November 27, 2000

Draco Malfoy woke with a start. He had a small pressure on his chest and when he looked down he saw her. Samantha Brown. The girl he has been in love with ever since she punched him in the face during their second year. She was a Gryffindor, muggleborn, and even worse, best friends with Potter.

They began secretly dating in their fifth year, but broke up when Draco was set on a mission to kill Dumbledore. He didn't want her to be used against him. They did not talk to one another again until after the war, and the dust had settled…

Draco was sitting under the tree by the lake, skipping stones across the Black Lake. His father was probably going to go to jail, which he, Draco, was O.K. with, and his mother, he hoped nothing would happen to her. As for himself, he had the Mark, which would be enough to convict him, alone. But through his entire life, he never wanted it; he was only doing what he had grown up learning about. He was shaken from his thoughts when he saw her face and her voice broke the silence.

"Knut for your thoughts?"

"I never wanted it."

"Wanted what?"

"To be a Death Eater, I never knew any better, and I'm afraid of going to jail because of that. I mean I never killed anyone, I never tortured anyone and I even saved yours and Grangers lives when you came to the Manor. Sam, I'm scared." She was the only person he could open up to like this.

"I know Draco, I know. I will not rest until you are free."

And she didn't. Three years. Three years it took for him to get a trial and explain his side of the story. Three years of worry and he was finally free. He swooped her up in his arms and held her close. "Thanks Sam, I knew you could do it." That night they went out to celebrate and after going back to her flat in a drunken stupor, they realized their feelings from fifth year were still there. Hiding beneath years of abuse, war, and trials.

And here they are now.

In Draco's flat this time. He looked around his small room and noticed pictures that he had set of him and his parents when he was about eight, a picture of the Syltherin Quidditch team his second year, a picture they took themselves of him and Sam laughing and kissing every so often, and finally a picture of him, Sam, Grang- no Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Po- Harry, at the burrow last summer. He couldn't believe what his life was now, and it was all thanks to her.

She stirred in her sleep and peeked an eye open. She saw he was awake and noticed he was absentmindedly rubbing his mark, which still hadn't faded, unlike the last time he fell. She sat up and slapped his hand away. "Stop that!" she yelled.

"What?"

"Feeling sorry for yourself for something that was out of your control."

"But I could have said-"

"Stop, you know what I see when I see that mark?" He looked up at her, waiting. "I see a story of a man who fought as hard as he could, and went against everything he ever knew, and went out into uncharted waters. I see a man who has changed so much since the stuck up brat he was when he was eleven. I see a man who has started to rebuild, just like everyone had to after the war, so stop feeling like everything was your fault, because it damn well wasn't."

"Marry me."

"WHAT?"

"Marry me, you're the only person for me, and if you keep yelling like that, I know I'll always stay on track to be the person I'm supposed to be. Marry me because, I'm not Draco without you, I'm just a Malfoy. Marry me because…"

She cut him off with a kiss filled with as much passion as she could muster at three in the morning. "Yes."

"Really?"

"I don't know why, but, Bloody Hell yes."

He grinned kissed her swiftly and then got up and rummaged around for his pants, when he got back in bed, he was holding a small black box. He opened it up and inside sat the most beautiful ring she'd ever seen. It was silver band with a diamond in the middle surrounded by red and blue gems. Red for Gryffindor, and blue for the color of her eyes. He slipped the ring onto her finger, and knew that for the first time in his life he was doing something he wanted to do, not something he had to, or was forced to, but wanted to.

Well what do you think?

Please let me know since this is the first of its kind and maybe I can make this into a story or a two shot, just let me know whatcha think.

As always

Buggy.