Disclaimer: All characters and settings belong to JK Rowling and Warner Bros. No profit is being made from this story.

~*~

“No!”

~*~

She opened her eyes and was silent at first. Something was wrong. Not a single part of her hurt at all—in fact, she realized, she was completely numb.

The snow that had been falling all around the castle was starting to melt around her. She wondered if she should be warm or cold, with the sun shining the way it was. She was cold, though. And if the sun was shining…how long had she been lying there? Too long. How had Draco not seen her there? Granted, she wasn’t in the single most visible spot on the Hogwarts grounds, tucked up as she was against a shady castle wall, but he’d been coming back to get her. He’d left for just a moment. Then—

She felt a sharp pain behind her eye. Her hand flew up to press against it, soothe the pain. She waited until the feeling had subsided to open her eyes again. She looked at her hand for a moment. It was grey. Translucent and grey.

She opened her mouth to shriek, but couldn’t force the sound out. She stumbled back against the wall, only to feel her arm fall through it. She let out a little whimper as she pulled away from the wall and fell to the ground.

~*~

“Draco, what’s going on?”

“Nothing’s going on. What do you mean, What’s going on? Why would something be wrong?”

“You’re babbling.” She smiled and rose from her seat. He watched her, eyes unreadable, as she crossed in front of the fire and leaned over him, brilliant hair falling around her face. “Why won’t you tell me?”

He made a small noise and slid his arms around her waist, pulling her into his lap. She laughed and put her arms around his neck as he buried his face in her hair. Then he murmured into her ear, “This wasn’t supposed to happen yet.”

“What?”

“Oh, Ginny,” he whispered. He pulled away to look at her. “Things have been happening fast, haven’t they? This ruddy ‘Final Battle’ thing is coming soon, everybody says. I don’t—I don’t want something to happen without—”

“Nothing’s going to happen,” she whispered. “We’ll be all right.”

“Wait, let me finish. I don’t want something to happen without…saying this to you. I couldn’t bear it, if…I have to say this, I have to do this.” With one hand still wrapped around her waist, he brought the other to touch her cheek. “Ginny, I love you.”

“Oh, Draco,” she whispered.

He leaned his forehead against hers. “Hush, you, I still haven’t finished.” He nudged her gently and she stood up reluctantly. Draco took her hand and led her over the fireplace. A small box sat there. Ginny had seen it before, but with its being neither ring-sized nor chocolate-sized, she had decided it was not for her. He took the box and opened it.

“Draco, they’re beautiful,” she said. Two bracelets lay overlapped in the box: one silver, with rubies set at one point; the other gold, with emeralds. Both had inscriptions in them that she couldn’t quite see well enough to read.

“They’re for us,” he said, taking the silver-and-ruby one out. Ginny took it from him, reading the inscription:

“Death will not end our love?” She looked up at him. “Bit morbid, no?”

He sighed. “They’ve been in my family for bloody ever, and I can’t figure out why. But look, they’re each mixed Gryffindor and Slytherin colors. I thought…somehow I thought they’d be better than rings…for us, I mean.”

She looked up sharply. “Better than rings?”

“Ginny, will you…when we can, I mean, it’s…will you marry me?”

Her lips parted as if she meant to say something, but no sound came out. She looked at the silver bracelet for a brief second before fitting it around her wrist, and then she flung her arms around Draco’s neck. “Yes,” she murmured. “Oh, yes, Draco.”

When she untangled herself from him, he slipped the gold bracelet around his own wrist. They were either charmed to fit their wearers perfectly, or Draco had rutting girly wrists. Or both, Ginny thought, laughing as she landed tiny soft kisses all along his face.

~*~

Ginny stood up when she heard people approaching. People were speaking in hushed tones, and though she had the feeling that they were still far off, she could hear them very well.

“This is where she was?” Did she know the voice? Yes…yes, it was Harry, wasn’t it?

“Yeah.” That…Draco? It was Draco! He’d finally come back with the cache of potions he’d promised to get for her.

“And you just…found her, did you?” A third voice now, deeper than Harry and Draco’s both, more choked with tears. She recognized the speaker as Ron.

“Look, Weasel.” The footsteps stopped. “Are you actually accusing me of killing her?” Ginny let out a soft noise. Was Draco crying?

There was a tense silence before Harry said, “We’re not saying that, Malfoy. It’s just that…this is bloody Hogwarts. She should have been safe here.”

“I know that,” Draco whispered.

“What happened, Malfoy?” Harry again. Now she fancied Ron was crying, too. She heard Draco draw in a shaky breath.

~*~

“All right, wait out here if you’re tired.”

“Bloody hell, Draco, it’s cold out here!” Ginny folded her arms across her chest and tapped her boot against the snow.

“Yes, it is,” Draco said slowly, a laugh bubbling up in his throat. “Listen, you, it’ll take me less than ten minutes if I run to get you your box of potions from the dungeons. If you’re so rutting tired, wait here, and I’ll be right out.”

She rolled her eyes, but nodded. “But I expect you to be going top speed, Mr. Malfoy! And I am going to have strong words with the sky about this weather. Bloody snow.”

“I thought you liked snow?”

“Would you just go?” Ginny laughed, kissing him on the cheek and then shoving him off towards the door. He laughed and affected a saucy saunter until she threw a snowball at him, then he was inside.

She brushed the snow from her gloves and leaned against the wall. They were very nice gloves, gifts from Fred and George. They’d made Draco choose them out, reasoning, quite correctly, that he’d know what was on the top of her list and what was on the bottom…or not on at all, like the festive gift box of mystery candies they had originally planned to get her.

She slipped the glove off her right and pushed up the sleeve of her thick robe, twisting her wrist around so that the bracelet caught the light. She sighed happily.

“Some day, Draco is going to have to tell me how a filthy Weasley came to be wearing my bracelets.”

Ginny looked up sharply. This was wrong. All wrong. He had been sent back to Azkaban, hadn’t he? How had he even gotten on the grounds? But no, standing in front of her was a smiling Lucius Malfoy.

“I used to think that the gossiping portraits in the Manor were a nuisance, but…” Lucius smiled at her. If it had been anyone but him, she might have mistaken it for a warm smile. “Well, imagine my surprise when I came home—after forcing my way in, I might add!—when they told me my only heir was marrying the bloody little Weasel. Do you know, no one in your family has ever infuriated me quite as much as you did, the day you refused to die in the Chamber?” She had whipped out her wand, but Lucius grabbed her by the collar of her robe, and suddenly she couldn’t think. “Shall we fix that?”

That was when the doors of Hogwarts opened and Draco slipped out, greeted by his father screaming the Killing Curse.

“No!” Draco dropped the box of potions, the bottles scattering and cracking open as they rolled away, and he vaulted over the side of the steps, landing on top of his father. His father, laughing.

It was too late.

The silver bracelet glinted on her wrist, and Lucius laughed.

~*~
“He came out of nowhere?” Ron asked.

“Nowhere,” Draco agreed hoarsely.

“And then…”

“And then I attacked the bastard, and then Lupin, I think it was, showed up.” They rounded the corner and Ginny finally saw them. Draco looked as though he hadn’t slept in days. Ron and Harry didn’t look too much better. Ginny stepped farther back into the shadow of the wall, watching them as they approached.

“When’s the funeral?” Draco asked quietly.

“Tomorrow morning,” Harry answered.

“Whose funeral?” Ginny asked from the shadows.

Draco, Ron, and Harry all whipped around to the sound of her voice. As their eyes found her, she gasped. Her funeral. It would be her funeral, because she…was…dead…

“No,” she whispered. She reached an ethereal out towards her friend, her brother, and her lover, but she could already feel herself fading. “Draco—I love you too. I…I’m sorry…”

“Was that…?” Harry began, but his voice was lost.

Wordlessly, Draco stepped forward and knelt in front of the wall, placing a hand on the stone reverentially. “No,” he whispered. “She’s gone.”

~*~

Ginny was buried wearing the silver bracelet, the rubies gone forever dark in the confines of the coffin. Molly Weasley stood beside Draco Malfoy, holding his hand in hers. Neither one said a word, but she periodically squeezed his hands as he struggled not to cry. He still wore the gold bracelet, emeralds glinting in the early morning sun.

He knew it meant he’d be tied to Ginny forever. He knew it meant he could never move on. So long as he wore it, he could never forget her; never commit to anyone else.

The heart is meant to love only one; and so struck, it cannot fathom loving another.