Magical Mesh

Magical Mesh

Chapter 2

Professor McGonagall marched them all the way to Dumbledore\'s office. Reaching the gargoyle, she snapped out the password. The passage opened to reveal the winding staircase, and the trio climbed the stairs. McGonagall turned and went back to the first years for their sorting.

Dumbledore looked up from his desk, when the three entered his office. \"It\'s a little early in the school year for you three to already be in trouble, isn\'t it?\"

\"We\'re not in trouble, sir. We need help with a problem, or rather Harry does,\" said Hermione earnestly.

\"Harry, would you care to explain what this problem is exactly?\" asked Dumbledore, watching the uncomfortable young man over his steepled fingers.

\"The Malfoys and Remus are acting extremely weird around me,\" muttered Harry, fidgeting slightly.

\"What do you mean by \'acting weird?\'\" asked Dumbledore calmly.

\"Weird as in they\'re trying to claim Harry as their own. Professor Lupin and Draco Malfoy were fighting over him in the entrance hall. Do you not consider that to be weird behavior for the two involved?\" asked Hermione, looking at the headmaster incredulously.

\"I believe that the Malfoys have veela blood, yes? And we all know Remus is a werewolf. They obviously believe that Harry is their mate. If Harry remains unclaimed, so to speak, they will continue to fight over him. And if what you say is true, then I expect I will receive a visit from Malfoy Sr very soon,\" said Dumbledore.

\"What do you mean if he remains \'unclaimed?\' Does that mean he just has to find a girlfriend?\" asked Hermione.

\"No, just having a girlfriend won\'t work. By claimed, I mean bonded,\" said Dumbledore placidly.

\"What?!\" cried Harry. \"I\'m never going to survive the school year.\"

\"Oh, Harry. You\'ll definitely survive the school year. I can\'t guarantee that Draco or Remus will survive, but you will,\" said Hermione helpfully.

\"Harry, I\'m going to move you to a private room. This will give you a safe haven from the attentions of your new suitors, and should you choose to bond with one of them, you will already have a room available,\" said Dumbledore. \"It should be ready by the end of the feast. I\'ll have Minerva show you the way. Now, off with you.\"

They walked to the Great Hall silently. Harry was happy that he got his own room, but he definitely could not say he was happy for the reasons behind the fact. Hermione was fascinated that Harry was the center of attention to two veelas and a werewolf. She actually couldn\'t wait to see what would happen. Of course, she\'d never tell Harry that. Ron was a bit jealous that Harry was once again the center of attention, but he wouldn\'t trade places with his friend for all the gold in the world. He couldn\'t stand the Malfoys.

They reached the Gryffindor table just as McGonagall concluded the sorting. Studiously trying to avoid looking at the Slytherin table and the professors\' table, Harry kept his head lowered and woodenly placed food on his plate. He ate almost mechanically, not really noticing what he put in his mouth.

When someone touched his shoulder, he almost choked. He\'d jumped and gasped, causing the food in his mouth to become lodged in his throat. Hermione jumped up and started beating on his back until he started coughing and shoving her away.

\"I\'m fine, Hermione. Geez, not so rough.\" He glanced at the hand still on his shoulder, and followed the arm all the way to the owner\'s face. He stiffened when he saw Lucius Malfoy standing behind him.

\"Mr. Potter, if you are done eating, I\'ll ask you to follow me,\" said Professor McGonagall, glaring at Lucius.

Nearly faint with relief, Harry stood abruptly, shrugging off Lucius\' hand, and gratefully followed his Head of House. McGonagall led him down a corridor he\'d never seen before and stopped in front of a portrait containing phoenixes and dragons.

\"Magical Mayhem,\" said McGonagall. She looked at Harry as the portrait swung open. \"Don\'t look at me like that. I didn\'t choose that password. You have Dumbledore to thank for that. Fitting, though, in your case.\"

Harry grimaced at that last comment and stalked past his professor. He stopped in awe as soon as he\'d passed the doorway. He was thankful to see no red or gold in sight. A Gryffindor he may be, but a lover of red he was not. Instead, the room was decorated in warm shades: creams, greens, and even blues. He loved it.

\"Wow. When you see Dumbledore, tell him I said thank you. This place is great,\" said Harry, still a little awestruck.

\"You\'ve only seen the common room. What if you hate the bedroom and the bathroom?\" she asked, smiling at his excitement with his new surroundings.

\"Then I\'ll sleep in this amazing common room,\" said Harry quickly. \"Who cares what the other two rooms look like. I think I\'ll be spending most of my time out here anyway.\"

\"Your belongings have already been placed in your bedroom. Here is your class schedule. I will see you tomorrow, Mr. Potter,\" said McGonagall, sweeping from the room.

\"I guess it\'s time to explore the rest of the place. I\'ll worry about Moony and Malfoy tomorrow,\" he said to himself. He went to the bathroom first. It was wonderful. The bathtub was as big as the prefect\'s bath, and there was a shower. The bedroom was just as impressive. The four-poster bed was huge. It looked big enough to fit three or four people comfortably. \"That old coot better not be trying to tell me something with this,\" he muttered to himself. There were several bookshelves lining the walls and a desk in the corner. \"This room is perfect, but the bed is going to swallow me whole.\"

Harry gathered his pajamas and went into the bathroom. He filled the bath with water and bubbles for the sole purpose of a long relaxing soak. He\'d had a very weird and stressful day. After soaking for about an hour, Harry managed to pull himself out of the bath, get dressed, and crawled into bed. He was asleep within minutes.

*****

Harry glanced at his schedule and groaned once again. Dumbledore did this on purpose; he just knew it. How else could he end up having class with Malfoy all day. He had Potion\'s class with the prat first thing this morning, and then Transfigurations. To add to his misery, Harry had DADA class with Lupin and Malfoy directly after lunch. He didn\'t think this day could get any worse and it had just started.

Harry hurried to the Great Hall for breakfast and sat beside Hermione. He thrust his schedule under her nose and waved it until she grabbed it from him. \"Look at that! That old man did this on purpose,\" he hissed furiously.

\"Harry! You shouldn\'t call the headmaster \'that old man.\' It\'s very disrespectful,\" she admonished quickly.

\"Disrespectful? You mean disrespectful like putting Malfoy in every one of my classes? Or like having to deal with Moony and Malfoy in the same class at the same time? Disrespectful like that?\" he asked sarcastically.

\"Oh hush, Harry. He\'s not doing this to hurt you and you know it,\" she said gently.

\"Okay, let\'s get Malfoy and Moony fixated on you, and see how you like it. They were fighting over me like dogs after the same bone. It\'s disturbing,\" said Harry, glaring at Hermione\'s dismissal of his worries.

\"I would probably enjoy it. It\'s not every day you have three gorgeous men fighting over you. It\'s like a dream come true,\" said Hermione dreamily.

Harry placed his hand on her forehead, checking for fever. When Hermione impatiently batted his hand away, he just slumped his shoulders and sighed. \"You do remember who the people involved are, right? Lucius and Draco Malfoy, bane of our existence for six years, and Remus Lupin, surrogate godfather. It\'s just wrong on so many levels.\"

\"Well, you have to admit that ever since you destroyed Voldemort, the Malfoys have mellowed out a bit. Draco doesn\'t pick nearly as many fights with you and doesn\'t try to get you in trouble anymore. Lucius has been different ever since his extended stay in Azkaban. And Moony is not related to you in any way. You hardly ever see the man, so you can\'t have that close a relationship with him,\" said Hermione, addressing each problem.

\"Whatever. I\'m going to class, even if it is just potion\'s class,\" said Harry resignedly, grabbing his bag and walking out of the Great Hall.

Harry had just passed through the doorway when he was grabbed from behind and pulled into an embrace. \"Hello, Harry. You ignored me during breakfast, and I just want to know why,\" purred Moony into his ear.

\"Hi, Moony. I was talking to Hermione about classes. I really have to get to the dungeons for potion\'s class, so do you mind letting go?\" he asked nervously. Remus was nuzzling his nose into his neck and breathing deeply again, and Harry was getting more and more nervous.

\"You smell so good, Harry. I could just eat you all up,\" growled Remus, licking across Harry\'s rapidly beating pulse.

\"Please let me go. I\'ll be late if you don\'t,\" said Harry frantically. Suddenly he was ripped out of Moony\'s embrace by an impatient Hermione.

\"Really, Harry. We\'ll be late if we don\'t hurry,\" she said, dragging him towards the dungeon stairs.

He looked back to see Remus glaring at Hermione\'s back before stalking up the stairs towards the DADA classroom. He turned back to Hermione and surprised her with a very grateful hug. \"Thank you, Hermione. You are a life saver.\"

Hermione just rolled her eyes and continued to lead Harry to the potion\'s classroom. The advanced class only had ten people, and at the start of the first class, everyone was assigned a partner. Harry knew for sure that Snape would never partner him with Hermione, but he hoped to at least not get stuck with Malfoy. Apparently the Fates and Snape hated him.

\"Get to a seat. I\'m assigning partners: Granger/Abbott, Boot/Parkinson, Bones/Zabini, Patil/McMillan, and Malfoy/Potter. We will be working on Veritaserum, so get to work,\" snapped Professor Snape.

Harry groaned silently and reluctantly moved to the seat next to Malfoy. He almost fell off his seat when Lucius Malfoy walked into the classroom. He looked up to see Snape\'s reaction to this intrusion and was very surprised to see him smirk in Harry\'s direction. \'What\'s he up to now?\' Harry wondered.

“Mr. Malfoy will be my assistant this year. If you have any questions, ask him,” said Snape.

\"Do you want to gather ingredients or start the cauldron fire?\" he asked, turning to Malfoy.

\"You get the ingredients,\" he said, bending down to spell the fire under the cauldron.

Harry thanked whatever deity had given him the reprieve from Malfoy\'s attention and went to gather the necessary ingredients. He was the last person in the storeroom, and patiently waited for the people in front of him to finish. He was reaching for the container of Jobberknoll feathers when he felt something brush against his back. He paused for a moment and saw an arm reach above him for the container he was after, pulling it down for him.

\"Is this what you were after, Mr. Potter?\" asked Lucius silkily.

Harry turned around slowly and found himself pressed against Lucius and the ingredient shelves. \"Yes, it is, Mr. Malfoy. Thank you for getting it down.\" He held out his hand for the container, but Lucius held it slightly out of reach. \"May I have it now?\"

\"For a price,\" said Lucius, smirking at the look on Harry\'s face.

\"And just what do you want from me?\" asked Harry quietly.

\"Everything,\" he purred into Harry\'s ear, causing a shiver to run through the Gryffindor\'s body. \"But I\'ll settle for a kiss.\"

\"Father, we need those ingredients now, if you don\'t mind,\" said Draco, glaring at his father from the doorway. \"We still have a potion to make.\"

Draco walked over to his father and snatched the container from his hands. He looked at Harry and asked, \"How many of these do we need?\"

\"Two,\" said Harry, trying to edge around Lucius and not succeeding very well. \"That\'s all we have left. The rest are on that shelf behind Mr. Malfoy.\"

Draco put the container of Jobberknoll feathers back in its proper place, grabbed Harry\'s arm, and pulled him away from Lucius. \"You take these. I\'ll get the rest of the ingredients.\"

\"O-okay,\" said Harry, walking out of the storeroom quickly. He got back to his desk and sat down shakily. That hadn\'t scared him the way he thought it would. He\'d been partly relieved when Draco showed up and partly disappointed. He saw Hermione\'s concerned look and gave her a reassuring smile. He looked up to the front of the room and saw Snape smirking gleefully.

“Here, set these out in the order they are to be added. Make sure you measure the powdered ingredients carefully,” said Draco, thrusting the ingredients into Harry’s hands.

Harry quickly did as asked, adding ingredients when asked to do so. Towards the end of class, Harry glanced shyly in Draco’s direction. He had some questions he wanted to ask him, but he didn’t think the blonde would actually take the time to talk to him. Right now the blonde looked extremely angry with him.

Draco was angry, as a matter of fact. He was angry at Lucius, Remus, and Snape. He was angry at Remus because that mangy werewolf had best keep his hands off his Harry. He was angry at Snape because he was trying to hand Harry over to Lucius to keep Remus from claiming him. And he was mad at Lucius because he could at least share. He’d seen the effect his father had on Harry. If he’d waited any longer, Harry probably would have kissed the man. Draco just wanted to be able to touch Harry like that.

“Malfoy? Class has ended and our station is already clean. Are you all right?” asked Harry tentatively, bringing the blonde out of his daze.

“What? Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” said Draco, picking his bag up from the floor.

“Malfoy, can I talk to you in private for a moment?” asked Harry uncertainly.

“Does it have to be right now? I have a class after this one,” said Draco impatiently.

“No, that’s all right. Never mind, it wasn’t important,” said Harry, edging around Draco and hurrying out of the room.

“Potter, wait,” yelled Draco, rushing to catch up with the Gryffindor. He didn’t quite manage the feat and now they were in the Transfiguration classroom. He did manage to grab Harry’s arm and guide him to an empty desk and force him to sit beside him.

Professor McGonagall walked in the classroom and stumbled in shock. She couldn’t believe that Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were sitting side by side and not fighting. She quickly righted herself and continued to the front of the class.

“Today we will be studying animagi. Not everyone has an animal form, but I can cast a spell on each of you to see if you have one or not,” said McGonagall. “Of course, even if you do have an animal form, not everyone can transform into that animal. Now, let’s get started.”

Professor McGonagall walked down the rows casting the animal-revealing spell one by one. She reached Harry and Draco and started with Draco. The spell revealed Draco’s animal form as a wolf. She then repeated the spell on Harry. He had a fox as his animal form. She moved on to Hermione and Ron. Hermione was a cat and Ron was weasel.

“I guess you took my nickname to heart, huh Weasel?” said Draco, snickering at Ron.

“Shut up, Malfoy. I’m just surprised your animagus form wasn’t a ferret,” said Ron angrily.

“Far from it, in fact. Just hope you never get in a fight in animagus forms because you all would lose,” boasted Draco.

“Harry could still beat you, even as a fox. He’s smaller than you are anyway and you never beat him now,” said Ron smugly.

Harry was tired of the bickering, so he stood as soon as class had ended and started for the door. He was passing through the door when Draco grabbed his arm and dragged him into an empty classroom. Harry finally managed to snatch his arm away from Draco, but Draco had already placed several silencing and locking charms on the door.

“What is your problem, Malfoy?” muttered Harry, rubbing his arm where Draco had grabbed him.

“You said you wanted to talk, so talk,” said Draco calmly.

“I also said never mind,” Harry pointed out.

“What did you want to talk about?” asked Draco, watching Harry pace across the room.

“Dumbledore said you have veela blood. Is that true?” asked Harry abruptly.

“Yes, as does my father,” said Draco casually.

“Does that have anything to do with your and your father’s weird attitude towards me lately?” he asked nervously.

“We haven’t been acting weird,” said Draco indignantly.

“Malfoy, you and your father tried to sniff my neck, saying that my scent was intoxicating. Then your father tried to get me to kiss him in the potion’s storeroom. As far as I know, you two have always hated me, but now you act like your fighting to win me. I call that weird,” said Harry.

“You know, most magical creatures sense their mate by scent. Some creatures can only procreate with the one they sniff out as their mate. Veelas can procreate with anyone, but we only have one true mate. This mate is the only one we can recite the bonding spell over to tie us together. Werewolves are a lot like veelas where mates are concerned, but they don’t necessarily have just one true mate. They have several potential mates, and they choose the best one suited to them. Once they choose a mate, they mark their mate, binding them together,” explained Draco.

“So what you’re basically saying is that Moony thinks of me as a potential mate, but he may have someone else who would suit him just as well. You and your father believe me to be the ‘true mate’ to your veela sides?” asked Harry, still a little confused.

“You are our true mate, but we don’t have to bond with you. Father was married to someone who wasn’t his mate and sired me. I could marry anyone and have children even though you are actually my mate,” said Draco.

“Okay, so if both of you can still marry anyone you choose, why are you acting differently towards me?” asked Harry.

“I said we could choose someone else. I didn’t say we wanted to. I’ll warn you now, we will do whatever it takes to claim you,” said Draco with utmost seriousness.

“Why? Before now, you both hated me. Why would you choose to bind yourself to someone you dislike?” asked Harry.

“Once the binding is assured, we won’t be able to do anything other than love you with all our heart and soul. Why would we choose you? Harry, you’re powerful. Any child of this union, and yes a powerful wizard like you is fully capable of bearing children, would be equally or more powerful. Not to mention you’re gorgeous and smell delicious,” said Draco, moving closer to the bewildered brunette.

Harry didn’t realize Draco had gotten so close until he turned to ask another question and found himself nose to nose with the blonde. Draco quickly took advantage of the closeness, and captured those delicate pink lips. When Harry gasped in surprise, Draco swiftly swept his tongue into the warm cavern, exploring delightedly.

Harry had just started to respond when he heard the door open and a voice say, “I can’t believe you got to him first. Move out of the way. It’s my turn.”