Her magic was forming the link, and he couldn't break it. Perhaps if he was more readily connected to his core, but his magic was weak. He couldn't stop it, and his fear flooded the link. Carla stopped, and calmness spread through their connection. She did it better than Joel had, but he couldn't embrace the forced calmness. She had him locked inside her head, and he knew the destructive power of thought. She seemed to sense this and just opened her memories to him, in an attempt to ease his apprehension.
She showed him her family, the center, the patients before and after treatment, her teaching other healers and even a few glimpses of her soothing a distraught mind. Draco's anxiety started to fade, but he still was wary. Then her memory landed on Joel, in her office, and she let the memory play out there.
"You have to understand that people have hurt him badly. I can't tell you who he is," Joel said, with his head down.
"Young man, Legilimancy is highly regulated. He could have turned you into a vegetable! This was dangerous. He must stop," the mind healer declared.
Joel frowned. "He knows more about Legilimency than you do."
Draco could feel that Carla was shocked by this, and she said, "How is that possible?"
"Years, nearly a decade of pain and torture. He's only alive because he knows how to protect his mind. I'll let you strip me of my license and throw me in jail before I ever tell you who he is," Joel growled.
Draco felt honored by the show of loyalty in the young man, though it was surely a bad habit he had picked up from Harry. However, it didn't surprise him. He had been in Joel's mind, too, and knew how much affection Joel had for Harry and him. But, other than Joel's muggle aunt, he had no one else in the world.
"That's a strong statement to make, young healer," she commented. "Did you think to ask him?"
Joel was puzzled. "Why?"
"To ask if I could meet him."
"You just said that he was essentially breaking the law. Why would I agree to that?"
"So, I can make sure he's not breaking the law. Merely teaching it isn't illegal, but he used Legilimency to heal you."
"He wasn't even casting the spell."
Her eyebrows rose. "He can get into your mind without casting?"
Joel nodded.
She humphed and rocked back in her chair. "Then it's not illegal. Even if he cast it now, you are licensed, so it's even more moot. You can also "oversee" his mind healing if you are training."
Draco remembered that Joel made Harry sign a training hours sheet after Harry healed him, but Joel hadn't explained why.
"I would like to meet him. Rest assured that I would never report anything about this to the MMMB. Clearly, he's not using his abilities negligently or illegally."
Joel stared at her. "Why?"
"If he can teach you this much so fast... and, after seeing my abilities, you feel that he's better than I... well... how could I not want to meet him?"
He lowered his head, uncertain. "I don't know."
"I will sign a blood vow to that."
Joel looked up. "You want to meet him that badly?"
"Yes."
"I won't say anything else unless he agrees to it."
She nodded and the memories swirled again. This time she took him through her own childhood trauma, which shocked Draco that she would just open up like that. He felt her pain, sorrow and humiliation through the link. He couldn't help but try to calm her down, letting his emotions flood their link. She sent feelings of gratitude, but still took him into another horrible memory, this time, one of fear as her attacker grabbed her. Desperation to help flooded the link, though some part of him knew it wasn't real. She got courage from his feelings and bore through her fear, chasing the old memory away.