A Bond for the Ages

Chapter 20

Translations:
[English text] Paidí = [Greek text] Παιδί = Child

[English text] Rebenok = [Russian text] Ребенок = Child

********************************************************

Draco couldn't help the concern he felt when Leif and Alexei went to the study and raised voices were heard. He was also concerned at the state Potter seemed to be in and the surge of power that shook the manor. He, Leif, and Alexei had heard some of what Potter had yelled, but it made little sense to him.

He could still feel Potter's magic as his tried to latch onto it given the mass availability. He frowned at the yelling coming from the study before deciding to head outside. Whatever was going on was making Potter lose control. He wasn't sure what he could do, if anything, but Potter seemed to need someone. Considering their relationship, he knew he wasn't the right person to help Potter, but anyone that would be was unavailable or a potential source of Potter's anger.

Stepping outside, he was stunned by the sight. Potter was standing and screaming, air with orange flames mixed in whipping around him like a tornado. The Gryffindor's power was pulsing through the air as it reacted to the tumultuous emotions. The rushing air warmed Draco even from his place on the porch and whipped at his hair and clothes. His own magic was jumping inside of him, desperate for the compatible magic surrounding him in droves. He held it back, not wanting to risk draining Potter or hurting him in some other way. The pain and distress he could feel from Potter pulled at him, and he was surprised at the sympathy he felt for the boy he once hated so much.

He wasn't sure what to do, but decided to just follow his instincts. He left the porch and slowly approached Potter, circling him so they could face each other. As he got closer, he realized Potter was holding his shirt in his hands and his eyes widened at the sight of the Gryffindor's back. The skin was marred with scars of varying size, depth, and colour. Some were small, thin, and white. Others were thick and wrinkled like ropes and dark pink. Some were in the very distinct shape of a belt buckle. As he stared, he knew he was seeing the result of what had brought Potter to Prince Manor, or at least the years that had led up to it. He finally tore his attention away from the scarred back and continued moving around Potter.

The rushing magic became stronger and hotter the closer he got to the Gryffindor, but, he noticed, it wasn't harming him. His own magic was responding, but it felt different from anything he'd felt while interacting with it the last couple of weeks. It almost felt like his magic was trying to wrap around Potter's, not to drain or use, but to...he wasn't sure what.

He stopped in front of Potter, finding the Gryffindor's face covered in tears and his magic still swirling around them.

"Potter?" he ventured carefully.

"They did this to me. All of it!" Potter shouted.

"Who? What did they do?" Draco pushed, allowing his magic to seep out and do whatever it was trying to do.

"Them!" Potter yelled, his magic pulsing across the property. "They all believed a prophecy and made it all happen! My parents, the Dursleys, everything at school, the graveyard! They controlled everything!"

"Potter, it doesn't mean anything. This prophecy wouldn't be real now if that's all true," Draco said, remembering what he'd learned in the Malfoy Manor library. The Divining Arts weren't in his prescribed pre-Hogwarts education run by Lucius, but there had been little else to do but read at Malfoy Manor in between lessons and 'training'.

"They think it is! Dumbledore, Voldemort...they've decided it's my fate!" Potter sobbed.

"Fate doesn't exist," Draco said.