A Throne of Blood and Stars

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"Mister Malfoy?"

"Good evening, Madame," Draco pants. He realizes his hair is all over the place and he straightens up, smoothing his hair down.

"What can I help you with?"

Draco looks around her, and he breathes in relief when he sees Harry still on the bed, in the same position he was yesterday. "I just...came to check on Potter."

"Oh," Madame Pomfrey's eyes light up. "Right you are. I actually have something to show you."

She leads him around the beds until they're next to Harry, and she positions her hands over his sleeping form, chanting spells and waving her wand.

And then Draco is looking at intricate patterns of magic weaving in and out of each other, all different colors and different densities.

"This," Madame Pomfrey says. She lifts her wand and a level of woven lines of red light rise with it, separating itself from the rest. "Is Harry's magical reserve. It's currently not as healthy as we want it to be, but it is stronger than the last couple of hours."

"How much stronger?"

"Significantly," she answers. Then she frowns. "It's like something came to charge him. Yesterday he had close to nothing, he was barely functioning."

Draco chooses to not mention the trip Harry took all the way to the Tower to talk to him a couple nights ago.

"What else did you find?"

Madame Pomfrey moves his magical reserve up and lifts another plane of swirling magic. This one is purple. "This is his mental energy. You see how it's moving slowly?"

Draco nods. "Because he is dormant."

"Correct. But, it's still moving at a faster pace than it should be. Which means he's either dreaming...or he's active in another dimension."

"A spiritual plane," Draco nods again. "It is possible."

"Right then. Another thing is this," she lifts her wand and sends the purple up, lifting a plane of frantic, blue jagged lines. "This is his natural reserve."

Draco frowns. He's never heard of that. "What is that?"

"This is...it acts as a physical reserve. Tells us how healthy he eats, how much strength he's supposed to have."

He can see the doubt on her face. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Harry isn't supposed to have one," she whispers quietly, admiring the active lines. "And not only that, it's not supposed to be this prominent. We all know he's powerful. This takes him off the charts, he's on another level with this strength."

"Is it harming him? Is there anyway it can be removed?"

Madame Pomfrey shakes her head. "It's embedded into his core. But it's not harming him, it's actually aiding in healing him. I've never seen anything like it, though."

"Is it supposed to look like that," Draco moves closer to inspect the frantically moving ribbons, zooming back and forth.

"This one is different than the ones I have examined. But nonetheless, it's functional. Very strong, stronger than Harry is supposed to be. And very active."

"Show me his core," Draco says suddenly. He watches she sends the plane up along with the others. And then she's pulling up a bright ball of white light. It looks like a star, rotating with rings around it.

"Everything looks normal," she hums. "His core is perfectly balanced, getting stronger by the minute. All his levels are fluctuating perfectly, like they should. Of course, they're still a little low, but once he fully recovers he'll be fine."