Ginny slowly made her way through the hallways of Malfoy Manor. Her eyes felt swollen. All she wanted to do was go home and fall into an exhausted sleep.

Her heart felt as if it were broken in a million pieces. Deep in her heart, she knew that her and Lucius could never be together in her time. But hearing it from his mouth, hearing him deny it despite the pain in his voice made it all the more real for her.

"Young lady-why, you look like the spitting image of a young woman I used to know."

Confused Ginny stopped walking.

"Over here," the voice said.

Ginny turned to the direction of the voice.

"Diane!" Ginny gasped, running over to the painting.

Part of her was shocked at seeing the elder Malfoy in the painting. However, she shouldn't have been surprised. The little research that she did on the Malfoy family when she came back let her know that Diane and Abraxas Malfoy died young of a dragon pox infection that killed many purebloods, including Harry's grandparents.

The painting of Diane Malfoy was as regal as Diane herself. She was dressed in beautiful bright blue robes. Her pretty blonde hair was in an elegant bun and she had the most expensive jewels Ginny had ever seen around her neck.

"How do you know my name? Ginny? There is no way you could be Ginny. Why, Ginny should be in her in her late 30s with the time that has passed.

"Well, it's kind of a long story," Ginny started, her face turning red.

Diane crossed her arms.

"I'm in a painting and I'm not going anywhere. You had better explain yourself to me."

Ginny gave Diane the condensed version of what happened.

Diane shook her head at the end of the story.

"I knew you weren't really suffering of memory loss."

"You did?" Ginny asked.

"Ginny, you are a horrible liar. Everyone in the household knew you had a memory. However, it had been a long time since another woman was in the household and for once, Abraxas decided to humor me and let you stay."

Ginny put her head to her palm.

She couldn't believe how obvious she was. She was shocked that any of the events took place with the information they had.

"Then why did you let me be engaged to Lucius if you knew I was lying and knew nothing of my bloodlines?" Ginny asked.

Diane gave her a peculiar look.

"He never told you?"

Ginny's heart dropped.

"What was I supposed to know?"

"Ginny—you're Lucius' soul mate."

Ginny was even more confused now.

"How in Merlin's name would you know that?"

"The ring that Lucius put on her finger when you both got engaged was a ring that determined blood status and general compatibility. The ring was able to determine if two people were soul mates. The reason Abraxas let you both marry was because of the ring pattern."

Suddenly, the memory of Abraxas demanding to see the ring Lucius gave her came flooding back to her. No wonder Lucius was beaming after seeing her ring pattern. She wanted to kick Lucius in the shin for not telling her that the ring would determine her blood status. The git.

However, it didn't surprise her that her and Lucius were tied together.

"I guess being soul mates doesn't really matter to Lucius any longer. I came back to see if there was any way we could be together again. But he is loyal to Narcissa and Draco."

"My husband is a fool."

Ginny turned around to see Narcissa standing there.

Ginny stared Narcissa wearily. She had no fire within her to fight at that moment. And she wouldn't blame Narcissa, if she was upset about her being there. After all, despite what both she and Lucius shared, Narcissa was his wife.

"Or rather I should say my husband is a loyal fool."

Narcissa stopped and stood next to Ginny. She smiled at Diane's portrait.

"It's good to see you today, Diane," she said.

Diane smiled back at her.

"It's always good to see you Narcissa."

Narcissa turned her head to look at Ginny.

"I remember who you were the moment I saw you at the Quidditch World Cup. And I'm sure my husband was on his way to the truth at that point, but not there yet. But I knew. I could never forget the face of the woman who captured my husband's heart."

Ginny looked away from Narcissa's face when she said that.

"I knew Lucius was in love with you before he knew he was in love with you. You should have seen the way his eyes kept drifting to you at his birthday ball, the way he looked at you. Everyone there knew you both were together. Strangely, it hadn't bothered me. I knew from a young age that my husband was only there has a status symbol. I figured you would be the mistress that I would have to pretend didn't exist. That all changed when he broke off the engagement with me to marry you."

Narcissa smiled sadly.

"I was hurt at the broken engagement, but I knew I would get over it. After all, I did have my pick of other pureblood men who although weren't as well connected as Lucius, were still suitable. And then you disappeared. And Lucius had to renew his engagement to me. I knew I would never be able to replace you in his heart, but I was fine with that. I watched as he did everything he could to find you, even though we were married. And now that he's finding you, the only person he ever loved, really, he's letting you go for me. He's an idiot."

Ginny was in a bit of shock. Narcissa should have been yelling at her, should have been telling to stay away from her husband. But instead, all she was getting was a wife who was bashing her husband.

"But, he's your husband. You deserve to have a happy life with him," Ginny pointed out when she could finally speak again.

Narcissa brushed her words off with a wave of her hand.

"When I was younger, all I wanted was to finally win Lucius' affection. But now that I'm older and wiser, I realize that you cannot win the heart of someone who already has their heart taken. It doesn't occur to Lucius that I need more than money and loyalty. I need love. And he will never be able to give me that because he always has and always will be in love with you. Now that the war is over and I have no need to keep my family together, I think it is time for me to move on."

This was a turn of events Ginny didn't expect. She could only gape at the serene Narcissa, who looked away from her to the understanding portrait of Diane.

"Your problem will come when I leave Lucius. His pride will stop him from being with you," Narcissa said looking back to Ginny.

Ginny felt like her head was spinning. All of this was happening too quickly.

"Wait, you're helping me get back together with Lucius?"

Narcissa looked her in the eye.

"Do you still love him? Do you still want to be with him?" she asked.

Ginny could only nod her head yes.

"Then yes, I will help you. And I think I have a plan for how we are going to get him to stop being an idiot and to finally be with you."

"And I'm here to help if you need it," Diane said with excitement in her voice.

Abraxas sat in the corner in his own portrait, shaking his head at the women plotting to get his son.

An honest man would have found a way to let his son know what was happening.

But instead, just like every other painting in the Malfoy hallway who wasn't involved in the scheme, Abraxas was going to sit back and watch the fireworks happen. After all, one did get bored sitting in a frame for years on end.