Thanks to all the reviewers! There were a lot of reviews but i'm going to answer a few people who had questions/amusing comments:

I'm Blond. James Blond. - YES, that would make me update faster. Hehe! Cute name by the way!

Mizlovegood - Cute site! Not all the links are working for me but that could be because of the computer I'm on... I'll try visiting from the school accounts though! hehe put my education to good use.

sidlovesnancy1979 - thanks! haha... yeah I've gotten quite a lot of reviews like that, and I think at the end I may have a special post-Salazar's-Curse chapter. I'm not sure about a sequel yet though. We'll see (Smiles)

Sabrinarocks - Aw thanks! I think chapter 9 was one of my favorites to write hehe. About the Libba Bray comment... I've checked her livejournal, and apparently there is going to be a third book! I'm not sure when it will come out though, and I think it's called the Winterlands. I don't know but if there will be, I'm sure I'll mention it in the author's note of whatever fanfic I'm writing, hee.

TheDevilsSeductress - hehe, you'll find out about the whole in-her-mind thing in this chapter!

HaliJade Snape - (Blush) you flatter me, hee. Here's your chapter by Thursday!

And thanks to everyone else who, as of now, put me past my most-reviewed story! YOU ALL ROCK!

Now on with the chapter hehe.

Part II, Chapter Fourteen: Exmortis

Your eyes, as we said our goodbyes
Can't get them out of my mind
And I find I can't hide
From your eyes
The ones that took me by surprise
The night you came into my life
Where there's moonlight, I see your eyes.

How'd I let you slip away,
When I'm longing so to hold you?
Now I'd die, for one more day,
Cause there's something I should have told you
Yes there's something I should have told you
When I looked into your eyes...

Why does distance make us wise?
You were the song all along.
And before the song dies...
I should tell you, I should tell you
I have always loved you...
You could see it in my eyes!
- RENT (Your Eyes)

Draco glared at the mediwitches, who were busily wrapping his chest, hand, and shoulders. "Why the bloody hell are you working on me? Go fix her!" He yelled, pointing at an unconcious Ginny Weasley, who was already being helped by several mediwitches and wizards by the bed next to him.

The nurses didn't answer; instead, they finished up, then went off to help Ginny. He half-smiled smugly, then reached out to lightly touch her small, freckled hand. None of the brothers, not even Ron, bothered to say anything rude to Draco about touching her. He had gone through too much.

"It's odd," an older man, who Draco supposed was the best doctor in the joint... or, at least, had better been the best, was saying. "There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her."

Draco scoffed caustically. "If there's nothing wrong, why is she unconcious?"

The doctor frowned. "That's the problem. She seems to be trapped in her own mind. It's a very likely side affect of..."

"Of?" prodded the Weasleys plus Malfoy.

He looked down. "Exmortis."

"Exmortis?" Mrs Weasley repeated frantically. "What the bloody hell is -"

"Careful, Molly," Arthur muttered lightly, patting her hand.

The doctor fixed his spectacles and looked at the group. "Exmortis is Latin for 'undead.' Unlike living, being undead is being physically here, but mentally... somewhere else. Much like a coma, but much more serious. Few people ever come out of Exmortis."

"And what would cause this Ex... ex... mortis?" asked Molly, wringing her hands.

"A curse of some sort. It's usually caused by a very powerful witch or wizard over a long period of time, and most of the time the victim doesn't even realize she or he is being subjected to it until it's... well, too late."

Molly let out a strangled sob.

"Too late?" replied Arthur wearily. "When is it too late?"

The doctor pointed his wand up at the ceiling, and the ceiling turned into a large beeping device, with charts, graphs, and lines. "When the beeping becomes one long beep, and when the up-and-down lines become one straight line."

Ginny's parents and brothers murmured their understandings and asked ridiculous questions, but Draco couldn't have any part in it. He tapped his foot impatiently and waited for one of the brothers to finish their stupid question. When he couldn't wait anymore, he interrupted Fred (or George, he still wasn't sure) halfway in a sentence.

"Yeah, that's fine and everything, but why can't I just... go in her mind again?" he asked.

The doctor frowned. "First of all, I disagree with that in the first place. And secondly, in Exmortis, the mind is closed off from any entrance. It's kind of like the brain is in the process of 'cleaning up' your mess."

To this, Draco wasn't exactly pleased. "Excuse me? My mess? If I didn't go in there and make a 'mess' Ginny wouldn't even be here to be in Exmortis!"

"You can't be in Exmor-"

Arthur shook her head and spoke up for the first time that evening, "Excuse me, but I agree with Malf... Draco. He saved my little girl, and for that I will always be grateful. He gave Ginny another chance to live, and it is my firm belief that if he hadn't gone in her mind, she would not be here."

He took a deep breath, then continued, speaking to Draco; "I may have a horrible past with your family, and we may come from completely different lives. But I see now that you are what my daughter needs in a husband."

It was silent for a moment.

"I second that," Molly agreed. "Ginny loves you... and you seem to be very much in love with her."

Draco gulped uncharacteristically. "I love her more than anyone will ever be able to comprehend."

Upon hearing this, Bill turned to the doctor fiercely. "You better get her fixed," he growled, "or you'll have a werewolf and an angry Malfoy on your hands."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ginny's eyes fluttered, and she slowly gained consciousness. The first thought that popped into her head was, oh, my aching head. The second, shortly received after the first, was, oh, Merlin, Draco! The last thing she remembered before being knocked out was her begging for death, followed by the sound of explosives. What the hell had happened? Where was she? What happened while she was floating in darkness?

"Ginevra! Thank Merlin!"

Ginny opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was a pair of bright green eyes staring back at her. They were unfamiliar, and so she jumped back, alarmed.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" She looked around; she seemed to be in a sort of prison cell. "Where the hell am I?"

The eyes (who belonged to a strange woman) smiled sadly. "I'm Fayebris," she said, extending her hand through the bars of the cage. "It's lovely to meet you."

Ginny whimpered lightly. "Why am I here? Why are you here? Why aren't you DEAD?"

"You're trapped in your mind," Fayebris responded, "and we've come to help you out."

"We?" Ginny repeated. "Who's we?"

"Andasar and I. He's trying to find another way out, but the only way we can leave your mind is if you give up all thoughts. Every one. Especially the ones about Draco."

Oh, hell. Why did she have to mention Draco? What was wrong with him? Did he die? Was he hurt terribly? Was Godric still roaming someplace in her head, and Draco's body was lying around, lifeless eyes looking up at the darkened sky? Her heart grew sick. Why did the horrible things always happen to her? The love of her life, the one man she can see herself being with... dead. Ginny's eyes felt wet, and she let a tear trickle down her cold, pale, dirty face.

"Is he okay?" asked Ginny hopefully.

Fayebris frowned. "I'm not allowed to tell you, Ginny. You just have to worry about breaking that wall down, and to do so you have to have your complete attention focused on that. Nothing else. Not your family, not your health, not Draco. Nothing. Okay?"

Andasar appeared behind Fayebris, face grim. "There's absolutely no way out." He pointed to a brick wall in front of the trio. "That's the only way."

Ginny looked at Andasar. He looked so much like Draco it was shocking.

"Focus, Ginny. Focus."

It seemed like an easy task. Stare at the brick wall, try to make it go away by thinking really hard. But clearing your thoughts of everything you love - your family, your friends, your boyfriend (who may or may not be dead), et cetera made it a bit more challenging. Every time she would be making progress - she moved a brick, or she got tunnelvision and could only think of the bricks in front of her, she would catch a glimpse of Andasar's eyes.

The eyes that belonged to Draco.

And she was done for.

There was a loud, long beep. "Ginny, hurry," Fayebris prodded, jumping up and down anxiously.

She tried to think of nothing but the wall... but all she could think of was how rude she had been to Draco. She'd been cold - colder than his ice-blue eyes - and yet... he still did everything to save her. She felt the prickle-like sensation behind her eyes, and knew the tears would be shortcoming.

But one more look at Andasar, and it was decided.

Draco was alive.

She didn't know why she thought this, and she didn't know how she was so certain, but she was almost completely positive. Maybe it was because when you're in love, it may take a while, but you just know. Or maybe it was because she felt Draco out there, somewhere, calling her.

It didn't matter, because either way she was breaking down that wall once and for all, to get to him.

And so she focused.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Molly and Arthur were seated next to each other on a rather uncomfortable-looking couch, staring at their daughter. Fred and George were sitting by a table, legs on top of one another, looking down at the ground. Bill and Charlie were pacing. Ron was sitting in a chair, head in hands. They all seemed to be following along blindly to the doctor's orders: watch, listen. But to Draco, something about it didn't seem right.

The beeps were too far away, or too close, or something. Maybe the lines were too straight, or maybe to jagged. He didn't know, but something was a bit fishy to Draco.

He stared carefully at the ceiling, watching as the lines went up, down, up, down, up, down... down... down... and never back up. He listened as the beeps went from quick, to slow, to so far apart that he thought he had gone deaf. And then, suddenly, the lines were straight, and the beeping sound was one, long, monotonous drone.

Molly froze, her hand gripped on Arthur's. Ron's head popped up in a flash. Bill and Charlie stopped in their tracks, and the twins stared, faces (for once) not filled with laughter.

The doctor came almost immediately.

"What happened?" he asked, flicking his wand this way and that as the scene on the ceiling changed with every movement.

Molly stuttered, "I don't know - nothing really - she was just -"

The doctor checked her pulse from her neck, then from her wrist. Then, with another flick of his wand, the beep stopped. The lines disappeared.

"She's gone."

"No!" Molly yelled out, falling to the ground. "No! Please, no!"

Arthur stood, frozen, rooted to the spot as he lightly cried into his palm.

Draco shook his head fiercely. "You're lying!" he yelled manically, pushing the doctor out of the way and looking at Ginny closely. He ignored the nurse's calls of, "no, you'll get hurt!" and stood over her. She looked so hurt, so quiet, so pale. Ghostly, even. There was no color in her face except for the bluish tinge of lack of oxygen.

"No..." Draco whispered. "No, no, no..."

He was being pulled away somewhere. They needed to do something to her body. But he yelled, pushed people out of the way, and cried out. He didn't care how crazy he looked, because he was crazy. The mere thought of living without Ginny was making him insane.

"Get away from her!" he screamed. The nurses were surrounding her, and he could only see a bit of her face: her mouth.

They were still pulling him. He was getting farther and farther away now, and his view of her mouth was getting tinier and tinier.

And then her mouth opened wide. Her hands gripped the blanket and she writhed in her bed. Her eyes opened and she choked, trying to catch her breath. She gasped once, twice, three times... and there she was. Awake. Breathing. There.

"DRACO!" she yelled, looking around madly. "Where is he? Where?"

Draco wordlessly ran over to her, pushing away the nurses and doctors who stood, dumbfounded. He ran to the side of her bed, looked at her, and then let himself lightly cry.

"Oh, Draco," she whispered before pulling him into the sweetest kiss either of them ever had.

Author's Note: Nope! Not the last chapter! There's officially ONE MORE CHAPTER LEFT! Hopefully that one was a pretty good one, eh? The next one might be a bit short... I don't know. This was a bit of a filler. KEEP THE REVIEWS COMING, OR MY COMPUTER MIGHT JUST 'BREAK' AGAIN. (Evil grin) Bribery? What? Blackmail? Who, me? Pssshhh! No waaaaay. (Hehe)

xox, Elizabeth

PS: I've decided on my next story after S.C. - "If I Fell." (Title pending, but summary will stay the same.) Info next chapter!