November 1, 2016

Scorpius seemed rather quiet when he and Rose apparated to the alley outside her old flat. He looked tired in the shadows, and run down with his paler than normal skin and limp blonde hair. And at least he had warned her for the side along apparition … but Rose didn't know what to say to him now. Or how to make things better, because she was sure she was the reason he was somber. And just the fact that she had pissed off everyone else in her life, she really needed Scorpius as an ally. She would be utterly alone without him. Once that was what she wanted, especially when Lucy got him involved, but now she wasn't sure. She had never admitted to herself that she really needed his help, and even liked having him around.

"Her room is 513. What do you think? Just go through the front door up to it?"

"What side of the building is her room on?" Scorpius said, looking up and counting 5 floors. "Let's scout outside first and keep watch for a few minutes. Maybe see if we can determine if she's home right now or not, or what to expect when we break in."

It took some real brain teasing to picture which side of the building the window would be facing. Rose walked around the alley to the back where she pointed up to two balconies next to each other. One had vines growing around the ledge, the other some flowery plants.

"Alright, I'm somewhat confident that it's one of those two."

"Only somewhat?"

"Yes, it's hard to tell from down here."

Scorpius pulled out some omnioculars from his rucksack and looked upwards at the balconies, and then the surrounding buildings. "Well, let's get to a high vantage point and see what we can see. We can climb the fire escape to that roof that's five stories, so we should have the perfect view into the room." He pointed to the building right behind the apartment complex. Once they climbed the fire escape, it was an easy reach up to the roof to crawl over, legs flailing only a little.

The balcony with the vines was no doubt Daphne's room. The flowering vine was a wild explosion over the whole balcony and spilling backwards into the room. There were loads of plants lining the walls inside that they could see. In the centre of the room there was a grey looking concrete cauldron with a bubbling, boiling substance in the middle.

"Ministry keeps a close eye on her, it looks like," Rose said under her breath.

Daphne, her swaddled grey lumpy form, was standing to the side of the cauldron, lightly swaying on the spot in the middle of her messy flat. Unfortunately.

"So, we wait," said Scorpius.

"We wait."

Daphne barely moved. From their attentive watching at the beginning, they began to pay less and less attention to the room. There was just no movement. After an hour, they had pulled out snacks and were having a picnic on the roof under their protective spells. With a bit of relaxing and playful banter, Scorpius began to loosen up and didn't look quite so tired and serious. The sun zipped in and out of the clouds as the next hour went by, and the wind slowly picked up. They stretched out on a blanket that Scorpius had brought and stared up at the sky, picking out shapes in the clouds.

"I enjoy this sort of scouting," Rose said and crossed her stretched out legs as she glanced over at him. "Very relaxing."

"Mhmm," he said and looked over at her with an eyebrow raised, their faces less than a foot apart. Rose couldn't help but glance down at his lips before meeting his eyes. There was an intensity in them as he stared at her. Her eyes travelled down again before she shook herself and felt her cheeks heat up. He definitely didn't look somber anymore. She couldn't keep his gaze for long before clouds were in her line of sight once again.

Periodically they would sit up and check over the flat, but nothing had changed. They started speculating on what she was brewing that required so much care.

"An anti-aging potion," suggested Rose.

"A luck potion."

"Draught of sleeping death."

All this waiting and the window of opportunity dwindles, Greg said. It's as if time isn't precious right now.

Only fools rush. And I see no fools here, replied Marta.

We have time. . . at least some time, Rose amended. To do it right, for once. Besides, it's enjoyable right now. And I'm still tired from my healing, so I'm not complaining.

Another hour passed and then they left the sight of Daphne's flat to go to the street side of the roof where they started people watching. The wind was still picking up and Rose had to borrow one of the extra jumpers Scorpius brought to keep warm.

"Alright," he said and handed her the omnioculars. "Middle-aged man walking this way. He lives in his parent's attic and eats butter out of the container to maintain his body weight so he doesn't waste away."

"Also is ambidextrous and has a guinea pig as a pet." She zoomed in closer. "Has a large tattoo of a mermaid on his chest."

Scorpius snorted loudly. "That would be how you win the women."

A few people later, Rose was looking around the street for someone interesting to describe, when she found someone who was weaving back and forth on the sidewalk with a ragged shirt and dirty trousers. He looked familiar and as soon as she had a closer look she couldn't help but gasp and feel sick to her stomach.

"What? What is it?" Scorpius asked.

Rose's mouth opened and closed multiple times. She didn't even know what to say. It was Danny. Down below and falling over his feet was her ex-boyfriend Danny. Right below her.

"I've got to go down," she managed to say, though her mind was spinning. What was he doing? Why now?

"Rose? What is it?" She was pulled out of her own head and looked at Scorpius.

Just say it. No more secrets, said Marta.

It's okay to keep part of your life hidden. He'll judge.

But there was no point now in keeping things quiet. It would just arouse suspicion, distrust, and they were beyond that. She hoped. Besides, it would probably cause a scene anyway when she went down – to which any capable wizard would hear. "That man on the street who … well he looks like he's drunk – that man is my ex." She felt hollow saying it – as if she were just saying words that had no meaning. "He knows I was staying at my cousins here. Or knew."

His hands were overtop hers on the omnioculars, silently asking to look closer and she relinquished them to him. Scorpius was instantly looking down at the ground, pointing the lens at Danny. Rose didn't quite know what he would say and put her head in her hands. Of all days.

"I have to go down," Rose said into her hands. "I can't just ignore this."

"Do you want some help? He looks a bit unstable right now," he said and that's when Danny fell on his face on the cement. Scorpius looked over at her apologetically, as if it was insulting to her that Danny wasn't okay. But she still thought she had something to do with it since she suspected the voices were from a magical origin.

Suddenly she found herself telling her theory.

"He's muggle, right, but I think he's somehow been affected by magic – spell, potion, whatever. I don't know what happened exactly, but he's got voices in his head that are affecting his judgement that talk to him all the time. Telling him conflicting things. " As if she didn't have experience with that.

Scorpius looked a bit doubtful. And peered through the lens again.

"Are you sure he doesn't just have a mental illness? It looks as if he's talking to himself."

I mean, really love, maybe you have a mental illness as well, Greg said wickedly.

"I mean, it's possible on some realm. But I think unlikely. Because of the circumstances." Yet, she held it in and didn't say anything.

Danny picked himself up off the ground and stumbled over to the apartment building, where he was met with a security guard. Rose had to look away.

"Don't make me pry," Scorpius said with a side glance at her and she made a face. Her heart rate was picking up drastically. It was really now or never. Her last secret.

"So, I have voices in my head as well. On the night we both got in our massive argument and I showed up at the flat, that's when the voices just sort of … showed up. And it happened at the same time for the both of us – something in that fight triggered it, but I don't know what. I mean, it has to be magic. I just don't know what from. The circumstances are so unbelievable."

"You've got voices in your head?" he said flatly and a bit disbelievingly.

She shrugged. "It just echoes the extremes of my thoughts. It's kind of weird to explain. Alcohol blocks them out I've discovered." For the love of Merlin she would not mention they had names. "So Danny, I think, has been drinking a lot to control it. Which isn't helping his plethora of other health problems from his accident.

"But you have voices? What do they say to you?"

"Oh you know, they curse you and tell me to be reckless, but then they tell me to slow down and don't do anything stupid. Basically a mixed message all the time. If I wasn't so stable I would go crazy."

He seemed caught off guard, opening and closing his mouth several times. "Wait … you're stable?" he said, rather audaciously, and Rose couldn't help but let out a peal of laughter at his unexpected statement.

"Ha ha. Hilarous. I'm not really, but that's not the point." Rose grinned momentarily before getting serious again. "Anyway, I think I should be fine with him. Just update me if anything is happening at Daphne's. Since that is where you're supposed to be watching."

Scorpius rolled his eyes. "As we're at the wrong end of the building, people watching. But I'll go check it out again. She's had to have moved now, how long can she stand being as old as she is? If there's trouble when you go down, let me know – " His eyebrows shot up in the air suddenly. "Wait … in the library … you were researching head maladies."

"I didn't find anything though. Other things took priority." And she couldn't help but touch the bracelet cutting into her wrist, and her swollen sore hand.

Scorpius frowned. "Alright I think I believe you. Better go catch up to him, he's slowly heading away."

Rose would have objected to him not believing her if Danny wasn't already heading past where the security guard had thrown him, back up the street. She raced for the fire-exit and scaled down the building.

"Danny," she called out once she was closer, "Danny!" He turned as if in a daze, or drunk, as she suspected. "What are you doing here?" She said that a lot more accusatory than she meant.

It took him a moment to find his voice. "What – what am I doing here? Where have you been? I've called and called with no answer. I'm turned away from here. Always. You've disappeared and I need to talk to you. No I already said. No. I know." His eyes looked bruised, and he hadn't cut his hair in weeks, but his anger faded as quickly as his resolve and he slumped to the ground, holding his head in his hands.

"Err – scoot back a metre or so so you're not in the middle of the sidewalk." Rose said. Involuntarily she looked up to the roof where she knew Scorpius to be – even though she couldn't see him because of the protective spells they put up. He was probably watching very closely and Rose found she didn't mind. She sat down on the grass and waited for Danny to join her. He looked rough, though he'd looked rough all the previous times as well. His hair was being blown by the wind and his fingers looked super thin. She was glad for the warm jumper under her wind coat.

"Do you have voices in your head still?" she asked gently when he was sitting beside her.

"They're a part of me now." He said at once and Rose got shivers up her spine. "This is reality. But I can keep them away easy enough."

Yeah, with alcohol. The drunk, said Greg. Get out of here, he's going to guilt you into something.

He's calm now. Just wait it out. You have help if you need.

"I'll find a way to fix this," she said, not quite thinking about him being a muggle and her a witch and what he knew.

The look Danny gave her was incredulous. "How would you fix this? This is just something I have now." He paused. "I've been seeing a therapist person, like you said to do. And they've given me some medicine. Though it doesn't really work at all. But it's helped. To talk. And I feel calmer. You know."

She wouldn't have expected muggle medication to work, but she was glad he was seeing someone.

He continued on. "And I know it's useless to ask you to come back. So I won't. But I do still love you. Or I think I do. The memory of you. At least. And I want to say sorry. I need to say it. Sorry, I mean." He was out of breath.

"I accept your apology," she said. She felt like they were two strangers talking. One maybe only slightly saner than the other, depending on who was asked.

"What are you doing now? Are you happy?"

The question threw her off guard for a moment. It was hard to compare happiness for it was all relative. Her mind went to the bracelet on her hand, to hunting for Canwood, to Dom in the hospital, and her relationships with all her cousins on the fritz. Then all her travelling with him living quid to quid and her year back in London trying to live with him. And finally to her stake out at Daphne's place, with Scorpius. Just simply laying on their backs and staring up at the clouds.

"Yes, I'm happy," she said and was surprised to find it wasn't an outright lie. Scorpius's green stormy eyes were at the forefront in her mind. "I'm just getting my grounding here and then I'm thinking I will go somewhere tropical for a bit. Remote. Somewhere beautiful." Full of wild jungle and roaring seas, and no humans. Except for maybe one person by her side, if she ever got brave enough to acknowledge it to herself. But she needed pure nature. With a beating sun, and crystal clear waters, and a never-ending ocean. "I don't live here anymore, and neither do my cousins," Rose said, referencing the building. "The chances were amazing that I was even in the neighbourhood tonight."

"I get it. I'll get out of your life. I won't come around here anymore."

"It's not that. We're just two very different people. I don't know if we can even be friends right now. It wouldn't be healthy and most likely not helpful."

"No, you're right. I need to get better. That's the priority."

Rose nodded. "I'll come back to check up on you in a few months. But then that's the last time you'll ever see me."

He visibly swallowed a few times. "Then goodbye. For now. Next time I see you I'll be climbing again."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "Danny that's huge. I sincerely hope you'll be climbing. Take care."

She helped him to his feet before heading in the opposite direction, back to Scorpius. She didn't look back. There was no need.

Her feet felt lighter as she made her way up the stairs. Scorpius was waiting for her back on the roof, with things all packed. Before she could ask, he said, "We've been outwitted. Severely outwitted. However, I am impressed despite myself."

"What do you mean?"

He handed the omnioculars to her. "Look closely at the flat. Tell me, what do you see?"

Try as she might there was no change and she told him so.

"Exactly. No change at all. No change in the shadows, No change in the plants out on the balcony in the wind – "

"Oh! You mean – "

"Yes. An illusion. A very good one for someone we know has had their wand broken. And is not supposed to be doing magic." He gave her a significant look. "I just ran over there on your way back to check out the place. It's completely empty, and probably has been all afternoon. I dismantled a few minor trapping spells she set up over the door so we can head over to search it. No time like the present."

"You mean right now? To break-in?"

"Might as well. The place is empty. We'll just keep a lookout, but there's a few exits we can use if we need to leave quickly. I'll reset the entry spells once we're inside so if we have to make a quick exit, she'll never suspect a thing."

"Oh, okay." Right – Daphne, they were going to scout out her apartment for clues. Her mind was in the wrong place right now. "Alright. Just give me a second."

"How was it?" he said gently.

She shrugged. "I mean. As good as can be expected. Or better that can be expected, actually. He's a bit more reasonable right now and seems like he's getting better. So I'm glad."

"That's good. It seems like he has received a lot of misfortune."

"Especially this past year," Rose sighed. "But, let's do this. What's our main point of entrance?"

"Honestly, just through the front. No need to make it difficult if a simple unlocking charm can get us in. Stay under the cloak though, and disillusioned. Sound good?"

They took the fire exit down and once in the alley they were spelling themselves and Rose put on her cloak. Scorpius grabbed her hand before she was completely gone and then was right next to her, whispering. "Alright, I'll lead. We'll go straight to the room. No talking beforehand or taking off the cloak."

She tightened her hand around his. She wondered if one of the reasons they had to be invisible was so they could hold hands. It would have been something she would have done if she were in lead. It was comforting. "Okay," she said.

They slowly made their way to the front of the building, past the front desk security officer who still looked on high alert after the Danny encounter, and up the stairs. Every so often, Scorpius's thumb would run over hers. She wasn't sure if he noticed or not.

Don't let him do that, said Greg. He's bad news. We know from experience.

He's not bad now. Everything is so different. I don't think he'd ever hurt me again like before.

Her head was slowly starting to hurt and Rose wasn't exactly sure why. She was rather disappointed when they got to Daphne's room and the spells and cloak were removed, and he let go of her hand. There were so many things happening in her life and she was not at all prepared for this one.

Scorpius cleared his throat and Rose realised she'd been staring at him. She looked away, sure that her cheeks were enflamed, and then started looking around the flat.

The flat was incredibly different inside than the illusion outside. Plants were hanging off the ceiling, dripping down in long green vines, with some orange and blue intertwined within to gather on the floor in heaps. It seemed like hundreds of different plant species were present in the room in pots the size of a bottle, to bigger than a chair. Cauldrons were abundant: on the top of the fridge, covering the counter, and on the floor. At least half of them seemed to be in some stage of potion brewing with liquid congealed or simmering inside.

And the smell! Oh it was such an assortment of musty, rotten, but tantalising flavours all around.

"Wow," was all Rose could say at the moment.

"Wow indeed. Looks like the Ministry is doing a piss-poor job of keeping tabs on her."

They started searching together, staying in the same room in case Daphne returned and they needed a quick getaway.

The kitchen looked as if no humans lived there. They only found one pot in the cupboards with a 14 kg bag of rice that was unopened. Everything else was empty.

The living area was hard to get around with the plants, cauldrons, and tripping hazards galore. The walls seemed coated in moisture and the whole place was warmer than normal – like a greenhouse.

"This seems to be her workplace," said Scorpius. There was a lot of potion-making supplies all over the place. In the corner of the room was a lonely book shelf with three books on it that Scorpius was perusing. "This is all in Latin. And very old. Spells and potions … Pages have – mold, I think, growing on them." He took out parchment and a quill from his rucksack and jotted down a few things. It wasn't until Rose got to the bedroom that contained a single mattress on the floor in the corner with lots of plants all around, and seeds scattered on the floor, that she found a personal belonging of Daphne's. A picture of a young women and three little girls.

It was sun-faded, and the edges were frayed. The four girls were all seated on a doorstep. One of the kids looked angry, sitting a bit separate with arms crossed while the woman was smiling and had her arms around the other two. The women looked young – like mid-twenties. She was whip-thin and had a nasty cut on one cheek. The three girls looked about 8 or so. They were all wearing clothing that didn't fit properly, and the house behind them was a dump. What was impossible to miss however, was the fact that the three young girls were identical. Triplets.

"Scorpius. Scorpius? I found something." He was standing just outside the door, looking through the cupboards in the loo.

"What?"

"A picture. Of a mother and her 3 daughters, I'm guessing. They're triplets."

Scorpius just looked confused. "Uh, you know a set of triplets?"

"I – maybe? They're so young here. But have brown hair – which now they have black. One of them was starting Hogwarts when we were in our last year. I mean, they look so different now it's kind of hard … but how many triplets in London are there – with ties to the magical world? Which is just my assumption based on Daphne having this picture … " She trailed off, thinking.

"So you do know a set of triplets?"

"Oh sorry, yes I do. Names are Chloe, Zoey, and Joey or something all rhyming and they used to come over to the flat for a monthly visit with Dom, Lucy, and Molly, though it was never clear to me why exactly they came over. "

"Hopefully one of your cousins can answer that and know more about the connection between them and Daphne."

"Between them and everything. They've popped up a few times inexplicably the more I think about it. I just don't know why."

Yet this wasn't leading to Canwood, which was the most important thing right now. Was following this rabbit trail important?

Scorpius duplicated the picture and Rose put the original back under the mattress. They heard a noise – a mumbling – and a door opening and closing in the next room.

"I think our time is up right now," Scorpius whispered. "You ready to make an exit?" And Rose was surprised that his arm was wrapped around her waist and pulling her to the window, being the barrier between the door and her. He silently opened the window, probably saying a spell to make sure it made no noise as he kept an eye on the door. He gestured for her to go first after he checked the escape route. They heard Daphne mumbling to herself still in the next room.

"LILACS? IS THAT LILACS I SMELL? HELLO DEARIES. WELCOME BACK," Daphne shouted out suddenly. Scorpius and Rose made a face at each other and quickly left via the window, walking across a ledge to the rickety fire escape.

They made it back to Scorpius's flat before he pulled out the photo again and they looked at it closer.

"So who do we ask? Molly, Lucy, or Dom?" he said.

The million dollar question. Rose put her chin in her hands. "Molly and Lucy are super mad at me. Beyond a question like this I think. And I don't even know where Lucy is."

"I could find her if we needed," offered Scorpius as he put the kettle on the stove and started pulling food out of the fridge for supper.

"How?"

"Short answer is my map. A spell. And knowing her wand type."

So that's how it's done, said Greg. That's how he knows our location all the time. Rat bastard.

Rose got up from the table to help him cut up food at the counter instead of just staring at a photograph they knew nothing about yet. He pulled out a cutting board and a knife and handed it over and she thought about Lucy while she diced up onions and carrots. Lucy was one of the least sensitive girls she knew, and it was hard to offend her – but when she was offended it was serious. "I really doubt she'd help. I betrayed her and hurt her. I don't want to say sorry while trying to get answers, she wouldn't forgive me." She drummed her fingers on the counter.

"Dom?"

"She's probably super angry as well … I mean I didn't deliver the spiff and I said I would."

Don't be full of broken promises, said Marta. No more promises you can't keep.

Scorpius reached over and pulled the cutting board away from her once she was done so he could add everything to the rice that had started cooking. "She might have forgotten, or mixed up what you said. Spiff distorts the truth, and maybe it's hard for her right now to distinguish real from fantasy."

"She is our best bet, I think. Hopefully recovery is going well. I would like to see how she is doing."

"Alright, hospital first thing tomorrow." He opened up a can up chickpeas and blackbeans and added them to the pot as well. "Sorry, my cooking is rather simple compared to Al's. There weren't many leftovers in the fridge."

Rose leaned against the counter. "This is perfect. I can whip up some spices or a sauce for it after – I know Al always has a stocked spice cupboard."

"That would be great."

The kettle boiled and they had tea with their supper, just the two of them around the table. It got late in the evening before they finished. Rose kept telling herself that they were waiting to talk with Al, but they really weren't. Eventually they both kept yawning and so did all the dishes before deciding to call it a night.

Scorpius stopped her before she left the kitchen. "My bed is made for you upstairs. Sheets washed and everything. I'll stay down here."

"Scorpius, I'm not taking your bed. It's fine."

And yet he persisted, and followed her around while she got ready and went to the couch. She didn't know why he was so insistent upon it. The couch was seriously fine. Accepting his bed seemed like too much right now when he was helping her out every day. And she was scared as well. She was scared of everything she was feeling and really didn't want to detangle all her thoughts around the matter when she could just ignore them by using the couch.

"Rose. I have a bloody bed upstairs. Use it. Please."

"No. It's yours. Scorpius take your own bloody bed! I don't want to be a huge inconvenience for you and wreck your sleep." She sat on the couch and started rearranging the blankets.

With a furious face, he started making his bed on the floor a little distance from the couch and it switched from him imploring her, to her imploring him.

"No you go. Scorpius. You've done enough for me already – and you have your own bed upstairs! I'll be fine down here. You have spelled your flat so much it takes 10 minutes to unlock everything and dismantle the alarm spells. It's safe. I'll be fine. Get a good sleep in your own bed."

"It's safe upstairs as well. You go get a good sleep. You're the one that's got an immense load on you right now with the bracelet, and finding Canwood – and the voices. You also just had a lot of healing done. You need the better sleep!"

"I'm fine here," she said shortly and turned on her side to face away from him, telling herself to fucking enjoy the lumpy couch because she was working hard to sleep on it.

He sighed and turned off the light. "Then we are at an impasse and good night."

She didn't want to answer him because she was mad, mostly at herself, but it was childish. "It's a bloody stupid fight, I'll admit. But good night," she said and then was able to fall asleep only after she heard Scorpius' breathing deepen.