Title: Rekindle

Pairing: Draco/Ginny, Ron/Hermione

Warnings: Language, Violence, Self-mutilation, Character Death

Summary: They say you never forget your first love. What do you do when it comes back after three years of abandonment?

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.

One

The candle in the window flickered softly along with the fervent glow of firelight. Number 12 Grimmauld Place was as big as she remembered and after Sirius Black's death the Weasley's had been given the house. The war had been over for three years but not without its casualties-Albus Dumbledore had been killed along with a slew of Gryffindors and Slytherins-Dean Thomas, Neville Longbottom, Katie Bell, Lavender Brown, Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson, Gregory Goyle, and Marcus Flint who had come back for the final battle. Ginny's brother Ron ended up marrying Hermione Granger. Harry Potter had-in all his years of waiting-married Cho Chang. Ginny, however, remained alone. She had watched her brothers grow up and marry their soul mates. The weddings had just made her even more depressed then she already was.

There were nights, endless and painful, that she found comort in the silver kiss. Everything she felt was washed away with one swipe. She thought about what she had at Hogwarts and what she had lost. He was her first love, her alone love, and after she graduated she never heard from him again. She had only seen him once and that was when she fought against the Dark Lord; his eyes were full of rage and confusion, face deadly pale and bloody. He battled alongside his father and killed Blaise and Pansy for betrayal and killed the rest for sport. And yet she could not bring herself to hate him. He had told her this was not what he wanted and that They were forcing it on him. She could hardly beleive that day he came to her and told her he got the Mark.

He was pacing and running his hands through his hair roughly. How was he going to tell her? She, the forbidden child, made him so very happy that he could never imagine hurting her. The Slytherin dorm seemed to have grown darker as he stared endlessly at the door. Any minute she would walk through and he'd crumble to his knees and bury his face into her stomach. The knob turned suddenly and he tensed. She stepped inside wearing a long red nightgown, eyes hooded and face pale, smiling at him gently. Her long red hair went straight down to mid-back.

"You sounded so strange today. What's going on?" She spoke so quietly that it made him wonder how she would be when he told her?

"I wanted to talk to you about something. Please," his voice caught. "sit down."

"Draco, what happened?" Her soft brown eyes held worry and pain. She embraced him when he started to tremble and sat with him on his bed. For the first time since they had begun to see each other he was completely terrified of losing his sanity and really punishing her like his father intended with Riddle's diary.

"I can't do this anymore." He was lying straight to her face, something he vowed he would never do.

"You what? You're not serious. Did you?" she stopped speaking. Her eyes grew wide in astonishment and she understood. "You got it didn't you?"

"My father forced me to get it. I didn't want it." He stared at his hands as a single hot tear slid down his cheek and he wiped it away before she saw.

"What does that mean for us?" He hated how such a simple question caused him so much pain.

"We can't be together. How would that look?"

"Exactly like it does now." She squeezed his hand.

"It'll be different. I'm sorry."

She shut her eyes and let the flames warm her suddenly aching body as she stretched her limbs. She pressed the heels of her palms against her forehead and groaned. Why was she letting those feelings return? He was probably, knowing him, married with seven kids and a beautifully sucessful wife that would look down on Ginny if she were to come along. Her brothers had hated seeing Draco fight for the other side-that meant all their suspicions were laid to rest.

"They're only looking out for you Miss Weasley," he had entered wearing an unusual expression. He seemed to sense her discomfort. "they are your family, after all." Severus Snape stepped beside her and she looked up at him; red lines criss-crossed their way down his pallid face. A mask of honor.

"But Draco-" Ginny started but held her tongue. What about him? What good would the unwanted feelings do if she talked?

"Is gone. It's been three years. You shouldn't be so focused on him, it's not good for you." Even after everything they went through her former Professor was still as infuriating as he was correct.

"You don't get it-you've never been in love with someone. I've been seduced by the darkness or have you forgot?"

"I have not," his eyes narrowed to catch the flames. "forgotten. I do know what it's like as well. Every day I think about my mistakes and I sometimes wish I were dead." With a swoosh of his billowing black robes he was gone. Ginny sighed and stared at the fire.

She would never see him again, so why obsess over a memory?