She shook her head without looking away from the mirror.
"You have some place to go?" he continued.
"Of course," she said, turning to smile at him again.
He finished tying his shoes and stood.
"Oh, OK. I need to get going." he said awkwardly.
"Um, thanks for last night. And for this morning. It was incredible."
She radiated pride and he smiled.
He grabbed his book-bag and was at the door when he realized that she was right there with him.
He stopped.
"Er, don't you think you should get dressed before you leave?" he asked gently.
She adopted the tone of one attempting to be patient with a child.
"Master, I am dressed," she said, indicating the choker she wore.
"This is all I will ever wear from now on."
"But you can't walk around like that," he said incredulously.
"You're naked. People will see."
"I am yours, Master," she said with that same air of patience.
"No one will notice me."
His eyes raked up and down her nude form; she still sparkled with slowly drying shower water.
He found the idea of her going unnoticed as she was a very hard thing to believe.
He didn't have time to argue, however; he needed to get to class.
Despite being young, she had to know that it was inappropriate to walk around in nothing but a choker even if she seemed determined to do so.
He thought crazily that, should worse come to worst, he would just pretend that he didn't know her.
He reckoned that no one would know they were together.
After all, he thought, it couldn't possibly be as bad as being caught naked in bed with her.
They couldn't hold him responsible for a naked girl walking around.
Could they?
Without another word, he continued out the door and down the stairs, Gabrielle trailing along in his wake as though she belonged there and, considering the bond, he figured that, in a way, she did.
Upon reaching the common room, he noticed Colin Creevey and a couple other third-years sitting around.
Harry guessed they had a free period first thing that morning.
They all looked up at him when he entered and Colin waved before they returned to whatever it was they doing.
None of them so much as glanced in Gabrielle's direction.
With more than a bit of confusion, he clambered out of the portrait hole, Gabrielle right behind him, and checked his watch only to find it had stopped working; it occurred to him that he had forgotten to remove it before his trip into the lake.
Not knowing exactly how much time he had, he decided to forego even stopping by the Great Hall to pick up some toast and instead, chose to head directly to Transfiguration.
He quickly made his way through the hallways, Gabrielle, to his dismay, following him dutifully.
Somehow, he passed no one the entire way to class.
When he opened the door to the Transfiguration classroom, however, he found that nearly everyone was seated, waiting patiently for McGonagall, who was standing next to her desk, to begin the lesson.
Everyone turned around at the sound of the door opening and he knew that there was no way in the world that Gabrielle, who, he was very aware, was still right behind him, would be in any way hidden.
He quickly and guiltily entered the room and sat down next to Hermione who had saved him a seat.
As he pulled his Transfiguration book from his bag, he noticed, to his embarrassment, that his bonded was standing next to him proudly and happily, still quite naked--though now dry, save her hair which was still rather damp--as though she'd done this every day of her life.
He looked up to see McGonagall watching him judgingly.
He waited for the reaction: the stern voice, the thinned lips, the oozing disapproval.
Seconds that were aeons in length ticked by, one by one.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gabrielle move and he felt her slide her arm around his shoulders as she gently leaned up against his side as though to announce their union.
Harry gulped and tried not to quail under his head of house's stern appraisal.
McGonagall's gaze had lingered on him for an eternity, but then she gave the slightest of nods and looked away.
Harry felt wrong-footed.
Did she approve of the naked girl in her class?
Was it not against the rules for students to have a nude child clinging to them?
Where was the punishment?
Where was the loss of points?
Where was the quick expulsion?
Where was the disappointment?
He risked a glance at Hermione, assuming she'd be just itching to give him a lecture about trailing a naked girl around the castle, but she was merely watching the professor, waiting for the beginning of class.
The bell rang and Harry, nervous as he was, nearly leapt out of his chair.
Hermione shot him a sideways glance, her brow furrowed, and McGonagall asked him if he was all right.
Not trusting his voice at the moment, he simply nodded and tried not to blush in embarrassment.
The lesson progressed as though there was one less naked Veela in the room than there actually was.
Harry found it impossible to concentrate: for the first ten minutes of class it was because he was expecting the gavel to fall at any moment; for the rest of the lesson, once he realized that what she'd said up in the dorm was correct, that no one would notice her, it was because he was constantly distracted by the proximity and nudity and occasional touches of the apparently unobservable girl.
During the lesson, he noticed that several of the girls in the class seemed to have difficulty concentrating, including Hermione, whom Harry caught more than once looking at him with a slightly glazed look in her eyes before she'd flush and look away as though embarrassed.
Gabrielle's closeness and occasional touches were driving him crazy.
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