"Hermione, we have to do it!"

"But Ginny, we don't know what effect it will have on him."

"It doesn't matter. If we don't do it, he's got no chance at all of being more than a vegetable lying in this bed."

"Not yet Ginny. Let's wait a while longer."

Pain. Darkness.

"Draco? Can you hear me? I love you Draco, please come back to me."

A feeling of floating. Darkness again.

"Narcissa, you have to know what I did."

"I do know dear. You killed him."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. He would have killed you. And he almost did kill my son."

Killed who? Sudden stabbing pain. Oh, make it go away! Drifting back into the inky black depths.

"Now Hermione."

"Are you sure Ginny?"

"Yes, I am. It's the only chance he's got."

Draco awoke to blinding light. 'My God' he thought, 'when did the sun get so bright.' As his eyes adjusted he looked around. He wasn't in his tent. He wasn't in the field. He was in a bed in a sterile looking white room. There was a strange woman in a nurse's robes dozing in a chair beside him.

Suddenly he remembered. Being in the clearing with Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. Voldemort and Death eaters. Potter crumpling to the ground. Dementors. Ron Weasley falling. Then...his father. He remembered falling to the ground in pain and Ginny coming running into the clearing. Standing between him and his father. His father saying he was going to kill them both. Ginny! Oh Dear God! Where was Ginny?

Sitting up abruptly, he winced at the sharp pain that went through his head. "GINNY!" he bellowed. "GINNY!"

The nurse beside him jumped up from her slumber. "Mr. Malfoy, your awake! We've been so worried-"

She stopped abruptly as Draco swung his legs over the side of the bed, sliding to the edge to rise.

"Oh no, Mr. Malfoy! You can't get up. Not yet! Please-"

"Get off me!" he snapped at the nurse, pushing her roughly away from him when she tried to bustle him back into the bed.

The nurse ran out the door as Draco put his bare feet on the cold floor of the hospital room. He stood momentarily, and swayed with the wave of dizziness and nausea that washed over him. He reached his hand out to the bed to steady himself. If he were hurt this bad, he could only imagine what had happened to Ginny. He prayed she wasn't dead.

The nurse returned with two large orderlies. "Mr. Malfoy, you have to go back to bed sir. You've been very ill. You're only going to make yourself worse if you try to get up. Don't make me force you sir." Said one of the orderlies, looking quite large enough to do it.

"I wouldn't try that if I were you." Draco said, glaring at him. "I want to know where medi-witch Ginny Weasley is. I want to know right now!"

The burly orderlies ignored his tirade and advanced on him. As they dragged him back to his bed, he struggled, but his efforts were weak, and he could do no more than continue to shout, "GINNY! GINNY!"

Down the hall, a nurse rushed into the small rest area where Ginny was sleeping on a cot.

"Medi-witch Weasley-"she started then stopped seeing Ginny was already up and pulling on her robes.

"Yes Coral, I hear him. I'm coming!" Ginny said, brushing past the nurse and running down the hall as a voice bellowed out once again.

"GINNY!"

Flinging the door to Draco's room open, Ginny flew into the room as the two large orderlies lifted Draco forcibly back into the bed.

"Draco! Draco! Calm down, I'm here! I'm here!" she said pushing past the men to the one in the bed.

Draco felt his heart rate slow down. She was standing in front of him. She was alive. She wrapped her arms around his head and pulled it to her chest.

"Ginny, oh dear God, I thought you might be dead. I remembered Father, and you standing there. He didn't hurt you did he?" he said, muffled against her breasts.

"No, he didn't hurt me. He hurt you though. Very badly. We didn't know if you were going to make it back to the land of the living or not." She said, kissing the top of his head while thinking, oh thank you, thank you, thank you God.

Draco raised his head and looked at her. "What about the others? Ron? Potter?"

"Ron was fine. Just exhausted. You saved his life Draco. Another second and that dementor would have had him. Hermione is so grateful. She's been here everyday, trying to help you get well. She wants you to be the baby's godfather." Ginny said, smiling. "Harry's ok too. He had to stay in the hospital a few days, but he's out now."

"A few days? How long have I been out? A week?" he frowned when Ginny just looked at him. "Two? Three? How long?"

"Draco, you've been in a coma for three months." She said.

Draco looked at her incredulously. "Three months! You mean I've missed the trial?"

"What trial?"

"Well Father's of course! I know they didn't just let him go. Not after that final battle he masterminded. Did they send him to Azkaban? Is mother ok?" Draco fired off at her.

"Draco, "she said, taking his hand. "I don't know how to tell you this.... Your father is dead."

"Dead? What happened? Who killed him?" he asked.

Ginny bit her lip. "I killed him Draco. He was standing there, hurting you. He wouldn't stop. He was going to kill you. He told me so. And then he was going to kill me. So I threw an unforgivable at him. It was all I could do. You were lying there on the ground... and I thought you were already dead..." she said, hiding her face in her hands.

"Tell me what happened?" he asked.

"Well, I'd been out on the field tending to the wounded when Bill came to me and told me he couldn't find you or Ron or Harry. I went looking. You know what happened to you. I came up just before Harry defeated Voldemort. I couldn't break though the barrier that had been put up at first. When I finally got through, Lucius already had you in the Cruciatus curse, and I stepped between you. I don't think he thought I actually had the guts to do anything, or else I'd have never had a chance. Then after.... I thought you were dead and I succumbed to a fit of hysterics. "She looked a bit shamefaced but went on, "Bill heard me and came running. When he saw you all lying there, he took off back to the field. Poppy Pomfrey had gotten my message that we needed help and He came back with Cho Chang and two other couriers. They flew you back here, to St Mungo's. The ministry called me on the carpet, for sending all the wounded in like that, on broomstick and dragon, with no cloaking spells. Fortunately Poppy stood up for me, and of all people, Snape. They're still trying to catch up with all the muggles that saw that day."

Draco looked at her in amazement. This small red haired woman, the gentlest person he knew, had mustered up the strength to face Lucius Malfoy. For him. She had risked her life, rushing to stand between him and certain death and face it herself. After he had given her the silent treatment for months because she wouldn't obey him. Draco felt as he often felt, that he didn't deserve this woman's love. He crushed her to him.

Stroking her hair he said. "I'm sorry Ginny. You shouldn't have had to go through that. I am so sorry."

Ginny took her hands away from her face and wound her arms around Draco's neck. "Why are you sorry. I should be telling you how sorry I am for killing you're father. I'm sorry Draco. I wish I hadn't had to."

"No! Don't you be sorry. You've saved my life. You've given me a chance to live. If you hadn't killed him, he'd have killed me, and then you too. Don't be sorry Ginny."

"But he was still you're father." She said.

"My father went away a long time ago. I don't know who the man that was left was." Draco said.

"You're mother said the same thing." Ginny replied.

"Mother? Is she alright. I've been so worried about her. I haven't heard anything since we went in the field." Draco asked.

"She's fine. You're father found some way to confine her to the manor. When I...when he died, the spell broke and she came straight here. She's only just left earlier tonight. She'll be back in the morning. She's been here everyday, just like Hermione, and Harry, and Bill, and Professor Snape, all checking on you, waiting for you to wake up. Even Ron has come by Draco." Ginny said, grinning.

"I guess a bloke only has to almost die for him to thaw a bit, aye?"

Ginny grinned again and told him, "He says he still doesn't like you but he won't object if you live."

Draco chuckled, and then winced. "Ow. It hurts to laugh."

Ginny got up and went to the table beside the bed. "That's because you've been sleeping for so long. And the best way to cure it is to go back to sleep. Only this time, you'll wake up in a few hours instead of a few months. Here, take this."

He took the foul smelling concoction she handed him and complained. "I don't want to go back to sleep. I've been sleeping! I want to know what I've missed!" but he swallowed the potion, which tasted just as foul as it smelled, anyway.

As he settled back in the bed, he beckoned Ginny close and held up the blanket. "Stay with me?"

Ginny climbed in beside him willingly. "Just wait till you find out what Hermione and I have done to you while you've been sleeping. The perfect Guinea Pig you were."

Groggily Draco said. "Don't tell me you let that mudblood use muggle medicine on me while I was defenseless."

"Ok, I won't tell you." Ginny chuckled.

"I love you Princess." He said, curling up to her back, relishing her warmth.

"I love you knight." She said.

"Mmmm, say it again please." He said, burying his face in her hair.

"I love you, I love you, I love you.... Draco? Are you asleep?"