The courting

Chapter 5. The feather

Draco POV

I was tired, but I needed to finish my paperwork before going into my basement starting to brow. I had taken off my shirt, so I could let my wings out, they felt itchy when I let them in for too long, and it felt refreshing after a day in my office.
I hoped Harry liked my present, and I wasn't too boring.

Harry had had an adventurous life, and I didn't want to be boring and uninteresting. I took much pride in my brewing skills, and I had heard some people talking rather bold about their plans with the son of the Dark Lord.
I hoped he opened my letter before something happened! 

When I was ready to leave my office, Heka came in and dropped the letter onto my desk.
The letter stated, that Harry was really happy about my present, but had sadly opened it a little too late, a charmed letter had already arrived him, but he liked my potion never the less.
He had also sent me the feather I asked about. 

I knew that it was early to request something from him, but my next present would hopefully make him feel good. I skipped down the stairs, the feather in my hand.
It was a long one, completely white. I guessed he had wings that pointed down. Mine were pointing upwards, to defend my mate and to attack anyone that wanted to hurt my family.

I started gathering everything I needed for the potion and started working. I came up with it some weeks ago, I tested it myself and it shouldn't hurt my soon-to-be mate.
I hummed while stirring the potion until it turned a light blue and I dropped the lavender in it. It was mainly for smell and colour, but nobody said that potions needed to smell bad! 

I added an egg into it for the consistency and stirred it five times clockwise. I needed to wait exactly four minutes, and then I would drop in the feather. With luck I could give him some comfort with my potion, even when I wasn't near him.
I slowly poured the creamy potion into a tube and put the lid on it. Now it needed to cool down and I could send the potion to Harry next week. I would send it earlier this time, so that mishaps like last time wouldn't happen. 

I went upstairs into my kitchen and started cooking. Most wizards and some Veelas think that housework is a chore and should be done by a house elf.
I was taught how to cook at a young age, and I really liked it. It was a good way to bond with my family and I it helped me with learning the principle about potions.
When I became older, I did it to calm down, as a kind of therapy. I flipped the omelette and let it fall onto the plate.
While I waited for my food to cool down, I cleaned the cooking area with a flick of my wand. As much as I loved cooking, I hated cleaning up. 

I sat myself down and started eating, imagining Harry sitting next to me and our children running around.

Harry POV

Neville had returned two days ago, telling me that he had solved the issue and the elders sent their best wishes.
We had been answering the letters of the suitors, and there were so many, the potion Draco made was running out. We had decided to use it on all letters, just to be sure, and Mother was still wondering what was in the potion. 

Neville had also suggested moving from the table onto the ground, so we would have more space.
Today was the 8th of August, and a lot of letters were coming in. Some suitors from last week sent their second letter, and all people that procrastinated sent theirs. They were either eliminated immediately for various reasons, or they got a negative remark in my booklet for waiting so long. 

But the most interesting letter was brought in by a grey big owl, who dropped of her letter and present in my lap and then sat next to Hedwig.
She was really early, I hadn't seen many other owls when she came in, so I decided to open her letter.
In the beginning, he apologized for being too late last time, that's why he sent Heka so early in the morning. He had sent me another bottle of the charm-and-potion-detecting potion, as he would do every time from now on, so I wouldn't run out of it.
He sent another present too, but he asked me to open it after finishing my work, to relax. 

He told me a bit about his house elf, Toppy, and his hobbies.
He told me to send me a letter tomorrow, if I am to respond to his letter, so I would know if I liked his presents.
I tossed the second present onto my bed, so I wouldn't forget it. 

But other men sent nice things too. 

One had sent a little set of old coins, representing his hobby of coin-collecting.

Father had told me, that he hadn't sent just any coins, but valuable ones too. I had again, got a charmed letter and Neville was quick to get it and sent it to the elders. He said to me, that the elders had now put a specialist on my chase, that would evaluate the value of the spell or potion (if it was amortentia, that isn't that harsh, or a binding spell, what will be punished harshly) and decided, what punishment the suitor should get, so that Neville didn't have to leave each time such thing happened. 

That remembered me of a question I wanted to ask Neville. "What did you do, that the binding spell didn't attach onto you?"
"Well, Harry. The elders have very specific rules about who has the ability to become an enforcer, and who doesn't. You need to be a submissive person, and until now, in the Longbottom family, no dominant was born. That is, so we don't start courting the Veela we are to protect and control. And we need to be bonded to someone already, so we aren't forced into a bond accidentally. There are other rules, like you need to be of age, done the training ecetera, but you get the point. There is nothing going to happen to me."
I nodded, but I still had a question. 

"But then, who is your partner?" 

Neville smiled and dropped a bit of the blue potion onto the next letter. "I won't tell you. Maybe I will invite him one day." Then he blushed and gave me the letter, after the potion turned clear.

After working a long time, I had let out my wings, they started feeling uncomfortable.
I need to ask Mother about that later. 

I plopped down onto my bed, and Neville sat next to me. He made a face and stood up again. "It seemed we forgot someone. Let's open it, and then we are finished."
I nodded and remembered Draco's present. I opened the little package.
There was a tube, like the one you would put shampoo in. There was a piece of parchment around it, and I unwrapped it. 

On the tube stood: Feather cleaning cream.
I opened the parchment and read it. Draco wrote, that sometimes, when the feathers of a Veela grow back, it starts getting really uncomfortable and even painful, when the new feathers try to push away the old and broken ones.
Then it would be time to pluck those out, and that was something that alone took up quite some time.
Normally, mates would do that to each other, and he hoped to ease my needs with this cream as long as I wasn't mated.
All I needed was a big towel or sheet to sit on, the cream and the instructions. Neville brought in a bedsheet and sat himself down behind me. He would follow the instructions while I read them out. 

"Take the cream and spread it evenly onto the feathers. Let that soak in. After some minutes, the feathers that are broken and behind saving will turn black. The ones that are still savable will turn grey. Then shake the cream bottle for half a minute and apply on grey feather to repair them. Black feathers should fall out 10 minutes after applying, Grey feathers should turn white again. If anything happens not accordingly, please wash off immediately with cold water."
We followed the steps and I felt ten pounds lighter afterwards, god was this cream great!

A/N: Thanks for reading and sorry that it took so long today! Don't forget to vote and comment!

MeineKeime