Chapter Text
Draco stood outside Dumbledore's office, he had been instructed to come here before any of his classes.
Draco swallowed, he was just a tad bit afraid, even though he had thought of every scenario and had thought of every appropriate response to it, but he was still nervous, his mind was just like that, starters like if plagued his mind, if Dumbledore had figured it out, then what? If Dumbeldore had come to his own conclusion, a completely wrong one, then what?
But he knew that it was unlikely.
Dumbledore had a habit of not asking people questions and just thinking of the answer himself, although he supposed this Dumbledore could be a bit different from the Dumbledore that he knew, Merlin he hoped he was, but at the same time he hoped he wasn't, Draco didn't handle change well, it messed him up, he had learned that about himself when he had found out that he was a Veela and that he was a Seer.
Speaking of Veela, Draco had decided that he wasn't going to take his suppressants anymore, they always made him feel horrible, like he was locking away a part of himself, like he was shaving off all of his hair and tucking it away in a drawer and putting a lock on it, it made him feel bare, naked, and he hated it.
He could see changes in himself already, his eyes had become more blue, like the sky on a sunny day, his hair had become more white and fine, and when he raked his hand through it, it felt like he was touching a cloud, his skin had become softer, like silk, and his teeth had become as white as paper.
But Draco knew that this was only a few of the changes to come, soon his hair would start growing madly, cutting it would be useless, and his voice would become 'as soft as silk' as people had put it, how one's voice could replicate a texture, Draco did not know, but he did have a faint idea of what it would be like, given the fact that he had heard his voice multiple times in his full Veela.
There were multiple advantages of this form, but the one that was most prominent for a eleven year old was that he could appear as a scared child in front of the older witches and wizards that would no doubt be inside the headmasters office, a boy who didn't know what was happening and what was going on with his body.
Draco cringed at the analogy he had made, had he just referred to himself becoming a Veela much like the sexual education teachers had taught puberty to them?
Draco held his breath as he walked into the office once again, almost two months after he had fainted inside of it, that thought brought another one into Draco's mind, he had stayed at the castle during Winter break, the first time he had ever done so.
"Professor." He nodded at both Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape who were standing beside Dumbledore, talking to him, all except Dumbledore seemed startled at the new voice.
"Draco, so glad you were able to join us." Dumbledore threw out his arms, the familiar twinkle brought a reluctant smile to Draco's face.
"Of course, Headmaster, if you hadn't called me down, I probably would have come here myself. Speaking of coming here, I had a question.." Draco let himself trail off and looked away, seemingly nervous (he was, but not about what they were thinking).
"Ask away, my boy." Dumbledore smiled.
Draco appeared to hesitate for a moment, before looking back at them.
"Things have been changing, with me, my hair's softer than ever, my eyes are more blue, even my skin's softer, what's happening to me?" All three of their eyes widened and Draco had to suppress a smirk, they had connected the dots.
"It would be better, if you took a seat, Mr. Malfoy." Snape suggested.
Draco did as he was told, but the other didn't sit down, had Snape made him sit down because he thought what he was about to tell him would be too much for him? A silly thought, even as an eleven year old he wouldn't think he would have, what, fainted, is that what they expected him to do?
"I believe that you are turning into a Veela." McGonagall spoke.
Draco appeared to look both shocked and mortified.
"A Veela? But that's not possible, Veela's are more commonly seen in females, and even then they're rare, most Veela's today only have 1/4 of the gene-" McGonagall lifted up her hand with a slightly impressed look on her face, maybe Draco shouldn't had spat out that bit of knowledge, but he couldn't help himself.
"Male Veela's are not uncommon, Mr. Malfoy, especially in families as old as your's." The others nodded along with her.
"I'm a Veela." Draco breathed out, as if testing the sentence out, as if trying to convice himself this was real.
Draco felt a bit of pride, they were believing him, he really was a good actor.
"Mr. Malfoy, this must be a tough time for you, but we have to ask, what do you remember from your vision?" Dumbledore asked, and Draco actually did have to stop, because what did he remember? He remembered flashes of things, most of them were jewlrey, except for a cup, Potter had mentioned something, but Draco couldn't remember, he barely remembered anything Potter had said, it was if the memories were leaving him, and he didn't like that.
"Jewlrey." He spoke truthfully, because he saw no advantage in lying and no consequence in telling the truth.
They all seemed confused, and Draco knew that he would have to explain.
"Flashes of Jewlrey, a golden cup, a green necklace, and a blue tiara." Yellow, Green, Blue, there was something connected to Yellow Green Blue-
The founders!
He didn't know what they had to do with this, but he knew that those colors represented the founders, there was nothing else that made sense with them, it was a stretch, he knew that, but it felt right, and when something felt right, he didn't ignore it.
But the ring, what was the ring, all he knew about the ring was that Dumbledore couldn't wear it, he couldn't.
"Fascinating." Dumbledore breathed out, he whipped out a peice of parchment and a quill and started writing with it.
"Anything else?" Snape asked this time.
"No." Draco kept his answer short, there were other things, yes, but they could figure that out themselves, there were other things that Draco had to figure out right now, like how the hell he would stop Quirell, he had forgotten about him in the haze of things, but right now, shouldn't he be doing something to stop him, how did Potter do it in his first year again?
Snape narrowed his eyes, a sign that the man suspected something, he tried to get Draco to look him in the eyes, but Draco wouldn't dare, he had kept his secret for so long, he wasn't going to let a bit of mind reading stop it.
"You are avoiding me." Snape was referring to his eyes. That caught Dumbledore and McGonagalls attention.
"Most people don't like having their mind invaded, Godfather." Draco snarled, looking down, that had come out harsher than he had intended, but he didn't care, mind reading was one of his hard limits, he hated it, it made him feel bare, everything that he had ever experienced was open, like a book, and he hated it.
"How do you know?" He wasn't referring to how he knew about the art of Occlumency, Severus had taught him about the art himself, he was asking how he knew that he wanted to look inside his mind.
"You can't stand not knowing things, and you do anything to make sure that you know the truth, but the flaw is that you don't trust anyone but yourself, well, you did trust me before, but that was broken when you realized that I had secrets, so, you use Legilimency to get the truth." Draco answered, there was no point in holding back, he was mad at Snape, Draco wasn't an eleven year old in mind, he knew that he was allowed to have his own secrets.
Snape looked at him, he was mad, but he didn't deny it because he knew that it was true, and so did everyone else in the room.
"I've told you everything that I know, may I leave now?" Dumbledore nodded and Draco got up, making his way to the door.
He felt Snape's eyes on him as he left
***************
"Draco!" Harry, Ron and Hermione were running up to him, well, Harry was running up to him, Ron and Hermione were running after Harry (when had he started referring to Potter as 'Harry'.)
Draco was in the great hall, everyone else had left and he was trying to get to his dorm, classes were over for the day and tomorrow he had tutoring with Flitwick, he wanted to study.
"No, Harry we can't tell him!" Ron whispered as Harry came to a stop right infront of him.
"No, you said it yourself, Ron, Draco's smarter than Hermione!" That caught Hermione's attention, as she stopped what she was doing and faced Ron.
"What?" She hissed, and Weasley recoiled, letting go of Harry's arm.
"Draco, we need your help, we think Snape's gonna steal something from the third floor." Harry whispered.
"Snape?" Draco said in a small voice, Severus was going to steal something this year, no, it couldn't be, he wouldn't, Harry must have gotten something wrong.
"Yeah, remember when you saved us from the Troll, Snape had a big scratch on his leg."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Draco hadn't seen a scratch, he was too busy worrying about getting caught.
The three looked at each other, what had they done without him?
"Well, we snuck out of our dorm to duel Nott, right? And we kinda bumped into a three-headed-dog." Harry's voice got softer as he went on.
As for Draco, he looked like a fish, opening and closing his mouth, thoughts and emotions reeled through his head, but two things stuck out,
1: Why the fuck did Dumbledore have a Cerberus in a school full of children?
2: Why did he feel worried for Potter?
If anything, he should be worried about Granger, but no, he was worried about Potter, because he knew his track record, absolutely no self-preservation this one.
The words were out of Draco's mouth before he even had time to process them, "Are you okay?" He grabbed Harry by the shoulders and looked at him, as if looking for wounds, even though he knew that there would be none, because this probably happened weeks ago, there would be no wounds, so why was he still looking.
"Draco! I'm fine." Harry looked like a tomato and Draco was even more worried, was Harry sick?
"Look, Snape tried to kill me during the Quidditch match-" Wait, Quidditch match? Had that happened already, he hadn't known, and wait, did he just say that Snape had tried to kill him?
"What?" He burst out.
"Remember, the match, we had asked you to come but you had said that you were busy?" Harry looked confused.
Was that what Potter was on about that day, he hadn't been listening, he was too busy with his prophesy work.
"Oh, yeah."
"Snape hexed my broom."
"Hex? But he wouldn't-"
Hermione interrupted him, "Draco, I know that you're close with Snape, but he's not who you think he is, I didn't want to tell you 'cause I knew that it would hurt your feelings, but you have to believe us."
Draco didn't, sure, Snape could be a prat, but he would never try to kill Harry (at least not in broad daylight).
"We need you to help us, we already went to Hagrid, and he let slip something about Nicolas Flamel."
Draco's train of thought crashed and burned, Nicolas Flamel, the Nicolas Flamel who was the man behind time travel, that Nicolas Flamel? How had he been involved in the golden trio's lives? Did he play an even bigger role than Draco had thought?
"See? He has his thinking face on, he knows something!" Harry smiled smugly at Hermione and Ron.
"I'm telling you Harry, I've searched the whole library and I can't find a single book that mentions hi-"
"That's because I have it."