September 2018.

Talia walked her way into the library she worshipped. She stopped for a minute, placing the book in her hand back on its shelf.

She finished yet another one, another book, another novel her mother had bought for that library.

She didn't cry to this one. It was beautiful and heartbreaking as the rest, but she didn't cry. Sometimes Talia wondered if she had any more tears to spare this world.

She smiled as her fingers brushed along the spines of all the books that the library carried. She walked back and forth with her eyes closed, trying to decide which book to pick up next.

Talia always did that. She read one book a day, and she had been ever since her parents left this life for something better.

Amelie used to read to her, but she wasn't there to do that anymore. Talia had to read on her own now.

Peering around for what felt like minutes, she didn't quite know where to start looking until something special caught her eye, a book, a book she never saw before.

It looked like a diary, a black leather-bound diary. Worn and frail. It seemed to be at least twenty years old to her.

She hesitated as she watched the initials carved into it. D.M and A.A.

It hurt. Something broke within the cage of her chest, something that had been breaking for the past three years, broke a little more now. It ached a little harder.

She missed her mother. She missed her father. She missed them. They missed her.

The morning she woke up three years ago wasn't like any other. She knew they were gone. Talia could feel it to the depth of her bones that her parents weren't there anymore. They all felt it.

It wasn't something that needed to be told or explained, something they needed to see in order to understand that it had happened.

That they left, that they faded. The world turned darker that early dawn, and it never got its light back. Something beautiful was taken from their lives, and it never became the same again.

Her fingers finally found the edges of the book as she began to part it.

She opened it, and she smiled. It was her mother's handwriting. It was Amelie. It was Amelie mixed with Draco. It was his words but her sentences.

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

It said, with Draco's letters, only to be finished by her mother's words.

I love you more. I love you so much more.

Amelie had written. She had scribbled, and she had worked that little diary to the brim.

Talia was overwhelmed, scared almost as she slipped down onto the sofa where her mother used to hold her, where her father used to bend down and kiss both of their heads, where she didn't know their first kiss had taken place.

And she read. Talia read and read and read. Amelie used to say she got that from Theodore. Her old Teddy. Reading. Teddy read a lot. Talia reads a lot too.

She cried. She sobbed, and she whimpered as she read what her mother had done. She moved from room to room while doing it. Feeling every emotion her mother described.

''Really?''

''Really.''

_

''Care?'' Draco hissed, his shoulder against the doorframe, ''Who said I care?''

The grey eyes searched hers, and she could nearly feel the air in her lungs as it tightened. The anxiety wavered her, ''No one,'' Amelie whispered.

''That's right, Avery. Do you know why no one said that?'' He kept on going, making her spine collide with the sink behind them.

''Because you don't care.''

_

''Do you feel that?'' Draco whispered as her forehead leaned against his chest, ''Do you feel how the cold water eases everything?''

His skin fumed hot by the frosted lake around them, and the bright strokes of sun dimmed as the darkened clouds dragged over the castle.

''I feel your heartbeat.'' Amelie lastly spoke up, and he could feel how her skin chilled, ''I feel it beating with mine.''

''I feel it too.'' The blonde placed his head on top of hers, and they stood there, in the water, for moments as the heavy clouds shifted closer and the drips of nature began to pour.

_

This, right here, was greater than any stain of the past had the possibility to be.

''It's Amelie.'' She blurted out, her eyes fell dearly over him as she still rested on his lap, ''I want you to call me Amelie.''

He rose a brow. His jaws clenched and unclenched, ''Really?''

She smiled, and her heart once again tripped a beat, ''Really.''

Draco's hands moved down the length of her back, and he leaned in one more time — with her lips pushed against his — he smiled.

''Then Amelie it is.'' He mumbled into her parted lips, and the tips of her fingers combed through his hair, ''Amelie, Amelie, Amelie.'' Draco kept on saying her name — he never wanted to stop speaking it.

_

''Draco was like the sound of rain. It comforts you when you are in need of it, but still soaks you with all of its sorrows when you're not. You could listen to it all night, but despise it in the light of day, and you—''

''And you miss it terribly when it's not raining anymore.''

Even if this was hard for her, talking about Draco in the way she did — she couldn't help but smile at the thought of him, ''He was my favorite feeling on my bad days, and I think I... I think I was all of his good days.''

The thunder echoing over the mountains made her shiver as she held herself tighter. Her eyes fell gently over the heavy clouds storming closer.

''But that's the thing about rain, isn't it? Eventually, it stops pouring.'' She smiled again, holding onto the little piece of bravery left inside of her.

''And God... I miss the sound of rain.''

_

''You're always safe with me, Amelie.''

And she was. Her head fell against his chest as she dragged her knees up, fully giving herself to the boy holding her.

This was a painful moment for her as she realized what Draco had done in his past. That cruel, vicious act that he was capable of should be the cue for a sane person to leave — not to get more involved in the darkness she knew surrounded him.

But not for Amelie.

She felt his pain. She felt the weight of his heavy heart, and all she wanted to do — was to fix it.

_

''It's alright, Draco.'' Amelie sought to ease him, reaching over his exposed back to pull the bedsheet over them, ''You're safe here.''

As they laid there, on the soft fabric of the sofa, and she looked at him — how this chest rose and fell gently against her, how his eyelashes twitched as he entered the world of dreams.

She couldn't believe the cruel, heartless things people told about him and his haunted past.

They said he was menacing, dangerous.

But he was her safe.

_

His eyes dragged over the peacefully sleeping girl next to him as her head traveled over the line to her imagination — and all he sought to think about was whether she would be his sheltered lighthouse or his windiest storm.

Perhaps, a perfect mix of them both.

_

''Mine.''

''Mine.''

''Mine.''

''Mine.''

''Promise me that.'' His head rose as he stroked his nose against hers, ''Promise me that you'll be mine, always.''

''I do—'' She whimpered, ''And you're mine, Draco. I'm yours, and you're mine.''

_

Malfoy was drowning within the coat of his own skin without her.

_

He wasn't foolish.

He wasn't a maniac as everyone believed him to be. He just missed her. He missed her so much that it burned his skin, and it stung in his chest. He missed her so much that his mouth felt dry, and his knees weakened.

He wasn't crazy.

He just missed her.

_

I love you.

''I love you more.''

I love you.

_

''No one saved me until you did.''

_

''You have scars,'' She whispered, her eyes flickering, ''I have scars too.''

_

''You feel safe.''

_

''You're mine, and I will kill every soul that tries to scratch yours.''

It took her hours. It was beautiful, heartbreaking, bittersweet, and when she, after what felt like a lifetime, finally put the book down, she smiled.

It was a lifetime. It was her parent's lifetime. It was their work, their life.

It was everything Amelie and Draco had lived through, everything they had done.

It wasn't raining.

This was the first day, in what felt like years, where it wasn't raining.

It had finally stopped, all of it. The thunder. The downfall. The pouring. The mist.

It was clear. It was light.

It had, at last, stopped pouring.

Talia smiled through her tears as she noticed that her mother had yet failed to give the book a name. Picking a quill up from her father's desk, she gently penned the word she believed fitted this book better than anything could ever have.

Talia took the leather into her hands as she walked back into the library. Placing it where she found it and hoping it would stay there forever. It was supposed to. It belonged there. It belonged there with them.

She looked at the word on the cover again, and she smiled.

The word was absolutely perfect. The title and the naming of her mother's work. Of Amelie. Of Draco, it was the most perfect one. Lingering with the tips of her fingers for one more minute, she heard how Narcissa called her downstairs.

She was so proud of them, Amelie and Draco, her parents, for everything they had ever done.

It would always be them to her. It didn't hurt as much anymore. Her chest didn't ache.

''I miss you.'' She smiled again. Talia smiled. Happily now, as she walked away and left the book behind her.

She was happy now, because Talia, she named it Cursed.

Fin.