Protection (Drarry)

Chapter Sixteen

Harry switched to the second parchment.

Harry Potter, I am afraid I must warn you that as your cloak has become lost to you, it has been reunited with its second brother. If you are to prevent the third from joining their company, you must accept that which you have always sought most to reject, or lose it to another less worthy.

"He was never an overly optimistic fellow, was he?" Malfoy said, his lip curled in distaste. "What will you lose? What you always hoped to reject? That can't be too bad, surely, or you wouldn't have kept rejecting it. Or does he mean you'll lose the wand?"

"The wand," Harry said slowly, feeling a step behind Malfoy, but not so far behind as he usually felt with Hermione. "That's what he means by the third brother? So the cloak is with the stone. Which means Twilfitt has them both." He fell back against the couch, feeling suddenly deflated. "It must have been Dave you heard in the forest that night."

Malfoy glanced at him.

"I let slip about leaving something in the forest," Harry admitted, mentally kicking himself all over again. "It must have been enough for him to put two and two together. Or he could have watched me closely after that and seen where we went. Anything is possible."

Malfoy turned back to the parchment. "Forget it. There's no point dwelling on past mistakes," he said drily. "Instead, try to figure out what it could be that you have to accept. Apparently, that's rather important."

Harry nodded and leaned forward to read the note again. "So, I've always rejected it, and now I have to accept it," he said dully. "Or I'll lose it to someone less worthy. That's it. No more information."

"Centaurs," Malfoy said, rolling his eyes. "They love rubbing in how much more powerful they are than wand-carriers."

Harry frowned at him. "I've never heard a wizard use that term."

"I've never really had a problem with derogatory terminology," he said, raising his eyebrow in a contemptuous gesture that made Harry remember a time not so long ago that Malfoy wouldn't hesitate to term someone Mudblood. "It's just a word."

Harry opened his mouth and shut it again, making what he deemed a wise decision to leave that fight for another day.

"So are they really that much more powerful?" he asked. "Or do they just like being cryptic?"

Malfoy made a face. "There's a lot of debate on that," he said, leaning back into the couch. "Just like with wizards, some centaurs are more powerful than others. They access magic directly, you see, without the need of a wand as a conduit. Since they don't exactly like to sit in front of a panel of curious wand-carriers and demonstrate just how much magic they can funnel without being consumed by it, we've had to make do with recording each increasingly powerful act a centaur or other magical creature has produced and labeling that the most powerful act possible until further notice."

Harry had never heard magic described like this before. Hogwarts had focused on teaching them how to use it, but never explained what it was. Or, if it had, he had never paid attention. "What do you mean, consumed by it?" Harry asked, an image of spontaneous combustion popping into his head.

"Since they have no wands to funnel the magic for them," Malfoy explained. "They have to control the process themselves. It's a volatile thing, magic. Funneling it without a conduit requires skill and concentration. That's why you sometimes see house elves that have gone completely insane."

"House elves?" Harry asked, confused at the sudden jump.

Malfoy smirked. "Surprised? Of course, house elves. They're magical creatures too. They can't funnel as much magic as centaurs can, but they still don't require a wand as a conduit. Humans are the only magic users who need an external conduit. Sometimes children slip because they have such a new, raw connection with magic, but it's never properly controlled or useful. And, obviously, with practice you get wizards who are so powerful that they can create wandless magic, but that is after years of practice with a wand. It is never as complete and as natural as with magical creatures."