Without Magic

Without Magic

Draco Malfoy was confused. He had seen something the other day that had completely stumped him. Since seeing it he had tried several times to work it through in his mind but was now starting to dismiss the event as something a little to complex for his five year old mind to handle. But it didn't want to let it go without an answer. So he did the only logical thing he could now think of. He would ask his father. Father knew everything and so would most certainly know the answer to this. Mother probably would to but she had gone on a shopping holiday with father's sister. But father was here and he could ask him.

The day after mother had left; his father had obviously been feeling lonely and missing her. So he decided to spend the entire day doing exactly what Draco wanted to do to keep his mind off her absence. Draco asked to do what he always did: go to the park outside the manor grounds. There was a nice set of swings and a slide just outside the main back door, but he could use those anytime. The ones outside the manor were special because he could only go to them when mother or father was with him. For some reason they never let Dobby go with him, even though they were perfectly happy that Dobby kept an eye on him on the ones at home. And mother didn't like him going there, so when she was home he could never go. But father always took very little convincing to go there when he really wanted to. So that was where they went.

It was close to when father had finally had enough and dragged Draco home to entertain him a different way when the odd thing happened. A woman was passing close by with a buggy when it hit a stone or something. One of the wheels came off. It was quite clearly broken and she seemed quite upset over it. Draco felt that that was perfectly understandable...but why didn't she just fix it. Father could fix things like that quite easily. Just a quick wave of his wand would have done it. And even if the woman hadn't known the proper spell or had left her wand somewhere else, there were any number of adults around that could have helped her. A group of grown-ups went over to see to it but not one of them got out a wand to do something about it.

It had been very strange.

He couldn't believe that all of them had left their wands at home, mother and father never went anywhere without theirs. So why didn't anyone just fix it? He had been puzzling about it ever since but found no answer. He would have to ask.

He got up from the floor, where he had been drawing dragons with big wings and lots of fire in order to help him think, and set off to find father.

It didn't take him too long to find him. However it wasn't the most enjoyable way he could think of. Dobby had been cleaning and the floor was very slippery. Draco had thought that father would be downstairs in his study. It was a Tuesday and on Tuesdays after lunch, father would go into the study and look at lots of bits of papers covered in numbers. He was about halfway down when he stepped on a bit of floor that hadn't been dried properly yet. He slipped and fell the rest of the way down, reasonably enough in his mind he started to cry. The noise, as usual, seemed to have the power to make father (or mother when she was here) magically appear from thin air. Even if he was too far away in the manor for them to hear him crying it seemed to work. He certainly wouldn't have been able to hear someone on the stairs if he had been in father's study.

But this wasn't much of a concern to him right now. What mattered was that father was here and making sure that he hadn't hurt himself too badly falling. Luckily he hadn't. There were just a few bruises that hadn't come up quite yet but would be easy enough to deal with when they did. Father yelled at the Dobby, who had also appeared at the noise, and told him to beat himself over the head with an umbrella until he passed out. And that he wasn't to let the mild concussion get in the way of the rest of his jobs and punishments for the day.

He was a little big for his parents to pick him up the way they used to, but once father had taken them into the sitting room Draco was quite welcome to curl up on his knee. He sat there for a few minutes, sniffing slightly while playing with the pin father had on his shirt. Once he got slightly bored of the attention father was giving him due to his fall he stopped this and asked the question that had been bothering him.

Lucius was quiet for a while so Draco returned to playing with the pin, before his father took his by the shoulders and pushed him away slightly, so that he could face him properly.

"Now Draco," he said. "I know that you're a clever boy, but this might take a while for you to fully understand. So I want you to listen carefully. Okay?" Draco nodded. "Good boy. You see, the reason the woman didn't fix the buggy and the reason the others didn't help her was because they couldn't. They can't do magic."

"Did they leave their wands at home?"

"No Draco. They don't have wands. And it they did have one they wouldn't be able to use it. They don't have any magic."

Draco frowned. That didn't make any sense. How could someone not have magic? Most animals didn't but they were animals. Those had been people. People had magic. Everyone knew that. He was a person and mother and father were people. They all had magic, even if Draco wasn't old enough to use his properly yet, so that meant that people were supposed to have magic. Father was right. This was confusing.

"So they can't do magic?"

"No Draco, they cannot."

"Not even if they go to school?"

"No Draco, not even then."

Draco's frown returned. This really didn't make sense. People had to have magic. It was the way things worked.

"Why don't they have magic?"

"Because, Draco, they are not the same kind of people like you and me. They are what we call Muggles." Draco giggled. "Yes it's a funny word isn't it? They don't even know that magic exists." At that Draco's mouth dropped open in complete shock.

"That's silly! How can they not know it exists? It's just everywhere! Do they all need to wear glasses?"

"I don't think this is a good time to be getting into this Draco. Perhaps we should talk about this again when you're older." At the threat of withheld information Draco pouted and began to whine. "Come on Draco, don't be like that." The whining got higher. "All right, I'll try to explain it to you.

"The muggles don't believe in magic because we don't let them see we have it. It's been part of the law for a long time that people aren't supposed to do magic in front of muggles. As a result the muggles don't believe in it."

"But didn't they wonder where it went?"

"That might be giving them a little too much credit. But if they did notice they were probably glad to not see it. They probably didn't like seeing the constant reminder of their inferiority."

"Inferotity?"

"Never mind Draco."

Draco took a few minutes to digest this information before going onto his next question: "But why does the law say you can't do magic in front of them?"

Lucius really did look unsure now. "I really don't think I should tell you this. You're mother isn't going to like it."

"Oh please. Please please please please please please!"

"Draco!" He tried to be firm but Draco combated his but giving him a wide eyed pleading look. He relented a little. "I can't tell you everything, but I can give you a little information, if you promise not to ask any more questions about this. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Good. You see Draco, muggles are jealous of wizards because wizards can do magic and they can't. Sometimes the muggles can be dangerous and hurt people when they find out about it. Rather than having them just contained or controlled somehow, the Ministry decided for us to go into hiding."

"They'd hurt us?" Draco asked in a small voice.

"They might try to. But nothing would happen to you so long as your mother or I are there. That why you can only go to that park when either your mother or I are there with you. I'll never let one of them hurt you." Draco beamed up at him and gave his father a quick hug. Satisfied with his answers Draco climbed down from his father's knee.

"Draco, do you want to go back to the park again tomorrow?" Draco made a face.

"No thank you. I want to play with proper children, ones that can do magic. I don't want to play with muggles."

"Very sensible. I'll floo my friend and see if he and his son can come around soon. Theodore's about your age if I remember correctly. Would you like that?" Draco nodded.

"Good boy. Run along now." Draco smiled at him again and ambled back upstairs to his room and pictures.