"Well, it looks like the time is finally here. So, what'll it be, lover boy?"

Draco looked up, panic in his heart. Pansy was walking towards him, a look of pure malice glinting in her eyes.

He knew now it was finally time to speak up, to bargain as much as he could. He wouldn't let her Obliviate his mind; he couldn't bear the thought of not having his memories of Neve.

"I'll give you gold," he rasped, his voice barely working. "I'll hand over everything I own."

"Oh Drakie, Drakie," she laughed. "We've been here before, remember?! When I first got you here. But I guess you forget that doesn't wash with me. So, what - you give me the gold and then immediately get me arrested?"

"I'll do the Unbreakable Vow to ensure that won't happen!"

"Nope, I want your name Draco, it's the name that was promised to me when we were kids! I want to be lady of the Manor and shroud myself in your riches!"

"I'm never going to marry you, Pansy!" Draco spluttered. "You're a fucking crazy bitch, you know that?!"

"Clearly," Pansy answered, unbothered, "I've locked you up here for the whole year haven't I? Let that be a lesson to you that I don't give up until I get what I want! So if you won't mind, let's create some new memories."

She lifted her wand and Draco flinched, desperate to stall for time.

"Wait! I'll do it!" he cried. "I'll fucking do the Unbreakable Vow."

Pansy lowered her wand as a wide grin spread across her face.

"Good boy, Drakie. Good boy."

*****

My heart was racing so fast, I felt for sure it was going to burst out of my chest.

I couldn't get up to the seventh floor fast enough. He was so close, I could almost feel him.

Harry, Narcissa and I all paced the corridor, each desperately thinking our own thoughts to get the door to appear.

Show me the room where Draco is hidden. Show me the room where Draco is hidden.

But try as we might, we couldn't penetrate the room we most required.

I tried all the different ways I could ask for it, trying to outdo whatever request Pansy had made to make it impossible.

"It's no use," I cried, slamming my fists against the wall, feeling desperate with frustration. "Please Merlin! If you're out there, then please open this fucking room and let us save Draco!"

"Neve!" Narcissa gasped.

At first I thought she was scolding me for my bad language, but then it soon became apparent it wasn't that at all.

Because, at the spot where I sobbing against the wall, something was happening.

A door had started to appear.

*****

"Do you, Draco Malfoy, swear that you will stay away from Neve Longbottom and refrain from any kind of communication, even through a third party?"

Draco hesitated as his hand clasped in Pansy's. He couldn't bring himself to agree to this and he didn't know how he was going to be able to speak.

So he said nothing.

"DO YOU SWEAR, DRACO?!" She screamed, squeezing her fingers painfully around his.

"I-" he gritted, "I-"

"Just fucking getting on with it!"

"Look, why didn't you just slip me a love potion? Why this?" He asked desperately.

"Because love potions wear out and this won't! Now fucking do it before I erase all your memories!"

He was cornered. He had no way of getting out of it. Because there was no way he was going to allow Pansy to Obliviate his mind and steal his memories of her.

So, taking a deep breath, he began to say the words.

"I- I-"

"STUPIFY!"

Draco gasped as Pansy went rigid and, with her hand falling away from his, fell backwards with a crash.

And, when he turned his head to see who had just burst through the door to cast the spell, he was one hundred percent sure that he was dreaming.

Because, running towards him was a girl in a white dress, a girl he had been dreaming of for as long as he could remember; before the days he was shut away in here, before the war had even started.

His beautiful, clumsy yet courageous girl; who gave her passion to plants and toads; and who, despite his previous bullying ways, loved him and cherished him as much as he did her.

His frog princess.

*****

"Draco!"

The feeling I felt when my body slammed into his was indescribable.

Arms clasped tightly around one another as we fell sobbing to the floor; hands groping and lips kissing every part of the other we could find.

"Neve," he choked through his sobs as he desperately held me to him, peppering kisses all over my face, "Oh, my Neve."

I wept, I couldn't help it. I clung onto him so tight, fearful to ever let him go again. I wept and I sobbed against his body, not quite believing that what was happening was real.

I barely noticed as Harry sauntered in, arresting Pansy's Stupified body on the spot.

And I barely noticed when Narcissa ran in, diving down to engulf her arms around us.

The three of us just sat sobbing for a long while, huddled together on the dusty floor of the horrific hell that Pansy had created for Draco all these months; the three of us holding one another tight as if we'd never let go again.

*****

"Neve- where are you going?" Draco asked frantically, panic in his voice as he reached out to grab my hand, halting me in my tracks.

"I'm just going to the bathroom," I whispered, leaning back down over his hospital bed to press my lips against his forehead. "I'll be right back, I promise, Draco."

He exhaled a long drawn out breath, slowly closing his eyes. "I'm sorry, Neve," he murmured; his voice strangled. "I just love you so much and I- I'm-"

"I know," I quickly reassured him, "and I love you, too. But I promise I won't be long."

We were in St Mungo's, having Draco checked over for any ailments. They kept him in a darkened room where they explained that due to him being in the dark for so long, it would take time for his eyes to adjust to light again.

The room Pansy had created for him had been a small windowless box which contained nothing but the chains she had kept him in and a bucket in the corner.

Draco explained that after he came round from the explosion that had torn us apart during the battle, Pansy had been standing over him, demanding that now the war had been won, it was time for them to get married.

But he had refused, so she kept him locked up in the hope that he would one day relent.

No one had been able to access the room whilst he was in there, which Harry wrongly assumed that it just meant it had been destroyed by Crabbe's fire.

"Sorry about that," Harry had shrugged. "It seemed like the most logical explanation at the time. Still, all's well that ends well."

I stayed by Draco's side the whole time he was in hospital, both us not being able to bear to spend more than a second apart.

He feared being left alone, especially in the dark. It was quite understandable given the hell he'd been put through.

When he was released with a full bill of health just two days after Memorial Day, we realised we needed to come to a decision about our future.

"I don't want one where you're not in it," Draco said solemnly, cradling my face in his long white fingers as he looked down at me with such fierce love.

"And I don't want to not be with you either," I whispered, feeling tears prick my eyes as I realised the tragic reality of being lumbered with me. "But I can't have your children, Draco; you won't be able to continue your family's bloodline with me."

"Fuck the bloodline!" he hissed vehemently; his grey eyes flashing fiercely. "I didn't stay locked up in a fucking box for an entire year to give up on you now! And as for children, we have Teddy, and we can adopt more - as many as you like. That is if you want me to be part of your and Teddy's life?"

"Of course I do!" I said, tears rolling down my cheeks now; tears of joy and happiness. "I want you so much, Draco; I always have."

His lips crashed down on mine then, kissing me hard and kissing me firm; sealing the deal.

"Then let's go home, Neve," he murmured hoarsely, after breaking the kiss to take my hand in his. "Let's finally start this life together."

And that is exactly what we did.

*****