Artfully Broken △⃒⃘ Draco Malfoy

one | I.

one | I.

Express

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"Excuse you, bitch!"

Katelyn Brown spun around in the middle of the crowded aisle as people were piling onto the Hogwarts Express.

She shrieked upon seeing her best friend, Maren Scott. Both of the 15-year-old Ravenclaws pushed people aside and threw their arms around one another.

"Godric, I've missed you!!" Kate squealed, hugging her best friend tightly.

Maren was the type of person who stood out in a crowd like a sore thumb. Maren had a buzzed, bleached head of hair that seriously contrasted her intense eyebrows. She was slender and was, as she told anyone who asked, "a whole 5 feet, 2 inches, and 6 centimeters of pure sass, class, and ass. Do not test me." Not to mention, her gender fluidity caused both boys and girls at Hogwarts much confusion, since she pulled off both genders better than most could ever hope to.

Today, Maren identified as she/her. Kate had always been able to tell. It went hand in hand with her gift, you see.

Kate wasn't like normal witches and wizards. She was an "empath". The term is used similarly in the muggle world. Except, in the muggle world, it simply means empathetic to the point of being able to feel other people's emotions by rationalizing their circumstances. In the world of Magic, however, Kate can, quite literally, feel people's emotions. All she had to do was focus on them. The closer she was with the person, the more aware she was of their feelings.

In terms of her best friend, Kate could always feel the bit of contentment that came from the switch of Maren's gender identity. Kate learned that Maren felt feelings differently depending on her identity. It wasn't a drastic change, but it was enough for Kate to notice.

Maren pulled back from the hug and looked at her friend. "Come on! Let's go meet Al and Tommy."

Alvaro Hernandez and Thomas Chan were the other half of their foursome. Alvaro was a Hufflepuff. He had an odd accent due to living with father in Uruguay before moving to Wales when he was 9. He and his father still spoke Spanish at home, although both were fluent in English as well. He had been dating Thomas Chan, a muggleborn Slytherin, since the middle of the year prior. Thomas was a third-generation British citizen. Both sets of grandparents had escaped from North Korea when his parents were babies. They had raised his parents in their Korean culture, while their children adapted slightly to the culture of Britain. Thomas's parents were more lenient in terms of traditions, but yet still kept some of the main ones, just to appease his grandparents.

Thomas had befriended Maren on their first train ride over to Hogwarts. Kate had befriended Alvaro while waiting to be sorted. Maren and Kate had met in their dorm, being roommates. The two friends introduced their two friends, thus starting their lifelong friendship before the first week of school had even finished.

Kate and Maren had walked into their usual compartment, the last compartment, in the last car. During their 2nd year, they had engraved their initials in the underside of the overhead compartment, claiming it as theirs.

As they entered the compartment, they saw Alvaro lying against the left bench, his head resting in Thomas's lap. Thomas was contently smiling at the boy who had his head in his lap and played with his hair. As the Ravenclaws entered, both boys sat up.