"You looked agitated."

"I am agitated."

Granger looked at him with interest glimmering in her eyes. "Oh? And what has you agitated?"

Annoyance flared and danced under his skin, and Theo turned to stare at the muggleborn. "You do."

Granger seemed more amused than anything, leaning back against the wall that she was standing in front of.

"And why is that, Nott?"

Theo had to take a deep breath to keep himself from lashing out.

For your mate, he reminded himself.

(He wasn't sure how much longer that excuse would hold)

"I'm... agitated, because I have been meeting you Granger and I have yet to figure out exactly what it is my mate wants." He growled lowly at the sparks building in brown eyes. "Tell me what she wants, and I'll give it to her! What exactly is it that she wants me to figure out! It's not making any sense."

Granger was silent for a few moments and then she made a noise.

Giggling.

She was giggling.

Theo felt his glamour shimmer and his chest felt like it was going to explode with the sheer emotion that he was feeling. Anger curled through his fingertips, forced his head upon a cloud, and sparked dangerously with his magic. It had been a constant battle with himself ever since he had seen his mate for the first time, and he had endured through all of this, but he still couldn't understand what it was that was wanted of him.

Draco hadn't been much of a help, stating that each Veela was different and since his mate part-Siren, she likely wanted to rile him up to feel his magic before submitting to him. Apparently, that was something that some Submissives did, though Draco himself had no interest in doing that enjoying his mate's attention every time he was sought out during the middle of the day, even if they had a designated meeting time to soothe their bond. While it explained somethings, it didn't explain what was going on now because Granger wasn't his mate! He would've felt if she was his mate, when he scented her in the Great Hall. But he hadn't and now he was here, doing whatever was in his power to not lose control so that he didn't get even farther away from meeting his mate.

Theo sucked in a harsh breath and exhaled slowly, trying to soothe his mounting anger.

It wasn't working.

Granger stared at him with mirthful eyes, her lips curling up into a stretch of amusement. She smoothed her skirt and flipped her hair over his shoulder. "Now, there isn't really anything she wants... just... just prove to her your... worth, I suppose you could say."

Worth?

Was his mate batshit insane?

Theo spun around on the heel of his foot and counted to 10. Then he counted to 20 when that didn't calm him down. Then he began counting in Icelandic when he still couldn't calm down.

A storm was swirling in his chest, shards of ice and rock, towering with winds of steam and metal. The runes on his arms were glowing, he knew it without a doubt, and he would feel the icy burn of them, pulsing with the destructive power of water. He could feel every droplet in the air like a relentless buzz in the back of his head and he tried to ignore it, absolutely desperate to not lose a chance with his mate.

So stuck in his thoughts and attempts, he didn't notice that Granger had come up behind him. Only that a hand was caressing his spine and shoulder blades. Theo stiffened and felt his magic bleed through the cracks of his control, unable to deal with the fact that this girl was so fucking audacious as to fucking touch him without his explicit permission.

Turning, he opened his mouth, fully prepared to give her a piece of his mind when she spoke over him.

"If you aren't going to do anything interesting then I'll leave now and we can meet again on Thursday Nott."

His magic exploded in a rage of ice and steam, his glamour falling and his runes producing a powerful glow from where the were inscribed on his skin. He growled at her, his instincts crammed themselves in the forefront of his mind and every single one of them were furious at being touched by someone other than his mate. Granger smiled and twisted away from his hand, and he watched as her brown hair turned ebony and a smoky, spicy, and hot scent filled his nostrils, the most intoxicating thing he'd ever smelled.

"You know, for as smart as you pride yourself in being, you are an idiot."

His instincts shifted wildly, and his anger deflated. He stared at smoldering brown eyes and his mouth went dry. "Granger-er- what?" His mind threw itself into theories and facts that were not aligning themselves with what just happened.

"G-granger and Amaya Riddle are the same people? I've been meeting with my mate the entire fucking time?"

"Yup!" His mate, a tricky siren-veela creature, sauntered in front of his and brushed her lips on his. Arms swung around his neck and he buried his nose in the crook of her neck and took a deep breath of her scent.

The tint of honey made the spicey scent richer and he rumbled happily, wrapping his arms around her waist very carefully. He fingers twirled around the edges of her wavy black hair, giving little tugs to the longest strands. His mate had gorgeous hair.

Pulling away, Theo traced his eyes over her face, noting a small nose, a pouty bottom lip but a thin upper lip, and a strong jaw. He traced cheekbones before humming softly. "Beautiful."

His mate preened softly, and he smiled. She twirled a lock of hair before whispering softly, "Amaya Thana Riddle."

Theo blinked before whispering just as softly, "Theodore Ivar Nott."

His little minx smiled and pressed her lips on his, a low and warm wave of magic crashing over them. Theo made a happy sound and pressed back easily, catching her bottom lip with his teeth teasingly as she pulled away.

"Never play that sort of games with me again, yes?"

His mate laughed

Astaron sucked in a sharp breath as he stirred his potion carefully, adding the salamander blood in 3 delicate portions. His potion flushed a slimy green and black smoke bellowed from it. Frowning, he looked up at the board and squinted through the horrid eyes of Harry Potter. He had to put a charm on his eyes to make his eyesight bad as it had been brought to his attention that he had forgone his glasses during the schoolyear and Dumbledore did not like it one bit.

Squinting harder through all the smoke, he sighed heavily and stared helplessly at all the ingredients on his desk. He was put out of his confused misery when Professor Snape stalked up to his cauldron, a look of heavy disdain on his face.

"Potter," Astaron didn't duck his head, but he was careful not to look the man in the eyes should he not have been cleansed yet. "What is this disastrous excuse of a potion you have created?"

"Just a potion sir; unless perhaps your instructions are faulty." With any hope, he would be called back and they could talk.

The classroom sucked in a sharp breath, but he lifted his eyes warily, meeting Snape's eyes and feeling a sliver of satisfaction when he was met with the sight of satisfaction and pride. "15 points from Gryffindor Potter for disrespect and detention with me tonight. Being a champion in an over-glorified death trap does not mean I will be lenient with you." With that, the man vanished his potion and stalked to the Slytherin side of the classroom.

Astaron ignored the hard look that his sister had sent his way and waited no-very-patiently for the class to end. When it finally did end, he packed his stuff slowly and just as expected, Professor Snape barked, "Potter, stay behind."

Ron dragged Amaya out of the room and Astaron waited until the last student was out of the classroom before turning to the dark man. The door closed with a large pulse of magic and Professor Snape shot out a silencing charm he believed as well as a locking ward. "Mr. Potter... I seemed to have received a special correspondence that has your brand of trouble written all over it." A letter was placed on the desk and Astaron scanned it easily after removing the charm.

It was the Gringotts letter and according to the letter, they had called Professor Snape there on October 4th.

"Oh? I suppose this could be correlated with my sort of... trouble... but I am not sure. Perhaps you could verify for me?"

The dark man smirked.

"Of course Mr. Riddle. What else does one do when a false lion tries to attack a family of serpents?"

"The serpents strike back of course."

"Exactly, Mr... Riddle."

Astaron gave a soft exhale of relief and smoothed out his robes.

"Perhaps a snake should meet with a spyder to gain more information on the false lion? A sound idea?"

"Quite."

"Very well sir. I will see you tonight."

Albus Dumbledore landed firmly in front of a large manor, a tall, intimidating building in the center of a sprawling piece of land with immaculate gardens and proud fountains. Tall pillars decorated the front with gentle carving parted through the stone and marble. Glass towers refracting the light on the sun at the points of the manor, only interrupted by the large griffin in the middle of the four towers, a large stone carving that had been slightly withered by age.

He ignored all of this and strode through the lands and into a entrance hall of black marble and deep red accents. It sickened him the lavishness of the room but he persevered without stopping to get to his destination. Tall portraits of lords and ladies stared at him with disgusted eyes and fine tapestries depicted great battles and forlorn loses.

Dumbledore turned into a room, one with a large bed and dark wood furniture, with pristine white marble flooring and walls. Laying atop the bed, encased in a specialized stasis warding was the swollen frame of one James Potter.

He tapped the casing lightly, checking the vitals of the man and amplified the power on the warding. The bubble pulsed and he gave a satisfied nod.

Admiring the large stomach of the man, he noted that the baby must finally be at just under 10 months for it to have gotten this big. Seeing as male pregnancies had a longer duration than woman due to the fact that their bodies simply were not built the same way, Albus knew the stasis must be taken down soon for the child to be born. He knew the child was the spawn of Severus Snape, but the child had the Prince creature in its blood and it would be immensely powerful having been born from two mates, bonded mates at that.

After that, he could easily inject his own seed into James and allow him to carry his own heir. The heir to the Dumbledore family line and his own greatness. He sighed softly and carefully reset the runes around the bed. It would alert him the moment James went into labor, which would be within the next two months seeing as the stasis charm slowed the progression of aging and the time of the birth.

But after the birth, he would be allowed free range of the manor, if only severely limited privileges. He had to keep the future bearer of his heir healthy but compliant to his wishes.

Dumbledore left the room and warded the door back up in the, very unlikely, event that someone ever found out about James and tried to get him out of his hands.

With that, he walked off the grounds and apparated back to his office.

...entirely unaware of a file on a certain Lion's desk updating itself to the page of Potter Manor to let the proxy know that someone had been on the lands...

Author's Notes:

Dumbledore is sick

Took a bit longer than I had wanted it tooo but that's okay I think, because it turned out pretty well...?

Are we happy with the outcome of this?
Let me know, lovelies!

(I'll give you a longer chapter next time, I promise)