-Almost twenty-five years after the end of the Second Wizarding War, Kingsley Shacklebolt's resignation as Ministry for Magic triggers a series of dangerous attacks that will entangle the lives of Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy in the most unexpected ways.-
Although the story that follows features many characters, some places and a few spells of my own invention, I do not own Harry Potter or JK Rowling's wizarding world (if only).
I truly hope you enjoy this story as much as I enjoy writing it, and that you feel encouraged to leave a few reviews.
CHAPTER TWO.
THE ALIBI
They made her wait for what seemed like hours, even though she knew it couldn't have been more than minutes.
Rose's body still trembled, shaken by the giant explosion that had, she later would found out, ripped apart the stone floor and walls of the room. Several people had been hurt too, and as someone she could not recall moved her out of the way, she had heard two mediwitches talking about too many broken bones.
Whoever had cast the spell, though, had clearly escaped, she mused as she took a tentative sip of the cup of tea Miss Turpin had placed in her hands at some point, otherwise she would not be seated in the auror's office, waiting to be asked some questions.
Miss Turpin was the Defense Department's secretary. She had been a Ravenclaw and grown up in a town in the middle of nowhere, Wales (her words, not Rose's). She had the ability to shut up morons with a look; and if Rose had had to bet, she would have said that she knew how to maim them too.
Turpin had been the one who had made her sit on one of the office's chairs and explained the aurors wanted to talk to everyone who had not been badly injured, just in case. Rose assumed 'the aurors' to mean 'your Uncle Harry', and 'to talk' to mean 'to make sure you are okay'. But as if she could read her thoughts, Miss Turpin had shaken her head slowly.
"You can't be questioned by one of your relatives, Rose", she said, "That's the rule".
But then, she had sent Auror McCallan (who was rumored to be ruthless with all of his cases) away and given her a chocolate frog, like she used to do when Rose was a little girl and her father still worked with Uncle Harry and she waited for him in the hall with all the secretaries.
"Miss Weasley" a new female voice said from behind her "I'm ready for you now".
The voice belonged to Auror Susan Bones, who smiled kindly at Rose when she entered her office and took a sit in front of her. She tried to smile back, but was too nervous to do it properly. That Susan Bones was leading the questioning meant that the aurors had taken out the, as her brother Hugo would call them, big guns.
Bones had been named Deputy Head of the Auror Division as soon as Ron Weasley had left the post, and if Rose thought Miss Turpin knew how to maim someone, she was absolutely sure Susan Circe Bones-Mcmillan (and she only knew her full name because there was a plaque over her desk that read it) could do it in ten seconds flat.
The auror was quite small-sized, and quite pretty, and Rose had the feeling she had been getting this looks during her whole career, the "you are not a threat" and "don't cry when you break a fingernail" and "Who knows what that bimbo did to get in charge" looks.
Which was pathetic, because Susan Bones was tough as nails. And she may have been called the Deputy Head, but as far as Rosie knew, she ruled the office.
"Miss Weasley, as you might realize you are off-age, so there's no need any kind of parental permission to proceed with the questioning. We request to see your wand, but you have a right to know you are not here as a suspect, but as a witness" she said, voice flat but not unkind, "Shall we proceed?".
Rose, who had been too nervous to listen, blurted out the only thing she was capable of thinking. "Is my family alright?".
"Yes they are", said Auror Bones calmly, "They are considered witnesses, just like you. And none of them were in need to be sent to Saint Mungo's. I believe your cousin Lucy needed to get a broken bone fixed, and so did your Aunt Angelina. They are both perfectly fine".
Rose could feel her whole body relaxing upon hearing the news. Her lungs seemed to remember how to work properly. And so did her brain.
"I'm sorry" she said after a couple of minutes, and she really meant it, "I can't recall anything about the attack. Just that the voice was clearly feminine".
"Nothing unusual?" Auror Bones insisted, "Nothing that got your attention or surprised you?".
Malfoy knew what was going to happen before it did.
She tried to dismiss the thought as soon as it came, but, of course, it refused to leave. She knew he couldn't have been the one to use the curse, he had been right behind her and whoever had produced the attack had been a woman. And yet, Scorpius Malfoy had warned her to take cover right before the explosion. Because he had known what the mysterious spell would do.
But still, there was a voice inside her head (that sounded suspiciously like her mum's) telling her that she was being paranoid.
"Miss Weasley?" asked Auror Bones, looking at her suspiciously.
"Nothing" Rose repeated, staring directly at her and keeping her face carefuly blank, "Nothing at all".
For a second, she thought Bones would not believe her, but then she sighed and nodded to the quill on her desk, that promptly wrote Rose's declaration on a piece of official preachment.
"Very well" she said "I believe your family is waiting for you outside now. I need to see your wand, and then you are free to join them".
Rose handed her wand over. It was strange to see another witch holding it.
"Prior Incantato" , Bones spoke softly, and a soft white light erupted from the wand. Rose had had to use the Lumos spell just that morning, when she had been unable to locate her dress robes inside her closet.
"Last spell produced: Lumos", the older witch said to her quill. To Rose she added, "What is your wand made of?".
"Cedar and dragon's heartstring, fourteen inches", Rose recited like a well-learned lesson.
Auror Bones smiled at her, handing her the wand back and getting her own from her robes.
"I am also a cedar witch myself" she explained with a flourish, "Strength of character and unusual loyalty".
Rose blushed, "So Ollivander says".
"Very well, if you remember anything that might help, even if it's the most ridiculous thing…" a knock on the door interrupted her, and she shot Rose an apology glance, "Come in".
Miss Turpin's head appeared on the doorway, she winked and Rose before addressing her boss with a perfectly professional tone, "Auror Bones, Mr. Weasley is here for Rose".
"Very well", Susan Bones stood up, motioning for Rose todo the same, "I need to speak with him for a second".
When she opened the door, Rose practically threw herself into his father's arms.
Tall and freckled, Ronald Weasley hadn't changed much since the day he had resigned as an Auror, two decades ago. And yet, he couldn't help but realize, as he held his daughter, he was a completely different person.
"Dad" , Rose's voice came out muffled against her father's jersey, and he let her take a step back, "Where's Hugo?, and mum?".
Her dad seemed to have aged in the last two hours, and his eyes kept scanning every corner as if expecting a threat to jump from the shadows. Still, he managed to smile at her, a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, "They are fine. Everything is fine".
Everything was very obviously not fine, but Rose decided to keep her mouth shut, "What about everyone else?".
"Everyone is okay. They had to come back to work. Teddy and Jamie got called in as soon as it happened".
Rose shook her head, "James was not working today".
"He is now. They want everyone from Law Enforcement here, even aurors in training. I left Hugo in The Burrow, Al and Lily are also staying there", he looked at her, "And so are you".
Rose nodded, and she could see her father visibly relaxed. For the first time, he looked past his daughter and addressed the woman standing right behind her, "Susan, glad you are okay".
"You too" Auror Bones answered, straightening her back, an old habit, Rose guessed, from when Ron had been her boss. "I wanted to ask, is your wife working?".
"She's with Harry and the new Hit Wizards' guy", he confirmed. The fact didn't surprise Rose, if anyone was needed at the Ministry today, it was her mum, who had been the Head of the Department of Law Enforcement for eight years.
"That's not good" Auror Bones said, and taking a quick glance at Rose, she dropped her voice, "We needed her here right now".
Rose pretended to be suddenly interested in the wall in front of her, where several faces of well-known criminals stared back at her. Her dad answered in the same quiet tone Bones had used, and if Rose had not been trying so hard to listen, she would have missed it. "What is going on?".
"Everyone agrees it was a woman, because of her voice. Other than that…" , again, the worried glance in Rose's direction. This time, even her father understood.
"Rosie, why don't you…?", he trailed of.
Rose nodded and smiled at them, "I'll go to the bathroom".
Her father sent her a grateful look, and it made her feel almost guilt when she rounded the corner and, instead of keeping walking, crouched down and tried to listen. After all, she reasoned, she had been attacked too, and she had a right to know why.
"We've got nothing other that the curse used was deeply ancient Dark Magic" , Auror Bones' voice barely reached her, "We learned about it in the D.A., back in seventh year, when we were preparing for The War. But we believed it was meant to do a lot more".
"More?" out of the corner of her eye, Rose could see the disbelieving expression on his dad's face, "The explosion sent almost eighty people to the hospital".
"No one died thought. Back then, we were under the impression it was meant to kill, something like the Sectumsempra".
Rose felt a pang of terror. The mere thought of Dark Magic made her feel uneasy. Every witch and wizard knew it existed, of course, but her generation had been raised up thinking about it like something distant, belonging to the past and their parents' stories of youth. Never to bee seen again after Voldemort's defeat.
Something you should be afraid of.
Auror Bones continued in a quiet tone, "We are interrogating everyone who might be connected to the dark arts. This is not a curse you can just find without meaning to. It's too ancient. Too powerful to just try it. Not even the Death Eaters used it, and only a couple of extremely old manuscripts mention it".
"Connected to the dark arts?", Rose's dad frowned, a worried look crossing his face.
"Death Eaters relatives", Auror Bones replied bluntly, her own voice sounded troubled, "Everyone of them that attended the meeting".
"And are you really expecting to find something there, Susan?".
She seemed to deflate at the use of her first name, sounding suddenly smaller and younger all at once, "We can't arrest them for more than twelve hours without proof. But they are the main suspects", she replied even more quietly, "That's why I wanted Hermione here, if she clears us out we can move forward to investigate the curse and stop pretending we're getting something out of these people".
Ron sighed, rubbing his temples. "Who are you interrogating?".
"Rookwood's son. The Rosier brothers and their families. Goyle", she paused and made the same face Rose's mum did every time she pronounced the name, "And Malfoy".
"Draco Malfoy was not there" Ron said, with all the authority of someone who had spent most of his life avoiding being in the same room as the other man whenever possible.
"His son was" Bones replied, "He came with some friends, but apparently got bored halfway and wandered off. Nobody can tell where he was when the attack happened, so we can't let him go despite the fact that he's a kid and we know he didn't do it".
Rose felt her stomach clench uncomfortably. There was one person who could give Malfoy a credible alibi, who knew with absolute certainty where he had been when he "wandered off". And that person was her.
She didn't own Malfoy a thing, she pondered. And maybe he had tried to warn her before the explosion, but that only meant a time with the aurors would be good, just in case he could tell them something. Besides, it was not like she could assure he was not involved, she had spent the last six years of her life knowing about, but not actually knowing, him.
Rose sighed in defeat, getting on her feet. She could debate with herself for hours, but in the end she knew what the result would be. She was not able to simply leave and let a boy spent the whole night being interrogated when she could stop it, even if that boy was Scorpius Malfoy.
xxx
The ruckus outside the room caused the auror to sprang to his feet and take his wand out with an astonishing speed for a man so big.
Scorpius' hand itched to do the same, but his wand had been "withdrawn for safety measures", which was just a fancy way of saying they didn't trust him not to try to hex them all and make a run for it.
The voices got closer, and suddenly the door burst open. Scorpius had been fully expected to be attacked, and, judging by the way he had deflected his wand at the very last second to avoid hitting the person on the doorway with his spell, so had the auror. The bolt of light collided against the wall at the exact same time the man let out a long string of colorful expletives. Scorpius could not have expressed it better. Because standing on the doorway, looking flushed and out of breath, was no other than Rose Granger-Weasley.
"Hi", she said, when it became clear neither of the men in the room were going to talk first.
Scorpius blinked at her, half convinced she wasn't real. When she didn't disappear, he said the only thing that came to his mind, "Hi".
A man and a petite woman appeared on the doorway, both wearing identical disbelieving expressions as they stared at the girl in front of them. The woman, who had the words Deputy Head of Auror Office embroidered on her black tunic, spoke first, "Miss Weasley, this is an investigation on course. No one can enter the interrogatory rooms".
Scorpius got the feeling she wanted to say more, but the man seemed to have recovered from his shock and spoke first, expressing Scorpius' thoughts with alarming accuracy, "Rosie, what the hell are you doing?".
The girl flinched.
Even if Ron Weasley's face didn't appear continuously in the newspapers, Scorpius would have known he was Rose's father.
In addition to his height and the bright blue eyes, he seemed to have passed to her the most Weasley-looking traits. The hair colour (although Rose's curls made hers look even more red), the pale skin completely covered with freckles and even the form of his nose, that somehow looked too long on his face but seemed to agree perfectly with his daughter's features.
"Malfoy was with me when the attack happened", she blurted out "Well, not with me, but by my side. Which I guess is the same really, still an alibi, isn't it?".
While everyone stared at her open-mouthed, Scorpius felt a wave of gratitude and surprise. He had never imagined Rose Weasley, of all people, would stick up for him. Then again, he mused, he didn't know Rose Weasley at all.
It had been his father advice, back when he was standing on Platform 9 and ¾ for the first time, dizzy and suddenly nervous about the way people kept staring in his family's direction, even though he had spent his eleven years of life being stared at.
"If you avoid them" Draco had told him, glancing at the many Weasley-Potter heads above the crowd, "They'll avoid you".
Scorpius' mum had scolded at him, "Don't listen to him, honey, you can talk to them if you want to".
But Scorpius had never wanted to, aside from the few words concerning prefect duties or Quidditch schedules. They were scandalous and overconfident and a bit flippant about everything, he couldn't imagine what he would ever have something to talk about with any of them.
In the interrogatory room, everyone seemed to have gone speechless. Unsurprisingly, the woman was the first to recover.
"That's wonderful" , she said, although the look on the other auror's face indicated it was anything but, "We need you to sign an affidavit, to leave record of Mr. Malfoy's… um, alibi".
Rose Weasley nodded. It looked like she was no longer out of breath, but the blush on the freckled skin of her cheeks remained remarkably red while she looked at every single thing in the room except for Scorpius.
"Uncle Ron?" a voice boomed at that moment from somewhere out of the room (and therefore, out of Scorpius' sight). "What are you doing here?".
The oldest witch frowned, going around the much taller Mr Weasley to speak "Funny, I was actually going to ask you the exact same thing, Ted".
A young wizard appeared on the doorway. He was wearing black auror robes, which clashed horribly with his electric blue hair. He paled a bit at the sight of his boss, but the tone of his voice was still light when he spoke, "Auror Bones, I thought you were interviewing the witnesses".
Auror Bones pursed her lips in a gesture that instantly reminded Scorpius of Professor McGonagall. "We just went through this, you can not interrogate a member of your family":
"I know" answered Teddy Lupin, "But there's no regulation that says I can't be in the room while somebody else interrogates him", to Scorpius, he added, "So here I am".
Scorpius stayed silent. He had known all his life he was related to Lupin, of course, but they had what he would define as an estranged relationship at best.
Their grandmothers had beginning to try to approach each other after the war. Unsurprisingly, in truly Black fashion it had taken them years of awkward encounters and silent companionship; both far too proud and obstinate (not the worst traits they could have inherited, considering how their tirth sister had turned out to be a psychopath).
They had lunch together twice a year, on their respective birthdays, and every christmas Narcissa would buy a present for Andromeda's grandchild, Teddy, the same way Andromeda would send only one present, always addressed to Scorpius.
He had met her a couple of times, and Teddy a couple more because it was easier for them to bump into each other at the three broomsticks or at Diagon Alley. The older boy had been always nice to him during those encounters, but they never really talked much. Ted was usually accompanied by a bunch of friends or his beautiful girlfriend (one of the Weasley cousins despite her blond hair), all of them reluctant to lose their time chatting with a much younger kid.
And yet here he was, not willing to leave Scorpius alone in his assigned cell.
He briefly wondered if it was some kind of surprise-Scorpius-Malfoy day.
Auror bones sighed in defeat, "It won't be necessary Ted. Mr. Malfoy is free to go as soon as Miss Weasley signs her statement".
Teddy Lupin blinked, "Oh".
"Yes, so if you could just accompany her and Mr. Weasley here to Miss Turpin's office, we all will be done here".
"Right. Let's go Rosie".
She followed him without so much as a look in Scorpius' direction. Mr Weasley, however, did gaze at him; not with a particularly nasty glance, but rather a simply curious one. His expression didn't change at all during the seconds he observed him, but Scorpius knew what he was thinking, for it was the same thought everyone had when they looked at him. He looked too much like his father.
Finally, Ronald Weasley stepped out of the room and down the corridor. Auror Bones did the same, motioning for Scorpius to follow her, "Let's get your wand back, shall we?".
He didn't need to be told twice, it had been almost three hours since he had had to give it to the auror in charge of him, (his mind had labeled him as the large wizard, seeing as he had not introduced himself), and Scorpius suspected it was the longest he had been apart from his wand since he had bought it .
"Your parents are waiting for you at the entrance" said the large wizard, surprising Scorpius. For all his size, he had been truly crappy at interrogation, staring silently at him for too long.
"So, can I...go?".
The auror nodded, moving aside and leaving barely enough space between himself and the wall for Scorpius to squeeze in.
He was about to step out of the offices when a streak of red caught his attention. Rose Weasley stood with his back to him, and her scarlet hair, all over the place, looked for a moment like the only spot of color in the room.
"Weasley" he called, and she turned to face him from the end of the corridor, "Thanks".
She sent him a small, hesitant smile.
A second later Scorpius was surprised to realize he was smiling back.
xxx
In her small cubicle on St. Mungo's Hospital's fourth floor, Victoire Weasley looked at the clock on the wall for what had to be the third time in ten minutes and scowlded.
After the attack at the ministry, she had been to busy to think about anything that wasn't treating the overgrowing number of patients starting to appear on the beds she was in charge of.
The floor had filled quickly than she had ever seen, and as she rushed from one person to another she was relieved to see most of them were not in immediate danger, but simply nervous and terribly scared. Everyone had been stabilized without complications in a couple of hours.
However, as her work lessened her mind started to focus on other things. Like worrying about her family and friends.
Her parents had sent her an owl sometime in the middle of the first and second wave of patients informing her everyone was okay and they had managed to get out of the Ministry without a scratch.
A bit later, Aunt Angelina had appeared accompanied by a mediwitch and a pale Uncle George. One of Vee's colleagues had just fixed her broken arm, but George insisted they would not leave until Victoire checked it had been properly done. Her aunt looked tired and a bit shaken, but her humerus was in perfect condition so Vee had cleared her out and given Uncle George a calming potion.
And then she had waited. And waited. But there was no word from her best friend, or Teddy. And as enough time passed for her to realize if something had happened to them someone would have called her already (she was their emergency contact after all), worry slowly cleared the path for anger.
She was seriously contemplating appearing on the Auror Department to kill Ted herself the minute she laid eyes on him when a young girl appeared at the door. She vaguely recognized her as one of the second year healers trainees.
"Sorry, Miss Weasley, you're are needed in room 401".
Vee was instantly on her feet, tying her too long blond hair in a tight knot as she practically run across the halls, girl in tow, it was a feat she had perfected with years of practice.
"Who is attending?" she asked without stopping, and the girl blinked at her with a startled expression that made her sigh inpatiently, "Who told you to get me?".
"Oh. Healer Jones, it was… He's in charge of the patient".
Vee picked up her speed even more, hearing the girl pant behind her. She knew she was being slightly rude, still remembered how lost she had been as a trainee, but at the moment she couldn't bring herself to care. Jones was the Healer in Charge of the Spell Damage floor, so him needing help meant something had gone very wrong with the patient.
Room 401 was the furthest from the door and the smallest, usually reserved for contagious cases that could not share a room with anyone else. When Vee opened the door, she was glad to see Healer Jones was not wearing a mask or gloves but simply standing in his robes with a wand pointed to the bed.
"Weasley" the older wizard barked as he cleaned the sweat from his forehead with ¡the back of his hand, "I need you here".
Victoire had her wand already out, "What's happening?".
As she approached the bed, he couldn't conceal a gasp. The person lying there was a young woman, not much older than herself, with short brown hair and a round face Vee had seen so many times in flyers and the papers during the last month she would have recognized it anywhere. Rose Zeller.
Next to her, Healer Jones grunted loudly, "She's bleeding like mad. I suspect damage of femoral artery".
That explained the effort it took him to maintain the spell, he was probably holding back the hemorrhage and replacing the witch's blood at the same time.
"You want me to close the wound?".
He let out a humorless laugh. "First, I want you to re-build her fucking leg. None of the trainees know how to do it".
Vee touched the bloody right leg placed over the covers carefully. Her had sunk down.
Victoire blinked incredulously. She had treated and incredibly high number of broken bones today, but Rose Zeller's were…
"Not completely gone", Jones grunted reading her thoughts. "They are still there".
"What?".
"We run a test, the remains of the bones are there still, so no re-growing them" he winced at the thought, "They were crushed to practically dust. No wonder she lost consciousness".
In her six years working as a healer, Vee had never felt the urge to vomit at the thought of a wound, but upon realizing what had happened to the witch on the bed she felt slightly dizzy.
Jones practically barked with rage, "Weasley! No fainting in my room!". It was a phrase he had often repeated at her colleagues when they had been under his mentorship. "I need you to repair the bones while I take care of the damned bleeding".
Victoire immediately snapped to action.
Later, when Rose Zeller had been taken care of and properly cleaned up and bandaged, she approached Jones's office.
He sighed, offering her a cup of tea before speaking tiredly, "I had never seen something like that before".
Vee rejected the tea with a wave of her hand, "I didn't even know there were curses able to do that. Make bones disappear, sure, but crushing them like that… It must have hurt her terribly".
"I bet it did", the older wizard nodded tersely.
"No one else was that badly damaged", she insisted, looking him directly in the eye. "Why her in the middle of an attack this big?".
Jones looked away from her, his mouth pursed in displeasure. "That's to the aurors to decide".
Vee felt her face burn with annoyance, "But…".
"I trust you know you confidentiality obligation, Healer Weasley", he gazed at the still open door, dismissing her, "Everything anyone is going to know about the victims of this attack is that they were not fatalities. At least until the Ministry decides something else".
xxx