When Love is Lost

Disclaimer: I'm not JK Rowling, just a girl with a passion for writing

Author's Note: This is rated PG13 for some heavy language. This is my first story I'm posting on Portkey! I hope everyone likes it!

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When Ginny finally got home from “shopping” at one in the afternoon, Draco was waiting for her in a lonely chair in a dark corner of their bedroom. Next to him on the coffee table were three empty shot glasses and an envelope facing down. In his hand were photographs, which he had a tight grip on. He looked disheveled; like he had just been crying and didn't have the energy to wash his face anew.

Ginny placed her pocketbook on her bed and gave a small gasp when she saw him in the corner.

“You scared me,” she said quietly. She went over to him and was leaning down to give him a kiss when he turned his head. She stood up with a bewildered look on her face.

“Where have you been?” He asked quietly while looking at the floor.

“I told you, I was going shopping.”

“No…where were you?”

“You mean what shops? Well I browsed through one dress shop…”

Draco quickly interrupted her, “No. No more lies. Where were you?”

Although Draco missed it, for one fleeting moment there was a look of fright in his wife's eyes. She hid it rather well though, and looked over to the coffee table. When she saw the shot glasses, she shook her head.

“You must be drunk, dear,” she started slowly, “you know you get emotional when you have too much to drink. Why don't you go lie down in bed?”

Draco shook his head and said gruffly, “Then I should have gotten drunk more often, maybe I would have listened to my emotions better when I thought something was wrong.”

Ginny could no longer hide the fear in her eyes, “What do you mean?”

“Ok, different question,” Draco said carefully, “how long?”

“Honey, what do you mean?”

“How long?” He repeated calmly.

“How long what?”

Draco threw the pictures that were in his hand onto the table. They were taken in muggle film so they weren't moving. Most of the pictures landed face down, except for one; it was a picture of Ginny and Harry Potter kissing passionately, his body pressing hers into the side of a building right next to a front door that Ginny recognized to be Harry's.

“How…long…have you been fucking him?” Draco asked in a dangerously low whisper.

Ginny's eyes were filled with trepidation and Draco could see them welling up with tears.

“Draco…no, I love you.”

“Damn it Gin!” Draco exploded as he stood from his chair so he was now towering over her; “I said no more God damn lies!”

Ginny quivered in his shadow she kept muttering small phrases like “no” and “you don't understand”.

Draco took a deep breath before looking into his wife's eyes, “Please Gin…how long?”

Very slowly, she muttered through her tears, “almost a year.”

“Merlin!” Draco exclaimed. He sat down on the edge of their bed. As he ran his fingers through his hair he could here her sob.

“No,” he finally said five minutes later, “When exactly did this start?”

She took a moment to think about this before saying, “Last year in September.”

Draco took a minute to digest this when a realization hit him hard.

“Oh God Gin,” he said miserably, “Not when I was on my business trip?”

Ginny started crying even harder, which Draco took as a “yes”.

“Oh God Gin, oh God,” Draco mumbled more to himself then at her, “you know why I went on that trip! I didn't want to leave you but if I went on that trip I was guaranteed a bonus at the company! You encouraged me to go on that trip! God, is that why you wanted me to go?”

“No, no, Draco no!” Ginny fell to her knees and grasped onto his, “Never, I was just so lonely, you were gone the whole week! Harry and I never planned to meet or anything! I was at a café and he was walking by. We started talking and decided to keep in touch. Later that week he invited me over to his house when Hermione was out and we…well”

“So you forgot how to close you're legs?” Draco said cruelly, “because now that I think about it, you've kept them closed to me since I got back from that trip!”

Ginny kept crying, sometimes even gasping for breath. Finally, Draco rose from the bed and walked out of the bedroom. Ginny quickly followed him to the living room where he was collecting his cloak from the closet.

“W-w-where are you g-g-going?” she asked unsteadily.

“To my parent's house,” he replied simply, “I can hear their `I-told-you-so's already.”

And with one swift turn, Ginny was left alone in their apartment. After grabbing her cloak, it only took one more quick turn until she was standing in the back yard of the Burrow.

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A/N: This chapter was pretty much setting you up for the good stuff which I will be posting soon! Please review!

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Disclaimer: I'm quite obviously not JKR, or I wouldn't be posting here, I would be publishing.

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The first thing Ginny saw as she walked towards the back of the burrow from the apparition point was her brothers.

Oh no, she thought to herself. She knew her brothers were only going to make this worse. She then realized that it was the third Saturday in August. Every third Saturday all of the Weasley wives got together for brunch. At least she wouldn't have to deal with anyone outside of her immediate family today.

“Hey! Gin!” Her brother Bill called excitedly. “What are ya doin'…” he trailed off as he saw her tears.

In an instant all five of her brothers (minus Percy who had removed himself from the family) were surrounding her, asking her what was wrong and who they should beat up for her. She pushed her way through them, though, and went in through the back door into the cozy kitchen where her mother and father were sitting at the table.

“Oh Ginny! What a pleasant surprise!” Molly exclaimed until she saw her tears. “Oh my goodness, darling, what's wrong?”

As Molly stood up from her chair, Ginny hurried into her mother's arms. Molly tried to soothe her daughter who was crying steadily. She looked over Ginny's shoulder and gave her husband a worried look. She then looked over at her sons, looking for a culprit, but when they all shook their heads “no”, her thoughts immediately fell to Draco.

“Honey? Is something wrong at home?” Molly tried softly.

Ginny nodded her head as she started crying harder.

“I knew it!” Ron said triumphantly. “What did the ferret do? Come on boys, lets go rough up this pretty boy,” he said to his brothers.

“NO!” Ginny whirled around in her mother's arms and started to scream at her brothers. “No! Don't go n-n-near him! Leave h-h-him alone!”

She paused between her sobs and turned back to her mother, dropping her head on Molly's shoulder.

“It's all my fault,” she said quietly. “He did nothing.”

Molly patted her daughter on the back as she led her to a chair. Once Ginny was sitting, Molly started to make some tea. The room was dead silent except for the soft bubbling of the boiling water and Ginny's sobbing.

Just then, a very chipper Harry came bursting through the door and called out, “Hello everyone! Great day isn't…”

He stopped when he saw Ginny crying, though his presence only seemed to make her cry even more. He turned to her brothers and asked what was wrong. The quietly told him that some happened with Draco.

As the boys talked to Harry, Molly knelt down next to her only daughter and asked if she wanted her to contact Draco. Ginny nodded.

“Do you know where he is dear?” Molly asked softly.

“At his p-p-parent's house,” Ginny answered pitifully.

Molly lit a small fire in the fireplace before kneeling down and throwing a small portion of floo powder into the flames and calling out, “Malfoy Manor. Draco Malfoy!”

Within seconds, Molly could see Draco's shocked, tear-stained face. Apparently this had been a bigger fight than she thought.

“Draco, honey, Ginny really wants to see you…is it possible you could come over here?”

Draco seemed to contemplate this request before asking, “Did she tell you what happened?”

“No dear, she didn't but she's in a bad state. Maybe you could come over and discuss this?”

“Can I floo through this fireplace?”

“Of course, dear.”

“I'll be there in five minutes.” And then he was gone.

Molly rose from the hearth and turned to face the room. Harry was now sitting at the table next to Ginny. He was softly stroking her hand and whispering softly into her ear. Molly had never seen Harry this comforting before and it puzzled her why he would start now. Instead of wondering, though, she turned to her boys.

“Draco is coming over now. I want you boys to say in the yard while they talk in the kitchen. Is that clear?”

The boys mumbled a yes as they shuffled outside. As Molly returned to the table with a few more cups of tea, Draco stepped out of the fireplace and used a cleaning charm on himself. When he looked up, he saw Arthur sitting a one head of the table by himself and Molly sitting at the other head. On one side of Molly was Ginny and Harry.

“What is he doing here?” Draco asked quietly.

Molly looked between Harry and Draco, “I suppose for support dear…would you like for us to leave?”

“No,” Draco politely replied as he sat down across from Ginny and in front of a cup of tea. “You'll all find out soon enough.”

Draco's eyes never left Harry's. How could this man who had had his own brilliant wife cheat with his Ginny? Out of all the women in the world, he picked Draco's wife, which made him even madder.

Molly looked between the three adults and quietly suggested, “why don't one of you state the problem so you can talk more openly about it?”

“Good idea,” Draco drawled as he looked at his wife. “Why don't you start Gin? Tell the table what happened. Why we're all crying here. Because I seriously doubt I'm going to get through this whole conversation without crying. Which reminds me, Molly, please excuse me if I swear, it's been a hard day.”

“No problem, dear,” Molly said softly before turning her head to Ginny.

“Ginny? What happened?”

Through some heavy sobs, Ginny was able to get some words out.

“I…I…and H-H-Harry have b-b-been…..together…”

Molly furrowed her brow, “I don't think I understand, dear”

“Let me try,” Draco said roughly. “Harry and,” he closed his eyes and swallowed hard before continuing, “your daughter have been sleeping with each other for almost a year.”

“No!” Molly gasped and she looked up the table to her husband whose eyes were wide as he stared at his only daughter.

“Yeah, yeah,” Draco said absentmindedly before looking directly at Ginny and whispering, “I though we were happy. Weren't we? I was… God Ginny, I loved you so much. I would do anything for you. Weren't you happy? I know you were. Back when we started dating in your sixth year? Four years of dating! But then you throw it all away? Why Gin? Don't you remember when you graduated from Hogwarts? Do you remember that night? That was the first time we had sex. It was both of our first times. And when we got married? We were only twenty but weren't we in love? And three years of marriage! It wasn't that bad! You have always been my first for everything Ginny; I've never given myself to anyone else…I'm just sad I can't say the same for you.”

After his speech, Draco put his elbows on the table and ran his hands through his hair as he looked down at the table.

After a few moments of silence, Ginny whimpered, “Yes Draco, I was happy, and I still love you!”

“So you love ME,” he fiercely jabbed himself in the chest with his finger. “But you fuck HIM!” He motioned towards Harry.

Ginny continued to sob into her hands while Molly gave Draco an apologetic look.

“Jeez Gin,” Draco said as he lifted his head. “You know how much I gave up for you. The only reason I was allowed back into my parent's house today was because my mother was there and she felt bad for me. When my father saw me all he said was, `Ha, you're back. I told you she couldn't be trusted'. And it hurt, Gin, to hear him talk about you like that. But I didn't stick up for you because I realized…he was right. I couldn't trust you. And you know how much I gave up for you. You know I was banished from my family when I said I wouldn't stop seeing you. You know I was left with nothing; no money, no house…only my love for you. And you stayed with me, even when I started at the bottom of that bloody company I work for. And don't you know what I bought with my first big paycheck? Our wedding bands,” he looked down at his left hand and twisted the gold ban around his finger. He looked up at her left hand and stopped twisting his ring.

“Humph,” Draco sighed. “Where's your ring? Is it stuck in his couch,” he nodded at Harry. “Or maybe in his bed sheets?”

“Oh get off of it!” Harry finally interjected.

“Maybe you should have gotten off my wife and we wouldn't be here right now,” Draco roared.

“It was hurting her,” Harry said simply. “She couldn't deal with it being on.”

“Maybe because you weren't the one who gave her the ring and she knew what she was doing was wrong,” Draco countered. “But you helped her, Potter; you took that ring right off, didn't you? Just toss it off to the side like it was a piece of trash.”

There was a thick silence for a couple of minutes until it was broken by Draco's laughter. Everyone at the table looked up at him. He was laughing at the table, until his laughing turned to tears and he stared to sob. Molly reached across from the head of the table and patted his back trying to calm him down. He shook his head.

“I just realized.” He said quietly as he looked up at Ginny, “this all happened when I was on that business trip. The trip that if I went on, I would get a huge bonus at work. Do you remember what we were going to do with that money? Tell everyone Gin, what were we going to do with that money?”

Ginny sobbed but looked up at her husband's sad face.

“We…we were going to have a b-b-baby.”

“Yeah,” Draco nodded at her as his hand propped up his head, his elbow on the table. “We were going to have a baby. We were then going to have enough money to have a baby and clothe it and feed it and take care of it. And we were excited. I know I was, and I thought you were too. But can you imagine my surprise when I got home with this big new check? Sure you were happy to see me, but I could tell something was up, you weren't you're normal self. And I kept asking what was wrong and you would never answer. You know…that money is still in our bank account. No baby for us. No, you wouldn't even have sex with me…how do you think that made me feel? Inadequate for one. I took it as I couldn't satisfy my wife; not that she was getting it from somewhere else. And think about it, in these last eleven months we probably had sex three times if that. Do you remember our anniversary? You didn't even wanna do it then! Was it that you were too tired from being with Potter? Huh, I guess so.”

The whole table was quiet. Ginny had stopped crying and was now looking down at Draco's elbow on the table. Her eyes were red and puffy and she randomly made a sniffling noise.

After a good ten minutes of silence, Draco stood up and cleared his throat.

“Well I think its time for me to leave.”

“No wait,” Ginny rose from her chair. “Can't we please try again?”

“I can't,” he answered.

“Please?”

“No,”

“Draco, please.”

“No, I CAN'T!” he shouted at her. “If we did then every time we would have sex I would think it's out of pity or so that I don't think anything's suspicious. Every time you would go out, even just to come here and visit your family, I would wonder if that's where you really were. If Potter was going to be there. If any guy for that matter was going to be there…I can't be that jealous guy and I can't be that ignorant guy…not anymore.”

Draco walked next to Molly who quickly rose from her chair.

“Goodbye Molly,” he gave her a hug that lasted a full two minutes. He even let her squeeze him, since it felt like someone in the world still cared about him. He looked back down at her.

“Thank you for everything you've ever done for me.”

“Oh honey,” Molly whispered through her tears. “It was nothing… oh I loved you! Please stay well and somehow keep in touch.”

“I'll try,” Draco said as he pulled away and walked down to the other end of the table where Arthur was now standing.

“Arthur,” Draco said solemnly as he shook the older man's hand, “Thank you for accepting me into your family and giving me a chance. I'll never forget you're kindness.”

“Of course,” Arthur said quietly, and then he pulled Draco into a brief hug before patting him on the back.

Draco slowly made his way around to the other side of the table where Ginny was standing. He framed her face with his hands.

“Draco…” she said quietly as she looked into his pained face.

He just shook his head.

“The worst part,” he said quietly, “is that if I never found out, you never would have told me.”

She started to say something but he put one finer over her lips to silence her.

“No,” he said simply. “You wouldn't have told me. I wouldn't have known and you would have kept playing me like a fool for many more years.”

He paused and looked into her eyes.

“I loved you so much,” he said slowly.

He then bent down and placed a chaste kiss on her lips before leaving her standing there. When he got to the doorway, he looked back at Harry.

“So you and Hermione are done now, huh?”

Harry looked startled, “Erm, yeah, she left last week…how did you know?”

Draco ignored his question and shook his head. “Was it really worth breaking up two happy marriages?”

At that he turned and walked outside. He walked past the boys but one ran up and stopped him.

“So what did you do?” Ron asked amusedly.

Draco could hear the four people who where left in the kitchen jostle outside and turned towards them while wrapping an arm around Ron's shoulders.

“Well ya see, your best friend here,” he pointed at Harry, “and my wife, oh I'm sorry! My ex-wife, better known as your sister, have been shagging for almost a year!”

He let this sink into her brothers who were now staring at Harry as if hoping that someone was going to run out saying that this was all a big joke. When Harry looked shamefully down at the ground, they all turned their attention back to Draco who took his arm off of Ron and started walking backwards to the apparition point.

“Yep! It's a small world, isn't it? And it's all true!” he told them. “You finally got your wish Ron! I'm out of this family!”

Draco turned around to finish his walk when he heard Harry call out behind him.

“Draco! You can't leave Ginny in this state!” Indeed, she was sobbing again.

Draco called over his shoulder, “I'm sure you'll take care of her, Potter.”

Harry ran up behind Draco and put a hand on his elbow and said, “Hey…”

Draco turned on the spot and pushed Harry back.

“Don't touch me again!” he roared at Harry. “And if Molly wasn't out here, I'd sock you so hard you wouldn't remember your name.”

“I wouldn't mind.”

Everyone turned in astonishment to Molly. She didn't seem fazed though, and continued talking.

“He deserves to be punched,” she then turned to her daughter “Just like you deserve to be left.”

Draco looked back at Harry and then slugged him so hard that Harry fell back on the ground, crying out in pain.

Draco once again turned and took a few more steps towards the apparition point. When he looked back, he saw Molly, one hand over her nose and mouth, crying, and waving with the other hand. He saw Arthur, who stood with his hands folded across his chest with an apologetic look in his eyes. He looked at all of Ginny's brothers, standing shell-shocked and some even looked like they had pity for him. He looked at Harry, who was rolling on the ground, holding his face. Finally, he looked at Ginny. His Ginny. She was crying but watching him carefully, one hand across her stomach, and the other hand over her mouth. She was his goddess, but she had let him down. She dropped him from heaven and let him fall back to earth, where he was hit with so many emotions he thought he would burst. Would they ever be together again? Maybe one day. But as for this day, it was one that he wanted to forget.

With one final look, he turned on the spot and was gone.

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Later that evening, Ginny was back at her apartment to pack up her things. She was moving back into the Burrow for who knew how long and wanted to get back there quickly.

Everything in the apartment reminded her of Draco. There wasn't one place she could go where she didn't see a picture of him, or a piece of art that he liked, or his clothes, or even his smell. Before she knew it, she was crying again.

She started packing a suitcase in her bedroom when she looked over at the coffee table. It hadn't been touched since earlier that day. She knelt down on her knees and pushed the three shot glasses out of the way to look at the pictures. All of the pictures were of her and Harry kissing or cuddling. One was even of him feeling under her shirt. She picked up the envelope that was on the table and turned it over. It was made out to Draco Malfoy and the return address was to “The Potter's”.

Inside the envelope were a letter and one more picture. The picture was of Harry and Ginny in Harry's bed, quite obviously “doing the deed”. The picture was strange though, blurry, and it was obviously taken in a dark room. She opened the letter and read it to herself.

Dear Draco,

I know this may come as a surprise as it did to me. Please, do not be ignorant like I was. Something is obviously going on. Oh, and these muggle cell phones are not as foolish as everyone thinks. The one of them in bed was taken with my picture cell phone. He didn't realize I was home one day and I hid in my closet as they did, well, you know. I took the picture and then got a camera and waited outside one day when he thought I was going to work. I'm sorry that I have to show you this, but it would be wrong not to.

Soon to be Ex-Mrs. Potter,

Hermione Granger

<<~~~**(The End)**~~>>

A/N: I hope you guys liked it!! This is my first story I've ever written with a Harry Potter related topic! This plot line has been running through my head for the last few weeks so decided, hey, why not! So I wrote it and I'm glad I did! It came out better than I expected. I'm also starting to work on another, much happier Draco/Ginny story. Please check out my artwork too!! And please review so I know how my first story went!! Thankz!!!

~Ozzy

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