Dear ACE,
August 11, 2107
Dear Hadrian,
I’m writing this stupid letter and unfortunately, I don’t have anyone but me to blame. You would think that if someone was courting they would be allowed to decide how to do it. Well, my meddling parents don’t think so and it's due to their incessant curiosity that I’m being forced to write to you: about my fabricated, non-existent love.
There is one, and only one, consolation in writing this idiotic letter. And that is that you, my dear delusion, do not exist to read it. Let me confess, I feel utterly ridiculous.
Blame my dad’s attempt to bake a liquor cake if this letter is a bit chaotic but picture this: someone confesses to this shy Dragel and they send them a favor, now until here everything is pretty normal. But, you see this shy Dragel has an annoying family that unknowingly makes it public, and the poor Dragel (who didn’t want to court in the first place) ends up blurting out that he is already courting. And they made up a romance with someone who doesn't exist. That someone, my dear delusion, is you.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, that Dragel is me – Hi, I’m Harry James Potter and this might come as a surprise to you, but you fell deeply, utterly, and ridiculously in love with me when you never met me at The Dive. It all started innocently enough, a story woven to escape my family's incessant questions about my love life. And now to my family's delight– and my distress– we are courting. Yay! Lucky you.
Harry had always hated drawing attention to himself. And thus, at seventeen years old, he found himself staring down his first courting offer with approximately as much joy as one might anticipate Lady Baronsworth’s next Dinner Party.
Really, he didn’t get why he should even make an appearance at the submissive’s annual reunion. Sure, technically he did have a high noble status. But that was it, technically.
His family had never taken it too seriously. It wasn’t like it was something special. There were many more with a higher status who were much more excited than him. At best, Harry was expected to catch the attentions of a family’s fourth son with aspirations to the council, or perhaps an insolent lower royal.
At worst…
The point is that Harry despised people. Well, not people, but talking to them. It just wasn’t his strong suit, he would rather spend all day with Nyturas than mingling with other Dragels.
The mere thought of courting made him shudder.
And yet, he had no choice.
While his parental Circle was usually all for spoiling him– being the only child of the Circle was useful for once– this time they weren’t relenting. In their defense they weren’t exactly forcing him to hunt, only encouraging him to socialize and be open to exploring.
That’s how Harry found himself reluctantly descending to the submissive floors while his parents enjoyed the festivities. The goal was for him to socialize and gossip about potential intended.
It didn’t quite work that way.
He did make a friend at least. Kandra had been the only good thing about the whole experience.
Despite that, Harry's discomfort was palpable. It wasn’t exactly difficult to notice it; everyone who met him said they could read him like a book. Harry privately thought he could have done that too if everyone's hair changed with their emotions, not quite any real accomplishment in just looking at his hair. As it was, he could only guess his Papa’s. Somehow Sirius was even worse than him at controlling their shared Nameless gift when he wasn’t working.
If someone did look at him, they would have noticed he was uncomfortable by his strawberry-blond hair, a tell-tale sign of his embarrassment. The only one noticing was Kandra- his only ally in this sea of strangers. With his parents being either Pareyas or Jokers respectively, there wasn’t anyone who could accompany him. His grand-dera Briar had somehow managed to avoid assisting and he really didn’t want to look for his great-great aunt Cora. While he enjoyed their talks about magical technology, he knew if he saw her, she would start asking about the Nyturas.
You see, Harry’s dad might be a Potter in name but his blood had always been Peverell. It was a long story about how Aldor Peverell had claimed solitary with his Intended and her family didn’t approve of him and how his family had then rejected her in return. They ended up bonding anyway and ended up leaving Nevarah. So, while the Peverells and the Potters weren’t on bad terms, they weren’t exactly on good terms either.
Lewis was the exception though. Lewis Peverell was Aldor’s older and only brother and while the family had shunned him, Lewis had tried to maintain contact. And when James Potter and his Circle had landed in a whirlwind in Nevarah, it was Lewis who stepped up to help. Because of this, Lewis might secretly be Harry’s favorite great-great uncle and Cora was his submissive.
In fact, Harry had started working at the library a few months ago thanks to Lewis’ connections. His Circle was known for crafting gems, something they inherited from their Alpha’s family. Cora’s was more focused on tech. One of the things that his great-great uncle’s Circle was in charge of was feeding the Nyturas of the realm and that’s how Harry had ended up responsible for the keepers of the library. The library housed a pack of four, large Nytura’s and their offspring. For whatever reason, the newest liter had developed a strange obsession with him. And now he had ended up in charge of the hatchlings.
Though at the start his interactions with the Nyturas that protected the library were minimal, nothing beyond feeding them or cleaning them, one day he noticed he’d developed some stalkers. Some of the scaly, squeaking kind.
Admittedly, he wouldn’t have noticed for a few more months if it hadn’t been for one of the scholars pointing it out to him. Apparently, everyone in the library had known about it. Every time Harry turned his back, a hatchling would pop their head out and start waddling after him. It was fun until there were eight of them following him and Harry still didn’t have the heart to stop them.
Cora was curious about his interactions with them and the dynamics with the adult ones and Harry was avoiding that conversation as much as he could, if he had to duck behind some statue more than once then it was no one's business besides him and Kandra.
Unfortunately, the pack had begun to grow too large and one of the hatchlings had been unwelcome and ended up as an egg. Harry knew that meant the mother was going to have to hide her egg in a Dragon’s nest, and that the hatchling would remain in a suspended state until someone with Dragel instincts and suitable magic discovered them. Then, in theory, it would start its incubation period, draw enough magical energy to hatch, and then wait until they sensed their caretaker required them.
So, imagine Harry’s surprise when instead of flying to find some nesting dragon, the next time he went to feed the Nyturas, he was presented with an egg.
Now, it wasn’t exactly illegal, but it certainly felt illegal to have an egg in his room. Harry knew Nytura’s weren’t exactly common and that they were usually hard to acquire but he also knew they didn’t belong to anyone. No one could own them. If someone had a Nytura, it was because they had been fortunate enough to be deemed worthy of it by them. So again it wasn’t illegal but just– why did everything always happen to him?
Harry had taken to cuddling it in his dragon form. So forgive him if he was trying to avoid any and all conversation with the topic of little paws and scaly heads.
The sympathetic smile Kandra flashed at him the third time he hid– this time it was behind a decoration plant– didn’t exactly match her amused eyes.
Maybe Harry had been too fast to call her an ally. It seemed he had, once again, found another person who enjoyed his suffering. He would have to try to keep her from meeting his dad. Or his Papa. Or his Mu– his family in general.
When Kandra signaled him discreetly that Cora had departed, giving him the green light, Harry emerged from his hiding spot with a relieved breath. “Thank god, I don’t know if I can keep doing this. I’m running out of places to hide. What’s next, sliding under a table?” Harry ran his hand through his hair. Funnily enough, even though he could change his appearance at will and no matter how much he tried, his hair wouldn’t look like anything less than a dragon’s nest. His dad liked to say that the Potter hair couldn’t be suppressed.
The action resulted in a shower of leaves and twigs, prompting snickers from the nearby Gheyo guards. They tried to cover it up as a cough but one of them choked and started to have a coughing attack. Harry didn’t exactly feel sorry for them.
When he finally stopped giving the guards dirty looks, Harry turned to Kandra, who seemed to be suppressing laughter with great effort. "Are you alright?" he asked, only to be met with her light eyes focused on something behind him. Puzzled, he turned around to find a hand on his shoulder, and he yelped as he came face to face with his great-great aunt Cora.
Offering her a sheepish grin, Harry asked, “Any chance you didn’t hear that?” Rather than looking angry, Cora appeared more amused than anything, leaving Harry with a sense of relief. However, before Cora could respond, a sharp squeal broke through the chatter of the room.
A really close squeal.
Harry instinctively shut his eyes. Maybe if he didn’t acknowledge it, it wouldn't exist.
Another squeal, this time he heard it perfectly clear. This one was accompanied by a nudge courtesy of Kandra. The room fell silent, and Harry's internal dread escalated. Harry felt his cheeks burn and he knew his hair was a light coral color by now. Slowly and cautiously he opened one eye only to groan at the sight that greeted him.
His hair grew longer creating a curtain of coral hair that concealed his face from the prying eyes around him. Harry tried to ignore how everyone was looking at him as he knelt until he was looking at a pair of bright blue eyes staring into his own.
It shouldn’t have been possible, yet somehow in the middle of the day, every single adorable, mischievous, hatchling had somehow escaped their stall and congregated around him. With a groan, Harry flopped down to the floor, covering his face with his hands in a futile attempt to shield himself from the attention.
The hatchlings, blissfully unaware of social conventions, squealed and cheered in excitement. Some attempted to climb on top of him, as best as they could, their tiny claws clinging to his clothing as they vied for his attention and tried to attach themselves to his body and absorb whatever they could of Harry’s body heat. The room erupted in a strange mix of sounds—squeals, chirps and chitters—as the hatchlings communicated with each other, creating a chaotic symphony that only added to Harry's discomfort. He sat there a few seconds longer, listening to the strange mix of sounds and trying to ignore everyone else in the room.
Harry, like any other library employee, wasn’t allowed to blood bond with the hatchlings or the other Nyturas since they didn’t want the Nyturas to stray from their job. He was already risking enough having the hatchlings attached this much to himself and–
Someone clearing their throat made Harry remember where he was and he looked up at Cora. “Harry, you don’t need to hide anymore. I was just looking for you to ask if you are going to accept the courting proposal?”
Harry blinked slowly, trying to process her question. After what felt like an eternity, he started to stand up, carefully cradling the attached baby Nyturas in his arms while trying to think how to answer her. The reality was that he was internally panicking. How did she know that? He had just been approached with a favor, not enough time for her to know about it. For Arielle’s sake, he had only told his parents about it.
…
Yeah, maybe that was the problem. He had told his parents about it. And now every submissive present had heard about it, and if they knew by the end of the day everyone would know about it.
So much for hiding from public attention.
He reached up to stroke one of the hatchlings, Aurora’s, warm scales as she rested her head in the crook of his neck breathing happily, the puffs of warm air giving him goosebumps. But he finally decided that to nip in the bud he should make things clear. He apologized silently to the Dragel that had sent him a favor for what he was about to do and forced his hair to return to his natural dark brown color and opened his eyes so they looked innocent, tilted his head and forced a confused expression “But, I am already courting someone, great-great aunt”
And with that final declaration and a thousand apologies directed at his uncle’s submissive— I’m sorry, I’m sure you understand. I have to return the hatchlings to the library, I can’t let them invade the party— and a laughing Kandra, he made his hasty exit from the building, his arms full of his hatchlings, leaving behind the curious gazes of other dragels.
Taking a moment outside, Harry couldn't help but chuckle at the absurdity of the situation and was showered with kisses as he whispered thanks to his eight little troublemakers. Thank the immortals for their intervention and himself for being lazy enough to not order new locks for their stalls. He momentarily forgot about all the nights that he had woken up in his bed with claws painfully digging into his side and wings slapping his face.
Leaving the hatchlings was relatively easy, sending Kandra a message bubble was not. It was only after Harry promised to see her tomorrow and explain what the last hour had been about, that she stopped sending him questioning messages and he was finally allowed to make his way home.
Sadly the day wasn’t over and once he crossed the doorway he was greeted by a question. “There now, how is your courting going?”
Cursing Cora and whatever Dragel had been the one to invent message bubbles he closed the door and faced his parents. Now, you have to understand that Harry had just had a long and exhausting day, the hatchlings hadn’t helped because for all that they could be used as an excuse he was still going to get in trouble for their little getaway, and he was caught off guard so he panicked. And he lied. Again.
In a moment of impulse, after a few months of unceasingly questioning, he blurted out an outrageous lie. “Wonderful!”
At least he was being consistent. The looks of astonishment on his family’s faces were equally as satisfying as indignant. What were they surprised about, he could totally pull someone if he wanted! He just didn’t want to, that’s why he wasn’t courting.
It was a decision, not the result of not being able to. A conscious decision.
Harry realized in seconds how stupid he’d been. He should have known his little statement wouldn’t put an end to the matter. Not when his parents were huge gossips.
Of course, it only served to create a million other questions. Questions Harry didn’t have the answer to.
“When is he coming here?”
Yeah, Harry would also like to know the answer to that one, maybe he could appear and save him from this madness. Since his fairy tale prince didn’t, in fact, appear he was left stumbling over his words “Oh, er… He can’t. He wanted to, but he had to leave the realm at once.”
Apparently, the answer wasn’t satisfactory enough, not that he had any hope that it would be, and the questions continued to pour in. “Whatever for?”
Harry tried to catch Remus' eye, praying that his one sane parent— Lily had already joined the interrogation so Harry couldn’t rely on her— would have mercy on him, but Moony was avoiding eye contact by looking at his tea. Left alone, Harry continued trying to sound convincing, “Because he has a contract at the pits. He is a Gheyo.” On impulse, hoping they would finally let him go to his room, he added “An ACE.”
There. It wasn’t easy to access the pits without a valid reason or if you weren’t a Gheyo. Besides, some contracts forbade contact with the outside, wanting the gheyo to focus solely on their training. From his family, only Sirius could have visited the pits, but he had recently been forbidden from stepping a foot on them, Aiden’s orders, so they couldn’t check if he was telling the truth. If he was lucky enough they would soon forget all about it and he would just say they mutually lost interest or something.
Luck wasn’t on his side today, because the questions never ceased “What about his family? We should at least meet the family of your intended.”
Harry panicked again and frantically cut that thought “But you can’t!” His family gave him some suspicious looks so he cleared his throat and scrambled his brain to offer a realistic reason “Yes, he doesn’t live close by.” Seeing they weren’t exactly buying his excuse and he couldn’t think of anything else Harry added, “And also, they’re dead.”
Yes, that solved it nicely. Harry was quite proud of himself for the fast solution, no way to meet dead people, right?
But of course, his father couldn’t stay quiet. You see, Moony looked like a good reliable person, and he was, but he was also the most annoying out of his family. It looked like being annoying was requisite to bond into the Potter Circle so obviously it was him that asked, “Aren’t any of them Caspers?”
If Harry in another life had inherited as some kind of Basilisk hybrid, Remus would be dead in seconds. As it was, he was just receiving the dirtiest look his son could give, which, honestly wasn’t very effective with his currently bright red hair clashing with his green eyes, making him look like some kind of angry strawberry. “No Moony, none of them are Caspers,” Harry hissed through clenched teeth.
And if Moony opened his mouth Padfoot wasn’t far behind, so he wasn’t surprised when he spoke as well. “We could contact a Necromancer, I’m sure Tavit wouldn’t mind.” Harry was sure that Tavit would mind and that if Sirius actually asked him that, the one they would need to contact through a Necromancer would be his Papa.
Thank god he wasn’t the one who answered that question and it was Remus that explained why they couldn’t do it. Harry was going to take the distraction as a way to discreetly sneak out but he was caught and his mother pressed further, "At least tell us his name."
Shit. Harry hadn’t seen that one coming; in hindsight, it was obvious someone was going to ask about it. It was surprising that no one had asked about it before.
Well, how hard could it be to think of a name?
So he went for it. “Ha–” Unfortunately Harry’s imagination was limited and he almost said Harry, but he realized mid-word that wait no, that’s my name so he managed to save it at the last second “—drian. His name is Hadrian.”
Hadrian. Gheyo ACE. Suddenly his not-real intended had a name.
By the end of the dinner, Hadrian had hair (black), eyes (also black… don’t blame him. Harry had never been either creative or good under pressure), a rank (ACE), and an element (Shadow, if you still hadn’t guessed Harry was going for the whole dark vibe and it definitely wasn’t because he had been looking at his father, Sirius Black, while answering all the questions).
And that’s how that evening, under the persistent urging of his parents, Harry reluctantly sat down to write a letter to his fictional intended. After all, communication was very important for an intended pair.
… My parents think I’m writing to you, my elusive shadow intended. Little do they know that I am pouring my exasperation onto this page, praying to Arielle that they don’t look over my shoulder and find out the absurdity that unfolds. You would think that getting them drunk with my dad’s liquor cake would make them forget about it, a brilliant strategy I know. However, whichever immortal is in charge of inebriation is definitely not on my side. Instead of distracting my family, they have remained laser-focused on my non-existent love life while my head is fuzzy.
I’m starting to think they had doubts about my courtship capabilities. Crazy right? Because I can totally court if I choose to, though I must admit that you, my imaginary ACE, aren’t the most convincing example.
Worst of all, I don’t think I’m going to have any other choice but to send this cursed thing when I am done. It will probably end up in some dead Gheyo post gathering dust. I hope. Or even worse, it becomes a joke for everyone. A reminder of how dumb I am.
I have started this and when the time comes, I will have to confess. I will be forced to explain that I lied about courting a handsome Gheyo ACE I met while flying at The Dive. And then, when I do, I won’t have an excuse to avoid actually courting someone.
My dear imaginary ACE, you are not real and never will be. I, however, am a true and eternal idiot.
Here, have a photo of a Nytura’s Shadow’s egg.
P.S: Shadow is my our Nytura egg.
P.S.S: Do you think Shadow is a good name? Also, do you know if it’s illegal to keep an egg from a Nytura? Asking for a friend.