"Not everything. I've one spell left and it's a good one: a patronus. Hermione would say that 'it's a manifestation of a memory or emotion strong enough to mimic an aspect of the caster's psyche and take corporeal form,' or something to that effect." It hurts a bit to cast, like he's tugging at scar tissue, but the fact that he still can is important to him.

"Part of the problem is that no one is really sure why my magic is gone. Yes, we did the spell to bind and trap my magic, but you can't remove it entirely and I know that," he says shifting his weight and rummaging in a pocket for a slightly stale pack of cigarettes. He's a stress smoker and that he was able to get through his history without lighting up before says something. "My opponent in the war, Voldemort, he'd been splitting up his soul and hiding pieces in objects and animals to make him functionally immortal -- you can't kill the man without getting each piece, like Koschei and his heart.

"When he heard about a prophesy, he came to kill me, and while he took my parents he botched the job, destroying his body and stuffing a piece of his soul in me." Unconsciously, he rubs at the scar on his forehead and before lighting his cigarette and taking a drag. "My 'condition', if you want to call it that, could be because of the magical binding, could be because there's a big hole in my soul from hacking him out, could be because after I destroyed every other horcrux and stopped his body again there was only one way to destroy the last piece of him."