The Healing Power of Love

He watched the beautiful young woman across the room. She was but a shell of her former bright and vivacious self. Her red hair hung lank around her face. The once lively chocolate brown eyes were blank and surrounding them were the bruises that said she hadn't slept in days. It pained him to see her this way. She wouldn't speak to anyone, she wouldn't speak period. It had been three days since the final battle. He had tried many times to break through the wall she had thrown up to separate herself from the world. It seemed to him that the last deaths had broken her. The woman that he thought could never be broken. Watching her plummet further into despair wasn't an option for him. She may push him away, but he had to try. Watching her parents fall, not five feet from her had been her limit. Once her family had been nine and now it was four. Her remaining brothers couldn't even get through to her. Gods she had been a powerful soldier, one of the best in the Order. She had fought long and hard to gain entrance to; over the objections of her family. But no one stopped Ginevra Weasley when she set her mind to something. The Gryffindor bravery had served her well throughout the war with Voldemort. A fierce fighter, secure in her faith that good would be victorious. She had lasted longer than anyone would ever have guessed; she refused to stop fighting even when she was tired or injured. Ginevra had taken Dumbledore's death and Bill's injuries personally. She blamed Voldemort, not Snape, not him...just Voldemort. So she had fought and fought well. Moody had inducted her into the Order when he realized she would have gone it alone if she had to. Ginevra had fought better than most of the Order members... until the final battle. Damn that wanker Potter. If he hadn't insisted that Ginevra be excluded from the final battle...maybe she wouldn't have fought so hard to be there. Potter only thought of himself. He hadn't seen what everyone else did; that Ginevra wasn't a child to be locked safely away. Most of the Order had seen how much her exclusion from the 'Golden Trio' and their plans had hurt her. More over it had pissed her off. So she told them that she would fight. She said as an Order member it was her job to fight. But Potter had seen the 'little sister' who needed protecting instead of what everyone else could plainly see; a gifted witch on a mission.

So he had taken it upon himself to argue for her; surprising everyone, even himself. They had become tentative friends- both outcasts never fully accepted by the rest of the Order. They had spent many nights talking. Hopes and dreams were revealed, in the hopes that someday they would be allowed to come true. He had also somewhere along the line fallen hopelessly in love with her. He had hidden his feelings knowing the impossibility of her reciprocating them. So he had stuck close to her during the battles. Countless times he had protected her, all without her knowledge. It had become his mission to keep her safe. But he had failed her when it counted the most.

She had been wounded but refused to leave the battlefield. He even tried to get her to the other side of the field- away from her family, just in case one of them fell. Seeing her parents fighting in front of her, she had been fighting her way to them. Trying desperately to get her off the field, he had been with her as she watched them fall. He hated himself for not moving quicker...for not saving them for her. He only wished that he could snap her out of her current state. It was slowly killing him to see her like this. Even if he couldn't have her, he wanted the old Ginevra back. To him she would always be Ginevra, never Ginny. She was no longer a child especially after all she had witnessed.

He saw the tears silently falling and her body being wracked by the silent sobs that she refused to let out. He finally reached his limit. She would have to let him near. Striding across the room, he swept her up into his arms. She was going to sleep if he had to hold her down. After that she would eat. She could hate him if only it meant she would live again. Carrying her up the stairs and into her bedroom, he spoke quietly to her.

"Ginevra you must get some sleep and eat something."

She stared unblinkingly at him. Finally she shook her head.

Barely suppressing the urge to snap at her, he laid her gently on the bed saying, "You will sleep if I have to stand watch over you."

That seemed to bring a spark back into her eyes, "Draco," she whispered, "don't leave me alone."

Pushing back the tears threatening to fall, Draco sat on the edge of the bed. "I'll stay as long as you need me to."

Reaching out for him, Ginny slid into his arms, "Thank you. I knew I could count on you."

"You need sleep," he said gently.

"I can't," she said sadly, "I see them every time I close my eyes."

Stroking her hair to soothe, he said, "I am here. You are safe. Now sleep please."

She snuggled closer as he scooted towards the middle of the bed.

He lay there for quite awhile hoping she would drift asleep. Just when he thought she was, she whispered sleepily, "I Love you, Draco."

"I Love you too Ginevra," Draco said sleepily as he looked down. But she was already sleeping. I will just have to keep telling her he thought as he fell asleep himself.

~Fin~