Working Through the Rest

A Rambled Attempt

Scorpius wakes up a few hours later. By that time, Draco has moved his chair to sit beside me and we have ended up in a half-decent conversation. By the end of it, I'm starting to speak without automatically filtering everything I say. That, in itself, is unusual. I don't remember the last time I spoke to someone other than Scorpius without stopping every other word.

We stop talking as Scorpius groans, his eyes fluttering open slowly. He starts to sit up, leaning back against the multitude of pillows on the bed behind him, and I smile.
"Hey," I say. "How do you feel?"
"We're back?" Scorpius looks around. "What happened?"
"We – we stopped her," I say slowly. "We won."
"No," Scorpius shakes his head. "I mean – them. What happened to them?"

I look at Draco as I realise who he's talking about. I'm not really sure what to say as to what has happened. I'm still digesting the entire thing in my own head. I don't know how I can explain it to him.
"Dad?" Scorpius looks at Draco. "Before you found me, what happened before you found me? Did you catch Delphi? What about the others?"
"I told you about what happened when we found Delphi," Draco says slowly. "I told you about Nina. After she escaped, she was found and captured by her step-father and ex-guardian."

He continues to explain, mainly through Delphi's eyes. I listen as intently Scorpius, simply because I didn't know what happened to her after she escaped. And, somehow, as Draco explains, I find myself sympathising with her more and more.

She got hurt. She got hurt and she got scared and she kept fighting. She kept fighting for whatever reasons she had.

Throughout the explanation, Scorpius' expression doesn't change much. He just listens, and then he starts to fiddle with his hands. I smile softly at him but he doesn't notice as he starts to get more and more agitated, until I eventually reach out and take his hand.
"Hey," I murmur. "Hey. You okay?"
"She wanted to save us?" Scorpius looks at me.
"I don't know what she wanted," I look at Draco. "But she did."
"And she won't escape again?"

That's a question I can't answer, so I wait for Draco to speak.

"No," he shakes his head. "Her first breakout was not an option presented to her, rather that woman turned up outside her cell and broke her out."
"She doesn't want to escape?" Scorpius frowns.
"She is aware of how dangerous she is," Draco nods, "perhaps a little over-aware."
"Dad?"
"As I said, she was found by her step-father, ex-guardian, and that woman, who played her mind to break and turn her back to what she was. She is fairly convinced that she only experienced the Cruciatus Curse four times and that was enough to 'break' her. Under interrogation, Euphemia confessed that it was much more than that, but Delphi does not trust herself."

Scorpius and I both and then silence falls. We have the space to heal. Heal properly.

"I'm really sorry, Scorpius," Draco says. "I have to go somewhere, but I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Okay," Scorpius nods. "I – I love you, dad."
"I love you too," Draco smiles, leaning over to kiss his forehead gently; then he turns to me. "Albus, would I be able to speak to you outside?"
"Uh...yeah," I nod awkwardly.

We've spent at least two hours talking. I shouldn't be uneasy. But he's quite foreboding. At least, he is until he pulls me into a rather tight hug. All questions fly from my mind and I just hold on tightly, blinking back tears.
"No matter what," he says quietly, "you will have myself and Scorpius."
"Thank you," my voice cracks.

He holds onto me for a little longer and, when he let's go, there's an awkward silence. Dad is stood a few feet away.

I try not to roll my eyes as Draco walks away and dad comes over, smiling. He is so good at keeping up bullshit. It's almost unbelievable.
"Could we go for a walk?"
"Uh, what?" I take a moment. "Yeah. Yeah. Sure."