Scorpius dreamt about the woman. Nothing else. Albus was occasionally in his dreams as well, but it was mostly the woman. Some dreams were good, from a house they were in together, but some were not so good. He got glimpses of the woman screaming at him, someone holding her back. Once he saw her in chains. That sight made him wake up with a start. Was it real?
He asked Albus when he came to visit later that day. But Albus wouldn't say. He seemed a bit distracted.
"Is something wrong Albus?"
"No. Or, nothing you need to worry about. Your job is to get better."
"Don't lie to me, Albus. You are worried about something. Is it something to do with… her?"
Albus smiled. "You really are getting better. Just a few days ago, you barely even knew who I was and now you are able to see that I'm worried?"
"What are you so worried about?"
"Family troubles. My aunt and uncle are mad at each other."
"Which ones? Don't you have many uncles?"
"I do! How did you remember that?"
Scorpius smiled. "I remember many things. Potter and Weasley. You're famous. Though I don't remember what for. But there are very many Weasleys, and I haven't even met them all. But why am I meeting them? I'm not a Weasley."
"You are a family friend Scorpius. But yes, there are very many Weasleys. Can you remember any of them?
They tried for some time, but all that really came from it was that he remembered Harry Potter. He was the most famous of them, but also Albus' father. He hadn't always been happy about that.
"Is there anything else new you remember?" Albus asked. Just as he did, he leaned over to get some water from a jug, and Scorpius saw a hint of a tattoo. He gasped and grabbed the hand. Albus looked puzzled, then he sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn't see that."
Memories flushed into Scorpius. He knew what that tattoo meant. He quickly dropped the arm and found his own tattoo. "The Dark Mark" he whispered. "They gave us those… We didn't want them." Albus didn't say anything.
"We… We lived with them. We went over to them. Why did we do that?"
"No, Scorpius, we didn't. We pretended to go over to them. Remember? They captured us. We wanted to stay alive."
"Captured us, yes. And someone else. I tried to keep her alive. They wanted to kill her."
"Yes. You cared more about that than staying alive yourself."
"Rose!" he suddenly shouted. "I needed to keep Rose safe. Who is Rose?"
"Rose was captured with us. They wanted to kill us, so we pretended to join them to prevent that."
"Rose" The name was familiar. The Healer came in, but Albus whispered something to him, and he nodded and left again. Scorpius barely noticed. He looked down on the tattoo again. "She hated me. She thought I had joined them. That is why she shouted at me."
"Yes, at first, she thought so, but she found out the truth later. She doesn't hate you now Scorpius."
"She was in chains. She was in chains, and they hated me for it."
"Who they?"
"They. Her family." He looked at Albus. "Your family. They hated me because she was in chains."
"It was a misunderstanding. We cleared it up, and they all like you now. Remember the family dinners Scorpius? At the Burrow?"
The Burrow. He could imagine a place called that. The woman was there. She was happy to see him. The woman. Rose.
"Rose is the woman!" he suddenly exclaimed. "She's the woman I keep dreaming about. She, she was there, at the Burrow, happy to see me. But there were chains there too…"
"She was free then, Scorpius. You managed to set her free."
"Tell me. Please. Tell me what happened. I remember parts of it, but some parts, it is as if I don't want to remember."
Albus sighed. He looked at a person behind Scorpius. Scorpius looked around and saw one of the Healers there. He gave a reluctant nod. Had he been there the whole time? Scorpius hadn't noticed him before.
Albus spent the next few hours guiding Scorpius through the painful memories of what had happened a year before. Occasionally, Scorpius could say the thing that happened next, but usually, Albus had to tell him. But he knew that it was true, even when he didn't want to remember. Together, they pieced together those important parts of his memory. It was painful to remember, but it felt good at the same time. Because he remembered Rose. He had finally found the answer to the most important piece of the puzzle.