For several moments, everyone stood in disbelieving silence, and then all hell broke loose. Colin pulled Ginny out of the room with a smirky grin and waved to her family members.
He was about to pull her further down the hall, when Ginny and Colin were flanked by Aurors. The Aurors, on orders from Arthur Weasley, had been told not to take Colin until they could completely surround him. That had not been possible until Colin had made the error of leaving the room with only Ginny.
Ginny, as the Aurors surrounded them, let loose a sigh of relief. She knew that since she had been forced to marry him under duress that the marriage was not legal; she just needed to get away from him. She, up until now, had played the game as Harry and Draco had suggested earlier in the day, but enough was enough. She no longer wanted anyone else to "handle" everything; just look where that had gotten her. The Aurors were here; they were surrounded. So, she made her move.
Ginny jerked her arm out of Colin's grip. She could feel his nails digging into her skin as his hand tried to maintain a grip on her arm. She jerked harder and felt him lose his grip on her. She stepped away and lost her balance. She heard a lot of commotion around her, but all that her brain could comprehend was that she was falling. She felt herself harshly touch down on the floor before her world went silent and black.
************************************************************
Ginny woke to the sound of two, loud, male voices. She had no idea where she was, what was being said, etc. She could not distinguish what they were saying, but she knew whom they belonged to…Draco and Harry.
She turned towards the voices, but found that to be a huge mistake. A searing pain shot through her head and greatly protested that idea. She gingerly righted her head to the previous position and focused on the voices.
She sat there for a few more seconds and finally began understanding snippets of the conversation.
"This is preposterous!" one male voice said.
"It is not preposterous; it is the truth! And, you KNOW it. I am right and you hate that. Don't you?"
The conversation was making Ginny feel like she was on a merry-go-round. What was preposterous? Who was right? Who hated what? What was the truth? The thought processes running in her mind were actually making her nauseous. She tried to open her eyes, but when she did, the light caused the throbbing in the back of her head to commence again. Then the voices started again.
"I know."
"What was that? The great," this next part was garbled to Ginny, "Can't believe that I could possibly be right? Will wonders never cease? Should I check and see if the sky is falling?"
"What a wit, you are! Hey that rhymes with git! Now that makes more sense!"
"And you call me a git…"
"Git is as Git does."
"You sound like a former Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor!"
"Yes, I am ashamed to say I do; just like that ruddy Lockhart fellow from our second year, right?"
"That's the one."
"So- umm- since you think I am right…umm- I should probably –umm-go."
"Yeah- uhhh- probably…"
"Take care of her."
"That goes without saying."
Ginny heard a door open and close.
Ginny lay there very still and pondered the conversation in her head. Unless she was completely crazy, Draco and Harry had decided which one deserved her. The thoughts were still running through her mind as she drifted back into a healing sleep.
When Ginny woke the next time, she was fully awake with no lingering nausea or headache. Molly was sitting on her left side and idly stroking her hand. Her father and several of her brothers were at the foot of the bed. Harry was sitting to her right and was the first to notice that she was awake.
"Ginny! She's awake! Look, her eyes are open! How do you feel? Are you all right? Do you remember what happened?"
"Let's give her a few minutes, Harry, and not bombard her with questions and concerns, okay? In the meantime, Charlie, go tell Ginny's on duty nurse that she is awake," Arthur Weasley advised Harry and Charlie. Harry nodded in agreement and Charlie left the room to inform the nurse.
Ginny looked around the room and could see the relief on everyone's faces, which left her slightly confused. All she had done was hit her head on the floor.
"ughrghghrgh," was all that Ginny could get out.
Her mother handed her a glass of water and quietly told her to drink it. She nodded and took a small sip. It seemed to do the trick because she could now speak.
"What are you guys looking so gloom for? I only fell and hit my head!" she quietly said with a touch of humor.
Harry shook his head in a negative manner and said, "No, Ginny, that is not what happened. Do you not remember anything after falling?"
"I remember pulling out of Colin's grasp and falling. I blacked out because I hit the floor. That was all that happened, at least as I remember it."
At that point, the nurse that Charlie had gone to notify was back with Charlie in tow.
"Glad to see you awake, Minister. You certainly have caused quite a ruckus all throughout the Isles. We've never had a Minister be almost assassinated. You are one lucky lady, my dear! How do you feel? You look much better; your cheeks have a nice, healthy rose color to them."
"Ummm- assan- assassinated? What are you talking about? I just fell and hit my head." Ginny asked quietly. The nausea was quickly returning.
Molly broke down into tears. Ron was looking very morose. Arthur was watching his daughter's reactions very closely, but looked very concerned, as well.
"Oh dear, I thought you knew. I am so sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. I'll let you talk to the Minister. I'll be back later. Glad to see you awake, Minister." The nurse walked hastily and silently out of the room.
"What in the hell is going on?" Ginny demanded.
"You did fall, Ginny. You are right about that, but as you were falling Colin threw the Killing Curse at you. He would have succeeded too, if Draco had not thrown you out of the way. You hit your head on a wall from Draco throwing you, literally, across the room, not on the floor as you mentioned earlier. That is why Draco is not here. He is very upset. At first, he thought he had killed you. I have never seen Draco so upset…He found your pulse; then he turned to Colin and threw the Killing Curse at him. Colin died. So now, he is blaming himself for everything. He left several hours ago and planned on turning himself into Azkaban."
"Well, that is just silly!" Ginny said with a giggle, "And I'll tell him so when he visits."
"Umm- Ginny- he won't be visiting. He and I spoke and he felt that you would be better off with me. He asked me to take care of you and I promised that I would. Plus, there is the little issue of his throwing the Killing Curse and killing Colin."
Ginny's mouth was gaping open at these revelations.
"You must be out of your mind! He must be out of his mind! He saved me! He has no reason to be in Azkaban. Oh hell no, I am going to fix this right now!" she said as she hopped out of bed.
"Ginny, you are not supposed to be moving around. He did what he wanted to do; now, I am going to do what I need to do. Ginny Weasley, you beautiful woman, I almost lost you today. Please say- ummm- Ginny, will you marry me?"
"Oh dear Merlin, that was the conversation I heard earlier. You and he were resolving the issue of ME! You two decided who got to have me! Harry Potter, I would suggest you move out of my way; I have never felt the need to do bodily harm to anyone so much in my life as I do right now! M-O-V-E!"
Harry squeaked and moved slightly to the left. Ginny, in her hospital gown, threw open the door to her room and stormed out. She was muttering things about 'stupid, pigheaded men' and 'women obviously not able to make up their own minds; so they thank goodness they had MEN to do it for them' and a host of other disparaging remarks about males and their intellect. Nurses, Doctors and visitors throughout the hospital gaped, but she did not notice. She kept on her mission of finding Draco 'the king of stupid man' Malfoy.
As soon as she was outside of the hospital and in a safe muggle-free area, she Apparated directly to Malfoy Manor. She, due to the wards at the Manor, was forced to knock and wait for a House Elf to answer the door.
She brushed past the Elf and gruffly asked the Elf where Draco was.
The House Elf squeaked at her less than friendly tone and pointed up the stairs. As she started up the stairs, she realized she'd have to apologize to the Elf later, but, for now, she was on a mission.
She reached the top of the stairs and began flinging open each and every door looking for Draco 'wanker' Malfoy.
On the sixth door, she found him. He, with his back to her, was packing. She walked in and slammed the door as hard as she could. He turned around and his eyes widened in disbelief when they rested on her. Ginny, having spent way too much time with the aforementioned 'wanker' recently, just crossed her arms over her chest, tapped her toe and smirked.