The Damaged
Onesmartcookie78
Summary: Voldemort destroyed Ginny's life when she was eleven. He destroyed Draco's when he was sixteen. They were more alike than they thought. Draco/Ginny, previous Harry/Ginny and previous Neville/Ginny.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"I suppose that's a common conceit, that you've already been so damaged that damage itself in its totality makes you safe."
― Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin
She wasn't quite sure how it had happened. She was supposed to be with Harry. It was a well received, popular fact of life. But he hadn't been there for the destruction of Hogwarts. So she had grown closer to Neville. But it still wasn't the same as it was with him.
With Draco Malfoy.
He was damaged, sure, but no more than her. Voldemort had left his mark on he blonde, as he had her. And Draco found it so hard. Unlike Harry and Neville, he was struggling. He had a hard time making the right moral decisions, but that was part of him. She didn't dare say that it was what set him apart from the other two, what made him more appealing an option, but she knew it was true.
She didn't even know how it had happened. She hadn't seen him much whilst they were at school during Snape's (Merlin bless him) rule. After the trial where Harry and Hermione had taken his defence, they had met again. He'd looked tired and been no less prejudiced, but he was at least polite enough. His pureblood manners had manifested. He'd been grateful.
She'd only been there for Harry. But Harry had changed and so had Malfoy and the differences were stark in the court room.
She'd ignored them, the little niggling thoughts suggesting that perhaps Malfoy could be changing into a better person. The same voice that suggested that Harry might've changed for the darker whilst he was away. The voice that said that perhaps she didn't like the new Harry, but could grow to like the new Malfoy.
It didn't matter in the end. She didn't see Malfoy again for another few years. She and Harry had broken up by that time.
He was currently happily married to Cho Chang. It hadn't been much of a surprise for her. She'd dated Neville briefly, but they'd only lasted a few months. He, too, was married, though to Luna Lovegood.
Ron had married Hermione, though Ginny and her didn't get along. They had when they were younger, but something had changed. Ginny had become reclusive, depressed, after Harry and her relationship had ended. Hermione had tried to pick up the pieces, but she'd pushed Ginny too hard.
Molly was also angry with Ginny, for she and Harry had been "perfect together". And since the redhead had broken up with him, it was clearly her fault that the relationship was a failure. Obviously her mother had forgotten the fact that she and Harry had been in a mutually unhappy relationship. Ginny had just been the one brave enough to break it off. He'd been "worried" about her "fragile" feelings after the death of her brother. Basically, he thought she'd go stark-raving mad off the deep end.
Arthur didn't share his mother's opinion. Percy was willing to, if it got him back on her good side. George was the one who left her stay with him, once she decided she could no longer take her mother's nagging.
She met Malfoy in Diagon Alley. She'd been there to get some ingredients in the Apothecary for George. He'd bumped into her and knocked the materials from her arms. She'd been irritated that day and had snapped at him.
He'd chuckled and she'd been even more enraged until she looked up and saw the ice blond hair and light grey eyes. She didn't recognise him right away, but he did her. "Ginny Weasley- I thought that red hair looked familiar."
She didn't give punching him a thought, just force fed him her knuckle sandwich and dashed off to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
The second time she saw him was under far better circumstances. George was rubbish at political events, so when Minister for Magic Percy Weasley (and he was brilliant at his job) asked for them to attend a certain gala for Diagon Alley's recovering and prosperous businessmen, she was sent in his stead.
The Malfoy name still hadn't been cleared fully, what with Lucius having been sent to prison and Narcissa a pariah in the society she loved. Draco was named the new heir and to prove his change in personality, he'd rebuilt Olivander's and any other shops the Death Eaters had destroyed. He'd also bought Gringotts and rid it of all unsavoury employees that had supported the Dark side. As the new owner of the Wizarding bank, he'd created a highly successful and completely legal stock market, rendering him -once again- the wealthiest man in all of Wizarding Britain.
According to Percy, that made him a "highly valuable asset for the distant to near future". He was, obviously, correct, but that didn't mean Ginny had to like it. She had begged her older brother to take him off the list to no avail.
And so, when she was faced with Draco Malfoy for the second time, she avidly sought to avoid him. Luck was in her favour, though she caught unfortunate glimpses of his handsome visage. Not that she was willing to admit her feelings on the subject of that certain Slytherin.
The last time she met him was seven years after the war. They didn't plan it. They had both gone to a group therapy meeting for those who had been directly touched (or "torched" as Ginny liked put it) by Voldemort. Hermione (who she had cautiously allowed back into her good graces) had insisted on her attendence, saying that it had helped her, Harry and Ron. She had lied. Ginny caught Hermione rubbing the short silver scar on her throat on occasion. Harry still had nightmares, according to Cho, who she had befriended, and Ron clutched the Deluminator when it was dark and the shadows blurred and he thought no one was watching. Ginny had seen though. Ginny knew.
But what good was knowing when you had no one to tell? Through the meetings, they were encouraged to partner up and tell one person about their experiences so that it may become easier to admit to the whole group, eventually, what had happened.
Everyone had immediately paired up with the mate that had come with them for support or someone they'd known in school. Ginny and Draco had been alone. And through AA like-introductions and silence punctuated by no longer condescending -yet awkward- silence, they'd held a staring contest. They'd looked into the eyes -the windows of the soul, the heart- of each other and found something. Found a deeply disturbing common ground.
They were the same kind of broken. They were damaged. And perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing.
And to sum up life in three words: it goes on. Always and forever. Who you choose to move with on this decrepit, bountiful path of death and sorrow and happiness and laughter is your choice. If you choose anyone at all. But it easies the aches of the lonely and the cries of longing. And perhaps it's not so bad to be irreparable after all. Not when you have someone equally impossible to put back together.