Ginny woke the next morning not even remembering falling asleep, or getting under the covers. All she remembered was Draco's note. She sat up in her bed debating on what to do when she saw a man sitting in the chair at the end of her bed. He was sleeping with his feet propped up on the mattress. Ginny smiled at her father; he must've taken the day off work to be where he was right now.
"Gin-Bug? What are you doing out here?" The red-haired man asked his only daughter. She was lying on the bare ground outside just looking up at the moon.
"Daddy, come here I want you to see this!" the ten-year-old said, full of excitement. It was like the child held the secret of the universe with the way she insisted.
"What are we looking at, Gin?" Her father asked after joining Ginny on the ground.
"It's a full moon tonight, Daddy. I feel so safe when it's like this. Everything is bathed in wonderful light so you can see everything, good and bad."
"What do you mean good and bad sweetie?" he asked, perplexed by his daughter's statement.
"She tells me that at some point in everyone's life the safety light goes out. She won't protect them anymore, so to keep your eyes open when she's there to memorise the good and bad so you can see in the dark."
"Who told you this?" Mr Weasley asked while looking at the large orange moon.
"The moon told me," Ginny answered as if it was obvious.
"You talk to the moon?"
"Every night, except when she hides. What colour do you see the moon as Daddy?"
"Orange."
"She's leaving you soon, Dad."
Ginny remembered the conversation all too well. After she had informed her father that the moon was leaving him he had gathered her up and taken her inside. For the next few days he had seemed more on edge that usual. One day, about a week after the conversation, he had come home upset because he had been demoted. Someone had done something illegal and had framed him. Her father had walked awkwardly around her as if he were carrying the plague. Each night she could see him lying outside looking at the sky mumbling things. She never asked him about the moon again; apparently the moon treated Ginny differently from everyone else.
A rustling sound from the end of the bed informed Ginny that her father was finally waking up.
"Morning, Daddy," Ginny said to help move her father's awakening along.
"Good morning, Gin-Bug. How are you feeling today?"
"Better. Daddy, can I ask you something?"
"Anything sweeties," he cooed, as if to a ten-year-old again.
"What colour do you see the moon as Dad?"
Arthur paused at the question. He hadn't mentioned the conversation that he had with his daughter to anyone. They were witches and wizards; no one just talked to the moon like it was a good friend. It was almost as rare as being Parseltongue. "I don't see the moon anymore, Gin. About a week after our conversation she disappeared. Like one of those Muggle lightboops just burning out. I lay in the grass for weeks trying to coax her to come out; I hadn't been able to see the bad. Every night I wait for her to come out and shed some light onto my life, but she doesn't return. Does this happen to everyone, Gin?"
Ginny looked at her dad with eyes full of sadness. Over the seventeen years of her life she knew that she had something quite special. Being a child and sitting in her windowsill talking to the moon wasn't exactly something the other kids were talking about. Whenever someone pointed out how pretty the moon looked or how it wasn't there she was about to explain the moon's motives, but never did. Now the moon had left her after promising to never leave, and she felt abandoned by her too. It had been gone since the night she murdered, gone since the night that Harry had died. "Yes, Daddy, it happens to everyone. I think it's my fault that you noticed and it affected you so much though. If I hadn't pointed it out you never would've known that it was gone, and you wouldn't be so afraid of the sky just like what happens to everyone else."
"Do you still see the moon, Gin?"
"I'm supposed to be able to. She promised I'd always see her. After the night…" She paused, not being comfortable with saying it aloud yet. "Since the final battle happened, she's been gone. Maybe it's because of what I did, but she's just not been there."
Mr Weasley walked over to his daughter and sat down on the bed. He took his daughter into his arms and rocked her gently. "I won't leave, Gin. I know you've heard a lot of promises, but mine is real."
Ginny just nodded into her father's chest and let the words roll off of her. Everyone promised, and everyone left, so why believe the promises and end up getting hurt?
Ron paced around the dormitory, still avoiding Harry's old bed. It had become a nightly ritual. He would pace and avoid and wonder about what could have been if he hadn't let Ginny go fight. What would have happened if Ginny hadn't starting travelling with them? Would his best friend still be alive, or maybe Ginny wouldn't be having a baby? Ron finally stopped and sat on his bed. His sister was having a child and it was an odd realization, it was all too odd of a realization. Draco Malfoy was being a nice guy; Harry had always told him that Draco was an acceptable person after you got past the prat part. Ron never believed him though; he remembered that it was Draco's father who was responsible for almost killing Ginny. It was Draco who had gotten them into detention, and Draco was a part of the Inquisitorial Squad. How was he a good guy in the least?
He paced for a few more minutes until Hermione's words popped into his head about talking to the dead Harry. Ron needed someone to talk to; to help him over this bump that had firmly placed itself in his life. Immediately he left the dormitory and took the path that led to the library. He wasn't paying much attention about where he was going and ran into someone, knocking them down.
"Watch where you're going, Weasley," Draco hissed at Ron while rubbing the back of his head where it had met the wall.
"If you weren't such a klutz you wouldn't have fallen down, Malfoy."
"What are you doing out at this hour anyway, Weasley?"
"It doesn't concern you. Aren't you supposed to have run away though? Like the little ferret you are?"
"I needed something here, and when I'm here I am Head Boy and students being out of their dormitory are my concern, Weasel!"
"Probably needed to ruin someone else's life I bet," Ron mumbled under his breath. "Just heading to the library to do some research is all, is that a crime?"
"The library is closed, and what did you happen to mumble under you breath there?"
"That you ruin everyone's lives, Ferret, did you hear me that time?" Ron practically yelled at Malfoy's know-it-all attitude.
"Sod off, Weasel, all I have done is care for people."
Ron laughed at this. "You, care? Malfoys don't have hearts to care. You ran Ginny away and your parents are gone because of you."
"All I did was look out for Ginny's best interests, and you should never mention my parents again! They chose their own paths and I chose mine. So next time you want to pretend to know me, bite your tongue instead!" Malfoy yelled at Ron and turned to walk away.
"You're going to be her downfall, Malfoy, so if you really care for Ginny, if you're capable of doing so, leave her alone."
Draco rolled his eyes at Ron. "Get your head out of your arse, Weasley. What have you done to help her, except shoving food down her throat until she vomits?"
"She needed to eat, she's been wasting away! I have been helping her!"
"Pacing in your room and crying on Granger's shoulder isn't helping her. Wishing to raise the dead won't do anything either. Maybe you should visit Gin and see how she is and give her some encouragement to get better. You admired Potter so much because he cared for everyone but himself. Take a page from his book - it could do you some good!"
"Don't you tell me…" Ron started to yell at Draco, but was interrupted by a female voice yelling his name.
"Ron! Ron!" Hermione panted out when she reached Ron. "Oh thank Merlin you're both here. Your mum just Flooed, Ron. It's Ginny; she's at St. Mungo's."
Without hearing the rest, Draco ran off towards his dormitory.
"Why's she there?" Ron asked in an almost calm manner.
"She wouldn't wake up when your Dad went in to her room, and she was writhing in pain. I don't know why, but you mum said to Floo there immediately; she's already informed McGonagall of what's going on."
"All right, will you come too?"
"Of course Ron, I'm always by your side."
Draco ran to his room as fast as his feet would take him and Flooed to St. Mungo's. He didn't have to ask questions to know what had happened. Ginny obviously was still doing the drugs, and was stressing herself about everything too. He arrived at the front desk, requested to know where Ginny was and set off to the maternity ward. When he arrived to the waiting room it was to a gathering of flaming red hair. Everyone was there of the Weasley clan except for Ron and Percy, who had been killed during the war. Draco was immediately engulfed into the bosom of the Weasley matriarch. She hugged him so hard to her that Draco was finding it difficult to actually breathe.
"Molly, let the boy go. He needs to know what is going on here," Mr Weasley said, while putting a comforting hand on his wife's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Draco." She sniffed and wiped at her puffy red eyes. "I'm just so glad that you're here, I think she needs you the most. Arthur, fill the boy in please, I just can't."
"Gin, is she alright? She's still alive, right? The baby…" Draco asked fervently, his mind spinning to all the worst things that could happen to his Ginny.
"Son, sit please, and calm yourself. Ginny's still alive, don't worry. She's in a deep, calm sleep right now. I went to wake her tonight to get some food and potion into her when she wouldn't wake. She just rolled around her bed clutching her stomach and making the most awful noises. We brought her here immediately and they administered a Calming Draught to her. It seems like her body is literally fighting the baby, and they don't know why."
Draco slumped further and further down in his seat during Mr Weasley's brief synopsis. This is my entire fault, he thought to himself. Why did I introduce her to my world? Draco leant forward and put his face in his hands and let those thoughts run through his mind. "Can I see her?" The words erupted through his hands.
"Of course; love can only help," Arthur said to the son of one of his oldest enemies.
"Thank you, sir," Draco let out while standing up shakily. Or love can destroy, ran through his mind.
"Right through here." Arthur guided Draco with all of the other Weasley eyes on them. A year before, no one would have predicted the scene to be real, not even Trelawney with her odd sight could have seen this happening. But this was the scene. A Malfoy being led into a Weasley's room freely, while her brothers watched with, what was it he saw in their eyes? Sympathy? Pity?
Draco entered Ginny's room and walked to the bed while the door shut quietly behind him. He walked as if in a trance to the side of the still Ginny. If her chest weren't rising just the slight bit that it was, he could have sworn that his worst nightmare had come true, that he had lost his Goddess. And he viewed her as just that, his Goddess, the person who lit up his night and showed him where to go and how to feel. With her there was no wrong in the world, but at that moment it was like he had shot down his own moon.
He sat in the chair next to her bed and watched Ginny's chest slowly rise and fall. Slowly he let his hand travel to hers and held it. Draco squeezed it as if to let her know of his presence.
"This is my fault, Gin. If I hadn't given you those pills and taught you how to escape you wouldn't be in this situation. I am so sorry, Ginny, I am so sorry," Draco whispered while tears slowly fell down his face. He wiped them away with his free hand and then put it on her barely noticeable belly. Draco sat like that for a long while with short stammerings of apologies and his eyes firmly on Ginny's angelic face. If he had looked out the window he would have seen the moon shining full and bright on them, and the hazy spectre in the corner that resembled a bespectacled boy.
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