"Draco!" she shouted all of a sudden.
"Ouch, I'm here, woman. Bloody hell." She pulled back and saw him smirking at her. She knew he was okay if he was smirking at her.
She pulled herself off of him and helped him to sit up. "Are you okay? How is-" she touched his arm.
He frowned down at it. "Feels like someone shoved my arm into a fire, but it's alright. It's a lot better than it was."
"I am so happy that you are okay. I was so worried about you," she said quietly.
"So I've heard. I also heard you went a little anti-food on me, and as it has now been four days since you last ate anything, I think you should eat. I don't like skinny little midgets, and I'd hate to get rid of you because you starved yourself for me." He pushed the tray on the bedside table toward her, and she consented to nibble on a sandwich.
"If you can mock me, then you must be feeling much better, I mean honestly, here I was showering you with affection, thinking I was going to die if you did, and then you mock me."
"As I heard it, you didn't shower much of anything, you just turned zombie. And if you died because of me, then I'd have to – kill you? That doesn't really work, but you get my point."
Ginny frowned and looked down at her bracelet. The words had all but vanished because she had been rubbing it so frequently. She didn't even know that she did it.
"Ahh, and now you've and ruined a perfectly nice bracelet. Rubbing off my little signature. Well maybe you just don't want to be my friend anymore?" he teased.
Ginny looked up at him, her eyes serious. "I really thought that I was going to lose you. I don't know how I could have made it through the day if something had happened to you."
Draco's eyes softened, "I couldn't leave you, you know that. I think you know that. Do you know that?" she nodded. "Right, well I couldn't. I'll tell you what though, something was trying damn hard to get rid of me, but I felt you beside me. I heard your sobs, and I knew that I couldn't leave you, not like that."
Ginny looked up at him, her eyes glistening.
"Oh, now please don't start that again. I don't think I could handle that. Every time you do that my heart breaks, and I just don't think I can take anymore."
"I'm sorry," she sniffled.
"Don't be sorry. I'm just being- dramatic. I can't bear to see you unhappy. I just want you to be happy."
"And that is all I want for you. Now that it is over, what will you do? What do you need to be happy?"
Draco looked up at her seriously, "You." Ginny blinked. "I need you. I've needed you for months now. You are all that I have and all that I want. I couldn't leave without telling you that. I want to be with you always. I want to-" but he was cut off by her lips crashing onto his.
All of the emotions and passions that had built up during their months of friendship poured into the kiss. Every ounce of happiness that he had given to her, every bit of feeling that she had restored to his life. All of the pent up emotion from their two very brief and unspoken kisses. They kissed and held each other until they collapsed into each other's arms.
"I love you, Ginevra Molly Weasley."
Ginny let out a blindingly happy smile, "I love you too, Draco I-Don't-Know-Your-Middle-Name Malfoy."
"It's embarrassing, I'll never tell." Ginny leaned over and kissed him on the cheek and when she pulled back she saw him grinning goofily.
"Now don't you just look ridiculously happy about something?"
"I can't imagine what."
They sat in blissful conversation for almost an hour before reality crashed in. Madam Pomfrey returned and saw them both awake, so she forced several potions upon each of them. She insisted that Ginny see her mother who had been worried sick. Neither knew of the losses from the battle, but soon found out as Mrs. Weasley entered with a fresh batch of tears.
They learned the fate of their school friends who had gone out into the fight. Ginny learned about her brother, and Draco held her tightly as she sobbed into his shoulder, and Mrs. Weasley looked on curiously but silently. The same could be said for Harry's fate, but when Ginny pulled back she saw tears glistening in Draco's as well and she could not help but kiss him for crying over his ex-enemy's fate.
Finally, Madam Pomfrey urged Mrs. Weasley out for causing too much commotion. They needed to rest. The two stayed side-by-side that night in the hospital wing, blatantly refusing to leave the other, even to sleep in a separate cot.
They put out the lights and lay in silence. Ginny thought she heard a door creak open, but when she didn't see anyone enter, she ignored it. She cuddled up closer to Draco, who kissed the top of her head and said, "Goodnight. I love you."
"Goodnight, I love you, too."
"Before you go to bed, I'd like a word," Ginny almost fell off the bed in shock. She saw Ron move out of the shadows. The last time she remembered seeing him was before the battle, and she jumped out of bed to embrace him.
He smiled down on her as he hugged her tightly. When he let go, she moved back to her spot next to Draco, who was now sitting up, and sat with her legs draped across his. Ron stood and looked between the pair for a moment.
"First, I want to make sure that you are okay, Ginny."
"I'm fine."
"And you, Malf- Draco. Are you okay?" Draco's chin almost dropped to the floor. The boy was asking him if he was okay, and calling him by his first name. "Don't look at me like that. You helped out so many people that night. It's the least I could do. You proved me wrong, and I am-" he took a deep breath, "I am sorry."
Ginny beamed, and Draco was speechless. "Thank the nice man, Draco," she urged.
"Thank you. I mean- what? You don't thank someone for apologizing. You forgive them. Honestly, it's a good thing no one is mean to you because you could never accept their apology. And I accept, by the way." He grinned cheekily down at Ginny and graciously up at Ron. "And I apologize for my years of stupidity."
"Accepted. Now. On to something Mum noticed earlier and confronted me about. Are you dating Malf- Draco?"
Ginny's eyes narrowed and she looked at Draco. "I don't know. We've never been on a date, so you really couldn't say that we are dating. And you haven't asked me to be your girlfriend. So, I guess not. No- Draco is just my best friend." Draco snorted in disbelief. "Oh, alright, and I love him. So maybe you could say he was my- I don't know. You answer the question if you are so keen to."
Ron watched the interchange with amused interest.
"Fine, I will. Muck it all up, why don't you. I agree that we aren't dating, because we have not dated. And I agree that you can't be my girlfriend, because it sounds so juvenile. It sounds like what Pansy is to some unfortunate boy. But you are my best friend, and I love you, so I conclude that we are best friends, in love." He shook his head. "But I didn't get much further than you. We really are rubbish at this you know."
"No you are rubbish, and I am cute."
"Shut up," he said playfully.
Ron cleared his throat, and Ginny looked at him sheepishly. "Right, so that is all that I need to know. You love each other. That is good. You be good to her, or I'll have to pull the big brother card and- kill you- and that would be a shame, because I've kind of grown to like you."
Ginny giggled and Draco looked at her in shock. "What was that noise? That was horrid. Every time you do that a kitten dies. Please don't turn into a bloody Parkinson."
Ginny snorted. "Fine."
Ron shook his head bemusedly and started to leave the room. At the door, he said, "Hermione and I are- engaged." Ginny gasped. "Leave it to war to show you what is most important in life. I proposed today, and thought you would like to know. She wants you to be her maid of honor. And, though I know that they will probably kill you, but I'd rather choose you than from amongst them because then I'll never live down the 'favoritism,' I'd like you to be my best man. Harry can't be there… And well, yeah."
Now Draco was in complete shock. "Sure. That'd be- great. Congratulations." Ron smiled and left.
"What the bloody hell just happened?"
Ginny kissed him soundly. "My protective older brother just accepted you. That means you have to stay with me, or pay the price."
"That I'll do," he said nuzzling her neck as they crawled back into their tiny, little uncomfortable cot.
The next morning came and with it came the need to actually leave the hospital wing, though, Ginny refused to be led anywhere without Draco. She went down to his room to help him pack, and he went up to hers to help her pack. They had quite a time trying to get him up the stairs, which kept turning into a slide, and several side-cracking minutes of laughter and climbing up slick ramps later, they made it.
As they loaded her things into her trunk, Ginny asked quietly, "So what do we do now? You go to your new flat, and I go back to the Burrow?"
"Nonsense. I'm not going anywhere without you. I'll tie you up and drag you home with me if I have to."
Ginny looked up at him, a calculating look in her eye. "Meaning?"
"Meaning you are moving in with me. I won't let you leave my side. Frankly, I'm a little sad that you would go."
Ginny leapt on top of him and knocked him to the ground. "Do you mean it? You want me to live with you?"
"Of course I want you to. I'm not asking your bloody brother to be my roommate, that would be too weird."
She kissed him soundly then resumed packing. He lay on the floor where she left him for a few moments before sitting up. "Will he hate me? If you come with me, I mean."
"Do you honestly care what my brother thinks?" she challenged.
"Yeah, actually, the bloke has rather grown on me, and if I am going to be stuck with him the rest of my life then I should hope he doesn't hate me."
"The rest of your life?"
"Well naturally. I said I loved you. I'm not going to go pick up someone else someday and kick you out. Who do you think I am?" Ginny just shook her head, but inside she was beaming.
"Well, if you care what he thinks then he can't be angry with you. That means that you respect him, and I think he can understand that. Besides, he and Hermione are moving in together, and they won't be married for months."
Draco nodded absently. He had picked up the picture of the two of them and the snowman. He thought that maybe someday someone could say the same about him. That he and Ginny would be married. The thought scared him slightly, but it sent a thrill down his spine. He knew that there would never be anyone else. How could anyone replace his best friend? The only friend that he had ever had. He looked at the snowman wondering if someday he would have little kids with wild red hair dressing up half in Gryffindor and half in Slytherin robes, shouting things at him about how their mum was a better dueler.
He knew then that he was lost in her. That there was no way that he could ever be apart from her. The idea of marriage and children was all too perfect, not frightening like it always had been. It was then that he knew that he would spend the rest of his life in love with his best friend who had reignited a fire within.