Harry Potter The Long Lost Malfoy

Harry swallowed through a throat that felt scorched and managed to grin at Ted. "Unless they were so scared of someone who could raise that strong a shield that they were already running away, right?"

Ted smiled at him. "There's that. But I think we need to teach you to call back some of the more extreme manifestations of your power. They actually will work better if you don't put as much strength into them."

Harry nodded, and leaned on Draco for a second as he stood up. Draco watched him anxiously, but Harry winked at him.

"I'm the one who exhausted myself," he said. "I won't do that, next time. Now, are we going to put up the shield and identify some more spells?"

.....

In the middle of March, Harry closed his eyes and focused on the memory of Father telling him that he would remove his arm to remove the Dark Mark, and then snapped his wand in the movement that was becoming so familiar to him by now.

"Expecto Patronum!"

He heard a gasp that might have come from Tonks, and opened his eyes to see the silvery swan that was gliding along the air in front of him. It only lasted a minute; as soon as Harry saw it properly, it disappeared. But it had been there, and it had lasted longer than the ferret Draco had managed the other day.

"That was amazing, Harry!" Tonks grew a pig's snout that only lasted a second in the middle of her face, and then brilliant purple hair, and then actual tusks curling up from the corners of her mouth, as if she was so excited that she couldn't decide what the best expression of that excitement was.

"Amazing!" Hermione echoed, her smile fervent. She had a gleam in her eyes that Harry knew spelled competition, too. Harry grinned at her. She had managed the mist a couple weeks ago, but was still working at defining the shape of her Patronus.

"Brilliant, mate!" Ron crossed the distance between them to clap his shoulder.

"Why a swan?" Draco asked.

Harry peered at him. Draco looked sulkier than Harry would have expected, especially given that he'd achieved a corporeal Patronus first. "What do you mean?"

"I would have thought—a snake of some kind. Since our family is represented by snakes. I mean, except for you." Draco sniffed. "Or a lion, for your House. Or even a dr—" He stopped.

"A dragon?" Harry found himself grinning and didn't try to stop. "You wanted me to have a Patronus that matched your name so that you could say you were the one who protected your little brother?"

Draco shoved him, face a brilliant pink. "Shut up."

"Is there a reason that it would be a swan?" Hermione asked Tonks, before Harry could go on teasing his brother. Hermione was giving Harry an exasperated look, as though to ask him to behave better than this, please.

Harry didn't stick his tongue out at her, but it was a close-run thing.

"Not in particular." Tonks smiled and finally chose a purple color for her hair that manifested as deep swirls of color throughout it. "Patronuses are symbolic, but the symbol isn't always a one-to-one link. Someone who's afraid of lions might still have a lion as their Patronus, for example, because a frightening creature would make a great defense against Dementors."

"I do actually have a bit an idea of why," Harry confessed, and tried not to be intimidated when Tonks turned to look at him in interest. "I was thinking of my parents, and my mother—I think of her as a swan, sometimes. Beautiful and graceful."

Tonks nodded. "I can see how you came up with that comparison for Aunt Narcissa. And it also makes sense that you would pick a creature with a lot going on under the surface."

It took Harry a minute to get it, and he groaned. "Tonks, that is an awful pun."

"Isn't it terrible? I think I'm starting to decide in favor of teaching rather than the Aurors. In the Ministry, everyone just wanted to kill me when I made those puns. Here, you have to grin and bear them."

....

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