Chapter Eighteen: The Second Lesson

Tomorrow came and Harry headed to the third floor. He was very tired after a hard day full of lessons. His lunch was half-eaten because he needed to finish an essay for Transfiguration. All day was like a carousel, but when it had finally stopped, he fell out of it. Harry was a wreck. He didn't even have the slightest chance to learn something properly at his Dueling Lesson and considering the character of his teacher, Harry was sure that he wouldn't get away with it. He was coming alone today; he didn't ask professor Halflife to escort him every time, but Harry managed to find the classroom himself. He slowly opened the door and peeped inside.

The room was lit up and there were more objects in it this time: some old vases, cauldrons and other small things, only several of them new. Harry also saw Draco standing with closed eyes in the center of the room and doing some unfamiliar manipulations with his hands. Harry quietly stepped in and started to walk closer to Draco on his toes, wanting to see what he was doing and also take him off guard out of old habit.

When he was only a few feet behind Draco's back; "Good afternoon, Potter," Draco abruptly turned to face Harry, taking him off guard instead.

"Hello, Marko," Harry answered awkwardly. 'It will take a lot of time to get use to this strange new name.' He looked around the room. "Professor Halflife hasn't come still?"

"Your hopes are in vain, Potter. She won't be here tonight. She doesn't… feel well, as she told me in her letter. Don't be so scared, I won't kill you, it's not my place to do it."

"And what address, might I ask, did she write on that letter?"

"No, you can not ask. We have a lot of work to do. But I see that you are not all that almighty today," Draco looked at Harry from head to toes.

"Yeah, bad day," said Harry under his breath.

"You probably understand that as your teacher your condition means nothing to me, but…" Draco paused for a moment. "But I won't be very hard on you today." Harry looked at him with widely opened eyes, even his tiredness flew through the window from surprise. "You may sit now." After Harry took his place behind his desk, Draco continued, "Today I begin with a bit of a lecture, then you will show us what you are capable of."

"Us?"

"Yes, Potter, us. Are you going to find fault in my every word?" It looked like Draco was going to lose his temper, but only for a second.

"No, I just don't understand why you are saying 'us', because it sounds like you are speaking about yourself in a plural form."

"What a pity, I was thinking that you're more mature now, but you hadn't changed a bit," Draco said, shaking his head. "Still if you don't understand so it's my duty to explain it to you, even if we don't have time for this," he sighed. "When I said 'us', I referred to me and you, because you don't know yourself, what powers or possibilities of improvement you have. Nobody knows what he can or can't do under different circumstances. Only one thing everyone is sure about: if you die, you must die an honorable death. The worst part is that if you die, but was capable not to and did nothing to survive. You have power, Potter," Draco started to whisper, standing nose-to-nose with Harry. "Somewhere deep inside, and Voldemort is afraid of you because of it. He knows what you can do because he gave you a part of his powers and strength. But who says that he is right, Potter?" Draco returned to his usual calm and yet strict voice, but fire of hate was in his glance. "He can't know everything, can he? Now, Potter, I can say why I am so full of myself, as you put it. Even if Voldemort is an heir of Salazar Slytherin, he doesn't know about the Dragon Fang, but if he knows about it, he doesn't know that I master this technique, because even Lucius doesn't know about such a useful feature of mine. Then this chain of know-it-all leads to you. If Voldemort sniffed out somehow about my ability, the thought of me teaching you won't come to his brain, it's just impossible in his opinion."

"So you are teaching me only to spite Voldemort?"

"That will be too soft of me. He is after my blood already. I don't need to annoy him any more."

"Then why are you doing this?" Harry was really eager to know the reason of such a change in Malfoy's character; it must have been something really drastic.

"Our little chat returned your self-confidence. Let's continue with the lesson, I don't have all the time in the world, you know."

"Need to parade in front of the mirror?" Harry asked mockingly.

The phrase passed Draco's ears, even if he had heard it, he didn't react. "Come here, Potter," he pointed a place a foot from him with his hand. Harry obediently took the position. "You have eyes that's why you can see some objects in front of you. Every object in the wizarding world is magical because you can perform magic on any object using concrete spells. We need different spells for transfiguring a mouse into a mug and cat into a book, because every object has its own magical aura. Performing magic on an object changes its aura also. The aura state also depends on the life of the object."

"But what life can a vase have?" Harry interrupted.

"I am getting to it. Phuh, now I understand why Snape can't work with you. You are the most indecent student I've ever had!" Draco rolled his eyes.

"I am the only student you've ever had."

"Don't be that categorical. I would like to continue, if you don't mind." He took a deep breath and proceeded, "In the magical world everything has a, so called, life. If you look more closely at the vases here, I am sure you'll notice the difference." Draco went to the row of vases and started pointing at different vases with his left hand. "This one is red and porcelain, this – green and from glass, this vase is brand new with bright colors, this one is very old and antique, its life has three centuries. No one can guess haw many places and homes it changed."

"You sound like a detective who tells everything about the thing by just looking closely at it."

"The point of my lecture, Potter, is that every feature I just named shows itself in the object's aura. With humans, it's much more complicated. I know, that you don't believe me one bit, but you'll believe your own eyes, I presume? Let's try." Draco went towards Harry and stood behind him. "Now, Potter, listen to me and do what I say."

'Why should I obey him? But then why shouldn't I? Let's try, and then see how everything will turn out.'

"Close your eyes, Potter," Draco said softly, as if hypnotizing. Harry closed. "What do you see?"

"Nothing," Harry said quickly, still resisting believing Draco's words.

"Now concentrate. How many vases are there?"

"I don't know. Six, maybe seven," Harry answered carelessly.

"I told you to concentrate. Stop thinking that I am feeding you rubbish, just make your mind blank and concentrate. After ten seconds I'll repeat my question," notes of impatience were heard in Draco's voice.

After exactly ten seconds he asked again, "How many vases are there, Potter?"

"Eight," Harry answered in the same soft voice.

"Do you see them?"

"No."

"How do you know that there are eight of them?"

"I remembered."

"That's already a step forward. Now, Potter, concentrate harder. Your mind is absolutely blank. Imagine the vases," after twenty seconds he asked, "Do you see them now?"

"I don't know. Darkness is around me, but there are some white spots far away."

"Good. Count the spots."

"Eight of them." Harry sounded surprised at his own words.

"Very good. Now imagine those vases again, try to pick up a characteristic feature of each vase." Draco put his index fingers at the base of Harry's skull, above the neck and slightly pushed, like switching on two buttons at a time. "What do you see now?"

"Holly Founders!" yelled Harry, taking his head in his hands.

"Uuuh, so what's so interesting there?" Draco asked with fake enthusiasm.

"I see eight large spots, but they are all different!"

"Hm, interesting indeed. Describe them one by one from the left to the right."

"Urh, I'll try." He took a deep breath. "The first one is light blue. Contour of the spot is exact with no interruption. The second spot is dirty brown and the contour is toned. The next one is quite interesting. It's light brown, but there are definitely some golden sparks in it. The fourth…"

"Ok, stop, there is no point in describing all of them. Now open your eyes and go to the vases." They went together to the row of vases on the floor. "From left to right: new blue vase, old ceramic vase and the antique one. What can you say now?"

Harry was speechless. The understanding of what he has seen the moment before began to dawn to him, slowly but firmly. He has seen with his very eyes magical auras of eight vases which were standing now in front of him.

"Holly Founders," he repeated with a sigh.

"Do you believe your own eyes, Potter?"

Harry only nodded, then after a few seconds asked, "What have you done to me?" There wasn't any rage in his question, but vulnerability and confusion.

"I've opened your eyes," Draco answered simply.

"But they were closed all the time," Harry said confused.

"I must do a little explanation on this point."

Understanding that another lecture is coming, Harry started walking to the desk, but then decided against it and sat right on the floor. At first Draco glanced at him with raised eyebrows, then shrugged and continued, "You know that Seers have an Inner Eye, with the help of which they can predict the future." Harry grumbled. "Don't think about it like crap, they really have. You'll find soon enough."

Harry already opened his mouth to ask, what the hell Draco was talking about, but Draco didn't let him. "Now where was I? Yeh, Inner Eyes. That's it. Almost every wizard, witches are excluded, has two sets of eyes so to say: ordinary and vision eyes. Inner Eye is a gift; it has no connection with vision eyes. The main characteristic of vision eyes is that they see the unseeable, the magical part of the wizarding world. You can say that its tautology, but I can't explain it in other words. I activated your vision eyes by pushing two spots on your skull. Any questions?"

"What did you mean by saying almost every wizard has vision eyes?"

"Good listening, Potter," real approval was heard in Draco's voice. "Pity that I can't give you points. It isn't a very interesting point, but if you insist-" he paused for a moment. "Actually my saying 'almost every wizard' is far from right. Nowadays it's a very rare ability. Only very talented wizards have it from birth already, but even they don't use it because they don't know about it. If you think more about the whole magic aura stuff, you'll come to the conclusion that it's practically useless in the ordinary life even in a wizarding world."

"Then how come you know so much about it?"

"As I keep repeating this year, there are some useful books in the library of the Malfoy Manor."

"You learned all this from books?" Harry asked bewildered.

"What's so surprising about it? Everyone reads books."

"And about activating other people's vision eyes is also written in those books?"

"Yes," Draco answered slowly and indecisively.

"What is written there then?" asked Harry, not understanding why Malfoy would be so secretive about such a simple thing.

"The vision eyes of a person can only be activated by a person who is already in possession of them," Draco recited.

'Nothing strange about it, so what's the fuss about? What is he hiding? Of course, how I couldn't have seen it before!' "Who opened yours?"

"There is nothing interesting about it," Draco snapped.

'Aha! I've got you!' "How can it not be interesting if you say that it's a very rare talent and there is another person, who possesses it, because he opened your vision eyes."

"You can sleep in peace, there is no other person. Be proud, it's only the two of us," Draco said trying to turn the conversation somewhere else.

"But then how, when, who?"

"I won't tell you, Potter, so stop trying. Maybe I'll tell you when you torture me, but still there is a very slight chance."

"What torture weapons do you prefer?" Harry asked playfully.

"You won't leave it, will you?" Draco asked with a sigh. Harry violently shook his head. "Ok, I'll tell you and you forget all about it." Harry nodded smiling. 'Happy like a baby, who has got its candy.' "They opened themselves, satisfied?"

"No."

"Not my problem," Draco said in a sing song voice.

"But your answer brings even more questions!"

"No more questions today, Potter. Dinner begins soon. Tomorrow. Same time. Same place." Draco said in tone that excluded any questions.

"I can't."

"What do you mean, you can't?"

"I have Quiddich practice tomorrow."

"Quiddich practice? Good excuse," Draco said quietly with such longing in his eyes that Harry felt sorry for him. In a moment Draco composed himself and icily said, "Then I won't see your face tomorrow, Potter, but you receive a large portion of homework for such pleasure." Harry groaned. "Find an old object which can have 'life', it can be absolutely anything, research it with your new founded eyes, then come here the day after tomorrow and present your research, preferably in written form," Draco finished strictly.

Harry groaned again. "You are not better than Snape."

"Thank you. I am flattered," Draco said with a bow.