Nothing belongs to me.
XIX: Happiness
What had been the greatest day of Bill and Fleur's life was, to this very day, their worst.
Sometimes he woke up in the dead of the night drenched in cold sweat and trembling, the image of her sad, sad eyes, branded on the inside of his eyelids.
Draco would then go outside and stand on the balcony, trying so hard to forget what he could.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" He cast a nervous glance around the clearing, peering into the trees surrounding them. He didn't want to think of all the trouble she went through to get to this point.
"I had to see you." Ginny breathed. She looked a little disheveled but beautiful nonetheless. Her hair was falling out of its elegant up do, and her golden dress had been ripped.
They could hear screams in the distance. He just hoped the wedding guests got away in time.
"Ginny I'm supposed to be back there, torturing your family for Potter's whereabouts. What does that tell you about me? About us?"
"Don't say that, Draco!" she said. "You're not like that. You're not like them."
"And how would you know then, Ginny?" he asked her sharply.
"Harry said – "
"Potter was wrong! I would have killed him, if Snape hadn't arrived.
"I don't believe that." Ginny replied, calmly staring up into his face.
"Then what do you believe?" Draco snapped. "That I could change? That we could be together?"
"Yes! Draco, I love you –!"
"And you thought I reciprocated these feelings?" he continued. Immediately, Draco regretted these words.
"Of course!"
"I don't! I don't care about you Ginny!" The statement burned in his throat, and he knew this was a lie. It seemed that she did too.
"Then say it."
Behind them, the screaming had stopped, but not for too long.
"I don't love you."
"Look into my eyes when you say it."
He glanced up, startled to see them full of tears. Ginny never cried.
"I don't love you." he repeated, desperately wishing he could take it all back.
His wife's question startled him from his trance.
"Why did you do it?" Astoria's voice was barely audible over the crickets' requiem.
"Mother always said that if you love something, you'd let it go."
"So you sacrificed your happiness in order to protect her?"
Draco Malfoy hadn't forgiven himself since.