Cursed | Draco Malfoy, 18+

S e v e n t y - o n e

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''You love me?''

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Amelie groaned out a sigh as she stumbled after the blond through the woods, her feet tripping across tiny rocks and roots fixed in the soil. The sun trickled between the massive boles, wind scored lively around them.

She didn't quite understand why he dragged her all the way out in the forest to show her something — a secret he claimed to have kept from her.

Malfoy didn't seem to be a secretive person when it came to Amelie, but now he was, and it earned her curiosity in a heartbeat. Even if she held no memory of the two of them together, she was still her.

Tubers and branches caused her to nearly fall over repeatedly, but Draco always seemed to turn around at the right time, and with a hand upon her body, gripping her shoulder and snatching her arm, he kept her steady.

That was something he seemed to have a talent for, keeping her balanced.

''God,'' He mumbled, dragging her close from yet another chance of her falling over. His voice laced with frustration as he sought to hide it, ''I'm glad to see that you didn't lose those clumsy feet of yours.''

Parting her lips dismally at what he told, she pouted, ''Well, you didn't need to bring me all the way out here for a secret you'll most likely keep to yourself anyway.''

Her sight lowered onto the black leather book he was holding. It never clocked her mind until the second she owned to study it from afar, that it could be the thing he thirsted to show her.

Huffing out a sigh at his amused expression, she knitted her brows and tangled her fingers in front of her, ''What is it? The book? Is it something you want to read for me—''

Draco rolled his eyes away from her, getting comfortable with the way their dynamics changed, ''Patience, Amelie,'' He grinned as he began walking ahead of her again, and she muttered behind him.

Draco couldn't help but let a full smile stretch across his lips as he remembered the last time they were walking in the woods — and how he was the one complaining back then.

He wished he'd be able to take her to the cabin, where she'd mastered to rethink her ways with him last time they were split apart, but he couldn't. He wasn't capable of doing that to her when she was raveled within her mind already.

He held the arch on his lips at the image of that tiny house. It was where their journey began — he indeed felt a lot for her while still being in the Manor before he convinced her to leave, but it felt as if it all changed for them in the cabin.

Where it all became real in a way, he'd failed to see before.

''I just don't understand—'' Amelie hushed, folding her arms across her chest and kept stumbling, ''I don't understand why we have to walk so far, not that I don't like walking in the woods, but I don't see why you want me to wait—''

''We're almost there. Hang on for a few more minutes,'' Draco shrugged, peering over his shoulder to check up on her, and he could sense his heart as it hammered roughly within his chest.

Her shoulders were still bruised, the mauve shades had faded into fair ones, yet it still caught his attention every time.

Amelie exhaled, louder this time as she floundered. Her sight still floored, and Malfoy merely chuckled at her lack of patience. He heard every little noise of her moody behavior.

It took a toll on her, and a massive one at that — for Theodore to invade her body as he did. It made her temperamental, unstable nearly. Not consciously. She wouldn't act this way in her right mind, but something shifted within the coat of her skin — he could tell.