Chapter Three
The problem with being in the dungeons is that neither Albus nor Scorpius can actually figure out how long they've been there. Albus had only been dragged out once, but he'd come back nearly comatose and there are moments when Scorpius worries he'd just stop breathing.
When the black-haired boy does finally wake, he doesn't speak for a long time. "Scorp," he croaks finally after – Hours? Days? – have gone by, "I think I fucked up big time."
Scorpius scoffs. "We did," he says.
"No," Albus tries again. "I fucked up. He knows my name, Scorp."
Scorpius doesn't get it.
"My middle name," Albus says, teeth grinding. "The one that I got from the guy that is supposed to currently be that asshat's most trusted supporter."
Scorpius' eyes go wide. "No," he says, nearly whispering.
Albus puts his head in his hands, willing tears away. "And once he learned that, he went searching for more. He knows everything I know, Scorp."
Scorpius stands quickly. "We have to get out of here," he says, more fight in him than he's had in – Days? Weeks? – however long they've been down here.
"We can't, Scorp." Albus' voice breaks. Scorpius briefly wonders if that's the only broken thing about his friend.
The door creaks open, and both boys jump, falling silent. Are they back? Are they going to tortue Albus again? Is it Scorpius' turn?
A person wearing a long, dark cloak sweeps into the room, and Scorpius throws himself ino front of Albus as they walk closer. "You won't take him again," he says, wishing his voice sounded even slightly more confident in his words.
The person reaches up, and for a moment, Scorpius think they'll grab him instead, but long, slender – feminine? – fingers simply grab the hood of the person's cloak and pull it down.
"Grandmother," Scorpius says for the second time. He relaxes only slightly.
"Scorpius," the woman says. Her eyes are unreadable. She stares into his for a moment, and he can feel a soft push into his mind. It isn't how his father had described Legillimensy, but he can recognize it all the same. She retreats after a moment, and he's not even sure what she's seen, but whatever it is must be satisfactory, because after a moment she looks away with a small nod.
"Why are you here?" He asks, because after a moment it seems like she has no intention of speaking.
"Scorpius," she says again, a little stronger this time. "I believe that it's time that we get you out of here."
The others end up agreeing with her in the end. If they start killing Horcruxes before the boys are liberated, there will be nothing left of them to liberate. And yet, Malfoy Manor is almost a fortress in 1998. An escape mission, as prudent as it might be, is out of the question at least for the moment. This, of course, puts them at more or less of a stalemate: They can't abandon their hunt, but they also can't move forward.
It's Aunt Luna, who Rose had only seen for the first time over dinner the night that she'd explained the situation to the others, who ends up giving them the perfect plan.
"You-Know-Who knows when you kill a Horcrux," she says, "But that doesn't mean he knows when you find one. You can find them all and then kill them all at once, after the Order is already at the castle, and then You-Know-Who will have to rush there and he won't have time to stop to kill two basically inconsequential boys."
Rose takes note of how matter-of-factly she talks about the situation and remembers Aunt Ginny once telling her that Aunt Luna could be scary sometimes. She hadn't believed her then, but she believes her now.
It's not long after that the plan is outlined. It's nearly perfect, with the exception of one thing. So, while the others plan their break-in to Gringotts, she gets to work outlining her own plan.
The same day that the trio make their way to the bank (properly armed with the knowledge that no one is to touch anything within the vault but the Horcrux and Griphook is not to be given the sword until after the job is done), Luna and Rose make their way to Hogsmeade, which has luckily not been warded off yet. They make it to Honeyduke's without preamble and it isn't until they get there that Rose remembers the one thing she'd not planned.
"'Ello Luna," Aberforth Dumbledore says, a slight smile on his face. He turns to Rose. "And what might your name be?"
Rose tenses for a moment. This might start getting a bit tricky if she has to explain accidental time travel to everyone she meets. "My name's Rose," she says, faltering. Aberforth raises an eyebrow but nonetheless nods and asks Ariana to go get Neville. Rose makes a mental note to remember not to call him Uncle.
Aberforth walks a little away to check something and Aunt Luna looks at the redhead dreamily. "You're not particularly subtle, you know."
Rose sighs but doesn't answer as the portrait hole opens.
It takes longer than she expects to get out of the Room of Requirement. She has to introduce herself to everyone under the name of Rose Gray and come up with a bullshit excuse for why she'd never attended Hogwarts and then still have Aunt Luna vouch for her allegiances, all before being allowed to leave. She doesn't even know what time it is when she finally escapes.
The first thing she does, of course, is to go down to the kitchens.
It takes her forever to find the entrance (because, unlike her cousin, she isn't a delinquent, thank you very much), but as soon as she does she tells an elf to go fetch the next part to her plan. She hopes her mother will excuse her rudeness in favor of her saving her friends and also the world.
The kitchen door opens again and she turns as Draco Malfoy comes in, wand already in his hand. "Who the hell are you," he snarls, "And what makes you think you can order me down here like some house elf?"
She cocks her head. The boy in front of her looks so much like Scorpius and yet so different from the person she knows him to be back home. She decides she likes him better middle-aged.
"My name is Rose," she says, as calmly as she can muster, "And I have information that you need."
Draco drops his wand only slightly. "What sort of information?"
She takes a breath. "The sort that that snake-man you pretend you're loyal to probably already has."
Draco's grip on his wand tightens. "I don't know what you're talking about," he seethes. "I am loyal–"
"You're not," Rose says. "You don't know me yet, but you will one day. You can trust me. I know you're not loyal to him, and more than that, I know that you're a better man than almost anyone else I know."
Draco doesn't move, but she can tell that he calms a bit, almost imperceptably. "What do you know?"
She takes another breath. "My name is Rose Weasley," she says. "My mother is Hermione Granger, and my father is Ron Weasley. I was born in 2006. More importantly, four months after me, your son, Scorpius, was born, and my cousin Albus Potter was born a week after that. We're best friends, but right now the boys are sitting in your dungeons, I reckon, probably getting tortured for information that can and will turn the tide of this war."
Draco pales and stiffens even more. "And I believe you, why exactly?"
"There's no way you didn't see them," Rose says, matter-of-factly. "A boy comes in looking that much like a Malfoy, another boy looking enough like a Potter to warrant not killing him immediately, and you think that that's a coincidence? You're smarter than that."
Draco glares. "What do you want, Weasley?" He says her last name like it's poison he wants off of his tongue, and quickly. Well, her dad did say he was a douche in school.
"I want you to write to your mother," Rose says, taking a step toward him, her eyes pleading. "You-Know-Who is going to torture them and find out, if he hasn't already, everything that those boys know about this war, how it ends, and most importantly, where certain peoples' loyalties lie." She sees him visibly blanch. "Your mother is the only one who can get them out."
"He'll kill her," Draco says. He lowers his wand, but his eyes are terrified. "If he finds out she's the one that let them out, he will kill her."
Rose lowers her gaze to the ground. "Draco," she says, "Your mother doesn't get out of this war alive. I'm sorry."
The room is silent for a beat.
Two beats.
Three.
Finally, Rose looks up, and the boy in front of her is calculating. She can practically see his mind rushing a mile a minute. "No," Draco says, finally. "She will get out of it. We'll get your friends, because if we don't she's as good as dead anyway, but I will save her."
Rose sees the desperation in his eyes. She recalls her mother yelling at her father once, when he found out that she was friends with that man's son, about how Draco was nothing but a scared schoolboy during the war. She had never been able to reconcile the strong, confident man that she knew with the image of the terrified, trapped boy that her mother had spoken about, but she can see it now.
"Okay."
Scorpius is six years old. He doesn't know what wakes him, specifically, but he wakes with a start in the middle of the night and begins to cry. Huge, wrecking sobs overtake his little body and he almost doesn't notice when Daddy comes into the room.
His father runs across the room, grabbing his boy and hugging him close. "What's wrong, Scorp?"
"I– don't– know!" The child hiccoughs through his sobs, gripping his father's sleepshirt tightly.
He sits there, letting Daddy hold him and whisper soft, cajoling sounds in his ear, until he's done crying and the older man sets him back down. "It's okay to be upset or scared sometimes," Daddy says, smiling kindly. "Why don't we go to the kitchens and let the elves get us some warm milk, yeah?"
Within minutes the two sit at a small table in the kitchens, sipping their milk. Scorpius swings his legs back and forth happily. "You're so smart, Daddy," he says. "This makes the sad feelings go."
Daddy smiles. "It wasn't my idea," he says. "My mother taught me when I was about your age."
Scorpius' eyes widen impossibly. "You have a mama?"
Daddy stops smiling for a moment and he looks really sad before he smiles again. It's smaller this time. "Everybody has a mother, Scorp."
"Where did your mama go?"
Daddy sighs. Scorpius feels like maybe he shouldn't have asked that question.
"A long time ago, Grandmother did something that made someone very, very angry, and so she went to Heaven so she could be safe." Daddy tries to smile, but his eyes don't twinkle the way they usually do. "She lives with the stars now, like Grandfather, and like everyone else we miss dearly."
Daddy needs two whole glasses of warm milk that night to make the sad feelings go, but he lets Scorpius stay up with him until they're gone.
