Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Fairest Creatures	By : Lomonaaeren Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Draco Views: 22177 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am making no money from this story.

Chapter List
- 16
- 17
- 18
Thank you again for all the reviews!

Chapter Seventeen—Partner Flying

            “I wished to speak to you, Mr. Potter.”

            Harry found himself standing taller than he had in years as he watched Testig move across her classroom towards him. His wings were raised, too, and he hissed before he thought about it, a sound that rattled in his throat like he’d swallowed bronze.

            Testig paused and studied him. For the first time since he’d met her, Harry could see no emotions in her face. No contempt, no understanding, no pity. Nothing but smooth skin and fixed eyes.

            Maybe thestare was a sign that she was afraid of him, after all, Harry thought. His wings bounced up and down, and he hissed again, and he saw, this time, the subtle motion of her throat as he swallowed.

            Harry managed not to toss his head and screech in triumph. He restrained himself to a calm, “Yes?”

            Testig looked off to the side and muttered something, then turned back and said, “As far as I am concerned, the duel settled all scores between us.”

            “The way it was supposed to,” Harry said. It was something Draco had explained to him in more detail after their bath together.

            Harry quickly banished thoughts of the bath. The last thing he wanted to do was blush in front of Testig. She might revert to her old self if she saw anything that she could pick on him for.

            “Yes.” Testig lifted her own wings. “Some people might say that I should seek revenge on you for the way that you treated my dignity during the duel.”

            “But not you,” said Harry, feeling the anger creeping back up his throat. He might honestly hiss if he waited longer. “Because you’ve given up all the grudges against me. Because you know that I can’t help not knowing Veela customs when I wasn’t raised as a Veela and never tried to transform into one.”

            Testig paused, with her face going blank again. “Yes,” she said, and her wings folded down against her shoulders. “Of course it would be unfair to blame you for that.”

            Harry grinned a little. He knew he probably shouldn’t push her during class, because that would mean she would have even more temptation of losing her temper and letting it affect what she taught him, but he couldn’t resist now. “What did you think I would really do during the duel, when I had no idea of the rules and couldn’t fly as well as you?”

            “Lose.”

            Harry blinked and reared back before he thought about it, his wings beating. He grimaced and stilled them. Sometimes he despised how his wings gave away what he was feeling. Draco claimed it was natural and a means to let Veela know about each other so there wouldn’t be fights or misguided matings, but Harry just thought it was annoying. “But why would I, when I had other options?”

            “I didn’t expect you to know or explore those other options.”

            Harry shook his head slowly, eyes locked on Testig. “You know, you keep telling me how horrible it is that I don’t pay attention to Veela customs and so on, like I should have been doing it even before I changed—”

            “That would have helped you now.”

            Harry ignored that, too, and continued. “But you cost yourself something by ignoring the news outside your little Veela world, too. Otherwise, you would have known what a good flyer I was, and you either would have picked some other way to fight or not been all that surprised when you lost.”

            Testig cocked her head to the side and ruffled her feathers up so her wings surrounded her head like giant fans. Harry bit back a giggle that he knew would have been unfortunate, and looked as earnest and unaffected as he could. Testig put her hands on her hips and gave him a long look, then nodded.

            “Perhaps you are right. I do hope to see more of an effort in my class from now on, Mr. Potter,” she added, changing the subject fast enough that Harry stood there, blinking. “Since you understand the ways that you can subvert and work against the Veela rules, and you already have a mate, you should learn the subject I teach with ease.”

            And she gave Harry a little bow, with her wings flared out around her to make it more dramatic, before she left the room.

            I think that’s a good thing, Harry told himself as he slowly walked after her. I mean, it’s good that she respects me now and I’m not going to have to fight her again.

            But I think she might use this to tease me. That’s…not great.

*

            “We are going on to our next subject today,” said Professor Helios, turning in a slow circle with his wings raised as if he wanted to show off the bars of color on the undersides that meant he was mated. “Flying in pairs.”

            The young Veela, Lily, who had been Harry’s partner in the beginning class, immediately raised her hand. “But how can we do that if we’re not mated?” she asked in a faintly horrified voice.

            “You don’t always fly with your mate,” said Helios, and reached out with one wing to touch the wing of a female Veela standing next to him. Harry supposed she must be an advanced student, because she nodded and moved around to face him. She had silver hair and blue eyes, like most of the Veela, so Harry wasn’t sure if he’d already met her. “We also fly in battle and to create beauty. Like this.”

            He lifted from the floor like a huge butterfly, so simply and naturally that Harry was left to blink at his back, not anticipating the movement. The other Veela followed him, and they swooped and swirled around each other. Harry had to blink and lift a hand over his eyes. Even though they weren’t outside, the lights of the classroom flashed from their hair and wings like sunlight from polished silver.

            They were beautiful in flight, Harry had to admit, even as he stared at them and resisted the urge to gape. Helios turned to the right, and the Veela woman turned to the left, complementing him, making it look for a second as if the two of them were two halves of an enormous wheel. Then Helios turned and dived towards the floor.

            Harry realized he was holding his breath in anticipation of the Veela woman following Helios, and making some sort of twin pattern, or maybe a rainbow one. Instead, the Veela woman held out her hands in front of her, arms exactly straight, voice moving in a soft chant.

            Silver sparks cascaded from her fingers. Harry found himself tensing reflexively, thinking they were going to turn into a swan, and then relaxing as the sparks turned into a tensely hovering bridge instead, shooting out like silver ribbons to coil around Helios’s ankles.

            Helios turned, smoothly revolving in mid-air, and held out his own arms. The sparks broke in two, the ones coming from the woman’s right hand staying around his ankles, but the ones from her left hand moving to encircle his wrists.

            The class gasped and clapped. Harry found himself doing the same, although he used his hands instead of his wings. It still didn’t feel natural to bring them forwards like that and slam them against each other.

            But Helios and the Veela woman didn’t turn around at the soft applause, or the loud sound that Harry’s hands made in the middle of it. They spun and danced opposite each other, hands and ankles bound, singing in high-pitched voices that Harry only now heard. Had the chanting turned into that? It was so high-pitched it didn’t even sound like birds, more like bees singing or someone running their fingers along the edge of a wineglass.

            Not that they’d probably like it if I compared them to that. It’s too Muggle for that—

            The chains of sparks suddenly broke, and the Veela woman dived down to join Helios after all. He spun around in circles, holding his arms around her in a mostly-open ring but never touching her, while the woman turned on her heels in midair, constantly hovering, her wings beating in hard, complicated patterns Harry had never dreamed of achieving.

            It lasted until Harry thought his lungs would hurt from holding his own breath; then the Veela woman landed with a hard bump on the floor. Helios followed her down, still not touching. He lowered his arms and gave a series of gasps of his own, head bowed, hands braced on his knees, until he looked up and smiled at the rest of the class.

            Harry noticed that he still didn’t try to speak until he got his breath back, though.

            “Thank you, Maggie.” Helios inclined his head to the Veela woman and moved back a step for a deeper bow. Their wings still didn’t touch one another’s, Harry noticed. Maybe that was a special thing that was reserved for when you flew with your mate. “Now, the rest of you.” He faced Harry especially and looked at him. “It’s harder when you have a mate and you’re a new flyer. There are instincts in you that only want you to cooperate with your mate.”

            “And what’s my mate’s reaction going to be like?” Harry muttered.

            Helios stared for a second, then waved his hand. “Oh, Mr. Malfoy sought to become a Veela of his own free will, which means he knows many more of the rituals and customs. The way he knew about the duel,” he added pointedly, when Harry looked at him. “He’ll understand.”

            Harry privately thought that Draco was less likely to “understand” when it came to his mate flying with someone else, but stayed silent.

            “Now, Harry and Lily, I think,” said Helios. “Arguably you’re the more experienced flyer, Harry, but this is with wings and not brooms. And Lily’s inexperience means that she won’t feel as much like a potential mate.”

            She’s less likely to make Draco jealous, Harry translated in his head, and turned with a faint smile to face Lily Gamble. He could wish she didn’t have the same name as his dead mother, but that wasn’t her fault. “Ready?” he asked.

            “No,” she whispered.

            Harry had to smile. No, he didn’t think she was, but then, neither was he. And if he didn’t create some kind of beautiful pattern with Lily, then Draco had even less reason to get jealous.

            He held out his wings. “Let’s not try any of the tricks they did,” he said. “Let’s just try to fly and stay within a few meters of each other, okay? That would be good enough for me. I’m not used to flying with a partner.”

            “Even in Quidditch?” Lily looked at him in a way that made Harry certain she had heard he was good at Quidditch.

            “No.” Harry shook his head and smiled at her. “I was a Seeker, and the Seeker has to dodge the Bludgers. The most I could rely on was our Beaters being good enough to hit them all away from me!”

            Lily laughed softly, and relaxed with a flex of her wings. “All right. Do you want to take off first, or should I?”

            “You should make every effort to take off at the same time,” interjected Professor Helios, who had paused behind them.

            “But not until we’re more experienced flyers,” said Harry blandly, making Helios look at him. “I mean, we would make things look ugly until we were really good at it, with some more practice. Isn’t our purpose to assist in creating beauty?”

            For a moment, Helios’s eyes were so bleak that Harry found himself tensing, his wings bearing down against his body. He knew he would have to defend himself if Helios attacked.

            But then Helios raised his eyebrows a little, and nodded, and something like a faint smile skittered over his mouth. “A good justification, if nothing else, for your actions, Mr. Potter,” he said quietly, and went on.

            “I’m glad you stood up to him. I don’t think I would have wanted to try anything like he and Maggie did at first!”

            Harry laughed at her and spread his wings, making a half-circle because it was the simplest thing to do and wouldn’t intimidate Lily. “Neither would I! Come on.”

*

            “I heard you flew with someone else today.”

            Harry blinked and glanced up. There was a tone in Draco’s voice that he’d never heard before, and didn’t fit with the quiet they’d both experienced, drowsing in the thick shadows of Draco’s room. He had a huge window that admitted enough sun to warm up Harry’s feathers. He was starting to understand why Veela enjoyed sunbathing in an entirely different way than humans.

            And Draco hadn’t said anything about Professor Helios’s lesson for the entire time that they’d been lying in his room and now and then touching wings and sunning their feathers. Harry wondered what had brought it to mind now.

            He rolled on the bed and sat up. Draco continued to lie still with his eyes closed. Harry frowned at him. Draco didn’t open his eyes.

            And he didn’t speak again, either. Maybe Harry had only imagined the upset tone in his voice. Maybe he didn’t care that much about Harry and Lily flying together, and it was just something he wanted Harry to know he knew about.

            Then Draco turned his head and opened his eyes, and Harry flinched back from the light gathering in his gaze, like the light in the gaze of an eagle getting ready to dive on prey. No, Draco wasn’t upset. He was jealous.

            “Did Professor Helios tell you that partner flying is only reserved for mates?” Draco whispered. He knelt up, his wings spreading out around him, a brilliant silver glitter leaping from the primaries. Harry had to wince and turn his head away, which was less than ideal for a confrontation.

            “It can only be certain kinds of partner flying, then,” Harry snapped. “Because he flew with a woman who isn’t his mate, a woman named Maggie, and he paired up a bunch of different people in the classroom. They can’t all be mates.”

            Draco remained still for a moment. Then he moved forwards on his knees. Harry heard him doing it, and the aggressive rustle of his wings around him. Harry continued to keep his eyes closed and his head bowed. He didn’t want his eyes assaulted by the light springing from Draco’s feathers.

            “Harry, look at me.”

            It took some courage, but Harry managed. Draco reached out with a hand that had grown short, soft talons and took his chin, turning it back and forth as if looking for marks of lies or stains that Lily or Professor Helios might have left.

            “You don’t feel anything for this woman you flew with?” Draco traced delicate fingers around the edges of Harry’s eyes, and Harry shivered a little. The touch was gentle enough to tickle, but that wasn’t the main reason. He knew that, two days ago, he wouldn’t have trusted Draco enough to let him do this. Their time together in the bathtub and the kisses after the duel had helped a lot.

            “I feel sorry for her. She’s so young, and she doesn’t understand even as much as I do.”

            Draco paused. “That’s strange. There were no other accidental transformations who entered the school recently.”

            “Well, maybe she wasn’t as prepared for it as some of the others, then,” Harry had to concede. “But, well—she needs help, and she has the same name as my mum. I can’t help but feel sorry for her.”

            Draco’s wings flared open and fell back on the blankets, making him look as if he was covered in a huge shawl from the waist down. Then he nodded slowly and muttered, “I couldn’t believe it when someone told me that Professor Helios was having you practice partner flying.”

            “I don’t understand why, though,” Harry took the chance to say. “He was doing a lot more complicated stuff than Lily and I could ever hope to, and it was with a woman who wasn’t his mate. So why would he teach us something that was—inappropriate?” It was the best word he could come up with, when he didn’t know how much of a crime this was by Veela standards.

            “It’s not really inappropriate,” Draco said, when he appeared to have calmed down a little.

            Harry stared hard at him. “Then you don’t have any right to get jealous, do you?”

            Draco sneered at him. “Don’t talk to me about rights. It’s appropriate to fly with Veela who aren’t your mate when you’re in battle, or creating beauty. But you should only fly with your mate for pleasure.”

            “And what about when you’re in a class?”

            Draco scowled at the wall.

            “Draco.”

            “Fine,” Draco muttered. “It’s not inappropriate. But I was waiting for you to tell me about it, and…” He hesitated.

            “And what?”

            Harry wondered if he was being too confrontational when he saw Draco wince, but frankly, he couldn’t care right now. He had to get this out in the open between them, and know exactly what the boundaries between them had to be, if he was going to be a good mate for Draco.

            “Fine,” Draco said again. “Professor Helios told me outright that he doesn’t know how strong our bond is. So he’s going to be testing you by putting the two of us in situations that skirt the boundaries of propriety and seeing how we react.”

            Harry choked a little. Then he said, “Well, I’m glad you told me that. It wouldn’t have been a good sign if you’d kept it to yourself. That would have said you trusted him more than me.”

            Draco glanced at him with shimmering, vulnerable eyes. “But you didn’t tell me about partner flying.”

            Harry shrugged. “You didn’t ask me about Professor Helios’s lesson, and I don’t think Lily and I did it that well, even though we tried. It didn’t occur to me.”

            Slowly, Draco nodded and reached for Harry with a wing again. Harry nuzzled his cheek against it and chirruped when Draco would have withdrawn.

            “So we’re okay,” Draco breathed, as though he was stepping out on a wobbly plank over water.

            “We’re okay,” Harry repeated, and touched Draco’s cheek. He kept his fingers there until Draco kissed him.

*

            SP777: Thanks! What kind of bird was it?

            CareLessLover: Thank you!

            Skybee: Thanks. Well, this story gives me an excuse to describe things like that. ;)
- 16
- 17
- 18
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Fairest Creatures