Over the next few days Scorp refused to talk. He just sat in his hospital bed unmoving, staring at his wand… well except for the times he went into detox. He was having an injection every twelve hours to keep him alive.
Someone was always with him, usually an adult. The children only came on weekends for which Scorp was thankful. Lily and James just thanked him constantly for saving Lily and Lily apologised relentlessly for being so gullible. And then Al and Rose just sat in silence, every so often trying to reassure him that everything would be okay… but none of them believed that.
But, honestly Charlotte was the worst. She just cried and cried the entire time until Charlie stopped her from coming. He said it was harming to her and the baby. Scorp didn't even nod in acknowledgement but he knew Charlie was right and he was fine with it.
See being silent had given Scorp a lot of time to think and he had since made peace with the new baby and with Charlie… to some extent but he was still an arrogant arse.
Arthur was the highlight of Scorp's week. He had started repairing an old Harley motorbike and Ron was teaching him how to drive. Scorp enjoyed hearing about every bump, every crash that Arthur relayed with glee.
Gradually Scorp just stopped, knowing his life was out of his hands.
-0oOo-
Rose Weasley was sitting in the Gryffindor common room, her cousin and best friend were seated in the chairs beside her. Every so often a Gryffindor would shoot a glance at them and although she was doing her best to ignore it, the stares were quickly getting on Rose's nerves.
She sighed, "I'm going to bed." She said to Al and Evanna.
Al looked at her in surprise, "Rose it's only seven. Don't you have any homework?"
She did but she shook her head anyway and went up to bed. As she passed to boy's dormitory and knocked on the door.
"Yeah?" a voice came from the inside and Rose opened the door, hopeful.
But it was just the Thomas boy… Simon… Sean… Seamus? That was it,
"Oh, sorry Seamus I was just looking for…"
Seamus nodded, "Yeah. I know." She turned to leave. "Hey, Rose?"
"Yeah?"
Seamus blushed. "I was just wondering if… maybe… you'd like… t-to go to Hogsmeade with m-me this weekend?"
Taken aback Rose turned bright red. "Oh… well…"
"Oh you don't have to!" stuttered Seamus quickly. "I was just wondering… you know as friends! But you'll be visiting Bloom"
"Oh no! It's fine. That'll be great." She smiled.
"Oh!" exclaimed Seamus, "Great! Umm ten o'clock then?"
"Yes sure. Bye Seamus." She turned and closed the door, leaving Seamus grinning goofily.
Inside the girl's dormitory Rose found only Millie Cooper reading a book at her desk. Millie was a small mousy girl who went to the library a lot.
"Hey Millie. What are you reading?" Rose said warmly.
"Hello Rose. I'm reading the new book in the Barbona series. You know the one by Lacy Hunter, about the alternate universe where genders are swapped and women are in control?"
"Oh yes," murmured Rose, "I like that. Could I borrow it after?"
"S-sure!" gasped Millie, thrilled to lend Rose Weasley the most popular girl in her year, a book.
Rose thanked her and turned to get changed into her pyjamas.
"Oh are you going to bed?" asked Millie.
"Yeah. It's been a long week," Rose said, still with her back facing Millie.
"I'll go then. Bye!" The door slammed behind her and Rose was alone.
With a sigh she slipped into bed and picked up the pieces of paper on her bedside table. It was the proposed covers for her book that Mr Malfoy had sent over. With much nagging from Scorp and Al (and a cryptic "It could lead to astonishing things…" from Evanna) she had signed the second contract and begun the process of publication.
But that didn't mean she liked Malfoy.
She sighed and placed the images back on the table. She'd look them over in the morning. Leaning over she blew out the candle and finally let the tears flow out of her eyes.
Her friend was dieing and there was nothing she could do about it…
Well fuck that.
She leapt out of bed and grabbed her wand.
"Lumos!" the room flooded with light and Rose waved her wand again. Her pyjamas immediately were changed into robes, a spell you learnt in sixth year and she used while no one was around. She strode out of the room and up the stairs to the fourth year boy's dormitory and bashed on the doors.
"JAMES SIRIUS POTTER! OPEN UP!"
There was a bang from inside and a few hushed whispers
"No, under the bed."
"Just move it!"
"Coming in a minute!"
"The closet! The closet"
The door swung open to reveal James, his face dirty with soot and his hair even messier than usual.
"Hey Rosie what's happening?"
"I need to borrow the cloak and the map."
James was taken aback. "Why?"
She shuffled nervously. "Umm… Just for something."
James
sighed and closed the door. "Look Rose. I'm not going to just
hand them over."
She was too frazzled to think of a lie. "The
forest, okay?" she snapped, "I'm going to go get some of that
black sludge Scorp described and some saliva. If they have that they
could get a cure!"
"Rosie," James said sternly, "That's incredibly risky and stupid and…" she gave him a look. "Oh fine you're right, let me get them."
Within five minutes they were down on the grounds under the cloak.
"Ow James, stop stepping on my feet!"
"Sorry… oh jeez. Are you sure you want to keep doing this?" They had reached the forest.
She nodded, "Certain." Slowly they made their way into the forest. It was odd; there was no movement in the forest like usual. Usually they would have seen some kind of magical animal by then…
And there it was… or there he was. A centaur lying in a clearing. Rose threw off the cloak ignoring James' yelling for her to come back. She knelt down beside the centaur and checked his pulse. Gone…
Her fingers brushed something on his neck and she lit up her wand to see what it was.
Rose gasped. It was the same two bites on the victims from Hogwarts. Obviously the creatures weren't discriminative.
"ROSE!" James's scream brought Rose back to the real world. James had a iron grip on her shoulder, his face ghostly white and staring at something in front of them. She looked up and saw what he was seeing.
One of them lumbering over towards them. Rose pulled out a vial.
"James, stun it." He nodded and pulled out his wand. "Stupify." It froze and dropped to the ground.
Rose approached it slowly and filled up a vial with its saliva, and another with the black sludge. She had to cover her mouth and nose to stop from gagging. She pocketed the vials and returned to the cloak.
"Let's go," she said.
"Don't you want to kill it?" asked James.
She shook her head, "I can't. I just can't."
He nodded and placed an arm around her, steering her back to the castle. Behind his back he gave a swift flick of his wand, conjuring a rock and dropping it on the creature.
She couldn't but he could.
-OoOo-
"You look fine," Evanna hummed as Rose straightened her dress for the sixteenth time. Rose smiled weakly, "I'm being silly aren't I?" Al grunted in the corner, his eyes dark. "Yes well I know what you think!" she snapped.
Evanna smiled and walked over to where Al was sitting. "Don't mind him. And have a good time."
Rose rolled her eyes, "Yes Mum. Goodbye Dad." Al grunted again as Rose skipped out of the common room.
Well he was being like her father, just because she wasn't coming to see Scorp. It was one weekend! Scorp wasn't even talking, or listening… or doing anything! She had to be fed by a muggle IV! He wouldn't notice if she wasn't there.
And there was Seamus, looking around nervously. She called out to him and he smiled when he saw her. This was what she wanted. To be acknowledged by a boy.
"Did you wait long?" she asked just as nervously.
He shook his head still staring at her for a long time.
"Uh Seamus?" he snapped of out it.
"Oh sorry! Well then shall we go?" he said offering her his arm. She smiled and took it.
"Let's."
She touched her pocket where two vials lay, ready to be taken to Uncle George.
Oh yes, let's.
-OoOo-
Albus 'Al' Potter was, to put it simply, pissed. His stupid cousin was off gallivanting with Seamus Thomas! An idiot who didn't know basilisk from a common carpet python! Of course he hadn't expected her to suddenly wake up and realise she and Scorp were meant to be but to see her wasting time irritated him.
Out of all of his siblings he was the best at predicting things. He was more patient than Lily and ten times more observant than James and he could see clearly that Rose and Scorp were made for each other. There had been times where he had thought they'd realised it too. Like when Rose thought Scorp had died in their first year, or when Scorp had ran away after what Rose said at the end of the year. Surely Rose's insane jealously over Ann was a sign!
But no, the two idiots kept ignoring their feelings and making Al want to scream in frustration.
Once Rose left the common room for her stupid 'date' he rose to his feet.
"Let's go," he said to Evanna who had dropped her usual dreamy act once Rose had left. She took three confident strides over to Al and they walked out through the portrait hole.
"I sent Hugo an anomous note letting him know about the date," said Evanna dryly.
Al smiled, no one knew this side of Evanna except for her father and Lorcan who were also quite serious in contrast to vague, dreamy Luna and playful, clumsy Lystander. Lorcan and Neville played the dreamy, innocent role in public to suit their family's reputation and let their true serious personalities out in private. Evanna was half-half and didn't struggle with the change too much; she actually preferred the dreamy side more as shown clearly in her magical core and animagus form.
Al had found out in their second year when he had overheard a conversation between Professor Longbottom and Evanna. Even better it was about a vision Evanna had had of Rose and Scorp getting married. But it was fuzzy and uncertain. A future that wasn't set in stone.
So she and Al had become conspirators in Operation Get Scorp and Rose Together (O.G.S.R.T for short). And it made Al happy to know there was someone else out their being someone they weren't for their family image, even if Evanna enjoyed it while he hated it.
"Good job. I innocently let it slip to Uncle Ron, and he's God damned protective of Rosie. He'll probably tell Uncle George and get him to intervene."
"Any reaction from Scorp yet?" she asked.
"No. You think we should tell him about the date? You never know, it could get him to realise he loves her."
Evanna shrugged, "Sure why not, it's not like he can get more depressed." Al chuckled. They stopped outside the stone gargoyle, "Grey Winter" said Al as Evanna returned to dreamy Evanna.
The gargoyle sighed, clearly affected by the Headmistress' mood. "In you go," it said dully.
They stepped onto the staircase and waited patiently as it spiralled upwards and let them out into Charlotte's office.
Over the past few weeks it had changed drastically. The office was magicked to suit the Headmistress' mood and put frankly it was just depressing.
The walls were grey and the ceiling was showing a grey, rainy sky. The bin was filled with tissues and paper work was pilling up on the floor.
A sudden sob stopped Al and Evanna from looking any further into what looked like the pit of despair.
Charlotte was standing in front of them, her eyes red and wet. He hair was a mess and it looked like she had lost a few pounds despite the slight bulge of her belly.
"O-oh," she sniffled, "Y-you're g-going to see Sc… sc… scor-" at that she started sobbing uncontrollably.
Al walked over and awkwardly gave her a pat on the back. "Ummm there there?" he looked to Evanna for help who just gave him a misty smile.
Charlotte whipped her eyes and stood up, trying to compose herself. "Sorry. Its just Charlie won't let me go see him and…" she looked like she was going to cry again so Al quickly interrupted her.
"Oh well we'll send your regards when we go. Is the floo line ready?"
She nodded and wordlessly passed a pot of floo powder to Al. He took a pinch of the green powder and threw it into the fire place, stepped in and yelled "St Mungos Hospital, Ward for Magical Creature Injuries!" The fires roared up around him and he felt as if he was flying until, suddenly, he stumbled out into a white hallway. The fire roared up behind him and he jumped out of the way so Evanna could get through.
"Which room?" she asked.
"409," he said, turning to look around. They were standing outside room 390. Automatically a head popped out of a room a few metres to their right.
"Albus! Evanna!" yelled Arthur Weasley cheerfully.
Al smiled, "Hey Grandad. How's it going?"
"Oh fine! I was just telling young Scorp here about how I managed the paraffel park!"
Al smiled as he walked over to his Grandfather who looked good for his age. Arthur Weasley had retired from the Ministry ten years ago and had since been using a special (and legal) licence to magic muggle objects, many of which ended up in Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. His hairline thinning and grey with a few tuffs of red Arthur Weasley was forever the muggle mad wizard.
"Well I best be off!" Arthur said happily, "Molly's making a delicious leak soup for lunch. Yum!" he smacked his lips and trotted off whistling to himself, leaving Al and Evanna to walk into the pit of despai- Scorp's room.
Scorp shared the room with two of the other Hogwarts students. A sixth year, Martin Munch and a first year, Daniel Peterson, both looked as glum as Scorp did.
"Hey Martin, Dan," said Al.
"Hello Albus," said Martin is his deep, polite voice. Daniel merely squeaked something that sounded like 'hi'.'
Al sat in the chair beside Scorp's bed and grinned at his best friend. "Hey buddy. How's things?"
Silence.
"Did you hear that Owen Flint crashed into the east tower?"
Silence.
"They got Josh Hold to replace you as a chaser. You should see him! He sucks!"
…"Where's Rose?"
Scorp's voice was quiet and hoarse from under use but it was steady and it was his.
"Seamus Thomas asked her to Hogsmeade," Al said matter a factly, internally grinning smugly.
"Oh… Did she turn him down and is now feeling guilty?" he asked with a small smile.
Al shifted in his seat, pretending to be nervous. "Well… no…" he said, giving Frog Spawn (wizard equivalent of an Oscar) worthy performance. "She, err, said yes…"
Scorp raised his head and made eye contact for the first time in weeks. "Seriously?"
"Yes," hummed Evanna, "She looked very pretty."
Scorp switched his gaze to Evanna, so she could see his reddened eye and stumble back in shock. Scorp Bloom was a mess, bloodshot eyes, thinned lips and bones and white skin, he looked like a banshee.
"Okay," he murmured, he looked down, appearing as if he would go back to being a corpse and then… "Got any food?"
Al grinned and pulled out a chocolate frog from his pocket. Scorp bit into it ravenously, his first meal in weeks.
"Welcome back buddy. Where have you been?" said Al.
It was meant to be a joke but Scorp looked at him quite seriously. "Looking around inside myself," he nodded at Evanna," just like Selena taught us to. I was searching for my magical core, but it's gone." He shook his head angrily, "That shouldn't be. Even if my magic is gone my core should still be there, I dunno, in stone or something. Your core is part of your body as well as your magic. It's like an organ. I guess that's why we keep almost dieing, you really shouldn't loose organs," he chuckled.
"What does that mean then?" asked Al.
"It means," Scorp said, "That they stole our cores, and I'm guessing it wasn't just for food."
A/N: Yay! The end to the longest chapter so far! Five and half pages and 2860 words! I hope this makes up for they time it took me to update! Well I'm on holiday now, so hopefully that will allow me to write heaps but knowing me, I'll get distracted… so review to remind me! Come on, it'll only take five minutes of your time. Do it, you know you want to….