A/N: I am very sorry for how long this chapter took. I admit, I forgot about it. And people didn't seem to like it very much. Every once and a while, I would get an email saying, so and so has signed up to be alerted when a new chapter comes out, and I'd be like, oh, someone is reading it. And then I'd start writing, but I couldn't figure out how to write the second chapter. And I'm afraid it'll be boring or something. So I mixed in several new comic reliefs. See if you can spot them.
Ch. 2
Draco gritted his teeth with anger. His mother was not home, when she had specifically told him she would be. Had the world suddenly turned against him? A house elf squeaked to his left and he turned slowly to face it with an evil menacing glare.
"M-Mrs. Malfoy would like Kinky to give Master Draco t-this." The elves hands trembled as he brought out a large hard back leather book. He looked terrified before squeaking out a 'good day' and apparating to the kitchens.
Draco kicked at where the elf had been seconds before, and grumbled miserably while heading up to his room. Trying to ignore the attractive singing in his head. He flipped open the book breezily and skimmed the table of contents. His brooding thoughts stopped as his mind froze. This was the Black Family Grimoire.
Grimoires were family journals passed down from generation to generation. Only older families had them, and that wasn't widely known because these books were very well safeguarded. Draco hadn't even seen theirs, only heard that it would come into his possession with his inheritance. Ancient magic was passed down through these books. What reason did his mother have in revealing this to him? He held the book up to get a better look at the cover and flipped through a few pages before something fell into his lap. He leaped up in shock; anything that fell out of a dark(or not, he really wasn't sure) ancient magical book probably wasn't something he wanted to touch. He expected his bed to catch fire at the least and was perfectly surprised when nothing happened to the piece of floor the paper fluttered down to. As he glared down at what appeared to be a perfectly harmless scrap he heard a strange brushing noise from his window.
His owl hooted at him happily, obviously amused that he was sprawled on the ground in an attempt to flee from a small piece of parchment. He turned his glare onto his owl.
"What is it?" he growled at Knap. She was positively hooting in glee by this point. He really should have picked a male. She stuck her leg out as an after thought to his question and continued to hoot at him.
He climbed to his feet and over to the messy feathered bird.
"Seriously, you're a pure breed bird. Arrange your feathers so you don't look like some cockatoo got it?" Her feathers grew in strange directions which gave her the look that she had just flown into several things. Or maybe it was the other way around.
After being relieved of her letter, she flew sloppily into the room and perched tipsily on the side of Draco's bed; her wings open wide to both sides. She looked quizzical at Draco's annoyed stare and watched him open the letter and read it out loud to her, it was something he had always done with his owls.
"Oh god, its another letter from Pansy." He glanced over it, "Here it goes: Draco! You wouldn't believe how beautiful it is in Italy. Blaise's parents own a ridiculously big property, probably bigger than yours. I've decided to have the wedding here, Blaise wants it to be where he grew up. We've decided on you being the best man, and we want you to apparate here as soon as you've read this note. I don't care what you're doing. Hurry up, Pansy. Oh and by the way, your bird's a bit of a freak. Somehow got itself stuck to the wall when it got here." Draco glared at her "She means you Knap." He rolled his eyes as she fell backwards clumsily to collapse on his bed.
The humming continued in his head so he cautiously turned his attention to the piece of paper. After flipping it over cautiously with the tip of his wand, he read two words: page 213.
"Well. That was a bit anticlimactic." He recognized his mother's handwriting, and flipped to the page. The Elusive Recessive Gene within the Black Family Tree. Well that's interesting. Maybe he had some special powers. He skipped a few paragraphs until he found one that caught his eye.
It is most probable that one in every seventh generation contain a stronger Veela gene, but even that is unlikely. Draco's eyebrows furrowed. What did this have to do with anything?
He read the next sentence; despite normal darker Black looks, Black veelas look remarkably similar to other pure veelas. This includes fair skin, white blond hair, and a startling shade of eyes. This could not possibly be suggesting that he, himself, was a veela? He skipped a few pages this time.
Average veelas and veelas within the black family tree normally seek their mates at age seventeen, depending on who is youngest within the pair. At this point they are bonded as mates, and then married.
"Hell No!"
--
Narcissa navigated through the halls of her old school lovingly, just being back at Beauxbatons made her itch for the old gossip, pranks, and backstabbing. She wasn't afraid to admit it, even before transferring to Hogwarts she was a slytherin through and through.
Now as she made her way to the Headmistresses office her mind was distracted from her task of finding out who Draco's mate really was. She had considered going to the ministry to find the list of seventeen year old veelas that might become part of the family, but thought going back to her old academy would be a little less conspicuous. And of course, since the place was untraceable, Draco would be a bit more annoyed with her absence; a fact that made her smirk as she finally threw open the door without knocking.
Her smirk fell off her face and was replaced with a grimace. Narcissa of course knew it was summer, but she had expected to find someone here. Taking it in stride, she easily found the drawer full of student descriptions. She propped her legs up on the dusty desk and began flicking through the files with perfectly manicured blood red nails.
--
Gabrielle regretted apparating to the Ministry almost immediately. Her dress made her stand out incredibly to the usual hustling workers. Some paused to stare and some of the looks she was getting weren't exactly flattering. Feeling self conscious she went back to trying to track her mate. If he met her family before hand, they would have no choice but to get married. At least this way, he could refuse and lead his life somewhat normally. Of course, being an unbonded veela would be a somewhat painful experience for her, and her mate, if he was part veela in the first place. Either way, she wanted to meet him under her own circumstances.
But finding him was proving to be truly difficult. She had definitely felt him here, which only encouraged her lingering fear that he might be an old perv who was head of an office or something. Now that she was here however, she knew, somehow, that he wasn't here either. -It might have been easier to bring Fleur along in the first place. At least she knows what's going on.-
Aimlessly, Gabrielle made her way to the bathroom, ready to transform her dress into something a bit more suitable for attempting to find her mate through the strange new senses she seemed to have developed. Then she spotted a swish of red hair she recognized quickly. Ginny, one of Gabrielle's long term friends, was flipping through a stack of papers while walking down the hall.
"Ginny!" Gabrielle cried, thankful that she was finally saved. Ginny was practical, and would know what to do. Of course, while looking sharply up the red-head managed to lose hold of the papers within her arms and they scattered messily to the floor. Gabrielle hurried over and helped her pick them up while explaining her situation. After the winded explanation, Ginny simply stared.
"So basically, you are trying to find your mate, who could be some ugly old guy with earwax dripping down his ears, before your mom does because she would ruin any chance of you settling down with this guy? And all of this was a genetic birthday present?" Ginny clarified, "Maybe you should just let your mom scare the guy off. He sounds awful."
"Well, I haven't met him yet. And Fleur got your brother, so it might work out for me." Gabrielle tried to stay positive, but Ginny's idea was definitely sounding better by the second.
"But he might be old and hairy, and you could spend the rest of your life rubbing magical cream on him to make sure that his skin doesn't fall off." Ginny raised an eyebrow at her, then was unable to hold back her laughter.
"Its not funny Ginny!" Gabrielle giggled with her anyway. After a bit more talk, Gabrielle got back to the point, "I need to find him. Perhaps Harry could-?"
"Harry's busy." Ginny looked a bit downcast before adding, "Well if you can just sense him, where is your future-whatever now?"
Gabrielle bit her lip while trying to concentrate. She felt a deep red, with a streak of orange. Well. That made no sense. She wondered what to tell Ginny, but at that moment Harry streaked through the hall where they were standing and grabbed Ginny around the middle before spinning her around; the papers once again went everywhere. Ginny didn't seem to care, she laughed happily before tiptoeing up to kiss him lightly.
"Lunch?" Harry asked her breathlessly, he was still panting from running through the ministry. Ginny smiled, and Gabrielle looked away. She didn't want to get her own expectations up, since romance wasn't likely in what seemed like an arranged marriage. She let the two whisper for a few seconds until Ginny turned back around and remembered that Gabrielle was there.
"Oh, Brielle." Ginny hugged her, "Everything will be fine. I'm going to lunch with Harry... You're welcome to come with us, if you'd like."
Gabrielle smiled as Harry mouthed, 'NO' in the background.
"I'll leave you two alone, but thanks for the offer. I'll just keep looking for-" Ginny had stopped listening, and Harry nodded his thanks. Gabrielle laughed, the two couldn't concentrate on anything but eachother when the other was around. She waved good bye, and they walked away.
She grimaced. There went that idea. Where could he possibly be? And what was up with the colors she was getting from him?
--
Narcissa was getting a bit irritated. You would think that the prestigious Beauxbatons Academy would be a bit more organized with their filing system, but no. Everything was everywhere, and nothing seemed to fit, and she hadn't found any list of any students so far, let alone ones that were specifically seventeen, in their seventh year.
She was getting pissed off fast, and the small office/filing room she had spent the last hour in was covered in papers. Narcissa had no idea what stuff she already had looked through, and what still needed to be gone through. In a stroke of irritation she twitched her wand upwards and and angry red sparks burst from the end.
"ACCIO LIST!!" she bellowed, thoroughly at the end of her already short rope.
A filing cabinet on her left burst open, and a file labeled 'Known Veela' flew into her fingers. Narcissa turned on her heel, effectively ripping a paper at her feet in half, and stormed from the room. Why hadn't she thought of that earlier?
Finding her way back to an empty common room, she carefully opened the file and began paging through names and descriptions. Most of them weren't of the age she was looking for, but on page eight she found the first seventeen year old.
It was a guy. Narcissa laughed, wouldn't that be a twist? Of course, she had wondered if Draco was as fruity as his scented shampoo would suggest, and his obsession over hair was definitely something she had concerns about, along with his great sense of style, and his like of shopping. But Narcissa had already brought the subject up to several friends over tea, and they had laughed in her face.
According to them, Draco, the Slytherin prince, was quite a ladies man; and they had no doubts of his sexuality. Narcissa still wondered, and had asked him about it one night during dinner.
She was subtle about it. "Draco, would you be a dear and pass the filet, oh and also, I've been wondering lately, are you homosexual?"
He hadn't needed to answer. His face had colored, he had stood up from his plate of food and shouted at her from across the room. So he was straight, and was obviously a bit sensitive over being called otherwise. She smirked at the memory and went on.
After finding six veela girls who's birthdays were over the summer, Narcissa finally took the time to narrow it down a bit more. It was June currently, so that crossed out any July or August girls and left her with two candidates. Marie Turcotte and Gabrielle Delacour.
Narcissa grinned. Both names she recognized easily, as both were from prestigious pure veela families. They kept it that way by only allowing the males to marry other pure veelas. Thank god Draco isn't gay.
--
Draco was pacing. Yet again. In fact he had been pacing almost all day. He had thrown a slight tantrum at the information he had been given, and had waited for his mother stubbornly for several hours. After calming down he had managed to -slowly- get through the rest of that awful chapter in the Black family grimoire. There was a very good chance, heck, it was evident; Draco was part veela. And the strange humming in his head, which had started giving him headaches after he learned what exactly it was, was his mate calling for him, the 'cris de cœur'. And she wouldn't keep quiet.
Not even for a second. Draco was beginning to dislike her before even meeting the darn girl. She was obviously clingy, and needy, and she wouldn't just leave him alone to think!! Oh no, Draco was not planning on marrying this stupid pitiful girl. She reminded him of Pansy, back when she 'wanted' him. Draco shivered.
But the sound, the trill, was pulling him somewhere. He had nearly walked out of the house several times before realizing what he was doing. So now he was in his room, his door was locked, and he was not going anywhere. She would just have to live her life alone. AND STOP IT WITH THE DAMN TRILLING!!
Draco looked out his floor to ceiling windows. The sun was still a couple hours away from setting, but he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep until he found the girl and told her to shut up. Carefully, he picked up Knap from where the stupid owl had passed out on his bed and placed him in his cage. Draco smiled as Knap rearranged his feathers and hooted softly in his sleep. The owl had been awake all day which wasn't what the bird was used to, and so deserved some rest. Draco ran his fingers through the birds feathers and considered Pansy's note. He hadn't responded, which was probably her expectation, but it would be a perfect excuse for ditching the girl who was driving him mad. Draco looked thoughtful for a few seconds until Knap shot up and squawked at him, opening his eyes as wide as possible while simultaneously turning its head all the way around.
"SHIT!" Draco jumped in fear and then slipped from where he stood. He then glared up at Knap from his position on the floor, gave the bird the finger, and grabbed his broom which was propped up against the side of his balcony. He had perfected apparating with his broom, which indeed came in handy; especially whilst cheating at quidditch, but now suited his purposes equally well.
After flying to the edge of the Malfoy property he closed his eyes and felt pulled towards the west, along with a strange feeling of the color green. Draco ignored it. This girl was weird. Who was he to question it? A wind came from the same direction and ruffled his partially unbuttoned white shirt. After a few seconds Draco decided on simply apparating, and finding her through guessing and checking while sensing her between apparitions. He twirled in the air and disappeared.
--
Gabrielle had transfigured her green dress into her favorite tailored satin robes and had apparated back outside of the ministry. She had decided on stopping to look for the mystery guy altogether. Who cared about them being made for eachother? Gabrielle surely didn't, and she wasn't up to marrying some disgusting fat fifty-six year old. Hadn't she just graduated from a prestigious magical academy?
Gabrielle wanted to be independent, to pursue and excel in a career. Particularly healing. Her teachers said she had a very unusual knack for such a difficult form of magic. Unlike Durmstrang, Beauxbatons taught healing as a secondary transfiguration course. Gabrielle had been the only one to score an outstanding on the final NEWT.
That was it. She wasn't just going to give up and become a timid little housewife. Gabrielle would rather find some trophy husband and have him raise the children. Children, Gabrielle shivered, she was not interested in becoming her mother. Perhaps in a few years but not currently and not until she had found the right man. Not that that would ever happen.
Gabrielle began turning to apparate back to her house, but stopped suddenly when she realized what would meet her there. Of course dealing with her mother was a different story.
--
Authors note:
Yes, meet Kinky, the house elf. That will not be the last of her. Even if she was only there for a sentence or two.
Also, meet Knap, Draco's psychotic owl. Notice that Draco really is attached to him, even though he manages to scare the piss out of Draco.
I really do appreciate reviews, and if you're too shy, and just put this story on alert, I understand.
But seriously, reviews remind me that this story is still here. And YOU, yes that is right, YOU reading this right now!! YES YOU! Sitting there thinking, 'yes, I get the point, she is talking specifically to me.' You are perfectly capable of writing 'thanks for updating'.
And if you are capable of reviewing, and don't do so:
I WILL FIND YOU.
And you will get to experience what jelly beans shoved up your nose feels like.
Thanks for reading either way though.
SM
