They say every cloud has a silver lining…

"Casey, I am sorry. I am really, really sorry!" apologized Neville as he led Ginny to the Hospital tent. She shook her head as she clung to her eye, wincing at the pain.

"It's alright Nev. I know you didn't mean it mate!" She took her hand off her head to reveal the swelling over her right eye. She smiled slightly at Neville who winced at her.

"Bloody Malfoy," he grumbled. "He scared me. I didn't mean to hit you directly in the eye."

"I said don't worry about it," Ginny said as she gingerly touched her eye. "It will heal."

"Sodding git!" Ginny nodded as Neville began to call Draco names that made even her blush. After a few more comments were made, she cut him off.

"You going home for break?" she inquired.

He only shrugged. "I think so, that is if Susan will have me."

She laughed. "Is she your girl?" Even though Ginny already knew that Neville and Susan Bones had been together since graduation, it was fun to ask.

"Yea, a real looker too. But we had a row the other day," he sighed sadly.

The redhead furrowed her brow. "You see her?"

"No. She sent me a howler but you all were at dinner when I got it." He turned bright red. "It seems I got shirty with her in the last letter, and she wasn't too happy about it." Ginny laughed a bit before wincing due to her eye.

"What about you Case? You heading home?"

"Nah, me mum is going to visit my sister. So I am staying here this break."

"Ah…a whole 3 days away from Malferret!" said Neville with a smile. She only snorted as they entered the tent. Colin was already standing at the door as they entered. He gave her a knowing smile as she sat down on one of the beds.

"Creevey…" started the other man.

The Healer shook his head and sighed. "I know…he's here …again."

"Belt up, Colin," said Ginny as she lay down on the bed, trying to stop the little stars that appeared before her eyes. She closed her good eye slowly with a sigh and rested.

"What happened this time?" he inquired of Neville as he went to get the ice pack.

The other solider sighed. "It's all Malfoy's fault. We were doing some combat training. Me and Caché decided to fight against each other. So, we were doing some dodging practices when Malfoy came out of nowhere scaring the shite out of me and I hit Casey right in the eye," he shook his head in apology. "I am sorry…"

"Its fine Neville," Ginny sighed. "Besides, you gave me one hell of a right hook."

Colin snickered from the back. "That's all Longbottom. He'll be out by dinner," replied the Healer as he returned with an ice pack. He walked over to Ginny and placed it gently on her eye, winking at her quickly and turned back to Neville.

"Good, see you later Case," Neville said with a nod.

"Longbottom," said Ginny offhandedly as he walked out the door. After it was shut, she sat up and smiled at Colin who was just staring at her. "What?" she asked in her normal voice. He just furrowed his brow.

"It's so weird," he said staring at her oddly.

She tilted her head. "What's so weird?"

"You," Colin said bluntly.

She furrowed her brow. "Me?" she shook her head and sighed. "Well, I guess I am pretty weird…"

"No, it's not that." He sat next to her on the hospital bed. "What I mean is that it's you, beautiful Ginny Weasley, under that man suit."

"It's not a suit. It's really a simple spell," she shrugged her shoulders as she took off the ice pack. She got up from the bed and looked at herself at a near by mirror. She sighed and let her arms drop to the side as she stared at herself.

"I sometimes miss being Ginny Weasley," she said inaudibly, as Colin stared at her.
"Sometimes… I really miss Draco…"

"Gin?" asked Colin, coming behind her and wrapping his arms around her. "Why don't you take that face off…just for a little while?"

She shook her head fervently. "?And risk someone like Potter coming in here? I am not risking a damn thing," she sighed. "Why should I anyway?"

"I don't know. It is so odd hearing your voice and not seeing you. I haven't seen you in a fortnight."

She sighed and ruffled her short hair a bit. "I know, but I don't want someone walking in…"

"How do you do it?" interrupted Colin, shaking his head at her.

She shrugged. "Do what?"

"IT!" he said holding her shoulders.

She sighed. "Well, when a man and a woman love each other…"

Colin pushed her lightly. "Not that!" he laughed. "I mean pretending to be Casey! How do they not…know you're a woman!"

She sighed. "It's hard," she replaced the eye pack and sighed walking towards the bed and flopped onto it. "When I first got here I was up until two in the morning every night making sure no one would see that I didn't have the…um…necessary parts." She stopped and thought. "I remember, I was trying to change my pants one day and Davies walked in. I fell to the ground and put on my pants so quickly, I almost broke my leg!"

"What did he do?"

"He looked at me and asked if he was interrupting my…alone time." She shivered with disgust. "Then he asked if he could watch," she laughed nervously. "I think he was kidding…"

Colin snorted and shook his head, "I know when I was in Hogwarts we used to see each other without clothes on all the time, by accident of course. But when it happens, they don't even suspect you…?"

"They don't," asssured Ginny. "It's hard, it really is."

"How about taking a shower?"

She smiled. "I take my alone thanks."

"No, how do you do it without any of these blokes seeing you?"

"I get up at five in the morning and take my showers so no one gets to see my private spots." The redheaded woman then crossed her arms over her chest. "Which reminds me, that night... when you found out …you had to take off the tape off me."

Colin went crimson. "Y-yea…?"

"Did you seethem?" she questioned gesturing to her chest.

He smiled crudely. "I thought you were someone else…I had to do it! It was my duty and…"

"Pleasure," she said, slapping him upside the head. Then she laughed a bit and smiled. "I will give you this one pardon, but if I ever catch you…"

"When you are Casey, believe me…" he sneered, "thinking about snogging you is the last thing on my mind!"

She smiled. "I bet."

There was a bit of silence between the two as Ginny laid back down, putting the magical ice pack on her eye. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Merlin how she missed Draco at this time. She missed him everyday, but talking to Colin about things that were…sexually suggestive…made her miss him even more. Not that she and Draco had sex like rabbits, but when they did, it was always something special. She rolled her head a bit and looked out the small window. She could see Draco talking to Harry about things she didn't really care about. Ginny knew that the two were going to the Burrow for vacation and she envied them. While they got to go eat her mother's pie and sleep in warm beds, she had to stay in camp and be unhappy. She opened her eyes and looked at Colin. At least she had a friend by her side, and at the moment that was all she needed.

"Ginny?" started Colin, taking her out of her thoughts. "Have you finished that letter to your mum?" She gave him back the ice pack and shrugged. "What? I thought you started it?"

"I started it," Ginny said thoughtfully, "and finished it. But I can't Colin. I just can't send it to her."

"Gin," he said ruffling her hair tenderly. She sighed. "She is your mum. I know for a fact she misses you more than you will ever know."

"I'm sure she does," the young woman said sarcastically. "I am sure she is so worried about me!"

"Ginny, you're being unfair…"

"Unfair?" she questioned. "How am I being unfair? I've done nothing…"

"You left," he told her sternly, "and that was enough."

"Then how come I don't see this huge search party?" she snapped, pushing her friend away. "How come no one came looking for me? If you claim they miss me so bloody much, how come Draco is here and not wandering the world in search of me?" Creevey looked at her knowingly, with a raised brow. "I can't imagine them missing me. They seem to be doing fine at the moment."

"Listen to your self Gin," began the man, shaking his head. "Do you know how bloody stupid you sound? Of course they miss you! Maybe you were too busy trying to run from us, but we were ordered to stop the search." Ginny looked up with sad eyes and looked out the window once more. "Malfoy spent the first month trying to drink you away." He sighed, hating himself for telling her this. It would only make her love the man more. "And then he spent another month looking for you. He would spend days away in Merlin only knew where. It wasn't until Dumbledore and your mum found him did they make him come to the camp."

"I…" she rubbed her arms, "I didn't know."

"Of course you didn't," he said simply, "because you were the one running away from it."

Ginny sat looking out the window once more. She hated it when Colin made good points. She rolled her head back and closed her eyes. She knew he mother missed her. She felt it with every fiber of her being. Her entire family missed her and she should write. It would be only right. At least they would now she was alive. Ginny did intend on returning to the Burrow after all of this was over. She looked at Colin with a sad expression and reached into her back pocket. She pulled out some parchment and handed it to him. He smiled wearily at her.

"I will use my owl," he said simply. "It will be there by Saturday afternoon."

"Draco will be there," the redhead said with out thinking. "Maybe he will miss me too."

The man tried to hide the sneer in his face and nodded. "He already does."

Molly Weasley looked out of her kitchen widow to the rolling hills just beyond her house. The gray clouds were slowly coming towards her home, rain hidden deep with in them. There were patches of blue scattered throughout the sky, as the sun would shine a few rays on the earth. The lush grass was damp with the previous rain, as the trees blew harshly in the wind. She listened to the rustling of the trees rather than the commotion in her home. She was entranced by the sway of the branches and the swing that was attached to them. A tear dripped down her face.

The woman remembered when she would stand at this very window, with the same dishes, the same sudsy water on her hands, and watch her little princess out by the tree. She would sit there for hours playing with bugs, climbing the trees, and swinging on the lone swing. Sometimes her brothers would come and play with her. Molly would watch carefully, afraid that the boys would play too hard. Yet Ginny didn't care. When they pushed her to the ground by accident, she would jump up and begin to punch them back, and Molly would laugh.

As dusk would come, Ginny would run in the house, face flushed, hands and dress dirty, and would stand next to her mother, looking at her expectantly. That was when Molly would teach her something new. Whether it was how to bake a pie or put away the dishes properly, the small redhead loved to learn it all. At dinner, she and Ginny would set the table and place the food in front of the ravenous bunch of men. A pie was usually baked with those meals, and whenever Molly made a peach pie, she always made a small blueberry one just for Ginny, who was allergic to peach. Afterward, she and Ginny would go sit on the couches as the boys put away the dishes.

As the years waned on, Molly still watched, even as her hair grew gray and her face showed wear. Ginnywould sit under the tree and play with bugs, swing on the swing, and punch her bothers whenever they got in her way. Then Ginny would come in and help Molly cook dinner. Even when Draco had one day popped into the picture, and Ginny no longer sat by the tree alone, but with him by her side, Molly didn't care, because Ginny was still her daughter. She was still her little princess.

Molly looked away from the window as the rain began pouring down and finished with the dishes. She wiped her eyes furiously as the tears came down like the rain outside. She told her heart to stop wishing that Ginny would walk through the back door and help her with the dishes, because she was simply gone.

Molly looked to her left to see Draco staring at her. She smiled warmly at the man she had taken in as her own son. He didn't smile back, only looked blankly at her. After a few moments she realized that he wasn't looking at her, but just like she had been doing only moment ago, going over a life they wished they still had. His glass of pumpkin juice was held tightly in his hand as his icy gray eye stared at nothing. Molly turned back to her dish washing and sighed.

"How are you Draco?" she asked while looking at her family in the living room. He didn't reply right away.

"I don't know," he said simply, stepping closer to her.

She furrowed her brow. "That bad?"

Malfoy shrugged. "I don't know."

"It's ok," Molly replied simply, putting her dishes away in the cupboards. "Things always get better."

"But they also have to get worse before they do," he sighed heavily and drank from his cup, "and I don't want it to Molly. I don't."

"Sometimes it's for the best, you know this." She looked into his steely gray eyes and saw pain. She sighed at him and then back towards the window. The rain kept coming.

"I am so tired Molly," he whispered almost inaudibly. "I am so tired of missing her."

"I know," she replied, looking at him with sympathy.

He ran a hand through his blond hair. "Sometimes it seems she is so close, I can feel it! I swear I can."

"I feel the same," the red-haired woman told him. "But Draco, you have to…"

"I will not move on," he told her bitterly.

She shook her head. "I don't want you to move on," she said a bit sternly. "I want you to remember what's important now. That is training. I know you miss her, I miss her too. But we have responsibilities."

"Bullocks to that," Draco said quietly.

Molly only turned away.

"Grandma!" called a small voice from the corner.

Molly looked up as Isis Weasley padded her way into the kitchen, holding her hands up. Molly picked up Bill's girl and gave her a kiss on the cheek. The little blond leaned in and gave Molly kisses of her own and smiled.

"Isis, where is your daddy?" asked Molly as she sat down at the already set table with her. She shrugged. "Your mummy?" She pointed to the living room where Fleur was talking adamantly with the very pregnant Hermione, obviously sharing pregnancy secrets.

The grandmother smiled at the littler girl and sent her on her way back towards her mother. She felt Draco come up behind her and sigh.

"I'm sorry," he told her softly.

She shook her head and patted his hand that was on her shoulder. "It's ok Draco."

"No it's not," the blond said sadly. "Nothing is ok."

Molly sighed. "When I first married Arthur," she started, looking at her family with adoration, "we were quite wealthy." She looked up to see humor in Draco's eyes. "Yes my boy, it's true, we were." She breathed in heavily, and smiled. "But then as years passed, it started dwindling away. My mother died and my father fell ill. And for some reason, unknown to us, we fell into huge debt. I remember, just after Ron was born, I took him to my father and let him hold him. My dad told me, or more like Ron, that no matter what happens every cloud has a silver lining," Molly smiled. "Then we had Ginny."

"So what are you saying?" he asked a bit bluntly. "Where is that silver lining, Molly? You were in debt and very poor up until a few years ago…"

"But we had each other, Draco," she told him softly. "That's what mattered, that was our silver lining. We had each other, and the little girl Arthur dreamed about since the day we were married. Yes, we were very poor but knowing that we had each other was enough." She shook her head. "Knowing that you have a family that loves you now Draco, wasn't it worth waiting for?"

"Yes," he replied softly.

"See? There is a silver lining to everything. My family and the love we had was mine."

Draco sighed and looked at Molly with saddened gray eyes. "And Ginny was mine."

All of a sudden there came a strong shake and a boom. The house went quite as wands were drawn out. There was silence for a few moments and then came the sound of a pack of animals bounding down the stairs. In less than eight seconds, Harry Potter ran down the steps, soot on his face, and smiled warily. Next came Ron, who ended up right behind Harry on the steps. He waved to Hermione. Then George, who bounded down and nearly missed toppling over Ron. He bit his lip and shrugged.

"IT IS ALIVE!" cried a voice from the top of the steps. The three boys looked at each other and smiled and then back to the family. Again another man, this time Fred, came down the steps and collided with George, who took Ron down, who took Harry to the bottom of the steps. Molly ran towards them and kicked them each in the leg.

"You all better have a good excuse why you scared Hermione and Fleur to DEATH!"

Ron then shot up and ran to Hermione who was holding her stomach tightly and he kissed her on the cheek as she swatted him in the head.

"You see mum," started Fred, standing up and dusting himself off. "We have just…"

"Well…"

"Created…"

"Yes…"

"OWL!" shouted Isis pointing towards the window. They all looked to see a hazel barn owl hovering outside in the cold. Molly gave Fred a nasty look and ran to open the window, taking the note from its leg. Without a hesitation, it hooted loudly and took off at top speed into the dark sky.

"You four better thank Merlin this note came," she growled as she opened the letter addressed to her, "or else I just mi…" She stopped as she saw the curvy handwriting on the parchment. Her eyes went glassy and her mind went blank as she sat at the first chair she found. She gulped audibly and began to read aloud.

Mum,

I know you all must think me the most naive and…horrible person, but I'm not. I had no choice. You raised me to be someone…anyone I wanted, and to never let anything stand in my way, even something like Tom Riddle. I would have been miserable sitting there day in and day out, waiting for something to happen. I make things happen mum, I don't wait for them. I need you to know that I am all right, and that I think about you and the family every moment of the day.

These last five months have been the hardest and most grueling times in my life, but I have pulled through. I am making myself someone I want to be. I work hard, I do my best, even when people try to bring me down, or the overwhelming thoughts of how I left you all behind come over me. I think that this is what I was born to do. I was born to be on my own, maybe not an Auror like I wanted, but someone better. I am content with where I am, I know this is for me, and I just want you to know that I don't regret anything I have done or will do while I am on my own.

I love you, dad, all my brothers, my sisters-in-law and the kids. Sometimes I wish that I could walk through the doors of the Burrow and be with you, but I know I can't. I am not weak, nor will I ever be. It was Harry who taught me that it doesn't matter if the world or my family abandons me, I am not weak, and I will get right back up.

I love you all.

And to Draco…tell him…that no matter what he does…or how he acts…I still love him more than life itself.

Ginny

Ginny let her ink soaked quill fall to the desk rubbing her hand in pain. She rubbed her neck with her inky fingers and looked toward the ceiling. She sighed as she looked at the two feet of parchment and blew on it softy, making sure it wouldn't smudge when she rolled it up. Picking up her quill once more, the young woman wrote her alias in very sloppy handwriting, signaling the end of the essay. She sighed.

"Malfoy is such a tosser," she said to a busy Colin, who was brewing some potion or another. Once again her eyes were drawn to the small window that faced the rolling green hills of the Northumberland countryside. How she wished she could just go out and get lost in the sea of green, like she used to when she was young. Ginny wanted to hide in the big oak trees that were few and far between, and stay there, waiting for Draco to one day come and take her back to the Burrow.

The young woman rolled her eyes at her own girlish fantasies. She highly doubted that Draco would come for her; she knew how he liked to hold grudges. That was one thing that bothered Ginny the most, when the war was over and all was said and done, would she tell Draco that she was the very person he hated? Could she look him in the eye and see the same adoration and love after he knew that it had been her in camp, and fighting in the war? She scoffed a bit, thinking that even as Draco Malfoy had changed, he hadn't changed that much. If he still hated Harry after all these years, he would certainly hate Ginny for the deception of a lifetime.

"Draco," she whispered with out thinking. Ginny rubbed her pale face and shook her head. Merlin she couldn't miss him this much.

Her mind began to think about what he could be doing at the moment. Most likely he was at the Burrow, sitting next to her mother and talking about the weather and whatnot. Molly would give him extra servings of cherry pie. Draco loved cherries and he would eat it as if it was his last meal. They would then sit on the couch and he would gripe about anything and everything that went wrong, or was going wrong in his life. He always liked to do what with her mother. It was funny; there were times that her mother knew what was going on in their relationship even more so than Ginny did. She always shrugged it off. Draco was her mother's favorite out of all the adopted sons; it used to be Harry that was until all the… unpleasantness. Even though both of the boys were left orphaned, Molly seemed to hold Draco closer than anything else.

"Gin?" called Colin, taking her out of her thoughts, "Can you hand me those lace wings?" The young redhead sighed and walked over to the table, collecting the wings in a small pile and taking them over to Colin. She set them next to his cauldron and looked inside curiously. He brushed her away. "No peeking!" he told her teasingly. She sighed and rolled her eyes, not really caring what he was brewing. She never liked potions too much.

"I'm hungry," she said off-handedly, taking a seat behind him. He added a few lacewings and nodded.

"That's nice."

"I'm bored."

"I hear you."

"I'm randy."

"Me too."

Ginny snorted and continued to look about the office with an uninterested eye. "You need some pictures or paintings or …something in here. Too much white can blind a person."

"Yes well, our dear Malferret wouldn't let me. Apparently having a personality is out of the question with him," he scoffed. "I hate the git."

"Well, you're not the only one," Ginny said with a bored expression.

He looked at her curiously. "So... does that mean you actually hate him?"

She looked at him quickly and shook her head. "Never," the young woman said simply. "I love him too much…"

"We can stop there," Colin interrupted, looking back to his potions. Ginny didn't reply, only looked away, "Gin?"

"Hmm…"

"Why does your mum like Malfoy so much?"

Ginny furrowed her bow as she looked at him. "Huh?"

"Well, while you had…gone on your little mission, I spent some time at the Burrow."

"So?" she asked, with a nervous laugh. "Lots of people do."

"Yes, I do realize that love, but my question was: your mum spent a lot of time with him. Why?"

Ginny only shrugged. "Who knows," Colin furrowed his brow at her. "I am completely serious. It's not that my mother just decided one day to love him…"

"So…she didn't like him, even when you first started dating?"

Ginny shook her head. "When he first came to dinner, my mum wouldn't even eat with him," she chuckled. "That made for a happy Christmas!"

"Oh… so what changed?"

"The war," Ginny said simply. Colin was going to ask more when the door to the office opened. The two stood up to see who or what was coming in with a medical ailment. However, neither of them was expecting the person to walk in.

"Commander Potter," said Ginny, now in Casey mode.

He waved her off. "Wanna go for that pint?" he asked.

Ginny looked at Colin who shrugged and gave Harry a smirk.

"I guess," she replied, standing up. Harry nodded his head and turned on his heel. Ginny looked at Colin who waved to her. She grabbed her robe and left the hospital without another word.