Chapter 25
Aria was lying down in a bed somewhere; but she couldn't remember how she got there, or why she was there in the first place.
It hurt to move.
Her head felt like it was being split into two, and there was a dull, persistent throbbing somewhere below her right shoulder. She tried to stretch her right arm; but the dull throb intensified into a sharp stab of pain that she abandoned her efforts immediately.
Wincing, she forced her eyes open and found herself staring up at a white ceiling. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she eventually recognized the cream colored walls of the hospital wing. She raised herself up into a sitting position, only to wince again as another sharp pain below her shoulder alerted her to the fact that one of her wings, her right wing in particular, was heavily bandaged. When she turned her head to look at it, she saw that both her wings, as well as several other sore parts of her body, were glowing from the effects of a healing stasis charm.
"You're awake."
Aria startled at the soft, male voice and looked up, blinking at the sight of Ron sitting on a small chair to her left. He was watching her closely, as though trying to gauge if she was alright, but Aria found herself doing the same. She couldn't help but frown when she noticed the obvious lines of exhaustion on his face.
He looked terrible.
There were dark circles under his eyes, and his face was scuffed up with a couple of nasty cuts and bruises — though, thankfully, most of them already seemed to be healing. His shoulders were slumped, and there was a bit of stubble on his face that alerted Aria to the fact that he might have been keeping watch on her for quite some time.
"How long was I out?" She asked.
Ron rubbed his face with his hand.
"Five days." He answered, yawning and leaning back tiredly against the backrest of his chair. "It's not your fault, though. Madam Pomfrey kept you knocked out with a sleeping draught. She said she wanted to see if your veela magic would be capable of healing your wing."
Aria grimaced at his words and closed her eyes, lowering herself back down onto the bed. After a few minutes of silence, Ron turned to her again, and there was a slightly worried frown on his face as he watched her.
"I noticed that the symbols on your neck are gone." He said in a quiet voice. "So...That means you really—?"
Instead of answering, Aria lowered her gaze to her fidgeting hands.
"You really did extend the mating call to Malfoy?" Ron sighed as he walked over to the bed and sat down onto the space beside her. "It was by choice, right?"
Aria swallowed slowly and nodded, closing her eyes in defeat.
"It was the only way I could think of to save him. To keep him from getting hurt or—"
She cut herself off in the middle of her sentence when she suddenly remembered something. Her eyes widened with worry and she flicked her gaze back to Ron in question.
"Hermione! Oh gods, is she okay?! That bastard bit her on the neck—"
Ron's features softened at the aghast expression on Aria's face.
"Hermione's fine, Aria." He tried to give her a reassuring smile, but the way he seemed to hesitate caused Aria to worry even more. She made to move out of the bed, but Ron sighed again and stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder and gently pushing her back down.
"Madam Pomfrey says you're not allowed to be out of bed yet." He said calmly.
Aria slapped his hands away and glared impatiently at him. "Where's Hermione? What happened?!" She demanded.
"Well, she's... infected."
"Infected?" All of the blood rushed out of Aria's cheeks and she stared at Ron in horror. "Infected with what?!"
Ron bit his lip and didn't answer.
"...vampirism?!"
He winced at the sharpness of Aria's voice.
"Oh, you two. Stop being so melodramatic about all this. I'm perfectly fine."
Before either Aria or Ron could react, the thick curtains to the left of Aria's bed were suddenly drawn back and Aria turned to her side, staring in shock at the sight of Hermione lying down in the hospital bed beside hers. She noticed the paler color of Hermione's cheeks, the eerie glow of her eyes, and the two sharp fangs in her mouth where her canines should be.
That was when she realized that she hadn't misunderstood Ron's statement at all.
Hermione was a vampire.
When she saw the way Aria was gaping at her, Hermione rolled her eyes and gave her an exasperated look.
"It's really not as bad as you think it is—"
"Not as bad as I think it is?! Salazar's sake, Hermione!" Aria's horrified, enraged screech was loud enough that Ron winced again and had to cover his ears. "Have you seen yourself?! You're a vampire! Oh gods, I shouldn't have let that bastard hurt you, I'm so sor—"
"I know exactly where you're going with that." Hermione cut her off, her gaze sharpening at the guilt in Aria's words. She shook her head and gave Aria a hard, chastising glare. "And I'm telling you right now, Aria, stop it."
Aria's lips tilted with misery as she lowered her eyes and looked away. Beside her, Ron looked just as equally distraught and he alternated his gaze back and forth between the two girls in concern.
"Honestly." Hermione sighed at their reactions. "Like I said, it's not that big of a deal. All things considered, things could have gone much worse. Besides, I feel perfectly fine; I don't even know why I'm still here! I'm missing a lot of classes—"
"You're not fine, 'Mione." Ron suddenly looked up at that and he glared warningly at her. "You have to stay here because Madam Pomfrey wants to observe how your body is adjusting to the vampirism infection."
"It's been more than 48 hours. If there were any side effects, I would have experienced them by now." Hermione snapped back at him.
Aria spoke again, looking up and staring guiltily at them. "I'm really sorry."
"Why do you keep apologizing?" Hermione's eyes narrowed at Aria's words. "How, in Merlin's name, is any of this your fault, Aria?"
"Bentley was after me! If I had just figured it all out before this happened, you wouldn't have gotten hurt! None of you would have gotten hurt—"
"Hermione's right, Aria. It's really not your fault." Ron suddenly cut in, drawing Aria's attention to him. "If anyone should be held accountable here, it should be me. He was my housemate, and I knew how scarily obsessed he was with you; I should have noticed that something else was wrong with him."
Aria opened her mouth to argue with him, but she was interrupted when they heard a soft knock on the doors.
"I'm sorry to interrupt."
The three of them looked up, watching as Madam Pomfrey peeked her head into the small room.
"You have visitors, Miss Potter."
Aria tried to quell her irritation and keep her tone of voice as polite as possible. "I'm sorry Madam Pomfrey; but I really don't want to talk to anyone right now."
To her confusion, the expression on Madam Pomfrey's face looked almost amused as she answered.
"I'm afraid, Miss Potter, that they are quite...er...insistent that they be allowed to see you." She said wryly.
"Who are they?" Aria frowned.
The door behind Madam Pomfrey swung open, and Aria blinked in surprise as Blaise, Neville, Pansy, Zach, Hannah and Morag all pushed past Madam Pomfrey and squeezed themselves into the tiny space around Aria and Hermione's beds. When the confusion on Aria's face melted away into a mixture of helpless exasperation and amusement, Madam Pomfrey took her reaction as a sign of permission and chuckled to herself before quickly exiting the room.
"What are you lot doing here?" Aria groaned at the sight of Blaise's annoyingly handsome grin and fell back against the pillows of her bed. "Don't you know that snarky one-liners, half-assed insults and sex talk aren't really advisable for exhausted patients who are trying to recover?" She remarked sarcastically.
"I told you she'd be happy to see us." Blaise ignored Aria's impassive glare and strode over to the other side of her bed, plopping himself down onto the opposite space where Ron sat. "I forgive you, by the way. Normally, I wouldn't really forgive crazy, homicidal girls who try to kill me like you did, but now that I've had a chance to see you properly in your true form, I suppose I can give you another chance." He winked at her.
Aria reached up and massaged her temples.
"I'll never understand you Slytherins." Ron snorted and, with a decidedly amused look on his face, he stood up and walked back over to sit by Hermione's bed. "I'm going to sit over here before you all infect me with your...weirdness."
Neville laughed at Ron's comment and turned his attention back to Aria. "How are you feeling? Madam Pomfrey said that you lost a lot of blood."
"I'm okay." Aria managed a small smile at the genuine concern she heard in his voice. When she saw Pansy trying (and failing) to hide behind Neville, however, Aria's smile instantly faded into a sneer that caused Pansy to flinch and shrink away even further.
Unfortunately, before she could call the other girl out on it, Blaise reached over and distracted Aria by slinging an arm around her shoulders. Though, it didn't escape Aria's attention that Blaise was careful not to place any weight on her injured wing.
"So...Aria." He smirked at her. "I have to be honest here. Frankly, if I had known you were this gorgeous in your true form, I wouldn't have let Draco have you."
"Oh please." Zach let out a derisive snort, crossing his arms and shaking his head at Blaise's antics. "Like you ever had a chance, Zabini."
"More than you, obviously." Blaise chimed back at him with a shameless grin. "And I'll have you know that she actually considered me as a compatible mate."
At his words, Aria's cheeks flushed slightly in embarrassment. "How the hell did you know about that?!"
"I have veela blood too, you realize." Blaise pointed out, looking amused at her reaction. "And don't worry about it. A lot of girls like me, I'm used to it by now."
Aria's head was beginning to hurt.
Luckily, before she was tempted to shove Blaise to the floor, Hannah sat down on the other side of the bed beside her.
"Ignore him, Aria." Hannah reached over and gently brushed her hair away from her face. "Seriously, though. Are you okay? I heard about what happened at the Ball. That must have been terrible."
"You heard about it?" Aria blinked at her in confusion. "What do you mean? Weren't you there when Bentley started attacking everyone?"
"She was off making out with her date somewhere when it all happened." Morag answered, snorting at the embarrassed flush on Hannah's face. "She didn't even know what was going on until she got back to the Common Room and saw everyone else panicking."
"Can we focus on the main issue here?" Hannah coughed and pointedly directed everyone's attention back to Aria. "As I was saying...Are you okay, Aria? How are you feeling?"
Aria answered her with another smile. "I'm just tired, but otherwise I'm fine."
"I'll say." Morag remarked, and Aria's lips twitched when she saw the way the other girl was blatantly checking her out. "A veela's true form is truly fascinating. I don't suppose you'd consider a one-time shag with me, Potter? Purely for research purposes of course, I'm quite curious how differently a veela's biology responds to pleasure stimuli."
"No offense, Morag. But no."
"I didn't think so."
Morag rolled her eyes when most of the Slytherins didn't bother hiding their snickers at Aria's deadpan reaction.
"Wait a minute." Aria suddenly realized something and she paused, glancing curiously at Blaise, Zach and Neville. "My hair is down right now and I'm in my true form. Why aren't any of you—"
"—affected by your veela allure?" Blaise teased.
He chuckled as he, Neville, and Zach all smirked and reached into their collars, holding up the pendant that hung from around their necks. "After you were outed as a veela and nearly half the guys in the hall jumped you, Professor Flitwick started going around and handing out an anti-allure charm to all of the boys in school." He explained.
"...oh."
Aria would have said more, but then she saw Pansy peering uncertainly at her again from over Neville's shoulder. Finally fed up with his girlfriend's antics, Neville rolled his eyes. He ignored Pansy's shrill protests and shoved her forward.
Pansy fidgeted with her hands before she spoke.
"Peace offering?"
She lifted the small basket of muffins in her arms, but she winced and immediately stepped away when she saw the hostile expression on Aria's face.
"You think a basket of muffins will make up for what happened?" Aria asked sarcastically. "You really think that will somehow make up for the fact that you apparently kept one of my feathers all this time?"
Pansy stiffened at the accusation she heard in Aria's voice.
"In my defense, if I hadn't, you probably would have ended up killing me." She retorted haughtily, sniffing.
Neville sighed at her response and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"Pansy." He groaned.
"Well, what do you want me to say?! I'm sorry I kept your feather, Potter." She set the basket of muffins down onto the foot of Aria's bed and huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Back then, when I decided to keep it, I didn't exactly have the best opinion of you. And to be quite honest, I was actually planning to use it to make you embarrass yourself."
"If this is your idea of an apology, Parkinson, it's not working." Aria growled.
"Give me a break." Pansy rolled her eyes. "We weren't exactly the best of friends when this whole mess started. And my reasoning at the time was that it couldn't hurt to have a veela feather that would grant me one favor from the most powerful witch in our year. You can hardly blame a Slytherin for that."
"You expect me to understand what you did based on that reasoning?!"
"I didn't say I expected you to forgive me!" Pansy countered, flinching at Aria's outburst. "I'm just trying to explain to you why I did it! If it makes any difference, I wasn't planning to use it against you anymore! And before that incident at the Yule Ball, I was actually planning to give it back to you."
Aria didn't answer; and she continued to glare at Pansy with narrowed eyes. Before either of the two girls could say anything else, Neville spoke up again and he drew Aria's attention back to him.
"I'm sorry too, by the way. For attacking you while your back was turned." He said quietly.
Aria's cheeks flushed with shame at the reminder.
"You don't have to apologize for that." She averted her gaze and looked away, staring awkwardly out the window as she spoke. "I could have killed you, you realize. I was out of control—"
"You were cursed, Aria. None of what happened was your fault." Neville pointed out bluntly.
Aria only sighed in response. "In any case, I'm glad you fought me. If you hadn't, who knows what else Fisher would have made me do."
"Speaking of Fisher, what exactly happened to that vampire asshole anyway? Is he still in Hogwarts?" Zach asked, wincing slightly when Hannah stomped on his foot to make him shut up. "Ow! What?! Come on, you were all thinking of asking the same thing!" He scowled.
Hermione was the one who answered him, looking amused as she spoke up from the bed beside Aria's.
"Headmistress McGonagall had him locked up in her office. I heard a group of Aurors came and took him away this morning." She told them.
"He's still alive right?" Aria managed to force out as she turned to Hermione, her face paling when she suddenly remembered the way she had almost killed him. "Please tell me he's still alive."
Ron and Hermione shared a worried look; until Hermione eventually answered her in a carefully restrained voice.
"Yes, he's still alive."
Aria's uninjured wing sagged with relief. "Where is he now?"
"He's been placed in a temporary holding cell in the Ministry until they decide what the proper charges are to be filed against him." Hermione told her.
"I still don't understand why they insist on doing that." Ron scowled as he leaned back against the headrest of Hermione's bed. "What more do they need to decide about anyway?! That asshole nearly forced Aria to mate with him! He infected Hermione with vampirism! He set fiendfyre loose in the Great Hall, for crying out loud! Not to mention the fact that he tried to order Aria to commit murder! He should be rotting in Azkaban for the rest of his life!" He growled.
Aria felt the lingering stares of her housemates on her, obviously waiting for her reaction to Ron's statement but the throbbing in her head was beginning to intensify; and frankly, she was still too exhausted to think properly about everything that happened.
It was Blaise who eventually addressed Ron's outburst with a derisive scoff.
"You are such a typical, hot-headed Gryffindor, Weasley."
"What's that supposed to mean, Zabini?!"
Blaise let out a dramatic sigh and spoke up in a pretentious drawl from where he sat beside Aria. "You do realize that it's not that simple right? Clearly, you're forgetting about the politics of it all. The Ministry deciding about what to do with a vampire like Bentley Fisher could have significant repercussions among the vampire community. Not to mention the fact that, deciding not to do anything will equally upset the veela community as well. The war had just ended after all, so the newly-formed Ministry of Magic under Kingsley can't exactly afford to go stirring up tension right now, can they? You have to remember that our society is still reeling from the hostile divisions the Dark Lord created during the war."
"Have either of the two sides spoken up about what happened?" Hermione asked curiously.
"I don't know about the vampires." Blaise arched an eyebrow at her. "But the last I heard from my mother, the veelas are in an uproar right now ever since they found out that the Girl-Who-Lived is apparently one of them. And they're furious that a vampire attacked her and tried to force her into mating."
Ron's expression grew even more annoyed at Blaise's words.
"Screw your politics!" Ron raged, and the way his voice rose caused Hannah to jump in alarm. "The fact is, Aria was attacked and she has the right to make sure that son of a bitch is punished for it! Who cares about whether he's a vampire or she's a veela or any of that rubbish—"
"Blaise is right, Weasley." Morag spoke again in a more assertive voice, cutting Ron off in the middle of his tirade. "Think about it. Right now, the vampire community is claiming that Fisher wasn't in his right mind that night — because his fixation was Aria, and basically, it was the fixation that drove him insane. So instead of Azkaban, they'll probably push for him to be sent to St Mungo's for psychiatric help instead."
"Can they actually do that?" Hannah asked, turning to look at Morag in surprise.
"Well, technically, they can. There are laws in place that state that 'mental instability' caused by a vampire's fixation can be used as a mitigating circumstance when dealing with vampire offenders." Morag explained.
"That's bollocks." Ron snapped, glowering angrily to himself as he punched at the mattress. "If it were up to me, that bloke would be getting the dementor's kiss for what he did to Aria."
Hermione sighed and leaned back against him. "But at the risk of inciting a faction war between the vampires and the veelas?"
"That does seem to be the question on everyone's minds nowadays."
Blaise groaned loudly; and Aria looked up in confusion at the new, unfamiliar voice that had spoken.
Suddenly, the door swung open, and everyone looked up to watch as a tall, incredibly beautiful woman in a stylish white blazer and perfectly fitted tan pants stepped purposefully into the small room. She was smirking as she strode over towards them, but it was only when she stopped by the foot of Aria's bed that Aria noticed her appearance.
The woman was stunning; and she was also, quite obviously, a veela.
She had long, dark brown hair that fell all the way down to her ankles, sultry gray eyes underneath long, curled lashes, and gorgeous mocha colored skin that glowed vibrantly against the sunlight. Her features were sharp and refined; and Aria couldn't help but recognize in her face the same distinguished lines and delicate curvatures as she also saw in Blaise. More importantly, judging from the unnaturally larger pupils of her eyes, she was in her true form; but when Aria glanced behind her, she saw no trace of the woman's wings.
Blaise cast a quick, warning glare at the way Zach was blatantly staring at their new guest before he spoke in a helplessly amused voice.
"You know, when the Ministry said they were going to send someone, I had a feeling they were going to send you."
"I beg your pardon."
The woman blinked at his words and pretended to give him an affronted glare. "Is that any way to greet your mother properly?" She scoffed.
Blaise rolled his eyes at her indignant huff but stood up. He automatically walked over towards her and greeted her with an affectionate kiss on the cheek.
"Hello, Mother." He smiled wryly.
She smiled back warmly at him. Her eyes narrowed with slight disapproval as she reached up and began fussing with his hair.
"You need a haircut, darling. So unkempt."
When Blaise just rolled his eyes again, she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and chuckled before finally turning her attention back to Aria.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Aria Potter." She smiled at her, and again, Aria blinked as she was taken back by how attractive she was. "My name is Ilyana Zabini, and I am here as an official spokesperson on behalf of the Department of Veela Affairs in the Ministry."
"I knew this was coming." Aria muttered under her breath. Ignoring the pain under her right shoulder, she forced herself up into a sitting position on her bed before turning back to meet Ilyana's gaze. "What can I do for you, Ma'am?" She asked quietly.
"Oh please. There's absolutely no need for formalities, darling. But I'm afraid, Miss Potter, that I do have some important matters to discuss with you." Ilyana paused, her lashes fluttering as she glanced pointedly over her shoulder at Blaise and the rest of the Slytherins around the room. "In private." She added.
"Always with the subtlety." Blaise snorted as he took the hint and began moving towards the door. "Are you going to kick the rest of us out of the room?"
Ilyana just smiled dotingly at him. "Miss Granger can stay, obviously, as she is still bedridden. But the rest of you, yes, if you please."
Aria waited patiently as Blaise gestured to the rest of the Slytherins, until eventually, everyone began to file out of the room. Ron, on the other hand, hesitated by the doorway. He glanced uncertainly at his two best friends in question.
"It's fine, Ron. We can tell you everything later." Hermione assured him.
He sighed at that but he nodded reluctantly and left, closing the door quietly behind him. As soon as only Aria, Hermione, and Ilyana were left in the small hospital room, Ilyana smiled again and slowly turned her attention back to Aria.
"I'll make this as quick and concise as I can, Miss Potter." She sat down onto the chair across Aria's bed and crossed her arms over her chest, tapping her perfectly manicured fingernails against the sleeves of her blazer. "The reason I've been sent here today, is because — in light of recent events — the veela community wants me to convince you to officially press assault charges against Bentley Fisher."
Aria's gaze flicked uncertainly to Hermione's, and they shared a look before Ilyana continued.
"We have heard alarming rumors that a lot of politically influential vampires are trying to convince the Wizengamot to lighten Fisher's sentence. Obviously, we don't want this to happen as it might set a dangerous precedent for other, similar cases involving veelas in the future. So in short, we want you, as the Girl-Who-Lived, to use your political influence and push back against them." She explained.
"Is that so?" Aria's eyes narrowed slowly and she couldn't help sneering at her words. "And what exactly do you expect me to do? Whine about it? Make it a scandal and publicize it even more?"
"We want you to make a public statement." Ilyana answered calmly, arching an elegant eyebrow at her words. She straightened in her seat and folded her hands primly on her lap. "We'll arrange all the necessary schedules and logistics of course. And we'll deal with the press. All you have to do is show up, at the right time and place, and give a detailed account to the public of exactly what happened that night. That way, not only do we pressure the Wizengamot into properly punishing Bentley Fisher for what he did, but we also get to refute everything Rita Skeeter has been saying about you and the veela community in the Daily Prophet."
Ilyana paused again, and her eyebrow arched higher when she noticed the confused look on Aria's face.
"Surely you've read what Rita Skeeter has been writing about you recently, have you not?"
"No, I haven't." Aria bit back, gritting her teeth in growing frustration. "And quite frankly, given the fact that I don't really care about what Skeeter — or anyone else — says about me, why should I bother doing any of the things you just said? You do realize that I'm not actually obligated to help you or the veela community, right? I'm not the altruistic fool everyone thinks I am. So with all due respect, Miss Zabini, but what if I just asked you to tell the veela community to go to hell?"
To Aria's surprise, Ilyana just smirked at her, looking thoroughly amused by her reaction.
"Oh, I do like your spirit, Miss Potter."
She chuckled to herself and leaned back against her seat. "And all things considered, please don't misunderstand. I do agree with you about you not being obligated to help us; and being a veela myself, the last thing I want to do is force you to do something you don't want to. But I am obligated to tell you that the confrontation between you and Mr. Fisher has blown up into a much bigger issue than you could realize. Not to mention that the article Rita Skeeter published has done nothing but fan the flames even more, placing us veelas in a very bad light. It's been causing a lot of unfair discrimination against our kind, and if we don't speak out and do something about it now, this treatment will likely continue."
"Alright, so let's say I do agree to give a public statement." Aria glared dubiously at her. "I'm just supposed to believe that this isn't going to come back and bite me in the ass?" She challenged.
"More importantly." Hermione suddenly chimed in, speaking for the first time since their discussion began. "Having Aria come out and publicly align herself with the veelas on this issue isn't going to cause another war or anything like that right?"
Aria's jaw clenched and she immediately stiffened at Hermione's words.
"The last thing I want is another war." She whispered.
Ilyana shook her head and dissuaded their concerns with another reassuring smile.
"We have already considered all the possible consequences of Aria making a public statement. And rest assured, war is definitely not a likely scenario. But I won't lie. The vampires will likely take it as a personal affront if you do this. But we are expecting that the positive ramifications from this incident will mitigate the negative. And hopefully, once the Girl-Who-Lived speaks out, more attention — and protection — will be given to the veela community to prevent similar incidents like this in the future." She explained.
At Ilyana's words, the anger that had been simmering in Aria's chest finally fizzled out. Her gaze fell and her entire frame slumped with exhaustion. She leaned back against the pillows behind her and let out a weary sigh of defeat.
"What exactly do you want me to say?"
Draco was tense as he entered the Great Hall that morning.
He tried not to react when he felt more than a couple dozen pairs of wide, curious eyes suddenly flicking to stare at him from nearly every single part of the room. With a sneer, he ignored them and walked calmly across the hall.
The hateful looks he could deal with; and they didn't really bother him all that much anymore.
Ever since the war ended, Draco had pretty much grown used to people hating him anyway. The looks had grown even more callous after he was acquitted by the Ministry. So, frankly, being the most despised person in the room had simply become a normal part of his life now.
What did irk Draco, however, was how the stares seemed to have shifted somehow.
Now, instead of glaring at him, his schoolmates were staring at him in avid curiosity, and Draco noticed that a lot of them (especially the younger male students) kept inspecting him from head to toe, obviously in search of something.
Draco knew what they were looking for, but he'd be damned if he let them see it.
He had taken to wearing long sleeved sweaters these days, making sure to cover up the veelish symbols along the back of his wrist. With the current clangor of the wizarding world right now about Aria being revealed as a veela, and the dozens of articles that continued to be published everyday about who everyone thought her mate should be, the last thing Draco wanted was for the world to find out that their beloved Savior had unwittingly chosen a former Death Eater as her mate.
As he passed by the Gryffindor table, Draco's gaze flicked suspiciously over to the small group of Gryffindors sitting near the very back of the room.
His hand hovered instinctively over his wand.
Draco knew that the group fancied themselves as Aria's unofficial fan club at Hogwarts, so not surprisingly, they weren't very happy when they found out about Draco and Aria's relationship during the Yule Ball. Over the last couple of days, the group kept throwing stray jinxes at Draco whenever they got the chance.
Luckily, their magic skills weren't all that impressive, and Draco had no problems deflecting their attacks.
Since Aria had ended up breaking his wand during their duel, Draco had gone back to using his old hawthorn wand (the same wand Aria had taken from him in Malfoy Manor and returned to him after the war) again to defend himself. For some strange reason, it was working perfectly for him again, and Draco noticed that it amplified his magic much better than the new wand he had been using at the start of the year.
When Draco finally made it to the Slytherin Table, he lowered himself into the seat between Blaise and Zach. He ignored their murmured greetings and wordlessly began pouring himself a cup of strong, caffeinated tea. As he lifted the cup to his lips, his gaze swept briefly over all of the house-elves who were scurrying about around them, every single one of them busy with trying to reconstruct the Great Hall.
Draco winced at the sight.
The damage caused by the fiendfyre had been...extensive.
All four walls of the Great Hall were charred powdery black; and most of the windows were either cracked or shattered. The chandeliers along the high ceiling were gone, and the large, double doors of the entrance, as well as all of the hall's curtains, had been burned away.
It reminded Draco of the damage his Aunt Bellatrix and the Death Eaters had caused when they infiltrated Hogwarts back in his sixth year.
Draco lowered his gaze to the folded-up copy of the Daily Prophet that Blaise wordlessly handed to him. With a sigh, he set his cup down and took it, slowly unfolding the newspaper out in front of him.
He wasn't surprised to see another front page article about Aria; especially since she was all the newspapers seemed to be able to talk about these days.
The publicity focused on Aria had actually become so bad that Headmistress McGonagall even had to instruct the faculty to update and strengthen the wards around the castle so as to keep out the hundreds of visitors and interlopers (all of whom were obviously hoping to catch a glimpse of Aria in her true form) who kept randomly appearing somewhere on the school grounds.
A few days ago, one columnist had printed a feature about the details of Aria's veela ancestry; and just yesterday, a notoriously disreputable tabloid actually published a list of possible candidates of who they thought would be the most 'acceptable' as Harriah Potter's mate. It was outrageously in-depth, providing a detailed analysis of why each of the 30 bachelors mentioned would be a responsible mate for the Girl-Who-Lived; and the list itself was diverse — ranging from young, up and coming male celebrities, to older, powerful politicians born from traditional pureblood families.
It wasn't long before the media began to redirect all of the attention towards the veela community as well; and eventually, the Head of Veela Affairs at the Ministry of Magic released a public statement regarding the issue. The statement was painstakingly diplomatic — explaining how they harbored no ill-will towards Harriah Potter for keeping her identity a secret or for the incident with Bentley Fisher; and that the veela community would be more than happy to welcome and accept the Girl-Who-Lived with open arms.
Draco knew perfectly well that the response of the Head of Veela Affairs was made to address the latest piece published by Rita Skeeter.
Unfortunately, Skeeter had delivered on her promise to tarnish Aria's reputation; and this time, the veela community had shared the brunt of her latest 'journalistic' endeavors. It was, by far, the worst article about Aria that had been published regarding the whole incident.
He had to give the reporter credit.
Somehow, Skeeter was able to spin the story in such a way that it looked like Aria was the one who was to blame for what happened during the Yule Ball. According to Skeeter's version of the events, Aria had, supposedly, been using her veela allure to seduce a lot of her Hogwartian schoolmates (including Bentley Fisher), and she apparently dated them all at the same time without their knowledge — which was what Skeeter speculated as the real reason why Bentley Fisher suddenly snapped and started trying to attack Aria in public. Skeeter mentioned a lot of names of all the boys she thought Aria had been secretly dating, but she put a lot of emphasis on those who tried to help her during Bentley Fisher's attack — Draco, Ron, Neville, Blaise, and Greg.
If that wasn't libelous enough, Skeeter also went on to report about how Aria probably developed some kind of 'attention-seeking' disorder as an after effect of the war; and not only did she crave the attention, but that sleeping around with a lot of men was apparently Aria's way to 'cope' with all of the trauma she experienced in her life. Skeeter then compared Aria's hedonistic behavior to a lot of other high-profile, celebrity veelas; and she even went as far as making a poorly-masked reference to 6th-time divorcee Ilyana Zabini. She ended her article with a detailed rant about how veelas were an absolute menace and how she thought all of them should be cast out of magical society altogether.
Not surprisingly, a lot of the people Skeeter interviewed as 'sources' for her article (including the supposed healers she cited as references regarding Aria's psychological state) were all vampires.
"Malfoy?"
Draco broke himself out of his thoughts and looked up, frowning in confusion when he saw Ron Weasley standing across the table in front of him. He blinked and stared awkwardly up at him for a couple of seconds before Weasley let out an exasperated sigh and gestured impatiently for him to stand.
"Madam Pomfrey sent me to come fetch you. Come on, let's go."
Ignoring the curious stares they received from the other occupants of the hall, Draco stood up and automatically followed Weasley towards the exit.
They made the trip to the hospital wing in tense silence. When they reached the doors, Draco was just about to make his way to the private wards when Ron stopped him. He shook his head and pointed Draco towards Madam Pomfrey's office.
Madam Pomfrey was already waiting for him when he entered the room.
"I'm sorry to interrupt your breakfast, Mister Malfoy." She greeted him with a brief smile and motioned him towards the chair in front of her table. "But, if it's alright with you, I'm going to need a bit of your blood. I'll need it for the special salve I'm making to help heal Miss Potter's broken wing." She paused when she saw the look of surprise on Draco's face.
"As I understand it, Miss Potter did make you her mate, did she not?" She asked.
"Yes, she did." Draco managed to croak out as he reluctantly sank down into the seat in front of Madam Pomfrey. "But...I'm just a little confused. I thought the bond was only half-formed? I haven't had the chance to affirm it yet."
"The bond is actually already formed from Aria's side, but not from yours." Madam Pomfrey answered distractedly, and she gestured for him to lay his arm down on the table. "So you are, for all intents and purposes, her mate. And whether you affirm the bond or reject it, it won't change the fact that Aria's veela magic already recognizes you as such."
Draco swallowed the dry lump that had formed in his throat.
"I...see."
He watched as Madam Pomfrey extracted a bit of his blood from his arm before she healed the wound right up with a careless flick of her wand. Afterwards, she stood up and gestured him towards the patient's ward on the other end of the hospital wing.
"Go ahead, Mister Malfoy. You may visit Miss Potter if you wish. She's in the very last room in the corner." Madam Pomfrey told him.
Draco hesitated, not entirely sure if Aria was ready to see him just yet after everything that happened.
In the end, his concern over her well-being won out and he began making his way across the hospital wing towards her room. He paused when he reached her door and knocked his knuckles lightly against it.
When he received no answer, Draco slowly turned the knob and pushed the door open.
Aria was picking at the tray of uneaten food on her lap when Draco walked in; and he was immensely relieved to see that she was the only one in the room. As he closed the door gently behind him, he couldn't help but notice the way Aria seemed to stiffen at his presence.
They stared quietly at each other, and Draco took that moment to inspect her appearance.
Thankfully, Aria looked much better than he remembered she did when he and Blaise had first rushed her to the hospital wing that night.
Her cheeks had regained a bit of color, and even though her wings were still heavily bandaged, the rest of the wounds on her face, arms and legs seemed to have already healed up, leaving her veela skin completely smooth and unblemished once more. Though, despite the fact that Aria was in her true form, her 'veela glow' was dimmer than usual, and Draco took that as a sign that her body was probably still recuperating from everything that happened.
"How are you feeling?" He asked softly.
Aria broke her gaze away from his and leaned back against the stack of pillows behind her. She shrugged and turned her attention back to the untouched plate of food on her lap.
"What are you doing here?"
Draco stilled at her words and stared at her, unsure of how to respond. The cold, unwelcoming tone of her voice reminded him of how Aria used to speak to him back when they were still enemies; and he didn't like it one bit.
"I had to give a bit of blood to Madam Pomfrey. She said she was going to use it to make a healing salve for your wing." He answered.
"Thank you."
There was that tone again.
Draco's eyebrows furrowed together and he frowned at the steely glint in her eyes. He hoped he was imagining things, but it was almost as though Aria was intentionally trying to provoke him into a fight.
"Is there a problem?" He asked bluntly.
"You tell me."
"I'm not a mind reader." Draco pointed out, glaring at her. "If there's something you want to tell me, then just say it."
"Oh is that how we're going to do things now?" Aria mocked sarcastically. "You're just going to order me around and tell me what to do or what to say?"
"Stop it, Potter."
Draco felt a stab of irritation at her pettiness and he clenched his jaw, trying very hard not to snap at her. "You're obviously not in the best of moods right now. I'll come back tomorrow."
He was already on his way out, reaching for the doors, when Aria's next words forced him to freeze in place.
"Exactly how long have you been keeping one of my feathers stashed away somewhere, Malfoy?" Aria's unnaturally large, veela pupils glittered with rage as she glared up at him, and Draco was a little taken back when he saw the hostile expression on her face.
His eyes widened, feeling more than a little insulted by the insinuation in her words.
"That's not what it was. Look, I know it looks bad; but you're completely misunderstanding the situation—"
"I saw you using the feather with my own eyes! How am I misunderstanding anything?" She exploded at him, her angry shouts bouncing off the walls of the small room. "Did you and Pansy have some kind of elaborate scheme planned out for me or something? Is that why you both seemed to have kept my feathers stashed away? What exactly were you planning?!"
Draco flinched; and his mind scrambled to keep up with her.
"Nothing! I have no bloody idea why Pansy had your feather but I never planned to use it against you—"
"Then why the fuck would you keep it a secret from me?!" Aria cut him off again.
"Secrets? Really? You want to talk about secrets now, do you?" Draco's eyes flashed; and, reacting in a way that had become instinctive to him from all his fights with Aria over the years, his anger flared to life. "That night before my trial, when we met in that pub in Hogsmeade and you were in your true form. Why didn't you tell me who you were? You had so many chances to do it. Why did you hide it from me for so long?! Why the hell did you lie to me?!"
Aria's expression shuttered and she blinked at him, clearly not expecting his accusations.
Draco scoffed at her reaction and went on. "I wanted to ask you about all of this before but we never got the chance to talk about it, did we? And every time I try to bring it up, you either clam up or you just change the subject."
When Aria just looked away and refused to answer him, again, Draco clenched his fists and grew even angrier.
"You're doing it again, Potter!"
"What exactly do you want me to say?!"
"Were you trying to test me?!" Draco demanded, walking over to her so that he towered over her seated form on the hospital bed. "Was it all a way for you to check if I was 'worthy' enough for you?! Is that why you decided to keep your identity a secret from me for so long?!" He seethed.
"Fine! Do you really want the truth?!" Aria gritted her teeth. "You can call me selfish all you want, but the reason I hid it from you for so long is because I liked that you didn't know who I was! At least that way, I could find out if you actually liked me! Not just because of the way I looked as a veela or because I'm the goddamn Chosen One!"
At her words, Draco drew back and he stared coldly at her.
"So you were trying to test me." He said flatly.
To his resentment, Aria seemed to backtrack for a few seconds. She opened and closed her mouth before she finally looked away and let out a frustrated sigh.
"I suppose I was."
"And the truth comes out." Draco sneered bitterly at her. "Did you have fun playing with me? What gives you the right to judge me like that? Who the hell do you think you are?!"
Aria's cheeks colored. "I wasn't playing with you! I just wanted to know if you really liked me!"
"Do you think I'm that fickle, Aria?! Do you think that all I care about is a pretty face?!" Draco countered.
Her green eyes blazed with righteous indignation. "Can you blame me for being cautious?! The war had just ended and we were enemies before all this! I had absolutely no reason to trust you or your intentions! And you certainly proved that to be the case, didn't you?"
"What is that supposed to mean?" He snapped.
"Oh please." Aria's features twisted into a scowl. "Why don't we go back to the main issue here, Draco? The way you wrote down my veela name behind my back? Tell me — exactly how am I supposed to trust you now after I found out you did something like that?!"
Draco gaped at her and he racked his brain furiously for an answer but Aria went on.
"What exactly were you waiting for anyway? At some point, you had my feather and my veela name, you could have made me do anything you wanted!"
He flinched again, raking both of his hands through his hair. "I told you, it wasn't like that! Yes, I made a mistake! I wrote down your veela name but I never intended to use it against you! At the time, I just wanted to know what the fuck you were hiding from me!"
"Then why did you keep my feather?!" She demanded.
Draco swallowed, lowering his gaze to his shoes. "I don't know, okay?! To be honest, I just...I kept it for an entirely selfish reason and I—"
"Tell me the truth, Draco."
He sighed in defeat and looked up, allowing her to see the guilt and shame on his face.
"I kept it as insurance, okay? It was for me. It was a way for me to reassure myself, and to give me enough courage to actually attempt a relationship with you."
"What?" Aria looked irritated by his answer. "That doesn't make any sense—"
"I just wanted so badly for this to work! And I kept it because I — it was a way for me to—" Draco reached up and ran another shaking hand through his hair in frustration, messing up the blond strands even more. "In case you suddenly snapped to your senses and decided a relationship with me was a bad idea after all, I...I kept the feather as a sad, desperate way to reassure myself that I had a way to make you give me a second chance in case I fuck up." He stammered.
Aria's eyes widened in outrage at his admission.
"That's not your choice to make! No matter what your intentions were, I'm not a doll for you to control, Draco!" She screamed at him.
"I'm sorry, okay?! I just didn't want to lose you!" He blurted out.
Aria blinked a couple of times, and Draco felt a sickening rush of dread when he saw the way her expression suddenly grew cold and guarded.
"Well, you certainly got your wish didn't you? I suppose I belong to you now."
Draco stared at her.
"Excuse me?"
Aria's eyes hardened. "You're my mate, Draco. That means I'm bound to you for the rest of my life. All you have to do is affirm the bond, and you can basically order me to do whatever the hell you want, even without using the Feather Curse. So congratulations, Malfoy, I'm your very own personal house-elf now."
"You think I wanted this?! You think I wanted to become your mate this way?!" Draco felt as though she had physically gutted him; and he couldn't prevent the hurt from seeping into his voice as he spoke. "After all this time, is that really what you think of me?!"
When Aria tore her gaze away from his, Draco swallowed and forced himself to continue.
"You obviously hated the idea of having a mate. So why did you even do it anyway? Did you make me your mate because you felt sorry for me? Is that what this is about?"
"So now you're angry at me?!" Aria gaped at him, looking affronted by his question.
"You didn't have to force yourself to mate with me!" Draco raged.
"In case you didn't notice, Malfoy, I did it to save your goddamn life! Again!"
"That's exactly my point!" Draco snapped, his voice rising several levels in his anger. "Do you think it makes me happy knowing you were forced to make me your mate to save me?! Do you always make it your responsibility to save my life all the time?! Because it's not! You don't owe me anything! I'm not a fucking damsel in distress!"
"So you don't want to be my mate?!"
"Not like this!"
"Go ahead then." Aria challenged, her eyes glinting as she smiled coldly at him and leaned back against her bed. "Reject me and let's get this whole thing over with."
Draco stiffened in shock, and suddenly, it felt as though all the air had been sucked right out of his lungs.
"What?" He asked weakly.
"Reject me." Aria spoke much louder this time, the harshness of her voice causing a dull ache in Draco's chest that he forced himself to ignore. "You said you didn't want this right? You don't want to be my mate? Reject the mating call. You're perfectly able to, the bond is only formed from my side anyway. You're not obligated to accept it."
Draco's eyes dimmed and his expression grew resentfully bitter at her words. He stalked towards her and pushed her down onto her back, stubbornly placing both of his hands on either side of her head so that he caged her between him and the hospital bed.
"Is that really what you want me to do?" He hissed.
"Reject the bond."
Her words were really beginning to hurt; and Draco's cheeks flushed with anger when he felt an unwelcome sting along the corner of his eyes.
"After you've already played with me and saved my life, you're just going to throw me away? Am I not interesting anymore for the perfect Chosen One?"
"Reject the fucking bond, Malfoy!"
As the furious scream left her throat, she shoved him away and sat up. She raised a hand as though to slap him — but then she stopped halfway — because he was her mate and she couldn't; and that was when the blank mask on Aria's face finally crumpled. A soft, choked sob escaped her lips as she grabbed a glass teacup from the tray on her lap, hurling it across the room until it shattered into tiny, broken pieces against the door.
"Get out, Draco."
She turned away from him, covering her face with her hands. As he watched her break down, the very last flicker of hope that had been holding Draco's own fragile emotions together gave out.
"Have it your way then."
Draco sneered at her hunched, broken form one last time before he finally turned away. He stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut loudly behind him.
He never saw the way Aria's features contorted with pain, or the way she clutched weakly at her chest as she watched him walk away.
Notes: Oomph.
So many secrets, insecurities, and misunderstandings that just came bubbling up to the surface. You see Aria (and Draco), this is why it's important to talk about these things. Not just make out and have sex lol.
Oh and yes, I borrowed a line from the Crazy Rich Asians movie lol. And yes, I know Blaise's mother (according to HP Wiki at least) was hinted by JKR to have actually killed all of her previous husbands but I chose to ignore that for purposes of this story.
One chapter left, guys! Well, technically, two chapters left if I include the Epilogue. We're almost there! ;)