Chapter 8

Unresolved Feelings

"Can't you at least pretend to listen, even if you're blatantly ignoring me?"

When Scorpius raised a finger and continued to scribble on the parchment in front of him, Rose marched up to the table and snatching the parchment, ripped it to shreds and threw it behind her. Scorpius watched the pieces flutter to the floor with his mouth open and then turned to her with disbelieving eyes.

"What did you do that for?"

"You very well know what I did that for," Rose snapped, crossing her arms and looking down her nose at him – though she had to tilt her head farther back than usual, considering he was over a head taller than she was. That usually seemed to do the trick when she wanted to intimidate the people who worked for her, but sometimes she forgot that Scorpius couldn't be classified under the general category of 'people who worked for her'.

Scorpius made a swooping gesture with his arm, as though indicating that he was all hers and she could do whatever she wanted now that she had ripped up his work. Rose frowned at him.

"Don't give me cheek," she warned, coming up behind his desk and standing right in front of him. Even in her six-inch shoes, she barely came up to his shoulder and it frustrated her to no end that she couldn't be half as intimidating as she wanted to be when she looked like a child in his eyes.

"Yes ma'am," Scorpius said somewhat tiredly and ducked his head. He leaned back against the table as though he could sense her discomfort at being shorter than him, and was instantly on eye level with her. She didn't want to think that he did that just to make her feel better. It was unnecessary thoughts like that that had led to her predicament in the first place.

"It's been a month already since you got back from Peru, and you have made absolutely no signs of vacating our temporary housing facilities."

He blinked at her. "That's why you're so pissed?"

Rose bit her tongue and focused on keeping her face in the exact same expression of disapproval. He shrugged nonchalantly and had the gall to ask, "Why is it such a problem?"

She slammed her hand on his desk and that seemed to tell him that she was angrier than she let on, because he frowned at her as she fumed at him. "Why is it such a problem, you ask? Because if I just let a Division Head occupy half the housing facility all to himself, then what the hell am I supposed to tell both the people who work for me and the ones I work for?"

Scorpius raised his eyebrows. "The higher-ups have voiced displeasure at my occupying the rooming house?"

"It is not a rooming house, Scorpius, it is a temporary housing facility for our scientists so they don't blow the place up," she hissed, poking him in the chest. His expression was neutral – like it always was – and didn't betray anything he was feeling. But from the way his eyes were slowly turning from silver to grey, she could tell that he wasn't liking how she was behaving with him. Very good then. It was about time he started treating her like his superior.

"So they haven't as yet confronted you on said problem?"

"The only confronting that is going to happen ends now. You will move out of there tonight. Go home, Scorpius. See your parents, clean out your flat, buy new furniture; I don't care! But you will not be using the Ministry's facilities for your own personal use any longer. Have I made myself clear?"

Scorpius's eyes were so dark, they reminded her of thunderclouds before a raging storm.

"Are you really so afraid of them, Rose?" he asked simply, giving her a searching look.

"Yes I am," she replied, her voice a strained whisper, "so please move out before they come asking about a rumour they heard regarding a Division Head in the Department for Magical Research and Experimentation misusing the Ministerial facilities."

He tilted his head to the side, the same searching look in his eyes, and just as she started thinking he would say no, he nodded his head and turning away from her, stood up to go collect the parchment she had torn. She sighed and dropped her gaze to the floor. At least the problem had been resolved without her screaming at him and then storming out on him – as had been their routine off late.

She barely even registered the walk to her office and was mildly startled when she looked up to see Renée giving her a concerned look.

"Rose? Is everything alright?"

She waved her hand distractedly and said, "Yeah, everything is going to be fine."

"Going to be?"

Rose flopped onto her chair and placed her face in her hands, massaging the headache that had started to develop in her temples. "Ren, not now, OK? I'm exhausted and I really am in no mood to play mind games."

Renée nodded and came up to her desk and placed her hand on it. She opened her mouth and looked like she wanted to say something, but from the look Rose was giving her, she hesitated and an unknown emotion flickered in her eyes before she asked softly,

"When was the last time you went home and slept in your own bed?"

Rose frowned and sighed. When was the last time she went home and slept in her own bed? Probably the time when she had locked herself out and Scorpius had come to help her and had gotten injured in the process. After the maddening trip to see Albus, when she had once again stormed out, she had returned the next day to find that she was swamped with work, making it impossible for her to leave.

And everything after that had just been an endless cycle of mishaps, explosions, misplaced paper work, lost equipment, unrecorded findings and last but not the least, her relationship with Scorpius – or lack thereof.

After that particular day, she had made it a point to steer clear of him, and it had been extremely easy, considering how busy the two of them had been. She had bumped into him a couple of times, but either, or both of them were always accompanied by someone else, sparing them from any awkward situations. One time she'd fallen asleep at her desk and woken up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee. She would've thought Renée had made it for her out of the kindness of her heart, but she knew all too well that all the spoilt heiress knew was to spell instant coffee into her cup, leaving only one possibility. One she refused to encourage.

There were a few times when she had to go seen him for specific things that only he could handle, and it would've been stupid to drag someone along just because she didn't want to be in a room alone with him, but he had either been unnecessarily polite, as he had been ever since he got back, or ignored her in favour of whatever it was he had been doing before she had entered the room. It wasn't like she was being unreasonable or anything; it was just that no matter how stressed out or overworked he was, he couldn't just ignore her, his boss, when she had come all the way just to talk to him. That was absolutely unacceptable.

And so she would lose her temper and she would see that he was doing all he could not to lose his, only because she was his superior – despite everything – and it was easier if only one of them was doing the shouting. It was starting to remind her of the six months before he had left to Peru, when she kept insisting he do things just because he could, and he would do them only because he wouldn't have to do it for a long time after and she would get off his back faster that way. At least, that was her assumption.

She had fallen asleep at her desk again without realizing it and she jerked awake for some reason, looking around, dazed and disoriented, her body feeling hotter than normal. Her eyes fell on the mug of rich smelling coffee on her desk, and then to the hand that was still holding it. She slowly looked up into wide, startlingly silver eyes, and Scorpius immediately took a step back and said hurriedly, "Renée asked me to give it to you because she had some work to do and I was passing by your office anyway so…"

She breathed deeply, stretched, and tilting her head, gave him a sweet, sleepy smile. "You don't have to lie because I'll get angry," she slurred, sleep clinging to her words, "because I think it's really sweet. Thank you, Scorpius."

His expression shifted to a sort of embarrassed one that she thought was very cute in her sleep-filled daze, and he leaned forward to place the coaster on top of the mug so it didn't cool. A very silly, Muggle thing to do, considering she could just reheat the coffee with a wordless spell. She giggled at that and he shot her an amused look.

"Have you eaten anything lately, Miss Weasley?"

"Mm I think I ate a croissant this morning."

Scorpius's eyebrows shot up into his hairline and he said, "That's barely anything."

Rose shrugged and slumped back in her chair, smacking her lips. "Too busy. No time."

"Have you slept at all?"

"Just woke up."

"No," Scorpius said, as though he was talking to a child, "not napped. Have you actually slept for more than three quarters of an hour?"

Rose tilted her head and tapped her chin at the question and then shrugging her shoulder, grinned at him and went "Nope!"

Scorpius stared at her, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He shook his head. "Looks like Renée isn't the only one who gets high on coffee. How much have you had?"

Rose stuck her lower lip at him and reached for her mug, but Scorpius beat her to it. He held it just out of reach and asked again, "How much coffee have you had, Rose?"

Rose moaned and laid her head down on her arm as she stretched across her desk. She tried to count the number of mugs she had drunk and finding it tedious, mumbled, "A lot."

"Alright, that's enough," he said, magicking the mug into nothing and walking around the desk to her.

"That was my favorite mug!" she protested, as he pulled her to her feet. He eyed her shoes.

"Can you walk in those?"

"If I step on you with them, you'll have a hole in your toes," she giggled, suddenly feeling light-headed, his warm palms feeling unbearably cold against her heated skin. He smiled down at her.

"Oh, yeah? Well, why don't I help you out of them, then. We don't want you stepping on yourself by accident and making a hole in your own toes, now, do we?"

Rose puckered her lips as she stepped out of her shoes. Scorpius waved his wand and they disappeared. She suddenly swayed, dizzy. He caught her easily and let her lean against him for support. She was seeing in twos for some reason. Maybe it was the coffee? Oh wait, she didn't drink any. Maybe she needed coffee.

"Rose?"

His voice sounded far away. Like he was at the end of a tunnel. She smiled at the thought. She liked tunnels. They were fun.

"Merlin—you're burning up!"

Was that why she was feeling dizzy? And her legs felt like jelly?

She suddenly jerked to the side and the abrupt movement caused her to double over and vomit all over her feet. She stood there, bent at her waist, trying to catch her breath, as Scorpius stroked her back in a soothing motion. She collapsed to the floor, too exhausted to even stand and he cleaned her up with a Scouring spell. She sighed as she leaned her head against his shoulder. She was feeling extremely hot, like she had been sitting in a sauna for too long. She felt something cool press against her forehead and she groaned in relief. That felt good.

"Alright Rose, I'm going to have to carry you to the housing quarters."

She had just enough energy to say "No!"

She could feel his frown even though she couldn't see it. "Rose, there's no other way—"

She shook her head. She wasn't going to stay there. Not where all the others stayed. Someone might catch a bug from her.

"Home," she mumbled, so incoherently that Scorpius barely caught it.

"You want me to take you home?"

She nodded slightly. He sighed. "Rose, that's not as easy as you make it sound. Do you really want me to carry you down the elevators and through the Ministry?"

"'cle Harry," she said, her lips barely moving. She couldn't even feel her limbs anymore. She was so tired. All she wanted to do was sleep. In a proper bed. At home.

There was some muffled scuffling as Scorpius looked for something and then the sound of scratching as he wrote something down. She felt him move against her and she wasn't sure what he was doing, and was frankly too tired to find out.

"Hey," he said softly in her ear and she titled her chin up in response. "Is it a bad time to turn the glass to wood? People are starting to stare."

She wanted to tell him that the Maintenance Department wouldn't be too happy if he did that, but she simply nodded once instead, even that simple movement draining her of energy. He said OK and she felt him flex his arm and heard him mumble a spell. There was some shuffling behind her and she cracked an eye barely open to see that the glass partition had changed to wood.

"Thanks," she rasped and suddenly felt a wave of cold, as she pulled herself into a tighter ball and huddled closer to him. He Conjured a coat or a blanket or something for her and wrapped it around her. She tried to move her head but found that it was uncomfortable for some reason. She heard him chuckle and then felt her hair fall down her face and shoulders as he undid her bun.

"I don't know why you tie it up, when you look so beautiful with it down."

She barely heard him over the gushing sound in her ears, and she probably had imagined him complimenting her anyway, her fever causing her to become delirious. She sighed and settled against his warm chest, cuddling into the blanket and letting herself drift off towards well-deserved nothingness.

When she woke up this time, it was to the sound of voices. She shifted her position and winced when her neck cracked. How long had she been asleep? Once she could sit up without feeling the extreme need to vomit, she closed her eyes and tried to focus on the sounds coming from the other side of her closed bedroom door. It sounded like three or four voices, most of which she immediately recognized.

One was her mother's, she thought with a groan. The one that was talking the most definitely belonged to Albus. The deeper one was probably Harry and the last one that seemed to be conversing with Albus – she sat up with a jolt – belonged to Scorpius. He was in her house? Why?

She looked around and frowned. What day was it? How did she get home? The last thing she remembered was trying to sort out some papers. Her stomach growled rather insistently and she pressed a palm against it. She was starving. She couldn't remember the last time she had eaten a proper meal. She smacked her lips and grimaced at the foul taste in her mouth and how parched it was. She fumbled around and finding her wand, wordlessly Conjured a glass of water. She downed it in three gulps and spelled more water into the glass, her thirst seemingly incurable with a single glass.

After several glasses of water, she sat back with a sigh and closed her eyes. Now she wanted to use the toilet but she felt like she would faint if she moved. She was trying to concentrate on some random thought and not feel nauseous, so she almost missed the sound of the door being opened. She cracked her eyes open to see Albus step in with a bowl filled with steaming soup. Her mouth started to water even as her eyes hungrily followed the bowl of soup till it was placed next to her.

Albus sat down and placed one hand against her forehead and the other against his. After a moment, he nodded and smiled at her. "Your fever's finally gone down, thank goodness. You almost gave us all a heart attack."

"How long have I been asleep?"

Albus shrugged and seemed like he was debating whether to tell her the truth or not. Finally deciding on the former with some difficulty, he said, "Almost two whole days."

She tensed at that, her mind already running horrific scenarios of all the undone work piling up on her desk. Albus snapped his fingers in front of his face and said, "I know what you're thinking, and there's absolutely nothing to worry about because Scorpius has taken care of everything that needed immediate attention."

Rose simply looked at him, not having finished her calculations of exactly how many extra hours she would have to put in in order to get through all the work. She sighed and leaned her head back tiredly. Maybe she didn't have too much to worry about if Scorpius had taken care of all the important things…

"Well, I'm not ill or anything, right?" she asked expectantly and he eyed her for a moment before shaking his head. She nodded to herself. "That's that, then. Now that I'm well-rested, I'll have something to eat and then—"

"Absolutely not."

"I'm sorry?" she raised her eyebrows at Albus and he pursed his lips at her.

"Rosie, you were unconscious for almost a whole day. You've barely eaten anything half decent in the past week, you've barely let your body recuperate for all the energy it has been burning and you overworked yourself to the extent that you could no longer stand up on your own two feet! If you think you can just up and get back to work the moment you wake up, well, I'm sorry to say that you are mental."

Rose frowned. "I can't not work for so long, Al. they need me—"

"Do you not trust your Division Heads enough to manage three to four days without you? Besides, you're the boss, why do you have to do everything?"

Rose opened her mouth to retort, but finding that there was nothing she could say to refute his argument, she shut her mouth and chose to glower at him instead. Albus sighed and shook his head.

"Love, I know you think you need to single-handedly handle everything and maybe sometimes you do, but that doesn't mean you should completely ignore your own health to do so. Even Renée thought you were working too hard."

Rose raised her eyebrows. Renée even telling someone that Rose worked too hard was something close to a miracle, considering how much the brunette loved to tell Rose to stop faffing around and do her job. She finally nodded reluctantly, knowing Albus wouldn't back down no matter what she said. He smiled at her.

"Here, have some soup while I go tell everyone you're finally awake."

"Everyone?" she asked, eyeing him suspiciously. His eyes glittered.

"Everyone."

She groaned when he shut the door behind her with that vague answer but was immediately distracted by the savoury smell of the soup in front of her and she hungrily dug in, her stomach's persistent demand for food far more persuading than her curiosity to know exactly who all were outside her door.

Her soup was over all too soon and she stared sadly into her empty bowl, wondering if someone would come running if she screamed. But just as the thought crossed her mind, she noticed that the bowl was steadily, but surely, refilling itself and she could barely withhold herself as she waited for the thick, swirling semi-liquid to reach the brim. Not bothered to use the soupspoon, she raised the bowl to her mouth and downed the entire thing without pausing once – not even for air.

She finally put it down and sighed in satisfaction. She had almost forgotten how good her mother's broth soup was. There was a slight chuckle from the door, and she looked up to see a smiling Scorpius step in and shut the door behind him.

A/n: Late update, I know, and I'm sorry but I have been completely swamped. This chapter is rather abrupt, because it ended up being too long and I had to split it into three parts. So yes, it continues in the next two chapters.

Also, before y'all start getting mad at Rose for being so completely irrational and bipolar, she actually does overwork herself and yeah, anyway, let me know what you think!

Cheers, lovelies.