DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter. It belongs to JK Rowling.
title: Ironically, They Were Roses
by: The Rose in Death's Garden
written for: Lamia's Title Competition
pairings: Albus/Scorpius unrequited, Scorpius/Rose
prompt: title must be at least three words long and contain a comma, question mark, or exclamation point
notes: Hanahaki Disease is an old fanfiction trope. I don't know if it's still used much but I thought it would be interesting to try writing it myself.
Ever since Ron's warning on the platform, it seemed like both families were expecting this to happen. Everyone was expecting it to happen. That Rose and Scorpius would fall in love, against their parents' wishes, and end up living happily ever after, like a fairytale.
So, when Scorpius asked Rose to go to Hogsmeade with him in their fourth year of school, no one was surprised. Most people were happy. Only one person was hurt.
No one expected Scorpius Malfoy to be sorted into Gryffindor and to become best friends with Albus Potter. And no one, least of all Scorpius himself, expected Albus to start coughing up flower petals the very same day of Rose and Scorpius's first date.
Albus laughed bitterly to himself as he walked out of the infirmary. What a time to realize that what he felt for his best friend was more than simple friendship! The same day that Scorpius started dating Albus's cousin. Could anything be more ironic than that, more ironic than the fact that the flowers growing in his lungs just so happened to be red roses?
There was nothing that could be done for his condition. The flowers would only die if his love was returned. If he didn't cough up the petals, they would only fill his lungs more quickly, until he suffocated. But even if Scorpius could return his love, that would leave his heartbroken cousin to waste away from the Hanahaki Disease herself.
There were no good choices here.
Or so Albus thought until he received a letter from his mother. He stared at the words on the page until they blurred before his eyes.
Your father says that Muggle Healers have a way to remove the flowers, but it will also kill your feelings of love. Not just your love for your mystery person
(At this point in the letter the words why won't you just tell us who it is were crossed out, but not heavily enough that he couldn't read them.)
but any ability to feel romantic love at all.
That would be better than dying, wouldn't it? But he would still remember that he had fallen in love, that his love had been unrequited and nearly killed him, that it was Scorpius and Rose's fault that he would never be able to fall in love with anyone again. Maybe death would be better after all.
There were no good choices here.