The next morning though, Rose's thoughts wandered back to the scared young man she had rescued from Azkaban the night before. She told Scorpius what she had found.
"So, what's going to happen to him now?" he asked when she finished.
"I don't know. From what I've learnt, the two of them are alone, no other family of any kind. With Sam still in jail, I don't know where he would even go." An idea started forming in her head as she said that. Scorpius spoke up before she could even suggest it.
"I know what you're about to ask, but the answer is no. I can't have him here. I know that none of this is his fault, but I still can't have him here. I know you feel guilty about it, but you have no reason to be, and I can't have the reminder of what happened every time I see him."
Rose sighed. It seemed even Scorpius had his limits to his forgiveness and generosity. He was probably right though. It wouldn't be good for either of them to be constantly reminded about what happened every time they saw one another.
"You could ask Albus," Scorpius suggested. "Or maybe your grandmother. Just please, don't take him here."
"Fine, I won't. I just hate that he's probably all alone. I know what Sam did was wrong, but he was also terrified and-" Before she could say anything more, Scorpius interrupted her. He actually sounded angry. She had hardly ever heard him truly angry.
"He was terrified? What about the rest of us? Don't you think we were terrified too? How can you defend him, after what he did? I know he was your friend briefly, but he was the one keeping us down there! He could have opened that door any time he wanted to, but he didn't! He was scared? So were we!"
Rose didn't know how to reply to that. He was right, but she still couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for Sam. She went over and gave her husband a long hug, to help him calm down again. That was when she saw the morning edition of the Daily Prophet that had arrived a few minutes ago. The story about Vane and her actions had of course made the front page. Pictures of James, Ginny and Scorpius were inserted under the headline "Kidnapped by impostor; Lived in a hole in the ground for over a week." So, Scorpius had given the interview yesterday. That may be why he was extra grumpy today. Having to relive that couldn't have been easy for him. She skimmed through the article. It was well written. Sticking only to the facts, there was little speculation about motive. Vane was mentioned by name, but nothing about her motivation. It was also said that every action she had done as Dawson would be investigated and probably annulled. That would enable Scorpius to go back undercover if he wanted to. Sam was not mentioned. That was probably for the best.
She gave Scorpius another long hug, then took the paper away from him. He didn't need to read that.
"Do you want to come to work today, or will you rather stay here?"
"I promised James we would hang out," he replied. "We won't go anywhere dangerous, I promise." Rose wasn't worried about that. She suspected that neither of them wanted to go anywhere even remotely dangerous for a while.
"Okay, that sounds nice. Let me know if you need anything. I need to get to work, to give a more complete report to Harry about Azkaban. I'll see you tonight." Rose gave a quick kiss to her husband as she went out the door and Apparated to work.
Scorpius smiled at the spot she had vanished from for a few moments, before he collected himself and started packing a few objects. He hadn't lied when Rose asked what his plans were. He was planning on hanging out with James. And what they were doing would probably not be dangerous. Not today, anyway.
But he hadn't given her the details either. He hoped very much that she would never know. Doing the interview yesterday had brought up many of the feelings he had tried to suppress. James felt the same. They had talked afterwards and decided that they had to do something more. Sure, Vane would end up in prison. Justice would be served. But even after hearing what Albus had said about her being unhinged and now losing her last straws of hope didn't feel like enough for him. Sam had already had to experience how it felt when the tables turned, when he suddenly became the one tied up down a hole. He wanted Vane to feel something of the same.
He knew Harry had already got her moved to a secure cell in a prison. He had sneaked into his office and found the exact location. He knew it well. It was the exact same one that he had been in years ago after the whole debacle with the Voldemort impostor. He hadn't been taken out of his cell often, but he knew enough about the basic layout that they should be able to abduct Vane from it for a short time. He also knew that Sam was not in the same one. Even Harry seemed to know that that might be a potential disaster. He wanted to see the same fear in Vane's eyes as he had seen in Sam's when he came face-to-face with him in the open cell. She had claimed he was a monster. She would get to see just how much of a monster he could be.