"Melinda? What the fuck?" Rose spat. "It was all you?"
"Why is that so surprising?" Melinda spoke from the darkness before whispering "Lumos!"
"What?" Was all Rose could think to say as Melinda's wand tip lit with light, casting a glow over her captors face.
"It was going to be the perfect story, hushed up and everything! It would have been the start to my promising career! An internship with the Daily Prophet! I've been scrambling all holidays thanks to you, I'll be left writing for Gossip Witch Magazine's for the rest of my life! All you had to do was tell me your story!"
"The article. Over the holidays, you've tied me up, over an article?" Rose snapped.
"This is my future Rose! Some of us have to work hard to get where we want to go. I had it all lined up with Skeeter, all I had to do was bring her this story and I would get my foot in the door next year." Melinda panted.
"You've been harassing me all year for your career! If you had any idea what happened to me and Scorpius last year you won't have done this!" Rose yelled.
"Yes and now everyone knows." Melinda grimaced, pacing around Rose. "I just needed you to know what you'd done. You really should be thinking more about your future Rose. What are you going to do next year when Scorpius is off working at the Ministry?"
"Huh?"
"You don't know?" Melinda sounded confused. "Scorpius has been telling me how he wants to become a researcher like your mother. Says he wants to specialize in Herbology. Discover new plants and their uses and things. Really Rose what is it that you two do together?"
Rose felt hurt. She hadn't known. She didn't know what to do with her future, she didn't even bother to ask Scorpius about his plans.
"That has nothing to do with this!" Rose deflected, "You have been sending threatening notes to me and Scorpius all year! Do you know how freaked out you've made us?!"
"Me and Scor-," Melinda began. "I never sent Scorpius the notes, why would I? He's a great guy, I really do need help with my exam scores. He'd been a blessing for my test scores..."
"Then who?..."
"Jonathan!" Melinda exclaimed suddenly.
"Jonathan?" Rose was confused now, "What does he have to do with anything?"
"Oh, he was supposed to get close to you for me, see if you'd tell him the story first hand." Melinda continued to pace, chewing at her nails in thought.
"But why would he?..." Then it hit her, "FUCK! It wasn't Melissa or a Monica, it was you! He dated you last year! Fuck, how was I not paying enough attention to that? Oh my god, he's your boyfriend! You're dating Jonathan"
"You really don't listen to gossip huh, being a Weasley and all." Melinda teased.
"This doesn't explain why he would send threatening notes to Scorpius, he threatened me in those notes. If you didn't know then why-" Rose began.
It was Melinda's turn to swear now, "Asshole!" She dropped the enchantments instantly, darkness disappearing and Rose realized she was really in Hagrid's old hut. Melinda dropped the binds on her hand and Rose rubbed her wrists absent mindedly.
"Mel?" Rose watched as the other girl's body shook with anger. "Care to share?"
"Jonny loves me, he really does okay? He'd do anything for me but for a long time I've suspected that he kinda still feels possessive over you." Melinda explained annoyed.
"What?" Rose squeaked.
"You're Rose Weasley, you're a mark on his belt. You're that famous ex of his. You're apart of the Golden Trio kids. You mean a lot to people who supported the Chosen One in the second wizarding war. You guys are still beacons of hope." Melinda was rambling but it eerily made sense. Jonathan was always caught up with her fame more than her, it was one of the reasons she had broke up with him in the first place.
"That is nuts. We're just kids." Rose spat.
Melinda rolled her eyes. "You're parents were just kids and they managed to achieve a great deal alongside Harry Potter." Melinda explained. "The point is, is that we both cosied up to you to for information. Jonny got a bit upset when we realized you two were into each other instead of us. It's why he had to back off."
"Scorpius? He wants to hurt Scorpius?" Rose breathed,
"You know people see your boyfriend and only see his father in his wake." Melinda sighed.
"Would he hurt Scorpius?" Rose cried.
Melinda thought for a moment before her eyes went wide. "Maybe, yes..."
Together they ran.
"They may say I am not good enough for Rose but if they knew about you two, they would skin you alive!" Jonathan Vayne was dripping with malice. He'd brought his potions kit and was now skillfully slicing along Scorpius's skin with his small blade. Great I'm a fucking Bezoar!
Scorpius grunted in pain, biting his tongue in response. "Fuck you Vanye."
"You won't be fucking a thing once I'm done with you!" Lovely. Scorpius could already feel the bruises Vayne had inflicted earlier, his jaw in particular was aching.
Jonathan stuck the small blade into his chest this time and Scorpius watched the blood pour down his bare chest.
The pain was unbearable but he didn't think it had pierced his lung, after a moment or so he blacked out…
...
"Stay awake you shit! I want you to feel everything!" Jonathan looked insane, his face was creased with madness and sweating, he mumbled something under his breath and flicked his wand. Scorpius probably wasn't going to pass out again.
"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DIE LAST YEAR! NOT HER!" Jonathan screamed. "THE LIGHT IS ALWAYS MEANT TO EXTINGUISH THE DARK!" The Rebirth Cult?
"Why didn't you die?" Jonathan hissed a whisper so close to Scorpius's ear that he started to wondered if he could have bitten Vayne if he weren't restrained so tightly up against that tree.
"Believe me Vayne, if I had my way I would have died!" Scorpius hissed through his teeth, the pain making him feel dizzy. "I would have died before anything ever happened to her!"
"SHUT UP!" Jonny slapped him. "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"
Jonathan littered Scorpius with more slashed, they were shallow but gave a stink of pain regardless. Scorpius yelled a guttural cry.
"She is too holy for a snake like you! You have tainted her with your touch and your falseness. You cannot love her! She is too pure for you!" Jonathan cried out, waving his wand in Scorpius's face.
Scorpius said nothing, maybe a part of him still wondered if what Vayne was saying were true. Could he really be worth her time? He couldn't even get over his hang ups with his father's reputation, what good was he to Rose? He couldn't save her last year. He didn't even know where she was now-
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Scorpius cried as Jonathan pulled a different blade from his pack and stuck it into his chest, just below his ribs.
Scorpius would have passed out, he couldn't. He vomited on himself, and tears ran down his face in streams, he screamed until it became a hollow empty noise that choked into the back of his throat.
"Stupefy!" A voice called. A flash of light consumed him. The binds that held him to the tree gave out and all Scorpius could do was crash to the dirt ground. Whispers enveloped him and drifted quickly into safe unconsciousness. Shadows moved about him and then there was only blackness. He was dead at last.