The Future

Ginevra Molly Weasley was considered a war hero. She put on a brave face and politely smiled at everyone that even mentioned her so called heroism. But frankly, she hated the war and anything to do with it. In many ways, it was probably why a relationship with Harry would never have worked out. He was entirely too concerned with saving the world by getting rid of evil. Ginny, on the other hand, just wanted to enjoy life and concentrate on making the world a better place by advocating peace and cooperation. It was why he was leading a life fully immersed in the action packed Auror department, while she was barely hanging onto her sanity in the paper pushing International Magical Cooperation department.

Sure she was a Gryffindor, and of course she would always stand up for what she believed in. She could definitely put up a fight and was very short tempered. But when it really came down to it, she hated duelling and more than anything else, she hated the sight of blood. It had painted too many of her family members and friends.

And so, as she knelt beside Draco, she fought the urge to throw up. Her hands were covered in blood. She had remembered that it was best to apply pressure to stop bleeding. But even with her jacket pressed to Draco's shoulder, the blood kept flowing. And suddenly she remembered her father. Wrapped in bandages and looking so small.

She suddenly wanted to walk over to the snake and hack it into pieces. But she couldn't because Draco Malfoy was possibly bleeding to death, her ankle was throbbing, Death Eaters could at any point come rushing out of Malfoy Manor, as could Voldemort, and Nagini was probably preparing to rear its ugly reptilian face. And they needed to get back to their own damn future!

Ginny took a deep breath and used both her hands to make Draco face her, cringing when she managed to put blood on his face too.

"Draco. Draco!" She contemplated slapping him, but refrained when he opened his eyes. "Are you with me?" she asked urgently.

Draco merely grunted. Taking that as a yes, she continued, "We need to move, so I'm going to put your arm over my shoulder and we're going to try to walk, okay?"

With another grunt, Draco closed his eyes again. With a sigh, she tried to stand them both up, but soon realised that she would have to carry the majority of his weight and a moment later they both fell back to the ground, Draco with a pained groan. With his right arm around her shoulder and a great deal of difficulty later, Ginny managed to straighten them both enough to move. But moving was going to be a whole new Quidditch game. Taking a step, Ginny began falling backwards when she realised that while she had taken a step, Draco hadn't. She couldn't carry him and she couldn't levitate him in case the snake venom reacted to the magic.

Kicking herself for not learning any healing spells, she shook Draco roughly, or as much as she could while she was holding him up on a swollen ankle. "Draco! I need you to try and walk." His head was leaning forward but she saw him nod a little and felt him try to take on some of his own weight. "Okay, let's go."

It took some time, but eventually they managed to hobble through some low shrubbery and into some woods, with Malfoy Manor barely visible in the distance. Ginny was beginning to worry at Draco's very shallow breathing. Approaching a large tree, she managed to lower Draco down against the trunk. Draco barely made a noise and he was looking paler than it seemed possible. Pale for even a Malfoy. He looked dead, with a blood stained face.

Ginny took a steadying breath and took a peek at his wounded shoulder and instantly regretted it. He was bleeding more than she thought was possible for a person and to still be alive. The skin looked shredded around the puncture wounds and a part of her was worried that it was because of her spell that had knocked Nagini back. She could see muscle and a hint of bone beyond all the blood.

The very sight of him filled her with such dread and fear that she felt like she couldn't breath. Taking another deep breath, while tears pricked her eyes, she tried to focus. She reached out into his coat pocket and pulled out the phial.

"Draco?" She shook his unwounded arm and he moved his head toward her. "Draco? You need to tell me how to twist the hex."

He opened his mouth and tried to speak, but all he could manage was to gurgle as blood dripped out of the side of his mouth. Ginny almost fell into a panic and bit down hard on her tongue.

"Draco! Come on. You need to do this." She held on to his hand tight, possibly more for her own comfort rather than his. "Draco..."

Finally, she saw him draw in a ragged breath and swallow. "Revertere," he began coughing before he managed, "Sententia. Don't break phial, just open."

"Okay. Thank you, Draco. You're doing well," Ginny rambled, trying to hold off her alarm. Part of her was annoyed with how obvious the Latin spell was, the other part of her was falling into a pit of despair. She didn't want to see Draco die, seeing him hurt like this was bad enough.

She heldhis hand tighter, before pulling out her wand and opening the phial. She closed her eyes, pointed her wand at the phial and said, "Revertere sententia."

She opened her eyes when she heard Draco moan.

"Hand..." he whispered.

"Sorry!" Realising she had a death grip on his hand, she loosened her hold.

And then she noticed it. The shrubs and trees around her were larger and wilder. The day was clearer and brighter. Ginny started to cry.

Perhaps it was wrong for her to be so relieved. She didn't know inwhich time she was, but she knew that at least she wasn't in the time they had been trapped in. She also knew she should check exactly in what time they were in, but Draco's breathing was getting more ragged and his lips were turning blue. She couldn't waste any more time.

"Draco, can we apparate from the woods behind your house?" Ginny asked, guessing Malfoy Manor would have anti-apparation on its compound like many Wizarding houses did post-war. Part of her was unsure of apparating, especially side-long apparating Draco with his wounds. It could make things worse. But not apparating would surely mean the death of him.

When Draco nodded his okay, she nearly launched herself at him. Considerately, she wrapped her arms around him gently and side-long apparated them both right into the reception of St. Mungo's, not caring if she broke any rules or protocols. They landed in a bloody heap and Ginny looked up with frantic eyes at the receptionist. Draco was dying.

"What in Merlin's name!" yelled the receptionist, before calling down Healers. And then everything was just a blur as three healer's pounced on them.

Draco was put onto a stretcher and was wheeled away. Ginny struggled to keep up with her swollen ankle, but she was reluctant to leave Draco.

"Report?" asked Healer number 1.

"Looks like puncture wounds and lacerations. Blood loss. Muscle damage. No broken bones. Possible lung damage," Healer number 2 replied, running his wand over Draco's body.

"His breathing is shallow. Unconscious. Possibly from the blood loss," Healer 3 added.

"It was Nagini. Voldemort's snake. It attacked my father, Arthur Weasley, some years back," Ginny huffed out and the stretcher came to a stop as the Healers turned to stare at her.

"Nagini was killed," Healer 1 said.

"Look. It's a long story, just give him the antidote. Please..." The Healer looked her up and down suspiciously before nodding to the other healers. The two healer's began moving again and Ginny moved to follow but was stopped by Healer number 1.

"You're Ginevra Weasley, right?"

"Yes. Ginny," she replied, her eyes following Draco's body until the Healers had him out of sight.

"And that is Mr. Draco Malfoy."

"Yes. Look, is he going to be okay?" Ginny was losing her patience.

"We'll find out if he wakes up."

"If?"

"He lost a lot of blood. There was extensive damage and the venom had a while to work through his system," Ginny nodded in understanding. "You need to be examined," the Healer said before leading her to a small examination room.

Ginny would have rather been by Draco's side, but knew she needed to be taken care of, too. Her ankle was killing her.

"My name is James Creevey. I've heard about you and so I'm trusting you." he said as he moved his wand over her.

"Are you related to Colin?"

"My cousin. Miss Weasley, I'll be honest. This all looks rather suspicious and I am going to have to call the Auror department." At Ginny's confusion, he added, "Everyone knows the Weasley's dislike of the Malfoy's. And then you turn up looking like death and Malfoy nearly dead-"

"Everyone hates the Malfoy's," Ginny protested. Healer Creevey handed her a potion and motioned to her ankle. She drank the potion and cringed at the taste.

"You seem fine other than your ankle. And either way, you're saying Malfoy was attacked by Nagini... a snake that was killed during the war."

"I know! I was there!" Ginny glared at the Healer. She sighed, knowing she was sounding crazy. "Can you ask for Harry, then?" Healer Creevey nodded before moving towards the door. "Oh! What's the date?" Ginny asked, quickly. The healer gave her an odd look.

"November fourteenth, 2003." Ginny nodded, relieved and the Healer left the room. It was a day after they had disappeared, but Ginny didn't care. She was in her own time, at least.

Ginny debated trying to hunt Draco down, or to lay back on the bed and rest a little. But she couldn't rest, not without knowing if Draco was okay or not. So she made her way to the first floor, knowing it to be the floor for creature-induced injury. It was where her father had been.

She went to the ward's main desk and asked the nurse where Draco was. The nurse pointed down a hallway, not even looking up from her papers.

Ginny went down the hallway and looked into each room until she found Draco lying down unconscious on a bed. The bare white room didn't have anyone else in it. Ginny sat herself down on a small chair beside Draco's bed and held his right hand. His entire left shoulder and torso was bandaged and the blood had been cleaned off, for which she was very grateful.

Ginny wasn't sure if he was going to be okay. He still looked awful. She was determined to not leave his side until she knew he was better. In the meantime, she put her head on the side of Draco's bed and closed her eyes, his hand still in hers. She supposed she could rest a little until the Aurors came with questions.

Draco, on the other hand, was starting to wake up. He couldn't really remember much after being attacked by Nagini and stumbling into the forest behind Malfoy Manor with someone holding his hand. What he did know was that he was sore. He was sore like he had never been and he could barely feel, let alone move his entire left side. He realised though, that he was lying on what appeared to be a bed and someone was still holding his hand. Confused, Draco opened his eyes.

The sight that appeared before him made him smile. He was on a bed in what he assumed was St. Mungo's, meaning Ginny had managed to get them back into the future. She was asleep, her head resting on his bed and she hadn't let go of his hand. Instead, even in sleep, she was holding on tight. And she was snoring lightly. He had to remember to tease her about that later. He felt himself drifting off to sleep again, and he didn't fight the urge, holding Ginny's hand a little tighter.

Draco wasn't sure how long it had been, but he began to wake up again when heard someone walk into the room and say, "Ginny?" It was Harry Potter and Draco fought the urge to groan. Draco was about to say something but then Ginny woke up.

"Harry?" she asked, groggy. Draco decided to keep his eyes closed, just to see what happened between the two. Draco was glad to note that Ginny didn't remove her hand from his and now he was fighting the urge to smirk. He decided he liked holding hands with one Ginny Weasley, especially in front of Harry Potter. He'd decipher these feelings later, first he had to spy on the two ex-lovers.

"Ginny! Where have you been? No one could find you! We were all so worried And then the Healer told me you apparated here with a near dead Malfoy. What is going on?" Harry asked, rushing through the words. Draco heard Ginny sigh.

"Harry... It's a long story. I was heading into the Ministry yesterday and ran into Draco." Ginny sounded so tired and Draco felt bad for her. But he kept his eyes shut. "He was taking a phial to the Department of Mysteries and it broke and we ended up in the past. We had to get back and Draco figured we could use another of the same phial to get back, so we went to Malfoy Manor but Voldemort was there-"

"Voldemort!" Harry asked, alarmed.

"It was 1997, when he was basedat Malfoy Manor. We got the phial and we finally were getting out but then Nagini was there. It attacked us, Draco saved me-"

"Malfoy?" Harry scoffed, disbelieving.

"Yes, Harry. He's the one in the hospital bed all bandaged up, after all," Ginny bit out, annoyed. She sighed and then continued, "I apparated us here, and now... here we are."

"What was this phial?" Harry asked, falling into his professional voice. A voice Ginny had started to hate.

"I'm not sure. Draco can get you another one, though." Draco frowned, he really didn't want to give the last phial to the Ministry, but now he had no choice.

"Okay. Good. We'll be able to verify your story now. Along with taking a view of your memories."

"Harry, come on, you don't believe me?"

"Ginny, of course I believe you." Draco almost threw up at how sickly sweet he sounded. "But for an official report, it's best to get everything sorted out."

"Yeah. Okay." Ginny sighed and he felt her slump.

"Ginny? Unofficially... why are you holding Malfoy's hand? And why do you keep calling him Draco?" Potter asked and Draco was glad. He was asking himself the same thing, and so he opened his eyes to see her reaction. She was frowning and she stood up.

"Harry, he saved my life!"

"Maybe, but why are you holding his hand?" Now she was pinning Potter with a glare and Draco smirked.

"What is it any of your business?" Ginny asked.

"Ginny, it's Malfoy." Draco rolled his eyes.

"Harry, I'm aware," she spat out with venom, and Draco was proud.

"I'm just asking as a friend." Draco almost scoffed along with Ginny. He was a little surprised Ginny hadn't let go of his hand yet, and that they hadn't even noticed he was awake and watching the two of them bicker.

"The same way you had people following me around because you were a concerned boyfriend?" Draco's eyes widened, surprised at how idiotic Potter really was. At least he looked a bit sheepish.

"I've already apologised a thousand times! I may have overdone it-"

"Potter, that's not over doing it, that's straight out spying." Draco dead-panned, alerting the two standing above him that he was awake. He was getting tired of their bickering.

"Draco!" Ginny yelled out surprised, while Harry was shocked into silence. "You're supposed to be dying!" Draco chuckled.

"There are better things to do today," Draco said, pulling her down with the hand that was still holding onto his. He let her go and placed his now free hand on the side of her face when she was close enough. Staring at her with an unwavering gaze, he guided her face to his, slowly, giving her a chance to move away if she wanted to. Finally he touched his lips to hers and her eyes fluttered closed. It was a chaste, soft kiss. Moving his head back a little with his forehead resting on hers, the side of his mouth lifted. It wasn't a smirk or a sneer, but an all out crooked smiled which Ginny decided then and there to be her most favourite smile in the whole world. Draco added in a whisper, "Dying can wait," before pulling her back down for a kiss thatnobody could possibly describe as chaste.

Harry was staring open mouthed at the two of them. What he was seeing couldn't possibly be happening. Frowning, he walked out of the room, before he started hexing someone name Malfoy. But he couldn't, no matter how much he wanted, because Harry Potter was an Auror, the saviour of the Wizarding World.

He had seen and done many things that were rather indescribable and at times, considered impossible. But what he had just witnessed was the perfect description of impossible. Clenching his jaw, Harry decided there was a logical explanation of what was happening. It was the phial. A potion that was making the Weasley and Malfoy that were currently kissing each other like the world was ending, hallucinate. Hence the reason why a Weasley and a Malfoy were kissing. As soon as Malfoy was better and mobile, Harry was going to get that phial, find out what kind of potion was making them crazy, and then fix it all. Save Ginny again. Then she'll be grateful and fall in love with him again.

With a nod of his head, Harry walked away, not noticing Arthur Weasley calling after him and almost careening into Lucius Malfoy.

The future for one Ginevra Molly Weasley and Draco Lucius Malfoy was going to be interesting, to say the least. A future they were excited to share together. Neither knew what (or who) were currently headed to the first floor hospital room in which they were currently sharing a rather passionate kiss. But they were happy. Genuinely happy for the first time in a very long time.

Even when Arthur Weasley walked in and went so red, witnesses were certain steam was coming off of him.

Even when Lucius Malfoy walked in and promptly fainted in shock and anger.

Later, when Draco had made Ginny lay down next to him in the hospital bed because it 'made him feel better' and they both reflected on the events of the day. Ginny didn't even cringe and Draco didn't even sneer at how 'happily ever after' it all ended up being.

The end.