A/N: I own nothing. And I hope you enjoy :)

The voices stopped as unexpectedly as they had started. Hermione, who had left in the shadows of the night, was startled. She had thought it would continue, but there she was, standing on a rock cliff, wind and rain threatening to engulf her. Her nose caught a whiff of lemon in the air, but she was sure it was her imagination playing tricks on her. However, when she turned to disapparate, she noticed a hooded figure stepping out of nowhere, dragging a resistant body behind him.

"Bill?" Her eyes widened in surprise, recognizing the red Weasley, as soon as he removed his hood. He was panting heavily.

"Trust me, I don't like this either," groaned the man with frustration evident in his voice. "But we've got this pup here who's driving everyone mad."

"I'm not a pup," hissed the other figure gloomily. Hermione recognized it instantly as Malfoy's and she felt even more confused.

"Malfoy?!"

The blonde ripped the hood hiding his face. He was angry. He had gone along with Fleur willingly, lured in by the promise of answers. She had taken him to a veela coven, "a family of sorts", as she had put it. He'd gotten his singing under control fast enough or so he hoped but then she had showed up, on the very edge of the hidden grounds.

"He has something to tell you." Bill looked at Draco pointedly, willing him to speak up. "If he doesn't, I will. I do think he should be the one though." He shrugged apologetically. "But I'm under orders."

Draco muttered something, but it was swallowed by the wind. Bill smacked his head gently enough not to harm him but strongly enough to smack some sense into him.

"I'm a part-veela," he said, keeping his voice monotonous. He forced himself to look in Hermione's eyes, as he continued. "You're my mate. Now you know." Draco watched her face closely, looking for a sign. She bit her lip, frowning. "You're free to go."

He waited for a moment, then tore his eyes from hers and turned around, ready to stalk back into the coven grounds. His heart ached from her lack of response. However, his plan was ruined, when Bill grabbed him by the neck in the same way a dragon tamer would pick up a young beast.

Afraid of losing her chance, Hermione finally spoke: "And what will happen if I go?" There was an infinite number of questions she wanted to ask, but if this was the only question she could ask him, she would not waste it on something like "Why me?"

"Nothing," Draco couldn't lie – the veela in him would ensure he didn't, but nothing stopped him from twisting the words. He tried to get free from Bill's grip, but the man had had a lot of experience in holding on.

"That's technically true," Bill rolled his eyes, hardly amused. "He'll waste away. Whatever he could do, he would never do, because he'd be too occupied with longing after you."

The witch summed it up: "Wasted potential." She thought back to Malfoy's time at Hogwarts. How many times had they thought he was behind all the nefarious plans? Even if she didn't remembered his grades, he had always seemed smart enough for Hermione to consider him a potential suspect. She cleared her throat. "A lot of wasted potential."

Her eyes found Malfoy's. The young man sucked in a breath at the look in them. There was a spark that he had only seen in their ancient runes classes at Hogwarts, when she was faced with a particularly challenging translation.

"I'm not making any promises or anything," she said carefully. "But I don't think this is right. You shouldn't give up your life just because there's bad blood between us." As she spoke it, something in her mind clicked. "Bad blood..." she repeated. "Malfoy, I've seen your family tree. It is as pure as they come. How are you a veela?"

"I don't know." Even after speaking with the coven, he was no closer to finding out the answer to the question. "Your guess is as good as mine." Draco was mesmerized. He could feel the flame in her eyes tug at him, inviting him closer.

"Could be old magic." Bill quipped in. "Curses or runes or something even more ancient. Whatever the reason, we'll try to figure it out, Hermione. Fleur says male veelas are something of a legend in itself."

"I figured."

"But the veela bond... it's not something that happens overnight, you know that, don't you?" continued the older man, not caring for her interruption. Draco tried to tug himself free, but Bill's grip remained firm, as he spoke on. "It usually kicks in during the teenage years... Could be anyone, really, but there's a certain logic to it. To be frank, I..."

"Oh please!" Malfoy sneered. He felt humiliated by the way they were talking about this issue as if he wasn't here. Not to mention Bill's hold on him was pissing him off – him and the veela in him both. The only thing keeping it in control was another's claim on the man. Draco stared deeply into Hermione's eyes, pouring all his anger into this one look. "I said you're free to go."

The witch didn't back down. She stared right back at him.

"I'll decide when I want to go," she spat perhaps too harshly. The veela winced and Malfoy bit his tongue to keep his body from showing it. "Make no mistake, Malfoy," she stressed his name and paused. She wanted to say something sharp, something witty, something that would make her intentions clear to him, but in the end, she simply sighed and said softly: "We will probably never get along, but I can't simply walk away. So get off your high horse and let me help you."

"I don't want your help!" Another futile attempt at getting free, even though he almost succeeded this time. He froze, when the woman smiled, finding his behavior childish. Embarrassed, the man's first instinct was to sneer, even though the smile was sending his heart into overdrive.

"But you need it." The blonde unnerved her. The way he behaved, the way he spoke – his attitude reminded her of their time at Hogwarts. But there was something else too, a strange deperation unbefitting of an adult. It would have been extremely easy to make her leave, she realized. He would only have to trigger her memories, call her a mudblood and make fun of her. As much as he wanted to get away, he hadn't done either of it.

It seemed Draco realized it in the same moment as she did. He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Bill spoke in a deliberately loud voice: "Anyway, you two need to sit down and talk about it." He let go of Malfoy and the blonde tried to straighten up his robes, glad to be free. "Just let it be clear that this is not only a matter between you two. It concerns all of the veela community."

"I couldn't care less," Draco muttered to himself, as Hermione announced: "Tomorrow at three then. At that small café by Flourish and Blotts. Don't be late." Malfoy looked at her and gave a curt nod, before turning and disapparating with a quiet pop.

Bill Weasley sighed in relief. "That went well. I was quite sure he'd try something. He was quite hellbent on avoiding you." He ran his fingers through his long, red hair. "Quite fascinating actually. It's a rather uncommon behavior for someone with veela blood. Remarkable self-control."

"Self-control?"

It was the disbelief in the woman's voice that made Bill look at her properly for the first time that night. He had carefully avoided making eye-contact with her in Malfoy's presence.

"It must be difficult for him. To be so close and yet so far," Bill explained. "Veelas crave for the touch of their mate. The stronger the blood, the stronger the pull. Many of them can't resist it."

"I didn't know that."

"Well, there's a lot you don't know." Bill observed the woman wisely. "But I'm glad you are taking this so calmly."

"Calmly?" she squeaked, the reality hitting her hard. With Malfoy gone, it was as if a veil had been lifted. Her heart was beating fast, she felt weak and nauseated. Her voice rose an octave as she repeated: "Calmly?"

"Yes, calmly." Seeing her reaction, Bill wondered how he hadn't noticed Malfoy using his charm on her. Had the blonde even realized he had this effect on her? "You were reasonable through and through. Honestly, this went better than expected."

"How?" Hermione felt sick to her stomach, the aftereffects of the absent veela.

"Well, how about we discuss it over a cup of tea?" Bill suggested. "I'm sure you have plenty of questions. Fleur would be delighted to answer them all."

Hermione to consider it for a moment. On one hand, her questions would be answered. On the other, she would have to suffer the presence of the beautiful French witch. It always felt uncomfortable to be in the same room as her.

"Perhaps another time," she finally decided. "I need some time to think about this... situation. Alone." Bill seemed downcast at her answer, so she added: "But I'll definitely owl her soon. We're going to... We're going to have to come up with a plan to fix this. I'm sure there's a way to reverse this, if we figure out how it was done."

"Perhaps you're right," the wizard smiled, although he doubted that even a witch like Hermione could undo this magic. But it was better to give her hope.

They exchanged goodbyes after that and Hermione disapparated back to her apartment. She put a kettle on to prepare some tea, got out of her robes and into a comfortable set of flannel pajamas. She picked up a book and tried to put the evening out of her mind. She was unsuccessful.

Draco Malfoy, a veela, she thought. And me as his mate. What a twist of fate. Prophet's going to have a field day with that. We're going to have to be discreet as we work on fixing this... But how? Where should I begin? She stood up and walked over to her bookshelf. It appeared small, but it was charmed to fit an enormous amount of printed matter. Hermione browsed through them, picking out a couple of books on magical beasts. But she didn't open them immediately. Maybe I don't want to know. Maybe it's better if I don't. It could make tomorrow more difficult.

In the end, however, she opened and read as much as she could. But there were only a handful of pages scattered among all her books, repeating the same information over and over again. This simply wasn't something she could learn from books. When she finally fell asleep from exhaustion, her mind was full of troubled thoughts.

At the same time, far away in a cold manor, Draco Malfoy punched a hole in the wall. The hard stone broke under his bare fist and shards fell everywhere. What the hell have I done? He was haunted by the smile on the brunette's face. And her voice! Oh please, sweet Merlin, let me hear it again! The veela purred. Any word will do...

Draco wanted to punch the wall again. Don't you dare. Get yourself together, Draco Malfoy. You will redeem yourself. You can still fix this. He slapped his pale cheeks, hoping the pain would snap him out of it. So what if his mate was Hermione Granger? She deserved to be free. The image of her was so clear in his mind.

I can't wait to see you again.