Authors Note: Aww, all the prettyful reviews warm my little author heart. Thanks a bunch, the whole lot of you! Even those of you who haven't reviewed, but are still reading this story. Now, I don't really have much to say before this chapter, except that Draco will not appear until chapter six. But it's not all that long, so I'm sure you can wait. Now, here you are, chapter three.
Chapter 3 – Can you say "Veela"?
When we reached the house, fittingly enough baptized 'the Dog House' by an overenthusiastic Sirius, Remus at once disappeared to the library while Sirius helped me unpack. It was sort of a godfather/godson bonding tradition of ours, the unpacking. I would be the one to do the actual unpacking, and Sirius would lie on my bed and talk about nothing and everything, depending on his mood. We'd been doing this every vacation since Sirius was freed.
That particular day, we were of course discussing my abrupt change in appearance. Sirius was adamant in his opinion that someone had hexed me and that if he ever found the bastard, he would kill him, then resurrect him and force him to reveal the name of the curse so he could use it on Snape. They were still quite childishly clinging to their old feud, despite having had years to get over it. Nothing like me and Malfoy who had gone from randomly hexing each other to intelligently insulting and sophistically cursing each other into oblivion. Nah, not really, but we'd cooled down a bit over the years, and that was at least something. Anyway, as I was saying, Sirius kept insisting I'd been hexed and I, out of some kind of misplaced loyalty, felt the need to defend Dumbledore's wards and say that no one could possibly have snuck by them to hex me. In the end, we decided it was only one way to settle this. By asking Remus.
And it was on that mission we ventured out of the safe haven of my room, and into the dangerous wilderness of the western wing, more precisely, the library. We located our victim in the furthest corner behind the dustiest bookshelf, where he was absorbed in a thick book by the name of Humanlike beasts and their mates. "Harry!" he exclaimed without even looking up from the book, making Sirius rather miffed. He'd hoped to for once be able to sneak up on Remus and scare him. He should have learnt by now not to try and best a werewolf with superhuman hearing. The stupid mutt. He didn't get a chance to comment on it though, because Remus instantly continued. "Don't get too excited, but I think I've figured out what happened to you!"
Don't get too excited, that was easy for him to say. He wasn't the one stuck in a body worthy of the 'drag queen of the year' award. If I wanted to get excited, it was my choice.
"You did? Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, Remus! You're the best of the best, the king of kings, the ruler of the world! I looooove you! When can you turn me back?" Ok, so maybe I did get a little too excited, but you can't really blame a bloke when he was in my predicament.
"Now, stay calm down, Harry," said Remus. "I said I found out what's wrong with you, not how to cure it. As a matter of fact, I don't believe it is curable at all."
Way to bring a guy back to earth. Here I was, looking like a flat-chested version of Miss Universe, and some lunarly challenged maniac tells me I can't be changed back. You'll probably believe me if I told you I wasn't happy. As a matter of fact, I was a lot less than 'not happy', I was pissed! Who did he think he was, finding out what was wrong with me and then not finding a cure? He was supposed to know everything, dammit! Stupid werewolf.
After running out of the room to scream at the top of my lungs in the hallway, I came back and asked calmly. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T BE CHANGED BACK!" Ok, so maybe I didn't ask as calmly as I might have wanted.
"Well, Harry, you got a very special present for your birthday."
"Present, what do you mean present?" I glowered at Remus, but my glare just bounced off him and set fire to one of the curtains.
"Uhm, you might want to sit down for this one." He ran a hand through his hair and I smirked inwardly. A nervous gesture! He wasn't completely immune to my glare after all! Harry Potter: 1, Remus Lupin: 0. Ha! Feeling generous, I did as I was told and sat down in one of the chairs nearby.
"Well?"
"Ah, yes, well, you see Harry, it's like this, you are the lucky mate of a Veela." He looked at me as if this was supposed to say me something and I raised an eyebrow at him. "Uhm, you do know what a Veela is, right?"
"Nope," I flashed him a toothy grin and I could see him roll his eyes at my lack of knowledge. Remus did that quite often when around me and Sirius. Sirius had this theory that someday his eyes would roll back into his head and disappear forever. We'd been playing up our stupidity to see if it was true.
"Well then, let us start at the beginning then," sighed Remus and started reading from the thick book in front of him. "The Veela are magical beings of incredible beauty, mostly found in the Slavic countries. Their appearance can vary somewhat from individual to individual, but on the whole most Veela have light blond hair and blue or grey eyes. They use their beauty to attract other creatures, and release a hormone called the 'Veela Allure' that makes them nearly impossible to resist. To this day the only known remedy against the Veela Allure is the Selby potion, more commonly known as the 'Veela Resistance', invented by Professor C. A. Selby in 1877. While it is a well known fact that Veela can attract almost anyone, few know that most Veela have a chosen mate. Their mate can be just about any creature, as long as they have certain human traits and a well developed brain. There is one exception to this, and that is the half Veela. A Veela of, for example, human blood will only be able to have a human mate, while one that is half dwarf will only have a dwarf mate. This is because the side of them that is not a Veela often resists a mate of another blood, and resisting his or her mate over a longer period of time increases the Veela's chance of dying before the 'bonding ceremony' is complete."
"What do you mean dying?" I asked, rather interested despite my best efforts not to be.
"The Veela cannot live without their mate, and will die if the mate refuses them, or if they are unable to perform the bonding ceremony."
"What do you mean, bonding ceremony?" I was getting a little apprehensive by this point.
"Well," Remus scanned the page in front of him before finding what he was looking for. "The bond between a Veela and its mate has four stages. The first is called the 'pursuit' and is where the Veela seeks out his or her mate by scent, sight and feeling. The next stage is called the 'acceptance', and that is when the mate accepts the bond to the Veela through a kiss. The third step is called the 'courting', and within this stage the dominant in the relationship will feel compelled to court the submissive one. The last and final stage is often referred to as the 'bonding ceremony'. It is not a ceremony per se, but merely the final bonding between the two mates. This happens through sexual intercourse, in which both parties will have to willingly participate."
"Sexual intercourse!" bellowed Sirius, deciding to join the conversation. "My Harry will not be having sexual intercourse with some hormone driven Veela, thank you very much! In fact, when he decided to have sexual intercourse, it will be called making love, and it will be with a sweet, young girl that he has been engaged to for four years at least! And he will wait until after –"
"Uhm, Remus…? Why don't you read a bit more?" I interrupted, blushing furiously. Having my godfather discuss my sexual life was not something I appreciated at that particular age. Eh, make that at any age.
"A brilliant idea, Harry, let's see…" Remus dived into his book again. "Yes, yes, "Inheritance", that sounds interesting, here goes: Another little known fact about the Veela is that they do not necessarily come into their inheritance at their sixteenth birthday, like most other magical creatures. No, when the Veela gets their inheritance depends on their mate. If the mate is older than the Veela, he or she will get their powers when turning sixteen, but if the mate is younger than the Veela, he or she will get their powers on their mate's sixteenth birthday. This little safety precaution is to make sure that when the Veela gets their powers and feel compelled to seek out their mate, the mate will not be underage. "
But being interrupted had never been known to stop Sirius, and he continued as if nothing had happened. " – after they have set the wedding date, because my godson is not some kind of slut! When he finally decided to make love, he will be a responsible young man, well over thirty, with a good job and a stable life. His fiancé, no scrap that, he waits until he's married, so, his wife will be a respectable woman from a good family, and not some kind of sleazy, perverted Veela! They will – "
At this I started banging my head against the table. Hard.
"Sirius," chided Remus. "Stop that this instant, I think you have gotten your point across."
" – will be very much in love, so much in fact that Harry has to save his wife from mortal danger and they reunite in a fountain of sparkles with serenades and moonlight all around, on a bridge over a small pond where the fairies play along the surface and the stars are reflected in the water and –"
I think I had developed a bump on my head by this time.
" – and then their lips meet in a kiss so sweet it is perfect bliss, and she moves her hands up to entwine them in Harry's hair, and he has his hands on the small of her back, holding her for dear life, afraid he might loose her once again, and she, in a moment of complete trust and beauty, smiles blushingly up at him before taking his hands and moving them to her velvety soft chest, where he slowly starts unbuttoning her dress – "
"SIRIUS BLACK!" yelled Remus, bringing him out of his reverie. "That is quite enough."
"Oh, sorry, I'll just, eh, go get you guys some sandwiches, yes, sandwiches coming right up!" And with that Sirius fled the room down into the kitchen.
Remus shook his head over his impossible lover, then turned back to Harry. "What more do you want to know?" he asked.
"Well, there is one thing, when you talked about the bonding, you mentioned 'submissive' and 'dominant'? What's that all about?"
"Oh, I'll look it up, just a second, yes, here it is: In a relationship were at least one of the parties is Veela, there is always one submissive and one dominant. Between full-blooded Veela, the male is always the dominant while the female is submissive. In the rare occurrence of same sex relationships, the dominant one will be decided by the magical strength of the two. The stronger one obviously dominating the weaker. In relationships where only one individual is of Veela blood, the Veela will always be dominant due to their unrivalled magical strength. The only known exception to this is if a weak female Veela mates with a very strong male Seraph."
"Well, that's all well and good, but what makes you think I'm the mate of a Veela?" I asked, hoping beyond hope that this would be the one time in his life Remus was mistaken.
"Something I read here somewhere, let me see," he sought through the book until he found what he was looking for. "Aha! Here it is, listen up: What very few are aware of, is the fact that when a dominant half-Veela gets their inheritance, not only do they change appearance, but their mate does as well. This is in order to please the dominant Veela, and the submissive often ends up looking just as beautiful as the Veela themselves. If the submissive is a male, he will often acquire more female traits, such as a smaller body and softer features."
Sighing heavily, I sank further back into my chair and started chewing on my lower lip. I knew it was too much to ask for Remus to mistaken. He never had been before, well, with the exception of thinking Sirius the spy of course. "So you're saying that somewhere out there, there is a Veela who needs me to survive?"
"Well, it sure seems that way, Harry." Answered Remus.
"And this Veela is quite possibly a male and will be the dominant one in our relationship?"
"Yes, although, looking at your appearance I would say the Veela is definitely a male."
"And this, this guy, he's the reason I look like this?"
"You could say that," Remus nodded.
Glaring at no one in particular, I growled out. "When I find that blasted Veela, he's dead!"
CWT…. continued will be… heh.
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