Chapter 31: Treats
As they spoke, Harry listened as the subject changed again and again, from what everyone was doing while Harry was out of the castle, to what everyone had planned for the rest of the day.
It wasn't much to talk about, since most of his friends wanted their costumes to remain a secret, but a lot of the girls were getting ready together, so Harry offered to let them use his dorm since it had more space.
That turned out to be more of a curse than he was anticipating, because as soon as Blaise finished talking about how he and his new girlfriend were finally dating, and Draco decided to tell everyone that he would ask his mate on a date, the girls showed them out and pulled Harry back in when he also tried to leave.
The siren blushed as he was dragged by his collar past the threshold. He had wanted to get dressed and surprise his mate with his costume in peace. Not be ambushed by five girls, and manhandled into undressing.
It was embarrassing for the hybrid-- even after accepting that he was not fully male-- to be so exposed in front of his friends and sisters.
"Come on, get dressed so we can start on your hair." Hermione smiled, after she and Ryan ran to the girls dorms to grab their makeup and costumes.
Then Cho, Luna, and Aubrey left, making sure that Harry was never alone to sneak out of his own dorm. It was almost scary how they each grouped up without speaking, and took less than five minutes per group to get back to him.
In that time Harry rushed to put on his costume. He had gone into the bathroom to change his underwear, really not wanting even the girls to see his body before his mate did. No one cared that he dissapeared into the bathroom, knowing that he would come back out once he was done.
The Siren peeked his head out of the bathroom once he was done with his underwear, a deep blush on his face. All the girls were back, and each of them were in their own underwear, as if they did this everyday. Which now that he thought about it, they may actually do that everyday. It was something he and the others in his old dorm had done before he came out and his inheritance hit.
So he took a breath, and opened the door wider, closing it softly behind himself as he made his way to his wardrobe. A small gasp was heard behind him, and he tried to ignore it, only turning once he had all of his items bundled up at his chest.
The teen felt so exposed, wearing lacy mint green floral lingerie that he had mail ordered and planning to wear tight revealing clothes just to tease his mate.
"Dear Merlin you look so good in that." One of the girls complimented, taking the wind from Rie's sails immediately.
She thought they would laugh or say that she really should have just stuck to more masculine clothes, but the more she tried to ignore it the more compliments she gained.
"Look at you girl! Your mate doesn't stand a chance." Ryan smiled. "You look good Rie, and we aren't here to judge you, so get dressed and try not to sweat it so much ok?"
The smaller teen nodded almost too fast from nerves, taking a few more deep inhales, as she had stopped breathing when the compliments started. Her steps faltered as she walked mechanically towards her bed, setting the clothing down. Everyone else went back to their own thing, leaving Rie to her own devices.
There was an air of awkward energy, but it dissipated fast, as the siren tied up her hair in a bun in order to get dressed.
First were the pants, which took her a whole five minutes to shimmy into just to decide not to wear. She had actually needed help pulling them down past her thighs, but once that was done, she felt more comfortable with the others. No one had commented on how her lace underwear wasn't hiding everything back there fully, or how her body had changed over the years. Neither had they teased her for needing help.
No, instead they just made sure she was comfortable getting out of the pants, and that her boy bits weren't at risk of getting caught in the zipper. They didn't touch him more than necessary, or look at him for overly long, and by the time he was moving onto his shirt, he was completely relaxed, despite this being his first time dressing up with a group of girls.
He was gay, and he really couldn't care less what they had, since he had it too, but it was a level of discomfort that he didn't know he had until today. Moving on to his top after placing the pants on the bed, the teen pulled out each of his choices.
If he had been alone he would have gone back and forth for a while over which one to choose, but since he had his friends he just asked them.
The first option was a black long sleeved latex crop top that cupped his breasts. He wasn't sure if he wanted to reveal that he wasn't a full on bloke anymore, so he felt a bit uncomfortable in it.
The second was another black top, this one made of mesh and cotton, the mesh covering up his arms and shoulders, while most of the cotton was just covering his chest and crisscrossing over his stomach. His skin was a bit exposed, but his chest was hard to ignore in this one too.
The third top was really only half a top. It had no back, and only a long string to lace it up, again with thinner fabric crisscrossing along his back and stomach. This one showed his chest the least, but he felt extremely exposed and mentally uncomfortable. Why had he bought this?
The final top was a crop top as well, only the difference was that it was made out of deep green leather, with a high neck and a zipper going straight down to the bottom. It had no sleeves, and was showing his stomach. He liked this one the most, as it matched what he decided to wear for his bottoms as well.
Speaking of, the girls could only watch as their brother and friend transfigured the pants into a sort of long loin cloth style skirt, and watched as he pulled it up, revealing his toned legs and thighs. The long slits on each side were held in place by chains of gold and silver, which glinted in the light. The low waist cut revealing the very top of his underwear.
For his shoes, Harry decided to wear a pair of thigh high black dragon hide boots. He had ordered them from a shoe maker who only got their materials from dragons who had died naturally, making it the most expensively sourced piece of his outfit. The boots had gold plating on the heels and toe of the material, and the chunky high heel made a beautiful sound against the stone as he walked.
Sitting above it was his choker from Severus, and just for added affect before the final touches, the teen added a gold waist chain and a set of bangles. They were connected by chains, one set of bangles sitting comfortably on his biceps and the other set on his wrists, the chain flowing comfortably down each arm instead of restricting movement.
He put on a ring his mate had gifted him, a triangular piece of jadeite that hugged his left index finger as his engagement ring was hidden from others, and let his wings out. He added the thin black leather tail he'd ordered rather than letting his tail out, as it was too thick to be a convincing incubus tail. With it, his scales came out, scattered along his skin like freckles, and he was done.
Turning to his friends he took in their costumes and reactions, which were priceless. They were staring at him, eyes wide or mouths agape, and as he let his hair back down they seemed to reboot like a muggle computer.
Hermione had been the first to snap out of it, and dressed as a little red riding hood werewolf, approached her oldest friend.
"I think you should put your hair back up, and leave a few pieces out on the sides to frame your face." She said, doing exactly that to his hair, wordlessly bringing everyone back to their own processes.
"Your makeup still works for this, but I think the green should be brighter, more acidic to match your wings and scales." Cho smiled, pulling out a makeup bag and touching up the other teens eyeshadow. She added some highlight and lengthened the wing of his eyeliner to make it more dramatic. Finally she stepped back and nodded, deeming his makeup done.
The teen was ready to put away the rest of his clothes and take a seat while everyone finished, but he was stopped once again by Aubrey who took off her own white headband and transfigured it into clips with long curved off white horns. She placed it in his hair, and after Luna quickly swooped in to spell his nails black, the girls finally let him sit down.
Ryan was dressed as a satyr, complete with the soft brown fur that matched her curly hair, a pan flute, and black shoes that looked exactly like hooves. She wore a fur top that bound her chest, making her seem much more androgynous than normal.
Aubrey was dressed as a nymph, with iridescent fabrics framing her body, and giving her brown skin a soft glow. She was barefoot, and had her hair down unlike her sister who had hers in intricate braids for the night.
Luna was dressed as a detective of some sort. She had some bizarre looking tools attached to a belt on her waist, and glasses that looked like they were two magnifying glasses fused together. She looked like the Sherlock Holmes of mythical hunters.
Cho was also a creature, a form of fae that Harry couldn't pinpoint, but she was dressed in light neutral colors and her makeup was very natural as well. All the girls looked amazing, and it seemed like they had all planned to have some form of group costumes. Almost as if Hermione was little red going through the forest, meeting everyone along the way to her grans house.
He wondered what the boys had dressed up as, but since everyone was about done, he would soon find out. It seemed like he would be finding out sooner than he thought, because his thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door. The short teen got up from his seat on the bed to answer the door, keeping only himself in view.
Standing on the opposite side of the threshold was Draco, dressed as an explorer, with a tan poet's shirt tucked into brown pants with suspenders, along with a brown shoulder bag and a spyglass telescope.
Beside the blond was Blaise, who was dressed as a masquerade goer, the white and gold accented fabric was tailored to fit, and it all gave off the look of confidence and opulence. Behind them was Neville, the tall boy dressed very similarly to Luna. Harry assumed that they were doing their costumes as a couple, and smiled at the thought. The other teens looked at him in shock for a while, definitely not expecting Harry to dress in an androgynous if not somewhat feminine costume.
"Were about done, give us a little bit ok?" He said softly, checking on the girls to make sure they were near done with their preparations.
"Well, that would be amazing if that were why we are here early. We need to speak with you Harry." Draco said, almost nervously making the smaller boy highly alert. Draco never really called him by name, it was just their thing, but hearing the former Malfoy say his given name made everything even more serious than it was before.
"Ok." He said, closing the door and leading the other teens to a corner of the common room that was easy to see his dorm from. As they sat down, Harry ignored the looks aimed his way, only retracting his wings to sit comfortably in the cushioned chair. "What is going on?"
"I will cut to the chase, Blaise and I would like your permission to court your sisters. I have known for a few months that Ryan is my mate." Draco said, his confidence waning under Harry's stare and dropped jaw.
He could have sworn that Draco liked Hermione, but after asking about it the the teen sitting opposite of him laughed. The blonde explained that she was only helping him get a chance to the talk taller of the twins with a sort of unbiased third party as a chaperone.
Blaise was next to speak, keeping Harry from completely shutting down from the shock.
"Aubrey and I have been speaking as friends for a long while, before we were resorted. I have finally asked her to be my girlfriend, and I know that by the end of this year I would like to begin courting her." He didn't get to say much else, because by then Harry was standing up and pacing.
He had only known the two girls as his sisters. Before he was introduced to the Dunhills, he hadn't even heard of the girls, despite their popularity. It took him a long while to get used to having family after over a decade of abusive guardians, and now he was faced with his newest friends wanting his consent to court them.
His consent? He knew it was a traditional way to go about courting, hell his mate had done the same, and his sisters were ok with it, but was he ok with it?? The short answer was yes, he knew how important courting was for creature bloods, but the long answer was a bit more complicated than that.
It was odd that he felt safe enough with the ex Slytherins to tell them who his own mate was, and trusted them to keep his secrets, but did he truly trust them to keep his sisters happy?
Looking back, he could see the way the guys acted around Ryan and Aubrey for what it was. It was obvious in hindsight, but he still took a moment to calm down and sit down. Taking a breath, he looked each of the two in the eye and spoke.
"I will have to talk to them but I do consent to this." He started. "Ryan is your mate, and I know how important that is. And Aubrey is already your girlfriend so there's at least a slight chance she will want to marry you... they know how to handle themselves, but I will still roast your arses if they get hurt." His eyes flashed as he spoke. Friends or not if they hurt his sisters they'd regret every choice they'd ever made.
The two teens nodded and gave Harry their word that they would do their best not to hurt the girls.
After that, the atmosphere settled, and Harry looked at Neville. "Did you have something you wanted to say too?"
The brunette teen simply smiled and shook his head. He had only really been there to mediate if need be, and because Harry had taken it well, he really didn't even have to be there.
"No," Neville whispered conspiratorially, "but I've been trying to convince these two to talk to you before the holidays, and I'm just happy they didn't put it off for too long." He smiled, which made Harry laugh and relax a bit more.
"Honestly I'm just shocked." He said. The taller boys were never very open about liking anyone in their group. Draco had only really been around Hermione, the group as a whole, or a few select Slytherins so he thought he knew who the blonde fancied. Turned out he was wrong. And Blaise just never gave any obvious hints that he liked the hybrids sister. It blew his mind just thinking about it all. He had really thought he'd gotten better at telling who others were interested in.
His thoughts were once again ruined by the sound of a door. This time it was the girls coming out to meet up with them. He gave all three of the other guys a seriously dark look that said don't make me regret this, before turning to the girls with a soft smile.
The switch from vengeful to benevolence was so swift and seamless that the guys actually felt threatened, and stayed silent for a moment before everyone stood to leave.
As their group got up to leave, Harry tried not to glare at the guys any more than he already had. They wanted to do it right, and though he understood that, he still couldn't let them come into his family's life just to potentially stuff it all up. They were part of his clutch, his herd. The side of him that was protective over them was irritated and on edge, but the side of him that was all human knew that they were attempting to appeal to the other side.
'What is going on minx?' Severus asked through the bond, giving the teen time to go is on something a little less irritating.
'Draco wants to court Ryan... and Blaise is dating Aubrey. I've never had siblings to look after or protect, and they're older than me, but it angers me sev and I don't understand why it's upsetting me.' He huffed out a bit of smoke, drawing in a bit of attention.
He simply walked out of the common room, keeping his thoughts clear and his flame down.
His mate sent him a wave of love, soothing his frazzled nerves and allowing him to slow his stride, which he only noticed after calming down a bit. He walked like he was ready to defeat the dark Lord then take his place, and it took him a moment to truly calm down, but his mate talked him through it.
'They are your family, you will feel infinitely more protective of them when outsiders come in no matter how long you've known them. The same happened with me when your mother began dating your father. Lily understood, but James did not and it caused a lot of tension. Draco and Blaise are smart however, and they are aware of how short life will be if they hurt the girls.'
Harry smiled at the slight jab at his father, knowing that his mate had had reason to hate the thought of his best friend dating James Potter. But Severus was right, his friends had likely thought of every likely outcome, and had tried to get ahead of his anger by saying it fast and leaving him dumbstruck but clearheaded instead.
He couldn't be angry at that, especially as they took his threat for what it was and agreed to any consequences instead of challenging them.
Halfway to the great hall the hybrid finally calmed down and got into light conversation with his friends. He tried to quell the section of his mind that wanted to sharpen his nails or step between the girls and guys. It worked rather well, leaving him as more of just a silent observer after he fell behind.
He could see how much Blaise and Draco liked his sisters. That much was obvious now, but as he watched he could see how his sisters reacted to the attention.
Ryan was visibly blushing and smiling gently at Draco as they spoke. Aubrey was walking very close to Blaise, and kept a hand on his arm as they went. It was a picture of happiness that he really couldn't find fault with.
"They finally asked you didn't they?" Hermione asked, walking beside the pouting dragon as they turned a corner.
"Yeah. I thought Draco had a crush on you, but now I have to get used to this." He motioned slightly at the two couples.
"They do look lovely though." She tried to console him.
"I was having some trouble accepting it earlier, but apparently my mate knew what I was feeling."
"And he's the only reason you aren't blowing out smoke and storming the castle right now?" The taller girl teased.
"Ha ha 'Mione. He's not the only reason, but he is a big part of it. I just don't like how I could tell them who my mate is, but the moment they do the same I'm up in arms." Harry groaned. "Whatever, they look happy and unless that changes then I'm happy for them."
Letting his wings back out, the dragon rolled his shoulders to loosen up any lingering tension and finished the trek to the doors of the Great Hall quietly.
The only thing that shattered his silence was when Hermione cast a spell on the fake tail, animating it to react like a normal tail. A small chirp came from the siren as the cool tail wrapped around his waist. Sending a glare at the girl made him feel a bit better, but the blush on his cheeks and the sound of his friends laughing made it less intense than he'd hoped it to be.
Finally as they made it into the hall they found seats and Harry looked for his mate.
He couldn't approach the man, and he couldn't really look for him blatantly, but when he finally saw the man walk in from the staff entrance his heart fluttered. The tail around his waist unfurled and seemed to connect to his thoughts. It moved slowly, as if waving to the dragon before moving down his skirt and subtly shifted the fabric further exposing his leg. He blushed heavily and grabbed the leather appendage stopping it from stripping him in front of the whole school. The only thing that saved him from extra attention was the fact that he was sitting and the tail hadn't exposed much.
Severus on the other hand was scowling. Part of it was the fact that his mate was once again testing his control. The other part was that the teens obsessive fan group was starting to gather. He was a chaperone for this ball as the Headmaster knew he could stop the brats from spiking the drinks and keep Harry out of any perceived danger. Filius was the other chaperone, and the other professors were only there to have fun. He scoffed, not having fun in the slightest.