Кассандра Клэр - Draco Dormiens

"Indeed?" said Mad-Eye Moody, looking as if he already knew. "And what is that?"

"I don't want Lucius sent to Azkaban," said Narcissa.

George and Fred were horrified.

"Why not?" cried Fred.

"You can't mean they should let him go?" protested George.

Narcissa looked at the prone figure of her husband for a long moment. "I do not ask for myself," she said. "I would be happy to see him in Azkaban for life. But we have a child. Draco. My son." She looked up at Moody. "I don't want him thinking about his father in Azkaban. Thinking of him suffering, going mad." She turned to the rest of the wizards. "I ask that you send him to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies instead. To the section for the criminally insane."

"I think we can agree on that," said Mad-Eye quickly.

There was a long silence. Then the other wizards nodded agreement.

"Is it really horrible there?" asked George hopefully.

Mad-Eye grinned at him, but the other wizards were busy talking amongst themselves and ignored the Weasleys. One of the wizards magicked up a stretcher and levitated Lucius onto it. Several of the other wizards broke off from the group to escort Lucius away, presumably to a holding cell of some sort.

The rest of the wizards seemed interested only in talking to Narcissa, but she stepped away from them and walked over to Fred and George.

"I wanted to thank you," she said. "Dumbledore sent Mad-Eye to me and he told me what happened. I wanted to thank you for everything you did for Draco."

George blushed. Narcissa might be a good deal older than he was, and Draco Malfoy's mother to boot, but she was still very beautiful. "It was nothing," he said.

"Would you do me a favor?" she went on, and held out an envelope to them. "I wrote Draco a letter, since I can't be with him right now. Will you give it to him?"

"Sure. Of course," said George, taking the letter.

"Thank you," she said again, bent down, kissed each of them on the cheek, and walked back to the wizards, who escorted her out of the room. Fred and George, now both beet red under their red hair, headed back to the car.

When Harry, Dumbledore and Sirius walked into the room, Hermione and Draco were talking. She was leaning forward with her elbows on his pillow, and he had his head turned towards her. They were chatting animatedly, and only broke off when Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"Feeling better, Mr Malfoy?" he said, twinkling. He took a seat next to Draco, and Harry and Sirius sat down opposite him. Harry was holding Salazar Slytherin's sword across his lap. It looked incongruous in the hospital room.

"Harry," said Dumbledore. "And Draco." Dumbledore looked from one to the other over the rim of his gold spectacles. "Do either of you," he said, "know what a Magid is?"

Harry and Draco looked at him blankly.

Dumbledore turned to Hermione, who had the expression she usually got in class when she knew the answer to a question and nobody else did. "Miss Granger?"

"Well, Professor Binns told me that a Magid is a rare kind of wizard, born with special talents," said Hermione promptly. "Salazar Slytherin was one. So was Rowena Ravenclaw. You are, Professor. And-" She hesitated. "The Dark Lord is one."

"A Magid is indeed a rare kind of wizard or witch," Dumbledore agreed. "Rare and very powerful. A Magid can perform magic without the use of a wand, can resist many curses and hexes, and can survive spells that would easily kill any other wizard." He turned to Harry. "Do you remember, Harry, when you asked me why Voldemort wanted to kill you when you were a baby?"

Harry nodded, looking unhappy. "You said I couldn't know then, but you would tell me eventually."

"I'm telling you now," said Dumbledore. "You are a Magid, Harry."

Both Draco and Hermione whipped around to look at Harry, who was pale with surprise. Sirius didn't look surprised at all — it was obvious he had already known.

"I am?" Harry said, sounding shocked.

"Yes, you are," said Dumbledore. "You are a very powerful Magid indeed."

"Oh, typical," said Draco, sounding irritated. "Now Potter's a Magid, on top of everything else?"

Dumbledore turned to Draco, who blanched for a moment, thinking the Headmaster was about to tell him off. Instead, Dumbledore said, "You are a Magid as well, Mr Malfoy. And, if I am not mistaken, a far more powerful one than Harry."

Draco turned even paler than Harry had. "Are you sure?" he asked, sounding very dubious indeed.

"I wasn't," said Dumbledore. "I have always known it about you," he said, turning back to Harry. "We knew it when you were born. It was why Voldemort wanted to kill you, why your parents had to go into hiding with you. He did not want a Magid child born to two of his greatest enemies, two of my greatest supporters. He knew that when you become old enough, you would become a weapon with which we could strike at him."

'What about me?" interrupted Draco. "Why didn't he try to kill me?"

"Why should he?" said Dumbledore reasonably. "You are the child of his closest supporter. Think what a weapon you could have been in his arsenal! You could have been the greatest Death Eater of them all." Dumbledore shook his head.

"Your father kept it very quiet, Draco. Parents with Magid children are supposed to register them with the Ministry at birth; he never registered you. I doubt anyone knew about you besides Lucius and Voldemort himself. Various tools of divination that I myself employ indicated to me that there was another Magid at Hogwarts, but I never knew who it was."

Draco was quiet, remembering something his father had said to him that morning; The Dark Lord had such high hopes for you, Draco.

"How do you know?" he asked Dumbledore. "How do you know I am one?"

"That sword, for instance," said Dumbledore, pointing at it where it lay across Draco's lap. "That is a very powerful magical object, Draco. Only a Magid could touch that sword. Then there is the fact that Lucius made an Epicyclical Charm from your teeth when you were a baby. He used it to control you and your mother, that's true, but it also allowed him to draw on some of your Magid powers. It made him a much stronger wizard than he would have been otherwise."

Draco and Harry were both goggling at the Headmaster. Hermione said, "Professor Dumbledore?"

"Yes?"

"Is the reason the Polyjuice Potion affected Harry and Draco in the way it did…is that because they're Magids?"

"A good guess, Miss Granger. In some ways, an accurate guess. The Polyjuice spell lasted the way it did, in fact, because Mr Malfoy caused it to."

"Lucius did what?" said Harry blankly.

"He means me, idiot," said Draco. "And I did nothing of the sort!" he added, glaring at Dumbledore.

"Oh, yes you did," said Dumbledore, twinkling. "If I might be so bold as to make the statement that you and Harry have always had, shall we say, a rivalry of sorts…"

"He's jealous of me, if that's what you mean," interrupted Draco.

Harry rolled his eyes.

"Indeed," said Dumbledore. "Well, I posit this theory. When you took the Polyjuice Potion, Mr Malfoy, and it turned you into Harry, you immediately saw the advantage in the situation to yourself. To be Harry. To live his life. See as he saw.

Learn his secrets. You father has taught you to find weakness and exploit it as a matter of course, has he not?"

Draco looked ashen. "I…"

"Professor," protested Sirius.

Dumbledore ignored them both. "He has taught you other such things," he went on in the same measured tone. "To see evil when good is offered, to slight those beneath you and fawn on those above you. To favor nothing over immediate personal gain."

"I never…" said Draco weakly. "Not on purpose…"

"I said he taught you," said Dumbledore. "I did not say you learned. I think there were other advantages to you in becoming Harry. You have always thought of Harry as someone to whom goodness comes easily. In Harry's skin, you could allow yourself to follow the natural, better inclinations which as yourself, you stifled. You could be good. Brave. Heroic." He looked at Draco, very hard, over the top of his spectacles. "I am not saying that you consciously affected the Polyjuice spell," he went on. "I am saying that you willed it to continue, no ordinary wizard could have done that. You made the charm last as long as it did. You used your own energy, Magid energy, to keep the spell from expiring. And, as I understand, it took another Magid to take the spell off you."