Dream Journal of Harry J Potter
Veela History
By Crys
This dream is set well after Hogwarts.
I was experiencing one of the most wonderful sensations in the world: A pair of small, warm hands were rubbing the non-existent tension out of my bare back and shoulders.
I groaned softly. "You can keep that up forever."
Soft laughter accompanied a light poke on the shoulder. "Forever? But there are so many other things we could do instead!"
I looked over with a grin, admiring the unclothed form of Gabrielle Delacour - soon to be Potter - kneeling beside me in bed.
She tilted her head and posed for a moment, smiling coquettishly at me.
My I.Q. dropped 20 points in the blink of an eye, and it had nothing to do with veela allure.
She laughed again, clearly enjoying the effect she had upon me.
I shook my head and groaned. "Witch."
Instead of flirting back as I'd expected, her grin faded. "I'm not, you know."
"Your being a veela isn't exactly news," I reminded her. "And I've seen you casting spells, so I know you're not a squib."
She waved a hand irritably. "Non, not that. I'm not . . ." She frowned. "What do you know of veela?" she asked abruptly.
Realizing that this was shaping up into a real conversation, I sat up and turned to face her. "What do you mean?"
"How much have you studied veela?"
Hoping that a little humor would be well received, I leered and waggled my eyebrows. "I've studied one particular veela very thoroughly, I think. Up close and in depth."
She rolled her eyes but let a small smirk escape. "Very funny."
I shrugged and answered the question, "Not a whole lot, actually. Not much more than the average wizard. The allure, the avian form complete with fireballs, and that it's a gender-specific trait."
She nodded before he face fell into a frown. "Do you know why the only veela are female?"
"Because God was feeling especially generous towards males that day?" I guessed.
This time, she glowered at me. A small ball of fire appeared, and she casually tossed it from one hand to another.
Taking the not-so-subtle hint, I said, "No, I don't know why it's gender based."
The fireball winked out of existence.
I breathed a mostly silent sigh of relief.
After smirking at my reaction, she frowned pensively and chewed on a corner of her lip.
"What's wrong?"
A long sigh escaped her. "I'm going to tell you something now that must not be repeated."
"What's that?"
"The reason for the veela allure is to lure males."
"That's what it does," I agreed with a puzzled nod.
"That's what it does, but you do not know the reason for it." She sighed and settled down on the bed comfortably. "Veela get their . . . nourishment from males."
I blinked. "You're . . . feeding off of me? Fleur from Bill?" I frowned. "I've seen you eating regular food."
She waved a hand. "Yes, but I'm talking about a different kind of energy instead of just food."
A bit of folklore came to the forefront of my mind. "You're talking about some kind of . . . succubus?"
She winced. "That legend is based on veela, yes," she admitted.
When she didn't continue, I said, "I don't understand. We've been . . . er, going out for over a year now, but I haven't aged anymore than I should've."
She shook her head. "You wouldn't." My confusion must have shown because she sighed and frowned. "Sorry, I'm not explaining this very well.
"Technically, I am feeding off of you. I'm absorbing, or perhaps siphoning or draining if you prefer, some energy from you when we're intimate."
She held up a hand at my expression. "Do not panic. It does you no harm. You replenish this energy within minutes.
"The legends of the succubus originated when veela tried to mate with muggles. They didn't have the energy available for the veela, so they ended up losing a bit of their life force.
"Therefore, they visibly aged.
"Wizards, on the other hand, have much more energy available for us. Hence, when we marry and have children, it is almost always with a wizard. Therefore, veela have had magic introduced into our bloodlines."
"Veela started out as non-magical?" I asked, curious as to the history of my girlfriend's species.
She nodded. "As far back as the stories of veela go, we have always had our avian form. Rumor has it that a powerful veela was once attracted to a wizard. He was magically powerful but rather weak-willed. With her allure, she seduced him."
I suppressed a shudder. I loved my fiancée, but her bird-form was downright scary. The thought of trying to do something with that without knowing the personality underneath was frightening in the extreme.
She must have seen my reaction because she shrugged. "At any rate, the children of that union were the first veela that could look human." She waved her hand to indicate her current appearance. "Over the generations, as more human magical blood was added to our lines, our ability to conjure fireballs appeared, and we spent more and more time appearing human. Finally, enough general magical ability appeared that we are now witches in our own right, only reverting to avian under extraordinary stress. "
I thought through all of this for a few minutes. She sat, calmly watching me.
"Thank you for telling me all of this, but why? I mean, if I have enough magic that I'm not adversely affected by . . . feeding you, why did you need to tell me all of this?"
"I could have hidden it from you," she admitted frankly. "I do not know if Fleur has told William, for instance. However, I felt that you deserved the truth."
"Thank you for that."
"There are a couple other reasons as well."
Uh, oh.
"You are a very powerful wizard," she went on. "As far as veela go, I'm a powerful witch, though nowhere near your level. It's possible that our veela children, if we have any, will possess other traits."
"Like human forms and fireballs were introduced to the veela bloodlines earlier," I said, understanding her point.
She nodded.
"Wait, you said 'veela children'. Why not just 'children'?" The fact that we were discussing our potential future children wasn't the least bit awkward. On the contrary, it was rather comforting.
"Historically, veela and human couples have few male children. We do have some, just not very many. When they happen, they're normal, human wizards. No veela traits at all. As far as the girls, if they come to term, they're always veela. Always."
"Why wouldn't they come to term?"
"A veela fetus is very," she pursed her lips, clearly looking for the right term before continuing with, "energy dependent. Not physical energy - though there is that, too - so much as they need a lot of magical energy." She grinned wickedly. "So I'll require regular energy infusions from you if that comes to pass."
I laughed. "Anything you ask of this humble servant, my lady." I gave her a brief bow.
"I'll hold you to that promise," she said with sparkling eyes. "Also, remember that I'm not likely to have many boys, so we may need to have several children if you want a Potter heir."
"You're saying this like it's going to be some kind of hardship," I observed dryly.
"I'm an eighteen year old veela, Harry. I can be very . . . demanding."