It took Harry a moment to realize why Dumbledore was giving him such an odd look. He scowled at Draco. “Get off.” Draco hastily stood and backed away as Harry closed his eyes, willing his head to stop spinning.
“Having fun?” the headmaster asked innocently, his voice disclosing the amusement that his features concealed .
“What were you doing to Harry?” Sirius’s tone was menacing enough to wipe the smirk from Draco’s face. Sirius quickly stepped into the room and closed the door behind him, then folded his arms and glared at Draco.
“I tripped,” Harry quickly put in, wiping the last of the blood from his chin and tilting his head back. “I hit my head on the windowsill, and Malfoy was trying to help me. I’m fine now.”
“I hope you’re correct about that, Mr. Potter. Now, Mr. Malfoy, I believe that you’re here because you seem to be having trouble with your magic?”
“I’m not having trouble with my magic. My magic is perfectly fine. It’s just, kind of... not here, at the moment. That’s why I need help.”
“I see.” Without another word, Dumbledore whisked his wand from somewhere on his person, and nodded to Draco. “With your permission, Mr. Malfoy?” The boy nodded, and, murmuring words neither Draco nor Harry could understand, Dumbledore waved his wand around Draco’s face, then across his shoulders, then encircled his entire body with a sweep of his arm. He finally laid his wand to rest on Draco’s heart. His wand started to glow green. Dumbledore frowned, and muttered something else. The green glow was suddenly dotted with jets of black light, and Dumbledore yanked his wand away. “Terminus!” The glow disappeared, though the between Draco and Dumbledore still crackled with the black light.
“What was that?” Sirius asked, his eyes wide.
Dumbledore’s sharp look made Sirius freeze. “It looks to be a bit more than a simple blocking spell.”
“How much more?” Draco interjected. Immediately Dumbledore smiled, his face losing the set-stone expression and becoming much more easy-going.
“Nothing to worry about, Mr. Malfoy. Simply a minor complication.” Dumbledore’s eyes flickered for a moment, and he glanced over at Harry, then back to Draco again. “Have either of you ever heard of a Magus Talisman?”
Sirius jumped. “You can’t be serious, Albus-“
“No, that’s quite job enough for you; I think I’ll remain Albus for the time being.” Dumbledore smiled. “Anyway, back to my question.” He raised his eyebrows at Harry, who shook his head. Draco did the same. “That’s quite all right.” Then, quickly changing the subject, “How are you two enjoying staying here together?”
Both Harry and Draco started to complain loudly at the same time, drowning each other out.
“Excellent, excellent. I think it would be best if this arrangement continued for a while longer. It wouldn’t be advisable for you to go home just now, Mr. Malfoy, until we’ve deciphered how to undo this spell.”
“But I thought it would wear off in a few days!”
“Mmm, therein lies the complication. But it’s nothing to be alarmed about. Sirius, if I could speak to you?”
Sirius nodded, and the two men said goodbye to Harry and Draco, who were both looking as if Christmas had been replaced with “Dragon Dung Appreciation Day,” and they stepped out of the room.
Vernon Dursley was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs, scowling so hard that his eyes disappeared under his brows. “I’ve let this go on much too long. If any of your kind sets foot in my house again, I swear I’ll call the police! I don’t have to put up with this, not in my own home, not from the likes of you queers and freaks!”
Sirius looked ready to let fly at him with everything he had, but Dumbledore placed a restraining hand on his arm. “Now, Mr. Dursley, I’m sure we won’t bother you anymore. In fact, I think you’ll soon forget we were here at all. Sirius, would you like to-“
Sirius didn’t need to be asked twice- he barely needed to be asked once. He quickly rapped Vernon across the head with his wand and said, “Obliviate!” Vernon stepped backward with a dazed, blank look in his eyes. Dumbledore and Sirius quickly showed themselves out while Vernon shook his head dizzily and wandered back into the living room, wondering why he’d missed ten minutes of his program.
Once outside, Sirius turned to Dumbledore. “You must have been joking about the Magus Talisman, weren’t you?”
“I’m afraid not,” Dumbledore said, turning serious suddenly. “You know what it is then, I presume?”
“I know that it’s a dangerous dark magic spell, and I’ve read about wizards who’ve died from it. I don’t know what exactly it is, no.”
“Well, from what you described, I’d thought that young Malfoy had simply had his magic blocked, which is a common spell, and very easy to overcome. One would use light magic to create a barrier between a wizard’s mind and his magic, effectively crippling him magically. But this is dark magic- you saw those black sparks. This isn’t a blocking spell.”
“Then what is it?”
“A Magus Talisman is when someone actually removes the magical power and ability from a wizard, which can only be accomplished with dark magic. Because the power cannot be destroyed, it is instead transferred into an object or animal, where it lies dormant until the caster of the spell releases it. But meanwhile, the victim has lost a vital part of who they are, have lost part of their soul. The victim begins to fade after a few days, becoming confused and weak-willed, until he’s essentially dead, though his body will still live on.”
“And you think this is what’s happened to the Malfoy boy?”
“I’m not sure.” Then Dumbledore’s eyes blazed. “But think about it. If this is truly a Magus Talisman spell, then Lucious Malfoy is certainly incapable of casting it on his own! It is proof that a much stronger dark wizard must have cast it, because only one with complete mastery of the dark arts could possibly cast this spell.”
“The Dark Lord,” Sirius breathed.
“Exactly.”
“This is the proof we need then, to finally call the Ministry to task for ignoring the warning signs, to force them to recognize that the Dark Lord has returned!” Then, Sirius frowned. “But the boy- you said it would destroy him... do we have time to gather everything we’ll need?”
“We have plenty of time. The negative effects won’t start to show for several days, and it will be weeks before he’s in any real danger. I’ll alert the Order tonight, and then we’ll start preparing things. We’ll need some sort of demonstration... but that is for I and my sources to discuss. In the meantime, we’ll need somewhere else for the boys to stay until the start of the term. Harry is protected here, but there are no wards to guard Draco Malfoy. He may be in grave danger, not from the spell, but from his father, the Death Eaters, and perhaps Voldemort himself.”
“But why leave him with Harry then? Why can’t we just take him with us now?”
“Because,” Dumbledore looked pointedly at Sirius from under his bushy brows, “if Draco decides that he wants to rejoin his father, then the Dark Lord may remove the spell from him, and we’ll have no proof. However, Harry is probably the strongest influence for good that we can possibly put in young Malfoy’s path. Besides,” and Dumbledore chuckled, “Harry looked to be enjoying himself.”
Sirius rolled his eyes, thinking the headmaster was being sarcastic. “There’ll be bloodshed before the day is out, I promise you.”
“Perhaps. We’ll meet again, at the same time and place as usual?” Sirius nodded, and they both apparated away.
***
“Bloody hell,” Draco clapped a hand to his forehead dramatically. “They’re making me stay here with you?” He waited for some kind of sarcastic remark from Harry, and glanced over at him when it didn’t come. The Gryffindor was clutching his knees to his chest, staring blankly at the floor. “What’s wrong, Potter?”
“Nothing’s wrong. I’m just thinking.” Harry looked up at him. “Sirius looked really upset when Dumbledore mentioned a Magus Talisman. Did you notice?” He wouldn’t meet Draco’s gaze, which made Malfoy think that he was changing the subject.
“Not really.” He picked his shirt up off the floor, and unfolded it. “Damn, completely covered in blood. This was a nice shirt.”
“Sorry.” Harry’s voice was quiet. Malfoy pretended not to notice the apology.
“So...” he said leadingly as he refolded the shirt.
“So what?”
“So do you have another shirt I can wear, or are you just going to enjoy running your filthy little eyes over my bare chest for another hour?” He dropped the shirt on the floor and crossed his arms.
“Sorry,” Harry said again, uncurling himself and standing. He dug through his dresser drawers for a moment, finally pulling out a large grey t-shirt that Dudley had outgrown several years ago. Harry had never worn it because it smelled slightly of mothballs, but now he tossed it to Draco. The remark about staring at Malfoy’s body had stung a bit, so he was careful to avert his eyes until Malfoy was fully covered again. “Look, Malfoy, I know this isn’t exactly the most comfortable situation for us to be in, but can we at least try to, you know, make the best of it?”
“What do you mean?” Draco asked, his silver eyes narrowing suspiciously.
“Like, we try to not rip each other’s throats out for a day. Maybe even be civil or something.”
“A compromise?”
“I guess.”
“Absolutely not. Malfoys never compromise.” Then, abruptly, “Where do you keep your schoolbooks?”
“Why?”
“Because I want to look up that ‘Magus Talisman’ thingy, obviously. I’ve never heard of it before.”
Harry snorted. “The Dursleys are holding my stuff hostage in the downstairs closet. I’ve only got a few books up here. But when Hedwig comes back, I can write to Hermione, and she’ll know what it is.”
“The Mudblood?” asked Draco in disgust.
“The muggle-born witch who’s topped the entire school in grades for the past five years, who’s a very nice, warm, caring girl, yes.”
“Gee, you sound like you have a crush on her! But of course that isn’t possible… or does your gate swing both ways.”
“Shut up, Malfoy.” Harry turned and stormed out of the room.
Draco looked around, studying the room for a minute, then fingered his wand in his pocket. Finally, he called after Harry, “Hey, Potter!” No reply. “Hey listen, how do you get breakfast around here? Hello?” And he stepped out of the door after Harry.