When Scorpius woke up, he was laying in a bed. It was warm and comfortable, and as his eyes opened, he saw golden light filling the room he was in. He stirred a little and rubbed his eyes, which were exceptionally sore.
"Scorpius," a soft voice breathed. He blinked and glanced to his side. Sitting next to him, drawn and pale and terrified looking was Rose. She leaned forward on the edge of her chair and smiled at him, though her lips shook and her eyes were large and wild. "How are you feeling?" Her voice was barely more than a squeak. "I saw you fall, I came here immediately."
"It's my head," Scorpius replied, reaching for the back of his skull, which throbbed painfully. "What happened?"
"That awful Slytherin girl got her friend to shoot you a bludger to the back of your head. Nasty, cheap shot. You were walking away, I swear I almost…" Rose trailed off and shook her head. There was a scuffle of feet, and suddenly, Albus appeared at the end of Scorpius's bed.
"Hey mate," he greeted him, his hair mussed. "I just heard, I came here as soon as I could. Some Slytherin, huh?"
"Her surname is Arikson," Scorpius said. "But Zabini's the one who did it, I'm sure of that. He was the one I insulted last year."
"I wouldn't worry about them now." Rose's jaw trembled and she threw her arms around Scorpius's neck. "I'm sorry I yelled at you. I feel so awful now."
"Oh hush," Madam Promfrey said, bustling around the side of the curtain, a stern expression on her face. "Please Miss Weasley, this is not the place for hysterics. Mr. Malfoy only has a small crack in his skull, it's easily fixed. I have a slew of patients with horrible dragon pox trying to sleep." She went to Scorpius's bedside and poured him a small glass of something purple that frothed and smoked when he raised it to his lips. "It's for the pain," she assured him as Scorpius raised his eyebrows. He downed it; it tasted of milk and honey.
Rose leaned back in her chair and tried to smooth her hair, which was growing thicker with frizz by the minute.
"I'm glad you guys came," Scorpius blurted, staring at his friends. Even with a crack in his skull, it was good to know he had some sort of support at school, even if his parents weren't there. Rose blushed, apparently still abashed about her previous behavior. Albus simply sat down and pulled a chocolate frog from his pocket. He began to bite into it, but upon seeing Scorpius and Rose staring at him, he pulled another one from his pocket and offered it to Scorpius.
"You're like my dad," Rose laughed. "You never stop eating." Albus mumbled something in reply, and Scorpius smiled as he began to nibble away at the chocolate. Scorpius looked around and realized that he had none of his personal effects with him.
"Rose?" He asked. "When you came here, did you see if any of my stuff was here?"
"No." She frowned and patted Scorpius's arm. "Let me go check with Madam Promfrey." She hurried away, and Scorpius sat up, holding his head, which was beginning to feel airheaded, thanks to Madam Promfrey's potion.
"I'm going to kill that kid," he muttered, brushing his hair out of his eyes.
"I think someone might have gotten there first," Albus said quietly.
"What does that mean?"
"It means that when you were wheeled in here, Rose went ballistic. Zabini's a few beds down, completely exhausted after having his body pummeled by her fists…as well as a bunch of spells."
Scorpius was quiet for a moment. "She did that? Why?"
Albus scoffed. "Because she's your best friend you twat. But don't mention it to her, she's embarrassed by it. Professor McGonagall caught her at it and told her she was going to write to her parents."
"Is she going to get in trouble?"
Albus winked. "Something tells me her father won't be too angry with her…it's her mother I'd worry about."
Scorpius gnawed on his lip as Albus got up to find himself a tissue. Rose came back to him, his gear bundled up in her arms, and assured him that Madam Promfrey had his firebolt back in her office and would give it to him as soon as he was ready to leave.
"I'm ready." Scorpius jumped from the bed, but his head spun a little, and he grabbed onto Rose's arm for support. She almost toppled over, and dropped all his belongings in order to grasp him for support to. They stood there for a moment, holding on to each other, trying not to fall, their hands grasping at one another. Rose looked up at Scorpius, her eyes wide, and he could see her lips part a little. She smiled.
"Hey," Scorpius heard himself whisper. His heart beat rapidly, all of a sudden. He looked down at her hands, which he had grabbed in his effort to stay balanced. They were small and slim and delicate, though splattered with ink. Scorpius saw blue bruises on her knuckles and smiled.
"Hi," Rose said with a giggle, and he met her eyes again.
"Guys?" Scorpius dropped Rose's hands as if they had been made of fire and scorched his hands. Albus was standing at the end of Scorpius's hospital bed, watching them with a bemused expression on his face. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing," Rose and Scorpius said in unison. Scorpius grabbed his clothes up in his arms and headed around the corner, seeking out the loo, so he could change. He heard Albus begin to question Rose, trying to weasel answers out of her, but she gave him a short answer, her voice clipped and cold, though, admittedly, she stumbled over a few words.
Scorpius found that getting injured in a squabble of some kind made you a hero. At least, it did in Gryffindor. Even if the squabble had been fiercely no skin-to-skin contact, it was the principal of the matter. As soon as he walked into the common room, dressed in the robes he had been wearing that morning, a swarm of people approached him, babbling and asking him questions. And it didn't seem to matter that, technically, had the incident been a fight, Scorpius would have lost. People seemed to want to hear his story so they could take pity on him, and then relish in the fact that Slytherins were sore people who were desperate and all rotten to the core.
Given that both his parents were in Slytherin and he himself had once pined to be part of the Slytherin house, Scorpius refused to blame his injury on the Slytherin team. He did, however, tell everyone exactly who had done it. He figured that maybe a few more well placed curses might teach Zabini the lesson he deserved.
It got rather tiresome, after a few minutes or so, people coming up to him and asking him things like:
Did you bleed?
I heard you fell off your broom.
Can you still play?
I reckon those Slytherins are pissed you're not in their house.
It was almost all Scorpius could take until finally, the Quidditch captain, Jade, found Scorpius and pulled him away from a nervous boy with a tic who kept asking if Scorpius had decided how to exact revenge on Zabini yet.
"Malfoy," she said solemnly, glaring at a ground of giggling third year girls trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. "Are you feeling alright? You're not going to tell me you can't play, can you?"
"I'm fine," Scorpius told her. "Really, I can play."
"Ace. It would be a pity to try to seek out a new chaser, seeing as I just put your name on the robes and everything."
"Really?" Scorpius breathed, a smile spreading out over his face. "You mean it?"
"Do I look like the type of person to jerk you around?" Jade's face was unsmiling. "Practice tomorrow at 6 am. Meet on the pitch." She wheeled around and marched up the stairs to her dormitory, pushing through the third-year girls who had bothered her so much.
"Did I just hear that right?" Scorpius turned around to see Lily Potter standing behind him with a tentative smile on her face. "My brother said you were doing alright…but I can see you're doing better than that."
"Fantastic, actually." Scorpius smiled at her sloppily, so entranced by her beauty he could have fallen all over himself.
"Well, I'm glad for you. You can bet I'll be cheering you on when I'm in the stands." Lily smiled, hugged a book to her chest, and walked around him, headed up to the dormitory after Jade. Scorpius watched her go, the smile still on his face. He didn't seem to notice when Rose followed Lily a few moments later, tears streaming down her face.