The Moody Veela Chronicles

Chapter Two

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize is mine as HP doesn't belong to me.

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In a daze, Draco followed Granger. He still wasn't entirely convinced that this wasn't a dream. A strange dream, but then he had stranger. Like the one where he and Granger were getting married, and the wonder twins had shown up as her bridesmaids. He shuddered, recalling how the two were dressed in dress robes that were a particular garish shade of pink that managed to clash with both Pothead's eyes and Weasel's hair.

But no matter how strange the dream, there was one common thread that always ran through the. In all of his dreams, Granger was desperately in love with him. He stole a peek at the witch fuming ahead of him. No, it didn't appear that she had any affection for him. Apparently this wasn't a dream. His charms simply didn't work on her. He had been told so, of course, the same day he had learned that he was part veela.

Draco sighed, thinking of the day his parents had broken the news to him. He had been so cocky back then, certain that at least one of the schemes he and his father had plotted to use on his mate had to work. Unfortunately they had all failed miserably. His mother had been right. His father hadn't known what he was talking about.

For what must have been the hundredth time, Draco wished that his veela charms would work on Granger the way they worked on just about everyone else. What was the point of being able to charm almost anyone into bed with you if you couldn't charm the one person that actually mattered?

Not that he hadn't tried. He had to make certain that his parents were right about Granger being immune to his charms after all. He had tried all year long to get Granger just to notice him but to no avail. She preferred the company of buffoons. He hung his head sadly and felt sorry for himself.

"Oh stop that," his witch told him without even bothering to turn around. It was as though she had eyes on the back of her head.

"Stop what?"

"Moping. I simply won't have it. What do you have to mope about?"

"Oh, I don't know…maybe about the fact that you hate me?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I don't hate you. I just think you're a nasty, little boy who has never learned how to play nice with others."

"Yeah, because that's so different from hating me."

She stopped in her tracks and spun around to face him. "Your sarcasm is amusing, but in the end, it won't get you what you want. If you want me to like you, you have got to change and become someone I want to spend time with. Right now, it's some times difficult just to tolerate you."

"If I knew how to do that, I would have already done so," he wailed. "But I don't know how to get you to like me." He pouted and scuffed his foot against the stone floor.

"I know, I know," she said consolingly. She patted his cheek. "There, there. That's why you've got to be trained. Don't worry. I'll take care of you." She turned around and once again began leading him towards Gryffindor Tower.

Up and up they climbed. Draco noted that his mate kept a brisk pace even though she was rather small. He frowned as he realized the reason behind it. The moving staircases waited for no one, and if Granger hadn't been so quick, she would have been stranded on several of them. He silently promised himself to have a chat with the staircases on his way down. His mate deserved better treatment than that, and he was going to make certain she got it.

Finally she stopped right in front of a large portrait. "Snickerdoodle," she said in a clear, ringing voice. He stored the password away in his memory as the portrait swung open.

"Don't even think about it," said Granger firmly.

"Think about what?"

"About sneaking back in here to play a prank on us Gryffindors. Trust me, I won't stand for it." She stamped her tiny foot. "If you do, I'll make certain you don't like the consequences."

Draco didn't care much for the tone of her voice. "I'm not your pet, you know, to be ordered around like that," he told her sulkily.

"Pity. If you were more like Crookshanks, then I could trust you to take care of yourself."

He glowered down at her, but she paid him no mind. How dare she compare him unfavorably to that orange nightmare she kept? He wisely kept his mouth shut though. He wasn't about to pick a fight with his mate, not in the heart of Gryffindor territory. He was a Slytherin, after all, and they didn't believe in fighting losing battles.

Or at least, not the current batch of Slytherins. He really couldn't say the same for his parents' generation, more's the pity.

The two of them entered the Gryffindor common room, which was thankfully empty. Instantly Draco grimaced in pain. His eyes felt like they were bleeding out. The Gryffindor common room had to be the worst example of bad taste he had ever seen—it looked as though the Weasleys all got together one weekend and decorated it in red and gold. It was no wonder why Granger was always to be found in the library studying. Anyone who tried to study here probably wound up with a blinding headache. Draco much preferred the cool greens of the Slytherin dungeons; it was much more conducive when it came to revising for exams.

All his thoughts flew out the window as a red-headed gangly freak came creaking down the stairs opposite of them. "Hermione!" exclaimed Weasley, sneering at Draco. "What the bloody hell is the ferret doing here? Come over here! Get away from him before he hurts you!"

Granger bounded over to Weasley and threw her arms around him. "Hello to you too, Ron," she said. "I knew I could depend on you to be waiting for me to return." Draco could have sworn that she was smirking.

Then she kissed the slimy, disgusting git.

Draco saw red. Growling he tore across to where the bumbling idiot was still fondling his mate. He swung at Weasley, knocking the other wizard down to the floor. But Draco wasn't done yet. No, not by a long shot. He raised his foot, determined to smash the ugly git's face into pieces.

Suddenly he was interrupted by his mate sliding in front of him. "Stop that!" Granger scolded. "I can't believe you. You would kick a man when he's down?"

"Best time to kick him," Draco replied sullenly. He didn't like how his mate was defending the Weasel. It made his fingers itch with the urge to choke the bloody bastard.

"You're worse than I thought," Granger noted to herself. She reached out and took his hand, holding it between hers. Somehow just the feel of her skin against his calmed him down and soothed his wounded pride. "You should know that—"

Whatever Granger was about to say, however, was interrupted by Weasley getting back to his feet. "You bloody tosser," he swore. "Think you've got the best of me? Well just wait till you see what I'm going to do you. Not even your mother will recognize you once I'm done." The fuming wizard drew his wand and pointed it straight at Draco.

"Oh for Merlin's sake." Hermione dropped Draco's hand in order to whirl around and confront Weasley. "Expelliarmus!" Weasley's wand flew to her, and she caught it neatly. "You're not going to do anything to Malfoy, Ron."

"Hermione!" cried the Weasel. "Why the hell are you taking his side? In case you didn't notice, he was the one who attacked me! He's the enemy!" Weasley pointed fiercely at Draco.

Yet Granger didn't even bat an eye at Weasley's theatrics. If anything, she looked to be a little bit bored. "Because it's not his fault," she replied in a slow drawl.

"Oh right. How could I have forgotten that? Malfoy doesn't have control of his facilities, and so he can't be blamed if his fist accidentally smashes into my face." Weasley's face was all scrunched up in rage, and he was turning an ugly shade of red. It clashed something awful with the purple bruise forming around his right eye. Draco rolled back on his heels and settled in to enjoy the scene. Weasley's complaints were music to his ears.

"Exactly. So glad you understand, Ron. You provoked him, so you're the one to blame."

Weasley's jaw hit the floor. He swallowed several times before speaking again. "I provoked him? Just how did I do that! All I did was try to protect you from him."

Granger tilted her head to the side as she considered her friend's words. "Fair enough, I suppose. I guess it's better to say that I provoked Malfoy by hugging you and then letting you take the brunt of it. So sorry."

Weasley's right eye began to twitch. "Oi. You provoked him by hugging me? Why do I get the feeling there's something you're not telling me here?"

"Really?" Then Granger smacked her fist in the palm of her hand. "Oh! That's right! I did forget to tell you something."

Both wizards looked at her askance, neither of them believing her innocent act. To her credit, she remained completely nonchalant in the face of their incredulous stares.

"So what is it you forgot to tell me?" Weasley prodded her.

"You know how you and Harry have been worried since we've been back about why Malfoy is always staring at me?"

"Yeah," said Weasley. "I also remembered how you told us how you can take care of yourself and how we better leave the matter alone." His eyes lit up in anticipation. "Don't tell me you've seen the error of your ways? And that you're going to let us make the Malfoy problem go away?"

Draco could only roll his eyes at the other wizard's stupidity. The answer to that should be obvious to anyone with a brain. If Granger was going to allow her goons to get rid of him, then she would have never interfered with Weasley's retaliation not five minutes ago.

It was more proof that Weasley didn't have even a functioning brain stem.

Meanwhile Granger had just about lost her patience with her slow friend. She stamped her foot indignantly. "Honestly! Of course not!" She waved Weasley's wand under his nose. "If I was going to let you lay a hand on Malfoy, I wouldn't have bothered to disarm you in the first place."

Weasley scuffed his shoe against the floor. "You could've just been stopping me because you were worried about the carpet."

The only response the fool received was a blistering glare.

"Or maybe to tell me to be more careful so I won't get caught hexing him?" Weasley tried again.

"Honestly. There are times I don't know why I even bother. Do you ever think before speaking?"

"Granger, this is Weasley we're speaking of. There's no evidence that he thinks at all."

She glowered at him, and he was happy. She had been paying too much attention to her idiot friend and not enough attention to him. "Malfoy, be quiet!" she told him. She then snapped her head to look at Weasley. "That goes double for you. If you have nothing intelligent to say, then it's best you not speak at all. So shut up and listen to what I have to say."

Granger took a deep breath before continuing. "In any event, you and Harry were completely wrong about Malfoy. That's why I told you to leave him alone. It wasn't as though he was planning to do anything to me. He couldn't do anything to hurt me if he tried, much less kill me." She cocked her head to one side. "Well at least not the way you're thinking."

Draco smirked in glee. He had never imagined that Granger could be such a wicked minx. But he held his tongue, even though he desperately wanted to add a lascivious comment of his own.

"But to make a long story short, he's"—Granger pointed a dainty finger at Draco—"a part veela, and I am his mate."

"What?"

"Why do I even bother?" Granger murmured. "I thought I was perfectly clear. What part didn't you understand?"

"Um…all of it?" Weasley winced as though expecting Granger to explode at him.

But that explosion never came, much to Draco's disappointment. Granger simply sighed and shook her head from side to side. "Right. Of course, all of it. It's not as though you bother paying attention in any of our classes. Well then, part veelas share many of the traits of full veelas, including their coloring, their charms, and their unearthly attractiveness. Unfortunately for them this also means that they have mates, whom they need in order to survive. Should a part veela be rejected by his mate, he will most certainly die of a broken heart."

"All right," said Weasley. "Is that why you told me not to bother with Malfoy? Because he's going to die anyway?"

That earned him an explosion from Granger. "What ever gave you that idea?" she raged.

"Well you did say you were his mate and that he can't live without you. Makes it pretty obvious, I think."

"I fail to see how—" She stopped in the middle of her sentence. Draco could feel the heat emanating from her as her temper reached new levels. "Wait a minute. You think I'm just going to reject him and leave him to die. How could you even think that I could be so cold, so cruel, so—argh!" Granger raised her hand to slap Weasley in the face.

Quick as a snake, Draco interceded, catching hold of her arm before he knew just what he was doing. "Don't," he said in a low, intense voice. He stared at her intently, his eyes practically boring holes into hers.

"You don't want me to slap Ron?" she asked. Draco blushed but nodded his head. He could see the wheels turning in Granger's head. "I see. Something else for me to look in to later." She tugged her arm away from his grip and lowered it. Then she took a step closer to Draco and tightly grasped his hand with hers.

"I'm so sorry to disappoint you, but leaving Malfoy to die never crossed my mind. I'm not that sort of witch," she told Weasley firmly. She coolly ignored his sputterings. "You'll just have to get used to the idea."

"But Hermione! He's been dead awful to you all these years…and you're just going to forget it like that?" The Gryffindor wizard snapped his fingers for emphasis.

"Of course not. Don't be ridiculous. It would take dozens of Obliviates for me to forget everything he's done and said. But at the same time, I'm not going to blame him for his awful behavior. That's because some part of him realized his attraction to me and he didn't know how to deal with it since his parents taught him that he should have nothing to do with my kind. I won't hold that against him. His parents are another matter, however." The zeal in her voice made Draco worry about introducing his mate to his parents. He would have to put that off for as long as possible.

"So you're happy about being doomed to be with the prat?"

"I am certainly not going to bemoan my fate. What good would that do? No, what I'm going to do is to teach Draco how to be a better person."

"Do you think that's possible?" asked Weasley. "He is a Malfoy after all."

"Frankly there are times when I have my doubts," Granger replied.

"I can hear you, you know," Draco said through gritted teeth.

"I know that. And don't grind your teeth together like that. It's not good for them," she told him bossily.

"Oh no!" Weasley gasped in horror. Slowly he was turning as pale as a sheet. "He's your new project, isn't he?"

"Is it that obvious?" said Granger with a sassy toss of her head. "Yes, he's my new project. I'll be spending the rest of my life with him, after all. I had better make sure he's someone I like." Draco opened his mouth to protest but the saucy wench stepped on his foot before he could get a single syllable out. He glowered down at her head. She squeezed his hand. Once again he was infused with a feeling of contentment, happy just to have his mate by his side.

It was really sort of disconcerting how she could distract him like that.

"Okay then. It looks like you've made up your mind. Better him than me. I wish you the best of luck with that." Weasley started to sneak away.

"And where do you think you're going, Ron Weasley?"

"Upstairs? So you can lay down the rules for him in private?"

"Not so fast. You're going to help me."

"What?"

She rolled her eyes. "Veelas are infamous for being possessive. That's why Draco struck you when I hugged and kissed you."

"Oh no." Draco hadn't thought it possible, but Weasley became even paler.

"Oh yes. I've volunteered you to help me help Malfoy rein in his possessiveness. He has to learn how to control himself when I'm around my male friends."

Weasley began shaking uncontrollably. "Help you help him?" he squeaked. "I don't suppose I have a choice in the matter?"

"Does the phrase 'communist choice' mean anything to you?"

"So I do have a choice?" Hope sprung up in Weasley's eyes.

"Yes. You can either help me with Malfoy, or you can help me with Malfoy. Which will it be?"

It took a minute before Weasley digested the proposition before him. "Hey! They're both the—"

"Excellent. I knew you would say yes," Granger interrupted him. "Now we just have to see what level of contact between you and me that Malfoy can stand. Once we have that determined, we can gradually build up his tolerance. Sounds easy, doesn't it?"

"Easy for you to say," Weasley returned. "Would it do any good to remind you that you have two best friends? Why don't you ask Harry?"

"Because Harry's more powerful magically, and so Malfoy would see him as more of a threat," she answered matter-of-factly. "Besides you owe me." The last was accompanied by a steely glare.

"I thought you said you'd forgiven me for acting like a prat!"

"Of course I've forgiven you, Ron!" Impulsively—or so it seemed—she leapt up and hugged Weasley.

A second later he was on the floor once more.

"That seems to be too much contact as well," Granger noted in a clinical voice. With one arm, she held Draco back from attacking the prone wizard. "Get up, Ron. Let's try just holding hands."

"I have a better idea," Weasley groaned. "Why don't we pretend we held hands and that this is what happened?"

"Do you still feel like breaking Ron's face?" Granger asked Draco in a stage whisper.

"It would be my pleasure," he replied.

"Hear that, Ron?" she called out. "If you don't get out, I'll stop holding Malfoy back."

Weasley groaned again. "You're cruel, you do know that, right?" he asked, pulling himself up.

Granger narrowed her eyes at him. "Aren't you lucky? Just think what I would do to you if we weren't friends? Now look sharp. Let's try holding hands." She spared a glance for Draco. "And this time, try not to hit him, okay?" she all but ordered him.

She reached out to take Weasley's hand. A moment later Weasley was sprawled out on the ground yet again. "All right. We'll just have to step it down some more," said Granger. "Get up, Ron."

This continued for the better part of the next hour. Granger would initiate contact with Weasley, and Draco would automatically attack the other male. She seemed to tolerate his reaction the first few times, but soon Granger's exhortations for him to control his instincts grew more strident. He realized that his witch was serious. So Draco began to try in earnest not to hit the annoying bastard. It was a truly difficult thing to do—often Draco found that his fist started to twitch when Weasley even got close to his mate—but he tried. Finally Draco achieved success by not hitting Weasley when the other wizard tapped Granger on the shoulder.

Granger squealed happily. "Excellent!" she said. She bounced up and down. "That's our baseline. With daily sessions to increase Malfoy's tolerance levels, his possessiveness will be fixed in no time!"

"Wait a minute! Did I hear you say daily sessions?" Weasley's voice cracked in fear.

"Yes, that's the only way to make sure he keeps moving forward," replied Granger. "I'm so happy you agreed to help out, Ron. I do want to be able to hug my male friends without Malfoy attacking them."

"Don't mention it," Weasley said dryly.

"Although…." There was something to Granger's tone that made both Draco and Weasley look at her in anticipation. "Aren't veelas supposed to be protective of their mates as well?"

"They are," Draco answered.

"So that would translate into your not liking when my friends take advantage of me because they haven't done their homework yet, right?" A wicked gleam appeared in her eyes. If Draco didn't know better, he would say that Granger was hoping he would answer in the affirmative.

"Um…I guess so?"

"You don't know so?"

Draco shrugged his shoulders. "It's not as though Weasley even mentioned getting help with that Potions essay or anything tonight. So I'm not certain. You might be right though."

"I see. Let's test that then. Ron! Ask me to let you copy my essay!" Now Draco was positive. He didn't know what Weasley had done to her in the past, but it was obvious that she was hoping Draco would have a reaction. He made a mental note not to get on her bad side.

Oh wait. It was probably too late for that. He tossed that mental note aside.

Weasley scoffed. "I'm done for the evening," he said. "I've had quite enough. I'm not going to be foolish enough to ask in front of him to copy your essay. I'll do that behind his back."

Draco growled. He didn't like the idea of Potter and Weasley taking advantage of his mate when he wasn't around. Though he thought he was being quiet, his reaction didn't go unnoticed.

"Oh! It does seem like Malfoy won't like that!" Granger said excitedly. She latched on to his arm. "That's settled then. You'll just have to study with me every night." She sent a wicked grin Weasley's way. "Do feel free to ask for help tomorrow night. Malfoy and I will be in the library together, studying."

"Great. Just great." Weasley's shoulders slumped forward, and a defeated aura surrounded him as he trudged back up the stairs.

Granger rubbed her hands together excitedly. "This is a perfect start," she announced to Draco. "Well maybe not perfect perfect. That would entail you throwing yourself at my feet and begging for mercy. But this will do. This will do." She looked sharply at him. "By the way, I expect you to meet me outside tomorrow to escort me to breakfast. Don't forget to offer to carry my books. Good night then. You know the way out."

With that, she left him. For one long minute, he looked up the stairs wondering. Then he shook his head. It wasn't worth it. He didn't want to provoke her anger when it seemed that she was willing to accept him. That was so much more than he had been hoping for.

Besides he had some moving staircases to talk to. With any luck, they'd behave themselves when he walked her to breakfast tomorrow morning, thereby earning him his first snog from her.

It wasn't likely but a moody veela could dream.

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Author's note: And more silliness abounds. Please review and let me know what you think.