Claimed

Authors Note: Many thanks to my lovely beta Alexandra. So I'm leaving for Philly today, and probably won't get a chance to post again until middle of next week. I hope you are all enjoying the stories and the cliffhangers wink. I hope I have lots of reviews when I get back!! I'm also working on another story (I know, I know) called Rivaling Affections, which is of course another Harry/Draco. I will most likely start posting it when I get back, so look for it mid-next week.

Chapter 8 Bonding

Harry found tea with his mother to be more awkward than ever before. It hadn’t started that way, but at her prompting, Harry told her how he felt about the current household situation.

“I’m in love with your son,” he had blurted, to which Narcissa had yet to answer.

They had sat in uncomfortable silence from that point on and by Harry’s estimation it had been nearly a half hour.

Finally she started to speak, and Harry took in an unnecessary breath and held it bracing himself for her damning words.

“Isn’t he your brother?” she asked calmly.

Harry let out the breath he had been holding, as it appeared she was not going to yell, and breathing was a fairly useless practice for him. He shook his head lightly. “I thought it would be that way, the same as it is with you and Lucius. In every possible way you are my parents. I thought it would be the same with Draco. I thought he would feel like a brother, but it’s not the same.”

He wished he could read Narcissa’s thoughts the way he could his father’s. It would make this conversation easier. As it was, his mother’s facial features were carefully schooled into a blank mask, giving Harry nothing to work with.

“I felt a pull to him the moment I saw him. In my human form I dreamt of him, they were… erotic dreams,” he added, and if he could blush he would have in that moment. I didn’t know who it was I was dreaming about until I met Draco, until I felt his energy call to my own.”

“You think my son is your mate?” she asked. Her voice was pleasant, but Harry’s otherworldly hearing picked up on fear and anger delicately intertwined into the sound.

Harry let his face show his confusion at her words. “I’m not sure I follow, mother. I feel that Draco and I are meant to be together, but I can hear in your voice that the word mate means more to you than that.”

She nodded demurely. “You are right. It means much more.” She sighed heavily and leaned forward, closer to Harry. “A vampire is like no other creature in the magical world, but they do carry similarities to others,” she began. He voice was soft and sweet and held no more tinges of malice or fear as she explained the things that Harry did not know.

“They are most closely related to we humans than any other creature. Their appearance, their instincts, their thinking and emotions are all very similar to our own. Their culture however, where love and marriage is concerned, is more closely related to that of Veela. Do you know much about them, Harry?” she asked.

Harry nodded. “I know a little. They are supposed to have an allure to humans,” he said.

“You have that as well,” his mother said, smiling subtly. “I think we are immune to it, for the most part, but even I can look upon you and see that you are more beautiful than an average human.”

Again Harry was happy for his inability to blush. “I’m afraid I don’t know much else about them, other than the way they appear to humans.”

Narcissa stood and walked over to Harry’s seat and knelt in front of him. “Harry, when a Veela comes into their powers they are pulled inexplicably toward the one person in all the world that they are meant to be with. They must be together or else the Veela will die, and when they find their mate, they are bound together for their entire lives.”

She shook her head lightly. “It’s a very serious thing, and such a strong bond, that even wizarding law protects the Veela and it’s mate. As a vampire, you have a similar call in your blood. Somewhere out there is the one and only person you are meant to be with, and your body, mind and blood will do anything to find that person, your mate.”

“And if I don’t? Or…” Harry hesitated to ask the question, fearing the answer. He knew he had his mate under this same roof, but what did it matter if Draco hated him.

“Or if that person refuses the bond?” she finished for him, knowing his worries like she knew her own. Harry only nodded. “Then, like the Veela, you will die. No one is sure how long it will take, but slowly it will drive you mad no to be with your mate and then your body will waste away,” she said, her voice heavy with sorrow and pain.

Harry nodded resolutely. “Do I have your permission to convince him,” he asked at last, letting it all sink in.

A single tear broke the surface of her glistening blue eyes and fell down her cheek. “I’m afraid I cannot give you that permission my son,” she sobbed.

Harry’s face fell. He thought his mother wouldn’t see him as a monster. He hoped she would be at the least tolerable of the bond, since they were all family and he thought she loved him. He nodded and stood, preparing to leave her and go back to his own quarters to think. He could leave and go out into the world. Maybe he was wrong, maybe there was a mate out there for him aside from Draco. Maybe what he felt for the younger Malfoy was only the effects from the blood after all.

“I will the leave the manor then. I would not wish for my family to witness my deterioration, or to fall victim to my inevitable madness,” he told her levelly.

He had only take a step away when his mother’s cool hand curled around his leg. “I do not wish harm on you, my son. I love you just as surely as I love Draco. I meant only that it is not my permission to give. Only Draco can make the choice, for it is a matter of life or death to him as well.”

Harry blinked and looked down at his mother’s tear strained face. “What do you mean?”

“The binding of mates requires a full merger of mind, soul and body. He must give himself to you completely and you to him,” she said vaguely.

“And how would that mean his death?” Harry asked, feeling as though he were missing a vital piece of the puzzle.

“As a vampire you are stronger than ten humans, Harry. With your magic and your other abilities you are indestructible. Draco’s not. His flesh will tear, his bones will break and his heart will fail if you try to complete the bond with him in his human form, and when he dies you will follow just as surely,” she cried.

Harry collapsed into his chair and remained still, the kind of still that only the waking dead could achieve. Narcissa’s words flowed over him like a river of molten lava, burning into every fiber of his being, sending every nerve ending on alert.

“So… in order to bond with him, I would have to change him,” he whispered. “I would have to make him into a monster like me?”

Narcissa nodded weakly and squeezed Harry’s leg even tighter. “You are not a monster, but yes, that is what he would be agreeing to,” she replied, cupping Harry’s face in her delicate hand. “Can you see why I cannot give you permission? It is not mine to give.”

Harry’s mind reeled and he felt like he might be sick, if that were even a possibility. “I won’t do it,” he said at last. “Draco hates what I am, even if I were to convince him to love me I couldn’t make him into something he despises so thoroughly,” he said, his voice thick with conviction.

A whimpering sob escaped his mother’s lips and Harry closed his eyes so as not to see the pain in hers.

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