My Best Friend George Weasley ~ Year One

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter 16:

~Echo~

                Esca had been keeping his distance since the Quidditch game. Elissa told me to give him space and let him get over it, but I wondered if there was anything I could do to help him. I still could not get any aura read on him no matter how hard I tried. Maybe he had no aura. No, that couldn’t be possible. He had to have an aura.

                “Hey,” I said to him in the hall one day after lunch. We had just left the Great Hall and I followed him.

                “Hi, Echo,” he replied not even looking at me. His eyes were too busy skimming a book in his hands. “Don’t you have class?”

                “Yes, but like yours it doesn’t start for another twenty minutes. I left lunch early. What are you reading?” I went to look down at the page, but he snapped it shut and moved it under his arm so the title was covered.

                “Nothing of interest,” he said now looking at the floor.

                I frowned. “You look down a lot. Maybe you should try looking at the ceiling.”

                “That is a good way to end up running into someone.”

                “True, but there are more interesting things up high. I wonder what it is like to fly.”

                “Have you ever gotten on a broom?”

                “Yes, but I ended up on my back with a few bruises. That is not something I would like to repeat. Flying on a broom is not something I am very good at. I would even go as far to say I am as bad as Neville Longbottom, he’s in Gryffindor and a first year. Now, Elissa, she is a rather good flier. I believe with some practice she might be good enough to be on the Quidditch team. I have meant to mention that to the twins, but my mind has been so busy with school.”

                “Do you ever shut up?”

                That question took me aback. The harshness in his voice also took me back.

                “Um…yes? When I sleep of course and in class when and I am not answering a question, also when I read unless I am reading aloud and –.”

                “Will you please just shut up?” Esca said. “Listen I have things to do. I will see you around.”

                I stopped and watched him walk off. He seemed sad.

                “Esca,” I called.

                He stopped and looked back at me. “What?”