Veela Inheritance Problems

Chapter 13

Author’s Note: This was supposed to be two different chapters but since I’m sooooo behind schedule I’m posting as a single one.

I’m trying to get VIP done before Christmas. Keep your fingers crossed.

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Molly Weasley had experienced a few scares in her life. Mother of six boys, two of them being Frederick and George, certainly gave her more than a few white hairs. And besides all the regular problems a normal teenager boy would get himself into, Ginny’s disappearing act in her first year kept her up nights in a row, Arthur being bitten by the Dark Lord’s snake was something she would never forget and still brought tears to her eyes and that blasted boggart at Grimmauld Place had really done a number on her, she would never tell anybody but that was the closest she had come of giving up fighting, somehow she had managed to pull herself together and kept on going, but now Harry was missing.

Merlin, he was missing.

He had vanished from the school grounds and not even Ron or Hermione could find him and they could always find each other in a matter of minutes inside Hogwarts. It was like they had tracking spells on themselves or maps telling each other where they were all the time. And now he was gone.

One second, she took her eyes off of him for just one second to talk to that nice Russian man, Ivanoff, and the next thing she knew Pansy was on stage claiming to be expecting Draco Malfoy’s child, everybody was on their feet and Harry was nowhere to be seen.

In the commotion that took place afterwards there were people running in and out of the room, moving from one little group to another and she simply lost track of him.

Molly wasted no time in running to the headmaster and discretely telling what had happened. The two of them plus Sirius, Remus, Minerva, Pomona and Sinistra had immediately split up and began to search for the boy but by then he was already nowhere to be found. They searched until Dumbledore was alerted that somebody was requesting his presence in his office.

It was the Parkinson girl and her mother. What could they want now? And it was getting dark already. Where could Harry be?

While the headmaster attended to the meeting in his office, Molly, Sirius, Remus, the rest of the staff and quite a few Gryffindors upper classmen got together to organize search parties. They had to find Harry.

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Pierre Raulli was terrified. He was a very proper and a fairly easy going man from an old and respectful Veela family and had worked real hard his whole life to become a representative for the High Veela Council. A position he was particularly proud of obtaining and dead set on improving. The gatherings that he and his team put together were slowly but surely gaining prestige and were known for their good taste and flawless organization. Soon he would be THE head representative for the Council, responsible for all the gatherings and controlling over 35 teams like the one he had now all over Europe. It was just a matter of time… if he could control this new situation, that is.

It was always on his hands to solve any disputes that could arise in a gathering and, in five years of service his records were spotless. Not that it had been an uneventful five years, mind you, he had one Dominant that insisted on challenging a claim by another Dominant even after a child was conceived and the submissive in question married, one or two submissives that had changed their minds on the morning after – that would usually involve a third party with whom the said submissive was involved beforehand and even a family whose Veela blood was no longer acknowledged showing up for the gathering without being invited and insisting on participating, that had been a nightmare, but now… now all his previous problems seemed like a walk in the park on a sunny day.

First a submissive showed up out of nowhere and was dragged into the gathering, or rather he dragged the gathering into the forest. They simply had no record of this submissive or his family, apparently his mother was a muggleborn and his pureblood father didn’t have any Veela blood in him. A mystery! And Pierre Raulli hated mysteries when it came to his gatherings and his record keeping, but they could survive that. A flaw, yes, but nothing life shattering.

Then, this mysterious submissive turns out to be not only perfectly pure and very powerful but also the-boy-who-lived as well, that would certainly make it so they would not be able to keep the matter between themselves like they would prefer in a case of faulty records but rather it would make the front pages of every Wizarding and Veela publication no matter what they did… and not only that, but the submissive in question managed to be claimed by Draco Malfoy himself! The claiming of the decade had happen at one of his gatherings.

Last night he had spent hours in conference with the High Council and they decided to do the only mildly acceptable thing available. Since they couldn’t cover it up, they would make a huge production out of it, playing with the Wizards romantic idea of the Veela. They would proudly present the lost child returning to his rightful place, finding love and the whole life altering thing witches loved so much… the whole fairy tale.

It all seemed to be working well too. They were using a small amount of their Veela allure to keep the public attention focused on the table for dramatic purposes. It would make the announcement of ‘the Harry Potter’ claiming even more memorable because nobody would know he was there and it would come as a total surprise… without taking away the attention of the press from the other announcements to be made. It was perfect.

And then that… that… that glamorized parrot had to jump in front of everyone and make a scene out of herself claiming to be carrying the next Malfoy baby. Malfoy baby his… well, it was not proper to say that, was it? The point was, she could even be pregnant, but Pierre saw no claiming marks on her neck and he knew that Malfoys did nothing by half. If Draco had indeed made that baby, his mark would be clear on her neck for the whole world to see. Malfoys did not share.

Well, it didn’t matter now, the damage was done. Once her allegations become public he had no choice but to play by the rules. A full inquiry would have to be made and the existence and paternity of the baby proven without a doubt before the week was over. A full committee was on its way to Hogwarts at that very moment to see to that. It was only a matter of time now.

If the baby was indeed Malfoy’s, they had a wedding to arrange. If not, they had a trial and Merlin knows what else to arrange as well. The Veela reputation could take a serious beating over this one and the fact that the boy-who-lived was one of them could go from the social revelation of the year to the social scandal of the year in a blink. If this… girl had managed to somehow foil Potter’s first mating the whole wizarding world would be yelling rape at the top of their lungs no matter what they did next.

Pierre Raulli straightened his robes and hair, positioning himself in front of the fireplace in a chamber next to the Great Hall which had been connected to the floo network specifically for this purpose and waited for the committee members who were starting to arrive.

An hour later, Raulli was ready to pass out. Instead the normal five members of the dispute board, no less than 25 Veela had come through the fire. The Council members were only the first to arrive, soon after them, family representatives and unattached dominants from all the most important families regally stepped out of the fireplace.

Raulli was doing his best to not to jump up and down like a commoner. Every single major family of Europe was represented in the room. The social drums must have been beating like mad telling everyone that the most powerful submissive of the century (if not more, in his humble opinion) could be free for the claiming.

If that was the case, the Council would demand the submissive to be taken to the maze one more time and they would start the whole process over. Raulli quickly checked who was in the room and reassessed the situation, judging by the people in this room, the decision was already made, if they could find a single reason for it no matter how small, they would demand a new chance for claiming the submissive.

It would be the gathering of the millennia and he was organizing. It was the chance of a life time. Careers were made or destroyed in such occasions.

Just as they closed the floo connection a knock on the door caught their attention. It was a house-elf with a note from the headmaster. The submissive Potter was reported missing and search groups were being organized to search for him. Pierre Raulli felt like all the blood had been drained out of his body. He had lost the submissive of the century. There was no way his career would survive that blow.

“Gentlemen,” Chevalier Lannes, head of the current head representative for the High Council spoke up, “We must find this child, it’s unacceptable to lose him again so soon after he was found. No dominant currently involved in the gathering season will take part on the search as it would not be proper, we still don’t know if his previous claim is still valid. Everyone else report to the entrance hall where the groups are being organized. Monsieur Raulli, please see that all the dominants are escorted to their quarters then find me so we can go over all the details for tomorrow, I want to see what you have prepared for this gathering.”

“Of course, Chevalier Lannes,” Raulli agreed with his superior as fast as he could and gesturing for the dominants to follow him, he took the young men to the dominant’s quarters, pleased that headmaster Dumbledore had provided them with more rooms than they originally needed. He would be able to complete his task in record time and meet the head representative before the man would expect him to be able to, that would make a good impression for sure.

There was only one black cloud in his horizon. Where could Potter have gone to?

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Draco Malfoy was ready to murder someone, he had almost managed to land a blow on that stupid Parkinson but his father held him back. It didn’t matter, soon enough she would be within arms reach and no one would stand between him and his revenge.

After the absurd announcement Parkinson had sprung on them, he had been taken out of the room and into a smaller side chamber ‘to cool down’. Darn it, he hadn’t even been allowed to talk to Harry and tell him it was all a lie. What if Harry believed Parkinson’s lies? No, he wouldn’t. His parents wouldn’t let Harry believe that, they would talk to Harry and make sure he knew it was nothing but a bunch of lies. Everything would be all right.

They kept him in there for almost one hour. He was ready to blast the door into oblivion when it finally opened, letting a scowling Lucius Malfoy in followed by a distressed Narcissa.

“Father, I give you my word that I have never touched Pansy.” Draco hurried to inform his father.

“I believe you, son,” Lucius said as soon as the door was closed behind them, “That is not the problem. The problem is that unless we dismiss these ludicrous claims as fast as we can the other dominants will think Potter is free for the taking and THAT could become a problem.”

“They will not take my mate!” Draco yelled as he tried to reach the door. Lucius was holding him down before he could take more than a few steps.

“Nobody will take your mate,” he reassured the struggling teen, “We will not permit it but you have to calm down. No Malfoy will make a spectacle of himself.”

Lucius held Draco tightly for a few minutes until he felt the teen start to relax on his arms and knew his son was getting his temper under control.

“What are they planning to do?” asked a much more controlled Draco.

“They won’t do anything until this matter with Parkinson is explained. If she manages to prove the baby is yours they will demand that you marry her and that Potter is declared free from any previous claim. They will demand that he is taken back into the maze and all the dominants will try to establish a claim of their own.”

“They will never lay their hands on Harry and it is not my baby!”

“Good, then it’s one less thing for us to worry about. I believe we will be able to have the first hearing tomorrow morning and we’ll press for a paternity spell to be performed right away, with some luck this problem will be solved before lunch tomorrow.”

“Can I see Harry?” Draco asked his parents. He wanted to explain things himself to his submissive before the gossipers got to him.

“No, I’m afraid the Council will keep Harry away from all dominants, you included, until they know what to make of this mess Parkinson created.” Lucius pondered.

“I’ll talk to him,” Narcissa said, “They won’t prevent him from receiving all visitors and I’m a submissive. It should be alright. I’ll make sure he knows how you feel about all this, Draco.”

“Thank you, mother,” Draco smiled at Narcissa, “It means the world to me.”

Narcissa’s answer was cut off by the noise of a house-elf popping in the room and handing Lucius a note.

“What is it, father?”

“Nothing,” Lucius lied hiding the note in his pocket and exchanging a pointed look with Narcissa, “Narcissa, why don’t you and Draco retire for the night? Nothing else will be accomplished tonight and we will need out wits tomorrow when facing the Council.”

“Of course, dear,” Narcissa agreed, she had been married to Lucius long enough to know that look, “come along, Draco. Walk me to our quarters. I do feel the need to lay down.”

Draco, too distraught to notice anything amiss, ruled the note as a dark lord related matter and stood to escort his mother. They went to their rooms and Lucius hurried to the entrance hall to find out more about what was going on with his future son-in-law and why they were forming search parties.

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Dumbledore looked across the table to the blond girl sobbing in the armchair in front of his desk while her mother paced behind her. He was actually sorry for the poor child, she was led to believe that once she announced her pregnancy everything else would fall into place and she would be married to Draco Malfoy, who later would love her back and her life would be perfect. She had broken down once she learned the real consequences of her acts and had been crying ever since.

How could Malfoy have done such a thing? He seemed so intent on having Harry as his spouse. No, there was something else to this, Draco did want Harry for himself, Albus knew that much, and there was something… a thought swimming just below the surface in the girl’s mind that kept calling his attention. It was just a glimpse that had hit him before he could erect his own barriers.

That was a problem with Legilimency, Dumbledore pondered, once you mastered it you had to keep constant control over yourself or surface thoughts of all of those around you would find their way into your mind. It was like trying to control a flood after the dam was broken. It had taken him years to build his barriers with Occlumency so he could control his own ability and not invade everybody’s privacy, but right now Dumbledore felt this could very well be the key to this whole situation so he let his control slip a little and open his mind for any thoughts the young witch in front of him could be broadcasting out in her distress.

“Now, Miss Parkinson,” he said in a friendly tone trying to calm the witch down and make eye contact with him, “I’m sure we can solve this situation. Draco Malfoy would not turn his back on his own child. Family always comes first with him, you know that.”

“Oh, sir,” Pansy sobbed raising her head, “it’s not that simple.”

“It never is, child, but it’s never as complicated as our fears make it look either. Why don’t we talk it over and see what we can do?”

“Ok,” she sobbed, “it started on the first day of the gathering. Draco never came to my tent as he was supposed to. We have been engaged ever since we were babies!”

“How can you still believe that, Pansy?” Sage Parkinson snapped dangerously close to losing her temper, “Did you ever read any of the books I sent you?”

“Miss Parkinson, you know that as a Veela, Mr. Malfoy could not be engaged to anybody before the gathering,” Dumbledore intervened before things got out of hand.

“But… the mating is just a step in the whole thing, isn’t it? We are engaged!” the blond girl said hopefully.

Mrs. Parkinson threw her hands up in a gesture of despair and Dumbledore sighed. Who taught this girl about the Veela habits and law?

“In a way, but the engagement you refer to, Miss Parkinson, is the Veela vow to marry their children with Veela descendents only. A group arrangement rather than a personal one.” The elder wizard explained trying to figure out what was going on.

“Oh, he said my wedding to Draco was a sure thing!” she whined.

“Who said that, Miss Parkinson?” Dumbledore delved just a bit more into her thoughts trying to figure out who was this mysterious person and the elusive thought that kept surfacing in her mind.

“It doesn’t matter. He said that once Draco was confronted with my pregnancy he would do the honorable thing and marry me to avoid the scandal.” Pansy stated firmly, “Well, I’m pregnant and he has to marry me.”

Sage launched at her daughter ready to slap some sense into her but Dumbledore held out his hand stopping her. He didn’t use magic, just his authority on this one, it was nice to know he could still command such respect.

“Child, is Mr. Malfoy the father of your child?” he asked gently, “because if he is not he could cause you some serious pain and on your child.”

“But you can talk to him, sir,” Pansy asked fervently not answering his question, “You can tell him to marry me and stop this whole inquiry thing. He won’t say no to you!”

“No, child, I can’t.” the elderly wizard was really sadden by how deluded the girl was, but there was nothing that he could do, she set herself up for a very rude awakening, “if anybody forces young Mr. Malfoy to marry you and he is not the father of this child, it is within his rights to kill it after the birth and you would lose your status as his mate. One dominant can accept to raise the child of another, but he can not be forced or fooled into it.”

Pansy could only stare at the Headmaster in shock. He was her last hope. She figured that since the Veela laws would protect the claim already made, the Headmaster being old and powerful would force Draco’s hand and coerce him into marring her because of ‘her honor’ was at stake, but now even him was turning her down, after all she had been through, after all she had done, all the risks she had taken…

“Tell me about the bracelet, Ms. Parkinson.” The headmaster demanded, his voice was still kind but it was an order none of the less.

“I don’t know what you mean, sir.” Pansy tried to avoid the question, but fear was clear in her eyes.

“What bracelet?” demanded Sage Parkinson. Her patience was quickly running out, didn’t the stupid girl realized that with what she was doing she would drag the Parkinson name in the mud? It could be the end of any social ambition for the family not to mention any worthy match for their youngest daughter, Violet.

“During the interview, Ms. Parkinson here placed a bracelet in Harry’s pocket just before he left the room,” Dumbledore explained pretending to know everything when in fact he had just seen a flash in the distraught girl’s mind and decided to go fishing for information, maybe with the right incentives he could direct her thoughts to what he wanted to know, he would only have to play his cards right to do it.

“It was nothing, a trinket,” Pansy tried to make them believe but her whole demeanor screamed that they had indeed stumble into something.

“Pansy Elisabeth Parkinson, you answer that question with the truth this time or so help me the gods I will see that you regret the day you set foot in this world.” Yelled Sage Parkinson at her infuriating daughter.

“Miss Parkinson, that bracelet was no mere trinket and you know it,” Dumbledore tried in a much calmer tone of voice, now that he knew he was in the right path the glimpse inside the girls mind were becoming clearer and much more detailed, “There is also the small conversation you had with Harry just before he left. It would help you situation a great deal if you came clean on your own before we had all the details through others.”

“I’m just doing what is best for my child,” stated Pansy trying to show more confidence than she actually felt at the moment.

“And the best thing for your child is to tell the true, Ms. Parkinson. Consider all you know about Mr. Malfoy and his family. Do you really believe they will accept another man’s child as their heir?” Dumbledore knew he was taking a risk saying the child was not a Malfoy since Pansy had not admitted to it yet, but he had the feeling their time was running short and he needed to do something about it.

“They will never do anything to cause a scandal,” Pansy stated firmly, that much she knew, the Malfoys would avoid any scandals as long as they could help.

“Like marrying a girl pregnant with another man’s child, you mean?” Sage Parkinson snapped.

“The Veela Council always makes sure that all submissives impregnated during the gatherings get married,” Pansy quoted, it was true and everybody knew it.

“Yes, and they cast every known paternity spell to make sure that happens,” Sage smirked at the utterly shocked look in her daughters face.

“Paternity spells?”

“You didn’t think anybody would take your word for it and that would be it. Did you?” Sage really could not believe how thick her daughter had turned out to be.

“What… what will happen to me?” asked Pansy with tears starting to run down her face, “what will happen now?”

“Well, the spell will tell the Council if the baby is Draco’s or not. If it is his, they will force him to marry you. If it’s not his baby, he will be free to marry whoever he wants.” Dumbledore informed her.

“The spell will not tell them who the father really is,” Sage Parkinson added in a more controlled tone of voice, it was time to get information out of Pansy if she wanted to save the family name, “is too soon for that, a spell used this early in the pregnancy will only compare the baby’s magic to the magic of another person and tell if they are related or not, but you need the other person present in the same room for that to work. To find out who the father is without testing a specific man for it, we need to wait until the baby is born.”

“But… but what will happen to me if Draco is not the father?” Pansy asked franticly. Dumbledore and Sage Parkinson exchanged a look and Sage answered.

“There will be a scandal, the Parkinson name will take a serious beating. If I know your father, you will be disowned and kicked out of the house, and Draco will marry Harry Potter just like he wanted to.”

“Child,” Dumbledore called softly, “There is only one way for us to help you now, you have to tell us everything. Let’s start with the bracelet you placed in Harry’s pocket, what was in it?”

“It was a confundus spell,” sobbed Pansy, “he said that it would be easier for my plan to work if Harry was out of the picture.”

Dumbledore paled considering all the reasons why somebody would want Harry out of the way. It could be Voldemort’s latest plan for all he knew.

“Who is ‘he’, Ms. Parkinson?” he asked.

“Ivanoff, he said he would help me get Draco.”

“Is he the father of your child?” Dumbledore asked.

“Yes, I went looking for him the night Draco claimed Harry. He had business with my father last summer and told me he wanted to marry again. I figured that if he married Harry he would take him back to his homeland and Draco would forget all about his claim… but Mr. Ivanoff said that we would need something else to convince Draco to let go. I had to be pregnant so the Council would force Draco to marry me.”

“And the bracelet?”

“I had to put it in Harry’s pocket so I could convince him to go to the forest retrieve the basket with potion ingredients he left in there. Ivanoff would go with him and claim him.”

“Is Harry in the forest?” Dumbledore asked picking up parchment and a quill to write down a note.

“I think so.” Said Pansy with tears still running on her face.

“You stupid…” Sage Parkinson could barely control herself, her daughter was pregnant and the father was probably on his way to the Urais right now with Harry Potter firmly held by his side and her family was on its way to social ostracism. “Who will marry you now? Who will marry Violet now? Did you really thing this would work? How stupid can you possibly be?”

“Now, now, Mrs. Parkinson. There is no need for that,” smiled Dumbledore after consulting the school wards for a moment, “Mr. Ivanoff has just returned from the forest alone and is heading for his quarters as we speak. Perhaps you would like a word with him before the Council is informed of all the details? I’m sure it will all work out in the end. Ms. Parkinson, I would like you to go to the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey will be expecting you to make sure all this commotion didn’t affect your baby. Go on now. I’ll join the rest of the staff in the entrance hall to search for Harry.”

Dumbledore walked with the two Parkinson women down the stairs and sent them to their destinations. After making sure that they were doing what he had suggested he hurried downstairs to meet with the others and share the news of Harry’s where abouts. Now that they knew where to search he hoped it wouldn’t be long before they found the boy.

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Harry had been only half watching the press conference, he was just too nervous to concentrate. He could see Draco sitting with his family and flashed from earlier that day kept popping in his mind. How did he let thing get so out of hand? How dare Draco use that ‘call’ or whatever it was on him? He needed to talk to Hermione about that, there had got to be a way to resist that like he could resist the imperious.

Someone brushed against him but he paid no mind. There was simply too much on his mind at the moment. Suddenly he noticed Pansy Parkinson at his side.

“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, “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.”

“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 and came to a halt just after he had passed the first trees trying to remember where he had the basket last. He knew he had it with him when he took off flying, he had been so shocked at the time that he forgot to let go of it. He had flown with it for about two minutes before a sharp turn made him drop it so he could hold his broom with both hands.

Confident that he knew where exactly he had dropped the basket, Harry entered the forest without a second thought and hurried to the place he believed his basket was with all the herbs he was supposed to collect for Snape.

After walking what it seemed to be the right distance in the right direction Harry began to search for it not noticing the fast approaching night. He jumped over some bushes and his cloak got caught pretty bad, forcing him to remove it in order to disentangle it from the thorns. A loud ripping sound told him that he was not being as successful as he wanted.

He saw a gold glint as something fell out of his pocket and bent over to catch whatever it was but a faint magic aura emanating from it stopped his hand.

“What the…” Harry blinked examining the object as close as he dared without touching it. There was definitely a spell on the golden chain that fell from his pocket, but how did it get there? And more important, where the hell was he and why in Merlin’s name did he think that going into the forest all by himself was such a good idea?

A howl sounded in the forest forcing Harry to spring into action. He had to go back to the school or find a safe place to spend the night at the very least. He franticly tried to remember if the moon was full that night or not. He was so not ready to face a werewolf alone in the woods.

‘No, the moon was not full’, he decided. ‘One less thing to worry about. Now all I have to do was go back… on a second thought, all I have to do now is find a safe place to sleep since I have no idea which way Hogwarts is and it’s already getting dark. Safety first.’

Harry decided when he noticed he had no way of finding his way back in the dark. Sighing in resignation, Harry began to search for a safe place to spend the night.