Ginny and Draco settled back into their flat at Hogwarts. It had been an excruciating three days. Bill's body had been sent to the Burrow the day after the Weasleys were informed of his death and they hastily, amongst their grief, planned a formal funeral for him.

Draco and Ginny had arrived in the Burrow's kitchen bright and early the next morning after only a few hours sleep. The kitchen was bustling with many witches with brandished wands. They were declaring cleaning spells and food preparation spells as if they had gone mad. Interestingly enough, however; there was no mess.

Draco had quickly walked over to the table obtained four pieces of toast and escorted Ginny out of the room and back upstairs. There they silently ate the bread. Once done, they took their showers and returned to the room to dress. Ginny put on her best green dress robes and Draco did the same. He gave her a sweet kiss on the cheek and led her downstairs.

The funeral had been at the lake near the Burrow, the very same one that a few days before had been such a fun site for everyone. The walk to the lake had taken over 15 minutes due to the number of people there. There were hundreds of witches, wizards and goblins, dressed in green, who had shown up for the ceremony. They stood around, prior to the ceremony starting, with somber faces, telling stories of Bill and how wonderful he had been.

All those memories and story telling had made Ginny nauseous. Most of the people there, she had never met in all her life. All she wanted was to be with her family and to hell with the rest of them. She had sighed loudly again. Draco gave her a funny look and pulled her closer with his hand at her waist. She dropped her head to look at the hand at her waist. She marveled at how protected she felt despite everything. Two silent tears, one on each cheek, rolled down her face.

Ginny kept her head down until Professor Dumbledore began the ceremony. All eyes flew to him as he raised his wand in his right hand and said, "To all present, we call upon the Elements to guide Bill Weasley to peace. Earth, Fire, Wind and Water bring to us your power and your solace."

At the end of this statement, the wind began howling and greatly gusting. The pond, normally so placid and calm, began tossing and turning like the ocean during a hurricane. The ground began harshly shaking under their feet and fire rain began falling to Earth. The sight caused everyone there to gasp in shock. No one ever got used to this ceremony. It was the world at its harshest and yet, the most peaceful event on Earth.

The Elements settled a bit and Dumbledore continued, "Thank you, Elements, for bestowing your presence to us. You have awed and amazed us again. We thank you for the life that was Bill Weasley. We thank you for the essence you gave him and humbly ask that you return it to your vastness."

At that, the mahogany coffin that was holding Bill's body was levitated off the ground by the forces surrounding the assembled people. The forces moved the coffin to the pond and gently laid it in the rolling waters. Once it was rocking in the waters, the wind began howling loudly. A bright white light emitted from the coffin and the wind was at peace.. Next, fire began pelting the Earth again. A red light emitted from the coffin and the fire was calmed. Then, the Earth started roughly shaking again. A green light emitted from the coffin and the Earth was at peace. Last, the water began thrashing harshly again. A blue light emitted from the coffin and the water was at peace.

"As the Elements are at peace, so too is Bill Weasley." Dumbledore said and lowered his wand. All those gathered answered with, "At peace…"

Once the ceremony ended, Molly Weasley dropped to her knees in front of the pond and sobbed. Arthur, rubbed her back, and let his own grief take him over. The family, sans Ginny and Draco, moved to Arthur and Molly.

Draco gently took Ginny by the arm and went to walk her to her family, but she resisted. She pulled her arm out of his and ran further down the lane, away from the pond and the house. Draco took off after her.

A few minutes later, Ginny stopped and began climbing into a large, very old Sessile Oak tree.

"Ginny?" Draco called after her. Ginny ignored him and continued crawling further up the Oak.

Draco looked up from his position on the ground to make sure Ginny did not fall. She climbed almost to the top and sat on a rather large inner branch. She sat like a little girl; her legs were crossed and slightly swinging to and fro. Her face was stoic; she was obviously lost in her own thoughts and not interested in sharing them.

Draco, eventually, sat down and decided to wait on his wife. She apparently needed time to herself. After even more time passed, he lay back against the tree and was dozed off.

He was starting to reach REM sleep when Ginny began talking, "I always felt closest to Bill. He was always the one to treat me like a Princess and a person that could make my own decisions. He loved me for me…like you. Until you came along, he understood me better than anyone. The only problem was that he left when I was still small. Don't get me wrong; I am close to every one of my brothers. I just had a different relationship with him. He would send me the coolest birthday presents, but more importantly he wrote me at Hogwarts. Through letters, I spoke more to him than anyone at school. Weird, huh?"

"No, it is not weird. You were close. You knew him and he knew you. That is good Ginny." Draco sincerely responded.

'Yes, and now he is dead because of me."

"You don't believe that."

"How can I not? Even Dumbledore thinks this is because of Merlin."

"Right…Merlin…not Ginny Weasley Malfoy. Really, self-pity does not look good on you."

"DRACO!"

"Sometimes, you have to be cruel to be kind," he said with a shrug.

Ginny snorted at this and began climbing down the tree. She put her hand out in front of Draco and helped him to his feet. She drew him into a hug. They walked in silence back to the Burrow.

"Ginny?"

"Hmmm- yeah?"

"We are supposed to be in Dumbledore's office in ten minutes. We need to get going."

"Coming…"

"You okay?"

"Yes," she replied with her first real smile in days. She felt at peace. Together, arm in arm, they headed to Dumbledore's office.