Chapter Text
“Alright, so what’s going on with the Slytherins and the armbands?” Harry asked.
He, Ron and Hermione were sitting comfortably in the Gryffindor common room, chatting quietly. Harry had only arrived back at school a couple of hours ago, during lunch. School had officially started up again a week before but Harry had been delayed getting back by what
he
had described as a ‘
spot of trouble with some Deatheaters
’, and what
Hermione
had described as ‘
escaping death by the skin of his teeth… again'
. He’d noticed during the meal that most of the Slytherin upper two years seemed to be sporting coloured armbands on their usual school robes.
“Oh,” Hermione began, “Hogwarts is hosting the first Mating Hunt of the season. It’s actually quite an honour for it to be held here, the Mating Hunts are a big deal to Purebloods… ” She noticed Harry looking blankly at her and rolled her eyes. “…and you have no idea what I’m talking about do you? Honestly, don’t you ever read?!”
“Ah, give him a break Hermione,” Ron said, “when does he have time? “
“Don't remind me!” Harry groaned. “If I’m not
actually
training then I’m reading about stuff
for
training. On the rare occasions I actually
do
get to read for pleasure the mating habits of Purebloods isn’t
that
high on my list of essential reading material.”
Ron snorted, and Hermione gave him a small smile. “I know Harry, I’m sorry - I
do
know how hard you‘ve been working…”
“So, what’s this hunt thing then?” Harry asked, cutting in and changing the subject; that was one thing he really didn‘t want to discuss.
“Well,” Harry could practically see Hermione getting into lecture mode, and he bit back a smile - he was so glad to be back
home
again. “until about a hundred years ago it was considered by Pureblood families to be an honour to have Alpha's and Omega's in their bloodline, they felt it strengthened the bloodlines and their magical abilities, rather than the more common Beta. Nowadays it tends only to be the oldest families that still abide by the tradition.”
Ron nodded. “Yeah, we have Alpha blood in our line but it’s been ages since we had a Weasley born as an active Alpha.”
Harry raised a questioning eyebrow at Hermione.
“Not everyone in a family line will have active Alpha or Omega in their blood, sometimes it skips one or more generations. The best way for the powers to be kept active and strong is for an Alpha to mate with an Omega. Take the Malfoys for example; Lucius Malfoy is an active Alpha so his father arranged for him to be bonded to Narcissa Black, because she is an active Omega through the Black family line, and Draco is an active Alpha too and is taking part in the hunt to find the strongest candidate available for his Mate.”
“And the armbands?”
“They’re like a… a badge of honour I suppose, telling everyone what they are and that they are taking part in the Hunt. The colours signify whether they are Alpha or Omega - purple for Alpha and blue for Omega. It isn’t just the Slytherins who are taking part either, if you’d looked more carefully you’d have seen that there’s a few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs taking part too, not to mention the ones from other schools who are here just for the Hunt.”
“No Gryffindors?” Harry asked, surprised.
Hermione shook her head. “No, the only two eligible - Neville and Lara Reagan from the sixth year - elected not to take part, so they won’t come back to school till next month, once the Hunt is over and done with. Most of the Purebloods in Gryffindor don’t have any active powers, like Ron and Ginny, so aren’t eligible.”
“Oh, OK.” Harry mulled it over for a moment, before he spoke again. “So, how does this Hunt work then?”
Hermione cleared her throat, and to Harry’s surprise blushed a little. “Well, the evening of the Hunt the Omegas, or Submissives, are taken to the Hunt area, and then 30 minutes later the Alphas, or Dominants, are allowed into the area …”
“Wait!” Harry interrupted. “What do you mean, Submissives and Dominants?”
Hermione turned slightly pinker. “The Submissives are the ones who can bear children Harry.”
“So they’re the girls?”
Ron laughed. “Honestly Harry! Submissives can be guys too, even I know that; when two guys get together the Submissive is the one that will have the children.”
Harry’s jaw dropped and he looked from one to the other in utter shock, so Hermione decided to get on with her explanation.
“The Dominants track their preferred Submissive until they find them, and then… thentheymatewiththem.” She finished in a rush.
“Wait, wait, wait! How do the Alpha's choose the Omega's? And what happens when more than one chooses the same Omega? And what do you mean they mate with them? Right there and then!?! And how can they have them hunting in the same area at the same time - doesn‘t it cause problems?”
Hermione sighed. Typical Harry behaviour; normally getting anything into Harry’s head that didn’t concern Quidditch or Voldemort involved hammering it in, preferably with something heavy - but something piques his curiosity and he has to know everything about it.
“The Alpha's track their chosen in a variety of ways depending on the person, but scent plays a major part for most of them. They look for power and purity - purity of body and blood; the more Pure-blooded the Mate the better, and more importantly the purer the Mate in body the better - virgins are highly prized.”
Ron snorted. “Good luck finding one in Slytherin!”
Hermione glared at him and continued. “Both are vital in a strong mate, the more powerful and purer the mate the stronger the offspring.
If more than one Alpha wants the same Omega, and that happens quite often because they all want the best available, it basically comes down to survival of the fittest. The Alpha's will fight and the last man standing, as it were, has the right to try and claim the Omega. It’s not actually that simple though, the Omega will expect their prospective mate to prove themselves; the Alpha has to overpower their Omega physically, proving that they are strong enough to protect the Submissive and any children they may have together.”
“Woah, I’ve never been so glad to be a mere half-blood,” Harry laughed.
Ron grinned. “I know, I don’t fancy it either mate. I mean your animal instincts are totally in control - you could hunt someone down and fight to have sex with them, only to find yourself waking up with Pansy Parkinson! Oh Gods, even worse,” Ron choked on his laughter, “being the Submissive and having the likes of Malfoy and Zabini hunting you!”
Hermione rolled her eyes.
“You know, this is a very serious thing for Purebloods. The person they choose will be with them for the rest of their lives.” She said, unsuccessfully trying to fight off a smile.
“Oh, come on Hermione,” Harry said, “how can you not find this funny? I mean seriously, how can you not find the idea of Malfoy running through the woods; fighting off his rivals and then jumping some poor unsuspecting Pureblood hilarious! Malfoy! He’ll be too worried about the state of his clothes and… oh my Gods, his hair!… to find a mate!”
Even Hermione had to admit the image was quite funny and soon they were all rolling around with laughter.
* * *
By the time they’d recovered, they were all red-faced and aching; they could do nothing but flop back into their seats, exhausted.
Harry turned over what Hermione had said in his mind thoughtfully; it was all very interesting, and a welcome distraction from other more… unpleasant thoughts.
Harry was fascinated. “So, they don't try to go after normal wizards, do they?”
“Beta's you mean? No, they wouldn't bother with a Beta, that wouldn't help them pass on their genes. The Hunters at these Hunts look for a Mate who are both powerful and pure - and Alpha's and Omega's are more likely to be the most powerful, because they have powers on top of their wizarding power. It’s not normally that rare for Alpha's or Omega's to mate with Beta's unless they're Purebloods, it was incredibly rare hundreds of years ago because it only happened if the Beta witch or wizard in question was exceptionally powerful. It won't be a problem here though because there are plenty of Submissives for the Dominants to choose from.”
“So how come the Dominants aren’t out there hunting the Submissives already? I mean, I saw them at lunch today and they didn’t look any different to me.”
Hermione nodded. “They won’t look any different - they’re all still in control of themselves at the moment; it’s only once the Hunt starts that their instincts will take over. There’s a special spell; it’s incredibly complicated and difficult magic, and takes seven wizards to cast - it’s really rather fascinating actually. The spell damps down the scent and aura of everyone in the vicinity to prevent any problems occurring, it’s lifted once the Submissives are safely in the Hunt area. The Alpha's and Omega's will be separated tonight at dinner though; it’s too near to the Hunt for them to be overly close to each other.”
Harry looked about to ask something else when Ron butted in.
“Yeah, that’s great an’ all guys, but its dinner time now and I’m starving so can we get a move on?”
Harry and Hermione shared a wry look and followed Ron out of the portrait hole.