A Veela's Mate || Draco Malfoy

Gᴏɪɴɢ ғᴏʀ ᴀ Rɪᴅᴇ

Draco tracked his mate down to the lake and watched as she wandered around the small beach, her head down obviously looking for something. He could sense that Iris was uncomfortable and he guessed it was from the sudden turn her conversation with Severus had taken. He would leave that topic to the Potion Master and his father though, no way was he touching it.

"What's up?" he asked walking closer.

Iris's head snapped up, but it quickly dropped down again without answering.

"So what are we doing?" Draco asked after he'd walked beside Iris for several minutes. The girl was stubbornly staring at the ground. Now and then she'd bend down to pick up a small stone, but almost immediately she dropped again.

"I'm gonna do something I've always wanted to do," Iris said in a small voice Draco could barely hear.

"What? Picking pebbles?" Draco demanded incredulously.

A burst of snorting laughter was torn from the brunet. "No silly. Just watch," she said shoving Draco gently.

"Iris, love, I have watched you and all you do is pick up pebbles. And for this, you dragged me away from the find of the century?"

"Silly!" Iris repeated with another snort. "Aha! This should do!" she crooned happily pouncing on a rock the size of her fist. It was pitch black with inlays of a grayish mineral. Not particularly beautiful in Draco's opinion and he said as much.

Iris gave him a look but didn't say anything. She merely walked away from the sand and once she had grass under her feet, she dropped the stone on the ground and drew her wand.

"See? Pebble picking and dropping. Not much fun in that if you ask me," Draco drawled, secretly pleased when he tricked another laugh out of his mate. Iris was made for laughter. His mate had a most beautiful laugh, too bad she seldom displayed it.

"I'm gonna make you regret those words Draco Malfoy," Iris stated moving her wand in a twirling motion uttering an enlargement charm. The rock went from being barely fist-sized to being a hefty boulder.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Bravo! What's for an encore? We drop that thing in the lake?"

"Just wait and see," Iris smiled mysteriously, murmuring a spell Draco couldn't make out. He could see the result though. Slowly the boulder shifted and came to life. Within moments, a beautiful black horse was standing where the boulder had been. Draco stepped forward, drawn to the beauty of the animal. It was a Friesian if he wasn't mistaken.

"It is beautiful," he whispered holding out a hand for the horse to examine.

"Isn't he?" Iris asked smugly pulling a handkerchief from her pocket. A twirl of the wand and it changed to a thick sheepskin saddle blanket. A few beans become a saddle and tack. A flick of the wrist and the horse were ready to be ridden. "Wanna join me?"

The question broke Draco out of the stupor he had fallen into. The smirk the other teen wore woke the competitive side of the blond and he instantly rose to the unspoken challenge. "You bet!" he answered already running towards the lake to find his own rock to transform.

Not bothering to search as carefully as Iris had done, it didn't take long for Draco to find a rock he was happy with. Joining his mate, he placed the brownish stone on the ground and repeated what Iris had done. Soon a beautiful Thoroughbred was standing next to the Friesian, pawing the ground with a slender hoof and tossing her head.

Using his own handkerchief and a few beans Iris kindly donated, Draco repeated what Iris had done, and soon the two mates climbed onto their mounts' backs.