Disclaimer: Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or associates; they all belong to JKR. I do not own cliché storylines; they belong to the FF net writers. Cliché thunderstorm scenes belong to our dearest movie makers.
Author's notes: Yes, thanks for the reviews. I'm almost pleased with this chapter, compared to the previous one. Yes, Harry and Draco are finally getting somewhat together. This chapter is sort of sweet, I would say.
Reviews:
Yana5: Not yet, no smooching yet. But soon. Heh heh.
Princess-fictoria: Thanks for the compliment…
Tinas74: Me too… I think it's not cliché enough, especially chapter 5 and this current one.
And thanks to lita-2003, Kavfh, Lady Angelique of mystiqu, chaosandpower! Here you go, Chapter 6!
"Today, you would be doing the Vanishing spell. Yes, Miss Granger, we'll be proceeding to vertebrates this time around." Professor McGonagall peered at her N.E.W.T level students. "I'm sure all of you who are present for N.E.W.T level Transfiguration have familiarised yourselves with vanishing of invertebrates. So, if you will come and collect the fishes." Motioning to a crate next to her table, the Professor urged her students to collect fishes as starting material, for dead fishes don't scurry around like rats.
"Harry, go get your fish," whispered Hermione as she jabbed Harry in the rib. Startled out of his thoughts, Harry stood up and went up to the crate. He had chosen the first desk in the classroom, such that he would not have to see Malfoy; at least not without turning around. The blonde had definitely noticed such a gesture, for Harry was rarely a zealous student.
"Evanesco!" Harry shouted and pointed his wand at the dead tilapia lying on his desk. The fish jumped up and flipped, but did not disappear. It landed back on the desk with a sickening splat, its eyes staring up at Harry. Hermione was vanishing her second trout already, having done that, she shot Harry a concerned glance and returned to her work.
"Disappear, you fish!" groaned Ron as he poked at his fish with his wand. From the look of things, Ron got his E for O.W.L Transfiguration by sheer luck. At his third attempt, Harry finally caused his fish to disappear. Walking towards the crate for another fish, he failed to notice that a blonde figure at the back of the classroom was also headed for the same direction.
Draco quickened his pace, hoping to catch up with Harry before the latter moved off. He could not control his own movements; his veela instinct was reaching out fervently for the mate. Indeed, Draco arrived at the crate at the same time as Harry.
"Potter," sneered Draco.
"Get lost," spat Harry. Draco was shocked at the audacity Harry displayed. His veela side even felt hurt at such unfriendliness. Draco's smirk softened to a pout, his silver grey eyes almost wet with tears. The veela hormones were giving Draco the gravest mood swings, and the blonde could not control his emotions.
"What?" Harry grunted as he noticed the change in Draco's expression. Harry always had a soft spot of sad little cute creatures, and in this case, Draco.
"Iloveyou," muttered Draco as he picked up a fish and ran off. "What were you thinking? Professing your love and running away like that! That's so undignified and it's in the middle of a sodding Transfiguration class!" Draco once again lamented his veela side. He could not believe how his veela hormones could drive him to do such crazy things. He could feel blood rushing to his cheeks as he returned to his seats. Stealing a look at Harry, Draco blushed further. Harry was almost smiling. "What? He's smiling? Why? Isn't he supposed to get really angry and attempt to hex me? Shouldn't he give his nonchalant shrug? Why is he smiling?!" Draco panicked. He felt insecure, as Harry had responded in a way that was totally not what Draco anticipated. Draco pretended to return to his work, though it was rather obvious he was observing the Gryffindor Golden Boy scribbling on his parchment.
Harry scribbled on a spare piece of parchment the following message to none other than Draco Malfoy: I love it that you love me. Nearly smirking, Harry charmed his message into a little bird, making it fly across the classroom towards Draco. No, Harry was not joking with Draco. Since the episode outside the Great Hall earlier that day, Harry had finally come to terms with himself; He wanted to feel loved and he wanted a distraction from Sirius' death...
The charmed message bird flapped its paper wings hard as it flew across the room and landed softly on Draco's desk. Gulping, Draco picked up the parchment gingerly, fearing it to be jinxed with the most horrible hexes. He could feel his heart beat erratically as he opened the message; it was after all a message from his mate. As he eyes moved across the scribble words, Draco could hardly believe what he saw. "Harry loves me loving him!" Draco jumped out of his seat in jubilation with a grin plastered on his face.
Draco was happy, and so was Harry.
Xxx
"Draco, is it just me or are you glowing?" Goyle questioned as he got off the broom and made his way to the changing room along with the rest of the team.
"Why, you have a problem with that?" Draco snapped.
"We just finished quidditch practice and you are glowing, like as though you're ready to appear coverpage on a magazine?" Raising his eyebrows, Goyle commented. Draco had really looked ravishing, unlike his other team mates who were flushing warm, perspiration coating their bodies and quidditch robe sticking to them like a second skin. Draco looked good: his silver blonde locks smooth and silky, arranged neatly on his head, his skin glowing against the sunset, seemingly reflecting the orange rays of the sun.
"Whatever," snorted Draco. In the changing room, Draco peeled off his robes and folded them neatly in a stack. Stepping into a shower stall, Draco stood under the shower at full blast, allowing the jets of water to come down on him like torrential rain. He did so to partly relieve the tension in his muscles, and partly to re-enact scenes of his reminisce.
/Flashback/
It was a night at the Malfoy Manor. The storm beat down on the roofs of the manor, the strong wind threatening to uproot the many yew trees in the compound. Draco had been standing by the full-length window facing the garden, staring out at the ruined flowerbeds.
"Draco." Lucius' voice seemed to echo about the large sitting room. Upon hearing his name, Draco turned around to face his father. "Come sit with your father." Lucius motioned for Draco to join him on the leather sofa. Setting his scotch glass down, Lucius peered at his son through his reading glasses. "A fine son…" thought Lucius as his gaze followed Draco across the room.
"Yes, father." Draco sat down and replied dryly. He had never been particularly fond of Lucius, though paying him due respect as a father.
"There's something I wish for you to know." Before Lucius could continue, a clap of thunder interrupted him and they could almost feel the ground shake. Malfoy senior began to wonder if the centuries-old manor could withstand such bad weather: the storm was nothing like what he had seen. Bringing his thoughts back to his son, Lucius started his well-prepared speech. "You do know that our family, the Malfoy lineage, goes way back?" Draco nodded. "I assume you have studied our genealogy?" Draco gave another sharp nod, edging Lucius to go on. "But there's something you need to know." Lucius paused. "Not everyone is recorded in there."
"What are you driving at?" Draco asked, perplexed at the motive of this talk.
"Well, you might be shocked at this, what I'm going to say next, but it's time to let you know, it's your life after all and I can't go on keeping it from you…" spluttered Lucius. Draco suddenly realised the gravity of the situation: Lucius never spluttered, not even when threatened by the Dark Lord. Nodding again, as a cue for Lucius to continue, Draco prepared himself for what was to come.
"Draco, you are a veela." A deafening clap of thunder was heard, accompanied by a blinding flash of lightning. The building shook; the lightning must have hit something. Draco sank into the sofa, the shock from realisation was heightened by the well-timed sound effect from the storm.
"What?" Draco croaked; he could believe what he had just heard.
"Our line is not as pure as you thought," Lucius started, "both your mother and I have some veela genes from our ancestors."
"So I'm a bloody veela. And why the fuck must you kept me in the dark all these years?" Draco tried hard to control his anger; the only emotion he has been taught to express in times of fear and uncertainty.
"We wanted to keep it from you such that you can have a normal childhood! But we can hide it no longer, you are reaching maturity soon. You are becoming a bloody full-fledged veela and no, there's nothing we can do about it." Lucius bellowed, himself equally thrown off the hook. He did not know how to deal with a veela in the family, and he could not imagine the rest of the wizarding world coming to know such disgrace of the Malfoy family.
"Full-fledged veela? What the fuck?" Draco stood up, screaming as though he was chiding Lucius.
"That means you will have to bloody mate before the year is out! And while we're at it, let me tell you, your mate is none other than Harry bleeding Potter!" Lucius jumped out of his seat, equally worked up. It hurt him to see his son confused, but similarly, Lucius had been accustomed to replacing confusion with fury. He never showed his weakness.
"What the…" Draco went pale. He knew from that moment, his life had been changed forever. Draco sank to his knees on the floor, subsequently falling on his bottom. He cared no longer for the façade he put up; Draco wept. Lucius stared at his son with disbelief; the last time the boy wept was when he was five.
"Draco…" Lucius stuttered, not knowing how to placate his weeping son. Draco's eyes shot up at his father and the crying stopped immediately. Draco can vividly remember the last time he wept for his rabbit that drowned in the lake; Lucius had roughed him up quite badly and said that "crying is a weakness". At this point in time, Draco had his pride to uphold; for it was the last thing he had to himself.
"Leave me alone." Draco's wavering voice held the slightest hint of command and Lucius knew better not to agitate him further.
Draco got up from his position on the ground and ran towards the window he had been standing by earlier. He stared out; tears welled up in his silver grey eyes. Not knowing what he was doing, Draco threw open an adjacent glass door and ran out in the storm. He ran across the veranda and past the ruined flowerbeds. He ran towards the open field and as he ran, he opened his arms, as though to embrace the rain. He was in fact laughing in delirium. He was laughing at the joke fate decided to play on him. A sick joke, in fact.
/End Flashback/
Draco stood under to shower and closed his eyes. He just had to make himself remember the night he broke down and the cause of his plight- Harry Potter. He smiled at the thought of Harry. The message is tucked in neatly in the pocket of his robes, he wanted a part of Harry to be with him wherever he went. Draco could not believe his luck; just a few weeks ago he had thought it was the end of the world to have to mate with Harry, and now, he was bathed in joy of loving him. "Life is always so unpredictable," thought Draco, with a mental chuckle.
"Draco? What's keeping you?" Blaise entered the shower area and his voice brought the blonde to his senses.
"Blaise, what're you doing here?" Draco asked as he twisted the knob for the shower and wrapped his towel around his waist.
"I was looking for you…" Blaise's voice trailed off as he began to ogle at Draco's body. The water dripping from his hair, running down his well-build chest and down his pectoral muscles and ending just below his navel… the scene was more than eye-candy for Blaise, as the boy's eyes were glued to the veela before him.
"Yes?" Draco questioned, noticing that Blaise was staring at his bare chest. "Damn," Draco thought, as he moved back in towards the stall. "Zabini? You all right there?" Draco gulped.
"You look so good, Draco… you look so good I could eat you…" So captivated by the veela, Blaise did not know what he was doing when he brought himself to close the distance between him and Draco. He behaved as though he was under the Imperius curse, except that Draco knew it was his veela charms on display.
"Now, stay away from me Zabini! I won't want to hurt you…" Draco stammered, hoping to daunt the advancing boy. The fact that they were the only two left in the changing room made the situation worse; Draco realised he was on his own and his wand was nowhere near him.
"You can hurt me any way you want…" Blaise inched so close to Draco, the blonde can feel his breath on his neck. "You are mine…"
At that time, Draco finally understood how Harry must have felt when Seamus launched himself on Harry: utterly disgusting. Draco brought his hand up to chest level and gave a hard shove. Taken aback by the sudden defensive move, and coupled with the slippery floor in the stall, Blaise stumbled back a few steps before falling down hard on his bottom. This brought him out of his trance. Confused as to why he was sitting in a puddle of water at the feet of a very much undressed Draco, Blaise gave a quizzical look and stood up.
"What happened?" Blaise questioned as he dried off his pants. Draco spat his words as he explained the whole situation while he got dressed, out of Blaise's view, of course. Blaise gasped at what he did; though he was gay, Blaise would never attempt to jump a defenceless guy. No matter how hot they looked. With that, Draco was convinced how strong his veela charms were coming across and swore in exasperation.
"Blaise, I don't know what to do. Half the school is going to swoon over me!" Draco exclaimed as the two made their way back to the castle. Practice had ended late that evening; by the time Draco left the changing room, it was already nightfall.
"Draco, I don't know what to say, but all I want you to know is that I'll be here for you if you need me," chirped Blaise, as they walked towards the dungeons. "And if you can help it, try not to turn that veela thing on me?" Blaise gave Draco a genuine, sincere smile. A smile Draco knew he could never give. Giving a nod, Draco went into the Slytherin common room with Blaise, relieved that found a friend in the Slytherin.
As Draco entered the common room, everyone froze, with their mouths gapping open. Draco could feel Bulstrode mentally undressing him, he could see from Crabbe's eyes the wicked thoughts in his head, and he could tell how even the first years were completely captivated by him. Draco quickened his pace into a jog to his private dormitory for prefects. Slamming the door behind him quickly, Draco was in time to fend off the house mates who were "bewitched" by his charm. However, he was totally unprepared for what he had to deal with in his dorm. After all, he wasn't the only prefect in Slytherin.
I like this chapter, don't you? It marks the start of their relationship… heh heh heh.
And the cliffhanger. Though what's going to happen next is just SO predictable it's cliché. (That's what it's supposed to be anyway)
Please review! I want to see more reviews especially new readers!
