Bab 48: Prison meeting
Rose felt a little uncomfortable as she and Tom came to the small prison that Sam was kept in. It was not the most secure one, but it still had high fences and security gates. Rose wasn't prepared for the sight of Sam in handcuffs. He really looked a lot like how Scorpius had looked, when she had visited him years ago. Except that Scorpius had been chained to the wall as well. It seemed Sam didn't need that. He looked at her with surprise.
"I was told that my brother was here to see me," he said. "They didn't say that you were here as well."
"Someone needs to be in the room with you. If you don't want it to be me specifically, I can go and find someone else," Rose offered. She hadn't even thought about how Sam would feel about seeing her again. He just shook his head and turned to his brother. They weren't allowed to touch, but he gave him as big a smile as he was able to.
"I'm glad to see that you are okay at the least. What happened to you? Where did he put you?"
"I was in Azkaban. Until Mrs. Malfoy here found me and got me out. I'm sorry. I know this all happened because of me."
"No, not this time. You didn't do anything wrong this time; it was all made up so that he could use you as leverage. Please, don't go and feel bad about this."
"How can I not? I'm the one who keeps doing stupid things, and you're the one who gets me out of it! And now you're the one who ended up in prison because you tried to protect me." Tom was crying. Rose felt uncomfortable, as if she was intruding in something private. She probably should have told someone else to be in here with them. This was not helping her stop feeling guilty about the situation. She looked away and pretended not to see that the brothers hugged briefly.
Then Sam got down to the more practical details, the reason Tom had been granted a visit. It turned out that their house, the house that had been used for Rose's Auror exam and apparently several other tests like it, had been seized by the Ministry when they couldn't pay their mortgage. In return, Sam had been given the keys to a small apartment that he had intended to surprise Tom with.
"The keys should still be with my stuff in the locker at the train station," Sam said and gave the address to an apartment in a town far away from London. Tom understood the reference, even though Rose didn't. It wasn't any of her business anyway.
"Just make sure to keep up with all the bills. You need to find a job as soon as possible, to manage that, possibly get a loan until you can do that." Tom interrupted and explained about the compensation he had received from the Ministry. Sam seemed relieved at that.
"Don't go and blow it all at once then," he said. "It may have to last you for a while."
At last, Tom seemed to dare to ask the question he most wanted to ask.
"Do you… Have you heard anything about how long you will be in here?" he asked, clearly trying not to cry. Sam looked at Rose, though she pretended not to see it.
"I don't know. I have a meeting with someone they call a defender tomorrow, he might be able to tell me more. For now, I am honestly just glad that it's over and that you're safe. Be strong for me, okay? I'll let you know as soon as I can about what happens next. Don't forget to put flowers and a candle on the grave in October. Preferably daisies, if you can find them. You know she loved daisies." Tom cried at that.
"I don't want to go there without you," he said.
"I don't know what will happen, but please, promise me that you will go anyway? We can't have Halloween without flowers." Tom nodded reluctantly. Sam smiled and once again gave him a furtive hug Rose pretended not to see.
Rose had no idea what they were talking about. She wished she had never volunteered to be the guard inside the room. She never wanted to do this again, especially not with someone she knew. A knock on the door reminded all of them that their time was nearly up. The brothers quickly moved away from each other.
"Time is nearly up," Rose said reluctantly. "Depending on what happens, you may be able to visit another time as well."
Tom sighed but got to his feet. "Thank you for arranging this, Mrs. Malfoy," he said, though he didn't look at her. Rose didn't say anything.
Sam looked like he wanted to say something too, but in the end, he only said: "Take care of yourself, Tom." as he rose to greet farewell.
Then, just as they were about to leave, he said; "Thank you for getting my brother out of Azkaban." Rose wasn't sure she heard correctly, and by the time she turned around, Sam was already moving towards the cells again. He had a defeated look; despite the relatively good news he had just received. Rose's heart ached. She really shouldn't have done this.
Once they were out of the prison, Rose left Tom to get back to the Leaky Cauldron on his own. She hoped he would be okay.
When she finally returned to the office, she saw Albus for once diligently working on a mountain of paperwork. What had he done to get so much of it at once? Even her seemingly endless stack had never grown that high.
"What are those?" she asked. Albus jumped at the sound of her voice.
"My reports," he replied. "I need to redo them; my father didn't think they were good enough. As if he has never taken shortcuts with reports before." Albus kept grumbling under his breath as he wrote. Rose tried hard not to smile.
"Maybe if you've done it at least slightly more detailed the first time, you wouldn't have to redo them," she said. Al just grumbled.
"Have you seen Scorpius?" she asked. Al didn't seem to hear her at first, but when she repeated herself, he looked up.
"Not in a while."
"Which means?"
"Which means, I don't have time to keep tabs on him, I am on desk duty until all of this is done."
Desk duty? That sounded like a punishment. This couldn't just be about the bad reports, he wouldn't have been benched for that.
"Is this related to where you, Scorpius and James went to last night?" she asked. She hadn't thought too much about it at dinner, but it was strange that the three of them went out so late and didn't tell her what they were doing. If Albus had ended up on desk duty, why hadn't Scorpius gotten the same? Was he out saving James from something again?
Albus sighed. "Yes. I can't talk about it."
"Can't, or won't?"
"Both. If you have to know, go ask dad. I'm busy."
Rose just got more and more confused. Al usually told her everything. What had they done, that he wasn't allowed to talk about it?
Harry wasn't in his office; he had a meeting with the Minister. She would just have to suppress her curiosity and instead start working on her own reports. She volunteered to take an interview with one of the last witnesses from the island, just to get away from Al's excessive grumbling. Most of the other Aurors who heard it smiled as they passed, they all understood what Al was doing and none of them felt very sorry for him. Most of them had had a round like this, it seemed. That didn't help Albus' bad mood.
As she was about to go down to the breakroom for lunch, she got a paper plane notice. She was summoned to the Minister's office. That had never happened to her before. What could her mother want that couldn't wait until after the workday was over? As she headed in that direction, she saw Draco coming out of the other elevator. What was he doing here? Did this have anything to do with Scorpius?
As they knocked on the door, Harry opened it for them.
"There you are. Come in and sit down," he said. Rose didn't like the expression on his face.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone