"Ginny…Gin…wake up." he whispers in the early hours of the morning, brushing her flaming hair from her face.

She groans and turns towards him, narrowed chocolate eyes meeting smiling steely ones.

"Malfoy, it is five a.m., what could you possibly want right now?" she grumbles, snuggling closer in the circle of his arms despite her tone.

"Nothing, just wanted to say that I love you." He grins playfully, burying his nose in the side of her neck, "Mrs. Malfoy."

His position makes him miss the bright smile that breaks across her face but it doesn't matter, he knows that it's there. He knows her.

He knows that she hates her full name because when she was very young, Fred, not George, made fun of her for pronouncing it wrong. And he knows that the three small parallel scars just below the crease of her right elbow are from a gnome she tried to dress up like a doll when she was six. He knows that her favorite color is yellow, pale like a newly hatched chick or freshly churned butter. He also knows that she likes thunderstorms better than sunshine, and that Halloween is her favorite holiday.

He knows that nine times out of ten, when she says that she's cold she's really not, she just wants him to hold her. He knows that when he's away, she sprays his cologne on the bed sheets and goes to bed early every night. He knows that when he smirks at her, she bites her lip on the left side. He also knows that when she bites her lip on the left side, she's thinking something dirty.

He knows that she faithfully wishes at 11:11 and that she thinks it's disgusting when people crack their necks. He knows that she acts sorry when she leaves love bites on him but that she secretly does it because she's insecure about another woman coming between them.

He knows that she likes hot tea and cold coffee, never the other way around, and he knows that she hates nuts but loves peanut butter. He knows that turtles are her favorite animal and if she ever had one as a pet she'd name him Pancakes. He knows that even though she thinks Trelawney is a crackpot, she keeps a dream interpretation book next to her side of the bed.

And he knows that she knows that he loves her, but he also knows that she still wants to hear it at least once a day, even if it is at five in the morning.