Explanations

Scorpius walked straight to his room when Voldemort dismissed him, hoping to forestall a disaster. Even so, he almost jumped when he saw Rose there, chains on hands and feet. The chains hung from the ceiling, giving her very limited ability to move. He would need to remove those. At least she still had her robes on. The two men who had taken her away were still there. He didn't like the look on their faces, he needed to get them away quickly, before either he or Rose did something irreversible. He hoped she would play her part for just a little longer.

"Are those chains really necessary? She won't go anywhere," Scorpius said, and looked at Rose. "Will you?"

Rose shook her head. "No. I have nowhere to go now. My family will hate me for what I did. I failed them." She started crying again. "I failed. I thought I was strong. I failed. Please. Please don't hurt me."

"We had orders to secure her. We did," The guard said. "You decide what to do with her. But I wouldn't remove all her chains just yet. She may try to bite you." He rubbed his hand and glared at Rose.

"I'll keep that in mind. She knows what will happen if she tries to run. You can go now. I wish to be alone for this next part. I don't need gawkers." Scorpius held his breath, hoping they'd leave. After a short hesitant pause, the guards reluctantly left, and the two were alone. Scorpius relaxed when he saw them disappear around the corner. Rose glared at him.

"What kind of pea-brained idea was this? What are you planning to do now? I'm not going to beg to you any longer! Why would you first help by not torturing me, but then have me taken here? Do you think I will now do whatever you say out of gratitude? Well, think again, Malfoy." She started fighting her chains.

Scorpius quickly moved over and started removing the chains from her hands. As soon as Rose had one of her arms free, she slapped him as hard as she could. Scorpius jumped back, a little shocked. That hurt! He had to start explaining, unless he wanted more punches.

"This was a little unexpected. I was hoping you would spend at least one more night in the dungeon. That way, you could escape with James tonight, and this wouldn't be necessary. But don't worry, we will think of something. Did you actually bite one of them?"

"He was trying to touch my breasts. My legs and hands were tied, so my teeth were the only thing I had left," Rose said.

Scorpius smiled. "Well, so much for being broken."

"I was just trying to preserve any dignity I have left. At this point, there is very little of it, but I won't let anyone assault me as long as I can do anything to prevent it. That goes for you as well." Rose said with another glare.

"I'm sorry," Scorpius said as he cautiously moved in to remove the chain from the other hand, so that Rose could sit down on the floor. At least she didn't hit him again.

"You seem to use that word a lot," Rose said as she sat down on the floor. "But just being sorry isn't enough." She was glad she didn't have to keep standing. It hurt everywhere, standing up had made it worse. That was the only reason she hadn't hit Scorpius again when he moved in to remove the other chain. It was probably a good idea not to physically injure him further, he had all the power here.

"I know, but it is still true," Scorpius replied. "And we are working on the other part."

Rose just realised what Scorpius had said. She looked up at him. "Did you say James can escape tonight?"

"Yes," Scorpius said. "The plan was for Severus…"

"Albus," Rose corrected him sharply. She still did not know if she believed him. Maybe he was just trying to get her to relax? But why had he not tortured her, if he wanted to take advantage of her? It was all a bit confusing still.

"Sorry, Albus, to take you both back to your cells. He would then act a bit threatening and tell you he wouldn't give you your dinner if you didn't behave. Then he would tell the guards to eat their meal right in front of you, to taunt you further. We laced that meal with a sleeping draught. Then we would go back, unlock the door with the guard's wand, and get you, James, and as many others as possible, out of there. We would then try to implant a false memory of the guard being forced by an unseen character, but much taller than me or him, to open the doors. We then Apparate them to safety. We're not sure we can do the Memory part, but it is worth a try. Now, though, Albus may have to do this alone. I don't think I will be able to leave this room unnoticed tonight, but I don't think we can afford to wait either. I suspect the other hideout he mentioned will be a lot more protected, so we have to do this tonight."

"That's actually a good plan," Rose said as she started rubbing her wrists to get the circulation going again.

"No need to sound so surprised," Scorpius said in an annoyed tone. He rubbed his cheek where Rose had hit him. It had actually hurt, she had a strong arm.

"Sorry. But what about me now? How are you going to get me out?"

"I honestly don't know. I mentioned to the Dark Lord…"

"Don't use that name," Rose hissed.

"Sorry! I mentioned to him how I wanted to teach you a lesson for rejecting me or something like that. But I only said that to prevent you from getting killed. Or hurt. He seemed to interpret it a bit differently. I think we both played our parts a bit too well tonight."

"It was one of the worst things I have ever done in my life," Rose admitted. "Almost as bad as two days ago, when I had to watch you two swear yourself to Vo-You-Know-Who. And then watch Albus kill someone."

"He didn't kill someone," Scorpius said quickly. He was glad that he could finally tell Rose everything.

"What do you mean, he didn't kill someone?" Rose said, her anger flaring up again. "I saw it! Do you still try to get me to doubt myself? Are you just trying to get my guard down? I almost believed you!" Rose tried to lunge for Scorpius again, but he had moved out of her range. She tripped over her chained feet and ended up on the floor again.

Before he dared to approach her again, Scorpius needed to explain this last crucial piece of information. "He stabbed him, but not fatally. Then he made a lot of flash fire so that no one would think to look more closely at the body. He should be just fine. Albus told him to pretend to be dead, and it worked."

Rose looked sceptical. "But why didn't you say so down in the dungeons earlier? It would have made me more likely to believe you. Or didn't you think about that lie until later?"

"We couldn't risk it. We didn't know what he would ask you. We were afraid one of you would give in to the torture today."

That reminder was enough to make Rose recoil in horror. She bowed her head and sat down on the floor, tears forming again. She had tried to forget about what she had done, focusing on her hate of Malfoy rather than what had happened. But there was no getting around it. It hadn't taken much, had it, to break her? One round of torture, and she would have told him anything he wanted to know. She was lucky he had stopped at her mother. Had he continued, he could have made her tell him everything she knew. Not that she knew all that much. She doubted he would have been satisfied with it. But Scorpius was right, she would have exposed Albus, if that would have made Voldemort stop hurting her. If it was true. She still didn't know what to think. Her head and emotions were a mess.

She hated showing weakness in front of Scorpius, but he had already seen her at the worst moments of her life. What more weakness was there for him to see? She curled down on the corner of the floor, where her chains were not as tight.

"I'm sorry." Scorpius said, moving towards her. "Was it true? What you said?"

"Yes. Though I think she won't be alone now. She rarely uses that entrance, only when she is in a hurry. I hope she won't use it now. I hope she can forgive me." Rose started crying harder. Scorpius sat down next to her, letting her cry on his shoulder. She still wasn't sure she believed him, but for now, she didn't care. Any friendly touch was welcome. They sat like that for several minutes, being each other's comfort.

The door suddenly opened, with a loud bang. A dark figure stood in the doorway. Rose screamed. Scorpius fell to the side, clutching his chest.

"Well, phase one is complete. Oh…" Albus said as he came into the room. He saw the chains still hanging on the wall, and Rose and Scorpius on the floor. He had forgotten about that. It didn't look like Rose had been harmed further after being tortured. He tried to break the tension in the awkward silence that followed. "Did I interrupt something?" he asked with a small smile. Rose seemed to calm down a bit, seeing who it was, but the look she gave him was not encouraging. It seems she didn't trust him yet. Well, he supposed he could understand that. He just wished he could take her with him tonight.

"Gulping gargoyles Al! You scared me half to death. Knock first, at least. I thought you were the Dark Lord himself coming down to punish me!" Scorpius managed to gasp out when he had recovered his breath.

"Sorry," Albus said "I forgot that Rose would be here. Anyway, I explained to James his part of the plan on the way down, and we made a good show of me exalting over finally being greater than he. It was almost fun. If you forgot the sobbing bunch of people lying around us. James is going to revive everyone he can, and I will go down and give the guards their dinner soon. Hopefully, in a few hours, they will be fast asleep. Then I will open the doors and get them out. I checked. We can Disapparate just outside the dungeon doors, so no need to pass any more guards."

"Good. Though now only James will be able to escape tonight."

"Yes. That really was unexpected. What on earth have you been saying to him? He even offered me another one of the prisoners, so that I wouldn't feel left out."

"Well, I said something about how she always toys with everyone's emotions or something like that, and that I wanted to teach her what happens if you cross a Malfoy. He seems to be taking that statement slightly differently than I meant it," Scorpius admitted. Albus didn't press for more details, seeing how uncomfortable Scorpius was.

"I don't do that!" Rose commented indignantly from the floor. Scorpius tried to reply, but he seemed at a loss for words, something that rarely happened with him.

"Well, we will need to work something else out. For now, let's complete the plan we have," Albus suggested. "James really needs to get out of here. I still don't know exactly what happened to him, but he is damaged from what happened on that statue."

"Yes. He tries to hide it, but he spent a lot of time just staring into nothingness. He didn't even seem to hear what I said sometimes. Being down in that dungeon does not help. Not much to do there but think." Rose said. "Go get him home, Albus. We can worry about me later."

Well, she seemed to believe that he meant to do that at least. That was progress, Albus supposed.

"I am sorry that we can't get you out tonight as well, Rose. Please believe me. We didn't intend for any of this to happen. But we are in over our heads and have limited control over what happens around us."

"I want to believe you. And even down in that dungeon I had trouble believing that you two had really sworn yourself to the Dark Side. But I don't know. It is all so confusing. My whole world has turned upside down, I don't know what to believe anymore." Rose started to cry again.

Scorpius got down next to her, and she seemed to welcome his touch. It seemed she had made up her mind about Scorpius at the least.

Albus pretended to hesitate when he was about to go out the door again, a small grin on his face. "Is it safe for me to leave you two here alone?"

Rose smiled briefly. "Get over it, Albus." Then she turned serious and sad again. "If you can, please warn mother of what I said. Please?"

"Of course. I plan on telling them as much as I can. I have all night, I think,"

"But if you can avoid it, don't tell them exactly where Rose is now," Scorpius added "I would hate to survive this mess only to have the Minister for Magic murder me for keeping her daughter chained in my room…"

Albus smiled but left. He needed to get the food with the Sleeping Draught down to the guards.

"I'll make up a pallet for me on the floor. You can take the bed," Scorpius said to Rose once Albus had closed the door. He started moving some bedrolls to the floor.

"Don't be ridiculous. That would look very suspicious. We can take opposite sides of the bed," Rose replied.

Scorpius did not like that idea. "No one will see…"

"What if someone comes with a message in the night and sees you on the floor? No, if you don't want to share the bed, I am the one who needs to be on the floor. I am the captive here after all."

"This situation is bad enough. I can't have you sleeping on the floor!"

"That is why we will share the bed," Rose said with finality.

"Fine. Fine. There is no use arguing with you," Scorpius admitted. He supposed the bed was big enough for both of them to sleep on. And it would look less suspicious.