Author's note: Hey everyone, here's the second chapter! I only got one review for the last one so I would like to thank ScarlettBlush for the lovely review! I need more reviews because I want to know what you think of the story! I know it was only the forst chapter, but I really love feedback.

So here we are with Chapter 2. Hope you enjoy reading it.

Chapter 2: Gone Forever

Draco exited the antique shop, strolling down the street. The faster he got out of Muggle society, the better. He couldn't believe he had bumped into Hermione Granger, the Mudblood of all people and that he had been flirting with her cousin who was a Muggle!

She was pretty though and very nice, he thought as he walked along. Unlike Granger who threatened to harm me in the middle of the shop…anyway enough of that, I've got to get home to Mother.

He walked into an empty ally way and turned on the spot to Disapparated. He appeared in a forest clearing, a large grand manor standing tall in front of him. He walked through the gates and into the once handsome garden which was full of weeds. His mother used to care for this garden, not very long ago. He strolled past the garden and ran up the stairs that lead to the front door.

Draco entered the manor, closing the door behind him and walked up the marble staircase. He needed to see how his mother was and he didn't care if the healers said no.

She's probably not going to be here much longer the way the healers are talking. I might as well spend as much time as possible with her while I have the chance.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he collided into someone who was coming out of the master bedroom.

"Sorry," Draco apologised to the stunned Healer.

She looked surprised that Draco actually apologised for bumping into her. Give him a break, the poor kid is in grief over his mother being so sick. Probably doesn't know what he's saying.

"That's alright," the Healer replied, giving Draco a small smile.

"How is she?" Draco asked, trying to peer around the Healer to see into the bedroom. The Healer's smile faded and turned into a sympathetic expression. Oh Merlin, I don't think she has good news. What's happened to mother? Draco thought, shaking slightly.

"I'm sorry, Mr Malfoy, but she has taken a turn for the worst. We've tried everything, but the poison is spreading through her body rapidly. There's nothing else we can do, I'm really sorry," said the Healer, placing a hand on Draco's shaking shoulder.

Draco wanted to brush the hand away, but he couldn't bring himself to do that. He felt as if he had been told the world was going to end. His mother was going to die and there was nothing he could do about it. He wanted to cry out in grief, but he restrained himself, at least until the Healer had left. He felt a little tear fall down his face though, but didn't bother to brush it away.

"How long does she have?" he asked.

The Healer paused before answering. "An hour at the most."

Draco's heart seemed to fall right down into his stomach. He wanted to see his mother now, spend whatever time she had left and stay with her until the very end.

"May I see her?" he asked, knowing the Healer would have let him anyway, but he thought he should ask.

"Of course. I'll be waiting out here if you need me," said the Healer, stepping back out of the doorway to allow Draco through.

"Thanks," Draco said. "Um, if you need something to eat or anything, ask one of the house-elves to get you something."

The Healer nodded and drew up a chair out of thin air with her wand and sat down.

Draco stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. It must have sounded odd to the Healer to hear him be so polite towards her, but she and the other Healers had tried their best to get his mother better. The best he could do is to be nice to them while they were in the house. He looked towards the middle of the room where the big king-size bed stood.

Narcissa Malfoy was sitting up in bed, leaning against the many pillows placed behind her. Her face was grey and hollow, her blonde hair hanging loosely round her shoulders, dirty and oily as it hadn't been washed for days. She looked very thin as she could no longer eat anything. She seemed to be awake, but her eyelids kept dropping like fallen leaves.

"Mother?" Draco gasped in shock. It was frighting him to see his mother in this way.

"Draco," Narcissa crocked out. "My son…my only son."

"It's alright, Mother, I'm here," Draco said gently, edging forwards towards the bed. "How are you?" He thought it was a stupid question to ask, but perhaps his mother didn't know she was dying and that she didn't have long.

"I'm…fine," she murmured, rasing her wand and drawing a chair out of mid-air for Draco to sit on. It appeared and fell to the floor, one of the legs breaking off.

"Don't worry, I'll get it," said Draco hastily, as Narcissa made to raise her wand again. He pulled out his own wand, pointed it at the chair and muttered, "Reparo."

The leg latched itself back onto the chair, good as new. Draco flipped it over and sat down next to the bed. "I'll have that," he said, taking Narcissa's wand from beside her and placed it on a table.

She looked at her wand in longing. "I'll need it…though."

"No, you won't," he said sternly. "I don't know whether –"

"Yes, I already know," she said, sinking back into the pillows. "I'm aware that I… don't have much time left. I never thought it would be like this… dying at this age. I imagined watching you graduate, get a job… get married and have a family of your own, watch them grow up…"

She trailed off, gazing at the closed curtains at the end of the room and sighed. Draco watched his mother for a few moments, not knowing what to say to her. How could you say goodbye to someone who brought you into the world and took care of you and comforted you when you were in tears?

She sighed again. "Draco, there's something I have to tell you before… I pass on."

"Don't talk like that –" Draco started to say, but his mother interrupted him.

"I'm not a fool, Draco! Don't treat me like a…child. This is what I hate so much about your father…no wonder why…I hate him…so much."

"You hate Father?" Draco asked, very shocked.

He thought he was the only one in the family who hated Lucius Malfoy because he didn't care that much about his son and wanted Draco to follow in his footsteps. Lucius went away one day last year, shortly after being released from Azkaban prison, leaving Narcissa and Draco all alone. He hadn't come back since which gave Draco another reason to hate his father even more.

"Yes, I hate your father," Narcissa said bluntly.

"But I thought you loved him, you always defend him when people insult him –"

"That's because it's a woman's job… to defend her husband's honour!" cried Narcissa, her voice hoarse. "Whatever that means to him these days anyway."

She started coughing and grabbed a tissue from a box next to her and spat something into it before continuing. "I did love him once, but only to please my mother. You see, I was in love with someone else… at the time but my parents didn't approve. My mother forced me to marry Lucius… because he had a lot of money and would take better… care of me in her opinion. She didn't like the man I really… loved because he was a Muggle-born and wasn't rich.

"I made a mistake obeying her… I chose having an honoured title over love. Lucius never really loved me… he only pretended to in front of my parents to make them think I was even lucky to have a rich man… fall in love with me. He didn't want to marry himself… he only wanted to marry me so he would get his inheritance when his parents died. The same reason he agreed to let you to be born, to have someone pass everything down to."

I knew it, thought Draco. I knew he never loved mother, he treated her the same way he treats me. He only had a son so he has something to pass down and not let it leave the family.

Mother was in love with a Mudblood? Now that's a shocker.

"You know what I think?" said Narcissa absent-mildly. "If I didn't know any…better, I would think that Lucius…poisoned me."

Draco looked at her in shock. "No! He wouldn't do that! Why would you even think he would do such an awful thing?"

"You don't know the son-of-a-bitch as… well as I do," said Narcissa, frowning. "I reckon he did poison me…"

Draco wanted to change the subject; he didn't want to think of his father being capable of killing his own family. Yet again, what was his father capable of?

"Tell me, Mother, who was this Muggle-born you were in love with?"

Narcissa sighed deeply and closed her eyes, a little smile on her face as if she was remembering a memory that happened a long time ago.

"He was wonderful, he knew me really well. We meet at Hogwarts of course when we were both heads, he was in Gryffindor and I was in Slytherin. We really hated each other at the start, but we got to know each other and I found that… he wasn't a show-off, smart arse; up himself boy I thought he was. He was really nice, made me laugh and knew the right way to comfort me. It wasn't long until we fell in love with each other and we made plans to get married and have a family…after we graduated of course…but then my parents said no."

She opened her eyes. "I haven't seen him for years. I had hoped one day to see him again… just to be able to be with him for a little while and talk to him… just like the old times…" She turned to look at her son. "You know…every time I look at you I don't see Lucius…I see him…that makes me happy…"

Draco was silent. He didn't know what to say to this or what to think of it. The way she had said made it look as if he wasn't Lucius's son and was the son of a long-lost fiancé. He thought of asking her that when she started to cough violently.

"Mother!"

She grabbed a bunch of tissues and covered her mouth with it. When she drew it away, Draco could see blood all over it. He started to panic.

"Arragh! Where's the Healer? She needs to here now!"

"Calm down, Draco! There's nothing she can do…for me."

"She can do something! HE-"

He suddenly couldn't talk. He looked towards his mother who was holding a wand in her hand.

"What did I tell you, Mother?" he hissed, snatching it away from her.

She frowned at him. "That's no way to speak to someone who's… on their deathbed."

Draco fell silent. She got him there. Taking advantage of his silence, Narcissa grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him towards her so that he was inches from his mother's face.

"Now you listen…here, Draco," she whispered, her voice starting to fail her. "I love you very much… more than Lucius ever did… but I don't want to talk about him anymore. Understand this: I will be gone from this life but not from… your heart, your mind and your memories. I love you now… and I will love you forever more. My love makes up a part of you… but it's never complete, it needs to be filled…please promise me this, Draco. Find someone to fill that gap…there's another girl out there who will love you…as much as I have loved you…you will love her…as much as you have loved me…in return…"

"But how can I love someone other than you? Father told me I wasn't capable of loving another woman!" cried Draco, unable to think before he spoke.

"Don't listen to that bastard!" hissed Narcissa. "What does he know about…love? He is like the Dark Lord…he understands nothing of what love is…please don't become Lucius…I will be so disappointed if you do…"

"But who? Who would ever love me?" Draco whispered. "I have no real friends at school."

"There is always someone for you, Draco," whispered his mother, her voice getting weaker. "Everyone has a…soul mate…I did when I was seventeen…it sometimes comes unexpected. Whoever that someone will be…she will be special, unique…she will have a special place in… your heart…she will be… your soul mate. You will be strong for her…protect her…show her she means everything…to you…love her like no other woman…"

She coughed again, spitting out more blood. "Find out who…tried to poison…me. I think… its Lucius…promise me… you'll give…him hell…from me."

"Yes, Mother," Draco said.

She gasped for breath, clutching her chest, still holding onto Draco with one hand. "Please, Draco… promise me…find her…keep her…in your heart…never let her…go."

"I promise, Mother," whispered Draco, tears starting to fall down his face. "I'll find her and I won't let her go when I do find her. And I will love her."

Narcissa smiled, but then gasped for breath again, her eyelids starting to drop. She only had seconds left to live.

"I love you, Mother," Draco said, starting to sob softly. Narcissa took her hand off her chest and patted her son's face, stroking it lovely.

"I… love… you… too… Draco," she croaked in a voice that was barely a whisper. And then with a small gasp, she fell silent saying no more, her eyelids dropping as if she was falling asleep, the hand holding Draco's shirt fell limply at her side.

Feeling that his mother's hand was ice cold on his face, Draco knew his mother had passed on.

More tears poured down his face and he didn't bother to wipe them away, he was going to let the grief wash over him. He sat there crying next to his mother's lifeless body for what seemed like an eternity.

Eventually he thought he should go and tell the Healer that Narcissa had passed on. He kissed the top of his mother's head, getting a shiver down his spine at how cold she was. He ran his fingers through her hair one more time and left the bedroom.

He saw the Healer outside in the hallway and tried to tell her about his mother, but he couldn't get the words out. The Healer knew instantly Narcissa Malfoy was gone and stood up from her chair to give Draco a sympathetic hug. Draco was in too much shock of his mother dying to notice the Healer hugging him.

She's gone, left me and is never coming back to me. Whoever has done this to me will pay! They have taken the only person who has loved and cared for me! I now have no one in the world. What am I going to do?

Author's note: I'm sure there would be a lot of you who would be teary over this chapter. It was quite hard for me to write because I haven't had anyone close to me die. Please let me know what you think anyway. Also tell me whether you like long chapters or not because most of the chapters are between 6000 and 7000 words. Thanks for reading and make my day by reviewing! Also check out my profile so you can get to know me!

gryffindor-princess21 :D