Taming

“Scorpius? Could we talk?”

“Let’s wait until they move Rosie, okay? I think we need some privacy for this one.” Albus looked scared. Scorpius knew the feeling well. “C’mon. Sit with me while we wait.”

He sat back down on the chair, and Albus sat in his lap, wrapped around him, clinging like a baby monkey. Scorpius held Albus with one hand, and Rose’s hand with the other. He couldn’t sort what he was feeling just now. So he just sat, holding onto both of them.

Scorpius felt scared. Scared for Rose. But also scared about Albus. He wasn’t looking forward to any confessions that Albus might feel the need to make. Although, perversely, he couldn’t not know. His eyes scanned Rose’s pale face. He wished that he had her to discuss this with.

He wished that there were any other reason in the world that Albus was here with him now. He wasn’t going to tell Albus to go away by any means. He needed him right now. He needed the comfort of Albus’s warm body in his lap. Of Albus’s fingers stroking his hair. But he didn’t want Albus to only need comfort over Rose. He needed Albus to want him back. To want him.

And he needed desperately, with every fiber of his being, for Rose to be alright. Mirabella wasn’t dumb, by any means, and she was crafty. But she had never struck him as particularly bright or anything. He doubted that if she were the one behind Rose’s illness or injury, whatever it was, that the Healer that Harry recommended would have trouble breaking the curse.

Now, if Rose had set out to curse someone, he’d be worried for their life, he thought proudly, squeezing her hand.

Then the team from St. Mungo’s arrived, and he found himself shunted over to the side, watching and waiting. Scorpius stood with Albus on one side and Lily on the other side, gripping both of their hands. Hugo stood, holding his mother, while the Healers carefully moved Rose to a narrow stretcher, which they proceeded to levitate towards the door.

“Are you blood relatives?” one of the staff asked. “Who’s coming with her? Not too many people, now.”

“I’m going,” Hermione said. “I’m her mother.”

Hugo looked at Scorpius. “You go, mate. She’s your sister,” Scorpius said quickly before Hugo could offer to do something noble.

“But she’s your best friend,” he said gently.

“You go. I need to talk to Albus anyway. We’ll go over later.”

“Okay, mate.” They turned to leave.

“Wait!” Scorpius said. “Can I say goodbye first?”

“Quickly,” the Healer answered

Scorpius rushed over to Rose and smoothed her red curls back. “I love you, Rosie. You’re going to be just fine. I’ll see you later, okay?” He leaned down close to her ear and whispered, “He’s here with me, Rosie. We’re talking again. It’s going to be okay. And I’m sorry about last night.” He pecked her on the cheek and stepped away so they could continue towards the door.

He felt the tears flowing again, but then Albus grabbed his hand. And he felt better.

“Lil, darling, would you mind if we left you alone? If you need us, we’ll stay with you,” Scorpius asked.

“No, I’ll be okay. I’ll go find Kate. She’s worried about Rose, I’m sure. So you’re going to talk, right?”

“Yes, we’re going to talk,” Scorpius told her.

She turned to her brother. “Are you going to stop being a prat?”

“Lily… I…” Albus stammered.

She laughed. “Don’t tell me. Tell the gorgeous man who loves you and has been pining away for you while you acted like an arsehole.”

Albus flushed. “You’ve made your point.”

She hugged him tightly and Scorpius heard her whisper to him, “He loves you. No matter what, remember that.”

Then she hugged Scorpius and left the hospital wing in search of Kate.

Scorpius and Albus turned and looked at each other. Then they both realized that there were several students still in the infirmary, and all of them were staring.

“Let’s find somewhere else to talk,” Scorpius suggested.

“Good plan.” They were barely out the doors however, when Scorpius’s parents appeared.

“Scorpius! We just heard about Rose! Is she going to be alright?” Draco enfolded Scorpius in a tight hug.

Astoria held out her arms to Albus and Albus fairly ran to her. She held him while he cried. Scorpius knew that she thought that he was crying for Rose, but Scorpius knew better.

He let go of his father and answered his question. “We don’t know anything yet. However, Harry’s gotten her transferred to St. Mungo’s under the care of the best Healer specializing in curses and hexes.”

“Times like this, I’m sure it’s good to have Harry Potter in your family,” Draco said. “I’m sure if he says he’s got the best, he has.”

“I’m not worried,” Scorpius said, although he knew in his heart that it wasn’t true. He was worried. About several things.

He couldn’t do anything about Rose just now, but he could do something about Albus, who was still clinging to his ex-future-mother-in-law like he was never going to let go.

*********************

Astoria seemed reluctant to be parted from Albus and Scorpius, but Scorpius finally convinced her and his father to go to the hospital.

“Please, mother,” he practically pleaded. “Find out what you can, and ask when we can visit. Maybe you can talk to the Headmaster, father.”

“I’m sure you’ll be allowed to visit soon,” Draco said comfortingly.

“Yes, but I can’t stand not knowing. Please find out for us, father.”

“Of course. Your mother and I will go right away,” he promised. They all hugged each other one last time before Draco and Astoria left the Hufflepuff common room.

Scorpius sighed. “I thought they’d never leave. Want to go upstairs where we have more privacy? To talk, I mean?”

Albus nodded. “I’m glad your parents came, though. I missed your mum so much.”

“I could tell. How about me? Have you missed me as much?” Scorpius tried to keep his tone light, but he could feel himself getting choked up already.

“More. More than anything ever.” Albus sank down on the bed. “I don’t know what to say. ‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t begin to cover it.”

“It would be a start.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know. I’d like to know what happened now, if you’re ready to tell me.”

“It seems so stupid now, but this girl ran into me in the hallway, literally, and nearly fell all over herself telling me that you two had been engaged.”

“Excuse me, what?”

“That you’d been engaged. To her.”

“What did this girl look like? Long dark hair? Pretty face?”

“I guess so. She had her hair up and she wasn’t that pretty, but yeah, I guess. So anyway, she told me that you’d lied to her over and over again and that you’d said all these pretty lines to her. Things that you said to me.”

“So you thought that I’d re-hashed my proposal to some random girl and used it again on you?” Scorpius was incredulous.

“I told you, it was stupid. I mean logically, I knew that I’d nattered on about what you had said and when you said it so often that anyone could have overheard. I don’t know if I ever even believed what she said. Not deep down. But I was so scared! I was insecure about the girl thing.”

“The girl thing?”

“Yeah. I mean, I’ve known since I was about five years old that I liked other boys. There wasn’t really an option for me. I can’t even imagine wanting to be with a girl, romantically or sexually. But you have been. Many times. And you wanted to. It’s not like some blokes who are gay and they try to pretend that they’re not, you know? I was watching you all those years, remember? I saw you at school dances snogging girls and running off into dark corners with them and I know you shagged them. Lots of them.”

“Yes, but I never fell in love with any of them.”

“But you could have! If you’d never noticed me, eventually I would’ve got over you, I hope, and found another man. But I never would’ve even looked at a woman. If you hadn’t fallen in love with me, you might have fallen in love with a girl. And that’s what really bothered me. Because I started thinking that day that maybe I was taking you away from that. I mean, without me, you could have an actual wife and babies and people would be more accepting and maybe you’d be happier.” He hung his head.

“So let me get this straight,” Scorpius said, hardly believing his ears. “You decided to completely rip my heart out so that I would go on to fall in love with a woman and be straight and make babies because you thought it would be better for me?”

“No, that’s not it at all, really. I just… I was so jealous! I couldn’t handle the idea of you with all those girls. I started convincing myself that there was no way that you’d want to give up girls for me, and I… I got scared. What if we got married and you had an affair with a woman? It would kill me.”

“If we got married and you had an affair with anyone, it would kill me. It wouldn’t matter if it was a man or a woman.”

Albus flushed. “I’m not explaining this well, am I?”

“Not particularly.”

“Well, I don’t understand it myself! I think you were right; what you accused me of doing when we were outside Charms on Friday. I think I wanted to be angry about this more than I actually was. After I talked to that girl, I sat for hours, just thinking. And I kept thinking that you’d been with all those people, and many of them were girls, and I hadn’t been with anyone but you. How could I compare to that?"

“I told you…”

Albus cut him off before he could continue. “I know. But I just started telling myself that I couldn’t compete. I mean, what would happen the first time some pretty secretary in your office threw herself at you? What if you suddenly realized that you missed girls?”

“So you didn’t trust me enough to be faithful to you?” That hurt.

“I did! I do… But…”

Scorpius had heard enough. “So because my sexuality is more ambiguous than yours, you made the leap that I couldn’t be trusted? So you broke up with me and started seeing another guy? One who hasn’t fucked a girl, to my knowledge. How is that fair?” He felt the tears start again. “I’m not going to apologize for my past any more! Yes, I fucked a lot of girls. But I never loved a single one of them. I’m sorry that pussy doesn’t make me want to run screaming from the room, but that’s just how it is! I didn’t ask to be bisexual or whatever you want to call it any more than you asked to be gay. But the real problem is that you apparently didn’t trust me! Did you ever trust me?”

“Yes! I just…”

“Save it! I can’t handle this right now!” Scorpius turned and ran from the room. He was all the way up to Ravenclaw Tower before he realized that Rose wouldn’t be there.