The laughter died down, and the room was quiet again. Ginny finally finished her bowl of soup, and Draco ate some as well. Ginny found herself telling him that this had been her favourite as a child, and some of the silly memories she had of the Burrow.
"Your own brother put a firecracker into the fire while your mum was cooking? And nobody gave him a clip over the ear?" Draco seemed indignant.
Ginny snickered. "Oh, Dad gave him a stern talking-to. But that was kind of ruined by the fact that we all roared into laughter when mum jumped so high she brushed the ceiling, and spilled soup all down the front of her dress. And she scolded, but there was laughter in her eyes. Not really the kind of environment that discourages mischief making."
Draco shook his head, but he had a smile on his face.
"What was your family like?" Ginny asked, reaching to take another slice of bread.
Draco became still. He was silent for a minute. "We were close," he said finally. "Father always made time for me to come with him to the places he was going: he really took seriously the fact that I was going to take over his assets, and even at the age of ten I understood what those assets were and who managed them for us. He would show me his papers, explain things… Oh, I know that he was a cunning, devious man; and I'm not sure that he wasn't horrible to everyone else in the whole world. But he loved me. And I desperately didn't want to disappoint him.
"Mother… Well, she was my mother. She spoiled me rotten and I loved her for it. Her sweets bought me friends at school; and her insistence with Father put me in Hogwarts, got me on the Quidditch team, got us to the Quidditch World Cup… He loved her a lot. Nothing was too expensive for Mother: she had the best of everything. We all did.
"Voldemort… I can't get around talking about my family without talking about Voldemort." He seemed sad. "Being powerful was one of my father's failings. Voldemort courted him for his influence at the Ministry and at Gringotts. Father made it hard for him, but Voldemort won him over. And he won Mother over. So, we were dedicated to making his uprising work. We were heavily invested.
"Voldemort began to distrust Father. There was a spy in the ranks, and, while everyone had their suspicions, Voldemort suspected everyone. Every failing was made out to be deliberate. The… thing… in second year… Merlin, that was you, wasn't it?" He looked at her surprised by the recollection. Ginny nodded mutely and waved him on. He nodded and continued. "Voldemort was unhappy. And everything Father turned his hand to after that seemed to be a comedy of errors. He was put in Azkaban. The Dementors left, but his cell was locked and they just left him there. Alone. To die.
"And he did." Draco seemed determined to hold back any emotion. "Mother and I were left to fulfil Voldemort's expectations. I couldn't kill Dumbledore in my sixth year… I don't even know if my heart was in it. The old man had kept me reasonably free from Voldemort's influence for nine months of every year, and I think I realised that once he was gone, Voldemort would claim me more fully.
"Severus took me back to Voldemort. I knew there was no other option, but I did blame him for a long time. Couldn't he have taken me somewhere else? Anywhere? Voldemort does not like to be failed. And I was punished. He gave me opportunities to 'redeem' myself, but I was cursed with my Father's luck. Eventually, Voldemort decided I wasn't worth the trouble. He tried to get me to confess to being a spy by… Gods. By torturing my mother." Draco bit down on his knuckles. After a moment, he went on. "Severus was there. Apparently Voldemort gave him the choice – torture me or my mother. And he chose my mother. I… I still don't know if I've forgiven him for that. I don't know if I can.
"So, I've kept going. I withdrew Malfoy support from the Ministry, and the final remnants collapsed. I kept the assets going, and they prospered. I was… just going through the motions. Then… you put that stupid ring on. And I was finally going to be able to join my parents."
Ginny waited for him to continue speaking, but after a long moment of silence, it seemed that he was finished. He stared at the tureen on the table. Eventually, Ginny decided she should say something.
"Why did you ask me if I was in love with Potter?"
Great, Weasley, she congratulated herself, you've managed to avoid consoling him and insulted him in one breath. Just great.
Malfoy looked as though he'd been punched. "I don't know," he said flatly. The expression on his face said that he did know, and he wasn't telling.
Ginny swallowed. "Ok. Let me tell you about my family.
"I am the seventh child – and only girl – of the Weasley clan. My parents met at Hogwarts, married, and had children. Dad worked for the Ministry before it collapsed, and hasn't really discovered what to do now that it's gone. Mum looked after all of us, ran the house, tended the garden and fed us all with the meagre stipend that Dad got. Now Mum's working here; she did say that she'd come to see you, so I assume you know that.
"Bill – my oldest brother – is married to Fleur and living in France. He works for Gringotts as a curse breaker. He always let me sit on his lap when he was home, and he'd tell me gruesome stories about old witches and wizards who had died thousands of years ago. He was always my favourite brother when I was growing up.
"Charlie lives in Romania. He manages dragons out there. He has a ponytail that is still the bane of my mother's life. He married three years ago, a local girl called Joannie. He was always outside when I was little, and any expeditions to the creek or the heath were always led by him.
"Percy… Was the rule-keeper in our family. He'd do things properly, even if nobody was watching. I didn't really like him, growing up. He'd always find a way to tell us off, or to get mum to tell us off. And then he left us to stand by the Ministry… couldn't stand our 'vigilante tactics'. He was killed in Voldemort's takeover of the Ministry. I never got to say sorry for being a right brat to him.
"Fred and George were always Fred and George. They caused all the mischief in our family. They were well on their way to making their fortune from it. They were assassinated by Voldemort.
"Ron was only a year older than me. We always fought, but we were also really close. Shared experience, more than anything else. He seemed to take his responsibility to 'protect' me very seriously, more seriously than any of the rest of my brothers did. Which annoyed me no end at school, but I got over it. He's my only brother still alive and in the country. Merlin knows I want to chop off certain parts of his anatomy for the way he treated Hermione, but he's still my brother."
Draco nodded slowly. "I understand," he said. And Ginny knew he did.
"So, why did you ask me if I loved Potter?"
Draco grimaced. "You pick the worst times for conversations, did you know that?"
Ginny raised an eyebrow and waited.
"I told you I wanted everything that Potter had? Well, I wanted you too." Ginny sat back in her chair, shocked. Draco gave her an amused smile. "More as an idea than as a person. But… you defended him, threw yourself at him, worshipped him… Merlin, I wanted that. And your stupid hair didn't make it any easier to ignore you. But you were always Potter's, in your heart if not in his. He didn't want you, rotten bastard – but that only ever seemed to make you want him more. So, I wanted to know if you still loved him."
Ginny – shocked, but still alert – replied, "and I answered you. No, I don't. But why did you need to know that now?"
Draco waved a hand. Ginny stared him down. "Gods, woman. Won't you let it rest?" Ginny shook her head. He gave a sigh, fidgeted with the buttons on his shirt. "You don't want to kill me, you don't want my money. I hoped that you'd just let me die, find my parents… But I've found myself not actually wanting to die. Because you've all gone to such lengths to keep me alive," he said. "And because you have gone to such lengths to keep me alive." He glanced up at how his words were being received.
Ginny could feel blood rushing to her face. "I… had no idea… I… Hang on, just let me think for a minute," she stammered. "I never expected this. I… accepted that putting on the ring made me married to you, and that I'm stuck in this. I never expected… you to feel anything for me. I don't know how I feel. I don't know you well enough. But," she said to his gloomy expression, "I… I want to try."
Ginny moved and sat next to Draco. She took his left hand and slid the ring – which, until now, had been in her pocket – on his finger.
There was a forceful burst of magic. Ginny's head spun from the noise of it. Draco was looking at her hands, and when Ginny looked down also, she saw that the wedding band on her finger had ceased its deception and was now as it truly was. Draco looked up into her face with wonder. "Really?" he whispered. When she nodded, he slid his hand behind her head, tangled his fingers in her hair and kissed her.
The magic got louder.