A/N Wow, I forgot how amazing it is to read reviews. Thank you so much. If nothing else, they are entirely inspiring, and even if ideas are not going to be written in, it usually sprouts ideas that will be!
I always hated review replies, but I understand why authors do it now. There were a couple questions asked that I wanted to address.
Moe Fox: I tried to hint at this towards the end of the chapter – he's not. Please don't forget that it had only been about 12 hours since he found out. The acceptance came mostly from shock at first, and then his Veela transformation. Don't know about the Horcrux thing, but it's an interesting concept actually. Please tell me you meant LV/HP and not LM?
hyper active pixie: This will be explained.
Sithtar: Indeed. Don't feel too bad, she will be explained too.
The One With The Veela Information
They found out a lot about Veela that night. There was a lot more information on light Veela than there was on dark, but Lucius filled in the spaces as well as he could.
Light and Dark Veela were similar in that when they had a mate, it was almost impossible to be with anyone else. Lucius described the pain to be worse than the Cruicatus.
"I don't understand. You're married." Harry asked his father.
"Not willingly, Harry. My father was a man of tradition. A pureblooded wizard must marry a pureblooded witch. Luckily, Cissy was my best friend, so she agreed to be wed. We were together only once, thank Merlin, before she got pregnant. Cissy never wanted to settle down, so she was more than willing to please her parents by marrying me, too."
Hermione looked shocked, "So you haven't been with anyone since?"
"Most definitely not." Harry could tell there was more to this story but that Lucius was unwilling share.
"So how do you know it's painful for a Dark Veela to be with someone else? That is not written anywhere."
Harry glared at his friend and muttered, "Change the subject."
Snape spoke the first words he had since they were in the bedroom. His words were quiet, but to Harry it sounded like he was shouting. "Harry, you can talk to them about this. Your friends are not stupid, they both already know."
Harry snapped his head around to his friends and looked at them intently. Hermione was looking at Harry and Snape in sympathy, and Ron was frowning at the table.
"How?"
Hermione answered first. "I didn't realise anything until you asked me to change the subject, Harry."
Harry sighed and nodded. "I don't want to talk about this. What else does it say, Mione?"
Hermione looked at Harry strangely then, but continued.
Hermione told Harry that the Dark Veela in Snape came from his mother once Snape admitted to being a half-blood. Hermione said that Dark Veela could have female children and that these females would just be witches but carry the Dark Veela gene to any male descendants.
Dark Veela that could not breed did not have mates. Those that can are guaranteed a mate in some humanoid species.
Harry turned his nose up at the word 'humanoid'.
Light Veela however, all had mates. Male Veela did not have the ability to have children, so all Light Veela relationships were heterosexual unless their mate was a male who could breed. Since most Veela relationships were Veela/Human, it was extremely rare to find a homosexual Veela.
Harry was starting to hate the word 'rare'.
Hermione went on to explain that all Veela who had mates and had mated would need their mates to survive.
Harry cut in – "So how have these two survived for 16 years without each other?"
"I was getting to that, Harry. Don't interrupt me. Mr Malfoy most likely survived OK because he had Draco. Veela are extremely protective of their children. The bond between Veela child and parent is extremely strong. You can feel each other's emotions, right?" Harry nodded. "Exactly. The bond is strong and unbreakable, and will allow a parent to survive if their mate dies. Without a child, if one mate dies, the other would follow quickly."
"As for Professor Snape, I do not know. It shouldn't be possible to be away from ones mate for so long, but maybe the Dark Veela makes it different? It does not say in the book?"
Harry looked towards Snape with a querying eyebrow. The man scowled at them all. "Do I look like a Veela, Harry?"
Ron butted in bluntly, "That's a point, I thought Veela were supposed to be beautiful?" Hermione gasped and nudged him. Ron blush a furious red.
"He used to be." They all turned to look at Lucius who was watching Snape with a look of pure devotion in his eyes. Harry smiled. "And he will be again." The meaning was clear to all in the room; Lucius would not give up trying to repair their relationship.
Harry looked forward to watching Lucius attempt to get Snape back.
There was a tense silence until Snape spoke again, looking at Harry. "The truth is, I did not expect to survive the war Harry. Now that our bond has been created, I will be fine but my full strength will not without-" Snape cut himself off, looking towards the blonde across the room.
"So you need him to get better? To make yourself as well as you can be, you need your mate?"
Snape nodded, and Lucius replied, "The bond needs to be renewed, and then he will heal."
Hermione went on to explain the power he would have as a Veela. Light Veela had varying powers – it depended on the Veela. They had the power to control at least one of the elements, usually air. Lucius had this power; it was most common. They also had the ability to manipulate people around them, which Harry thought explained so much.
Dark Veela were extremely adept in mind magics, and had a physical strength beyond any other magical creature, including werewolves and vampires.
All Veela had other magical powers, as well. Lucius could control temperature – make a room or an item or a person hotter or freezing cold. Snape described his power as Telekinesis – the power to move things with one's mind. Harry figured that was how he attempted to strangle Dumbledore.
After Harry yawned for the 5th time, Snape decided to call it a day.
"It's late, we should get to bed. This day has been a long one."
Harry thought back to this morning at breakfast when he was completely ignorant of Dumbledore's betrayal. Part of him wondered if life would have been easier if he had never found out, but he couldn't deny that he had always longed for a family.
"I will show you to your quarters. Follow me."
They did as instructed. Harry, Ron and Hermione followed Malfoy up a set of stairs and around a maze of corridors before coming to a large door. When opened, a large sitting room was revealed with multiple doors off of it. The room was twice as big as the Gryffindor common room. Harry spotted many desks dotted around the edge of the room under large castle-shaped windows with stained glass. There were four large, cream coloured, 3-piece suites in the middle of the room around a coffee table, and a large fluffy rug in front of a fire that was lit but not giving off any heat.
Harry loved it.
"The first room on the right is the largest,-" Lucius didn't even finish this sentence before Ron jumped and ran towards it. Harry laughed at him, glad his friend got the best for once. "The next two do not have bathrooms, but the last one does. The next door is a small kitchenette, then a toilet, then a bathroom. The last door leads directly to the entrance hall."
They nodded, Hermione thanking him. Lucius looked at Harry then and took a step towards him, but Harry took a step back and shook his head, looking at the floor.
Harry felt the man's pain and felt a bit guilty, but his human side quite frankly hated the man. Just because he was his father, didn't change the fact that the man was an evil bastard who had tried to kill Harry and his friends and few months back. Harry knew Lucius would never hurt him now, but that meant little.
"I will leave. Good night." They nodded and watched him depart.
"Professor, Harry and I will have the two rooms without the bathrooms. We can share the main one, that is fine."
Snape nodded and walked towards the room remaining. He opened the door, but before walking through he turned to Harry and said, "I know you are angry, and confused, but you are still a new Veela, Harry. Please do not fight your instincts. Not tonight, at least. I know you do not like me, but please promise me Harry."
Harry looked at the floor and shrugged. Snape sighed and muttered, "Goodnight." Before walking into his room.
Harry looked at Hermione, "Am I being unfair?"
"No Harry. You should not pretend to feel something you do not, and you should not hide how you are feeling. It will just make everything worse in the long run. You must overcome the hatred you feel for both of them and learn to see the good in them. You will soon know the unconditional love of a family, Harry." Hermione said this smiling, and Harry couldn't help but smile back at her.
He turned to walk into the room Ron had disappeared into. He grinned at the boy laying spread eagle on the bed. It was the same as the room Harry had woken up in earlier but the room was decorated cream and burgundy.
Ron smiled when he saw them.
"This is so weird. I can't believe we're staying in Malfoy Manor with Voldemort downstairs. Willingly."
Hermione giggled. "I know, it's rather surreal. I wonder what will happen next. I know Mr Malfoy and Professor Snape will not let anyone hurt us, but where does that leave us?"
Harry shrugged. "Snape said that Voldemort is like a father to him."
Hermione and Ron gaped at him. "Is that snake even capable of feeling any kind of emotion?"
Harry smiled at Ron. "Dunno, but he was pretty tolerant today at least. I don't know if I can stay here for long though. Lucius may be my father but I do not like him, nor will I tolerate his hatred. He tried to kill us, remember. And who knows what happens at Death Eater meetings these days?"
Ron asked, "When did you last have a vision?"
"Sirius."
He nodded. "Where exactly will you go if you do decide to leave? This place is heaven. Kind of."
"I don't know. Hogwarts? Dumbledore won't be able to mess with me now I'm Veela. The thing is, I want to get Snape and Lucius back together so Snape will be healthy again."
"Why do you call Snape, Snape and Lucius, Lucius?" Hermione questioned.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, why is Professor Snape not Severus to you?"
"He's my father. Do you call your father by his given name, Mione?"
"Well no, but you call Lucius by his."
"It's easy to be a father biologically. He has a lot to prove before he becomes anything of a dad to me. Calling him Malfoy would be confusing when there's more than one bloody Malfoy in this place."
Hermione nodded in understanding.
"But you were all over both of them earlier today. Seemed pretty forgiving to me."
Harry sighed, gritting his teeth. "It's the damn Veela! I couldn't control it."
"Yeah, what was with the not talking thing?"
Harry raised an eyebrow. "Not sure, but my mind would not process that I needed to talk. I physically couldn't."
They sat talking about nothing for a while before they all went to bed. Harry unshrunk his trunk and took out some pyjamas and changed into them. When he finally crashed, he spent minutes staring at the ceiling, mind working a mile a minute. When he finally closed his eyes, he felt an almost uncontrollable need to be near his father.
Harry snapped his eyes open and glared at the ceiling again. This sucked, it really did.
Please review again, peeps!
Next chapter – heart to heart with mummy dearest.