A/N: I'm sorry for not updating soon. Too many things have been going on and I had a hard time sitting down to write the stories. I'll try to update the rest of my stories soon so please be patient. I love to hear what you think of the story so please read and review. : D

A Simple Gold Band

Chapter 9

Harry and Draco arrived at the front door of Hogwarts via portkey, at exactly 2pm. Two Ministry soldiers stood flabbergasted when they saw Draco walking with Harry. Everyone knew that Draco went missing but after three months of MIA, everyone had presumed him dead. Seeing him not only alive but looking relatively well, was a tremendous surprise. Draco waited aside; ignoring the two, gaping men as Harry asked them were the Headmaster was. Still gaping at Draco, they pointed vaguely in the direction of the Great Hall. After thanking the two men, Harry led the way to the Great Hall with Draco close behind.

The Great Hall was buzzing with activity. The Great Hall was turned into a makeshift infirmary with beds lined in rows throughout the Hall. Seventh year medi-students with some of the infantry medics bustled about to check on the various patients. Blaise and Ron sat, with their backs facing Harry and Draco, at the other end of the Hall.

Harry gave Ron shock by clasping him on the shoulder and saying, "Hey Ron!"

"Harry! I'm glad you're here!" Ron exclaimed. He stared at the person behind Harry, closed his eyes and shook his head before opening them again. "Malfoy? Malfoy is that you?" When he saw Draco smirked at him, he burst out laughing, "It IS you! So where have you been?"

While Draco told Ron about the attack and everything that went on at the hospital, a few rows to the right, Blaise was getting his hand bandaged when he heard Ron laughing. He could not believe his eyes; Draco was in uniform and standing not a few beds away from him. He got off the bed and walked over to them, much to the horror of his medic as his hand was still bleeding. His medic tried to pull him down back to the chair but Blaise just shrugged off her grip on him.

"Draco is that really you or am I just imagining things?" Blaise asked.

"No Zabini, it's me. It's not your imagination," Draco said, giving his best friend a one-armed, manly hug. "Now that you know that I'm really here, why don't you get that wound bandaged up before you medic starts to have a fit."

Blaise turned and smiled sheepishly at his medic who was tapping her foot impatiently. She roughly sat him down beside Ron and tied the bandage a little too tightly. When Blaise informed her that it was too tight, she just raised and eyebrow and walked away.

"She loves me alright," Blaise said, watching the blonde medic walk away. "She definitely loves me, she just won't admit it."

"Luna doesn't give you the time of day ever since you introduced yourself to her. What makes you think that she loves you?" Ron asked, looking at the Blaise's medic, who was his sister's best friend in school.

"THAT was Loony Luna Lovegood?" Draco asked incredulously. "She's definitely changed over the years. What's she doing here?"

"A month after you went missing, she was posted to our unit as the new medic after our old one was killed during an attack. Romeo over here has been trying to get her to agree to go on a date with him since she got posted in but she shot him down every single time," Harry laughed, slapping Blaise's shoulder.

Draco laughed as Blaise scowled at Harry but his laugh was cut short when one of the soldiers approached them, telling them the Headmaster requested their presence at his office. The four men trooped out of the makeshift medical centre and made their way to his office. When they entered the office, Draco was struck with how old Dumbledore looked. His eyes were dull and worried; the perpetual twinkle in them gone.

"Ah, Mr Malfoy. I'm glad you could join us. I know it must be hard for you to be here instead of with your wife and daughter. Come, come all of you. Please sit down," Dumbledore said, his voice raspy.

All four of them sat around the headmaster's table and the meeting began. After discussing and arguing for almost an hour, the four men left the office to brief their own men on the plan. At seven pm sharp, Harry stepped out of the school flanked by Ron, Draco and Blaise, with Luna following them, just in case as they did not know what Fanny's condition was, and made their way to the Forbidden Forest. Ron, Draco and Blaise, as well as a Luna with a floating stretcher, waited at the edge of the field in between the forest and the school while Harry continued walking and stopped in the middle of the field. A few moments later, three cloaked figures walked out of the forest. One continued walking towards Harry while the other two waited at the edge of the forest. Harry stood his ground, his hands poised over his wand holster as he watched the approaching figure. The cloaked person stopped a few feet a way from him and pushed back his hood. It took considerable control for Harry not to gasp and flinch at the sight before him. Even though he had seen how Voldermort's face, the red, slit eyes and serpent-like face still managed to disgust and shock Harry.

"I'm here. Now where is Fanny? Where's my sister?" Harry demanded.

Voldermort gave a signal to the two figures behind him, who disappeared into the forest and reappeared while later, dragging a limp person between them. As they came nearer, mush to his horror, Harry realised that it was actually his sister-in-law. It took all of Harry's will power not to kill Voldermort with his bare hands when he saw the state that Fanny was in. Her beautiful, long brown hair was cut very badly, most probably with a blade, the ends sticking up everywhere. Her face bloody and bruised, her left eye was swollen shut, her lip was split open, her uniform was torn and exposing the various cuts and bruises on her body, and there was blood all over her legs. Please God, let her be alive, Harry prayed silently.

"Here's you sssister," Voldermort hissed, smirking widely at him.

The two men dropped Fanny at his feet and went back to their position at the edge of the forest. Harry signalled to Blaise and Draco to come forward while he checked on Fanny. Knowing that the two men will cover him if Voldermort tried anything, he bent down and checked on her pulse. Harry let out sigh of relief when he felt a faint pulse at her neck. Harry nodded to both Blaise and Draco, who gently picked up the injured girl and carried her away where Luna was waiting.

"Help….Har...ry…" Fanny whispered so softly that both men could barely hear her.

"It's alright Fanny, just rest. We'll take care of it," Blaise said, his voice gentle but laced with fury at what the Death Eaters had done to her. They placed her gently into the stretcher and nodded towards Luna before walking back to where Ron was standing. Just as Blaise was about to walk away, Luna grabbed his hand. Blaise turned to look at Luna and was caught by surprised when she kissed him passionately.

"For luck," she said when the kiss ended and walked quickly back to the castle, floating Fanny behind her.

Blaise watched her one last time before running back to where Draco and Ron were standing. The three men watched Harry talking to Voldermort, waiting for his signal. They saw Harry unsheathed his sword, his stance ready for attack. All of sudden, a large number Death Eaters came rushing out of the forest. Blaise, Ron and Draco quickly took their swords out, ready for battle. Harry raised his wand and shot red sparks into the air, signalling the start of their plan. Blaise, Ron and Draco rushed forward, along with the rest of the Ministry soldiers, meeting the Death Eaters head on. From the corner of his eye, Draco saw Harry cast a shield, similar to what Hermione used at the hospital, around him so that his fight would only be between him and Voldermort, and would not be interrupted. Turning his attention back to the battlefield, Draco forgot about Harry as he concentrated on his opponent.

Within the shield, Harry and Voldermort circled each other warily, each assessing the other's weaknesses. Suddenly, Voldermort lunged towards Harry but Harry managed to side step him and evade Voldermort's sword. He countered every stroke from Voldermort's sword with one of his own. He's a good swordfighter for someone his age, Harry thought, wincing slightly, as the clanging of the two swords jarred his hands to the bone. Even though Harry had fought in many battles for the past seven years, since he was seventeen, Voldermort was by far the most skilled foe he had ever encountered.

He did not know how long he had been fighting Voldermort but his uniform was drenched with sweat and his arms were aching. His mind barely registered the blood oozing sluggishly from the wound on his arm or the sting of his salty sweat trickling into his cuts. Wiping his brow with the back of his hand, Harry stood up from the ground where he had landed after Voldermort kicked him in the chest. Harry looked up at his opponent and saw that the only sign that Voldermort was tired was his heavy breathing. He saw the red slits narrow slightly and knew that an attack was coming. Readying himself, Harry tightened his grip on his sword and waited. Just as he had anticipated, Voldermort rushed him, his sword aiming for Harry's neck. Harry ducked and slashed his sword across Voldermort's abdomen.

Voldermort stared at Harry, mouth agape with shock. He staggered back, his sword dropping form his limp fingers, as he held onto his bleeding stomach. Harry plunged his sword into Voldermort's heart and twisted it to inflict maximum pain and damage. Blood trickled from the sides of Voldermort's mouth, his red eyes wide with shock. Blood continued to gurgle out of his mouth as he slid off Harry's sword and fell dead at his feet. Harry let the shield fall so that the remaining Death Eaters could see the body of their master.

Using his sword, Harry neatly beheaded Voldermort and speared the head with his sword. Holding the sword up he shouted, "Death Eaters, this is what is left of you master. Surrender now or die!"

Seeing the bloody head of their master on the sword of The Boy-who-lived, the Death Eaters quickly surrendered, dropping their weapons to the ground. Taking out his wand, Harry set Voldermort's body on fire and stood there watching as the fire consumed the nightmare that had killed so many of his friends.

Harry looked up from the burning corpse and saw his men rounding up the Death Eaters while the medics were helping the wounded soldiers. He looked around for Ron, Draco and Blaise but could not find them. It was not until he heard Ron calling him from the edge of the forest that he saw them. Luna was leaning over someone, working frantically. He rushed over to them to where both Ron and Draco were helping Luna pressing bandages on Blaise's wound to stem the bleeding.

"Blaise, you've got to stay with me. If you die on me, how am I supposed to say yes the next time you ask me out for dinner? Just stay with me ok?" Luna said, working quickly with her wand and bandages.

"I….. knew you'll… cough….say yes," Blaise whispered, smiling a little as Luna tied off the bandages. Luna smiled appreciatively at Harry as he helped conjure a stretcher for her. Once they got Blaise to the school for immediate medical help, Harry, Ron and Draco got their own wounds patched up before going to the Headmaster's office to de-brief him on the battle.

What was supposed to be a fifteen-minute de-briefing turned into a full two-hour meeting as they had to inform the minister and their various superiors regarding the death of Voldermort. The head was shown as proof and by the time the meeting ended, the three men were ready to collapse into bed and not wake up for at least a week. Seeing how tired they were, Dumbledore dismissed them. It was a wonder that they could stagger down to the Great Hall when neither of them could keep their eyes open. Crashing face first into the nearest empty beds, the three of them slept like the dead.

The next morning, Draco woke up with a start. Looking at his watch, he realised that it was still very early; the sun had yet to rise. Wanting to surprise Ginny, Draco got out of bed, woke the still-sleeping Harry, and told him that he was going back to the Burrow. Harry waved him away and went back to sleep, too tired to go back to the Burrow with him. Before he left the infirmary, Draco decided to check on Blaise's condition. The previous night, Blaise's condition was too critical and he could not be moved to St. Mungo's as the move itself might kill him. Walking over to Blaise's bed, he saw Luna sitting by Blaise's bedside, holding on to his hand.

"How is he?" Draco asked.

"Stable. We're hoping to be able to transport him to St. Mungo's today," Luna replied, looking weary and worried.

"He'll make it, don't worry. Just the promise of you going out with him is enough to make him get better."

Luna gave him a tremulous smile as she went back to holding Blaise's hand. Leaving Luna to take care of his best friend, he walked over to where Fanny was treated. She looked so pale against the white sheets of the bed. Her body was swathed in bandages and medics would periodically check up on her. Not wanting to disturb her, Draco left the infirmary, thinking about Ginny and their daughter.

Draco walked across the school compound to the edge of the apparation wards. Crossing the boundary, he apparated right to the front of the Burrow. Knowing that Molly would already be awake, he walked to the back door, hoping to surprise her. Just as he expected, Molly was awake from the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen. How ever, he did not even get a chance to knock on the door when it was wrenched open and he found himself hugged nearly to death by the Weasley matron.

"I saw your clock arm move to the Burrow as I was cooking," she said when she saw the surprised look on his face when she released him from her hug. "Ginny will be so happy to have you home. She's still asleep, so go on upstairs and surprise her." Draco gave her a very thankful smile and a hug before leaving the kitchen. Just as he was about to step upstairs, he heard Molly say, "Make sure you change out of that bloody uniform." Looking down at his blood-caked uniform, he totally agreed with her.

Quietly entering Ginny's bedroom, Draco closed the door and stripped out of his bloody clothes. Washing off the rest of the blood off his body in bathroom and making sure that all his bandages stayed dry, he put on a pair of pyjama bottoms and got under the covers. Gently pushing Ginny's hair away from her face, he woke his wife up with a kiss. Ginny opened her eyes to find her husband, smiling down at her.

"Draco, is that you?" she whispered, praying that it was not just her imagination; that her husband was back.

"It's me Ginny. I'm back," he replied, cupping her face gently. He bent down and brushed his lips against hers. Happy tears trickled down her face as Ginny responded to the kiss and wrapped her arms around him.

"I was afraid that I would never see you again. I am so glad you are back. I love you Draco. I love you so much."

"I promised you that I'll come back and I did. If I can help it, I don't ever want to leave you ever again." Draco unclasped the chain around his neck and took the two gold bands from it. He slipped the smaller one onto Ginny's finger and Ginny slipped the other onto his. Kissing Ginny one more time, he wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes. A smile played on his lips as he drifted off to sleep in the arms of the woman he loves.