Draco sighed as he looked back at himself in the mirror. He looked so much more like himself, in black jeans and one of Ron's tee shirts, his hair just a little bit ruffled, than he ever did in his trademark suits. Then, he looked like his father. That was sort of the point, though, and he knew that. Dress like a Malfoy, walk like a Malfoy, talk like a Malfoy, drink and flirt and study like a Malfoy, do everything like a Malfoy, exactly as he should. When he was younger he tried to do everything he was supposed to, down to bullying his classmates.
In the past couple years he'd been trapped into his stint as a Death Eater, but he wasn't blind like he was before Voldemort came back, before his aunt Bellatrix came back. His sixth year had brought scores of challenges he'd never faced, some of which he'd never even dreamt of facing. And then there was Ron. And there was he and Ron. And he liked that there was he and Ron, once he got used to it. Of course at first they were both sceptical. Mutual attraction and common interests don't guarantee the success of any relationship, let alone one burdened by the horrors and the complexities of war and centuries-old interfamily conflict. But somehow they worked. They took each other away from the problems of the rest of the world. Nothing mattered but them. Nothing could stop them.
And somehow, the War didn't stop them either, and now here they were, a couple weeks after Draco and his parents were officially pardoned for their original allegiance to Voldemort. Draco had betrayed him to a greater extent than his father; he wasn't sure whether to consider his mother's decision during the Battle of Hogwarts was comparable to his own actions. It was only one moment, but the War was won because of it. If she had told Voldemort that Harry Potter was still alive, he would have killed Potter a second time, and killed all of him, and Voldemort most likely would have prevailed.
Potter was the only person who had the confidence to defeat Voldemort. Others believed that he, as the Chosen One, was the only person who would be able, due to his consequent connection to Voldemort. But the truth was, as long as the Horcruxes were all destroyed, one of which was Potter himself, it would only take the force, the determination, the distinct and complete denial of fear, that Potter then exuded, to kill Voldemort. Without the Horcruxes, he was Tom Marvolo Riddle, and Tom Marvolo Riddle, as much as he despised the fact of it, was human, just like most everyone on the battlefield. The difference was that he was feared so greatly that people avoided even saying his name; one habit of Potter's that concerned many was in fact a dearth of hesitation to call Voldemort by his name, but that familiarity lent itself to Potter's ultimate victory. Having the nerve to speak Voldemort's name was a task that took Draco months to achieve.
Contrary to what most people believed, he had more reason to fear Voldemort than most people did, given his close proximity to the wizard. If Voldemort discovered that he had made missteps, Draco was punished. And there were certainly plenty of missteps that he succeeded at concealing from Voldemort, and even the majority of the other Death Eaters. At least, until the end of the War. After the War, he was relatively safe. Not that most people actually accepted his true allegiance as an unnamed member of the Order of the Phoenix, but reticence was better than disdain, and he had been the subject of enough disdain to last him a lifetime.
The reactions of others were not of great import to Draco, however; he truly valued the opinions of only three people still living: his mother, Blaise, and Ron - mostly Ron. Ron had certainly had his doubts, but Draco had made the decision early on that he would settle for nothing less than proving himself, and he kept his promise. Being who Ron needed him to be was more important than being what his parents needed him to be; he acted accordingly. He wanted Ron, needed Ron, loved Ron, was in love, and desperately so, with Ron. It had been quite the fall indeed, and his landing had been excruciating and disparaging, but he had subsequently managed to pull himself up to his full height.
Now, as he stood in his bedroom, fretting over details in his clothing, the future seemed reasonably bright. Draco visited the Weasley shop almost every day, and they had made a deal with Hannah and Neville that the most private table in all of the Leaky Cauldron was reserved for the two of them. The only piece that would be difficult would be Ron's family. He hadn't even come out to them; it would unreasonable to expect them to stomach the news that they were in a serious relationship. Draco had decided that after Ron's family was able to condone the relationship he would ask Ron to marry him. He would have done it already, but Ron always felt guilty about hiding things from them, and there wasn't a chance that Ron's family would be able to handle news like that at this point.