Draco Malfoy had spent ten days alongside Harry Potter in St. Mungo's. Both were treated for exhaustion. Harry required extra care for several nasty burns and gashes he received while dispatching Voldemort to the seven hells. Draco, on the other hand, was getting psychological treatment at the request of Professor Dumbledore and magical surgery to heal his maimed abdomen.
It had all happened so quickly.
***
When he turned around to address the chaos behind him, he saw only two things: Death Eaters trying to escape without fighting, being caught easily by the still-standing Aurors and Snape.
Ron Weasley, running toward him like a streak of red, his father's silver-topped wand in his hands. Weasley pushed him out of the way and dropped to his knees by Lucius' face.
"You fucking bastard, tell me where my sister is!" Ron screeched, breaking Lucius' wand over his knee before Draco could reach out to stop him.
As if realizing what he had done, Ron turned to Draco, his eyes large and fearful. Neither of them saw Lucius
drift to the otherworld with a smug smile on his face.
When the wand cracked, when the dragon's heartstring slithered to the floor, the cloaking spell around Ginny
Weasley broke violently and she screamed as she was ejected from Lucius' conjured shackles and propelled towards
the floor.
Draco only had time to see her fall on a small object and disappear.
In a fit of hellish rage, he hauled Ron off the ground and pulled him to full height, grabbing him roughly by the shirt
and forcing their faces together so hard their noses slammed into one another.
"You broke his fucking wand! You fucking idiot!" he screamed, spittle flying and spattering a terrified Ron's cheeks. "If he did something to her, we can't fix it without his wand!"
Shoving Ron forcefully to the floor, Draco fell sharply to his knees and let out a primal scream that rumbled in
his chest and seemed to be ripped out of his throat.
"I'm sorry!" he cried to the room at large. "I loved her and I couldn't help her!"
***
Draco remembered being pulled off Ron Weasley after he had screamed and cried for Ginny on the bloody stone floor of his father's dungeon. Professor Snape and Arthur Weasley separated them before a blinded-by-rage Draco could beat Ron to a pulp.
Dumbledore had helped a limping and dazed Harry Potter out of the adjoining dungeon. When questioned that day and any time since, he spoke only one sentence.
"Someone once told me to kill I had to mean it, and I meant it this time."
Nymphadora Tonks quietly took charge of her cousin's ruined life. She and Kingsley Shacklebolt saw to it the jeweled dagger that had wrought so much destruction was removed from the body of the eternally smug Lucius Malfoy and destroyed.
Since no Malfoy claimed the body in the requisite three days, Tonks and Shacklebolt were the only witnesses to the Muggle-style cremation of Lucius, ensuring he could never haunt or hurt again. During a lucid moment at St. Mungo's, Draco requested the ashes be thrown in the nearest bottomless pit.
Hermione was being lauded for her crucial discovery of the medieval spells Lucius Malfoy had used that day, and consequently was fielding several job offers.
Narcissa Malfoy was making great strides in her treatment. After being relieved of the version of Imperius Lucius had cast on her, she sent a thank you note to Ron Weasley and requested his presence at her home for tea when she was released from St. Mungo's.