A/N: I'm so glad that everyone seems to be enjoying this so far. One person asked for this to be mpreg, but I have to say I'm undecided about it, so just wait and see. I'm not sure how well I could write it and I have never seen it written really well. Anyway hope everyone had a good Christmas, well, if you celebrate it.

The Veela Conspiracy

Chapter Three: In the morning

Harry woke up at his customary time of 7.07am with all the cheerfulness that is so annoying to most people in the early morning. He bounced out of bed, and walked with a spring in his step as he went to get dressed. His uniform adorned, he brushed his pretty black locks and brushed his pretty white teeth; all the while entirely failing to notice the absence of his roommates. He had the vague impression of having had good dreams the night before but couldn't remember exactly what they were. It was probably that one with him twisting off Snape's teddy-bear's head.

He hummed to himself slightly as he made his way out of the Gryffindor common room and down to the dining hall. He was a little surprised to find no-one else walking in the corridors but brushed it aside. It was a beautiful morning. The sky was blue, the birds were singing, and he had every chance of a perfectly normal day now that Voldemort was out of the picture. He wasn't going to let such a little thing ruin his good mood; especially as he had been a little down lately.

A slight sad expression crossed his face for a second before he determinedly took it off. For too long had he been crying alone in his bed at night; he was not going to be unhappy anymore. Pushing all his shyness aside, Harry decided that he was going to look for a girlfriend. A nice Gryffindor girlfriend who he could bring flowers to and defend from monsters and the unwanted advances of Slytherin creeps. He nodded emphatically to himself at that thought. Of course he was only five foot six inches. But he had defeated Voldemort. He was tough. Maybe Parvati….

Reaching the Great Hall he was surprised to see the doors closed, as they were usually kept open at mealtimes to let people in to eat. He pushed but it didn't open so he leaned his weight on one door and pushed as hard as he could. With a loud bang it suddenly shot open and Harry fell forwards onto the dining room floor, his glasses falling off in the process. Instantly he could hear a great commotion as people started whispering, talking and giggling.

As he reached for his glasses and pushed them back on his face he could see that some people had got up to get a better look. To his surprise he saw Malfoy had as well, and his friends were frantically trying to pull him down, to no avail. He scowled. That rotten Malfoy always gloating and looming over him just because he was taller and richer and always smirking. Glaring at Malfoy he shook the dust off his clothes and watched in satisfaction as Malfoy slowly sank to his chair.

He was aware of eyes following him as he trudged to his place between Ron and Hermione. To his surprise there was a large space between the two, enough for three people at least. They must have had a fight. He groaned to himself as he prepared to deal with relationship trauma and emotional talks. He sat close to Ron, intending to confront him first. But to his chagrin, Ron instantly cringed away from him.

'Ron?' said Harry cautiously. 'What are you doing?' He reached forwards to poke Ron on the forehead but was suddenly distracted by a loud growl from across the room. He looked around but didn't see anything animalistic so returned to Ron again and reached forwards to shake him. But before he could do so Ron gave a little yelp and did a sort of backwards somersault off the bench onto the floor.

'What the hell! Ron?' Harry asked in bemusement. He went to get up to help his friend but was all of a sudden stopped by a hand grabbing his, admittedly delicate, arm. As he turned to face Hermione he heard gasps which were quickly choked off to form completely unrealistic coughing fits. He looked down to see…a gloved hand.

'Hermione?' He whined desperately. 'What's going on?'

'Now don't mind Ron,' she said firmly, 'he's just a little allergic to dust.' Harry turned back to Ron who had got up by this stage.

'What's aller…' Ron broke off as Seamus elbowed him roughly in the gut. 'Yeah,' he said, 'allergic,' and shot Seamus death glares as he sat down again, at a careful distance from Hermione and Harry. Harry shrugged a little. He thought that wizards couldn't get allergic to things. He'd read it in a text book somewhere. But if Hermione said it…

'Ok…' He said slowly. 'Then why are you wearing gloves?'

'To prevent them from ageing.' She said promptly.

'Hermione!'

'Harry.'

'You're seventeen!'

'Well you can never begin too early.'

Harry rolled his eyes. 'Girls!' He said with disgust.

'Ah Harry. We can do without them, can't we?' Seamus gave Harry a little wink which made Harry's pulse beat rather oddly. He was about to nod and agree when he suddenly remembered his plan.

'Well we can hardly do without them.' He looked around for Parvati and saw her sitting four or five seats down from him on the other side of the table. 'Parvati.' He called out, praying his voice didn't tremble. 'Could you pass the…' He scrambled for an item that was near her, '…toast.'

'Don't worry about it Harry,' said Hermione, 'here's some toast.' She was insistently pushing the plate under his nose. He shuddered. He hated toast.

'I was asking Parvati.' He hissed under his breath to her, before sending Parvati what he hoped was a charming smile. She gave a sort of uncertain smile back and then looked at her friends as if for help.

'Don't be silly Harry,' she said pushing a couple of slices onto his plate and then pouring on a dollop of honey for good measure before saying perkily, 'eat up.' Harry looked morosely at his plate and then at Parvati who was talking frantically with her friends about something. The moment had passed. He glumly took a bite of his toast.

However by the time he had finished his toast, he had strengthened his resolve. Was he a man to put up with his friends forcing toast on him? He was not. Was he a man to give up on a girl because of one little setback? He was not. He cleared his throat.

'Parvati.' He said loudly. He noticed nervously that everyone's heads shot up. Gathering his courage he spoke again, 'Would you like to go to Hogsmeade this weekend.? On a date?'

There came a roar, and then a strange sort of grunt. Harry looked around to see Malfoy lying in the floor and Pansy Parkinson pocketing her wand whilst trying to give an innocent smile to everyone. He shook his head. Slytherins trying to appear innocent. Who were they trying to convince? And Pansy Parkinson was practically the school bicycle. He suddenly realised Parvati hadn't given him an answer.

She looked vaguely shocked and Harry was beginning to realise maybe it hadn't been the best idea to ask her out in front of the entire school, where any rejection would instantly become prime gossip fodder. 'Uh…well…' Parvati stuttered. 'I would really like to go out with you Harry but…' She looked at the people either side of her who were regarding her with pity and then said all in a rush, '…I'm already going with someone.'

'Who?' said Harry rather indignantly.

'Uhmmm…'

'Me!' The voice came from opposite Parvati, and she looked at the speaker almost gratefully.

'Neville!' Harry exclaimed feeling slightly shocked, and also annoyed. 'You could have said something.'

Neville shrugged. 'Don't see why I should run all my dates by you.'

Dates? Seamus mouthed to Dean, rather bemused. Dean shook his head in incomprehension.

'Besides…' Neville continued in a kind of aggravated way. 'Why did you sound so shocked?'

'Uh…no reason,' stuttered Harry. 'I just wanted to go with Parvati to Hogsmeade, that's all.' He settled into a subdued silence, afraid that he had somehow offended Neville, whilst Neville sat back in satisfaction and gave Harry a stare to add to the effect. Harry whimpered.

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As Harry walked down the corridors following breakfast he was uncomfortably aware of eyes following him. Fine, he had got used to the increased attention after Voldemort's defeat, but even then at least the Slytherins had mostly ignored him. Now the Slytherins had joined the rest of the school and it had got ten times worse. Even his friends were acting strangely and there was a group of female Hufflepuff who hadn't even stopped staring to blink since he had fallen into the Great Hall, and had followed him as he left breakfast. He gave them a nervous smile and they giggled in the way that Hufflepuffs had perfected. But there was still no blinking.

He was heading for the Headmaster's office having been sent a message at the end of breakfast saying that he was urgently required for some important business. But coming from Dumbledore that could mean anything from A Wizarding World War has broken out to Would you like a piece of gingerbread I made earlier?

As a matter of fact he would have liked some gingerbread but as he looked round the Headmaster's office he saw none. A Wizarding World War it was then. He grumbled a little to himself but wasn't actually that bothered. A Wizarding World War was exactly the sort of thing that this school needed to forget his humiliating rejection at breakfast.

'Padfoot!' The WWW was forgotten as Harry jumped up in ecstasy to greet his wayward godfather. He thought it was rather strange that Padfoot was wearing so many clothes inside, even a scarf, but pushed the though aside to hug even harder. Sirius choked slightly. Clinging onto Sirius with all the tenacity of a limpet, it could not be said that the past few years of frequent attempted murder had not had some serious effects on Harry's emotional stability.

'Yes Harry. We saw each other a couple of weeks ago. Remember?' Remus spoke tensely as he walked in with the headmaster flinching at the very near, dangerously close skin contact between dog man and veela boy. 'We had tea? You sat on Padfoot's lap which I might point out is my place?' Harry deigned to lift his head off his godfather's shoulder in response but otherwise made no effort to move. Remus moved onto his secret weapon. 'Would you like to let go of Padfoot, he's turning a bit purple and it's clashing with his robes.'

'What!' Sirius yelled before noting Harry's flinch and hurriedly rubbing his godson's back to ensure he didn't burst into tears. It was so awkward when he did that. With his other hand he firmly detached Harry's arms from his neck by the boy's sleeves and placed them on his shoulders. Checking his reflection in some strange crystal mirror thing on one of Dumbledore's shelves he saw the purple rapidly fading and grinned in relief. Remus regarded his husband in disbelieving fascination. It was true. Sirius vanity exceeded even his protective instinct over Harry, which was in and of itself fiendishly disturbing.

'Sirius and Remus will be here for a few weeks,' Dumbledore said complacently, 'they thought it might be nice to see you for a bit…and Hagrid could use some help with a nice new shipment of Blast-Ended Skrewts.' Remus' face twisted in horror at the thought of the disgusting creatures but he quickly plastered a smile on his lips when Harry turned to look at him questioningly and nodded jerkily. This was the first he had heard of Blast-Ended Skrewts. Nice indeed! Added to that, his face was beginning to ache from all the facial expressions it had gone through in such a short period of time.

'Harry,' said Remus determined to remove the boy from the dangerously close skin contact. 'Why don't you take us to see Hermione and Ron before Sirius,' he looked meaningfully at said animagus, 'manages to hurt you accidentally.' He looked expectantly at the pair who stared blankly back.

'But Padfoot would never hurt me Moony,' said Harry in that innocent tone of voice that sometimes made it impossible to believe that he was not seven years old. Remus rolled his eyes at the complete absence of intelligence he was facing.

'I know that Harry,' he said slowly, 'But yesterday Padfoot managed to touch some bad things in his animagus form which could be dangerous to his godson…if he touches his skin.' Remus waggled his eyebrows meaningfully at Sirius who stared blankly for a few more moments before yelling loudly and unceremoniously dropping Harry. The boy yelped as he hit the wooden floorboards that Dumbledore thought looked atmospheric and looked confusedly up at the canine duo.

He got up slowly rubbing his backside and said cautiously, 'Padfoot's not going to be infectious for long is he?'

Remus smiled with mystery, 'Don't worry Harry. It'll all be over in about a week.' Harry looked at him suspiciously. 'So where are Hermione and Ron?'

Harry looked at him out of the corner of his eye before saying slowly, 'Hermione'll be in Arithmancy, and Ron is where I'm supposed to be, in COMC.'

'Actually I've given them some time off for good behaviour,' mumbled Dumbledore through a lemon drop. 'You should find them in the Gryffindor common room.'

Harry thought this was slightly strange but shrugged it off as he led Padfoot and Moony out of the office. Today was turning out to be a strange day. Maybe tomorrow would be better.

'You'll never guess what Hermione has done now,' chatted Harry as they left, 'she's wearing gloves all the time. Says it's good for the skin. Silly girl thing I suppose. Who wants to wear gloves all the time?'

'Sounds like a good idea,' mused Remus slowly, 'We might try it.' Sirius groaned.