"I told you. I always said he'd leave us!" Ginevra's voice is shaking as she speaks to the man holding her from behind, "He doesn't love us enough, he can't". The green silk dress she's wearing is moving in the wind from the open door in the entrance hall, her red hair swirling around her like a tornado.

"That's not true Ginevra. I love you and Drae. Possibly too much. I'll only be gone a day. Two at most. It won't be long and I will come back. I always do." I'm pleading by now, begging her to understand.

"You always say that! One day, One week, but it's always longer! Always! Is this just a game to you? Don't we mean more than that?" She's not listening to me, she rarely does. From where I am standing I can see her crumple as she whispers the last line.

"Come on ma coeur; let's leave him to go gallivanting off for a few weeks. He's not important."

"But he is! We need him!" she's insistent. Her voice reaching hysteria. "We can't do this without him."

Draco's arm is wrapped around her waist. His body is pressing against hers from behind, his head against her neck, not looking at me, his face blank and devoid of emotion. His left arm is parallel to hers, holding onto her outstretched wrist. The wrist attached to the hand, the hand that holds the beautiful muggle weapon he'd bought her weeks before that is pointing at my head. The conversation we'd had when he'd shown me the gift played through my mind.

"What harm can it do? They're just stupid muggles, and it looks good in her collection," he was nonchalant. Passive. He'd been giving her gifts like this for years, and her collection was impressive and worth a small fortune, but it concerned Blaise that Gin had something in her possession that was fatal, despite Draco's assurances that anything she did with it could be fixed.

"Her collection of pretty things that kill?!"

"Interesting antiques that have a dangerous quality, wizarding or otherwise," he replied.

"So yeah, pretty things that kill."

I shake my head. He never listened to me either. "Gin, drop it! Please. Please?" I'm beyond pleading now. She's reaching a state where I'm not sure what can happen.

"No! No no no no! You lied! You promised! Liar!" Draco's grip on her tightening as she struggles against him. Her outreached arm, still aimed at me, is shaking. Her voice breaks. Tears stream down her face. Her arm begins to drop. Drae's grip on her loosens. Time seems to slow down. I watch as she flicks her wrist ever so slightly. As she presses her finger down onto the trigger slightly harder then she had before. I watch as the distraught face she'd had before turns into an apologetic "forgive me" expression. I hear the noise from the gun as the bullet is released. I watch them rebound from the impact. And then time seems to speed up, twice its normal pace as if trying to catch up. I watch as Draco pulls her arm around. Shock apparent on both their faces. There's a pain in my shoulder. I can feel the warm blood trickling down my front and seeping onto my shirt.

"I didn't mean to. I didn't. What have I done Drae? Help. Oh Circe help." She is whispering franticly to Draco who's encased her in his arms. Their foreheads pressed together in an embrace so familiar to them. One I had witnessed so often in the last few months. He's pressing his lips to her face, alternating between kissing her and whispering things I can't quite hear. Both their eyes close simultaneously and a look of relief crosses their faces. Two more shots go off and I watch as my two lovers sink to the floor. Both finally at peace. Then all goes black.

The first thing I notice is the antagonising pain in my right shoulder. The second is a faint bleeping sound that's too familiar to me; even seen from someone else's memories, to make me want to open my eyes. And the third is the presence of people sitting around me. Sitting very still but moving just enough for me to hear them moving slightly. Their breath inhaling and exhaling from their lungs. One of them speaks.

"When did Poppy say he'd wake?" Hushed tones. Sombre tones.

"Soon Severus, soon. The potion should be wearing off right about now." I recognise this voice. Albus Dumbledore is speaking to Severus Snape. They must be talking about me. It takes me a moment to wonder why they're sitting around my bed waiting for me to wake up. And what was this pain in my right shoulder? I decide to open my eyes. Just a crack at first. Too see what's happening.

I let a small sliver of light rush in through my lashes. White. White everywhere, huge windows behind me lets in an enormous amount of light that bathes the entire room with a glow making it hard to look at anything due to everything being made from white materials. Clinical. That's what it looks like. Dumbledore and Snape are sitting in two metal chairs at the foot of my bed. There's movement behind them and to my left. I open my eyes a little more to see what else is happening.

"Ah Mr Zabini, you're awake. How are you feeling?" Something's wrong. I can finally see I'm in the hospital wing at Hogwarts. At least it's not where I feared I was. But Dumbledore's face is more solemn then I've ever seen it. Not that I've known him that long but he always seemed cheerful, his blue eyes aren't sparkling, his mouth in a thin line dissecting his face into two. "A great tragedy has happened last night, what can you remember of it? Tell me to stop if you need a moment."

"Tragedy?" my mind can't comprehend what he's saying, "what's happened?" I open my eyes fully and try to sit up; the pain is overwhelming so I fall back against the thin pillows on the bed. I caught a glimpse though, of the people in the rest of the room. A lot of them with red hair. A red that I know will haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. And it comes flooding back to me. The Meal. The Letter. The Screams. The Gun.

A sound emits from my lips that I can't describe. I hadn't known it was possible for a human to make such an excruciating noise until it burst its way out of me. A sound of terror and sorrow and loss. A sound of deepest regret and love. A sound of heartbreak.

Madame Pompfrey rushes to my side. Everyone looks at me. I don't care. They're gone. Gone. I can't process it. The thought seems foreign, and not so at the same time. I think I knew this would happen eventually. I just thought they'd take me with them. I look down to the wound in my shoulder. I guess she tried. I guess I failed, my soul too firmly secure in life to even contemplate slipping into death. I start to laugh. I'd only known them seven months. Eight if you count the time with Draco without Ginny, but that doesn't seem to count properly in my mind, the idea of one without the other seems wrong now.

"Mr Zabini, if it's possible, I'd like to know how this happened." Dumbledore asks again.

"I think you know, you were there, you saw it. She shot me, then herself and Draco."

"I meant how everything happened. Start at the beginning, we'll take things slowly." He's encouraging, and everyone's listening now, curious to what actually happened. Unsure of why it happened. But none of them had the front row seat to Draco and Ginny's demise as I did. I don't know if I want to tell him everything but I think it over and I suppose they have a right to know. And if they know then other people will know eventually. And people have to know. This can't happen again. I can't stand the thought of other people being trapped in the same self destructive path they were.

"Okay," I start and take a deep breath, "I'll tell you."

A/N After several months (almost a year) of writers block and several huge life changing events I decided I had to stop focusing on a particular story and just write. And this is what came out, as you may be able to tell it's very different to my other stories, this one has a lot less fluff than my other ones (not that they were particually fluffy to begin with) and I think my writing's slightly different too. I do hope to return to Blood, Ink and Champagne soon as I loved the storyline I had planned I think I just have to wait for my life to get slightly lighter before I can go back to it.

You may also be able to tell that this is AU. It's so incredibly AU it's untrue (though not as much as some fics I've read based around these 3- eg. Unexpected) and the Characters are all OOC for the most part.

I have the next chapter mostly written already and so I hope to post that soon and then there's only 1-2 other parts after that. (If anyone's interested in beta-ing, PM me)

For people who are interested:

-This story was inspired by the music of Emilie Autumn (mostly the Opheliac album) which might explain some of the event that happen. If you haven't heard of her go listen! .fm/music/Emilie+Autumn
-The name La Douleur Exquise means The Exquisite Pain which seemed aptly fitting.
-And I have already done some artwork for this fic, the link to my dA can be found on my profile.

Thank-you for reading and please review! (I need to know what you think! Other wise I'll think it's terrible and not write the rest.)

Love Always and if you've managed to make it this far, cookies for you!

Unlaced xxxx