A/N: I know. I know. It's been fucking aaaaaaages but I've recently started re-reading the HP series again and now I'm all inspired and shit.
-.-.-
Seventh Year, Part II
-.-.-
Scorpius is done.
No, really. He is so over this. He's over pining over some girl that's always going to make him a second choice. He's over letting Rose walk all over him just because she thinks she can. He's over having his thoughts revolve around Rose all the time.
It's been a little more than three years since Scorpius has been dealing with this bullshit, and seriously, he's bloody exhausted.
(Seriously, there's got to be a way out. People fall out of love all the time, right?)
It's like he's trapped in this eternal limbo of wishing and wanting and he fully realizes just how futile it is but he can't escape.
After Scorpius leaves Rose at the Black Lake, he skips his next Potions lesson and spends it holed up in his dorm, lying spread-eagled on his bed and staring at the ceiling.
This is the last time. The last time he's ever going to let himself feel this disgustingly sorry for himself.
(Or at least, he hopes it's the last time.)
Just let her be happy, Scorpius thinks dully.
-.-.-
Later that night, once the last person in the Slytherin common room goes up to bed, Albus immediately slams his quill down and glares at Scorpius from his armchair.
"Well?" he demands.
Scorpius pauses in the middle of scratching out his Charms essay. "What?"
Albus leans back and crosses his arms. "Maaaaate."
He's beginning to feel genuinely flummoxed. Albus is looking at him like Scorpius just personally insulted him. "What're we talking about?"
"You know. You've been acting weird all day. You missed Potions. Something must've happened. Please don't tell me you and Toby are pissed each other off again. It's hard enough being friends with two people who won't even acknowledge each other when they're in the same bloody room."
Not for the first time, Scorpius feels a stab of guilt about the awkward position he's put Albus in. "Al, I'm really sorry about that—"
"I know you're sorry," Albus cuts through. "I just—I just don't get it. I know there's something else going on that you're not letting me in on. For the past few months—well, you haven't been yourself, Scor. I mean, you show up for lessons and games and practices but it's like you're not really there. You've…" he shrugs a little as he searches for the right word. "You've disappeared a little, you know?"
Albus' observations jolt him a little. He realizes that in addition to being a disgusting lovesick puppy he's also been a terrible friend. For the first time in a long time, Scorpius finds he doesn't know what to say.
"Look, I know you're kind of a private bloke and all but seeing as we're best mates I think I deserve to know what's going on."
Silence falls as Scorpius contemplates the truth of what Albus just said. He supposes Albus' outburst would've happened sooner or later, though he's surprised Albus managed to keep it in for that long.
"Okay. So here's the truth," Scorpius palms his face. "I don't know any other way to put this but… I sort of—like Rose. Or I used to. I don't know. But… yeah."
(It's still ridiculously difficult for him to admit it.)
Albus sits there for a moment, looking at him blankly. "You like Rose?"
"Basically."
"Rose? As in… Rose Weasley? Our Rose?"
"Do we know any other Rose?" Scorpius says dryly.
"So those times you kissed her... they actually meant something?"
"I guess."
There's another long stretch of silence. Then, Albus abruptly picks up a velvet pillow and lobs it at Scorpius as hard as he can.
"Why the fuck does nobody tell me anything here?"
Before he can stop himself, Scorpius bursts into laughter at the sight of Albus' outraged expression. Albus leaps over and starts pummelling Scorpius. "Never—do—that—to-me—again—" Albus grunts with every blow that lands. Scorpius quickly uses the pillow to defend himself.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he wheezes out in between guffaws.
"Sorry—my—arse!" Albus deals Scorpius one last blow. "I want to know everything. Give me every last detail."
So he does. Scorpius tries not to leave anything out, even if it all began three years ago (Merlin, three years). It's the first time he's told anybody the full story and in the beginning the words are tough to get out. Strangely enough, the longer he talks, the better he feels. It almost feels therapeutic, in a way. Scorpius tells him all about his falling out with Toby, about Rose telling him to stay away from her, about the constant jealousy.
(He should've done this way earlier.)
Scorpius caps off his story with what happened earlier today at the Black Lake. "So… she picked Toby over me. And that's pretty much it."
Albus gapes at him open mouthed. "What d'you mean that's pretty much it?"
"There's nothing else. It's over with. The end."
Albus pushes his glasses back, visibly struggling to process everything. "This is some intense shit."
"Yeah."
"So… what do you do now?"
Scorpius gives a wry laugh. "There's nothing I can do. I'll just forget about it. Shouldn't be too difficult."
"I'm gonna talk to Rose about this—"
"Don't!" Scorpius says quickly. "I don't want any more trouble. She—she already made it clear enough that she doesn't want anything more to do with me. It's best to just... let it die down."
Albus contemplates this silently. "Alright. Fine. I'll do whatever you want me to do. But, Scor, next time just tell me, right?"
Scorpius grins (it's the first genuine grin he's had in ages). "I promise."
-.-.-
When Scorpius goes up to bed later that night, he makes sure everybody in his dormitory is asleep before carefully lifting up the lid of his trunk and fishing out Rose's I miss you letter. It's neatly folded into eighths and tucked safely under a pile of his schoolbooks.
Scorpius smoothes the paper out and studies Rose's curly script, twirling his wand slowly in his fingers.
Then, he sets it on his bedside table and whispers: "Incendio."
The letter goes up in a quick burst of purple flames. All that's left seconds later is a tiny pile of ash. He dusts the ash off his bedside table and finally falls asleep after hours of tossing and turning.
-.-.-
For the next couple of weeks, Scorpius puts everything he has into his schoolwork and Quidditch in an effort to distract himself from Rose. Whenever he has joint classes with Gryffindor he carefully makes sure he never so much as says a single word to her. If there's a party that he knows she's going to, Scorpius just doesn't show up. Rose seems to be returning his cold shoulder by basically acting like he doesn't exist either.
Though sometimes, out of the corner of his eye, Scorpius thinks he catches Rose watching him in classrooms or across the Great Hall.
(Most likely just his imagination.)
-.-.-
Before he even knows it, December arrives and Hogwarts lets out for Christmas break. He spends most of it at the Malfoy Manor but on Christmas Eve the Malfoys—both his parents included—are invited to a massive dinner party at the Burrow.
(He completely expects his father to kick up a small fuss when he shows them the invite but to Scorpius' surprise he hardly even says anything.)
They Apparate onto Ottery St. Catchpole sometime in the evening and the first thing that comes out of Scorpius' mouth is: "Holy shit."
Someone had apparently decided that draping the Burrow with thousands and thousands of multi-coloured Christmas lights was an excellent idea. Even from afar, the entire house glows like a beacon in the dimming sunlight. All three of them stand there gawping in wonder for a few moments. It's so fucking bright it's almost blinding. Scorpius actually has to shield his eyes a little.
"Weasleys," his father mutters, shaking his head like it explains everything.
(To be fair, it probably does.)
Grandma Molly gives them all enthusiastic hugs when they step through the front door. "Oh, it's so lovely to see you all here!"
The house is completely packed to the brim with people. The usual Potter-Weasley crowd seems to be present—Aunt Ginny shoots a wink from behind the kitchen table and James Potter gives him a quick salute—but there's tons of people there that he's never even laid eyes on.
"I like what you've done with the house," Scorpius says, barely managing to conceal his grin. Grandma Molly beams.
"I just love the colours, don't you? Which reminds me—" she reaches behind her and retrieves three knitted jumpers out of, like, fucking nowhere. "I've knitted one for everybody in every possible shade. Here—" she hands Scorpius a dark forest green jumper. "Astoria, take the fuchsia one and this is yours, Draco."
His father wordlessly accepts a jumper in the most lurid, obnoxious shade of highlighter orange ever.
(This might just be the best day of his life.)
"Ron told me this lovely shade was your favourite colour, Draco, so I hope you like it!"
His father's eyes widen and his head snaps around to scan the crowd. Uncle Ron is standing a few feet away quietly sniggering into his elbow. It takes Scorpius monumental effort not to burst out into laughter himself.
"Go on, put them on!" she looks at them expectantly. Both his mother and Scorpius cheerfully put their jumpers on, while his father just stands there clutching his own with a truly horror-struck expression on his face.
"Oh, come on. It's all part of the festivities! Everybody's wearing one," Scorpius smiles innocently. The older Malfoy looks at him like he wants to wring his neck.
"Is there something wrong?" Grandma Molly frowns, looking a little offended.
"Oh no, no," his father grinds out. Slowly, he removes his cloak and pulls his jumper on. The jumper clashes horribly with his blonde hair. As if things couldn't get any better, there's a gigantic DM in lime green on the front.
(Yeah, definitely the best day of his life.)
-.-.-
He manages to avoid Rose for the entirety of the Christmas party.
It's not that hard, considering the amount of people present. When he sees her familiar coppery head come round the corner—something in his heart still jolts painfully every time he sees her—Scorpius just ducks away and starts talking to any random person that's nearby. Unfortunately, the third time this happens, Scorpius inadvertently strikes up a conversation with Lorcan and Lysander Scamander.
"—so that's why Exploding Snabberwitches should only be approached at exactly two in the morning," Lorcan explains seriously. Lysander bobs his head up and down at rapid speed. "Otherwise they get very aggressive and you could end up with a bad case of the Dabberblimp Blinkies."
"Uh hmm," Scorpius has no fucking idea what they're on about. "I agree completely. We wouldn't want that. Great advice."
"Our mother told us—"
"Listen," Scorpius interrupts as politely as he can the moment he sees that Rose is gone. "I've got to step out for a while but it was—wonderful seeing you two again."
"Watch out for Heliopaths! They always breed faster during Christmas!" Lysander shouts after him as Scorpius hurriedly steps out of the back door onto the veranda. It takes him a moment to realize that he isn't alone.
"Heliopaths, was it?" a lone figure sitting on the front steps giggles.
Scorpius squints in the faint light. He can just about make out a small, slight Weasley girl with a steaming cup of something cradled in her hands.
"Think so. I wasn't really listening, to be honest," he takes a hesitant step forward. "Sorry, am I bothering you? Should I go back in?"
"Not unless you want to learn about Humdingers," the girl pats the empty space beside her. "Come sit for a bit, I don't mind."
So he does. The girl seems vaguely familiar. The hair and light smattering of freckles across her nose are a tell-tale sign. Her jumper has an M on it but it's not giving him any clues. "Which Weasley are you? There's so bloody many I can never keep track."
She shrugs. "It's the first time I've been back at the Burrow since I was like, twelve, so I'm not surprised. My mum's not Grandma Molly's hugest fan. I'm Molly."
Scorpius suddenly recalls a hazy memory of the twelve-year-old version of Molly playing Quidditch with them during one of his earlier summers spent at the Burrow. "Oh! Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey's kid?"
"That's me."
"Wow. I almost forgot you existed."
"Charming."
"Ravenclaw, right?"
"At least you got that right. Sixth-year."
"Huh. So why don't you come over more often?"
"Well…" she shifts in her seat a little and pushes her hair back. "I dunno. My mum and Grandma Molly have never really gotten along, I guess. They're—they're very different people. So I mostly just spend my summers and Christmases over at my other grandparents' place. I'm only here tonight because my dad insisted and my mum caved."
"And here I was thinking that I already knew all of the Weasleys. I'm—"
"Yeah, Scorpius Malfoy. I know," Molly looks amused. "It's hard not to know you in Hogwarts."
"Well, it's tricky to lie low when you're as stunningly good-looking as me, so…"
"Oh, sod off," she laughs and takes a small sip from her mug.
(It's a nice laugh.)
"You should've come over more. I remember you being pretty good at Quidditch, actually. Except for the time when—"
"—when I didn't look where I was flying and went straight into the pond?" Molly supplies. Scorpius starts sniggering at the memory. "So you don't remember my name but you remember that?"
"It was fucking hilarious!"
"You were horrible about it even then," Molly accused. "You and Albus wouldn't let me forget about that for weeks! And to think I actually had a crush on you."
"Everybody does, at some point or another," Scorpius grins broadly, but he can't suppress a small bolt of surprise. It's not a bad feeling.
She does an exaggerated eye roll. "I was twelve. Obviously my infatuation with you blinded me to the fact that you're clearly an arsehole."
"Ouch."
"You'll get over it. You've probably been called worse."
"You already know me so well."
Before she can say anything else, Caitlyn suddenly pops her blonde head through the back door. "Molly! Scor! Come in, Ted's got an announcement."
"Let's go back in," Molly picks herself up. "But it was nice seeing you again anyway," she smiles and gives him a quick hug.
"You too," he returns the smile.
(It's only later on that he realizes his smile was actually sincere.)
-.-.-
Back inside, everybody's already crowded around the fireplace. It's so crammed with people that Scorpius can hardly see so he makes do by balancing precariously on a small stool. Ted is standing right in front of the crackling hearth with a glass of red wine in his hand. Today, his hair is a crackling shade of pillar box red that matches his Weasley jumper to a tee. He clears his throat loudly and the whole room goes silent.
"So. I'm just going to make it short and sweet. Since almost everybody I know and love is here tonight I thought it'd be the perfect time to tell you all that—well—" Teddy reaches out a hand and pulls Victoire over. She's beaming from ear to ear. "—we're getting married."
The whole room collectively pauses for a moment before exploding. Seriously, Scorpius doesn't think he's ever heard this much screaming and whooping before ever in his life, even at the Quidditch games he's played at. Almost everybody surges forward and starts hugging Ted, hugging Vic, hugging everybody. It's total chaos. From across the room, Scorpius can see his mum aww-ing at the scene, and the slightest smile is playing at the corners of his father's mouth. Aunt Fleur literally just bursts into hysterical tears.
(He also sees Rose giving Vic a congratulatory kiss on her cheek, but he lets his gaze slide over like he never saw her at all.)
He finds himself grinning like an idiot. It's impossible not absorb some of the joy and happiness in the room.
-.-.-
The Christmas party starts dying out at around one or two in the morning. People filter out of the Burrow in twos or threes, and after his father's had his last glass of mulled mead the Malfoys also head for home.
Just as Scorpius is about to step out of the door, Rose comes out of nowhere and quickly grabs him by the hand. Her hair is tied into a single messy braid down her back. "Merry Christmas," she says with a small, almost anxious smile and just as abruptly she disappears into the kitchen. He has no time to react, no time to say thank you, Rose or hey, Rose, how've you been or even what the fuck is this about Rose why do you have to keep doing this to me.
"Scorpius?" his mother calls from beyond the front door. Both his parents are already halfway down the hill.
"Coming," he answers loudly, and hastily shuts the door behind him.
-.-.-
For this year's New Year's Eve, Scorpius and a group of other Weasley-Potters go down to the local pub in Ottery St Catchpole to celebrate 2024. By the time its five to midnight, James, Fred and Teddy are bellowing out an acapella version of "Auld Lang Syne", Louis Weasley is already snoring on the countertop, and Dom is kind of swaying by herself on the dance floor.
He can't help himself from noticing, but tonight Toby is nowhere to be seen. Usually it's like Rose-and-Toby are glued together at the hips, but for whatever reason Arlington was mysteriously absent.
(Scorpius isn't complaining.)
"Ten!" someone yells out a countdown. "Nine!"
"Eight!" Vic cries out throatily.
"Seven!"
Everybody starts to crowd around together in anticipation.
"Six! Five!"
Scorpius puts his arms around the two people that are standing nearest to him—Albus and Molly.
"Four! Three!"
He looks around and sees Rose looking up at the clock with a peculiarly miserable look on her face. She's been kind of quiet the whole night but that expression makes him want to go over and ask her what's wrong.
"Two!"
Even if he's pretty bloody sure it was something to do with Toby not being here tonight.
"One!"
(He almost talks to her. Almost.)
-.-.-
"I don't think our compartment's ever been this empty," Albus says, looking thoroughly disheartened.
It's true—usually the Weasley-Potter Hogwarts Express compartment is so full you can hardly scratch your nose without poking somebody in the eye, but this time it was abnormally spacious.
"James, Fred and Dom are gone," Scorpius counts off his fingers. "Louis, Roxie and Hugo got prefect, Rose is Head Girl…"
"This is so depressing," Albus slides open the compartment door and starts looking around expectantly, as though hoping for some distant Weasley cousin to just materialize out of nowhere.
"Speak for yourself," Lily says, stretching out on the upholstery. "I don't think I've been this comfortable on the Hogwarts Express, ever. The compartment's actually pretty big when there's not, you know, thirty people in here."
"Yeah, I kind of forgot the seats were purple," Scorpius adds, kicking up his feet on the opposite seat. "Also, have they always been leather?"
"Ha ha," Albus says sourly. Suddenly, he brightens up. "Hold on!"
He dashes out without any further explanation. Scorpius looks at Lily questioningly. "Don't look at me," she shrugs. "I never know what goes on inside his head."
A few moments later, Albus returns. "Look who I found!" he exclaims triumphantly. A very familiar red haired girl pokes her head round the corner and gives a little wave. "I got Molly!"
"Oh, hey!" Scorpius says, a little startled. He never expected to see her again after their brief meeting at the Christmas party, to be honest.
"What's up with Al?" she asks, perplexed.
"Apparently he misses everybody being here," Lily says.
"Yeah, don't mind him, he's just being emotional," Scorpius chimes in.
"Oh, come on!" Albus throws his arms in the air. "Where's the family love?"
Lily points at Scorpius. "He's not family."
Albus looks supremely put out. "You guys are such downers."
Molly plonks herself down in front of Scorpius. "How come you don't usually sit with us on the train?" Scorpius asks, curious.
"It's just kind of hard to sit when it's always packed. I like to be able to use my wand without having to worry about it going up someone's nose," she explains, crossing her arms. "So I just sit with a couple of other Ravenclaws. But then Albus came barging in out of nowhere and dragged me here. But since there's four of us…" she retrieves a pack of cards from the front of her robes. "Exploding Snap?"
-.-.-
They play five rounds and Scorpius comes off worst in three of them. When he loses the sixth, his deck of cards explodes and singes off both his eyebrows. Unsurprisingly, Albus, Lily and Molly burst into fits of laughter when the smoke clears.
"Oh, shut the fuck up," Scorpius grumbles. "Anyone know how to grow them back?"
"Don't worry, I've got a spell," Molly whips out her wand, tucking her short red hair behind her left ear. "Does anybody have a camera first though—"
"Don't even think about it."
"Fine, fine. So touchy," she grins, and leans over to push his fringe back. She places her fingers under his chin to tilt his head back a little. She comes in pretty close, so close Scorpius catches a whiff of the fruity smell of her shampoo. Just as Molly finishes muttering the incantation, the compartment door slides open.
"I'm finally done with briefing the Prefects—" Rose, of all people, steps through. She pauses mid-sentence as she takes in the scene before her. A peculiar expression crosses over her face. "What's going on?"
Scorpius freezes in place. It's so fucking stupid but he feels like he's been caught in the middle of something he shouldn't be doing. Which is ridiculous, considering nothing was happening anyway and it's not like Rose would give a shit if there was.
(Would she?)
"Hey, Rose," Molly says cheerfully. "Exploding Snap. Scor here lost both his eyebrows."
"Oh," is all Rose says. She glances at Scorpius and quickly looks away again. "Well, erm, I'd better get going," then she shuts the door and vanishes.
Lily raises her eyebrow. "That was odd."
"Really odd," Molly's brow furrows.
Albus shoots him a look so unsubtle Scorpius almost rolls his eyes.
-.-.-
Quidditch practice resumes the next Tuesday. As per usual, it's scheduled at the crack of dawn, even though it's in the middle of January and it's fucking freezing outside. Unfortunately, Toby has this insane theory that somehow the air density in the morning allows for faster, easier flying.
(Scorpius calls total bullshit on that one but whatever, he's the captain.)
The moment Toby walks onto the pitch in his Quidditch robes Scorpius can tell something's off about him. They were, after all—as much as Scorpius hates to admit it—best mates for a long time. To anybody else he would've seemed absolutely normal, but Scorpius can see that he's gritting his teeth and a muscle in a jaw is working.
"Alright team!" Toby yells. "Huddle up! We're going to start off with our regular practice laps around the pitch—I want to make sure no one got rusty over Christmas."
Everyone follows his orders. Just as Scorpius is about to kick off after Albus, Toby abruptly holds a hand out to stop him. There's a bizarre look of abhorrence on Toby's face that Scorpius is kind of taken aback by.
"Malfoy!" he barks loudly. "Remember what I told you about your grip on your broom handle? I told you, left hand over the right! Get it together!"
It's so out of the blue that Scorpius just stands there, incredulous, for a few seconds.
Out of the corner of his eye, he sees other members of the team look at each other in bewilderment. It's the first time Toby's ever really raised his voice at anyone. Usually, he's all smiles and manners.
It takes all of his willpower not to tackle him to the ground there and then. Instead, he reluctantly switches his hands and shoots him a look of absolute loathing. "Yes, captain," he interjects as much sarcasm as possible into the last word and flies off.
(What the fuck is his problem?)
-.-.-
It gets worse.
Normally Toby is already extra nit-picky over everything Scorpius does during Quidditch practice, but today is definitely the worst two hours that he's ever endured. The fact that Scorpius is the only person that Toby is focusing just makes it all the more horrible. In fact, Toby seems to paying no attention to all the other players at all. Albus comes over a few times to say, "Mate, what in Merlin's name is up with you?" but Toby just waves him off and continues to lash out at Scorpius.
The anger inside his chest grows every time Toby opens his big fat ugly gob. By the time practice is almost ending, the anger has evolved into a massive ball of pure, unadulterated rage. But he knows, he just knows that all Toby's looking for is a reaction. It's in Toby's face every time he verbally attacks him; he wants to know that he's getting under his skin. There's no way he's going to let him get what he wants.
(It's also really, really hard to look for a tiny golden ball when someone is flying right beside you, screeching in your ear.)
"Malfoy! I don't think I've ever seen such miserable Seeking!" Toby suddenly appears beside him. Scorpius looks straight ahead and ignores Toby. He's gripping his broom handle so hard his fingers are almost cramping up. "It's an embarrassment! I don't even know why the hell you're still on the team—"
The ball of rage takes over and Scorpius just snaps. He whirls his head around and roars: "Shut the fuck up!"
The moment Scorpius answers, Toby's eyes light up. The both of them touch down onto the pitch and Scorpius is practically boiling over. Toby looks at him triumphantly. "What was that you said there, Malfoy?"
He hates the fact that he's shorter than him, but Scorpius goes right up into Toby's face and repeats, enunciating very carefully: "Shut. The. Fuck. Up."
Having heard the screaming match, several other team members also descend to the pitch and watch with apprehension. Yvonne Belby, a Chaser, takes a step forward. "Look—" she begins, intending to break them up, but is cut off when Toby holds out an authoritative hand to silence her.
"I'm captain," Toby says calmly, pointing to his robes. "And as captain, I believe I have the right to correct your appalling flying skills—"
"Just kick me off then!" Scorpius shouts, seeing red. At this point he honestly can't be fucked anymore. "Kick me off! I don't know what the bloody hell's stopping you! What, you want to keep me around just so you can keep screaming at me? Huh? Does it make you feel big?"
Toby rolls his eyes as if to say oh wow isn't Scorpius being so difficult right now, guys? and smiles generously at Scorpius. He didn't think it was possible to feel even more furious than he already was, but a fresh wave of anger flares through him.
Albus suddenly swoops by, jumps off his broom and quickly steps in between the two of them. "Oy," he says worriedly. "Just calm down, the two of you—"
Scorpius side-steps Albus. "What, does it make you feel better about yourself? You think yelling at me will make Rose love you more? Is that it? Get the fuck over yourself, I kissed her two fucking years ago—"
He never gets to finish his sentence. Toby's eyes suddenly blaze with fury and his fist comes flying in. Before Scorpius knows it, he's lying on his back on the freezing cold ground, looking up at the sky. The pain barely registers before Toby's on top of him, pummelling every square inch of skin that he can find.
"Don't you talk about Rose!" Toby bellows. "Don't—you—talk—about—her—"
Dimly, Scorpius can hear the rest of team screaming and shouting in horror. He manages to blindly land a few blows of his own before he feels Toby's heavy mass being pulled off of him. The pain is so severe he can't even cry out in agony. He just lays there, concentrating on not passing out. Just breathing is already a struggle so Scorpius is pretty much sure his nose his broken.
Albus' face floats above his. Scorpius blinks what feels like blood out of his eyes. "Scor, we're going to get you to the Hospital Wing, right? Just hang on, mate, hang on."
Right on cue, everything goes black.
-.-.-
He wakes up abruptly in a hospital bed.
It takes a while for him to remember what got him here in the first place. When he does recall, he just lays there laughing wryly to himself for a bit because the whole thing was just stupid. Definitely not a good idea for him to fly off the handle like that — he'd be paying for that for a while.
(Also, Toby might just be fucking mental.)
He has no idea what time it is, but he can see moonlight shining through the windows. The hospital is filled with the gentle sound of other snores. He manages to pull himself up in his bed with some difficulty. One of his eyes is bandaged over and there are strips of cloth wrapped around his lower face. Broken jaw. Toby's a complete psychopath but he did admittedly do a fairly good job of fucking Scorpius' face up.
His vision is still slightly blurry so he can only sort of make out the Hospital Wing in the dark. He turns to his right and immediately realizes Rose is curled up into a chair right next to his bed, fast asleep. There's enough moonlight filtering through the windows to illuminate half of her face.
For a moment Scorpius allows himself to feel all the misery and heartache that he's been keeping inside for the past few months, maybe even years. She's just so fucking beautiful. Even if there are dark circles under her eyes and her hair looks a complete mess. How is it possible to have so many feelings for somebody that will never feel the same way?
He watches her breathe for a moment while sitting there mulling over whether or not he should wake her up. Of course he wants to talk to her, but he's been doing such a good job of avoiding Rose lately that he would hate to break that streak. After an hour of just sitting there and sifting through the reeling thoughts in his brain, he decides to go to sleep.
(It's for his own good.)
-.-.-
Rose is gone in the morning.
That's the first thing he notices when opens his eyes. The next thing he notices is that all his facial bandages have disappeared. He lifts a finger to gingerly prod his cheek. It's still a little sore but nothing he can't handle.
"Wow. You look hideous," someone to his left observes. Scorpius groggily turns and sees Molly Weasley laying down casually in the bed next to his.
"Eh?" he manages.
"When they brought you in yesterday I didn't get a proper look at your face but—" she whistles appreciatively. "Toby really messed you up."
"Mirror," he grunts. Smiling, Molly reaches over passes him a small handheld mirror from her bedside table. Scorpius holds it up and braces himself. Almost every square inch of his face is bruised. His nose, obviously magically repaired, is ever so slightly crooked. His right eye is still a little swollen. All in all, not too bad.
"You bled all over your Quidditch things," Molly points at a neatly-folded pile of robes on the edge of his bed. "Madam Pomfrey cleaned those for you, no worries. Oh, speak of the devil."
Madam Pomfrey comes bustling over with a bottle of something in her hands. "Morning, Malfoy! Feeling all better this morning?"
"Yeah," Scorpius shrugs, wincing as the action sends a lance of pain through his body. Madam Pomfrey doesn't miss any of it.
"Ah, you're still feeling sore, then? Don't worry, that'll pass in a few more hours or so. In the mean time," the grey-haired matron carefully measures out a glass of the liquid from the bottle. It was an unremarkable shade of milky white. "Drink this. You lost three of your teeth and this'll grow them back nicely."
"Ooh, that stuff's foul," Molly comments from her bed. "I had to drink NeuTeeth once, too."
"Oh, nonsense, it tastes just like pumpkin juice—"
Scorpius starts choking as soon as the potion hits his tongue. Foul was an understatement. The potion burns all the way down his throat. It's so incredibly uncomfortable, Scorpius starts to cough so violently his whole body is bent double.
"Excellent," Madam Pomfrey removes the glass from his hand. "Give it a day, your teeth will be back by then. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go tend to some other students."
Even as Madam Pomfrey is walking away, Scorpius still feels like he's going to hack up a kidney. Eventually the coughing fit abates and he lies back down on his bed, exhausted.
"Nasty, isn't it?" Molly says conversationally.
"Worst thing I've ever tasted," Scorpius replies hoarsely.
"I heard about what happened," Molly flips through an old, tattered copy of Teen Witch. "Couldn't believe it at first. Toby Arlington, of all people. Head Boy."
"Yeah, well, you better fucking believe it."
"Xavier Zabini, the Chaser, told me everything," she says in a hushed voice. She abandons Teen Witch. "Apparently Toby was slagging you off the whole practice and then he just flipped. No reason why. Laid into you like you were a slab of meat. Not pretty. Toby didn't come out of it too well, either. He left a few hours ago but he had to fix a broken nose, too."
Scorpius snorts a little. "I don't even know why, either. The whole time he was in a mood. Never asked. But whatever, at least I laid a few on him. Been waiting for ages to clobber Arlington, anyway."
Molly laughs a little. "He seems like he's gone off his rocker a little, hasn't he?"
"No shit."
Even so, thinking back, Scorpius is still baffled by what happened. Toby just wasn't the kind of person that flew off his handle like that. It seemed like Scorpius had done something to massively piss him off but he had barely even spoken to either Rose or Toby for the past few months. He racks his brains for the next few minutes, trying to remember anything that he might've said or done that could've possibly induced that much rage.
(He comes up totally blank.)
The whole thing just seems so incredibly out of character he briefly considers the possibility that Toby might have been Imperiused. Now that would actually make a lot more sense.
"So what're you in here for?" Scorpius asks Molly curiously.
"Oh," she waves a hand. "Botched a Jelly-Legs Jinx during Defence of the Dark Arts. Turns out I accidentally removed my femur and now I'm stuck here waiting for it to grow back. Should be any day now," she uses her wand to prod her upper leg.
"Rough. How long have you already been here?"
"Two days and counting. I'm so bored. Which is why I'm so happy you're stuck in here too!" Molly says gleefully. "Now I have a chess partner!" she pulls out a small chess set.
Scorpius instantly groans. "That's not fair. You guys have Uncle Ron to teach you how to play chess, of course you're going to beat me."
"You have no choice," Molly beams angelically. "You literally can't run away. So, do you want to be black or white?"
-.-.-
They play four games (all of which Scorpius loses spectacularly) before Albus and Caitlyn come walking into the Hospital Wing. Both of them look extremely anxious.
"Al!" Scorpius greets, grinning. It's been almost two days since he last saw him.
"You're finally conscious!" Albus reaches over to give him a thump on his back, and quickly apologises when Scorpius lets out a groan of pain.
"Oh, but your face looks terrible," Caitlyn peers closely at his bruises, being her usual concerned, motherly self.
"So I've been told," he looks over at Molly and gives her a little amused wink. She winks back, chuckling. "I'm fine, Madame Pomfrey says I'll be out soon."
"They came over yesterday but you were still out cold," Molly explains. Albus nods. "Couldn't get you to wake up. How's the femur growing, by the way, Moll?"
"It's coming along nicely."
"Good, good…" Albus says vaguely. He suddenly leans in, a troubled expression on his face. "Listen. About what happened that day…"
Scorpius shrugs again (ouch). "No idea, mate. Literally came out of nowhere. Never saw it coming."
Albus' brow furrows. "I swear I didn't do anything to him—" Scorpius begins defensively.
"No, no, I believe you," Albus quickly interjects. "I've been thinking about it a lot."
"We don't understand how that happened," Caitlyn adds. "You two know as well as I do that's definitely not normal for Toby. And seeing how he wasn't even provoked in the first place…" she trails off.
"It's been pretty serious, you know," Albus says heavily. "Toby's lost Head Boy and his Quidditch captaincy is suspended indefinitely."
It takes Scorpius a while to process this. "Whoa," is all he can say. He's past the point where he feels sorry for Toby because, you know, he fucking punched him first and Scorpius didn't do shit. He kind of deserves it. Still, he can understand the gravity of just happened to him.
"Yeah. 'Whoa' just about sums it up," Caitlyn leans her elbows on his bed. "We've been trying to talk to him but he refuses to say anything."
"So we were just wondering if you knew," Albus rubs his chin and runs his hand through his messy black hair. "But since even you don't… I guess no one knows. But anyway, we've got to get back to class soon. Lunch ends in ten minutes." Albus tosses both Molly and Scorpius a slightly squashed ham sandwich. "Hospital food's the worst. Don't let Madam Pomfrey see. I tried sneaking in a whole roast chicken once for James. Needless to say, it didn't work out too well."
Scorpius hungrily rips into his sandwich. "I love you."
"By the way, Scor," Albus pops his head around the corner just as he's walking out. "Detention for two weeks from McGonagall."
(Great. Just what he needed.)
-.-.-
He spends the rest of his day playing endless games of chess before eventually even Molly gets tired of the game. Then, they moves on to Hangman. After that, she pulls out a few Gobstones from her robe pockets. When they run out of games to play, they just lie there chatting for an hour or so.
Molly turns out to be surprisingly easy to talk to. She seems to be constantly peppy and enthusiastic about practically everything. Scorpius doesn't really see Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey around, so he's a little curious about her family. Molly happily fills him in on everything, accompanied with a couple of anecdotes. Also, she's kind of a funny girl. Scorpius doesn't expect to but she makes him laugh out loud a couple of times. Especially when she does an excellent impression of her dad warbling "A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love" by Celestina Warbeck.
(His jaw is still sore from the teeth re-growing so talking is kind of a chore at first but as the time passes he stops noticing the pain.)
-.-.-
When Molly falls asleep, Scorpius quickly seizes the opportunity to beckon Madam Pomfrey over. After she checks on the progress of his teeth, he asks her, "Did I get any visitors last night?"
"Oh, yes, one," Madam Pomfrey busily smoothes down his bed covers. "Rose Weasley. She stayed overnight. Really, it's against the rules for anybody to stay overnight but she absolutely insisted. I told her you were unconscious and it was pointless but she wouldn't listen. The girl seemed quite close to tears as well so I just gave in," she clicks her tongue disapprovingly. "A friend of yours?"
(He realizes he doesn't know what the right answer to that question is.)
"Yeah. Yeah, sort of."
-.-.-
Scorpius gets discharged before Molly. The next morning when Madam Pomfrey does a thorough check of his oral cavity, she pronounces his teeth perfectly fine and fully grown.
"One more day for me," Molly moans, crossing her arms. "I swear I'm going to go stir-crazy in here."
"You'll be fine," Scorpius grins. He shrugs his school robes on and runs his fingers through his white-blond hair. "Merlin, it feels good to be able to stand again. How's the face?"
"Eh, you're not too bad," she cocks her head to the side. "Sorry, seems you've lost some of those stunningly good looks of yours."
Scorpius does an exaggerated hair flip. "Darling, they were never gone."
Molly laughs out loud. "Alright, take care in the outside world. I'll join you soon."
Scorpius gathers all his things and ruffles her hair a little. "Patience. You'll be out tomorrow. I'll see you, Moll."
He starts to walk out of the Hospital Wing but stops when Molly calls out his name.
"So when're you going to ask me out?" she asks.
For a moment Scorpius is too surprised to say anything. Of course he likes Molly. He likes Molly just fine. He's just never even considered the prospect of going out with her.
(There's also the fact that he's kind of, sort of in love with some other redhead.)
The logical thing would be to let Molly down gently, and tell her that he just isn't interested. And yet… why not? They get along together just fine. Bloody hell, he's had girlfriends that he liked less than Molly Weasley. And—well—it's not like the Rose thing is going anywhere.
"Three Broomsticks, next Hogsmeade weekend?" he finds himself saying.
"Perfect," Molly gives him a wide smile and turns back to her Teen Witch. Her behavior is totally casual but she starts blushing wildly.
(He's smiling too as he leaves the Hospital Wing.)
-.-.-
A/N: Part III soon!