Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognise. I only own the original characters and the plotline. All rights go to Joanne Rowling. No profit if being made from this. No copyright intended.

Author's Note: I'm hoping to get all of the re-write up before I start writing new chapters. Let's see how we go, to begin with.

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El xoxo

Family Ties

Chapter Two

"Purple," Draco murmured in thought, not realising he had answered Blaise's question out loud but he is aware of his surroundings once he brings up the single purple rose. It wasn't a deep purple but more of a lilac-purple. He drowns out Blaise's reply as he walks towards the counter. Muggle stores aren't much different to wizarding ones, he thinks to himself and hopes to Merlin. He has a bit of muggle money on him. He learned the currency from Amy when they officially started dating, and for real this time. It was a year and a half ago, Draco thinks to himself.

That was a while ago. He doesn't regret it for a single moment. It was easily the best decision of his life. He remembers that during that night also, he had contemplated his priorities in life. A lot had been going on for Draco at the time. He had been given a mission he deeply regrets more than anything. Fear consumed him at the time.

Draco doesn't regret it because he had failed or because he had disappointed his parents and angered the Dark Lord. No, Draco regretted it with all of his being because he let his Godfather do it instead. In result to that, Severus Snape died because of it. Draco blames himself for that and in which that was what truly made him a failure. He let Snape die for what he should've done but couldn't do.

He knew better than to let such a thing consume him forever though. If he had let his regrets consume him the way Snape did, he knew he'd never be happy again. However, he didn't do it all on his own. Amy had helped a lot; she had never left his side. She was there for him. Blaire helped but couldn't be around the whole time. Draco didn't mind, if anything, he understood. Blaise had priorities too and regrets as well.

Amelia stayed by his side through everything and Draco thanks her every day for not giving up or for giving in when all of their fellow class mates taunted her. They made fun of her for being with Draco, and they isolated her because she was dating a "Death Eater". Draco was glad she never fell under all the pressure. He knew it was a lot to take in but she knew that when she said yes and accepted his proposal to date.

This is why she was placed in Gryffindor; for her courage, and for never giving up even when the going is tough and everything looks so impossible. During all of those forbidden nights, stolen kisses and actions of passion, she had known of the Mark he bore. Amelia knew of her surroundings and what was really happening but she didn't care.

Maybe she had loved Draco all along and that is what got her through it all. She had courage through it all especially when The Dark Lord had tortured her in Malfoy Manor in front of everybody. She was strong and let the love she held in her heart for the boy who watched let her be what empowered her to live. She had every reason to die there but she also had one to keep on living and she held onto it like a life line.

The love he couldn't see that she felt was what kept her alive and kicking.

Draco shook his head at the dark memories that glued those two together like bees and honey. He looked at the girl behind the counter with short blonde hair and dark blue eyes. She had light freckles scattered over the bridge of her nose. The freckles reminded him of a certain family. Draco couldn't shake the scene in his mind of the Great Hall. The Weasleys all surrounded somebody on a stretcher, crying their eyes out. The one out of two people that Draco Malfoy could stand out of the Weasleys, who told incredible jokes that he loved (though he never told the twins) and was the only funeral Draco had attended. He owed the Weasleys that. Only Amelia and Blaise knew of his attendance though.

Draco shed tears for Fred Weasley, just as everybody else did.

"Are you sure you want that flower," the girl asked. Draco read her nametag and it said 'Reia'. You nodded, blinking as he realised he was taking way too long to reply. She giggled, and blushed. He hadn't been checking her out. Draco shuddered as he remembered the lifeless body and he remembered that he was responsible for that.

Draco was responsible for his older brother, Bill's scar as well. He let the Death Eaters in that night even if he had no idea that Greyback had been coming as well, he still blames himself. If he had known, he wouldn't have gone through with it much less go up to the Astronomy Tower and attempt to commit his first murder. Although, he never did kill Dumbledore and that's why Potter let him off and he never went to Azkaban like his father had.

He sighed, looking around a bit.

"Do you know what a purple flower represents," Reia, the muggle girl, asked him. Draco raised an eyebrow, staring at her before shrugging. He didn't ask but Blaise did, in a flirty manner. Draco rolled his eyes at Blaise's antics. He knew he wasn't serious though for the differences in their world and because Blaise liked a girl named Andrea. Draco doesn't remember her much at all but she had been at one of the balls that Blaise's mother liked to hold. Another friend of theirs even attended them, and never failed to remind him what a great guy he had grown up to become.

Daphne Greengrass was proud of what the little Gryffindor girl had turned Draco into. She would always smirk and say, "I love her. She's a keeper. Never let her go, Drake." Draco would roll his eyes and promise not to. Then she'd ramble about organising a wedding but he wasn't even sure he had enough courage to ask her. His mother still believes that he would grow out of Amy like he did with everybody else. She was sure he would "come to his senses" one of these days.

To Draco, this was coming to his senses. He finally understood what he felt when it concerned her. He realised that this wasn't something you simply grew out of. It was more like something you grew into. Love was never meant to be fleeting, it was meant to be grown into. It was an emotion that grew overtime between friends. It was never meant to be short-lived or fast-paced.

Draco learned that when his mother explained how she had not loved Lucius to begin with but then grew into it, years after their engagement was declared when she was young.

Something clicked in Draco after a while and he knows he wasn't ready that night at the Ball but he's ready today. He's scared but he knows it takes more than just courage to get him to say what he has to.

Reia's voice cuts his thoughts like a knife as she says; "It means you've fallen in love at first sight – and when given to someone, it means it was them, you fell for."

Draco smiled a little, the little Gryffindor girl wanted somebody to fall in love with her at sight. Draco couldn't promise that is what he means but he can promise one thing; that he loves her. He loved her back when they were sixteen and couldn't get their act together. He loved her when they were seventeen and he helped her escape Malfoy Manor despite the consequences.

Most of all, though, Draco loves her now, despite the obstacles they face daily and the discrimination.

Except the question remains; was Amelia implying she had loved him at first sight when they met?

Shaking his head, he abandoned the thought because he was going to be late otherwise. He quickly paid for the rose, thanked Reia, and dragged Blaise out of the shop with him. He had promised to meet Amelia in fifteen minutes. He had to find a secluded place to apparate and then walk from the gates of Hogwarts all the way to the Main Yard.

Flowers may seem useless, Draco thinks but he remembers the way Amelia's eyes shine when she passes the Florist. She loves the purple roses to pieces. The very rose he's holding, she had spotted two days ago when they had been taking a stroll in Muggle London. It had been her idea, Draco remembers. He wasn't much for the Muggle world but she always had been.

They'd gone to a cute little café that day for lunch. He felt terrible that she had to pay but he was still learning muggle currency at the time. He's still not perfect today but he reckons he has the rest of his life to learn with her by his side. He wouldn't mind spending more time out in the Muggle world. It fascinated him now. He wasn't open to everything but somehow she could still convince him to do a lot of things.

Spotting an alley way not far, Draco quickens his pace. Blaise pulls himself out of his best friend's grip and rolls his eyes. "Just because you have somewhere to be, that doesn't mean I do," Blaise says while crossing his arms over his chest. "Come, don't come, I don't care," Draco replied, "but I can't be late for the most important day of my life."

Blaise shakes his head, "Have you ever thought about what her response might be, what she might be thinking?" He asked. Draco shrugged, looking around, watching for cars. Those muggle contraptions were awful. "No," he answered, "Well, yes, but that's just fear talking. I should be confident in what her answer will be," he said. Blaise licked his lips, walking around a pop-out store. "I get where you're coming from but listen to me, it's not the end of the world if she doesn't say what you want her to."

"I know," the reply came brisk and left no room for argument. "But it was two years ago and my Merlin, in the admist of all the chaos, she said yes."

Blaire went to speak but Draco shook his head. He looked around, slipping into the alley way, pulling Blaise with him. He took a look around for muggles, not finding any. He patted down his shirt, and took a deep breath. He looked over at Blaise with a look of utter confidence. Fear sparked in his eyes but he wouldn't let that take control of how he felt.

"So why wouldn't she say yes now," Draco said, this time, he really left no room for a reply because he grabbed Blaise and they were out of there, leaving the Muggles to wonder what the funny sound was and how quick two young men have to be to disappear out of their sights.