An Interference of Portraits

Magic

'All orphanages?' he asked, seemingly amused.

'No, not all. But a couple. Another one in Auckland, New Zealand, and one in Peru. I just got work through my contacts in France with various NGOs around the world doing various different things. Once I was in with their organisation, it was easier to keep going back to them. In Zimbabwe, I worked on Painted Dog Reserve, building educational bush camps and working alongside anti-poaching and ranger protection teams. In Sri Lanka, I worked with a Turtle Conservation charity, building a hatchery, something I'd always wanted to do after seeing it on TV when I lived with the Dursleys. Borneo was working on reforesting crucial Orangutan habitats. That was fucking dangerous because we had to avoid the jungle areas where the Acromantula lived. Never need to face one of them again. I worked with two shelters for homeless Queer teenagers, one in South Korea and one in Australia. In Chile, I helped rebuild homes after the bloody horrific forest fires out there. The rest of the time, I did odd-jobs or spent time with Magical communities, learning what I could from them about their Defence techniques. Do you want to stay for dinner again?'

'Okay,' he said.

After I'd cooked and we sat down to eat, he said, 'I'd like to hear more about your travels. I mean, there're pieces you've brought back around your home, but it seems to me you're keeping very quiet about it all.'

'A bit. It was a very personal time. It was also time I needed just for me. I needed to find myself... that sounds like a cliché but, after the war, I didn't really know who I was anymore or what I supposed to do. I've always been this kid in "the Prophecy"; the bloody "Chosen One" to bring down that wanker. The problem was... still is... now that I've done that, who am I after the event?'

'Did you get any answers?'

'Not really.' I shrugged, pulling a face. 'But it wasn't a waste of time though. There was a lot of personal growth and learning as well as escaping everything here.'

'The wandless magic bit?'

I smiled. 'I learnt when I stayed with Uagadou people of the Mountain of the Moon in Uganda. Then some more with the Cuencaen in Ecuador and then with the First Nations in Ontario, Canada. And if you think about it, it's what accidental magic is, just a bit more honed and considered and purposeful. Really, wands are a European tool. I first did wandless magic when I was fifteen, after the Dementor attack in Little Whinging. I didn't realise until long afterwards that I'd spoken the Lumos incantation in order to find the wand I'd dropped in my panic.'

'Oh...' Draco said softly. 'It all seems quite remarkable. More sophisticated and skilled than using a wand.'

'But unqualified. I haven't got a qualification to my name so it's all bloody pointless—'

'But it appears you are qualified, in surprising aspects. In teaching; English as a Second Language, and then Control of Accidental Magic?'

'Yeah, they don't really count for much on their own. At least it's something I can always fall back on. But it's all just stuff I've picked up. As opposed to you with your formal N.E.W.T.s and your qualifications in Magical Kind's Socio-Politics—'

'How did you know?'

I shrugged. 'Luna. She always wrote to me consistently. Her, Hermione, Minerva, and Dromeda. Luna came out to visit me in South Africa. And again in Canada. Dromeda came out to Australia and sent me a album's worth of photographs of Teddy growing up over the last three years. I returned the favour so she could show Teddy pictures of where I was, even if he's too young to really understand.'

'What made you come home?' he said passively.

'Teddy. I was missing him growing up. And I decided I need to take control of what I was doing. I was just drifting. The problem is, I'm still drifting, I don't actually know what I want to do. Here, I'm expected to be the next bloody Head Auror or something. I don't want to be an Auror. Anyway, being an Auror is Ron's thing, I don't want to swan in and tread on his toes, because that's what will happen. They'll just automatically fucking promote me without half the experience of some of the guys in the Department. But, the truth is, I don't want to fight anymore.'