Pushing the back door open Ginny was hit with a riot of sound. Her brother's yells, her nieces and nephew's squeals, her sister-in-law's laughter and her mother's voice telling them all to 'calm down!'
"What on earth?" wondered Hermione from by Ginny's side. The sight they were presented with when they entered the living room was not one they had been expecting.
A troop of red headed adults were looping and weaving around the room on what looked to be their children's toy
broomsticks. Harry's dark head was visible amongst the mass of red, particularly when it landed in front of Ginny,
a huge grin spread across it.
"We're re-enacting the quidditch match," he explained, gleefully.
"Bet mum's thrilled." Ginny said wryly, spying Molly Weasley trying to drag Fred to the floor by the back of his jumper.
Harry laughed, looking over his shoulder before fixing his attention on the two girls in front of him. "So, you guys have a nice 'girl talk'?"
Hermione shot Ginny a glance out of the corner of her eyes before replying, "Yes. It was very illuminating."
Ginny felt herself blushing as she remembered telling Hermione her past with Draco and the amusement she'd felt as Hermione's eyes had grown wider and wider with each new detail.
"Get down now!" Molly's voice cut through the screams of everyone in the room until each of her older brothers had settled sheepishly on the ground.
"Sorry mum, it just seemed like a good way to keep the kids entertained," said Bill, not looking at all sorry as he walked over to his wife, Fleur, and threw an arm around her shoulders.
"Bill!" replied Molly, who was busily repairing objects her son's had broken, "If you think that you can have…"
Molly was cut off mid-tirade by a tall, dark man with bright, blue eyes suddenly appearing with a faint 'pop' in the middle of the living room. He looked round the room quickly and upon seeing Ginny breathed a sigh of relief.
"Zabini?" asked Ron, puzzled. Blaise's gaze barely flickered to Ron, keeping it pinned to Ginny, his worried stare making her insides turn to ice.
"Oh, God," she murmured, knowing instantly what was wrong by the look on his face. She tried to walk over to Blaise but her knees gave way beneath her and if it wasn't for Hermione suddenly gripping her arm, she would have fallen to the floor in a sobbing heap.
"He's at St Mungo's." Blaise said, coming to stand in front of her.
A sudden surge of hope shot through Ginny at the idea that perhaps Draco wasn't already dead. That perhaps she would still have the chance to tell him the truth.
"Who? Who's at St Mungo's?" asked Harry, his voice a mixture of irritated and concerned.
And then suddenly there were a lot of people asking a lot of different questions and Blaise was still staring at her and she dragged her arm away from Hermione and then…the silence of the hospital ward was deafening.
Blaise released her arm from where he'd grabbed it to apparate away. He smiled weakly at Ginny. "You appeared like you needed to leave."
Ginny nodded dumbly and headed over to the bed that she somehow knew contained Draco Malfoy.
Dropping into the seat next to his crumpled figure, Ginny ignored the curious looks that the medi-witches and wizards were giving her. She supposed that it was the story of the year. Draco Malfoy suddenly reappearing and then being joined by none other than Virginia Weasley.
But Ginny didn't really care about any of that, all she could concentrate on was how cold Draco's hand felt in hers. He looked so different without his trademark smirk, his hair all tangled around his head like a halo. She gently traced his still features and bit down on the urge to lean over and brush his slightly parted lips.
"Draco?" she murmured, her voice choked with tears. "Draco, wake up. You have to wake up." She gave in then and brushed his mouth with hers. "I love you," she whispered to his still form.
Hastily standing up she rubbed her eyes with her now free hand and strode over to where Blaise was standing, himself trying to ignore the stares of those around him and trying not to look like he'd been listening to Ginny talking to Draco.
"Blaise," he turned towards her, trying to appear surprised at her voice though through his worry he failed magnificently. "can you watch him? I have to go and do something."
He regarded the pretty, red-haired witch curiously. He'd never really paid her that much attention, even after he knew about her and Draco, but now he found himself truly admiring her. She was strong. He could see that much from a cursory glance.
Nodding, he glanced over at the bed where Draco's prone figure lay. "Watch Draco?" he smirked, "I feel like I've being doing that since we were four and he got his head stuck through the banisters on my staircase." He smiled inwardly at the small smile that invoked on Ginny's worried face. "Of course, I'll watch him," he answered, his voice softer.
"Thanks," she said before heading to the apparition point at the front of the ward.
*
The first thing Draco was aware of was the pain. For a split second he thought he was back on the battle field with his father's hands wrapped around his throat and then awareness came back and he remembered the sight of Crabbe's smug grin.
Forcing the pain, mind-numbing as it was, to the back of his mind as he'd learnt to do as a child, Draco opened his eyes to see what looked like a common hospital ward. He tried to ask for a glass of water but all that came out was a cross between a croak and a gasp. "Steady," said a soothing voice, pressing a glass of water into his hand.
Draco took the glass gratefully from Blaise and gulped greedily, working past the pain in his throat. "Thanks," he croaked out, collapsing back on the bed. "What happened?" Blaise concerned face hovered over him.
"You don't remember?"
Draco shook his head. "Oh, I remember all right, I just meant how the hell did I get here?" He gestured with a weak hand around the bustling medi-wizards and their patients.
Blaise smiled grimly. "After Crabbe hit you with that Ruina curse I apparated us the hell out of there and brought you to St Mungo's where I am sure you will be given the best medical treatment possible." Blaise's smile grew crooked. "After all, you are a Malfoy."
"Yay me," mumbled Draco, "Crabbe really collapsed my lungs?" He laid a gentle hand on his sore ribs as Blaise nodded bleakly. "How long have I been asleep?"
Blaise ran a hand over his tired eyes. "Nearly a day."
Draco glanced up at him, taking in his black outfit. "You've stayed here the entire time?" he asked, incredulously sitting up slightly.
"Well, no," admitted Blaise, "I had to go phone Sarah and do a couple of things and then I had to go fetch Ginny."
"Oh." Breathed Draco, leaning back. "What?" He suddenly yelled, jerking upright with a painful gasp. "What do you mean you went to get Ginny?" His throat was seriously hurting him now and the medi-witch from across the room was gesturing that he shouldn't be yelling in his state.
Blaise looked completely unconcerned and began to examine his fingernails. "Exactly what I said. She came here. I'm pretty sure she said she loved you. Well, she was crying a lot anyway, and then she left. She was only here an hour ago."
"Loved me?" said Draco, an eyebrow raising before a grin started to spread onto his face. "But then she left?" he frowned.
"Said she had something to do." Draco looked askance at Blaise.
"I'm lying on a hospital bed close to death and she had errands to run?" Blaise shrugged and Draco let his cool mask slip over his features obscuring the hope that had been there before. "Well, if she had more important things to do."
*
Ginny knew exactly what to expect when she walked through the doors to the Burrow. Her brothers would yell at her, her mother would be concerned, her father would watch it all with an impartial eye and Harry would…Well, Harry would most likely be the perfect, concerned fiancée he was. The perfect fiancée who would never, ever get himself in St Mungo's because he was handling dark objects to bring his enemies down.
Well, unless said enemy was Lord Voldermort, that is.
Breathing deeply, Ginny pushed open the door to the Burrow, anticipating and receiving the reactions of her various family members.
"Quiet!" Ginny yelled over the din. Harry, who had ran to her side the moment she walked in, looked startled. Her brothers were shocked too, it wasn't often the normally reserved Ginny yelled at them. "You all need to be quiet because I need to talk to Harry." She turned to Harry who was regarding her worriedly. "Can we talk?" he nodded dumbly, taking her hand. Ginny cocked her head at the other members of the room who were staring at her. "In private?"
Harry pushed open the front door, holding it open for Ginny to step through, not noticing her slipping off her engagement ring.