Chapter Text
A Little Push
Part 1: Seeds
As Dolores Umbridge's interminable speech finally came to an end and the feast began Draco Malfoy couldn't help but tune out the conversations of his friends around him and turn his attention towards Harry Potter sitting across the room. Potter had been the focus of his obsession for the better part of four years now. Their first meeting had been one of the first moments of rejection and humiliation he had suffered in his whole life. Since then they had clashed repeatedly throughout the years, time after time he had come up short in comparison to the boy who lived. Potter was a better flyer, a better duelist and worst of all: the previous year he had presented as an alpha while Draco still had the neutral scent of a beta.
This was the year that Draco hoped Potter would finally get his comeuppance. The press had turned against him, his reputation was in shambles, Dumbledore wouldn't be around for much longer to protect him and he had even nearly gotten expelled before the year even began. He had beaten the underage magic charges, which admittedly had sounded pretty trumped up even to Draco, but it was a sign of the ministry's hostility to Dumbledore and his precious golden student Harry Potter. With the ministry taking a stronger hand in affairs at Hogwarts, Potter would need to walk a fine line if he wanted to live long enough for the Dark Lord to kill him.
A wave of nausea pulsed through Draco's guts at that last thought. He did his best to keep his features neutral and calm but his face must've paled since Blaise shot him a sympathetic look but didn't comment when Draco shook his head at him. Merlin's balls this was frustrating.
The war was about to begin again. The Dark Lord had returned in all of his power. His father had already been entrusted with a vital mission by the great leader. Soon the time would come for Draco to take his place at his father's side and strike out at all the blood traitors and mud bloods that perverted their society. But the thought of actually killing anyone, or of any of his schoolmates dying made Draco feel anxious, nauseous and fearful.
He was no coward. The thought of fighting didn't bother him in the least. The fantasy of showing up Granger or Weasley was still a frequent thought that passed his mind when he was bored and daydreaming during a history of magic lecture. But the thought of either of them dead, even that know-it-all muggle born bitch, hit him like a ton of bricks and made him want to throw up.
He tried to tell himself it was because he wanted to boast to them of his victory. That he couldn't gloat to corpses and all of them had to know in the end that he had been right, they had been wrong, and he was better than them. But the lie rang hollow even in his own ears. After all they only had to be alive for him to gloat once then they would have to be killed, Ron as a blood traitor, Hermione as a mud blood, and Harry as the Dark Lord's enemy. Even now thinking of it turned his stomach.
This couldn't be happening to him. He couldn't be some squeamish little coward. He had to be ready to do what was necessary; he was going to be an alpha after all.
Of course he was going to be an alpha. Malfoys were always alphas. His father was an alpha, his grandfather had been an alpha. He had acted like an alpha his whole life, the natural leader of Slytherin house that everyone looked up to as was right and natural. He was just a late bloomer, that was it. A late bloomer. One of these days Potter would push him too far and his first rut would trigger to defend his territory or stand up for his cronies and then he'd show him. Except the thought of fighting Harry increasingly terrified him.
During the train ride home last year, Draco had made the mistake of mocking Cedric Diggory's death to Potter's face. Draco had on rare occasions caught his father's scent when he was angry. Those had been disturbing occasions that haunted Draco's memories and made him glad his father loved him dearly. Harry's scent made his father's scent seem like mild annoyance. Normally the Gryffindor golden boy smelled woodsy with a smoky under current, but angry the smoke overpowered everything as it became choking and almost burning. Even worse as his anger grew to the point of action, a corrupt, foul, decaying scent began to permeate the smoke. Draco hadn't realized what that smell had been until the first time The Dark Lord had visited his father and Draco caught the same scent hanging around him at all times. An angry Harry Potter smelled like death.
The flurry of jinxes and hexes that had accompanied that scent had only hammered the point home. Draco Malfoy could no longer imagine himself ever managing to defeat Harry Potter. Worse still he increasingly had a hard time imagining The Dark Lord defeating Harry Potter. He had begged his father to tell him the full story of what had happened in that graveyard where Cedric had met his fate. He had hoped to hear a story of Harry being toyed with, tortured and then barely allowed to limp away and await his doom. Instead he heard of Harry matching The Dark Lord's power and managing to escape on his strength. Hearing how Cedric had died hadn't been good for him either, he had nightmares about that for a few nights afterwards. He didn't even know Diggory but he still felt bad about his death.
On the train ride to Hogwarts this year it had taken almost all of Draco's courage to boast to Harry about being made prefect while Harry hadn't. He hadn't been able to meet Harry's eyes, and afterwards had needed a long sit down to get his legs to stop feeling like jelly. The scent of Harry's annoyance had nearly made Draco bare his neck in submission. It was embarrassing.
Draco told himself that it was just his troublesome instincts telling him not to tangle with a presented alpha while he was still unpresented. Harry had his first rut shortly after the first task of the Triwizard Tournament last year, which made sense to Draco; a near death encounter with a dragon probably could set a lot of things in motion after all. Over the rest of the year Harry had gained almost a foot in height and an extra forty pounds of muscle. Summer had slowed his growth but not stopped it. He was another four inches taller now than when Draco had last seen him and had shoulders broad enough to lay a wood axe across. It would be natural for even most alphas to be intimidated by the sight of him now, a beta had little chance.
Other alphas weren't giving him this kind of trouble though. Vincent Crabbe and Pansy Parkinson were both alphas as well and both still fell in line behind Draco. Ron Weasley had presented as alpha near the end of last year and Hermione Granger had as well over the summer, and Draco had no trouble mocking the both of them to their faces during the first prefect meeting. Okay Hermione was a bit intimidating to him as well now but nowhere near as much as Harry was. He felt confident he could still handle any of them, and knew for certain that once he presented alpha he could exert dominance over them as well.
Even if he did present alpha though, he wasn't certain he could deal with Harry in the same way. In fact he feared that Harry would still overmatch him even then. He needed something to give him the leg up over Potter, but looking at the tall strong man across the room from him he had a difficult time thinking of anything that could give him that advantage.
"Something on your mind Draco?" Pansy asked, breaking Draco out of his introspection.
"Just wondering about the defense professor." Draco lied, he would sooner tell The Dark Lord that he was scared of Dumbledore to his face than admit how Harry Potter made him feel. "Anyone know much about her?"
"You of all people are asking about a ministry official?" Blaise commented disbelievingly. "I thought you Malfoys knew everyone who's anyone."
Draco shrugged dismissively. "All my father's ever said about her is that she's a brown-noser of epic proportions. And not even a very good one at that. Compliments and praise can get you pretty far with my father, but she lays it on so thick only an idiot like Fudge could believe she actually meant any of it."
"Can't blame him for not caring." Gregory Goyle commented, his father also knew a fair amount about a surprising number of ministry officials which Goyle sometimes picked up on. "She's only somewhat competent at her job. Good enough to not cause problems but if the ministry actually rewarded merit, she'd only be a low level official. Honestly she might be as bad a teacher as Lockhart was, and probably nowhere near as entertaining."
"If I had to say something good about her," Crabbe added, "I would say she's got the right views on a lot of subjects. She won't go easy on the mudbloods and she hates half breeds and subhumans. The werewolves especially hate her."
"How much do they hate her?" Blaise asked curiously.
"If you can think of a way to get her into a dark alley at a certain time of night then I can think of an easy way to make a few hundred galleons." Crabbe said devilishly.
"From what I hear they wouldn't even turn the bitch." Goyle contributed. "They'd just tear her throat out and be done with it."
"How barbaric." Blaise dismissed.
"Waste of a good cunt too." Crabbe said with a leering smile.
"Oh come on." Pansy sneered. "A dried up old hag like her? It would be like sticking your dick in a bucket of sand."
"That's just what she wants you to think." Crabbe explained. "She'll act all cold and dry to make you think she's a prude old virgin but I bet you could make her just start gushing slick with the right pitched growl. She's the type to cry 'no, no, no you mustn't' while she presents and arches back into your every thrust."
"Okay I can almost see that." Pansy admitted while looking somewhat hungrily towards the professor's table. "She's too fat though."
"More cushion for the pushing I say." Crabbe concluded.
"I swear all the two of you can think about is your dicks these days." Draco scoffed. "There is more to being an alpha than just popping your knots in anything that moves."
"It's just the best thing about being an alpha." Pansy declared.
"Just you wait Draco." Crabbe assured him. "Once you've had your first rut we'll take you down to the seedier side of Hogsmeade and you can find out just how good it is."
"Fuck I don't think I can wait for his first rut." Pansy said. "First weekend we get down there even if he's still unpresented we'll get him a nice needy omega whore he can unwind with. He might not be able to fully satisfy them but I can finish the bitch off afterwards and Draco can see everything he's missing out on."
"You're disgusting, Pansy." Draco finished, both Goyle and Blaise seemed glad he was shutting that conversation down. Both of them were still unpresented and didn't know how to react when the two of them got like this. Sadly Pansy didn't seem to know when to shut up anymore.
"Oh don't be a prude Draco." She dismissed, "Nothing wrong with a little talk like this. Unless you're afraid that if you see an omega moaning and whining on my cock you might get jealous of them? Are you worried you might be presenting omega? You shouldn't be. I'll take real good care of you if you grow a womb for me. I'd even let you keep the Malfoy name and fill you up with plenty of strong pure blood pups."
Pansy leaned in closer to him as she spoke and said her last few words in as sultry a voice as she could muster. Draco had his wand out and pressed to the bottom of her throat in an instant, halting her short. She wasn't quite larger than him yet, but was much closer to his size than she had been last year. A physical fight might go either way, but a magical one could only have one outcome.
"My patience is wearing thin, Parkinson." Draco warned. "If fighting in the dining hall wouldn't cost us house points you'd be on the ground writhing in pain right now. Say one more word and I'll consider even fifty points a small price to pay to put you in your place."
For a moment Pansy held there. She glared at him and her scent turned caustic as her anger grew and her instincts no doubt told her to make the uppity beta submit. Draco held his ground and showed no sign that his body was telling him to buckle under her pressure. Finally she threw her hands up and relented with a smile.
"What aren't I allowed to have any fun anymore?" She said lightly as she backed off.
"If you want that kind of fun, I suggest you try it on someone actually submissive enough to enjoy it." Draco ordered. "Try that again on me and you won't get a warning next time."
"I hear you." Pansy accepted, and the table relaxed.
"Anything you want to add Crabbe." Draco challenged.
"Nope." He answered simply. "You're the brains of this outfit, boss. What you say goes."
To emphasize his submission, Crabbe offered Draco one of the desserts from his plate which Draco accepted and ate in front of him. But Draco held no illusions, Crabbe would accept the status quo for only so long. An alpha could take orders from another alpha, but their pride wouldn't allow them to take orders from a beta, which Draco basically still was until he presented. For now things were fine, they were still just a group of friends and Draco was the best wizard amongst them. Sooner or later though, they would have to become a pack, and packs weren't led by betas.
Pansy would probably end up in charge at that point, she'd soon be able to match Crabbe in raw strength and was better at magic. Draco would still be the brains of the group and they would probably still do what he said, but he wouldn't be able to command them, just make suggestions or advise plans. If he tried to force the issue he would destroy what bonds held them together and the two alphas would leave him. Assuming they didn't manage to corner him without his wand first and kick his teeth in. Draco couldn't accept that, he needed to present alpha and hold on to his leadership of this group. If he wasn't the de facto head of Slytherin house then what even was he?
"If Umbridge isn't willing to display proper Slytherin pride we'll bribe her with promises of our family's favor and ensure she makes life as difficult as possible for the mudbloods and blood traitors." Draco announced after a few minutes of silence as if he had been thinking over the plan. "With any luck she'll bring pressure from the ministry down on this place and we can force other teachers into adopting proper views of the world, or even replace them. By the end of the year we'll be running this school."
The others nodded in agreement. Quite a few other Slytherin students overheard him and gave their assent to the plan as well. Things had been going all Gryffindor's way for the last few years and it was time to change that. Draco couldn't help but feel it was a pitiful thing to obsess over. There was a war brewing after all, what did the fate of one school matter in the face of that? But the school was where he was, he was still too young to do anything really important, so the fate of the school was what he would fight for.
After the feast was done and they made their way back to their dorms a traitorous voice started up in Draco's mind. What if Pansy was right? What if he was going to present as an omega? His life would be over then. He wouldn't even be the idea guy in the group then. Pansy and Crabbe would never listen to an omega. One of them would try to claim him or bribe his father into letting them court him and that would be the end of their association. The thought of belonging to either of them turned his stomach.
It couldn't happen though. The house of Malfoy hadn't produced an omega in well over a hundred years. His mother was an omega admittedly but that hardly mattered. She was a Black after all. The house of Black produced omegas all the time, even Sirius Black the infamous murderer had been an omega. But that wouldn't affect him, he was a Malfoy not a Black.
Being an omega in the wizarding world wasn't that bad. Certainly better than it must've been in the muggle world where the brutes only had their strength to guide and order their society. Presentation had no effect on one's skill at magic after all. If an omega didn't mate, like Sirius for example, they could have a successful career in any field they were skilled enough to get into. But an omega would of course be submissive to their mate, they would allow their alpha to take care of them and would stay home to raise their pups just like his mother had.
And unfortunately he couldn’t choose to simply not have a mate. He was the heir of the house of Malfoy, having children to carry on the family name was not negotiable. If he was a beta or alpha that wouldn’t be a problem. He could mate with anyone who could bear him children then, even an alpha woman could do that. But if he did present as an omega then his own seed would become infertile so he would have to take an alpha as a mate so he could bear the houses next heir. Which meant his future would be dictated by the alpha that claimed him. He wouldn't be able to lead. He wouldn't be able to go out into the world and make something of himself. He wouldn't be able to prove that he was every bit as strong and capable as his father was. It would be the end of all his ambitions and dreams.
So what? The traitorous voice in his mind whispered. What had he accomplished as the leader of Slytherin house? What had become of all his attempts to prove his power, skill and capability? Nothing but a long list of embarrassment and failures that's what. Wouldn't it be nice to just take it easy for once? To not have to be perfect in everything he did? Wouldn't it be nice to have a strong alpha he could trust to take care of him? Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a pack that actually loved him for who he was rather than a gang of cronies that just wanted to get something out of him? Trying to act like an alpha had ruined every relationship he had tried to make. The only people that actually cared for him were his parents and his godfather. If he was an omega people might actually be able to love him without him having to feel threatened by them.
Draco did his best to push those thoughts away. He didn't like the questions they raised. He didn't like that he couldn't think of answers to them. And he especially didn't like the face that came to mind with the thought of 'strong alpha that could take care of him'.
In the Gryffindor common room Harry had settled into one of the larger arm chairs near the fireplace and was contentedly enjoying the peace and feeling of home that always gripped him on his first night back at Hogwarts. Only the Barrow where the Weasley clan dwelled did he ever have such a sensation of belonging, or as many happy memories that came to mind. But while at the Barrow he would always feel at least a little like an outsider, a welcome one to be certain but still an outsider, here he felt he had a place all his own. Hogwarts was the place where he had made himself, and he felt he had helped make the place into something better, so in a way he felt it was his. He was beginning to recognize this as an alpha's sense of territory, an area he could make safe for his friends and pack to enjoy. He liked it. He welcomed it.
Here in this place of familiarity and safety he could afford to let his mind wander and think. Doing so back in Little Whinging had always left him feeling anxious like he was letting his guard down, Grimmuald place hadn't been any better. Things had been too chaotic there so Harry had felt like he was always waiting for the next fight to start. Now he could actually think over things and his mind wandered.
He thought about how Dumbledore seemed to be avoiding him and didn't trust him. He thought about how perhaps the two associating with each other too closely could be seen as a sign of conspiracy by a paranoid press. He thought about how Hermione and Ron had left him out of the loop at Dumbledore's orders and how that still stung. He thought about how he really should just forgive them for that since it wasn't like they could do anything to go against what the adults had decided. He thought about how the Order seemed determined to smother him with protection and how that only made him want to lash out at something. He thought about how Mrs. Weasley's greatest fear had included his death. He thought about how Cedric Diggory had died and if there was anything he could've done to save him. He thought about how his next fight with Voldemort would go, for surely things between them couldn't be done yet unless Dumbledore managed to defeat him. He thought about how a small part of him didn't want Dumbledore to defeat him, because he wanted to be the one to take down Voldemort.
Most of these thoughts came and went. They drifted into his mind, were examined and debated, then Harry came to some kind of new line of thought about them and then they drifted away. There was one line of thought though that kept coming back to him over and over again. And it was one he couldn't come to any kind of satisfactory conclusion about.
"Anyway Harry what do you think?" Hermione suddenly asked him and without thinking Harry answered her honestly.
"Don't you think Draco should've presented alpha by now?"
"What?" Ron asked, stunned by the sudden nonsequitur. "I don't know. What does that have to do with anything?"
"Do with what?" Harry asked, confused.
"Harry, haven't you been listening?" Hermione complained, "We've only been talking about this for like half an hour now."
Harry cast back into his memory to see if any part of their increasingly heated conversation had actually registered with him. None of it had. Their group had been prone to arguments and fierce disagreements since the very beginning and now that all three of them were alphas it seemed like tempers only flared hotter and faster these days.
"Sorry." He said with a shrug. "I don't think I caught any of what you've been talking about."
"It's the twins." Hermione emphasized her last words to drive the point home. "They're trying to hire the first years to test out their 'products' on."
"Oh." Harry said, he had seen some of the flyers Fred and George, two of Ron's older brothers and the only other alphas in the family, had been putting up around the school advertising their prank kits and other special magical items. He didn't see what the big deal was. "Lucky them I suppose."
"Lucky!?" Hermione exclaimed. "It's dangerous."
"Oh that's unfair Hermione." Harry pointed out. "The twins have never made anything that was actually harmful or that came close to being permanent. And I seriously doubt they're testing anything less than near final products on them, it wouldn't do for them to let their products gain a bad rep by showing them off to the public before they're almost done. Does any of this break any rules as written?"
Hermione opened her mouth like she was going to argue but paused as she thought through it. Eventually she concluded: "The flyers do. Posting advertisements is against school rules. They'll have to come down. And if they ever come close to injuring one of the first years I'm shutting the whole thing down!"
"Don't be such a killjoy Hermione." Ron insisted. "They're just first years anyway, they're supposed to get a few hard knocks."
"They're supposed to get a good, safe education!" Hermione retorted which almost made Harry scoff, Hogwarts had never been a safe school. "And you're supposed to help me enforce the rules."
"Not dumb ones." Ron defended.
"All of them!" Hermione affirmed.
"The no flyer rule isn't a dumb one." Harry offered, "Could you imagine if Draco had been able to add a mass of posters to the badges in his 'Potter Stinks!' campaign last year? Anyway you're only dragging your feet like this because they're your brothers and you're scared of them bullying you over it."
"I'm not-" Ron yelled but stopped himself. His scent went from cinnamon on a summer breeze to a clawing burning smell in an instant. Of course he wouldn't take kindly to be called scared or the claim that he was caving under the pressure of another alpha. But denying the first, sort of admitted to the second so he opted for rejecting the whole idea instead. "They aren't bullying me."
"The moment you got your prefect badge they accused you of being the next Percy." Harry pointed out. "Which is impossible since there's no way there's another stick in the world as large as the one shoved up Percy's ass. You shouldn't take that shit from them. You should hold them to the same standards everyone else does."
"And drive another wedge into my family!?" Ron snarled.
"So you'll let your family walk all over you!?" Harry snarled right back, his own temper flaring in response to Ron's. The two glared at each other for a few moments, muscles tense, eyes locked, showing each other their fangs. Hermione's scent dipped from its heady musk of old books into a more oppressive scent as she made it clear she wouldn't back down if the two of them came to blows. Then the moment passed and as one they all relaxed.
"It won't matter." Ron added ignoring the near fight they had gotten into and offering no apologies. "For seven years those two have done as they pleased at this school and none of the professors have ever managed to even slow them down, much less stop them. Two prefects aren't going to suddenly find a weakness to them. Besides, if you do crack down on them they'll just take the first years into some hidden passage or forgotten room and do the tests there. At least out in the common room you can keep an eye on them and make sure the kids get sent to madam Pomfrey if things go wrong."
"Something being impossible has never stopped any of us before and won't do so now." Hermione vowed and that got a smile out of all three of them.
That was the way of their arguments now. Tempers flared hot and built up fast. None of them were ever willing to admit they were wrong and back down. Once things came to a head they would end suddenly and then everyone would act like nothing had happened. Maybe one of them would change their behavior in a few days as if they had changed their minds. Hermione might try to get Fred and George to be more safety minded and accept accountability instead of trying to shut them down. Ron might stand up to them more and be more even about how the rules were enforced. Neither would ever even admit they had changed their minds much less that they had been convinced by another to do so. Harry wasn't certain if this change was a good one or not yet. Maybe it was just different.
"What was that you were saying about Draco before?" Ron asked to change the subject.
"I just thought it was weird that he was still a beta." Harry explained with a shrug as if it wasn't a big deal. "I had expected him to present over the summer or at the very least for his body to be preparing for it. But his scent is still the same, he's still rail thin and kind of short, and I swear he almost showed his neck to me when we were arguing on the train."
"That is a bit strange." Hermione agreed as a look of concentration swept over her face.
"It's too early to say." Ron dismissed. "Not everyone presents when they are fifteen or sixteen, we won't know for certain if he really is a beta for another few years."
"He's a beta now." Harry pointed out a bit confused by what Ron was saying.
"Well yeah essentially," Ron explained, "But technically he's unpresented. Basically the same thing but again he still might present later in life."
"Well yeah any beta can present later in life that doesn't stop them from being betas for now." Harry claimed. Ron looked at Harry dumbfounded by what he had said and Harry was looking increasingly confused as he looked back at Ron. There was something the both of them were missing here.
"Oh." Hermione suddenly cut in. "Ron, do wizards not know about the Unified Gene theory?"
"Isn't that a kind of muggle clothing?" Ron said back confused.
"Muggle studies really should be a mandatory course at this school." Harry said under his breath, "And it should be taught by an actual muggle."
"That's J-E-A-N-S jeans you're thinking of Ron." Hermione clarified. "I'm talking about G-E-N-E-S genes which contains coded information inside your body about how it should function."
"What?" Ron said simply.
"It's how your liver knows how to be a liver." Harry clarified, "And things like that."
"Huh." Ron exhaled. "You know it never crossed my mind to wonder about that kind of stuff but now that you say it, it does make sense. It seems to me that something like a stomach must be quite complicated to deal with all the different kinds of food you eat so there's got to be something that tells it how. Where are these gene things kept?"
"In the cells." Harry simplified heading off Hermione before she could launch into a no doubt very correct but quite unhelpful lecture on the subject.
"We learned about those in transfiguration for animal to animal transformation. Aren't they really small?" Ron pressed.
"Genes are even smaller." Harry further provided.
"And muggles can read them?"
"More or less, it's kind of complicated."
"Bloody clever of them." Ron concluded.
"The point is," Hermione interrupted to get the discussion back on track. "People always assumed there was an alpha gene or an omega gene that told people how to present and so alphas were always destined to be alphas and so on and so forth. But that wouldn't explain why two beta parents could have alpha or omega children so after a lot of investigation they figured out that actually there's just one gene for alphas, betas and omegas and how you present is actually about social pressure."
"They figure that a long time ago before humans had tools or magic or anything," Harry offered "Presentation was how human packs adjusted to changes in the environment. If there's a drought or famine going on you don't want a bunch of kids to present as alpha and suddenly need a lot more food to bulk up. Omegas are a lot more calorie efficient so having more of them would be helpful. If there's a lot of fighting and predators around you don't want more omegas which would be weak and vulnerable, that's when you need alphas to make everyone safe. But as human society grew and became more complex those old pressures no longer mattered. Nowadays it's all about social pressure and how you're treated. Everybody in Slytherin treats Draco like a leader so he should have presented alpha."
"Wait, are you saying that if a person throws their weight around and acts like a jerk they get rewarded by presenting alpha?" Ron exclaimed more than a bit offended by such a notion.
"Not necessarily." Hermione assured him. "It's mostly affected by how other people treat you. If people look to you for leadership, protection, safety or inspiration then you will likely become an alpha. If people like to take care of you, pamper you, treat you like you're precious or if they look to you for guidance and emotional comfort then you'll likely present as an omega. Trying to force things for yourself doesn't work well. Act like a bully and an ass and you'll probably just scare people away from you. Or you'll piss off the wrong person and…."
"And what? Someone beats you up?" Ron guessed.
"Yeah…." Hermione answered and after looking like she was deep in thought for a few seconds she continued. "If a potential alpha is seen to lose to someone a bunch of times it can ruin any sense of confidence that others feel about them, or even that they feel about themselves. Say if two young wizards had a very public rivalry with one another, competing in grades, in sports, even fought and dueled each other a couple of times, but one always won and the other always lost. And say if the one that always won also had a bunch of highly successful accomplishments outside of their rivalry too, then that wizard would almost certainly get pushed up into being an alpha while the loser would get pushed down and would remain a beta. No matter how much others saw that beta as a leader, or how good he was outside of his rivalry, no one, not even the beta would ever be able to forget how they had squared up time and again and lost."
The silence stretched as she finished. Harry threw his head back and blew a stray bit of hair out of his eyes with an explosive sigh then stared at the ceiling. Even Ron looked more than a bit uncomfortable and heavens knew he had no love for any Malfoy.
"The thought had occurred to me already." Harry admitted. "And I've been trying to think if there was any other explanation. But I think you're right Hermione, we've been pushing him down."
"So?" Ron asked, which got a glare for him from Harry. "I mean yeah it's a pretty shitty thing to happen to someone. Messing with people's gender, primary or secondary, through magic is seen as a fairly dark practice unless it wears off quickly. But Draco started this, he's the one that took it personally when you refused to be his friend, and he's the one who picked pretty much every fight between the two of you. The way I see it he's just facing the consequences of his own actions."
"Yeah I get where you're coming from," Harry explained. "But I used to be terrified of the idea that my relatives might push me down into being an omega when I was younger. I can't like the thought of doing something like that to anyone, even accidently. Even to Draco Malfoy."
"Well what do you want to do about it?" Ron pressed, "Give him some easy wins and push him up?"
"It might be too late for that." Hermione denied. "His reputation might already have sunk too low."
"And we can't know if his easy wins might advance some Death Eater plan in the school." Harry added.
"Then there's nothing we can do." Ron concluded, then thought for a second and added, "We're not pushing him into becoming an omega are we?"
"Failing at being an alpha doesn't make you an omega." Hermione assured them. "We would have to start pampering, caring for and dominating him to do that."
"The one small blessing in all of this." Harry said.
"Draco would make a pretty cute omega though you have to admit." Ron suggested.
"What!?" Harry exclaimed disbelievingly.
"He's already pretty short and slender." Ron explained. "With his platinum blonde hair and soft features he cuts a pretty cute profile already. If he presented omega his hips would fill out and his chest would swell up a bit, he'd be the perfect size to cuddle with. All fiery and fierce until you got him wrapped up and enveloped in your scent then he would just melt into you all soft, gentle and perfect to hold. He'd be great."
"I can't believe I'm hearing this." Hermione whined exasperated.
"Ron," Harry pressed, "You can't expect me to believe you'd seriously consider courting a Malfoy? You hate Draco even more than I do."
"He's a prejudicial ass." Ron admitted, "But that's mostly his father's influence. If he were our omega we could help him see the light, and at least then he wouldn't be such a massive pain in our backside."
"What have you done with the real Ron Weasley?" Harry demanded to know half seriously.
"Plus there's the war to think about." Ron continued.
"What could the war possibly have to do with any of this madness?"
"The Malfoys have a lot of failings." Ron stated the obvious. "But if they have one redeeming quality it's this: they look out for their own. A hint of a rumor that Draco and you are courting and suddenly Malfoy Sr. Has to choose between his son and heir and You Know Who. If there's anything that could get him to give up on his scheming for power it's that. We could drive a wedge into the heart of You Know Who's political power base and his financial support in one clean stroke."
"Except we won't," Harry rejected, "Because: A: Draco isn't an omega and we won't make him one. B: I'm not going to court and mate someone to manipulate someone else's politics; and C: I'm sixteen I don't want to even think about courting someone right now!"
"I second that motion." Hermione agreed.
"Well you're going to have to think about courting someone." Ron pressed.
"Why?"
"Because Harry Potter," Ron pronounced with surprising passion in his voice, "You are the one person in the world I could ever accept as my pack alpha, and the both of you are the only people I could ever think of making a pack with. But right now our dynamic is shit. We're three young headstrong alphas, maybe if we didn't argue half as much as we did before we presented we could get away with just bringing a few betas into the pack. But as it stands if we don't find someone we can lavish all our protective and nurturing instincts on, who will go all soft and submissive for us, we are going to tear our friendship apart at this rate."
Harry and Hermione were stunned by Ron's statement. Pack. It was such a powerful word to Harry. A real family for himself, one that would stay at his side, one he could keep at his side. He longed for it, hungered for it. And Ron was offering it to him, talking like it was a forgone conclusion for them. Good God he wanted that with both of them. He was one step away from tears right now. But he focused on the question at hand first.
"Do you really mean that Ron?" He asked hopefully.
"Yes." Ron declared emphatically. "So if you have any other suggestions I'm all ears. Neville?"
Harry was confused for a moment and then remembered noticing that Neville's scent had changed earlier. Not a good sign that he hadn't remembered that until now though. And Hermione was shaking her head.
"Nothing against Neville." Hermione explained, "He's a great guy and will make someone very happy one day. But his scent is too sweet for me."
"Cho Chang?" Ron suggested.
"I don't think it's going to work out between us." Harry denied. He had crushed hard on Cho during the tournament last year. Now thinking of her made him think of Cedric's death and his infatuation with her had fallen off quickly.
"Anyone else you can think of?" Ron pressed.
"Well no," Harry admitted, "But Draco?"
"I didn't hear any objections to him other than him being a Malfoy." Ron argued.
"Here's one: he's not an omega." Harry concluded.
"But-" Ron started.
"And we aren't going to make him one." Harry interrupted. "End of discussion. Now if the two of you will pardon me, I am going to try and get some sleep tonight because this day has been more than long enough."
With that Harry fled the common room and made for his bed. Thoughts of what Draco would look like as an omega haunted his dreams, but Harry wouldn't complain as they were much better than his usual nightmares. Ron and Hermione lingered in the common room, the last two awake in the Gryffindor dorms. After some silence Hermione spoke up.
"It seems you've given this topic some considerable thought." She said approvingly.
"In a family as large as mine you learn to pay attention to things like dynamics." Ron dismissed.
"Not just that." Hermione waved away. "But about the whole pack thing."
"Yeah I have thought about that." Ron confessed. "And I just can't think of a future without the two of you in it. Can you?"
"I haven't dared think about it." Hermione claimed. "It seemed to me most wizards are happy to just pair up."
"You can thank You Know Who for that." Ron complained. "He used the Imperius Curse to break up several packs and fear did in the rest. People couldn't trust each other so most alphas picked one person to look out for and just ran. Most people are still too afraid to open themselves up to more than one person."
"How awful." Hermione lamented.
"Do you not want to be in one?" Ron asked hesitantly.
"Now that you've offered, I will accept nothing less." Hermione instantly affirmed and Ron visibly relaxed.
"That's great."
"Harry won't either, I'm sure."
"I know."
"There is just one thing." Hermione hesitated.
"What?" Ron asked worriedly.
"You talked like it was a foregone conclusion we would share an omega." Hermione explained. "You know not all packs are polyamorous? We could all have our own omegas and still be in a pack."
"Well yeah." Ron agreed, "And I certainly wouldn't want you to do anything you were uncomfortable with."
"But?"
"It's nothing." Ron backtracked. "Forget I said anything."
"No, it's something tell me." Hermione demanded.
"It's dumb." Ron evaded.
"Ron."
"You'll get mad."
"Ron!"
"Okay fine, but you're not allowed to get mad about it, understand?" Ron caved.
"This is a judgement free zone Ron." Hermione assured him.
"Well…. Last year one of my favorite mental fantasies…." Ron finally started. "This is your last chance to back out by the way. We can end this conversation right now and never speak of it again."
"Ron, I will brew up a batch of Veritaserum if you drag this out any longer." Hermione demanded.
"I used to get off to the thought of me and Harry double teaming you alright?" Ron gave out in a rush. "Are you happy now?"
"Oh." Was all Hermione could manage as her face turned scarlet.
"Now it's the thought of the three of us passing around members of the Weird Sisters." Ron continued because he had made this bed and now he had to lie in it.
"Right. Makes sense." Hermione accepted. "Uh… honestly? I've had the same fantasy."
"Have you now?" Ron said and now it was his turn to blush furiously.
"Not my favorite admittedly." Hermione qualified. "That…. That would be the thought of you and Harry going at it."
"Oh." Ron said, a little stunned. "If you don't mind my asking…"
"Either of you topping could get me off." Hermione answered the unasked question. "In fact you would usually switch back and forth."
"Cool." Ron said in the end because he couldn't think of anything else to say. "So I guess you're good with us being a polyamorous pack then?"
"Yes. Emphatically so."