Chapter Twenty-Five of 'Fairest Creatures'- Ringed
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Chapter Twenty-Five-Ringed
“Come with me, Malfoy, Potter.”
Harry rolled his eyes as Testig swept past them in the dining hall and spoke to them out of the corner of her mouth. Even though she was friendlier now than she had been, she still spoke abruptly and had no hesitation about summoning them away from lunch.
As they stood up, Harry looked at Draco out of the corner of his eye, wondering if Draco knew why she would have done this. He saw the way Draco’s face was turning as red as desert dust and paused.
“What?”
“Come on, we have to,” Draco muttered, and hurried out of the dining hall with his wings raised as if he wanted to shield his expression. Harry left after him, looking around. The other Veela had paid attention to them for only a minute before they turned away.
Politely. Too politely.
Harry hid a groan as he trotted after Testig. He could have lived without yet another Odd Veela Thing that everyone but him knew about until it actually came up.
Testig halted in a small antechamber that Harry hadn’t had class in; he thought it might be a kind of room for visitors, since it had comfortable couches and a plate that one could press to call house-elves. She turned around then and shook her wings briskly at them. Harry saw that she was trying to hide a grin. He blinked and relaxed a little.
“You’re free to do what you like, of course,” said Testig, and cocked her head. “But didn’t you think announcing it in the dining hall was a bit crass?”
“Announcing what?” Harry turned to Draco and folded his arms. He was sure Draco knew now what this was about, and had probably even known before Testig approached them, but Draco ducked his head. “We promised we were going to be honest,” Harry told him. Even he was impressed at how ominous he’d made his own voice.
Draco sighed mournfully and peered at Testig out of the corner of his eye. She stared back at him. Draco turned and raised his wings, flapping them a little when Harry started to open his mouth in protest. “Just look, Harry.”
Harry did, although to him Draco’s wings seemed the same as always. They were white, shading at the edges into silver, and there were the black bars that proclaimed his color and the blue bars that proclaimed his compatibility with Harry-
Then Harry jumped. He could have sworn before that the blue bars were distributed randomly, and there were only a few of them. Now-he grew sure of it as he moved forwards and grabbed the edge of Draco’s wing to stretch it out and see-there were a lot more of the blue bars, and they were arranged in a huge circle around the biggest of the black bars.
“This is the Veela mating ring,” said Testig primly, folding her arms. “It’s one reason that mates don’t give each other rings for the finger the way most wizards do.”
“So everyone can tell by looking at our wings that we’ve had sex?” Harry promptly tried to flare his wings out and look at them from the side, but even though he could tell there were more black bars than before, he couldn’t see what kind of pattern they might have arranged themselves in.
“It means that you’ve finally accepted the mating bond.” When Harry turned around, it was to see Testig studying him with a grin she was doing her best to hide. “I didn’t know that you’d sex until you announced it just now, though.”
Harry groaned and hid his head in his hands. He thought he knew now what Draco had done. He’d kept his wings folded most of the morning, since there’d been no occasion to spread them in the classes they had that day, but when they sat down in the dining hall, he’d spread his wings and turned to preen them.
And a few people had got quiet just then…
Harry sat up and glared at Draco, who looked innocently back. His flush seemed to have disappeared the instant Testig told Harry what the ring meant. “Why didn’t you warn me?”
“It was something I honestly forgot about until I saw it in the mirror this morning,” Draco said, with a shrug. “And then I thought it might put people off from approaching you for a while. No one would try to explain it to you among the students because it’s not considered polite. What is polite is to give the newly-mated couple space.”
“That was not well done of you, Mr. Malfoy.” Harry had to blink to hear Testig’s disapproving tone directed at someone besides him. “If you and your mate have made a bargain to be honest, you should keep to it.”
“Aren’t Veela mates usually honest with each other?” Harry couldn’t say what had prompted him to ask that, but he knew from the subtle nod Testig gave him that she was a little impressed.
“That is a matter for the pair of mates to decide. There’s no cultural consensus on it. In cases where a Veela mates with a human and the human doesn’t care to enter our culture or understand our customs, then there’s some lying by omission and by definition. It would only distress the human to know everything.”
Harry stood tall. He thought he understood now where some of Testig’s doubts about him came from. That didn’t mean he would let them persist. “I would always want to understand. What frustrated me was being treated as though my ignorance was some kind of disgusting skin disease I’d caused on purpose. And could pass on to other people,” he added, thinking about it.
“Surely not a disgusting skin disease,” Testig murmured, but when Harry continued to glare at her, she relented. “Well. Yes. We did think that you might be planning to abandon the school and your mate as soon as your training to control your powers was complete.”
Harry shook his head violently. “I would never have done that.”
“Wouldn’t you?” Draco’s voice was the cold one now, blowing over Harry’s skin like a wind off ice.
Harry turned towards him with a chirp, but even though the light of their courtship gift began to sparkle on Draco’s wings and hands, he still didn’t look appeased. Harry sighed and leaned against him. “Not when I started to understand,” he said. “And not when I started to feel the connection to you. But I needed that. If it was just someone feeling a connection to me…”
“Then you start to think that it’s the same as everyone else who’s ever claimed to feel a connection to you,” Draco said, and bowed his head like a preening parrot to let Harry reach the back of his neck. “Yes.”
“Yes,” Harry echoed back, and Draco started to bend towards him with a far different purpose in his eyes. The only thing that stopped Harry from responding enthusiastically was Testig clearing her throat behind them.
When Harry faced her, he saw her fighting another grin. He supposed another thing he had begun to understand were the lines around the corners of her eyes and how they indicated amusement, instead of contempt, the way he’d assumed at first.
“So. We need to start working with you as a fully-bonded pair, instead of one that’s in the earlier stages of bonding.” Testig cocked her head, and Harry was reminded irresistibly of some of the sparrows who used to study him when he worked in the Dursleys’ front garden. “That means moving you into one new class.”
“What’s this one?” Harry asked. He knew he sounded a little apprehensive, or Draco wouldn’t have nuzzled him the way he did in the next moment.
He refused to consider that he might have sounded more apprehensive than he really was, precisely so Draco would do that.
“It’s known as Mated Pairs,” said Testig, and moved her wings back and forth in a crisscross pattern. “Professor Grunnell teaches it. But it means that you’re going to have to work harder with each other, to combine your magic instead of keeping it separate.”
“Does that mean…”
Harry had no idea what question Draco was trying to ask, but Testig evidently did, because she eyed Draco tolerantly and nodded. “Yes, Mr. Malfoy. You will indeed be able to use your partner’s special powers once your training is complete, and he can use yours. So you can use the Shriek.”
Draco was smiling, and had started flapping his wings without even seeming to realize he was doing it. It caused a small and irritating breeze on the back of Harry’s head that was blowing his hair around, so he reached out, pressed Draco’s wings shut, and asked, “Are there any powers that can’t be shared?”
Testig shook her head. “Not that I can think of. Of course, Professor Grunnell is the one in charge of teaching it, not me. Ask her.”
Harry nodded, although in truth, he wasn’t sure he would find the courage to ask Professor Grunnell if he could share Draco’s power of sensing sexual status and making his partner feel good with a touch to the wings. It was precarious enough as it was, the settling bond between them.
“If you want to go and meet with Professor Grunnell now,” Testig added, “that might be a good idea. She’ll have heard the gossip already, but it’s always a good sign when a newly-bonded pair takes proactive steps.”
Harry started to bristle a little, but Draco settled everything, and not the way Harry had expected. He reached out, draped a wing across Harry’s shoulders, and smiled at Testig. “Thank you, professor, but I think it’s more worthwhile for us to finish our lunch. My mate didn’t eat much for breakfast this morning.”
Testig’s eyes widened, and Harry winced, thinking that they’d managed to get on her bad side again just after they’d emerged from it. But then Testig actually gave them a little bow, her wings lifting around them and flapping down once. “Then I shall leave you to manage your eating and your mate,” she said, and drifted down the corridor.
Harry gave Draco a thoughtful glance sideways. “That better include permission for me to ‘manage’ you, too.”
“Why, Harry,” Draco said as he turned them back towards the dining hall, his wings spread as widely as possible and his voice on the verge of a warble, “I thought you already had. During the activities that led to our becoming mates, finally.”
So everyone in the dining hall got treated to a vision not only of Draco’s spread wings and the ring-like bars on them, but also to Harry blushing as though Draco had been groping him right there. Draco laughed wickedly. Harry couldn’t do much but glare at the moment and plot eventual revenge.
When Draco looked at him winsomely, though, his wings cocked and the smile stealing back over his face, Harry couldn’t help but smile back.
And to think I thought it would be horrible to have a Veela mate.
*
“Please welcome to the class our newest mated pair on the grounds of the school, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter.”
Harry realized that he was half-braced for the little murmur of sound that usually accompanied his name when he was introduced to a new group, and relaxed when he didn’t hear it. These Veela had probably spent most of their time around their own kind and weren’t as impressed by a mere famous wizard.
On the other hand, he thought, as he watched their narrowed eyes and the fanning wings of a few Veela in the group, that probably means they’re likely to despise me for not growing up that way.
He concealed a sigh. Somewhere in the world, there were probably people who received mostly neutral introductions to groups. Harry wished with all his might that he was one of them.
But for now, all he could do was nod and murmur in response to Professor Grunnell’s introduction and then sit down at one of a pair of desks on the far side of the room. This was the first classroom he’d seen that had traditional furniture instead of cushions or pillows on the floor, or large couches.
Or just none at all, like Professor Helios’s flying classroom.
Harry turned to Draco. He was sitting beside Harry, bolt upright, his hands folded on the desk and a pleasant smile on his face. He probably looked normal to the other Veela; the ones who were still staring at them instead of at Professor Grunnell as she moved to the front of the classroom looked at Harry, not Draco.
But he had his jaw set and his wings spread so that no one could miss the enormous ring of blue surrounding the black bars. His hand trembled a little on the desktop, and Harry saw claws replace his nails.
Draco was pissed.
Harry waited in his own kind of silence for Professor Grunnell to begin the lecture. He had parchment and ink ready to take notes, but he also had his wings half-spread in the position that would launch him the fastest at someone coming up to try and condescend to him and Draco. He would use that power if he had to.
The lecture was interesting, though. Professor Grunnell began to fill them in on the reason that Veela mates could share powers, which apparently had to do with the need to defend young Veela and sometimes nesting sites. She talked about different kinds of bonds-deep, shallow, and semi-intense-and the signs one could use to discover how a Veela pair was bonded.
She paused at last, and nodded at Draco, who had his hand up. “Mr. Malfoy.”
“Is there any way to determine the depth of a mated pair’s bonding by looking at them, the way there is to determine that a bond exists?” Draco asked, in exactly the kind of smarmy voice he used to use in Snape’s classroom.
Harry looked at him from the corner of his eye. Draco was smiling, and his claws had turned back into nails. On the other hand, he still had his wings spread so no one could mistake the signs that they were a pair, and Harry had no doubt about how hard he would try to hit someone who doubted it openly.
“A good question, Mr. Malfoy.” Professor Grunnell gave them a rueful smile and a little twitch of the primaries on the edges of her wings. “Would that I could give you an equally good answer. The only one we have available to us is, not really. There are so many theorists arguing back and forth on the subject-”
“But why? If they know that different depths of bond exist-”
Professor Grunnell snorted, and Harry decided he liked her better than he had at any time since she was showing him around the school. She had more depth and showed more personality than most of his other teachers except Testig. “Tell me, Mr. Malfoy, how many Veela couples do you think would willingly describe their bond as shallow?”
Draco slowly tilted his head in what Harry thought was reluctant agreement. But he insisted, “Still, why do the different descriptions of the bonds exist at all, if no one can really use them or tell whether they’re real?”
Professor Grunnell gave the most honest smile Harry thought he’d ever seen out of a professor. “This would be what we call a theoretical question, Mr. Malfoy. And, of course, to use to talk about others’ bonds the way you wouldn’t talk about your own.”
Draco smiled. Harry didn’t think it was a nice smile. But he only shook his head when Harry reached out and put one of his hands on Draco’s in concern.
“It’s nothing,” he murmured, which Harry doubted very much. “Only that I was thinking about how some of the people in the same room with us would describe our bond. And their own,” he added, glancing over his shoulder.
Harry looked with him, even as Professor Grunnell began another lecture that included terms like “inter-wing intermediaries.” The woman who sat behind them was a tall Veela, with unearthly silver hair and the first violet eyes Harry had seen here, his nails so thick and curved and gleaming that Harry wasn’t entirely sure they weren’t claws. The ring of the mating bond on her wings was violet, too, and surrounding an inner circle of pale gold that Harry thought must be her own color.
Her mate, seated behind her, looked entirely human, although he wore robes that made Harry sure he was a wizard. He had long brown hair and plain robes and looked anxiously between the woman and Harry and Draco. Around his neck was a silver locket that showed a ring of gold around a violet center.
Draco nudged Harry a little, and he turned reluctantly back to the lecture. But inside his head, he was groaning.
Great. We moved away from the beginners who might be jealous of our bond, in among people who aren’t older and more mature the way I hoped. The ones who want to be enemies for absolutely no reason. Wonderful.
Chapter Twenty-Six.
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