'That sword, for instance,' said Dumbledore, pointing at it where it lay across Draco's lap. 'That is a very powerful magical object, Draco. Only a Magid could touch that sword. Then there is the fact that Lucius made an Epicyclical Charm from your teeth when you were a baby. He used it to control you and your mother, that's true, but it also allowed him to draw on some of your Magid powers. It made him a much stronger wizard than he would have been otherwise.'
Draco and Harry were both goggling at the Headmaster. Hermione said, 'Professor Dumbledore?'
'Yes?'
'Is the reason the Polyjuice Potion affected Harry and Draco in the way it did…is that because they're Magids?'
'A good guess, Miss Granger. In some ways, an accurate guess. The Polyjuice spell lasted the way it did, in fact, because Mr Malfoy caused it to.'
'Lucius did what?' said Harry blankly.
'He means me, idiot,' said Draco. 'And I did nothing of the sort!' he added, glaring at Dumbledore.
'Oh, yes you did,' said Dumbledore, twinkling. 'If I might be so bold as to make the statement that you and Harry have always had, shall we say, a rivalry of sorts…'
'He's jealous of me, if that's what you mean,' interrupted Draco.
Harry rolled his eyes.
'Indeed,' said Dumbledore. 'Well, I posit this theory. When you took the Polyjuice Potion, Mr Malfoy, and it turned you into Harry, you immediately saw the advantage in the situation to yourself. To be Harry. To live his life. See as he saw.
Learn his secrets. You father has taught you to find weakness and exploit it as a matter of course, has he not?'
Draco looked ashen. 'I…'
'Professor,' protested Sirius.
Dumbledore ignored them both. 'He has taught you other such things,' he went on in the same measured tone. 'To see evil when good is offered, to slight those beneath you and fawn on those above you. To favor nothing over immediate personal gain.'
'I never…' said Draco weakly. 'Not on purpose…'
'I said he taught you,' said Dumbledore. 'I did not say you learned. I think there were other advantages to you in becoming Harry. You have always thought of Harry as someone to whom goodness comes easily. In Harry's skin, you could allow yourself to follow the natural, better inclinations which as yourself, you stifled. You could be good. Brave. Heroic.' He looked at Draco, very hard, over the top of his spectacles. 'I am not saying that you consciously affected the Polyjuice spell,' he went on. 'I am saying that you willed it to continue, no ordinary wizard could have done that. You made the charm last as long as it did. You used your own energy, Magid energy, to keep the spell from expiring. And, as I understand, it took another Magid to take the spell off you.'
Draco was staring at the Headmaster, mouth open.
'I have one more question, Professor,' said Hermione in a small voice.
'Yes, Miss Granger?'
'If Draco and Harry are Magids…why hasn't Harry shown any sign of it? And why didn't Draco show any sign of it until now?'
'It is a trait that does not usually show itself until late adolescence. It can be random, or it can take various stimuli to activate it.'
'Like what?' asked Harry, curiously.
Harry wasn't completely sure but it seemed to him that Dumbledore looked faintly embarrassed. 'Strong emotion of a particular sort,' Dumbledore said.
'Danger works, too. In fact, in the old days, if a Magid child hadn't shown any sign of ability by the time they were eighteen or so, the Ministry would usually send them up against a dragon or some other such monster.'
Harry looked anxious. 'I've already faced a dragon, and I haven't shown any signs of being a Magid, Professor…'
'That's all right, Harry,' said Dumbledore cheerfully. 'We'll give you another two years, then we'll feed you to a basilisk.'
Harry squinted at him. He was fairly sure Dumbledore was joking. Wasn't he?
'I'll talk to the two of you at length about this later,' said Dumbledore. 'I fear that if we overstay our welcome any longer, Madam Pomfrey will have strong words for me.'
Hermione smiled at Draco as she got up. 'I'll come back tomorrow,' she said.
Harry laid the sword down on Draco's bed, where he could put his hand on it if he wanted to. 'Later, Malfoy,' he said.
'Is there any chance, Professor,' asked Harry, as they left the room, 'that my Magid blood comes from Godric Gryffindor?'
'Old Godric the Grouchy, as my partner Nicholas Flamel used to call him?' said Dumbledore, looking cheerful. 'Oh, I doubt it, Harry. He wasn't a Magid. Not at all. Great warrior, of course. Very brave. Always shouting. That was how he terrified the enemy, you know, with his dreadful battle cries.'
'I thought it was his courage and tactical brilliance,' said Harry.
'Oh, no,' said Dumbledore. 'All down to shouting, really.'
Sirius and Dumbledore headed back to his office to talk, and Hermione and Harry, both of whom were exhausted, walked slowly back to Gryffindor Tower. They paused at the portrait hole, and Hermione turned to
