Now, Then And Forever

A/N: Bad news. Somehow my files got deleted including the entire plan of Now, Then and Forever and its sequel, Once and Once Again. Some is stored in my head, but so much is gone. I'm still working on trying to get them back, but no good so far. The fics had backups on the computer, thank goodness. I'm so mad (Argh!!!), so apologies for the amount of time it might take now to get chapters out. I'm working on a new plan now.

Disclaimer: I think I've read thousands of HP disclaimers (almost), and they all have different words. But they all mean the same thing. (All together now) It's J.K. Rowling's! See?

Chapter 6 – The Past Haunts You

They sat on Ginny's couch, Draco's arm around Ginny, her head resting on his shoulder. They had been in that position for sometime now, content simply with the knowledge that the other was near.

"Draco?"

"Gin," he looked down at her.

"Do you..." She hesitated for a moment before carrying on, "...still want to know about... then?"

"Do you want to tell me?"

She smiled. "Yes. Yes I do."

"Go on then."

"It haunts me, Draco. That night, I'll never forget it. It hurts. I hide behind all the bad girl attitude, behind the façade of not caring, of not feeling. But sometimes I just feel so much that I... I go numb with pain."

"You don't have-"

"I know I don't have to tell you. But I've never told anyone, and... I don't want to have to keep it to myself anymore." He simply tightened his hold on her. Comforted by the simple gesture, she told him her story.

*

The Burrow, Five Years Ago {Ginny POV}

"Gin!" George called. "Harry's here!" Ginny blushed heavily. She still had her crush on The-Boy-Who-Lived, even after the six years they had had together at Hogwarts, and the further 2 years she seen him on his frequent visits to the Burrow. It was absurd, a nineteen-year-old girl crushing on the same someone she had crushed on as an eight-year-old child. It didn't help that he was her protective older brother's best friend. Or that each of her six brothers would permanently harm whomever so much as looked at her the wrong way. She hurried down the stairs.

"Hey Gin," he smiled at her. She felt her already red face redden even more.

"H... Hi," she stuttered. She really hated the way she couldn't even form a coherent sentence around him. He probably thought of her as some little kid who was so awed by his successes that she couldn't speak properly. She felt half relieved and half disappointed as he turned to Ron and continued on their discussion of Quidditch. Was that all they ever talked about?

"I'll go check on lun..." Molly Weasley's voice trailed off as her eye fell on the clock. Every single hand was on the Mortal Peril area, including Harry's, which they had added as a gift to him. She started gasping. "Get out!" she shouted hysterically. "Go! He's coming!"

The friendly chatter in the room stopped. The door smashed open. And there stood Voldemort, in full power, sending a chill of dread through the room.

Ginny wanted to scream, to shout, but she felt the Full Body Bind hit her and she fell to the ground. And she couldn't believe the next words she heard.

"Get out!"-

"Don't worry about-"-

"Just go! Save yourself and forget about who's behind!"

Could those cutting words really belong to her family, the family she held so close to her heart? Would they really leave her to Voldemort? Did they care nothing for her? She never would know the answer, because darkness came, and she embraced it.

*

Ginny woke in time to see Voldemort's end. But she couldn't remember how, or why, because the only thing in her mind was: Her family didn't care about her.

And so she left.

*

"I don't know what to say," Draco whispered slowly.

"You never do, when you find out your family doesn't care for you," she muttered bitterly.

"I always knew my family didn't care," he told her, matter-of-factly. He wasn't looking for pity; in fact, it was the very thing he didn't want. It was simply a statement. And she knew so.

"Any other questions?" she looked at him, daring him to say yes.

"No." He had learnt quite enough for one night. But he couldn't see how the Weasleys could be so callous. They had always seemed like the perfect family (except with a little less money) and Ginny had always seemed to be the perfect daughter. Something wasn't quite right, and he couldn't quite pinpoint it. He was sure it had something to do with the dark arts, but he had forgotten much of his father's training when he became an Auror. He was torn out of his musings by her voice.

"So, what do you want to do?" She continued without waiting for his answer, "We could watch a show, or go for something tamer after our... interesting night, like Monopoly or Scrabble. I'm sure I could dig up something. And we can order pizza!" She grinned at him.

To be quite frank, Draco hadn't a clue at all what she had just said. A show where? And what were Moponoly and Shabble? Wasn't Pizza a tower in Italy? "Uh, up to you Gin," he settled for finally.

She picked up something (which he remembered as a Telesomething from the compulsory Muggle studies they made him take one year in Hogwarts) and started talking through it. She set it back down on the nearby table and looked up at him expectantly.

"Yes?"

"Thanks, Draco."

"What for?" he asked, confused.

"Just thanks," she said, and kissed him.

***

"Ron?" Hermione asked.

"What is it, Mione?" he looked at her and gently kissed her forehead.

"Do you miss Ginny?"

Immediately his face hardened. "No," he told her cuttingly.

"You do, Ron. I know you do. Don't you think that maybe..."

He sighed, resignedly. "Maybe sometimes I do. And maybe sometimes I wish that what happened wasn't true. But you know what you saw. I know what I saw."

*

The Burrow, Five Years Ago {Ron POV}

"Hey Harry!" Ron greeted, as Harry approached The Burrow on his broomstick. Harry had always preferred that way of travelling rather than Floo Powder or Apparating, as he found it much more reliable. "Did you hear about the Quidditch?" Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hermione tut and shake her head, but concentrated on Harry.

"Yeah!" Harry was saying, "Wasn't it simply amazing! The way he caught the Snitch at the end! What an uproar it caused, huh!"

"Oh, you could do that," Ron scoffed.

"Gin!" George called. "Harry's here." Ginny came running down the stairs a moment later, face flushed.

"Hey, Gin," Harry greeted kindly.

Ron heard Ginny mumble out some semblance of a greeting back, but concentrated on making Harry realize he was better than any Seeker for the Wimbourne Wasps.

Ron heard his mother's voice trail off before she started screaming. "He's coming!" he heard her say.

Out of habit he looked for Hermione. Pulling her close to his side, Ron proceeded to look for Ginny. And somehow, he couldn't comprehend what he next saw.

Voldemort burst in. He emitted such Power, Dark Power. And Ron saw Ginny jump up. Ron saw his baby sister, the one he had loved and protected as much as he could, go to Voldemort's side and bow deeply.

"Master," she whispered, voice full of delight.

"Master, you have come." Voldemort touched her bowed head with a long, bony finger.

"You will be richly rewarded for giving them to me," he promised her. And Voldemort laughed.

"No," Ron whispered, "no. Ginny, no. NO!"

"Yes, actually. Yes." She chuckled, amused. "Yes, yes, yes, yes! You all meant nothing to me. All this time, I was waiting for my master. It was never you. Never."

"I won't let you do this," Harry said firmly, though his voice was trembling. "I don't know what the bloody hell you think you're doing, but I won't let you hurt them." He took out his wand and pointed it at Ginny. "I'm sorry," he whispered, and hit her with the Full Body Bind.

Voldemort raised his wand and Harry repeated once more, "I'm sorry." and a blaze of green light hit Ginny.

Ron no longer looked. He had seen enough. More than enough. It was Harry's fight now.

*

"I love you, Ron," Hermione whispered fiercely. "I love you so much it hurts. Don't ever, ever, believe otherwise, you hear me?"

"I love you too, Mione. I love you too."

***

The Tainted Woods, Five Years Ago {Death Eaters}

"What!" he exclaimed.

"You fools! You imbeciles! You-" He calmed himself. Anger shown did no one any good. If there was one thing he had learnt from his Dumbledore-loving uncle, it was that.

"Let me understand this," he fixed them with a stare. "My Lord Voldemort is dead. He is dead because you idiots couldn't set a Shadow potion for the right person. I as good as made the bloody potion for you. I collected the ingredients. I said the spell. I stayed up night after night, watching it boil. Why? So My Lord could get the Potter boy. It was perfect-Make him think his friends didn't care, make those Mudblood friends of his assume that he joined our Lord. One way or another, the Potter boy would die.

"But what did you have to do? You had to set out the potion. One simple thing. Set the potion so the Potter boy would drink it-and you bloody give it to the wrong fucking person!" His outroar at the end startled the lives out of the Death Eaters there.

"Everything we've worked for is gone! It's over! You lost everything because you couldn't do a simple task!" Reran Snape raised his wand to deliver the deathblow to all gathered before him.

Then he paused. He paused, remembering something.

"No. We can still return My Lord. All is not lost."

"Yet," he added.

***

A/N: Fini! That was a tough chapter to write! Any questions or comments can be sent to my email: dancing_with_the_burning_devil@hotmail.com. And of course, review! My two fave things: emails and reviews. I'll be going on holiday soon, so the next chapter will be a little while (I think). And the end is near... four more chapters according to my plan. Then There's the sequel.