Scorpius woke up with his hands tied behind his back covered in rain he hadn't felt fall on him. The ground was slick with mud and the evening was beginning to settle in. Dark hooded figures encircled him. No! Merlin's sake no!
"Rose!" He cried.
"Ooh he is awake!" A hooded figure sung out.
"It is time to begin," cooed another.
"Bring her," said a female voice.
A familiar voice screamed out and the cold shivered through his spine. Rose. No. She can't be here, this can't be happening. He could hear her crying before he could see her. This was his fault, he told her not to worry. He brought her, where? Where were they? He didn't recognize anything in this landscape. There weren't even trees, just rocks and grass and those blue flamed torches.
She was distressed, she was fighting against them. She didn't want to come out from behind the rocks. She didn't want to comply with them. She tried pulling herself down to the floor but the two of them dragged her and threw her in front of him. They wanted her to kill him. He was going to die. Painful tears tore down his face as he laid eyes on her. Dressed in pure white, robes lined with gold. She was stunningly beautiful. The dress was made for her it held onto her like a glove. She looked like an angel, no wonder he was obsessed with the idea of his resurrection.
This was it. She would kill him. He would die. It wasn't a dream. It'd all been for nothing. "Please, let her go!" He begged. "She doesn't want to do this, take me and let her go!"
"LET HER GO!" He roared into the silence, all that he could hear was her soft sobbing turning ragged in waves of pain. "DID YOU HEAR ME? LET HER GO!"
"Scorpius," she hissed through the tears that decorated her face. "I can't. I can't do this. I can't, please I can't. Scorpius," She fell to her knees in front of him. He wanted to comfort her, but he couldn't with bound hands but he could stand and in doing so he charged the nearest assailant and toppled them to the floor. He wanted to punch his way out of this mess but he couldn't, the attempt was feeble and he knew it. In his rage he head butted the man on the floor, he kept doing so through until he saw blood which was when subsequently they pulled him of the guy.
"Get this moving!" The first voice barked.
"The sword," cooed another.
The female one brought forth a sword of gold hilt and silver blade, it was not the sword of Gryffindor.
"Of course not!" Rose cried. "A Slytherin and a Ravenclaw, neither of us would have noticed a fake sword of Gryffindor!" She wailed.
"What?" Scorpius called out.
"Only a Gryffindor can pull forth the sword of Gryffindor. Do you really see a Gryffindor doing something like this?" Rose explained. "The sword is a fake, which would have been a clue had we known!"
Rose sobbed with the sword in her hands.
Scorpius's mind was racing and the protective feeling he'd felt in all his dreams was more powerful now in real life, it burned through him, "Rose, listen to me. You need to listen to them. It's the only chance you're going to have in getting out of here!"
"No!" She mouthed.
"ENOUGH!" The woman cried, gripping the sword in Rose's hands to steady the girl. As soon as she did each member in the circle drew their wands to the ready. "THE GOLDEN CHILD WILL KILL THE CHILD BORN TO THE DARK! IT SHALL BE DONE! IT HAS BEEN SAID! ALL WILL BE MADE RIGHT!"
"I can't! I can't! I can't! I can't!" Rose cried in protest, but Scorpius steadied. Kneeling at her feet, he looked up at her with fixed eyes, shining in the torch light like mercury.
He could feel his heartbeat through his neck into his ears, pulsing slowly as he calmed himself awaiting his death. He nodded to her and he noticed that indeed her hair shone like fire tonight.
Her eyes lit up and she nodded in final understanding. "I'm sorry." She whispered gravely and swung the sword down.
