A/N: This chapter should help all those curious about just how Harry is half-Veela - or maybe it'll just bore you with the technicalities...(grin) Hmmm, yes, Sirius is still dead in this fic. I hadn't planned on getting into that, really, or anything else about OotP, but perhaps I should. I'll think about it and see if there's anywhere it might fit.
Chapter 4 – Genetics
Tuesday morning saw nearly two hundred envelopes dropped on or near his plate. Harry sighed and went about the task of collecting them and placing them in his bag, gratefully accepting the help of his nearby housemates.
He staunchly ignored all the students frantically buying copies of The Daily Prophet, though he did find it amusing that those same students were also vying for the attention of the dozen or so owls that were carrying a package proudly blinking Harry Potter a Veela! Exclusive Interview! A bit of experimentation by the student body found that placing two sickles in the pouch on the owl's left leg would cause a miniaturized copy of The Quibbler to fall out of the box on the owl's right leg. An ingenious idea, Harry thought, taking a similarly blinking package off the owl that had landed in front of him.
True to his word, Mr. Lovegood had sent him a dozen copies of his own. Harry didn't know what he was going to do with all of them but was grateful for the thought nonetheless. He quickly flipped through the article and noted that Mr. Lovegood had kept his word about the contents and formatting as well, not that he had expected otherwise.
The sidelong glances and whispers started almost immediately. It was dead annoying but Harry had expected it and ignored them in favor of his breakfast.
"Good show, Harry," Neville said softly after reading the first column of The Quibbler. "That should take care of a lot of suitors. I imagine you'll still get a bunch of women, though, thinking that they can change your mind."
Harry turned towards Neville and replied to the only sensible comment he had heard yet in regards to the situation, "Probably, Neville. They're going to be awfully disappointed, though."
Neville nodded and said, "Good luck," then went back to eating his breakfast and reading the article.
"Thanks, Neville," Harry said sincerely and did the same. He managed to get halfway through his breakfast before the first question came.
"Why are you looking for a man, Harry?" Hermione asked once she was done with the article. "I thought you wanted your own children. You even say so in the interview. Are you planning on adopting?"
"No. I'll have my own children," Harry said and stuffed a large bite of pancake into his mouth. He was going to get as much food down as he could before he had to explain the whole I-can-have-my-own-babies scenario.
"A surrogate, then?" Hermione asked in confusion. "I wouldn't think that many wizards would be happy with that, especially since the child wouldn't be theirs."
"No, Hermione," Harry said. "I'm capable of carrying my own children as sired by my mate." He managed to hurriedly stuff two large bites of pancake into his mouth during the resulting stunned silence.
"What!?" Hermione finally managed to exclaim then added crossly, "Don't be ridiculous, Harry. That's impossible! Boys can't get pregnant! Not even in the wizarding world."
"True," Harry said with a shrug and shoveled a mass of eggs into his mouth.
"Then what do you plan on doing? And don't give me that line again about carrying your own children! I want a real answer," Hermione demanded in frustration.
Harry shrugged and chewed his eggs.
"He really can have his own babies, Hermione," Neville said quietly. "His Veela half is a girl."
"What!? What are you talking about? What do you mean his Veela half is a girl?" Hermione asked, her voice becoming more strident with each question and quickly attracting the attention of surrounding students.
Neville winced and looked away and Harry continued eating as if it was his last meal of the week. Hermione yanked the plate away from Harry and demanded, "What is going on? I want an explanation! You owe me that much."
Harry scowled and grabbed back his plate. "I don't owe you anything, Hermione. If you're so damned curious about my private life you can at least be polite about it and wait until I finish my bloody breakfast!"
Hermione jerked back as if slapped and pressed her lips into a thin line. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth but then snapped it shut again and remained silent. She ate her own breakfast but kept Harry under a constant glare. Harry quickly finished and pushed his plate away.
"Now, if you ask your questions civilly, I just might answer," Harry said, glad that Ron had chosen that morning to sit four seats over and stubbornly ignore him. At least he would only have to deal with Hermione's questions instead of Hermione's questions coupled with Ron's jealous belligerence.
"Fine," Hermione bit out. "How can you possibly have your own babies? Even you agreed that boys can't get pregnant."
Harry sighed and crossed his arms on the table and leaned forward. "It's like Neville said. My Veela half is a girl. It's that half, not the human boy half, that can get pregnant."
"That doesn't make any sense!" Hermione declared hotly. "And, besides, you're not even half-Veela, anyway."
Harry and Neville raised their eyebrows at this. "I assure you, Hermione, that I am definitely half-Veela," Harry affirmed mildly.
Hermione shook her head mulishly. "No, Harry. You said during the feast and again in this article," she tapped The Quibbler sharply, "that your mother was half-Veela. That means that you're only quarter-Veela."
Neville simply stared at Hermione in disbelief before looking to Harry. "You know how to explain this, Harry?"
Harry nodded.
"Good," Neville sighed out, "because I've no clue where to start."
Harry opened his mouth but Hermione interrupted, "Look, that's not important at the moment. I want to know how you can supposedly get pregnant."
"They're related, Hermione," Harry said dryly, actually starting to enjoy having one up on the walking trivia bank.
"Well," Hermione said, exasperated, "How?"
Harry worried his lip a moment in thought then asked, "How much do you know about genetics?"
"Enough to know you're only a quarter Veela," she said, calming slightly now that it appeared Harry was going to answer her questions.
"I don't know anything," Lavender said from two seats over, then blushed when everyone turned to her in surprise. "At least, not very much."
Harry grinned at her and said, "OK. Basics it is then." He pulled out his wand and conjured some lemons. Another twist and wave brought forth some limes.
"Why are you conjuring citrus, Harry," Neville asked in amusement, eyeing the fruit now adorning an empty pancake platter.
"Teaching aids," Harry said primly, drawing a small smile from Neville and a huff from Hermione. He turned towards Lavender, finding it easier to focus on one person than on the many that were actually watching him, "Okay, Lav. Imagine that the lemons," he said, tapping the appropriate fruit, "are human and that the limes are Veela."
Lavender looked at him doubtfully but said agreeably, "All right, Harry."
"Now," Harry said, and picked up a couple of lemons, "You know that you get half of what you are from your mum and half from your dad, right?"
Lavender nodded and Harry noted that Hermione was paying strict attention as well. Harry placed the two lemons back on the platter, grabbed a knife, and proceeded to cut the lemons in half horizontally. He then switched the top halves of the fruit and once again picked them up. Holding them out, he said, "So, half mum and half dad can make two different wholes, yes?"
Lavender studied the lemons for a moment and then nodded, "Yes."
"You have a little sister, right?" Harry asked.
"Yes, she'll start school next year," Lavender answered, a mystified expression on her face at the apparent non sequitur.
"Does she look like you?" Harry asked, tilting the lemons so the juice didn't dribble onto his hands.
"Somewhat," Lavender admitted. "She has darker hair, though, and her eyes are like our dad's instead of our mum's."
Harry nodded and set down the cut lemons and pulled over a couple more whole ones. Two more slices, this time vertically, and another bout of switching, and Harry held up two more half and half lemons. "Your sister looks different than you because she got different halves than you did."
At Lavender's confused expression Harry put down one of the lemon sets and picked up one of the previous ones. Waving the horizontally cut lemon set, he said, "This is you." Waving the vertically cut lemon set, he said, "This is your sister." He held the lemons out closer to Lavender and said, "You are both half your mum and half your dad, but you're different. You both got different halves from each of your parents. Understand?"
"I think so," Lavender said with a slow nod. "That's why siblings all look different, right? Because they all have different halves?"
Harry grinned at the girl, making her blush again, and said, "Exactly."
"And the limes? I mean, the Veela?" she asked hesitantly.
"It's the same thing for Veela," Harry said and proceeded to cut and switch four limes the same as he had the lemons.
"What's this have to do with you having babies, Harry?" Hermione asked warily, looking askance at the fruit pieces on the table.
"Ah, ah. Patience," Harry said teasingly.
Everybody that was following the conversation, officially or not, watched quietly as Harry rearranged all the cut fruits into eight lemon-lime pairs. "Now," Harry said, fully aware of his audience, "human and Veela are compatible species and can have half-human half-Veela children." He waved his hand over the lemon-lime pairs and asked, "Following so far?"
Nods and yeses answered his query.
"However,"Harry said, picking up a lemon-lime pair, "halfling genetics does not work the same way. When a half-Veela goes to have their own children, they can't pass on different halves of themselves to different children. They can only pass on either the human half or the Veela half. They can't pass on bits of human mixed with bits of Veela. The chromosome pairs can only split one way." He demonstrated his explanation by pulling apart the lemon-lime pair in his hand then putting it back together.
There was a short silence before Hermione asked quizzically, "You mean there's no crossing over during meiosis?"
Harry quirked his lips to one side in amusement. Count on Hermione to understand his fruit analogy. "Yes, Hermione, that's exactly what I mean," Harry answered and put down the lemon-lime. "There's no interchanging of genes between the Veela and human chromosomes when making the reproductive cells."
"So that's why you're half-Veela," Hermione said bemusedly. "It's all or nothing. Your mother could only have given either all of her Veela genes or none of them. And you got all of them."
"Right," Harry said proudly.
"Then, if you'd had a brother, he would have been identical, right? A twin of you, just younger," Lavender said, slowly puzzling out the implications.
Hermione shook her head. "No, because the part from Harry's father would have been different."
"Oh, right," Lavender said, a slightly embarrassed look on her face.
"She's got a point, though, Harry. If your father had been half-Veela then any brothers would have been identical, just younger," Hermione said.
"Well…," Harry said and glanced at Neville who just looked at him and shrugged. Neither of them really wanted to get into the complexities of magical manifestation as related to the genetics of magical beings, including wizards.
"Then you can't mate with another half-Veela," Hermione said decisively.
"What?" Harry asked, confused as to where that conclusion had come from. "What makes you think that?"
"You wouldn't have genetic diversity in your children. You said in the interview that you want at least six kids, hopefully three girls and three boys. All the boys would be the same and all the girls would be the same. It would be like…," Hermione waved her arms about in mild agitation, "like having two sets of triplets!"
Harry smirked at Hermione's agitation and said wryly, "Well, aside from the fact that triplets are not a bad thing, and aside from the fact that there would actually be two types of boys, I really think a world of six billion people can handle me not contributing to the diversity of the gene pool."
Hermione flushed a bit and muttered, "I suppose so."
"Why would there be two types of boys?" Lavender asked quickly into the silence.
Harry turned to her. He didn't mind answering her questions; they were undemanding and he could tell they were from genuine curiosity. "Do you know why, genetically, a girl is a girl and a boy is a boy?"
"Girls are XX and boys are XY," she said proudly, nodding her head at the certainty of her knowledge.
"Right," Harry said, smiling slightly. "The boy could have my X chromosome and the sire's Y or my Y and the sire's X. Two different types of boys. See? One fully Veela and one fully human. If my mate was a half-Veela, that is."
"What if your mate was full human or full Veela?" Lavender asked in confusion. "What kind of children would you have then?"
Harry answered her but wasn't sure if the explanation would actually be more confusing. "If my mate was full human or full Veela then all the children would all be different genetically because the father could give different halves. With a human, our children would be vXhX, vXhY, and hXhY or, in other words, we would have half-Veela girls, x-male boys, and full human boys. With a full Veela, our children would be vXvX, vXvY, and vXhY or full Veela girls, full Veela boys, and x-male boys. With a half-Veela mate, like Hermione is worried about, the children would only have three genetic possibilities and they would be vXhX, vXvY, and hXhY or half-Veela girls, full Veela boys, and full human boys."
"What about YYs?" Lavender asked curiously. "It would be possible, wouldn't it, with two boys?"
"Maybe theoretically," Harry admitted, "But is just never happens. It's not a viable combination."
Lavender nodded but was obviously still a bit confused and opened her mouth to ask another question when she was beaten by Hermione. "And how does this relate to you having babies?"
Harry turned back to face his persistent friend. "All right, Hermione. Sheesh. You're like a dog with a bone. Hold on a moment." Harry banished the fruit and thought about how to answer in the most succinct way possible. "It's like Lav said. A boy is XY. In other words, the part that makes a baby become a boy is having a Y chromosome. If the baby doesn't have a Y chromosome, it becomes a girl."
"Yes, Harry," Hermione said impatiently.
Harry gave a quelling look and Hermione subsided.
"Usually, not having a Y chromosome means you have a second X. But in half-Veela, that's not quite how it works," Harry continued. "You see, my human half has a Y, which makes me a human boy, but my Veela half doesn't have a Y, which makes me a Veela girl. Make sense so far?"
"Not really," Hermione reluctantly admitted.
Harry frowned and said, "Let me try again, then. Like I said before, Veela and human are compatible but not interchangeable. In humans, the genes on one chromosome cancel out, or counter, or modulate, or whatever, the corresponding genes on the opposite chromosome. That's how boys happen. The Y chromosome counters some of the genes on the X chromosome, making a boy develop. But in halflings, things are a little different. Enough genes are countered by a human Y so that the baby looks like a human boy but the genes that specify a Veela girl are left uncountered on the Veela X, which is larger than a human X, and so a Veela girl develops, too."
"You're a hermaphrodite, then?" Hermione asked thoughtfully.
"Not exactly," Harry said, ruffling his hair. "I am completely male inasmuch as I have all the appropriate bits and could even sire children. However, I am also completely female. I have all of those bits. But," Harry said, overriding whatever Hermione was about to say, "those bits are Veela in nature only."
"They're different?" Hermione asked in shock.
"Yes and no," Harry said slowly. "Magic did some screwy things when she made Veela. Just suffice it to say that I can get pregnant because of it."
Hermione stared at him blankly for a moment then adopted a thoughtful expression.
Lavender seized the opportunity to ask her own question. "So will you have breasts?" she asked, holding cupped hands in front of her own bosom to graphically illustrate her query.
"No!" Harry said with a horrified grimace. "Thankfully, those particular genes are some of the ones blocked by the Y chromosome."
Lavender clucked her tongue and said, "That's too bad. You won't know what it's like to feed your own babies, then."
Harry's face twitched and he wanted so badly to say something snide, but Lavender sounded so sincerely sad for him that he just couldn't. "That all right, Lav. I'm sure I'll be able to bond with the babies in some other way."
There was a short silence as people shook their heads in disbelief at Lavender's blunt question and subsequent statements. Hermione cleared her throat and attention was turned to her.
Hermione's cheeks were a bit pink when she asked, "What would have happened if you had had the Veela Y chromosome instead of the X?"
"Then I would be like Malfoy or Conway," Harry replied easily. "I would be a y-male half-Veela and would look for a mate the same way as anybody else."
"Are they going to be after you now?" Hermione asked in concern.
Neville snorted then flushed slightly when everyone looked at him. "It's not real likely," he said. "Harry gutted Malfoy for simply touching him. I doubt if he'll be trying to woo Harry now and Conway was scared spitless at the sight. My guess is that both of them will stay as far from Harry as they can."
Harry shrugged. "Two less suitors for me to deal with."
"That's cold, Harry," Hermione said disapprovingly. "You almost killed Malfoy. He may be a prat but he hardly deserved what you did to him."
Harry stiffened in offense and was about to issue a scathing rejoinder when Neville once again spoke up. "He deserved it, Hermione," he said firmly. "He was clearly warned off and he refused to heed that warning. Any full Veela, or even a Veela-raised halfling, would have immediately backed off. Veela girls are notoriously touchy, especially when seeking a mate, and the x-males are even worse. His own arrogance is at fault, not Harry. Malfoy should be glad he's not dead. He would have been if Madam Pomfrey hadn't been in the Great Hall for the feast."
Hermione opened her mouth to obviously issue a retort but was overridden as Neville once again interjected firmly, "He deserved it. It's his own fault. Leave Harry alone about it."
Harry knew right then that Neville would quite likely become a good, if not best, friend. It hadn't even been a week and already Neville was proving a better friend over the whole situation than either Ron or Hermione.
"We can talk about it later," Hermione said disapprovingly. "Right now we need to get to class."
Getting up, Hermione turned to him and said impatiently, "Well, aren't you coming?"
Harry shook his head. "No, Hermione. I'm going to stay here and take care of my mail. When I'm done I'll head to whatever my next class is."
"You can't just skip class to read mail, Harry!" Hermione said, appalled that he had even thought of such a thing.
Harry scowled and said, "I'm not skipping class, Hermione. I'm taking care of my courting tasks. It's my right and it's not like I'm being irresponsible."
"The teachers…" Hermione started only to be interrupted once again by Neville.
"Have nothing to say about it, Hermione," Neville said firmly. "They have no right to interfere in Harry doing what he needs to do to manage his suitors. I'm sure Harry will do all he can in regards to attending classes and doing homework."
"Neville's right, Hermione," Harry said, anger coloring his tone. "I'll do what I can, but everything having to do with school comes second. If I wasn't me, this wouldn't be such a big deal. I wouldn't have hardly so many suitors. But I am me and so everybody wants in on the action. I'm going to do whatever I need to and the teachers can go kiss the squid, for all I care."
"Harry…"
"No, Hermione. Just go to class. I'll see you later," Harry said tightly.
Hermione glared but turned and walked away without another word. Neville gave him a sympathetic look before following suit.
Harry sighed and waited for the students in his immediate area to leave. He was aware of, but ignored, the headmaster's likely-to-be-daily scrutiny as he cleared a spot on the table and arranged various stacks around him. A few minutes later the table was magically cleared and a tea tray appeared beside him. The next three hours were spent reading letters, addressing postcards, evaluating gifts, filing folders, and drinking tea.
The composition of letters today was not much better than yesterday. Out of one hundred ninety-three letters, only seventeen were from males. Still, it was a better percentage. Eight of those males had sent small presents, all of which Harry had evaluated and noted in the file of said suitor before placing into the shopping compartment of his bag. Ninety-six of the females had also sent gifts, which he noted in the files but did not spend the time to open, much less evaluate. He'd look at those presents later when he had some spare time, Christmas maybe.
He had written a special postcard to those who had sent gifts, to thank them, before continuing on to say "not interested" or "show up here." Hermione would likely be appalled, but it would have been insulting to return the gifts from the females, even though they were not going to even be considered.
He finished his responses and bundled them up and cast a featherweight charm on the lot. Ignoring Professor Sinistra's watchful eyes, he put away his various piles and rose from his seat to make the trip to the owlery. He made it to and from the owlery with just a few minutes to spare before the start of lunch. Cynically, he wondered if he should once again go to the kitchens, but decided to simply tough it out.
People would have to stop bothering him eventually, right?
--HPDM--
"Albus, do you know anything about these journals that Harry mentions?" Minerva asked with a puzzled expression after she had finished reading the article from that morning's special edition of The Quibbler.
"No," Albus replied with a shake of his head. "Godric's Hollow was destroyed. I would have presumed any journals Lily may have written would have been destroyed with it. Were you aware that she kept journals?"
Minerva closed her eyes in thought, trying to remember. "I believe I may recall her writing in a journal but don't really recall much…no, wait. I remember in her sixth year that she was almost always writing." She opened her eyes and regarded the headmaster solemnly. "At the time, I thought it was simply related to the research project she was doing, but perhaps it wasn't."
Albus nodded thoughtfully. "She would have turned sixteen that prior summer, just like Harry did. She may have been doing research into her heritage. I wonder where she would have gone for information."
"James," Minerva said confidently.
"You think so?" Albus asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Absolutely," Minerva replied.
"Why so?" Albus asked and lifted the teapot from his desk in Minerva's direction and refilled her cup as well as his own at her nod.
"Remember that James' aunt was Dorea Black who was half-Veela. It's quite likely that James had access to factual information about Veela and offered it to the woman he was enamored with." Minerva sipped her tea and kept her silence while the headmaster evaluated her words.
"Why would he offer her that information?" Albus finally asked, sipping his own tea.
Minerva shrugged. "Who knows? Perhaps he encountered her in the library one night or peeked at her personal notes. Maybe she even asked around and he replied. It's possible Harry knows the truth, if Lily wrote about what happened in her journal."
"Yes, those journals," Albus said thoughtfully. "Your theory doesn't explain why nobody knew Lily was half-Veela, though. When she returned for sixth year, she should have had all the boys fawning over her."
"She did have all the boys fawning over her, Albus. Surely you remember that deplorable incident at Halloween?" Minerva said disapprovingly.
Albus blinked and thought back. "Yes, I remember," he answered slowly. "I thought it was no more than regular schoolboy antics trying to catch the attention of a pretty girl."
"It was," Minerva agreed. "We just didn't presume that there was actually more to it. It's not as if Hogwarts hosts many half-Veela students; they almost always go to Beauxbaton instead."
"Perhaps you are right," Albus said mildly. "Those things stopped happening, though, so she must have learned to control her allure to some extent."
Minerva pursed her lips and said in annoyance, "Yes, I imagine so. Just like Harry has. I'd like to know who taught him."
Albus picked up a biscuit and turned it over in his fingers. "You think that somebody tutored him? That Harry didn't learn to control it by himself? Nobody was at Privet Drive that wasn't supposed to be there, I assure you."
Minerva sighed. "I don't know, Albus. Maybe he did. There's just so much we don't know about this situation and I'm hesitant to approach Harry and ask."
"Maybe Lily left instructions in her journals," Albus suggested.
"Maybe," Minerva said with a shrug and followed Albus' example and picked up a biscuit to fiddle with.
"Which brings us to the question of just where he got them," Albus said and took a bite of his biscuit.
"Perhaps Sirius had them. The timing is right. Harry did say in the interview that he knew about his heritage since he was thirteen, almost fourteen," Minerva said, continuing to fiddle with her biscuit instead of eating it.
"That's a reasonable presumption," Albus agreed. "I wonder why Sirius never said anything about it."
"Probably because it wasn't any of our business," Minerva said a touch archly.
Albus sighed and said, "Perhaps so. Sirius always was a private person, despite being so gregarious. I wouldn't be surprised if he gave them to Harry with the suggestion that Harry not mention them to anyone. Do you think Sirius may have given other things to Harry?"
Minerva finally took a bite of her biscuit and then a sip of her tea before replying. "I wouldn't be surprised if he did. I often got the impression that Sirius felt he was living on limited time. That type of attitude encourages a person to do whatever they feel needs to be done in as timely a manner as possible."
Albus furrowed his brows but nodded a moment later. "Perhaps so. I would appreciate it if you could try approaching Harry. Any clarification you could get would be helpful."
"I'll try, Albus," Minerva agreed, "but I don't guarantee anything. Mr. Potter hardly seems in a cooperative mood of late."
Some time later after Minerva had left, Albus drank the last of the tea and considered the situation. It was clear that he should have kept a better eye on both Sirius Black and Harry Potter's mail. Whatever was in those journals was obviously what was causing Harry to pursue this current rebellious path. If he'd had a chance to read the journals first he could have been prepared to deal with their contents and how they might affect Harry. If absolutely necessary, he could even have copied them and edited out any undesirable pieces, or simply not passed them to Harry at all. If he had been forewarned about the situation he could have learned what was necessary and guided Harry in his heritage, and very likely his choice of mate. Perhaps Charlie Weasley would have worked well; he was firmly on the side of light and would have treated Harry kindly. He didn't want the boy unhappy, necessarily, but it was absolutely imperative that Harry not be distracted from the task at hand.
There was much too much at risk to let Harry simply do as he pleased.
--HPDM--
Draco finished reading the interview, which, after the comment about flying, had included another four pages talking about Harry's favorite classes, some of his political beliefs, and his wishes for a big family and ended with a statement that all suitors had to declare their interest no later than Thursday, October 17. The interview only made him that much more determined to win the hand of this young man that he had never known.
He didn't know how many people were going to be able to read between the lines, but he certainly could. He knew that what Harry had said about a potential mate thinking for themselves and not idolizing anybody actually referred to not only the Dark Lord, but also to Albus Dumbledore and the Minister of Magic. He could also see that Harry was not pleased with the Headmaster's and Ministry's hold on his life and was going to be using the courting to get away. It was obvious to him that opening the courting to all nationalities and all creatures, as well as outright stating his interest in other cultures, was a deliberate act on Harry's part to get out of Britain.
Draco had, of course, also read the article in The Daily Prophet. The contrast was astronomical but hardly astonishing. The full front-page article had about six correct facts in it that a reader would probably only catch if they had already known them. Mostly, the article was a mish-mash of prior articles about Harry Potter, a bunch of sensationalizing about Harry attacking an "unarmed and perfectly harmless student who was trying to help," and romanticizing about Veelas and their mates.
He tossed the paper aside and relaxed back against his infirmary pillows and continued plotting out his courtship of one very intriguing Harry Potter. Despite their bad history, and the fact that Harry had gutted him, Draco felt that he actually had a more than reasonable chance of winning the hand of the submissive. They may not be friends, far from it, but he knew Harry quite well anyway. Oh, it had become obvious that a number of traits were missing from Draco's personal profile of Harry, and some were outright wrong, but a good deal of said profile had actually been confirmed by the interview. Plus, he was here and would be able to gauge Harry's reactions to the various gifts that he would receive and adjust his own gifts accordingly. Not that he thought his gifts would need adjusting. And lastly, Draco was quite capable of getting Harry out of the country, right under the noses of Dumbledore and the Ministry, if need be.
He fell asleep fantasizing about little blond-haired children.