A/N: So I'm back. Sorry about that this has been gnawing at me to write for sometime now so I hope you like it. I'm a Georgia girl and I think a lot of this story is Civil War influenced with the confidence on each side and such. You decide for yourself who's who. I hope you like it and review if you can!

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"Ginny! Ginny, darling, we got the war!" Draco Malfoy ran towards her down the hall of their house leaving the door flung open behind him. He wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her petite body to his. "Can you believe those damn fools would take us?" He asked in his drawl that she had grown to love so much.

"Why, Draco, don't be pulling this one on me again. I can smell the whiskey on your breath." She said with a smile as she pushed her arms against his chest in an attempt to pull away from him.

"I'll admit to the whiskey, but Old man Carson Leinhart told me himself the ministry has already got people moving. How can you state it more plainly, my dear?" He asked as his smile grew and he moved his arms to secure her in his arms.

"Really?" She asked, as she moved her head to try and look him in the eyes. He noticed the sudden change of emotion in her voice and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

"Don't worry, Ginny. I'm sure your mother is too overprotective to let her sons go off and fight." She didn't see the tiniest of smirks he held upon his face. Yes, secretly he would like to take a few blows with Ron, but he'd never admit out of love for Ginny.

"Oh, so you don't think I'd be concerned for you?" She asked as she tried to maintain a steady voice as a thick tear rolled down her cheek.

"We're cruel bastards, remember?" He put his hand under her chin and tilted her head. "We don't care about anything. Life is easier that way." He kissed her softly on both cheeks and picked her up off of the ground as he carried her into the kitchen. "Now what's for dinner, woman?"

"Marie Tolshvesky brought over some vegetables from her garden and I've been cooking for you since this morning. But it isn't ready yet so go and get ready and I'll set the table."

"Don't bother with the table; we'll eat outside. Tonight, we celebrate." He smiled at her and left the kitchen and walked towards the stairs.

"When are you leaving?"

He paused halfway up the staircase. "Whenever they tell me. Not to early and not to late, I suppose."

She walked over to the door and closed it before walking into the kitchen to check on the squash casserole. She stared out the back window before while she waited for the water to turn hot to clean the mounds of dirty dishes that had accumulated over the day.

She knew that her mother would try and restrain her brothers from going off to war, but what could she do with 6 young men all of whom were over 18? She knew her father would be proud of them to go off and fight; to go off and fight for peace and everything good. But her father was just like all the other men at the time that didn't realize what war really was. Both sides boasted they'd lick the other side in a month at the most.

Ginny didn't really have a side by now. She'd married a deatheater. Some would assume that would automatically make her on the dark side. Yet, she'd been raised so fiercely to support the ministry and believe in the goodness of the wizarding world that she knew she could never accept herself on the dark side. But now after marrying Draco Malfoy, the rest of the wizarding world wouldn't take her.

She'd befriended Draco during her 6th year and had fallen in love with him during her 7th. Her family blew it off at first; Ginny had never had a beau or much male attention for all they knew so it was sort of a "silly" infatuation that would fall apart in due course but explaining that to her brothers was a different matter. By the end of her 7th year, when heated conversations with her family were becoming normal she left home and became Mrs. Draco Malfoy after she eloped.

She hadn't talked with her family since.

She tapped her wand against one of the myriads of dirty dishes and mumbled a simple cleaning charm under her breath.

She was happy with Draco and most of the time she felt he gave her more than she deserved but she knew underneath everything he could never replace all that she had lost. It was evident he was trying. She'd grown up in a cluttered environment full of comfort and confusion. She wanted land- and countless acres of it. Rolling green for miles and miles spread from the antebellum white brick house that he had bought for her. The kitchen window with the white lace curtains showed the garden in the back that she'd already begun planting various vegetables in. Further on were the rows of the orchard, planted so perfectly and straight. She always envisioned when the peaches and the apples would have the limbs of the trees hanging heavily as they yearned to be picked.

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"Dinner was good, Gin." He set his plate down at the bottom of the steps on the back porch that looked over the garden. "I know I shouldn't have told you; you've been quiet all night." He sat back down beside her on the top step.

"It's just- why do you have to go off and fight? We have everything we need right here. Why can't we just act oblivious to it all and go on like we are right now?" She lowered her head and stared at her half eaten plate. She swallowed hard as she felt a fresh coming of tears brim up.

"Ginny, look up and tell me what you see in front of you."

"Darkness."

"Not quite."

"The peach orchard."

"And how does it look in the morning?"

"The sky is streaked pink and yellow behind it and the grass is the greenest it has ever been."

"That's partially why I'm fighting."

"You're fighting for a fucking orchard? An orchard with sunshine?"

"Would it really matter if I was?" He asked softly.

"Here I am wondering if I'll ever see you again after you leave and you can't even tell me why you're fighting."

"I'm fighting because it's what I've been born to do, Ginny. It's all I know."

"No, it's not and if you weren't so stubborn you'd try to do something about it instead of being controlled like a-"

"That's enough. We've already discussed this and I've made my decision."

The silence broke suddenly when the levee broke and all the tears Ginny had been holding back since Draco told her the news came poring out. Draco put his arm over her shoulders.

"Forget I ever told you about the war."

"I want you to promise me one thing first."

"Shoot."

"If you happen to find one of my brothers, you won't hurt him. Promise me, Draco."

"Scout's honor."

Fifteen minutes later, Draco sat in the living room with a jigger of Tennessee's finest whisky in his hand as he watched his bride play the end of her favorite song on the piano. She closed the book with a snap and turned in her seat to face him.

"You're awful handsome." She said as she gazed at him from across the room.

"And you're not too bad yourself."

"You do realize if this might be your last night here, we don't have much time left." She grinned evilly over at him and he replied with a smirk to quiet the devil. He set down his jigger and picked her up with ease from the piano stool. "Don't bother going upstairs, the kitchen table will do fine."

"I knew I married you for some good reason." He replied with a smirk as he set her down on the table and loosened her hair from its band.

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