A/n: I know, I know…I deleted a big portion of the stories I had on here. I wasn't extremely happy with the material I had and I'm hoping I can do better now that I have a clean slate. So…review always and enjoy!

Chapter One

My name is Cara Valo. That small bit of information can tell anyone a nice bit of information about me. The Valo family is one of the purest, oldest families in the wizarding world. Members of my family were clever and quick to learn anything that was put in front of them. Though house placement was never certain with the individual people who inherited the Valo name. More importantly, veela blood runs in my family. Perhaps I should elaborate on that last statement. There is quite a bit of veela blood that ran through my veins, but it wasn't strong enough to truly show. There were a few male veelas scattered across the Valo family, but most of the women in my family were the mates of veelas. In fact, my grandmother was the mate of my grandfather, Thomas Valo. It was surprising when my father didn't inherit any veela traits when he turned sixteen, but he's just as happy to call my mother his mate. It was also a surprise to my grandparents when their son and his wife had two children. My family was known for having one son each. It was odd when my parents found out that they were pregnant with a baby girl when their son was four years old.

Then there is the subject of my brother, Christopher Louis Valo. It was a bitter thing to discuss to people who, somehow, knew nothing about my family. There were too many people who didn't understand. Too many people thought that my parents should have given their only son away. They thought he ruined my family name. Christopher was born absolutely blind and with very little magic. There was nothing that could help him see. His early years were spent crying and making vases explode around him. He couldn't see what he was doing. He didn't know what he was doing. My parents were hoping that he would get a letter from Hogwarts and that he would flourish in school. But the letter never came until my eleventh birthday.

Because my mom and dad are decent people and didn't cast out my brother, it left me in quite a sticky situation when I started to attend Hogwarts. I would hear them talking about me and my family. They thought we were a disgrace. They thought that Christopher might as well have been a squib. They asked me if I could even really do magic or if I was here because the staff at Hogwarts pitied my family. Some tried to pull out some of my hair to see if I would turn into a harpy. Then I would be teased because I didn't have the flowing, blonde locks that most people with veela ancestors had. Through time, I had gotten used to their comments and most of my tormentors had left me alone. I enjoyed being left alone, too.

For the longest time, I considered myself to be rather plain despite my family's interesting situation. My hair was a neutral brown, my eyes were a dark hazel, and I was average height. I was rather thin with little to no curves and I had a pair of black rimmed glasses that were always on my pale face. But being plain made me content. It made me blend into the crowd of students that attended Hogwarts. But I felt…different in the beginning of June. My body began to feel warm the morning of June fifth. My insides felt as if they had been lightly kisses by the sun. While it was uncomfortable, I didn't think about it too much that day. But the heat became more intense as the days passed by. The heat was became almost unbearable on August fourteenth, the day before my birthday. The heat spread out through my skin and I almost burned everything I touched.

"Why are you so hot, Cara?" Christopher asked. He had grasped my hand as I was confined to bed for the day.

"I don't know," I answered. My mom and dad were becoming more and more worried.

"Don't worry, darling. We will call a healer in the morning," my mom said, brushing my hair away from my sweating face.

The heat turned into absolute pain as the sun began to set. I watched the sky change colors as my bones felt as if they were bending, moving in different directions. I tried not to cry out as my head began to throb and I cried silently into my bed. The pain only became worse and I had finally accepted the fact that I might be dying as my eyes closed.

But my eyes opened again and something strange happened. I could see everything in absolute clarity. I could see the fine details of my room's ceilings and the light that filtered from my ivory curtains. My hands came up and touched the area near my eyes. I gasped when I noticed that my glasses were not on perched on my nose like they usually were, but they were thrown across the room. The heat that consumed my body only hours before was gone and I felt almost weightless. I rose from my bed without making much noise, something that made me feel even more out of place, and walked towards my bedroom door.

Christopher was waiting outside of my door, his bright blue eyes looking above my head as he turned to look at me. He inhaled deeply, something he always did to help identify who he was near, before exhaling slowly. His dark eyebrows furrowed over his eyes and his head tilted. He walked over to me and his hands began to touch my face. He only did this when he wanted to visualize someone, which usually happened whenever he would meet someone new.

"Christopher, what are you doing?" I inquired. His fingers moved faster across my face and hair when he heard my voice.

"Cara, what has happened to you?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You smell different," Christopher stated. His thumbs went across my cheekbones. "You have higher cheekbones, a smaller nose, and your lips feel bigger. You're different."

"Oh my god," I heard. I turned around to see my parents standing a few feet away from my brother and I. My mother's eyes were wide and her right hand was covering her dainty mouth. My father looked at me with surprise written clearly across his face.

"Am I right? Does she look different?" Christopher asked, his tone urgent. "What is going on?"

"She's a veela's mate," my dad replied. His breathless tone made my body flood with anxiety. I quickly ran towards the closet bathroom that was down the hallway.

I ignored the sound of my name being yelled by my parents as I threw myself into the bathroom. I suddenly forgot to breathe as I looked at my appearance. My brother was right: my cheekbones were higher, my lips were full, and my nose was a tad bit smaller. My hair was no longer a neutral brown, but a milk chocolate that fell from my head in soft curls around my face. But my once hazel eyes were a bright brown and I could still see everything in front of me as if I had perfect vision. I was no longer thin but my body was slightly rounded with smooth curves that gave me an hourglass figure. I ran my hand through my hair, trying to see if it was real. I turned and looked at my mother and father as the stood at the doorframe.

"What happened?" I asked, my voice filled with frenzy. "Why did this happen to me?"

"You're the mate of a veela," my dad replied. I turned back to look at this new person in the mirror, not believing that it was truly me. "You've changed to match the male veela that has probably been waiting for you to turn sixteen. Fate has picked the two of you to be together. Every veela mate goes through a drastic change like this. I can't believe that I forgot."

As I continued to stare in the mirror at my appearance, I felt my insides freeze. I looked so different that I was bound to be more noticed, especially by the one person I didn't want to notice me. I did not like Draco Malfoy and he certainly didn't like me. I never went out of my way to make him hate me so much. I even tried to avoid him as much as possible but it never mattered. Because of my last name, he would push me, pull my hair, and make such rude comments about me. I couldn't avoid him despite the fact that we were in different houses. I was in Gryffindor and he was the model of everything a person in Slytherin hoped to be. But no matter how well I blended into the mass of students, he would always find me and manage to ruin my day to the best of his abilities. All I wanted was for him to leave me alone so that I could live my life as quietly and unnoticed as possible. In fact, it was my goal to be left by myself for my sixth year. But I was sure that this wouldn't happen while I looked like this. I could only imagine what he would say or do when he noticed that I looked so different. I could already hear him taunting me.

"But, I don't want to be this way," I told my dad. He frowned at my statement but urged me to continue. "I want to be a normal witch. I don't want to be a veela mate."

"Cara, do you not remember your grandpa?" my mom asked. "Do you not remember how much he loved your grandma? It is a great thing to be a veela mate. You will be protected and well taken care of for all of your days. Your mate will love you and no one else."

"But I will be teased for looking like this," I argued. I didn't like my new appearance at all. I would stick out like a sore thumb.

"Darling, there is no one that would dare even think about teasing you about anything," she replied. "Veelas are quite possessive, if I do remember correctly. They do not like anyone insulting their mate."

"The people that tease me won't care."

"Maybe not at first, but give it time and your veela will teach them a lesson or two."

Perhaps it was my newness to this situation, but I severely doubt that Draco would care about hurting someone's feelings or the consequences of it. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I nodded, hoping that the few weeks before school started would give me enough time to adapt to what I was. I only hoped that my potential mate would find me before Draco did.