I stretch, happy to finally be free of that horrid hospital bed. With a slight sigh I make my way around the perimeter of St. Mungos, knowing I’ll have to go back inside in a little bit.
Dad woke up yesterday, and it seems like life has returned to normal. Almost. Scorpius has been on and off for a few days. Rose told me she had visited his mum with him the morning of the fight in the department of ministries. I haven’t really been able to talk to him alone about it.
The strangest thing is… James and Lily actually like Scorpius. Whether that’s because he brought dad back or just because he’s a good guy I’m not entirely sure. As I wander back through the doors of St. Mungos I bump into Scorpius, who looks pale and tried, his eyes slightly red and puffy.
I sigh. “Scorpius…”
He looks up at me and turns away, shaking his head slightly, starting back up the hallway.
“Are you mad at me?” I ask, following behind him. He seems to freeze and turns to look at me.
After a moment he shakes his head and says, “I’m not.” I frown and Scorpius suddenly looks ashamed. “It’s just… You’ve got your life back, and it’s almost like mine has fallen into pieces.” I feel my brow furrow, and he looks up at me with sad silver eyes. “My mum’s dead. My dad’s in jail. You’ve got your dad back.” He shrugs, but I notice his trembling lip and the tears filling his eyes. He turns away a little and swipes at his face, wiping away tears angrily. I pretend not to notice because I know he doesn’t want me to. In our friendship, as short as it’s been, he’s almost always been the strong one there for me. Now he’s the one who’s breaking, and he doesn’t want to show it.
I sigh and pull him into an empty room. After a moment I ask, “Do you want to stay with us for the rest of the summer?”
He blinks a few times at me, confused, and then asks, “What?”
“Stay with us at the burrow,” I say softly, almost imploring him. “It might help… I dunno.” There’s a short awkward pause and then I finish quickly, “They won’t mind. Please, Scorpius. I feel bad asking you to stay at that place.”
He knows that by “that place” I mean Malfoy manor. After a moment he nods slowly and mutters, “Thanks. I’ll… I’ll see you later. I’ll go pack my stuff, I guess.”
I watch him depart sadly and turn down the hall, wandering back to my dad’s hospital room. I find him alone.
He looks up at me and smiles. I smile back. I settle down at the foot of his bed as he asks, “You okay, Al?”
I nod slowly and then suddenly say, “Dad.” He looks at me, blinking, nodding for me to continue. “Er…” I bite my lip. “Can Scorpius spend the rest of the summer with us?” I see his eyes narrow a bit, so I add, “His mum died and his dad’s in Azkaban, and…” I look to dad helplessly.
He nods slowly and finally says, “Yes. Of course.” He smiles slightly at me, his emerald eyes sparkling. “You two saved my life, Al.”
I shrug, hoping my face isn’t red. After a moment I lean against the railing of his bed and say, “You’re my dad. Of course I did.”
After a moment he leans over and ruffles my hair. “You didn’t have too.” He pulls back at this, watching me gently and asks, “So why did you?”
I pause, and then respond, “I couldn’t believe that you were dead. You weren’t, I knew you weren’t, and I couldn’t just sit there and wait until something happened. I had to know. I—”
Dad smiles at me, and I know he understands what I’m trying to say. I leave the room quietly as the healer comes in to talk to him, a smile still written on my face.
It’s later that night when everyone’s back at the Burrow that Scorpius arrives. He looks exhausted. I shoot him a glance, but he just smiles, shaking his head at me. He settles down in a chair at the long table and is instantly engaged in a conversation with James, whose animated expressions make everyone near him laugh. I smile slightly and turn to look at Rose, who’s staring at Scorpius, her face red.
I try to keep a smirk from slipping across my face as I mutter, “You okay there, Rosie?”
She glares at me slightly and mutters, “Shut up and wipe that smirk off you face, Al. You’ll know what this feels like someday, and then I’ll be the one smirking at you.”
“Ooh… Ouch. That one hurt, Rosie.”
Her eyes narrow. “Shut up. Really, just be quiet, please.”
I roll my eyes at her and she glares back. After a moment I finally say, “Okay. Sorry. Just don’t kill me.”
She freezes slightly and the giggles, hitting my arm. I grin at her. I glance down the table to see my dad and mum laughing together with Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione, and Uncle George at Uncle Percy who was apparently slipped something from Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes as he’s turned into a canary. I notice Fred smirking from next to Uncle Percy and roll my eyes a bit.
Rose smiles. “Things are back to normal it seems,” she murmurs, but her eyes never leave Scorpius’s form from behind me.
Later that night I find Scorpius sitting on my bed when I walk in the room. “Hey.” I grin at him, still a little worried that he hates me a bit. I mean, if it was my family that fell to pieces and his that was fixed I might find it hard not to resent him at least a little bit. “What’s up?”
He smiles softly at me, his blue-grey eyes twinkling, and questions quietly, “Which bed is mine?”
I nod slightly to the one across the room and Scorpius walks over to it, plopping down on it with a sigh.
I turn away from the desk to look at him and finally ask, “Are you okay?”
He shrugs. After a pause he adds, “Oh!” He turns and digs in his bag, grabbing a few old, beaten looking books. I raise an eyebrow at this, but he doesn’t really notice as he blows the dust off of them, handling them carefully. He reaches out, passing them to me and says, “They’re Zabini’s. I stopped by his apartment.”
“Why?” I ask, narrowing my eyes suspiciously at the books.
Scorpius glances around nervously, as if someone might be peering in the window or eavesdropping at the door (I wouldn’t put that past about half my family, though) and hear what he’s about to tell me, and finally says, “So that we can figure out what that spell that hit you was.”
I pause pulling back. “I don’t want to know,” I mutter in a trembling voice, frowning slightly.
“Why not?” Scorpius demands, following me across the room, his arms outstretched as if he’s reaching for something.
“Why not?” I repeat, rounding on him. “Because. What if it’s something terrible? What if I wind up blaming myself for something bad happening?”
“Wouldn’t you rather know instead of wondering your whole life though?” Scorpius snaps back, glaring slightly at me.
I pause and run a hand through my hair, finally saying, “Sorry. You’re right.”
I don’t want to fight with Scorpius. I don’t know what’s suddenly happened between the two of us that’s making things so tense—it’s probably my fault—but I still don’t want to fight with him. I enjoy spending time with him too much.
He smiles slightly, relaxing now and says back, “I always am, aren’t I?”
I let out a slight chuckle. After a short pause I flip open the book, running my hand over the page and ask, “You’re sure it’s in here?”
He shrugs. “One of them.” He brushes some of his hair out of his eyes, irritated, before continuing, “I have no clue which one though.”
I glance down at them and mutter, “I guess we’ll find it eventually.”
Scorpius nods slightly, looking out the window. I frown when I notice this, knowing he’s still upset over his mum. “Scorpius…” I start, but then pause, not knowing what else to say.
Scorpius chokes out a watery laugh and says, “I’ll be fine. It’s just… I don’t want to talk about it.”
I stop, biting my lip, and finally walk over and stop next to him, tossing Zabini’s books on my bed and patting Scorpius’s back softly. He smiles a little, softly, and finally says, “We should probably get some sleep.”
I nod, moving over to my bed and dumping the stuff cluttered on there on the floor. I pause however, looking at the books and grab the first one off the pile, shoving it under my pillow while I push the other two under the bed.
“Nox,” I mutter, flicking my wrist, and the lights wink out, leaving me in darkness.
A/N: Hello everyone! Welcome to the sequel! Please tell me I’m not the only one who’s practically squealing out of excitement right now…
Anyways… Kind of a boring chapter, but things will pick up soon, I promise. And besides, you’ll get to see everyone at Hogwarts, which is fun. I don’t think I’ve ever written a story with any of my next gen characters at Hogwarts. It’ll be interesting.
Anyhow, here’s the preview for chapter two:
I glance at James and he smiles at me. I turn away for a second, closing my eyes tightly to stop the tears, and then scoop some food on my plate, pretending that was why I turned away, before looking back at him.
He’s still smiling.
How can the world seem so bright and… good again to everyone else when it’s falling to pieces around me? What did I do wrong? Why does this have to keep happening to me? I just want to go back to normal. I would trade almost anything for everything to go back to the way it was before dad was missing. Even if James and Lily were ignoring me and I didn’t know Scorpius. It’s not that I don’t love them, because I do, more than anything. But it’s just that I… I don’t… I don’t want to…
Anyone confused? *raises eyebrows* you’re supposed to be. (At least a little bit.) XD
I’ll get chapter two up soon, promise. Thank you all for sticking around to read the sequel!
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