AN: Heads up for you all – this chapter is very long by my standards – roughly twice the length of my usual updates! Aren't you lot in for a treat! Review your opinions as always! - Rxx
Previously:
"Awwwh Malfoy, Rosie's going to be jealous to find out you've got a date with McGonagall" Lorcan sniggered. Scorpius slapped him around the head before joining in the sniggering.
"Mr Malfoy, I see from your schoolgirl giggle that you are fine. Please return to your common room so my other patients can recover" Madam Patil scolded lightly. Scorpius and Lorcan quickly left for the Head Commonroom, sniggering the whole way there.
Scorpius couldn't sleep. The watch his dad had given him for his birthday last year told him it was 5:23am, just about 4 hours til he'd see Rose. He hadn't stopped thinking about her all day.
At lunch he'd been pulled by Al to sit with all the Weasleys. At first Lily had asked if he knew anything more about Rose (she had read the prophet), but on finding that he knew nothing, they sat quietly making small talk to avoid the subject. Professor Longbottom had approached them all towards the end of lunch and excused them all from afternoon lessons, as after having a distraught Hugo in his class earlier, he knew they'd get nothing done. They'd then spent the afternoon in the room of requirement playing lots of board games to pass the time. At dinner Scorpius had sat with his friends, who joked about his fainting in potions, and continued the friendly jokes and banter in the Heads common room whilst sharing a bottle of firewhiskey between the 4 of them. At around 1:30 Leo, Lorcan and Lysander crashed on the sofas by the fire, whilst Scorpius retired to bed, a bit more sober than his friends.
And now, 4 hours later, he was still wide awake and worrying about her.
After drifting off at some point for an hour, Scorpius was sat in the empty great hall at 7:30 with a mug of coffee and a slice of cold toast. No one usually appeared to breakfast before 8am, so he sat reading the daily prophet which was on the table. There were no more stories about Rose, which he was glad about, but nothing else that was really interesting.
Mid-way through an article about the Hollyhead Harpies and the run up to the Quidditch League finals, Scorpius was surprised when someone sat opposite him.
"Sorry to startle you, Scorpius" Lily muttered, reaching for a bit of toast. She looked so fragile and broken; her eyes rimmed red from tears and a night of no sleep.
"It's alright. Couldn't sleep either?"
"No. I just want to know what they were doing to her in the first place" Lily groaned. Scorpius forgot she didn't know.
"You know Rose had all the nightmares? They think that it's due to a bad memory from when she was a kid. They took her in to extract the memory and see if they could find the person in it" he explained.
"Memory extracting's easy though"
"Rose can't recall the memory, I don't think. I think she's locked it away"
"So instead of just extracting, they're hacking" Lily growled.
"What's wrong with hacking?" Scorpius was suddenly alarmed.
"It's risky. It's trying to fight against a person's mind and their magic, so it's not always successful. They usually have to knock the person unconscious for the day to do it, and even then some people don't come out the same person. They can become quiet and antisocial, they can go completely crazy, and I think some people have even forgotten everything. If they tried that on Rose, then I can see why she's bloody comatose! Her brain is fighting the spells and so has locked her inside."
"So it's actually risky and dangerous and she could stay like that?!" Scorpius said with his voice raising.
"Maybe. I'm going to get dad to find out what in merlin's name is going on with her...I just hope they can wake her up. Normally with comatose people they can wake them, but not if the persons magic is choosing to prevent them from waking up"
"I'm going to Mungo's with McGonagall today so I can try to find out what's going on and then try to wake her up" Scorpius said, even more determined now to solve this mystery. "Lily, I have a question for you. I need your help on something when I get back from Mungo's. Can you meet me in the head common room after dinner tonight? I should be back by then"
"Do I get to know what I'm helping with?"
"You're helping with something for Rose" he grinned.
Just over an hour later, Scorpius was inside McGonagall's office waiting. He hadn't seen the headmistress at breakfast, and it was now 8:57am. Just as he was about to worry, McGonagall walked through the door.
"Good morning Mr Malfoy, I see you are ready. Shall we go?" She asked, holding out her arm. Although Scorpius could apparate, he wasn't cleared to go through the wards, so politely grasped her arm before he held his breath.
With a small pop, they arrived in the St Mungo's reception.
"We're here to see Rose Weasley" McGonagall said to the receptionist.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but healer says no visitors except family" the blonde said without looking up from her nails.
"I am her headmistress and Dr Ellesmore is expecting us" McGonagall barked. The girl looked up and paled at the sight of the angry McGonagall.
"I'm sorry, Professor McGonagall, please forgive my mistake. Room B221, 3rd floor." The girl sunk in her seat under the older woman's glare. McGonagall then spun on her heels and headed towards the lifts. Scorpius followed at her heels, anxious to get to Rose.
As soon as the lift doors opened, they both walked briskly along the corridor until they were outside room B221. McGonagall knocked on the door and they were called inside. Two healers, Dr Ellesmore and Rose's parents were sat on plastic chairs in a circle of discussion. At the end of the room there was a curtain pulled around a bed, which Scorpius assumed was where Rose was lying.
"Ah, Minerva, Scorpius, welcome! Please come sit, we're just explaining what has happened" Dr Ellesmore said, conjuring a chair each for the two new arrivals. "Please, Healer Laurence, carry on"
"So we tried the normal extraction route, but it seems that Rose has built up a mental barrier around the memory, more than likely to try to forget it. This barrier is years and years old, and so is very difficult to get into, so we had to resort to the hacking method instead"
"YOU USED HACKING ON MY DAUGHTER?!" Hermione screamed at him. Scorpius hadn't really looked at the Weasleys when he arrived, but now he saw the pain in their eyes. Ron was slumped in his chair, fighting sleep, with raw eyes and a lost look on his face. Hermione was also sleep deprived, and she looked a complete mess. Her hair was in a tangled mess, and her clothes were dishevelled. Her eyes didn't show her lack of sleep, as they showed pure rage. "YOU USED THE MOST UNRELIABLE MEDICAL TESTING PROCEDURE ON MY DAUGHTER?!" she shrieked again when she didn't get an answer.
"My dear Hermione, please calm," Dr Ellesmore said, sending a spell at the enraged woman slyly to quieten her. "The healer's have done what they feel is necessary to stop your daughter's nightmares"
"THEY WERE FIXED! SHE FOUND HER SOLUTION! YOU DIDN'T NEED TO DO THIS!" Hermione's rage turned to tears. Scorpius gently wrapped her hand in his and squeezed it reassuringly. She looked at him surprised.
"Mrs Weasley, I know you're finding it hard, and I am too so I know what boat you're in, but they wouldn't have done this if they didn't think Rose was strong enough to fight it" he said, somewhat calmly. "I know that she found a solution in me, but Rose wanted to find a permanent solution, and this is what it's led to. We just have to trust that she'll be ok"
"Mione, Scorp's right, just drop it" Ron said sleepily, wrapping his arm around his wife's shoulders. He mouthed a thank you to Scorpius as Hermione calmed down.
"Carrying on" the healer continued, "we would like to continue with the hacking whilst Rose is in her current status. I know that this is challenging for you to all accept, but this is the only way to extract this memory. Unless, you are willing to let us proceed with an untested treatment, which we believe may be able to remove it"
"You'd be able to remove it?" Scorpius perked up, "as in, she would have nothing left from it at all and the nightmares would go with it?"
"Theoretically, yes" the healer nodded.
"How would you remove it?" Hermione asked.
"It's another form of hacking, but the difference is that Rose would need to be awake"
"But you've put her in a coma, so how is this relevant?"
"We are using everything in our power to wake her up, Mrs Weasley. Until then, we can do nothing."
After another hour of debating, the adults started to split apart. Hermione and Ron went home, as Ron started to fall asleep, the healers and Dr Ellesmore left to re-examine test results and McGonagall went to get coffee. Scorpius was then left alone in the room. He went to the curtain drawn around the bed, and peeked inside.
There she was, in the bed. She could have been asleep, if not for the number of monitoring orbs hovering nearby. Scorpius knew they were for different things. One orb pulsed, to show a heart rate. Another expanded and shrunk to show breath rate, and one final one glowed an ominous red. He guessed this was to show how awake Rose was.
He gently clasped her hand in his and rubbed circles with his thumb. She looked so peaceful, but knew that she must be having an internal fight with herself. She didn't want to be in a coma.
"Hi Rosie" he smiled, wondering if that muggle belief actually worked. "I hope you can hear me, otherwise I sound like an idiot, but then again, I always sound like an idiot to you, I think. I just wanted you to hear from me how much it would mean to wake up right now. I haven't slept at all and I haven't concentrated in lessons either. You won't believe what a prat I was when I found out. You won't like how I found out, but it was a funny story, so I think you'll be more forgiving. There was an article about you going all comatose on us in the prophet. They made it sound like a medical disaster, but really it's just part of your mental self being rebellious.
"But anyway, Lorcan slipped me the article to read in potions and irt came as such a shock that I fainted in the middle of the lesson. All my mates were laughing about it the rest of the day, saying how much of a sap I am. You'll probably agree with them and all. But I just want you to be ok, Rose, I want you back with me at school. It's lonely and the bed feels too big and everything is hard and I just guess I've realised I will always want you in my life. I'm going back to Hogwarts tonight and I'm going to start on my project. You won't know what I'm on about, but it should hopefully be done by the time you come back. I won't say anything more because if you can hear me then I don't want to ruin it. You'll just have to wait and see.
"Please wake up, Rose" he suddenly realised that she probably couldn't hear him, but carried on anyway, "I love you, and I need you by my side. Please stop fighting them, they only want to help. If you can hear me, please, please, try to fight it, for me. They don't want to hurt you, and I know you were freaked about it before, but they honestly just want to help and give you a normal life. I'll always be there to protect you anyway, but just please wake up and let them help Rosie" he said, his voice strained. He glanced over at the orb monitoring how awake she was. It was orange; she was waking up!
"Rosie, I love you so bloody much" Scorpius grinned. "I knew that you'd be strong enough to fight this! That bloody idiot healer said that they were trying everything they could do to wake you up, but they don't need to as you can wake yourself up! You never needed help from anyone!" The orb grew lighter. "Come on, Rose! You are the only one that can do this, and I know you can do it! Try to squeeze my hand, go on! I bet you could. I always knew you could prove people wrong. To be honest you prove me wrong so much, as you're always just that marginally bit cleverer than me in charms," the orb turned yellow, "or that little bit more witty in arguments. You win every argument, Rose, so why not win this one with yourself?" Scorpius thought he was dreaming as he felt the tiniest movement against his hand. Her fingers were curling around his hand ever so slowly. "COME ON ROSE" he shouted now, beaming. He heard in the distance the sound of several pairs of feet slapping against the floor. They were all coming. "I LOVE YOU SO BLOODY MUCH ROSE WEASLEY. Keep on fighting, you're so close to being awake. I don't know what this thing does, but it seems to want you to wake up to!" he smirked as he felt her grip tighten slightly. The orb flashed green. "You know, I could just leave now, and you'd be so confused when you wake up. You'd swear I was here and then I'd be gone and oh you'd be so cute.."
He stopped mid-sentence as he looked down at Rose's face.
"Are you quite finished?" Scorpius jumped out of his skin when Rose spoke, a smirk stretching across her face.
"Rosie you're awake!" he cried. "You're actually awake!" He couldn't believe it. She'd woken up.
"No, idiot, I'm still comatose" she rolled her eyes. She then squealed as Scorpius dived on top of her, kissing her madly.
"I love you so fricking much Rose" he said in between kisses. He only stopped from kissing her when he heard someone gasp. He glanced around to see a junior healer staring open mouthed at the couple.
"Umm, could you go find Healer Laurence and tell him that Rose Wealsey is awake please?" Rose blushed.