Chapter 1: Where It Begins
A Motel in Muggle London - June 4th 11:55pm
His smirk grew as he watched greedily at the way the girl's hips swung from side to side in tune with the soft music. She threw her hands in the air and slowly moved her head from side to side, making her long caramel coloured hair toss about. Stopping for a second, she gave him a sultry look, her lips curving into a smirk of her own, and began to move her hands slowly down her slim figure. They passed over her lace covered breasts to her small hips. Draco sighed in pleasure and put his hands behind his head contemplating the beauty of the woman in front of him and she was very beautiful. It was Blaise who had introduced them, well really she was an early early birthday present from his old friend for this twenty-first birthday.
The girl was now crawling across the bed to where he lay in wait. She sat on top of his stomach and pulled off her pink and black bra. Draco brought up his hand to stroke her but as soon as his hands touched her skin an intense burning pain shot up through his arm and he let out the loudest yell. The girl was screaming too. He threw her off himself and jumped up from the bed. Looking down at his hand he recoiled in disgust for there was a nasty looking burn that marred his pale skin. It was black and crusted and oozing blood. Looking up at the girl he saw that she too had a burn in the shape of his hand right below her breast on top of her ribcage. She sobbed in pain and shot him an accusing look.
"What have you done?" the girl gasped between sobs.
He did not reply for he had no idea as to what was going on. He looked away from her and tried to make sense of it. Nothing like this had happed before. This was maddness! He needed to get out of here, needed time to think. But how could he think with the pain. It was excruciating. Looking down at his hand once more he saw that it was bleeding freely now. He had to get help, this was not going to heal with a simple charm. So without even looking back at the girl he walked out of the room and hurried out and apparated to the one place he knew he could get an answer. Malfoy Manor.
~oOo~
Malfoy Manor - June 5th 12:10am
He apparated straight into his father's study and was shocked to see both his parents there. They looked up startled at his sudden entrance. It was extremely odd for them both to be up at this hour.
"What are you doing here?" his mother asked, although she did not seem all that surprised.
"What has happened Draco? Are you alright?" it was his father this time.
"I don't know," began Draco, "I was just-"
"Is the girl alright?" Lucius interuppted.
"How did you know?"
"That is not what matters at the moment. Answer the question."
Draco did not answer, instead he brought up his hand and showed his father his burnt palm. Narcissa let out a terrified gasp. Lucius strode forward purposefully and grabbed Draco's arm. He examined the burn closely, then pulled out a small vial from his robes containing a misty silver liquid. Uncorking the vial he tipped the entire contents onto Draco's palm.
"What is that?" Draco hissed in pain, pulling his arm away. But the sensation only lasted a moment and then was gone. Draco looked down at his hand to find it completely healed. He then looked from his mother to his father, hoping either one of them would be able to provide an explaination. But his mother would not meet his eye and his father remained as expressionless as usual.
"Would you care to explain what is going on father?" he decided to ask directly when they did not respond. "How did you know about the girl? Why did you have a cure ready? Did you know this was going to happen?"
"Enough questions Draco," Lucius responded, raising a palm in the air to stop his son from speaking any further. "We knew about the girl because she was a test, so we could get a confirmation."
"A confirmation for what exactly?" asked Draco.
Lucius did not reply straight away. Instead he sighed and turned to walk towards the fireplace. After a moment of staring into the fire he said, "It is hard to explain Draco, and it will be even more difficult for you to understand and accept."
"I'm not a child father. I will understand, you could try by telling me," said Draco, exasperated. His father never trusted him.
"Alright then I will. But first tell me this, what do you know of the Veela son?" Lucius asked, finally turning around to look at him.
"The Veela? What do they have to do with this?"
"Just answer the question Draco."
"Well, I remember seeing them at the Quidditch World Cup when I was fourteen. But that's all. I don't know anything about them." answered Draco.
"Well then you would not know that you have Veela blood in you."
"What? How is that possible? I thought that the Malfoys had the purest of bloodlines. Are you telling me it was tainted by-"
"Veela blood is not unpure." Lucius interrupted his son once again. He was growing tired of his incessant rambling. "You are part Veela. But because your mother has Veela blood in her too you are closer to being a full Veela then either her or I."
"Okay, so what exactly does this have to do with the burn and the girl?" Draco wanted answers, and this pointless chatter about the bloody Veela was not getting them anywhere.
"It has everything to do with them," snapped Lucius, making both Draco and Narcissa jump. "Now do not speak until I have finished."
Draco nodded in understanding.
"Well according to legend, and I say that because the Veela are very secretive and reluctant to share their ways with wizards. Anyway as I was saying, according to legend a Veela comes of age when they turn twenty-one. It is at this time that thier bodies undergo several changes. I am not sure what these changes are because normally Veela appear to be human, except for the fact that they are very attractive. Besides physically changing there is another aspect that comes into play when they come of age.
"You see the Veela must find a mate. This mate becomes the sole reason for their existence. The Veela are monogamous and can take no more than one partner in their lifetime. They live to please and satisfy their mates and when they die, the Veela dies. Their attachment is so close in fact that it forbids the Veela from even touching another being of the opposite sex. Just a touch burns both him and the partner, so he knows and remembers that there is only one person in the world for him. Now do you understand why this has everything to do with the girl?"
It was Draco's turn to be speechless. He did not know how to respond or how to even process the information that was being thrown at him. Was his father trying to tell him that he was a Veela. That was the reason his touch had burnt that girl. And was he really to spend the rest of his life pining after just one girl and then die along with her. This was maddess, utter maddess.
"That is not possible. How could I possibly be a Veela?" Draco asked incredulously.
"It is possible. In fact it is exactly what you are. The burn was proof of that," Lucius replied calmly.
"Why did you never tell me? I had a right to know."
"We were not sure ourselves, Draco darling." His mother finally spoke up. "We had to wait until your twenty-first birthday to make sure."
"This is ridiculous. What am I supposed to do now? How can I live like this?"
"You will live as every other Veela lives. Most lead normal lives. But first you must find your mate," Lucius explained.
"And how exactly do you propose I do that? Do I go around London touching every single girl and hope that one of them doesn't end up with severe burns?" Draco exclaimed, running a frustrated hand through his hair.
"Don't be ridiculous. Veela know when they have found their mate. They only need to set eyes on them for confirmation. And then they proceed to seduce them into completing the ritual."
"Wait a moment. What do you mean seduce them? And what ritual? Won't my... 'mate', as you call her, also know who I am?"
"Off course not, dear," Narcissa explained. "They themselves may not be Veela. As for the ritual, think of it as marriage ceremony."
"This is too much to take in," said Draco, tousling his hair once again. "I need time to think."
"Off course son, you go and get some sleep and come back tommorow morning to tell us if anything has changed."