Disclaimer: As always, I don't own anything.

A/n: So, I just wrote this chapter for madrose because I don't want her to combust. Then who will leave me comments?
To everyone else, Thanks for the comments and I hope you enjoy the next part. Its mainly the past.

…This alone, you're in time for the show
You're the one that I need
I'm the one that you loathe
You can watch me corrode like a beast in repose
'Cause I love all the poison…

…Give me a shot to remember
And you can take all the pain away from me
A kiss and I will surrender
The sharpest lives are the deadliest to lead…-The Sharpest Lives: My Chemical Romance

Ginny groaned low in her throat as the veil of sleep lifted. Pain, sharp and immediate lanced through her. Her eyes flew open. The world seemed thin and hazy and she pressed fingers to her eyes. She sucked in a breath and winced in pain.

"Ginny?" Harry's face floated above her, worry in his sharp green eyes.

"What happened?" he voice was slight and shaky. Harry reached for her hand, clutched it to him.

"We won the battle. There was this trap someone set…it was incredible Ginny. And horrible; the screams echoed forever. What ever it was it was affecting the Dark Mark, displacing Death Eaters left and right. You were hit with a curse at the same time Draco Malfoy attacked you."

Voice thick Ginny asked, "Did he escape?" Harry shook his head, hate searing through his eyes. Once upon a time Ginny had thought Harry incapable of hate.

"No, you had a hold of him. We rushed him and he was captured. He's being held in the Prisoner's Ward of the hospital."

"He's here?" Ginny began climbing from bed, "I want to talk to him."

The floor was cold as she pulled herself to her feet stiffly. Harry's hands were there, comforting and sweet and she hated it.

"He isn't talking to anyone," Harry said roughly, "They'll send in Moody soon to get information, then he'll go to trial."

"Take me, Harry. Please." Harry studied her. Her hands were on her hips, the look on her face saying clearly that she wouldn't take no for an answer. Her face was pale and she looked so young, so small.

'Just a child," Harry thought, 'We're all just children.'

He gazed into the brown eyes of the girl he loved and realized something. The love she had once held so openly for him was no longer there. It was like having your trousers vanish during a quidditch match. It surprised him, and he mourned the loss of something he had not allowed himself to have. And now it was too late.

Unbidden the thought of Ginny with someone else came to mind. He pushed it away, she was Ginny; she still loved him. She had to, or who was he?

"Okay Ginny," he said quietly. He put his arm around her and felt her stiffen. Had he truly lost her?

She limped into the holding cell alone. Her back was straight, each step small and calculated. She knew how far she could go. How hard she could push herself, and she hadn't met that ledge yet. Her chin up the dark circles from the lack of sleep and the loss of blood were apparent. She was ghostly and pale. She studied him. His hair was matted with blood. Cuts and bruises marred his face. His nose was slightly crooked from where it had obviously been broken. She clenched her jaw to keep from clucking over him as if she were his mother. Arms at her side she stopped a foot from him to keep from touching him. The dull ache in her chest felt as if it were being ripped open again.

He studied her from guarded eyes. The silence was consuming and thick. Ginny thought she was choking on it. A fish out of water she was flailing. She hoped he didn't notice.

"Why?"

He made a noise in his throat, guttural and angry. He was avoiding her gaze so she bent awkwardly to eye level.

"They say you attacked me. Why didn't you tell them what really happened?"

"It doesn't matter," he said, voice hoarse; sandpaper grating flesh. She marched to the door and shouted for water. When there was no immediate response she raised herself to her full height and yelled, "Someone better bring me some bloody water! So help anyone in my way if I have to find it myself!"

The guard arrived then, a glass and a canteen in hand, his eyes averted he handed the objects over.

"My apologies, Miss Weasley," and he backed out just as quickly as he had came.

Draco laughed, "They're afraid of you."

Now it was her who made a sound in her throat.

"They're afraid of Harry." Draco looked at her.

"What the hell does Potter have to do with…ah, it took your impending death to make him realize that he wants you. Typical fucking Potter," he snapped, "And now you'll defeat the Dark Lord and have speccy little children together. All my best."

"They'll put you on trial. Feed you to what Dementors they have hanging around."

"I'll deserve it…I'll deserve it all. Just leave. FUCKING LEAVE!"

Ginny glared at him, "Just tell them the truth Draco."

He moved faster than she would have given him credit for. Pushing her against the door of the cell, he pinned her there.

She could smell the blood on him, see how much they had hurt him while he was there. He kissed her hard and angry.

"Tell them what, Ginny?" He demanded harshly, "That since this war started, all those fucking months ago you're the only thing I think about? The only thing I still feel. That when I close my eyes I can still see you, that I close my eyes all the time, just to see you one more time?" He gave her a grim smile, "They would feed me to the Dementors just for thinking of touching you. Don't you dare think they wouldn't!" The last part was whispered into her hair.

"Time's up!" the call came from outside the solid metal door. Draco backed up until he tripped and landed sprawled over the bed. He watched as she shot him one last look. He thought he was seeing her for the last time. He memorized every line of her, the feel of her lips still against his. Picking up the glass of water he shattered it against the wall. That small bit of violence wasn't enough.

"What is this, Draco?" Ginny asked quietly. She made an odd hand gesture, twirled her fingers about. An impatient sound in his throat he shook his head.

"It's what it has always been, Ginny, it's us."

"Is this what we always were then? Miserable?"

"I was happy. I was happy with you," he said, "You were what I wanted. What I denied my family for. I wasn't Malfoy when I was with you."

"I guess that's just it then isn't it?" Ginny said sadly, holding back tears, "You could forget that you were Malfoy, but you never truly let go of the fact that I was Weasley."

"You were my Weasley," he said, "You were mine. And I thought I was yours."

Ginny was crying now.

"Then why did you fuck it up!" She wiped at the tears, angry now, "I didn't do this to us!"

"It wasn't what it was, Ginny." He was pleading with her, for the first time in his life begging her to understand. He reached for her and she pushed him away.

"Don't Draco."

"Ginny…"

"Leave it alone, Draco," Blaise said, stepping into the room, "Just leave it alone. Go get some rest Ginny. I'll wake you when the Order gets here."

After she had left Blaise put a hand on Draco's shoulder.

"We were never lovers."

"You never…"

"Please, you've seen her. Of course we did." Draco's fist came out of nowhere, though Blaise had been expecting it. He mopped at the blood pooling at the corner of his mouth.

"I said we were never lovers. We fucked once, a long time ago. After what happened with you two. She came to me crying. Said you fucked it all up. We got drunk, shit happens." Blaise jumped back as Draco lunged at him again.

"Stop it or I'll charm your hair pink."

Draco stopped to look at him, "What?"

"No that I have your attention," Blaise said, "Maybe it's time you tell me what happened."

"I contest," her voice carried through the council as the gamut delivered the verdict. Her eyes never left the Minister's. Draco was shaking his head. 'Leave it be,' he was shouting at her in his head.

"I second," Dumbledore called from the shadows of the court room.

"You have something you would like to say, Albus?" the Minister called, ignoring Ginny.

"I'll vouch for the boy. I want him immediately released. His possessions are to be returned."

"Didn't you vouch for one Severus Snape?"

"Of course I did, but I needed some one to betray me or my plans would have never gone right."

"Oh good," Draco said, "Does that mean I still get the option of denying you three times?"

"Silence boy! You have some sort of evidence that we should see?"

"Of course, but it is to be reviewed in private." The council voted before the court room was cleared. The evidence presented led to Draco's release. It was a combination of memories from Ginny, Blaise and surprisingly Dumbledore himself. The government warned him that they would keep a close eye on him. At the time he didn't think of what that meant. Later he found out that it would mean that his life, during the war, belonged to the Ministry. He was placed under Alastor Moody, who controlled all aspects of his life.

Four months before the end of the war he placed a locket around Ginny's neck while she slept in his bed. He pulled her close and sunk his nose into the crook of her neck. He wouldn't let her see him this affectionate during the day, but at night she was his and he was hers. "Draco?" she yawned sleepily turning to face him. He kissed her before slipping into her. She smiled lazily at him as he rocked them together. When they were spent she nuzzled into him and fell back into a languid sleep. Her breath tickled his chest. That night he had to force himself to let her sleep. To not wake her again and take her higher and faster than the last time. He kissed her softly and fell asleep.

In the morning she had insisted he take the locket back. It wouldn't budge when she tried to remove it.

"There's something special in it," he said with his character smirk in place. Ginny spent the day trying to open it.

"Come on Draco," she said playfully, "How do I open it?" He laughed and refused to tell her how it worked.

Two months before the end of the war Draco received an assignment that involved an old classmate. He was to escort Pansy Parkinson. Her father had murdered her mother and she had more than happily agreed to help put him away.

Drunk, Draco and Pansy had reminisced about the good ol' days when things were black and white in their world.

Ginny had walked in to Pansy peeling Draco's leather trousers off with her teeth. The bedroom door had slammed behind her. The silence was final. Draco stumbled after her yelling for her to stop, to wait, to understand.

Tears were falling, and they weren't just hers. She had yanked the necklace off as once again her heart shattered in her chest. She had punched him with the hand clutching the locket. Pansy had come running into the hall then and Ginny had tossed the trinket in her face. Pansy nearly lost her left eye to the conflict. Draco lost Ginny.

Blaise was making chocolate pudding when Ginny had burst into his kitchen.

"He fucked it up Blaise!" she wept. Blaise could only assume that she meant Draco, as she never came to him with her family problems. She had grabbed the bottle of Fire Whiskey from the cabinet and stormed into his living area. Curling into a furious ball she chugged straight from the bottle. Blaise eyed her with fear and disgust.

"That's what glasses are for," and he poured them both a large shot as she recounted what happened. Most of the bottle of fire whiskey later Ginny climbed into Blaise lap.

"Make him go away," she asked sadly and Blaise had readily agreed. He'd fancied himself in love with his friend from the first day she had approached him in the corridor at Hogwarts to ask if he knew how Draco was doing. He claimed what he knew he would never have again. He kissed the drunk girl with everything he had.

In the morning they both knew it hadn't been enough and their friendship had grown.