"Come on Draco! Hurry up if you want to catch me!" the little blonde girl cried behind her. She was running down the large staircase in the large house known as Malfoy Manor. She and Draco were running through the house, playing a muggle children's game known as "tag". They didn't completely understand the point of the game, both of them being pureblood wizard children, but they were having fun with it.
"Slow down Lucia! I can't keep up," Draco panted a few paces behind her.
"That's the point, isn't it?" Lucia said with a laugh as she rounded the corner and disappeared down a long hallway by the base of the stairs. Draco jumped down the last few stairs to follow her and almost crashed into his family's house elf, Dobby.
"Young master Draco," the little elf said in surprise. "What are you doing?"
"Playing a game with Lucia," he responded. He paused to catch his breath. "It's a muggle game, so please don't tell mum and dad." His parents hated anything that had remotely anything to do with muggles. If they found out that he was playing a muggle game, they would not be very happy.
"Mum's the word, young master," the little elf said with a wink. Draco's parents treated Dobby terribly—particularly his father—but the elf was always kind to Draco and Lucia. He was almost always punished for this kindness, but he never ceased to have a smile and a treat for the two young children.
"If you want to catch up with her, there is a small hallway down that way that connects to this one." Dobby pointed to a door that was hidden behind a statue of a knight. "I use it to get to the kitchens faster. You could sneak through and catch up with her quicker."
"Thanks Dobby!" Draco shouted as he slipped behind the knight and through the small doorway. He found himself small passageway only a house elf or small child could fit through. Even though he had lived in this house all his life, there were still some passageways like this one he didn't know about.
After running down the narrow passageway for a while, Draco saw the light of the other hallway up ahead. He sped up so he could scare Lucia and then tag her. He came out of the small hallway only to run into a large mirror hanging on the wall outside of his father's office. He slammed headfirst into it, and the glass shattered into a chaotic spiderweb pattern, but only a few small pieces fell to the ground.
"Draco! What have you done?" Lucia cried. She had entered the hallway at the same time Draco did, and saw the whole thing. She ran toward Draco to make sure he was ok.
Draco sat up and rubbed his head. Luckily the broken mirror shards only just scratched his face, leaving a single shallow scrape across his forehead. Lucia jumped down next to him and looked at his face where it had hit the mirror.
"Are you ok?" she asked.
"Yeah, fine," Draco said in a daze. "My head hurts though."
"Of course it hurts you idiot!" she said with a smile. "You just slammed it into a mirror!" She reached over and picked up a broken shard of mirror. It fit perfectly in her small palm. Her smile disappeared as she looked at the shattered mirror. The mirror was for the most part still intact, but the cracks and lines ran all across the glass face of the mirror. Only the tarnished silver frame was unharmed. "What are we going to do about this?" she asked worriedly.
"I dunno," Draco said frowning. "But we have to do something, or father will—"
"Or I will what, Draco," a frightening voice said behind them. The two children turned their heads around slowly, only to see Lucius Malfoy standing behind them, a stern look on his face.
He took a step forward, surveying the damage done to the mirror by Draco's head. He turned and looked down at the children, his eyes full of hatered. "That mirror has been in this family for centuries. It is absolutely priceless. How do you plan on fixing it Draco; since you so foolishly broke it?"
"It's not his fault," Lucia said bravely before Draco could respond. "I told him to go down Dobby's passageway even though I knew he would probably break the mirror." Draco looked at her in absolute awe. Lucia often took the blame for his mistakes, but it never ceased to amaze him at how kind she was.
"Very well," Lucius said. "Since you insist on covering up your foolish brother's mistake, yet again, you both will be punished." Lucia's face fell. It seems she had been covering for her brother for too long, and their father had figured it out. He walked over and opened the door to his study, motioning for both children to enter. They stood up, each grasping the other's hand, and marched into their father's study; Lucia with her head held high, and Draco with his eyes on the floor.
Even though they were twins, Lucia and Draco Malfoy could not have been more different.