Cursed | Draco Malfoy, 18+

S e v e n t y - t w o

This chapter contains mentions of death and emotional trauma. Please read with caution.

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''I love you. I love you. I love you.''

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Amelie gaped unheedingly. Not a string of emotion played on her startled features as she stared at him, noticing how he'd propped himself up on one elbow, the other arm rested across the toned muscles smeared into this torso.

Draco reached a hand towards her, but she pulled away vacantly. Her movements restrained.

''Amelie—'' Malfoy breathed, faintly shaking his head, ''Amelie, what—''

He couldn't think properly. It was all a faded mess to him — watching as her head cleared after weeks in sleep.

''No,'' The girl managed to choke out, tugging the covers over her body to conceal herself. Her nightdress wrapped around her along with the pearly sheets of the bed, ''You died...''

Her knuckles paled as she gripped the fabric of the bed linen. Her sight was mangled with his. She couldn't look away, even if the fusion of tears and exhaustion stung in her eyes. Amelie sought to shake her head, to flee back to reality.

Draco wasn't here. He couldn't be.

''You—'' Her eyelids fluttered. Her words left in stutters, ''I saw you die — you died.''

One of her hands moved up to grasp at her own throat, easing the slumping feeling she seemed to be stuck in. Her bones caved, ''You're not here. I held you, I saw you—''

Amelie's teeth clamped together tightly as she tried not to break down, not to take her eyes off him, ''You're not here.''

The parched palms of her hands pushed against her ears as her hues shut. She was banning the world, closing off every detail around her, to find her own voice in her head.

''You're not here.''

There was no natural way for this to be valid. This couldn't happen. Nature didn't work this way. Teddy had taught her that no matter which type of magic there is, coming back from the dead is as rare as anything. There wasn't a way —not a harmless one, at least.

''You're not here.''

All she saw was darkness against the thin flesh of her eyelids, but she didn't dare to open her eyes. What if he was gone again? What if she'd lost the person she sacrificed herself for?

Her heartbeat dwelled on, roughly within her chest as her breaths turned heavy.

''You're not here.''

Amelie craved to persuade herself that it wasn't real. That the truth didn't rest in him laying beside her. She had watched Draco exhale his last breath. She had felt his body as it cooled in her arms. She has seen the blood draining him of life.

He died.

''You can't be—''

Amelie flinched back, peeling her solidly squeezed eyes open at the touch he'd brought her. The warm, healing feeling of his hand as it closed around her wrist, and he lowered one of her arms from her ear.

Draco looked at her. Not through her, not away, nothing in between. He stared right at her.

Her head shook at a leisurely pace as she studied him. The crease in his cheek that she'd failed to notice before, the blond hair that had grown inches longer since she last paid attention to it, the grey eyes that consumed her whole being.