The Fall of Darkness

Chapter 14

Harry stood in the closed doorway, his eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness.

"can I come in?" he asked, spotting Draco laying face down on the bed.

"I already told you to go away, leave me alone. Why ask? You're already here." Draco mumbled. Realizing Draco might have something to say that he wouldn't want the other Veelas to hear, Harry cast a silencing charm on the room. "Thanks." Draco mumbled, waving his arm. Harry laughed and crossed the room, sitting on the bed next to him. He glanced around, of course, this room was done in all black and silver.

"you wanna talk about it?" he offered. Draco just grunted. "she's a part of your brood, Draco..."

"No, she's not. I'm about to go out there and discomunicate that bitch. Calling me her Caput, how bloody rude." Draco snapped, rolling over.

"Leader right? So you're the leader of the brood?" Harry asked, leaning back on the headboard. Draco stared and Harry shrugged, "did a bit of reading before we got the report of the fire."

"How scholarly of you," Draco said, sneering a little.

"Don't be angry with me, I didn't do anything."

"You nearly got yourself killed," Draco retorted.

"So? I do that all the time," Harry said teasingly. Draco glared at him in response. "so you're not going to talk? Go talk to her? I assume Neville is her chosen..."

"He is. I never thought he'd approach her, but he must have."

"People change," Harry shrugged, "I'm sitting on Draco Malfoy's *bed* trying to talk about his *feelings* in *his* house. Not killing each other. We *cuddled* last night for the love of Merlin. People *obviously* change. Neville played a big part in the war, you know."

"I'm aware. I was there too." Draco said with a sigh. They sat in silence for a moment before he spoke again, "it was hell, you know. Living in that house with Voldemort and people like Bellatrix LeStrange, and Father. Millie was there too, suffering right along with me because of her own Veelan blood line. The night they ripped my wings from me, she dove in front of me- taking the curse first. I couldn't move, couldn't do anything fast enough to save her wings. I just had to watch. Then they took mine. Bellatrix and Father laughed and laughed."

"I'm sorry Draco, they really were beautiful. With all that silver in yours and all that gold in hers, that's kind of a neat pairing," Harry said, trying to ease the tension. Draco snickered,

"we used to say the same thing. We laid in the bed that night, sobbing actually. That's when we decided we'd never expose ourselves to our Chosen, ever. We swore a pact on our lost feathers that we would only accept them if they came to us. You can see with Neville how unlikely that was. Mine certainly wasn't about to do it. We would just stand back and guard them, watch them all their lives- assuming they lived past the war, and they did. We would gather our own brood of discarded and broken sort of Veelas and buy a house. When our Chosen eventually got married and had little babies, we'd look out for them too. That was the plan. That's why she was outside of Hogwarts, for him. So, when we began our brood it was Millie and I, and then Blaise and Hestia were next, they found each other the night Voldemort changed them. Very romantic, but, because they had no Veela lineage, we wanted them too, more broken creatures. The last two and first to go were McCain and Pansy. She's still out there... somewhere. Of course Mother and Kestral joined as well. Kestral is a bit of a junior member, not allowed to do anything but belong."

"But now she's with her Chosen, has her wings back... aren't you happy for her?" Harry asked quietly. Draco snorted.

"I'm happy for her, sure. As a Veela, it's fantastic. As her friend, she betrayed me, broke our pact. Now our once powerful and dangerous brood of eight amazing Veelas, is down to the three most broken ones. The child, who's witnessed her parents death and grew her wings all too fast, Mother- who refuses to even find out who hers is, and me, who won't go to them. It's pitiful. So, the friend in me is just bitter and angry at Millie."

"You know, you're really not that bad. Maybe your chosen would accept you, Draco. If you tried. You never know."

"No, I treated them terribly as much as I did you and your friends."

"Why would you do that? Did you not know?"

"I knew. I did it on purpose. I always knew. Voldemort knew. He would have held me captive till they came for me and killed them. Couldn't allow that."

"What's your excuse then? Our relationship has changed. Hell, even Ron sorta likes you. The war is over, Voldemort is gone. If we can fix this, you can fix that. I never noticed you being angry and argumentative with anyone but us- did they go to school with us?"

"Nice try Harry, no answer." Draco laughed, "besides, there's a big difference in 'hey, let's be friends' and 'hey, we're supposed to spend the rest of our lives together and such'. That's a bit of a frightening thing to hear come out of my mouth."

"Well, I'd hope you'd be a bit more eloquent than that!" Harry laughed.

"Of course! I would still be denied though, the chance is too great to risk the broken sort of misery that comes with that. I've even gone as far as considering dating other people, moving on as well as I can."

"Do you think you could do that?" Harry asked, sitting up and staring at the blonde.

"I think I could try, might as well. It's better than always being alone. Mother will eventually pass away and Kestral will be gone off doing her own thing, probably building her own brood after school. Millie..." he ended the last sentence in a growl.

"She came to see you, Draco, she looked heartbroken when you stormed out." Harry said softly.

"I don't care, she can sod off. I'm too tired, too angry still... I don't think I need to be alone around her and there's a lot that needs to be said-"

"I could stay with you if you'd like, emotional support or whatever. I can't imagine not making up after a huge row with Ron or Hermione, surely you want to be friends."

"I guess I do. Fine, I'll talk to her. Without him. You'll stay?" Draco asked, crossing his arms over his chest. Harry nodded. "Fine. Will you get her? I'm afraid I'll cut her if I get up." Harry nodded again and went to the door, telling Millie to come in. She did, instinctively leaving Neville behind and closing the door behind her.