In the Previous Chapter…
"Just don't tell your father" she sighed before leaving the room. Scorpius glanced at Rose, slightly surprised that she knew what her mum meant.
"Mum knows I need a human pillow to get back to sleep, so she's allowing you to stay here for the rest of the night so long as dad doesn't find out" she explained before pulling Scorpius down into the bed beside her. "Love you, Scorp" she murmured before hugging into his chest and falling asleep.
"Love you too, hun" Scorpius yawned before he too settled down into Rose's bed.
The next morning, Rose and Scorpius woke up still wrapped in each other's arms. Luckily for the pair, Ron had been called into work early, so he hadn't had the opportunity to catch them together. Scorpius left Rose to dress and walked back across to his room to find his robes.
Soon enough, Hermione apparated the pair just outside of the Hogwarts gates. McGonagall stood waiting for them and let them through the wards.
"Thank you for bringing them back, Hermione" she said warmly, "feel free to drop by whenever you like" she smiled. Hermione then said her goodbyes and apparated home.
"It's good to see you both well again" she greeted the Head Students. "The school is currently in their last morning lesson, so I think it would do you two good to head back to your common room for the time being. I will see you at lunch, where I think it is about time the rest of the school heard the whole story" she said before walking off towards the castle.
Scorpius wheeled Rose behind McGonagall and was slightly relieved to see Hogwarts again. He and Rose hadn't been to school in almost a month, so were very behind, but he didn't doubt that together they'd catch up fast.
They arrived back to their common room to find that very little had changed. There were only a few additions to their common room, and that was a stack of neatly folded newspapers on the coffee table. There was a small note attached from McGonagall saying "I know that some of these are not pleasant, but you deserve to know what has been said behind your backs."
So, with the time to kill between now and lunch, Rose and Scorpius sat down on the sofa together and started to sift through the articles. Most of the headlines were basic ones like "Weasley girl hospitalised after jealous ex pushes her off a staircase" and a few "Children of war rivals Weasley and Malfoy dating?" But there was one particular headline that caught their eyes.
THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE WEALSEY/MALFOY MYSTERY?
BY RITA SKEETER
Rose Weasley, 16, the daughter of War Heroes Ron and Hermione Weasley, was yesterday hospitalised after being severely injured by a fellow Hogwarts student. The media have not yet been told who the student in question was, but have been assured that they have been expelled and their wand snapped.
The story that has so far leaked into the press has been that Miss Weasley was pushed off of a stair case after cheating in her long-term boyfriend, who will remain unnamed, with none other than the son of Draco Malfoy, Scorpius Malfoy.
We spoke to an unnamed pupil from Hogwarts, who assures us that this story is a twisted cover up for a much darker tale.
"I have known Rose for a long time and began to notice things changing over the summer" our source told us. "I know that she began to distance herself from her boyfriend and when they returned to school, she was suspiciously close to Malfoy and yet avoided her boyfriend" he continued. "After several rumours were spread, I decided to investigate into these rumours, for the sake of Rose. There was one that particularly caught my attention. The rumour was told to me by one of Rose's old room-mates, and the rumour was that Rose had been sleeping with Malfoy over the summer and was actually pregnant with his child! Rose's boyfriend felt completely betrayed, and after lashing out, he unintentionally pushed her down a flight of stairs.
"Rose was sent to the Hospital Wing, where Madam Patil discovered that not only was Rose pregnant, but that the child was Malfoy's. Rose was removed from Hogwarts by her parents, as was Scorpius, and so the school had to think of a cover up story for their two head students having not only slept together, but created a child together. This was where the story that Rose was comatose was introduced."
After hearing this account, I looked into the gossip at Hogwarts. It appears that the student body know very little about what happened to Rose, as the staff has kept silent and the two head students have been sent away from school.
This story is looking more and more plausible, so could it be the truth behind the Rose Weasley Disaster?
Scorpius glanced up at Rose and saw that she was staring gobsmacked at the article.
"What a load of complete rubbish!" Scorpius laughed.
Rose joined in with his laughing and gasped between giggles "who could have thought up such a crazy story?!"
"I don't know, but I'm actually amazed that got published, it's such a load of crap!" Scorpius bent over, trying to get rid of a stitch forming form laughing too much.
"I see what mum meant about rumours though, these aren't exactly nice and I bet that if someone reported it to the papers, it's already been spread quite a bit around here" she said, before grabbing her crutches and standing up. "We should probably go to lunch, Scorp, and start telling people that I'm not dead and I'm definitely not pregnant" she sniggered before hopping towards the door.
Rose and Scorpius were walking to the Great Hall in with a gaggle of other students, quite a few of which were staring at them in amazement. As Rose entered on her crutches, she heard a shout from the Gryffindor table.
"Rosie! Scorpius! Come over here!" Al called, standing up and running to greet his cousin.
"We were so worried you'd died! McGonagall couldn't tell us much as the last she knew was that you'd been transferred to a muggle hospital!" he said, hugging Rose tight, but being careful not to knock her over.
"Mr Potter, please could you release your cousin?" McGonagall called from the staff table. "I need to speak with the Head Boy and Head Girl."
Rose and Scorpius walked the entire length of the hall to greet McGonagall at the staff table. "The whole school will be here in a minute, so I would like you to tell them exactly what happened to clear up any rumours" she said. "Did you find the papers I left for you?"
"Yes, Professor, we've just read through one of them now. The one about me being pregnant was quite amusing, we thought" Rose smiled before turning around. Scorpius transfigured a spoon from the nearest table into a chair and let Rose sit down, before standing supportively behind her.
The whole school looked up as McGonagall cleared her throat. "Today, we welcome back your Head Students, who have been through an extremely difficult time. I would now like to invite them to tell you exactly what happened" she said, before sitting down to listen to what Rose and Scorpius had to say.
"We know that there have been many rumours spread around about where we have been for the last few weeks and why" Rose spoke, "but we'd like to clarify what happened so that these rumours don't need to circulate anymore."
"You all heard from my patronus that day" Scorpius said, slightly embarrassed as people began to remember, "that Rose had been pushed off of a staircase by McLaggen. This was true. Rose was immediately taken to St Mungo's where she was treated by the top healer, who happened to be my father" he said. Several people gasped at this.
"Rose suffered major damage to her spine and broke not only her leg, but her arm and seven ribs" he continued. "Rose was originally treated with magic, but it had no effect on the more serious damage, like her injury-induced coma. Because the magic was taking no effect, Rose was transferred to Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, the leading muggle hospital in the UK."
"I was comatose for 3 weeks, and woke up in a hospital bed covered in various plaster casts, bandages, and aches all over" Rose continued. "When I woke, Scorpius was asleep beside me, and had apparently not left my side since the day of the accident" she said, as several girls "awwwwwh"ed from the tables. Rose glanced up innocently at Scorpius, who was beginning to blush.
"Because I can't have all of my injuries fixed with magic, I have to undergo muggle treatment" Rose continued, indicating her plaster cast, "so am going to have a plaster cast on my leg for the next 2 weeks whilst the break heals."
"We would appreciate it if you did not spread any more rumours about us around school, or leak anything to the press, as it was quite a shock to yesterday find that whilst we have been sectioned off from the magical world in the muggle hospital, some of our fellow students were telling the press anything they could think of" Scorpius said, placing his hands on Rose's shoudlers.
"I'd just like to confirm for you a few things, whilst we're on the topic of Press stories" Rose smirked. "I am, for one, certainly not dead. I'm going to be fine so long as no one else pushes me off a stair case" she laughed. "Two, I am now in a relationship with Scorpius, and am going to try and forget the abuse inflicted on me by Daniel McLaggen in the last year. Just because me and Scorpius are going out, however, does not mean that it is anything else, so as a third point, I have not been sleeping with Scorp all summer, as someone suggested to the prophet, and I most certainly am not pregnant" she finished with a satisfying grin.
The whole school stared back at them as Rose finished her speech. Rose looked up to face Scorpius, who was beaming down at her. "You did great, hun" he said, before leaning down and giving Rose a passionate kiss on the lips, forgetting where they were.
They only seemed to remember that the entire school was watching when a chorus of "awwwhs" broke out from the girls, and then a round of applause began. Scorpius broke away, staring into Rose's eyes before grinning apologetically "I couldn't help doing that."
The whole school watched as Rose leant around the side of her chair and grabbed Scorpius' tie, smirking. She then pulled his tie so that he was forced around in front of her with his face held inches from hers. "You should know by now, hun, that if you publicly humiliate me, I will get you back" she smiled sweetly, knowing that the entire Hogwarts population was hangin on her every word. "And I'm gonna get my revenge now" she smirked as Scorpius' face paled.
He needn't have worried though, as Rose's revenge consisted of her pulling him in for a deep kiss and wrapping her arms around his neck. The whole school clapped as Scorpius scooped Rose out of her chair and carried her towards the Gryffindor table. He put her down on the bench between her cousins and sat by her side, holding her hand.
"You always have to make a fuss, don't you" tutted Hugo from the opposite side of the table, to which the whole group burst out laughing.
Rose smiled up at Scorpius before saying "Yeah, we do", beaming at Scorpius before pulling him down for another kiss.
"EWWWW NOT AT THE TABLE!" cried Hugo in disgust. Rose childishly stuck her tongue out at her brother before cuddling into her boyfriend.