A/N: Here's the end of this little story. Thanks to JadePresley for her beta skillz and to the lovely readers who've followed along. I hope you enjoy this final installment.

She was wearing a beat-up hat and baggy jumper the first time he saw her in person after the war.

It'd been three years, and she didn't look like she'd aged a day. Once you've been through a war, every day stressors can't be that bad he mused as he watched her from across the hallway.

He'd come out of his mother's hospital room to find a cup of coffee and there she'd been standing, waiting on the lift. He stared at her for a moment, hearing the ringing of the lift each time it got one floor closer.

It took his breath away to see her standing there in the flesh. He'd not gone out much after the war. Though he'd gotten off easy with the law because he'd been underage for most of his crimes, he stood by his mother's side as she was stripped of her magic and relegated to the Manor.

Most of the Malfoy money was frozen for a while longer. His father had died in Azkaban. It had been a hard couple of years for him, and seeing Ginny for the first time felt like the sun was finally coming back out after a monsoon.

He approached her just as the lift opened, and she'd turned, ignoring the open door long enough that it left without her.

Ginny seemed subdued as they spoke, but she'd accepted his invitation to have a cuppa together.

They ended up talking for over an hour about anything and everything but their love lives.

Ginny was wearing Harry Potter's ring, but Draco hadn't had the heart to date since the war. Most women wanted his bad boy image or his money more than they wanted him.

Draco got her to laugh, and he could feel that she hadn't done so in a long time. He reached for her hand, and she let him.

It was like coming home after a long and hard trip, like taking a gulp of water after years without, like he'd been missing a piece of himself and it was snapping back into place.

As she left him at St. Mungo's, Draco was still basking in her companionship. She'd promised to be in touch soon, and it felt like he'd been starved of oxygen the last three years and suddenly he could breathe again. It was the first time he'd seen her in so long, and after all this time, he still knew that she was the one for him. He was pretty sure from her demeanor that she wasn't happy, and he thought maybe he was the one for her, too.

It was more awkward than even she expected when Ginny saw her ex boyfriend in public for the first time since their very public break up.

When she left St. Mungo's that day nearly a year ago, it was with the knowledge that she wasn't in fact pregnant with Harry Potter's child. It was just a scare. And thank Merlin for that, she'd thought as she headed back to the flat she shared with him after spending more than an hour catching up with her boyfriend's childhood rival.

She'd only known for a few days that he was cheating on her. Ginny hadn't been sure how she was going to proceed, but when she found out she might be pregnant and had to live with that possibility for a full day before she could see a Healer, all had become clear for her. She couldn't spend the rest of her life fake-happy with the savior of the Wizarding World. She deserved better.

Hermione reached their table first, smiling politely at Draco and giving Ginny a genuinely warm hug. Harry stood behind her, a stiff smile pulling at the corners of his lips.

"Ginny. Malfoy," he said tightly.

"It's so good to see you both," Hermione said more affectionately.

"It's been too long," Ginny responded.

"Yes, we should get lunch sometime. Catch up," Hermione said, looking at Ginny.

"I'd like that."

Harry wasn't subtle when he elbowed Hermione. She glared at him. "We should get on to our table," she admitted.

"It was lovely to see you," Draco said, his smile a little too wide to be true.

Once they left, Ginny and Draco returned to their intimate meal, foreheads pulled in close together.

Admittedly Draco was surprised he actually heard from Ginny after their run-in at St. Mungo's. They instituted a weekly lunch date, which quickly turned into post-lunch drinks and then to dinner, and then to much more. It wasn't always easy for them as they transitioned back to and beyond the relationship they'd formed back in school. But each time Draco would take a peek toward the back of the restaurant, spotting Harry and Hermione, he was thankful his witch had given him another chance.

After the couple had eaten, Ginny noted Hermione was looking around the room aimlessly as Harry obnoxiously flirted with the young waitress.

The witch turned back to her boyfriend and smiled, nuzzling her cheek against his side as he wrapped an arm around her and guided her from the restaurant. "I love you," she said freely, knowing confidently that she'd made the right choice the first time she'd fallen for Draco and grateful that time could heal some wounds.

From the start, he'd been her confidant, her equal, her partner. Now that the war was over, they were on the same side for the first time.

And there they would stay for the rest of their lives.