The rest of the train journey passed in a blur, with Harry breathing deeply, trying to calm himself down enough to retract his wings, which were causing him to take up three seats. Eventually he felt them slide gently into his back, and breathed a sigh of relief.
He changed his shirt and put his robes on in the compartment, not caring about privacy at this point. as long as he could avoid a repeat of before. He didn't need anyone else thinking he was a total nutter and giving him panic attacks. Why did these things have to happen to him? What did he do to deserve this shit?
When the train finally pulled into Hogsmeade station, they all approached a carriage. Attached to the front of it were the gleaming black thestrals. They fell into silence as they looked at the skeletal horses, thinking about every death that had lead to each of them being able to see it. The mood was slightly more subdued as they climbed into the carriages and trundled off towards Hogwarts.
The Great Hall was as magnificent as ever of course. The ceiling displayed a perfect replica of the inky black night sky, littered with stars, and candles floated above the tables as always. No particular names stood out to Harry as the sorting took place, but he couldn't help thinking about whether they had lost anyone in the war, or if they were lucky enough to be starting Hogwarts with their lived untainted by Voldemort. He did notice, however, that the students sorted into Slytherin were given a very quiet round of applause from the Slytherin table, while the other tables remained in a stony silence.
They headed up to Gryffindor tower after the sorting and the feast to the new eighth year section. There was an entirely new common room and set of dorms intended solely for the use of the Gryffindor eighth years. They had been given single rooms this year to allow them more privacy than they had had in previous years, and the new section would remain for seven years as every year group would be repeating a year.
Harry tumbled into his bed much earlier than he would have normally, but he was tired, and honestly was not in the mood to talk to anyone. So, he closed the curtains of his bed, cast a muffling charm and released his wings, before succumbing to the peace of slumber.
~oOo~
When Harry woke up the next morning, he found himself feeling much more awake and refreshed, and managed to easily retract his wings. He got changed into his robes, and exited his new room, to find Ron and Hermione waiting in the eighth common room. Hermione looked up from the huge book she was balancing on her lap.
"Oh, morning Harry!" She said chirpily. "I'll just go put this away and then we can go down for breakfast," She told him, disappearing with the enormous book.
Ron walked over to Harry. "Really mate, are you feeling better? You were kind of out of it yesterday…" Ron said in a low voice, even though there was nobody else in the room.
Harry nodded. "Yeah, I feel much better after a night's sleep, honestly." Harry told him reassuringly.
At this point Hermione returned, without her book. "Shall we go?" She asked the boys. They nodded, and made their way down the seemingly millions of steps and into the great hall.
They sat down, and Harry helped himself to pancakes, waffles and croissants, all slathered in some kind of sugary sauce, whipped cream or mounds of fruit. Ron looked at him in disbelief, his plate loaded with bacon and eggs. "And I thought I was bad!" Ron said incredulously.
Hermione elbowed him under the table. "Harry needs more sugar now, Ron. And you ARE bad!" She hissed, not wanting anyone to overhear. Ron nodded in understanding and went back to his plate.
A few minutes later, McGonagall started handing out the timetables to the many students. When she reached Harry she stopped. Confusion flashed briefly through her eyes, something that he had already seen in the eyes of many who looked at him, but it disappeared as quickly as it came. "Mr Potter, I have noticed that with the subjects you are taking this year, you have dropped potions, which is required to become an auror. I understand that the auror office might be willing to take you anyway but-"
Harry cut her off. "Oh, umm, I don't think I really want to be an auror anymore." He told her, slightly sheepishly, remembering how she had vowed to Umbridge that she would help him become an auror. "I'm kind of done with fighting, you know…" he mumbled.
Her eyes softened, and she nodded understandingly. "That is ok Mr Potter." With nothing more said, she continued up the table, handing out more timetables. Harry looked over his new timetable, and looked over his subjects. now he was taking DADA, Transfiguration, Charms and Care of Magical Creatures.
"I dropped potions and herbology , and took Care of Magical Creatures, because it can't hurt and it will make Hagrid happy." Harry told them. "Hey, look, I only have DADA today, and the rest is all free periods!"
Upon hearing this, Ron looked at his timetable excitedly, but groaned. "I have four subjects today, including potions… Hey, but at least I have a free period, right?" Harry nodded, grinning. He could spend fourth period with Ron then.
By this time, people were starting to leave the hall for lessons, so the trio all stood up to follow. They all had Defence first, so they hurried off to the classroom, where what seemed like most of their year was waiting. Interestingly enough, there were no Slytherins there. Hermione leaned forward and whispered in Harry's ear "The Slytherins who were on the opposite side of the war are all banned from taking Defence or Potions, as the ministry sees them as 'risk subjects' and the eighth year Slytherin students are supposedly volatile."
Harry had no chance to respond before the door to the classroom opened. A man who Harry had never seen before stood there. He was tall, taller than Ron, and he has wavy brown hair and brown eyes. Quite boring really. As they all sat down, he introduced himself as "Professor Reliqur, pronounced rel-ee-cure," and told them that he would be their defence against the dark arts teacher for that year, as if it wasn't obvious. He then began a lesson on the unforgiveable curses, but Harry had been on the receiving end of every one of them, and had a rather memorable lesson on them in fourth year, so he zoned out.
If he had been paying attention, he may have noticed that the new professor kept giving him speculative looks throughout the lesson, but even then he would have probably dismissed it as the fact that he was "The Chosen One."
When the lesson ended, Ron and Hermione headed off to potions, and Harry was left to roam the corridors, alone, since he had no homework or anything yet. He kept walking past classrooms or areas and remembering the blood that had been spilt there only a few months ago, and it was driving him crazy. Harry had just decided to return to his room and get away from it when a loud voice rang through the corridor.
"Hey Potter! Are you all alone now that your little mudblood friend has fucked off with her boyfriend?" Draco Malfoy's jeering voice rang through the corridor. Harry turned, immediately pulling out his wand. He was caught less off guard this time, and fully prepared to ignore his veela instincts and fight.
"She and Ron are in potions class actually, somewhere you would probably be if you weren't a convicted death eater!" Harry spat, shooting a stupefy down the corridor. Malfoy blocked it almost lazily with a flick of his wand.
"Sloppy Potter. I would have expected better from the saviour of the wizarding world." Malfoy taunted, smirking.
"Saviour maybe. I saved people from assholes like your father, who will spend his days rotting away in Azkaban like the scum he is!" Harry shouted.
At this, Draco's eyes glinted dangerously. "Don't you DARE insult my father, Potter." Malfoy yelled, clearly enraged now. But Harry didn't seem to know where to stop.
"You should be thankful Malfoy. It's thanks to me that your mother didn't go to Azkaban. She's just alone in your huge FUCKING mansion on house arrest, unable to contact her dirty little-"
"Shut Up, Potter! Shut UP!" Malfoy yelled, furiously. Harry opened his mouth to continue, but nothing came out. Cogs in his mind working quickly, Harry figured out exactly what had happened. Shit! No way could he be linked to fucking Malfoy!
Unable to deal with this, or speak, Harry, once again, fled from the blond haired boy, running as fast as he could up to Gryffindor tower. The fat lady raised her eyebrows at him, expectantly, and Harry swore mentally. He couldn't speak!
Hoping it would work, Harry conjured the password (Leonem) into the air in red ribbons. The Fat Lady frowned suspiciously, but swung open to admit him nonetheless. Breathing a sigh of relief, Harry entered the common room, ignoring the two sixth years who looked at him curiously, and running up to his room.
He slammed the door and flung himself onto his bed, his wings erupting almost instantly in response to his distress.
It couldn't be Malfoy! No way would he be mated to that slimy piece of shit for the rest of his life! The fates couldn't be that cruel, surely? But there was no other explanation! Humans couldn't use the alpha voice without being in the right mindset and making the effort to do that, which Malfoy didn't do! There would be no reason for him to do that anyway, as nobody else knew about him being a Veela yet, so it must have been instinctive!
Fucking fantastic. Unless there was another dominant veela running around here somewhere, Harry's mate was none other than Draco Malfoy.
~oOo~
A few hours later, there was a quiet knock on his door. "Harry?" Hermione's voice sounded hesitant. Harry had been drifting in and out of sleep, but he groggily got up and opened the door, letting both Hermione and Ron in.
The two filed in, and sat on the edge of Harry's bed, looking at him expectantly. When he said nothing Hermione filled the awkward pause with even more awkward sounding words. "What happened Harry? You didn't show up for lunch, and…"
Harry sighed, and wordlessly summoned a quill and some parchment. "My mate," He wrote "is Draco sodding MALFOY." He then passed it over to Ron and Hermione.
After a moment of intent reading, Hermione gasped and clapped a hand over her mouth and Ron looked outraged. "How do you know Harry?" She asked in a horrified whisper.
Harry extended his hand for the parchment and started writing again. "Well it explains everything doesn't it? He looks different and people are treating him weirdly. But the main reason I think it is because we had a fight, and he told me to shut up and I can't FUCKING SPEAK." Scowling, he passed the parchment back.
Hermione nodded understandably, grimacing slightly. Ron, however, was outraged. "He can't get away with this! He's gonna make Harry's life a living hell!" Hermione sighed.
"There's nothing we can do Ronald. I think for now we should just avoid letting Malfoy know, and hope this command fades away like yours did."
Harry just sighed, and resigned himself to the prospect of spending the next few days mute.
