Harry was stood awkwardly leaning against a wall, facing the concealed entrance to the room of requirement. He bit his lip, and checked his watch again. There were still five minutes to go before the allotted time began. It was his own fault for turning up ten minutes early, but he had been too impatient to wait in his room, so he had decided just to wait for Malfoy outside the room.

Really, McGonagall's instructions hadn't actually been all that specific, it had just told him the time and place. He had no idea what they were actually supposed to do, or even what kind of space they would need the room of requirement to change into. He checked his watch once more, but there was still about three minutes to go.

Harry sighed, twirling his ring around his finger impatiently, and checking the entrance to the corridor every few seconds. He didn't even really know what he was watching for – Malfoy, or another student, or a teacher, or all three.

His watch beeped, signalling that it was finally two o'clock, making Harry jump. He rolled his eyes at himself for being so jumpy, and leaned his head back in frustration, where it thudded against the wall. Why did he even bother to show up here? Malfoy hadn't even shown up yet, and Harry had his doubts about whether he would show up at all. They would probably never get along anyway, and this whole endeavour was probably stupid. Harry sighed at the ceiling. Stupid veela ancestry.

"Giving up on me already Potter? And I hadn't even arrived yet!" A voice drawled from beside him. Harry jerked clumsily to the side in surprise, before his brain registered Malfoy's trademark smirk. "Why are you waiting in the corridor? You've already opened the room." Malfoy commented. Harry looked around, and found that there was indeed a door there. Weird. He definitely hadn't opened it. "Were you waiting for me? Such a gentleman."" Malfoy continued, before turning on his heel and sweeping dramatically into the room, his enormous wings once again fully visible and extended behind him.

Harry followed behind, his brain having finally computed the events. "I didn't open the door… McGonagall must have done something." He told Malfoy, as he entered.

Inside the doors lay a large room, somewhat resembling a dance studio, but one with a very high ceiling and climbing apparatus on one wall. There were stacks of squishy mats in the corner, and training dummies and other objects were interspersed throughout. There was also a huge bookshelf lining an entire wall, which, upon closer inspection, was filled with titles such as "using your veela gifts" and "flying basics". Overall it looked like some kind of…

"Veela training centre." Malfoy said matter of factly, echoing Harry's thoughts. "McGonagall must want us to practise using our powers… which is fair enough considering what a disaster of a veela you are." Harry opened his mouth in protest, but he didn't actually have any counter argument, as Malfoy wasn't actually wrong. And, judging by the items alone, it did seem to be geared aroundsome kind of training area.

"Well then, I'm going to practise some things, and you… can do whatever you want, I don't really care." proclaimed Malfoy, before flouncing over to a training dummy. Harry, however, found himself approaching the bookshelf. Since his transformation, he respected books a lot more, as that's where most of his information came from. He wasn't as lucky as Malfoy, who seemed to have been told everything by his parents.

He pulled a book off of a shelf at random, and examined it. It was entitled "I'm a submissive veela – what now?". It seemed to be in good enough condition, and was as good as any other book on the shelf, if slightly patronising, so he looked around for a place to sit. Conveniently, a comfortable looking armchair was only a few feet away, so Harry settled down to read the book.

However, as he read, he found himself repeatedly peeking over the top of the book, to watch Malfoy across the room, who was in full veela mode. He had seen female veela control fire before, and Malfoy was apparently no different. The boy seemed to be doing some kind of intense training exercise. He was making his way around the room, somersaulting and jumping as he went, and aiming fireballs into the dummies, which instantly returned to their original state after burning. Harry had to admit… it was impressive.

At one point, Malfoy actually caught his eye, and smirked. Harry went red, having been caught watching the other boy, and hastily returned his attention to his book, trying to pretend he hadn't been looking. It had probably looked as if he was checking the git out, or something, but he hadn't, he had just been… critiquing him. Ugh. He really hoped the prat's ego didn't inflate any bigger than it already was.

~oOo~

Draco could see the smaller boy looking at him over his book. He was obviously trying to be subtle about it, but his eyes were too piercing to be missed. The knowledge that the boy was watching spurred Draco on, as he purposely showed off with complicated backflips, launching himself off of a wall, or hitting a particularly far off dummy. He even used his wings to give his jumps more height, purely for the sake of looking more impressive.

When he made eye contact with the other boy, he smirked, and snorted quietly as the other boy pretended not to have been looking. It probably would have been endearing - if it hadn't been Potter.

Throughout the next half an hour, he continued, aware that the other boy was still watching him. He smirked, and decided to make a big finish. He opened his palms and released a burst of flame, forming it into a huge wave–

He froze. Even though the fire was his own, and was warm and comforting, as opposed to oppressively hot, it still reminded him in the moment of the Fiendfyre, of Crabbe's fingers slipping through his own, of the pure terror on the other boy's face as he fell into the raging tongues of flame. He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, which hitched in his throat, subconsciously calling the fire back into his hands. He dropped to his knees, and rested his head in his hands, taking deep breaths to calm himself.

It was alright. It wasn't the fiendfyre. He was fine. He was alright.

~oOo~

Harry's eyed widened over his book as jets of fire flew from Malfoy's hands. That was seriously cool, he watched as they formed themselves into a wall of flame, obscuring the other boy from view. He could tell it was going to be impressive as the flames peaked in waves, growing higher.

Then, abruptly, it stopped. The fire was sucked back into Malfoy's hands by some invisible force, as the other boy sank to his knees. Worried, Harry rushed over. "Malfoy!" He yelled, running across the room. "What is it? Are you ok?" He reached the other boy's side, when Malfoy lifted his head off of his knees. He could see pain reflected there for a brief instant, before it was wiped away and replaced with a haughty expression.

"Of course I'm ok Potter, I don't need your Hero complex right now." Malfoy said, climbing to his feet. "I'm not the damsel in distress remember? That's supposed to be you, I'm the dominant." Harry opened his mouth to respond, but Malfoy continued, changing the subject.

"Anyway, after watching me for 30 minutes, isn't it time you had a go?" Malfoy asked.

Harry blushed, both not wanting to admit he had no idea how to use his "veela gifts" and embarrassed that he had been caught out. "Well… umm. I don't exactly know how you're supposed to make fire…" He said somewhat sheepishly. In response, Malfoy snorted, but then sighed and rolled his eyes. "You're serious, aren't you?" The boy drawled sardonically. Harry bit his lip, and Malfoy sighed. "You're a submissive, you don't make fire, you make wind!"

Harry hadn't actually known that, but he raised an eyebrow. "Wow, thanks Malfoy, now I know exactly what to do!" He said sarcastically.

Malfoy rolled his eyes in response to his snarky comment. "Look, I'm not a submissive, so I don't know exactly how you're supposed to do it, but the principles are the same." Malfoy told him, before strolling into the centre of the room. He kicked some dummies aside to create an empty space, and sat down, motioning for Harry to join him.

Cautiously, Harry sat down in front of him, not really trusting the boy. "Ok, so, put your hand out like this." Malfoy demonstrated, putting his hand out flat, with his palm facing upward. Somewhat sceptical, Harry did the same. "Ok, so when I create fire, I concentrate on what I want it to be like. I close my eyes, and I think about the fires we have at home in the manor. You have to imagine every detail, from the individual flames, to the smell it makes. Watch." With that, Malfoy closed his eyes. Within seconds, a small flame appeared, dancing on his palm.

Harry gasped. "Doesn't that hurt?" Malfoy laughed, a genuine one. "Of course not, this is perfectly natural for me. It's like putting your hand in a warm bath." Harry nodded, imagining it. "Now your turn." The other boy told him. "How?" Harry asked, feeling slightly overwhelmed. "Close your eyes and think about wind. Focus on it, and picture it forming a little whirlwind on the centre of your palm. It should be instinctual."

Harry still had his doubts, but he closed his eyes anyway. Feeling slightly silly, he cast his mind back to experiences with wind. He immediately thought of quidditch, the undeniable freedom and excitement of whizzing through the air, wind ruffling your hair as you go. He specifically focused on the pressure of it, and how real it was, even though it wasn't tangible. He immediately felt a light breeze on his hand. He was doing it!

"Good job! Now- keep your eyes shut! Now focus on shaping it into a visible whirlwind." Malfoy instructed.

Harry focused on his hand, where he could feel the cool air rush past his palm. He concentrated on it, picturing it shaping, and turning into a mini hurricane. After a while, he could feel what felt like a spinning motion, so he opened his eyes, and smiled in delight. There, on his hand, was a tiny tornado. He had made that!

"You did it!" Malfoy exclaimed, slightly shocked he had picked it up so quickly. "You sound surprised." Harry joked. Malfoy looked slightly abashed, and tried to amend his words. "No, you just picked it up faster than I expected." Harry laughed. "It was like you said – instinctual." The two boys looked at each other, smiling.

After a moment, Malfoy coughed awkwardly, breaking the eye contact. "Now, you just have to make it stop." Malfoy said, continuing as though nothing had happened, albeit slightly awkwardly. Harry nodded, contemplating how to do this. After a minute of silent debate, he simply closed his hand into a fist, and felt the wind extinguish immediately.

"Cool!" Harry exclaimed. "Umm… what now?" He asked. They still had about an hour left, and he wanted to experiment some more.

"I don't know about you, but I want to practise my flying." Malfoy said, standing up. "As in Quidditch?" Harry asked, confused. "No, you prick, have you seen these giant feathery things?" Malfoy asked sarcastically, laughing.

"Oh." Harry said, feeling slightly stupid. "Am I able to fly? I mean, my wings are smaller than yours so…" Malfoy nodded. "Yep. My wings are only larger as a symbol of status… weird veela stuff." Harry nodded. Maybe he should get some books out on veela ancestry and history.

Malfoy headed over to the large apparatus on one wall, but stopped when he realised Harry wasn't behind him. "Come on, do you want to do any flying, or what?" Harry quickly followed after him, after stopping to release his wings, which did look slightly pitiful in comparison to Malfoy's.

The boys started climbing, up and up, to around 4/5ths of the way to the top of the extremely tall ceiling. "Perfect height for flying." Malfoy said. "You should find this fairly easy, especially after Quidditch. Just spread your wings, and let go!"

With that, the other boy launched himself from the apparatus, and glided gracefully down towards the floor. Harry carefully watched his movements, before taking a deep breath and letting go before he had a chance to doubt himself.

Immediately, he felt like the ground was coming towards him a bit too fast, so he extended his wings some more, and flapped them slightly. At this, he jerked to a halt, and started bobbing up and down in the air. Harry opened his mouth slightly in shock, and just kept flapping awkwardly, to prevent himself from falling.

Below him, he could hear Malfoy laughing. He probably looked ridiculous, his face a picture of shock as he bobbed up and down in mid-air, extremely ungracefully. Deciding to try and reach the ground, Harry stopped flapping, and angled himself, so his head was pointing towards the floor, his wings fully extended. He drifted down slowly, his heart beating erratically before crashing into the floor, where Draco was still laughing.

Of course, because Harry was ridiculously unlucky, he had to crash INTO Draco, who let out a surprised yelp. The two boys crashed to the floor in a heap, with Harry on top. Harry's eyes were only a few inches away from Draco's and the two of them remained completely motionless for a few moments, breathing heavily.

Then, suddenly, Harry's watch beeped, and Draco blinked, both boys coming back to themselves. When neither of them moved for a second, Malfoy just yelled "Get off me Potter!" Harry immediately felt his body roll to the side, and Malfoy pushed himself to his feet, shot a glare in Harry's direction, and stormed out. Harry opened his mouth like a guppy, before closing it.

So much for bonding.

~oOo~

~oOo~

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! If you did, please consider leaving a review, and if you didn't, I'm always open to constructive criticism!

I hope you all have a good New Years, and I'll see you in the next chapter

Sera xx