A/N: This was written for the Quills and Parchment FB groups one-shot challenge Not Quite Human. Prompt: The theme this round is "Creature Fic." For this competition, creature is defined as a semi-human magical being who is either born as a creature (veela, metamorphagus, giant, etc) or made a creature through a traumatic event (werewolf, vampire, etc).
Alpha read by the fabulous brownlark42! She's like the first night you can sleep with your windows open in the spring.
Gabrielle Delacour, recent graduate of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, was being summoned home. She hated being summoned home. She had just set up her apartment in Paris' La Ruelle Magique, she had only been here a week! And here was her maman's owl holding a missive out for her to return home. Gabrielle could only hope that this didn't have anything to do with the silly society debut her mémé had suggested the last time she was home over the winter holidays. Gabrielle let out a heavy sigh as she fed the owl and shooed him on his way. She had her own owl she would reply with later.
Gabrielle finished her tea and breakfast and headed to her job in the Ministère de la Magie. Today was her first day, and she was both excited and nervous. She was going to be starting as an under secretary's assistant in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. It was her stepping stone to a career in politics. Her father had no sons, nobody to take over the Delacour seat in the Magiciens Judiciaires. It was Gabrielle's ambition that she would assume the Delacour seat, perhaps even ascend further to the Confédération Internationale des Sorciers. She didn't have time for a society debut, let alone the husband she would be expected to take. It wasn't her fault that her older sister had married so far beneath the Delacour family.
Gabrielle put the letter from her maman out of her mind for the day, she needed to be focused for her first day at the Ministère. The day flew by and her job was everything she hoped it would be, she had even sat in a conference with members from the British Ministry. On her first day! Gabrielle was happy as she walked back to her apartment that evening. She had forgotten all about the letter from her maman.
Upon entering her apartment, Gabrielle was startled to see that not only her maman, her papa, and her mémé were sitting at her kitchen table. She hadn't even told them where she lived yet! How did they get in?
"Maman! This is a surprise," Gabrielle said as she came forward to kiss both of her maman's cheeks. She went around the table, greeting each of her elders.
"Gabrielle, we had to take matters into our own hands after you didn't answer my letter this morning," Maman scolded her with a sniff. Gabrielle rolled her eyes as she turned to her stove to began preparing tea for the four of them.
"Today was my first day at the Ministère, I couldn't hardly miss that to return home! It would compromise my whole future," Gabrielle explained as she turned back to the table with the tea tray.
"Sit down, Gabby," Papa said softly. Gabrielle looked at him with concern, he hadn't called her Gabby in years, it was her childhood nickname. Something must be very wrong if all four of them were here and her father was calling her Gabby. She sat and poured tea for the rest of the group, waiting for one of them to say something.
"Well, are you going to explain?" Gabrielle finally asked when nobody else had spoken for several moments.
"Gabrielle, what do you know of your Veela heritage?" Mémé asked sipping at her tea.
Gabrielle scrunched her brows in thought, "I know you are a full Veela, Mémé. And that Maman is half-Veela, which makes Fleur and I quarter-Veela. Hardly enough power there to even turn heads."
Mémé chuckled at her response, "You are almost correct. You know there are no male Veela, correct?"
Gabrielle nodded. She didn't care that much about being a Veela, it was somewhat convenient in the looks department, but Gabrielle had never wanted to be known for her looks. She was much less shallow than Fleur, she wanted people to know her because she was smart, and ambitious.
"The Veela heritage is passed down through the woman, and it's a lottery in each generation what will be passed along. We do know that any woman less than a quarter-Veela won't be able to give birth to a full-blooded Veela. You are correct, your maman is half-Veela and Fleur is quarter-Veela. But you aren't," Mémé explained.
"What do you mean, I'm not quarter-Veela? What am I? Half? None?" Gabrielle rapid fire questioned her mémé. Had she been lied to her whole life? Or had she only assumed she was quarter-Veela because Fleur was and that's how genetics worked? At least, it seemed that's how genetics worked on normal species.
"You are a full Veela," Maman told her in a grave voice.
"How do you know? I haven't done anything a full Veela can do. When I get angry I don't turn into a harpy! I don't grow wings! You must be wrong," Gabrielle insisted. She couldn't be full Veela. She didn't know that much about her Veela background, but she did know that being a full Veela meant she would never be able to sit on the Magiciens Judiciaires let alone the Confédération Internationale des Sorciers.
"We've known since you were born, Gabby. We wanted you to have a normal life, to not be burdened…" Mémé hissed interrupting her papa. Papa glared at Mémé, "To not be burdened with this knowledge as a child."
"Och," Mémé grunted. "It's not so bad as all that being a full Veela. But your papa is right, we did want you to have as normal a childhood as possible."
"All right, check for a normal childhood. Now what is so important that it couldn't wait until the weekend?" Gabrielle asked refilling her teacup.
"Your birthday is in a month," Maman said.
"I'm aware of when my birthday is, Maman," Gabrielle replied with an eye roll.
"When you turn 18, your full Veela powers will come into effect. You will need to take the time to learn them. You'll need to spend the time with Mémé so she can teach you. And you are required to mate," Maman told her brusquely. Maman hated when Gabrielle sassed, it's why Gabrielle was so good at it, she'd had lots of practice.
"If I'm a full Veela will I be able to take your seat on the Magiciens Judiciaires, Papa?" Gabrielle asked, even though she already knew the answer.
"You know the answer to that, Gabby. Even if you obtain excellent control over your abilities, you will not be able to sit on any government seat that has the potential to sway the public," Papa replied.
"Putain!" Gabrielle shouted slamming her teacup onto the table, breaking it into three pieces.
"Gabrielle!" All three shouted in shock and disapproval.
"Well, it's not your future that is completely ruined, is it? Why didn't you tell me? You knew what my aspirations were. I've had the same dream since I was eight!" Gabrielle stood from the table, knocking her chair over in her agitation. She waved her wand to clean up the spilled tea and broken teacup, then began pacing her small kitchen.
In her anger, Gabrielle didn't notice the small wings that had sprouted at her back and through her robes, they flapped in annoyance. Her hands sprouted long talons at the end of each nail, as she clenched her fists while she paced, the new talons bit into her skin, causing her hands to bleed.
"Gabby," Papa said, gesturing to her hands.
Gabrielle looked down at her hands in shock. What happened to her? What were these talons doing here? She looked up at Mémé with horror written over her face.
"This - it's - oh dieux," Gabrielle muttered staring at her hands. The blood continued to drip to the floor before her maman leapt into action. She cast a healing spell at Gabrielle's palms and a cleaning spell at the floor once the blood had stopped.
"You will have to come home with us Gabrielle," Mémé told her. "I'm sorry about your job, but as you can see, you need to learn to control your power. Once you can, you'll need to mate. We have a list of…"
"What do you mean, mate?" Gabrielle snapped at her mémé with narrowed eyes as she retook her seat at the table. Gabrielle had no plans to get married and become some housewife.
"Veela mate for life, we'll be hosting your societal debut in hopes that we'll find you a mate as soon as possible. We aren't like werewolves, anyone you are compatible with will be an adequate mate, there is no one true mate out there for you," Mémé explained.
"What kind of timeline am I on?" Gabrielle asked in a quiet tone. She was thinking very quick, she had a month to learn to control her powers and then what? Find a mate. Could she at least return to the Ministère?
"Once your powers are under control, you'll have another month, possibly two in order to find a mate and complete the mating bond," Mémé explained.
"You expect me to find someone to spend the rest of my life with in three months?! Are you all insane?" Gabby exclaimed, throwing up her hands in frustration.
"Not someone, a man. Full Veela have to mate with a man or wizard. No werewolves, vampires, metamorphmagi, women, or witches; man or wizard only. It's required to pass on the Veela genes and cement your power," Maman explained. Gabrielle stood again and paced away from her family, deep in thought.
She turned and glared at her parents and Mémé, how could they have done this to her? How could they have hidden such an important piece of her life from her? And then let her start a new job all before yanking it away from her? She didn't understand, there seemed to be something else going on here.
"I'm not leaving until you tell me why," Gabrielle said, a mulish look on her face. She crossed her arms over her chest as she leaned against the counter. She did manage to keep from stomping a foot.
"Gabby - " Papa began.
"Don't you Gabby, me, Papa! I went 18 years without you telling me such a vital part of my life. You let me go all through school, graduate, get an apartment, start my very first job and on the very first day of my very first job, you barge in here and tell me I have to go home! And that I'm a full Veela! And that you have been LYING to me for my entire life! So, I want to know why. Why did you lie? Why let me get an apartment? And start a new job?" Gabby huffed out in one breath, giving a death glare to her family.
Mémé stood up and came forward, handing Gabrielle a piece of parchment. It was a letter from Conseil International de Veela, it was three pages long and it scolded her grandmother for not bringing Gabrielle forward and presenting her for the Conseil.
"What is this Conseil? Why were you supposed to present me to them?" Gabrielle asked her mémé. She had never heard of such a thing, although she could see why the Veela's would want to have some sort of governing body. Veela's could wield immense power over others and there would need to be some kind of check to ensure they didn't corrupt a government or muggles or something.
"It's a Conseil all Veela and half-Veela are members of. We knew you were Veela from birth, so we were supposed to present you as a child. But usually Veela show some kind of signs during adolescence and you, you didn't. We thought we had read the test wrong at birth. But the Conseil has a low level universal spell across Europe to track Veela and when they caught your Veela signature in the last sweep of that spell, they sent me that letter," Mémé explained to her.
"So the Conseil thinks I'm Veela, but you aren't sure?" Gabrielle was now confused. Was she or was she not Veela?
"What you just did? With the claws and the wings? That should have happened every time you get angry as you went through adolescence, but it didn't happen to you. We thought we had read the test wrong and decided not to say anything in the hopes that you weren't a full Veela," Papa told her.
Wings? Gabrielle looked over her shoulder, like the claws that had appeared in her anger and disappeared when she calmed down she couldn't see any evidence of wings. When she looked back up, she could see Mémé glaring at Papa. Obviously, Mémé didn't think it was so bad being Veela.
"All right, I get it. You weren't sure so you decided to keep it from me. But this is inconvenient. What am I supposed to tell my boss at the Ministère?" Gabrielle took her seat again.
"You are going to have to resign, you'll be gone for at least two months, longer depending on who you choose as your mate. We need to get going, the Conseil meets this evening and we'll need to present you then," Maman told her as she stood from the table. Maman pulled out her wand and began casting packing spells, all of Gabrielle's perfectly placed things zoomed toward her maman and packed themselves neatly into the boxes her maman had provided.
Gabrielle huffed a sigh and began helping her maman pack her belongings. There was no need to argue further, her family was going to force her along, she may as well cooperate for the time being. That didn't mean she was going along with this idiotic mate plan. Gabrielle did not need a man to take care of her. And she had gotten along 18 years controlling her Veela powers just fine, she wasn't going to need a man now to help her.
Gabrielle tried not to fidget under the fierce glares of the seven Veela women staring down at her. She was in an audience chamber at the Conseil International de Veela and the Conseil sat high above the chamber, overlooking the presentation floor and the benches behind it where the rest of the Veela and half-Veela that came to this evening's meeting sat.
"You are the Delacour Veela who was not presented as a child?" Madame Conseillère en Chef asked Gabrielle with a fierce glare and a turned down mouth. Each of the Conseillers were beautiful, stunningly so. Gabrielle had never been considered beautiful in her life, she was at most passably pretty. She couldn't imagine that anyone would think she was a Veela when compared to such women as these.
Gabrielle swallowed and nodded, not saying a word.
"Nothing to say for your actions?" another conseillère asked. Gabrielle raised an eyebrow at her and shook her head.
"Does she speak at all?" a third conseillère asked her Mémé, who was standing beside her. Maman and Mémé had counseled Gabrielle to stay quiet throughout the council meeting. Gabrielle had been getting in trouble because of her mouth since she could talk, so she knew why her maman and Mémé had asked this of her. But it took Gabrielle biting the insides of her cheeks to not retort to the Conseil all the anger she had at her parents and Mémé in regards to her knowledge of her Veela heritage.
"Of course she speaks Madame Conseillers," Mémé assured the Conseil.
"Well, speak girl! Why were you not presented as a child? Why wait until right before your full powers come into effect?" Madame Conseillère en Chef demanded. Gabrielle looked at her mémé and maman. When they both gave reluctant nods, she turned back to the Conseil.
"Because my family has lied to me, my entire life Madame Conseillers," Gabrielle said without elaborating.
There was some murmuring on the benches behind the Delacour family, Mémé shot her a disapproving look while Maman grasped her upper arm, squeezing it in warning.
"Elaborate, girl," Madame Conseillère en Chef said after the chamber had quieted.
"I had assumed I was quarter-Veela as my elder sister is. It wasn't until this afternoon I found out the truth," Gabrielle admitted, the bitterness heavy in her voice. She was going to make them pull the story out of her, she planned to offer no extra details.
The Conseillers huddled together at that pronouncement and more chatter came from the benches. How could she have just found out? This was a grown woman, surely she had outbursts as a teenager.
"She had no adolescent outbursts of her Veela power?" Madame Conseillère en Chef asked Mémé.
"She did not," Mémé replied. "We did the spell at birth, but when she had no outbursts we thought we read the results wrong. Then when I received your letter, we went to inform her."
Gabrielle huffed a sigh, that is not how she would have handled this.
Madame Conseillère en Chef stared down at Gabrielle, a frown on her face as she was deep in thought. "May I run a Veela confirmation spell on you child?"
Gabrielle nodded her assent, might as well get it over with. Madame Conseillère en Chef pulled out her wand and muttered, "Carmine confirmatione creaturae."
A weak pale pink light shot out of the wand and encapsulated Gabrielle. Gabrielle felt a mild tingle as the Conseillers magic brushed against her own. Then the pale pink light surrounding her turned a dark, vivid, forest green. Gasps and exclamations were heard around the chamber. Gabrielle assumed this meant that the green light wasn't supposed to happen.
"Does someone care to enlighten me?" Gabrielle asked above the din. The overwhelming thing she heard over and over again, whispered by everyone was Gamayun. A word Gabrielle had never heard before.
The Madame Conseillère en Chef tapped her wand along the bench, spraying gold sparks among the crowd to get the chamber's attention.
"It appears we have a Gamayun in our midst. Madame Secrétaire du Conseil," she turned to the Veela next to her who was flipping through the large tome she had been writing in. "When was the last time we had a Gamayun?"
"Let me see, let me see," the Secrétaire muttered, "Looks like the last recorded Gamayun was back in 1737. Well, that's when the last Gamayun died anyway. She was discovered in 1689." The Secrétaire looked back up at the Madame Conseillère en Chef with a brief smile.
"Pardon me," Gabrielle interrupted forcing the seven Veela Conseillers to look at her. "Care to explain?"
"Does she know nothing of Veela history?" Madame Conseillère en Chef asked Mémé and Maman.
"Hello! I'm the one with the questions. Why don't you talk to me? I know what Veela's are. What I don't know is what this Gamayun is and why they are so special," Gabrielle demanded crossing her arms and glaring up at the Conseillers.
"Gamayun are very rare -" Madame Conseillère en Chef started.
"I know that, I'm not an imbecile," Gabrielle snapped. Mémé and Maman both gasped, Maman went so far as to slap her hand over Gabrielle's mouth.
"Keep a civil tongue in your head, girl," Madame Conseillère en Chef scolded. Gabrielle glared at Madame Conseillère en Chef.
"I don't know or care who you are, but my life was completely turned upside down. Today. This has all happened today. Now you tell me I'm some mysterious Gamayun? I'm fed up with this whole thing!" Gabrielle shouted at the Conseillers, then she turned on her heel and left the chamber her heels clicking the entire way. She had shocked everyone into silence, which made Gabrielle smile. The only good thing to have come from the day. Once outside the chamber, she Apparated to the Chateau, intending to take a long bath and read a book. She figured her maman and mémé would figure out the details and relay them to her the next day.
"You aren't concentrating Gabrielle! You must concentrate if you want to learn to control your powers!" Claire Brosseau shouted, she was the Madame Mentor du Conseil who had shown up on the Delacour's doorstep that morning to train Gabrielle in the art of controlling her Gamayun powers. Gamayun powers were very like Veela powers, which she found out when Elaina Saint-Yves, Madame Historienne du Conseil, also showed up and explained all the Conseil knew about Gamayun.
Gamayun were Seers, and very powerful. They are considered to be the mother species of Veela and all Veela descended from Gamayun. When Gamayun get angry, they can sprout wings and grow claws and look like harpies, like Veela. They are also very beautiful and have to work on keeping their beauty power under control lest they turn everyone, male and female, around them into lust-controlled maniacs. That's what Gabrielle was working on now, keeping her beauty under control.
Claire had shown her how to meditate to release the power that she had been keeping locked down, but now she had to learn to control that power and use it at will. Gabrielle was not succeeding very well.
"Merde, I am concentrating you cretin," Gabrielle grumbled under her breath at Claire as she re-took her meditation pose.
"You aren't, or you wouldn't have poor Elaina over there salivating over you," Claire pointed out. Gabrielle looked to her left and could see her maman holding Elaina back by the arms. Elaina looked like she was crazed at the sight at Gabrielle, her eyes were wide, and she was drooling, and panting. Gabrielle shuddered, there was no way she could go in public ever again if that's what looking at her did to most people. Claire had performed a powerful shield charm which kept her protected and Maman and Mémé were protected because they were blood related.
Gabrielle worked with Claire for a week before Claire declared her proficient enough to be seen in public. It had been a long and grueling week. And at the end of it, her mémé had sprung a ball upon her.
A freaking ball! Gabrielle was exhausted, the last thing she wanted to do was mingle at a damned ball, but not only had Maman and Mémé insisted, the Conseil insisted as well. All anyone talked about what how finding Gabrielle a mate as soon as possible would help solidify and anchor her powers.
That's how she found herself talking to the most vain man in existence.
"And that's how I was able to keep my hair so blond," Draco Malfoy told her with a smirk.
Gabrielle nodded and took another sip from her champagne glass, the ball was half over and Draco Malfoy hadn't left her side. She was desperately looking for a way to end this conversation, not only was the Malfoy heir vain, he was boring, ridiculously boring and Gabrielle thought she would fall asleep standing up if she had to listen to any more of it. As Draco had launched into another story about how good-looking he was, Gabrielle interrupted him.
"As fascinating as your looks are as a topic of conversation for the last hour and a half, I see someone I must say hello to, pardon me," Gabrielle paired this statement with a simpering smile and rushed off before he could say anything more.
Gabrielle did not have someone in mind to say hello to as she left Draco, but she figured she would come across someone as she moved across the ballroom. She had been circling the dance floor, when a pair of strong arms swept her up in their embrace and began waltzing with her. Looking up, she found Cormac McLaggen smirking down at her. Gabrielle sighed and continued the dance with him while he rattled on about his barely existent Quidditch career. As soon as the song was up, Gabrielle thanked him for the dance and moved quickly away from the boor.
The ball did not last much longer and Gabrielle was able to hide from the rest of her would-be suitors in the gardens. She could only hope she wouldn't have to endure too many more of these events.
A week later, Gabrielle found herself at an intimate soiree hosted by the Conseil to find her a mate. At least it wasn't a ball, and the Conseil was more selective than her parents had been. No vapid Draco Malfoy or uncouth Cormac McLaggen. Instead she had to put up with Roger Davies who thought he was smarter than everyone else in the room. He talked to her for an hour over some arcane law that last came into effect in the mid-1300's and was unlikely to ever come into effect again. Gabrielle almost fell asleep in her wine before she escaped to the garden.
Unfortunately, in the garden she suffered no better as she was set upon by Anthony Goldstein who talked at length about the importance of quality potions supplies being brought into Europe from abroad. While Gabrielle did agree that potions supplies needed to be of a good quality to make good potions, she didn't think it required a 45 minute one-sided dissertation.
Two days after the soiree hosted by the Conseil, her parents hosted a dinner party, for 50. Gabrielle wasn't sure that a dinner party of that size could still be classed as a dinner party, but her maman told her since they could fit 50 around the dining room table than in her opinion it did. So dinner party it was, Gabrielle was sat next to a gentleman (in the loosest of terms) named Greg Goyle, Gabrielle thought the alliteration too much, who had terrible table manners. At least he didn't speak to Gabrielle at all. He didn't even say hello, as soon as the party sat, he dug into the food in front of him. And didn't stop eating until the dessert course had been served.
If Greg was the ideal dinner companion, in that he didn't talk and didn't involve Gabrielle in tedious conversations about topics she didn't care about or didn't know about, the gentleman sitting on her left was the opposite. Ernie Macmillan was an officious looking wizard, he had spectacles and quizzed Gabrielle on her schooling and what department she had briefly worked in at the Ministère. Then he proceeded to tell her everything she had done that was wrong, not only in her schooling and choice of career, but life in general. Gabrielle had never had the urge to hurt anyone, but at that moment, she had a strong desire to see Ernie bleeding on the floor. Luckily, Ernie seemed to have decided that Gabrielle was not the witch for him and moved on to speak with someone else as drinks were being served in the drawing room after dinner.
Three days after the worst dinner party Gabrielle had ever attended, her parents hosted a garden party. When Gabrielle told her maman that a garden party was the same thing as a dinner party, her maman had told her it wasn't at all as it was being held in the garden and not the dining room.
The garden party did not require assigned seats and Gabrielle was free to mingle as she pleased, however the garden was generally where Gabrielle had disappeared to at previous events meant she needed a new hiding spot. After mingling with the guests for the first 20 minutes, Gabrielle vanished into the house, ostensibly to find a bathroom, but really she sneaked into her father's study.
She had just poured herself a generous helping of firewhisky when a voice startled her.
"You came in to find the hard liquor too?"
Gabrielle looked around the darkened study and found a tall, broad man sitting on the couch in front of the empty fireplace. He was clutching his own glass of firewhisky. This was a man Gabrielle didn't recognize as the bevy of Hogwarts and Beauxbaton's graduates that she had been forced to entertain over the last few weeks. She could barely make out dark hair hanging just above his wide shoulders.
"This is the fourth event my parents have hosted in two weeks to find me a husband in their scheme to marry me off," Gabrielle took a large swallow of her firewhisky before continuing, "I need the hard liquor more than anyone else here."
She startled the man into a chortle, he had a nice laugh, it was rich and deep and a bit husky as if he had been drinking firewhisky for longer than the 20 minutes the party had been going for.
Gabrielle took a seat next to the man on the couch, he was shrouded in shadow, the curtains to the study had been drawn and there weren't any candles lit in the room.
"So you're the extra-special woman who all these parties have been for?" the man asked her, turning to look at her. Half of his face came into view in the dim light and she could make out a brilliant green eye looking at her.
"That's me," Gabrielle replied, lifting her tumbler in a mocking salute.
"Cheers," the man replied, tapping his own tumbler to hers before drinking deeply. Gabrielle took another sip of her own firewhisky studying the man next to her.
"You look somewhat familiar, but I don't quite recognize you," Gabrielle mused almost to herself, but the man heard anyway and she could see a smirk forming on his face.
"Oh, you would recognize me, Gabrielle," the man told her quietly before turning to face the fireplace again.
"Why are you hiding in here?" Gabrielle asked.
"Same reason you are, I suspect," the man said.
"Your parents are also trying to marry you off? And claim you are some creature that is the mother to all Veela? And in order to retain and control your powers, they insist you must have a mate?" Gabrielle asked tongue-in-cheek.
The man boomed out a laugh again, deep, and rich, and loud. Gabrielle couldn't help but to chuckle along with him. There was some magnetic quality about this man that made Gabrielle want to know him.
"What is your name?" she asked.
"It doesn't matter," the man told her, turning to scrutinize her again.
"It matters to me," she replied quietly, facing him on the couch.
He pulled out his wand and lit all of the candles in the room and Gabrielle found herself face-to-face with an adult Harry Potter. She hadn't seen him since her sister's wedding seven years ago. After he had defeated Voldemort six years previous, he all but disappeared from the wizarding world. Hardly anybody had seen him, however his closest friends Hermione and Ron Weasley had reported to the Daily Prophet on a yearly basis that Harry was alive and well and had no more information than that.
"Harry Potter, you're looking better than the last time I saw you," Gabrielle flirted with him, earning another laugh.
"Gabrielle Delacour, you are still a flirt," Harry teased.
"It's in the blood," Gabrielle said as she winked at him. Harry threw his head back in guffaws.
"I haven't laughed like this in ages, Gabrielle," Harry told her as he wiped tears from his eyes. Gabrielle grinned. He looked care-worn and tired, like he could use a good laugh and Gabrielle was happy to provide that to him.
"Where have you been?" Gabrielle asked him. She seemed to be doing all of the questioning.
"Here and there, I never wanted celebrity. I had to get out of the wizarding world. My entire life I was honed to be this weapon. I didn't know how else to be," Harry shrugged and drank the rest of his firewhisky. He stood from the couch and Gabrielle worried for a moment that he was going to leave, but he went to the drinks cart and poured himself another.
"I can understand that," Gabrielle replied quietly. And she could, in the last month she had gone from schoolgirl, to working woman, to Veela to Gamayun, each position more powerful than the last and each requiring new skills in order to fend off all of the strangers who wanted a piece of her.
"So, what is this new thing you are? Mother to all Veela you said? Does it have a name?" Harry asked her, sitting next to her on the couch again, turning so he could face her as they talked.
Gabrielle sighed heavily and began explaining her last month of life. She talked about how she had started her new job when her parents came calling to tell her she had to quit. Gabrielle was still upset about it, all these weeks later. Harry placed a hand on her knee in commiseration, he knew what it felt like to have your life decided by someone else. She told him about being Gamayun, and what that meant. When she mentioned that her Seeing capabilities would begin within a few months, Harry winced.
"Well, that sucks," Harry said with a half smile.
Gabrielle let out a quiet chuckle, "Yes, it does suck, Harry." She sighed and leaned back into the couch, draining the rest of her firewhisky.
"What are you going to do now?" he asked as he settled back into the couch next to her.
"Find a mate, I guess," Gabrielle went on to explain what her mémé had told her about the mating process, all the information the Conseil could figure out about Gamayun was that their mating process was the same as Veela's, they mate for life, and anybody compatible would do, there was no one true mate out there for them.
"You haven't found one after all these get together's?" Harry asked, teasing her.
"Not yet. Are you offering Harry Potter?" Gabrielle teased back. They both were leaning into the back of the couch and she turned her head to look at him to find he was already looking at her. His gaze was intense and he didn't have a smile on his face anymore.
"Maybe, are you interested?" he asked, he tilted his head forward his lips hovering above hers.
"Depends on how well you kiss," Gabrielle replied breathlessly as she pushed her lips into his own. The kiss was unlike any Gabrielle had had before. It was intense and sweet and when he slid his arm around her waist, she gasped in surprise, his touch electrified her. He preyed on her shock by plundering her mouth with his own, their tongues tangled and twirled around one another and Gabrielle could feel her body responding to his, her nipples tightened and desire set her skin aflame. Harry ended the kiss, pulling back slowly as if savoring the taste of her. He quirked his brow at her. When she didn't respond, he prompted her.
"Did that meet your approval?" he asked, his hand leaving her waist and brushing against her cheek. She leaned into his touch and closed her eyes.
"Maybe we should try again? Just to be sure," she told him. He swooped back in giving her another searing kiss that had her panting when he ended it.
"Mmm," Gabrielle said when he pulled away again, "you'll do."
Harry threw his head back and laughed, causing Gabrielle to giggle along with him.
"I'm glad you think that 'I'll do', Gabrielle. How soon are you expected to announce your mate?" Harry asked. He reached down to hold her hand and was brushing his thumb along her knuckles. His touch causing Gabrielle to lose her train of thought.
"Oh, hmm, as soon as I find him I suspect," Gabrielle said absentmindedly replaying their last kiss in her head.
"Maybe we should go find your parents then," Harry told her seriously.
"What? Are you serious?" Gabrielle broke through her fog of desire with some effort.
"I'm serious, if you are," Harry told her.
"You don't even know me! Why would you want to be my mate? Gamayun mate for life, you'll be stuck with me! The wizarding world would never let me live it down, 'Rare Veela Traps Man-Who-Won'," Gabrielle complained to Harry.
"You need a mate, I find myself amenable to that. We seem compatible enough, I'm sure we can work out the details later. Besides, if I have a mate when I return to the wizarding world, then witches and wizards won't throw themselves at me. This is a selfish move, you see," Harry told her with a smirk.
Gabrielle could see his point. And from what she knew of him, he wouldn't care about her Seeing abilities, and the rest of her powers were Veela powers, nothing special. She looked at him for a long time trying to decide if she was going to find anyone better. Her parents would not be pleased to have another daughter marry a Briton, but they were a sexy lot, Gabrielle could admit that. And being married to Harry Potter wouldn't hurt her political aspirations, in fact, they may even boost them. Gabrielle could see the benefits in Harry's plan, for both of them.
"All right, let's do it," Gabrielle said with a sharp nod.
"Good, let's practice that kissing again," Harry said as he leaned in for another scorching kiss.
A/N: As always I post aesthetics to my works on my tumblr page crochetawayhpff. Thoughts?