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Chapter 25-Scorpius

"Who can show me the correct way to perform a levitation charm?" Professor Flitwick asked, gesturing to the incantation he'd written on the blackboard.

I stretched my hand into the air and felt a rush of excitement when I was called on. This had been happening more and more lately, ever since I'd aced my first Charms test a few months ago. I'd just opened my mouth to perform the spell when there was a loud, almost frantic pounding on the door.

"Come in!" Flitwick called.

Albus rushed in, looking excited for once, not nervous. "I need to borrow Scorpius for a little bit. Please send any homework he might receive in his classes today to the hospital wing."

Flitwick nodded and gestured for me to pack up my books. I followed Albus down the hall, eying him warily for news of some new crisis or disaster. "What is it?" I asked. Hadn't the Weasleys and Potters suffered enough this year?

However, Albus was practically bouncing on the heels of his feet. "We finally made Dolohov talk! The cousins should be waking up any minute now!"

Rose.

I practically ran the rest of the way to the hospital wing. Albus was close behind me. If he knew that I had a crush on Rose, he didn't say anything. The room was crowded with Weasleys and Potters: some I knew, but most I didn't. Our families aren't exactly the best of friends. Lysander and Lorcan Scamander were also there. Lorcan was showing a book to Dominique Weasley, and they appeared to be deep in conversation about something.

I would have been content to go straight to Rose's bedside, but Al wanted to introduce me to all of his relatives. He had a lot of uncles and aunts-and they all looked suspicious of me.

I turned to my friend. "Albus, do you know why everyone in your family hates me?"

"They don't hate you, Scorp. They just don't trust you."

"Thanks. That sure makes me feel a lot better."

Just then there was a loud yawn from the bed nearest the window, currently occupied by his cousin Lucy. Immediately the room fell silent, as though someone had cast a perfect silencing charm over it. Lucy stretched and opened her eyes. "Wait-what happened? Where am I? Why are you all looking at me like that? Did I die? Then why can I see you?" she asked. Her eyes were wide, curious, and filled with innocence.

There was a strangled cry from her mother, Audrey, and her parents rushed over to her. They hugged and kissed her, examining every inch of her for bruises, injuries, or scars-until Madam Pomfrey put a stop to it. "I believe this is my job." she said as she gave Lucy a thorough check up. "I'm glad to say that Lucy will not suffer any lasting wounds or scars from the spell." Everyone cheered.

Molly was the next to wake up. "Someone turn out the lights." she muttered, burying her face in her pillow.

Fred and Roxanne exchanged a glance and ran over to her. "I don't think so." Fred replied. The three of them play-wrestled for a while until they ended up in a tangled heap on the bed, winded and laughing.

Suddenly, Molly sat bolt upright. "Wait-where's Lucy? Is she all right?"
Lucy flung herself across the room and onto her older sister's bed. She then proceeded to give Molly a big hug. "Yeah, Molly. I'm fine."

The scene was touching, to say the least.

For the next fifteen minutes, everything was hugs, kisses, and 'what did I miss?' I stood to the side of the commotion, feeling lonely and out of place.

One bed was still occupied.

I could see that Rose's parents were unsure of what to do. While the other girls had woken up relatively quickly, Rose hadn't moved or changed since my routine visit that morning. They glanced form their nieces jumping around and talking to each other to their daughter, still lying in a coma, and back again.

One by one, everyone noticed this turn of events and quieted down. Hugo reached out to touch his sister's arm. His hand shook tentatively. "Rosie?"

There was no reply.

"What's wrong?" Fred asked. "Why isn't she waking up?"

"I don't know." Madam Pomfrey sounded worried. "I know the spell was successfully removed. There's no reason why she shouldn't be awake right now, like her cousins. All we can do now is wait, I suppose."

So we did.

For hours we stayed in the hospital wing, talking in low voices and trying to keep ourselves occupied as the hours wore on and we ran out of people to talk to and things to talk about. Fred and James started a game of Exploding Snap, but none of us really felt like playing. A few house elves brought up tea and dinner for us when it started to get late. I watched the sun set behind the Quidditch pitch, streaking the sky with shades of red, gold, and deep purple.

We stayed up until midnight, trying to keep up conversation.

"So, what was it like?" I asked Molly. "Being unconscious, I mean."

She shrugged. "It was weird. One minute I was running down the corridor and the next I was waking up here. What day is it, anyway? I forgot to ask."

"May fifteenth."

"I've been asleep for three months?"

"Afraid so."

She shook her head. "That's completely mental. Anyway, how are you, Scorpius?"

"Good." I looked down, feeling uncomfortable.

"Well, thanks for warning us about Hugo. You really helped out. If there's anything we can ever do for you, just let us know."

I grinned. "Thanks, but it was nothing. It was mostly my dad, in any case. I was just the messenger."

"I heard that you were still part of the rescue mission. You were really brave."

I hadn't actually done that much. Why were people making the things I'd done sound better than they were? I'd just done things any halfway decent person would have done.

Just then, Madam Pomfrey stood up on an empty chair, shouting to make herself heard over the din. "It's getting late. Everybody out."

"I want to stay with Rose!" Hugo cried indignantly. Albus nodded in agreement.

""We can only wait and see now. I'm sorry, Hugo."

One by one, we filed outside. I walked to the Gryffindor common room in a daze, not registering all the people bidding me good-night. I lay awake for a long time, but I wasn't able to fall asleep.

Finally, when the clock read 3:42 and I still hadn't dozed off, I gave sleep up as a lost cause and crept back through the silent school passageways to the hospital wing. It was deserted except for Rose, who was still lying in her comatose state.

I pulled up a chair and lit a candle in a handy wall sconce. It felt like a normal day-I was up here to tell her about my day. Except for the fact that besides the flickering, unsteady light of my candle, the only light in the room was that of the moonlight streaming in through the windows. "Hey Rose. Today was a really interesting day. Lucy and Molly woke up. They aren't hurt or anything, but they were really confused at first. You should probably wake up soon. You've been out for almost six months, and you're terribly behind. You know I hate to say it, but it's true. Don't worry, though. You'll be able to make it up soon, and you'll still be top of the year."

I wasn't expecting anything to happen, so I wasn't surprised when nothing did. Slowly, I stood up and headed for the door. "Well, good-night Rose."

Just then there was a small sneeze from behind me. "Scorpius?" a voice asked quietly.

I spun on my heel and raced back to the bed. "Rose? Are you awake?"

"Yeah." She sat up, looking around her blearily. "What happened?"

I told the entire story to the best of my ability. It took a long time, since Rose was understandably very confused and asked a lot of questions. When I'd finished, she nodded grimly. "The Comotus spell. It puts its victims into an indefinite comatose state, which can only be removed by the spell's caster. I'd read about it just a few weeks before I was attacked, but I never made the connection. I can't believe how dumb I was."

"You weren't dumb. Don't say that. Don't ever say that-not when you're still third in the year." I decided to ask the question that had been bothering me for the past few months. "You said I…knew something. But I didn't."

"I said that? I can't remember. It was all a blur. I think I meant to say that you'd know when I woke up."

"But I didn't know. I just came here because I couldn't sleep. And…how did you know?"

She shrugged. "It was different being comatose. I saw everything much more clearly than I had before and I just…felt things. I wasn't part of the present, so I saw a little of the future. And you did know tonight. Your body told you, somehow. It sent you invisible signals. Scorpius, this might sound strange, but…when I was out, I heard something in my head sometimes…and it sounded uncannily like your voice. Did you ever…talk to me, by any chance?"

I looked down and felt my cheeks turning an angry shade of red. "Every day."

She smiled. "Thank you, Scorpius." Then she flung her arms around me and held me tightly. I relaxed into her grip, as her arms were warm and smelled faintly of wood violets.

Finally, I pulled away. "Shouldn't we go and find your family? They've been worried sick, especially Hugo."

She nodded and leapt nimbly to the floor. "Yes. I think we should. I promised Hugo a tour of the castle one of these days...even though he probably knows it better than I do by now."

"Don't worry-you'll learn fast."

Before I could lose my nerve, I took her hand and gave it one quick, tight squeeze. "Let's go."

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