The Boy in the Cupboard

Chapter 14

On the morning of Boxing Day, Ginny went downstairs and immediately bolted back up to her room when she saw what Harry was doing at the table.

Neville and Ron awkwardly tried to explain to Harry that he was only supposed to wank in the shower or a bedroom, when he was alone. Harry had continued through the entire conversation, laughing.

"Laughing Myrtle says 'go on'." Harry explained, as if that made it all okay.

"Because she's a creep!" Ron threw his hands up. "None of us want to see it! Do you want people to call you Harry Wanker? The Boy who Wanked?"

Harry turned around but kept going, until Molly walked in and shook her finger at him. "Pull your pants up and go somewhere else."

Harry simply shook his finger back. Molly had always been more lenient with Harry, but she was unyieldingly stern about this. Eventually, Harry climbed the stairs, and they heard Ginny's door slam.

"Go to the lavatory!" Molly yelled up the stairs as Harry's footsteps clomped farther up the house.

When Sirius was sure Harry had finished, he entered the lavatory. "You could go to prison for doing that around others," he explained, his own face pale and his hands shaking.

"Not in my class!" Harry haltingly repeated Minerva's reprimand.

"I know class feels like prison," Sirius sighed. "And I know it gets you out of class now. But trust me, it won't get you out of prison."

"Go poo in the loo," Harry said Sirius's old mantra from back when they were working on getting Harry out of nappies. He'd never repeated it back then, had barely spoken at all. Now, Harry swirled his hand like toilet water, which wasn't the official sign. Then, with a loose fist, he made a very unmistakable sign.

"You do this in the loo, too." Sirius then warned "Not Myrtle's loo." He ended the conversation feeling like he'd made his point and Harry might actually get it.

For the rest of the holidays, Harry seemed to. He was content to follow Sirius around as he cared for Buckbeak. Harry apparently had no issue with dead rats or ferrets despite throwing a fit over dead spiders in potions class.

Harry pranked others by hiding their things in his toy castle, or wandlessly transfiguring things when people weren't looking.

Once they returned to Hogwarts, however, the privacy problem persisted. Whether it was stubbornness, impulsivity or just not caring, it would clearly take more than a conversation to convince Harry that certain things weren't to be done whenever the urge struck, and especially not around others.

This led to several more embarrassing moments, but none of his friends abandoned him. Gradually, Harry stopped around his friends, though this led to him walking out of classes or conversations to find somewhere private.

He didn't hold back around either Sirius or Remus. Remus remarked, wryly, that Harry was used to them seeing him naked, since they'd changed and bathed him not many years ago, and still assisted with such tasks.

Sirius counted it as a win that Harry hadn't hid in Myrtle's bathroom recently, though he stared at the Baron's crotch through the bloody, transparent robes. Harry jerked a loose fist and made slashing motions. "Wank cut off?"

"Are you asking if he has his privates?" Luna asked, sounding slightly less dreamy. "You shouldn't ask Helena, she'd find it quite rude."

The Bloody Baron stared blankly. None of them had ever heard him speak, but he must have picked up some sign language from Harry and his friends, since he signed that he couldn't feel.