Chapter Twenty-Six:
The next day was horrible. I mean, we were all still ecstatic, including me, about winning the championship...the only problem was, I was really, really hungover. That day passed in a blur. Not like the end of the Quidditch match had, though - that had been a blur because I couldn't take it all in, I was so happy - no, that day passed in a blur because I was only half conscious through all of it. I tuned most of that day out, with the help of sun glasses to hide my eyes.
A few days later, I was back to normal. Lessons hadn't exactly been discontinued, but nobody in the seventh-year bothered to turn up anymore. We'd already taken our NEWTs, what else was there to do? Instead, we spent most of our time just hanging out on the lawn. A few times Mara, Leanne, Harriet, Willa, Sheila and I went down into Hogsmeade, however after our fifth visit we discovered that Filch was a regular at the Hogs Head. As much as we liked to poke fun at Filch, according to Aberforth - who had remained on extremely good terms with my parents after the War - Filch was something of a happy drunk, and I don't think that any of us will ever be able to forget the sight of opening the door to the Hogs Head to find old, white-haired Filch hobbling around on a table singing Odo The Hero in the style of Celestina Warbeck. Aberforth had hurried over to us, and hissed, "Get out while you can!" We hadn't hesitated to run screaming. Three words. Scarred. For. Life.
On the Friday one week before my prom, Lily and Albus rushed up to where I was sitting in the common room by the fire chatting to Hugo about his - apparently amazing - date with Katy Bluehalph.
"Guys, the finale is at five sharp!" she hissed, before running off, presumably to find Scorpius to tell him too. Or to make out with another of her boyfriends. I think she's with Henry now...
I looked up at Al. "Do you know what she's planning on doing?" I asked, making my voice quiet enough so that nobody could hear us.
Albus shrugged. "Search me. Nobody but her and Scorp knows," he muttered, again keeping his voice low. I frowned.
"On the topic of Malfoy," I began
"Scorpius," Al interjected.
"Did he or did he not knock you out before the match?" I hissed, the anger beginning to fizz in my stomach. Al laughed.
"Good, it was convincing," he chuckled.
"You mean you pretended to faint?" I asked, incredulously. Al laughed again.
"Sort of, but not quite," he smirked.
"What do you mean by not quite?" Hugo prompted. Al looked over his shoulder, to check if anyone was watching, then sat down in an empty chair next to us.
"Well, we choreographed the whole thing, the curses," he started.
"You mean spells?" I asked, interrupting him. Al raised his eyebrows.
"No, the other kind of curses. Anyway, so he yelled a completely made up spell, something like stuconlitasmos, and then I swallowed a Fainting Fancy," he finished.
"You took a Fainting Fancy? Those things that Uncle George sells?" I asked, laughing. Al nodded, chuckling again. "But that means you knew you'd miss the match!" I complained. Al shrugged.
"You didn't miss me, and I look like a heroic guy that got knocked out by the bad guy, aka Scorp. I call that a success."
I had to concede his point. Lucy was a heroine throughout Gryffindor, and I was glad I'd picked her over Orphis - I hoped she would make the team next year. She had a real flair for Quidditch, and every single non-Slytherin student at the school suddenly wanted to be her best friend.
"What time is it, Rose?" Hugo asked. I looked at my wrist, only to remember that I had lost my watch a couple of weeks ago to Peeves, so I looked to Al, who checked Fabian Prewetts watch. "Quarter to five," he replied.
"Let's get down to wherever we're going," I shrugged, causing Al to laugh.
"We're going to the courtyard, hasn't Lily told you that?" Al grinned. I frowned. Lily had told me that, but what with all the other things on my mind recently - namely, getting over my hangover - it had been somewhat overshadowed.
As mundane as the walk down to the courtyard was, it struck me that I might not go that way very much more. I was leaving Hogwarts in a week. How's that possible? I can't leave Hogwarts! But I was. I was leaving in seven days. Or, rather I was leaving in eight days - the Hogwarts Express waited a day or so, so that we could get everything packed up. One time a boy left his owl in his dormitory, and the place became a bit of a pigsty. We don't know to this day how the owl survived.
At five minutes to five, Lily rushed over to us. We had barely arrived when she was shoving Hugo and Al to this side, "You guys are taking a backseat. Rose is in the spotlight here. When I say, 'don't do it, Scorpius," that's when you guys run on, ok? Go and hide somewhere, it can't look like you were waiting for a cue. I redirected most students along here for various reasons, so we don't need to worry about a small audience," she hissed, throwing open the door to a broom cupboard and shoving her family inside. Just as she closed the door I heard Al mutter,
"I hate my sister." Lily apparently didn't hear this.
"So what do I do?" I asked her, ignoring Hugo's banging on the cupboard door. Lily kicked the door before replying.
"You improvise. Scorpius is going to do all the work for you. I've got him doing some heavy lifting right now. He should be here in a minute. As soon as he starts acting, you've got to run on and try to stop him. I think it will be even more convincing if you don't know what you're going to say, so from there you're on your own," she muttered, and the mob of students increased. We were surrounded by pupils everywhere, more than I'd ever seen in one place before.
"How did you get all these people here?" I asked.
"Oh, I just put up a bunch of notices telling them that their various clubs and missing crap was around here. Now you, go mix yourself in with them, act natural!" she hissed, pushing me into the mob.
"Just one more question," I called out. Lily groaned, then turned back to face me.
"What?" she hissed, brushing her bangs out of her heavily kohl-rimmed eyes.
"Why are Hugo and Al in the cupboard?" I whispered, looking furtively over my shoulder to check nobody was watching.
"You'll see," Lily smirked, then suddenly she too was hidden in the massing crowds of children.
Within moments Scorpius appeared, carrying a hugo stone bowl. I guess that's what Lily meant by heavy lifting. He walked with it into the middle of the courtyard, and suddenly the banging from Al and Hugo in the cupboard got much louder. I could tell it had started. When Scorpius slammed down the stone bowl on something I thought looked uncannily similar to a stone mandrake, everybody in the surrounding area went quiet. He bent low over the bowl, in which there seemed to be some sort of shimmering liquid. He then extracted a crystal phial from his robe pocket and tipped it's contents into the bowl.
Suddenly we all found ourselves staring at the form of a man who resembled a rat bending over the bowl. I knew this would be my cue, so I ran towards Scorpius.
"Scorpius, you can't!" I screamed. Scorpius didn't start at my voice - Lily must have told him what to expect. He kept staring at the bowl.
"He was dead. This man here was dead. But I brought him back. I brought him back, Weasley," Scorpius whispered, loudly. His eyes seemed to have a red tinge to them. It suddenly all seemed scarily real.
"Scorpius!" I begged him, but the strange, other man had already started talking.
"Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son!" the man whispered, and suddenly a horribly realistic bone appeared from nowhere, and dropped into the bowl. I heard a splash, but I'm sure I couldn't see one...
I took one step closer to Scorpius. "Stop it, Scorpius. Whatever you've done, just stop," I said, slowly and carefully, as if I didn't want to awake a slumbering beast, with vicious claws and poisonous fangs. He ignored me, as the strange man whimpered, "Flesh...of the servant...w-willingly given...you will...revive...your master," and then raised his right arm over the bowl of liquid, and in his left hand was a knife, gripped tightly as if his life depended on it...oh no. No, no, no. Please, no.
I screamed and covered my eyes, and I heard the man scream too, a terrifying scream that pierced the hearts everybody watching. I heard several girls scream in horror. Scorpius laughed, a laugh that could be only be one thing - pure evil. Then there a horrible plop, as if something had fallen into a liquid. I opened my eyes - the man's arm had been severed at the wrist, and you could see all the...
"Scorpius, stop it! Stop this right now!" I yelled. The banging on the cupboard got louder.
"Don't do it, Scorpius!" I heard Lily cry from the other end of the courtyard. I looked around. The entire school is watching this. This is big...
Albus and Hugo suddenly burst out from the cupboard, wands raised. "Scorpius, no!" Albus bellowed. The rat man didn't appear to hear him.
"B-blood of the enemy...forcibly taken...you will...resurrect your foe." Suddenly, a arm appeared from nowhere, an arm that the rat man was now holding aloft. I got the impression it was a living arm, however it seemed to appear from nowhere. The silver knife the man had used to sever his hand was now piercing through the paled skin of this arm. A dribble of blood ran down, and trickled into a glass phial that the rat man was holding out, so as to collect the blood. What is this...
"Scorpius, just reverse it. Stop this, stop this now!" I cried. I realised I had started trembling and crying. I never knew I was this good at acting. I should seriously consider this as a career. Scorpius didn't reply. But his eyes had taken on a strange, red hue...
I felt it. I could just feel that the whole idea had possessed Scorpius, and now it was real. He was actually doing it. A little part of my brain told me no, of course not, but the way I had reacted to it all seemed truer than what my brain was telling was real. This was happening.
The man poured the blood he'd collected from the mystery arm into the stone bowl, then collapsed by the huge rock that it had been placed on, caressing what remained of his bleeding arm and quietly sobbing. The bowl started fizzing slightly, sending sparks in every direction. For a moment it was beautiful, I let out a little gasp, forgetting my anxiety. It looked as if the bowl were spitting diamonds, that glowed when light touched them, every facet sparkling in the evening light...
Then the image was obscured. Great clouds of steam suddenly surged from the bowl, shrouding everything else. I could barely see Scorpius - I couldn't see as far away as Al or Hugo.
"Scorpius," I whispered, as loudly as I dared. I thought I could see Scorpius pouring another fluid into the bowl, but then the mist thickened so that I couldn't even see my nose in front of my face. It was a horrible mist, cold and clammy, but as quickly as it had thickened it was gone, and suddenly...
Suddenly I saw a figure standing in the bowl, a life-sized figure, its feet hidden. But it was laughing, holding a wand aloft and laughing terribly. There were screams from the audience.
"Scorpius please, you can fight this! This isn't you, you've been Imperiused!" I yelled. Scorpius looked at me, then at Al and Hugo.
"Look at what I've created. I brought him back!" Scorpius cried, jubilantly, above the roars of laughter. I followed my instincts. I ran right up to Scorpius and stopped about a foot away from him.
"Please, Scorpius. Fight it," I whimpered, laying at hand on his chest, just above where his heart would be.
Scorpius flinched at my touch. Then his eyes clouded over for a second, like the spell obliviate had been cast over him. Then suddenly he covered his eyes with his hands, just for a second - and then the red tinge was gone, his normal emerald eyes were back. I thought I saw him tuck a couple of red contact lenses in his robe pocket. Then he looked up at the form in bowl.
"Holy -" here Scorpius used quite colourful language. This made me more certain than anything else that he was back to his normal self.
"Is that...?" I yelled, staring up at the dark figure. It was becoming more and more focused. It's nose was thin, practically non-existent, and it's eyes were glowing a vivid scarlet.
"Yes," Scorpius yelled, over the creatures laughter. "It's Lord Voldemort!"
Suddenly, Voldemort shot a translucent green surge of light into the air from the tip of his wand - the sound it created echoed around the courtyard like thunder, and Voldemort let out a cold, high, terrible laugh. I screamed and bent over, and Scorpius suddenly put his arms around me, clutching me to his chest protectively. My hands balled up into fists, out of some old fighting instinct I'd buried deep inside. I closed my eyes, letting my hands rest on Scorpius' chest, trying to block out everything that was surrounding me. What has he done?
Then, everything was quiet. I couldn't hear anything, just the sound of my heartbeat, that had quickened to a rate I didn't think was possible. I opened my eyes. Lord Voldemort was gone, and so was the rat man that had collapsed. I pulled myself out of Scorpius' arms. Then Albus and Hugo rushed to my side, as did Lily.
"Rose, are you alright?" Albus asked. I nodded, then looked at Scorpius.
"Scorpius, what did you do?" I asked, quietly. We were still commanding the full attention of everybody surrounding us. We had the whole school watching.
"I...I don't know. It's kind of hazy...I think somebody tried to use me to trick everyone into believing that Voldemort had been brought back," he muttered, clutching his head "At least, I remember hearing someone talk about that..." he trailed off, slumping against the big rock that supported the stone bowl.
"Trick?" Lily asked, incredulously. This sounded rehearsed, and then I knew for certain - none of it had been real. Nothing. It was all part of the plan.
Scorpius rubbed his head, pushing his platinum blonde hair back from his face. "Of course. Necromancy's impossible. That stuff over there is Pensive. What you saw is a mix of two memories, both from my grandfather," he muttered loudly. This too sounded rehearsed to my ears, however the rest of the school didn't seem to think so.
"Are you sure? He's not back, is he?" Albus interjected, sounding genuinely terrified.
Scorp nodded. "Positive," he muttered. Scorpius looked pasty and frail - not from any injuries, just from physical exhaustion. This was acting, I could tell, because his eyes were alert, and scanning everyone around him. I knew what to give him. I fumbled around in my pocket, then wordlessly held out a small object to him. Scorp saw what it was and smiled, taking it gratefully. He then popped it in his mouth and ate it.
And without another word he fainted dead away.