SLITHER IN! → S. MALFOY

ACT II, SCENE VI: KILL ME

C H A P T E R  S I X T E E N

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R O S E

THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE NIGHT Rose had nightmares - and to say that those were vivid was to underestimate the power of the aforementioned.

                         With bags under her eyes and a sleepless expression on her face, Rose walked down to breakfast  through yet another lifeless morning. The snow had covered everything completely - even the elaborate glass windows of the towers were covered with frost, as if Hogwarts was the blizzard's canvas and the snow was it's paint.

One solitary pancake lay dully on her plate as Albus attempted to tell an anecdote and chew at the same time, clearly an unsuccessful task.

             "Fo," He spoke loudly, "I come fown phere anf fee-"

"Merlin, mate, you got egg on my scarf," John moaned.

                  At that, the ghost of a smile passed Rose's lips before disappearing completely. Then, almost sneakily, her eyes slid towards the Slytherin table.

Malfoy's place was empty.

                  "Where is Scorpius?" She asked suddenly. Upon hearing that, Albus almost choked on the sausage he was trying to chew on, spitting it out onto his plate ungracefully, making John snicker with laughter.

He leaned in towards her, nonetheless.

               "Cedar Cosmote from Ravenclaw told me that he left early this morning," He divulged, and even with the chatter of students muffling his words, Rose heard them perfectly. "He said that.. Malfoy looked fucking furious."

"To where?" Rose's own voice lowered.

               "Malfoy manor, possibly."

"Why'd he leave in the beginning of the school year? That's strange, to say the least," John objected venomously. Rose's eyes shot to his, which lowered quickly.

        "I don't feel well," She voiced. There was a churning in her stomach that she didn't like - the fact that the room spun around her continuously made Rose feel nauseous. She got up from the bench shakily, feeling her lips pale. "I need to go. I'll see you in class, okay?"

Not waiting for a response, Rose made her way out of the hall and into the closest girls' bathroom. There, she leaned her head against the cool glass of the mirror and exhaled a shaky breath, fogging up the glass.

            "Oh my Merlin, Rose! Rose!"

Turning around swiftly, she locked eyes with none other than Myrtle Warren, gesticulating enthusiastically.

             "We have no time, let's go, there's the boy I was telling you about, in the bathroom-"

"But Albus is in the dining hall!" Rose urged, nonetheless getting up from her half-crouching position and rushing after the ghostly girl into the opposing room.

             There were empty sobs echoing the walls of the the moment the pair stepped into the bathroom. Myrtle, pressing a finger to her lips, floated through the spacious room and towards the boy, whispering something what was intended to be comforting, yet sounded more like spells.

"Leave me alone," An unfamiliar voice proclaimed shakily, his voice breaking off mid-sentence. "You'll never understand. Never. Nobody will."

             Rose stepped into the light of the bathroom, her eyes almost instantly darting towards the broken-looking boy, his head hanging low and a wand pressed to his neck. There was so much pain in the gesture alone that it made her shiver.

"Let me.." He whispered, "Do this."

             "You'll end up like me," Myrtle insisted. After taking a long look at her, clearly not noticing Rose, the boy with midnight-dark hair and deep skin lowered his gaze.

"He's forcing me to do too much.. too fucking much," Breathless, the boy pressed the wand tighter to the exposed area of his thin neck. The scarf wrapped around it, embroiled with colours of green and silver, slipped off of his shoulders and onto marble the floor.

          "Too much?" Myrtle entreated gently, gliding closer towards the boy, who's eyes were now closed.

With closed eyes, the boy raised an eyebrow.

                   "Do you know how to use at least one of the Unforgivables? I know all of them. He's marring me with sin, whoever you are. I'm no good for the jobs he makes me do. And the thing is, the fucking thing is-" His voice broke into half, "There's no way you can escape this. There's no way you can escape him."

                 "Who?" Myrtle drove even closer, and was now covering the boy with her translucent body. The scene alone made Rose want to vomit onto the exquisite floor of the boy bathroom - a broken boy, a broken life, and a dead girl trying to comfort him. "Who did this.. to you?"

                 The boy opened his eyes, and his gaze pierced Rose as if he knew she'd been there the whole time - as if he was expecting her.

"Scorpius Malfoy."

                  A whisper of words and a flash of green light broke the bathroom in half, and through Myrtles' bloodcurdling screams and tears rolling down her cheeks, Rose saw and heard with voices in her head and the wand rolling helplessly onto the floor, away from the body - this boy was dead.