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Harry Evans Chapter 84: Back to skewl
🕑 Added 2024-07-29 03:00:02 +0000 UTCIt was on the 1st of September, a few weeks after Harry's first meeting with Draco, that the two of them could be found in a McDonald's close to Kings Cross station.
The older of the two, Charon, sat there in a muggle tracksuit with his hood pulled up over his face, and a notice-me-not-charm applied on the entirety of his presence. It was not an overly strong usage of it, but it didn't really take a lot of magic to convince a bunch of muggles to not care about just another customer.
Opposite to him, across the white plastic of the table sat a young boy with platinum blonde hair gelled back and a concentrated expression on his face which stood in contrast with the fact that his actions consisted of slowly eating a large amount of chicken nuggets and fries piece by piece.
But did the concentrated expression really not fit the action?
After all, in addition to eating, the boy was also responsible for defending his mind from the very random and very violent assaults being committed upon it by Harry. There had been complaints at first, however, Harry's explanation was that a situation in which one's mind would be attacked would be out of the blue, a surprise. What was the point of practising in an environment that was not that?
In essence, Harry was doing the boy what had been done to him by the sorting hat. If nothing else, it seemed like Draco Malfoy actually had a penchant for at least the defensive aspects of the mind arts. It hadn't even been a month and the boy was already capable of noticing Harry's probes, and could even put up a very rudimentary rejection of them.
The two of them truly had converged in their learning. As Draco's occlumency became noticeably better, Harry's very crude and amateurish legilimency became slightly more subtle, thus keeping a perfect ratio for improvement. Entirely unintentional of course.
As if reminded by this narration that it was once again time to test his pupil, Harry raised his wand at the boy from underneath the table.
One didn't necessarily have to be pointing at a person's head, which was the space from where one was trying to enter. But rather, one had to be looking at a person's eyes while casting the spell, which Harry was.
Hopefully, he would graduate to not needing eye contact soon. Then he could have the boy do tasks in the muggle world while under attack from any direction.
An incantation went through Harry's mind, as he locked his eyes on the boy's grey ones. To his magical senses, it was obvious that an invisible arrow of mind magic erupted from him and tried to enter the boy's head.
Crude, still. The only thing he'd done with the hat, which he had unfortunately had to give up yesterday again so it could sort the students, was making his legilimens probes actually safe for use in this kind of context.
After all, if done by an unpracticed practitioner, legilimency could do serious harm to the target.
This had been the one thing that Harry had been very much focused on removing as a risk, everything else could come after.
Draco flinched, almost choking on the chicken nugget with sweet and sour sauce that he was in the process of chewing.
Harry hadn’t put his whole might into the attack, as he wasn’t that interested in actually entering the boy’s mind. It thus made sense that Draco was able to put up a very marginal defence in the first few seconds. However, simply because Harry had been repelled once didn't mean that the probe had been dispersed. It remained and after a second in which Harry gathered his focus again, it jumped right back in.
The boy’s defence shattered. A chicken nugget was spat back onto the plate.
It was only Harry who was covered by the notice-me-not-charm. So the action caught the attention of the muggles sitting adjacent to their table. The two students looked at Draco with concern, dressed in their red school uniform. This hadn't been the first time Draco had been hindered in his eating.
Harry dispersed the successful attack before he could get more irrelevant data from the boy’s mind. He’d accidentally seen some memories several times now. It simply consisted of irrelevant moments, stupid prejudices and a very significant sense of entitlement.
The last of the two things he had managed to actually challenge significantly in the last weeks. It turned out that it was easier to hate muggles when one didn't interact with them daily, such as the boy’s occlumency lessons now forced him to. He was beginning to see them as human. The first step in reversing the pure-blood brainwashing.
Harry imagined that getting sorted into Slytherin and having his beliefs mirrored by his comrades once again would represent a setback. Harry was willing to fix it the next summer vacation.
The entitlement, well not much progress had happened there. But, Harry was with his use of sorcery and to the pupil, seemingly skilled use of legilimency gaining a sort of authority over the boy. Draco saw him as a powerful wizard he shouldn’t offend and to whom he was grateful for the tutelage.
Apparently, that was how purebloods functioned. Which made complete sense. In a society where magical prowess could wipe away all the benefits of social collectivism, one dark lord could wipe out an entire generation. Culturally this forced magicals to develop a sort of sheep mentality. Follow the strongest and hope they protect you and guide you towards greater fortunes.
In Draco’s eyes. Harry was the strongest. Or rather, Charon.
The back and forth of attack and defence continued a few more times before Draco finally managed to finish the entirety of his food. This was the mark of the session being over. Similarly, the workers were getting slightly concerned about the strange kid sitting alone and acting very very weirdly and would have likely called the police if they had stayed in there any longer.
Harry got Draco an ice cream from the suddenly not-broken ice cream machine and the two of them walked out into the bustle and hustle of King's Cross where they sat down on a bench.
Harry was a harsh taskmaster, exposing his students to things he didn't want to be exposed to, and violating his mind with a roughness that a more practised legilimens would have never been able to replicate. But, he also evened out this behaviour by giving compliments where they were due.
“Draco,” he said to the boy sitting next to him, probably with a horrible headache. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt that was appropriate for a boy his age in the muggle world. Harry really should have also been getting paid for teaching muggle studies at this point. “Good job again today. I definitely noticed the amount of work that you put in outside of our sessions,” which he had been doing. Draco was trying his hardest to impress Harry.
The boy didn't nod or acknowledge the praise, he never did for some reason, but a blush went over his pale features and a light smile flew over his lips.
“As you know this will be our last session for a while, this isn't necessarily a bad thing considering that skills sometimes take time to be consolidated and theory work is also valuable.” Other than the theoretical explanations Harry had given in the first session where Narcissa had still been present, he had not been explaining much since. That was why he now produced a small little booklet from his robes which he presented to the boy who curiously took it. There was no title on it and no author.
“These are the theoretical parts of the mind arts that you can cover on your own while your instruction in the practicals goes on break. There are also several exercises which you can do to heighten your affinity for the subject when we once again start practice. There are some you already know such as meditation, and intentional focusing, but they're also some additional little mind games you’re free to play with.”
“Thank you, master,” the boy finally said and tucked the booklet away into the leather pouch he was carrying. He paused after that, seemingly wanting to say something but not knowing how to start.
“Save your reservations and overthinking for your Slytherin contemporaries. With me just be clear and concise. I don't care for petty rivalries are insults and will instruct you as best I can,” Harry said, trying to elicit the words from the boy.
“I won't have as much time to work on it as you think,” Draco blurted out.
“There's been a lot of wrong sort of people at Hogwarts excelling where they shouldn't and mum told me that I have to be the best to show people purebloods are still…” he trailed off.
Harry smirked underneath his hood. Was the boy talking about him?
Wrong sort of people excelling. That sounded like something Narcissisa would say.
“That's a horrible motivation to actually excel in school,” Harry critiqued. “You need to excel because you want to excel, not to show someone up. Just find a subject you're interested in and put some extracurricular focus on it. No one is a multi-talent. Don’t overburden yourself trying to be the best in everything.” Was his advice
Draco nodded but seemed to have more to say. He hesitated again, before getting over his reluctance himself. The boy was a quick learner. It would have been easier to hate him had not been.
“I don't know if I'll end up in Slytherin. Ever since our lessons started I've been spending so much time in the library that, that, maybe I'll be in a Ravenclaw?” he proposed.
Harry wondered if this thing would have ever come up had the boy’s father still been alive. He couldn't imagine Lucy being happy with anything but Slytherin. However, in this world where the Malfoys were politically isolated and vultures were circling, perhaps it was even beneficial for the boy to remove himself from politics for a bit until he came back a powerful wizard in his own right.
“That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. While I understand your wish to conform to your family's tradition, due to your current political situation it might be better to go to Ravenclaw. You could make some alliances you otherwise couldn't and excel as a wizard enough that you can at the end of the day come back into the political arena as a fully-fledged adult with the might of magic propping you up rather than just your connections. I'm not going to lie and say that I see the next Dumbledore in you,” Harry said. “Of course, you can try to prove me wrong. After all, I haven't seen you cast any magic with a wand. However, I definitely think that with your work ethic and intellect, you could reach for stars that are higher placed than your mother and many others.”
Draco nodded seriously, and from experience, Harry could tell the boy was putting the words into memory and truly giving them consideration.
“I have to go now,” the boy said. “Mum said I should drop by home before so we can go to the station together.”
He scrambled off then, as usual, to find his own way home. He would just have to backtrack to the floo he’d arrived from, Harry guessed.
“Explore your new surroundings,” Harry said and Draco looked around suspiciously as if looking for something, but their surroundings simply consisted of loud people commuting to and from work and school or whatever. It was a large train station. He pressed a 20-pound note into Draco's hands. “If you see anything that you find interesting just buy it,” he said.
Draco had never had any muggle money, and his mother was certainly not going to start giving him any. But now that they had started holding their lessons in the muggle world it would be a waste if Harry didn't give the boys some incentive to explore it. After all, what was 20 pounds in return for potentially turning Draco away from the bigotry that had been instilled in him by his family? Perhaps buying some tooth-rotting sweets from a kiosk wouldn't necessarily be the tipping point, but it would definitely offer the opportunity for more consideration.
“Goodbye master,” the boy said before running off.
Harry wondered for a second how he would deal with the fact that from now to the next time they saw each other, they would not be student and master but simply two students at the same institution. It was funny to think about how he had established a secondary identity without really intending to. He stood up, dusted himself off theatrically and went himself in the direction of a restaurant he saw in the distance. He would change identities in their toilet and come out as Harry Evans, genius student, troubadour, mysterious man of mystery and general redhead. It was time to go back to school
-/-
AN: Now that we've covered the theoretical and practical teaching Harry is doing, I hope I've set the precedent why his legilimancy will be at a higher level soon, and why Draco will perhaps be less of a shit. I hope its not too bullshit of an explanation why harry is teaching Draco in the muggle world, and how Draco is behaving. I'd say he's still the Draco from the show, but more subdued and respectful to those he considers powerful now that his father is dead instead of being the most influental politician in the country.
Back to Hogwarts we go. Quite excited for this year to be honest. after all we have...
Comments
magic_person#1200
Fun chapter tyfc
bor902
Thanks! trying to flesh out characters as we go!
Chrono
Extra Kudos. Really like your handling of his lessons with Draco. Excellent 🖤
Green0Photon
I mean idk, being good at creating charms, sensing magic, dueling, and Legilimancy are all different talents. And he keeps building up more. It's all about hard work to make the talent. Not just innate luck at being good at something with little instruction/practice. Very happy to hear the other two stories won't be limited. And then that makes a lot more sense with the size of the chapter. You're not cutting yourself off, you're just stopping where it feels right. In a way, doing video game cultivator was a flex/stretch. It makes sense to shorten it to keep it going.
Jacob Gondringer
Tftc
bor902
To be fair the Harry Evans chapter have always been inconsistent as fuck. Some of them are 1.5k and some of them are 4k. It's the first story I started writing once I started writing again, so it makes sense its the most chaotic in this sense. Also, Harry isn't a multi-talent (he's bad at potions, a very significant character trait lmao) I only said I'll make the video game cultivator conform to 2k. Harry Evans and rattata will stay as they are. Harry Evans varies between 2k-3.5k on average, and rattata between 3.5k-5k.
Green0Photon
> No one is a multi-talent. I choose to believe this was something Harry said deliberately, to break Draco's prejudice against muggleborn when he meets Harry. Because wtf Harry. Also, I think you handled the shorter chapter a lot better this time. One deliberate scene that has a more proper beginning middle and end. Good. Still annoying that it's shorter, but much better handled than previous chapters. I don't think my preference for longer chapters will ever go away, but I'm happy you're getting better at it.
