I'm not the type of person who likes to look back into their past and reminisce. Nostalgia is a thing for the fickle-minded. I am not fickle-minded.

But is it considered reminiscing if your mind does it of its own accord? I do not want to remember these memories. They have always haunted me as I slept, as I walk by any body of water, as I read a book… it is a vicious cycle.

I used to close my eyes, and a startling blue would fill up my vision, pulling me back to my past... to him, until just blinking would be such a terrifying action for me.

But that was then. A couple of years ago. Now, as I close my eyes to succumb to slumber, I see only black. Like my memories of him, the color of his eyes have started to remove itself from my mind.

And isn't this what I wanted? What I anticipated? What Lucius had always told me when he comforted me?

But my mind can only do so much when my heart simply cannot forget. My mind can only make so many excuses until my heart storms in and reminds me that I once felt real happiness. Real love. Real everything.

He was my everything.

Of course, it was precisely because of that reason that he will never be mine. He became too important to me, too significant, and we weren't careful enough.

He was ripped away from my hands. Everything that's held more importance to me than him has been taken away from my grasp. I'm not surprised that he went that far, though. Lucius has always been a selfish man.

Even during our years in Hogwarts, he liked to keep the things that held significance to him on a leash.

And I was wearing the tightest leash of them all.

"Mother?" Draco whispered as he opened the door to his parents' bedroom.

"Mmm. My son? Is that you?" I replied, instantly sitting up from my bed.

"Is… is father here?" Draco cowered behind the bed post.

I switched on the night lamp and beckoned him to come closer. "No, dear. Your father is out doing work."

He immediately jumped inside the bed with me. 'Mum, I can't sleep. Can you tell me a bedtime story?"

I pulled him into my lap. "Let's see. I've got a really interesting one, but it's quite a long story. Would you like to hear it?"

Draco looked at me with his curious and child-like eyes. "I'm waiting," He said with impatience.

I chuckled in response, before tightly closing my eyes to let the memories flood back to me.

"Once upon a time, there was a boy and girl who had met under rather quite unfortunate circumstances…"