Chapter Twenty-One – The-Boy-Who-Realised
"Why?" Blaise whined pouting at Pansy who glared at him, he instead turned doleful eyes onto Daphne who shook her head; finally he used his last resort. "Millie?"
The larger girl shook her head.
"We need to go Blaise, so do you!" She said demandingly, "Now hurry up or we're going to miss the escort."
All of the boys in the group gave a sigh, Harry included. The Yule Ball had been announced last night in the Great Hall along with the decision to allow a Hogsmede trip that weekend, they had not be allowed as of yet this year because of the escaped prisoners and the dementors but the students would have teachers escorting them at all times. The girls insisted that they were to spend the majority of this trip 'hunting' for dress robes.
With a dejected walk they followed the girls out to Hogwarts' Entrance Hall, it was filled with third years and up of all houses. The tailoring shops would be filled to the brim today no doubt. They were all split into groups. Draco and Blaise were put with Ethan, Hermione and Ron and a few other Gryffindors while Harry and Theo were with Daphne and Pansy and a couple of Bulgarian boys including Viktor. They were to be escorted by Professor Snape.
Pansy and Daphne instantly dragged them all to Madam Malkin's where they were shown to a private fitting room due to Pansy and Daphne's status and how often they bought clothes from there.
Pansy and Daphne instantly started going on about colour schemes and two shop assistants brought out materials for show. Harry sat back with Theo and Viktor and laughed quietly at how disgruntled Snape looked at being forced into the dress shop.
Harry froze as a cold feeling swept up his spine and he saw a few of the others stiffen too. Snape stood a grim look on his face.
"You will all stay within this shop, none of you will move until I get back." He commanded and they all nodded. "Potter you and the other Slytherins know how to cast the patronus charm am I correct?"
"Yes sir, but only Daphne's got a fully formed one so far." He answered, Daphne had managed the charm one night next to the fire in the common room; a peacock had erupted from the end of her wand.
"It will have to do." With that Snape swept from the room without a backwards glance.
"Dementors." Theo whispered and Harry nodded. Harry felt the chill intensify as a white mist entered the room. Daphne stood and ran to the doorway before letting out a cry. In the main shop was a dementor; the rest of the customers were cowering behind anything they could find.
"Expecto Patronum!" Daphne yelled and her peacock flew from her wand landing and fanning out its tail feathers in a dazzling display of silver strands. Pansy, Theo and Harry cast their mists out also before running outside of the shop leaving the Bulgarians to help the shop's patrons.
Outside was a mess of panic. Everyone was either cowering in alleyways or running away. A few of the teachers they could see were casting their patronus. Harry saw Remus' dog and his Father's stag. Sirius was nowhere to be seen, neither was Snape but Harry saw a cat patronus slink past which could only have belonged to McGonagall.
"Harry get back inside!" James yelled when he saw his son. "Pettigrew must be near!"
"Where's Ethan?" Harry yelled back.
"He was going up to the shack with the rest of the Gryffindors last I saw!" Remus yelled and James swore loudly as a large group of dementors cut him off from the direction of the shack and Harry. Without thinking Harry ran towards the shack where he found the Gryffindors and Draco and Blaise casting weak patronus after weak patronus at a ring of dementors surrounding them. Harry heard Daphne scream the spell and her peacock swooped past him but there were too many dementors. They turned towards the group of Slytherins and a few of them glided over. Harry felt as though a piece of cloth was shoved down his throat. His hands were numb and his knees were weak.
"It would be better if Harry weren't around for Ethan."
.
"Stupid, idiotic freak! You can't do anything right!"
.
"It's no wonder your parents abandoned you!"
.
"Come on Harry let's play the good boy game…"
.
"Harry, Harry, Harry!"
Harry closed his eyes for a second swaying on his feet. Pansy and Theo caught an arm each as his les gave out.
"Harry! Think of us; think of Ethan, think of the common room! Think of Christmas! Think of Draco!" Pansy shrieked.
"Expecto Patronum!" A doe darted past them and glowed forcing back the dementors which shrieked and rushed away, taking the bad memories with them. They all turned to see Snape standing behind them panting heavily. "I told you to stay in the shop." He snapped.
"Harry!" Ethan cried running forward as his twin slumped to the ground. The doe moved forward and nuzzled him gently, he felt immeasurably better and smiled reaching up to the patronus, it shifted before darting back to its owner. He sat up with the help of his brother in time to see his Father and godfathers running towards them, led by their patronuses. James froze as he saw Snape's doe and Snape quickly let his magic dissipate and began checking over the children.
"What the fuck is up with that Snape?" Sirius yelled, Snape gave him a withering look and Remus frowned at his partner.
"Sirius." He murmured.
"No! Oh Merlin that can't be true!" Sirius looked more disgruntled that Harry had ever seen him.
"Shut up Black and check over your godson. I'm going back to the village to help round up the last of the dementors." Snape snapped in a tone so icy it rivalled the feeling of having dementors around. James was standing seemingly shell-shocked, Remus went over and gently touched his arm, James snapped out of it and hurried over to his sons who were both looking worse for the wear.
"Why was Uncle Sirius so angry Dad?" Ethan asked quietly as Harry was fed some hot chocolate from a flask Remus had brought with him.
"It's nothing, don't worry about it." James' voice was too fast to be convincing and it seemed even he realised this. "We need to get them back to the castle."
Remus who had been checking over the other children began to lead them away. Harry and Ethan followed but before they left they could hear Sirius ask James.
"Did you have any idea?"
Harry sighed as he lay on his bed thinking about the happenings of the day, they had all retired early to bed but that had been two hours ago and now he could hear the soft noises of the other boys sleeping. Harry's mind just kept going back to Snape's patronus and Sirius' reaction to seeing it.
"You need to sssleep Little One." Nox was normally asleep under a heat spell by now but instead he was curled up on Harry's chest.
"I don't understand why Sirius was so angry!" Harry hissed.
"It isss sssimple Little One. The dog doesss not like the Massster Sssnake, the Massster Sssnake likes the ssstag, your Sssire. That much was obvious from hisss white ssspell." Harry froze solid as he realised that what Nox had said was true! Snape's patronus was a doe and his Father's animal counterpart was a stag! Remus had even told him that your patronus could represent your love. It all made sense now, Harry looking back could even picture in his mind times when Snape had glanced at his Father with something Harry couldn't quite decipher, now he knew! It was longing. "How do you feel about thisss Little One?"
"I don't care, I love Dad and so long as he's happy I'm happy. Plus Snape would be really cool as a step dad don't you think?" Nox hissed his laughter.
"He would make a good Sssire but I am sssure that none of your nessst feels that way!" Harry laughed too, in parselmouths so it would be quieter.
"…Harry?" He froze at the voice. It was Draco. "Why are you still awake?"
"Sorry Draco, go back to sleep." Harry whispered and he heard a shuffling indicating Draco had rolled over, he looked over to catch silver eyes watching him.
"Why aren't you asleep?"
"I couldn't sleep; Nox was just talking with me until I could. Don't worry about it." Harry whispered.
"Is this about today?" The blonde asked and Harry nodded.
"I just couldn't…."
"It's okay Harry; none of us would ever let anything happen to you." Harry stopped as he realised that Draco had mistaken what he was thinking about but he didn't correct him, this was Snape's secret to keep.
"Thanks Draco… that means a lot!" Harry shot him a beaming smile before making a big motion of his yawn. "Well, I think I'm ready to sleep. See you in the morning!"
"Good night." Draco murmured and Harry kept his smile on his face as he rolled over. Tomorrow, he would talk to his Dad about Snape's patronus.
Harry had tried and tried again to talk to his Dad about Snape's patronus but to no effect, after his third try James had snapped at him to leave well enough alone, so Harry had decided that he would do just that, on his Dad's side anyway. There was nothing stopping him from going directly to the source of the confrontation. So instead of talking to his Dad about it he had begun trying to get Snape and him together in a room, from causing pranks which needed a Professor's attention to getting Ethan to break down in tears at the end of a potion's class only calming down once his Father was present. Ethan had been briefed on the situation immediately (Harry had no secrets from his twin) and after some cajoling had realised that it could actually be a good thing.
No one lost out on that one since for a full minute Snape and their Dad had been forced to talk, even if it wasn't about the problem and Ethan now had a reputation among the girls in Hogwarts as 'sensitive'.
"What's going on?" Harry looked up from his reading to see his Father glaring down at him; Remus and Sirius were near by watching his rapt attention. He and Ethan were at their weekly visit to their Dad's rooms.
"What do you mean?" He asked innocently.
"Why do you keep trying to get me and Snape in the same room together?" James asked sternly in what they liked to call his 'teacher voice'. Ethan promptly tried to sneak away but Sirius caught him by the collar of his jumper and pulled him back.
"We don't, those things just seem to happen." Ethan protested with a much too 'I-have-nothing-to-do-with-this' face on. It was a face both James and Sirius and occasionally Remus had used many times over the years.
"Do you realise how uncomfortable you're making Snape by doing this?" James demanded. "He even came up to me to ask me to tell you to, in his own words: 'get your addled-brain boys to grow up and stop with their idiotic scheming'."
Harry couldn't help his grin at that it was something Snape would definitely say, but he had been affected enough to actually go to James to tell them to stop- that had to be a good thing.
"We're not doing anything!" Harry protested and James glared at him.
"I don't know what stupid idea the both of you have in your head but it needs to stop now!" Harry frowned and looked at Ethan who was looking chagrined.
"Why?" Ethan gaped at him, he had just admitted to their meddling.
"Why? What do you mean? Why?" James looked gobsmacked.
"Why should we stop?" Sirius looked just as gobsmacked as James but Remus had a funny amused gleam to his eyes.
"Be…Because me and Snape don't feel that way towards each other!" James spluttered.
"Who said anything about feelings?" Harry asked innocently and James' face lit up red.
"That's what you're trying to do! Get me and Snape together!"
"Why would we be doing that?" Ethan asked grinning as he understood what Harry was trying to do. "We were just trying to get you to be friends!"
"Friends." James looked between the two of them incredulously.
"Unless of course you're looking for something more between the two of you!" Harry declared. "We'd be totally fine with that by the way! I actually like Professor Snape and I think the two of you could be good together! I mean who else riles you up the way he does. It's like when you told me about Remus and Sirius getting together and Sirius annoying Remus for weeks before hand because he wanted Remus' attention!"
"I was not doing that!" Sirius protested loudly as both Ethan and Remus laughed.
"So…you wouldn't care if I did, hypothetically of course, have feelings for Snape?" James asked with a frown on his face, he seemed to be thinking hard.
"Of course not. Hypothetically of course." Ethan smirked, something he was picking up from being around so many Slytherins all the time. Remus looked extremely proud of the two boys while Sirius was staring at James like he had grown another head.
"You might want to start by calling him Severus!" Harry laughed as he ducked under his Father's swatting hand; he grabbed Ethan and ran from the rooms. They both fell down laughing a few corridors away.
The Yule Ball was two days away; most of Hogwarts was staying through the holidays since everyone wanted to go to the Yule Ball, only the younger years were really going home. Their dress robes had arrived a few days ago and Harry had been forced to watch a parade of all of the girls' dresses and then had been forced to try on his dress robes which unlike his old ones which were a bottle green were a deep navy blue which made his hair look inky and his skin pale but both Pansy and Daphne had been silent for a few minutes so he classed it as good.
"Harry, can I talk to you for a second?" Draco asked after transfiguration. Harry nodded smiling. "Alone…" Draco glanced around at everyone else who quickly scattered.
"What is it Draco? Is everything okay?" Harry was now worried, Draco's fingers were clenched in the sleeves of his robes, a habit his mother would never have allowed and his hair was mussed as if he had been playing with it many times in the last lesson. Harry hadn't noticed if he had, he had been busy helping Theo turn a fork into a mouse.
"Yes, everything is good… you see the thing is I was thinking, well, since everyone's sort of got someone to go with, you know, to the Yule Ball with someone…"
"'arry Potter!" Harry looked away from Draco for a second to see a tall blonde from Beauxbatons standing near them leaning against a wall, Harry thought he might be related to their champion Fleur, they looked similar enough. "Eez eet possible for me to speak with you for a moment?"
"Sorry, I'm talking to my friend a second…"
"Claude, Claude Beaumont." The French boy said. "And I am sure your… friend won't mind if I steal you away for a moment."
Draco glared at the older boy who smirked. Harry frowned.
"I'll catch you later I'm sure." Harry told Claude.
"Are you sure, it won't take a second!" Claude leant in closer to Harry who blushed madly and took a step back.
"Whatever Harry! I'll see you at dinner." Without another word Draco stormed away, Harry stared after him for a long moment with a frown, wondering why Draco was angry with him.
"Good, he eez gone!" Claude leant in once more. Harry frowned, his head started to feel slightly fuzzy as the boy moved closer to him, a funny smell wafted towards him.
"W-What is it you want to talk to me about?" Harry asked biting his lip.
"I was wondering if you wanted to go to the Yule Ball with me?" Claude moved in even closer and Harry found he couldn't think straight, his eyes were stuck to Claude's which were such a deep blue.
"I…I, uh…" The smell increased tenfold.
"Please?" Harry blinked a few times.
"Okay, that sounds nice." He whispered. Claude grinned and leant in pressing his lips against Harry's. Harry's mind went completely blank as Claude licked his bottom lip before pulling away with a self-satisfied smirk.
"I will meet you outside of zhee hall then."
"…Yeah…" Claude left and Harry stared at the opposite wall for a while.
"Harry?" Harry snapped out of it and turned to see his Father watching him with a confused look on his face. "Where are your friends? Shouldn't you be down at dinner?"
"I…uh, yeah I should be." Harry murmured.
"Are you feeling okay? You look a bit out of it." James put his hand to Harry's head. "You don't feel warm."
"I'm not ill." Harry pushed his Dad's hand away. "I'm just a bit surprised."
"What happened?" James asked, wondering what could have made his son so out of it in a few short minutes.
"I got asked to the Yule Ball." Harry said softly.
"By who?" James was shocked. He wasn't prepared for his little boy to be going out with someone.
"Claude Beaumont, he's from Beauxbatons. He just asked me." Harry still felt a little light headed.
"From Beauxbatons! That means that he's at least sixteen! That's two years much too old! You are not allowed to go with him!" James snapped an angry look coming over his face at the thought of someone taking advantage of his son's trusting nature.
"But I already said yes." Harry said turning to face his father. "Wouldn't it be rude to tell him no now?"
"No! You will go and tell that boy straight away that you will not be going to the Yule Ball with him!" James declared.
"Go to the Yule Ball with whom?" Sirius appeared followed by Remus, both of whom were watching the interaction with frowns on their faces.
"A seventeen year old from Beauxbatons! It's ridiculous to expect a fourteen year old to go to the ball with him!" James yelled.
"Don't you think you're over reacting a bit Prongs?" Sirius asked cautiously in case James turned on him. "I mean, we both went out with seventh years when we were fourteen."
"That's different!" James shouted.
"How?" Harry asked his lips turned down.
"B-Because!" James spluttered. "You are not going with this boy and that's final!"
Harry sighed but nodded, he didn't really understand why he had said yes to the boy in the first place, but Remus and Sirius were both glaring at James disapprovingly.
"I'll tell him after dinner." Harry said. "I'm going down their now."
"I'll come with you. Remus you talk some sense into him!" Sirius pushed his partner towards his best friend before steering Harry in the direction of the Great Hall, they were both silent for a while. "You should have fought your point back there Cub."
"It's okay, I'm not that bothered." Harry said frowning.
"What do you mean?" Sirius asked with a matching frown.
"I don't really know why I said yes, I think I was just a bit surprised. I don't really remember it all that well." Harry admitted sheepishly. "I'd rather go with my friends to be honest."
"What was this boy's name?" Sirius stopped walking and demanded.
"Claude, Claude Beaumont." Sirius frowned before a furious look crossed his face.
"James was bloody right! You can't go to the Yule Ball with him and not because he's seventeen!" Sirius said harshly and Harry nodded, not arguing with his godfather. "That little bastard won't know what hit him!"
Without an explanation Sirius stormed away, back in the direction of his father. Harry shrugged and made his way down to dinner, still feeling slightly out of it. He sat down among his friends without thinking and ate without any memory of the food he was eating. His friends looked over him worriedly and Draco was steadfastly glaring over at the Ravenclaw table where Claude was laughing with his friends, Harry still didn't notice.
When dinner had finished Harry left his protesting friends and made his way over to the Ravenclaw table and asked Claude if they could speak for a few minutes. Claude said something in French to his friends and they all laughed in a way which made Harry blush to the roots of his hair, Claude had obviously said something about him.
They left the Great Hall together and went a few corridors away. Claude leant in as if to kiss Harry again but Harry put his hand on the blonde's chest.
"I'm sorry Claude but I can't come to the ball with you, my Father doesn't want me going with someone so much older than myself." Harry explained, trying to look even slightly upset.
"Aww 'arry, can you not, as they say defy your father?" Claude asked and Harry shook his head.
"He really wasn't happy with me going with someone older sorry." Harry gave an apologetic smile and Claude pouted, Harry felt a wave of dizziness rush over him.
"Are you sure you will not reconsider?" He asked leaning closer, the smell was back.
"S-Sorry." Harry mumbled staring anywhere but Claude's face. "I have to go."
"But 'arry eet eez simple to see zhat you feel zhee same way as I do? Why fight it?" Harry suddenly found his mind completely blank, why was he fighting it? Surely it would be so much easier just to let Claude take him to the dance, he was feeling really sleepy, maybe Claude would take him to his parents. He swayed slightly and Claude wrapped an arm around Harry's shoulders swooping in to kiss him.
"Get away from him!" Harry's eyes snapped open and he looked around dazedly for the source of the noise. James and Harry's godfathers were storming towards them; James pulled Harry away and kept a solid arm around Harry's shoulders. Harry was feeling quite tired.
"You'll get expelled for this!" Sirius hissed, close behind them.
"For what?" Claude asked with a mockingly innocent look on his face. "Surely eet eez not against the rules for two students to want to be together?"
"It is when you're using your allure to brainwash Harry." Sirius snapped, James looked too angry to speak.
"In Beauxbatons we are encouraged to embrace ourselves, all aspects of them." Claude declared raising an eyebrow. "Just because you supress your veela side does not mean that I am required to do the same. You can even go and complain to Madam Maxime, she will give you the same answer I assure you."
"Stay away from my son." James growled and Harry frowned, why was everyone yelling? He didn't understand.
"…Dad?" He began but James' arm tightened around him and he fell silent.
"We're leaving; if I see you near Harry again I will make sure you never graduate." James hissed before forcing Harry away from the apparent veela. They only stopped when they were at James' rooms; Harry was forced to sit down in an armchair. He waited for James who had hurried to the kitchen; he came back with a cup of tea for both of them and sat opposite his son staring into Harry's face. Harry was too tired to even feel embarrassed under the scrutiny.
"Why are you mad?" He asked, slurring his words slightly, not that he noticed. James' eyes darkened as he heard.
"I'm mad because Beaumont was taking advantage of you." James sighed, trying to not let his anger affect his son, it wasn't his fault.
"He wasn't was he?" Harry asked, trying to think back. "I was telling him that you wouldn't let me go to the ball with him and he seemed annoyed so I was going to leave and then I felt dizzy so he helped me."
"Harry…" James sighed once more. "Claude Beaumont has veela blood within him. Now that in itself isn't a bad thing, the Black family have veela blood too. But Beaumont was using his allure on you."
"What's allure?" Harry asked frowning as his mind cleared slowly.
"It's an ability those with veela ancestors possess. It can basically make others feel an intense attraction to them and make them basically do anything they want with the person; that's what Claude was doing to you."
"Is that why I let him kiss me?" Harry's nose wrinkled. "I don't think I wanted him to kiss me."
The fury on James' face increased tenfold and he had to take a few deep breaths to calm himself.
"Yeah, that'd be why." His voice was tight with control.
"Can I go down to the Common room? I think Draco might be annoyed with me and I want to apologise for whatever it is I've done." Harry smiled and James nodded sighing, Sirius would have taken Claude to the headmasters for punishment and there was no chance of Harry running into him. Plus Harry's faded state of mind seemed to have disappeared and he was acting back to normal.
Harry ran down to the common room, his friends were all looking particularly angry at him for some reason and Draco was nowhere to be seen.
"What?" He asked innocently.
"What! What!" Pansy shrieked and Blaise touched her arm gently to calm her down. "How could you do that?"
"Do what?" Harry asked frowning.
"Upset Draco like that! How could you go to the yule ball with some idiotic boy from Beauxbatons!" Theo stated and Harry's frown deepened.
"But I'm not going with Claude, I'm sorry that Draco stormed away when Claude asked him to leave but I didn't want him to go and then Claude used his allure on me so I said yes and he kissed me even though I didn't want him to! And then when I went to go tell Claude I couldn't go to the ball with him he did it again!" Harry was close to tears. "Why are you all mad at me?"
"Merlin…" Blaise whispered before pulling Harry into a tight hug. "We're sorry Harry, we didn't realise."
"I didn't mean to." Harry sniffed into Blaise's shoulder and instantly found himself in the middle of a Slytherin hug. He immediately felt immeasurably better and smiled weakly at everyone. "I guess I'll be going stag to the Yule Ball."
"What's going on?" The icy voice pulled them apart; he looked up to see Draco standing at the foot of the stairs to the boys' dormitories.
"Claude Beaumont is part veela." Daphne said softly.
"So? I am too." Draco snapped. "All of the Black family is."
"He used his allure on Harry." Draco's eyes snapped to Harry, whom he had been refusing to look at.
"What?"
"He used his allure on Harry to get him to go to the ball with him and to kiss him." Harry flushed embarrassed.
"I didn't want to go to the ball with him Draco." For some reason it was important for Draco to know this. "And I didn't want to kiss him."
Surprisingly Draco's features seemed to shift for a moment, a scowl formed on his face but the most alarming change were his eyes which suddenly seemed slightly more slanted and their grey colour sharpened to a silver.
"I'll kill him." Draco hissed already making for the door.
"Draco wait! Sirius has it covered! There's no need to do anything like that." Harry grabbed Draco's arm and pulled him to a halt weakly, he knew that if Draco hadn't wanted to stop for him there would have been no way he would have even slowed his moving.
"He touched you without permission." Harry had a sudden thought that Draco meant his permission but that would have been ridiculous.
"Yeah, but Sirius and Dad stopped him before he could do anything really bad. Honestly Draco, I'm fine." Draco glared at him and after a moment his eyes softened and his nodded.
"You are not allowed to go through the corridors alone if Beaumont is left to roam." The way he said it made Harry think that Draco thought Beaumont was some sort of beast. He nodded to placate his friend.
"Can I go to be now, I'm tired." Harry whispered and Draco nodded looking to the other boys to see if they wanted to go to sleep now too, they would all follow later. But Draco accompanied him and watched him closely as he got into bed. Nox curled up around Harry's arm and let him know that if he had been there the 'tainted human' would never have been allowed anywhere near him, Harry let out a laugh and thanked him before closing his eyes. "G'night Draco…"
"Good night Harry."
A/N I swear I didn't mean for this to be a creature!fic and it won't be, Harry and Draco won't have the predestined mate thing, all it will mean that Draco when he gets really mad will have the small change to appearance like he did further up ĵ and he'll be a bit more possessive of Harry than is normal!