Author's Notes: Written as a pinch-hit for the smrw_santa community on Livejournal. Story is told in a non-linear style with an ambiguous ending.
Fairy tales should have happy endings. Those words swam through Rose's mind as she grabbed her wand. She gripped Scorpius' hand and took another drink from the flask before whispering the now-familiar incantation.
The moon was full and bright above them. A faint silvery band of clouds encircled it, drawing Rose's attention towards the heavens. "What is that called? That ring?" she asked, trying to point at it without moving out from under the heavy comforter that bound her and Scorpius together. "That is a lunar halo," Scorpius answered dryly. He seemed more interest in pulling her closer and wrapping the blanket tight around them than in her question. "I know that. But there's another name for it. Something about a dog." She bumped her shoulder against his. "You should know this. You always did better in Astronomy than I did." "I'm surprised you remember that," he said quietly, the corner of his mouth curling up into a grin. "It's called a moon dog. It means a storm is coming."
~***~
Rose stared down at the letter, her hands trembling and a heaviness settling in her chest as read the fate they'd laid down for her in black ink.
They thought that she was incapable, unstable. They accused her of no longer being able to separate herself from the work.
They were abandoning the project.
They were abandoning Scorpius.
It didn't matter what she had found, it didn't matter the weeks of work that had gone into this, and it didn't matter that he was trapped. The Ministry had dismissed their results as disappointing and was quick to cover-up what they saw as another unfortunate mishap.
~***~
It had been too warm in their room. At first, making love in front of a roaring fire had been romantic, but soon, with the sweat cooling on their bodies and the air seeming to cover them like a blanket, it had been too much. Scorpius had suggested the balcony. So here they sat, down comforter wrapped around them and their mugs of hot chocolate long forgotten. They had come to this cabin for their first holiday together; an impromptu trip to a secluded cabin in Sweden after they'd realized that neither of them had ever visited the country before. Rose kissed his bare shoulder before resting her head against it. Despite having spent the better part of the past day making love, she found herself still wanting more. She certainly hadn't been a virgin that first time but after, she craved him in a way she hadn't anyone before or since. His body seemed attuned to hers and even the slightest touch from him could light a fire within her. Time had done nothing to diminish it. And while she had tried to be rational about this, in those private moments they spent together, all her defenses crumbled. When his mouth and hands were on her, exploring her, she couldn't be logical. When his body rocked into hers, slow and steady as she curled around him, trying to hold onto the moment, she couldn't remember every having felt this way before. When she was with him, she felt like she had finally awaken from a dream. She was finally free from the muted and somber grays that had once colored her world.
~***~
When she was younger her mother had read her Muggle fairy tales. Being Hermione Granger-Weasley she had, of course, altered the stories to her liking. The heroines were loved not for being beautiful but for being brave, clever, and kind. And the heroes, while still dashing, weren't always the ones who saved the day.
Rose watched Scorpius and found it easy to imagine for a moment that this was another fairy tale. That she would break the enchantment, he would awake, and they would live happily ever after.
Leaning over, she laid a soft kiss on his forehead.
His eyes didn't open.
~***~
"This was in your dream." She had seen it in his mind. No matter where she had begun, she always found him here, back at the cabin, waiting for her. Scorpius nodded but didn't look at her and that nagging sense of doubt took root in her mind. "It's always snowing when we come here," she added, her voice breathless to her own ears. Rose looked up at him, trying to read something more into his calm expression. "Have you noticed that?" He shrugged. "It's Sweden. I reckon it snows a lot." Rose shook her head. She could remember clearly the promise she had made to return here when everything was back to normal. It was something he had wanted but she had put off, afraid of rushing things. She could visualize the moment perfectly in her mind, she just didn't know if it had ever happened. He traced her jaw with with his finger. "Rose?" The words catch in her throat and she had to force herself to say them. "Is this real?"
~***~
Rose was more certain now than ever that lying had been the right choice. She and Scorpius had been hiding their relationship, both believing that it was too new to create waves over.
"Unspeakable Malfoy had been working in the Brain Room on a special assignment: Project Morpheus," Chang told her. For weeks, Rose had been curious about the project he had been assigned to but she hadn't asked knowing the information was confidential. While mostly about discovering aspects of the human mind that were still unknown, there had also been potential practical applications of this research like helping those whose brains had been negatively affected by magic.
"This weekend, he fell into a deep sleep from which he has not awoken. Our Healers have confirmed that there is no physical reason for this. We can only conclude that it was caused by the project he was working on. We need someone who will enter into his mind and bring him back." Cho looked at her, her lips drawn into a tight line. "Are you willing to do that?"
Rose thought about everything she knew about the program, about the potion that would put her to sleep and the complicated spellwork needed to tie her mind to his. And she thought of the risk of being pulled into someone else's dream and the slim chance of success she had.
Her answer was the same as it had been before she had considered all this.
"Yes."