There's Something About Potter

Chapter 24

The room was spinning.

Aria couldn't breathe.

The light shining down on her from the moon was bright, much too bright; and the whispers rippling through the crowd of students around her were too noisy. She covered her ears and hid her face by crouching down into a fetal position on the floor. Even then, she felt the weight of everyone's stares and she sensed her own veela pheromones going haywire as they permeated the air.

She closed her eyes and tried to suppress her true form and force her wings back inside her body but for some reason, she couldn't; so she wrapped her wings protectively over herself instead. Behind her, Draco wrenched himself out of his coat and draped it over her head to cover her face.

"We have to get you out of here." Draco's jaw was clenched as he glared back at all of the dazed male students who were blatantly staring at her. "Your allure is too strong right now, one of these assholes might attack you." He muttered darkly under his breath as he helped her up to her feet.

"Who spoke the reveal incantation? They knew my veela name." Aria whispered.

Draco looked grim as he answered. "I didn't see who it was."

He wrapped one arm protectively around her shoulders while his other hand gripped tightly onto his wand, holding it out in plain view as they quickly made their way across the Great Hall. Since most of her face was pretty much covered by Draco's coat, Aria couldn't see anything and she had to rely completely on him to weave her through the crowd.

She heard a lot of the frantic, whispered reactions from some of the other students as they passed.

"What just happened?! Is that Potter?! Why does she have wings?"

"Oh Merlin, she's a veela! Potter's a veela!"

"I knew there was something weird about her this year!"

A heavy hand suddenly yanked at one of Aria's wings, causing her to cry out, and it was followed by the sound of a loud, jeering male voice taunting them from behind.

"What's the rush, Malfoy?! Are you just trying to keep her all to yourself—"

Draco growled and whirled around, and Aria barely managed to pull his coat off just in time to see him fling a jinx into Michael Corner's face.

Corner yowled in pain and released his grip on Aria's wing immediately, clutching onto his broken nose. As he stumbled backwards, he crashed into a few of the other boys who had crowded behind him, knocking most of them over and drawing even more attention from the other students nearby.

Aria felt the faint resonance of magic just then, and she stiffened, immediately alerted to the fact that someone had just pulled a wand out and was getting ready to fire a spell at them. Her eyes narrowed; and sure enough, the tall bulky boy behind Draco sneered and reached for his wand. Aria's eyes flashed a bright, iridescent green; and with a flare of her wings, she unleashed a powerful blast of magic, sending everyone within a ten-foot radius of them hurtling far across the room.

There was a chorus of startled screams from the crowd, and even Draco looked taken back for a moment, glancing briefly over his shoulder at Aria in shock. He eventually shook himself out of his stupor and grabbed Aria's hand again, taking advantage of everyone's distraction to pull her towards the exit.

Unfortunately, before they could reach the doors, they were forced to stop when another group of eagerly screaming reporters swarmed around them, blocking their path. Draco shoved Aria behind him, blocking her face from the flashing cameras. To their dismay, a couple of Daily Prophet columnists, including a gleeful-looking Rita Skeeter, swooped down on them with vicious smiles.