Never Be The Same {SCOROSE}

Chapter 34 - Scorpius

When I arrived at the Weasley’s house, I let myself in. I noticed immediately that the atmosphere was strangely quiet. “Rose?” I called uncertainly.

There was movement in the kitchen, and Mrs. Granger-Weasley came through the door. She looked uncharacteristically stressed - her eye had bags under them and her shoulders were low. She smiled at me, but it seemed forced. “Scorpius,” she greeted me tiredly.

I frowned. “Where’s Rose?”

She sighed. “Rose is at Saint Mungo’s… No, don’t fret, she’s not ill. She’s… you’ve met Lucy, haven’t you?” I nodded. “I don’t know how much Rosie told you about what she’s been through these past few years, and I needn’t say more now, but she…” Rose’s mother trailed off, swallowing hard. “She tried to overdose two nights ago.”

“Shit,” I said, then frowned. “Pardon the language. I’m just… stunned. She seemed so happy the last time I saw her.”

Mrs. Granger-Weasley nodded sadly. “We’re all shocked, Scorpius. Rose more than any, I think. She hasn’t left Lucy’s side from the moment she woke up.”

“Damn. You should have asked me to come home a day early; I could have taken care of Willow yesterday.”

“I considered it, but you deserved a break after all you’ve been doing. I was fine yesterday, and I’ll be fine today.”

“But-”

Rose’s mother shook her head. “I know you want to help, Scorpius, but I don’t think it’s Willow who needs taken care of. You’re always welcome here, of course, but if I were you… I’d go to St. Mungo’s. Albus had to go into work last night, and Rose has been basically on her own since then. She needs you the most right now.”

I bit my lip. “You’re probably right. I hate for you to have to stay home from work, though-”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. It's not a problem. Go to her.”

Smiling slightly, I nodded. “I will. Thanks, Mrs. Granger-”

“Hermione,” she corrected me gently. She’d been trying to get me to use her first name for ages, but I couldn’t get it into my head.

“Thanks, Hermione,” I said wryly. “I’ll come around after supper, if you don’t mind. Just to spend a bit of time with Willow.”

“Certainly.” I turned to go, but her voice paused me. “Scorpius?”

“Yes?”

“See if you can convince Rose to come home for the night, will you? Lucy’s in good hands, and she needs to rest.”

“I’ll try my best,” I promised her. And with that, I headed to Saint Mungo’s

• • •

As it turned out, I didn’t even need to ask the department receptionist for Lucy's room number. Before I reached the desk, a familiar head of red hair popped out of a doorway.

“Rose?”

The girl I loved reacted immediately upon hearing my voice. As she came to me, I saw that there were tears in her eyes, so I wrapped my arms around her. She seemed glad to melt into the embrace.

“Scorpius,” she breathed, barely above a whisper. 

I kissed the top of her head gently. “How’s she doing?” I asked, voice soft.

Rose sighed. “She’s fine, physically at least. But mentally? I just don’t know… She won’t talk to us. She just sits in bed and stares out the window. She has to have a person with her at all times, but her parents and sister had to go in to work today so I haven’t had any time off. I was just going to flag down a nurse to stay with her so I could go eat in the food hall.”

“Marvelous, do you want to get the nurse or shall I?”

“Oh, the nurse just went in. They get alerted when I leave the room.”

“Oh, yeah. I knew that.”

Rose giggled. “You should, considering you work here.”

“I’m not a nurse, darling, I’m a researcher! I hardly leave my office.”

“Still.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever, let’s go.”

While eating, we caught up on how we’d spent the days since we last saw each other. I’d gone to Paris for a few days to spend time with some friends I’d made during my time there and, of course, my grandmother. Rose, meanwhile, had mostly been taking care of Willow. Until this happened.

“I was at Al’s house when they got the call,” Rose explained. “We came straight here and both of us stayed all day yesterday, until he had to go in to the office for some emergency board meeting or something and ended up having to stay.”

I noticed now how tired her eyes looked, and I frowned. “Have you slept, Rosie?”

She glanced away. “A bit, here and there.”

“You shouldn’t-”

“Please don’t tell me what to do right now.”

“I’m not, I just-”

“Scorpius.”

“But you need-”

“My cousin tried to kill herself!” Rose snapped. “She’s miserable, Scorpius, and I should have noticed before but I didn’t. The only thing I need right now is to help Lucy, and I owe it to her to-”

“You owe it to everyone to take care of yourself,” I argued. 

“Don’t you understand that I have to do this?” Rose said angrily. “If I had noticed that she was hurting, we wouldn’t be here right now. I owe it to her to stay at her side - she’s only here because of me.” By the end of the sentence, the anger had turned to tears. 

Once again, I pulled her into my arms. “Don’t cry, Rosie. None of this is on you. Please don’t blame yourself for something out of your control.”

“But-”

“Just listen, please. It’s not your fault that this happened. I can usually tell with these kinds of things more easily than other people can - takes one to know one, I suppose - but even I didn't notice a thing when I was with her. You had no way of knowing what was going on in her head. That’s not on you.”

Rose rested her head on my shoulder, sniffling. “I just- I don’t know what to do.”

“Sometimes it’s okay not to know.”

She looked at me, as if she’d had a sudden idea. “Scorpius… would you try to talk to her? She likes you. And you know where she is right now much better than I do. Maybe if you’re talking, she’ll listen.”

I pondered the idea. It wasn’t a bad one. “Sure, Rosie. No guarantees, but… I’ll try.”

Rose smiled just slightly. “Thank you,” she said softly.

Returning the smile, I planted a light kiss on her forehead. “Always.”