-Chapter Twenty-

"Ginny, please stop looking at me with those sad eyes," groaned Draco after he caught sight of Ginny's forlorn gaze. It was the day before Draco had to leave to join his battalion which was going to fight in the war. He was packing his bag, note it was only a bag with his few scarce belongings and Ginny was lounging on her bed.

So Ginny sighed despondently and looked away which made Draco's heart clench. Her sad sighing was as bad as her sad eyes!

Ginny gazed down at her ring. She had looked at it so many times in the past couple of days she had memorized the design. She thought back to that day when Draco proposed to her. She remembered telling her family and friends and how ecstatically happy she was. She was going to married to… well not the man of her dreams, but the man she loved with everything she had.

But now, the full force of reality was crushing Ginny. Draco had proposed to her, yes. He was willing to tie the knot, but he was going into battle and Ginny knew he wasn't coming home permanently for a few years. He was leaving her with nothing but a promise. A promise to come home alive and to marry her, and Ginny hated it; she hated holding her breath for a promise that Draco could not keep, regardless of his willingness or not. Ginny couldn't stop envisioning that Draco would die and a lump started forming at her throat. She squeezed her eyes shut as tight as possible once she started feeling the tears prickling at her eyes but the crying took over.

Draco stopped packing and held Ginny in his arms. "Ginny," he whispered whilst rocking her back and forth. "Be strong."

"How?" mumbled Ginny into his shoulder whilst trying to stop her sobbing. "I'm going to miss you so much."

"I know. I'm going to miss you too. There'll be this ache and it won't go away till I come back and see you again. But I feel, like I need to do this," replied Draco, his voice heavy with emotion.

"You proposed to me. You bloody proposed to me, and now I don't know if you'll ever be able to come back to me alive so we can get married. If it wasn't for this god damn beautiful ring to remind me you want me, you love me, I'd be so scared you'd leave me and never come back. I'm still scared you're not coming back," said Ginny mournfully. She hated thinking about Draco dying; every time she did it felt as if some scaly monster was clawing at her chest, wanting to burst out in the open in the form of screams, tears and fear. That scaly monster was restless and gaining strength.

Shadows loomed over Draco's mind. Ginny was absolutely correct. Draco didn't know if he was going to die or not. He just hoped Firewhisky's training paid off.

"I couldn't just die on you. I'm vowing to myself that I won't die. If I do, heaven help, I'll be glad I'm dead because the guilt of leaving you alone in this world would take over me," consoled Draco, desperately trying to cheer Ginny up whilst trying not to make promises he knew he couldn't keep.

"It doesn't change anything," replied Ginny bitterly. She felt like a child. Helpless, being consoled even though she knew nothing anyone said would change the truth. At that moment she was actually pissed off at Draco. How dare he leave her with the high possibility of dying? Didn't she know how much she loved him? Didn't he care about the pain he was inflicting? Ginny knew she was being selfish, but she couldn't help it.

Draco gazed deep into Ginny's eyes, trying to decipher her feelings. He took in the unhappy set of her brows, the pouting lips and the sad brown eyes. That coupled with the tone she was speaking in reaffirmed Draco's thoughts. Ginny was feeling helpless, uncared for, tossed aside. Draco's eyes flashed angrily for a moment. How could she not know how much it hurt him to leave him? Didn't he know it would hurt him to leave her as well?

Ginny's solution to their predicament was simple. Don't go. But it wasn't as simple for Draco. He personally craved to be truly accepted. He wanted to have something to be proud of. He wanted to gain real respect. He had too much of his father's shit. The more carnage Draco observed around him, the more he felt involved in reversing it. He suddenly found he couldn't idly sit by and watch all the destruction. He also found he cared about things, had purpose in actions and he owed it all to Ginny.

"I know it won't change anything. But you have to accept it. Don't freeze me out Ginny, you know I love you. I know you love me too. Make this last day count," said Draco. He was starting to lean his body against Ginny, pushing her back onto the bed slowly. Ginny didn't stop him; instead she seemed desperate, desperate to feel Draco, to have him close, to assure herself that it wasn't all some dream. Every touch, every kiss, every moan, every breath, every thrust meant something that would imprint itself into Ginny and Draco's mind every lonely night. It was the sweetest pleasure mixed with aching pain.

The next morning dawned bright and warm but everyone in the Weasley household was up at least two hours before that. Arthur, Molly, Percy, Fred and George were getting ready big their farewells to their brother and Harry. They also wanted to say their goodbyes and good lucks to Draco. Even Percy had completely warmed to the idea of Draco when they found out he proposed to Ginny. Everyone else were simply happy he wasn't a dickhead anymore and treated Ginny right.

Draco finished packing a meager bag of belongings for the war. One spare change of clothes, a bit of food, a photo of Ginny which only revealed itself when Draco activated its visibility with his wand alone and his toiletries. Draco knew some of his belongings wouldn't last very long. Ie; his toiletries, clothes and food. But the photo would never leave his side. Luckily the Ministry would cover any other expenses their Aurors had to cope with.

Poor Ministry of Magic treasurer, he'd be having a headache with the blooming figures that resulted from the war.

Breakfast at The Burrow that morning was quiet. The three Aurors didn't say much, simply tucked into their food and kept their eyes down. Percy kept himself as stately as usual, but clouds of worry hinted at his sharp blue eyes behind his horn-rimmed spectacles.

Fred and George kept unusually quiet. It looked like they wanted to crack out in jokes, but somehow that didn't seem appropriate. They were going to miss having someone to tease (Ron) and someone to joke with (Harry). Hell, they were even going to miss Malfoy, who wasn't great to tease (because Ginny would send them a death-glare) and somehow, Draco's countenance didn't seem approachable for humourous magic conversation. He was always too busy looking imposing or staring google eyed after Ginny.

Arthur and Molly dealt with their unhappiness with steadier calm. They had sons who had gone to fight in the war previously and had learnt to accept it.

In the eyes of Harry, Ron and Draco held naive hope. They hoped their training would pay off, they hoped their reflexes and skill would keep them alive. They hoped they wouldn't die.

Ron was missing Hermione already, and he was still at home. His heart ached in a similar way to Draco's whenever he thought about his long absence from her. He was glad that Hermione was going to be at Kings Cross to see them off.

Harry himself felt dull. Extremely dull. He was happy on the outside, he was with the Weasley's, he was alive, healthy. No one else close to him had died… yet. But he felt so ignorant to everything except for an aching hollow in his life which he didn't know how to fill. The other thing that kept some flame inside him burning was the one thought; kill Voldemort. He was doing this for his parents, Sirius and Dumbledore. Even after all this time, the pain was still raw, leaving Harry feeling isolated, helpless. He had no one to love and no one loved him as passionately as Ginny did.

Draco felt the usual cold numbness settle upon him as he thought about his task ahead. He had always drifted into his cold, heartless bastard self whenever he was under stress. Going to fight his enemies who used to be his accomplices didn't make Draco's tasks easier. He predicted that the death eaters would go into fits of rage when they saw him. They didn't yet know of Draco's ultimate betrayal. Luckily for Draco, he hadn't yet received his dark mark. If he had, the death eaters would risk everything to kill him on the spot. Subtle differences in the murders.

A special train was created that would transport the Aurors to secret headquarters. They couldn't simply apparate to the HQ, it would be far too easy to track down the travel magic. No, the Ministry created a train that was so magical it didn't leave any traces behind. Nobody but the head Ministry officials knew of the train's tracks and the destination. The train would leave Kings Cross at five am and it was now four thirty am.

"Ready to go?" asked Arthur evenly, though his voice was laced with remorse. Harry, Ron and Draco were all packed and were waiting in the doorway for a moment. All three young men nodded silently; then they picked up their bags and deposited them in the boot of the Kingswood.

Inside the car, Ginny and Draco held hands and locked eyes. Neither cared if their gazes were getting uncomfortable or not, it didn't matter. Their eyes raked over each other's body, taking in the hair, the contours of the face, committed every perfection and every flaw to their memory. They didn't know when would be the last time they would ever see each other.

The magical Kingswood slid by traffic unnaturally fast and then they were at Kings Cross within ten minutes. They crossed the magical barrier of platform 9¾ and waited somberly whilst the multitude of magical safety guards checked their identity, and then re-checked it.

Soon all the luggage was loaded and there was a ten minute wait until the train was due to leave. Ginny let go of Draco's hand and went up to Ron and gave him a tight hug. The raring monster in Ginny's self exploded with energy whenever she thought about losing her closest brother. She went over to Harry and gave him a hug too which he returned with some sort of desperation. Ginny was intuitive, she knew how he felt, she knew how he missed her, but there was nothing she could do about it. Hermione then rushed up to the family, enveloping Ron in a hug which he returned with passion.

Whilst Ginny chatted with her brothers, Harry and Hermy, Draco went over to Arthur and Molly. "Thank you," he said, sincerity evident in his voice, and he shook Arthur's hand and kissed Molly's. (Who subsequently blushed.) "Thank you so much for taking me into your home, welcoming me, accepting me; allowing me to be so happy with your daughter."

"Draco," said Molly in her motherly voice. It rang with, 'you're very welcome.'

Arthur said the exact same thing, and added "you've grown up Malfoy. You're respectable, you now have principals, you treat Ginny right. I appreciate it and now I appreciate you. Good luck with your battles."

Draco thanked him and gave them a warm smile which they would not see for a long while. He then walked over to Ginny and enveloped in a heartfelt hug. Her small frame, the soft milky skin and smooth, sweet smelling hair would be something Draco would miss with his long time away.

"I'll miss you," managed Ginny calmly despite her cascading tears. Draco wiped them away with a finger, then he tenderly placed a soft kiss on Ginny's lips.

"I know, but you're a strong woman. You can do this. I'll miss you as well," breathed Draco, his forehead resting on Ginny's, their eyes seeking out each other's, reinforcing the verbal messages.

The unhappy monster within screeched and reared its wings whilst tearing into Ginny when she heard the first warning whistles screech from the train. Panic rose in Ginny's throat, she clung onto Draco desperately, the tears falling uncontrollably.

"I love you Draco," said Ginny through her sobs.

"And I love you." Draco placed one last memorable kiss on Ginny's lips and traced his finger along Ginny's fine jaw. When the contact broke, Draco walked out of Ginny's grip and walked straight to the train without looking back. If Draco looked back, he knew nothing would stop him from running back to his crying fiancé so he could comfort her, never leave her.

To Ginny, Draco walking away from her seemed so surreal. He didn't even turn around to wave. Before Draco step onto the train, Ginny started run towards him, but after two paces, Percy caught up in one and held onto her whilst she screamed, kicked and tried to get away. Draco angled his body slightly as he stepped onto the train and through his peripheral vision he saw Ginny struggling against Percy to get to him. Pain clutched at Draco's chest and his foot inched back to the platform so he could hold Ginny, but suddenly someone called out sharply "Malfoy." Draco's eyes flicked to whoever said that and his eyes met Ron's. Ron was slightly shaking his head, his eyes boring into Draco's. Draco got the point. How could he leave the train anyhow?

Before Draco knew it, the door had magically sealed itself and the train was inching forward. Draco rushed to the window to see Ginny sprinting up alongside it. Another wave of pain washed fresh upon Draco and he had to close his eyes when Ginny gave up and fell into a heap on the platform.

'Why does it have to hurt so much?'

Draco now had nothing to do except follow Harry and Ron wherever they went or sit by himself on the crowded train. For obvious reasons, Draco was none too popular with the other Aurors. He decided to sit by himself, feeling odd, like old self; with no one to talk to. The only empty seats were next to Dean Thomas and a curly haired boy, presumably from Hufflepuff. When Draco approached, they all muttered darkly and moved aside, as if sitting close to a Malfoy would be unhealthy or something.

Draco carried on like nothing happened. He sat down in his seat and closed his eyes, and thought of Ginny. Most of trip was like that. Feeling the train rattle on unseen tracks, ignoring the hushed, dark whispers of the other Aurors and imagining Ginny. Draco wanted to think about her as much as possible. He didn't ever want the image of Ginny to be forgotten. He wanted to remember every single thing about her, without the help of the photo.

Something else that Draco also knew was that he wouldn't be receiving many holidays. Firewhisky had told them the Ministry expected the war to go on for five years, minimum. From the tone of his voice, Draco expected the war to be a grueling one. From that conclusion, he presumed the Ministry wouldn't be able to afford letting their precious Aurors go on vacation for two weeks.

'Five years without Ginny,' thought Draco unhappily. A dull ache was already gnawing away at Draco's heart whilst his fingers twitched slightly, wanting to punch something out of sheer frustration.

The rest of the trip passed with mind numbing nothingness and soon they had pulled up at some unknown location. By then it was already eight o'clock in the evening and night had already fell despite the June warmth. The HQ itself was massive. Located in a deep mountain ridge, only the extremely trained eye could pick out its finer points. If any muggle (pfft) were to stray across to the HQ, they would have simply seen a massive granite-ish mountain with lots of cracks and jagged edges. To the imaginative, they would have seen a building cut artistically from the landform. But to them it would always be that, an imagination. Of course, no muggle would ever come by this way. The whole area was layered with multitudes of protective spells that gave muggles strong impulses to get the hell out of the area. Whether it was the muggle was suddenly busting to pee, remembered they left their kid in the park, realized their house was on fire… whatever.

Draco himself stared at the whole structure for a moment after he had collected his bag and gotten off the train. Auror HQ looked monstrous and looming, but to Draco it looked lame and clichéd. However he decided it served the purpose well and crossed a moat like entrance to proceed into its depths.

Inside was simple. A lane that cut right through everything. Branching off left and right were buildings that seemed to grow from rocks with brackets of torches everywhere. Signs were magicked onto the stone walls, pointing their ways. Whilst the other Aurors swarmed around Draco, he scrutinized everything carefully. He could almost sense the defensive magic pulsating from the walls. Everything was nearly all stone. Granite. Rock, that hard stuff. The Ministry sure liked to blend in.

The entranceway that they were in now had many stone pillars and rocks placed everywhere and it was quite vast and empty of any particular structures or furniture. Immediately it hit Draco that this would be an ideal battle ground if HQ were ever to be under siege. Draco supposed if there were any weak place in the whole place, the entrance way would be it. He could just envision hundreds of black clad people, dashing this way and that, hiding behind a pillar, leaping to the side with stealth and killing another with the Avada Kedavra square in the chest.

Draco's sharp eyes caught his graduating Auror's group heading away from the entranceway behind a short and slender woman. Draco quickly joined the pack who ventured deeper into the 'building.' As they walked, everyone remained silent and took in their surroundings. Draco noticed the lane they were walking down steadily sloped downwards. They passed a set of wide archways where many long tables lay. Draco assumed that was the dining hall. Or mess, as some people liked to call it. (A/N, me!)

The woman kept leading the people further down HQ until they reached a nice little allocation of buildings. Draco took one sweep with his eyes and decided these were the dorms. The woman then turned around with a sweep. Draco's eyes settled on a thirty year old woman with pale skin, long black hair and slanted eyes. Her features were striking, slightly angular and pretty in the exotic sense. For a moment Draco was taken aback that this woman, whoever she was, was Asian. Then he got over it and his eyes focused on her and what she was going to say. She didn't say anything yet, as there were still some Aurors trailing behind Draco.

Draco recognized the woman's beauty, but that beauty reminded him of Ginny. Whenever he thought about Ginny, he would be overcome with longing. He sighed under his breath. Ginny would always be his undoing.

Soon everybody arrived and the woman spoke in a flawless English accent, contradicting her obvious Asian heritage.

"Good evening Aurors. My name is Opal Harper. Yes, please call my Opal. I am your Auror director, in other words, your boss. I will be directing this battalion of Aurors, which will be number 270. You would have just had a tiring fifteen hour train ride and I'm sure you're all starving and would like a rest. Well, I suggest you get used to it because out there," Opal jerked her thumb in some direction which everyone assume was the battlefield, "everything is a hundred times the discomfort. However we can't do much with you lot right now so I'm giving you twenty minutes to find yourself a dorm and a dorm partner. Chuck your gear down and when that twenty minutes is up, make sure you're in front of your door so you are ready for a quick dinner, briefing and tour."

Everybody hung about for a while, unsure of whether to do so or not. Opal had a light, attractive and lilting voice which didn't sound very demanding at all. In fact, she seemed too delicate to be the boss of all these men. (And women. About 1/3 of the battalion were women.) Some guys were already drooling and didn't particularly want to leave. Opal leaned against her hip and tried to suppress a smirk. She knew this was going to happen. She gave it half a second before she screamed, "IF YOU ALL YOU LAZY BOGANS DON'T FOLLOW MY ORDERS, IT'LL BE MUGGLE ABLUTIONS FOR YOU UNTIL YOUR FINGERS WEAR TO THE BONES! NOW GET GOING!"

Everybody jumped with a start, except for Draco. Opal yelling like that was a lot like Ginny. She'd be as pretty as an innocent flower, then she'd suddenly bite your head off like a venus fly trap traps a fly. Odd, twice Draco was reminded of Ginny because of Opal.

Draco then followed Opal's orders. He looked around the room to see if anyone looked remotely interested in rooming with him. The observation was deemed negative. Ron and Harry would obviously share a room, and Draco didn't particularly know anyone else. Soon the crowd thinned out and Draco still remained. He could feel Opal's eyes on him, studying him, trying to judge his character. Normally Draco didn't like being stared at, but it was oddly comforting. Firewhisky used to try to calculate Draco from a distance as well.

Soon, stragglers remained. Another guy who looked to be Draco's age, twenty, was gazing curiously at him. Their eyes met and the guy started walking towards Draco. He was more on the thin side, like Draco and was tall, like Draco. He actually looked quite similar to Draco but there was the fact his skin wasn't quite so pale and he had a dark curly mop of hair.

He was now in conversational distance and he stuck his hand out. "Hey, I'm Victor Simpson. Call me Vic. Want to room with me?" Draco's eyes studied his character carefully. He was standing up straight, like he was proud, but not too straight like he had a stick up his arse. (Cough, Percy, cough.) He seemed relaxed, and had an honest face. Even his tone was likeable. Draco knew he had to room with someone and this guy seemed okay. Draco's expression didn't change but he did stick his own hand out.

"I'm Draco Malfoy, and yes, I would like to room with you," said Draco after a moment's consideration. He even allowed a small smile.

"Wicked," replied Vic, shaking Draco's hand casually. "Let's go."

Vic and Draco reached their dorm which was absolutely bloody tiny. This, would be where Draco would be staying for the next five years, maybe more, that is if he didn't have to camp out on various missions.

The room was sparsely furnished with one set of bunk beds and a small table. Draco and Vic found that if they walked more than four paces in any direction, they would hit the bed, table, wall or each other. Their consolation was that their beds were comfy and warm.

"Top or bottom bunk?" asked Vic nicely, giving Draco first choice.

"Well, do you lavish the excitement of sleeping over one metre above the ground?" asked Draco back. Vic nodded with a cheeky grin and Draco couldn't help but smile back. This guy was his complete opposite, warm, friendly, easy going. Vic reminded Draco of Ginny, and he found that as comforting as Opal working her vocal chords on her battalion.

"Take the top bunk, but I know you'll regret it within a week," said Draco.

"Nah," smiled Vic cheerily and he swung his bag up onto the top bunk and gazed at his watch. "Fifteen minutes to go. Dandy."

"So where did you train?" asked Draco conversationally after they 'settled in' into their room.

"The other side of England. Ministry was bloody desperate, so I thought I'd chip in. I was nearly going to bum out of the administrative course I picked. I also heard they give great retirement benefits if you live," replied Vic, humour evident in his tone. "How old are you?"

"Twenty," replied Draco simply.

"Noice, same here," said Vic with a little sigh. "What did you say your last name was again?" he asked, his voice somewhere above Draco's bed.

Draco paused before answering. He didn't want to put off the cheery person in the bunk on top of him, but he figured he would find out anyway, so he said, "Malfoy." There was a pause above him, and Draco could almost hear the cogs and such moving in Vic's mind.

Suddenly Vic's head dangled down from his bunk, surprising Draco a little. "Malfoy eh? Are you the son of Lucius?" Draco nodded, his expression blank. Vic's expression turned a tad serious. "Well, I suppose you have your reasons for being here. But if you're here, despite your circumstances, then I guess, you're doing the right thing." Vic stopped and gave Draco a smile before getting back onto his bed properly.

Vic was accepting of him! Without having to ask why Draco was there in the first place. An easy silence followed, Draco knew, that Vic knew that he wanted one. Draco was starting to like Vic, and the roots of friendship were setting in.

Ginny had distracted herself. After they got home from the train station, she went straight to bed to sleep her away her worries, at least until ten o'clock in the morning. She then went into a frenzied cleaning mode in order to make herself forget about the pain she felt inside. The monster had broken through when Draco left the station, she didn't want it to come out again.

So for most of the day, despite Molly's concerned voice, Ginny brushed, mopped, scrubbed and polished everything in The Burrow. At dinner, Ginny wearily plopped herself down for dinner, wolfing everything down. She didn't want to hear how the table had suddenly lost a lot of its noise. Only her parents, Fred, George and Percy remained. There were now empty spots that belonged to Bill, Charlie, Ron, Harry and Draco.

When Ginny returned to her room, it was no better. The bed; no good, they had a lot of sex on that. The items that Draco had given her surrounded her. The novel, the jacket, the crystal ice skating figure which was currently pirouetting on the tip of her skates. Draco's scent hung in the air, it had been in the air for a long time. What killed Ginny the most was that it seemed like Draco was going to walk through the doors at any moment, because nothing in her house had dramatically changed. Some of Draco's more treasured belongings remained in her room. His clothes, his trinklets, some of his toiletries, some books and a stray platinum blonde hair here and there. (Ginny couldn't bring herself to clean her own room.)

Ginny stepped into her bathroom and was faced with his bright beach towel that Molly had bought especially for him. One of his socks caught on the edge of the dirty clothes basket and his razor was just beside the sink. The monster stirred and Ginny immediately shut her eyes to everything so she wouldn't break out in sobbing fits again. She stripped out of her clothes, remembering all the fun times they shared in her small bathroom naked. She quickly got into the shower, thinking that a shower would help her relax. No go, Draco's shower gel stared at her.

The monster got its way again.

After the tears washed away with the water, Ginny went through the motions of drying her hair, putting on some pj's, etc. She swore the monster wouldn't win the third time but the oath took a beating when she opened her wardrobe half full with Draco's clothes. She ignored the urge to hug the garments and reached out for her assistant's uniform. She didn't have to go to work until one in the afternoon the next day, but Ginny knew she wouldn't be able to wake up until lunchtime.

The distractions of getting her clothes ready for the next day passed and now Ginny had nothing else to do except sleep, however, she knew sleep would not come easily. All she could do now was think of Draco uninterrupted. For once Ginny could spread her limbs completely without bumping into Draco's body and she hated it. She hated her empty bed and the loneliness. She hated the fact her sheets smelt like Draco but she loved it too for the same reason. Most of all, she missed Draco.

That night was the first time Ginny had slept alone in a long time but the ring on Ginny's finger truly consoled her, and the monster was defeated for now.

Ey, what do you think of the chapter? It's kinda bogan, and it's not as fluffy. Um, I'm a real shocker when it comes to writing war scenes, so sorry if some of the stuff about HQ is wack. I'm actually making it all up on the spot.

Again, I'm going to have to apologise in advance, a lot of my chapters now are probably going to update at least once a week. At most, once every three days. As you all probably read, all my time has been leeched out by doing mundane tasks such as walking to and fro from school and home. Plus, I do a buncha extra curricular activities which also take up time.

Ooookay, I know you don't care but that's a lil insight into my life :D

Anyway, please review! If it wasn't for reviews, I probably would have thought, "meh fuck this, stop writing MSP."

Btw, Kaz, I know you're going to make a jab at the whole "Opal being azn thing, making reference to me being azn," so I'm going to tell you to shut up in advance.

Shut up.

luv,

Jessica/yourbeautifulnightmare

(P.S, Kaz (scarlettHuntress) is me best m8, so we like insulting each other :D which is coupled with general violence.)