Abraxas leaned back in his armchair, watching as his grandson sat opposite of him, eagerly soaking in the sights of the study that he'd never seen before.
He could understand Draco's interest, it was quite a nice study. Worthy of the Malfoy family head, not that he would bear the title much longer. He contemplated how exactly to start the conversation shortly before coming to a decision.
"You might have noticed, in your interactions with your peers, that they aren't very bright in comparison to you," Abraxas said, watching as Draco gained, what would be termed as a unicorn-confronted-by-a-great-evil look.
His grandson schooled his expression back into a neutral facade quickly, only a slight tinge of guilt marring apathetic perfection. Draco nodded.
Was he feeling guilty for considering others below him? A trait he would soon learn to dismiss, if he felt guilt for everyone inferior to him, he would never have the time to get anything done.
"The reason for your overly developed cognitive abilities, disregarding your good breeding naturally, is a talent of the Malfoy family that has manifested in you quite strongly."
Abraxas watched as Draco tilted his head cutely, he would have rubbed his grandson's head, were there not a table between them.
"The mind arts," Draco said, sounding, very sure of himself. Abraxas raised an eyebrow.
The only truly complicated books Draco had access to were books dealing with their family, autobiographies, genealogies and such. He was pleasantly surprised to find that the lad had actually read them.
"Indeed, as you know, every noble family worth mentioning has affinities for specific branches of magic. More often than not it manifests in the person simply being very talented in that branch of magic, but sometimes, the talent manifests in an instinctual ability. Do you know any examples of this?" He asked, testing Draco's knowledge while educating him.
His grandson didn't have to think overly long. "The Black family and their talent in transfiguration and flesh morphing dark magic. A person who manifests this talent is a Metamorphmagus. The newest instance of such a person appearing is the daughter of Andromeda Black." He said, again, sounding very sure of himself.
"Succinctly put, though, although describing the talents of the Black family as laying in transfiguration and flesh morphing dark magic is a bit of a misnomer. The Blacks have a talent in transmogrification." Abraxas praised and promptly corrected.
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Before he could continue onwards with how this manifestation of talent concerned Draco, the boy in question asked a rather interesting question.
"If two families, both with a rich history intermarry, could the two different magical leanings cancel each other out? Andromeda's daughter is the result of a marriage between a pureblood and a muggle-born, the muggle-born is bringing no heritage whatsoever into the equation. Therefore one could assume that the Black blood was capable of asserting its magical dominance more completely, resulting in a child born with a manifested talent." Draco asked in one breath, sounding slightly winded afterwards.
Abraxas had clearly underestimated his grandson's intelligence. The conjecture was absolutely correct, assembled from only some basic knowledge. Now he had the conundrum of how to answer the question. If he should even answer it.
He couldn't help but let a small smile grace his face though. Such intelligence, worthy of the truth.
"Yes, your assumption is correct," Draco's eyes lit up at his admission, "as a metaphor, you can imagine the parents of a child as two pieces of equally long parchment. If the parchment is pureblooded, it is almost fully filled out, if it is mudblooded, it has but a few words on it. Two pureblood parchments, when creating a child overlap, some of the words turning into gibberish, harming the chance of the child manifesting a talent, manifested or otherwise."
Draco waited until Abraxas made a pause before interrupting, such a polite boy, "and if a pureblood and muggleborn parchment overlap, almost the entirety of the pureblood parchment is transcribed onto the child, making it likelier for it to manifest a talent."
Abraxas clapped slowly as his grandson preened slightly under his proud gaze. "Yes, naturally this metaphor is only relevant for the magical affinity side of things, biological traits are more half and half."
He forestalled the inevitable question about why not every pureblood was intermarrying with the filth creeping into their society with the answer.
"Naturally this only applies to talents. Mudbloods have an inferior connection to magic, which their children inherit, no matter how powerful their pureblood counterpart may be." If you calculated the average that was.
The bell curve of magical power was thrown out of whack the moment one introduced muds into the equation. There was a higher chance of the child being pathetically weak, or extremely strong, leaning more towards the chance of the child being pathetically weak. The average magical strength of half-bloods was noticeably below the pureblood average.
Voldemort and Dumbledore were simply freaks, and that was all they ever would be.
"And we gain other, non-magical things if we marry other purebloods right?" Draco asked, to which Abraxas nodded.
"Yes, alliances, knowledge, a small but steady growth in magical power and the pleasant feeling of not having someone who has no idea about our way of life intruding into our family, but enough that topic," Abraxas waved his hand dismissively and went straight for the throat, unwilling to be distracted once again, "You also have a manifested talent, you are namely a natural occlumens, which is a subcategory of the mind arts."