The Arcobaleno were his Family at this point.
Skull isn't even sure when their derision and disdain for him and all his purple, obnoxious and shrill voiced glory turned into something a bit less biting, less cutting and more… teasing. Oh, those words were still accompanied by kicks and punches and sometimes even bullets but there was no malicious cruelty in their actions.
It hadn't been planned.
Hell, Skull had been sure it wouldn't happen.
Not with the way the others all looked down on him, how they judged him, how they hit him and then hit him again, how they never took him seriously. They spat on all his accomplishments and demeaned his any attempt at help or advice.
He had been a General, for Merlin's sake! He organized and ran a rebellion comprised of schoolchildren in a school under the nose of a teacher with a delight for torture and a hate for mudbloods. Food, blankets, clothing, medical supplies, for all those at risk and he had done it.
Usually people placed him on a pedestal and lauded his ability to overcome. Or condemned him for how well he took to killing and leading an army, but his skills were never in doubt. Here, he was outright ignored. It burned and he felt entirely helpless at the situation but it was also...freeing. They wanted nothing from him.
At first he had only come back to them because it had been such a contrast to being 'Harry'. It was nearly the exact opposite. He was considered 'weak', ignorant, naive and he didn't have to lead anybody, no one asked him to charge in and save somebody, no one looked to him for the answers.
He was just a lackey. A nobody who had been called in to the World's Strongest because of chance, not for anything he did. He fetched drinks and food and was given the dirty jobs no one wanted. He cleaned and did the laundry and kept up appearances and no one cared.
It was strangely…relieving.
He was…free.
There were no expectations to drown in, no demands beyond physical labor and even that…well he'd been doing that since he was old enough to understand orders, so what did that matter? Long sleepless nights and he practiced his sneaking around to clean. Safe, familiar and repetitive actions were comforting.
It had been a slow process to be sure, something Skull hadn't realized had happened until his protective instincts kicked in.
During the Second Blood War...well.
War had effects on people. Hermione once said he had a 'saving people thing'. She had been right then as she usually was. He used to have that, the urge to stand up for those who needed it- whoever needed it.
War changed that. Skull had learned the hard, dirty way that there was no saving everyone. So he shifted his focus. If there was a threat, he removed it. Permanently, even if death was not always his first choice. He didn't give a shit about Dumbledore's second chances. This was a war, people died, innocents were caught in the crossfire and people made their choices.
Harry Potter made his. He made the choices he could live with, when the dust settled.
He was vicious about protecting what was his. He couldn't save everyone, so he saved his people. Protected them. Defended them and taught them. He gave choices and chances and did his best.
He almost laughed all those years later when he learned about Cloud Flames. He was an Inverted Cloud meaning some Classic Cloud characteristics flipped. For example- Skull liked contact (he suspected this came from his childhood at the Dursleys' house and all the negative attention he received) but only from those he chose. As a Cloud he didn't react well if strangers tried getting close. Another example- Clouds were stubborn- usually about everything. Their way or the highway.
Skull was willing to compromise if there was a compelling reason. This came from long hours at a table with maps and information reports on death, destruction and Death Eater movements. There were pockets, groups of resistance beyond those who stood at Harry's side. They were mostly older than him and compromise was required to get things to run smoothly. Though he still had that steel spine most Clouds were known for, he had learned it was unnecessary at times. It would be there until it was needed.
Something else that Skull differed from with most Clouds- most Clouds had territory that they guarded. For most this was a town, a building or even possessions. Skull didn't have any sort of happy memories attached to his home in England, and while Hogwarts qualified, he was no longer a student. On top of that, Hogwarts had been where he saw many of his own fall, watched a large portion of his worst memories play out. So Skull's territory tended to be people.
Not in the sense that he owned them, Skull would never even think about claiming to own anybody- he was a Cloud and all Clouds no matter where they fell on the scale valued their freedom above all things. (This, Skull knew, was especially true for him after he realized how he had been lead around by the nose when he was younger.)
No- people that Skull claimed as his found that they had a vicious protector when the need arose. Someone who would guide them if it was needed but was most content to walk at their side, only stepping in front of them if it was to shield them, or behind them to block the unseen dagger aimed for the back.
Skull had what amounted to a network of informants, and he used them to stay three steps ahead of those who meant to harm his people. Most of those informants were people he saved in some form or other. Laws he threw out, Death Eaters he killed and prisoners he rescued. All were connected to him through Voldemort's actions.
This too, was a mark of his war.
Skull was paranoid. Most couldn't tell just looking at him, not with the over the top antics he tended to use. He was loud and vibrantly purple, the exact opposite of stealthy. They easily dismissed him as a threat, stuck him in a box and labeled him as a fool, but that was helpful in keeping the upper hand. If he needed to, he could harm the Arcobaleno to the point where they would never recover. It wasn't paranoia if they were really out to get you, and Skull (Harry) had quite the number of people who wanted him dead or captured after the war. Some because they were remnants of the war and others because they wanted their General to save them from everything else.
But Skull?
He was a Cloud and he would go where he chose.