It's me again! Just saying hello. Here's Chap 2. A/N at the end. Enjoy!
Warning: Beware the cute! Can't you see it? It's coming! Hurry or it will be too late to keep your mind sane and pure! FLED!!!
Disclaimer: Not mine. As much as my need of kidnapping them is clawing me from the inside, I can't. So for now, or at least until I let myself succumb to the temptation of tying them in a closet, Harry and Draco will remain property of JK Rowling. It applies to all the other characters as well. (Not the kidnap part, you twisted-minded!)
Chapter 2: Awakening
While Harry and Ehren were discussing about haircuts and earrings, the living souls of Malfoy Manor were stressing over a certain blonde lying in bed. Draco Malfoy looked dead. Well, technically, he was. He wasn't breathing, moving or making a sound. And hasn't eaten for five weeks. It all began the day of his birthday.
Five weeks ago
The uneasiness had taunted him for days now. He felt weak and frail. As if he would stumble over and faint if he stood for too long. As if every single one of his muscles were attached to a thirty-pound weight. His already pale complexion was a shade or two whiter, making him look like an antique porcelain doll. His equally pale blond hair was hanging loosely around his face, his bangs falling in his eyes. His eyes. Two swirling mercury pools that anyone would be gladly diving in. He still looked good save the dark blackish circles made him look even more tired that Lupin and the "I'm-sick-of-being-sick-and-just-plain-sickened-by-the-thought-of-being-sick" expression on his delicate features. It was official. Draco Malfoy was extremely ill… on his birthday. No, that wasn't nearly desperate enough. Say it with me: ON HIS FREAKING BLOODY BIRTHDAY WHEN HE WAS EXPECTED TO LOOK HIS BEST AND SHOW OFF EVERYTHING HE HAD AND MAKE HIS PARENTS PROUD!!!!!! Good. Anyway, no matter how you look at it, how much you turn it or twist it, the problem remained it ugly glorious self: Draco Malfoy, crown price of purebloods, was ill on his birthday. There was nothing more to be said on that one. 'Dad's SOOOOOO gonna skin me alive,' thought darkly the Boy-to-be-skinned-by-his-own-family.
He was currently standing (leaning on a table) in the middle of his walk-in closet. Why? Well, first of all, as much as he would have loved spending the whole day in bed, there was nothing he could do to help it – he had to get dressed and face the world and his blasted birthday. The second reason is that he wants to hide from Narcissa 'cause if ever she had to find him looking like he was now; his life would end at once. She would talk to Lucius, who would make sure that he's granted a painful death.
"Draco dear! How are you feeling? Anything wrong?" chipped the always-cheerful Narcissa Malfoy APKA (Also Publicly Known As) The Ice Queen.
"Um… I'm fine mum. As fine as you should normally be on your sixteenth birthday," answered Draco, as normally possible. He grabbed a pair of trousers on a rack nearby and a random shirt out of a neatly folded pile. Usually, he would take excruciating care in his appearance but he preferred saving his almost nonexistent energy doing other tasks. Namely, act normal around his parents, NOT faint in front of all guests that his parents invited to his birthday ball ("party" not being an existing word in a properly taught aristocrat's vocabulary register), not looking like Mr. I've-been-hexed-to-Hell-and-back, stop acting like a half-dead rainbow pixie and managing to stay alive, or at least breeze in and out regularly at short intervals of time to get some oxygen in his lungs.
He finished getting dressed and walked out… to find Narcissa beaming at him with a big smile (looking suspiciously like a grin) on her perfect features.
The smile (GRIN!!!) faded out the moment she detailed Draco's clothing.
"Oh please! You can do better than that! It's not like we are a poor family and that we can't afford you decent clothing! Now listen up: DRACO LUCIUS MALFOY, YOU ARE GOING TO GET IN THAT WARDROBE OF YOURS AND PICK OUT SOMETHING TASTEFUL THAT'S PRESENTABLE IN PUBLIC FOR A YOUNG WIZARD AND TRADE THEM WITH THE HORRIBLE THINGS YOU ARE WEARING!!! AT ONCE!!!" yelled Narcissa, disgusted to death by the sight of her son in plain blue denim pants (jeans for non-aristocrats) and a polo T-shirt. Joining concrete actions to her words, she summoned her house-elf, Twinky, and pushed a stunned Draco in the wardrobe and closed the door behind her. It was fascinating to see how fast could the happily smiling Narcissa enter her dangerous-life-threatening-mother-dressing-her-only-child-with-the-foulest-sense-of-taste-on-Earth-mode faster than Draco could blink.
"Now, now… let's see what we can do with this delicious child/master," said Narcissa and Twinky with the same mechanical, robotic creepy-like-Hell voice, wearing the same predatory expression on their faces.
And they started to turn the room upside down to find THE perfect outfit… while Draco sat in the middle of the room and soon-to-be mini-tornado building in with bewildered eyes.
Thirty minutes, twenty different ensembles later, their minds were (finally!) set. Draco was to wear a turtleneck green sweater that looked fuzzy and warm (and made anyone want to get a hug from Draco 'cause it's so soft) and some black tailored pants. The shirt was rather tight fitting and show-off (so poor little Drake was a tad uncomfortable in it) and the pants made his legs look longer than they already were.
He was now handed to Twinky so she could fix his white-blonde hair. And he was scared out of his skin. Hey! Don't look at the poor bloke like that! The maniacal house-elf had a shining pair of scissors (he swore that she looked at them tenderly) and was glaring at him so hard that Draco wouldn't be surprised if strands of his poor tortured hair were falling on the floor because of her intense gazing. She mumbled weird words while chopping mercilessly his, once again, innocent hair. She even tied him up and gagged him so he wouldn't make a move while she was at work. Frankly, you'd rather face Jack the Ripper than Twinky with scissors in a dark alley at night. But while the whole process wasn't pleasant, the result was stunning.
Imagine this: Draco Malfoy, (a cute Sixth year Slytherin, Seeker for his house, rich, extremely rich, very handsome, very powerful, witty, yummy guy) in other words: the ladies' man stands in front of you in "tasteful pureblood wizard suited" outfit (from the charming Narcissa Malfoy herself) and "perfect aristocratic-like hairdo" (courtesy of Twinky) plus a bad-boy look that came with the natural arrogant attitude and finish off with the precious fragile porcelain doll looks. Drool my friend, drool. Hottie ahead.
And then Narcissa remembered what she was doing in the first place in Draco's bedroom.
"Draco, dear, I forgot to tell you when I got here that Lucius wants to see you in his study as soon as possible. He's waiting for you I think. Maybe you should go…" said Narcissa all of a sudden, out of the blue.
------
'Argl! Can't believe how my mum is childish sometimes. Now dad's going to mincemeat me after he skins me, ' thought Draco as he sprinted across the hall to his father's office.
"Come in," said a voice through the door.
Obediently, Draco stepped in. He always liked his father's study as far as he remembered. As a child, he would always try to sneak in to play with the various old and fragile instruments, each time cutting short his father's lifetime by a few years.
"You are late," said Lucius Malfoy flatly as a greeting, not even bothering to lift his eyes from the Daily Prophet he was reading.
"Sorry. Trapped with mum and Twinky in a wardrobe."
Lucius took a look at his son.
"Congratulation for surviving."
"It's that horrible? I didn't have time to check in a mirror before rushing here."
"No comments."
"…"
"But you are late anyway. Get seated now because we will not stay here all day, and we wasted enough time already."
Ladies and gentlemen, you now know what it's like to be Draco Malfoy. He lives in a manor that's so big even himself gets lost in the halls sometimes. His mother is the perfect child. She's always cheery happy and lives in Wonderland. She's so naïve that you could make her believe almost anything if you tried. In fact, Narcissa would trust anyone if his father hadn't brainwashed her into not being nice to people she doesn't know or people that a good Malfoy was supposed to hate, thus the "Ice-queen" image she had in public. It doesn't mean that she's some sort of a dimwit! She knew when to step in and defend her family but usually, she acts like a kid (quote: "It's much funnier to be a child and rule your family than to be one of those insipid adults and rule the world. pouts "). Then there was his father. Also known as the Big Bad Wolf. Or Death Muncher number one. He is indeed a very cold man, but the social image was just simply overblown. He knew when to stop being a bastard, just as Narcissa knew when to snap out of it. If only people could see through the Malfoy mask, they would see a happy family. OK, I recon that it's not the epitome of "the perfect family" that would be cut out from a magazine but hey, they are happy, and that's all that counts. They had their way of functioning and they were fine with it.
But they kept a secret.
The Malfoy family were veelas.
Every single one of the members of the Malfoy clan had veela blood running through their veins. Which meant that Draco was bond to become a creature of seduction on his seventeenth birthday. He was raised with the thought that one day (he didn't know when), he won't be fully human anymore and ever since his childhood, he knew everything there is to know about veelas.
Now guess what's the subject of the conversation Lucius wants to have with his son? (Veelas for those who didn't catch it)
"So, you don't have any inking of why you are here now?"
"Nope"
"And I told her to prepare you for it! Sometimes, I wonder how I felt in love with such a woman."
"Tsk, tsk. That's not something nice to say to your favorite blonde, Luce," said sweetly a third voice, obviously, Narcissa's.
"We all are blondes in here, " said flatly Lucius.
"That's beside the point! I'm your favorite blonde in the whole Universe!!(pouts)"
"Mum? Dad? ("What about me!? I'm blonde too!!!" screamed Inner Draco) Can we go back to why I'm in here?"
"Of course. It will be shocking news but since the blonde over there (Narcissa) didn't tell you, you are allowed to look surprised."
"Hey! Don't look at me like that! I tried! What do you think my intentions were when I dressed him properly this morning?"
(Lucius and Draco thinking: torture the poor boy in the worst way possible and make him suffer, that's why.)
Lucius was the one to break the (heavy, threatening, full of dark thoughts, not-good-sign) silence.
"We are here to talk about your Awakening."
"What about it? It wont come before a few years, no?"
This time, Narcissa spoke.
"It's tonight."
"WHAT?!?!?"
Here's the thing. Veelas are adults on their seventeenth birthday. They become irresistible creatures and could make anyone not in a steady enough relationship want them only by willing it to happen. They could make anyone do anything if they put in a little of the legendary veela allure. But it also comes with a down side. A veela transforms into a bird-like ugly creature when they are angry. And since it's very easy to upset a veela, it happens quite often. The Malfoys were special within the veela community. They would have the wings but not the beaks and claws because they had more human blood than the other kind.
"It's been days since the first signs showed."
"What are you talking about?" asked innocently Draco.
"You've been feeling ill," answered Lucius.
"H-how did y-you know?"
"You are my son. How could I not know?"
"…"
That night, Draco went to bed early. There was no ball or party or anything that meant guests. For the first time in his whole existence, Draco Malfoy's birthday went by with no loud music and feast. And it was depressing.
Around midnight, he was burning with fever. His normally pale cheeks were red and hot. He was drenched in cold sweat a d his bed sheets were twisted around his body. Ice melt as soon as he touched it and nothing seemed cold enough to help him. It was like burning from the inside. He was screaming in pain.
And all his parents could do was to stand by his side and watch helplessly as he suffered.
Later in the same night, he passed out. His heart stopped beating and his whole body stopped functioning. A white light draped itself around him. It was protecting him of anything that could harm him. No one could touch him, move him, or cast a spell on him. His magic isolated him from the world.
It was normal for a veela to isolate himself when the Awakening begins. So his parents weren't worried about him not breathing. His magic will keep him alive. But the shield usually lasts no longer that a week…
And that brings us back to now, five weeks after that night.
Draco was still protected by the light.
Narcissa has been crying everyday after the day he was supposed to Wake. Her eyes were red and she refused to eat on her own. She would only take a bite when Lucius managed to make her feel that Draco didn't want her to starve to death. Lucius himself was worried to the point that he forgot that he was a criminal on the run and went out to meet Snape. Severus Snape being Draco's godfather and the best potion master since Salazar himself would surely have a solution. But he didn't. He only said something about the other soul and a prophecy involving a veela and an elf before waltzing out, his robes billowing wildly after him. Lucius knew that there was an old prophecy in the Malfoy family but he never truly believed it. And the Potter-brat only helped by destroying the archives at the Ministry. He felt as desperate as Narcissa but instead of showing it on the outside like her, he bottled it all inside.
Even the house elves were worried seeing their masters like that.
That day, finally, after five weeks of unconsciousness, Draco Malfoy opened his eyes.
"Mom?" he croaked out in a weak voice because of his dry throat.
"DRACO!!!!" He was crushed in a hug before he knew it.
"What happened?" he squeaked as he fought for air in the arms of Narcissa.
"You Awakened!!! You're a veela! Can't believe it's the day my little Drake turns into a man! I'm so HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!"
"Dad? Help?"
"It serves you right. You made her cry for weeks," replied Lucius.
"Maybe I should have stayed in bed…"
SOOOOO? How was that? I hope that it met your expectations… It was shorter than the first one but I wanted incorporate informations on veelas throut the story rather than just giving it all in one shot. And I know there's nothing that could be called a plot in here and it's already the second chap. I promise that in the next, THERE WILL BE A DECENT PLOT AND SOMETHING GOING ON!!!
Anyway. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!! Love and sweets for all my kind and generous reviewers!!! Please, hit the purple little button and leave a message to me... (See? I'm sending virtual puppy eyes)
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