Chapter 16: Instinct

For one long moment, Harry seemed too small, too thin and too everything else. Then his hands felt to his sides, clenching the jerky tight as his green eyes flashed and flickered with emotion. "I would refuse, sir." He said, stiffly. "I don't need your apology."

Blaise's blue-violet eyes grew wide and he looked from the professor to Harry, then to Theo who merely folded his arms and waited.

"Good. Because having said that, I will not apologize for saying the truth." The scowl melted away and Terius surveyed him critically for a moment.

Harry blinked. Then he shrugged. "That's your choice then."

Terius yawned, showing twin fangs, with gleaming points. His lips curled back and he growled.

Harry met the gaze, steadily and he stood tall, unmoving.

The older Dragel suddenly lunged for him and Harry froze.

His automatic response was to react immediately, to dodge the attack, to defend, to fight back. But in the moment where he'd stared into those dark, blue-black eyes, something else told him not to move.

Something that softly coaxed him to trust.

Harry did. He closed his eyes

He felt the impact as he was tackled, knocking the breath from him and he tensed, expectant for the hard, cold floor.

It never came.

He was held against something warm and solid and the impact was muffled as he fell downward.

A moment of silence passed.

Harry dared to open his eyes and found the same intense gaze staring up at him. He blinked and twisted to look around, his mind adding up the obvious to spit out a clear result. He'd been tackled—but in a rather different way. The professor had grabbed him and twisted in mid-air to take the brunt of the impact, cradling Harry close in strong, steady arms. His wings had burst forth and Harry was painfully aware of the fact that they were quite alone in the darkened cocoon those broad wings made.

He licked his lips, unable to tear his eyes away from the stare that seemed to pierce through his very soul.

"I-I'm sorry." He managed, the words tumbling out whether he agreed with them or not. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm-" One warm finger pressed gently against his lips, silencing him.

They sat in silence and near darkness.

Harry swallowed hard. He didn't dare move. Panic was starting to set in, very faintly, but still there nonetheless. The professor was waiting for something and he didn't know what it was. He wanted to do it—whatever it was—he could practically feel it, as if it was something itched in his bones, urging him to do anything to get back in the good graces of this powerful creature currently holding him.

Urging him to do one thing.

A quiver of suppressed emotion rippled through him and Harry willed his wits to return to him as he shifted, unconsciously leaning closer to the older man.

The silence stretched out.

A sudden urge popped into Harry's head and he tried to ignore it, a task that swiftly became more impossible with each passing second and suddenly, he couldn't help himself. He leaned forward and butted his head against the pointed chin, eyes shut tight and hands clenched in the tangle of robes between them. He nuzzled the warm neck and then tilted his head back, with a soft whine as he exposed his throat.

"Very well done." Terius' quiet voice came from above and the arms holding Harry tightened into a firm embrace. He tipped Harry's head forward and gently touched their foreheads together, closing his eyes as Harry did.

For a moment, Harry didn't dare breathe. Then, relief spread through him like fiendfyre. He sagged into the arms as Terius allowed him to bury his head in the side of his neck. The hollow emptiness was suddenly half-filled. He could have cried from sheer relief. As it was, his head swirled with questions, answers and things he couldn't figure out. He clung to the figure that cradled him close, drinking up every ounce of warmth and safety that fairly oozed from the older Dragel.

A soft chuckle caught his attention and Terius shifted, lifting them both as he rose to stand, the wings unfurling and exposing them to the audience of Theo and Blaise. Blaise was smirking, his hand still buried in the bag of jerky now between him and Draco. Theo seemed to be working to keep himself from smiling outright, but his eyes glowed merrily as if he'd known the outcome beforehand. Harry found himself wanting to curl back into those arms and return to the calming darkness from a few seconds ago. Terius gave a soothing rumble. "Don't think so hard of it, dragonet." There was the faintest hint of amusement in his voice. "You apologized and I accepted. For that, I apologize as well." He bent and nuzzled the side of Harry's neck.

Instinctively, Harry reached up to wrap his arms around the man's neck and tugged him down to touch their foreheads together. It happened before he could react and when his arms fell slack to his side, there was a mixture of horror and confusion on his face.

"Thank you." Terius said simply, his eyes had lightened and they now flickered to Theo. "I suggest you take your mate to lunch, Mr. Nott. I believe he is hungry."

"What about me?" Draco pouted. "I'm hungry!"

"That was it?" Harry squeaked, as Theo hurried him along towards the Great Hall for lunch. He brushed dust from his robes and winced a few times when the Slytherin moved a little faster than he could hurry. "But I didn't even do anything to-!"

"It's a great insult to someone of his position and age to refuse to acknowledge him." Theo explained. "You didn't do it on purpose—I kind of figured that out, when it seemed like you didn't really realize it, but you pretty much gave him the equivalent of-" The pureblood flashed a sign with one hand then shrugged it. "You're lucky he accepted your apology—you're lucky he even apologized. I didn't expect that. He didn't have to."

Harry snorted.

"Harry." Theo scolded. "Believe me, he did not have to. I respect him for doing it all the more. He was returning the favor in good faith, after you apologized. There's a difference. There's quite a few things in Dragel society that you'll want to be aware of. You're lucky he chose not to demand formalities of you. Instinct is easy, once you give into it, you'll always know what you should do and you'll have the opportunity to decide if you want to do it or ignore it. I'm glad you took it. But if you read this, you'll spare us both. Trust me. There's a great deal you've missed. A mentor would have covered basic etiquette within the first few hours of your meeting each other. Respect is something you cannot withhold."

"Respect should be earned." Harry shot back.

"True. But, Harry, there does not always need to be a reason for it." Theo grew serious. "Terius isn't even an Elder. You'll meet others, I'm sure, and they will be centuries over you. Respect is demanded for them, it is only fitting. They do not abuse it, but they do require it of us. It isn't always that black and white and sometimes, the reactions you'll find, such as Terius—he's more than earned the right to ignore you for your…mistake on the first day."

"But-!"

"Harry. He's in a mated circle and holds a reasonable position in Dragel society. He's also well into his first century!"

Harry shut his mouth. That did skew the picture in his head, somewhat. The man didn't look as if he were anywhere, but his early thirties, if not late twenties. There was no way a century could've passed through him.

"Don't think about it." Theo advised, catching the look of confusion on his mate's face. "I didn't believe him the first time he said it either, but you do not simply repeatedly tromp all over certain sets of rules. Did you never notice that every time he called us for a meeting, such as that, his eyes always stayed on you?"

Harry shook his head. He'd been trying too hard to be invisible.

"They did. All you had to do was accept—if you'd looked him in eye, you would've felt the pull. He all but offered you a few times to join us, without being too obvious since you didn't acknowledge any of us on the first day. Since you didn't acknowledge him, he could not offer you anything else, because it would not be his place." Theo offered a reassuring smile and handed over the shrunken encyclopedia. "This will help. Follow the index and read every page you can. We can talk about it whenever you're ready." He hesitated, as Harry's hands ghosted reverently over the ancient tome, finally able to touch it. "Harry, I'd like to ask you to read this where Granger can't get her hands on it, hmm? It's not hers to read and she doesn't need to know what's inside these covers. Please be careful with it."

Harry opened his mouth to protest and then shut it, realizing that he really didn't care if Hermione was allowed to read the book or not. He wanted to read it to find out more about himself and he didn't really feel compelled to show or share his true nature with the others. Hermione would no doubt try to get her hands on it or at least to guess what he was reading. But he could also sense that Theo was serious. He'd be serious too then. "I'll be careful." He took the book and hefted it in his hands. It should've been heavy, but it was light. A charm was probably cast on it. His brow wrinkled as he thought further along that strand of reasoning. "Doesn't it have charms on it?"

"It does and it is blood-figured, as we are mated, it will allow you to read, carry and summon it. However, my concern is more for the protections that are on it. They are very old and very…vicious. I do not say this lightly. They will not be kind to someone whose curiosity decides to investigate."

"Oh." Harry tucked the shrunken book carefully away, understanding all that was not said. They neared the Great Hall and he found his steps slowing again, knowing that a repeat of breakfast was about to happen. He didn't want to go and sit by himself at the Gryffindor table. He wanted to sit next to Theo take comfort in the warmth and magic that seemed to roll off the Slytherin.

As if on cue, Theo turned and backed him right up against the stone wall, with a quick look up and down the hallway, before bending his head to kiss him thoroughly. Harry willingly gave into the kiss, parting his lips to allow better access to the warmth of his mouth. When Theo finally broke to allow him a breath, he finished with a light kiss to the center of Harry's forehead and then a small smile before he glided off towards the door.

Harry stared longingly after him, feeling the happy bubble beginning to spring up inside him as Theo disappeared behind the doors to the Great Hall.

"You have it bad, Potter." Draco drawled with a snicker as he trotted ahead of Terius following them up from behind at a sedate pace.

Harry didn't have the heart to snap at him. He was still replaying the moment in his head and enjoying every second of it.

He was going to skip dinner.

There was no way he was going to go through this again—mind-blowing kisses or not, Harry thought, grimly. He didn't understand what was going on with Ron, Ginny and Hermione. He'd thought there was something off there, but now, it seemed to have gone so far off that he couldn't keep track of it.

Ginny had wanted to sit next to him, but the twins had interrupted.

Hermione had tried to quiz him again, but Ron had interrupted.

Everything seemed to be oddly out of place.

The twins hadn't said a word to him at lunch—but he'd still been sandwiched between them and his plate had been filled. He'd eaten sparingly, unable to make himself stomach the food. He'd also avoided the worried gaze that Theo had given him from across the room. There had been so many things happening today that all he wanted to was to just go to bed and deal with it later.

He slipped into Potions class a little earlier than usual, just wanting to get everything over with and knowing that if he were to skip a class—it couldn't be Snape's. The Potions Master would probably hunt him down and skin him.

Harry blinked.

He didn't know where that thought had come from.

"You're thinking too hard." Blaise said, cheerfully. He took up his usual position beside Harry and grinned. "Something the matter?"

Harry shook his head, carefully. He didn't know yet.

"That's fine." The Italian hummed softly beneath his breath as he turned and took stock of the current students settling in. "It seems like—oh. Well." The phrase was said with a flicker of contempt. Harry blinked up at him. "It seems your…mate, would rather join you for today's lesson, rather than to subject you to my awful company."

It was the way he said it. Harry nearly choked on the giggle that managed to make its way past his mouth. It spilled out before he could clap a hand over his traitorous mouth and it drew the attention of nearly everyone in the room—the surly Potions Master included.

The dark eyes seemed to glitter and before Harry could protest, he found Blaise replaced with Theo as the taller brunet placed a hand around his neck, long fingers slipping past his collar to gently stroke the mark on his neck. Familiar spikes of calmness flowed out from the mark and Harry automatically relaxed.

"Theo?" He managed, hoping that no one was really paying attention.

"Mmm." There wasn't an actual answer, but the brunet's hand remained around his neck, stroking and rubbing, gently. A moment later, Theo caught him gently in his arms as Harry yawned and felt the strength leave his body. He was barely conscious of the fact that Snape came over at Theo's request and he was moved from the classroom to somewhere else.

It blurred together and then, a lovely, blissful blackness claimed him.