Draco Ficlet

[midnightdiddle]

[.hands]

There's ghost in Malfoy Manor. It's a young boy in wizarding robes. His hair is pale and curls at the tips, framing his eyes. He's perfect, from his insubstantial fingertips to his bare feet. If you look at him closely, you can see blood at the corner of his mouth.

[.feet]

The first time Draco can remember seeing the ghost, he's three. The ghost floats on the edge of his bed, miming sitting, and Draco holds out his hand, the perfect gentleman in miniature. The ghost kicks his bare feet and reaches out to touch Draco's hand. It slides straight through and Draco feels cold, colder than he can ever remember feeling cold.

"Who are you?" he asks, curiouser and curiouser, and the ghost smiles, blood on his lips.

[.eyes]

The ghost, Draco eventually learns, is Absolom. He's bigger than Draco, but as Draco grows, Absolom lessens.

One day, Draco tells his mother about Absolom. He tells her that there's a boy, who looks like him, and that the boy follows him around the Manor. Narcissa slaps him across the mouth and when Draco looks at her, there are tears in her eyes.

[.mouth]

Sometimes, Absolom talks to him. His voice is whispery, like reeds, and surpisingly hollow. When he talks, Draco talks back.

On those nights when they talk, Absolom floating a half-inch above the bed, Draco sitting in the blankets, Draco feels like he has a friend.

[.hair]

One day, Draco asks Absolom how he died. Absolom smiles at him and brushes short fingers through his curls.

Draco never asks again.

[.heart]

When Draco leaves for Hogwarts, he says goodbye to Absolom. Absolom watches from the window, nearly invisible in the sunlight, and Draco watches him as the carriage carries him from his home. Time flashes by, a train ride and losing a friend that was never really a friend, but then, Draco's never had any friends but Absolom. And then they're in the Great Hall, and there are ghosts everywhere, floating and flying and falling, and Draco's in shock.

He can't tell Absolom, he decides. He won't ever tell the boy that pretends to sit on his bed, and sometimes tries to grab Draco's hand. He won't tell Absolom that the boy isn't special, isn't unique. He won't say that there are other ghosts, just like him, because Draco wants Absolom to be special, because Absolom is his friend, or is it 'his friend?'

And right now, as the Bloody Baron is scowling down on him, Draco feels like he loves his older brother.