Chapter 1

Severus POV

I will never forget the day I came home to find Ginny Weasley in my bed. When we had started having sex regularly, I cast a charm so that she could locate me if I was ever gone for too long. I arrived home and noticed someone had been there. When I made my way into my bedroom, she was curled up on my bed with my pillow pulled close to her. Before even waking her, I knew something was wrong. She had been living with Lucius for the last eighteen months or so.

They started seeing each other when she ended her relationship with Potter. I had removed myself from the wizarding world in England, only once in a while paying my old friend a visit. It was during one of those visits when I found out that she had left Potter and was happy then with Lucius.

So finding her on my bed was a surprise, to say the least, but there had been a time when Ginny being asleep on my bed was normal. I moved towards the bed and, in one movement, laid down on my side facing her. I reached out and brushed some hair out of her face. "Ginny, what's wrong?" I whispered. She brought out a tenderness in me that no one else could.

She woke, or maybe she was never fully asleep. "Severus," she whispered. "You said I could always come to you if I needed to."

"I did." My hand rested on her shoulder. "What's going on?"

"I went home, but it's not the place for me. I needed a place to think," she explained.

"Where is Lucius?" I asked.

"I - we aren't together anymore. Can I stay here for awhile?" Her eyes looked pleadingly at me.

"Of course you can." I would never refuse her, even if she wasn't mine. I couldn't refuse her again. "Do you want to talk about it?"

She shook her head. "Would I be asking too much if I asked you to hold me?"

"No," I replied. She turned over and cuddled closer. I admit I enjoyed her body next to mine. After a few minutes, I felt her body shake with a sob. "Ginny?" I asked. "What is it?" My concern is growing by the minute.

"Why couldn't you love me like you did her?" Her voice cracked. She brought up half of the issue that broke us apart years back. I had seen that she was hurt by the mention of Lily during my trial. She didn't realise it then, but I was watching her. At the time, I was hurting because I believed she was going back to Potter.

"Because you aren't her; you're alive, and real. It took losing you for me to realise I spent more time with the idea of her than with her. I had, in that time, made her perfect in my mind. But you're here alive; not perfect, but real and changing. It's easy to love the unchanging, but to love something imperfect and changing is work. It's something worth working for."

"I never chose Harry over you! I just needed to know they were okay," she pleaded for understanding.

"I made mistakes too," I admitted. "What happened with Lucius?" I knew that's what was upsetting her.

"I was just a plaything. I should have known," she mumbled.

I have known Lucius a long time. I don't think she was a plaything. Lucius isn't possessive of his playmates, but he was possessive of her. "What happened?" I pushed.

"You won't judge or get all snarky on me?" she asked.

"Snarky? I come home to you in my bed, and am holding you as you cry about him. Why would I get snarky on you?"

"Because that's how you are most of the time. Even more so when you are hurt." She was right about me.

"Why would I be hurt now?" I pressed gently.

"I have your word that what I tell you will stay between us?"

I had never betrayed her trust, except for the time I turned my back on her. "I swear," I said into her hair.

She shifted, turning to face me again. "I asked him about marriage, but he won't marry me. I asked him because I didn't want him to marry me because I'm pregnant; I wanted him to want to marry me for me."

I understood her feelings. She wanted a marriage of love for her. "He's a fool," I expressed. "Why did you come here?"

"I went home, but they never got over the fact that he and I were together." She paused, "I needed somewhere to be, without their comments, so I can figure out what's going to happen next."

"What do you want to happen?"

"Are you asking if I want him back?" she asked.

"I am."

"No, I don't. He made it clear my wants didn't factor into his plans. I only have a bit of time to figure out what I'm going to do."

"You are going to carry on then?" I asked.

She nodded. "I've seen enough death; I don't need to cause more."

Ginny hadn't come to me for sex. She came because she knew there was nowhere safer for her than with me. I would protect her from everything, because she had protected me when she had no reason to. She gave no thought to sleeping in my bed each night while there. It was comfortable and normal, even for us, to share a bed. Yes, we had been lovers before, and the sex was amazing! But we had grown close; so close, sex wasn't needed.

While she was there, I made no demands of her, but each day she cooked and cleaned. I did the shopping because she was in hiding and didn't want to face the world. I loved knowing she would be there each night. It didn't take me long to realise that this was what marriage was like, with only one factor missing. I could change that, but there was one thing I needed to do first.

I headed to Malfoy Manor. I needed to hear Lucius' side, or at least hear that he didn't want her like she believed.

We were having lunch together when I finally asked, "What happened to Ginevra?"

Lucius took a large gulp of his drink. "She thought she was the one in charge, so I cut her free." I was surprised, but at the same time I wasn't going to push him to take her back.

One night, while we ate a dinner of shepherd's pie, I asked, "Have you figured out what you want to do?"

"Why? Do you want to have your lover over and I'm in the way?" she asked. I got the feeling that there was a part of her that was worried that that was the issue.

"No. I was thinking," I admitted. "Ginny, turning my back on you was a mistake. What would happen if we were to marry and raise the baby together?"

She shook her head. "I wouldn't use the baby to land Lucius, and I won't do that to you either."

"I'm not offering because of the baby. I'm asking because I should have years back, but I was stubborn and pigheaded. You have been here for a few weeks, and it has been so perfect. I don't want to lose this again," I confessed.

She licked her lips and then pressed them together, as I have seen her do a thousand times when thinking something over. "Severus, I need to know you mean what you are saying to me…"

I knew what she was asking; she was asking for the moments when she knew there was nothing, no emotion, I could hide from her. "You want me to fuck you?" It wasn't really a question.

"Yes. I have to know."

That night was like no other! Having her again, knowing she was experiencing as much pleasure as I was, hearing her beg for more, and screaming from the pleasure I gave her. In those hours, it was as if nothing had come between us! She was mine and I was hers. After I came for the third time, while still in her, with my forehead resting on hers and nearly out of breath, I admitted my biggest secret; "I love you, more than I ever thought possible. Nothing and no one could ever compare to you."

We were married days later.