Rose could hear voices talking around her, but for some curious reason she couldn't open her eyes. She knew she'd been asleep for a while, only she didn't know exactly how long. Why couldn't she open her eyes, or move her body? Giving up on trying to move, Rose decided to listen to the voices talking to each other. She estimated there were about four people in the room.
"Doctor, it's been over a year," Rose heard her mother say. What was she talking about? What's been over a year? Was Rose in the hospital?
"We know this, Mrs. Weasley. We're doing everything we can," an unfamiliar, male accented voice replied, who Rose assumed was the doctor. She strained her ears to listen to the intense conversation.
Suddenly, Rose's mother burst into tears and began sobbing. Rose was beginning to get really frightened. Whatever was going on wasn't good.
"Will my sister ever wake up?" a small, depressed voice asked. Rose realized it was Hugo. She barely recognized his voice, which was slightly deeper and had a sad tone to it.
That would explain why Rose couldn't open her eyes or move. She'd been asleep for Merlin knows how long. Why hasn't she woken up yet? Was something wrong with her? Rose could feel her heart pounding with fear, causing the heart monitor to beep faster for a second or two. No one else noticed it.
She heard the doctor sigh. It was one of those, 'I've got bad news,' sighs. "It's hard to say. We expected her to be awake and about months ago. Comas affect everyone differently, especially magically-caused comas."
Rose's heart nearly stopped. She was in a coma. And apparently it's lasted for months. Rose tried to remember what happened to her, but the details were fuzzy. All she remembered was a flash of green light.
Green light. Like from a spell. That explained the part of the doctor's last sentence, especially magically-caused comas. If only Rose could remember what happened to her!
Her mother was still sobbing. Then Rose heard her father say, "What should we do now, Doctor?"
There was a long pause. The wait for the doctor's reply was terrifying. It was like he didn't know what exactly to tell Rose's parents. When even the doctor doesn't know, Rose knew that was bad.
"Well," the doctor finally said. "I can only think of two options. You could either leave her here at St. Mungos in our care and let her decide when to wake up, which would be harder for you financially since you already spent thousands of galleons to keep your daughter in this room for a year and four weeks. Or you can take her home with you," The doctor paused again.
"There's also a third option, but you have to think about this. Being in a coma has damaging effects on the body. As you see for Rose, she's lost over 15 pounds and she hasn't moved once in over a year. If she ever decides to wake up, she won't be able to move for a while due to immobilization for so long. She might not be able to talk or do things on her own. Comas can cause serious after-effects that are hard for patients to recover from. It might even be worse since her coma was caused by the killing curse. I'll give her one more week, but if she doesn't wake up then, we might need to consider letting her go."
A year and four weeks in a coma. Hard for her parents financially. A thousand galleons. Home. Damaging effects on the body. After-effects. One more week, or they're letting her go.
These thoughts swirled around Rose's mind, and it was so overwhelming that it was hard for her to breath. The heart monitor beside her was going crazy, making everyone in the room panic. Rose needed to wake up, but what if she couldn't? If she stayed in her coma, her parents could go bankrupt from keeping her here in St. Mungos. She had two options. And letting go seemed to be the easiest one.
"What's happening to her?!" Hermione wailed, sobbing more. They thought Rose was about to die.
Miss Weasley, wake up, Rose heard a familiar voice in her head. She recognized it immediately.
Professor Snape? Rose thought, trying to communicate to Snape.
Miss Weasley, you need to wake up. Your family needs you. Your friends need you, Snape said.
But...I don't know how to wake up, Rose replied.
Believe you can. Remember what I told you before. Think of your reason for being in this world. You're important to this world, Miss Weasley. Even for reasons you don't know yet, Snape told her. Rose felt his presence in her mind leave.
Wait, Professor Snape! Rose realized she had to do this on her own.
She thought of her parents. They'd be devastated if they lost their only daughter. And Hugo. Who would take care of him at school? And Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny, James, Lily, the rest of the Weasley family. And her best friends, Albus, Holly, and Scorpius.
Scorpius. Her first love.
Rose gasped and opened her eyes. Hers eyes were wide and frantic as she looked around the room at her mother, father, Hugo, and the doctor. They all looked like they'd just seen a ghost.
"Rose!" Her mother, father, and Hugo breathed in awe, then ran to her and tackled her in a hug. Rose groaned slightly as they hugged her stiff body, but then she laughed and smiled with tears in her eyes. Slowly, she lifted both her arms and wrapped them around her family, who were all sobbing with relief.
The doctor smiled and laughed, obviously relieved at the scene. Then he ran out of the room calling for more doctors and nurses.
Ron ripped himself from the hug and ran into the hall, yelling with joy, "Harry! Ginny! She's awake! Thank Merlin, she's awake!"
Running footsteps pounded down the hall, and the door burst open. Harry and Ginny Potter looked around the room until they spotted Rose, then ran to her bed and tackled her into a hug also. Rose was starting to get tired of the hugs.
Then Lily, who looked she'd grown a lot in a year, ran into the room, grinning ear to ear when she saw Rose. Hugo ran to her and sobbed into his best friend/cousins arms. Rose had never seen her brother cry like that before. Shortly after, James walked in, holding a baby girl, who was very tiny and looked only a couple of months old.
Rose gazed at the infant curiously. The baby girl had red hair, like Aunt Ginny, that was tied into a tiny ponytail on top of her head, and her eyes were green, like Uncle Harry's. She looked like Albus with Lily's hair color.
Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry smiled as James walked over to them, handing the baby to them. Rose realized the baby was theirs. She remembered Aunt Ginny was pregnant the last time she saw her.
"Rose, this is your cousin, Ariana Hermione Potter. She was born just five months ago on the first of September," Ginny said with pride, holding her baby daughter on her lap. Ariana was playing with her mother's necklace.
"Yeah, we couldn't believe she was born on the day we went back to Hogwarts. Mum's water broke hours before we were supposed to catch the train, so we all had to be Apparated outside of the school the next day!" Lily said. Everyone laughed, obviously reminiscing that day.
"Yes, that was one crazy day," Uncle Harry said incredulously. Rose couldn't believe she missed something so important like the birth of her new cousin.
"We almost didn't have a name for her," Aunt Ginny said, stroking Ariana's hair. "Luckily Harry let me name a kid for once." She joked, punching her husband's arm playfully. "So we named her Ariana after Dumbledore's sister, whose portrait helped us communicate with Aberforth Dumbledore and actually saved our lives by bringing Harry, Ron, and Hermione back to Hogwarts for the battle."
"And her middle name is Hermione because I'm the best aunt in the world," Hermione joked, then leaned down towards Ariana and planted a kiss on her forehead.
"Sure, Hermione, sure," Uncle Harry said sarcastically.
Rose enjoyed watching her family get along so comfortably. She was glad she decided to come back.
"I love you so much, darling," Rose's mother said, holding her and crying into her hair. Then she pulled away and grimaced. "Sorry to ruin the moment, but Rose, as soon as we get home, you are washing your hair."
Rose laughed and grimaced also, thinking about how dirty her hair must be. Of course her mother would say something like that. Then she tried to tell her mother she loved her too, but nothing came out. Rose couldn't talk yet.
"Oh, darling, I'm sorry. Here, this will help," Hermione pulled out her wand and pointed it to Rose's throat, then muttered, "Audio Maxima." (Not a real spell, I made it up lol XD)
Rose felt a warm feeling hit her vocal chords, and then she heard her thought out loud in an echoed version of her voice, "Hey, it works!"
Everyone in the room smiled and laughed. Rose didn't even have to move her mouth to speak; the spell voiced what she wanted to say out loud.
"So how are you feeling, Rose?" Aunt Ginny asked her.
"I'm really stiff. But otherwise, I think I'm alright," the spell helped Rose say.
Aunt Ginny smiled and set her hand on top of Rose's. "I'm glad you're okay. We've all been worried sick. Especially Albus."
Rose's eyes widened. "Albus! Is he alright?" She remembered her and her friends all got hit with killing curses, including Albus.
Ginny glanced at Harry nervously. Then Uncle Harry replied, "He...he was in a coma, like you, for a long time also. He woke up three months ago, but he's still recovering here at the hospital. He doesn't have enough strength to even walk yet, but he just started talking recently."
Rose gulped. "I need to go see him." She shifted a bit to try and sit up, but her parents each put an arm on her to stop her.
"Rose, darling, you can't walk yet. You just woke up from a year-long coma five minutes ago," Her father said. Her mother nodded.
Rose knew she didn't have the strength to walk. She slumped back down on the bed and replied, "Then put me in a wheelchair and take me to him."
~ ~ ~
Wow, this is a REALLY long chapter. I hope you liked it though. :)
Vote and comment! Thanks for reading!