Chapter Twelve

Draco woke up at 5 o'clock am by instinct and gave himself a few moments to get his bearings. Ginny's soft breathing against his bare chest sent tingles down his spine, and for once, pure happiness coursed through him. Memories of the previous night flooded Draco's mind, making the room seemingly hot again. He looked down at Ginny sleeping, his red-haired angel in his arms love swelled in his chest, abandoning all else. How he would die for this woman.

Draco wouldn't have minded looking at Ginny for hours on end, but he couldn't. It was fifteen minutes later when Ginny stirred. She was completely naked except for the covers and her new ring.

"Morning sunshine," murmured Draco, smiling as he played with her hair.

"Getting up sucks," replied Ginny, being stupid.

"Oh what? Just because you have to see my beautiful face in the morning," retorted Draco, acting offended.

"That's the reason," replied Ginny softly, which caught Draco by surprise. A moment of pause, then the two leant in for the kiss.

After the kiss, Ginny fell quiet, as she leant against Draco, listening to the rain outside. Never had she been so content. Finally Draco broke the silence.

"Ginny, I need to tell you about the ring. You might think, it's weird. I managed to get a ring while we're in the middle of basically no where. But the ring you have now, belonged to my mother. That was her first engagement ring." Taking a breath, Draco continued, "her fiancé, Michael Winterbry was her true love, but he was killed, murdered by my father. So he could marry my mother without interference. That ring meant so much to her, and she's told me, so many times. It means a lot to me, and…" but Draco got cut short when Ginny gave him a short but tender kiss, showing she understood completely. She didn't have to say anymore, just being with Draco showed her appreciation.

The minutes ticked by until Ginny said "I'm really loving this, you know, being with you. It just feels so right. I wish I could wake up to you every morning."

Alarmed, Draco replied saying "what? Why? We are still partners you know, there's nothing you can do about that."

"Draco, please, I know. But I'm going to have to organise it with Diggity so we aren't partners anymore. I just can't concentrate while you're there, you know that," said Ginny regretfully, slipping under the covers more. She wasn't too sure of how Draco would take it. Draco joined her, holding her tight.

"Shit, you're right. I'd still rather be with you though. The fact you're going to be paired up with some other guy is going to annoy me to no end."

"Oh fucking hell Draco, I'm going to be over the bloody moon you're going to be sharing a small tent with some other 'hot chick.' But it just wouldn't work any other way. I've been thinking about it."

"You thought of that, just then?" asked Draco, quirking his brow. Ginny shivered involuntarily, she loved it when Draco quirked his brow. It made him so, attractive… sexy.

"Yeah," whispered Ginny, getting sick of the topic. She began trailing her fingers up Draco's arm and onto the nape of his neck. "But I've been thinking about our engagement so much more," finished Ginny in a much lower tone, leaning in closer to Draco's face.

To say Ginny Weasley turned Draco on was an understatement.

Ginny took the most direct route to the dorm she and Colin shared as she glanced down at her watch. She had enough time to change before breakfast which was at 8 o'clock am. When she got to dorm 36, she knocked softly on the door.

"Come in!" came Colin's muffled voice. Ginny put the key in the lock and entered the room to find Colin doing one-handed push ups. Ginny sat on the edge of her bed as she waited for him to finish his usual 150. Ginny began to get worried when Colin didn't say anything afterward. He was normally full of questions when she left for a long period of time.

"What's wrong?" asked Ginny, suspected something was wrong.

"Nothing," replied Colin, trying to appear nonchalant.

"Don't bullshit me Colin."

"I found the note." Ginny's throat went dry. Colin was meant to find out a different way. "You know I love you very much, don't you Gin? At times more than a friend." Colin said it with such straightforwardness, it unnerved Ginny.

She could only manage a meek "yes."

"Ginny! I don't know what to say! I'm surprised and a bit pissed you're not even a fucking virgin anymore! But you love the guy so much! It's just so weird! You've always told me all the other guys who wanted to screw you never had that quality. I've gotten over Malfoy and how he is viewed, but I just can't help but say all this shit! I know you know what I mean."

"Colin, I can understand completely," replied Ginny softly, which brought Colin back down to earth. "I should tell you this as well, I'm getting married."

The look on Colin's face really was quite comical. He went slack jawed, froze and his eyes went as wide as saucers. "Are you fucking serious?"

"Yes! Look at the ring!" Colin leaned in closer to inspect the piece of jewelry. He didn't seem to say anything. Ginny desperately needed him to approve. She already felt alienated enough by her family. "Colin?" asked Ginny cautiously. He had not moved or spoken for over a minute.

"Ginny, I'm really happy for you!" said Colin with a massive smile, and Ginny felt the weight lift off her shoulders. The two friends hugged happily, discussing Ginny's future.

A sullen sadness clawed at Colin though. Even though he and Ginny would never be in a relationship, it was sad to see his best friend ever be taken away, even by a decent guy like Draco. But Colin decided not to dwell on it. Ginny was still with him, they would still be friends.

"Let's go grab some brekky to celebrate Gin!" announced Colin.

During the next few days, Ginny organised to have her partner changed. She badly wanted to be with Draco, every moment with him was precious since anything could happen to them in their uncertain future, and the needed each other but they just wouldn't be able to concentrate.

She told the General how she was now engaged, and how it would be better if they had different partners and Hot-Diggity complied. This mission was important. The troops would start using tactics to combat the tighter ring of Death Eaters that were bound to be there. Wards were being set up to trap Voldemort where he was. This definitely becoming the final epic.

Ginny also talked to Ricky, manager of the communications room. She tried getting in touch with her family. She told her mother of her engagement. Molly was over the moon with happiness and excitement, and demanded that she come home for an engagement dinner. Ginny had a hard time trying to get them permission to go, and she never managed to.

The rest of Ginny's time was spent either with Colin, and making the most of her friendship or spending her little time with Draco. News of death still rolled in, which started to get to Ginny. She wouldn't know what to do if Draco died. Never had she felt so in tune with somebody, be attracted to somebody, feel like she needed somebody, love somebody and feel like she was obliged to be with them the way she did with Draco. Every night she quietly cried herself to sleep, thinking of Draco.

Ginny also devoted time to training. She worked on dueling and her fitness, and wielding Godric's sword. A lot of the time it didn't make sense Dumbledore wanted her to look after the sword. Many a time she hurled the sword at a target imagining it to be Voldemort. She never missed.

Draco was pretty much doing the same as Ginny. The pressure was being building on all of the soldiers as they knew they be back in combat soon. Burning determination created hush among everyone as they got ready to fight again.

On the eve of everyone's departure, Ginny went down to the General's office to meet her new partner. His name was Nigel and he was two years older than her. Ginny was pleased she got paired up with a pleasant person, but still yearned to spend time with Draco.

'Ah, the pains of logic,' thought Ginny as she departed the office, in the direction of Draco's dorm. As she turned the corner, she met Harry who had his face set in a stony expression.

"Harry, how are you?" asked Ginny quietly.

"Numbed. Nervous but numbed," sighed Harry. "Do you know how many people I am avenging when, if I kill Voldemort?"

"The responsibility wouldn't be better placed on anyone else."

Harry groaned. "So you're here to see Draco?"

Ginny softly replied in affirmative as Harry pushed open the door to reveal Draco lying bed, his small bag of belongings beside him. He turned his head to smile at his two favourite people. Draco being happy seemed to energise Ginny, give her new hope. "I'll just be leaving," said Harry, motioning to leave.

"Oh no, Harry, stay. I know you're tired, everyone's been bugging you about shit," said Draco, getting up. "Ginny, you don't mind?"

"Of course not! Draco and I will go, I'll see you at 6 tomorrow.

"Thanks guys…" Draco nodded kindly and took Ginny's hand as they left the room.

"Let's go to the garden," said Ginny, leading Draco in a different direction. The two walked in companionable silence, lost in their own thoughts but enjoying each other's company. It was a nice night as the two sat close on the bench.

"Ginny?" asked Draco tentatively as he held Ginny close.

"Yeah?" replied Ginny looking into Draco's eyes.

"I need you to promise me, promise me you won't leave me." Tears surged from Ginny's eyes. This was too cruel, how could Ginny promise a thing like that?

"Draco! Don't make me promise, I can't do anything about … death… you know that."

"Ginny," begged Draco, trying to make her understand. "I love you so much it hurts, you know that. I need you, you make me so happy. I honestly can't believe I can live without you. But just know that, if you go you'll be missed, you will be missed especially by me so much. You're all I have Ginny. Give me your word."

Iron seemed to grip at Ginny's heart. She had to promise, though she may break it, no matter how hard she could try not to.

"Draco Malfoy, I promise I won't leave you." Ginny sealed it with a kiss… "I love you Draco."

"And I love you. More than you will ever know…"

Ginny awoke at four in the morning, a familiar weight settling on her shoulders. The battle was coming to an end. Reports of many traitors and Death Eaters have been flowing, giving the soldiers hope to know that instead of two hundred people dying, two hundred people were now being saved.

Ginny swung her legs from under the cover and made the bed with a flick of her wand. She then sat down on it, staring into the wall. Every time before going into combat, she would sit down for a few minutes and stare into nowhere. Bracing herself for anything that could happen. The Underground did meditation a lot, and Ginny had picked up good habits.

As she slipped back into reality, Ginny leant against her bed post and sighed, finding comfort in listening to Colin snore softly. At the beginning of this, Ginny was jacked up on hate, wanting to kill anything that was branded with Voldemort. But now she just wanted him gone and to get on with her life. Since she was eleven years old, she had been in school or had been training. She wanted to enjoy life with Draco more, have her wedding. She wanted to play Quidditch, something she had sacrificed to be an Auror.

A few minutes later, Ginny decided it was time to get ready, and she reached up and shook Colin gently awake.

Draco stirred as a small thump woke him up.

"Sorry Drake," whispered Harry. "I'm just going to be in the bathroom, I'll see you soon."

"S'alright," muttered Draco. Reality crashed onto him, he would be working with someone else now, not Ginny. He never wanted to, because it meant no matter how damn good Ginny was, he could always watch out for her. Now he didn't know what could happen.

Draco looked down at his watch. 4 o'clock am. Groaning, he thought about going into the forest again. When he began this mission, he didn't really have anyone to live for, except for his mother. But she was insane. He also had no purpose, but to kill Voldemort, he and he'd die trying. He knew all the Aurors would, but Draco had nothing to live for. This made him fearless.

But now? But now… but now he had Ginny to think about. At some point of his day, Draco would pause and smile, thinking about how Ginny would soon be his wife, how they could live together by themselves, perhaps one day start a family? He couldn't let her down.

As Draco changed into his black Aurors uniform, he wondered what working with his new partner, Kelly would be like. She used to be Nigel's partner. The thought of Nigel working within close proximity of Ginny made Draco simmer with anger, so he tried not to think about it.

At 5 o'clock, everybody was to have a twenty minute breakfast. By five-thirty, everyone was to be packed up and ready to go.

Ginny couldn't see Draco due to the massive throng of people. Vice versa for Draco. They both desperately wanted to see each other before they went there separate ways.

Ginny and Colin quickly grabbed some breakfast so they could try and find a seat. They saw Manny looking sad at the fact so many people were going to be leaving. Everyone was generally quiet, as they comprehended going back into the forest.

Half way through their breakfast, Colin tapped Ginny on the shoulder and gave her a big hug. "Hey Gin, I know we've been through all this before. But I'm going to miss you, heaps, and… this is the final battle and everything. I'm just worried…"

"Oh Colin," said Ginny as she returned the hug "don't worry about me. I'll stick around to see you married."

"Where did that come from?" asked Colin, as he proceeded to laugh.

"Oh I don't know," giggled Ginny.

Harry and Draco were jostled about as they reached their table, their breakfast trays laden with food. The pair ate in silence, until Harry looked up at Draco. Draco glanced at Harry and went back to his breakfast smiling. "Alright, I don't need to barf this early, I'll miss you too. You're going to have a tough time ahead of you."

"Sweet, I don't need to waste my breath," replied Harry, going along with Draco. The next time Harry looked at his watch, it was 5:19 am. Harry was about to nudge Draco to tell him time was nearly up, until he realized Draco was quite distracted.

Kissing Ginny.

Ginny broke away after a few moments, looking deeply into Draco's eyes. "Draco, I love you. I will see your at Voldemort's lair."

With that, Ginny swept away, looking back once to wave at Harry. Ginny didn't want to stay any longer around Draco, she feared she would not be able to leave him. She shrunk her backpack and placed it in her pocket while she looked around for Nigel. She spotted him after a few moments. He was tall and had spiky brown hair.

"Hi Nigel. You ready?" asked Ginny, smiling softly.

"As ready as I'll ever be. I still don't get why you have Godric's sword," replied Nigel, taking place next to Ginny. "But I suppose it will all work out in the end."

Draco waited patiently near the entrance of the safe-house. He hadn't met Kelly yet, but was assured she was a good person to work with. Suddenly, a flash of red caught Draco's eye. It quickly disappeared by he caught hold of it again when he looked around. It was definitely Ginny. She was talking to Nigel with a lot of hand gestures and shrugging. A pang of jealously went through Draco, and at that moment a quiet voice said "excuse me, are you Draco?"

Startled, Draco focused his eyes on the petite woman in front of him. She was extremely short, and could have passed for a Veela. She was gorgeous! Yet while Draco was looking at her, Ginny sort of materialized in front of him, distracting him.

"Yeah I'm Draco. You must be Kelly?" replied Draco in his ever-so even voice.

"Yeah, it's going to be a pleasure working with you. It was wise of Ginny to make a decision like that," said Kelly tactfully. Draco blinked.

"Yeah, it was wasn't it." Kelly then proceeded to dig around in her bag for something, the opportunity which Draco took to seek out Ginny. He wasn't disappointed, her chocolate brown eyes staring longingly in his sharp ones. Love swelled in both their chests, but the moment was ruined as General Hot-Diggity's voice boomed over the hall.

"Everybody, I will not dilly-daddle, but I want you to know. This is our final battle, this is final phase where we will storm Voldemort's lair, hopefully, kill him. I know you are all capable, let our effort be remembered!"

With that, everybody got their wands ready and filed out the door, back into the dark unknown's of the Fencult Forest.

Immediate gloom over whelmed Ginny's senses, bodies swiftly brushed against hers before moving into another direction. The plan was for the Aurors to all go in different directions, surround the lair and storm it. Yes it really was that straight forward.

Ginny took the lead and muttered a spell which would make Ginny's wand point in the right direction. She found a clearing and darted into it, Godric's sword dangling comfortingly on her hip. Nigel kept at a steady pace behind Ginny, covering her back. A lone breeze swept over Ginny and made her shiver. This forest was definitely getting colder and eviler. It reeked of Voldemort.

This only made Ginny's determination burn more.

"I've got your back," murmured Kelly, as they strode through the doors into the seemingly night time forest. Draco shook away the image of Ginny in his mind and went straight into a wall of trees, just slipping through. He and Kelly were to reach the perimeter of the lair at a north easterly direction. The first few days would be spent working steadily back into the thick of the forest, where they could their bearings straight figure out their next plan of action.

Draco found Kelly to be a gentle and quiet person, but very dedicated to her task. She was an excellent Auror, they all had to be. Yet, Draco couldn't put his finger on the fact that Ginny had that extra edge to her training, had that little extra determination and skill.

But Kelly was still good. At night, neither spoke too much. Often, they would be exhausted because of all the dark creatures they had to slay during their journey. A lot of times, neither Auror would have made it if they were alone. Draco was thankful he had a partner.

And at every spare moment, usually before he closed his eyes, Draco would think of Ginny. Words could not express how much he missed her and worried about her. Thinking of Ginny was his escape from reality, the thought of her gave him strength and the will to continue.

What made him the happiest though was he knew Ginny was thinking about him too.

Ginny gasped as she fought of the last of the Dementors, while Nigel battled with a lone Death Eater.

"Avada Kedavra!" cried a male voice. Startled, Ginny swirled around to see the Death Eater crumple, but to also see a momentary shine of a shuriken being hurtled her way. Ginny's eyes widened and she tried to step out of the way, but even sheer reflexes which was what Ginny had, couldn't stop it. She was lucky she could get most of her body out of the way.

But the shuriken still hit Ginny, slicing an inch through Ginny's side, just below the ribs.

Gasping, Ginny fell to the floor, convulsing with pain. Ginny could feel the blood gush out of the wound, and Nigel sounded so distant as he cried her name. Seeing the trees at an odd angle while she lay on the floor, dying, was the last thing she knew before passing out into a temporary void.

Nigel immediately leapt to Ginny's side, casting a powerful but painfully temporary protection spell. It guaranteed him three hours of protection from anything. Using his wand, he quickly tore away Ginny's blood soaked robes to examine her wound. He ignored Ginny's nakedness as he examined the thick gash was clearly evident against her pale skin.

Cold fear gripped at Nigel's insides, he could see entrails starting to slip out. Immediately, Nigel began the grueling task of healing Ginny's wounds bit by bit, thanking his Auror training for keeping his breakfast in.

Two hours later, Nigel finished magically sealing the outmost tear. He shone his wand light over the now pale scar, grimacing at what it was just a few hours ago. He magicked up a new set of Auror robes for Ginny and gently put it back on Ginny.

Nigel picked up his wand again and gently tapped Ginny on her forehead, muttering "Ennervate." It pained him to have her in so much pain, but she needed to be awake. It took a moment, for one horrifying moment Nigel thought Ginny was dead, until stupidly realizing he took her pulse just a moment ago. Then Ginny's eyes silently fluttered open and Nigel loudly sighed in relief.

Ginny's first thoughts were pain. Pain in her right hand side, blotting out all other conscience thought. But during Underground training, she was taught to deal with pain, and how to set it aside. Concentrating, she put up resistance to the pain signals that were traveling to her brain.

Ginny's hand immediately reached towards her wound, but a strong one gripped it instead. Ginny opened her eyes, and for one silly moment she was happy, even through her pain because she thought she could see Draco above her, looking concernedly down at her. Then she remembered, she had not seen Draco for over a month, and it was Nigel instead.

"You don't want to touch that," said Nigel quietly. "I just spent two hours healing. It's a bit swollen but I cleaned the wound so it shouldn't be infected. How are you feeling?"

"Pain. I see you've got a protective spell around us. It's going to wear out… soon," gasped Ginny, as pain came back in large bursts when she tried to sit up.

"Ginny Weasley, you are not to move for at least a day. I will look after that spell, don't you worry about that." With that, Ginny allowed sleep to overtake her.

Draco helped set up their small camp with Kelly. When everything was done, he sighed and looked down at his watch. It had been magically altered so it showed how many days had passed as well. Hopefully, by three days, as many Aurors as possible would have reached the outer walls of Voldemort's lair. It will be there where at one appointed time, people would start picking at Voldemort's defenses, and hopefully storm Voldemort.

And hopefully for Draco, he would see Ginny.

For over a month, Kelly and Draco had trekked through the forest, meeting many more dangers. Of course the two had survived, but Draco felt a sort of numbness. Kelly was a good person to work with, but she still did not have Ginny's flair. Draco was still alert and competent, but inside he felt as if he were withering without Ginny's love.

He was also worried that something may have happened to Ginny. He had no way of knowing for sure, but tendrils of stress for her always twisted itself around Draco's mind, forcing him to resist hard against losing his concentration. But one thing comforted him, he could be seeing Ginny within three days… wherever she was.

Thus concludes another chapter. More to come soon, sure hope you are enjoying it as much as I am. Review ;) luv, Jess