EVERYONE LOOKED AT Rose now as if she was a ticking time bond of pure insanity. No one knew why Rose flew away from the Quidditch pitch and off her broom. It looked like, to a lot of people, as a suicide attempt.

"Rose!" screamed Alice and tackled her friend in a bone-crushing hug.

After Rose had revealed everything to her family in the Hospital Wing, she decided to stay there for the rest of the day. Eloise got her some books from the library to read. Madame Pomfrey got some soup from the kitchen to warm her up. Albus and Scorpius went to Hogsmeade to pick her up some hot chocolate with the peppermint whipped cream Madame Rosmerta made that she loved so much. The peppermint flavoring made frost come out of her ears. Ron and Hermione stayed for a bit to talk to her daughter about the mundane things happening at home.

They sent out for Hugo and once he got to the Hospital Wing her little brother instantly climbed into bed with her and gave her a giant hug. They filled Hugo in with what Rose had been going through and while they talked, more so Hermione, as Rose was too exhausted mentally to retell it, Hugo held onto his sister. Although Hugo was two years younger than Rose, at this moment, he felt like a protective older brother.

Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny took Albus, Scorpius, Lily, and James to dinner at The Three Broomsticks where they let Lily and James into what was happening. As soon as they were done dinner, they came back to the Hospital Wing so Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny could say goodbye to everyone. James began apologizing to Rose profusely on how he had been treating her.

"I'm so sorry Rose," James said, climbing into the bed where she and Hugo were and was hugging the other side of her. "I thought we were losing you, but it just turns out you were losing it seeing ghosts and everything-"

"James!" Lily yelled at her older brother as she too climbed onto the Hospital bed but kept near the feet as both Hugo and James had the top half occupied.

"What?" James said defensively. "Am I wrong?"

Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Ginny left that night but not before making sure Rose understood to report back to them of any more happenings. Guiltily, Rose agreed.

Although Rose knew it was important for them to know, to know everything because it had helped. It made her feel less alone, less crazy, more in-tune to this all actually happening.  She had gotten a protective gem out of it and a better understanding of what her Uncle Harry had been going through with his experience with the Veil. Not just the voices or how he got the gem, but what he witnessed when the archway broke.

"What was it like?" She asked before her Uncle left for home. "The Veil's archway when it broke. What did you see?"

He carefully shrugged his shoulders and recounted the memory, "It was just as you would think. When I and the other Aurors arrived at the scene we saw the souls escaping, but they were going so fast I couldn't make out any images of who the souls belonged to. The perpetrators had already escaped. We watched them leave but with the souls all around us, we couldn't make out faces and were unable to get to them. Ravana, though, we saw. Some of the souls coming out of the Veil had gone into him. He absorbed them but... he couldn't take them all and in the blink of an eye, he had vanished. At that moment we knew he held a part of the Veil in him and had escaped with it.

"I had no idea though, that despite being attracted to the human who broke the barrier they would also be attracted to the freshest life. No idea that my niece, as she was being born, would have souls coming to her for comfort."

She walked with them, Ghost close to her heals, to McGonagall's office and gave them all a last hug before they went through the fire to floo back home. Her father was the last left and he hesitated before jumping into the fire. When he looked at Rose her chest tightened and her fears of telling the truth were awakened. Ron looked at his daughter as if she was a wounded animal that he wanted to save but he also was afraid of. Afraid of the damage and the journey that was taken to be so wounded. Rose hated that look. She did everything to not be looked at in that way. 

The adults all had it but they hid it well. Well enough for Rose not to get that gut-wrenching feeling she had right now as she looked back at the fear her father showed. Fear all directed towards her.

And he said the dreaded words she wished no one would say today.

"Maybe you should come home. Take a break and come home."

She could feel her brother, friends, and cousins tense behind her. Ghost sat on her feet.

"I'll be home in a couple of weeks for Christmas," was all she said in response.

Defeated her father nodded and went into the green fire, back home to where Hermione would be waiting. Rose refused to think about the conversation her parents would be having.

So they left the office and headed towards there respected houses. Before diverging into different paths she said her thank yous and goodbyes to her Slytherin family and friends. She hugged Albus, then Eloise, and hesitated, only for a second, before she hugged Scorpius.

As she hugged the blonde-haired Slytherin she debated on thanking him for being a calming force in that room.

They separated and Scorpius took the grey gem, now around her neck just as Uncle Harry had had it, in his hands. He smiled and dropped the gem back down so that it rested in the middle of her stomach.

"I have a good feeling about this," he said, and Rose debated once more, on whether to tell Scorpius how his eyes reminded her of the gem he called beautiful. The gem that was meant to protect her.

So when Rose and the others walked towards the Gryffindor tower they came up with a story to tell people when they asked about what had happened yesterday at the Quidditch match. They decided to tell people, when asked, that Rose's broom had an undetected splinter and cracks within the handle which caused the broom to go into a frenzy. Rose falling to the ground was due to her clumsiness.

And they told this story to Alice who refused to even be an inch from her friend. It sounded believable. Alice believed it. But this didn't stop the rumors from spreading. That Rose was suicidal and had gone through a mental break during the match.

Alice believed Rose and the splinted broom story, but as Rose got ready for bed she couldn't get the feeling of Alice's eyes off of her and no matter how many times she assured Alice she was okay the questions never stopped.

She fell asleep hearing Alice fill her in on the things she had missed while Rose had been fighting her inner demons and outside ghosts, but to Alice, it was just the amount of homework she was consumed with and her time spent with the Slytherins. Too much time with the Slytherins was what was really implied.

The sound of Alice's voice grew quieter and quieter as Rose felt sleep engulf her into a warm embrace. It felt nice, at first, to be asleep in her warm bed in the Gryffindor tower, cocooned in the maroon blanket. She knew she was safe and that Ghost, who slept on her pillow, would warn her if there were any dangers. She knew the kneazle would warn her if the hooded figures had come for her again. Rose was safe and warm in her bed. Even her dreams comforted her. 

In her dream, she ran through a field of wheat with the sun beating down her pale white skin granting her freckles across her shoulders and atop her nose. She ran and ran and laughed as she did so. In the distance, she heard a voice singing to her, and the farther she ran the louder the voice of the singer became. The peaceful venture through the tall wheatgrass turned into a mission to find the singer who sang a song that filled her with such peace and tranquility. So she ran and ran and ran...

Suddenly, the wheat was on fire and the sun burned out. Darkness. The sky was filled with darkness and the wheat field burned to ash around her and the song she had heard was now a chorus of screams in the distance. Rose stood in place watching the wheat burn, the only light that allowed her to see, and braced herself as the chorus of screams came closer and closer to her. 

Rose was in the thick of it. She touched the fire and felt as the wheat disintegrated between her fingers, but the flames didn't harm her. She could walk through the field of fire with ease if she wished, but it was the screams that made her hold her place. They were coming from all around her and were headed straight towards her. 

The heat on her skin was no longer the sun planting soft kisses on her but the flame now daring her to run.

Rose looked at each and every way as she felt the screams closing her in. 

It was Rose's turn now to scream, as she came face to face with a man with skin melting off. 

+++

Rose ran through the castle in her pajamas. She didn't care who saw her. Professors, Prefects, ghosts of the castle. It didn't matter she just ran. Her bare feet barely touching the cold stone floors of the castle and her pajamas provided barely any protection from the icy weather she ventured through. None of this mattered. Rose ran. 

"Emerald" Rose hissed at the Slytherin Dungeon doors. Albus always told her the passwords so she could come in with ease. Never, any of them guessed, for protection. 

Rose and Ghost trodded through the now swung open door and passed the dark and quiet common room. The only sign of life was the green flame in the common room that stayed a lit day in and day out. 

The Gryffindor paid no attention to the quietness, nor did she even take in the dead of night that could be seen past the stone windows. She instead ran up the stairs as she did many times and swung open the familiar door that stood on the fifth floor.

Three boys slept. One bed was empty. One bed was adorned in candlelight.

"Rose?" Scorpius sat on top of his bed, candlelit on his night table, and his guitar on his lap. He held his wand in his hand and Rose determined, by the guitar and the other sleeping roommates, that he had a sound barrier spell around his bedpost, but the surprise entrance from Rose made him remove it. "I thought you were going to be Albus."

"Where is he?" She asked, not caring about the loudness of her voice. Not caring about the boys who slept silently in their beds. How they slept with no nightmares that woke them with fear so intense it made them run. 

Ghost leaped on top of Scorpius's bed and sniffed at the guitar in his hands.

"Detention," He answered quickly and petted Ghost as he explored the instrument. "Apparently, having your cousin fall from a broomstick didn't stop McGonagall from continuing his Sunday night detention spree. Trust me, he tried it."

Rose didn't have the energy to laugh. She got in the bed with Scorpius, just as Ghost had done, and sat at the foot of the bed. She pulled the curtains around bedposts for privacy and gave Scorpius's wand a quick glance. He instantly put the sound barrier spell up again. 

"I had a nightmare," she said, not looking at Scorpius but kept her eyes on Ghost who was now licking at the wooden instrument. "I had to get out of there. I had to get out. I had to run."

Scorpius looked at her and when Rose finally looked up and faced him she saw him not looking at her in fear, but in curiosity. He wasn't afraid of what she was going through and he didn't fear what surrounded her. He didn't look at her and think she needed to be coddled and protected. He looked at her in a way that Rose felt powerful. He looked at her though, in curiosity because he was figuring out a way to help her, but not shelter her. 

You can't always be there for me. 

Only because you won't allow it...

These words from a past conversation she had with Scorpius reverberated in her head and she felt an instinct to reach out and take Scorpius's hand, but she didn't.

"What was the dream about?"

Rose recalled the image of fire in the field, darkness in the sky, and screams surrounding her. About the melting face that had awoken her out of her nightmare.  She didn't mention the sunshine on her face and the sound of a voice singing before the field burst into flames. It wasn't important. 

Scorpius looked at her for a second, calculating his next move. "Rose, you're shaking."

"I'm afraid," She admitted, a little too fast for her liking, and kept her gaze on him. His eyes. His grey eyes and instantly she took the gem around her neck and squeezed it in her hand.

Without saying a word he shifted in his bed, making room for someone, Rose, to lay down. He motioned her to do so and Rose didn't object. She was tired, mentally and physically. 

"Try and get some sleep," His voice said in a soft whisper and Rose tucked herself under the dark green blanket. "I'll let you know when Albus gets back."

Scorpius sat next to her, Ghost on his lap and staring at his guitar. 

"Sing to me," Rose whispered, her eyes already closed but her mind wide awake, "please." She wanted her mind to be quieted. She couldn't quiet her mind. 

Without another second Scorpius began to strum his guitar and swirls of calming colors filled Rose's mind. 

"I've waited months and..." Scorpius's voice was soft and quiet as he struggled to get the words out, "found it led me back to you..."

Rose curled into the blanket unintentionally moving in closer to Scorpius. 

"To find you lost in pieces, broken into two...

But if you let me in, like a summer warmth

I'll surrender, the fight of love

But lost not the love I have..."

Rose's eyes fluttered open. She gripped the blanket in her hands tightly, wondering if she was hearing these words correctly. 

"Across the sea, a friend I'll be, until the end of time is all I need but if you chose to take my hand I'll hold it for as long as I can--"

"The song," Rose said and Scorpius instantly stopped playing hearing her voice. "I heard that song in my dream... before the fire and the darkness and the screams I... I was running towards that song towards that voice..."

How Rose didn't recognize it before, she didn't know, and she hated that she hadn't realized it the moment she heard the voice in her dreams. 

She sat up in the bed, next to her friend, and gripped the gem in her hand. Ghost meowed softly watching his owner carefully. 

"I just wrote it today,"  Scorpius's body went rigid seeing the way Rose looked at him. "A couple of hours ago actually..."

In that moment, Scorpius took account of the situation he was in. Rose, in his bed wearing nothing but a light nightshirt and blue shorts to match, looking at him with such intensity and curiosity. Him, sitting next to her playing a song he had written for her but never to play. 

But he did. He played the song for her because she was so scared and it was the first thing he could think of to soothe her to sleep. 

The two sat on his bed, hazel eyes looking into grey eyes, both hearts beating fast. Both sitting so close. 

"I have to go."

And Scorpius didn't stop her from going.