The Button

Summary: one shot Every year, the same thing happened to all of the graduating seventh years. This year, Draco Malfoy planned to break it. AUish GWxDM

Graduation, Draco Malfoy thought, should have been the best moment of his life so far. No more Dumbledore, no more Lucius breathing down his back (he had been killed by old Voldie, thank goodness), no more death threats, and finally, no more school.

The Great War had been fought, and despite the deaths of many Order members (whose memories were placed outside the wall of the new Ministry of Magic office), the good side had won.

But some things still stayed the same.

Malfoy smirked as he looked around him. The graduating group of seventh year boys nervously fingered their second cloak button, including Potter and Weasel.

McGonagall continued to speak, this time directed at the parents.

He could see Potter and Weasel muttering to each other, and sneaking looks at the group of girls.

Malfoy straightened in disgust. Malfoys never whispered in any settings. They commanded the attention of everyone.

As McGonagall started to near the end of her speech (thank god, it had been four hours since she had opened her mouth), a ripple of tension ran through the crowd.

Half of the seventh year boys were already subtly stretching their leg muscles, waiting to sprint back to their rooms and barricading the doors so that the girls couldn’t get anywhere near them.

As much as Malfoy wanted to do that, he confessed to himself, Malfoys behaved with dignity in public and private settings.

He couldn’t destroy his bad boy reputation on the very last day of his life at Hogwarts.

His wandering attention finally returned back to McGonagall. She was finally done, and people were starting to stand up to get their diplomas.

He could hear the girls starting to whisper, greedily eying the guys from whom they wanted to steal the infamous second button from.

As Malfoy coolly accepted his diploma, he could hear Pansy Parkinson loudly ‘whispering’ to her cronies.

Right, like he’d ever give that cow his button.

He was going to make history by being the first to retain his button while others lost it.

As the last guy (Blaise) got his diploma, McGonagall stepped off the platform.

Chairs began to screech as many of the girls got up to run to their sweethearts or crushes to get the button.

Malfoy began to laugh, but it turned into a cough as he realized that Pansy Parkinson was running towards him.

Malfoy sprinted for his life.

Pass the group of girls trying to get Potter’s button, pass the group of parents trying to get a picture of their wonderful children getting mobbed, pass Weasel trying to kneel before Hermione with something in his hand, pass everyone and back into the castle.

He had never run so fast or hard in his life.

“Drakie, come back!”

Malfoy shuddered. Forget dignity, this was way more important than all the etiquette he had ever learned as a child.

“Malfoy, is that you?”

Malfoy turned around.

“Ginny?” He was pleasantly surprised to see the youngest Weasley there. They had gotten along quite well during the war, despite the Weasley family’s concerns that he was still on the dark side.

“Are you running from Parkinson?” Ginny Weasley asked him.

“No, I’m going to France for vacation,” he sarcastically replied.

Ginny frowned. “You could be nicer to me, considering the fact that the entire school already thinks you’re an—“

“Drakie! Where are you? You promised me that button!” Pansy’s singsong voice vibrated off the corridor.

“I have to hide from her; I’ll talk to you later.” Malfoy turned to leave.

“Wait. I can help you, come with me.” Ginny grabbed his arm. “And don’t make a sound,” she glared.

“Where are you taking me?” Malfoy asked.

“Somewhere that no one will think of finding you because only three people in the world know of this place.” Ginny pushed him into the fourth level corridor.

“Close your eyes and hold on to me.”

Malfoy did as he was told. Being close to Ginny Weasley was something he was not use to. She smelled like lemons and cherries, plus her hands were soft and small compared to his hands.

“Okay, we’re here. Open your eyes.”

Malfoy opened them. “We’re in…”

“…the Room of Requirement. My brothers found this entrance during their first year, and I followed them into here three years ago. No one can find us, because this entrance into the room is protected, and the room will not show up unless we want in too.”

“Nice.” He admired the furnishings in the Room. It never ceased to amaze him how the room changed to suit the purpose of the users.

“We can stay here until Parkinson leaves. So why were you so eager to get away from her anyway?” Ginny asked.

“It’s because of…” Draco stopped. No one knew about the tradition until their seventh year. It was one of the best kept traditions in the entire school.

“Yes?”

“Never mind. It’s the same thing as usual.”

“Does it have anything to do with the button? I overhead Hermione talking about it this morning. Ron was babbling about it when he got ready with Harry.” Ginny frowned. “It’s such a stupid tradition. Give a button or have it stolen by girls during graduation. It’s ridiculous and wasteful.”

Malfoy breathed a sigh of relief. “You already know of the tradition! That’s good to know, and Pansy was trying to take it from me again.”

“That’s because Parkinson’s a cow. But you don’t have to deal with her next year, because you’re going to France anyway.”

“It’ll be good to get away from this.” Malfoy looked out of the window from the chair he was sitting in.

“I’ll miss you…” Ginny hesitantly spoke.

“Ginny.” Malfoy turned to her.

“Yeah?”

“Here.” He handed his button over to her.

Ginny’s eyes widened. “I can’t accept that. It’s too important to waste it on me, plus you wanted to come out unscathed. You should keep it.”

“Take it. I want you to have it.” He put the button in her hand. “A promise for later.”

Malfoy turned to walk away.

“Draco.” Ginny quietly stated his name, “You’re not coming back, are you?”

Malfoy turned toward her. “Maybe one day when we are both ready.”

“I’ll wait for that moment.”

Malfoy gave her one of his rare smiles. “I’ll be happy then.”

Two years later.

"She's adorable, Ron." Ginny looked at her niece through the glass at St. Mungo's maternity ward.

"I'm glad that it's over. Pansy was in there for too many hours." Ron gazed lovingly through the glass also, as his tiny seven-hour-old daughter waved her hands and feet in the air.

One of the healers at St. Mungo's ran up to Ginny."Healer Weasley, come quickly, we need you in the emergency unit. One of the patients who just came in is covered in blood and scars from one of the Unforgivables."

Ginny turned to face Ron. "I have to go. Give my congrats to Pansy and I'll see you this Sunday." She turned and sprinted after the other healer.

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Inside the cold room, Ginny turned to her patient. "We're going to perform a check on you. You've been cleaned up and your wounds have all been wrapped, but we need to make sure that you're perfectly able to function. You will have to go into physical therapy for your legs, since they were crushed, but there's nothing magic can't fix."

"Ginny." The patient whispered.

For the first time, Ginny took an actual look at the patient.

In two years, Ginny burst into tears as she saw Draco Malfoy's ravaged and heavily scarred face.

"I'm home now, Ginny."