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He wondered if he’d been forgotten in the cold, blank room that was almost sterile in its emptiness. Draco could feel the blood on his cheek, and he was sure the gash on his forehead was open again. The last thing he wanted was a damn scar. He hoped they’d speed things up so he could heal himself. It seemed the new authorities were just as ruthless when they took prisoners as the Death Eaters had been, only instead of cursing their captives, they shut them up in dimly-lit rooms and conveniently let them die of neglect.
After what seemed like hours, the heavy lock turned and one of his captors walked in and slammed the chair opposite Draco with a loud smash.
Ronald Weasley was fuming. “Where the bloody fuck is my sister, Malfoy?” His teeth were clenched as he spit the words out.
Draco raised an eyebrow, but Ron ignored him.
“We know you’ve been together. There’s enough evidence of that!” Angrily he thumbed though a thick folder and then slapped a large photograph down on the table.
It had been taken over three years ago outside the Maher house in Boston. Draco thought back to that night in the rose garden and tried to hold back his wistful smile. It wouldn’t do to have a smile on his face at a moment like this.
xxx
The Mahers had been the first Muggles Draco had ever really spoken to. Quickly, they had become more than friends- they had become another family. Draco wasn’t quite sure how that happened, but Ginny assured him that they were safe, so Draco was content.
Content until an unsuspecting Jewel Maher decided to up and fall in love with an American wizard. Draco wasn't sure who was more shocked- Jewel, who realised that not only was her boyfriend magical, but that he'd also recognised the two British friends staying with her family as fugitives from a European wizarding war, or Draco and Ginny, who discovered that their likenesses had been forwarded to magical communities all over the world. After all, they thought, why would anyone care about them?
Once the two had explained about the war and helped Sean explain about the wizarding world, Draco had been sure that this new family of his would turn its back on him. He and Ginny had been arguing about that in the rose garden the night they all were supposed to be celebrating the newly formed engagement between Jewel and Sean State.
Draco figured that they wouldn’t have wanted him there now that they knew what he’d done. The war was finally over in Britain, but the narrow-minded bigotry had remained and these kind-hearted American Muggles understood prejudice just as well as the next wizard.
“It’s only one night, love.” Ginny had tried to reason with him. “Can’t you try to look comfortable?”
“One evening surrounded by people who three years ago I would have tortured without a thought.” He looked grim. “It doesn’t matter how much they liked me, now that they know about this ugly thing on my arm,” he raised it toward her, “they won’t forgive. People just don’t forgive things like this, Gin.”
“I did,” she said plainly.
“You’re different, Gin. They’ll hate me for the things that I’ve done.” He sat down on the patio chair and put his head in his hands.
Ginny walked slowly toward him, put her arms around his neck and lay her cheek on the top of his head. Draco grabbed her hips and pulled her closer to him.
“They want you here. I want you here. We have some special news we need to share with our ‘family’ together. For that, we need to step inside.”
Draco abruptly looked up and caught her deep brown eyes. “Special news, Ginny?”
“I think it’s special.” She grinned down at him.
“Well?”
Ginny tried to look innocent but failed miserably.
“Are you going to tell me what it is?”
“Nope.” Ginny giggled. “That would ruin the surprise six months from now.”
Draco hadn’t said anything; he’d just stared up at her for a moment with as gaping a mouth as was appropriate for a Malfoy, and then he stood up to twirl her around.
“Careful, careful,” she’d chided him light-heartedly. “My mum always said that she was sickest when she was carrying the twins and motion sickness does not sound fun.”
He stopped and looked at her. “Twins?”
Ginny nodded, slowly smiling when she realised that despite Draco’s shock, he was as excited as she was. She had never been happier. Neither had he.
He’d taken her hand and kissed the back of her fingers. “You’re beautiful, you know that, Mrs. Malfoy?” He’d gathered her close and smiled down at her.
Ginny loved it when he genuinely smiled, so he did it often just for her.
Draco remembered leading her back into the house with a ridiculous grin reserved only for expectant fathers plastered on his face.
xxx
“The picture proves nothing, Weasley!” Draco growled. “It’s years old."
“Like hell it doesn’t, Malfoy. It means you were somehow involved with my sister before she went missing. We know she’d left the country… but now she’s vanished and we can’t find her. YOU must know why.”
Draco remained silent as Ron kept going. “You must have cursed her, coerced her, threatened her; otherwise, she would never have been able to stomach being in your presence longer than she absolutely had to.” Ron’s upper lip curled in a disdainful smirk, very reminiscent of how Draco had looked at him at Hogwarts.
Draco prided himself on his self-control, but the insinuation that he would do anything to force Ginny to love him was crossing a line.
“What the hell do you know about your sister? Does she look miserable to you in that picture?” Draco gestured to the grinning woman twirling in his arms. “Haven’t you ever seen someone who was blissfully happy, you fool? Oh right, I forgot, you surround yourself with people like Granger and Pothead. You lot are never happy. You never think.” He couldn’t hide the look of disgust on his face, and to be quite honest, he wasn’t even trying. “You knew why Ginny left, where the hell were you?”
Ron’s eyes narrowed. “You know full well where I was. The war was still raging, but Ginny wanted to get away from the Order… from Harry. I just-”
“You just chose your idiot friend over your sister, you pillock!” Draco sneered. He was calm but angry.
Draco tried to regain some composure and he pasted a nonchalant look on his face as he stared down at the back of his fingernails to aggravate Ron. Apparently it worked, because Ron couldn’t really restrain the fury bubbling up inside him. He grabbed the blond man up by the back of his hair and slammed his head down against the table. “Never say that again, ferret!”
Bleeding now from his lip, Draco looked up at his tormenter with loathing. “I’ll say what I like. It is the truth, and she’s my wife. I love her and I won’t have you anywhere near her.”
Ron’s mouth was gaping and he was about to inflict another blow when the door opened and another familiar figure stepped in. Harry Potter, ‘Boy wonder’ and Saviour of the Wizarding World strode over to Ron and touched his back to whisper something into his ear.
Ron looked at him in disbelief and shoved Draco’s head down once more for good measure before storming out of the interrogation room.
Draco raised his head and eyed Potter warily. In contrast, Harry leaned himself back into the chair opposite Draco and looked at him in something akin to wonder. They stared at each other for what seemed like a long time until Harry finally broke the silence.
“Why did you choose her, Malfoy? Why Ginny?” Draco could hardly hear him.
Draco’s temper was almost gone. His round with Weasley had taken care of that. Now all he had was resignation. “She chose me, Potter.”
Harry’s curiosity was piqued, but he waited patiently, expectantly, for Draco to continue.
Draco remembered back to the day he finally saw Ginny for what she really was, and what he’d wanted her to be for years.
xxx
After that horrible night on the Astronomy tower, Draco knew he wasn’t really capable of killing. Not even to save his parents. He’d been spared because of his father. Lucius had taken the curse for his son, and though the Dark Lord had been annoyed, he’d accepted the sacrifice as payment for Draco’s failure.
Draco had remained with the other Death Eaters, watching and learning every disgusting new trick they would teach him, but he was never fully trusted. He’d failed his master and no one really forgot something like that. Draco knew he’d never forget it. No one wanted to ally themselves with someone they knew was destined to be trodden over by their leader.
That night he’d been waiting at ‘The Woodcutter,’ an inn on the outskirts of Cumbernauld, Scotland for an anonymous contact who’d requested him personally. Apparently they had information that was important for the Dark Lord’s success, but they refused to speak to anyone but Draco.
As he sat in the dark private room, he began to worry that he’d been stood up. He made to get up and leave when he felt her wand tip at the back of his neck. He sat back down.
“Good choice, Malfoy,” his anonymous contact breathed out. They remained that way, each measuring breath after breath for a moment. Draco couldn’t see behind him and he wasn’t moving. Not even to reach for his wand. He already knew who she was and he knew she would never kill him.
“Weasley, put your damn wand away and speak to my face. This cloak and dagger routine is getting tiresome.” It may have sounded condescending, but it really wasn’t said with much fire.
“How did you know it was me, Malfoy?” Her wand didn’t move, but her voice sounded more like it had before this mess of a war.
Draco wasn’t about to admit that he’d recognized her flowery scent anyway, so instead, he sneered, “The stench of Weasley was in the air and your brother is too stupid to have planned this.”
Instead of growing irate, something her brother would do, no doubt, Ginny Weasley laughed out loud. Keeping her wand where it was, but softly smiling behind her words, she said, “How am I to trust that you won’t curse me to hell and back the moment I take my wand off you?”
“Asks one of the most talented and terrifying defensive witches in Britain,” Draco said drolly as he handed her the handle of his mahogany wand over his shoulder.
She took it and then backed away from him, putting her own wand away as well.
“How could you trust that once you handed over your wand I wouldn’t curse you?” she asked quietly as if waiting for a particular answer.
Draco turned to face her and eyed her for a minute. “You could have, Weasley, but then you would be killing an unarmed man. Good people don’t do that… and you are a very ‘good’ person. Besides,” he continued with a small smirk, “then all your clever planning to get me alone would be wasted because I’d be dead.”
They were face to face now, not touching but just staring at one another. Ginny was looking intently at his lips. Draco found that odd, but strangely intriguing.
“Well,” she stammered, “maybe I summoned you here to kill you.” Ginny jutted her chin out defiantly and she crossed her arms in front of her.
“You didn’t,” Draco said calmly. He reached out and softly placed his hand on her wrist, as if he had to hold her there or she’d disappear. He pulled her to the chair and let her sit down next to him. Ginny remained silent, but she swallowed heavily. Draco looked at her intently, his mercurial eyes burrowing into her, waiting for her to explain why she had actually done all this.
Knowing he was waiting, Ginny quietly looked into his eyes and said, “I want out.”
“What? Out of what, Ginny, and what has it to do with me?” Draco raised his eyebrows at her and she stuck her chin out once more. He still hadn’t let go of her hand.
“I want out of this war, Draco. You want out too. Come with me?” Her voice was little more than a whisper, but he could feel the intensity of what she was saying.
Draco dropped her arm. “What kind of game are you playing, Weasley? You brought me here to take the piss of me?”
“I didn’t… I wouldn’t.”
“I’m not staying here,” he cut her off as he stood. “Keep the wand. Ollivander’s on our side anyway.”
“I saw you in Hogsmeade that day.” It came out of her desperately. He could tell she hadn’t wanted to say what she was about to. “I know you couldn’t kill Diggle any more than you could kill Dumbledore.”
“I have no idea-”
“I know you saw me too. You looked right at me as Nott murdered Dedalus Diggle when you refused to.”
It had been his weakest moment in two years. He looked away from her, but Ginny grabbed his arm. “You want out. So do I. Come with me.”
Draco knew there was no point arguing. He had seen her there. He’d looked right at her, willing her to run from the blackness that was surrounding him. She had just stared back at him from the shadows until he was able to drag the other Death Eaters away from where she stood. He hadn’t been able to hide the disgust, the shock and the shame at what his ‘friends’ had been doing. He’d thought she had been a figment of his imagination sent to mock him, showing him things he could never have now that he had surrendered to the Dark. When Draco had seen ‘Ginny’ watching him there, he’d nearly thrown up. Knowing that it really had been her made him feel nauseous again. He subconsciously ran his hands through his hair and rubbed his face with his hand.
Did he want out? He knew the answer to that as surely as he knew why the idea of the littlest Weasley watching that display made him sick. He’d loved her long enough to know that. This war seemed to never end. Death and destruction. Yes, he wanted out, but the real question was, why did she? Wasn’t she for everything that was ‘right and good’?
“I know what you’re thinking,” Ginny said softly. “I still believe in my principles. I don’t believe in racial purity or superiority, but just because a principle is morally right doesn’t mean that the people who hold those principles are.” A hard look spread across her face. “Neither side is particularly honourable. At least you are honest about your dishonour. How can I judge between what is right and wrong when both sides of this war are committing atrocities?”
Draco didn’t know what to say.
“I saw your soul the day you refused to kill that unarmed man. You may not have my principles, but you have something else. We’re the same, even if you don’t realise it.”
Draco stared at her as if her hair had caught on fire and then remembered one little detail. “What does precious Potter say about this ‘defection’? Hmm? Is he going to just let you leave?” Draco didn’t want to say it, but it was the first thing that came to his mind.
Ginny cringed at the mention of Harry Potter. “I don’t give a damn about what he thinks. He knows he is one of the reasons I left.”
“Oh really?” Draco stood and turned his back to her, anger and jealousy spiking through his heart. “Did ickle Weasley get her heart broken? That sod finally realised he was in a relationship with the wrong Weasley, did he? I wonder how Granger took it.” He was fuming, not willing to let her know his pride had been hurt. He started to leave. The last thing he wanted to do was get involved in a lover’s quarrel between Scarhead and his ‘soul mate.’ He turned around and was about to tell her so when he saw the despair and darkness in Ginny’s eyes.
“He would never do that. He loves me- I’m well aware of that, but he loves killing more. The morning they brought him in I knew I couldn’t love Harry Potter. That man I thought I loved was just a figment of my imagination.” She spoke quietly, but every word was succinct. Draco knew instinctively who ‘he’ was. He sat down on the floor against the far wall and placed his arms on his knees.
“What did he do to him?” Draco was solemn.
“I’ve never seen anyone angrier. There was this crazed look on his face. It didn’t matter that Lupin said they should wait, that they should listen. Professor Snape died saying he had promised Dumbledore he would kill him. To save you. Harry didn’t believe it. He didn’t believe Snape would care so much for anyone else. Didn’t believe Dumbledore would have cared whether you were cursed with a life of darkness. Harry just didn’t believe it.” Ginny looked up with tears in her eyes. “Later, he didn’t care that he’d been wrong either.”
Draco leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. Everyone who had ever cared for him was dead. He eyed the redhead across the small room. Everyone except one, it would seem. He knew how he felt about her, but this behaviour from her seemed to coming out of nowhere.
“I understand why you’d want to leave. To get as far away from Potter as possible. What I don’t understand is what this has to do with me. Go ahead. Leave. You’ve got your wand. You’ve even got my wand. Apparate someplace far away. Why drag me into your bid to run away?”
Ginny got a wry smile on her face and she crawled over beside him on the floor. “You once told me I should have been sorted into Slytherin. I seem to recall I had just hexed you. The reason I am ‘dragging’ you into this is because I need you. Is that Slytherin enough for you?” She almost shyly brushed an errant hair from in front of his eyes. Draco was looking at her as she bit her bottom lip. That gave her enough courage to lean up and softly brush her lips against his.
Draco was shocked. He broke off the kiss immediately and pulled his head away. “What the hell are you doing, Weasley?” He sounded neither snarky nor uncivil, just quietly wary.
“What I should have done in Umbridge’s office three years ago. I knew how you’d felt about me then. I was afraid and I didn’t know what I wanted. But now I do. I want out. I want you with me. If you choose to stay, I’m coming with you. I’m finished with ‘self-sacrificing’ hypocrisy. I want truth. I want you.”
“You’re mad! I don’t think you know what you want now any more than you did back then.” Draco exhaled sharply, looking down at his left arm, subconsciously rubbing the blackness underneath his robes. “You want truth, not darkness. That’s all you’d get with me- all you’ll get is darkness and death.”
Ginny could have sworn there were tears in his eyes as he looked away from her, but he controlled them well and not a drop fell.
“Then come with me.” Her amber eyes looked at him, flickering with something that looked remotely like hope. Mercy and hope.
Draco had no clue what possessed him, but at that moment he leaned down, raised his hand to the side of her face and kissed her. It started gentle and sweet and then slowly became something deeper. He was still a little shell-shocked, but she hadn’t pulled away; instead, she slid closer to him and put her arm against his chest while she kissed him back just as passionately.
Draco stopped to murmur, mid-kiss, “Damn us both to hell for running, Ginny Weasley.”
She smiled against his lips and whispered, “But we’ll be safe, and we’ll be together. No matter where we are, be it hell or not, we’ll be together.”
He silenced her once more with a fierce kiss.
They’d left for America that night.
They’d been happy.
Draco wished they’d never come back.
xxx
Draco looked up warily into the green eyes that had tormented him for over half his life. “Look, Potter. I didn’t kidnap her. I didn’t curse her. She wanted to get away from the war, and she knew I wouldn’t have lasted much longer serving the Dark Lord. She saved herself, and she saved me.”
Harry stared at him for a moment. He wasn’t angry, he was shocked. What Draco had plainly stated was something Harry Potter could hardly understand. He hadn’t thought that kind of love was possible anymore. After he’d lost Ginny he figured that loving someone was a liability. Only the weak loved. Hatred was a better course for the emotions he had inside. Now, he saw how he’d deluded himself and lost out on something special. He’d lost out on the one thing that was more powerful than the magic they wielded. Only one thing bothered him. Since Malfoy now had everything that he himself wanted, he had to know. “Malfoy, if you were so happy, then why did you come back to this?”
Draco sighed. “I don’t know if I can explain it, but I came back because I love her. In order to make her happy she needed to introduce our children to their grandparents.”
Harry’s eyes snapped open wide. Draco’s hard look admitted some amusement. “Haven’t any of you twits been to the Burrow? You’d think you’d go there and speak to the witch in question, instead of dragging a bloke off the streets and trying to beat the shite out of-”
Before he could finish there was a loud crash outside the interrogation room and lots of yelling. Both Draco and Harry stopped abruptly and looked at the door. Draco couldn’t move, he was still charmed to his seat, but Harry rose up and went to open the door.
Just before he reached it, the door blew in off its hinges and hit Harry in the face, the force of it breaking his glasses in the process.
On the outside of the threshold stood a small curvy red-head with an irate look on her freckled face and a hand on the baby bump in front of her. She stormed in and with her wand blew Harry across the room.
Completely shocked, he tried to say something, anything. “Ginny, I-”
“How dare you even speak to me, Harry Potter?” she spat as she strode towards him. Flicking her eyes briefly to Draco, Ginny turned and pinned Harry with a merciless stare.
“But Gin-”
“Shut your mouth, you ruddy bastard!” Her eyes were flaming.
“Gin, we thought you were dead.” He was trying to raise himself up off the floor to speak to her.
“Did it ever occur to you, Harry Potter, that I wanted to get as far away from you as possible?” Her voice was loud and she was standing right in front of him, wand raised and pointed at his head.
“What are you going to do now, Ginny?” It was nearly a whisper.
Ginny looked at him, still fuming, but answered in a much calmer voice. “I am taking my husband, and my children, and we are going home to America.”
“About bloody time, love!” Draco’s voice echoed from across the small room.
Ginny mouthed a few spells to immobilize Harry before rushing to Draco’s side.
“I was so worried.” Ginny touched his face as she kissed him deeply.
“Gin-”
She didn’t stop kissing him. “You could have been anywhere-”
“Gin.”
“And you’re hurt.” She leaned back to heal his bleeding forehead and lip. “Wouldn’t want you to get a scar, love.”
“Ginny.” He wasn’t moving.
She raised her eyebrow at him. “What, Draco?”
“I’m still stuck to the chair, Gin.”
“Oh, right.” She pulled out a familiar mahogany wand from her robes and released her husband. Draco gladly took his wand back and pulled his wife in for a tight embrace.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here earlier,” Ginny said into his chest.
Draco kissed her temple. “I hoped you’d wonder where I was.”
Ginny giggled.
“How did you know where I was? Wait- where did you get my wand?”
Ginny pulled back and smirked at him. “Some red-headed buffoon came to the Burrow and ruined a perfectly lovely visit.”
Draco looked worried. “Are Masen and Darrien alright?”
Ginny smiled warmly, loving that his children meant so much to him. “They’re with my parents. Masen loves his grandpa’s plug collection and Darrien is helping Grandma put the laundry on the line. Well, she’s not really helping as much as chasing the gnomes around.”
Draco breathed out a sigh of relief.
“They’re both fine. Ron, on the other hand, is wearing a purple corset and is trussed to the roof of the Burrow upside down.” She grinned wickedly.
“That’s why I love you, you know.” Draco squeezed her tightly once more. They began walking towards the open hole in the wall.
“I think Mum and Dad will visit us in Boston. Mum cried when I told her that we were going back. The twins charmed them. They’ll probably make me apologise to Ron eventually.” She moaned into his shoulder.
“You didn’t give them an open invitation, did you, Gin?” Draco looked horrified when she nodded solemnly.
“It’s for Masen and Darrien. And I want my mum there when Declyn is born…”
“Gin, they’ll pop round whenever they please… should have stayed in Boston…” Draco’s protests were still very audible as the two walked out of the cold, sterile building together.
The End.
jandjsalmon is the author of 7 other stories.
This story is a favorite of 23 members. Members who liked Coming Home also liked 1159 other stories.
This story is a favorite of 23 members. Members who liked Coming Home also liked 1159 other stories.
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