A/N: don't own don't sue

The lyrics at the beginning are from 'As Long As You're Mine' from the Wicked Soundtrack

Only one more chapter left I'm afraid. I'm sorry it's taken so long to update but my exams start next week so I've been busy blowing up my brain trying to store some of the masses of information I need to remember and panicking. Thanks to all who've reviewed and as always they are replied to at the end.

Chapter Fifteen – As Long As You're Mine

Kiss me too fiercely
Hold me too tight
I need help believing
You're with me tonight
My wildest dreams
Could not foresee
Lying beside you
With you wanting me

And just for this moment
As long as you're mine
I've lost all resistance
And crossed some borderline
And if it turns out
It's over too fast
I'll make every last moment last
As long as you're mine

Maybe I'm brainless
Maybe I'm wise
But you've got me seeing
Though different eyes
Somehow I've fallen
Under your spell
And somehow I'm feeling
It's up that I fell

Every moment
As long as you're mine
I'll wake up my body
And make up for lost time

Say there's no future
For us as a pair
And though I know I may know
I don't care

Just for this moment
As long as you're mine
Come be how you want to
And see how bright we shine
Borrow the moonlight
Until it is though
And know I'll be here holding you
As long as you're mine

Ginny groaned and squirmed slightly under Draco's arm thrown over her shoulders, squinting she shuffled onto her side to avoid the harsh patch of sunlight aimed directly at her pillow through the window. Coming face to face with a sleeping Draco the events of the night before slammed into her brain so fast she had to close her eyes for a moment to regain her mental footing.

Opening her eyes again she smiled and snuggled closer to him, stretching out a hand she gently traced her fingertips over his face. She smoothed her thumb over his forehead, moving her finger down his nose and then across his closed eyelids. She ran her thumb over each of his cheekbones and down his cheeks individually and grinned at the slight stubble she encountered as her fingertips caressed the line of his jaw. Her finger was just outlining his lips and pulling down over the bottom one when he pressed a gentle kiss against it without opening his eyes.

"That is quite creepy and not the least bit endearing."

She grinned and hit his shoulder as his eyes flickered open slowly.

"Erm Ginny…"

"Mmm?"

Halfway through stretching she made a noncommittal noise at the back of her throat and arched her back; her arms stretched high above her head as she wriggled around trying to ease her aching limbs.

"We have a problem here."

The tone of his voice made her freeze and she moved into a halfway sitting position, one hand holding the cool sheet up over her chest as she studied him lying on his back staring at the ceiling.

"What's wrong?"

He reached out for her hand and brought it across to touch the scar at his navel and she winced when her hand made contact with his flesh. His skin was white-hot to the touch around the mark which itself was throbbing angrily like a separate pulse beating underneath it.

"Oh don't worry… that's not all."

Ginny shot a look at him as a curl of unease unfurled in her stomach and she swallowed against her suddenly dry throat.

"I seem to have a problem with my eyes."

Leaning forwards Ginny bit down on her lip when her gaze met his blank one; his eyes were coated in a thin glimmering white sheen. His breathing had become harsher while they had been talking and she bit down furiously on her bottom lip to prevent the tears that were threatening from falling.

"It's funny."

Her grip tightened ever so slightly on his shoulder until her nails were digging into his flesh enough to draw blood.

"I always thought I'd die alone."

She narrowed her eyes at his sense of humour and moved her hand over to push back the hair that was now dark silver with sweat and plastered to his forehead. His chest was rising and falling sharply now and she swallowed hard past the block in her throat, blinking back her tears. She was still furious with herself for not doing something more to discover from him the cure he needed.

"I should have damn well beaten it out of you." She hissed.

Well she had tried to hiss but tears clogging up her throat meant it came out as nothing more than the barest whisper.

"You know…"

She raised her head from where her gaze had been fixed on his pale skin shimmering through a thin sheen of sweat.

"I can almost… see you… you're like a brighter shadow against the rest…"

He reached out a tentative hand and touched her cheek, her freckled nose, across the top of her cheekbones before gently across her lips, thankfully just missing the tears trickling by them. She shut her eyes briefly and opened them to see his won focused on her; they seemed to have cleared a little but she didn't dare to hope. Making a quick and maybe irrational decision she wriggled across the bed away from him and pulled on a pair of tight black jeans and a green checked shirt.

"Come on."

He blinked.

"What?"

Ginny was busy thrusting his feet rather roughly into a pair of faded jeans and tugging and shoving them up his bare legs. Zipping them up but not bothering with the button she summoned a cloak and threw it around his shoulders as she pulled on a pair of battered Converse and pulled him up until he was hunched over on the bed and breathing heavily.

"We're going to see Madam Pomfrey."

She felt the look he threw at her as she rolled him towards the edge of the bed and she rolled her eyes as she half dragged half carried him across the room towards the door.

"She always managed to cure us at school, why not now?"

Taking a deep breath he staggered to his feet and pulled open the door, one hand scrabbling over the doorframe as the other bit into Ginny's shoulder for support.

"I think this is slightly more complex then anything she ever had to deal with at school; incurable curses generally are hard to cure."

Ignoring him she draped his arm over her shoulder as she helped him down the corridor towards the lift where he promptly collapsed against the wall breathing heavily. As the doors rumbled open she pulled him inside and jabbed at the Ground Floor button until the doors closed again and they began to descend.

The sound of his rushed shallow breathing and her own panting filled the confined space they had been cavorting in so carelessly not twelve hours before. She watched him as he wavered slightly before sliding down the wall of the lift onto the floor in an elegant heap; his long legs stretched out before him and his hair plastered to his head with sweat.

"It's hot."

Suddenly exhausted she slumped to the floor as well and crawled across the carpet towards him, unclasping the cloak and throwing it to one side before moving over until she was kneeling next to him. He let his head fall sideways against her chest and she watched as his own now bare upper torso heaved with his laboured breathing. She let her head fall back against the wall with a dull thud as her eyes fluttered closed. She jerked reflexively and let her eyes flicker open when the lift shuddered to a stop and the doors creaked open.

Gritting her teeth she manoeuvred herself until a now quite unconscious Draco was lying his back against her knees and she very carefully yet hurriedly pulled him along with her as she edged into the Front Foyer. As people came rushing from all directions towards them she hauled him against her to check his breathing and pulse, leaning forward to whisper into his ear;

"Don't you dare give up yet, I can't bring your father down alone."

Vibrantly coloured heavy swirls of mists were dancing lazily across his eyes as he fought to open them. Eventually, after what seemed like hours of struggling, he managed to lift his heavy eyelids and take in a dizzied view of a harsh white light above him, slight tendrils of the mist still curling around the edges of his vision.

When his eyes were fully open and he was seeing clearly he sat up shakily and took in his surroundings. He seemed to be in a beautiful huge room painted cream with thick bands of gold silk striping the walls at widely spaced intervals and pooling into puddles at the floor which itself was a thick white shaggy carpet long enough to touch his ankles.

The bed he was now sat in was absolutely huge even by his rich standards, the tall white posts at the corners swathed in thick swatches of cream velvet printed with gold patterns that fell to the floor and matched the heavy counterpane folded neatly at the bottom of the bed. The heavenly smooth and cool sheets were gathered at his bare waist and even his pale skin managed to look slightly brown against the blinding white brightness of his surroundings.

Pulling back the sheets he hesitantly placed his feet on the fluffy floor and got slowly to a standing position, at first clinging onto the nearest post for support but by the time he had straightened up he could let it go without wobbling. To his right was a pair of French doors, one opening up onto a balcony of wrought iron painted gold, the white silk curtains fluttered towards him on a gentle breeze and the little bit of the sky he could see was crystal blue above beautiful mountains stretching into the horizon.

Taking a step towards his left he came face to face with another half-open door. This one was dark gold and engraved with a number of spells and soothing words in hundreds of ancient languages. There was a bright light seeping underneath the door and around the crack that was open and he gently brushed his fingers against the door, it swung open silently and revealed a figure standing against a huge arched glassless window.

"You're awake."

Draco nodded unnecessarily and took a step towards what was now evident to be a female before halting, his gaze fixed on her back as she slowly turned to face him. She was quite beautiful and Draco was almost certain there was some amount of Elvish blood in her somewhere. Her flowing cream robes emphasised every curve of her slender figure and the golden detailing patterning the bodice and skirt almost exactly matched the golden flecks in her honey brown eyes.

She was smiling kindly and somewhat secretively at him, her long auburn locks falling in wavy tendrils down to her waist and in two thick locks over her chest. Fresh flowers were entwined into the tiny Elvish braids that littered her hair and a golden band circled her snowy white forehead and trailed beaded silver strands down into her hair.

"Where am I?"

He felt cheeky for asking such a question which only puzzled him further; he had every right to want to know where he was. She stretched out a hand towards him and he took a cautious step forwards, and another until he was standing next to her with her extended arm just behind his shoulders and her other pointing out of the window and towards the view.

As far as he could see there were mountains so high their snow-topped peaks disappeared into the clouds, fields reached from the grounds of the building he was in to checkerboard all the way over to the mountains. Herds of animals, both magic and Muggle filled them and were all grazing happily as curving streams bubbled along through the ground. It was an amazing sight and yet it didn't please Draco in any way.

"Please, where am I?"

It was the closest he would ever go to begging yet it seemed to be enough for the mysterious woman still gazing out over the view.

"Don't worry child, you are not dead."

Relief washed over him briefly before confusion returned and he wrinkled his perfectly smooth brow at her.

"You are in the Holding."

He continued to watch her with confusion creasing his features until she sighed and explained.

"You are not dead, but you are hardly living either. Luckily for you, you're going to what you know as Heaven."

He blinked at her.

"This is where those waiting to go to Heaven and yet aren't ready to cross over make their decision. If you stay in a few days you can pass through but if you choose to go back for whatever reason, you may forfeit your chance to enter Heaven's gates."

Draco shrugged.

"Well it's hardly a decision to be made is it? I've lived in Hell long enough with my father I might as well finish what I promised first."

She smiled at him then, not only with her lips but with her entire face; her eyes flashing as she looked him over and he was suddenly reminded of Ginny.

"Very well."

Taking a quick glance around the place Draco hoped he would remember it later on; he had a feeling he would need a calm soothing place to mentally disappear to sometime in the very near future. Glancing back at the girl he was surprised to see she had moved much closer towards him her nose almost touching his and her eyes boring into his face.

Her lips met his so quickly he had trouble figuring out what had happened before he was roughly pulled away from the peaceful tranquillity of the Holding even faster and harder than a Portkey. He slammed back into his body as though he had dropped off the top of a skyscraper and all the pain he had been free of feeling in his semi-dead state came hurtling back as though he'd stepped in front of an express train.

"Draco! Draco!"

Added to the pain was now a tangle of limbs thrown at him and slowly but surely squeezing all the air out of his body.

"Ginny… Ginny!"

Hearing him gasping out her name she finally released her grip on him and sat back on her haunches from where she was straddling his legs.

"You're alive."

He nodded, a trembling hand smoothing his throat where there were harsh red marks from the grip of her hug.

"It appears so."

Ripping back the covers she ran her hands over the scar on his stomach that was now back to its normal semi-healed state.

"And you're alright?"

He considered for a moment before deciding nothing was life-threatening and nodding his head.

"Besides having no feeling in my legs, not being able to move them and a splitting headache without the fun of actually being hammered the night before I'm fine."

A startled look crossed her face as she scrambled off his legs and poked them thoughtfully with a cautious finger.

"Why can't you feel or move your legs?"

He rolled his eyes and struggled to a sitting up position, for the first time noticing he was in a very floral room. The walls were pale yellow and covered in blue flowers with a matching blue carpet and yellow plastic wicker furniture, the bed he was lying in was made up with very pale blue sheets spotted with huge yellow poppies.

"Because, my darling, you were sitting on them."

She flushed and scowled at him, punching his arm and sliding off the bed feeling thoroughly sorry she had bothered being glad he was alive. As the two were sat in amicable silence Madam Pomfrey bustled into the room carrying a steaming potion and not looking quite as strict as he remembered in a pale green dress spotted with white polka dots and a rather frilly white apron.

"Now Mr Malfoy, drink all this then back to sleep for a few hours and you should be fit to leave tomorrow morning as long as you keep taking your potion every three hours… do NOT forget to take it or I imagine I'll be seeing you again very soon."

She spoke so fast and had already shoved the neck of the potion bottle into his mouth that he couldn't reassure her he would as he was too busy trying to swallow the potion down as it burned his mouth and throat.

"I'll expect you to be looking after him, Miss Weasley. As I recall you were top of your class at Pre-Medi Personnel Training."

Ginny flushed and nodded; carefully taking from her the crate of potions she was levitating and shrinking them into her pocket. After being thanked again Madam Pomfrey left the room, carefully closing the door behind her. Ginny turned back to Draco who was feeling drowsy and had dropped back against the mountain of frilly pillows.

"Draco we thought you were dead."

He had a great deal of trouble focusing his eyes on her as she stared fixedly at the bedspread.

"For a while I was."

His voice was thick with exhaustion and he had to fight hard to keep his eyes from drooping.

"You came back."

He only just caught her whisper and it took every ounce of his strength to force his hand to creep across the bed to squeeze hers slightly. She clung onto it and leaned forward to listen to his own whispered words before the potion took effect and he was asleep.

"Can't expect you to face my father alone again can I?"

im no muggle – Glad you liked it

bigreader – Glad you did, I want one of those Draco's! It's my birthday next month can't I have one!

Nickel – Thank you very much I'm glad people understand the need for random bits of fun in a fic

Lina – Thank you

lostfish – Thank you very much only one more update after this and then I can get started on my new story

SetOnFire – Thank you. It was Italian not Latin but I was so tired I couldn't be bothered checking it when I posted

Erica – Thanks a lot I love writing

Writerofdarkness6 – Here's your update, I'm glad you liked it

Mina – I know I know but I was listening to Marilyn Manson's album and it came on as I was writing it so I didn't think to put the right name lol I did make the incantation up was it that bad lol I'm glad you like it so much

Calla-ForEvEa – I do love America and hopefully, fingers crossed, shall be moving there eventually lol here's your update