Heaven Through a Window • Drarry •

Chapter Fourteen: Solve et Coagula

Potter was right—he was terrible at Occlumency.

"Try again," Potter said, wiping sweat off his forehead.

"Legilimens!" Draco cried.

His mind flooded with memories—Potter was white-faced and sitting by Mr Weasley in a St Mungo's ward. ... Potter was burying a wand near Dumbledore's White Tomb. ... Potter was sprinting away from a bulldog. ... Potter was driving a sword through the roof of a great Basilisk's mouth. ... A tiny boy wept in a dark cupboard. ... Potter and Chang were sitting in Madam Puddifoot's—

Draco withdrew. "How do you feel? Any headache?"

He thought Potter looked seventeen or eighteen when burying the wand, but he didn't say as such.

Potter rubbed his scar. "No, I feel fine. Some of those memories are a bit hazy, though... Is it normal to not remember them all?"

"Yes. You'll dredge up long-forgotten ones and possibly ones from that you haven't remembered yet. If it goes horribly wrong, I shall have to Obliviate you."

Potter nodded. "Should I have a go, then?"

Draco gritted his teeth. "Fine. Do be careful."

He passed Potter his own wand, and some silver sparks flew out of the tip.

Potter smiled down at it, pointed the wand at Draco and said, "Legilimens."

The spell came out at him like a battering ram and Draco clenched his jaw against the onslaught.

He was five, and his godmother Charis was reading him a bedtime story. ... He was sixteen, naked and reaching between his shoulder blades to rub ointment onto brutal bruises. ... He was fourteen, dancing with Daphne at his first Midsummer Ball. ... He was seventeen, retching at the sight of maggots wriggling in the face of a corpse—

At that, he threw Potter out of his mind. He went to clasp the chimneypiece with clammy fingers.

Draco started when he felt a hand at the small of his back. He hadn't realised his jaw was chattering.

"Are you all right?" Potter asked.

Draco nodded his head jerkily. "Fine." He accepted a glass of water and his wand. "We should try again another day. I'm tired."

"Did I do the spell right?"

"There was a lot of power behind the spell. I wasn't Occluding you, obviously. And you were using a foreign wand. But it was like being struck over the head, and so you will need to learn finesse. Practice makes perfect," he said bitterly.

Potter made a face. "Sorry," he said. "Why don't you nick some chocolate from the kitchens and we'll go up to the roof?"

"It's raining." Draco gulped the cold water. "Thanks."

"Oh. I don't care—let's go anyway."

"I ought to timetable in the Legilimency last thing at night. So I don't have to go and reply to my letters, and for your own safety in the corridors."

"Yeah. I think my memory gets better as the day goes on."

Draco nodded. "But you are getting better in the mornings. You'll remember being a wizard soon."

He walked Potter down to his rooms in silence. "I'll be back in half an hour."

Draco fetched two mugs of hot chocolate heaped with whipped cream from the kitchens and took Harry outside.