DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter! I kind of wish I did though! I'd be filthy rich!
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Oh my! I was not expecting so many people to have reviewed already! :) I am so glad you all enjoyed it! I messaged all of you that reviewed unless of course your review was anon, but I just thought you all should know that I appreciated the time you took to review!! Anyway on to Chapter Two!
Chapter Two: Breakfast and a Bath
The next morning Sirius woke up to the sun shining brightly through the slightly open window. A warm, summer morning breeze blew across his face. Closing his eyes against the light, he took a deep breath and stretched.
'There's something different about today,' he thought groggily. 'Oh yeah! Harry!'
Sirius sat straight up in bed and looked around to find a pair of round, emerald eyes staring intently at him in fear. The little boy was standing next to the bed and had his legs squeezed together, wriggling uncomfortably.
"What's the matter?" Sirius asked, concerned about his godson's bizarre behavior.
"I-I'm sawy sir… I-I dust… hafta go p-potty… I-I didn't mean ta wake you up, s-sir," Harry said desperately as if he was afraid that the man would hit him for having to use the loo. "Pwease may I use da baffroom?"
"Of course you can! You don't have to ask that, Prongslet!"
"Tank you!" the little boy nearly shouted in relief as he sprinted from the room. From down the hall Sirius heard the boy shut the door. He smiled to himself when he heard the toilet flush. A few seconds later, the toddler tentatively came back into Sirius's room.
"Hey, kiddo! Did you wash your hands?" Sirius asked smiling.
"U-uh? What?" Harry asked confused. 'Was that a trick question?'
"You know, after you went potty… Did you wash your hands?" Sirius replied gently.
"U-um n-no?" Harry wasn't sure what he was supposed to say, but maybe if he told the truth he'd be in less trouble.
"Well let's go do that then," Sirius said getting out of bed and leading Harry back to the bathroom. "Here we go." He reached up and turned the faucet on to lukewarm. "C'mere…" Harry came a bit closer, still not sure if he was in trouble.
'That water could be really hot,' he thought to himself.
"C'mon, kiddo," Sirius coaxed. "I'm not gonna hurt you, Harry. I'm just going to wash your hands." Harry allowed Sirius to lift him up to the sink and place his hands in the water. The boy relaxed when he realized the water wasn't going to burn him. He watched as Sirius squirted a dab of soap in his tiny hands, gently rubbing them between his two larger ones. The boy giggled as the soap lathered into tiny bubbles. Sirius couldn't believe how fascinated Harry was with something as simple as washing his hands, but the little boy just laughed and laughed. Then, Sirius rinsed and dried Harry's hands, and led the boy out into the hall.
"All right Harry," Sirius stated. "How about some breakfast?"
"Oh! Wight! Sawy, sir! I was donna do dat urlier but I dinnit know what you likeded ta eat," Harry stammered.
"Huh?" Sirius had no idea what Harry was talking about. But then it dawned on him.He expects to have to make breakfast for me' he thought. "Oh! I didn't mean it like that! I meant: how would you like to have some breakfast? I'm going to make it, silly."
"You is?" Harry asked. "Why awe you donna do dat?"
"Because I'm the parent, and that's my job."
"Oh…" Harry said. 'That's not what Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon do for Dudley.'
"Yeah! C'mon!" Sirius said picking Harry up and swinging him onto his hip. Harry, who was startled by the sudden contact, tensed and gripped his godfather's shirt desperately. Sirius noticed but decided to ignore it. Harry would have to learn to get used to that sort of contact by himself, and the only way for that to happen was for Sirius to keep picking the child up.
"Okie dokie!" Sirius said once they had reached the kitchen. "What do you want for breakfast, Prongslet?"
"What!" Harry was shocked. 'I don't get to pick the breakfast! That's Dudley's job! What if I pick wrong?'
"There's no right or wrong answer, kiddo. Just tell me what you want. You won't get in any trouble, I promise."
"I tan have any ting I want?" Harry asked unsure. "And I won't dit in twouble?"
"That's right, Prongslet."
"Tan I have aides?" Harry asked.
"Eggs?"
"Yeah aides!" Harry said.
"That's fine."
"Awe you mad?"
"Of course not! Why would you think that?"
"Betause I'm undratmul…"
"Ungrateful?"
"Yeah undratmul!"
"When were you being ungrateful?"
"I aksed you fowr aides…"
"That's not being ungrateful."
"It's not?"
"No, I asked you to tell me what you wanted for breakfast. And if eggs is what you want, then it's eggs you're going to get," Sirius chuckled. He tickled the little boy on his hip, and to his amusement, the three-year-old let out a squeal of laughter.
A couple of minutes later, Harry was lying back on the kitchen counter while Sirius mercilessly tickled him. The toddler shrieked and squirmed around trying to get away from the tickle torture.
"S-Sirius!" he squealed through his laughter. "S-S-Sirius!!"
"All right," Sirius chuckled. He stopped tickling his godson and pulled the boy back on his hip. Harry's laughter quieted into giggles and finally into silence, while a blissful smile remained on his angelic face. "Time to make breakfast!"
"Otay!" Harry said gleefully. Sirius sat him at the table, opened the fridge and took out the eggs. Then he opened a cabinet and pulled out a small skillet. Lighting the stove, he placed the skillet onto a burner and lightly and cracked about six eggs into it.
The eggs began to sizzle, and Harry could feel his mouth beginning to water. It had been a long time since he had been allowed to have eggs. He swung his legs absent-mindedly from his position on the chair. Suddenly, Sirius pulled back from the stove and had two plates float to the table. Turning around, he placed the eggs on the plates.
"Eat up, kiddo!" Sirius said as he set a fork on the table next to Harry's plate. Then he turned and opened the fridge, replacing the carton of eggs, and asked, "Would you like orange juice or pumpkin juice?"
"Pummkin, pwease!" Harry was starting to like being able to answer questions (but he added the please in there just in case).
"All right, here we go." Sirius poured two glasses of pumpkin juice and set them on the table. He then began devouring his eggs. He stopped suddenly when he noticed Harry still hadn't touched anything on his plate. "Go on, Prongslet," he said around his eggs. "Dig in!"
Harry was shocked that he was allowed to eat at the same time as the man sitting next to him, but he didn't wait for any other invitation. He snatched his fork and hastily gulped down the yummy eggs. Sirius watched him and couldn't help but notice that the boy looked like a half-starved dog. Harry didn't even wait to swallow the last bite before stuffing in a new one. It was like he was expecting the food to be snatched away from him at any minute. Soon Sirius began to worry that his godson might choke!
"Whoa! Slow down… You don't want to choke, now," Sirius said soothingly. "Swallow first before putting a new bite in, okay? No one's going to take it away, I promise."
Harry nodded and obediently finished chewing and swallowing the eggs in his mouth before scooping more eggs on the fork and shoveling it into his mouth.
'His table manners aren't the best, but at least he eats with a fork,' Sirius thought 'Then again, he is only three.' He then returned to eating the eggs off of his own plate. Once the two of them were finished, Sirius placed the dishes in the sink and decided to actually wash them later. 'Right now, Harry needs a bath!'
"All right, kiddo, it's time for a bath!" Sirius said merrily. However he took one look at Harry and his merriment vanished. The boy's eyes were wide and panicky. And Sirius noticed his little godson was trembling with trepidation.
"Harry?"
"N-no… p-p-p-pwease…I-I-I-I d-don't w-want t-to… I'll be dood… I pwomise!" Fresh, unshed tears blurred the child's vision.
"Harry… It's okay… I promise I'm not going to hurt you, okay?" Sirius said gently. "We just have to get you cleaned up. You're all dirty."
Harry shook with sobs. It broke Sirius's heart to hear the awful sound coming from the innocent boy in front of him. It was obvious Harry had some unwanted history with baths, and it was painful to think of what the diminutive child was remembering. Sirius gathered the broken child into his arms and rocked him gently whispering soothing words into his ear. After a little while Harry calmed down, though when Sirius pulled back he noticed the youngster's lip still trembled.
"I'll never ever hurt you, Harry. Never!" Sirius said sincerely. "I just want to give you bath so that we can get the mud and gunk off of you, all right?"
Harry sniffled and nodded timidly. Wrapping his skinny arms around his godfather's neck, he hid his face as the man lifted the tot up, placed him on his hip and walked upstairs. When they made it to the bathroom, Harry twisted around in his godfather's arms so he could stare apprehensively at the ominous bathtub. He gripped desperately at Sirius's neck as the man bent to turn on the faucet, testing the water to find the perfect temperature.
The water roared as it dispensed forcefully into the tub. The downpour crashed to the bottom of the bath and splashed up creating a mist, as if to let one think that it was safe and inviting. But Harry knew differently. Water was neither safe nor inviting. In Harry's mind it was treacherous and nauseating. Uncle Vernon had taught him that for sure.
When the tub was full, Harry watched Sirius turn off the faucet, with a sickening sensation in his tummy. He whimpered softly.
"It's okay Harry… We're just taking a bath remember? Nothing else…" Sirius said. The boy still looked petrified. The water had become deathly calm like a viper getting ready to strike. He quivered. "Would some bubbles make you feel better?"
Harry shrugged. He had no idea if the bubbles would make him feel better; he'd never had a bubble bath before.
"I'll go get the bubble bath… wait right here." Sirius disappeared, leaving Harry with the "enemy". Harry glowered at the still water. He could almost hear it taunting him. But before Harry had time to retaliate, Sirius was back. He walked calmly to the tub and dumped some of the bubble bath oil in and dragged his hand through the water, causing the concoction to lather into a mass of delightful bubbles. And Harry soon found that the bubbles did help – a bit.
"All right, Prongslet let's get these clothes off of you. Arms up," Sirius instructed gently. Harry obeyed and Sirius removed the disgusting excuse for a shirt and tossed it in the trash. "After your bath I'm going to shrink a few of my things down for you to wear, okay?"
Harry nodded as Sirius helped him out of what Sirius supposed were jeans (they went in the trash too). Next came Harry's miniature boxer shorts and tattered old socks. Sirius trashed them as well. Once naked, Harry bowed his head in embarrassment. This was usually the part when Uncle Vernon would criticize him for how freakish he looked. But Sirius didn't say anything remotely close to that. He merely said, "Hop in the tub, kiddo." He hadn't missed the bruises and cuts littering the toddler's body. He made a mental note to make sure the Dursleys paid dearly for their treatment of his godson.
Harry obeyed. He clambered into the tub and stood silently. "Go ahead and sit down. The water's nice and warm, Prongslet." Harry sat. Sirius grabbed the bottle of "tear-free shampoo plus conditioner" and got straight to work. He lathered the boy's hair gently and hummed soothingly. After a while, Harry relaxed. The sweet scent of the shampoo seemed to calm the child. After rinsing the messy, black hair, Sirius moved on to washing Harry's body. The boy tensed here and there, but other that, Sirius thought it went fine. When he was finished, he sat back and allowed Harry to play with the bubbles for a while before deciding it was time to get dressed. He helped Harry out of the tub and wrapped the boy in a warm, fluffy, towel. It engulfed his tiny body like a blanket. He lifted Harry up into his arms and carried the boy to his room.
"Wait here, okay?" Sirius said as he placed Harry gently on the large bed. The boy nodded, earnestly. Sirius left the room and returned a short time later with a pair of large overalls, a red t-shirt, a pair of blue boxer shorts and a pair of plain white socks. "You're mum gave me these overalls a long time ago," Sirius informed the youngster.
"Rwelly?"
"Mmhmm… But I don't think they're really my style. They'd look cute on you though."
Harry blushed. "Yeah… maybe…"
A few spells, pulls and tugs later found Harry red-shirt and overall clad. And it truly was the most adorable sight Sirius had ever seen. He smiled warmly at the boy, picked him up and carried him downstairs. This time, Harry didn't tense up at all.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow! You guys thanks so much for reviewing! I hoped you like this chapter as much as you liked the last. And don't worry the next chapter will have explanations and REMUS!! Hooray! And there might be a visit a certain not-so-friendly potions master… hint, hint… nudge, nudge! Anyhoo, R&R pwease!!