ENTHRALL
By Yih
Note: About the "scar connection" bit, I didn't mean the scar isn't a connection to Voldemort just to the visions. I.E. Everyone thought the scar was the reason Harry has visions, but it's not. It's because he's a natural seer and he dreams true. However, the scar still does connect Voldemort to Harry and that is why Harry feels pain from it. More explanation will be in the story later on about that when we get more into it. So please be patient.
POV Note: This is in Draco's POV.
Thanks to KrysRoz and DraconisSenshi, both of whom have been offering their insight and wonderful opinions. And to my beta, SeparatriX. This is Revision #1.
Chapter 2
The Game Begins
The pieces were laid. Now they only had to be moved. Then Harry Potter would be his. Patience though, Draco reminded himself. It wouldn't do to move too early, especially since everything had been in careful planning for the last year or so. To ruin things now, after all that hard work would be stupidly worthy of a Gryffindor and not a Slytherin. Draco still didn't understand why Voldemort wanted Harry Potter, but what his Lord wanted his Lord would get.
There were worse things than taking the Boy Who Lived as his mate. Other choices were more preferential, but as a veela he would naturally dominate his mate. He very much liked the idea of Harry Potter being submissive to him. It also didn't hurt that Potter wasn't hard on the eyes, easily a thousand galleons better than the pug-faced Pansy Parkinson. Draco shuddered to think of being forced to choose her, to turn on his veela charms for her? A retching tragedy.
The silver serpent bracelet had suited Potter. Draco had found amongst the family jewels in their Gringotts vault during the Christmas vacation. He hadn't been planning on giving it to Potter so soon, but the Dark Lord had moved up his timetable. Accordingly, Draco had adjusted his. He'd gotten rid of a few intermediate moves and progressed to the next major one. The promise bracelet had a binding charm the prevented Potter from getting into any entanglements with anyone else. It kept him innocent until Draco wanted to make his move. Too bad it didn't ensure Potter's previous sexual experience. Draco found he quite like the idea of Potter being pure, but he'd take keeping him celibate for a while. So what to send Potter tomorrow?
Something simple, he decided. A dozen dragonlilies and a promise bracelet were enough extravagance for one day. But simplicity didn't mean that it had to be simple necessarily. His mother was quite fond of simple elegance. Yes, that was what he'd send Potter tomorrow. Something was simple yet elegant. He might be hiding his identity, but he strangely wanted Potter to have a good opinion of his taste in gifts.
Coming up with creative gifts was getting harder and harder, especially as he wanted to keep his identity shrouded in secrecy. It was even better if he made the gender of who was giving the gifts ambiguous. He had, he daresay, succeeded because in any offhand remark he caught, Weasel was always thinking it was a 'she.' Should he be offended about the assault to his masculinity? Weasel probably would, but he was confident in his good taste.
An idea came to him. Summer was approaching. There was one thing that always reminded him the beauty that was summer. And Potter's eyes were so green and vibrant that it reflected the life of those months too well. He knew exactly what to send now.
Whatever would Potter think?
-
Breakfast was his least favorite part of the day. For one thing, it was too damn early in the morning. He always needed more time than he gave himself to get ready. As it was, he'd rushed through his grooming a bit more than he liked but he wanted to make sure he was there to see Potter's initial reaction to nothing being on the table (which hadn't happened in a week) and then his later reaction when he received his latest gift.
Potter was utterly predictable. Draco had gotten good at reading his facial expressions, or else he would have that Potter looked the same as always. Draco did have to admit that Potter was getting frightfully good at the detached, passive look. Unfortunately, Draco knew how to read them. Once he'd spent more time studying Potter, he could read the young man almost as well as he could read his father. It was essential to know when Lucius Malfoy's indifferent look was aggravated or amused. Not that his father would ever physically hurt him, but having him displeased with him was not a good thing. The uncanny ability proved invaluable with Voldemort. You definitely wanted to read their Lord's moods. No wonder his father was their Lord's right hand man.
There was only the slightest indication that Potter was disappointed. It was in the barely detectable slump in his shoulders and the way he wasn't listless in a distracted manner. He was listless in a despondent way, not that there was that much difference to the unexceptional observer. But there was noticeable perk to Potter's being when Bellona, Draco's fierce gyrfalcon swooped down and dropped a scroll in front of him.
Draco couldn't hear what the mudblood or the Weasel was saying, but he imagined they were devoutly curious in what the scroll contained. He was sure the mudblood would appreciate it, and it would certainly throw her off. He wondered if Potter was going to have to get it explained to him. Merlin, he hoped not. He really didn't want to think he was going to be mated with a crass, uncultured young man. There was only so much he could stand. Being a bloody noble Gryffindor was enough, thank you very much.
The scroll was opened, Draco saw, and while Potter read it--- he recited in his head the sonnet he'd sent:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
"Sonnet 18," William Shakespeare
It was in the actions that Draco knew Potter appreciated it. It was in the way he wrapped the parchment carefully and placed it atop his books. It was in the way he didn't share it with the others, even though Draco knew they must have been pestering him. How Potter could stand to have friends that nagged at him all the time, he didn't know. Then again, it probably was nice to have friends that had a brain. Sometimes silence and stupidity was not a good mix.
So Potter liked the sonnet, treasured even if keeping it close to his chest was any indication. Now the question was, did he get the symbolism of the poem? It was a simple lyric poem by any standard, but the embedded meaning was more than a simple praise to a beloved. Of course, he wouldn't. He didn't know who it was from, and who that person was serving. If he did, then he'd know he had nothing to fear from Voldemort.
-
"Mutare!" Draco exclaimed. His rat, for McGonagall refused to subjugate cats to the odious process of being transfigured from a living object to one that non-living variety, wasn't cooperating much with him. He wasn't very good at Transfiguration, and again he wondered why he'd decided to go into the NEWT-level class. He had as much natural ability in it as Potter had in Potions.
"Mr. Malfoy," McGonagall commented sharply, ranging up on his failed attempt with a gleam in her beady eyes that Draco despised, "you need to imagine the rat changing not only in form but in substance matter. You've got to think you're changing it from something living to something non-living. If you don't, you can't hope to succeed, can you?"
He gritted his teeth together, but he knew better than to make a snappy retort. Severus might appreciate his wit; McGonagall wouldn't. As fair as she tried to make herself out to be, she was still notoriously Gryffindor favoring. Instead, he tilted his wand again to the rat and repeated, "Mutare!"
Something happened this time. The rat didn't quite look quite so of the living anymore. It looked a bit petrified actually. He heard McGonagall make an aggrieved sound before calling, "Ms. Granger, would you come over here please and demonstrate to Mr. Malfoy how to do this transfiguration spell properly?"
The mudblood witch came over, and the only thing Draco could be grateful for was that she didn't have a superior look on her face. She was concentrating too much. It was bad enough that she was going to demonstrate to Draco how to do it right. This was embarrassing as it was, having a mudblood teach him how to do a bloody spell whether it was his worst subject or not.
"Mutare!" Granger murmured. For a moment, nothing happened and Draco was almost attempted to throw a derisive comment at her. Thank Merlin he didn't, because a moment later the rat abruptly changed into a very dead object. A wooden rat. "Not too bad, Professor McGonagall?" Why was the damn mudblood always looking for approval? She'd done the spell right, did she need to rub it in?
"Very nicely done, Ms. Granger," McGonagall commended. "It was a bit slow in the transfiguration, but you did succeed from going to the living to the non-living and keeping the shape exactly the same. However, next time you might want to try something other than wood. Wood was once living, so it's not quite as non-living as I would like to see."
"I understand, Professor McGonagall," she responded. "Do you need another demonstration?" Draco shook his head curtly, and he was only too glad to see the mudblood bint go back to her worktable next to his mate, what?! Potter wasn't his mate yet; he was going to be… but he certainly wasn't his mate yet!
"Now, let's see you try the spell again, Mr. Malfoy."
He really hated this class, and he hated Potter's friends. He was going to derive an excessive amount of pleasure in ripping Potter away from them, and then maybe even getting him to torture them. Draco smirked. Maybe not the mudblood, he didn't quite hate her just resented her, but the Weasel most definitely. There was no one he hated more than that red-headed moron.
"Mr. Malfoy!" McGonagall snapped. "The spell?"
He jerked his wand and shouted, "Mutare!"
-
At dinner, he sent Potter nothing. Draco had pondered with the merit through his Arimancy class, but he decided not to. He hadn't come up with a good enough idea, and he hated to ruin the sheer brilliance of his last few with something inferior. Instead, he settled for devouring Potter's searching eyes as it sought some babble from his mysterious admirer.
"What are you looking at Draco?"
Pansy Parkinson was the most annoying bint ever. Even the Granger mudblood had nothing on Pansy Parkinson. It was one of the few times when thinking about Potter becoming his mate looked like an excellent idea. He grimaced, pulling a charming smile on his face. It was bad if Pansy was noticing something off about his behavior. Pansy wasn't only ugly, she was almost as dumb as Crabbe and Goyle.
"Nothing much."
"It looks like you were looking at the Gryffindor table," she murmured.
If he was being that obvious about his Potter watching such that she noticed the direction of his gaze, that was bad. The easy thing about correcting his blunder was if he flirted with Pansy, she tended to get lost in the wonder of it that she couldn't use what miniscule thinking skills she did have. So he turned on the charm, his veela thrall, and watched her eyes become utterly dazed. He was careful not to amplify them too much, only a little bit was needed with her, since he didn't want to have the whole Slytherin table ogling him.
"Draco, you have eyes that are like drops of silver."
He'd learn his lesson very well the day of his 16th birthday when he'd not quite been able to control his veela thrall and had gotten assaulted by Crabbe and Goyle. If it was not for Blaise's and Theodore's quick thinking, he'd have been raped. He grimaced at the unpleasant memory. After Blaise and Theodore had helped him, he'd found out later it was for an ulterior purpose. They hadn't wanted to share him with his two brain dead minions. But he'd manage to petrify both of them and climb into the relative safety of his heavily warded bed.
"Your hair is like moonlight."
Luckily, the next day was a weekend and he'd been whisked away by his parents to Malfoy Mansion where they kept him for a month until he gained enough control over his thrall that he didn't make the house elves crazy with lust. Draco didn't know what excuse for his absent his parents had sent, but he didn't care. He might have had quite a bit of sexual experience before he came into his veela inheritance, but he knew better than to have any sort of physical relationship afterwards. That sort of activity was limited to his future mate. Unfortunately, he'd also discovered during that time it was going to be Harry Potter. That had been one birthday present he could have done without.
"You are the sexiest Slytherin ever."
At least, Potter figured to be a challenge to seduce. Draco liked challenges; he was driven by them. If life ceased to be demanding, it would be very boring. Why people wanted a happy and peaceful life eluded him. That would be the epitome of boredom. And while he had full confidence his veela thrall would entrap Potter, he figured getting Potter to obey him would be a bit of a challenge if Potter really could throw up the Imperius Curse as his father had warned him. It was too bad that unlike his thrall he couldn't test his veela dominance on others. It only worked on his mate.
"Draco," Pansy's hands were creeping up his thigh, "do you want meet me in the Astronomy Tower after dinner?"
Certain that she'd been thoroughly distracted, he dropped his smile and reined his thrall in, and snapped, "Why would I ever want to go to the Astronomy Tower with a pug-face clinging bitch like you?"
-
He ran into Potter heading to the dungeons, probably going to extra tutorial sessions in Potions with Severus. What Draco didn't understand was why his godfather even allowed Potter to be his NEWT-level Potions class if he was going to need extra tutoring to even survive the class. It was Dumbledore's doing. It stunk of it. Why did everyone think a mere boy who had somehow survived the Avada Kedavra Curse was the last great hope? It was an awful burden to put on someone that young. Draco didn't envy Potter that.
"Potter," he sneered, "off to the dungeons to save your pitiful ass from failing out of Potions?"
He was good, very good at getting underneath Potter's skin. There was visible tensing of his rival's shoulders and a narrowing of his bright eyes. Now, what would be fun to see was how good he was into getting into Potter's pants. Wouldn't Potter hate that? That he would need Draco, crave Draco's touch.
"Bugger off, Malfoy."
"Such an original comeback."
Ah, yes the fierce green glare was directed at him. "Malfoy…"
"You are becoming as vocal as your Weasel."
"Malfoy…, don't call him that."
"I can him call whatever I choose to," Draco declared. His eyes trailed up and down Potter's form, thinking once again that his chosen mate could have been much worse. Somehow in the last year or so, Potter had grown up and filled out. The Gryffindor was still shorter than him, but he wasn't as scrawny as he had been before. No, Harry Potter would do quite nicely. "So who gave you that bracelet, Potter? Another one of your legion of fans?"
Potter pursed his lips. Draco noted he had the type of lips that begged to be kissed. "None of your bloody business, Malfoy."
"Is it a crime to be curious?"
He was making Potter grind his teeth, lovely. "Why do you torment me?"
Because it was fun, not that he would tell Potter that. So what to say…
"Mr. Potter," Severus always had excellent timing, "you are here to be helped, do not try my patience in loitering in the hallway." Great entrance, too. "Draco?" Draco turned to his godfather with all the traces of sneer wiped off his face. "Your father sent an urgent owl to me for you. It's waiting in your room."
Draco knew what it was, and from the gleam in Severus's eyes, his godfather knew too.
-
Enyo, his father's favorite messenger, a tawny owl was perched on the headboard looking perceptive as always. Draco swore that Enyo had to have more than the spirit of an owl in his body because Enyo was too clever. Currently, Enyo was staring at his journal where he'd absently scribbled some his future ideas for when the seduction of Potter would begin.
He whistled and Enyo raised her elegant head. He held out his arm, and she flew toward it and dug her claws into his flesh. Lucky for him, his robes were warded to prevent any tearing or ripping and protected him from injury as well. "So Enyo, what do you have for me?"
She raised the leg which the message was tied to and he took it from her. She nipped him affectionately on the ear before flying back and settling back into the positions he had been in. She gave him a pointed look then she proceeded to groom herself. Draco knew that meant she had been told to wait for a response. He might as well get it over with. His father look indifferent, but he wasn't a very patient wizard.
Draco, my son and heir,
The time has come for you to act. You have told me of what you have done so far, and you probably have succeeded in throwing Harry Potter into a loop of confusion. No doubt, he probably has fond thoughts of his secret admirer, and will be even more befuddled when he learns that it is really you.
Our Lord has been patient in waiting for your powers to grow, as he knows that even though veelas come into their thrall at 16, it doesn't strengthen to its full height of power until later. You now should be able to entrap Potter as your mate without too much difficulty. If you should run into some problems, owl me immediately.
I hope you realize that our Lord doesn't want it to be known that you are being commanded to seduce Potter. It would be best if the illusion of veelas being led by their 'nose' to their mate was believed. The many myths of how a veela knows who their mate is would come in handy. Luckily, no one really knows the truth in the matter, eh? Such rules don't apply to wizards with veela blood.
The thought that veelas are dominated by their mate is another silly rumor that we can use to our advantage. You may pretend to be led by Potter for a while, but I fully expect you to have Potter underneath your control by the summer holidays in which you both will be coming to MalfoyMansion. I assume that the several weeks you have until then will prove sufficient?
Draco snorted. He didn't think it would take more than maybe two weeks to have Potter bound to him, if even that long. But he did have to go about it in a rather less than pleasing manner. Letting Potter believe he was his soulmate and that he was madly in love with him? The thought was laughable.
And Draco, it wouldn't hurt for you to be cautious with your feelings toward Potter. As detestable as it might sound, you know that even though wizards with veela blood are given the choice of whom to enthrall, it doesn't mean that we are any less susceptible to the allure of our mate. Yes, you will wield power over Potter and you will be the dominant in the relationship, but that doesn't mean Potter won't have some power over you. He will, and if he's smart he'll know how to make the best use of it. It is to your advantage to have Potter fall madly for you. There is no doubt that you will fall madly for him. The question is if he will fall more for you than you do for him.
Your father,
Lucius Malfoy.
He was going to have to start thinking of Potter as Harry, wasn't he?
Author's Note: My muse deeply appreciates being fed! She tells me that she's very grateful for the wonderful responses, and she's diligently spinning ideas for Chapter 4. Currently (yes I'm ahead), I'm working on Chapter 4 and putting the final touches on Chapter 3. I've already gotten feedback from my pre-reader and will be working out any of the kinks that might arise (Chapter 4 might change Chapter 3 a bit). Keep up the feedback and I'll try to write as much as I can before I have to start studying like crazy for orgo this weekend.
Also, so what do you think of Draco and my version of a veela? Obviously, some of it is different and just want feedback if you like the change I've done (wizard with veela blood is different from a true wholly veela). There's more stuff on it in later chapters, but the general explanation is in this chapter. I'm afraid this is a tad boring, but hopefully not too boring?
Beta Request: I need a good and a fast beta (i.e. If I write in a chapter in two days, you should be able to beta in one day). The only thing I can offer is you get to read the chapters first! Leave your email and any "references" (other beta work you've done) before. I'd prefer an experience beta that can help me with plot too. Also, I need someone who's good at feedback.
Thanks to pls (I did try really hard to keep them IC), Beth, riantlykalopsic, GentleWaterSoul, Nate (thanks, I corrected it!), Agnei Smith, SheWolfe7 (Keep wondering about Voldie), kdalemama, Ganymade (Well, I'm first and foremost a HP/SS shipper, then HP/LM, HP/LV and lastly HP/DM), marishamarish, akki, Vicous Pixie, chibi-Seto-kaiba, Shadowface, Angelous999 (you're right about it's more than Harry you're my mate, good insight!), pussbb (keyboard, I almost never write by hand), CrimsonTearsofPain (I didn't want to start out like every veela fic out there), Theoddguy, Katrina, MystWynd, anguis (more about seers later), zoomaphonethepirate, TigerBlak (will try, looks like it's heading there), NymphGirl, Enivrement (god I need to review your "Six Feet Cold" story, it's BLOODY AWESOME :p), Rchan2, hypteractivatoragain, adia, destruction's mistress (since you said please…), aikidobrat, kamui5, Night (Harry's grown up a lot), Makalani Astral, Emerald T. Virginia Riddle-Malfoy, Yana5, ironic-humour, California smells funny, Spideria (I'll try), Echelon (I thought it moved too slow, thanks for telling me it's too fast), sak (scar explanation is above, I hope that explains it, it's still a V connection), firefairy, Lakoma (it was a long first chapter, don't complain), LMG, Eponine, NettieT (Daphne will round out, her role is more significant later, this isn't only a veela story), Kit (you spelled intriguing right, thanks for the props on originality. I hate being unoriginal, but some clichés I probably won't be able to escape), Losing Grip, tinkita, Naia, LilBlackNiteCat, SweetPea-Fairy, chocolatedemon (I won't rush the H/D… I think MOP proves I can move really slow, excruciatingly slow), cardboardboxkid, redredredred, deliolith (thanks), angelkitty77, wufei winner, Ash, Kathy stgqvk (the question of allegiance is a very good one, we'll see), silvrfire, Emily22, Short Fat Fag (thanks for the correction. It's from Harry's POV, and right now he's not thinking about Dumbledore. Dumbledore will come up… eventually), agge, Selune (I try to be different. –muse gobbles food-), Kitta Baby, athenakitty (1. No. 2. Yes. 3. Who knows? 4. You'll see), and Gia.
TBC (as soon as you click "go" and feed the muse)