Legalities

"Yes, Professor? You wanted to see me?"

Hermione Granger was somewhat surprised to be called up to the Headmistress's office so soon after her graduation ceremony. But nothing could really dampen her spirits at that moment. Head Girl at Hogwarts, graduating with honors, she was on top of the world.

"Yes, dear, I think I have some rather...difficult news."

That got her attention, "What is it, Headmistress?"

Three days later Hermione arrived in front of a large, plain building with a suitcase in each hand. She was steaming angry.

The Wizard law had some of the most ridiculous and unreasonable decrees imaginable. For example, if a wizard or witch was the 'destined mate' of a veela, by law they basically became that veela's possession. Under pain of Azkaban. Dammit.

After all, no harm could come of it because veela would never harm their mate, right? Well, who says that taking the mate out of the life that they wanted isn't harm? Is preservation of magical creatures really so important?

But she had read and re-read the law, and coming quietly was really her best course of action. And so she arrived on the appointed day for the courtship. For the next two months she would be at the mercy of a veela, at which point she, under pain of Azkaban, had to allow bonding with said veela, at which point she would be at the mercy of said veela for the rest of her life. Why they even bothered with the courtship was a mystery to her.

On an intellectual level she knew that it wouldn't actually be as bad as all that, surely. Veela were supposed to desire the happiness of their mate on an instinctual level. But such knowledge was not going to make her any happier with the situation. She was pissed. That veela was going to get it. After all, there was no law against a mate slapping a veela. She'd checked.

She wished that she knew who it was. All she'd been told was that it was someone from her year at Hogwarts. It could really be anyone.

No time like the present to find out. She knocked on the door. A house-elf opened the door and grabbed her bags, disappearing with a bang of displaced air.

Uncertainly he poked her head inside. Seeing nothing but a clean, white entry way, she walked in, closing the door behind her. She entered a pristine sitting room where she was confronted by the sneering face of Draco Malfoy.

"Don't tell me you're the veela!" they exclaimed in unison.

They gave each other a look. "What?" again, in unison.

They both turned at the sound of a door at the end of the room opening. In strode a tall Italian boy with perfect dark curls, smooth olive skin, and deep brown eyes. A smirk was affixed to his sensual lips and his stance was full of casual authority.

"Blaise?!"

"Zabini?!"

His smirk widened, "I see you've both arrived, my mates."

Draco was the first to recover, "What's this about? You know I don't swing that way. If the mudblood's your mate, sorry. Good luck. I'm out of here."

The taller boy was on him before he could take more than two steps. He crushed Draco's lips in a punishing kiss, his tongue plundering the blonde boy's mouth.

"You're mine, Draco," Blaise reached down and cupped his crotch, "You aren't going anywhere. And you will never call her that again, do you understand?"

Draco had the look of someone who had had the rug completely pulled out from under them. "Y-yes, Blaise."

"Good boy," the veela purred, stroking his nearly-white hair approvingly before releasing him.

"Are you saying that both of us are your mate? A triad?" Hermione questioned incredulously.

Blaise turned to her with a smile, "That's right, my dear," he licked her cheek, "both of you are mine."

"Well, legally, but we don't actually have to do your bidding, Zabini. I checked."

His smile didn't falter. He wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her flush against his lean frame, "Legally you don't have to. But we veela have our ways."

Hermione snorted in disbelief. "One more thing, I might have been able to deal with a veela, but there's no way I'm going to be able deal with him," she pointed at Malfoy.

"Same goes for me," Draco added, sneering at the witch.

Blaise just smiled, "As I said, we veela have our ways."

Blaise soon bade his mates to go unpack and get themselves settled. He couldn't wait to start getting to know them better, mind and body. It would be some hard work on his part, but by the end of the two months his mates would have learned to function as members of a veela triad. Things would be difficult before then and they would force his hand, but he knew that this was the only route to their mutual happiness in the future.

Of course, he wanted to make this as easy on them as possible. He'd done a lot of thinking about it when he'd found out that he had two mates. Triads were rare and the magic surrounding them was nearly always very strong and complex. After consulting books and senior veela, he'd decided that the best way to go about the courtship would be to enforce triad behavior, and then give them time to get used to it. Forcing anything on two firecrackers at the same time would probably prove to be somewhat difficult. But it was nothing he couldn't handle. Probably.

Well, he'd given them a good half hour to settle into their rooms. Not time like the present to explain the triad to them. He started with Hermione. After all, at least she wasn't confused about her sexual orientation.

When he opened the door to her room, he found her seated at am armchair. She looked up, saw who it was, and scowled. "Good, I was about to go look for you to ask where my bed is."

"Our bed is in my room. This room is so that you'll have some personal space in the house."

The witch's jaw dropped, "By 'ours' I assume you mean, 'and Malfoy'? You can't be serious!"

She turned away from him in an apparent sulk. "Don't worry, my dear, I'll make sure Draco plays nice."

She whirled, "Draco? You're part of the problem, Zabini! You've destroyed my life and now you want to force me to share a bed with two men I hate? Fuck that! I'll sleep on the floor."

Blaise's eyes narrowed, "That kind of attitude will not be permitted, Hermione. In fact, I came here to talk to you about that. You don't seem to understand the situation at all. I have not destroyed your life. You have been destined to me; veela, and Draco; wizard since time and magic began. The current wizarding law happens to go along with the will of fate and deep, wild magic, but it is not the law that has bound you to me. I have not destroyed your life; this is your life."

His gaze softened, "This is the only way any of us will be happy, so as your mate I will enforce it."

"I have never been one to come quietly to fate," she informed him. "You can't force happiness on someone."

"Most people can't," he corrected. "But that's not what I came here to tell you. A friendly warning, challenging me is not allowed and will not go unpunished. As a veela, it is what I demand."

A smile played across Hermione's lips at that, "Be careful, Blaise. One day Malfoy and I might gang up on you if you continue like that, a friendly warning."

She found herself pulled up from her chair and, for the second time that day, flush against the veela. "And when that day comes," he whispered in her ear, "you two will be magnificent and I will win."

She turned her head away from him, "Don't be so sure. Fate really screwed you over by fating you the brightest witch and the biggest asshole in Hogwarts to tame. It's probably more than one veela can handle, and I for one will not be making it easy for you. I'll sleep on the floor."

She tried to disentangle herself from the Italian's embrace, but Blaise didn't allow it. He sat on her chair, bringing her down on his lap without relinquishing his hold.

"I'm not sure what you think...you're...doing..." Hermione trailed off as a rumble began deep in his chest, a sort of cross between a purr and a deep growl. As her back was held against his chest, the vibrations went through her strongly and she could feel herself relaxing with a supreme feeling of rightness. "...Damn you."

Blaise chuckled and nuzzled the side of her neck, "You'll sleep on the bed with Draco and me, regardless of what I have to do to to make it happen. It will be the most restful sleep for all of us, you'll see."

A few seconds later, the vibration changed. Hermione felt it with a gasp, it sent shivers down her spine and warmth pooled in her stomach. "S-Stop that."

"You're hardly in a position to be making demands, my dear. And anyway, I don't think you really mind it." He caught her chin in his fingertips and turned her head for a kiss. Hermione's eyes widened then fell closed as she began to kiss back.

He purred his approval against her skin and a smirk tugged at his lips as he pulled back. "You see? This is our life." He leaned his chin against her shoulder, "But now I have to go talk to Draco. Normally I'd invite you, you understand, but in this case..."

"I still don't like you and I still hate Malfoy. By all means, go away." Hermione was incredibly annoyed by the breathiness in her voice.

Blaise pressed a kiss to her cheek and deposited her on the chair, "I'll see you later then, Hermione. I love you."

The witch snorted in response as Blaise left the room. She was so cute when she was in denial. Next up, Draco.

"Before you say a word," Draco started before Blaise had even come into the room, "I'm prepared to stick this out until you realize that I am not fated to you, I'm just a straight man who's too attractive for his own good. I can understand why you might want to think that I'm your mate, but it's all wishful thinking, I'm sorry. That said, I'm going to wait patiently for you to figure it out. Refrain from touching me in inappropriate ways, I'm not into men."

"That's right, Draco; you aren't into men. I'm the only man you'll ever be into, and the only man that will ever be into you."

Draco twitched, but didn't comment, apparently still waiting for Blaise to figure out that he was mistaken.

Blaise leaned against a wall and observed his blonde mate, "Tell me, have you done any research on veela? Either after you heard that you're a mate or before?"

"Of course I have," the Malfoy heir replied. "Do I really seem the type to go into this kind of thing unprepared?"

"Then you know, you know that veela don't make that kind of mistake. How do you explain this blatant denial and rebellion?"

"It simply cannot be," Draco said, his expression adamant, but a trace of doubt in his voice.

The tall Italian stalked towards him, "Why can't it be, Draco? And don't give me that tired old excuse that you keep leaning on. We both know that it's a lie."

"Not a lie," Draco argued, warily backing away from the veela.

Blaise pounced, apparently tired of talking. His arm slid across the small of his back, pressing so that the blonde could feel the hardness digging into his hip. He attached his mouth to his mate's neck, right below his ear, and started to nibble and suck at his soft, sensitive flesh.

For a few moments Draco went back and forth between scrabbling for escape and leaning into the other man's ministrations. Then he went boneless in the veela's strong arms.

"That's right," Blaise purred. "Don't fight me. I require your submission."

"This is not submission," the blonde muttered, "this is an honest man under the effects of veela magic. You're a bad man for doing this to the pureblood heir of the Malfoy estate. I'll sue you later."

"You're forgetting something, my mate. My veela magic would not have this effect on you if you were not mine. And you have already declared its effect, already admitted it."

"I'm ignoring that," Draco said patiently. "I'm straight, so even if by some fucked up twist of fate I'm fated to you, it wouldn't work. I really am sorry, Blaise, you were a decent chap before the veela awakening fried your brain. Good luck with Granger, I'd probably commit suicide if I were fated to her. Leave me out of it."

"'Veela awakening fried my brain'?" the Italian echoed in amusement. "I could probably take offense to that and punish you for it, if I wanted to. What say you?"

As if for the first time Draco noticed the unsated hardness digging into his hip and the predatory gleam in the taller man's eyes. He visibly swallowed and, much to his mortification, found himself beginning to stir in response. He nervously pushed away from the veela, hoping he wouldn't notice. "That's enough of that. That just shows that I am not your mate because veela long for the happiness of their mate, so punishing me wouldn't make sense. And if I'm not your mate then the legal ramifications of--" He broke off with a moan as Blaise stroked him through his pants.

Blaise grinned wickedly, "The legal ramifications of what, Draco?"

"K-kidnapping and...and attempted rape..."

"Attempted rape? You think I won't succeed? And its hardly rape if you're begging for it. I don't rape."

"...I could sue you for everything you own and hundreds you don't."

"Actually, Draco," Blaise removed his hand from his crotch and pulled the smaller man back against him to nuzzle his neck, "All veela mate claims are thoroughly checked out by the Ministry before the mate even gets the summons for the courtship. You are irrevocably mine." He nipped teasingly, "So no one would take that case, and even if someone did you would lose. So be good, won't you? And don't worry, you'll be having sex with the third member of our triad as well, you won't have to entirely switch to men."

"Better a pureblooded man than a...Granger."

Blaise tossed his head back and laughed throatily, causing Draco to pout somewhat. "Still so hung up on blood purity? I'd hoped you might have outgrown it. No matter, you'll soon learn how wrong you are. The passion between the two of you will just as explosive as between either of you and me."

Again Draco pushed away from the veela, "Okay, I lied. You're just as bad as Granger."

This time Blaise let him flee. "You know, it's okay to want me, Draco. In fact it's encouraged, forcefully encouraged by...everything. And while your rebellion and denial is somewhat cute and amusing right now, it won't always be. I will demand your submission. So try to flow with the situation, won't you?"

The blonde didn't respond and Blaise turned to leave the room. Then Draco asked, "And where do they keep the beds in this house? Lazy elves forgot to put one in here."

"Oh, yes, I'd meant to address that..."

~*~

I had to go ahead and post this. There are three bazillion things I need to be paying attention to more than this, so this needs to stop bugging me.

For my Complications readers, I said that I'd tell you when I posted this, and I will, when I have time to finish the last chapter of that fic.

And yes, this may not fit exactly into Draco/Hermione, but the two of them getting together will be a large part of the fic. And I've seen other people put this threesome in this section and it applies, so... If I get complaints, I could move it, I guess.

But don't expect another chapter of anything from me for... Let's say two weeks. My life is very, very, very busy. After this next weekend things will start to calm down, but then I'll be recovering from the previous business.

So, what do you think? It's different from Complications, that's for sure. It turns out that I can do decent dialogue. Yes!