In His Shadow (Draco Malfoy X Reader) MOVED

Chapter 72: It's Lovely To Meet You

Epona's POV:

I smiled as August approached me, waving him over to the library table.

"Effie! Hey! It's awesome to see you again. I missed you on Christmas." He grinned, "I got the best present I could ever ask for."

I raised an eyebrow, "What's that?"

August seemed giddy with excitement. He's happier than I've seen him since the start of the school year. Just as I examined him, a little figure peeped out from behind August. They were short, possibly the height of the average eleven year old. The kid had messy blonde hair that covered their left eye, and along with their fair skin was a wine colored birthmark that went up their cheek, aka from the bottom of his jaw all the way to the corner of his right eye.  A single light blue eye looked up at me, watching me carefully, slightly scared.

"Epona, meet my little brother, Luca." August grinned, and I smiled, "Luca, meet my best friend, Epona."

I kneeled down, smiling brightly, "It's nice to meet you, Luca."

He backed away a little bit, his hands gripping August's shirt tightly. Luca took a deep breath and looked at me, "Auggie says you're...good."

I tilted my head, "I've heard wonderful things about you. Turns out you're a little angel!" I smiled, poking his nose, and he laughed a bit.

His grip on August's shirt loosened, "Auggie also says that you're...special. Like, you create light. I like light."

I nodded, "Would you like to see?"

He nodded, and I held up my finger. From my fingertip, I created a small tiger that ran around Luca's head. He smiled and laughed as it ran around him, and then eventually faded into sparkles.

"Wow!" He fully let go of August's shirt, "You're so cool!"

I laughed, "Well, I'm happy to see you smiling, Luca."

He laughed, and I looked up at August. His smile was so big, he was glowing. I remember August telling me that Luca rarely smiled anymore. He's just always been a fan of bright things. I don't think people have ever really smiled at the fact that I have these powers. I'm just lucky that I was practicing making small shapes before I met Luca. It seemed to make him happy.

Now, it might be strange that I'm not with my brother and the Weasley's right now. After all, it's winter break, and they offered me a home. I told Ginny, Fred and George that I wasn't feeling good enough to leave the school, and that I wished their father for the best recovery. I think they knew I wanted to go but they also knew something was wrong and respected my boundaries. Unlike Harry, who thinks he needs to know everything.

But he's not the only one who saw something that night. It was another one of my black outs. I was stuck in that darkness again unable to move. I didn't see exactly through it's eyes like Harry did, but I felt it's movements. I knew, I felt, exactly which attack it was going to do next. Like it was myself planning it. That night, the line got even blurrier than it already is between me and the woman.

It was like I was watching Mr. Weasley get attacked on a movie theatre screen, but I was tied down to the chair and forced to sit there. The woman laughed, taunted me in the background, forcing my eyes open with her bony fingers, making me stare and listen to his screams. 

I can't look Arthur Weasley in the eyes, knowing I knew the exact moves the attacker used like I was doing it myself. Or watching helplessly.

A hand touched my shoulder, and I jumped. It was August.

"Hey, Effie, you're gonna get in trouble if you don't hurry back now." He said, and my eyes went to the window. Shit. It was sun down already.

I nodded, getting up, "So, I was wondering, how did you convince Dumbledore to let Luca come here if he's a Squib?"

August smiled as we walked, "I didn't need to. Luca kept going on and on about how he had this feeling, and that he could see things other kids couldn't. At first I thought he just had a big imagination, but the things he started saying got more and more descriptive. More like actual real life than his imagination. My parents were thrilled that it might be some sort of magic, and they won't have a magic-less child, so Dumbledore agreed to send him here to keep an eye on him."

"Huh. Well that's good. He'll fit in with the other first years. Hopefully he'll make some friends." I said, smiling.

"Yep. It's no surprise the Sorting Hat put him in Ravenclaw with me. Luca is insanely smart for his age. He's like a little Hermione." August laughed, and so did I, "Except maybe besides the fact that he is a bit more...devious."

My eyes widened as I laughed, "No way! He looks like a little angel!"

August shook his head, "Nope! Don't let his innocent voice and cute appearance throw you off! Once, when we were little, he got mad at me because I wouldn't let him play with my phone, so Luca decided that it would be a good idea to pour my hair dye into my shampoo bottle. Since my hair dye was purple and so was my shampoo, I didn't notice until it didn't come out! Mom and Dad wanted to kill me since I hadn't dyed my hair before. Little rascal was smart enough not to leave any trace that he had something to do with it."

I laughed, "He sounds even better now! For a minute there I thought he would be a Hufflepuff or Gryffindor."

"Yeah. The Sorting Hat thought about Gryffindor before he settled on Ravenclaw. Part of me wishes I knew their conversation, you know? Luca is smart, but like I said, he's like a little Hermione. Despite being bullied himself, he's thrown himself in the line of trouble just to help out a kid."

"Maybe because he's more calculated then he's credited for. I mean, he doesn't look like one who doesn't do things without a course of action for all scenarios. When he talked to me, he only put his guard down when I offered to show him his favorite thing, when he felt he could trust me. But he was still tense like if something were to go wrong, he would punch me." I laughed, "I think that was until I made the fire into the shape of a tiger."

"Yeah....I love him. He's the best. I'm happy I was able to get him away from our parents. Dumbledore said Luca could just be a late bloomer, it does happen with magic. He's even met a kid who he himself brought to Hogwarts who was a late-bloomer. I hope that's what Luca is. Either way I'd love him, but I think it'd be easier to escape them is if we can both use magic to hide."

I nodded, "Yeah." I put my hand on his back and hugged him, "Luca is lucky to have you as a brother."

He laughed, "Yeah, well I'm lucky to have him as my brother, and you as my best friend."

"Now let's get back before Umbitch yells at us."

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I'm sorry- I didn't realize that it's been so long since I last updated. I recently just got out of a very toxic friendship and because of everything that has happened in the past eight years I was friends with this person has hit me in the face clearly, I've been kind of off. 

But, everything is fine. Again, sorry for being gone for so long. Also, I fixed up my Slytherin uniform drawing and decided that I would post it even if it looks weird and I don't like it-

ACK- I messed up on Draco so bad, but it's fine! Again sorry if this chapter seems rushed or bad, again, I've been in a rut lately because of everything that's been going on with me. Anywho, I hope you all are having a great day! :)

Until Next Time, Byeee!