Draco and Ginny stayed up all night celebrating their victory over Voldemort by brewing up several batches of their potion and sending off vials of it to Ginny's family and other Order members, including Remus Lupin. Normally Draco would be opposed to being so helpful, but he had no room for any emotion but triumph. He had also decided that it was not his place to determine the use of Ginny's potion. To Draco's disgust, however, Ginny made a small parcel with several vials of the potion and its recipe for Harry, and hid it in his dormitory.
Draco's pleasant mood spread all through the next day, too. It was a cool Saturday, and Draco challenged Ginny to a game of seeking. The pair flew for hours, each pretending not to see the snitch, just so that they could stay in the air celebrating for longer. When Ginny's stomach announced dinner, however, Draco dropped the niceties and grabbed the snitch out of the air the moment he could. After they landed, he found himself congratulating Ginny on a game well played, and apologizing for her loss, rather than taunting her with his victory.
All through dinner in the Great Hall that evening Draco grinned like a fool. The Slytherins cleared a 6-foot radius around him as if afraid to come any closer. Across the hall, Ginny watched the exchange with amusement. At one point, a first-year had to venture into the empty territory around him to grab a basket of bread. As he had reached across the table, Draco looked up and flashed him a broad grin causing the boy to jump in alarm and scurry away, his bread forgotten.
The pair followed their usual dinner routine, which had escalated from hollow taunts to waiting until everyone was gone and making faces across the hall at each other. Ginny had won a spectacular victory two nights earlier by causing Draco to shoot pumpkin juice out of his nose at the sight of one of her faces.
Tonight the pair outlasted even Professor McGonagall, who usually stuck around long enough to supervise their unspoken game, and make sure no one ended up hurt. Ginny sat in silence, her lips pursed to avoid laughing as Draco rather convincingly enacted the scene in which Voldemort reacted to Draco's shocking absence of dark mark.
When he saw that he could not crack her, he fell back into his seat and sulkily pushed some vegetables around on his plate. The silent game, however, was suddenly and loudly interrupted. The large wooden doors flung open with urgency and a tall thin woman with long blonde hair rushed into the room. "Draco!" she shouted before spotting him and running to his side.
Ginny stood in surprise and watched Draco stand to greet his mother.
"Mother! What are you doing here? What is wrong?" he asked as he took in her disheveled experience. Her normally smooth and sleek hair was tousled and tangled. Her pale blue robes were streaked with dirt and a substance that looked suspiciously like blood. The silvery eyes that looked so much like Draco's were red and puffy, and streams of tears ran down her cheeks.
"Draco!" she cried again in panic as she pulled him to her in a hard embrace. "Draco, my son, what have you done?"
"What have I-" but his question was cut off by dawning realization. Immediately his eyes flew to Ginny in alarm. Narcissa followed his gaze and found a fearful Ginny still standing at her table.
"This is the girl?" she asked Draco. He did not reply, but she could see it in his eyes. He was afraid, and not for himself.
Finally he tore his eyes from Ginny and turned back to his mother. "What has happened, mother? What is he doing?"
"He's coming! He is coming for you and the girl! You have to get out of here. You have to disappear! Come with me!" she cried frantically tugging at his arm. Draco followed in shock, but as he reached the door he pulled back.
"Ginevra!" he cried in horror. "Mother, wait!" Draco ran back into the room to collect Ginny who still stood in shock at the sight of Draco's normally collected mother falling over herself in fear.
"Come on," he urged her pulling her to the door. His mother stood at the entrance to the Great Hall casting her eyes about wildly in suspicion.
"Draco! Leave her! It's you I have come for! Hurry! He'll be here any moment. Oh my son!" she wailed as Draco arrived back at her side, Ginny in tow.
With her son back at her side, Narcissa paused only for a moment to take in the form of Ginny who her son was clutching tightly onto. Under her breath she murmured, "She is pretty," before resuming her frantic escape from the castle with her son.
Narcissa quickly ushered the two students out the front doors of the castle and onto the lawn. The large stretch of grass loomed ominously before them. It would be a long run without cover. Anyone could easily attack them as they crossed it. Before she led the children into the open she turned to them.
Ginny still had not spoken, but she could see determination awakening within her. Draco looked as fearful as before, but she knew that he was working things out. Narcissa reached out and took her son's face in her hands.
"You were always a good boy," she began. "We were too hard on you, but know that I love you, my son. He knows what you have done, and though I cannot comprehend how you have done it, you must run. He will not stop hunting you until you are dead. And all of this for a girl!" She saw a defiant look cross Ginny's features.
"She's not just a girl, mother!" Draco protested, and Ginny looked at him in shock, and Draco fumbled his train of thought as if he had not realized what he was about to say. He frowned briefly before hardening his resolve, turning to his mother and saying, "I think I am in love with a Weasley."
Draco did not look at Ginny, but stared at his mother, whose surprise manifested itself clearly across her face. She knew that he was waiting for her to scold him, so she smiled lightly and said, "I am happy for you." Then she turned to a shell-shocked Ginny, kissed her on the cheek and whispered, "You are a very lucky little girl," before sighing and continuing, "Let us go. Run for the gates and apparate the moment you cross them. Do not hesitate or he will be upon you!"
With that the three took off as fast as they could. The setting sun stretched their shadows across the lawn. Draco could not help but remember the last time he had run across this lawn; he had been a murderer then. This time he was to be murdered. The irony of his position was not lost on him as he kept Ginny at his side through their breakneck journey across the lawn.
Just as the gate was looming ahead of them Draco heard a shriek that pierced him and stopped him in his tracks. Ginny had fallen to the ground; her eyes wide with terror and her mouth wide letting out a mournful scream of agony. He ran to her side just as the hex was lifted. Ginny's eyes fluttered closed and she struggled to catch her breath.
Narcissa didn't stop running when she heard the girl go down, but when she reached the gate she saw that her son had stayed too, and at the top of the hill, framed by the massive silhouette of Hogwarts castle, stood Lord Voldemort, his long black robes fluttering the wind, his wand trained at the young pair on the ground between himself and Narcissa.
"Draco!" she cried frantically through her tears. "Draco, keep running!"
When he made no motion to move, Narcissa raised her wand and let out a cry as she charged toward Lord Voldemort.
Ginny sat up weakly and saw the form of Mrs. Malfoy charging at her foe. "Draco," Ginny cried, "Draco, we have to go! Your mother!" Voldemort's laughter rang out in the crisp twilight.
"I always knew you were too weak, Narcissa," Voldemort called. "You cannot save him. The boy is mine." Narcissa threw a spell at Voldemort, which he easily deflected and returned. The spell hit her hard in the chest, but still she barreled toward him.
Draco and Ginny jumped to their feet, but when he made a move to join his mother, Ginny pulled Draco back. "We have to go! She's doing it for you!" Ginny pulled Draco insistently and the pair ran again toward the gate, listening to Voldemort's taunts and Narcissa's cries of pain. Tears streamed down Draco's face as he ran further from the mother who was trying desperately to save him.
At the gate, Draco craned his head around see his mother; she was turned toward him, her face torn between triumph and agony. She smiled at him before she was engulfed in green light and fell to the ground.
Draco turned toward his fallen mother with a cry of anguish, reaching toward her, but Ginny grabbed him, her eyes swollen and wet. As she held him at the gate, the taunting voice of Lord Voldemort floated over the air to them.
"The girl is next," he called eerily.
Draco watched in horror as a streak of green light shot across the lawn toward the girl who was holding desperately to him, her eyes widened in horror. In an instant, Draco pulled her the rest of the way out of the gate, wrapped his arms around her, and diapparated the both of them with a popping sound. The green streak of light flew harmlessly through the air where the teary-eyed pair stood less than a second before.
The quiet was broken by a growl of fury as Lord Voldemort walked purposely toward the gate, stepping on the broken form of Narcissa Malfoy on his way.