A/N: Severus/Lily seems to want to slip in here, oddly enough. Just a warning.
"It – has a name?" Draco breathed disbelievingly. "It's...not an actual thing, Harry. It's just something that happens to resemble—"
Before he could finish the sentence, the thing-that-should-not-have-been-a-dragon shifted, seemingly stretching to glare into Draco's eyes. And then it – well, if it had actually been alive, Draco would have sworn that it burst into silent laughter. No, not entirely silent; the air around him now carried the heavy undertones of a growl.
"It thinks you're funny," Harry informed him, his own voice colouring with a grin. "Apparently, you need to have a more open mind."
"I – that – what?" His mind went in at least five different directions to try to refute that statement, with the result that he went nowhere. "Wait, why does it know what I'm saying?"
"Why shouldn't it?" The reply came with an unconcerned shrug. "This is Crythifs' world; it doesn't actually make sense to question things like that."
"That's like saying that I should be able to do anything I want back home," Draco pointed out.
"No, it's not like that." Harry bit his lip pensively. "This isn't exactly a normal universe."
"Oh, well, thanks for that. I hadn't noticed."
"Funny. Very funny. That's not what I meant, and you know it."
"Please, enlighten me about what you actually meant."
"We could maybe try finding a more comfortable location first?'
At those words, Draco became aware that a broomstick was indeed not the best location in which to have long explanations. Moreover, Draco's back was settled firmly against the other man's chest, and that was more distracting than it had any right to be. "Check my bag," he said, suddenly remembering. "I brought my carpet."
"This isn't the time to refurnish, Draco."
"What, you can joke about things now? It's a flying carpet, obviously. Well, a hovering carpet, at any rate."
"Oh. Brilliant!"
A moment later, the rescued carpet was fluttering in the air beside them. It twitched gingerly, as if checking itself over, and then shivered vigorously before coming to a full stop. Draco gratefully fell into it, closing his eyes and stretching out muscles that all chose exactly that moment to complain. When he looked up again, it was to see Harry prod the carpet carefully.
"It's not going to suddenly drop you," Draco snickered. "Don't look so suspicious."
"Are you sure?" There was a hint of trepidation in Harry's voice. "I've found that objects from Pureblood families tend to develop...some sort of loyalty."
Draco raised an eyebrow. That was not exactly common knowledge. "At some point," he declared, "I'd appreciate it if you revealed why you know all of these things that you really shouldn't."
"It's a talent." Draco could have sworn that the man winked as he finally slid onto the carpet. "Maybe if you stick around with me long enough."
A high-pitched whine broke through the air, making Draco wince.
"All right, all right," Harry waved to – the something that called itself Crythifs. "I'm explaining." Fumbling in his own bag, he fished out a battered book and offered it to Draco. "Look."
Draco took it and stared at it curiously. For all its small size, it was quite heavy. He ran a finger over the plain leather cover – no, not unmarked after all. He could barely feel the embossed letters at the very bottom of the spine. H...B...P... "This belongs to Severus!" He exclaimed. "What are you doing with it?"
"How do you know that?" Harry asked, equally startled.
"He marked it. Right here."
"You know about the Half-Blood Prince?"
"Is that what they stand for?" Draco shrugged carelessly. "I just know he had that on all of his research notebooks."
"Interesting..." Harry muttered. "I'll have to look into that." He shook his head as if to dispel an interesting thought. "But yes, this was his. He gave it to me."
Draco shot him a disbelieving look. "Really."
"Well, willed might be more accurate. It's what he and my mother were researching in their fifth year. And then his follow-up after—well, later."
"What's your mother got to do with any of this?"
"She and Snape were...good friends." Harry's voice was pensive, eyes glancing off to the distance. "Look, just read the beginning. You'll see."
So Draco flipped open the cover and began to read.
Hypothesis: all of magic depends entirely on the wizard's intent.
Or the witch's.
That's really not the point here.
It's important.
Fine. On someone's intent. Happy?
What about magical creatures?
Can you even call that 'magic'?
It's worth thinking about.
We can do that later. Have you been to the library yet?
Not for long. Checked out The Magic of Purpose, though. Someone named R. Willominde?
Is it good?
There's a chapter comparing accidental magic and wandless magic. It's pretty fascinating, actually.
That's brilliant! Show me tomorrow?
I'll see you after Charms.
Chapter 4: What's So 'Accidental' About Accidental Magic?
Much effort has been devoted to studying the way that magic first manifests in children – the so-called "accidental magic". Prone to appear at moments of heightened emotion or extreme danger, accidental magic is notable primarily for its defiance of the known rules of magic. For example, inanimate-to-animate Transfiguration was considered impossible in the Western world until the fifth century, when a child trapped in a rockfall spontaneously transfigured the boulder pinning his arm into a perfect replica of his pet rabbit. Unfortunately, both the child's and the rabbit's name has been lost to posterity, but their contribution to the field of Transfigurative magic has been immense.
(It is interesting that Chinese wizards had been performing inanimate-to-animate Transfigurations since at least the second century; stone statues were routinely Transfigured into tiny dragons to serve as personal guardians.)
Several prominent magical theorists (including the celebrated Paracelsus) have conjectured that there are, in fact, no bounds to magic other than the wizard's imagination. According to this school of thought, one's ability to perform certain spells diminishes with time unless it is maintained through practice. This would explain why adult wizards seem unable push farther the boundaries of magic, while children do so on a surprisingly regular basis.
This assertion, of course, been heavily criticised, most famously by the legendary Merlin. "If we take Paracelsus's assumptions and add in Pythagoras's Axiom of Single Wizardry, then we arrive at the preposterous conclusion that it is theoretically possible to construct a universe that bends itself to the will of a single being," the researcher wrote in an unpublished manuscript (c. 420). The latest result due to Hesper Gamp has only fueled the controversy surrounding this issue (see Appendix C: Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, and Exceptions).
The parallels between accidental magic and self-sustained magic (also termed "core magic" or "wandless magic") have only led to further complication...
- R. Willominde, The Magic of Purpose
A word on spelling: I don't have a Brit-picker, so I've mostly been sticking with the American spelling. But after writing entirely too many Sherlock fics, my spelling habits are changing...? I'll try to acquire a Brit-picker from somewhere, if this bothers people.
