"I know. He's done nothing but stare at me the whole time. It's creeping me out."
"I think he's softened up enough to talk to, don't you?"
"Maybe. Hermione was right. Take away all accustomed responses and the mind will be at lost to cope with sudden change, especially given the type of personality manifest by subject. End quote."
Harry snickered.
"I think that he's just a bit scared, Ron."
"Well, good. He's scared me."
"So you'll talk to him?"
"Yeah. Maybe after Potions."
"Ron?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you okay?"
"I miss him. Despite it all, I miss him."
Professor Snape paired them together again. Draco inhaled Ron's smell hungrily. It was too long since they were within arms length of each other… What's this? Ron's smell was different. Draco sniffed suspiciously. It was very different. In fact, he smelled neutered. Not male. Draco shot an alarmed look at Ron, who looked at him complacently. What happened?
"Are you just going to stand there or shall we start?" Ron asked.
So cold. Draco shuddered.
"What's happened to you?"
"I found a way to cope."
In desperation, Draco sent a light wisp of pheromone towards Ron. Nothing. His physiology had no response that Draco could detect. No arousal.
"What did you do?" he hissed.
"We can't talk here."
"The massage room. Please. Talk to me. I'm sorry."
Ron was momentarily shocked by Draco's admission.
"Okay."
Ron walked in and sat in a chair opposite from Draco on the couch.
"What did you do?" Draco snapped.
"No hello?"
"This is a more pressing matter."
"For you. You just can't stand the fact that right now I'm just not in the mood."
The slightly smug tone made Draco's skin prickle with anger.
"In fact, if this keeps up, you'll just lose interest in me. And then all this trouble will end. You can find yourself another."
"NO!"
Draco tried to master himself, tried to get himself back in control.
"You can't leave."
"Except for the fact that you can't make me do anything. Not anymore. And that's the point, isn't it? That you can make me do whatever you want?"
"How can you think that? I don't-"
"Yes, you did! You only want me because of the way I smell! I don't matter at all!"
"You have no idea what I see! You are smart… You are beautiful! You have such emotion, you have ravished my heart with your eyes! And you dare insinuate that you are helpless! You braved Acromantulas, you are candid to a fault because you say nothing unless you truly feel it… A man! With such a body that makes me weak and careless!"
Draco stopped. He took a breath.
"You were magnificent that night. All your muscles straining for me, dominating me, making me yours as you are mine. It was the reason, the end to which I am Veela. I needed to find a male who would match me, who could mete out the same passion measure for measure. I needed to experience it and found it in you."
Ron was sitting in mute shock.
"Perhaps I shouldn't have been so sudden. I treasure the way we touched before, you are a natural virtuoso at lovemaking. The past weeks you challenged me, mocked me with your control over my desires. Do you have any idea how galling such a thing is to a Slytherin? I had to affirm that I was not completely lost in you. Ron, beloved, you are not the one who is helpless. I am. And you hurt me by suggesting that I can have another."
Draco resolved to be strong. As he talked, he realized that it was not his prerogative to keep Ron. He didn't want a cowed and weak partner. And if Ron stayed only to appease him, then he was broken, he wasn't the one Draco needed.
"You regret this. You have gone out of your way to make yourself unappealing to me. It will not work. Without your pheromones, without your reactions to me, without even touching me, you still have a hold over me. But it is your regret. Do as you will."
He waited for Ron's answer. He waited for Ron to renounce him, to be free of him.
"I won't go."
Ron pulled the enchanted amulet created by Hermione out from under his collar and let it dangle in his fingers.
"I'm not going to take this off. Not yet. It locks in testosterone. You can't sense any of my pheromones. I can't be affected by anything you do, because I've got no libido at all. Just so you know."
He slipped it back under his collar.
"Damn Granger and her scintillating brain."
Draco ran his fingers through his hair. For this, he could not meet Ron's eyes.
"I am nothing to you, if it were not for my being part Veela. You would never have noticed me, never have found me attractive. I do not forget how we've behaved towards each other for years. So my eagerness in regards to using my powers, in effect, is desperation."
Ron laughed.
"You, desperate? Merlin, you've got us all fooled!"
"Ron, I don't think you understand Slytherin. We do what we think we need to do to get what we want. It's always about control and who's got something over another. Who owes something, who's got something to hide, what their deepest desire is. I, as a Slytherin, am saying that you are my liability. And I did what I thought I needed to do. You have no reason to stay."
"Well, I guess you don't know Gryffindors. I'm not giving up. Simple as that. We've got something, I don't know what, but it's something. So scheme all you want and if it goes balls up on you, I'll be expecting it and I'm not leaving."
"Unreasonable. Illogical, and just not a smart move."
"You want me to cut my losses and make a break for it. I say I haven't even started tolerating your difficult arse yet."
Ron rose to his feet and pulled Draco into a hug.
"Can we try to see what it's like with no distractions? Just you and me?"
"Yes."
"Good. I'll kick your arse at chess."
Knowing that Draco really wanted him on his own merits and not just because of his body odor or because of how he knew what do in bed boosted Ron's confidence tremendously. He was less likely to embarrass himself or lose his temper. In class, he was able to concentrate more, not only because Hermione's amulet effectively curtailed one of the more vexing aspects of adolescence, but because Draco had confidence in his brain. His marks went up steadily without Hermione's nagging. All these changes could not fail to bring him to the attention of a certain number of girls. Now, Ron never had an easy time of it with any girls before and Fleur's effective dismissal of him in Fourth Year and the spat with Hermione at the Ball formed the basis of a long insecurity in that area. But he had Draco's devotion now and he didn't need to worry about what impressions he was giving to any girl. Ironically, it was this casual demeanor that made him that much more attractive.
So Draco was deprived of Ron's body. But he was not deprived of Ron. When he smiled, Ron smiled back. Warm, tight hugs. So many chess matches. And when they met up together, they would talk late into the night. He could tickle Ron unremittingly. And Ron was still very compelling, even though his passion was banked. And that would last until the end of the month.
When the amulet finally came off, Draco spent a long Friday night showing Ron how much he missed him. Since Draco's Veela methods of showing how much he wanted him were so different from the norm, Ron still didn't know the intricacies of flirting per se. Draco didn't say anything when he saw how every day a select number of girls would go out of their way to talk with Ron. He could tell that Ron was not interested. But then it all went downhill when Sprout and Sinistra assigned group projects. Draco did not protest when their Friday meetings were cut; he had the same projects. What he did rankle at was the fact that Ron was spending interminable amounts of time with some girls in the greenhouses, the Astronomy Tower, or the library out of his sight. What Veelas are the best at doing was reading body language, not just pheromones. In a way, he had shown mastery of this long before his Blossoming by invariably finding what the most hurtful thing to say to anybody was. And what Draco read now was not to his liking. It wasn't until things got way out of hand that Draco was forced to Extreme Measures.
Now, he wasn't going to do anything, he told himself. He wasn't- Amanda Blake giggled as she said hello to Ron. She flipped her hair. After that, Rebecca Thurston and Theresa Pemberton squeezed in and even managed to block out Harry and Hermione. Thurston was touching Ron's arm. That's it! Whatever control he had snapped. He swooped down on those harpies surrounding Ron.
"It's much too early in the morning for some of us to lose our breakfast," he hissed.
Pemberton was somewhat cowed. Thurston and Blake, however, where not.
"It's none of your business, Malfoy."
"We can talk with whoever we want."
"Shut up! You worthless, ugly, stupid-"
The surrounding Gryffindors began to watch and the Slytherin began to rumble ominously. And those damned girls were still touching his Ron!
"Let go! Let go of him you-"
He drew his wand. Hermione cried warning, Harry's eyes widened, Ron's mouth opened, and he threw his hex. In a second, the hallway chaos, with the girls clutching at Ron, who was making desperate shooing motions at Draco, who was spitting out curses and dodging those sent his way by Finnegan and Thomas. Crabbe and Goyle, spoiling for a fight, waded in, fists swinging, Pansy took this time to go for Hermione, who had no choice but to Stun her, Neville hid behind a suit of armor and Harry was parrying the curses coming at him from various Slytherin who obviously had no idea what was going on but joined in anyway because Draco started it and some were hurling some nasty hexes at Ron because they thought he was the one to go for. He changed and swiped his claws at Thurston, who screamed. Everyone saw Draco's new form and panicked. He dove forward at the girls, knocking one over and then began to claw blindly at everyone who was in the way between him and Ron.
"Kreee! Kraaaach! He's mine!"
He snagged Ron, who yelled as his claws pricked into him.
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?"
Professors Snape and McGonagall stormed into the hallway, trailed by Filch. Everybody immediately looked toward Draco, who was still in his Veela form and possessively holding Ron. They, at the sight of the creature in the hallway who had Ron hostage, both drew their wands. Draco hissed and flared his crest. Harry ran forward.
"Don't hurt him!"
Everybody gaped. Harry looked pleadingly at Draco, who changed back. Both professors looked aghast.
"What is the meaning of this?"
"They were touching my Ron!" Draco declared.
Yes, things just went downhill from there.
TBC