Everlasting Bond

Chapter 20

(to @PanicDenverRyanRoss -- you thought I was joking, huh? Nope.)

Harry watched Draco leave, with some hesitance. He loved Draco, of course, but Draco had been getting more and more distant. Even now, Draco had seemed to hold himself back. Ron didn't believe it, but Harry had insisted that Draco was actually pretty affectionate when he wanted to, and he was.

But Harry had so much going on. Hell, with Sirius gone, maybe it was just Harry. His emotions had been out of whack for a while. As well as the "private lessons" Dumbledore had told him he'd be getting, and... everything.

"Harry?" came a cautious voice from the door.

Harry looked up. Ginny was standing in the doorway, hand resting on the doorframe. "Are you alright?"

Harry mustered a smile for her. "I'm fine, Ginny. Something's..." he faltered as he was about to add "bothering Draco" but decided that was personal. "Something's up with everything."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ginny asked, pushing herself off of the doorframe and making her way into the room.

"I don't know," Harry sighed, exasperated, throwing caution to the wind. "Something's bothering Draco, something up with Fleur--" Ginny made a face, "--and I feel upside down, even though the world's running as it usually is. Why?"

"Harry, you're an oblivious idiot," Ginny said simply, now sitting on the bed next to Harry. "Your godfather, the closest thing you had to a parental figure, just died. Your friends are probably keeping secrets from you, your boyfriend is definitely keeping secrets from you, the ministry thinks you're a lunatic, why wouldn't you be out of order?"

Harry gave her an impressed look. "Blunt honesty, huh?"

Ginny shrugged and grinned. "Got it from Luna." She adopted a serious expression once more. "But listen, Harry, give yourself some time to grieve. If you bottle it all up, things go wrong, and no one knows how you're feeling." She stood back up. "I'm not advising you to try to demand anything from anyone. But maybe open yourself up, and others will open up to you."

Harry watched her leave the room and smiled slowly. She was right.

***

Draco didn't know how to start this conversation, or even approach it, or even what he was going to say. You can't just charge up to someone and go "hey you're Veela? I'm Veela too! What a coincidence! I've been stalking you for weeks!"

But in the end, he just approached Fleur's room. He refused to call himself nervous, Malfoys (even denounced ones) didn't get nervous.

He knocked lightly on the doorframe, and as luck would have it, Fleur was in the room. The door swung open and Fleur looked at him in mild confusion. "Draco? What are you doing 'ere?"

Fleur, veela-wise, had no effect on Draco. He'd seen the effect that her constantly active "powers" had on Ron, and even Harry a little bit (which he was a little bit pissed at, but it was fine. He technically couldn't help it).

"I need to talk to you," Draco said bluntly. When she hesitated, he said, "I'm a Veela. Please, just let me in."

Her expression cleared immediately and she stepped aside and opened the door.

Draco stepped inside. The room was, in shape and size, not too different from the one he was staying in. There was one big bed, and there were mixed belongings everywhere. Makeup laid out over the vanity, which Draco internally raised his lip at. Draco didn't bother with makeup. He knew he was beautiful enough already.

Fleur took a seat on the bed. "What do you need my 'elp with?" she asked. "I zought you were already dating 'Arry? Is 'e not your mate?"

Draco faced the vanity and watched his reflection stared back at him, with eyes he forced a light behind. He knew that they were dead, but no one else seemed to. "Fleur... what if you had done something really, really horrible? Or agreed to do something like that? And your mate didn't know?"