I Have Always Liked You (A Draco Malfoy Love Story) [mistakes, sorry]

Toby

*Draco's POV*

"Alright, Toby." I sighed down to the fourteen year old boy looking up at me.

"Dad, what was she like?" He asked me. I took a deep breath in, thinking about the last time I had even mentioned her.

"She was beautiful." I told him.

"Yeah, and?" Toby pressed on.

"This is hard, bud. Cut me some slack." It was summer and Toby and I were back in New York living in a flat. The view was amazing, Maddy picked this house when we graduated from HogWarts, I've just never wanted to leave.

Toby looked at the picture of Maddy and I at our wedding, then looked around the room, "Dad, please." He begged.

"I have to start from the beginning then, okay?" I asked my son, our son.

"That's fine, I just want to know." He said. Toby was an only child, considering... Well nevermind. But he was very mature for his age so I thought this would be a good time to tell him.

"By the time I was your age I'd have given anything to fall in love truly, it was all I could think. But little did I know that my best friend was the love of my life. She'd been my best friend since first year and we were even 'together' during second and third and so on. I approached her, in a way. I mailed her a best friend necklace with a note asking if she wanted to be my best friend."

"She said yes, right?" Toby interrupted.

"Yeah, she did. So, Toby? I'm only telling you this because life can do terrible things, okay?" I said warning him.

He nodded intently.

"When we got older, like into our fifth and sixth year, we'd drink and party a lot, we were stupid. Besides that, we had so much fun, we literally shared everything and our favorite thing to do was to look at the stars and just talk about everything. We were in love, so, so, so far in love. Right after we graduated from Hogwarts I took her to a Muggle beach and proposed."

Toby's face lit up, "And of course, she said yes?"

"That's right. I'm warning you again, okay? I'm only telling you this because life can do terrible things and you'll learn one day. I just pray to some God that he'll show you differently."

"Dad, I'll be okay."

"A couple months after I proposed, she got pregnant with you. When we went to her first doctor appointment we found out she got cancer. It started with just thyroid and then it went everywhere, stomach, lung, liver, bone. It just wouldn't stop."

I paused and took a deep breath.

"She was a real fighter, Toby, she never once gave up. I would have loved for you to have known her, but she died shortly after giving birth to you."

I could barely get out the last few words. Toby had always known what had happened to Maddy, but I never told him anything else. Nothing about the way her eyes sparkled when she looked at the stars or the way her lips were so rough, but so smooth at the same time. Never about how she was so passionate about me, and only me.

"Promise me one thing, buddy." I told Toby.

"Yeah?"

"Don't fall too hard, I know that it's impossible, but there's so much to lose. It's not her fault, but your mother broke my heart. I love her so much and I always will. But just try not to fall as hard as I did, you can love a girl, but don't love as hard as I did."

I got those words out and I broke down, I cried harder than Toby and I could practically hear Maddy's voice in my head, telling me that she loved me.

The end.