Thomas Prest: A Simple Magician

The performance ended with one last heart-stopping stunt where the performer jumped from his broom into a freefall and did several twists in the air as he was crashing toward the ground, only to be stopped from his final meeting with it by an Arresto Momentum spell he managed to cast at the last moment and landed gently on his feet, giving a bow to the audience.

"What a crazy bastard." Tom muttered, happy it was over as the crowd around him was dispersing.

Tom and Natasha were about to leave too when someone grabbed Tom's free arm...

Tom looked at the person, only to see a small, twelve or thirteen-year-old girl who stood next to them during the performance and cheered and clapped with irritating loudness.

She was now panting, heaving for air and from what Tom could see, she didn't even notice that she was grabbing his arm, only using it to support her wobbly self.

Tom frowned and looked at Natasha, only to see she had the same helpless look as him. Neither of them was proficient in dealing with children.

Hell, Natasha was a trained killer while he was a research-driven shut-in! They were not the best couple to deal with an apparently lost and quite possibly sick child.

'Just my luck.' Tom inwardly sighed. If the girl didn't grab his arm, he could blissfully ignore her but now that he noticed her and saw she was alone and having problems, his conscience would not let him sleep if he just shrugged her hand off and left her here without saying anything.

"Are you fine?" Tom awkwardly asked with a measure of discomfort in his tone, making the heaving girl take a forced deep breath in surprise as her head whipped up, her eyes wide as saucers as she stared at Tom, only now realizing she was holding his arm.

The girl instantly let go... and swayed on her feet, almost keeling over before Tom caught her shoulder, helping her to stand. The girl latched onto Tom's arm once again, keeping herself standing as she started to attempt to control her rushed breathing.

"Y-Yeah." She spoke with small difficulty and gave Tom a weak smile, "Just got a bit too excited."

Tom frowned at that, still subtly looking around for her parents. It was obvious her state was not normal so how could she be just left alone without any supervision if she could keel over any second?

Well, that was none of his business. Just his idle curiosity. Back to the pressing matters...

"Does it happen often?" He asked, probably surprising the little girl that he saw through her lie if her surprised expression was any indication.

"Yes. I am used to it. I will be fine in a moment, Mister." The girl spoke, a bit cowed. Her breathing was more measured than before but Tom noted it was more due to her experience in suppressing her rugged breathing than her feeling better.

"I see." Tom slowly said, his expression unconvinced. There was not much he could do, especially when the girl clearly tried to play her problems off as something unimportant.

Giving the worried girl a small smile, a magical circle emerged in front of Tom's hand, and from it, one of Tom's healing potions appeared in his hand.

"Here." Tom gave the bottle to the girl, "Take a sip. It might help."

The girl didn't look very eager to drink the blood-red liquid, staring at the bottle with unease and hesitation, but Tom's stern look cowed her enough to indeed take a sip.

In hindsight, Tom realized that giving a total stranger a blood-looking liquid in a wizarding community that didn't exactly have bonafide healing potions and had extreme prejudice for blood magic might not be received well... but oh, well.

He realized that only after the girl took a sip, and he couldn't help but be relieved she didn't instantly freak out.

Putting that out of his mind, Tom smiled at the girl and asked, "Better?"

He could see the color returning to her face and the slight tension in her expression eased, her breathing becoming even easier as she now stared in bewildered wonder at the mostly full bottle with blood-red liquid.

"Yeah!" The girl exclaimed and Tom suddenly found his waist taken prisoner to the small squeezing munchkin. "Thank you, Mister! I haven't felt so good ever!"

Tom helplessly patted her head, more on instinct than having any impure intentions, "Okay, okay." He helplessly said in slight discomfort, "Now run along."

The girl pulled away from him, her cheeks flushed in embarrassment but she nevertheless gave Tom a beaming smile and excitedly ran into the crowd.

Tom turned to Natasha... only to find her silently giggling at him, and his shoulders dropped, "Oh, shut up." He exasperatedly exclaimed.

"I haven't said anything." Natasha amusedly quipped, innocently doing a zipping motion over her mouth.

"You are thinking too loudly!" Tom grumbled.

That made her laugh in earnest.

...

They continued on their tour through the wizarding 'fair', eventually ending up in the area designated for Veelas.

Both Natasha and Tom wanted to see these 'creatures' if only because the indignant Hermione wouldn't shut up about them since Mrs. Weasley mentioned them and described, in her own bigoted way, what they were.

Neither Tom nor Natasha took her words at face value, deciding to make their own opinion based on their own experiences but Hermione took her words as a holy gospel or universal truth.

It saddened and disappointed Tom and he had to put a lot of effort into making sure he would not show it in his expression at that moment.

Hermione was a smart lass but at times...

'Ah, whatever...' Tom sighed, cutting that trail of thoughts. He had more important things to focus on right now. Like the slight sneaking mental influences that tried to get into his mind whenever his eyes landed on a Veela.

And considering he had a whole group of them in front of him probably didn't help the matter.

Not that these passive mental magics could get into his mind. One thing at which magicians were better than wizards was mind arts.

It was necessary for the magicians due to the nature of their magic. All the calculations necessary for it would not have been possible without these mind-enhancing spells. And in turn, it slightly changed their minds in a way that made mental intrusions and manipulations harder.

Hence, why magicians were not affected by the area of effect mental manipulations devils and other races liked to throw at the general human populace whenever it witnessed something it should not.

Multiple Veela allures washed over Tom's mind, utterly unable to enter and therefore failing to influence him. Tom was glad about that. No way he would want to look like the half-salivating grinning fools that were doing weird stuff in an attempt to impress this or that Veela.

During their stroll through the place, Tom and Natasha had seen many weird things. Wizards from almost every nation were gathered here and every single one of them had their own kinks and quirks.

But the Veela area was one of a kind.

It was a sort of fascinating chaos.

On the right were ten half-transformed Veelas doing fire dancing while being cheered on by a clearly infatuated group of men of various nationalities that most likely in their mental state couldn't even recognize the two Veelas were half-birds by now.

On the left, the entire group of Veela cheerleaders was practicing their performance, blasting the entire place with their allure.

In many half-open tents, Tom could clearly see a Veela or even a group of them, some transformed, some not, having their wicked ways with a few men, too focused on their tryst to bother suppressing their own allure.

Outwardly it seemed like a picture of normalcy but if one looked deeper into the meaning of their actions and understood them, it would become obvious these Veelas were... competing with each other, trying to push their own allure to the forefront and steal charmed males from each other.

Tom wouldn't judge them but he could see why the Wizarding Britain labeled them as creatures. Just because there were a few civilized Veelas that tried to live like humans, it didn't mean there was not an entire species living wildly.

Even a vampire could survive on the animal blood but most would see suppressing their instincts to that degree as humiliating and unacceptable. This was the same thing, really. Just from a different angle.

Funnily enough, it was Veelas on whom the legends of harpies were based. Most of them lived in female-only gatherings, covens, and events like this where they could lure men to bed them were best for propagating their species.

Tom understood that... but he wanted no part in it.

It wasn't even worth it to ponder the morality of this issue. The Veelas were looking for mates like this for millennia and they would not stop their traditions and the entire way they viewed mating just because some human thinks it is amoral. To them, this was perfectly normal.

The only thing they were willing to change in order to live among other races was that nowadays they were a bit more civil and the coupling didn't end up in the murder of the male once he was thoroughly used for his seed.

Then again, every coin has two sides and wizards of the past were definitely not the saints when it came to dealing with Veelas.

Incredible beauty and slavery were not the best when mixed together.

That sentence would explain best the relationship between Veela colonies and the wizards in the past. It was no wonder that neither side was fully trusting with the other to this day and their paths rarely crossed.

"Huh? Nothing?" Natasha frowned as she observed Tom's unchanging expression, pulling him out of his thoughts, "And here I thought you would at least show small interest in them."

"Please." Tom snorted, finding the thought amusing, "They are definitely above average in looks but their allure... it just feels artificial at best." He rolled his eyes at the disgruntled Natasha. "Why would you even want me to get interested in them anyway?" He raised his eyebrow at her.

Natasha just clicked her tongue, not deeming that very obvious question with an answer as she mumbled to herself, "Another miss."

'If even creatures that are rumored to possess superhuman beauty can not do the trick, I really don't know what I am going to do.' She thought in dismay.

Months had passed but Tom didn't show attraction to any other female than her and while Natasha was extremely flattered, her affection for Tom only shooting through the roof due to that, she was starting to get a tad bit desperate here.

Nowadays, she had to utilize the tricks from her entire seduction training and it still wasn't enough. Tom still outlasted her every damn time. Her pride as a seductress was a goner and her pride as a woman was in shambles.

She had a great time with Tom in bed but she also wanted him to have a similarly amazing experience when laying with her. It wasn't easy, but by now, Natasha fully admitted and accepted the fact she couldn't keep up with him and would need some... reinforcements.

Yet, Tom was definitely not making this easy for her. How was she supposed to find a good and acceptable candidate to join their relationship when Tom seemed to not be attracted to any other woman!?

If she wasn't the one being pounded to the pillows by him almost every day she would have thought him gay!

Suddenly, Natasha's indignation ended when she felt Tom tugging at her arm, and half-dragging her away. She threw Tom a questioning look but he just gestured with his head to the side...

"Oh, my..." Natasha dryly uttered when she noticed every single Veela, even those in mid-coupling, suddenly stopping with what they did and staring almost hungrily at Tom, at the male who obviously resisted all of their allure.

Retreat seemed like the best option indeed.

Either that or Natasha had the nagging feeling she would have to slaughter every damn Veela who wanted to use her man as a temporary itch-scratcher.