Harry felt very groggy when he finally woke and it took him a little while to figure out where he was. For a moment, when he saw the bed curtains, he thought he was back in Hogwarts but the dull ache in his neck soon brought memories of Severus drinking from him which made his body shiver, and not from the cold. That had been an experience and a half and he certainly wasn't going to be looking at his former potions master the same way again. He also remembered mentions of the fact that Tom was a vampire as well and he wondered how it would be to have him feed from him, although Harry struggled a bit to see the young teen in the same position as Severus.
There was something naturally imposing about the former head of Slytherin, something that almost called to a part of Harry, drawing his attention, for good or ill. Tom, or at least his teenage form, while handsome and obviously powerful, didn't quite have the same draw although Harry wondered if Severus was right and that would change once Tom came back, or if he'd be so changed that Harry could no longer picture him in that way. After last night he had certainly started seeing Severus like that, even if he didn't know entirely what that entailed, but he was definitely looking forward to finding out, he just hoped it wouldn't affect his relationship with Tom too much.
There was no point in worrying about all that now, though, he had more imminent issues to deal with such as what the hell he was going to wear today. He had obviously only had Dudley's old cast offs at the start of the holidays, and not the good ones either. Somehow Dudley got bought a load of designer labels every year and yet Harry only ever seemed to get the cheap crap, even as hand me downs. He had considered raiding his cousins' drawers before they left but everything was still going to swamp him anyway so he hadn't seen the point. He had hoped that they might be able to stop for something somewhere but that didn't seem like it would be happening any time soon.
Harry rubbed his eyes, which felt particularly crusty this morning, and stretched his stiff muscles out, which was when he noticed a wardrobe in the corner of the room. Figuring it was worth a look since just about anything would be better than what he was currently wearing, Harry made his way over to the large, ornate bit of furniture and opened the door. He was wrong. What confronted him was a mass of frills and lace and Harry couldn't help but pull a face at what the wizarding world considered fashion. The fabric was obviously high quality and some of the colours looked amazing although a lot of it looked quite heavy, too hot for the height of summer, even in a castle. Unfortunately a lot of the lighter fabrics were also light colours that Harry considered 'girly' although he still took a quick look through them anyway.
There was a pale blue one which Harry thought wouldn't be too bad since it reminded him a bit of Severus's usual robes, only with a fuller skirt and a scooped neckline which mostly seemed low in comparison to his former teacher's preferred style and only really came a little below his collar bones. It was made from a soft, silky material that felt great against his skin, especially when he tried spinning around. It felt very different around his legs but Harry couldn't say he hated it, in fact the only thing he didn't really like was the lace ruffles on the sleeves. There was a little frill on the shoulders that he thought was kind if cute and the shoulder length sleeves were cool but there was a load of lace ruffles at the end that were just plain annoying.
His eyes felt a bit itchy as he tried looking at himself in the mirror and Harry realised he didn't actually have his glasses on. Huffing a sigh, Harry tried closing and rubbing his eyes to ease the irritation but it didn't seem to help much and he felt himself welling up which was ridiculous because he never cried, even when aunt Petunia had smacked him round the head with the frying pan. His ears had rung for what felt lile hours afterwards but no tears had ever come but now, now because of a little itching he could feel himself welling up and it was so stupid! He let out a growl of frustration and hit the mirror he was standing in front of as he felt tears run down his cheeks, then, just as suddenly as it started, the tears seemed to dry up.
Harry blinked. Then frowned and blinked again before contemplating his reflection: a reflection that he could see clearly even though his old glasses were still on the bedside table. Somehow his eyes had fixed themselves although he couldn't quite say how. The thing was he could now see clearer than ever although that wasn't necessarily a good thing. For starters he realised he looked like he was wearing a dress, one that was far too long for him as well. He looked ridiculous really and it didn't help that he could see the outline of his boxers underneath. Huffing, Harry wriggled them off and, if he was honest, he was happy for an excuse to be out of them: there was something about wearing someone else's pants that turned his stomach a bit. Not that he had much choice now, either, but at least he could be pretty sure that whomever had had this room last hadn't purposely left skid marks in their underwear.
Harry walked over to the chest of drawers, opening the top one where he assumed the underwear would be kept, and suddenly realised why it looked like he was wearing a dress: because he was wearing a dress. Inside the draw were bras, stockings and lacy and frilly knickers that clearly belonged to a woman. He felt mortified and quickly shut the draw again, wanting to hide the evidence. He started to undo the buttons on the robe, dress, whatever, only stopped when he caught sight of his reflection again. As ridiculous as parts of it were, Harry had to admit it still looked better than Dudley's old cast offs, felt better as well, and he found himself reluctant to actually put his old clothes back on.
The problem was that the only shoes he had was his old trainers, which by this point were really more tape than anything else, and shuddered at the thought of putting them on again, especially with the nice robe that he was wearing: even in his head he refused to refer to it as a dress. Then he noticed some shoes at the bottom of the wardrobe, tons of them in fact, far more than he'd known his aunt to have. Some of them looked far too feminine for Harry to feel comfortable but he did spot a black leather pair that only had a silver buckle for decoration. They felt ridiculously soft when Harry pulled them out and the small heel on them would help with the length of the robe, or at least that's what he told himself to justify trying them on.
Surprisingly they fit, well sort of anyway, although they felt a little tight, restricting Harry's ability to walk a bit and Harry wondered if it was because he wasn't wearing any socks.
Threadbare, scratchy things that were full of holes or delicate silky things that were obviously meant for ladies. At this point Harry had given up even trying to pretend that he wasn't going to go the whole way and pulled out some soft, white things similar to what he knew Petunia wore and carefully pulled them up his legs. They were a bit big and kept falling down prompting Harry to route further around in the drawer to see if there was anything that could help. He found something that looked a bit like a belt but with clips that hung down which looked like it would work and, while he was there, he figured he may as well go the whole hog and picked out some silky shorts that felt lovely against his skin, although he thought they might feel better without the hair on his legs and bits, as little as he had.
Checking himself out one last time in the mirror Harry sighed but figured he didn't look too bad, not that he normally had a chance to worry about these things, but that he may as well head to the main hall to see if he could get himself some breakfast. Even with the heels he still had to lift the skirt of the robe a bit, especially when walking down the stairs, not that that was a bad thing as it forced him to concentrate on what he was doing which meant he was less likely to fall over. He did find himself standing a bit taller, however, trying to stop himself pitching forward when he walked.
He was just coming down the main staircase when he heard Sirius call out.
"There you are Harry, we were wondering what was taking you?" Harry came around the corner and Sirius didn't even try to hide the laughter in his voice. "What in Merlin's name are you wearing? You look like a bloody girl!"Harry shrugged, choosing to ignore the jibe. "I didn't want to keep wearing Dudley's old cast offs and this was what was in the room."
"Apologies Harry," Severus said, "I'm afraid that's my fault because I set you up in the Lady of the house's rooms."
"It's no problem," Harry reassured him.
"Indeed not, in fact I think you happen to look quite fetching," came a rich drawl and Harry was brought up short by the man in front of him. Said man was still unmistakably Tom Riddle, the cheekbones and the jaw was still the same, although his thick, sable hair now sported a sprinkling of grey at both temples and his irises were now blood red. The biggest difference was his nose which looked like one of those bad nose jobs he used to see in Petunia's gossip magazines; like it was severely upturned with long, narrow nostrils that reminded Harry very much of a snake.
Some of his previous looks may have gone but they'd been replaced with an immense aura of power and authority that gave Harry a strong urge to kneel down in front of him: he could definitely understand how the man had managed to amass so many followers before. He was also looking at Harry with a strange intensity that made Harry feel all hot and flushed, especially when he lifted Harry's hand and placed a kiss on the back of it.
"It, er, it doesn't fit very well," Harry stuttered.
"I's can help yous with that if you wish, master Harry," said a house elf that suddenly appeared in the hallway. "I is Binky and I is in charge of everything to do with clothes for the family. I's can easily alter the clothes to fit properly if you like."
"Please Binky," Harry grinned, "and could you get rid of these ruffles as well, they're a bit much." He held his arm up for emphasis. Binky clicked her fingers and Harry had to gasp as all of the clothes he was wearing suddenly adjusted although he had to admit it felt a lot better, especially to have the extra weight off his arms. "Thank you Binky."
"Yous welcome master Harry and if yous be wanting, Binky and her elves can help make yous and your families some clothes. There has not been manys family living here for some time so there be quite a good supply of linen, cotton, wool and silk so we's can make quite a few garments should yous be needing them."
"That would be lovely, thank you Binky," Harry smiled.
"Yes thank you Binky," Tom agreed, "I think that will be an excellent idea, thank you for the kind offer, now shall we go to breakfast, I don't know about you but I'm famished." With that he placed Harry's hand in the crook of his elbow and led the way to the great hall.
"By the way Harry, what happened to your glasses?" Severus asked, following closely behind them.
Harry frowned. "It seems I don't need them anymore."
"Since when!" Sirius exclaimed.
"Since this morning. I was getting dressed and my eyes were itchy so I kept rubbing them which is probably why I forgot to put my glasses on," Harry explained. "Only it kept getting worse and then, when I was getting completely frustrated, my eyes started to water and, when I opened them, I could see better than I could ever remember."
Severus frowned in thought. "So your own tears managed to heal your eyes?"
"It would seem so," Tom mused.
"How does that work?" Sirius huffed, "I mean if it's his tears then surely he must have cried at some point. I know he cried as a baby."
"I don't remember crying," Harry stated, "even when I fell out of the tree after getting chased by Marge's dog or when Petunia clocked me round the head with a frying pan."
"She did what!" Sirius roared.
Severus, however, just ignored him, too interested in the puzzle that was Harry's seemingly new ability. "How was your eyesight before you were hit over the head? Was it always bad or can you remember a point where you could see?"
"I've always needed glasses," Harry replied, "or at least that's what Petunia always told me. Apparently I had a health exam when I started school and the nurse told her my eyesight was bad so she picked up some glasses from a charity shop for me."
"And you never had any sort of proper eye exam let alone any follow-up?" Tom queried. "No wonder your eyesight was so bad."
Yes it's a wonder you managed to learn anything at all," Severus sighed.
"Why are you both ignoring the fact that my son was physically abused?" Sirius yelled.
"Because we already knew about it and have punished the perpetrators," Tom explained with a sigh.
"This wasn't a new thing Black. As you heard it had been going on for years," Severus added. "Dumbledore knew all along and turned a blind eye to it, which reminds me we have yet to think of a way to punish Figg."
"Figg! As in Arabella Figg!" Sirius exclaimed, "what's she got to do with anything?"
"She used to babysit me sometimes," Harry said. "She lived a couple of streets over from Petunia."
Sirius was shocked. "Don't tell me Remus let this happen as well!"
"Who's Remus?" Harry asked which only caused Sirius to gape at him and Severus to roar with laughter.
"Of course you don't know that mangy werewolf," he rasped between peels of laughter.
"Remus wasn't mangy," Sirius huffed, "and I'm sure there's an excellent reason as to why Harry doesn't know who he is?"
"Who is he?" Tom enquired.
"One of our friends from school," Sirius replied. "There was me, James, Remus and Peter although that rat bastard can burn as far as I'm concerned."
"Yes I would very much like to question young Peter as to what exactly his motivations were when he informed me about the Potter's whereabouts," Tom mused, "although I'm still curious about this Remus person. You said he was a werewolf?"
"Yes," Sirius nodded. "Dumbledore had given special permission for him to be taught at Hogwarts which is how we met. We didn't care, obviously, and James, Peter and I all learned to be animagus so we could go out with him on the full moon. That ended up being very handy as it's what allowed me to escape from Azkaban with my sanity still intact."
"That's debatable," Severus murmured, causing Sirius to scowl at him.
Tom was busy scowling anyway. "Dumbledore allowed a werewolf to turn on school property! Unchecked!"
"He wasn't on school property," Sirius huffed, "he was in the shrieking shack and was perfectly safe. He only went out after we managed to learn to be animagus and could help control him and then we went running through the forbidden forest and around Hogsmeade."
Sirius seemed so proud but Harry had to join in Tom and Severus's shocked expressions.
"Do you have any idea how dangerous that was!" Tom hissed. "At any point you could have lost control of him and he could have attacked the locals which would have led to him getting put down as a dangerous animal and ruining the lives of whoever he attacked. It was a ridiculous move on Dumbledore's part. Hogwarts is in the middle of the Scottish Highlands, there are acres and acres of uninhabited forest nearby not to mention entire islands off the coast where no one lives that Dumbledore is perfectly capable of side-long apparating to, even if he can't acquire a portkey or something. I have nothing against werewolves, personally, and think it's ridiculous how the Ministry malligns them for something beyond their control, especially as it only affects them once a month and can consequently be easily controlled."
Suddenly Picky popped up. "Yous not be minding werewolves, sir?" he asked Tom.
"Not in the slightest," Tom replied. "Severus here can get a bit jumpy but that's only because of a near miss he had."
"That was just a prank," Sirius whined.
"A 'prank' that almost cost your friend and I our lives," Severus hissed, "because you know the ministry would have put him down in a heartbeat if they ever found out he existed."
"It also wasn't a prank Sirius," Harry scolded. "At best it was bullying."
"That's putting it mildly," Tom warned. "I'm assuming Dumbledore intervened on your behalf since most people in that situation would be facing changes of attempted murder."
Sirius gulped. "I, I didn't mean," he stammered.
"No but the muggles have a saying, that the path to hell is paved with good intentions," Severus snarled.
Sirius looked downcast. "So what do you expect me to do?"
"Think before you act," Tom said, "and treat people with a bit more respect."
Sirius nodded slowly. "I think I can do that."
"Don't worry Black we're not expecting miracles," Severus sighed, causing Harry to giggle.
"True, although I admit I'm curious about this Remus guy."
"Me too," Sirius admitted. "I know he always worried about his creature status but I can't imagine that stopping him from seeing you. I mean he was always a little distant with you as a baby although I used to assume that was because he was jealous of James. I know Remus always liked me but things between us were always a little awkward."
"Of course they were, you're both submissives," Severus stated, although, surprisingly, with considerably less venom than usual. "There are always going to be issues when neither of you are willing to take the power that the other is willingly offering."
"Admittedly that's part of why I ended up fooling around with James in the first place," Sirius admitted. "I would still like to be able to find my old friend, if only to make sure he's ok. The problem is I wouldn't even know where to start."
Picky appeared next to Sirius, giving the man a start. "I's might be able to help sir. If you're friend is a werewolf, he mights be among the pack that lives out in the fields."
"Unlikely since Remus was always wary of packs," Sirius sighed, "his dad was apparently very against Remus having anything to do with other werewolves although he never said why."
"That is strange as werewolves usually take in anyone they accidentally turn so they can teach them how to deal with their condition," Tom mused.
"Remus wasn't accidentally turned though, he was purposely attacked," Sirius spat.
"Yes well given that his father was Lyall Lupin the werewolf was probably trying do him a favour," Severus interjected causing Tom to scowl.
"What do you know about Remus's father?" Sirius accused.
"I am a born vampire Black and any non human is aware of the damage that Lyall Lupin did to our rights in the magical world," Severus explained. "That man was vicious in his discrimination of anything he classed as 'other'."
"The Lupins have been hunting creatures for generations," Tom said, "so it shouldn't be surprising. I'm actually surprised that he didn't have his son put down; it wouldn't be the first one in the family to do it if the rumours are anything to go by."
"Remus always said that his father loved him," Sirius argued, "that his condition had changed father's view on werewolves."
"Well that's a lie," Arcturus said, entering one of the empty frames in the room. "The man may have retired his official position but he still continued his hunts."
"Hunts?" Harry asked.
"Groups of witches and wizards that used to go out to deal with the so-called threat that creatures posed to our world, despite the fact that there hasn't been a serious threat from creatures in centuries," Tom explained.
Yes and the Ministry always turned a blind eye to their activities," Arcturus added, "even after it became apparent that they were using the register as a way of hunting them down. I never agreed with the practice myself and was hoping to be able to talk to you. I asked the house elves not to mention anything before I spoke to you about it but there was a werewolf pack in the area that was being hunted and I opened the wards to them to offer them sanctuary. They have been living out in the fields and helping to maintain the land in payment for their protection and I was hoping that you would allow them to continue to stay here. There are wards that prevent them getting past the gate so you are safe, even on a full moon. I know the hunters still patrol the local area as well so would prefer it if you didn't go back on the deal I struck with them."
"I don't see that being a problem," Harry said. "I don't know much about werewolves but they don't seem like they would be a problem from what everyone has been saying so I don't have a problem with them staying."
"Me neither," agreed Tom, "although it would probably be a good idea to meet witj the pack alpha to let them know about the change in situation and to make sure we have a deal on place that works for everyone. Do you know who the alpha of the pack is, Arcturus?"
"Yes, his name is Fenrir Greyback."