Draco checked his room one last time before taking his bag and leaving, shutting the door firmly behind him. He continued down the stairs until he reached the front door where his mother and Ginny were waiting for him.

"I'll write you both, I swear, and I have my watch so I'll know if anything happens. Be safe," Draco reassured them hurriedly.

"We're the ones that should be telling you to be safe," Ginny said, he voice thick with unshed tears.

"Remember to eat, don't let your godfather get you into any dangerous situations and make sure that you stay warm. You know how easily you get ill," Narcissa ordered, letting her emotions show on her face in a rare occurrence.

"I will Mother. Sev and I will look after each other. This will be over soon and when it is we'll move back to the Manor. All three of us. I swear to you that we will all survive this war and everything that comes after it."

"You talk like a Gryffindor – optimistic and idealistic."

"I speak like a Slytherin. Willing to do whatever I must to live as I want to."

Narcissa smiled slightly. "I'll leave you two to say goodbye now. I love you." She kissed his cheek and speedily moved up the stairs.

Draco turned to Ginny.

"I'll miss you," Ginny said.

"No you won't. You'll be busy at Hogwarts. You're Head Girl and you'll have your work and your friends. I will definitely miss you though. The only company I'm going to be having is Sev. He isn't exactly a master conversationalist."

"I will miss you. Who will annoy me with their long showers if you aren't there? And who will kiss me goodnight and tell me to dream about them?"

"No one, hopefully. If you take up with some Gryffindor boy when I'm gone I will be very upset."

"Gryffindors aren't really my type," Ginny answered, smiling and tugging him towards her by the collar of his polo shirt. "I like bad boys." She kissed him firmly on the lips, their tongues battling desperately as they tried to prolong the moment.

When they finally broke apart Draco said breathlessly, "I'm going to miss those."

"Yeah, me too."

"How about one more for the road?"

Ginny smiled and they kissed until someone cleared their throat from behind them. Turning, they saw Harry standing at the kitchen door.

"I better go," Draco whispered against Ginny's mouth.

"Bye."

With this Draco walked out of 12 Grimauld Place, slipping on his ring as he went through the door and disappearing.

Ginny turned to face Harry. "Maybe we should talk," she suggested.

"Yeah, that might be a good idea."

***

Harry and Ginny faced each other on his bed.

"So, you and Malfoy, huh?"

"Yeah."

"How long?"

"Since Percy. Well maybe even before that."

"Why didn't you say anything? Why didn't you tell me?" Harry looked hurt.

"How could I? How could I tell anyone? You all hate him. You wouldn't even have given us a chance."

"If it made you happy I would have tried."

"Would you really? Because Draco does make me happy. Happier than I thought I could be after everything that happened with Tom. I just want a chance to see if we can be this happy together forever or whether it's just the fact that we are in a war and both alone in our own ways. Will you let me have that chance Harry?"

"I don't see what else I can do. I still love you Ginny but I can see you clearly don't feel that way about me."

"I tried Harry, I really did, but you can't choose who you love. If I could have, it would have been you."

"I'll let you go for now Ginny; it's all I can do. Maybe you'll change your mind later or maybe you won't but I can't do anything."

Ginny kissed Harry on the cheek and stood up. "You'll always be my first love, Harry, but eventually we all have to move on."

***

Ginny's parents saw her off at Kings Cross Station on the day when she had to go back to school. Passing the strategically placed Aurors, Ginny walked through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10 and onto platform 9 ¾.

She got on the train and made her way to the Heads' compartment to stow away her trunk before going to find her friends. She had a feeling this was only the start of a very long school year.

***

Harry, Ron and Hermione spent their last few days at HQ in the library, trying to find anything they could that would help them on their quest. The day that they left was miserable in every sense of the word, it was raining and both the faces of the Order members and the Trio were bleak.

"Keep fighting, if I have any say in the matter this will all be over soon," Harry said, unknowingly echoing the sentiments of his childhood enemy.

Molly Weasley smiled slightly at this. "If only everyone had your attitude Harry. We just need to keep on trying and eventually things will turn out fine."

The trio smiled at this, and at Mad Eye's grumbling that it was not true from the corner of the room, and each embraced Molly in turn.

"We should leave now, got places to be and things to do and if we don't leave now we never will," Hermione said.

Ron and Harry nodded and after everyone said goodbye they left.