Veela Inheritance Problems

Chapter 11

Harry took a quick shower and got dressed before knocking on Molly’s door. The irony of having to knock before leaving his own room did not please him. It felt like he was in prison...or back at the Dursleys. Molly opened the door for him, even though it was not locked, and led him into the first room, where a table for two was set. Harry finally acknowledge that he was indeed hungry and it was already lunch time.

“Mrs. Weasley,” Harry started over lunch, not sure how to ask the things he wanted to know, “Why am I wearing these new products to mask my scent? And why only now? Shouldn’t I… or any submissive for that matter, use them all the time?”

“Oh, dear, of course not.” Molly answered, “The families who have a magical creature inheritance are very proud of that fact. It means their magic is stronger and that they have access to skills that an ordinary wizard or witch doesn’t have, but of course, there is a down side. It’s all well and good to celebrate the fact that your family has a magical creature ingrained to it, but you must always remember that you are not an animal and therefore should not behave like one. The engagement season is a necessity, I’m sure you understand why, you felt the urges, didn’t you? And I’m sure young Mister Malfoy was displaying his quite plainly for all to see.”

Harry felt his face burning and Molly smiled at the deep blush the teen was spotting.

“Now, imagine if we didn’t have a gathering. It would be chaos, the dominants would never stop chasing you and the claiming would take place… well, just think of what would happen if you had decided to enter the school through the main hall.”

Harry now was sure he had just discovered a new shade of red, for his blush suddenly got even brighter. Molly pretended she didn’t notice it and continued her explanation. The sooner Harry understood this, the better.

“Now, once you’re claimed as demanded by tradition and nature, it would be considered unbecoming of a young lady… or gentlemen, to go around exposing himself. That is why these special products are made available for you after the claiming.”

“Oh” was all Harry could come up with. It made no sense to him, one minute they wanted to behave like animals, participate in this wild chase and then announce to the whole world that they had shagged. The next minute he was suppose to prove he could be this proper gentleman and act like nothing out of the ordinary had happened, only now he was engaged to Malfoy and couldn’t think straight whenever the blond was near.

“So…” he started hesitantly, “according to this tradition, I’m suppose to behave like a veela for a day to this whole group of people, but once that day is over I’m only suppose to be a veela for Malfoy?”

“In very simple terms, yes.” Answered Molly. She could see the teen was trying to make sense of it all, but it was not simple, how to explain to him the conflict between the pride of being a pureblood and at the same time the pride of not being fully human?

They continue to have lunch while Molly did her best to answer the gazillion questions Harry seemed to have on his new found inheritance. The million galleons question, however, remained unanswered. No one knew where the said inheritance had come from in spite of Albus Dumbledore and the dozens of Veela representatives that now poured over genealogy books trying to find the elusive blood line that had produced Harry Potter.

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Narcissa was at her wits end. She had spent the day talking to as many Veela representatives as she had dared. She went as far as talking to the High Councils in England, France and Norway. Still, no one had reported a missing male child or any links to the Potters, and that presented a problem for the only remaining member of the family was the mud… muggleborn mother, Lily Evans, and no Veela descendant had ever shown up in a muggle family before. There weren’t even any squibs in a Veela family, for crying out loud! Well… there was a rumor about a certain cousin of either Molly or Arthur Weasley, she couldn’t remember which, but their Veela blood was almost gone anyway.

Narcissa shook her head, forcing herself to concentrate on what was important; a genealogy line had to be established. They had to know what clan the submissive came from. There were far too many political implications for that to remain unknown and she, for one, hated surprises.

Not that they would ever demand the submissive back, the claim had been properly laid over him, but still, it was Harry Potter they were talking about, and not only that but also a very powerful submissive, the most powerful one in years! The possible political alliances deriving from that were enough to make her head spin.

The Zabinis were already talking about marring one of Draco’s future children to one of their future grandchildren and they were only the first to come forward. Lucius had already been approached by two different families offering to join their side in the war, families that so far had remained neutral in the conflict. The representative from the British High Council had made discrete inquiries about where they stood in the war, giving hints that the Veela were about to join in as a group…

Narcissa felt faint. She had always known that as Lady Malfoy she was an important woman in the Wizarding and Veela World alike, but the deference she had been receiving all morning… it went beyond anything she had ever experienced.

She opened yet another genealogy book, it was way past time to know all there was to know about a certain submissive’s family.

A knock on the door startled her.

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Padfoot’s ears were ringing, Remus was still ranting about the hexes he had thrown at Draco Malfoy, like he didn’t deserve it. The same Draco Malfoy who was currently still unconscious while they floated him through the halls of Hogwarts to the quarters the Malfoys were occupying.

Sirius turned back into his human form was Remus knocked politely on the door and they waited until Narcissa opened the door. The ice cold stare she directed at them and the slow raise of a single eyebrow was enough for Sirius to rethink exactly how much did her son needed the curses he had thrown at the teen. In one second the cold look was gone as if it had never existed and the regal lady smiled at the two men.

“Mister Lupin, Sirius,” greeted Narcissa in a light and cheerful tone while stepping aside for them to enter, “Please come in, I didn’t know you were staying at Hogwarts.”

“We have just arrived, my dear,” offered Sirius as they lowered Draco on a couch, “We figure that with this whole Veela mess he could need some family near by.”

“And?” prompted Narcissa.

“And what, dear cousin?” asked Sirius with his best ‘I’m-completely-innocent-in-this-one look. Remus felt like smacking him over the head.

“Sirius Orion Black! Don’t you ‘dear cousin’ me.” Scold Narcissa, “and why is my son unconscious on that couch?”

“Oh, that, he used The Call on Harry,” said Sirius as if he was stating the most common thing in the world. Remus started to contemplate using a vase or a statue instead of his hand while hitting Sirius over the head.

“Strange side effect, wouldn’t you say?” asked Narcissa ironically.

“Well…” started Sirius but Remus decided that he would like to live a little longer and still have the use of all his body parts.

“He managed to lure Harry away from us, Dumbledore and Harry’s chaperone before we noticed what was going on. By the time we caught on to them they were already too far gone to recognize anybody and got ready to attack. We had to use our wands to prevent a full blown attack from them.”

“From both of them?” Narcissa was surprised. Usually the Submissive would let the Dominant do all the fighting for the couple. Then again, it was Harry Potter they were talking about.

“Yes, both of them. Their eyes were mutated, as were their claws and they were growling at us. Not a comfortable situation.” Remus volunteered.

“No, I don’t think it would be,” agreed Narcissa willing to forget the fact that her son had been hexed, if her memory served her well, her own father had done something similar to Lucius once, not that she would volunteer that information, but it helped her keep her perspective. “But that does remind me of something, I’m intrigued about where did Mr. Potter’s Veela inheritance came from. I was not aware of Veela ascendance in the Potter line and I can’t find a single reference to it. What can you tell me about his mother, Mrs. Potter’s, family?”

“That is the great mystery of the year,” sighed Sirius, “as far as we know there has never been a mating between a Veela and a muggle and Lily was just a normal muggleborn witch. Very talented, yes, but nothing besides a muggleborn.”

“If you say so, dear,” answered Narcissa absently minded.

“Narcissa, it is the mother of your future son-in-law we are talking here.” Scowled Sirius.

“Oh, Sirius, please,” complained Narcissa, “I meant no disrespect, I simply made an observation that you may not have all the information concerning this matter. That’s all. Could it be that Harry was not the Potter’s child? Not by birth, I mean, could he be adopted?”

Sirius frowned considering the question, under any other circumstances it would have been an offensive question, but Narcissa did have a point: Harry’s Veela blood had to come from somewhere.

“No, We were there the night Harry was born and he definitely smelled like James and Lily’s child.” Answered Remus before Sirius, he noted all the genealogy books on the top of a near by table and stepped closer to take a look. “May I?”

“Of course,” allowed Narcissa, “I’ve studding those books for hours and I can find a single link to neither Mr. Potter nor a missing male child anywhere in Britain or the rest of Europe.”

“How about a female child a couple of decades back?” asked Remus flipping a few pages in one of the books.

“We are starting to look in to that.”

“We?” asked Sirius.

“Yes, cousin, we,” Narcissa looked at him pointedly, “the Veela Councils are very strict in keeping records of every child born with Veela blood, three days ago I would have told you that our records were flawless, now… let’s just say it has become a matter of Veela pride to find out how a powerful Submissive like Mr. Potter has simply slipped through our fingers.”

“And what possibilities did the Veela Council come up with to explain Harry’s inheritance?” asked Sirius, but before Narcissa could answer a soft chime sounded announcing that it was time for lunch. The three of them agreed it would be best to wait until that evening before they continued their discussion and parted ways. Narcissa went to meet Lucius at the dining hall where the Veela families were eating and the two marauders to the kitchens, where the presence of wanted man like Sirius Black would not cause a riot.

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Soon after three in the afternoon the school gates were open. Reporters from several newspapers hurried in to make sure they had a good seat in the press conference that was about to start. Safely hidden behind one of the stained glass windows Harry was trying to see if he knew any of them.

“Some of them kind of look familiar, but I don’t recognize many of them... Oh, and I’m sure I never saw that one before.” He said pointing at an extremely well dressed witch.

“That is Sandra Williams, dear,” offered Mrs. Weasley from over his shoulder as she adjusted her chaperone’s cloak and her hair, “she is a social butterfly, as they say, she only writes for the society pages telling people all that important information of who is dating who, who is getting married, who gave the party, who went to the party and who was wearing what. You know, all the ‘essential’ information,” she added with a look that told exactly how essential she considered the whole thing.

Harry had to laugh at her tone. It was obvious what she thought of social pages and quite honestly he couldn’t help but agree. Mrs. Weasley came over and checked his outfit. Once more he was wearing the boat neck robe displaying his claiming mark.

“Let’s go, dear,” she said opening the door and checking the hall for any unpleasant surprises, “we are expected in the great hall for the press conference. Now, once inside, you’ll stand with the other Submissives and wait to be called. I’ll be sitting near by and I’ll walk with you to the high table, our announcement will be the last one since the reporters will probably not hear a single word about anything else once they hear your name.”

“hm… oh, ok.” Harry was desperately trying to make sense of what he was hearing but he knew he was about to start screaming if anybody said he had to remember anything else. It was too much, and on top of all that had already happened he was going towards a bunch of reporters when all of his instincts told him to run the other way. Silently, he sent a prayer to whoever was listening to make this press thing as short as possible.

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Pansy shifted her weight from one foot to another and discreetly looked around to see if anybody was looking at her and was relieved to notice that everyone’s attention was focused on the speaker. Harry Potter was just a few feet in front of her with his attention firmly on the high table at the end of the room and she was free to make her move.

Walking slowly and making sure she didn’t call unwanted attention, Pansy carefully placed herself right behind Harry and after two frustrated attempts she managed to slip a small bracelet in the brunette’s pocket. Just a small cheap bracelet that her accomplice had made sure it was cursed with a confundus spell.

Once she made sure the bracelet was where she wanted she quietly muttered the words to activate the spell before stepping to Harry’s side and making sure to catch his attention.

“I suppose congratulations are in order,” she offered sweetly.

“hm… thank you,” answered Harry politely giving her a side glance.

“It’s so nice that you managed to be here, claimed and all,” Pansy continued as if she was talking to herself, “and to think all of this come out of a detention where you were suppose to collect some very important potion ingredients for professor Snape. Did he ever thank you for those very important potion ingredients? I remember that he was desperately needing those.” Pansy made sure to emphasize the key words she wanted Harry to listen.

“Oh, no,” Harry’s eyes went wide when he remembered the abandoned basket in the forest, “I forgot to bring back the herbs!”

“Harry, that is terrible!” said Pansy looking chocked, “You know how professor Snape gets when we fail to follow his instructions. You have to do something.”

“What can I do?” Harry was getting desperate.

“If you sneak out of here now nobody will notice you gone for some time and you’ll be able to fetch the ingredients and deliver them before getting into even more trouble.”

“I don’t…”

“Harry, go.” Urged Pansy, “I’ll cover for you.”

Harry stopped for half a second, it did sound like a good plan and he had to get those ingredients, Snape would skin all the Gryffindors alive if he didn’t complete the task he was given for detention. He had to go, it was the most important thing at the moment and of course he would be back in time.

“Ok, thank you, Pansy,” whispered Harry already leaving the great hall. Once outside he broke in to a run straight to the Forbidden Forest. He didn’t see another person leave the great hall soon after and follow him in to the woods.

In the great hall, Pansy smiled to herself. “It was my pleasure, Harry dear, completely mine.” She muttered as she made her way to the end of the room and stood off to the side of the high table.

At the table, the opening speech for the press conference was over and the only wedding of the season was announced to the press, the engagements would now follow. Pansy could see the reporters stealing glances around, they knew the first announcements would be the least important ones and they had already spotted Draco Malfoy in full Dominant garb, so a Malfoy announcement was being expected. Her moment of glory was fast approaching.

And finally…

Lucius Malfoy stood up and made his way to the side of the table where the announcements were made while Narcissa and Draco stood behind him looking proud.

“I, Lucius Abraxas Malfoy, am proud to announce that a match had been made this year for the Malfoy family and as so, I here by present…”

“Pansy Parkinson, and I’m already pregnant with Draco’s child” Pansy jumped in front of the table making the grand announcement. Her big smile didn’t falter for a second while she posed for the thousands of photographs being taken of her amidst the immediate chaos that issued in the hall.

Meanwhile, Molly Weasley was looking around desperately trying to find her charge, Harry Potter, who was nowhere in sight.

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