The Awakening of a Magus

The Awakening of a Magus
Chapter 37 - Sat, Aug 5 - Day 16
Conflicts

Draco had been wandering along the lake shore, thinking ... or perhaps it was not thinking ... just drifting. He was strangely touched that Molly Weasley had invited him to come with Harry, and even more, surprised that Ron and Hermione had checked up on him as soon as they had found out the bad news. Ron had 'called' while he was helping Harry at Beauxbatons. Harry had been off-line and not reachable, but since Draco was 'watching' more than 'doing', he wasn't shielded. "Gryffindors!" He shook his head with a small smile. Enough brooding, Drake! Do something useful. Then he thought about some of the books he'd brought from home at the same time as Harry's birthday gift. He apparated to his room, picked up a couple of volumes and some fruit for a snack, then apparated back towards the lake, to a shady spot with a breeze off the water.

The volumes were new, part of a series: 'Dark Lords Throughout the Ages'. These particular volumes were about Grindelwald and Voldemort (through his disappearance 14 years earlier). Draco hoped that learning about the people who gave themselves fully and successfully to the Dark Arts would help him learn how to deal with them. Also, since a wizard photo contained some essence of the wizard, he intended experimenting with his Scanner senses and the photos, to see what, if anything, he could sense about the person portrayed.

He had just gotten through the first chapter on Grindelwald when he sensed a group of people approaching behind him, from the castle. "Hmm, it feels like the entire group from the Slytherin dorms," he commented quietly before setting down the book and rising to meet them. He leaned against the tree, apparently in a casual manner, but prepared to move suddenly, if needed. "Looking for someone?" he asked in a bored tone.

The group stopped not far from Draco, some rather surprised he had noticed them as quickly as he had, not realizing that his Scanner senses would notice such a concentration of magic. Looking at them shrewdly, and considering the past week he had been stuck with them at Hogwarts, Draco had a pretty good idea which were Junior Death Eater material (Crabbe, Goyle, Malvina and Barry Nott), and which weren't too sure yet (Savannah Goyle, Michaela Moriarty and Trevor Nott). Oddly, the older ones, who might have been expected to begin thinking for themselves, were the most brainwashed, and the younger ones undecided. Malvina and Barry seemed to be the leaders of this little delegation.

"Well, Draco, you've been avoiding us since last night," Malvina said in a silky, petulant voice. "I need to know what's going on. Your parents, Michaela's grandfather ... has that horrid Magus killed more of our kind?"

Draco was surprised. Surely Malvina wasn't that naive ... "Actually, the Magus hasn't directly killed anyone so far. All the Death Eater losses are either rebounded attacks on him, or by the hand or orders of Voldemort himself."

Barry Nott spat out, "That's ridiculous. Why would our Dark Lord kill his servants ... unless they were traitors?"

Draco shook his head in wonder at their blindness. "Let's see ... for power? for spite? to protect his secrets? You did know, didn't you, that the Dark Mark slowly drains magic and life-force from the Death Eaters so Voldemort can increase his powers. And when he kills through the Mark, he feasts on his servant's energy." Draco spoke casually, but with deliberately dark images.

It was Michaela who asked, "Draco, how did Grandpa die?"

Draco's voice became gentle, for the girl's sake. "Last night, when I went to make my report, Father met me. He wanted to take me to receive the Mark and I refused. Voldemort sent Macnair to kill me, but the Magus got between me and the curse, so it rebounded on him. The Killing Curse is bad enough, but the rebounded curse is amplified. For your sake, I'm sorry it had to happen that way, Micki, but I'm afraid I can't regret still being alive."

Tears in her eyes, Michaela nodded. She had never understood her family's devotion to Voldemort and the Dark Arts. However, Malvina reacted quite differently. "You refused? After all this time of wanting to prove yourself, after taking this assignment, you betray your family and your Lord!" She nearly shrieked.

"Not ... MY ... Lord, Malvina," Draco growled. "Father's, and yours, but not mine. I finally began to see clearly these past weeks. Voldemort means only Death. He killed Father, partly because of me, partly for what were supposed to be Father's many failures. He sent Death Eaters to destroy my home and murder my mother out of pure evil. Do you want to know who did that? I know ... I saw with my Scanning gift. Three of the four were Misters Crabbe, Goyle and Devereaux," he ground out, glaring at each student bearing those names in turn. "I didn't recognize the fourth, but I'd guess it was the Traitor of Durmstrang. And do you know who murdered Mother ? Your father, 'Vina ... my dear 'Uncle Andre' ... and your mother ... did you know she wears the Mark now? ... sweet 'Auntie Desiree tried to take me to Voldemort to be killed." Draco stood straight, fists clutched at his side, his voice getting colder and harsher as the story spilled out.

Then, he sensed that the four unmarked Death Eaters before him were ... gathering their magic. They were going to attack. Before they could touch their own wands, Draco had his own wand out, pointing at them. As they raised their wands, he shouted, "Expelliarmus!" repeatedly, catching their wands in his left hand. Then he said to the three younger ones, "Sorry, yours too. Take them out slowly and toss them over here."

"Draco, you fool, there are seven of us to one of you," Barry spat. Crabbe and Goyle grunted and nodded.

However, they were stunned when Savannah, Michaela and Trevor not only willingly (but carefully) surrendered their wands, but they moved carefully around the older youths to stand on Draco's side ... not too close to Draco, but obviously siding with him.

Also, by this time, Snape had sensed something wrong with Draco. /* What's going on, Draco? */ he asked, and he received a quick memory burst describing the confrontation. Snape was furious, and immediately apparated to the scene. "What is the meaning of this?" he demanded coldly, the very air seething with power the others had never witnessed.

Being the dull-witted creatures they were, Crabbe and Goyle actually thought Snape was reprimanding Draco and babbled how Draco had attacked them for no reason. They seemed to have forgotten that Snape was no longer a Death Eater. "Silence!" he roared

Snape reached out a hand and the seven wands flew into his grip. The youths were stunned that he was powerful enough to do wandless magic, even such a small spell. Draco then put his own wand away as Snape continued, "Each of you will come to my office, one at a time, and explain to me why I should return your wands. Also," looking at the three standing near Draco, "I expect each of you to see me in the same condition you currently enjoy," now glaring at the four on the other side, warning them not to harm those who had sided with Draco. He then apparated, taking all seven with him to the Slytherin common area even without physical contact, while Draco picked up his books and apparated to his room.

As soon as Draco joined them in the commons, Snape ordered him, "Draco, report to the headmaster." Then, continuing along the circle link, /* Just knock and enter ... you're expected. */ As Draco nodded and apparated out of the room, the others stared at the space he had just impossibly vacated. "You others, I will leave it to you to decide in what order you come to my office." As Snape strode out into the hall, the three younger students followed quickly, not wanting to risk the anger of the older students.

Malvina looked at the remaining boys and pouted, "Well! That wasn't at all the way I expected things to happen."

"How do you deal with a redhead's temper?" Ginny said with a grim smile. "Sic another redhead on him!"

As Ginny and Harry walked toward the house, Ron came striding out to meet them, hands clenched at his sides in anger. As they met and stood a foot or two from each other, Ron shouted, "Just what do you think you're doing, Harry? That's my sister you're fooling with!" With that, Ron took a swing at Harry, who disappeared and reappeared to Ron's side, catching him as he stumbled into the empty space where his target used to be.

"Settle down, Ron. Let me explain! I don't want a fight. You can't hurt me, but you could get hurt by accident," Harry said soothingly.

Feeling humiliated and frustrated at stumbling around, Ron spat out, "As you command, my Lord Magus!"

Harry blanched, his eyes slightly glazed. In a whisper, he said, "I was mistaken ... you can, indeed ..." his voice trailed off, but both the Weasleys heard the soft thought, /* ... hurt me after all. */ And Harry turned and walked quickly into the house as Ginny hauled off and slapped Ron with all her strength.

"You unmitigated git! You prat!" Ginny raged, kicking her brother in the shin for good measure. "You idiot ... don't you have any trust in your own sister, in your best friend? I thought you'd grown up a bit, but I guess I was wrong. I thought the Magus circle was based on trust ..."

Ron sputtered, backing away to reduce the chance of more damage. "But ... but, he kissed you ... out alone in the yard. And he admitted the prophecy was right, that his real love wasn't even alive yet, and I won't have him toying with ..."

"One, it's none of your bloody business who I kiss and who kisses me if I'm not protesting. Did you see me protesting? Did you?!" Ginny's voice was colder than Ron had ever heard. "Two, how could you think that Harry of all people could do anything dishonorable? You don't deserve an explanation, but I'll give you one ... Harry kissed me to help prove I wasn't in love with him ... to prove he could never be more than a brother to me. I thought there was a special connection between us, but it looks like it was just an early sign of my being an empath. I could feel Harry's emotions and thought it was a soul-link. Now, though, I can feel anyone. At the moment, though, all I 'feel' is my anger and Harry's hurt. You don't deserve to be in his circle." With this, angry tears flowing, Ginny ran into the house and up to her room.

Ron was being overwhelmed with contradictory feelings. He stomped off, to try to cool down and think, ending up, without realizing, at the very tree Ginny had gone off to earlier. He put up his strongest mind shields to keep people out, plopped on the ground with his head in his hands, and tried to figure out just what had really happened.

Inside the Burrow, the family saw Harry drift in, pale and sad. When they tried to ask what happened, he just shook his head, refusing to say. They could hear Ginny was shouting, but not what she said. Then Ginny ran through the room, heading upstairs. Ron didn't come in.

Molly and Hermione looked at each other significantly. Without exchanging words, even through the circle link, they mutually decided what to do next. Molly went up after Ginny, and Hermione, after patting Harry's hand a moment, went out after Ron.

Charlie then broke the long silence. "So, Harry, when can we see your dragon form?" This question, so typical of Charlie, caused everyone to laugh, awkwardly at first, then genuinely.

Harry just shook his head, smiling. "I expected that, you know. How about this? As soon as ... well ... the others come back, I'll take you all out to a clearing in the forest I use for training. There's enough room there to show you nearly anything you all want to see."

"What I want to know is, how come the babies of the family have the special talents?" Fred groused, and George added, "What are the rest of us ... practice material?" They said it mostly in jest, but there was a kernel of truth underlying the comments.

"Actually, all of you have some sort of talent, you know. They just haven't developed completely. I think Ginny's was awakened by her experience with the Diary (referring to Tom Riddle's possessed diary in the year of the Chamber of Secrets). Ron, well because he's been around me a lot the last 2 weeks," Harry explained. "Poppy discovered I have an effect on dormant or irregular talents in the people around me. It's nothing I actually do, it just happens. I haven't quite figured out how to block it yet. I mean, it wouldn't be a good thing to be in the middle of a bunch of Death Eaters and stabilize any unreliable gifts they have, would it?"

"Let's see ..." Harry continued, shifting into his own Scanner senses. Focusing first on the twins, he said, "Well, that isn't unexpected ... you have a very strong twin bond. Your game of finishing each others' sentences at us is part of that. The bond includes empathy, telepathy, energy sharing, and when it is fully developed, you'll be able to cast spells together ... exactly together, so that it has the same effect as a spell cast by a single wizard of your combined strength and just a bit more." Returning his focus to normal senses, he saw the stunned expressions on their faces. "I'll help you work on that, but only if you promise not to use the gift to cheat in school, or amplify your already-dangerous pranks."

"Aw, you're no fun, Harry!" George managed to say, almost in his normal voice. "That's the Magus talking."

"Exactly. And it's a Magus gift that will make it possible ... agreed?" Harry looked at them smugly.

The twins nodded, excited at the prospects, and thinking about how much they might be able to do without breaking their agreement.

Arthur, knowing as much as anyone could, how his sons' minds worked, grinned and asked Harry, "The others?"

Harry began to check the next in age, Percy, but sensed something odd that he didn't understand and continued on to Charlie. "Well ... this shouldn't be a surprise. Did you realize you're a beast-empath with dragons? You can sometimes sense their emotions and project yours to them. I can help you make that more reliable. And ... I'm not sure here ... we should get Draco to confirm ... but there might be some dragon beastspeaker in there ... just maybe."

"I suspected there was a touch of beast-empathy," Charlie whispered, "but it was so unreliable I usually wrote it off to wishful thinking." His face showed a quiet but powerful joy that he really did have such a tie to his beloved dragons.

Percy asked, "Why would you bring Malfoy into this?"

"Because, Percy, he's a much better Scanner than I am. He can see details that I don't understand even after he shows me what he senses." Harry tried to find the right words. "Draco is on our side, Percy. His personality may still be Slytherin Malfoy, but he is as firmly on the side of the Light as any of us, and more than many. And he's very strong and very gifted." Then, he looked around the table at all the Weasleys. "Ease up on him and he'll ease up on you. We have a truce, here, between Gryffindor and at least this Slytherin."

Taking a deep breath, he quickly moved on to Bill. "Well, your gifts are appropriate to your work, Bill. One reason you're so good at curse-breaking is that you can see through illusion and have a bit of a Seer gift ... you can sense danger in the next minute or two. Sounds like that would be ideal for identifying traps and such. Again, it's irregular right now, but we can get it stabilized without too much work."

Returning to the most difficult Weasley of the bunch, Harry asked Percy, "You're a little harder to read. Please just relax and cooperate. I'm doing this to help you." Harry thought, It's almost like ... scar tissue in his mind ... it makes things both harder and touchier. In Percy's case, Harry didn't just Scan to read his magic, he also used his Healer abilities to soothe his way through Percy's mind. There's some kind of magical trauma in here ... Well ! That looks interesting! "Percy, you have an animagus form buried in there." As Percy and the others looked on in shock, Harry grinned. "Now, it's a rather ordinary animal, but you are an animagus ..."

"Tell me, already!" Percy interrupted.

"Alright, already! Here it is ... you'll be able to turn into ... a frog."

As the twins sniggered, Percy rounded on them. "At least I am an animagus. A frog is ... well ... a good form for hiding near water or in a forest, and ..." his voice trailed off as he tried not to be disappointed in his form, but be glad he was animagus. "Harry, you will ... won't you ... I mean ..."

"Of course I'll teach you how to change. And I want to work on healing some old damage in your magic." Harry glanced at Arthur, who had paled. "There was some kind of trauma to your magic, probably when you were still an infant, that I want to check on." /* Arthur ... what's going on with Percy? */

/* Later, please Harry. I ... I need to talk to Molly first. */ Arthur seemed very pained, but Harry let it go for now.

Bill was still thinking things over. "Harry, there's still something odd here. I mean, yes we all have some talents, but we're all about even on how strong our magic is overall ... all of us except Ron. He's the youngest ... well, except Ginny ... but I would swear he's already much stronger than any of us. Dad already said that Ron was better at spellcasting than he was," Bill said, looking at Arthur who smiled in agreement. "Did you ... have anything to do with it?"

Harry shook his head. "I can help someone reach their full potential, stabilize a shaky gift, but I can't give someone powers they weren't already meant to have. I'm curious myself, you know. It would make sense, for instance, if he were a seventh-son, but ..." As he said this, Arthur blanched completely. /* Arthur, I sense this is important ... please ... what are you hiding? */ Harry sent as the others stared at them both.

Arthur closed his eyes a moment, as though blinking back a tear, then sighed heavily as he opened them. "Alright, Harry. I suppose hiding it wasn't the right thing to do, but it was the easiest for us ... Call Ron and Hermione back in, will you? I'll call Molly. /* Molly, dear. Bring Ginny down with you, please, and bring the birth records down. */ At Molly's shocked reaction, Arthur sent a short memory burst of the recent conversation. She agreed, reluctantly, that the time had come to share with the family the secret they had tried to forget.

Hermione came in with Ron, who stopped by Harry and said quietly, "Sorry, mate. I was a real ass. Can you forgive me?"

"Of course, mate ... always. But you'll have to apologize to Ginny, too." Harry smiled and nodded toward the stairs, where he had just seen Ginny appear. Then he sent to Hermione, who was now sitting beside him again, /* What did you -say- to him? */

Hermione answered in kind, /* Oh, this and that. And I reminded him of what he said at the circle pledge. */ Harry winced at how that would have affected him in Ron's place, then took Hermione's hand for a quick squeeze in thanks.

Ron went over to Ginny as Molly passed them, holding a carved wooden box meant for storing special documents. Ron spoke quietly with Ginny, who nodded, hugged him, then swatted him on the shoulder, saying, "Just don't be such a jerk next time!" Ron looked after Ginny and whispered to himself, "Next time?" Then he followed, shaking his head.

Arthur and Molly sat at the table, shuffled through documents in the box, then gingerly pulled one out. Molly handed the paper to Percy, gesturing for him to read it. "David Edward Weasley, born June 6, 1977, died June 6, 1977." Percy just stared at the paper, then looked at his parents. "But, that's my birthday. Who was this David? A cousin?"

Arthur tried to answer but his voice just wouldn't work. Molly said quietly. "No, Percy. He was your twin brother. If he had lived, he would have been David and you would have been Edward. But both of you were so very ill when you were born. He didn't make it ... you did ... you ... persevered ... so you were named Percy, and we named your brother David Edward. They said you weren't affected, but I wasn't so sure. Harry," Molly turned to the Magus, "Arthur said you mentioned a magical trauma. What ..."

"I'm thinking," Harry said slowly, Scanning Percy again, "that it's some kind of injury from the breaking of a very strong twin bond." Fred and George were shuddering, and looking at Percy with sympathy and pity. They couldn't imagine how one of them would feel if the other died. "Were there any actual Healers around when it happened?"

Molly thought back. "There were several mediwitches and -wizards, but I don't think anyone who was actually a Healer. Those were dark times, and they didn't waste Healers to play midwife."

"That's a shame ... a Healer might have realized there was unseen trauma and taken care of it." Harry looked at the stunned young man. "Percy, if you don't want me to work on it, I really think you should check into seeing a good Healer. I ..."

Percy interrupted, whispering, "Is this why I've always felt ... broken ... lost ... like something was missing in me? I always hoped if I worked hard and accomplished things and received recognition I'd stop feeling like that." Ginny ran around the table, grabbed Percy, and hugged him with all her strength. Somehow, by instinct, she awkwardly tried to send him comfort, using her empathic gift, as tears silently fell down both their faces. Percy felt the shaky but warm feeling soothe his mind, and whispered, "Thanks, Gin-Gin," using a pet name he hadn't uttered in many years. "Harry," he said, looking up, "if you're willing, I'd rather you try to take care of it. Please?" Percy's voice broke.

"I'd be glad to help, Percy. I want to be careful, so let's find some quiet time tomorrow and see what needs to be done. I'll check with Poppy and some Healing texts for background tonight." Harry then looked over at Ron. "Now, what's with you, Ron?"

The young mindspeaker gulped, then croaked out, "Bloody hell! I am a seventh son!"

(continued)