Payback

Chapter 22- Epilogue

Ginny didn't see Draco again for over a year. She had done as he suggested and hidden until it was time for the final battle. Ginny told the Order what Draco had done, but they were not convinced that his life was worth saving. She pleaded and finally was able to have them all agree to not cast death spells at Draco, instead opting for stunning charms. They all knew that there would be a great battle before the end and that it was only a matter of time before it came.

Ginny was at Harry's side at the end, fighting for her freedom against the darkest wizard in history. She had seen Draco at the battle, but he disappeared as soon as it begun, fleeing to avoid the defeat he knew was coming to the Dark Lord. Many others were not so wise.

Harry had lived up to his prophesy. It took over a year of searching, but Harry found all of the horcruxes and saved the wizarding world. Not too many people could say they are as proud of their ex-boyfriends as Ginny Weasley. As much as Harry wanted to change what had happened between them, Ginny knew Harry would always be her ex. She could forgive, but she wouldn't forget.

The war left a lot of holes in Ginny's life. The most obvious was Fred. The twins had always been around as Ginny grew up and when she was at Hogwarts. Even after they dropped out, Ginny saw them all the time. Seeing George without Fred was like only wearing one sock: it felt empty. Ginny didn't feel complete around her family without him.

Despite running from the battle, Draco was still wanted for murder. He came on his own accord, turning himself in for the assassination of Albus Dumbledore. Ginny was the only living witness of the crime and was asked to testify at the trial. Kingsley Shacklebolt himself presided over the trial in front of the entire Wizengamot. Draco was in chains in the corner, his head hung. Ginny had never seen him look so low. Kingsley's familiar face was the only thing keeping Ginny from crying as she told her story of that night.

She told the jurors how Draco had warned her in advance of the impending attack: how he had risked his life to keep her safe. In detail, she described what had happened the night of the attack and how Dumbledore had accepted his fate, even telling Draco to kill him. With a lump in her throat, she recalled how Draco struck the final blow to save her.

Ginny was able to watch the rest of the trial. When the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement read from Dumbledore's will that he knew Draco Malfoy would kill him and asked that the boy be pardoned for his transgressions, Ginny had felt hopeful. If the man he had killed had forgiven him, surely the Wizengamot could as well.

But there was no such luck for Draco Malfoy. His father's character and reputation reflected negatively on him, despite his acts of valor when they mattered most. Draco was sentenced to Azkaban.

As his sentence was read aloud, Draco looked to Ginny with fear in his eyes and tears filled hers. She reached out to him and he tried his best to reach her before he was restrained by guards.

"I'll wait for you!" she cried out, repeating the promise she had made the last time she'd seen him.

"No," he shouted so she could hear him over the crowd. "You are free!"

But that was seven years ago and she hadn't seen him since. No matter how much time passed, Ginny had never felt free and she doubted she ever would. Everything she had come at a price. She would always feel in Draco's debt for what he had done to save her.

It took a while for Ginny's family to forgive Draco. After the trial, everyone knew why Draco had killed Dumbledore and feelings toward him started to change. Even Ron started to come around when he learned how Draco had saved Ginny's life. Mrs. Weasley sent sweaters to Azkaban every Christmas, assuming it must be cold inside the rock walls.

Ginny never took off the dragon necklace and it served as a constant reminder of the boy who risked everything for her. Each month she wrote him a letter. She didn't know if he received them and she never expected a reply. She signed each one the same way:

My heart waits for you.

Ginny did move on in some senses. She had gone back to school after the war and was able to take her O.W.L.s before the term started and began her sixth year. A lot of people came back to finish school, but too many would never return.

Colin's absence was harder to deal with than the others. She missed her best friend as much as she missed her late brother. Colin was there for Ginny in the beginning and had been there for her the night she escaped. Constantly, she cursed herself for leaving without seeing him again. She thought over and over how she could have saved him and brought him with her. They could have hidden together in the Order's safe house where she had spent two years, but instead there was a funeral.

Ginny often wondered how Colin felt about her after she left. Did he still care for her after she had hurt him and turned him down? She had felt that their relationship was on the mend when she ran away and she hoped Colin felt the same.

Without a best friend, Ginny's two years at Hogwarts were lonely. She was a year behind now and didn't know the other girls very well. Rather than trying to make friends, Ginny spent a lot of her time studying in the library. It reminded her of Colin and, of course, Draco.

Sometimes at night, Ginny would sneak down to the dungeons and walk until she found the wall that became the Slytherin Common Room. She would stare at it and think about the words he said to her inside that room.

We can both make it out of this unharmed.

If that was his goal, she didn't know if they had succeeded. She lost her brother and her best friend and he was locked up in Azkaban. Pain riddled every moment of their lives.

He was in her dreams, too. She saw the same face every night and heard it say the same words:

I will find you!

For almost nine years those words had haunted her sleep. Part of her hoped it would stop but part of her wanted it to last forever.

Adulthood offered many changes for her life. Ginny had turned into quite the Quidditch player during her final two years. Flying was the only time she felt free and she knew Draco would have supported that. She was drafted by the Holyhead Harpies as soon as she was eligible.

Being a professional athlete gave Ginny a lot of free time. She liked to spend it in Diagon Alley. Seeing her brother's joke shop made Ginny happier than anything else could. It was in Diagon Alley where Ginny Weasley was finally found.

She was sitting at a table outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, lounging long after her ice cream was finished. Her playbook was out in front of her and she was engrossed in it. Suddenly, she became aware of a presence in front of her and she knew she was being watched.

She looked up and was lost for words. He looked the same but completely different. His eyes were rimmed in black and his face was gaunt. Wrinkles prematurely lined his mouth and his hair looked thinner. But there was no mistaking him.

"I found you."

Ginny stood up, her playbook forgotten and walked over to touch his face.

"It's you," she whispered. "It's really you."

Draco nodded and placed his hand over hers.

"They let you out?" she had to ask.

"Shacklebolt decided seven years was long enough for a coerced murder, considering the victim himself forgave me." The smirk that crossed Draco's face was familiar but different. The years in Azkaban hadn't given him much of a reason to smile and the expression felt almost foreign. He reached toward her and touched the small dragon around her neck and his smirk turned to a true smile.

Ginny was at a loss. Part of her wanted to laugh and another part was on the verge of tears. She never thought she'd see him alive again. It was a full minute before she was able to speak.

"I owe you so much." It was true. She owed him her life, her safety, and seven lost years of his youth.

"No." He held her hand, something he had never willingly done before. "You don't owe me anything." Draco's voice had dropped to a whisper. "If anything, I owe you."

Those words confused Ginny. She had done nothing to help him and she felt like she had been the cause of his problems.

He read the confusion on her face and explained. "You made me realize a lot about the Dark Lord's mistakes. It was all a power game to him; it wasn't about right and wrong, it was about being on top, being superior. He was inventing reasons he was superior and I realized they all centered on lies. Being a pureblood doesn't make me better than anyone and you knew that. You showed me the truth despite his lies." He reached out and took her other hand. "The year after you left, do you know what I thought about? Do you know why I stayed?"

Ginny shook her head.

"You. I knew I had to stay so that you would be safe. That's why I left during the final battle. I knew that if you were there, it was the end and I didn't have to fight anymore. I could avoid one last fight and stop pretending I thought I was fighting for the right side."

Ginny stared into his eyes and knew he had to be telling the truth. It was what she had wanted to believe for nine years and now it was coming out of his mouth.

"I got your letters:" he continued, "Every one of them." He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a piece of paper that had Ginny's writing on it. "They helped keep me centered. With the dementors around, it was hard to keep a happy thought in my head, but holding this paper in my hand reminded me that you were real. I knew as long as the letters kept coming that you were still here waiting for me and it gave me something to hold on to."

Draco set the letter down on top of Ginny's playbook and reached to her waist. She moved her hands to his shoulders, still not believing that this was all real.

"I can't pay you back for what you've given me," she managed to say without crying. "I can't repay you for my life."

"You lost enough:" he said to her, "family and friends. I don't need any more from you. We're even." He smirked again, feeling more comfortable with his trademark expression.

She couldn't help but smile. "I never thought that would be the case. I've owed you in some way since we first started talking."

"Just answer one question for me," he demanded, looking into her eyes and bringing his voice to a whisper. "Does your heart still wait for me?"

Her eyes filled with tears and she nodded. She had waited so long for him, to show him that she was grateful for what he had done. And now she was in his arms.

He reached into his pocket again and this time pulled out the glass rose Ginny gave him for Christmas. As she had promised, it was not cracked or damaged in any way and still shone as brightly as it had the night she gave it to him. He touched the petals to her chest, just above her heart, and looked her in the eye.

"I'll never break it."

He leaned down to kiss her, hesitant for only a second before she returned his passion. This kiss felt like a beginning, but not the beginning of a night together. This kiss felt like the beginning of the rest of her life: the beginning of her life with Draco Malfoy.

The End

A/N- So there you go! I tried to tie up a lot of loose ends with this chapter and I hope you felt it was a fitting end. I already typed this authors note once and the page refreshed and deleted it, so I'll try my best to remember what I said. Thank you to all of those reading for their support. It doesn't matter if you've been with me from the beginning of joined in along the way, your support is appreciated. I had a 7.5% review rate on the last chapter, my highest yet! Thank you so much to you all. If you want to contact me for any reason, feel free to PM me. We can discuss my plot, what we think about Harry Potter in general, or whatever you like! And now, my final reviewer response:

anon- I still don't understand why you read this if you 'dislike' it so much. JKR writes Harry as a flawed character, and thus he is human. He made a mistake and cheated on Ginny. I don't know why you can't accept a flawed character if it's written in the original. I answered your question about the Weasleys in this chapter. Draco was trying to save a member of their family and family is the most important thing to them, so they will forgive Draco. Also, in the original, Snape killed Dumbledore but Harry didn't kill Snape. Thus, your assumption that Harry will kill Draco has no backing. I hope you stopped wasting your time reading a story you didn't like before you got to this note.

bigreader- I want to give you a special thanks for reading and helping me through this story. I also really appreciate your support against our friend the anon flamer. I have similar sentiments.

The Other Side of Sanity- I had hoped that was clear, but I hope this chapter answered your question! I tried to use the themes of trust and caring (which I think are pillars of a romantic relationship) to show how they grow to love each other. I hope that makes sense!

PeaceLoveHappiness2000- Thank you so much for your support! Forgive me for not reading your story but I know nothing of the fiction it's based on. I could read for grammar/style if you'd like.

Ami L. Mendal- I'm sorry to have interrupted the BETAing! If you want to still send me corrections, I can make them for future readers so they don't get distracted by them as you do!

echizenochi- Sorry, but I'm ending this story without a sequel. I want to have time to work through a novel idea I have.

FlowerPower21, dreams are beautiful, HarryMalfoy09, Al-Orange Ninja, ingsception, Dirty Little Half-Blood, Never-ending Magic, Wili. lia, HoneyHearts, Jasperlover4, nintamara, and Katherinered1- Thank you so much for reviewing! Your thoughts are very encouraging and kept me at my writing best!

mirinka, Lillith Love INC, Kaolindoll, and gleek541- Thank you for adding me to your favorites/alerts! Leave me a review and let me know what you thought of the end!