She could feel her body beginning to awaken. She heard the bickering, a raised whispering and an uneasy sob. Albus. She couldn't remember what happened. She decided to keep her eyes closed. Her head hurt like mad and she wasn't sure what that smell was. Pine or tar, she didn't know. Where am I? she thought. She let herself relax and realized that she was on a soft mattress. She sank deeper into it and still heard the voices from the other side of her eyelids.

"It wasn't my fault."

"You're the one who jumped on her."

"I thought she was a bear."

"I told her to let me call you, but she told me to shut it."

"She actually told you to shut it?"

"She did. She's a nasty –"

Rose cleared her throat and sat up on her elbows, her eyes open, staring at her cousin and their best friend. She didn't need to say anything, merely looking at them. Rose knew that Albus would be the first to crack. She had learned that look from their grandmother. Scorpius was too spoiled to crack under the weight of the Weasley gaze, but she knew that Albus would. And he did.

Albus rushed over to the bed, throwing himself across Rose's legs. "Oh, Rose, I'm so sorry. I didn't know that it was you. I really didn't. I was so scared."

"Why were you in the tree, Al?" she asked gently, brushing through his tangled hair.

"I woke up and I kept hearing things in the Forest. I went to investigate."

Just like a Ravenclaw, she thought. "Then what happened, Al?"

"I thought I'd wait in the tree. It was tall, and I could keep a better watch. I saw Scorpius looking around, and I heard him whinging about something –"

"Yeah, that something was that you were missing. I'll know better next time."

"Will you shut it and let me finish?"

Scorpius crossed his arms over his chest and let out a huff, which both Al and Rose ignored.

"So, I went up the tree, and I could see the castle, so I thought I'd wake you both and we could go, but then I heard him," Al jerked his thumb in Scorpius' direction, and continued, "whinging and then I saw this big, gigantic, huge animal and I thought it was going to attack you –"

"It was me you idiot!"

"Well, I thought it would attack you, so I jumped on it and I got it first, didn't I?"

Rose began to laugh. "You sure did." She looked around the large room in the hospital wing. "How did I get here?"

"We carried you," Al said.

"You need to lay off the pudding," Scorpius added, smirking at the filthy look she gave him.

They could hear an uproar starting in the corridor outside the room. "Has Mum been here yet?"

"No," Al answered, looking alarmed that Hermione Weasley was about to enter. "Do you think she'll be upset with me?"

There was no answer. As the door swung open to admit Hermione, Rose had "collapsed" back onto her pillow, her breathing evening out and she tried not to giggle, picturing the horrified look on Albus' face as she heard him explaining what had happened in between Hermione's tut-tuts and soothing stroking of Rose's hair. Rose thought she might even fall asleep.