A/N: I'm glad everyone seems to like Pansy. I'm trying to work her into something more than a simple adjunct. I hope I pull it off well enough.
Just in case anyone missed the note in chapter 5: Cecil Bruner is a type of rose. My mother-in-law's bush is 15 feet high by 30 feet wide by about 10 feet deep. It has hundreds of little pink roses when it blooms.
Chapter 9 – Round One
Draco leisurely made his way to the Cecil Bruner room at The Rose Inn, very glad that he had decided to leave for this gathering so early. Even now, at half past eight, the number of suitors arriving was surprising; he was wending his way towards the room with probably about fifty other suitors. He wondered when the rush would start and if everyone would make it into the room on time. He wondered if anything would happen if they didn't.
He took a seat in one of the chairs close to the entrance and looked around in interest. The room was set up like a stadium, with tiered seating surrounding a central area, thankfully with individual chairs and not hard benches. The seating, however, didn't start at floor level; instead it started about ten feet up. Since the room was two stories high, this posed no great problem. All around the room, the space under the seating was closed off with what were obviously temporary walls with equally obviously temporary doors. He counted forty of these mysterious doors, all closed. The central area held what appeared to be a ten foot by ten foot glass enclosure, currently empty.
He took out his book and settled down to read for the next hour and a half.
Draco kept an occasional eye on the arriving suitors and his watch. As ten o'clock approached, he put away his book and looked at the entrance doors curiously. It hadn't escaped his notice that there was only one entrance, when he knew for a fact that the Cecil Bruner room had four sets of double doors. At precisely ten o'clock a chime sounded and a field of magic covered the entrance and the doors closed on not a few surprised faces.
An amused grin overtook Draco's face and he had to duck his head to hide it and then cover his mouth to keep from laughing when surprised and shocked murmurs swept through the assemblage. He had had a growing suspicion that something was going to happen right on the hour and he was pleased to know he was right. Maybe the number of suitors eliminated for their lack of timeliness would be reported in The Quibbler.
A few minutes later, after the last of the stragglers had found seats, one of the mystery doors opened and two people wearing hooded cloaks walked to the glass enclosure. A bit of spellwork opened an archway in one of the sides and the two people entered, the glowing archway disappearing behind them. A table and two chairs were conjured by the taller person and the shorter figure took off his cloak and set it on the back of one of the chairs, revealing a well-dressed Harry Potter. Harry sat down and looked up towards the second figure. Murmuring went through the crowd until a voice was heard.
"Good morning. Welcome to the Cecil Bruner room of The Rose Inn. My name is immaterial; however, my occupation is not. I am the chaperone. I will be present at any and all meetings between Harry Potter and his suitors. For now, I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that you have passed the first test – that of respect through punctuality. Before you leave today, you will be subjected to a second test. That is, if you so desire. You are under no obligation to participate."
A chaperone! Where had Harry gotten a chaperone? It was the proper thing to do, especially given Harry's prominence, but where had he found someone that he trusted with his protection? Draco wondered if the chaperone was also the past summer's tutor; it would make sense. Draco focused his attention back on the chaperone as the cloaked man started talking once again.
"As you have undoubtedly noticed, there are several doors around the perimeter of the…arena. Each door leads to one of forty temporary booths that have been established. Each booth can be entered from this area but can be exited only towards the outside. Once out the other side of the booths, you may find a regular exit and leave. You may not return."
There was a bit of disgruntled murmuring but Draco merely nodded his head absently. It made perfect sense to him. Process the mass of people through whatever test was coming up and get them out as efficiently as possible. There were too many suitors here to do much else.
"Before you enter a booth, it is your choice whether or not to walk by Mr. Potter. Mr. Potter will have his magic unfurled so that you may get a feel for the compatibility between him and yourself before you commit to continuing in this courtship. Please do not bother trying to get Mr. Potter's attention. This enclosure is one-way visible, silenced, and stabilized. In other words, we cannot see you, we cannot hear you, and we cannot feel if you pound on the glass."
More disgruntled murmurs rose from the crowd and Draco had to hold back a snort of disgust. Honestly, what had these people thought? That they would be getting a private meeting? It had been known for over a month that every suitor was being invited to the same place at the same time and last week's suitor count had been nearly four thousand!
"Please listen carefully to the following instructions. Any suitor that does not follow these instructions will be summarily dismissed."
The entire gathering was instantly silent.
"Each booth holds a small table and chair. Upon your entrance, a half sheet of parchment and a quill will appear. The parchment holds a few questions; these questions comprise the second test. Should you choose to participate, all questions are to be answered briefly with the quill provided. Once you have completed answering the questions on the parchment, you are to leave the parchment and quill on the table. You may then leave."
The chaperone paused for a moment to listen to something Harry was saying then nodded.
"Mr. Potter does ask that you let him know if you decide to withdraw from the courtship. You may do this today using the provided parchment or through personal missive at a later time. You do not need to provide a reason."
"Thank you for your attention. That is all. You may begin."
During the resulting shocked silence, the chaperone took the second seat but remained cloaked. The mystery man and his charge then started what appeared to be an animated conversation. Draco was sure The Daily Prophet was going to be full of speculation tomorrow over his identity; he'd seen Rita Skeeter earlier and was certain there was any number of other reporters in the room.
Draco wondered at the seemingly odd test. A few questions? They must be pretty important, but for the life of him Draco hadn't a clue what they might be. He was roused from his ponderings as people started moving towards Harry and after a few more moments decided the peculiarities of the test didn't really matter.
As he was already familiar with Harry's magic from their encounters at school, Draco wasn't going to waste any time walking by the central enclosure and stood to make his way towards one of the booths. To his surprise, quite a number of other people were also going directly to the exits and he wondered at their reasoning; if he hadn't already known that Harry's magic was compatible with his, he would certainly have tried to find that out before committing himself to a courtship. He dismissed his thoughts and waited patiently in line by one of the booths.
Despite being fourth in line, the wait wasn't long, perhaps ten minutes, and he entered the small booth still wondering at the nature of the questions. There must be something about the questions that was going to allow Harry to eliminate suitors. He picked up the brightly-colored and highly-plumed quill and read the first question on the parchment.
"What was the name or alias that you used when you first contacted me?"
A sensible question that would allow Harry to file the parchments with previously received letters. Draco wrote "D" and continued to the next question.
"What is the year of your birth?"
Draco wrote "1980" and wondered why Harry was asking that question. Someone could easily lie if their birth year was out of Harry's established range. Draco paused and stared at the parchment and quill contemplatively. Then again, maybe not. If Harry was using Auror's parchment and quill, which was spelled against written perjury… Draco continued to the next question.
"Are you a male?"
"Yes," Draco wrote, smirking. He'd seen a number of women and knew they would be summarily eliminated from the pool of suitors.
"During our initial mating, where would you insert your penis?"
Draco's eyebrows rose at the last question and he started to laugh. "Oh, very clever, Harry. Very, very clever."
As Draco wrote what he knew to be the correct answer he wondered just how many of the thousands of suitors in the meeting hall would stare at the question in confusion. Draco suspected that over half of them would give the seemingly obvious, but nevertheless incorrect, answer.
The question was an easy way to eliminate those people who hadn't bothered to do any research about x-male half-Veela in the six weeks since the information had come out about Harry's heritage. Draco just knew that Harry was going to summarily dismiss anybody who answered incorrectly and Draco couldn't blame him. He figured that if a suitor couldn't be bothered to learn basic information about their potential mate then they certainly didn't deserve said mate and obviously Harry felt the same way. Draco couldn't wait to see the count of suitors come Monday.
--HPDM--
Albus knocked his spoon against his teacup a few times and the gathered wizards and witches quieted and focused their attention at the head of the table. "We're gathered to discuss the impressions of our suitors at Harry's testing today. Alastor, would you start, please?"
"Sure, Albus," Moody said with a shrug then pulled out a postcard from his pocket and lightly tossed it onto the table in front of him. "I received this postcard not thirty minutes after I left The Rose Inn. It very politely states that I'm too old."
Albus picked up the postcard and took half a minute to read it before passing it along. "I see. Well, that's not unexpected."
"No, but the fact I received it so quickly is suspect," Moody said with a scowl.
"No, I don't think so," Elphias argued with a shake of his head. "I sat and watched Mr. Potter for quite a while. A couple minutes after the start, Potter took several boxes and stacks of postcards out of a bag he was carrying. He and his chaperone were constantly filling out what looked like four different types of postcards. There was a box in front of them – I figured it must have been a magical in-box linked to all those tables in the booths – that they would pick up a parchment from and then address one of the postcards. The parchment was then placed into a second box, the postcards into a third box and they would start all over. If that third box was a magical out-box linked to a post service…"
Moody nodded and said, "Then first ones in would be the first ones to get a response. Efficient."
"Have you received a similar postcard, Elphias?" Albus asked.
Elphias shook his head. "No, not yet. I imagine I'll get one, though, if Alastor has."
"Marcus?" Albus asked, turning to another of the Order's hopeful suitors.
"No," the man said. "I won't, though, since I put 1951 for my birth year instead of 1946. I can easily pass for five years younger."
Moody barked a laugh and said, "Oh, you'll be getting a dismissal, too. That was Auror quill and parchment the lad was using."
Everyone turned their attention back to Moody and Albus said, "Perhaps you should continue your report, Alastor."
Moody nodded. "As I was saying, I got that," he gestured towards the postcard now at the opposite end of the table, "about thirty minutes after I left. I thought it meant that the entrance was being watched, but maybe not. I got there at eight o'clock and took a seat as close to the entrance as possible and watched everyone arriving."
Moody took a roll of parchment from his robes and passed it to Albus. "I made a list of everyone I saw that I could name. There were 137 people who came wearing glamours of some type. I could see through 98 of them. Mostly it was women looking like men, fat men looking skinny, and old men looking young. I noted the ones I knew that were glamoured," he waved at the parchment. "Every suspected Death Eater that isn't an escaped convict was there as well, including Snape here."
"I was aware that Severus would be there. He was commanded to make an attempt by Voldemort," Albus said before too many muttered protests could be heard. Severus merely grimaced as Albus continued, "When you say every Death Eater, do you mean including the women and the married males?"
"Yes, indeed," Moody answered with a grim smile.
"Interesting," Albus said and set the parchment aside to pick up his tea. "Please continue."
"The room was set up like a stadium with a secure enclosure at the center. At precisely ten o'clock a magical barrier blocked the entrance. Everyone took a seat and Potter and another man came out. Both were cloaked at first but Potter removed his once inside the enclosure. The other man didn't. I couldn't see through it so I imagine the lad warned his chaperone about my eye," Moody said with an annoyed scowl.
"Chaperone?" Albus asked with raised eyebrows.
Several of the suitors nodded and Moody continued his report. "The man introduced himself only as the chaperone, refusing to give a name, then issued instructions and sat down. With nothing more to see, I went to one of the booths, answered the questions, and left."
"These questions…?" Albus asked leadingly.
"Name, age, gender, and how to go about sex," Moody stated, ticking them off on his fingers. "The quill and parchment were Auror quality anti-perjury grade with what looked to be a fifteen minute delay on the color change. Potter will be able to eliminate anyone who lies, or doesn't use the quill, but other than that," Moody shrugged and spread his hands, "I don't see how those questions are going to be much help to the lad."
Two snorts were heard from the opposite side of the table and Albus asked, "You have something to add, Bill? Charlie?"
The two brothers exchanged calculating looks and Bill answered, "At the end, I think. Let everyone else go first."
Albus eyed them a moment but said, "Very well. Kingsley?"
Kingsley pulled out his own postcard and rolled parchment. Passing both towards the head of the table, he said, "I've nothing more to add. The people I recognized are on the parchment. I was also dismissed, but my postcard says it was for an incorrect answer to question four, although, for the life of me, I've no idea what the correct answer is if mine was wrong."
Two snickers were heard, sounding remarkably like the Weasley twins but weren't. Albus again turned his gaze to the eldest Weasley sons, "Boys?"
Bill waved a hand and bit his lip while Charlie covered his mouth with a hand. Several people narrowed their eyes suspiciously at the redheads, although, if anybody had looked, they would have seen a decidedly amused smirk on the face of Severus Snape.
Of the fourteen suitors from the Order, all but two had immediately headed for the exits and subsequently received postcards within an hour of taking their leave. Elphias and Marcus, the two that had stayed longer at Harry's meeting, were expected to receive dismissals due to age, the same as Alastor Moody. Eight men, including Fred and George, had been dismissed due to an incorrect answer to question four. By the time it was Severus' turn to report, everyone except Bill and Charlie was highly confused about what could be the right answer to the last question Harry had asked.
"I have received a postcard and, unfortunately, have passed into the next round of testing," Severus said with a decidedly sour expression on his face and disgust in his tone. "Beyond that, I have nothing to add other than the Dark Lord ordered all his followers to enter the courtships. Some of those glamours that couldn't be seen through were likely convicted Death Eaters."
"So you know the right answer to question four!" Hestia exclaimed.
"I do. However, I'll let them explain," Severus smirked and nodded towards Bill and Charlie.
Everyone turned eagerly to Bill and Charlie, both obviously trying not to grin.
"You first," Bill said to his brother.
"Oh, no. You first. I insist," Charlie replied.
"No, no. Your knowledge is newer, I'm certain. You go first," Bill said.
"Really, Bill. Age bef…" Charlie said before being interrupted.
"Boys!" Albus said sharply. "Bill, you report."
"I passed," Bill said simply. "And, yes, I know the right answer. Charlie?"
"I passed," Charlie said, no longer bothering to hide his grin.
"What my brother here has failed to mention is that the rest of you are all, uh, dunderheads, was it, Professor?" Bill said sweetly to Severus.
Severus smirked and said, "Absolutely."
"And why is that?" Albus asked sternly, looking at Severus, Bill, and the now snickering Charlie over the top of his glasses.
"Why, because the lot of you obviously couldn't be bothered with basic research," Bill said innocently. "How much was the book, Charlie? Two galleons, wasn't it?"
Charlie merely nodded and continued snickering.
"What book?" Emmaline asked in irritation.
"Ah, that would be the first book anybody should read if they want to learn about Veela," Bill said mockingly. "The nice, general, easy-read book with pictures entitled An Introduction to Veelathat was written by the Veela Council over three centuries ago. The language has been updated through the years but the text has remained basically unchanged."
"Where did you hear about this book," Arthur asked curiously.
"Well, I heard about it from Fleur," Bill answered with a shrug. "I don't know about Charlie."
Charlie stopped snickering and answered with a snort of amusement, "I sent a letter to the Veela Council asking for information."
"Really, Charlie?" Bill said with mock astonishment. "What a concept! I'd have never thought!"
Charlie burst into laughter and Bill now started snickering.
"What these two hooligans are avoiding saying is a that a quick scan of An Introduction to Veela would have given you the answer you are seeking. You wouldn't have even had to read very far; I do believe the answer is in chapter two," Severus said condescendingly. "That you couldn't figure out how to send a post owl with a simple request to the one place that would be certain to have factual information says much about you. Or, perhaps, says little about you. It's no wonder the brat eliminated the lot of you."
Albus looked disapprovingly at Severus, Bill and Charlie. "And why didn't you share this information with the Order?"
Bill shrugged and said with a grin, "It didn't cross my mind."
"I allow I did not consider it," Severus said with a scowl when Albus' gaze turned to him.
Charlie gave one last snicker and said, "It didn't occur to me, either. I mean, I thought of sending a letter straight to the source, why should I have thought that all of you wouldn't have done the same?"
"It's a great question, though," Bill said thoughtfully. "It certainly eliminates a lot of people. Only three of us passed out of thirteen, or fourteen, I guess, since Professor Snape joined in. I wonder if that will be the percentage overall?"
"Maybe it will and maybe it won't," George said with a shrug. "I want to know what the right answer is, though. You've said everything but."
So Bill answered them. Several minutes later saw the Order members faces covered with various expressions of amazement, bemusement, revulsion, curiosity, embarrassment, annoyance, and amusement.
There was much disappointment, but the relevance of Harry's question was no longer challenged.
--HPDM--
The Quibbler, Special Flyer, Monday, October 21, 1996
Total Count of Suitors: 4,192
Our second interview with Harry Potter will be in tomorrow's regular October edition!
Excerpts from An Introduction to Veela, edited by The Veela Council will be printed weekly (with permission). Copies of the book may be purchased for two galleons each by owling The Veela Council.
Chapter 1 - Doubled Biology – Hawk & Human
"How was your weekend, Harry?" Hermione asked politely. "Did you get a lot done?"
Under the near constant barrage from Neville and Lavender, Hermione had actually lessened her questions of Harry and her demands for explanations about the specifics of his situation. She was perhaps a bit cool towards him at the moment but Harry had begun to wonder if he might be able to salvage one close friendship after all. Ron was a total loss, though, he and Harry not having spoken more than a dozen civil words to each other in the past six weeks. Hermione, however…
"Yes, I did," Harry replied with a grin, remembering the rather surprising outcome of his weekend activities. "A lot more than I thought I would."
Hermione smiled back. "That's great, Harry! So what's the count?"
Harry waved his fork at her playfully and said, "Oh, no. I'm not telling. You'll have to wait for The Quibbler just like everybody else." This had become a bit of a playful joke between him and his housemates the last few weeks. The next line in the little play would be…
"Come on, Harry! Give a break to your poor beleaguered housemates! We get stared at! We get interrogated! We pick up your mail! Surely we deserve a few minutes of smugly holding valuable knowledge over the rest of the school!"
Everyone stared at Seamus in varying degrees of surprise, amusement, and awe. Seamus' theatric monologue, dramatic pose and tragic look were just a bit beyond the standard "Come on, Harry, we're your friends!" Moments later the far end of the Gryffindor table erupted into laughter. Seamus joined in, removing his hands from where they were clutching his chest in exaggerated angst.
As the laughter died down, Neville asked, "Beleaguered? Where in the world did you come up with that, Seamus?"
"It's her fault," the grinning boy said, pointing directly at Hermione. "I heard her using it yesterday."
The confession/accusation garnered a few more snickers and even Hermione had a smile, though she tried her best to look offended.
Dean shook his head and nudged his friend, saying, "Well, the owls are coming, so we'll know in just a moment."
Harry gave a small smirk that Neville returned with raised eyebrows. Harry just grinned back. He knew full well that the information everyone was looking for wasn't in today's paper. It would be in tomorrow's. He couldn't wait to hear the groans of disappointment. He did have to hoard these little moments of harmless amusement, now didn't he?
Sure enough, a few minutes later groans could be heard from all over the Great Hall. There were several exclamations along the lines of "How could you leave us in suspense?" but his housemates still helped him gather his mail. As he had hoped, there wasn't nearly as much of it as there had been.
After the mail was collected and the owls gone, everybody looked up. It was a habit now, shared by the entire school, to look for the magnificent eagle as it came to deliver a package to Harry on Monday morning. Harry rose to provide the bird a landing spot on his fist and forearm. After weeks of practice – and a few strengthening exercises he hadn't told anyone about – he was able to take the eagle's landing without practically collapsing under the weight and force.
As he greeted the bird and untied the package, Harry listened to the small betting pool forming about the contents of this week's present. He got the package removed and managed a few pets before Nichol became impatient for her reward. He surrendered a piece of bacon from his plate, tied last week's thank you note to Nichol's free leg, and helped launch the eagle before taking his seat.
Placing his package in his lap, Harry said, "You know, I can't believe you guys are betting on my presents. Honestly."
"You know you think it's funny," Dean said with a grin, taking another bet for fancy shoes.
Harry rolled his eyes. "I'm stuck somewhere between disbelief, disgust, and horrified amusement," he declared haughtily.
"You just keep telling yourself that, Harry," Dean said, taking a third and forth bet for fancy shoes.
In truth, Harry didn't really begrudge them their fun. What Seamus had said earlier may have been in jest, but it was true nonetheless. His housemates were stared at, they were interrogated, they did help him pick up his mail. Nobody lost more than a few knuts on these little pools, so Harry didn't truly object.
Harry sniffed in mock disdain and opened his letter, ignoring the snickers engendered from his antics as well as the eager anticipation of his schoolmates. Moments later Harry started to grin and then laughed. It seemed Draco was greatly amused by his final question and had laughed himself all the way out of the inn. He congratulated Harry on his cleverness and admitted to much enthusiasm in regards to reading the outcome of the group meeting. And, by the way, it had been quite nippy that morning, so he thought Harry might appreciate the enclosed gift of a heavy cloak.
Harry opened his package as surreptitiously as possible when surrounded by hordes of nosy housemates and ran a hand over the fine black fur. Draco's other gifts had been obviously of top quality, but still didn't necessarily scream money. This gift, however, did. While he was sure that the cloak was tasteful, there was no way anybody looking at it wouldn't know that it cost some serious galleons.
He covered his gift back up quickly before more than a glimpse of black fur could be seen and held out his hand for Dean's tally sheet. Dean passed it over willingly and Harry made a grand show of perusing it.
"What in the world is a chiffonier?" Harry asked Dean in puzzlement, pronouncing the odd word shif-on-ee-er.
"I don't know," Dean shrugged. "I just spelled it like I was told to."
"It's shif-uh-neer," one of the fifth year girls said. "In the muggle world it's like a chest of drawers with a mirror, and you can buy something like that in the wizard world, too, but what I meant was the chiffonier trunk. There's a specialized trunk you can buy that's designed just for clothes and accessories. People that travel a lot and need a big wardrobe when they do – like ambassadors and entertainers – use chiffoniers. It's better than a regular trunk for clothes." The girl shrugged and returned Harry's somewhat dumbfounded expression with a bright smile. "I figured since he was sending you all these clothes, it would be a logical thing."
"Uh, right," Harry said blankly, then shook his head and continued, "You know, that's actually a rather neat idea, if you're in the need for something like that. But," he said with a melodramatic sigh, "no go."
The girl gave a fake pout and accepted the playful condolences of the other pool contenders.
Harry adjusted his glasses with a stern professorial look and said, "What we have here today is two, yes, that's two, winners. Today's winnings go to Samantha Osgreeve and Hermione Granger."
Amongst the cheers and groans and Dean snagging back the tally sheet, Harry gave Hermione a mock scandalized look and said, "Falling into the vice of gambling, my dear? Whatever will your parents say?"
Hermione merely smiled and said, "Not to use it to buy sweets." She then turned to Dean and said, "Pay up."
Harry laughed at his friend and carefully snuck a hand into the package to once again pet the cloak. Ultra-soft fur from farmed-but-still-hideously-expensive black magical chinchillas sewn onto a base of naturally-deceased-not-hunted black dragon hide with preservation and featherweight spells as well as enchantments to stay closed, repel water, and discourage thieves. He couldn't imagine how much the thing might have cost.
Draco really was an excellent gift giver. Harry thought he might almost feel guilty should Draco be eliminated from the suitors.
Almost.
--end chapter--
A/N – Look, ma, a cliffie! Well, not exactly, but close! My original plan was to post chapter 10 with this one so that you all could have the answer. But then I thought – I'd really love to know what you come up with!