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! 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 15: How to Become an Animagus

Harry slowly blinked himself awake as he took in the room around him. Tom still seemed to be asleep so he took the chance to watch the man. He looked very peaceful so he didn't want to wake him. He cast a quick tempus only to see that it was past six already. He got up and went to grab a glass of water.

He then walked into the room where Tom was and he wasn't surprised to see that his mate was awake. The man always seemed to wake up either before him or with him. Tom patted the space on the bed beside him and Harry sat down on the bed with his legs curled up under him.

"I know that you already have your Animagus form in your mind and that you shifted into the form during the ritual, but changing in your mindscape and changing in real life require different actions. In your mind, you need to accept the form and you need to merge with it, but in real life, you need to will your body to make the change."

Harry nodded and he watched in awe as Tom got off the bed and his body started to change. A few seconds later a Griffin the size of a horse stood in front of him. He wanted to run his hands over the feathers on Tom's neck, but the flames that surrounded Tom's form stopped him.

"It's ok Harry, my flames won't harm you." Harry smiled as he heard Tom's voice in his mind and he got off the bed to step closer to his mate. He slowly lifted his hand to the flames and gave a gasp of surprise as the flames only caused his skin to tingle pleasantly.

Tom made a purring rumbling sound as Harry ran his hands over him and Harry realized that Tom's form was very different from the pictures he had seen of Griffins. The first difference is that Tom's bird half resembled a flaming phoenix instead of the form of an eagle or a hawk.

And the second difference was that both the lion and the bird half were colored with the traditional phoenix coloring that made the lion half look more like the fabled fire-lions that tended to live on active volcanic islands. Only a few people had ever seen them before and most people did not live to tell the tale.

He smiled as Tom turned back into his human form and he gave his mate a hug before stepping back. "That was amazing Tom! Can the rest also shift into animal forms?" Tom nodded. "Yes, but not everyone. Narcissa and a few others have been struggling with it. Bella's form is a raven, Peter's is a rat, Lucius' is a snow leopard, Severus' is a black panther and Sirius' is a black dog. I don't know if the Weasley family got their forms yet."

Harry froze and Tom looked at him with concern. "What's wrong Harry?" The younger man looked at him. "Do Severus and Sirius call their forms Padfoot and Prince by any chance?" Tom shook his head. "No, they didn't choose their names by themselves. Your birth father, James, gave them their names while they were joking around. He said that Sirius looked like a demon dog named Padfoot that he read about somewhere and Severus acts like a Prince when he is in his cat form."

Harry suddenly laughed out loud until he realized that Tom was still looking at him and the man was still worried. "Sorry, I kind of forgot about something that happened during the ritual. I was in my mindscape and there was a black panther with the name Prince and a black dog with the name Padfoot there with me." Tom looked shocked and this worried Harry.

"Uhm is it bad?" Tom suddenly smiled and shook his head. "No it's not bad, it just doesn't happen very often during blood-adoption rituals. Salazar and Merlin told you about the guardian aspect of the animagus forms right?" Harry nodded. "Well seeing their forms in your mindscape means that they unknowingly gave you protection and comfort at a time when you were extremely vulnerable."

This caused Harry to smile. Prince and Padfoot had helped him a lot during the ritual and without them, he was sure that he would have felt lost. Tom walked over to sit on the bed. "If you want we can continue with the training tomorrow." Harry shook his head and Tom gestured for him to take the space next to him.

"Ok then, the first step is usually to find your animal, but since you already did that, we can move onto the meditation phase. This will help to build up your concentration and it will make it easier for you to shift between your animal and human forms and it will also shorten the time that it will take for you to change."

Harry shifted into a comfortable position and closed his eyes. He knew what meditation was in theory, but he also read that it was not easy to do. He soon found this to be true as he struggled to keep his mind from wandering off and falling asleep. Tom even nudged him awake a few times with a laugh until he finally got the hang of it and he finally opened his eyes four hours later when he heard Tom moving about the room.

Tom glanced over at him from where he was dishing up food from a selection that the house elves must have brought over. "Come on Harry, time to eat. How do you feel?" Harry smiled and got off the bed to walk over. "I feel great, but I think I sat in one position for too long."

Tom chuckled as Harry tried to stretch and the older man pushed him down into a seat and gave him the plate that he had dished up. Tom then moved to stand behind him and Harry groaned in relief as Tom slowly started to massage his shoulders.

"Unfortunately one of the problems with meditation is the long periods that you have to sit down without really moving." Harry sank back gratefully as Tom finished working out the final knot.

Tom then sat down and they ate in a companionable silence. When they were finished, Tom stacked their plates and an elf appeared to take it all away. He then turned to Harry. "Are you going to study with the others while I go through a few things in preparation for the classes?"

Harry nodded with a smile and he kissed Tom on the cheek before he went to his room to grab his books. He found Draco and the others in the library and welcomed him with a smile before pulling out a chair for him. "Hey, there stranger. We were starting to think that we would have to come in and kidnap you in order to see you."

Harry blushed and the others chuckled before they settled down to study. Harry was glad to see that he knew most of the work and they were soon practicing the few spells that they didn't know, together. He was a bit surprised at how many things the group actually knew amongst themselves.

Each person had their own hobby as well as their own strengths and weaknesses and they helped each other to get better. They all looked through the upcoming year's work together and Harry was surprised that he found most of to be easy to do and to remember.

He glanced up at the group. "I wonder what house I will be in." He looked at Ron who scoffed. "You will be in Gryffindor of course. Your parents were there and you are extremely brave and loyal." Neville looked at Harry. "I would like to think that you would be in Hufflepuff because you are caring and always willing to help."

Luna shook her head. "He is clearly a Ravenclaw. He learns things faster than anyone I know." Draco smirked. "I think he will be in Slytherin. He may have all the qualities of the other houses, but he also thinks things through most of the time and he plans ahead. He is also a Parselmouth and he will want to be close to Tom."

Harry blushed as his friends started arguing and then a laugh escaped him which caused the rest of the room to fall silent. He looked at his friends. "I guess that it doesn't matter what house I get into. I have friends in each house so it's not as if house rivalries will get in the way."

His friends all smiled and nodded while Draco crossed his arms. "That may be true, but I still think that you will be in Slytherin." The rest of the group just smiled and shook their heads. Draco would not give up on his choice until after Harry is sorted and Merlin forbid it if the blonde is right. Then they will have to hear about his amazing intuition for an entire week.

He spent a little more time with them until he saw Severus walking part the room just as he was thinking that he hadn't spent much time with Sirius so far. He quickly packed up and excused himself as he ran after his new adoptive father. The man was, of course, making his way to his potions lab and Harry caught up just before the door opened.

"Hey Sev, do you know where Sirius is? I just realized that I have mostly been spending time with Tom and that I haven't spent much time with either you or him." Harry stopped. "Come to think of it, I haven't spent time with Remus either." The man looked at him in surprise then smiled.

"We're not offended that you want to spend most of your time with Tom, Harry. Your bond is a new one and the magic inside will insist that you stay with him throughout most of the day. We will have to wait until you are sorted to see what we can do about your sleeping arrangements though. As for spending time with us, we can go into my private rooms and then I can floo call Sirius and Remus if you want me to. We were finally able to help Siri finish his work so I think he would like nothing more than to spend some time with you."

Harry nodded and he had to fight a smile. Severus didn't even realize that he had just shortened Sirius' name. He decided to wait until Remus and Sirius arrived to make sure that their attraction is actually real before he interfered. The three men were all just simply too stubborn to admit their feelings on their own.

Severus offered him a cup of tea as they waited for the other two men to arrive. The man had even called Tom to let him know where Harry was just in case he got worried when he didn't see Harry with the other students. Harry inwardly smiled. The man seemed to think of everything and everyone but himself.

Both Remus and Sirius entered the room within seconds of each other and it was obvious that the men had been getting ready for bed because it looked like the men had simply thrown on new clothes in a hurry. Harry thought it was funny until he saw the slightly hurt look in Severus' eyes.

Harry looked at the other two men and something in his mind clicked. Severus must think that they had been in bed together. He decided to clear up the misunderstanding before it formed. "You two look like you just got out of bed." The two men blushed and Sirius spoke. "I finally got my preparation finished with the help of Sev and Remi. I thought that I'd get an early night to make sure that I didn't oversleep tomorrow, but when Sev called, I decided I couldn't pass up the chance to spend time with my favorite people."

Remus laughed. "I was busy reading in bed when you called and I guess I thought the same as Sirius did." Sirius and Remus glanced at Severus even though it looked like they were looking at Harry and the teen mentally shook his head. He definitely needed to find a way to bring the three men together.

They sat down on random chairs around the room. Harry managed to snag the only single seat, which forced the three men to sit on the couch with the three seats. They looked a little uncomfortable, but none of them could request Harry to move without needing to give up an explanation.

Severus prepared tea for them as well and Harry had to fight to hide his smirk as the man threw in some firewhiskey into theirs. It looked like they needed it after all. They spoke about random things for a while until Harry turned his attention to Sirius. "So are there any love-interests that I should look out for?"

The room became extremely tense immediately and Harry got angry at himself for being so blunt. Where was the cunning side that Malfoy had believed him to have earlier? Sirius was surprisingly the first to speak while he glanced at the other two men in the room. "There might be, but I don't have any chance of catching their eye."

Severus and Remus gaped at the other man as Harry subtly stood up and poured each man a firewhiskey into a glass. Severus nodded at him in thanks as he placed the glasses down. Harry then poured himself another cup of tea. The room was silent until Remus cleared his throat. "I had the same problem, but it seems like I might be wrong about one of them."

Sirius' eyes widened at the implications of Remus' words and both of them turned their attention to Severus simultaneously. The potion master sent a grateful look towards Harry before he picked up his glass and downed the whiskey. He then put the glass down with a harder than necessary thud before looking at Sirius and then Remus. "I am currently finding myself in the most unfortunate position of having the affections of two marauding Gryffindors," Harry frowned as he saw Remus and Sirius' faces fall "whom I want to throttle half of the time and kiss the other."

Harry barely managed to stop himself from laughing happily as the two Gryffindors snapped their heads up at the man in disbelief, but when he saw their eyes darkening to something that looked suspiciously like lust, he decided that it was time for him to head back to Tom. He quickly made his way out of the room towards the entrance when he heard something that sounded like someone had walked into a table after which the sound was accompanied by a groan.

He pulled open the door and shut it behind him before hurrying towards Tom's rooms. He actually felt slightly sorry for Severus because he was sure that the Slytherin was currently being cornered by the other two men. He wondered for a split second about who would come out on top before he shook his head to rid himself of that thought. His mind unnecessarily informed him that Severus was magically stronger than the other two men even if Remus was physically stronger and he practically found himself running into Tom's rooms.

He spotted the man nursing a whiskey of his own while reading and Harry took both the book and the whiskey out of the man's hands before climbing onto his lap. Tom chuckled as Harry dragged his face to his and they kissed long and hard while their tongues fought for domination. Harry finally calmed down and Tom turned him so that Harry was lying across his lap.

"Care to share on why you practically tried to kiss me to death after barging in here Harry?" The teen blushed and nuzzled his head into Tom's shoulder. "I was studying with Draco them when I saw Severus walking by and I decided to ask if I could spend time with him, Sirius and Remus. He arranged it and it was fun to visit, but I made the mistake of openly asking whether there are any love-interests that I should look out for."

Tom chuckled deeply as Harry frowned. "I take it that they finally stopped dancing around each other?" Harry nodded. "They gave roundabout answers to the question but they all seemed to know what the other meant. I barely got out of there in time if the looks they gave each other were any indication. Hell, I don't even know how that would work!"

Tom took his glass and downed his whiskey before he picked Harry up as he stood and walked towards the room. "We both know that you don't really want to know the answer to that one, but triad relationships happen in order to balance out the individuals within them. If they weren't balanced then their magic would be capable of lashing out due to the past trauma that they have experienced. With a triad, there is always one that can interfere when things get too heated."

Harry nodded. It made a lot of sense. Tom cast a charm to clean their teeth and their bodies before he changed their clothes into night-clothes. "We better sleep. The train might only arrive late in the afternoon, but we still have a few things that need to be sorted out. If you want you can ask Severus to use one of their surnames to stop the rest of the school from immediately knowing who you are."

Harry smiled at the thought. "That would actually be a brilliant idea. I don't want to go through all that fame stuff that you warned me about the other day. In fact, I hope that no-one outside of our circle will be able to know who I am." Tom's gaze turned thoughtful. "That would only work if you changed your name as well, which would be a good idea if it would hide you from Dumbledore's allies."

Harry nodded then yawned and Tom tucked him against his side as they cuddled. "We will talk to Severus and Sirius about it tomorrow morning. The goblins won't mind helping out if you decide to go through with it." Harry nodded again before calmness took over his body. He felt safe in Tom's arms as they drifted off to sleep.

Yay, I finally updated. I'm blaming my muse for fiddling with other one-shots while avoiding this story. I almost found myself thinking that I didn't know where I wanted to go with this story, but seeing all the followers and favorites that this story gets, got me back on track.