Dracken Awakening - 5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Neville got to the front door as Harry and Charlie launched themselves at each other with growls. He worried they would hurt each other but knew he couldn’t intervene, however, he didn’t want either to be hurt by the other. They had shifted into their dracken forms and both were a sight to behold. Harry with his black to purple scaled wings and Charlie with his black to green scaled wings. The sun glistened off the scales and made them shine like gemstones.

Neville sniffed the air and could almost smell the testosterone in the air, which caused him to worry about his mates. He bit his lower lip and chewed on it nervously while they fought. He knew whoever won this would be considered the top dominant and whatever he said was law. They could even override the other dominant’s decisions.

“Charlie, Harry STOP!”

They continued on as if Neville hadn’t said a word. All they could see was the dracken in front of them. Neville watched as the two men that meant the world to him fight amongst themselves. He didn’t know what to do other than to let them fight it out. In his heart of hearts, he hoped Harry would come out on top simply because he knew him and had a feeling about how he would be as a top dominant.

Remus watched but could feel his wolf come to the surface at seeing his cub in danger. After reading what he could about drackens he knew this fight had to happen; it didn’t mean he had to like it, though. As much as he loved Harry he felt Charlie would make a better top dominant for the simple fact he had more life experience and would, therefore, be better suited for the position, besides Neville and Harry, still had their final year to complete.

The fight was a difficult one for Charlie to manage even though he was the older wizard and dracken, and thus, he had more raw strength compared to Harry. Harry was faster and lighter on his feet allowing him to dance around the older dracken and score blows against him with lightning speed. All those years “playing” Harry-hunting against Dudley and his gang allowed Harry to have amazing reflexes. His claws would slash against Charlie’s broad chest, drawing blood and making him scream out as he was struck.

Charlie’s head dropped in defeat. Dracken customs of fighting weren’t that you had to maim, wound or destroy your opponent in combat, rather the goal was to draw first blood and as Harry had, he was now the top dominant. The shocked look on Remus’ face underlined the fact that maybe Harry was ready, and that maybe he shouldn’t be counted out to handle what was to come.

Neville ran to where Harry and Charlie stood gasping for breath. “Are you guys through with your stupid macho fest?” Neville yelled.

“Neville, this was something that was going to happen sooner or later. It just so happened now. He left you unattended and vulnerable when he took off somewhere,” Charlie exclaimed.

“I left to get some advice. No one knows where this house is or that Neville is our mate. I felt out of my depth and needed to talk to someone who’s been there. I didn’t want to screw something up.”

“You both need to calm down. This situation is new to all of us. Charlie may know more about being a dominate than you do Harry, but that doesn’t mean he’s always right or that his word is law. Charlie, Harry and I may be younger than you, but that doesn’t mean you can walk all over us. Now that this is settled, let’s all go inside and talk this over.” Neville turned and walked away when he got to the front door he turned and looked at the guys expectedly over his shoulder, then turned back around and went in the house.

***

Neville knew in his heart the fight had to happen, didn’t mean he had to like it. He stormed through the house to their room and slammed the door shut. He threw up every locking harm he knew to keep them out. He was torn because while he had wanted Harry to win because he knew him, he had also wanted Charlie to win because of his experience as a dracken.

***

Remus followed Charlie and Harry int the house just as Neville slammed the door. “Guys, I would give him some time to collect his thoughts and this would give you time to talk to each other without fighting.”

Harry looked atCharlie, “He’s right Charlie, we really do need to talk. I’m new to being a dracken and just because I drew first blood in our fight doesn’t mean I know what I’m doing all the time. I get that I will make mistakes, but I hope with you to teach me they will be few and far between.”

“Harry, I’ve been looking for my mate for years and had started to believe that I didn’t have one. Then this morning I woke to Neville’s call for his dominant and I was so happy. To find out that my brother’s best friend was also one of my mates I was ecstatic because I already knew you and knew you would do everything possible to protect our submissive. So when I left to talk to my boss at the reserve I expected you to watch Neville and protect him while I was gone. Instead, I come back and find him alone with Remus and you’re nowhere to be found. I couldn’t believe you would be so careless with him.”

“Charlie, I was gone for only a short time. I left him with Remus because I knew he would protect Neville with his life. I went to talk to the twins because I knew if anyone in your family other then you would know about being a dracken it would be them. I needed to get my head on straight because when you left to the reserve it felt like you planned on coming in and bossing me around. You know how much I hate that. I had enough of the maneuvering from the twinkling buffoon at Hogwarts.”

Charlie laughed, “Twinkling buffoon? I never thought I would hear anyone describe Dumbledore in that manner, but I have to agree with the description. What’s he done that has you so mad?” Remus realized that they had calmed down and left to his room to give them time to talk.

“As you know I had a meeting with the goblins today regarding my accounts. Sirius named me his heir and Dumblefuck decided to hide that from me. He had Sirius’ and my parent’s wills sealed. He then rerouted my mail so I would never get the messages from the goblins until this morning when I walked in the room from the bathroom to find my families dracken heritage book on my bed. It turns out that he had been stealing money from my vaults since he became my “magical guardian” when my parents died.”

“Ok, you also mentioned something about some of my family being dead to you. What’s that all about?”

“Well, at that same meeting they gave me an accounting on all my accounts. It seems that ever since first year Ron and your Mum have been withdrawing money without my consent, for the simple fact I thought all I had was my school vault. Hermione was also receiving sum as well. Then the next year Ginny started to withdraw money from my accounts. Now if I had known about the accounts and they had asked I would have gladly given it to them, but to go behind my back and take it is something I can’t forgive. Apparently Dumbldick also had a marriage contract to Ginny made up and a will all set for me to sign which would give Ginny everything should something happen to me.”

“Are they the only ones you want nothing to do with? Or is Bill on that list as well?”

“Bill has never given me a reason to feel betrayed. He and Fleur have always been supportive of me.”

“So what did the twins have to say?”

“They told me that you wouldn’t be a dictator and that I needed to talk to you. They said I could learn a lot from you. Fred said it would be more of a compromise and both of us leading in our strong suits.”

“That makes sense even though it came from the twins.” Charlie couldn’t hold in the smirk that fought its way onto his face.

“Hey now, they can be pretty smart for pranksters. They have to be to come up with all their pranks. Did you know they found their mate and that they share the submissive?”

“It’s not unheard of for twins to share a mate. Do I want to know who this person is?”

“Well, he’s not a dracken.”

“Ok, so it’s a guy and not a dracken. Is he human?”

“No, he’s a veela.”

“I don’t think I want to know the answer to this question, but who is he?”

“Draco Malfoy.”

“Crap, Mum is gonna have a fit.”

“Yeah, I didn’t think that would go over very well. However, as they pointed out to me you can’t choose your mate. I promised them I wouldn’t antagonise him.”

“We should go check on Neville.”

“You’re right. Come on.” Harry led Charlie down the hall to what was to be their room and knocked on the door. “Neville, can we come in?”

“Are you guys done fighting?” Neville called out.

“Yes, and we would like to continue the conversation with you. We want your input in any decisions made,” said Harry.

They heard a click and the door opened. Harry pushed it further open before he strode into the room with Charlie a few steps behind him.

“No more fighting?” Neville asked.

“Neville, there’s always the chance of fighting with more than one dominant, but we promise to do our best to not fight and if we do that you not be around in order to keep you safe,” replied Harry

“Guys, I can defend myself. I appreciate that you want to protect me, but who would want to hurt me?”

“Neville, I hate to say it but once it becomes common knowledge that we’re mates there’s no telling what will happen. There are still Death Eaters out there that would love nothing more than to bring me down and one sure way to do that is to attack my submissive.”

“There’s the chance that I may have more mates out there. I’m sure that between all of us I can stay safe.”

“Do you want more mates? Are you not happy with us?” Charlie asked. He knew he wouldn’t survive finding his mate only to have him reject him.

Neville was shocked. “What are you thinking? Of course, I’m happy with you as my mates, but while you guys sat out there and talked I read some more in my family book. Apparently, in my family, it’s not unheard of to have multiple mates. My Aunt Jeanne had four mates. There needs to be an odd number of people in the mateship so that there is no one at the same level as the top dominant.”

“How do you know how many mates you will have?” asked Harry.

“It has to do with power.”

“Neville, don’t take this the wrong way, but Ron used to write home about the trouble you had casting the simplest of spells.”

“Charlie, that was because I was using my dad’s wand. I didn’t have my own, Grams refused to get me one. She always wanted me to follow dad’s footsteps and become an Auror. It didn’t matter that it was something I didn’t want, all she could see was my dad when she looked at me.”

“I’m guessing you got a new wand?” asked Charlie.

“Yeah, twelve-inch rosewood with a phoenix tear core.” Neville proudly showed them his new wand.

“This makes a difference for you?”

“Yeah, I was able to keep you out of the room wasn’t I?”

“That you did,” Charlie chuckled.

There was a tapping at the window. Charlie walked over and opened the window. The owl flew in and headed straight for Harry. He untied the letter from the owl's leg and gave him some of Hedwig's treats. The owl was content to sit on the edge of the dresser while Harry read the letter.

“Harry,

Kingsley said you kicked him out of Grimmauld Place for no reason. What’s going on mate? This isn’t like you. I know you wanted to come into an inheritance on your birthday, but that’s no reason to talk to him like that.

Where are you and Remus anyway? No one can get into headquarters.

Ron”

“Who’s it from Harry?” Neville asked.

“It’s from Ron. He wants to know why the Order can’t get into Grimmauld and why I threw Kingsley out. He thinks it’s because I didn’t come int an inheritance today.”

Charlie snorted. “The old man must have put him up to it and Hermione told him what to write. There is no way he could come up with that on his own.”

“You kicked them out of headquarters? Why would you do that?” Neville asked.

“I did it because of Dumbledork. He’s been stealing from me ever since my parents died claiming it was for my care. My Aunt and Uncle never received any money for my care. They made that plain as day. I can’t be arsed to care what Ron thinks or wants. I won’t tolerate thieves.”

“Harry, he’s your best friend,” Neville tried to reason.

“Best friends don’t steal and lie to you. They were never true friends to me. You, the twins, Seamus, and Dean are true friends. Want nothing to do with the others.” Harry sat at the desk and summoned some parchment and ink.

“Ron, Hermione, Mrs. Weasley, and Ginny,

I know about the money and it stops as of today. The marriage contract is null and void as Sirius never signed it as my guardian. I want nothing to do ith any of you. Don’t bother to reply because the wards will reject any further correspondence from you.

Harry”

Charlie read over Harry’s shoulder as he wrote and could honestly say he didn’t feel sympathy for them, at all. He couldn’t believe that they would behave like that, all for the sake of a galleon.

Harry tied the letter to the owl and he immediately flew out the window to deliver the message. Neville and Charlie were confused when Harry stood and walked out of the room. They followed him outside and watched as he waved his wand. There was a flash of yellow around the wards and the smile on Harry’s face told them he had changed the wards just like he said.

“Let’s go talk about this mateship,” Harry said as he turned and walked back in the house. Charlie and Neville glanced at each other but quickly followed Harry back into the house.

***

Remus felt a shift in the wards and knew Harry had done something, he figured it was simply Charlie being added to those who were able to see the house from outside the wards. He went back to his book but wondered if the fighting between Harry and Charlie was really over. Harry was known for a temper that could match Lily’s any day of the week. He heard some light talking and relaxed in the comfort of his chair with the knowledge that for now there was peace.