"Aren't you going to apologize?"

Draco looked up to where Ginny was standing at the top of the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall.

"Or at least say something," she added, descending the stairs. "Say you're sorry, say good-bye, say something."

He set down his trunk. "Who are you to tell me what to say?" he asked defiantly.

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "Who am I? You're the one on the losing side, Malfoy. The least you can do is thank Harry for saving your life—twice." She sat down on the bottom step.

He glared at her. "Why do you even want me to say anything?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "They were going to throw you in Azkaban with the rest, you and your parents both. It might be nice if you showed that you didn't deserve it."

"So, on top of everything you expect me to bow down to merciful Potter?" Draco spat on the stone floor. "I'd rather die."

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "What if I'd asked you that question two days ago."

He didn't reply to this.

"Personally, I think you have a lot to be grateful for," she continued.

"Why?" Draco snorted. "Because you spared our lives? My family lost everything."

Ginny's eyes flashed. "You still have each other."

He paused, as if he had not considered that. "But it'll never be the same."

"It'll never be the same without my brother."

The words hung in the air between them for several seconds; Draco did not seem to have a response to that either.

"You could have gone to Azkaban," Ginny said finally. "But Harry stuck up for you." It seemed that she had to keep reiterating this point if she was going to get the Slytherin boy to understand it. She wasn't even sure why she wanted him to understand. It just didn't feel right for Fred to be dead and Malfoy to be alive, not if Malfoy wasn't going to be grateful for his life, for his freedom.

Draco frowned, as if remembering how Harry had intervened when the Death Eaters had been rounded up to be sent to Azkaban. "Haven't they suffered enough?" he'd nearly snapped at a bewildered Kingsley Shacklebolt. "They didn't fight in the battle."

"He'll want something from me," he finally declared.

Ginny slapped him. He recoiled.

"When will you get it through your thick skull that not everyone is a Slytherin like you?!" she screamed, her voice echoing in the high-ceilinged room. She blinked back tears. "The war's over. Why don’t you act like it?"

He looked away. "Because it's not over for me. Don't you understand? My life will never be the same."

"MY BROTHER'S DEAD!" she shrieked again, nearly hysterical. "You've lost nothing."

He opened his mouth to say something, to tell her what he had lost, but he shut it again after no sound came out. Finally he said, "My life will still never be the same."

Ginny sighed. "I don't even know why I'm talking to you. I hope I never see you again." She got to her feet. "Now if you don't mind, I have to… go help Dennis." She turned on her heel and headed for the Great Hall.

"Wait… Weas—I mean, Ginny!"

She turned quickly, her ponytail whipping around. "What?"

"I just…" Draco said, shrugging. "I… I'll talk to… Harry… I don't know where he is, but…"

"He's upstairs in the Hospital Wing," she said, turning her back on him again. "Don't let the door hit you on your way out."

**

Ginny watched Harry as he and Draco exchanged a curt nod. She hadn't thought about him in nineteen years, and to her knowledge, Harry hadn't either, but knowing Harry, he probably had. She listened absently to Ron tease Rose about getting too close to Scorpius Malfoy and found herself wondering how she would feel if Scorpius and Rose did indeed become friends… what if he became friends with her own Albus? Children were not their parents, Sirius Black had taught Ginny that much during the summer before her fourth year, the year everything had started to go downhill.

Ginny remembered the last time she'd spoken with Draco Malfoy, wondered if perhaps she hadn't been rude to him. After all, he had lost everything, or so he had believed at the time. She found herself wondering what he had been up to…

After the train had gone, she found herself walking towards him, ignoring Ron's protests.

"Hi," she said simply. "It's Ginny Weasley. Ginny Potter now, but…"

"I know," he said, not meeting her eyes. "I know. Sorry."