Not going to say much about the delay. This chapter hasn’t been beta-ed. God Knows where Jackie’s disappeared…it’s been over a month since I sent her the chapter and she still hasn’t replied!
Let’s all hope she’s fine!
*looks worried*
Have you seen the Harry Potter 7 trailer by the way? I nearly died of shock when I saw it...the new movie looks really good!!
Disclaimer: Everything recognizable belongs to JKR. Copyright infringement is unintended.
22. And The Damage Is Done
Rose stirred when she felt something pointed poking her in the cheek. She groaned when she felt a massive headache split her head into two. Her eyes were burning and so was her face. She was also feeling extremely weary as if she had been working for a long time without taking any break.
She blinked slowly, bright light piercing her eyes. So much bright light made her realize that it was definitely well past dawn.
“Mamma!”
Rose started when her Amelia’s voice next to her. She squinted to see her daughter sitting right next to her head and smiling brightly at her.
“Hello bear!” she murmured sleepily, astounded at how hoarse her voice had sounded. But then she had cried herself to sleep. Which explained the head ache and the heavy feeling of her heart.
She started again when she felt the same poking again. She rubbed her eyes and opened them again to see Amelia poking her with the stem of a beautiful rose in her hand.
“Who gave you this, Amy?” she asked, slowly sitting up. Involuntarily she looked to the other side of her bed. Her heart sank when she saw that Scorpius’ side of the bed hadn’t been touched at all, implying that he hadn’t slept next to her the entire night. However, there was a folded piece of parchment on the pillow, which she took without hesitation.
It read,
Hey,
I can’t recall the number of times I’ve said sorry to you. Every time I told you I wouldn’t make you cry and yet I am the one causing those tears to escape your eyes. You have no idea just how awful I feel about the one promise I thought I could keep; that of not making you cry.
I am very ashamed of my behaviour from last night. And if I had the chance, I would turn back time and make sure what happened last night never happened.
I don’t know how I’ll make it up to you, but I’ll start by saying sorry.
One of the reasons to why I am writing to you is that I saw your face when I came to wake you up and what I felt that moment crippled my courage to talk to you. Another one is that I got an owl from work. Had to reach by nine. Have finally been included in the Auror team to prepare the closing file for our mission. But I’ll be home by seven.
And I would like to take you out for dinner tonight. Does Oliver’s sound good to you?
Love, always,
Scorpius
PS: I took the rose from Mrs. Forrester’s garden. I know I could have conjured it, but then it was worth seeing the old hag scream her lungs out while I treaded over her petunias.
PPS: I love you
PPPS: Seriously
Rose looked at the letter in disbelief. She didn’t really know how Scorpius managed to infuriate her so badly and then make her melt from the inside within seconds.
Reading his letter had finally managed to lift her spirits. But then she wasn’t feeling too forgiving either.
So he had troubled her a lot in the past few days, she could trouble him instead. There had been many instances in the past when he had annoyed her to an extent that she wouldn’t talk to him for a few days. And cruel as it may sound, she enjoyed the undivided attention Scorpius gave to her while apologizing, which always,
always made her feel happy.
Scorpius would not get her forgiveness that easily.
She got up immediately from her bed, getting a head rush when she stood up on her feet. Smirking slightly, she moved to the table in his room. Before she could pick up a quill and jot her reply down, she heard her name being called out from the living room.
Picking Amelia in her arms, she moved downstairs to see Elora’s head bobbing in the fire.
“Elora!” Rose cried out indignantly, “You’re over seven months pregnant! I don’t think you ought to be bending down like that!”
Elora however rolled her eyes.
“I’m glad to see you here! I wanted to go out shopping. Buying baby clothes and a few toys for the Nursery. So you free for a few hours?”
“I don’t know El-”, began Rose, before gears shifted in her brain and everything fell in place. The Weasley genes finally kicked in.
“Sure, I’ll come”, she said brightly, eliciting a confused look from Elora, “Guess I’ll be doing my
night shift tonight!”
“Okay. But Rose, are you all right? Why are you looking so happy? I mean shopping for baby stuff isn’t really that fun.”
“Oh it is
fun. I’ll ask Lily if she can baby-sit Amelia today”
“Auntie Lillieeeeeeee”, squealed Amelia excitedly, clapping her hands.
“Yes, sweetheart, Auntie Lily”, chuckled Rose, rubbing her nose against the little girl’s. Turning back to Elora, “I’ll come to your place in an hour after dropping Amelia, okay?”
“Right. See you.”
Rose turned back to her parchment and grinned slightly while looking around for a quill.
Looked like it was Scorpius’ chance to sleep alone tonight.
Have got night shift today. So no dinner. Feed Amelia on time
Scorpius gaped at the letter in his hand.
The only time she did night shifts was when she had important things to take care of during the day. Even if she did have any other obligations, she didn’t mention it in the letter. Which implied she didn’t really have anything important to tackle during the day.
Rose was punishing him.
Why else would she be doing her night shift when he had clearly mentioned it to her that he wanted to take her out to dinner tonight?
He and his stupid mouth had gotten him in big trouble with her. He knew she was at fault as well for not telling him about Ryan, but then her excuse was somewhat reasonable. He hadn’t been doing too well, and she knew how he felt about Ryan. If she had told him about Ryan earlier, he would have probably reacted the same way. And then they hadn’t been talking much in the past few days, so she probably couldn’t come up with an opportune moment to discuss it.
He figured it would be better if he didn’t think too much about his personal issues at work. After all, personal life should never be allowed to mix with professional life.
He got up from his desk, trying to convince himself that Rose is not really that mad, and everything would be fine the moment he and Rose have a long talk about it.
“Done with the paper work??” came Ron Weasley’s voice from the door.
“Yeah”, came his reply.
“Good. Now come now. We don’t want to be too late for the interview now do we?”
Scorpius spared the letter another glance before proceeding to wear his robe.
“On no sir. Not at all!”
“This sucks!!” exclaimed Albus, bringing Scorpius out of his daze.
The blonde couldn’t help but agree. They were currently at Babbages’ residence. Justin Babbage, a twenty-seven year old who worked at Gringotts as a curse-breaker, was the last muggleborn murdered by the criminals, and the Aurors had arrived at his residence to know about his background and to know if there was any possibility that Babbage might have had links with the murderers.
Justin’s mother had been hysterical at the sight of Aurors on her doorstep. She had been extremely apprehensive about letting the Aurors in, but in the decided that if she were to reveal anything, it would be to only Ron Weasley and Harry Potter.
So the rest of the Aurors were currently seated in the living room while Ron and Harry questioned the mother in the dining hall.
Scorpius didn’t know why he had been so damn enthusiastic about wanting to come for the investigation. This thing was boring as well. The time he was wasting here could be put to better use. He could use this time to make up with Rose.
His eyes shifted to Chris who was staring stonily at the table. Scorpius didn’t even want to ask why he was looking so upset. He had bumped into his fiancée at the ministry a few minutes before they were supposed to leave. The temperature had dipped significantly around them as Chris glared at her while she looked away guiltily. Scorpius had to pull him away from the place so that they would concentrate on reaching their destination properly while apparating.
Albus let out a huge yawn, causing attention to shift towards him. He just shrugged when Scorpius gaped at him. He either went through the magazines or looked around or complained just how boring it was to sit here and do nothing.
“Magazine?” asked Albus, offering Scorpius what seemed like a copy of Witch Weekly.
“Are you kidding me?” asked Scorpius looking at him incredulously.
“It’s not like we’ve anything else to do.”
Rolling his eyes, Scorpius took the magazine from him.
“Glad to know she is still maintaining the touch with the wizarding world”, murmured Albus, “With all these magazines and all…Jackpot! Quidditch Illustrated!”
“Babbage has a younger sister”, said Scorpius absent-mindedly, proceeding to open the contents page, “She was in a year below us and she…”
His voice trailed away when he saw one of the highlights of the magazine listed on the page.
HAS RYAN SMITH FOUND LOVE??
The Tornadoes hottie was seen canoodling with a single mother in a muggle park! Turn to page 47 for the news and exclusive pictures!!!
Pulse racing, Scorpius quickly flipped to the mentioned page. Had Smith finally moved on from Rose?? Had the good news he had been waiting for finally arrived?
His eyes immediately fell on the two pictures, and he took in a sharp breath.
The pram in the picture was identical to the one he and Rose had bought for Amelia. He would have passed off the pram as someone else’s only if he hadn’t seen the various coloured ribbons hanging off the handle. And all of them were incidentally of the same colour Rose and he had bought and decorated the pram with.
His heart rate increased unpleasantly, when he saw that the girl’s head was covered with a hat. A gigantic hat. A hat he had been wearing yesterday morning.
He looked carefully at the picture, feeling extremely dizzy.
Rose couldn’t- she wouldn’t - why would she - she did not take Amelia to meet Ryan!
Thousands of thoughts were popping in his mind, all of them hinting that Rose was cheating on him with Ryan. The fierce monster in him erupted again. He felt like lashing out and breaking things around him.
He tried to breathe deeply, trying to calm himself down.
Rose IS NOT cheating on me. She isn’t!
But then the pictures and article say something else entirely, don’t they? Came a snide voice inside his head that sounded remarkably like Ryan Smith’s.
His eyes scanned the article. And found a few sentences looking staring back at him. His heart was pumping blood so violently that he could hear the thump-thump in his head.
The woman with Ryan had curly dark red hair.
The two of them were extremely affectionate with each other. They were seen holding hands.
Ryan seemed very attached to the baby, as if his own.
They were about to kiss when the shot was taken.
Scorpius got up immediately, deciding that he really needed to talk to Rose about this.
“What’s wrong??”, came Albus’ surprised voice.
“I have to leave”, he replied, his voice shaking and his insides burning, “Tell Ron I am sorry. It’s an emergency.”
Scorpius rushed out of the house, ignoring Albus’ questions, to apparate to Mungo’s.
He hoped with everything he had, that Chris was the only one who was cheated on while he was away.
“Last night was terrible. Cannot remember the last time I cried myself to sleep”, said Rose, shaking her head as she put back the unicorn soft toy back in it’s place.
“He’s recovering, innit? Just be glad he didn’t walk out”, said Elora, shrugging before proceeding to pick up a teddy bear, “Do you think this teddy bear would be fine?”
“It’ll work. It’s neither too feminine nor is it too masculine”, said Rose nodding, “Do you think I’m being too harsh on Scorpius?”
“Of course not!” said Elora indignantly, “You had already mentioned it to him before that he is not supposed to be taking out his stress on you. And yet he did. Serves him right!”
Rose gave her an uncertain smile. Elora obviously didn’t know the entire story.
There were times she wished her friend too knew about it because she wanted someone else to know the situation with her. Someone who wasn’t her, or Scorpius. She knew that Elora wouldn’t tell Albus about it if she requested. But then, she just didn’t know what held her back from telling her the truth.
Sighing, she turned to see her friend cooing over a baby owl soft toy.
When the time is right, she figured Elora would know everything.
“Has Healer Rose Malfoy signed in for the day?”
The receptionist looked up at him from his desk, a bored expression on his face.
“Say what?” he croaked, pushing up his spectacles to get a better look at him.
“Healer Rose Malfoy”, said Scorpius impatiently, and added as an afterthought, “Rose Weasley. Has she checked in for the day? Or when would she be available?”
The receptionist stared at him for a while, before taking out a clipboard with a lot of sheets attached to it.
“Rose Weasley”, he said in a bored voice, looking through the sheets, “She will be signing in at eight tonight.”
“Has she been signing in regularly?” he asked, checking his watch. It was well past three.
“That is something that is kept confidential, a record shown only to those who have the authority. SO unless you have an injury to be tended to or if you have someone to meet, I recommend you to leave the building.”
Scorpius glared at the receptionist before turning on his heel and moving towards the exit.
He was starting to feel
extremely worried now. His heart was slamming against his rib-cage. His breathing was becoming extremely irregular.
He had already checked at home and she wasn’t there. She wasn’t at Mungo’s either. She also wasn’t carrying one of her cell-phone thingies. How was he supposed to know her current location? Albus’ house was locked too, implying that Elora had most probably gone to work, and most importantly, Rose wasn’t there.
His insides twisted uncomfortably as another place where Rose might be, popped in his mind.
Ryan Smith’s house.
But this time, he desperately hoped that she wasn’t there.
“-the Jones would be my main opponent-No Amy! You do not want to play with the pepper shaker!”
Lily giggled as Ryan tried to take the pepper shaker from Amelia but the little girl was surprisingly putting up a good fight.
“You’re not able to snatch a shaker from an infant?? What on earth would you manage on the Quidditch pitch?!”
Ryan looked up to glare at her, making her snort louder than before.
Thing had turned out to be smoother than anticipated. Rose had miraculously given her a call, asking her to baby-sit Amelia for the day and requesting her to drop the baby at her house by half past seven because Scorpius would be home by that time. She had immediately written to Ryan, who seemed very delighted and requested to come as soon as possible. However, on reaching Ryan’s place, she had discovered that he had been called for practice and Ryan had requested her to go to Oliver’s and wait for him there. Instead she had taken Amelia along to his practice, managing to sneak into the stadium to watch their practice.
As Lily had watched them practice from the upper deck, she couldn’t but help ignore the odd feeling that had crept into her. The feeling of watching Ryan practice, while she was in the stands with their own child in her arms rather than Amelia.
She however had brushed it off. It wasn’t something she wanted to dwell on. It would just cause her hurt and longing to intensify.
He had disappeared into the locker room soon enough and she joined him when she was sure everybody save him had left the locker room. They had ended up blushing a lot in first few minutes after she entered, because he had been starkers in the room and was busy scrambling for a towel when he saw her. However after he got dressed, they got talking again, almost back to normal. Ryan had summoned his elf and had directed her to take his Quidditch gear home. He had told her that he would be lunching out with them.
She had caught Ryan glancing at her and flushing when caught, more than once. She knew he was still attracted to her, but she didn’t want to do anything about it. If they could be friends without any strings attached, she would be happy all right.
She looked around in the restaurant they were currently sitting. The lunch was lip-smacking and extremely filling. But more than the lunch, it was Ryan she was paying more attention to. He still hadn’t talked to her about what had compelled him to decide that he would be meeting Amelia for the final time today. She had sensed the urgency in the way he was holding her. She didn’t even know to bring up the topic without turning the atmosphere awkward.
She sighed and turned back to her dessert, hoping that he would surely open his mouth today and tell her what is bothering him.
Scorpius banged loudly on the door of Ryan Smith’s house, wondering why there wasn’t any security around.
He stared at the door, counting seconds till the door opened. His heart was in the mouth as waited for the door to open. The truth was finally going to come out.
The door slowly opened, and Scorpius was astonished to find a house-elf in front of him.
“How can Silky help, Sir? Master is not at home!”
“This is Ryan Smith’s house right?” asked Scorpius uncertainly. If Ryan loved Rose, he wouldn’t have employed a house-elf.
“Oh yes sir!” the elf squeaked, “What a wonderful master he is! The best of best!”
“So Silky, where would your master be?”
“He went in the morning for Quidditch practice at the pitch at Wemby.”
“You mean Wembley?”
“Yes sir. Master is practicing so hard-.”
“Silky. Has a certain Ms. Rose Weasley been coming here off late?”
The question left his mouth before he realized. He looked at the elf, his blood pounding in his ears.
The one answer that would either ruin everything or save everything he had.
“Oh Miss Weasley!” the elf squeaked, her eyes shining brightly, “Wonderful Miss Weasley and Baby Amy! They is so wonderful!”
All of a sudden, his heart that had been thumping loudly in his throat dropped into his stomach.
“Rose used to come here?” he asked, his throat burning, his insides blazing again. She brought Amy here despite his warnings?
“Miss Weasley and Baby Amy used to come everyday! They made Master happy. Master loved Baby Amy so much. He became unhappy in the middle when they didn’t come!”
Scorpius nodded, trying to gulp in some air when he realized he hadn’t been breathing in at all.
“Master loves Miss Weasley and Miss Weasley too loves him. They should be together! They is so happy together!”
Rose lied to him. It was all a lie. All of it was a sham. He wasn’t sure but he had perhaps heard the sound of his heart breaking. He didn’t know if he should ask the elf what exactly had happened between them because he wasn’t sure if he would be able to hear it.
“Did she come here today?” asked Scorpius, his voice extremely hoarse as his eyes burned.
“Yes. Miss Weasley came with Baby Amy in morning. But they went to see practice when I told them master wasn’t home- Oh I remember! Master Ryan said that they would be going to Oliver’s for food.”
“Thank you Silky you’ve helped me a lot!” he said, his world spinning around him. He placed a hand on the wall to steady himself.
This was unbelievable. She had decided to go for night shift because she was meeting Ryan during the day. She wouldn’t obviously mention that in the letter. She dumped his date so that she could spend time with Ryan? And she was going with Ryan to the restaurant he was supposed to take her to.
“Who is you sir? I need to know to tell Master Ryan!”
“Stan Shunpike”, said Scorpius, already having turned around and moving towards the exit.
He felt as the world had fallen apart and he was falling into an abyss. Rose was seeing Ryan behind his back. She still loved him. She wanted to get back together with him. Why else would she be seeing Ryan when she had promised him that she would go nowhere near the bastard anymore?
He sat down on the pedestrian outside Ryan’s house, his entire body shivering. He buried his face in his hands, and then clutched his hair tightly. Reality hurt. Oh dear Merlin, it HURT!!!
White hot jealousy licked up his insides as they crumbled into pieces. His body was shivering more violently now as he realized what had just happened.
Rose didn’t love him. She perhaps never loved him. She had lied to him about loving him. Maybe she felt extremely grateful to him, causing her to say those words. She had definitely lied to him about liking him since the second year. He knew how mental he had been acting that day and she had said all that to cheer him up. How could he have been so stupid to believe everything she said?!
Oh yes. It was because he was blindly and madly in love with her. He believed everything that came out of her mouth. She obviously knew that, and used him according to her convenience. She wanted sex, she got it. She wanted love, she got it. He gave her everything he had and believed she had given everything in return. He believed that he had finally got everything he could ever want from life.
His perfect world, in fact, never existed. It was just a bloody fucking illusion.
He choked back tears, not understanding why Rose chose to cheat on him rather than just telling him what she really wanted. Sure that would have killed him, but nothing could have killed more than this.
He got up from the pedestrian, deciding he has got to see the two of them together before making any final decision.
If he did find them together, he would not waste any time.
He would end it. For their own good.
“Hey Ryan!”
Ryan looked up from watching Amelia nibble at one of his treacle tarts, to Lily.
“What happened? Ice-cream not too good?”
“No”, said Lily shaking her head, “I wanted to know why you decided that this meeting would be your final one with Amelia?”
Predictably, he sighed and said, “Look I don’t think-”
“I don’t want to hear that lame excuse again”, snapped Lily, stabbing her scoop with the spoon, “just tell me. As it is, I am not sure if we’ll be able to meet up after this.”
“Please?” she whispered softly when he hadn’t responded to her query.
He let out another sigh and began seriously, “I had gotten a few tests done a few days ago.”
“You’re sick?” she asked immediately fear creeping in his heart. Is that why he had been acting so weird? Because he was dy-?
But before Ryan could reply to her question, a red liquid came out of nowhere and splashed itself onto her skirt.
“Mother of fucking-“, she swore, getting up immediately.
“I am sorry ma’am!!” squealed a waiter, “I don’t know how I tr-tripped ma’am. Let me help you clean!”
The waiter took out a handkerchief and made to move towards her but Ryan’s snarl stopped him
“She’ll manage on her own!” he said, glaring at the waiter, who was about to touch her, “Try and lighten the stain in the washroom”, he said nodding towards her.
Lily nodded once at him, trying to calm down the hysterical waiter and then moved towards the washroom.
She opened the door to the washroom, cursing as she got in.
She, however, froze in her spot when she realized that there was someone else in there she recognized.
“Come on El”, said Rose, checking her watch. It was now quarter past four. “Hurry up! I want to have something before I faint of starvation!”
“I am trying to finish early, but seems like I have a lot to let out!”, came Elora’s impatient voice from one of the toilet cubicles.
Rose made a face and turned to look at herself in the mirror, before she heard the door open.
To her huge surprise, it was Lily who had entered. She seemed to have stopped dead in her tracks on seeing her.
“Hey Lils!” she said cheerfully, “What are you doing here? And where’s Amy?”
“I’m-I’m with a friend here”, said Lily, who for some reason looked scared, “He-she’s got Amy. I ca-came here to wipe the stain off my dress.”
“Okay”, said Rose frowning. What was up with Lily?
“What about you? What are you doing here?” asked Lily, looking at Rose’s reflection in the mirror.
“El wanted to shop for some baby clothes. Then she decided she wanted to shop in muggle London. Haven’t had lunch, so we’re planning to eat here-ARE YOU DONE WOMAN?”
“Almost!!” came Elora’s voice again.
Rose watched Lily splash water onto her skirt and then trying to wave her wand over it. The stain just turned darker. The door of the washroom opened and a woman entered. Lily quickly hid her wand. However when the door opened, a loud wail reached her ears, startling Rose.
A wail she could recognize anywhere.
“Is that Amy??” she asked Lily, extremely worried.
Lily on the other hand looked terrified, “Rose, wait-.”
But Rose paid no heed to her cousin. She shot out from the washroom and into the eating area trying to follow the voice. She reached the corner table and was surprised to find a familiar blonde’s back facing her. Wasn’t he supposed to be doing some investigation thing?
“Scorpius? What are you doing here?!” she called incredulously.
Scorpius turned to look at her and her blood ran cold. Because behind him was Ryan Smith holding her sobbing daughter, and glaring at Scorpius.
How on earth-?
She then looked at Scorpius and cringed.
There was anguish etched on every inch of his face. His eyes were however extremely cold as he looked at her.
Surely the sight of his daughter with Ryan Smith made him feel that angry, right?
He turned to face Ryan and growled, “You don’t want to create a scene here, Smith. Give me my daughter.”
Ryan shot him a death glare, “Don’t want to fight you in front of my daughter, Malfoy.”
“Ryan, you heard him”, said Rose warningly, her mind buzzing. How on earth did Ryan manage to meet Amelia?
Ryan seemed to have realized her presence as he finally looked at her, his face turning pale.
Scorpius immediately took a crying Amelia from him. He rubbed soothing circles on her back and then turned around to face her.
“I’ll see you at home”, said Scorpius coldly, giving her a look of pure hatred that shocked her.
He brushed past her, Amelia still bawling loudly in his arms and exited the restaurant.
Every eye in the restaurant was at them.
Breathing slowly, Rose turned to look at Lily, demanding for an explanation. Behind her, Rose saw Elora looking at her in utter confusion. The guilty expression on Lily’s face made her insides tumble uncomfortably.
Ryan was the friend she was hanging out with??
“Would you care to tell me what’s going on?” asked Rose, narrowing her eyes at her, extremely sure that she wouldn’t like her answer at all.
AN:-
So the truth about Lily and Ryan is finally out! But is it too late?
Let me know if there are any mistakes…since it hasn’t been looked over.
Please review!
The next chapter is almost done. It should be up soon. Along with Before Malfoy Had It Going On's next chapter and the final installment of the Weasley series.... It's now obvious that I had a a very busy summer! :)
Stay tuned...!
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