Raindrops on Roses

Chapter 38: Seventh Year Part 6: Remember the Music

2024-25

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Even though Rose wished it could have happened in a less terrifying and life-threatening way, once Scorpius got out of the hospital wing several days later, the three of them did seem to be a team again. Even if they did tip-toe a little around each other, not wanting to set off any unnecessary fighting.

Rose knew that Scorpius was still in pain, but he put a brave face on it. It might have been different, she thought, even encouraging, if whatever it was that had happened had caused some improvement. But he was still unable to do anything more than magic himself in and out of the chair. Privately she wondered if he wasn't starting to see the chair as his safety net, if he wasn't too afraid of the pain to push himself - not that she could blame him, and she wouldn't have dared say anything of the sort to his face unless she saw something convincing enough to warrant such a comment. Or if he said anything to her, of course, but that seemed more unlikely than ever. She tried not to think about that too much. Instead she spent all her time helping him catch up on his schoolwork, until he had picked up on everything he'd missed during his half term at Durmstrang. She told Jian that he was good enough at Transfiguration now to continue on without her. He seemed to accept this rather flimsy excuse politely and without complaint, and he said nothing at all about the incident in the library - which made her wonder if maybe Albus had had a word with him. She decided not to pursue it.

Scorpius spent all his free time reading, when he wasn't studying, or working on his NEWT projects. The projects were starting to weigh on all the seventh years - a couple of the Hufflepuffs had already had to see Madam Pomfrey for calming potions. Scorpius seemed to have his in hand, though, and he even let Rose look at his work, so that she didn't have to nag him. If anything it was Albus who worried her more. He was doing longer and longer hours at the hospital, when he wasn't at Quidditch practice or with Lizzie. The rest of his time seemed to be spent making sure Scorpius took all the right potions at all the right times.

"Oughtn't Madam Pomfrey be taking care of that?" she asked him once, as inquisitively as she dared. "She is the school nurse..."

"I'm closer," was all he said, in a tone that suggested the subject was not to be debated. "Pomfrey can't come up to the dormitory every night or find us at meals, or do you want Scorp rolling down to the hospital wing every three hours?"

She sighed inwardly. Knox trusted him to do everything right, and Scorpius didn't seem to mind at all, so she had to trust her cousin as well. But she did worry that he wasn't getting all his schoolwork done, especially when his 'study sessions' with Lizzie tended to result in him coming back to Ravenclaw Tower looking rather dishevelled.

There was a Quidditch game in the middle of November, against Slytherin, and neither Rose nor Albus were on their best form. It was a close call, but Ravenclaw finally managed to claw their way to victory, Albus stealing the game at the last minute by catching the snitch, bringing the score to 280-270.

"I don't suppose you want to be captain?" Albus sighed as they trudged back up to the common room for a victory party that neither of them much wanted to attend. Rose mainly wanted a shower and a long sleep.

She looked at him in surprise. "You're not quitting?"

"Not the team," he clarified quickly, "just... being captain. I don't feel like I'm doing the best job. Only I don't think anyone else could take over. The others are too young, other than Janey - "

"No thank you," Rose said, just as quickly. The thought of her dormmate being her captain was less than galling; Janey was nice, and responsible enough to be a prefect, but she could be irritatingly neurotic.