Chapter Thirteen:
Rose
New York was nothing like she'd imagined. She could still remember those rainy Sundays watching Breakfast at Tiffany's with Nana Granger with a hot mug of milky tea, dreaming about the streets of New York in grainy technicolor. New York in reality was dirty, and grey. In the five blocks they'd walked outside of Central Park, the city at just after four in the morning was grimy and full of tramps sleeping on dirty slabs of cardboard on the cold pavement. Hardly the idealised version of the city Rose'd expected.
Once they'd found a 24-hour diner on the southern side of the park, the four of them huddled over their coffees, hands curled around the warm mugs in an effort to work some heat back into their fingers. She'd have asked for a flat white, but the gruff looking man who'd served them had given her a look that clearly said they could stick to filter coffee or have none at all. The coffee was watery and tasteless, but Rose sipped it as if it were the elixir of life, breathing warmth back into her body. Though London'd still had a tinge of that crisp autumn smell lingering in the air, New York was firmly in the depths of winter. A light breeze outside carried flurries of snow past the window of the diner as they huddled in the warmth of their four-person booth.
"So, tell me about this book of runes," Eloise said, once they had thawed out a bit. "I've only heard bits and pieces from Rose."
Scorpius launched into the same tale Rose had heard before, about finding it in his colleague's notes, and the hidden message they were sure was linked to the suspicious attacks around Wizarding England. "The symbols are almost tribal in nature," he was saying now, excitedly flipping through the book so fast he nearly edged Al's coffee off the table.
"Can I see?" Eloise reached for the tome, and Scorpius handed it over carefully, as if giving up his newborn child.
She poured over the book, a manicured finger running along the page as she read.
"This is fascinating," she said, "some of the runes are of Latin origin, but the others…they're like..."
"Almost like a collaboration, that's what I thought," Scorpius was nodding enthusiastically. Eloise sent him a grin.
"Which is why we decided it'd be worthwhile to go to the first settlement where latin-based and tribal wizarding languages coincided," Rose interjected, reaching for the book. She quickly shoved it into her beaded bag that sat beside her in the booth. "Don't want any Muggles seeing it," she explained. Scorpius regarded her across the table with a quizzical smile.
A jingling sound interrupted their conversation, and a man with matted grey hair and a dirty highlighter-yellow beanie walked through the door. He was covered in soot and clearly homeless, and the man at the counter quickly headed him off. They began to argue, presumably about whether or not the man could stay.
"I feel quite sad for him," Albus said, twirling the spoon in his coffee cup as he watched the man over Rose's shoulder. "Imagine not even being allowed a cup of coffee on a winter day."
"Mmm," murmured Rose, but she said nothing. In truth, the weather-beaten man scared her a little bit. She'd seen a homeless man in Oxford Circus kick off once, whom her granddad Granger had said was clearly on some form of hard drugs. She shifted further into the booth, slightly closer to Eloise, and kept her head down.
"Hey! You kids," the man was coming towards them now, reeking of booze. Rose's eyes widened, her eyes meeting Albus' where he sat diagonally from her across the table. She could see him gearing up to retort that at twenty-three, he was hardly a kid anymore, but shot him a warning glare before he could mouth off.
"Got any spare change?" The man asked, grinning at them to bare a smile that was missing several teeth.
"Sorry sir," Scorpius said quickly in his most clipped English accent, "we're from out of town and don't have any local currency."
"No?" The man asked, looking at them all. Rose resolutely stared at the countertop, willing him to go away. "How about you, Red?" He leant down next to her, the smell of his boozy breath blowing into her face. "Got nothing to say?" One of his grubby hands moved to rest on the table next to Rose's.
Immediately, Scorpius lay a hand across the table protectively, between hers and the stranger's. He stared into the man's face, politeness never faltering, but with a hard stare that was plain to read. Albus' eyes had gone wide, and Rose could see his hand close over the wand in his jeans pocket.
"All right, all right," the man said, backing up slightly. "No need to get twitchy, I'm not gonna touch your little girlfriend, here." Still smiling, the man backed away, stealing a couple of sugar and salt packets from the table next to them as he turned and left the diner.
Rose finally exhaled when he'd gone, realising her hand was white and trembling on the tabletop. Noticing this, Scorpius grabbed it and squeezed once, before letting it go.
"I'm fine," she insisted, a little irritated that she'd truthfully felt so comforted by his brief touch.
"All right, I think I've seen enough of New York," Al said, polishing off the last of his coffee. "Shall we carry on to Virginia, then?"
Eloise sighed, tucking her bright blonde hair behind one ear. "Oui," she conceded, nodding, "we should proceed to our final destination."
Rose sighed deeply, letting go of her fairytale notions of the city, and agreed that they should move along now. The group began to gather their things, and Rose reached down beside her for her mother's old expandable beaded bag. After a moment of groping around on the seat next to her, Rose ducked her head under the table for a better vantage point.
The bag was missing.
The air felt as if it had been instantly sucked from her chest, like a horrendously violent vacuum.
"My… bag," she managed to stammer, still in disbelief.
"What is it?" Al had paused to look at her, one of his arms in his coat, and one out.
"It's gone," Rose said, fear gripping at her throat. "It was on the seat beside me, just a moment ago…"
They all stared blankly back at her.
"That… that tramp!" Rose said, knowing her cheeks would be going quite red now. "He took it, I know he did!"
Scorpius was out of his seat in a flash. "The book," he said, going even paler than his usual fair complexion "Merlin, you put the book in the bag, didn't you?" Rose's eyes went wide, and she nodded, too horrified to speak. The four of them raced out of the diner, onto the street, now bustling with activity of early morning delivery drivers and construction workers setting up site across the way. Amidst the morning fog, they were unable to spot the man in the bright yellow beanie.
"Oh Merlin, oh Merlin," Scorpius said, collapsing against a glass storefront Rose glanced both ways down the street, but failed to see the man who had spoken to them in the diner anywhere.
One of the construction workers across the way called to her, "You kids lost, darlin'?" He had a weathered, friendly face and was wearing a high-vis jacket with the words Manny's Demolition emblazoned across the breast.
Rose was making her way across the road before her companions could bring her back. After all, this man looked friendly enough. "Have you seen a homeless man with a bright yellow hat on?" she asked, breathlessly.
The man frowned, thinking. "Don't think so, sweetheart," he said, looking concerned. "Is there a reason you're looking for him?"
"He stole my bag," she answered, close to tears now. Her three companions had joined her across the street, Scorpius still frowning deeply and running his long fingers through his hair repeatedly.
"Oh dear," the kindly man said, rubbing his forehead. "Let me see if any of my crew have seen him." He called out to the rest of the men on the site, asking if they'd seen the man with the yellow hat.
Another man, slightly younger than the first one, whom Rose assumed was Manny, came up to them, taking off his hard hat as he did so. "You see anything, Jose?" Manny asked him.
"I ain't seen nobody today," Jose said, his voice heavily accented, and his brown eyes squinting in the early morning sunlight, "but there's a man who hangs around this area who wears a bright yellow beanie - I'd bet it might be the same man?"
"Do you know where he could have gone?" Albus had interjected, stepping forward.
The two men looked at each other.
"There's a soup kitchen on 51st and Lexington," the younger said, shrugging, "The homeless crowd - they tend to stick together. Might be somebody who knows him there."
"Thank you so much," Rose said, already heading down the street again. Her friends ran to catch up behind her.
"Where's Lexington?" Al asked, shaking his head at the street signs. "This city is so much more confusing than London."
Eloise laughed. "It's on a grid system," she informed them, taking the lead and walking across the street, heading south. "It's one of the easiest cities to navigate in the world."
Had Rose not been so worried about the state of her bag, she would have noticed the brownstone buildings had given way for much taller, grey skyscrapers all around them as they walked. The sun was completely up now, lighting up the frosty streets of the city so that the softly falling flakes twinkled. It was still early enough so that there weren't many people about, and the odd car or yellow cab would pass them on the streets, making muddy tracks in the snow.
When they finally reached 51st, they trudged along the street until they got to Lexington Avenue. They quickly found the soup kitchen by following the brightly coloured flyers, but found that there was nobody around, save for a janitor taking out the rubbish at the building next door.
"Sorry, what time does this place open?" Scorpius asked, taking the lead.
"Not until Monday," the janitor said, hauling bags of rubbish into the industrial-sized bins and barely affording their ragtag group a second glance. "It's shut on the weekends."
"You're kidding me," Scorpius cursed under his breath. "How are we meant to find him now?"
"People don't need to eat on the weekends?" Al asked, his eyebrow raising, and a trace of sarcasm creeping into his voice.
The janitor paused to get a good look at the four of them. "You kids homeless?" he asked, skeptically eyeing up Scorpius' jumper, which was quite obviously cashmere.
"We are looking for somebody," Eloise cut in before the boys could interject whatever smart comments were on the tips of their tongues. "Perhaps you know where somebody like this might be sleeping?" She gestured loosely to the soup kitchen.
The man sighed, setting down his bag of rubbish, and wiped his hands on his trousers. Rose tried desperately not to think of the germs. "Plenty of shelters around," he said, after a moment. "But even with the snow, most folks settle down in Central Park at night." He looked at all of them seriously for a moment. "No place for nice kids like you to be goin' though," he warned.
"I think we'll be okay, thank you," Albus said, smirking. Rose, however, had seen his shield charms and was less confident in his abilities.
"I mean it," the man said, shaking his finger at Al, who was still smiling like a cocky little shit, "Can get real rough out there if you're not careful."
"Thank you for your help," Rose said kindly, stepping on her cousin's toes, hard.
When they'd made it back to the corner of 51st, they all stopped, unsure of where to go next.
"What now?" Al asked, looking around as if the city would provide the answers they sought. "We just wait until dark?"
"We need to find some sort of shelter," Rose said, rubbing her arms for warmth, wishing desperately she could take her wand out and refresh her heating charms, but aware that there were increasingly more and more Muggles wandering the streets at this time who would certainly see her.
"The magical district is not far from here," Eloise shrugged, her words coming out in cold clouds of air in front of her face. "We could get a room?"
The others nodded in assent, too chilled to argue.
"Follow me," Eloise said, turning and heading the opposite of the way they'd come.
They'd been walking fifteen minutes or so in the cold when the skyscrapers had begun to clear again, giving way to shorter, older looking buildings. Some were painted quirky colours, looking as if they were made of children's sweets against the sugary coating of fresh fallen snow. Cheery wreaths of pine and holly were hung from doorways and lamp posts, held together with twine and ribbons. Somebody had strung up fairy lights across a storefront that still twinkled in the early morning dim, and various bike messengers weaves through the streets, taking care not to skid on the ice-covered ground. The effect of it all was rather magical, Rose thought.
"What is this place?" She asked Eloise, who was frowning at a building across the road.
"The East Village," she replied, checking both ways before crossing the street.
They were walking towards a building that advertised both acro-yoga and a cafe with organic plant-based matcha lattes. Rose wasn't entirely sure what either of those things were, but she figured it couldn't be what they were looking for.
Eloise ducked down an alley at the side of the building, glancing over her shoulder quickly to ensure the rest were following her. They came to quite an out-of-place, grand, red Colonial-style door halfway down the length of the brown-brick building, and she whipped her wand out, brandishing it as she tapped the large brass eagle door knocker. The eagle raised its head and spread its wings in an elegant gesture so lifelike that Rose, who had grown up around magic her entire life, needed to peer a bit closer to make sure it wasn't a real bird.
"Americans," Eloise smirked, "...so demonstrative."
"You're French," Al reminded her. "Didn't your country basically define extravagance?"
Eloise smirked, and stepped through the closed door as if it were not there at all.
Glancing quickly at the boys, who shrugged in tandem, Rose rolled her eyes and followed.
What she had been expecting, Rose wasn't sure, but she stepped into a space that was entirely unlike anything she'd imagined. While British witches and wizards had been frequenting places like Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade for years, the American equivalent was somewhat less quaint. Instead, Rose found herself inside what almost looked like a Muggle shopping mall - glass shops lined a gigantic atrium, with separate wings as wide as boulevards branching off in various directions. There were shops here advertising everything from frog spawn to the newest racing brooms, all in bold print and vivid colour. Stores were already publicising Christmas sales and decked with tinsel, and a cafe nearby was producing some of the most incredible coffee smells Rose had ever experienced. Looking upwards, she could see witches and wizards strolling around on floors at least ten levels upwards, like a glass skyscraper with a hollow centre. The upper floors looked to be residential, with colourful washing hanging out to dry, and young children tossing a quaffle back and forth. Where there should have been a ceiling, there looked to be just sky, and yet the falling snow seemed to disappear before it reached any of the floors, and the atmosphere was comfortably warm rather than the chilling temperature outside. In the middle of it all stood a lush green common, with several apple trees dotted around the space.
"Wow," Scorpius breathed from somewhere behind her. "An enchanted ceiling this size must be incredibly difficult to maintain," he whispered to her, a quiet reverence in his voice, "the charm on The Great Hall at Hogwarts needs to be refreshed every year, and this must be fifteen, twenty times the size?"
Rose tore her gaze from the sky to reply that she, too, had read Hogwarts: A History, and already knew this particular factoid, when she saw that Eloise had set off in the direction of a bank of lifts. Putting aside her retort for now, she followed the other girl. Once they'd all piled inside, a warm American voice greeted them.
"What floor?"
"Six, please." Eloise said, checking the directory.
"As you wish," the elevator dinged. They shot up, the glass around them so gossamer thin, Rose experimentally pressed a hand to it to see if it was real or an illusion. A cool, smooth surface met her touch and glimmered slightly where it met her palm. Before she could experiment further, the lift dinged again and opened to another level.
"Please come again, and have a nice day," the elevator wished them as they exited.
This floor was somewhere between commercial and residential, with quiet cafes lining the halls and a bookshop across the way, its bell softly chiming as the owner changed the sign in the door to "open". They hadn't walked far before they were stood before a hotel, the glass pristine and looking into a cosy lobby, the witch sat behind the desk charming a pot of coffee to start brewing. A sign outside the door advertised rooms for various prices.
They all stopped before entering, Al and Scorpius trailing behind a bit and frowning when they saw the rate sheet.
"How much money did we bring?" Al asked, looking worried.
"I've got galleons," Scorpius said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
"American wizarding currency isn't the same as ours, and the exchange rate will be horrific," Rose shook her head. "I had some American notes in my purse left over from the last time my dad visited, but…" she trailed off, embarrassed and feeling frustrated with herself for losing such a valuable asset. If only she'd kept a closer eye on her bag.
"Look, I don't care what the exchange rate is," Scorpius said, after a beat. "We need somewhere to wait until dark, and to sleep tonight, don't we?"
"You're not paying for us all," Rose begun to argue, but was cut off.
"My family's really bloody rich, all right?" He said, rolling his eyes in an attempt to look nonchalant, but going slightly pink. "It's nothing. It's no big deal."
Albus shrugged, clearly satisfied, and Eloise gave a little laugh before pushing open the door to the hotel. Al followed her inside.
"Come on," Scorpius said, holding the door open for her. Begrudgingly, Rose followed the others inside.
"Can I help you?" the American reception witch was young and exceptionally perky - a bit too much so for the time of morning, Rose thought, but she did have a large mug of coffee steaming in front of her, so perhaps it was caffeine-fueled.
"Er, yes," Al said, running his hand through his hair like he always did in front of pretty girls. "We'd like to book a room for the night."
She looked at Albus for a moment before she answered, as if trying to place him. "Just one room? Not two?" The witch asked, a confused little frown crossing her features. "Surely your girlfriends deserve a bit of privacy?" She gestured to Al and Eloise, and then Rose and Scorpius.
"Oh, no - you see, we don't -" Rose started, but was quickly cut off.
"An excellent point," Scorpius said, sliding to the front of the group. "Would you happen to have any suites with two bedrooms?"
Her face lit up as she eyed up Scorpius, and Rose frowned.
"Room number 112 is just great," she enthused, waving her wand and magicking up a silver key. "I'm sure it will suit all of your needs, sir."
"Brilliant," Scorpius said, smiling back. "We'll take it."
"What was that about?" Rose demanded, as soon as the bellboy had left and the four of them were alone in their suite.
"Al's Dad is still incredibly well-known internationally," Scorpius sighed, dropping his rucksack onto a squashy-looking sofa and sinking into it. "Albus looks just like him - it's better if we pose as holiday seekers while we're abroad unless we want to get recognised and have our parents dragging us back home."
"Hmmmph" Rose said, crossing her arms and dropping onto the armchair opposite, because his logic was sound and she couldn't argue further.
"I know it's not ideal, but we'll need to pose as couples on holiday." he said, kicking off his shoes and placing them neatly beside the sofa while Al sat beside him and practically flung his own trainers across the room. "Obviously Al and Rose are related, so it makes the most sense that Al and Eloise couple up, and Rose and I do as well." The four of them were silent at this.
"Yes, this is fine." Eloise finally said, moving towards the kettle in the corner of the room to make tea.
"Al?" Scorpius asked, turning to his best mate, who grunted in return, watching Eloise out of the corner of his eye.
"So what's the plan now?" Rose asked, before Scorpius could ask her how she felt about pretending to be his girlfriend. She begun to wind her wild curls into a topknot, just for something to do.
"Well, I'm exhausted," Al announced, yawning, as if to prove his point. He checked his wristwatch. "It's only just gone nine now, and as we don't have anything to do before we try to find our hobo friend in the park tonight, I'm having a nap."
"Great," said Scorpius, who had retrieved his wand from his rucksack and had performed security spells around the room quickly. "I landed in a bit of mud in the park, so I'm going to freshen up a bit."
Al headed off into one of the bedrooms, and Scorpius in the opposite direction, to where Rose could see a grand lavatory beyond an ornate door.
When they'd gone, Eloise turned to Rose, handing her a mug of tea, which she accepted gratefully. The two of them dipped their drinks in silence.
"I may have a rest, too." Eloise said, after a minute. "We should discuss sleeping arrangements, non?"
"Oh, of course," Rose said, colouring for some reason, "if you'd like to share with Scorpius, I'm happy to bunk with Al."
Eloise looked at her oddly. "Share with Scorpius?" She asked, her porcelain features traced with confusion.
"I mean," Rose started, flustered, "aren't you… you know…"
Eloise laughed, shaking her head. "It's not that kind of engagement," she said.
What did that even mean?
"Look, shall we share a room?" Eloise asked politely, still smiling at Rose. "For modesty's sake, of course?"
"Oh, er, sure," she replied.
"Magnifique," she said, still beaming at Rose.
"Right," Rose forced herself to smile back. "Magnifique."
A/N: Yes, hello, sorry, I'm back - I promise. I'm just editing the next chapter at the moment, and should hopefully be uploading shortly. I'm looking to get into a better rhythm of writing in the New Year, and now that things have quieted down a bit with work and real life, this should start to get a bit easier! Thanks so much for sticking with me :)