Full Summary – Harry Potter is the mate of Draco Malfoy, Hogwarts' first veela in years. Why is Harry in such bad shape? The Order of the Phoenix is not at its best and the war is just around the corner. How will Harry defeat the dark lord in these conditions?

Pairings – (Draco)x(Harry)(Blaise)x(Hermione)(Ron)x(Pansy), & (Sirius)x(Remus)

Warnings - Friendly!Slythreins, Evil!Dumbledore, and boy love.

Rating– Really I honestly don't know. For now M-rated. We all know how Veela fics can go. ;D Bow-chicka-bow-wow.

Author's Note – When you only have yourself checking over your own work you tend to miss the fine details. D; Give me a break, or be my beta. I'm busy as hell right now, sorry guys. I hope I didn't wait too terribly long to post this chapter up and loose some readers. The flu going around my hometown sucks, big time, just so you know. I'm going to post this without rereading it for the third time, so if you see something that is confusing or wrong tell me and I'll fix it…later. Hopefully chapter four will be out in a week and a half or so.

The Red String That Binds

...Chapter Three...

Rare

Harry could feel that something was off. Thankfully, the pain he had been feeling for what seemed like eternity was mostly gone and he could tell that he wasn't on the train anymore, if the comfortable place he was currently in was anything to go by. Yawning he tried to push himself up from wherever he was resting but was met with resistance. He groaned a little but gave up quickly; he was too sore and tired to fight.

The first weird thing to happen, besides not being on the train anymore and not knowing how he got off, was when he opened his eyes his vision was blurred. He slid a hand up to his face and yes he was wearing his glasses. So, why was his vision so still very impaired? He took off his glasses in question to see what could be wrong with them only to find that he could see just fine without them.

"What the…" His voice was low and a bit scratchy from not being used for a while. All the while the black haired boy was being oblivious, Draco and the headmaster watched in silent curiosity. Blue eyes had watched green open slowly and the veela's heart melted at the sight of the slightly stretching and cutely yawning mate in its arms. Harry tried a second time to get out of his position of what his mind was quickly clearing to notice was in fact somebody's lap. Draco gave him a little room to at least sit up completely. Harry looked slightly up to see that he was in fact sitting on a certain someone and not just any old someone.

Shock.

Utter shock was his response at seeing that he was sitting in Draco Malfoy's lap, quickly followed by feelings of confusion and embarrassment. While he tried to get up Draco kept him seated right where he was and in Draco's mind where he belonged. Draco removed his wings from being wrapped around them, drawing Harry's attention to the green feathers as the slid back into the young Malfoy heir's back. Harry turned his head a bit only to see that they were in the headmaster's office and he was sitting on Draco's lap in front of the headmaster himself. His whole face tinted pink.

"Good evening, Harry. I'm glad you have woken up. Now we can all talk together and not have to tell you later." The headmaster popped a lemon drop into his mouth and offered the candy to the two boys. Harry shook his head no slowly and in confusion, while Draco ignored the offer completely.

"I'm sorry but what is going on here?" Draco's chest vibrated with a chuckle and disturbed Harry in the fact that the movement from the other made him break out into goose bumps and jump a little when the blond started to talk.

"Harry, what do you know about Veela?" The black haired boy thought for a moment, twirling his useless glasses between his index finger and thumb. He was still feeling a little dizzy and he felt the ghost of his pain from earlier pulsing through his body with every beat of his heart.

"Mmm…well they are magical creatures that use their magic to lure people too them…uh, there is a whole Quidditch team that is just veelas….mmm…" Dumbledore nodded his head as Harry spoke.

"That is all true for the most put; however, veelas don't just lure people to them, they lure their mates to them." Harry sat up straight, almost forgetting about the fact he was sitting on Draco's lap.

"Mate?" The headmaster popped another lemon drop in his mouth before going on with his explanation.

"Yes, every veela has a mate that is their soul mate. Usually it takes a veela a bit of time before they find their intended. The reason you are here and no doubt about it you are wondering why you are and on Draco's lap for that matter, well I'll let him tell you why." Draco was a bit caught off guard by the headmasters information toss over to himself.

"Err…well, you see Harry, I am a veela." So far he was getting a blank look from the other boy.

"I didn't know who my mate was before today and that is because all summer long I couldn't find him because my mate is you." Harry sat still for a couple minutes blinking and then frowning before just going back to blinking.

"….what?" His voice was small and a little bit defeated sounding.

"Harry you're my mate." By this time Draco had removed his arms from around the other boy's waist to give him a little room to move around. Harry shot up from Draco's lap, but not without intense pains that took great pleasure in raping any comfort from Harry's body that had been there before he had gotten up. He took a step back from the couch that Draco was still seated on and ended up dragging it towards him as he did so. Draco was as startled as Harry was at this strange turn of events. From the corner of Harry's eye he could see something red reflect off the light of the candles in the office and it pulled his attentions away from the movement of the couch and what Draco had just repeated.

So the boy-who-lived was a little ADD, who knew?

"Harry?" The black haired boy ignored the calling of his name and followed the line the red string made on the ground and found it lead to his left hand pinky. Looking at his finger in amazement he frowned. Where did this string lead too, other than his own hand of course? So he took the end that he was connected too and started to track what it was connected too by reeling in the extra string from the ground. All the while Draco and Dumbledore were giving him odd looks, because they couldn't see the string that was tied to Harry's pinky or the pile of said string on the ground that trailed around the office, confusing Harry on where it ended.

It had only been a few minutes until Harry knew where the thread lead to. It lead him straight to Draco's pinky, where the end was tied around his pinky much like it was tied around his own. For some reason he was filled with joy at the thought, but he then shortly after the initial joy started to panic and tried, desperately, to untie the string from the other's pinky. This made Draco raise an eyebrow as he watched Harry fuss over his pink finger, over what he saw as nothing. Harry on the other hand was getting nowhere with untying the string and was starting to feel the pain from earlier come back. Seeing that his mate was starting to get distressed he pulled the boy-who-was-freaking-out into his lap again with perfect ease, seeing as the boy was more than likely only 100ib or less.

"Harry?" He tried calling his mate again, seeing if he could get his attention. Harry once again still ignored him and watched as the red string wrapped itself around their pinkies a couple more times and wrapped around their hands and wrists and arms. Wrapping around their limbs to get rid of the extra string between them, pulling what string that was left between them taunt. After a minute Harry watched as it just faded into their skin and the string left between them just disappeared.

"What is going on…" He whispered with confused and bewildered eyes flickering from his arm to Draco's. The headmaster, after many minutes of just watching silently, finally decided to speak up.

"What just happened, you ask? Hogwarts has never had a creature of your kind before, Harry. What just happened was in compliance to Mr. Malfoy here telling you that you are his mate, your own magical creature side's need for your own mate to accept you was full-filled, because Draco is your mate just as much as you are his." Draco listened in intense interest to the headmaster. So, Harry wasn't all that human himself was he?

"Me? A magical creature? How? My father was a pure-blood and my mother a muggle." The headmaster nodded his head.

"True your father was a pure-blood and your mother a muggle; however, your mother held the recessive genes of the magical creature called 'Yuelao', which the Chinese named their old lunar matchmaker god after because Yuelao have mates that they find by following the 'red string' that ties their fate to their mates. I had never actually seen a Yuelao before today. Your race is extraordinarily rare Harry." The black haired boy looked down at his feet.

"Of course…everything about me is rare." He whispered to his feet, but Draco could hear him loud and clear and could tell the news upset his mate, though he couldn't see why. He was proud that his mate was so special, why wasn't Harry proud? After just staring at his mate the blond pulled the smaller boy into his lap. Green eyes were wide open and staring at the pale teen. Draco was just glad that he hadn't ripped himself right back out of his arms. Harry sat rigidly in the Veela's lap, but couldn't bring himself to move. He cleared his throat.

"Why didn't I feel…attracted to him before now?" Dumbledore just smiled as he leaned back in his chair.

"Just like Veela, Yuelao get their powers when they come of age. So, Harry has anything else strange happened since your last birthday?" The black haired boy bit his bottom lip. He had been noticing the pains that came daily since the night of his birthday, the raw magic that seemed to leak out of himself, and not to mention the weird tingles that kept coming back up on certain parts of his body. He knew somehow that he didn't want to tell Dumbledore this. He couldn't trust the old man anymore, something in the back of his mind was telling him not to.

"No…" Draco could tell it was a lie, but Dumbledore seemed to be convinced well enough. Before the headmaster could continue asking the small and still confused boy any more questions, Draco jumped into the conversation again

"Harry and I need our own room." Dumbledore lifted an eyebrow.

"I believe that is possible." Draco nodded his head and thought for a moment.

"I am going to put up protective spells." The headmaster nodded his head slowly to the Veela.

"I suppose that will be alright." In truth, Dumbledore had a room ready for the two already and predicted that the young Malfoy would order such things for himself and his mate. Harry looked back and forth between the two in shock. He didn't understand how all of this was happening so fast. It was like everything was in double speed and he was on freeze frame.

"Well, I'll have Glop show you to your rooms. I am sorry that I am to busy to help you find it myself." The old wizard snapped his fingers and a house elf appeared before Draco and Harry. When Draco stood up he kept Harry in his arms bridal style. Harry had no choice but to grab around the blond's neck and hang onto his shoulders. He only let out a small 'eep' before going back into complete silence.

Honestly, he wanted to get Draco alone so he could talk to him. He didn't understand fully, even after Dumbledore's small explanation and Draco's own explanation of what was going on. He thought he could get more answers from him if they were on their own. As soon as they got to "their rooms" he was going to put some distance between them. He was only letting the blond be so close to him at the moment because he was too tired to fight about it.

"Comes this ways masters." The friendly purple-eyed house elf led the Veela carrying the young boy-who-lived out of the headmaster's office. In no time the house elf was leading them up one flight of steps after the other and through a dark cherry wooden door. A small hallway was behind this door and a portrait was at the end.

"Yous will have to sets the pass'ord." The house elf then bounded off to another part of the castle to clean. Draco nodded his head as the house elf left and turned towards the portrait. It was a painting of a beautiful lady in a green ballroom gown that touched the black and white checkered marble floor in the painting. Many silver necklaces and bracelets were covering her body and a silver dragonfly held back her black wavy bangs. Green eyes stared out at him, waiting for him to set the password.

"Well, my dear, are you going to tell me what you want the password to be or not." She had a thick Irish accent and her eyes seemed to lighten as she talked. Draco smiled at the woman.

"Yes ma'am. Please wait for a moment." He looked down at Harry who was still hugging around his neck, even though he could hold him up no problem without the other hanging on to him. It was however more enjoyable for himself that Harry was holding onto him. It almost forced a purr out of him, but he spared himself the odd look and held it back.

"Do you have any requests for the password?" Harry looked up at Draco and to the portrait of the fancy woman.

"Mmm…I don't know." Harry looked beyond tired and Draco could tell he was going to have to get him inside the room soon, so he could sleep and hopefully feel better. He could tell he wasn't feeling well through their small, but slowly growing bond.

"Lets just say the password is 'Bonds' for now for lack of a better imagination." The painted woman's eyes glowed and then the door swung open to reveal a room to the blond carrying the lightweight boy. He walked in and the door shut behind him on it's own, slowly. The Slytherin Prince looked around in awe. It was as if the place was matched to his standards perfectly and that wasn't something that was easily done in any way.

The walls were pale blue and the trimming was pure white. The flooring was wood with a blue rug of Celtic knots in the center. A white marble fireplace was in the center back wall and had a hearty fire burning already in it. Two white chairs were off to its side and a big blue couch was centered in front of the fireplace between the chairs. To the left and right of the fireplace were two doors.

Draco walked up to the one on the left side of the fireplace and opened it with his foot. It was a bedroom with as good taste in decorum as the living room. It had a huge bed to the left and a door to the right. The floor was carpet the color of cream and the walls were a dark blue with a silvery white trim. A window seat covered almost half of the back wall, looking out at the dark forest and the lake. It would have been pitch black in the room if it weren't for the dimmed lights that were on in the room; they had been on when they entered.

"Um…you can put me down now." Draco walked over to the black silk covered bed with red and silver throw pillows and laid Harry down carefully, so as to not jerk him around as he did so. He saw to the side of the bed a dresser. He walked to the front of the wooden dresser and opened one of the top drawers.

Just as he thought.

All of Harry's things were all neatly folded in the right places. He blushed at seeing he had opened the other boy's under clothing drawer. He shut it quietly as Harry watched him closely, not breaking the silence. Draco looked under the bed and saw that Harry's suitcase was under the bed. He stood up and looked around again. He saw the door and decided to take a look.

The bathroom was huge. It was almost a little bigger then the bedroom. The bathtub was the size of the prefect's tub and to the side of that was a shower. Across from the shower was a toilet. The counter in the bathroom was from the door all the way to the toilet. Above the counter it was all mirrors. In the center of the counter was the sink and the counter had drawers that covered the front of it. He noticed the other door that was directly across from the door that led to Harry's room. He assumed it was his own room before walking out of the bathroom and back to Harry who had curled up in the middle of the bed staring off into space. Careful not to disturb Harry, he laid himself behind him and got close enough that he could press his nose to the back of the dark haired boy's neck. Harry let go of a shiver as Draco inhaled the sent that was Harry James Potter. Harry's body was stiff as a board and he curled up tighter. He didn't feel like talking anymore, he felt like sleeping. Draco closed his eyes and tried to send Harry his own calm feelings but when he took a deep breath in he froze.

He smelt dry blood.

Growling he pulled Harry out of his fetal position and hovered above him, eyes searching for where the smell of dry blood was coming from. He sniffed at Harry's chest and arms and then his neck, until he circled his chest again. He looked like a hound on the trail for the hiding fox. Besides crying out at first when he was pulled out of his comfortable position, Harry still stayed oddly quiet. Draco could smell that he was getting close as he worked his way down to his mate's hips. First the left hip, close but not it. Then the right, found it. Looking closely he could see a few red drops coming through Harry's school shirt.

He almost lost it at the thought of his mate being injured. He ran a clawed finger down the Gryffindor's shirt buttons and they popped open, some getting sliced off in the process. The hip was bruised and had scratches surrounding a deep gash. The boy's now exposed chest caught the owner of said chest attention and he struggled against Draco's firm hold on him.

"Let go of me! Don't look!" Tears were gathering in his eyes. Draco ignored his mate's pleas as he looked up Harry's sides that were bruised. He carefully lifted the smaller boy up, as if he was made of glass, and turned him around and stripped the shirt from him completely so he could see his back. Black, purple, blue, and yellow bruises greeted his eyes. A couple more gashes that were trying to close and heal themselves also decorated his back. Some were new and some were old. Shock was all the blond's eyes were capable of at that moment.

"Please…stop," Harry's broken sobs finally reached his ears, "stop looking at me…"

Fear was threatening to take control of his body when he could feel Harry's panic and depression grabbing his heart in a vice grip. He turned the breaking down boy back to face him, but the crying face stayed angled down. His eyes glittering with unshed tears and eyebrows knotted in worry he lifted Harry's chin with a finger.

"Tell me who did this?" Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard a memory shouting at him, telling him just who had done this. Ron's voice came to mind, screaming over and over again, 'we think his aunt and uncle have been abusing him again.' He kept back the anger as emerald eyes leaked sorrow and hiccupping gasps for air started to slow as the green eyes stared into the inhumanly silver-azure eyes of the Veela.

"It doesn't matter. They aren't hurting me now." Draco frowned at the answer. Harry was bruised and bleeding, but wouldn't tell him who had done it? His eyes flashed red with bloodlust before glowing blue and silver.

"Tell me who did it, Harry." He was slowly hovering higher above the dark haired crying boy; green powerful wings were posed above him as well. Strangely Harry was both calmed by this scene and oddly excited. Giving up on getting the names of Harry's abusers he focused on something even more important, could he heal him on his own? Closing his eyes they returned too normal as he lowered himself down on top of Harry's chest. His bigger frame wrapped around the smaller one beneath him, his wings hovering above them. Harry tried to breath evenly as he watched the blank face of one Draco Malfoy as his head started to move downward. Red blotched up his cheeks as he tried to squirm out of the strong hold on his sides. Draco's head dipped right, over the first injury he had discovered.

Draco's mouth opened and his tongue slid out between parted lips, saliva dripped from his tongue to the wound on Harry's hip. Sizzling sounds came from the wounded hip but in the place were the salvia touched the bruise, it was gone. Veela salvia was a healing remedy for most surface wounds and Harry was getting a silent lesson in how it worked. Draco dropped his mouth to the hip and worked his tongue over the wound, healing it completely. Harry tried to wiggle out from under the Veela, his face reaching a new level of red. Seeing as the other boy was stronger than him he just buried his head in the sheets of the bed and tried to not think of the tingles working through his whole body. As hard as it was for Harry it was a little harder for Draco to stop licking at the other's hip after he was done healing him. He managed to stop himself after nipping at the skin a few times.

By the time Draco lifted himself completely away from Harry he was panting and trying hard to not go back over to the Yuelao and start licking and sucking at more skin for a completely different reason than to heal the boy. Harry then promptly curled up again in a ball and buried his head in his arms. Draco bit his bottom lip as he saw little black spots. He had never tried to use that skill before, it seemed he had limits as to how long he could do it. He really wanted to heal Harry's back. Just knowing that his mate still had marks from abuse on his body made him want to push through his magical fatigue and lick the wounds away.

"Harry." The boy didn't move or speak.

"Harry, please." Still the other boy didn't move. He just wanted to be alone for a bit and sleep. He really wanted some rest. It had been so long since he could just sleep, if only for a bit more than two hours.

"I'll leave you to sleep, but just know I'm right through the bathroom doors and behind the other doors in the bathroom. Please, come to me if anything is wrong…or you just need me." Even though it hurt him to do so, he got up from the bed and the warmth of his mate to walk through the bathroom door with one glance back at the curled up teen and on towards his own new room. When he left the lights turned off completely, something Harry was grateful for. He was so confused and he was amazed at how the pain that had been killing him in his side was gone. His back still hurt, but the main thing that had been giving him pain was his hip. Not even a scar was left behind to remind him of anything. He let the tears flow unashamed. He was going to have to talk to Draco about the whole deal soon, but for now he relaxed in fetal position in the middle of his new bed.

"Why do I attract rare situations?" With his question hanging in the air he fell into a dreamless sleep. He wasn't quite sure he wanted to wake up or not. Trouble always found Harry Potter, but what he didn't know was this wasn't a curse that was thrust upon him but a gift.