Harry Potter: 19 Years Later

Chapter 23: Holly's Fate and A Race

Albus considered this for a moment, then rolled his eyes and sighed. "Okay, deal. How about I push you out to the starting line, eh, Miss Crippled?"

Rose snorted. Clever, she had to admit.

Neither of them realized that it was 30 minutes past midnight. Playing chess sure passed the time. And of course neither of them were tired. Comas definitely screwed up your sleeping pattern. Albus has probably been nocturnal ever since he woke up.

It worked out pretty well that Albus's side of the hospital was practically free of any nurses or doctors. The race would be way more interesting with more space. Albus suggested the starting line be at the very end of the hallway where Wing 7 started. The two agreed that the finish line would be the double doors leading into the next floor hallway would be the finish line. Other than the huge circle they had to get around to get to the spiral ramp to get up there, the route was pretty simple. As for Rose, her way to get through the route would be tricky.

"You sure you can handle this, Miss Crippled?" Albus asked, clearly taunting her. Honestly, Rose didn't know if she could do this.

Rose re-positioned her sweaty hands on the wheels, nodding. "Let's just get this over with."

Albus pointed the the digital clock hanging on the wall, which also counted seconds. There were 15 seconds left until 12:45 a.m. Rose had fifteen seconds to think if she really wanted to do this and embarrass herself. "Okay, as soon as it hits 12:45, we go. Simple enough?"

Rose nodded, gulping as there were only ten seconds left and counting. Here we go..

"Go ahead and take your head start," Albus told her. Rose almost forgot. She went ahead and wheeled herself forward a few feet. Wow, wheeling herself was harder than she thought.

"5, 4, 3, 2..." Albus muttered, smirking. Then, he took off past Rose a split second before it hit one. No fair!

Rose gasped, appalled at her cheating cousin. Then she positioned her hands on the wheels again, and used her every ounce of strength to go faster. Luckily, after a few seconds, Albus's legs looked like they were getting tired and he slowed down, now using the wall to hold himself upright. He was still far ahead though, then disappeared around the corner.

What was she thinking? This wasn't going to work, so why did she think so? Her arms were nearly as weak as her legs, and she had to stop and take deep breaths and rest her throbbing arm muscles. While she did this, Rose racked her brain with a possible logical idea to take some kind of shortcut. She was not going to lose.

Then, the solution hit her like a freight train. Rose mentally smacked herself. The lift. Every damn hospital had a lift. Albus never established in the racing rules that lifts weren't aloud, right? Rose laughed to herself. She had a chance after all!

Rose's miracle appeared a few feet away when she managed to turn the first corner. There was a wonderful lift right there. She didn't hear any sounds coming from it, so it hadn't been used. Poor Albus was still limping through the hospital hallway.

He was so arrogant sometimes, Rose thought.

Rose pressed the up button on the panel, and the lift doors slid open. She wheeled inside the elevator car, chuckling at how brilliant this idea was. In just a few seconds, the lift would reach her destination, and she'd be there when Albus ran up the the finish line, his face completely shocked from losing.

The lift was unfortunately quite slow, so Rose extremely anxious. She slouched in her wheelchair, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Then, when it was silent enough, that's when she heard heavy breathing from beside her. Rose slowly turned her head, and she shrieked when her eyes met another pair of eyes. There was someone else in there the whole time.

It wasn't just any pair of eyes. Rose knew those pale pray eyes anywhere. Then her eyes observed the pale face, which was sunken and thin, and his un-brushed blonde hair. It took her a moment to fully take in his appearance.

"Scorpius?" Rose breathed, her eyes watering at her boyfriend's physical condition.

Scorpius was unhealthily thin. His well-toned body was now scrawny, and his posture was slouched over, like he didn't have the strength to properly stand straight. The hospital gown Scorpius wore was very baggy, and he was positioned where Rose could see his extremely bony shoulder. Then Rose, who couldn't stop the tears dripping down her cheeks, looked at Scorpius's face, where their eyes met. There was no visible sign of life in his eyes, and he only stared at her like she wasn't quite real.

Rose's eyebrows wrinkled together, as if she were mentally asking him, What the heck happened to you?

His eyes suddenly widened, like a wave of panic had instantly hit him. Rose couldn't believe how mentally disturbed he looked. She noticed how bloodshot his eyes were and the visible dark bags under his eyelids, as if he hadn't slept in days. Maybe longer than that. Rose had seen a lot of terrible things in the past few years, but this had to be the worst.

Neither of them spoke. They only stared at each other for at least a minute. Then Scorpius broke the eye contact and looked around wildly, muttering random words to himself. What was wrong with him? Had he gone insane?

"S-Scorpius?" Rose whispered, reaching her hand out to touch his arm. When her fingers brushed against his skin, Scorpius jumped, backing himself up against the wall. He accidentally pressed the stop button on the lift with his elbow. His hands groped desperately at the wall for a way out, like he was getting claustrophobic. Scorpius was having a panic attack of some sort.

"No! This isn't real..." Scorpius muttered to himself, pulling at his hair. He even ripped a few strands out.

"Scorpius, please calm down!" Rose pleaded. She couldn't do anything when she couldn't stand. Maybe if she tried...

"Rose is dead. Albus is dead. Holly is dead. Everyone I love is dead," Scorpius whispered, tears beginning to run down his face, he sobbed as he slouched onto the floor. Rose had to do something. She pushed herself up by her arms, then lowered herself until she collapsed painfully on her knees on the floor beside Scorpius.

"Scor, I'm not dead. Albus isn't dead either and I'm sure Holly is okay too. We're all fine. Please calm down," Rose said comfortingly, rubbing Scorpius's shoulders. Then she grabbed his face and forced him to look into her eyes. Something in his facial expression changed. Scorpius finally looked at her like he knew her and loved her more than anything.

"R-Rose?" Scorpius muttered, studying Rose's face. She hoped she looked presentable. After that long coma, her bushy hair was probably horrendous.

Rose smiled. "Yes, Scor, it's me."

Scorpius mouth slowly turned up into a huge grin, and before she knew it, his mouth connected to hers. Scorpius wasted no time to deepen the kiss, to Rose's surprise. She let him lift her up since she couldn't stand up on her own and hold her against the wall. Rose missed moments like these more than anything. She knew things would go back to where they were.

"Merlin, Rose, I love you so much," Scorpius whispered to Rose tenderly, then a split second later reconnecting his lips to hers.

It turns out, the lift had already been stopped for about five minutes, and the doors were open. The two were oblivious to Albus finally making it to the finish line, taking one look into the heavy make-out session in the lift, and then vomiting into a nearby trash bin. (Which was from both the sight of the intense kissing and running for such a long distance.)

Rose thought she heard Albus while he was busy hurling his insides out, but she shrugged it off as some sick patient and continued moving her lips against Scorpius's.

~ ~ ~

Wow, this was a long chapter. Sorry it took so long to update. Stupid homework and school. -__-

Anyways, I want to give a shoutout to my Wattpad bestie, and one of the nicest readers you could ever ask for, Tiana1657 :D

Also, she created a new book cover for this story, if you haven't noticed it already. It definitely needed an upgrade lol

Anways, thanks for reading! Vote and comment please!