Victor's eyes surveyed the hall.

"Looking for something?" A familiar voice piped up next to him.

Lips quirking, but eyes still searching, Victor hummed noncommittally. Like predicted, it was enough to catch Chris by surprise and get his attention.

"Wait." Chris said, sounding incredulous, "Someone has caught your eye? In Merlin's name, who?"

Victor finally turned to Chris with bright blue eyes, and he could feel tendrils of excitement bleed into his voice as he said with barely restrained glee, "I don't know! Isn't it amazing?!"

"Vitya, darling, you have to be careful. Veela maturity will be unlike anything you've ever experienced before."

"Okay. Spill."

With those words, Chris, Mila and Yuri swung to look at him expectantly.

Victor forced himself to relax into his seat. He looked at the view of the underbelly of the Great Lake from his seat. A mermaid waved at him. He waved back.

"Victor." Chris said placidly.

Yuri rolled his eyes, "Why am I here again? I don't give a fuck what's up with His Royal Forehead!"

Mila snorted incredulously.

Yuri reddened, "I don't!"

"Methinks the lad doth protesteth too much." Chris quipped, enjoying the conflict like the sadistic bastard he was deep down under the thick layers of hair-dye and sexual deviance (or maybe just the layers of hair dye, come to think of it).

Yuri growled, feral, and lunged forward, only to be held back by Chris's hand to the forehead as Chris examined his nails, bored.

"Calm down, Kitty. Right now, we're harassing Victor. We'll get to you later."

Victor rather thought the sound Yuri made could be heard till the Owlery.

Unable to keep it in any longer, Victor leaned forward and whispered, every note in his voice vibrating with barely restrained excitement, "This is the year. I am going to have my Debut this Winter Solstice."

At this proclamation, even Yuri forgot to swipe at Chris.

In unison, the three swung back to stare at Victor.

"What." Yuri spit out.

Victor bounced slightly in his green couch, as he said, words tripping over themselves, "I am to become a full Veela this Winter break."

Chris was the first one to snap out of the haze Victor's words had created, as he whisper-yelled, "Congratulations!"

Yuri snorted derisively, "Why are you whispering, idiot?"

Mila made a face at him, and she gently chid him, "It has to be a secret, silly. What do you think will happen if everyone in Hogwarts knew about Victor's Veela status? Being a Vilenik is a huge honor! And to you know how damn thirsty everyone is for Victor. Can you imagine the riots?"

"Ew." Yuri said succinctly.

Victor huffed faux-modestly, running his hands through his long silver hair, "Aw. don't worry Yura, I'm sure you'll be the recipient of your fair share of riots as well...eventually. But if you ever need tips on how to - "

"SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP, OLD MAN!" Yuri shouted over Mila and Chris's screams of laughter.

Once they had calmed down slightly, Yuri leaned in, voice comically low, "So, you become a chicken at Winter Solstice. What's the big deal about that?"

Mila giggled, "Honestly Yura, what are they teaching you down in Fourth Year? Don't you know that he now needs to choose a Consort to be his Vilenik? You can't expect him to dance alone at his own Maturity Ball!"

Yuri said, "Eh?"

Victor leaned back as he let the voices rush by his ears. His bones hurt. It would probably become worse the closer he got to the Solstice. Amongst other things.

But he could deal with all that and more.

Now he just needed to find a Consort to dance with at his Debut.

In a castle full of hormonal teens with romantic expectations born of the latest Witch Weekly issue.

Easy.

"A Vilenik is someone who is Blessed by the Veelas. It's also the name we give to the Consort of a Veela. Because being chosen by a Veela results in the best blessing of all."

Victor swung his legs behind him, as he laid on his stomach on his bed, wondering how he was going swing this whole Veela Maturity Ball business. He was going to need to do...a lot, while being weak because of Veela puberty. Victor had never been the kind of person who excelled at logistics, he was more of a big picture person.

Hmm.

Victor huffed, and laid his head on his arms, and faced the only other person in the Seventh year Slytherin boys dormitory. But Chris seemed to be preparing for something, writing furiously on a parchment with zealous fervour.

Victor distantly wondered what that was all about, maybe Chris hadn't finished his summer homework?

Victor sat up as a quiet knock reverberated through the room.

Chris brightened, and hopped over to open it. Yuri and Mila's face popped in, each clutching their pillows. Yuri's patterned with robot cats, and Mila's with what appeared to be...knives? Victor squinted to check.

Okay then.

Victor kept his face smooth, wondering what his friends were planning. Yuri, Mila and Chris sat on Chris's bed and faced Victor.

They stared at him for a second, and Victor stared back quizzically.

"So, what's the game plan?"

Victor looked over at Chris, still confused.

Victor blinked, "What do you mean?"

Chris looked at him in fond exasperation, "You didn't think we weren't going to help did you? We're here for you every step of the way."

Victor's eyes widened. For the whole summer, he had been wracking his mind trying to figure out how to do the whole process alone, and now Chris was talking as though it was a given that they would help?

Victor felt something swell within him, something that left him warm and choked up.

Damn hormones.

Instead of letting on what Chris's words meant to him, Victor said slowly, unsure for the first time in a long time, "Are you sure, it's not going to be easy. You could get hurt. If people discover what I am….it will be risky, helping me."

Mila smiled, sharp and dangerous, "That's what I like to hear."

Yuri rolled his eyes, "What, you think I snuck over from the Hufflepuff dormitory for easy? I eat danger like pirozhki, Old Man!"

Chris smiled gently at Victor, "What little Yura is trying to say, is….we don't care today, and we won't care tomorrow. Count us in."

"Love is all around us, Vitya. It sustains us. Love is what we turn to when we have a dream too large to bear alone. Find that kind of love, and never let go."

Victor smiled, a small, trembling thing.

And he nodded jerkily, lips falling into a smile.

Chris nodded in return, appeased at Victor's agreement, and reached behind him to get the sheaf of parchment he had been furiously working on prior to the rendezvous. Chris fingered his wand consideringly, and with a powerful sweep of his arm, cleared an entire section of the dormitory wall, as the rest watched on in confusion.

Chris twirled his wand, muttering under his breath as the parchment floated to the wall and stuck to it; he then walked over to his bag and pulled out a Quick Quotes Quill. He sucked on the nib and threw it at the wall, only for it to stop before the stuck parchments, ready.

Chris turned, and with an air of authority said, "So. What do you need. Tell me every single thing you know about the process."

Victor, still confused, spoke, "As you know, a Veela has a Maturity Ball once in their lifetime. It's a sign that they are officially an adult. So, to celebrate it, they pick one person as their Consort and Bless them and make them a Vilenik. This person is their partner for the Debut dance of the Veela."

Chris nodded pensievely, and the sound of quill scratching the parchment stopped.

"And then?" Yuri said.

Victor looked back helplessly, and clutched his hair, winding his long hair around his wrist, "That's all I know! They said I would learn as I experienced it, and that it's "part of the process!""

Yuri sneered, "Are you fucking kidding me? That's all we have to go on?!"

Victor nodded sadly, then perked up, "Oh! And I'll need a Chaperone as soon as I identify someone I'd like as my Consort."

"Fucking useless." Yuri muttered.

Mila swatted at the back of Yuri's head, and smiled at Victor. "It's okay, it'll be fun! Like a surprise!"

Slowly, Victor smiled as well.

A surprise.

Yes.

Chris hummed, unmoved.

"So, first things first, we need a to-do list." Chris said with a feverish gleam in his eyes.

Uh-oh.

"Great. Chris "Stationerdy" Giacometti has joined the party." Yuri muttered darkly.

"Oh hush. You'll understand when you're older!" Chris said blithely.

"I'll understand how you look waay too happy in a stationary store when I'm older? I think not. I'm not a perv like you - " Yuri's screeches were cut off by a quick hand over his mouth as Mila furiously hushed him.

"People can't know we're here, silly. Hush."

Yuri hissed at her.

But quietened all the same.

Chris moved on as if nothing had transpired, probably used to it, given the frequency of this exact exchange over the last four years.

"So, how do you choose who will be your Consort?" He asked Victor.

Victor's cheeks flushed with excitement, as he eagerly chittered, "I don't know! I am guessing it has something to do with how they respond to my Allure. Because what's more Veela than Allure, right?!"

Chris raised a skeptical eyebrow, "So, your grand plan is to Veela drug them until something clicks?"

Victor then noticed the way Mila and Yuri were side-eyeing him and unconvincingly drew out, "No…?"

Yuri face-palmed.

"Okay. Okay." Chris said with exhausted finality, "While we were waiting, I made a list of everyone fifth year or above who is unattached. Now, do you want to widen the net?"

Victor flinched, "No. I would rather dance alone than use my Allure on someone that young."

Mila giggled, "I bet you wouldn't even have to use your Allure, Victor."

Victor rolled his eyes good-naturedly, and said, "Nonetheless. That's too young for me."

Chris nodded.

And they all turned towards the long list of three people.

Geez, was everyone but Victor in a relationship?!

Victor turned to his friends to see them exchanging looks over his head.

"What?" he asked, suspicious.

"Nothing." They chimed in unison.

Victor narrowed his eyes.

Chris broke first, "It's just….it doesn't look too promising. I'm not even sure about the last name. He's a mystery. He could be married for all we know!"

"He is not!" Yuri snapped quickly.

Too quickly.

They turned to him deviously, situation forgotten in favor of a nobler purpose.

"Aw, does ickle Yura have a crussssh?" Mila drawled.

Yuri turned red at an alarming pace, and he backed away slowly, "N-No! What would- I have Never - I woULD NOT - not With - How dare - Crush! If crush meant crush. Then yeah, I would like to crush him! With my fists! STOP LAUGHING, ASSHOLES!"

THE LIST OF POTENTIAL CONSORTS

Seung Gil Lee

Phichit Chulanont

Yuuri Katsuki

Chris still giggled from time to time, a soft thing that ruffled Victor's hair, from where it laid on Chris's chest. They were spread over each other on the Slytherin dorm room floor, even prickly Yura had curled into Mila's arms, as they stared up at the Wall of Decisions - a mess of parchment joined by colourful thread (Victor had no idea what the threads signified, but Mila wanted to make something like in that Muggle Auror show she had watched over the break), with a Quick Quotes Quill ready to take notes.

Surrounded by his friends, laughter and with the possibility of a Consort on the horizon, Victor felt at peace.