Chapter 2: Special Gifts

Precisely one hour, twenty-three minutes and fifteen seconds later Not-Harry, Not-Draco, Harry, Draco and Albus were all sitting in the Headmaster’s office warily drinking tea and sucking on lemon drops.

“Well,” Dumbledore said after a moment of pointed silence, “why don’t you two explain yourselves a little bit more. I can’t help feeling that there’s something more to you then meets the eye.”

The Not’s exchanged glances.

“Well,” began Not-Harry, “since this is a Witchcraft school I don’t see the harm in telling you – Black’s, as we not so affectionately called it, wasn’t an ordinary school either. It was highly specialized to train… special teenagers.”

“Special how?” Harry asked, curiosity piqued.

“Special like ESP,” Not-Draco said, “I’m sure if you’re us then you two have it too. In fact, I thought I saw a few more people from school there. Like the Asian slut, what was her name? Ching Chong? Chi Wang?”

“Cho Chang,” Not-Harry supplied calmly.

“Ah yes, Cho Chang,” Not-Draco spat the name out with a venom that surprised all but Draco, “that whore. Always hanging on and cooing and simpering and –”

Not-Harry clamped a hand over Not-Draco’s mouth and tut-tutted under his breath. “What happened to not using bad language in front of children?”

Wrenching Not-Harry’s hand off his mouth Not-Draco said, “They’re not children, they’re us. And an old guy who’d undoubtedly heard it all already.”

“Draco, you know very well that just because they’re us doesn’t mean they’re us,” Not-Harry scolded, “and you also know that Cho was a friend of mine. Don’t talk about someone like that behind their backs.”

“Wait a minute,” Harry said, interrupting Not-Harry’s rant, “if you went to The Black Academy for Young Gentlemen how on Earth could you know Cho? She’s a girl?”

“Black’s is open to both genders and is all for racial equality and all that now; but in the early nineteenth century when it was fist opened it was men only. They kept the name the same though, something about not wanting to fool with tradition,” Not-Harry explained, “We all just called it Black’s ‘cause calling it by it’s official name got the girls all riled up about equal rights and that jazz.”

Harry and Draco nodded understandingly, girls.

“So,” Draco said, turning to Not-Draco, “what special powers do you have?”

“The Sight of course, and Empathy. It’s not often that someone’s born with a double Gift, you know.” It was immediately obvious to Harry that even on another world, Draco Malfoy was as arrogant as they came.

“Sounds kind of wimpy to me really. Reading emotions and seeing,” Draco scoffed.

Not-Draco immediately rose to his own defense, “I’ll have you know that Seeing is one of the rarest gifts! No matter what spirits, elementals and magical creatures try to do I can see them – and I can read peoples auras at a glance. Auras tell you tons about a person. And Empathy is a wonderful Gift to have!’

Draco just snorted.

Harry, wanting to defuse the situation before Draco killed himself, turned to Not-Harry and asked, “What about you?”

Not-Harry smiled, understanding in his eyes, “I have the Gift of Speech and I’m a Pyrokinetic. That means I cane speak to… well, basically everyone Draco can see along with normal animals. Also, I can call and control fire.”

Draco looked suitably impressed. “See,” he said, turning to Not-Draco, “why couldn’t you have something good like that?”

“I’m beginning to see why people don’t like me,” Not-Draco declared after a moment of silence in which Draco realized he’d indirectly insulted himself and complimented Harry Potter all in one go.

“Right,” Dumbledore said after a minute of poorly hidden mirth on the part of himself and the two Harry’s, “what in Merlin’s name are we going to do with you two?”

“You could let us stay here and try to find other Gifted within your school. I realize that you probably think our powers insignificant compared to witchcraft, but Talents left unchecked are some of the most dangerous people alive. Especially untrained, scared, teenage talents – they have hormones, angst and nearly unlimited power. Talent requires no wands, no words and no catalyst save your mind. It’s deadly,” Not-Harry said seriously, trying to get on to the Action/Adventure bit as soon as he could, “and it looks like Draco and I aren’t going anywhere anytime soon so we might as well cut back on future mishaps. Besides, I’m sure a few students with Talent have simply written it off as excess magic or some such nonsense.”

Dumbledore nodded wisely but in his mind all he heard was ‘blah blah blah’. However, even a Harry Potter from another world had certain privileges and if Not-Harry wanted to teach with Not-Draco it was fine by him. “Alright Gentlemen, I believe I’ll take you up in that offer. Perhaps you would like a word with yourselves?”

They nodded and the four of them walked out of the office.

XoX

“Do you know how weird it is to talk to yourself like this?” Not-Draco asked Draco and Harry, “I look at you and I see myself at age seventeen. Speaking of that, what kind of relationship do you two have?”

“We hate each other,” they answered in unison, “absolutely despise.”

Not-Harry and Not-Draco exchanged Meaningful Looks before turning back to Harry and Draco and smirking.

“Sure you do.”