Tom doesn't like me anymore after I've changed? I don't even know what attracts him to me now. I'm scrawny and full of scars, would he like me even if it wasn't for the mate bond?'

A feeling of disbelief reached him and he looked up to see Tom looking at him with a shocked face before he composed himself. Harry thought he was losing his mind when Tom started talking to him, but he could see the man's lips weren't moving. I don't just like you because of the bond Harry. I like you because you are you. No matter what shape you take, I wish to always be at your side.

Harry looked at him in shock and Tom chuckled loudly. "It seems our bond just reached telepathic level." There was a shocked silence around the table before everyone started talking at once, but they went silent as Severus spoke. "I had expected this to occur. A normal mate bond only extends to being able to feel each other's emotions, but since you both tried to fix something that was lacking in your mate, it exceeded that limit."

The faces around the table flashed from grim to happy and back again and it was Remus who spoke again. "How did a piece of Tom's soul get into Harry in the first place?" Severus nodded to acknowledge the question then looked at Tom and asked him a question instead. "Tom, did anything strange happen the night of the attack?"

Harry could feel that Tom was about to shake his head, but his eyes suddenly went wide. "Yes! I saw something moving from me to Harry, but I didn't think much of it at the time since we were still in danger. You think that a piece of my soul went into Harry because of the killing curse?"

Severus nodded. "It's usually connected to the intent to kill and you have to want to kill someone really badly, but what I do not understand is how you accomplished this without doing the ritual beforehand." Tom shook his head. "I don't know, I just wanted to protect both Harry and Lily, but as much as I didn't want to believe it, I knew Lily was going to die and I believed that I was going to die as well, so I pushed all the hate and anger I had into the killing curse in order to kill Dumbledore, but at the same time I also kept hoping that I could somehow just keep Harry alive until one of you arrived. I didn't want to think what would happen to Harry if he took him, but I couldn't stop him."

Lucius spoke up. "I figure that means that Tom wanted to leave a piece of him to protect Harry and when they came together again, Harry was able to give a piece of himself to fix Tom's soul while he fixed Harry's in return." It sounded very strange to Harry when it was said like that and yet it seems like that was exactly what had happened.

Draco started laughing and everyone looked at him with a pointed expression. "You know Harry *laugh* unless you *laugh* find some way to *laugh* shield the connection *laugh* you two are going to hear a lot of *laugh* embarrassing things from each other." Harry looked at Tom with a shocked blush and saw that the man had the same expression on his face.

The rest of the people started laughing at their expressions and Tom glared at them before smirking. Harry just caught the words reditus risus scriptor before Lucius, Sirius, Draco, and Peter were stuck onto their chairs and onto the roof. Harry looked up in awe as laughter bubbled inside him and he felt Tom's amusement at his reaction. The spell is called laughter's return and it causes those who laugh at another to be laughed at instead.

Harry nodded slightly before he looked at the table where Severus, Narcissa, Bella, and Remus still sat. Why didn't it affect them as well? Tom's mental laughter echoed in his mind. As much as I don't want to admit it, I do treasure my life thank you very much and I would definitely forfeit it if I were to even try hexing any one of those still sitting, with my spell.

Harry looked at Tom with a slight sense of awe. Your spell? You can create spells? Tom nodded. It's just a hobby of mine and they do come in handy since no one would know the counter curse. Many people forget that Finite Incantatum can drive away most hexes and spells.

The chairs slowly floated down again and Harry was surprised to see that no one was actually mad. Those who had been stuck to the roof simply promised to get their revenge with a sly grin and Harry could feel Tom throwing up a shield around himself just in case. It was extremely nice to see how a true family acted around each other.

By the time they finished eating, an hour and a half had already gone and they rushed to their rooms to finish up, or at least Severus and Sirius did. Both Tom and Harry was already showered and dressed so Harry opted for dozing in Tom's arms while his mate read a book on the couch. He knew they still had a lot of things to sort out, but it was nice to just have Tom there with him.

Thank you for reading, I would apologize for the delay, but the bookworm inside of me decided to binge read a few titles from the other authors and just when I thought I was writing a new chapter for this story, I found myself writing a one-shot instead. It won't be up yet since I must still get it done, but hopefully, it will be up soon.