Thy Kingdom Come

She walked slowly up the aisle. Her face was pale. She moved like one in a trance. All around her, voices sang out, singing the melodies that many found cheerful. But for her they mocked her torture. The lace veil over her face was like a trap, like bars on the cells at Azkaban, blocking her from any escape. The beautiful white silk dress she was wearing, which she once had longed to wear, longed to bring to life again, weighed her down, dragging her to the bottom of some deep, dark hole. She found herself repeating the Muggle prayer she had learned as a child. Each line, each word, brought new pain and memory, but the words never ceased in her head.

Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...

Her father... She had loved him so, and thought he was the greatest man on earth, almost a god himself. He had always been there for her, until that night, that dark night when he turned up missing, only to be found months later, dead. His body had been battered almost beyond recognition, and they knew who was responsible...

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done...

Kingdom. A faint smile crossed her lips. He had promised her a kingdom, told her she was the queen of his heart and life. But he had never asked her to be his wife, and now it was not her love she saw at the end of the long path she now walked, but...

On earth, as it is in heaven...

Is there such a place? She wondered. Heaven was supposed to be paradise, where there was no pain, and no tears. The suffering was over. But she knew there was no heaven for her now, that the suffering had just begun. The pain had only begun to tear at her heart. Heaven was only a fairy tale.

Give us this day our daily bread...

Who would care for her? Who would love her? Bread she was sure to have, for he was rich. But the love that was so much more important to her tender heart would never be there, and she would surely starve. And who would care when she became a shadow of herself, a mere shell of life. No one would be there to know, let alone care.

And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us...

Her heart burned coldly at the thought of those eyes, which had laughed at her pain, while her world was torn to shreds. He had rejoiced at her pain, and triumphed in her sins. She could not be forgiven for hers, but she refused to forgive him his. She would rather burn in the hell she was going to be joined to ten times over. She added another sin to her list, which was her darkest secret, the one she kept locked away behind the false smile. She never wanted to be forgiven, because that might make her forget. And to forget was fatal.

And lead us not into temptation...

She knew well the meaning of temptation. She had always felt it when she was near him. And that temptation burned her through and through. She had wanted the temptation, and wanted to give in. She had led herself.

But deliver us from evil...

Another smiled, but this time it was of pain and irony. Deliver her form evil? Hardly. She had been handed straight into the hands of evil itself. She was falling from the precipice she had stood on for so many years, from the light of justice, into the black pits of evil and despair. No one could save her from the evil now.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever....

There was no kingdom. There was no glory left in the world, which she had once loved so. There was only power, and those to weak to seek it. Too bad the power was not of her own choice, but forced upon her.

Amen.

Let it be so.

As Ginny Weasley reached the end of the aisle, the prayer vanished from her heart. As she looked up into the face of the man she was marrying, she saw once more those clean features. The gray eyes that she hated so much now stared back at her, laughing at her misery. The priest began the ceremony, but she wasn't listening. She was grasping at a reason why she was here. Her mind frantically searched for a way out, for an excuse, someone to blame. Only one person came up in her mind. Harry Potter. She blamed him for everything now, for not having the strength to resist the Dark Powers. Once he had betrayed them all, there was no hope. Only this. Cold, arranged marriage, to someone she didn't love, all because of Harry. He had forgotten his old friendships and alliances. He had even cursed her family to live in eternal dispair. And this was her torture, her dispair. The priest's words broke her thoughts.

"Do you, Draco Christopher Malfoy, take Virginia to be your lawful wedded wife?"

"I do." His cold voice drawled, clearly displeased with this as much as she.

"And do you, Virginia Anne Weasley, take Draco to be your lawful wedded husband?"

The words came against her will, forcing themselves out in a choked whisper.

"I do..."