Veela Inheritance Problems

Chapter 12


Mikael Ivanoff cursed under his breath as the green-eyed submissive ran into the forest. Now he would have to chase him and that was not part of the plan. And if Ivanoff loved anything that was a well thought out plan.

He was very proud of the plan actually, a stroke of genius if he could say so himself, and at the same time it was very simple like the best plans usually are. The unworthy submissive Parkinson had come looking for him a couple of nights ago, asking for his help in obtaining ‘what was rightfully hers’ according to her. And who was he to turn a lady down? He had helped her the best he could and all she had to do now was slip a bracelet he had charmed into his chosen submissive’s pocket and nudge him towards the forest, Ivanoff would be there to meet him just outside the school and offer himself as an escort into the dangerous forest and once inside he could claim the submissive, go back to the school, get their things and they would be gone from the school grounds before anybody noticed they were missing. A perfect plan… but did the submissive had to run into the forest?

That called for a change in tactics, instead of escorting the submissive he would run ahead to the place where the little beauty had first been spotted by the other dominants. Once there he would take the submissive by surprise and claim him. That was even better than the original plan, this way no one would be able to say there had been foul play and he would still get his submissive.

It was all working perfectly; Ivanoff made to the right place in record time and sat himself on a fallen tree trunk to wait, barely containing a satisfied smile. After five minutes he began to feel restless, the submissive should have arrived by now but there was still no sign of the delightful creature. Ivanoff looked around afraid that somehow the submissive had been there before him and got what he came for, but saw no signs of anybody being there in the past three days, even the discarded submissive’s clothes were still there.

Ivanoff did a double take, the clothes! He quickly picked them up and brought them to his nose. He could still smell the submissive’s scent, it was still very strong on the clothes but not a whiff of it could be found in the air… a cold shiver ran through Ivanoff, the submissive was wearing the dampening products; he was not leaving a trail by scent! And he was also wearing a bracelet with a confundus spell on it, a spell with his magical signature.

The older wizard was beginning to panic; the boy should be at the clearing by now. If he hadn’t shown up by now it was likely he wasn’t going to, he could be lost in the forest thanks to his spell and there was no way to trace him by scent! But why was he lost? He knew the way to the clearing, Ivanoff had made sure of it, it was a common place to collect potion ingredients, common enough to be reached even under a confundus spell, and all the submissive had to do was show and pick up the basket with the ingredients he had already collected and… the basket!

Ivanoff looked around frantically there was no basket anywhere. He tried to concentrate on the memory of the first time he had laid eyes on the submissive. Did he have the basket with him when he took off on his broom? Darn it, he did. Which meant that he had let go of the basket sometime during the flight and the blasted thing could be anywhere in the forest…and wherever it was, that was where the submissive was trying to go, under a spell that would make sure he got lost, a spell with his signature! Suddenly the plan didn’t seem so good after all.

He had to get the boy back. It was his only chance. Ivanoff was no fool, he knew that taking the boy for himself would make the Malfoys his enemies for life, his only chance was to keep the boy at his side and use him to make sure they got the protection of the Veela Councils who would do anything to protect the family of such a powerful member of their society. With the boy missing he would have not only the Malfoys as his sworn enemies but also every single member of every single Veela family in the world. The only possible way to obtain forgiveness for breaking a claim was to establish a claim of his own with one of the involved parties and produce offspring.

Instead of doing that he had just become the one who plotted to take away a claimed submissive and caused the said submissive to go missing. Ivanoff knew that he had to find the raven-haired beauty or he was as good as dead.

Using his hunting skills, Ivanoff began his search on the spot he had seen the submissive enter the forest but as the sun began to descend and the daylight grew weaker, Ivanoff had to admit that he was off his game and that he had already taken a couple of wrong turns, almost getting lost himself. He started to realize that he was not getting out of this one as easily as he had planned.

This situation demanded a change of plans. By now the Parkinson girl was being held by the Council representative for further examination, but it was only a matter of time before they found out about her baby not being a Malfoy. Once they did that, she would crack and tell them everything what would make them come running after him.

Ivanoff forced himself to think beyond his first instincts. Those were the ones telling him to run and hide. Taking deep breaths, Ivanoff forced himself to think.

If nobody knew of his involvement yet, perhaps he could make a run for it. Disappear before they came looking for him, but that would compromise his sons’s situation. If the Ivanoffs suddenly became persona non-grata at the gatherings, Sergey and Leon would never find suitable mates and the future of his family would be compromised. So running would not be an option unless he had his chosen mate with him to reopen the doors of the Veela community to his family afterwards.

The chances of that happening were looking smaller by the second.

His only other option was to stay… not an attractive option, but one that could actually work with a minimum of pain and humiliation, if those couldn’t be avoided all together. If he didn’t find the submissive before anybody else he would have to play innocent and pretend he had nothing to do with this situation. The one weak point in this scenario was the submissive Parkinson… unless he found a way to quietly dispose of the stupid creature.

A distant howl made him shiver and remember all the warnings he got from Albus Dumbledore about the many dangers that lurked in the forest and that helped him make up his mind, there was no point in risking losing his life in a fruitless search in the dark, he had to go back and minimize the damage Parkinson could be doing. After that he would just do the best he could with whatever the fates decide to throw his way.

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Pansy Parkinson looked worried towards the locked door of her room. She had been practically thrown in there after the press conference without anybody saying more than two words to her. That was not the treatment she was expecting as the future Lady Malfoy.

Sure, Draco had kicked and screamed, but she was expecting as much. It was quite the bomb she had thrown on his lap. Pretty soon he would have to calm down listen to reason, she was a pregnant submissive and had named him as father of her child, that meant they had to be married before the day was over.

Oh, he would be mad at her for a few months, sure, especially because it was not his child, but then he would remember that they were always meant to be together and forgive her for doing something so dramatic to keep him from marrying the wrong person. In time he could even learn to love their first child and it would all be perfect, like it was meant to be.

She could still hear the angry voices outside but forced herself to remain calm. Eventually they would calm down and this whole thing would blow over.

The door suddenly open and Sage Parkinson came inside before the door was slammed shut again. The two Parkinson women faced each other. Pansy couldn’t stop a small smile to show on her face, she knew the look on her mother’s face, she was mad, and with good reason, Pansy had succeeded where her mother had failed. Pansy would marry up, way up.

They stayed in silence for almost a minute staring each other down. Than, without a word, her mother came up to her and slapped her in the face. Hard!

“What did you do that for?”

“Are you really that stupid?” spat her mother.

“Careful with what you say, mother, or I won’t have you at the manor after I’m married,” threatened Pansy.

“Merlin,” smirked Sage Parkinson, “you ARE that stupid. You must have got it from your father, my side of the family in known to have more brains than that.”

“How dare you?” Pansy was seeing red, nobody was giving her the respect she deserved. Her mother looked at her and tried a different approach.

“Pansy, you listen to me, young lady.” She said in a calmer tone of voice.

“No, mother, you listen to me.” Defied Pansy, “I am the future Lady Malfoy. I will be the most important woman in wizarding society and you will not stand in my way!”

“And what about Potter?”

“Soon he will be married to… someone else and hopefully long gone from here.”

“Then for your sake I hope your baby is all you claim it to be, because if he is not, no power on earth will save you from the Malfoy wrath.”

“Don’t be silly, mother, once this baby is born Draco will be so pleased with his heir he will…”

“That is the whole point, isn’t it? The baby being Draco’s heir.” Sage grabbed Pansy by shoulder and forced her to look her in the face, “All I’m saying is that this child better be his heir alright or you’ll find yourself in the street with no name of your own, a bastard in your arms and, if I know the Malfoys, a price tag to your head.”

“They would never cause a scandal”

“Really? Is that your security blanket? Draco falling for some child you will throw on his lap?” Sage couldn’t help herself, she laughed, “Do you really think the Malfoys would condone with that crime?”

“Crime? Now you’re going too far on your wishful thinking, mo…”

“PANSY! Don’t tell me you didn’t even read the books!”

“… What books?”

“The books I sent you through out the whole year, you silly bint. The ones about Veela and wizarding laws”

“Oh, those books. Mother, you know I have no interests in becoming a lawyer.”

Slap

“Stop doing that!”

“Tell me you’ve read some of those books, tell me you know that interfering with a established claim is a crime punishable with prison in the Wizarding World and with death in the Veela society. Tell me you know that once you marry into another family you belong to them and forfeit your former family name.”

“What?”

“The only thing that remains, Pansy dear, is an alliance between the families. Who do you think your father will side with if it is proven that you interfered with a claim and knowingly tried to pass the child of one Dominant as the child of another? You… or the Malfoy family?”

“You’re lying,” Pansy yelled desperately, “ever since day one the other Dominants wanted to challenge Draco’s claim over the tramp and take him away.”

“Yes, challenge the claim, prove themselves more deserving of the Submissive’s attention than the one who had claimed him. Not disrespect our laws and tarnish the engagement season.”

“Draco will love me once we are married.”

“He will kill you with his bare hands once it is proven that the child is not his and that you cost him his chosen mate.”

“….” Pansy could only stare at her mother dumbfounded.

“Your only chance, and trust me on this one, it is your only chance! Is to go to the real father of your child, I hope you know who it is, and get him to marry you.”

Pansy starts to say something but her mother silenced her.

“If you marry Draco, he will make you suffer until he can prove it’s not his child. Then he will take you before the council and demand for the situation to be fixed. Best case scenario? Your marriage will be over and you’ll be all alone to find a way to raise your child. My bet? Malfoys are not forgiving and you will be either dead or on the run. Think about it,” offered Sage before knocking on the door to be let out, “and think about who would stand by your side against the Malfoys if that ever came to pass.”

Pansy tried to downplay her mother’s words but a sinking feeling on her stomach made her run to her trunk and fish out the books her mother had sent her. For hours she checked the laws of both Wizarding and Veela worlds and found out that her mother was right – if a Submissive did what she was doing the consequences were annulment of the marriage, dishonor and, if the offended party demanded, physical punishment and even death could be applied. If a Dominant was the one who committed the crime, the Submissive could chose to annul the wedding or not, but even them, the submissive’s original family would take him or her back along with a monetary compensation. There was no dishonor since it was a defenseless submissive falling prey to a Dominant. There were even laws against domestic violence where the Dominant could lose his submissive... Pansy read until her head felt like it was about to explode. The laws were clear, the submissive was protected against undue violence, other than that, the claim, bond and family lines were sacred and punishment was brutal.

The worse part was to realize that if she was found out… no, there was no avoiding that, when she was found out she would take all the blame and suffer the consequences and the Dominant involved would get away with it. He didn’t commit any crimes, everything would fall on her head.

Pansy knew right then that she was is a huge amount of trouble and worse; that she had been set up. She would have to work real fast if she wanted to find a way out of this situation. Taking a deep breath she knocked on the door and asked for the only person she could think would help her in a time like this. She called for Albus Dumbledore.

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