Chapter 12

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Rose blinked and raised her head from the Doctor's shoulder as the harp's haunting voice quieted. The other instruments had already stilled, and she realized she had no idea what time it was. She and the Doctor had ended up sitting on the floor, resting against each other as they listened, and her bum was beginning to go numb. She yawned suddenly, and the noise broke the contemplative silence.

The Doctor jumped up. "Blimey, I wasn't thinking—you must be exhausted!"

She blinked sleepily up at him, allowing him to pull her to his feet. She ran a hand over her hair as he swung his bag loosely over one shoulder. "What about you? 'S just as late."

Was it her imagination, or did he tense at that? "I don't sleep much." He smiled abruptly at her, but it didn't reach his dark eyes. "Besides, you don't need to worry about me. Let's get you back to bed, yeah?"

And there it was, the smiling armor he put on anytime he got uncomfortable. Rose lo—cared about him, she really did, but sometimes he nearly drove her mad. "Doctor, are you all right?"

"Me? I'm always all right." He reached out and grabbed her hand as they left. "Now come on, time for all the sleepy Gryffindors to go to bed."

"You sure it's not time for all the condescending Slytherins to get a smack?"

He snorted as he shut the door behind them, and Rose shivered in the dungeon chill. "If you tried that, Rose, your hand would go numb before you even got halfway through my house."

"So rude, Doctor, and about your own house! For shame." Rose and the Doctor spun at the other voice, the Doctor stepping in front of her. Rose gave him an exasperated glance and stood next to him, peering into the shadows. There was a flare as the torches roared back to life, and as they blinked into the light. Rose made out Koschei leaning against the crumbling wall, his arms crossed casually.

The Doctor actually growled. "What do you want?"

"Oh, the normal things. Success, respect, happiness."

The Doctor's jaw tightened. "You wouldn't know happiness if it bit you on the arse."

Koschei raised a hand dramatically to his chest. "Why, Doctor! How rude. Of course, that's you, isn't it? Rude and not ginger, nothing like that prattling niece of yours. Of course, it's not like you would be—after all, she's not really your family." He sighed mockingly. "It must drive you mad, knowing you don't belong anywhere."

"Stop it." Koschei blinked and turned back to Rose, who was glaring daggers at him. "Donna is his family. With how annoyed they get at each other, they couldn't be anything else. And you, you with your pathetic, regimented idea of what family is, that the only thing that matters is how pure your blood is—of course you can't see it. Family isn't just flesh and blood, it's the people that will care about you no matter what, just because you're you." Her hand tightened around the Doctor's. "He's surrounded by family, and you're all alone." She leaned forward to glare into his eyes. "Tell me, Mr. Rosier, how do your mum and dad like Azkaban?"

Pure hatred contorted Koschei's face for a moment, but he smoothed it over in the time it took her to blink. He smirked at the Doctor. "Quite the mouth on this one, Doctor. Then again, I shouldn't be surprised—after all, you have always used others instead of dirtying your own hands."

The Doctor straightened, his grip tightening on Rose's. "You're one to talk, Koschei. I know what you did last year, how many people you hurt. Yet here you are."

Koschei laughed delightedly. "Oh, did Martha talk? Silly me, of course she would. Sometimes I could barely get her to shut up. All that moaning and groaning—but then again, I suppose that is what you do when there's a spell digging into your flesh."

The Doctor whipped out his wand, his eyes flashing dangerously as he roared a spell. Koschei spun out of the way easily, slipping behind the wall and away.

Rose grabbed the Doctor's hand before he could pursue him. "Doctor, wait. He's not worth it."

There was a slight pop from the air next to them and they spun to see a waist-high, wide-eyed house-elf glaring at them. She grabbed the Doctor's bag and yanked, vanishing with it and a wide, malicious grin.

The Doctor cried out, and Koschei's voice rang through the air, artificially enhanced to echo through the passageway. "Oh, what shall I find in here?" There was a slight rustle, and then a pause. The Doctor was looking around wildly, his eyes darting all around the half-collapsed stonework. Laughter rolled over them, seeming to come from every direction. The Doctor closed his eyes. "Oh, how sweet! The Doctor wants to find his family! So much for that little speech of yours, Rosie."

"Don't call me Rosie!"

"You might want to get a handle on that temper of yours, Rosie. Of course, the Doctor knows all about getting a handle on you, doesn't he?"

She flushed angrily. "Stop it! We're not like that."

There was another pop and Koschei appeared in front of them, the house elf from earlier gripping tightly to his hand. Rose leveled her wand at him but he ignored her, instead rustling the papers from the Doctor's bag in front of him. "This looks like it took a lot of work, Doctor. If it weren't so pathetic, I'd almost be impressed."

The Doctor's jaw twitched. "Give that back to me."

"Why would I do that? This is ever so much more fun." He vanished as Rose and the Doctor shot spells at him, his laughed stilling eerily as he disappeared. The force of their combined spells hit the crumbling wall, and Rose gasped and shoved the Doctor out of the way as it toppled over with a resounding crash. The heavy, cold stone landed on her legs, and the pain roared through her veins like fire. The Doctor's shout nearly eclipsed her own, mingling with the heavy grind of the falling walls.

The rubble settled, the dust drifting down to blanket their bodies. The Doctor stared at her, his eyes wide. He'd escaped any hurt, though if she hadn't pushed him out of the way…

"Oh, god, Rose, hold on." He fished his wand out of the rubble and closed his eyes, grimacing in concentration. After a moment a weak Patronus shimmered out of the end of his wand, a flickering silver wolf. "Donna, wake up. Rose's been hurt. We're in the dungeons, past the statue of Thelonius Harwood—the walls fell in." He gasped in a ragged breath. "For god's sake, hurry." It bounded through the walls, and he turned to her. "Rose? Rose, please, are you all right?"

She cracked her eyes open, fighting off the waves of pain that were crashing through her body. "That's the question you're gonna ask? Does it bloody look like I'm all right?"

He stared, pale and wild-eyed, at the crimson that was staining her jeans. "You're right, stupid question." Rose panted a little and pushed herself up, and he grabbed her shoulder. "No no no, don't move! We've got to keep pressure on the wounds—if you shift you could end up bleeding out. Oh, god."

Rose laughed weakly, though it petered out into a cough. "Well, then, looks like waiting it is."

"Yeah."

She reached over and took his hand, closing her eyes as even that small shift sent red-hot pain roaring through her. "Doctor? Talk to me. What was that paper about?"

His fingers tightened around hers, and he stared down at their clasped hands. "That's what you want to talk about?"

"Would you rather discuss the searing pain?"

"Right, sorry." He ran a hand through his hair distractedly, leaving a crimson smear on his temple. Rose closed her eyes and firmly told her stomach to calm down. He swallowed, staring down at their hands. "It's a project I've been working on, like that memory spell we did in the Shrieking Shack. It's taken a bit longer than that one, because… well. I don't really want my family to know about it." His eyes flew up to hers. "Don't tell Donna?"

She frowned, her eyebrows pulling together. "'Course I won't, not if you don't want me to."

"It's… it's a bit like a magical DNA test. I love Dad and Donna, I do. Even Sylvia. I wouldn't be me without them. But that's not all there is to family." He looked down and shut his eyes, and Rose watched his Adam's apple bob helplessly. "I just want to know where I come from."

Rose squeezed his hand, her breath catching. "You'll figure it out, I know you will."

He barked out a laugh, then coughed in the dusty air. "How can I? That was months of planning, of hiding every scrap of research from Dad and Donna, and let me tell you—she just knows when you've got something you're hiding. She's like a bloodhound when it comes to secrets. And it was all for nothing. Koschei's got it, and he sure as hell won't let me get my hands on it ever again." He let out a heavy breath. "What if he tells Donna?"

"She'll understand, Doctor."

"Yeah?" He looked away from Rose as his grip on her hand loosened, but thankfully he didn't pull away. His voice softened as he spoke, the nerves from before fading to tired monotone. "After her father died, Dad and I moved in with her mum and her. Mum—Wilf's wife, Lillian—she'd passed away a few years before, so Dad was glad to get out of the house. Dunno how happy Sylvia was to have us, though. She's a Squib, but even though Geoffrey wasn't a strong wizard, he'd gone to Hogwarts and graduated with good grades. He was so proud of Donna when she got her acceptance letter, of her and of me. When he got sick, though, St. Mungo's couldn't do anything for him. They could change somebody back from a statue of living wood, but they couldn't stop the cancer. Sylvia's never forgotten that. She hates the sight of magic now, can't stand it, and Donna's always been a powerful witch. So how d'you think Donna will feel when she finds out she's not family enough for me, when her own mum can barely bring herself to look at her some days?"

Rose reached up to cup his cheek, wincing when she accidentally brushed a long scratch on his jaw. "It'll be all right."

His only response was a bittersweet smile, and the silence enveloped them.

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"Rose? Rose, wake up! Stay with me!"

Rose reluctantly pulled her eyes open, wincing as dust flicked into her lashes. "Wha'sit?" The Doctor was leaning over her, his hand tight around hers. He's pale—he's too pale. "Wha's wrong?"

"You can't fall asleep, do you hear me, Rose? I need you to stay with me. You can do it, Rose."

Her eyes slid shut again. Her legs felt like they were on fire, like every nerve from her thighs down was inflamed. She could feel the black beckoning to her, offering to wrap all of her pain up in comforting emptiness. "'m tired."

"I know you're tired, Rose, but you need to stay awake."

A sound came from the rubble beside them and the Doctor spun to face the wall, bracing himself between Rose and whoever was out there. There was a rumble of stones shifting before a hole appeared, and a familiar head of coppery hair poked its way through. "There you are!" She pulled back out, and her voice echoed oddly through the stifling dust. "Hermione, we've found 'em! They're in here."

The walls folded outwards, the fallen stones floating out of the way to gradually reveal their rescuers. Ginny and Hermione were working in tandem to shift the stones, and as soon as a path was cleared Donna darted through to them. She checked over the Doctor carefully before turning to Rose, and her hand flew up to her mouth. "Oh, Merlin."

Hermione had finished moving the stones and she quickly knelt next to Rose, gently touching what she could reach of her legs. "Rose, can you still feel this?"

Rose gasped out a ragged laugh. "I can feel too much."

The older girl smiled grimly. "I know it doesn't feel like it, but that's actually a good sign. I'm going to put you under a stasis spell, is that all right?"

"Sure, fine." Rose closed her eyes as Hermione muttered the incantation, and within moments she was in a deep sleep, her body sealed off from the world.

The Doctor had knelt on Rose's other side, and he gently brushed her hair out of her face. "I didn't want to move the stones—I wasn't sure when anyone would get here, and I didn't want her to bleed out."

Hermione nodded briskly, pulling out her wand. "You did the right thing. You might want to back up a little, this could get messy."

"No, I'm staying here."

Donna exploded. "You blithering idiot! What did you think you were doing, running around down here? You know how dangerous it is, and yet you two went traipsing off through the rubble when decent people should be asleep! Now back off and let her help! Don't you think you've done enough?"

He paled and stood, his movements stilted and awkward. "No, I..."

"Shut it. Now we've got to get her to the Hospital Wing, and I don't think Rose being carted in by a Slytherin boy after hours would do her much good."

He flinched as if he'd been struck before looking away. "You're right." He breathed out heavily and tucked his wand in his sleeve, his eyes tracing over Rose's face. "I'll just be off, then."

Ginny reached out and touched his shoulder before he could go. "Are you all right?"

"Oh, I'm always all right." With one last look at Rose, he left.

Ginny leveled a glare at Donna, who glared right back. "Don't you think you're being a bit harsh?"

"That complete and utter moron nearly got himself killed, and look at what's happened to Rose! What am I supposed to do, pat him on the back?"

Ginny shook her head. "No, but maybe you shouldn't be so hard on him. His Patronus sounded utterly terrified."

Donna set her jaw as she helped Hermione move the heavy rocks away from Rose's legs, wincing at the bloodstained trousers and shards of ivory-colored bone that pierced her mangled flesh. "Yeah, for good reason. We've got to get her to Madam Pomfrey."

Ginny glanced down the hallway and sighed, pulling out her wand to help them move Rose. It would be a long walk up to the Hospital Wing.

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