Disclaimer: Still don't own Harry Potter.

Mina woke up the next morning to Carmi's alarm going off at six. She grabbed a pillow and shoved it over her head.

"Sorry", Carmi whispered. "School starts at 7:15. I have to shower and eat still. You might want to consider getting up now. Just to get used to the schedule."

Mina groaned. Her cousin was right, but Mina was not a morning person. She sat up gingerly, her muscles protesting the movement, the lactic acid in them screaming angrily at her. Carmi saw her cousin wince. She rummaged through her desk drawer until she found her tube of muscle relaxant. "Here", she said, tossing it at Mina. "This will help. Practice is tonight, don't forget; that will help you, too. Oh, hey. Why don't you ask Blaise and Draco to come to the dance rehearsal tonight? We could use them as our tango partners."

Mina made a face, but Carmi had a point. As purebloods, both Draco and Blaise would have had formal dance training throughout the years. Still, she wasn't quite up to facing Blaise after her realization. She had no idea of how to block her emotions from Blaise. Occlumency was a way to hide the mind from the prying of other people; there was no such way of hiding the emotions. Carmi read the look on Mina's face. She glanced at the clock. 6:10. Well, she did live right next door to the school. Walking to her closet, Carmi rummaged through it, and found a book on Veelas she had snitched from Mina's school chest two years ago.

"This has a whole chapter dedicated to blocking your emotions from your Veela mate. Spend a few hours today perfecting it. You and Blaise are going to dance together tonight. Mark will insist on that."

Mina looked up at her questioningly.

"Mark has a way of knowing who will dance well together."

"About that… rehearsal is straight after practice, right? So how would Draco and Blaise get there on time? Let alone know where to go?"

"Oh." Carmi said seeing her point. Then, "Well, couldn't they just come to practice and watch us, then go to rehearsal after with us?"

Mina stared at her. "In all your Veela reading, haven't you noticed that the males are incredibly protective? Not to mention possessive? Imagine what their reaction is going to be with us in just leotards, doing gymnastics, one of the most dangerous sports in the world."

"Hell." Carmi winced.

"Mmm. Well, I don't see any other way around it. It's 6:20. You might want to shower now." Mina said, changing direction abruptly.

Carmi stumbled out of the bathroom at 6:45, showered and dressed in short shorts and a blue-gray baby doll tank top, with her make-up done. She was sporting charcoal rimmed eyes, with a smudged gray eye shadow enhancing the charcoal, and kohl-rimmed eyes that popped when you glanced at her. She slipped down stairs to find Mina and her mom sitting down to breakfast. Her eyes lit up seeing cinnamon puffs on the table waiting for her. She grabbed a bowl from the cupboard, milk and a spoon, and sat down joining the two already there. Mina was pouring over the book Carmi had given her, her eyes alight with the knowledge that she was obscuring. Carmi finished her breakfast, dashed upstairs to brush her teeth and grab her backpack, and then rushed back down. She slipped into her dancers design Toms, and tumbled out the door.

Around 8:30, Blaise stirred; something had woken him up. It had been something abnormal, of that he was sure – he just couldn't tell. He was sure that once he was aware of Mina it all would all fade away. Mina! Blaise bolted upright. He couldn't feel Mina! Where was she, was she all right, what had happened? Tossing the blankets off him, Blaise vaulted out of the bed, stopping only to pull a pair of jeans on before rushing out to the Carmi and Mina's room. He pulled open the door. Neither girl was there. Blaise ran to the stairs and slid down the railing. He ran through the kitchen to the front door. He pulled that open in time to hear the school bell ring. School, that's where Carmi was. Blaise relaxed a fraction. Carmi was his mate's cousin, and one of her dearest friends. She was also his best friend's mate. It would have been very hard to handle Draco if anything had happened to her. Speaking of mates, where was Blaise's mate?

Mina wandered out of the living room through the kitchen and to the foyer. She thought she had heard the front door open.

"Oh, you're up Blaise. I thought I heard the front door open. You wouldn't mind closing it, would you? I've been reading with Aunt Rena in the living room. It's rather peaceful this early in the morning, actually."

Blaise stared at her. How could she act so blasé after causing him so much worry? And wait. How come he still couldn't sense her emotions? If it weren't for the fact that she was right in front of him, Blaise would never have known Mina was in the room.

"Why can't I-?"

"Feel my emotions? Oh, so that worked already, did it?" Mina asked, surprised. "I'll have to remember to thank Carmi for that; quite useful, really. Oh, all right, you big baby. Carmi lent me a particularly useful book on Veelas. Did you know that there's an entire chapter on how a Veela's mate can hide his or her emotions from the Veela? I take it the book's advice worked, then?"

Blaise stared at his mate, trying very hard to resist the urge to strangle the girl. "Yes, it worked, you silly girl. Do you know how terrified I was that something had happened to you? Take down the shield." He ordered.

"No."

"What?"

"No."

"You're my mate; you have to do what I say!"

"I may be your mate, but that doesn't mean you have the right to order me around like a slave. If a slave was what you wanted, then maybe your mate should have been Pansy Parkinson! But I'm not her, and I have no intention of even taking a Polyjuice Potion to look like her, so stop acting like a spoiled child and accept the fact that not everything is going to go your way."

With that said, Mina turned to flounce away, but was stopped by Blaise spinning her into him, and slammed his mouth down onto hers. She accepted the kiss eagerly, reciprocating whole-heartedly. From around the corner, Rena chuckled. She'd heard the shouting and come to investigate, when she'd seen Blaise grab her niece, and pull her into him.

Mina pulled back from the kiss breathing heavily, her hair mussed and her lips swollen. "How is it that every of our arguments ends this way?"

"I don't know." Blaise chuckled. Sitting down in an armchair in the living room, Blaise pulled Mina down onto him. "Why won't you take down the shield?" he asked softly, not wanting to ruin the peaceful moment between the two.

Mina sighed. "There are some things that are meant to remain private Blaise, and emotions are one of them. I do intend to take the shield down eventually, but I'd like for my emotions to remain my own for a while."

"Alright." Blaise accepted.

Mina smiled and reached up to drift her lips against Blaine's, not quite kissing him, just lingering there. Blaise pulled his mate closer to him, running his fingers through her hair. Mina pulled back and snuggled further into him, curling up to allow Blaise to stretch out. Not that she really needed to, mind you, being only 5'2".

It was in this arrangement that Draco found the two, fifteen minutes later. He groaned and pulled a face. "Why is it I always find the two of you in positions such as this one?"

"Just lucky, I guess", Blaise teased his friend. "Oh, Mina has something to tell you, don't you Mina?"

Mina looked up at Blaise. "I do?" Then realizing what he meant, "Oh. No, Blaise you're mistaken. It's Carmi who has something to tell you, Draco."

Draco lit up. "Really?"

"Really."

At 2:40 Carmi walked through the front door, and was immediately besieged upon by Mina. Her cousin grabbed her, and pulled her up the stairs to their bedroom before either girl was seen by her Veela. She was pushed through the door and stumbled into her bed.

"Whoa! What was that about?" Carmi grumbled, rubbing her shin where she'd banged it on her sideboard.

"Do you have your emotional shield in place?" Mina demanded.

"No. I won't need it until I love him, and don't know if he loves me back."

"Put it up." Mina hissed.

Grumbling, Carmi obliged. "Look, Blaise and Draco won't mind the dance bit – well they won't until they see Mark's routine – but they will mind the gymnastics bit. They're male Veelas – possessive and protective. So don't take down your shield letting Draco know you've accepted the bond until just before we're due to start training, alright?"

"Fine." Carmi accepted. "But what about you? There's no way in hell that Blaise will let you train unless you do something that will shock him."

"I'm planning on releasing my shield."

Carmi stared at her cousin, shocked.

"He asked me to earlier, and I plan on doing it later to shock him. I figure he'll be so shocked by what he feels that he won't be able to stop me from training. Speaking of, shouldn't we head out now?"

Heading downstairs each girl proceeded to grab her Veela by the ear and drag them along as they conversed. Stopping in front of the girls' locker room, Carmi said firmly, "Stay."

Waiting for Carter and Morgan to finish changing so they could enter with them, Carmi and Mina chatted. When Carter came out in her dark brown and silver leotard followed by Morgan in her forest green slashed through with lime green leotard, the two stopped talking and joined their friends. Exiting the locker room, they ignored the Veelas whose jaws had dropped upon seeing what their mates were wearing. Running after the girls, and coming to a stop in front of them, they demanded, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, where do you think you're going dressed like that?"

Morgan and Carter looked at Mina and Carmi.

"Mina?"

"Go ahead, Carter. We'll be there in a few minutes."

"All right."

Leaning around Blaise, Mina shouted after her friend, "Hey! Is James your partner for the dance, or what?"

"He said he would try not to embarrass me too much!" Carter yelled back.

"Is that a good or bad thing?"

"Dunno! Guess we'll find out, won't we!"

Looking at Blaise who was rubbing his ear, Mina said sweetly, "Yes?"

Blaise frowned at his mate. "Don't try the innocent act. It won't work. I don't want you doing anything dangerous."

"Blaise, it's not dangerous."

"Ahem." Carmi stifled her laugh in a cough.

Draco frowned at his mate. "I don't want you to do anything dangerous, either."

Touched by his concern, Carmi replied softly, "Draco it isn't anything bad we're doing."

"Yes, but is it safe?"

"Is anything ever going to be safe enough for you?"

"No, probably not."

"Lei! Granger! Hurry up, and get your asses in here! We can't start without the two of you!"

"We're coming, Darcy!"

Mina leaned against Blaise, and breathed in and out softly, relaxing her muscles, and getting Blaise to relax his as well. Gathering her courage, Mina dropped her shield, and scooted backwards out of his arms, running for the shelter of the mats. Blaise stood there stunned as he tried to make sense of the brief flash of emotion his mate had shown him before she'd locked her shield back up tightly.

"LEI!" Darcy bellowed.

"I'm COMING, Darcy!" Carmi hugged Draco, that alone shocking him, then she dropped the bombshell.

She accepted him as her Veela.

Ending it here. 2249 words. I don't why but with this story the words just flow out of me. Tell me what you guys think, 'kay?

Love!