By the end of the week Lucius' trial was over. He got off with a much lighter sentence than predicted, thanks to my testimony. Five years in Azkaban and then house arrest in Malfoy Manor under the supervision of relatives for the rest of his life was all he got for his very many crimes. But I wasn't complaining. In fact, I was really happy about the outcome and it was all because of Draco. Draco was happy his father's sentence was so light and I was happy that he was happy.

Draco and I had a date every night that week. We never left Manor grounds, but we had dinner in the garden, out on the back lawn, in the dining room, and even on the rooftop patio. The elves cooked, of course, and with a little notice, they were brilliant at it, really making the dates special. And then there were a variety of after dinner activities that made the dates all the more special.

There were a few more broom rides, but there were also trips to the Malfoy Owl Nursery (where Malfoy elves bred owls), the Malfoy Vineyard (the Malfoy elves used the grapes to make wine), the Malfoy Farm (where all of the food the elves cooked came from), the Malfoy Hall of Ancestors (where portraits of famous and/or important Malfoys were kept), the Malfoy Family Museum (where the family displayed what they viewed to be their most important relics), and even the Malfoy Ballroom (where he taught me to dance). I was convinced that any day now he was going to take me on a tour of the Malfoy Peacock nursery, where albino peacocks were bred. But when I asked him about it, he informed me that the peacocks breed like rabbits when left to their own devices, so no special facility was needed.

I had a lot of fun on those dates. It turns out that once you get used to the snark, Draco's actually pretty funny and entertaining. He was good at telling funny stories, always miming actions or imitating someone's voice to go along with the tale. And he was a fairly good artist, as evidenced by his sketches which I'd already seen back when I was guarding him. He was a brilliant dancer, as evidenced by my sore feet. I was beginning to think there wasn't anything he wasn't good at, until he admitted that he can't sing and has absolutely no musical talent; tone deft if you ask his mother.

According to pureblood courting rules, with dates came gifts; thus I was always on the lookout for the next courting gift. We were rushing things a bit by having a date every single night, instead of the recommended once or twice a week, which meant I couldn't spend a lot of time or money on each gift. He seemed to understand and was pleased with the simple flowers I usually brought him; either one lone expensive flower or a bouquet of regular muggle flowers. If anything his house was getting overrun with all of the flowers.

Of course flowers weren't the only thing I got him. The very next day Ron and I left Lucius' trial early, right after Ron finished testifying, and went to a jewelry shop in London. I purchased an expensive pair of platinum cufflinks, which Ron and I took back to the Burrow to have his mum wrap. Only Fleur was there waiting for me, having heard from Molly about my situation with Draco, and she persuaded me not to wrap them or give them to Draco right away. She and I talked for a few hours that afternoon and made arrangements for the weekend.

I spent that Saturday at Shell Cottage, learning an ancient veela enchantment to put on the cufflinks. It was an anti-rejection charm that the veela's mate placed on a piece of jewelry so that the veela wouldn't have to feel alone or rejected without his or her mate present. Given our circumstances, it was a really brilliant idea. I was an Auror and although I'd yet to be assigned undercover work or a seriously grueling case, I knew they were coming. Eventually a time would come when we would be separated for days, weeks, or even months at a time. This enchantment would mean he wouldn't have to suffer while I was away. Plus his health was at stake, because he had taken so long to admit the truth and was endanger of feeling rejected, with mate rejection being a serious cause of death among veela. This enchantment would help stave off feelings of rejection and prolong the mating period, which was a very good thing.

The enchantment was bloody complicated to cast. It involved dredging up my love and acceptance for Draco and pushing a bit of it into each cufflink. Finding my love and acceptance was the complicated part. I'd made a commitment to save him, I refused to let him die from mate rejection, and I'd been crushing on him for over a month now, but we'd just barely had our first honest conversation and our first date. We were nowhere near madly in love. But still, the enchantment required love, so I spent the day searching my inner self and finding every bit of love I had for him.

It wasn't the undying unconditional love I wished I had for him, but there were some things I loved about him. I loved his sexy body, which was probably the easiest form of love to find. I loved his spirit and zest for life, which took a lot of work to admit to myself, because of our rocky past, but eventually I did find it. When it came down to it, I couldn't bear the thought of a world without Draco Malfoy in it, which was why I saved his life twice so far and I'd save it again if I had to; I'd even give up part of my life for him and that was a form of love. Finally, when it wasn't aimed at me, I loved his sense of humor. Those were the three types of love I had for him after five dates, so those were the types of love I pushed into the cufflinks.

The acceptance was much easier for me to come up with. He had a lot of flaws and had made a lot of mistakes in his past, but he was a child, had been raised that way, and hadn't had the experience to realize why he was wrong. When it had come down to it, he hadn't been able to kill, he hadn't even liked to torture, and he had saved my life, at great personal cost to himself and his family; he knew he'd be incurring Voldemort's wrath if he didn't turn me in, but still he'd kept silent and refused to admit it was me the snatchers had brought in. He hadn't even wanted to admit it was Ron and Hermione who were with me, only neither of them had done anything to alter their appearance and his relatives had recognized my friends on their own.

All in all, it took me all day Saturday to enchant those cufflinks, but it was worth it. Plus I got a lot of really useful advice on how to deal with a veela and with being the mate of a veela from Bill and Fleur. Fleur had a bunch of books on veela she offered to let me borrow and Bill had plenty of firsthand experience with a quarter veela.

I waited until our seventh date, exactly, before giving Draco the cufflinks. It was the one week anniversary of our first date and the beginning of our courtship. That meant it was the first date according to pureblood protocol in which I was allowed to kiss him. I thought it was an important milestone and that the cufflinks would be a good gift to go along with it; the pair made a nice symbol, and according to Fleur, symbolism was very important to veela. In effect, I was sealing our first kiss with a promise to love and accept him as my mate. It went over very well with him. My only complaint was that the kiss was entirely too chase, being all closed lipped and no tongue.

I was really enjoying our dates, but always on the back of my mind was the question of how much time we had. He was ovulating and the optimum date of conception was approaching. I didn't want to miss it, but he didn't want to talk about it. There had been a few arguments over the subject at first, but then he had promised to tell me when my ejaculate was needed and I promised to stop reminding him or hassling him about it. After that neither of us brought the subject up and our dates went more smoothly.

And then the evening came when he asked me for it. He had a lot of self-confidence and was the type of person who was never hesitant about anything, but with this he was. "Er, could I get that sample tonight?" he asked, blushing and staring down at his hands, which he was wringing in his lap.

As much as it was on my mind, his wording threw me off. "Sample?" I asked confused.

"Of your…essence," he clarified, somehow reluctant to spell it out. We'd talked about it before and he hadn't had a problem with saying the E word, but now it seemed he did.

"Oh, you mean my ejaculate?"

"Yes."

"Oh! When do you need it? Right now? Or did you want to show me the Malfoy Lake first?"

He'd promised yesterday that after dinner today he'd take me out to the Malfoy Lake, where the elves had a few small fish farms going. He was even to teach me how to fish. Well dinner was over and I thought we were headed over to the lake on the other side of the forest, but if it was time, then we could change our plans.

"After is fine. We can finish up earlier than usual so that you can…"

"Oh yeah, sure," I agreed and quickly changed the subject before my date died of embarrassment.

I'd always thought fishing was dull. Turns out it's slightly less dull with magic, although infinitely more disturbing. This variety of magical glowing rainbow trout was clearly more intelligent than muggle fish, shepherding their young around like a mother duck, except with the flashing light patterns. Draco said they communicated using those light patterns and ate mostly water nymphs. He caught one to show me up close, using a live doxy for bait.

The doxy screamed and wriggled on the hook, shouting, "I'm bleeeeding! You bloody bastard! Look at all the horrible blue blooooood!" in a very high pitched shrill voice.

I was all too happy to cut that trip short and take Draco back to Malfoy Manor.

"Do you want to go home and bring it back to me when you're done?" he offered, when we were once again back in his parlor.

"No, there's no need. I can do it here in the loo," I replied. Truthfully I was hoping that he'd want to participate in the collection or at least watch. That and I didn't fancy carrying a bowl of spunk around the Burrow and risk a mess when trying to apparate with it. "What do you want me to collect it in?"

"Oh, like the Ancient Malfoy Ceremonial Ejaculate Vessel kept in the Malfoy Museum and used by generations of Malfoys in the conception of Malfoy heirs?"

"Yeah, I guess," I replied, hoping that I wasn't expected to do it into some old piece of crystal. What if I broke it? What if Lucius had used the same piece before me? Ew!

"There isn't one. Ask the house elves for something, but make sure they know not to give you any of the good dishes; I plan on tossing it when you're done with it."

I sighed with relief. "Er, which bathroom should I use?"

"Preferably the one at your house, but if you really must, you could use the one in the guest bedroom."

"Yes please."

He showed me to a bathroom that was dripping in opulence. I stood there trying to think of how to word my request for him to stay in a way that wouldn't be offensive; we were just barely at the kissing stage after all and what I was proposing was a lot more serious than kissing. But before I could get out so much as a stammer, he turned and closed the door behind him. He closed the door to the guest bedroom too if the noise of a second door closing was anything to go by. Just my luck and he'd close every door between us and try to get as far away from me as possible.

But I had a job to do and a life depending on me, so I pushed my disappointment aside and called Lacey.

"Harry Potter, sir, wants Lacey to give him one of Master Draco's bowls to throw away?" Lacey asked, wringing her ears after hearing my request.

"Yes Lacey. Any bowl will do."

"And Lacey is not to be cleaning this bowl? Ever?" Lacey looked like she was about to cry in her distress.

"I guess you could clean it before you throw it away." I shrugged my shoulders. "Not sure you'd want to though."

"Oh Lacey is wanting too! Lacey will be very pleased to clean the bowl that Harry Potter will defile to save Master Draco's life!" She started bawling in what I could only assume were happy tears, sinking to her knees and bowing her head to me. "Oh thank you so much Harry Potter. You will not regret this, sir."

"I already do," I murmured, before urging the elf to get me the bowl already.

She brought me back a fancy porcelain bowl with the family crest on it, explaining that it was trash anyway, because it had a small chip. Then she left and I was finally left alone with my bowl to do my business. When I finished, I washed up and took the bowl to Draco, who I found in his room.

"I, er, finished," I said, holding out the bowl.

"That fast?"

"It's been half an hour! It took me bloody forever to get the thoughts of your house elf out of my head."

"Alright, leave it on the sink in my bathroom and I'll get to it."

I did as he said and then went back out into his bedroom, hoping that he'd let me watch, but knowing that there was no chance of it.

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow. I'll show you the Malfoy Dung Heap or something," he said, dismissing me with a nod.

"You don't want me to stay to see how it goes? I could wait in the parlor," I offered.

"No. If there are any problems, I'll have Harper send you a message."

"Are you sure? What if you need more or need help with it?"

"I won't. I've been doing this just as long as the next wizard."

"You have?"

"My part of it, yes. Not the part with the bowl."

"Right."

"Now could you please get out of here? You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here."

"Yes, er, alright. Do I get the usual goodnight kiss?"

"Yes, fine," he said standing up and taking a few steps towards me.

I met him halfway and pushed my lips into his, my eyes closing involuntarily. His lips were soft and oh so very hot. If only I'd had these lips a few minutes ago when I was in the loo… It occurred to me then what he about to do and that he might want to use this kiss for inspiration. He'd never allowed me to deepen the kiss before, but I decided to try it again now. I licked his lips and pushed my tongue out between his lips.

I thought he was going to push me away at first, but then his lips gave and his mouth opened up. My tongue slipped inside and I had my first proper snog with a boy. Let me tell you, Draco Malfoy is a good kisser. I know he pretends to be all innocent, but the tongue that slipped inside my mouth was confident and sure. He was exceedingly skilled with his tongue and he soon had me hard, again, and panting for breath. I broke the kiss due to my need to breathe and he took that moment to slip into the restroom and lock the door behind him.

"See yourself out, please Harry," he called from the other side of the door.

I left, letting Harper know I was going on my way out.

I returned to the Burrow and told Ron, Molly, and Arthur about what happened, but the person I really wanted to talk to was Hermione. Unfortunately Hermione was at Hogwarts doing her NEWTs and it was a school night. Even Ginny and Luna, the other two girls I was close with, were there. And then it occurred to me that Headmistress McGonagall had said that I was welcome to stop by any time I wanted. Well I wanted now.

I flooed over to Hogwarts, stepping out of the fire in the Headmistress' office. I exchanged greetings with Dumbledore's and Snape's portraits. I apologized and explained to McGonagall that I really was there to see Hermione, not her. She waved me along, telling me that it was no problem. I left her office, pulled out my old map, and located my best friend in the library.

I took off running, eager to be reunited with Hermione. She squealed loudly when she saw me, jumping up and flinging her arms around me. I returned the hug and spun her around. We caused quite the stir in the library and Madam Pince threw us out. That was just as well, because I didn't want an audience for what I had to say.

We ended up finding a dusty unused classroom to chat in. We'd been writing letters back and forth, but it wasn't the same. We were both very happy to see each other again, even though it hadn't been more than a few months. And then of course there was my big news; Hermione squealed when I told her. Then she made me tell her every little detail, including how shy Draco had been about it all.

"How unusual for him…I wonder what's going on in his head?" Hermione pondered out loud.

I wondered the same thing and supplied a few more details. I got side tracked telling her about how awful the fishing trip had been and she was absolutely appalled by it.

"I'll have to look into magical law on fishing magical species. There has to be something we can do to stop it," she said. Then her eyes popped wide open and she jumped as if someone had turned on a light bulb in her brain. "Oh Harry! I've just thought of something."

"What is it?" I asked, wondering if it was about fish, magical law, or elves.

"Draco; I know why he was acting so out of character with you earlier!"

"You do? Why?"

"Think about it Harry, he's a veela. He's been bred all his life to believe in human superiority and to hide that he's even part veela. And he's not only part, he's got the veela sex and not just that, but all his life he thought he was a male veela, when in reality he was a female veela. And then he mates with you, someone he's used to fighting with, and he's afraid to let you get too close or see too much. He's self-conscious Harry, because he knows he's different and he thinks that as soon as you know it too, you're going to throw it right back in his face."

"Are you sure?" I asked skeptically, even though there was something that rang true about her hypothesis.
"Yes. Now if you want to move your relationship along, you have to get him to trust you. You need to tell him that you don't care that he's different and that you aren't going to make fun of him for it. Merlin, he doesn't even have the veela allure!"

"That doesn't bother me; I'm mostly immune to it anyway."

"But it bothers him! Think about; someone like Fleur has the best of both worlds, because she has some of the allure and all human body parts. Draco thinks he has the worst of both worlds, because he has no allure and the bird body parts. All the stories on human/veela hybridization say that the veela allure is completely responsible for the human's sexual gratification. Veela don't have parts compatible with humans, so they use their chemical means to illicit the needed response from humans. But Draco doesn't have chemical means and he doesn't know how he's expected to satisfy you in bed."

"Oh…that makes sense." And it did; it really did. "Do you think he's worried about anal sex?"

"No, why would he be?"

"Because I'm gay and if he can't do it any other way, I thought we might…do it that way…" I admitted blushing. This was a bit too much to be talking to Hermione about.

"Harry, he's a veela; a bird. Birds don't have anuses."

"They don't?"

"No."

"Then how do they, you know?"

"Through the same orifice they use for everything else."

"So his…cloaca?"

"Serves multiple functions, yes."

"Oh…no wonder he's freaking out about sex. I kept wondering why he's so against it when it's his life that's on the line, but now I get it. I'd probably be freaking out too if I were him."

"You need to tell him that you don't care about that, Harry. You have to tell him that you won't make fun of him and that you want whatever it is he's capable of doing."

"What, precisely, do you think that is?"

"Well…hmm…he could you know, use his hands or his mouth…"

"No, I mean the other way around. What would I be able to do to him?"

"Hands, definitely. You'll have to work anything else out with him."

"So you haven't been able to find any books with specifics?"

"Loads, but they all involve veela with at least some allure. It's pretty rare to have a human/veela hybrid with the veela sex. When it does happen, it's usually the child of two first generation hybrids, who still have plenty of allure."

"Merlin…"

"Exactly."

"I have to talk to him. It wouldn't matter if he's a eunuch, truly, if everything else was there."

"Well you should tell him that, but maybe leave out the mention of the word eunuch; you don't want him thinking that you think he is a eunuch. I'd be insulted if I was him."

"Thank you so much Hermione."

"You're welcome," she replied, taking me into a friendly hug.

I hugged her back and while I was doing so, I glanced down at my watch and noticed the time. It was already late when I came here and now it was well past curfew for Hermione. "Look at the time! You better go; I'll write and let you know how it goes."

She agreed and we walked together back up to McGonagall's office. We hugged one more time and then she continued on up the stairs, while I flooed back to the Burrow.

Author's Note: It snowed all weekend, the hand plow broke, and now I can't get my car out of the drive. Thus a new chapter and the conception. Up next Draco will take Harry to visit the Ancient Malfoy Rubbish Heap and there will be a surprise…

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