The Mistaken Connection

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚂𝚒𝚡𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗

picture artist: UptheHill on DeviantArt

The Creature Basics class hadn't started when Harry grabbed his seat, and he got a moment to survey the room and calm his erratic heart with deep breaths. There were few empty chairs, but as he looked around, he remembered one name who should've been amongst the others.

"Was Pansy with you?" Ginny asked as he sat down, and he shook his head. "Wait, what happened? Why do you look so shaken up?"

"I'm not, don't worry," Harry waved off. He served a look around the room and spotted sprinkles of distantly familiar faces in a crowd of unknown people. Despite only thirteen percent of the Veela attending being Hogwarts students, Harry realized now just how few that was. "What happened with the mandrakes?"

Harry and Ginny were in the very back of the room, hiding among the crowd of Doms and Subs alike. Thankfully, the crowd talking covered Ginny's generally loud voice as she ignored his question and asked, "Er, Harry? Why do you smell like that?"

"Like what?" Harry asked, eyes widening and his wrist's scent gland coming up to his own nose. He couldn't smell anything out of the ordinary, just the normal citrus smell he produced.

Ginny glanced around before whispering, "Like you just got close with some Dominant. Well, I actually recognize the scent, I just don't remember from who."

"From Draco," Harry informed, his face heating up at her fallen jaw. "Don't look at me like that! It wasn't anything weird, it's Malfoy for God's sake. He just dropped me off here, it's really not a big deal."

"Harry," Ginny began, but the professor finally cut them off.

Professor Flitwick centered himself in the room, and the students were surprisingly quick to shut themselves down, much to Harry's disappointment. He cleared his throat. "Alright, class, thank you for your attention. Before we begin, it's good to note that the Veela who failed the test have been escorted off school campus already, and that they will not be returning. With that, let's begin!"

Harry looked at Ginny just as he was leveled with wide eyes, and he tried to see if Pansy was in the room once more before knowing that she really wasn't. There wasn't a way someone smart as Pansy would fail a test like that, right? Professor Flitwick snapped, a small smile on his face as he did so, and he garnered their attention.

"Firstly," he addressed, clearing his throat once more, "can I get a show of hands for how many people know the importance of snapping in Veelan culture?"

Two or three hands rose into the air, all of which were hesitant in their knowledge anyway. Harry cocked his head to the side as Professor Flitwick, someone clearly not a Creature of any species, nodded and rose his hand to snap again. Instead of executing it, his middle finger and thumb rested together, not sliding hard enough to create the noise. "Veela are so sensitive, and they are especially sensitive to noise, and as you'll come to learn, it has existed in your culture for centuries to use short, sharp sounds to get attention, no matter how rude you'll understand that it is. If that sort of history and behavior interests you, be sure to pay attention in your Veela Heritage class.

"As for this class, we will be studying the juxtapositions of Veelan culture with Werewolf, Vampire, Fairy, and Neko cultures. These Creatures make up the five recognized members of the Distinct Creatures classification, a classification decided by external features, internal features, mentality, and mating rituals. There are plenty of lesser breeds, such as the werepires and feelans, which are, as suggested by their names, combinations of these other creatures, but we will not be studying them in the hopes of discouraging illegal crossbreeding."