"What… what did you call me?"

She looked away from him pointedly, feeling sick to her stomach. It was the dream that had made her realize. It was the dream that had helped her to make the connection. His scent had changed - from citrus to spice - and her subconscious mind had helped her to remember from where that smell had come. She recognized him now for who he really was - for who he had been before.

"You heard me," she said quietly, determined.

"Draco," he said, enunciating clearly. "You called me Draco."

Still unable to meet his eyes, she wrapped her arms around herself protectively. "That's your name, isn't it?"

"Gwen…"

"And that's not really my name," she hissed, finally turning to look at him. "Say it, Draco. Say my real name."

"You're…" he began slowly. "You're just confused."

"Say my name!"

"Ginny!" he blurted. "All right? Your sodding name is Ginny - Ginevra, if you'd prefer to be more proper. Are you happy?"

She snorted humorlessly. "Do I look happy?"

He reached out and tangled his fingers in her long, untamed red hair. "Don't be angry with me."

She swallowed hard. Her mouth opened slightly, with every intention of telling him exactly how she was feeling. She wasn't angry - not exactly. More than anything, she just yearned for the truth, for her memories. It was ironic that all she wanted in the world was to know who she was, but the more she learned about herself and her past, the less happy she truly felt. Like there was a hole in her, and every new piece of information made it bigger.

But the words that she was looking for didn't come out. Instead, she said something else entirely, something that had been nagging at her even more.

"Tell me why you left."

It was his turn to appear dumbstruck, and for several moments, he didn't move at all. It wasn't that he hadn't expected her to wonder, but his wife had simply never been the type to question him. Slowly, he shook his head. "Can't you just trust that I left for the right reasons? I can't…"

"Then I'm going to leave you." The words were out of her mouth before she had had a chance to decide if she meant it or not, but once it came out, she realized that she did. "I mean it. I will."

"Excuse me?" he asked incredulously, throwing the blankets off his body and getting to his feet. "You're giving me an ultimatum?"

She shrugged one delicate shoulder as she threw her feet over the opposite side of the bed. "Call it what you want. I just want to know the truth."

He approached her side of the bed, kneeling on the floor between her knees, placing his hands on her legs as he looked up into her distant brown eyes. "Don't, Ginny. If you leave me, you're going to be miserable. So will the kids. So will I."

"Then don't let me leave."

Draco hung his head low, letting his forehead rest against her knee. "I did it for you," he said, kissing the inside of her knee as he ran his hands up the outsides of her thighs and up to her hips, holding his hands there as he brought his face up to her stomach, pressing his lips against her body. "I did everything I did for you."

Her throat felt bone dry. "How am I supposed to believe anything you say to me ever again?"

"Please, Ginny," he pleaded. "If I tell you, it's only going to hurt you."

She swallowed hard. "You're hurting me either way. If you tell me where you went, at least you'd be honest. At least you and I could start again, be a family."

He stood abruptly, running his hands through his hair in frustration. "Why do you need to do this now? It's the middle of the night and I haven't gotten to touch you in weeks. Can't we just enjoy this? Can't you just be happy that I'm here, that we are here together?"

"Don't flatter yourself," she muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "It means you… you being around… it doesn't automatically make me happy." She stood up, her body only inches away from his. "Don't just assume that the most important thing in the world to me is you."

"I know I'm not," he said quietly.

There was a pang in her chest, and she faltered slightly. "I do love you," she whispered. "I love you so much it hurts. But I don't even know who you are anymore, Drew - er - Draco." She covered her face with her hands. "Damn it, I don't even know what I'm supposed to call you! I don't even know if I believe you love me now that you… now that you're different."

He brought his hands up, cupping her face and bringing his lips to hers in a searing, startling kiss. Even though it only lasted for a second, it felt like forever, and even though it wasn't anything she hadn't experienced a thousand times before, this kiss was different. A shiver went through her body, like an ocean wave at the peak of the tide, and she did not want to have to imagine another moment of not being in his arms. But she knew better, and so slowly it hurt, she pulled away.

"Ginny, a lot has happened to me," he said, his voice low and husky. "A lot has happened, and at first, I admit, I didn't know how I felt about you, about any of it. But, God, am I ever in love with you."

Her eyes were glassy with tears threatening to fall. "You have one day, Draco," she whispered. "You have one day to decide if you're going to tell me where you went and why." She kissed him hard on the lips, tasting him for what could possibly be the very last time. "If you don't tell me what I need to know, I'm taking the kids and I'm leaving."

She bit her lip as she got back in bed, turning her face to look at him. "I just can't live like this anymore."

The chilly autumn air was crisp as the dawn broke. The three men in the car were quiet, yet none of them were able to sleep as they drove into the impending sunrise.

Though the sight before them was stunning - the black sky bursting into miraculous shades of pink and gold and blue - the tension in the car was thick. All three had only one thing on their minds, but not a word had been spoken for several hours. They had only one objective, and there was only one person that they could turn to. No discussion was necessary. They just needed to find her.

"This is it," Draco said to the twin who was behind the wheel - Fred, he thought. "This is the last place we saw her."

George asked, "Did she say anything about…?"

"No," Draco said, cutting him off sharply, before he had even had a chance to finish his thought. "She just told us that we were in danger."

"She's not going to be here," Fred commented. "Why would she be at this hour of the morning?"

"Of course she will," the blond insisted. "She knew last time that we needed her, and she was there. This is no different. She can sense that I need her. We're connected. We made it that way intentionally years ago."

The other men said nothing, but as they drove their car into the abandoned, dark field, Draco could see her in the distance, sitting cross-legged in the very same place that she had been last time. They drove slowly through the tall grass, and as they neared the blonde woman with the radish earrings, he could feel his heart beating wildly against his rib cage.

"Draco Malfoy," she said, her voice airy and delicate. "I knew you would be here. I knew you would come back."

"Luna Lovegood," he said, "do you know why we're here?"

A slow, lazy smile ghosted across her lips. "Of course I know why you're here. You came for him. But he's not ready yet. You cannot take him until he is ready."

Draco closed his eyes in frustration. "But he's the key to her memory, isn't he? Ginny needs to see him."

"And in time, she will meet him again. But he is not ready, and much less is she."

One of the twins spoke up next. "But is he safe?" Fred asked with a slight quiver in his voice. "Is… is he happy?"

Her smile grew. "He does not know yet of his significance to the world, and so yes. Yes, he is quite happy."

The blond man felt a chill dancing its way up from the base of his spine. "He… he doesn't know who he is then? He doesn't know what he is meant for?"

"Of course he doesn't," she snapped, the dream-like quality of her voice suddenly gone and replaced with a seriousness that felt misplaced when coming from her. "He cannot live his life knowing that the fate of the world rests on his shoulders." Her misty blue eyes locked with his icy grey ones. "You have to go back to her. You should have never left her alone in the first place. She is in just as much danger without you around. More, even, with no one who remembers to protect her."

His Adam's apple bobbed in his throat. "I was trying to get her memory back. I meant for this to help her."

Luna's expression softened significantly. "I know you mean well, Draco..."

"But maybe she doesn't," he finished.

"Mate, maybe we should get you back to her," said George.

"It's been weeks since we left," said Fred. "We don't even know if she's still there. She might have taken off."

"She hasn't," said Luna, eyes closed and voice distant. "I can see her, always, and she is just where you left her. She is safe for the moment."

The blonde woman got to her feet and took several steps towards Draco. She touched her warm hands to his cold face. "Ginny gave back my memories and yours, Draco, but she cannot have hers back just yet. Not until it's time. She is just as important to saving us all as he is, and in time she will understand that." She paused, her eyes widening as they searched his for an indication that he knew what she meant. "You cannot tell her about him. It'll put them both in danger. And he's…"

Draco swallowed hard. "And he's just a boy."

Chilly air whipped her wavy red locks all around her face. She pulled her jacket as tightly around her body as it could comfortably reach as she increased the pace of her steps. Briskly, she walked through the remnants of the once thriving magical street, trying and failing not to let the barrenness affect her.

A blonde woman awaited her at the end, near the joke shop that her two older brother had once owned. She wore a thick royal blue cloak that billowed out behind her with each heavy gust of wind.

The blonde waved as she saw the redhead approaching.

"Thank you for meeting me, Luna," Ginny said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"How could I say no?"

Ginny bit her lip. "I know we can't talk for long. I know it's dangerous for me to be near him like this. But I couldn't… I couldn't just leave without saying goodbye."

A single tear trailed it's way down Luna's cheek. "I understand, dear friend," she said, reaching out to grasp Ginny's hand reassuringly. "Shall we?"

Hand in hand, the two friends walked into the abandoned joke shop. Ginny was filled with so many emotions that she couldn't quite handle, couldn't quite understand. Her heart was breaking at the thought of what she was doing - what she was going to be doing - but she needed to remain strong, if only for these last few moments. For him.

They walked up the stairs. Five men sat huddled together, each with identical heads of red hair. Ginny felt her heart lurch at the sight of them. She'd had no idea that they'd all be there - together - this one last time. There was an awful pang in her chest at the realization that this really could be the end of her family.

A tall man engulfed her into a hug before she'd even had the opportunity to address anyone. "Oh, Ginny, we're all going to miss you so much."

"Ron, I'm going to miss you too!" she cried, returning the embrace with every ounce of strength that her body could muster. "I don't know how I'm going to survive without my family."

Two more men were on either side of her, taking her away from the first man, and then there were two more, and suddenly, she was taken over by her sorrow and her guilt. She had been sitting on the precipice of her emotions up until this point, but with these five men holding her so close, she could do nothing but fall apart. She wanted nothing more than to allow them to support her as she fell to pieces.

But she couldn't.

"I hate to disrupt this touching moment," Luna said, "but perhaps we should get on with what we came here for. We don't have a lot of time left."

Ginny wiped her nose on one of the men's pro offered handkerchiefs and nodded definitively. If she only had thirty more minutes left with her family, she knew how she would need to spend it.

She followed Luna through another door. The men all remained in the previous room, knowing that she needed the privacy. "He's there," she said, pointing to the far corner of the room. "I'll give you some privacy, and I will come and get you when it's time."

Wordlessly, the blonde left and shut the door tightly behind her.

Ginny swallowed hard as she advanced toward the corner, her heart sitting heavily in her chest, pounding more and more rapidly with each step that she took.

And then she was there, in front of him. She looked down into the all-white bassinet, into the green eyes of a tiny, raven-haired little boy.

"Don't worry, love," she whispered as she reached down to gather the baby into her arms. "Don't cry, baby. Mummy's got you."