Draco was there when she told her family the news about Ron and she honestly believed that if it hadn't been for his hand on her shoulder she never would have survived.
Another month passed and they were truly friends. They never really confided in each other, at least not the way they had that day. Neither really cared to spell out of the pain and since they now had someone to whom the could, the desire no long arose.
They had only kissed that once, but Ginny couldn't help but notice the possessive way he looked at her and the protective way he would put his arm around her. She liked it. She just wished he would do something or say something. She wondered if he was afraid to. She wondered if he was afraid of how she would react.
They never spoke of Harry, but Draco was certain Ginny was waiting for him. Even if she wasn't, he couldn't imagine why Potter wouldn't want her back once he returned and she seemed the type to forgive idiocy and he figured she would take him back after some well deserved chiding. He didn't want to do anything to hurt her. He didn't want to make her feel guilty for returning to Potter so he did everything he could to hide his feelings from her, but even he knew he was failing.
Finally the day came when the war was over. They got news at the school that Voldemort was dead once and for all and Potter was returning. Draco's mood became very dark and he avoided Ginny for the rest of the day. She couldn't understand what had gotten in to him, well, at least she tried not to. She had a nagging feeling, however, that his reluctance to speak for her was coming home the next day.
She couldn't help it. When Harry walked through the doors to the Great Hall, she jumped up from her seat next to a scowling Draco and ran across the room. She nearly knocked Harry down with the force of her hug. He picked her feet up off the floor and swung her around a few times. Setting her back down he released her so she could hug Hermione. They both started crying and expressing condolences to each other and then started laughing in spite of themselves. It was day of mixed emotions.
Their reunion was interrupted when Draco stalked past them and Ginny just stared after him, obviously about to cry again.
She turned her head when she felt Harry's hand on her shoulder. "Ron told us about him," he explained. Then he asked softly, "What's going on?"
She shook her head, "I'll explain later. Right now you must be starving!" She pasted a brave smile on her face and dragged him to the Gryffindor table. They talked for the rest of the morning, classes having been cancelled due to the chaotic celebrations taking place. Harry and Hermione told her all about their adventures, including a somber relation of Ron's gallant death. He had sacrificed himself for the others as they retrieved the last horcrux.
Finally it was late at night and they were the last ones sitting around the Gryffindor fire. "All right, Gin," Harry turned to look at her with a serious expression, "what's going on with Malfoy?"
She sighed and brought her knees up to her chest. "I'm in love with him and he thinks I'm still in love with you so he won't let himself be in love with me. Or," she hesitated, "that what I think is going on." She then proceeded to tell them all that had happened in the past year, starting with the first night he found her crying and including the kiss.
"Yeah," Hermione said at length, "that's what it sounds like is going on." She looked over at Harry with an expression that Ginny found difficult to read.
She figured it out, though, when Harry turned to look at her with relief in his eyes. She smiled at him. "You're relieved, aren't you, that I haven't been at home, pining for you and waiting for you to return?"
She was teasing him and he couldn't help but laugh. He tossed a pillow at her in revenge. "Yeah, I have to admit I am."
Sobering up, Ginny looked at Hermione. "I don't want to be insensitive, but I thought…"
Hermione interrupted her, "I was in love with your brother. I always will be, to some degree. It's just that…well…right before Ron disappeared from sight he shouted back at Harry to take care of me."
"I determined to do as he asked," Harry picked up the story, "not that I wouldn't have looked after her anyway, as a friend."
"I guess," Hermione continued the narrative, "that everything we went through after that, all the nights we spent together huddled in the dark, just the two of us…well…Harry became I had anymore."
"And she," Harry looked over at Hermione, "was all I had."
"Well," Ginny leaned over to give Hermione a hug, "I'm sure this is what Ron would have wanted. If he couldn't take care of you, there is no one else he would trust with the job than Harry. And I know he would want both of you to be as happy as possible, and if that means you're together…I'm sure that if he knew he'd be happy for you."
Hermione's eyes welled up and she hugged Ginny again. Harry's throat tightened, but he managed to say, "Thanks, Gin. I wouldn't have believed it from anyone else, especially not myself."
The next morning, Draco was not at Breakfast. Ginny looked for him all morning but didn't find him until late in the afternoon. She caught him in the Entrance Hall as he was trying to sneak back in and down to his dorm.
"Draco!" she called out, "wait!" She ran across the hall toward him.
He tensed. He didn't really have a choice, so he stopped walking. He did not, however, turn around. He really didn't want to have this conversation. He did not want to hear how happy she was with Potter. He would not have stopped if he had not known that she would have chased him all the way to his common room.
"Draco!" she exclaimed softly as she reached out and touched his arm, "Draco, why are you avoiding me?"
He turned around so quickly she took a step back. "You don't know?"
He felt knots wrench into his shoulders at the pain that crossed her face. "I had hoped…" she started. She shook her head and started again. "Draco, won't you at least listen to me?"
He clenched his jaw and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened he had made his decision. "No," he stated simply, "I won't listen to you tell me how happy you are now that Potter's back. I don't need to hear it. I saw it plainly enough yesterday, and frankly, I'm glad." He mentally steeled himself for he knew her reaction was going to be, "because now I won't feel guilty for walking away."
Even his mental preparation was inadequate for the stricken look that immediately commanded her features.
"Wal…walking away?" she stuttered.
He clenched his jaw again. "There isn't…my life is…It's just better for both of us we aren't close. I'm going to take my mother away where we won't be reminded of my father. It'll be better for you to just forget me. You have Potter now, so you won't be alone, and you don't need me around reminding you of my father, laying all of my shit on you as well." He turned to walk away.
Ginny was just angry enough to let him go. When he was halfway across the hall she screamed. She didn't scream at him, she just screamed. He hesitated in his step, torn between running back to her to apologize and ease her pain and continuing, convinced it really was for the best. He never would be able to get along with Potter, after all, and he'd never be able to accept her being with anyone else, especially Potter.
Harry had been in the Great Hall and had heard Ginny scream. He hurried to her side, taking one quick look at Draco's retreating back, and asked her if she was okay.
"No," she answered honestly, still staring after Draco, "but I will be."
"Come on, Gin," Harry reached up to her shoulder and tried to guide her away, "maybe you should just let him go."
She clenched her jaw and balled her fists. "You know, I probably should, but I just can't. At least, not without having my say." She stormed after the object of wrath.
He had stopped just around the corner and was pacing back and forth in agitation. It was taking all of his strength not to go back to her and he didn't notice her approach.
She saw him ball his fist, saw his shoulder tense and his fist come up, and she knew what he was going to do, the fucking moron. Without thinking, she moved and got in his way. The part of her brain that controlled her actions knew that he wouldn't see her in time to stop and she braced herself.
All of his pent up frustration went into his arm, into his fist, and he turned to release it into the wall. At the last possible second he noticed the flash of red and tried to stop. It was too late, his brain had already thrown the punch.
He stood over her in shock. Harry rushed to her side and helped her to her feet. She gasped to recover the breath he had knocked out of her.
"Why the hell would you do that!" he demanded loudly.
She glared at him. Voice still breathy and hands holding her stomache where she had been punched, she answered him coldly, "Because I fucking care! Though I don't know why! What the hell, Draco Malfoy?! Harry is in love with Hermione! That is what I wanted to tell you! I am in love with you! That is what I wanted to tell you! But bloody fucking hell! If you're going to do the same damn thing to me that Harry did," she ignored Harry's wince, "the same thing you found me crying over, the same thing you called me a fool to cry over…maybe I'll just take your bloody advice and count myself better off. You better believe I'll cry for your father before I'll cry for you." With that she turned and walked away with a stately grace unbelievable for one just punched in the stomache.
Harry looked at Malfoy. "You may not believe this," he said simply, "but her brother hoped you would get to her, get close to her in a way no one has since that damn diary. He figured that only someone as closed off as she is could get through to her. He figured that you were just about right for her and if you could fall in love with her she'd never have to worry, that you were a bloke a guy could trust with his sister if he could just know the love was real. He figured that if Ginny could believe your love was real than it must be. Don't be a fool, Malfoy." He, too, walked away, but as Ginny had gone outside, he headed back into the Great Hall.
Malfoy stood there, staring at the wall, for a long while. Finally, when he couldn't take anymore, he ran as fast as he could out the great front doors and across the grounds. It didn't take him long to find her. She was kneeling in the same spot he had found her kneeling a month before.
He dropped to his knees in front of her. Looking her straight in the eye, he opened his mouth to speak but couldn't find the words.
She just stared at him, waiting. Her eyes were dry and that, for some reason that bit him worse than tears would have.
She sighed and shifted as though she was about to get up and leave.
Impulsively, for his mind could come up with nothing else, he leaned in and kissed her. He brought his hand up to the back of her head and touched her cheek with the other. She resisted at first, still angry and still hurt, but it didn't take long for her to relax into it. She crawled closer to him without breaking the kiss, bringing her hands up to his shoulders.
When they finally pulled apart, she rested her head on his shoulder and twisted her hips so she could sit on his lap. "Does this mean you won't be walking away?" she asked quietly.
"How can I?" he asked, "When you have my heart?"