Frail ❃ Albus Potter

Twenty

R O S E

Rose spun around in the Hospital Wing, her hands pressed together as she paced.

I knew I should have done something sooner, Rose thought furiously. God, I knew it! She looked so pale, all the time. I should have talked to someone, done something...

But Rose wasn't her mother. She didn't have a magical Time Turner, and she couldn't go back and help Piper, even if she so desperately wanted to.

She couldn't.

Raking a hand through her curly brown hair, Rose took a seat by Piper's bed. She was currently the only occupant in the Hospital Wing, and she stood out starkly against the rows of neatly made beds.

Even unconscious, Piper had managed to spread the sheets everywhere, knocking a glass off her bedside table. Rose had had to do a quick repairo spell before Madame Pomfrey noticed and sent Rose out, like she'd tried to do earlier when Rose had broken a vase bringing Piper in.

She couldn't help it. Piper was heavier than she looked, although still worryingly light.

There was a bang by the entrance to the Hospital Wing, and Rose looked up in surprise as none other than Albus Potter rushed in, his hair even messier than normal and his glasses- as per usual- lopsided on his face.

They'd talked last night about Piper, but only briefly. Only enough for Rose to suggest that Albus and Piper should have a talk, because Piper was really upset. Then Albus had got a strange look on his face, and stormed off, saying that "he should be the one upset, after all," and then Rose had been left alone at the bottom of the staircase, fuming.

Now he was rocking up in the Hospital Wing like he owned the place. Rose half-stood up, her hands automatically clenching into fists, and then saw that what she'd first mistaken for simple Albus-ness was actually worry.

His hair was even more messed up than normal because he kept running his hands through it anxiously. As Rose watched, he did it again, and again, and again, and then put his hands in his pockets, as if suddenly conscious of what he was doing. And as he got closer, Rose saw the rims of his eyes were red, like he'd been crying, and he reached up to blow his nose with a tissue, knocking his glasses aside even more.

Rose's stomach tightened. 'What are you doing here? Albus, with all due respect, I don't think Piper wants you here.'

Albus flinched. 'Rose, I had to come and see her. I was so worried. I've been worried all night after what you said.'

Rose snarled- physically growled, and bared her teeth at her cousin- then stood up, blocking his view of Piper. 'You sure looked it this morning with Scorpius Malfoy, Al.'

She put a little extra emphasis on Malfoy for Albus, just in case he didn't get the message that she disapproved in his choice of boyfriend.

Albus' nose scrunched up, the way it had always used to when he was a kid and confused. 'How...' Then he sat down in a chair next to Piper's bed, or more collapsed, his head in his hands. 'You saw us in Hogsmede, didn't you? You and Piper. I thought I saw people behind us, but I thought they were in the year above and-' he bit his lip. 'I thought they wouldn't care.'

Rose didn't quite know what to say. Half of her wanted to walk out of the room, to stop hearing what Albus had to say.

After all, he was the one who'd left Piper after she'd kissed him. It was his fault. He didn't have the right to come over and act all concerned, when he was the very thing that had gotten Piper so upset in the first place.

But Rose stayed. She stayed, because Piper was unconscious in the bed, and if she left now, she just knew that Piper would wake up and be alone with Albus. And Rose wasn't that bad of a friend, no matter how much Albus was pissing her off.

So she folded her arms and glared. 'So. Albus. Explain.'

And at that moment, Piper rolled over in her bed, stretching in her sleep, and fell off the side, crashing straight into Albus and sending them both toppling to the floor with a humongous bang.

This story will probably have around 30-40 chapters at the rate it's going. So only around twenty ish left.

I'm kinda sad because I wanted to rewrite this and add some more original characters but now I can't. Whoops.