Worried mother

They did beat Rose home, fortunately. He just had time to get James into his room and put his robes in the cleaning basket when he heard the door open. He heard Rose speak and was about to greet her, but then he froze. That was Ginny's voice! What was she doing here? He quickly changed out of his own scruffy robes as well, then went down to greet them. 

"Hi Rose, how was work?" he asked, then turned to Ginny. "Hello Ginny. What brings you here? Do you need another scoop for the Daily Prophet?" That was a small inside joke between them. Scorpius would occasionally find dirt on certain people in the areas he frequented. More than once he had been able to get stuff to the newspaper that wouldn't be worth anything for the Ministry in itself. Ginny didn't smile at this like she usually did though. 

"Not right now. I'm worried about James. Harry was hoping that you had seen him today."

Oh dear. He didn't want to lie to Ginny, but he was sure she wouldn't like seeing how her son looked right now. He looked at Rose for a fraction of a second. She shook her head but didn't say anything to help him. 

"Seen him? Sorry, I just got off work. It's been a while since he's been here…" he began, but Ginny interrupted him. 

"I fear he has wandered off into Knockturn Alley again. I know you sometimes see him there, was he there today?" 

Scorpius gaped. She knew? Did they all know? He looked over at Rose again. She just continued to shake her head. 

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you know he sometimes ends up down there. You are his mother after all. Who else knows? Does Harry know as well?"

"Harry has enough to worry about. I think we can all agree on that. I am grateful that you have been helping him in any way you can, but he has been gone for days now. Please, have you seen him?"

"I didn't know it had been that long. I didn't hear the rumours until today. I don't have access to his Tracker, so I have to wait until he makes his presence known in some way. I… I found him today. He is safe now." He was still reluctant to let any of the women see James in his present state. "He doesn't want anyone else to see him. I only got him to come when I promised we could beat Rose home." 

The two women frowned. "Why? What is wrong with him?" Rose asked. 

"There is nothing wrong precisely. But he is quite drunk and wanted more. He also probably started a fight again. He will probably be fine again by tomorrow." 

"Again? You mean he usually starts fights?" Oops. Ginny didn't know all the details. He should guard his tongue better. Well, he might as well say it now. Ginny wouldn't let this go until she knew everything, he knew that. 

"Occasionally, yes. When a dark mood strikes him, he usually comes here and locks himself in. But when he isn't self-aware enough to do even that, he usually ends up in Knockturn Alley. By now, most of the regular patrons there know who he is. It doesn't take long before he has found someone who wants to take out a grievance against the Ministry, or against a Potter. But once he starts, many others follow. They have never hurt him too badly, they know they might actually get in trouble for that, but they keep pestering him until he stops responding. If I am there, I can usually stop it after a while, but that depends on whether I hear about it." 

Ginny was close to tears. He had said too much. Even Rose had never heard about this last part. 

"What… what do they do exactly?" Ginny asked hesitantly. 

"You don't want to know." Scorpius said shortly. "It won't make any difference. But, as I say, they usually don't seriously hurt him, unless he continues to fight after he is ganged up on. That only happened once, he seemed to learn from that." 

Ginny certainly didn't seem to like that. "I want to see him," she said. She seemed ready to physically push Scorpius aside to go up and see her son. 

"No, he doesn't want you to see…" Scorpius tried to say before Ginny simply pushed him away. Well, he had tried. He hoped she wouldn't figure out how to open the door. 

Ginny quickly found the correct room and gasped as she saw the pitiful state of James lying on the bed. She tried the locked door, then turned to Scorpius again. "You lock him inside?"

"Yes. At his request. He cannot open the door from the inside, or the point of the room would be gone. We check on him several times a day and let him out once the mood has passed. It rarely takes more than a day. Right now, however, I think he is merely sleeping off the intoxication." 

Rose had noticed the robes in the cleaning baskets, but wisely decided not to point them out when Ginny was there. She suspected they would show perfectly well exactly what had happened to James, and Ginny would hate it. She thought she smelled the faint sense of mead and dirt. 

"Why haven't you told us about this?" Ginny asked, looking at both of them. "You shouldn't have to deal with this all alone."

"We didn't want to bother you." Rose said. It was better that this came from her than Scorpius. "After the first few times, I saw how bad you felt, and neither of us wanted you to have to see that every time. So, after St. Mungo's said that there was no point in him coming to them every time, we designed that room for him."

"Not bother us? Why would you think it was a bother? He is my son; it is my responsibility to care about him. Has he said that, that he doesn't want to be a bother?"

"Not in those exact words. But when he feels the dark mood coming, he sometimes screams and shouts about how unfair the world is. We have stopped listening, to be honest. We know he doesn't mean it."

Ginny seemed torn between being angry and sad. This was exactly why they hadn't wanted her to find out! 

"We didn't keep you in the dark for no reason! It was what both James and Albus idea to manage this on our own. James is still seeing the Healers regularly, but they can't make a difference when he is down on himself like this. We're doing what we can." Rose said in a panic. She didn't want Aunt Ginny to be mad at them. The only person that was scarier when mad was her mother. And possibly grandma Weasley, but she had never seen her angry, only heard of it. 

Ginny seemed to land on the sad side after all. She slumped down in a chair. "The Healers are at a loss. It seems the difference between your case and James', Scorpius, is that with James, the memories were truly lost. I know Hermione has sent the statue to the Department of Mysteries, but there seems to be no way to recover the memories. I've literally had to tell him things that happened in the last few years. He barely has any recollection of what he has done since graduating Hogwarts. At least his natural abilities have not been affected, only his memories. I never thought I would feel this helpless again." Now she was almost crying! Rose had never seen Ginny look so defeated. 

"I'm sorry," Scorpius said lamely. He really had no idea of what else to say.

"You don't need to say sorry," Ginny replied. "I should rather say thank you for looking after him like this. I just wished we didn't have to. But please, don't risk yourself, or your cover, just to spare him some humiliation. And you're right, I probably don't need the details. If you can prevent him from getting truly hurt, and collect him safely, that must be enough for now. We must trust that the Healers are doing what they can otherwise. I hate to think this way, but for once I think the fact that it is the Potters that have this problem is an advantage. It makes sure it is a priority. It shouldn't be that way, but for once I won't complain about being famous." 

Scorpius agreed, though he also knew that James wouldn't fare as bad as he did in Knockturn Alley if he hadn't been a Potter. If he had been almost anyone else, no one would have batted an eye. Though his tendencies to want to start fights might have caused him trouble anyway, most people would have just ignored him. The bar knew how to deal with people who wanted to start fights. He had once come, as himself, to collect James from their time-out area and so had Albus. But Ginny had said she didn't want to know the details. 

Eventually, Ginny left, after they promised to let her know in the future if they had to pick him up in Knockturn Alley again.