A/N: Here is a quick follow up to chapter 29: These Things That Break Us. This will be the last of reuploaded chapters for a while at least, and now I have to deal with the heavily procrostinated WIPs sitting in my drafts lol. Wish me luck and happy reading!
Rose Weasley was no stranger to death. Though only a few of her loved ones had died in her lifetime, she had heard countless stories of the people who had left the world far too soon. Her parents had grown up and fallen in love watching the people that they cared about the most dying. Hell, most of her cousins were named after the dead.
So, when Rose found out that her father in law was in bad shape, she didn't really know what to do. Her own grandfather, her mum's dad, had passed away in her sixth year and it had been terrible. She felt as if she had been punched in the gut repeatedly and was left gasping for air for weeks. But that was her grandpa. She saw him when she could and of course looked up to him for raising her mother so brilliantly, but losing him didn't break her. She kept going because she needed to. But the potential death of Draco Malfoy would break her husband, she knew that it would.
Scorpius relied heavily on his father. For the first decade of his life, Astoria and Draco had served as some of Scorpius's only friends. Being a Malfoy didn't often provide much popularity, even as a child. Despite the horrible reputation of his father, Scorpius adored him, but he wasn't stupid. His father had once been a terrible person. Even at 16, you're responsible for the actions you make and Scorpius wouldn't dream of making up excuses for what his father had been a part of.
Draco had given Scorpius an in-depth telling of the war from his perspective at a young age. He didn't want his only son to grow up under the impression that what the Malfoy family had been a part of was okay because it wasn't and following the war, it didn't take Draco long to accept that.
Scorpius admired his father for the choices he made after the war. The total reconstruction of himself was something Scorpius respected immensely. He commended his father for rebranding the Malfoy name all by himself. He loved the way his father loved his mother, and the way he openly accepted Rose. He knew that his father had not always been a saint, but he firmly believed in change and thought Draco to be the clear definition of it.
Rose, knowing Scorpius better than anyone, had heard all of these thoughts before and agreed with them wholeheartedly. She believed Draco Malfoy to be a great man who truly deserved that best because your past mistakes should not be the things that define you.
As she held Scorpius's hand in the waiting room of the intensive care unit of St. Mungo's, Rose thought of these things. She thought of the past conversations that she and Scorpius had held concerning his father and she thought immediately of her own father and how much she loved him. She thought of how even he now respected Draco and could hold a civil conversation with him (which was honestly the most she could ever ask of him).
Rose could no longer feel her hand. She looked to Scorpius who was pale, even more so than usual, and was staring straight ahead. There was no telling what was going on inside that head of his head but Rose wished desperately that she could help him. Instead, she rubbed her thumb across his knuckles and squeezed it tightly.
She didn't know how long they sat like that, but after what felt like years later, a man dressed in the standard emerald green healer robes approached them, along with Astoria, timidly. She knew that they must have looked intimidating, they were Malfoys after all.
"Mrs. Malfoy, if I may, a moment alone," he asked, refusing to meet the stare of Scorpius. She recognized the bloke from years of attending faculty christmas parties, dinners, and other events with Scorpius and remembered unpleasantly how detestable he had been in their previous encounters.
"Whatever you have to say to my mum, you can say to all of us, Flint," Scorpius said standing up, pulling a terrified Rose with him. He was shaking and Rose didn't know how the rest of the waiting room couldn't hear her frantic heartbeat.
"I'm just following protocol," he snapped at Scorpius. He turned slightly to face Astoria and plastered on a fake smile. "Mr. Malfoy is expected to make a full recovery." The rest of his sentence was drowned out by the collective breath of relief. "It's going to be a lengthy process and you won't be able to see him for a little while longer, but he's going to be okay."
Scorpius pulled Rose against him in a crushingly tight hug and she wrapped around him feeling him practically explode with relief against her. Draco Malfoy wasn't going to die and that meant that Scorpius would be okay too.
Once the excitement of the healers' words had died down, they settled back in their seats and waited. Rose smiled as she squeezed Scorpius's hand. He had fallen asleep with his head resting on her shoulder and his eyelids fluttered slightly. He was going to be okay. They all were for that matter. Astoria sat across from Rose looking much more like herself than she previously had. A few moments ago, her uncle had arrived in a flurry of scarlet robes and quiet authority, to sit Astoria down and explain all the aurors had learned so far about the break-in. Rose sent a silent thanks to Harry for coming so quickly. She knew that he didn't often deal with field work anymore, much less families of victims, but he had made a special exception and she knew that Astoria appreciated it as much as she did. Not long after he left, she woke Scorpius to tell him that it was time to see his father.
"I'll wait out here," she said kissing him briefly and pushing him towards his father's room.
"You're mad if you think I'm going in there by myself," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her along with him.
"You're mum will be there too. Your family needs you, Scorpius," she said in an attempt to break away.
"Rose," he said, stopping and taking both of her hands in his. "You are my family. Please, I don't know if I can see him by myself," he said, his voice wobbling.
"Alright," she said with a smile, doing her best to ignore the stinging in her eyes. "Let's go then." She grabbed his hand and they followed a healer in training to Draco's room. She didn't know what they were about to walk into, but they were going to be okay.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed! Fav, follow, and please please please leave me a review! I would love to hear your thoughts, or just how you're handling these crazy times we're living in. Stay safe out there! XOXO
