October 23, 2026

Rose awoke in the morning tangled in the bedsheets and missing a warm presence next to her. She felt groggy, but more awake and well rested than she'd felt all week. She kicked her legs free of the sheets and laid in bed, smelling something delicious wafting through the air from the kitchen.

She just spent the night with Scorpius – she exposed herself and broke down and he comforted her. Somewhere deep down she felt a bit humiliated, because it was Scorpius, but she didn't really care at this moment in time. There were bigger things out there and it was nice. Pleasantly nice. Even she could admit it to herself. Maybe that was just what (or who) she needed. Exposing those emotions was something she wasn't used to the past few years. She remembered travelling with Danny around the world mountain climbing; he wasn't one for tears and he lived too fast of a lifestyle to let "girl emotions slow him down," which wasn't great for her well-being. Emotions couldn't be bottled away forever.

Speaking of Danny. . .

Does he still have voices in his head? she wondered. Is he healing yet?

She hadn't thought about him in so long, that part of her life felt like it was a lifetime ago. Not even comprehensible or important. But it was still part of her past and she couldn't avoid it like how she used to with everything else.

Voices are a byproduct of some magic, Marta said. He's a muggle, so any magic is through your association. If his voices have not gone away then the situation is just going from bad to worse. This is something you need to know about to help him with.

Just forget about him. Leave him to his demons. He treated you like shit when you returned to London and doesn't respect you or himself, Greg said.

This is your problem. He would not have had these problems with a normal muggle woman. The least you can do is check up on him.

She couldn't escape this mess she was in. And it wasn't like she didn't have the voices in her own head as well that were troubling her. The darkness that consumed Rose the previous night seemed to lurk just out of reach. Then she heard Scorpius in the kitchen as he dropped something and cried out in pain. That made her smile and take a deep breath to calm herself. He was nearby. She was okay.

She rolled over in the bed, but was already at the edge of the mattress. How on earth two over-six-foot tall people fit in her bed was beyond her. She hoped he had a good sleep nonetheless. Hers was grand, regardless of the room available in the bed. If anything, it helped to have that feeling of compression and solidness around her – a sturdy rock in a hurricane.

When she was ready, she put her knotted up hair in a messy bun on the top of her head and slogged out to the kitchen to see Scorpius cooking. He was shirtless, and yet the warmth that had radiated off of him last night still made her cheeks redden when she remembered cuddling up close to him, cradled in his embrace. He had on a pair of sweatpants that hung low on his hips. Lean muscles were exposed along his back, shoulders, and arms as he cracked some eggs in the frying pan.

He turned to grin at her when he heard her footsteps and then he was pouring coffee in a mug and setting it down in front of her, not even caring about his appearance. Rose did her best to look at the wooden linear lines on the table. She didn't care last night when he was dressed like that; why should she now?

"Feeling better?" he asked as he set a mug of steaming black coffee in front of her. She pulled it in front of her and inhaled the bitter aroma. He knew how she liked her coffee. It was grand.

She shrugged and glanced up at him as he was looking intently at her. "Yes, but I want to apologise for yesterday, and my huge – "

"Stop," Scorpius said. "There's nothing you need to apologise for. Regardless of the situation, that was the best sleep I've had in months. And sometimes we all need a day to be human and let go of what has been pulling us down."

Rose sipped her coffee, even though it was still a little too hot, and gave what she hope was a sincere smile. It was more than needing a day to be human, but she couldn't express any of that in words.

"Still … thanks."

He reached towards her and squeezed her hand gently before turning back to the stove. He looked over his shoulder and gave an easy grin. "What sort of eggs do you like? Scrambled? Sunny side up? Over easy?"

"Any, really. Where did the eggs come from?" The last time she remembered opening the fridge there was maybe a celery stick and an apple inside. Yet, she was sure that was bacon she was smelling, and she saw him flip the toast in the frying pan.

"You lot had no food here, just crumbs, so I went and got some groceries early this morning when you were still passed out."

The clock read nine o'clock. Rose looked at him over her mug and felt a sudden tension fall over her shoulders. "You disobeyed Lucy's orders?" The vision of Lucy yelling at her clouded her mind and the gulp of coffee she took got stuck in her throat. It was painful to swallow.

He scooped some scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast on two plates and set them on the table in front of her instead of answering. Rose still stared at him and he almost started glaring because she couldn't find it in her to start scarfing down the food right away.

"Lucy brought news this morning," he finally said. "And gave me leave to get groceries when I asked."

The enticing smell was below her, but she couldn't pick up her fork, couldn't take a bite.

"What news."

"Dom is awake – " Rose was halfway standing before Scorpius waved her down again. " – but she can't have visitors for another, oh four hours. They're running diagnostics and only immediate family is allowed in at the moment. Eat."

She felt relief fall from her and put her head in her hands. "Oh thank fucking Merlin … " Then she remembered an important detail of yesterday. "Wait, how are your injuries?"

"Eat," he commanded again and jabbed his fork in her direction. "It's getting cold and it's about time you had a solid meal. My injuries are fine. You all worry too much about me. Lucy and Molly are worse than my mother."

Rose exhaled loudly. "I'm so happy to hear that." Her appetite returned and she demolished a piece of bacon in two bites. Oh, it was all glorious news indeed. Scorpius had his coat hanging on the back of his chair, though why he didn't keep regular clothes on after grocery shopping was a mystery. She wasn't complaining and she felt ridiculously happy about everything.

That glorious eh? said Marta.

Shut up stupid voice, said Rose, and then got out of her head into the world where a real conversation was happening.

"This is the first time I've seen you smile like that in a long time," Scorpius observed.

Rose felt her cheeks and neck redden, but still managed to reply honestly. "This is the first time I've had something to be happy about. So Dom's talking, lucid, and everything?"

"And everything, I've heard. More bacon?"

She ate it all already? "Yes please. Since when do you a cook?"

Scorpius shrugged. "I don't mind doing it. When I lived by myself I had to learn or be stuck eating burned spaghetti every night. I never get the chance to cook living with Al since everything is a precious object in the kitchen. It's easy enough now though."

And he dished out another piece of toast and a few slices of bacon and they dined in silence, though it wasn't tense, awkward, or weird at all. It was nice.

They arrived at 1:00 pm on the dot at St. Mungos hospital. Rose felt jittery as she climbed up the stairs to the third floor where Dom was located. They only knew she was awake and lucid – not what sort of mental or physical state she would be in, or how bad off she looked. Would she remember anything? Would she be in denial? Scorpius said Lucy didn't really say anything when she stopped by early in the morning.

"Aunt Fleur and Uncle Bill just left." Molly was in the waiting room when they emerged on the floor. She left Lorcan sitting on the chair as she went up to them. "She knows you two want to talk to her about what happened," she said and ran her hand through her wet hair, freshly washed for the first time in a week. She looked a little nervous. "Dom's not looking or doing very good right now – "

"We know," said Rose. "I mean, I saw her when we brought her in and there's no way she would be better in this short of a timeframe."

"Yes, but I mean … well, she's going to ask you for drugs," Molly finally said. "The Healers found her stomach full of a mixture of muggle and magic street drugs she got from who-knows-where when she was admitted, and I think she's been taking them all for some time now. The magical street drug is the most dangerous and it's something we can't slowly wean her off of. We have no samples for experimentation or dilution and this is the first case we've had at Mungo's so far. Ever."

"We wouldn't have any to give her anyway," said Scorpius. Rose glanced over at him. She had samples from the raid she and Lucy went on, but he didn't say anything or give any indication that he remembered her telling him.

Molly raised her eyebrows. "Hmm. And somehow I don't believe you. You both are so innocent these days. Just be careful and don't take anything she says to heart. It's still not her her."

Rose and Scorpius were silent as they walked down the hallway. The door to Dom's room was slightly ajar and Rose knocked softly, as if to avoid startling her, before pushing it open and walking inside. The room was plain white with two chairs on either side of the bed where Dom lay. The only brightness in the bland and perfunctory room was from the few cards and bouquet of red and orange snapdragons on the bedside table. Dom herself was restless and avoided looking at them for as long as possible. She was moving her head from side to side, looking up at different corners of the ceiling and seemingly lost in her own world. It was as if her body was restrained and that was the only form of movement she possessed. Rose cleared her throat.

"What the fuck do you two want?" she said when she finally noticed that they surrounded her on either side. "Come to terrorise me? Call me fat? God I'm so tired of everyone telling me what to do. I don't want visitors."

"We're just here to talk," Rose said softly as sat down on the chair, despite the rudeness of it. Scorpius sat on down as well, as silent as a waif, and folded his hands on his lap.

"I have nothing to say," Dom said. "I hate my life right now and don't want everyone to bombard me with questions and stare at my fucking fat rolls."

Her cheeks were certainly chubbier than what they were weeks ago, same with her fingers, and arms. Rose had been so consumed by her own life and problems that she didn't even notice the physical changes of Dom. Some of the bizarre eating habits, sure, but not the actual weight gain.

"Dom, you're really lucky to be alive," said Rose.

Dom's eyes met hers and seemed to swallow Rose whole; her black pupils were small pinpricks and there were red veins visible in the white. "Lucky? It feels like there's a fucking monster in my stomach right now. It's scratching and stabbing and needs something to feed it or it's going to tear through by body at any moment. It'll kill me before the fucking Twisted-spiff stuff does that everyone says is soooo horrible. No. This is worse. It just … craves." Her head started moving side to side again, body motionless.

"You'll feel better soon enough," said Rose, though she didn't mean it. What could she even say? She had no idea what it was like or what the drug did.

"I mean, I'm better. Not on my death bed anymore. They've got to let me go and take this fucking spell off my body. They can't keep me in the hospital forever. It's against my rights as a witch."

Rose looked at the frown on Scorpius' face. His foot was tapping. "That feeling's not going to go away," he said. "Not for weeks. The monster is going to get loose, and it will start to eat and obliterate your insides, but in an entirely mental way. And it will be brutal and you'll feel like you need to rip open your own stomach, but you just have to ride it out and not give in to its demands. The important thing is that once it finishes, it will leave."

"How the fuck do you know that?" Dom demanded and Rose likewise was curious.

"Conversations I've picked up. I've never understood the reference until know … I've heard it mentioned as a dragon."

"A dragon has got nothing on this shark toothed, long clawed maniac killing me from the inside out." She suddenly gave a small high pitched scream that made Rose jump about a foot in the air and make her hair stand up on her arms. Scorpius had his hands clenched.

"Dom. How did this start?" Rose asked once she felt somewhat composed.

"In my fucking medicine cabinet. The vial Molly labelled 'unknown.' And who is the potioneer in the family that had to experiment with it? Yeah, me."

"What do you mean?" Rose could only stare as Dom's chest started rising and falling at a faster rate. Her hands still hung limply be her sides, and Rose wondered how long the subduing charm that was placed on her would last. She was only in danger of herself.

"Why do you want to know? What could you possibly care, you're just going to turn around and tell the Healers. Tell my parents. Lucy. Louis."

Scorpius leaned forwards. "We need this information because we are conducting an investigation into Gradford who is one of the drug lords taking over the city, street by street. He's introduced and is controlling this new drug 'Spiff,' and it's working its way into both the muggle and magical world. As you've experienced, this drug is toxically enchanting, highly addictive to the point of ... well, murder in some cases, and is targeted towards a younger demographic. We need to know everything you've learned about it."

Rose didn't miss his use of 'we.' Dom didn't look like she cared. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she stared at the ceiling.

"Malfoy, leave," she demanded suddenly. "I need to talk to Rose. Alone."

Bad idea, said Greg. You know what she's going to ask. Don't do it.

Scorpius and Rose met eyes. He slowly rose from his chair, eyes staying connected the whole time and seemingly telling her he'd be right outside if his head nod was anything to go by. He was gone in a swoop. The door didn't shut all the way behind him and Rose was sure he'd be listening in.

Dom instantly turned her gaze to Rose. "I know you have it."

"Uh, what?" She wasn't expecting this sort of confrontation and tone of voice.

"The bottle that was in my room. And Piper sent a letter, said you took some with you when you ransacked the house."

"Dom, I don't – "

"Don't fucking lie. Piper is dead now, killed because you destroyed the potions, worth thousands of galleons in total. Do you know how long it takes to brew? Long enough that I'm not accepting 'I don't know what you're talking about.'"

Piper was dead? Rose opened and closed her mouth without saying anything. It's not like she knew or cared about him, but dead, really? It was too sudden to be true. She saw him alive only a few days ago.

"What do you want Dom? You're not getting anything."

Idiot, said Marta.

A gleam appeared in Dom's eyes and Rose realised she really shouldn't have confirmed anything.

Dom's voice dropped and she took on a pleading tone. "Bring it here. Sneak it in. Please Rose, I'm begging you."

"Dom, I'm not – "

"You don't understand. Do you know why I can't move my body? They've binded me to the table so I don't rip my own stomach apart like I was trying to do when I first woke up. I need what they can't give me here. Scorpius doesn't know shit. I will die, unless you bring me it. Die from the inside out." Her eyes became watery. "Rose, I need your help. You're the only one who can help me. I don't want to die yet."

Rose's stomach clenched and she looked at her hands, poking her swollen, purple skin that was her right hand, and watching the white rebound to red. Dom's hands were motionless at her side, overtop the blanket that covered her. They were death's hands: bluish white with fingers partly curled.

"Then you need to talk," Rose said suddenly. "Answer all our questions. Then I'll bring it."

"Swear."

"I promise."

"No, swear it to me, your cousin. By the blood that binds us."

Don't swear. You know you're not going to do it, Marta said.

You have to do it. She's suffering, Greg replied.

She'll only suffer more and for longer. This will not be helping.

Dom was intent, crazed eyes focused on Rose. "Dom, I swear," Rose said softly. "I swear on the blood that binds us." Dom nodded her head.

"Go get Scorpius then."

He was standing right at the door, waiting to come in when Rose stepped out in the hallway; she barely could open her mouth before he was in front of her and imposing in her personal space. He gripped her shoulder tightly as he whispered into her ear, breath warm and insistent, mindful of the open door behind them and Dom still incapacitated in her bed, waiting.

"Rose you can't," he said. "She can't have any. It's too addictive. I know she's in pain now, but it will pass eventually."

Rose loosened his hand and pulled back so she could look him in the eyes. "I know. I lied to her."

"But you bonded it with blood?"

"No … I just said it but we didn't do a blood oath."

The relief was palpable. His hand dropped from her shoulder after giving it a squeeze and then he pushed open the door to reenter Dom's room. If he was so relieved about that, what would he do if he knew about her hand? A blood oath was one thing, but a blood bracelet? For the first time, Rose became curious of his reaction. He would ... care, right? But why would she care what he thought about it! It was stupid thoughts to have when talking to Dom was more important.

Dom was eyeing her up when she seat down on the seat again.

"What can you tell us," said Scorpius.

"The day you showed up on our doorstep," Dom said, directing it at Rose. "It all started when you showed up at the beginning of August. You were injured and I had to make bruise balm because you're an idiot and didn't leave Danny sooner."

Even though it was so long ago, Rose could still remember it vividly. From the fight, to the running, to her cousins, and then to her first encounter with Scorpius since Hogwarts.

"There were two bottles in the cupboard Molly found that weren't labelled. I always label my potions. The first one was easy enough to figure out – Veritaserum, but the other was some sort of, well, then we called it 'Twisted Veritaserum' because it retained some of the properties of truth telling, but it was different. Very different."

This was almost like the old Dom speaking now, and Scorpius was listening with rapt attention. Rose was trying to remember the potions that Dom was brewing on that day, but was coming up with nothing. She had been getting a healing then and not focused on anything else.

"I started experimenting with the twisted potion in the days afterwards, trying to figure out its properties … what it was. It was wrong – weird, and there were some ingredients in it that I didn't recognise. And that was the craziest part because even though I haven't used every plant ever, I can usually tell what area of the world it's from, by distinguishing magical characteristics. This one had nothing. And before I knew it I couldn't stop thinking about the potion. It was infiltrating into my thoughts all day every day. Morning, at work, and at night. I would wake up in the middle of the night and just need to stir it, and be near it. And then I found I could barely leave its presence, it was compelling me to such an extent … "

"Just the potion's smell was enticing enough?" asked Scorpius. "When did you first try it?"

"Oh, it was maybe the end of September. It just got to be too much, you know? There was like this vacant space inside of me, this void that could never be filled that being near the potion no longer satisfied." Dom's voice turned bitter. "Food couldn't block it and I basically ate anything that was around. And there was just this little voice in my head telling me to try a bit. Just a taste. That's all. Then maybe it would just stop demanding all my attention and I would be satisfied."

"It didn't turn out to be just a taste though," Rose said. She leaned back in her chair and put her feet on the corner of Dom's bed, crossing her arms.

"No. It didn't. I don't know if I can describe it. It was like the world came alive, the walls and plants and floor and sky were all visible in a way I'd never seen before. 'Twisted Veritaserum' was an apt name for it. It shifts and alters reality into a crazy, beautiful way. Well at first. You can get bad spiffs as well."

"How did you find more of it when you ran out?"

"Piper at first. He was under some sort of blackmail contract he couldn't get out of. He'd alluded it to me a few times in the past year when he supplied me with special ingredients. I had the extra Veritaserum in the closet and could manipulate the properties enough to almost recreate the drug. But I was missing something major. Piper had the contacts and more of the potion. I figured out what extra ingredients I needed through him and it was simple enough to finally make an exact replica of Spiff."

Scorpius looked so surprised, confused, and happy that Rose wished she could read his mind. He leaned forward closer to Dom. Rose felt this twinge of jealousy that she disregarded. It was too absurd of a feeling to have at this moment. It probably was saying something for Dom's potioneering talent that Scorpius was this interested.

"How is it made? Could you tell us the ingredients and instructions?"

Dom thought for a moment. "After Rose brings me something first."

Scorpius inhaled sharply but moved along. "How long had Piper been making it?"

"Long ass time. Six months or so. Couldn't get out of it."

"Was he himself addicted to it?"

"No," Dom's voice sounded bitter. "He couldn't afford it, and he always wore a mask when he was brewing." Rose wasn't sure if Dom was bitter because she got addicted or some unknown reason they didn't know about."

"Where's Piper now?"

"Dead. He sent a note while I was out that said he was on the run for his life. I'm the only one who knows where his father lives and I was supposed to tell him about Piper and his predicament. Then I received another note from someone else saying Piper had been killed." Dom nodded towards the bedside table and Scorpius immediately pulled open the drawer to grab some papers inside and look at the notes himself.

That was a rather large disappointment hearing that news for the second time. Piper would probably know where Canwood was, Rose should have questioned him more when her and Lucy infiltrated the house.

"Did you ever meet any other members of the gang around Pipers' or anywhere else?" asked Rose.

"This batshit crazy woman always came to Piper's to order him around and monitor or collect what he was doing. But there were always people around; I don't know if they were part of the gang or not. Just the blonde haired tramp."

"Do you know her name?"

"No. God, I ran from her. If anyone spoke to her who wasn't supposed to she has a repertoire of dark spells she used." Dom's voice got quiet. "She burned someone's arm to a blackened, useless, charcoal when they sneezed as she was in the room. And also cruciatus'd someone who was spiffed out of their mind and they screamed and hallucinated horrible things for the rest of the day. I got the message loud and clear and kept my distance."

Dom's eyes closed and she sighed heavily, head resuming a twitching, turning motion. Rose reached out and grabbed Dom's hand. "Thanks for talking to us."

"Don't fucking forget your end of the bargain."

Scorpius put the notes back in the drawer and shut it. "Just wait. One last question: Where did the potions come from in the first place? Who initially put them in your cupboard?"

Dom gave a sharp scream of pain and Rose, again, jumped.

"I don't know," she gasped. "Whoever did it can burn in hell."

Then she gave another short-bursted scream. Rose and Scorpius left to her head frantically going back and forth and to see an Healer knocking at the door, waiting patiently for the two visitors to leave.

"You two finished right on time," she said, holding a bottle of bubbling potion in her hands. "She's in a bad state now. It'll be a slow healing process, but she'll get better." She slipped by them and went into the room. "Hi Ms. Weasley. It's time for your painkillers again … " The door shut behind her.

"She was referring to Rebecca Box, wasn't she?" Rose said to Scorpius when they were having coffee and croissants in a little café outside Mungo's.

"Very likely. I'm sure of it." He was frowning, eyebrows crunched together and finger tapping on the side of his mug. "It makes it more dangerous. For you, especially. I don't know if she will have heard who it was that stole the potions, but she's going to be out looking. The potions are expensive and time consuming – it won't go unnoticed."

Rose shrugged. Nobody knew her. "If anything, it's Lucy that's at risk. Piper seemed to know her." Did she say Lucy's name at all during the raid or Lucy say hers? Rose couldn't even remember. She dearly hoped not.

You better be careful, Marta said. It'll be more dangerous to wander around town and ask questions.

"It's serious enough that I'm going to talk to my superior and talk about assigning extra people to watch her and the house. Hopefully we have enough Aurors or MLE's to spare. I'll collect the potions you got later tonight and bring them to the Ministry for secure holding and testing."

They finished their coffee and then Scorpius left, extracting promises from her that they would meet up in her flat at suppertime. She pulled her wind jacket tighter around her once she was outside in the brisk autumn weather. She hadn't been on her own in the street in such a long time now it seemed. She was sans Scorpius and sans any obligation besides one.

She went back to the flat and packed a backpack, grabbing her cellphone on a whim. Before she left she made herself a sandwich from a fully stocked fridge that she finished as she was walking down the stairs.

«Hey Courtney, it's Rose. Are you free to meet up? I have some questions to ask.»

The reply back was instant.

«You have impeccable timing. I have finally been fired and was walking home. I'll be at the park four blocks north of CFK. See you then."

A/N: You know that feeling you get when you haven't written in a long time and decide to get reacquainted with your characters and plot, then you start reading from the beginning and inwardly cringe at every sentence … yeah, I have that feeling now. And I'm so torn as to whether I should scrap the whole thing, restart/rewrite, or keep trucking along and finish it. I'm leaning towards the latter at this point though, because I promised myself I would finish this. But still. Arhggghgh. My current self is angry at my past self. Though really, it's been a learning curve and I had to start somewhere. I'm sure future me will be just as annoyed with present, as present is with past - :) - Hope you enjoyed this chapter!