Harry slept fitfully, his dreams plagued with terrors. It was his usual nightmares, filled with destruction and death and fear and Voldemort. The scenes usually featured either the death of people he knew, or took place in a world where Voldemort had won the war. They scared him, because his subconscious mind had managed to conjure an idea of what the world would be like if his efforts in the war hadn't been enough, if Voldemort had beat him. And… it was awful.

However, right now, he was in the forbidden forest once more, face to face with Voldemort, skeletal and deadly, his heart in his throat as he did what he had to do, what he had always known that he had to do. Time slowed, allowing him to truly appreciate the fear itself, and how much he would miss his life. He took a deep breath as Voldemort raised his wand, the words the man was shouting sounding foggy and far away, but so horrifyingly familiar - but instead of the green light he was expecting and bracing himself for, white light exploded from his wand tip, obscuring everything.

The forest was hidden by a wash of comforting white light, and soon Harry was sleeping peacefully once more.

~oOo~

"Again? You've got to be fucking kidding me." A loud voice woke Harry from his slumber again, and he felt the warmth he was clinging onto pull away. Harry kept his eyes shut, and pulled it closer, unwilling to let it go. "No Potter, I refuse to do this, get off of me." The voice said grumpily.

Forced to return to reality, Harry reluctantly released his hold on the warmth, and sleepily opened his eyes. Standing next to the bed looking at him with exasperation, Harry registered the fuzzy silhouette of none other than Draco Malfoy. Of course, Harry's godddamned veela side decided to take control, his flight response kicking in. In his moment of panic after seeing the other boy, he instinctively rolled away, crashing off of the bed, where his wings erupted, smacking him in the face. "Ow."

Malfoy sniggered as Harry climbed to his feet. "It's not funny Malfoy." Harry said in a bored tone. He was too tired for this shit. "Oh, but it is! Is ickle Harrykins afraid?" Malfoy taunted, but the taunt wasn't cruel like usual… it edged on teasing. Harry sighed, and grabbed his glasses from the bedside table, jamming them on, and blinking slightly. He still wasn't fully used to his enhanced vision. "It's just my stupid veela instincts, I'm not scared of you Malfoy." Harry responded.

Malfoy raised one perfect eyebrow (veela genes ugh), and stepped towards Harry, who took a step back without thinking. "Malfoy, stop." Harry told him, getting slightly irritated now. He had thought they might have made SOME progress in the bonding session, but apparently not. "It's just because you're so much TALLER than me now (veela genes UGH), my veela senses are just…" Malfoy took another step forward, and Harry stepped back, his back smacking against the wall. Malfoy saw this and smirked.

"Malfoy if you take one more step forward I swear-" Malfoy stepped forward again. "ACCIO WAND" Harry shouted, and as soon as his wand arrived in his hand, he pointed it directly at Malfoy. "If you don't leave, right now, I will turn your hair ginger again!" He threatened, completely done with Malfoy's shit by now.

All at once Malfoy's smirk disappeared, and something seemed to shift in his eyes. In the blink of an eye, the atmosphere had changed dramatically, and Malfoy turned dangerous. "You are NEVER to use that spell on me EVER again, do you understand?" He shouted, the Alpha tone clear in his voice. Harry immediately felt the ability to cast that spell leave him. However, he simply raised his wand once more, to cast a different spell, but Malfoy was quicker "Stop." He commanded. Harry instantly froze. Shit. "Potter, I said, do you understand?" Malfoy said, moving forwards. "Yes." Harry spat through his teeth, his feet slipping out from underneath him, causing him to slide down the wall, his wings flattened behind him.

Malfoy was almost standing over Harry now, as he stared up in fear from the floor. "I don't know what you were thinking before but we ARE NOT friends. You are my submissive and you WILL do as I say." With that he strode out of the room, not seeing the single tear falling from Harry's cheek as he lay helpless on the floor due to the hand of Malfoy for the second time in his life.

~oOo~

Malfoy regretted his words almost as soon as he left the room. He knew that somehow his veela fight instinct must have overpowered both his human and his mating instincts, the same way the flight one did to Potter. He honestly had just been lost in a wave of exhilaration and fury. His veela half was now telling him to go back and apologise to his mate immediately, but he refused. Besides, it was only Potter, and honestly Draco didn't really care about the other boy… Right?

Thinking about it, the bonding session the other day hadn't actually been that bad, but he had had to pull away. He refused to let himself get attached to Potter.

He was so caught up in his thoughts, he didn't notice Ron and Hermione as he strode through the 8th year common room, and he didn't notice them exchange worried looks and rush to Harry's room.

And even if he did, he wouldn't have cared.

Probably.

~oOo~

Harry lay crumpled in a heap, breathing heavily. He felt control of his body return to him – the command to stop didn't seem to be a long term one – but he didn't move. He just stayed there, staring at the wall as tears dripped down his cheeks, until the door to his room flew open.

"Oh Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, rushing over to him. "We saw Malfoy come through the common room, and knew he much have been in here…" Harry blinked, and slowly turned his head to look at her. His glasses had slipped off of his face, and everything was extremely fuzzy.

Hermione helped him up, and soon he was sitting on his bed, glasses back on, telling them what had happened in between deep shuddering breaths. "And then he shouted at me, he was so tall, and looming over me, and I was just lying on the floor unable to move, and he just yelled "You are my submissive and will do what I say" and then he left and I was just… stuck, and alone, and my veela side was SO upset and…"

Harry trailed off, specifically omitting the part about them being friends, because it was humiliating that he had even considered it a possibility.

Ron walked closer, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Mate…". Harry flinched, cringing backwards from the touch into Hermione. "Maybe not right now Ron… he's quite delicate and you probably remind him of Malfoy a bit too much." Hermione told Ron apologetically. An expression crossed Ron's face that Harry couldn't read, and he backed up to the door, and left.

"I don't want to upset him… I feel like such a coward." Harry whispered. "I can't even retract my wings, I'm still too on edge." Hermione shook her head. "Anyone in your position would be scared. It's not right, it's not FAIR what Malfoy is able to do to you. He shouldn't be able to get away with it!"

Harry sighed, because as much as he agreed with Hermione, Malfoy was able to do it, and that was the problem.

~oOo~

Malfoy had already been to his dorm to get changed, and was making his way up to the great hall. He still felt slightly uneasy about the things he said to Potter, but he brushed it away. He was walking up some stairs on his way to breakfast, until – WHAM!

Malfoy felt a fist collide with his face, and he staggered backwards. He looked up, clutching his nose to see nothing other than the Weasel. "Your mudblood… girlfriend could punch better… than you… in… third year…" Malfoy gasped. He instinctively started summoning a fireball, but another fist hit him in the chest, knocking him over completely, and he scrambled backwards. Due to his transformation he was slightly taller than Weasley, but still much weaker physically, and as much as his instincts were screaming at him to fight back, he couldn't win a physical fight against the redhead.

Weasley advanced, fury on his face. "How DARE you do that to Harry? How DARE you? Do you even realise what he's gone through in his past?" Malfoy sighed, realising this was instant Karma, but it sounded more like a grunt of pain. Ron ignored him and continued. "Harry deserves the world, but for some reason, the universe bonded him to an absolute shithead like you. You, are pure scum, Malfoy." Ron spat, shaking his head. "And you know the worst part? He actually had hope you could be friends, after your "bonding time". I could see it in his eyes when he told us about your little session." Malfoy bit his lip. Potter had really been willing to put it aside? "So. From now on Malfoy, you hurt Harry, you answer to me. Do you understand?" Ron asked. When Malfoy didn't move, he repeated the question, anger evident in his tone. "Do. You. Understand?"

Malfoy nodded weakly, still clutching his nose. "How does it feel to be the one on the ground?" Asked Ron spitefully, before walking away, and leaving Malfoy in a very similar position to the one he had left Harry in twice before, with a bloody nose to match.

~oOo~

The golden trio were all seated in the Great Hall. By now, Harry had somewhat recovered from his ordeal, and calmed down enough to retract his wings. He could walk around with them out, like Malfoy did, but he preferred to avoid the barely disguised stared. At this point, he was helping himself to a huge stack of pancakes with tons of syrup and cream. His sweet tooth was ridiculous nowadays.

Midway through his sugary breakfast, the doors to the Great Hall swung open, and Harry looked up instinctively. None other than Malfoy walked in, a trail of dried blood coming from his nose, but seeming otherwise ok. He shot a look of hatred towards Ron, and made his was towards the Slytherin table.

"How DARE he look at Harry like that, as if Harry had done anything wrong!" Hermione whispered, outraged. The tip of Ron's ear went red. "Well… actually Herm… I may have beat him up and threatened him before breakfast…" He mumbled awkwardly. "Ronald!" Hermione hissed, shocked. "No, I wanted him to get what he deserved for doing that to Harry. It was a really foul thing to do Hermione, and I couldn't just let him get away with it."

Hermione sighed. "Well I can't say I don't think he deserved it, but you really shouldn't get into fights with him, even…" Hermione continued, but Harry wasn't listening, instead he looked up at his tall friend, and gave him a half smile, grateful to his friend for sticking up for him when he couldn't stand up for himself.

However, Hermione's reprimand was cut short by the arrival of the post. "There seems to be quite a lot today…" Hermione commented, frowning. An owl swooped down to drop something on Harry, followed by two more. And then another. And another. Soon, Harry was covered in letters, and so was another boy, who happened to have a bloody nose and was seated at the Slytherin table.

Hermione pulled out the first letter from the bottom of the pile, and opened it to reveal a copy of the Daily Prophet. She took one glance at the first page and grimaced. "What is it this time? Someone written about my secret love affair with Pigwidgeon?" Harry joked drily, too used to having stories printed about him in the national newspaper.

Hermione bit her lip, and showed him the front page, which was emblazoned with a picture of Malfoy with his wings on show, along with the headline "CHOSEN ONE AND DEATH EATER'S SON VEELA MATES?!" Harry sighed, and leant down to bang his head on the table. This wouldn't be fun.

Resigned, he reached for the first letter, before noticing that one was beginning to smoke. Immediately realising what it was, Harry grabbed it, and sprinted out of the room. A booming voice exploded in the entrance hall, and the students inside could hear snippets of what it was saying.

"Filthy animal… disgusting… not even human…pathetic… foul creature…"

At this point, the whole room was so silent, you could hear a pin drop. Hermione sighed, and conjured a binbag, before proceeding to scoop all of the letters into it, and following Harry out of the hall, Ron right behind her.

All heads swivelled towards Malfoy, who's table was also covered in letters. Blushing slightly, he scooped all of his letters into his (probably designer) schoolbag, and followed the others out of the room.

~oOo~

Harry was sitting on his bed when Ron and Hermione arrived. There was an awkward silence for a moment, before Ron cautiously asked, "You alright mate?". Harry sighed. "Not really. I just embarrassed myself in front of the whole school, and now the entire wizarding world knows I'm a veela so…"

There was another pause. "Do you mind if we sort through these?" Hermione asked tentatively, indicating the bag of letters. Harry shrugged. "Why not. I'll even help you." He said, reaching for the bag.

The three of them sat in silence on Harry's floor, each of them occasionally commenting on the contents of a letter.

"This one says that she would never have supported you in the war if she'd known… What a hag…"

"Hang on, this one says they don't mind me being a veela… oh wait, then they said as long as I work my 'veela magic' on them… creepy…"

"This one just says 'FUCK ME DADDY in all caps'… what the hell is wrong with people…"

Then, all of a sudden, Harry opened an envelope and a poof of orange powder flew out, leaving him coughing and spluttering. Ron and Hermione turned to him anxiously, but nothing happened at first. Frowning, Harry spoke. "I think I'm – achoo!" Harry cut himself off with a sneeze. "Whatever it was, it must have got up my – ACHOO!"

Tentatively, Hermione pulled the envelope towards her, and sniffed it. Then she nodded. "Ginger." Harry rolled his eyes. "Are you kid- ACHOO!" This sneeze was the loudest yet, and Ron shook his head. "Mate, I'm gonna take you to the hospital wing, maybe Madame Pomfrey can give you something to stop the sneezing." Harry nodded, still sneezing violently, and the two left the room.

Hermione, however, examined the envelope closer, and saw what Harry hadn't amidst all the sneezing – a note. She pulled it out and read it:

"yOu WiLL Be MiNe poTtER – Q"

It was written like something from a muggle movie, made up of newspaper letters. Hermione sighed, and tossed it in the fire. It was probably just some weirdo like all the others. Some people…

Another chapter! I like to think of the plot of this as two plots - an action plot and a romance plot - and the action plot kinda started for the first time in this chapter! I wont give too many clues but there will be (technically two) villains, which both pre-exist in HP, so if you have any guesses, please do tell me!

I'll stop talking now

Sera xx