Scorpius could hardly believe this was real. When he first saw the boat filled with familiar faces, he thought they were all an illusion, or another trick from Dawson. Then the person looking like Harry started fighting him, confirming his theory. But Rose wasn't an illusion or an impostor. It had been more than an hour and she hadn't disappeared or changed. And she knew the pet-name, only three other people would know that and only she would use it. But how had they gotten here?
He wanted to see that the impostor really was captured but that had not been what he expected either. It was a woman! Were they all lying about that? But they all seemed surprised at seeing her there. The name Romilda Vane sounded vaguely familiar, had he read something about her once?
Then they decided to talk to Sam. Scorpius didn't want to listen to him. He was a coward and an idiot, what would he have to say that was worth listening to?
He was surprised to see that the other cells were also filled with women. What was the impostor planning on doing with them? He saw Hermione leading them all back to the boat. Would that even have room for all of them at once?
Now Hermione came towards them. Scorpius saw her mouth move but wasn't able to comprehend the words she said. Rose nudged him.
"What?" he asked, looking at her.
"Do you want to leave now with this boat, or wait until we come back? With so many of us, we need to take two turns."
Leave? Right, they could all leave now. No need to stay here any longer than necessary.
"I'd like to leave now. Can we?"
"Yes. Let's go home, Scorpius."
"What about James? And Ginny?"
"James will be coming with us. Albus too. I don't know about Aunt Ginny; she probably wants to stay with Uncle Harry and take the next boat." Scorpius nodded. That made sense. Of course she wanted to stay with Harry. But why would he be staying? He didn't realise he had asked that out loud until James, who was right next to him, replied.
"He needs to gather up all the evidence and make sure they got everything. It's part of his job. I'm just glad I don't have to do it." Scorpius could agree with that.
"Let's go home," he said. Rose gave him a tight hug as they boarded the boat. She tried to let go of him to go down to the machine room, but he clung to her. She sighed a little but allowed it. He couldn't let her go yet. If this was a dream he didn't want to wake up. If he woke up and was still down that hole it would be devastating.
***
Albus had never been so relieved to see his brother in his life. He looked dirty and tired, yet still more collected than he usually looked when he had one of his episodes. His brother had annoyed him often and at times bullied him in his life, but he was still his brother. Seeing him struggle so much in the last years after what happened when the Death Eaters caught him had been hard. It had been extra tough to see him struggle when things were finally going well for the rest of them.
He had genuinely doubted James' story about what he had overheard, but he had reacted poorly. And his stubborn refusal to admit there might be something to it was pure idiocy. When James then went missing, he had worried that he would find his brother dead somewhere, or that he had done something foolish to find proof Albus wouldn't deny. It had worried him more than losing Scorpius had, maybe because the last thing he said to his brother was something negative. As the boat shot out into the sea again, he approached his brother. He stood alone at the bow.
"I'm glad you seem to feel better," Albus said. James jumped as he heard his voice.
"Thank you, I think. I'm not sure I agree though. I may seem more collected than I actually am. I was going to say that Scorpius handled it better than I did, but he handled it better up until the moment we were actually out of that hole. It was like the prospect of freedom was so unlikely that he almost couldn't handle it."
"Yeah, I would say that Scorpius seemed to handle it worse. Though he was also alone in that hole for longer. I cannot even begin to imagine what you have been through." James sighed as he looked back towards the island that was disappearing behind them.
"To be frank, the worst moment for me was when I realised it was Mum that had been thrown into the other cell. We had literally just dug our way to it. If we hadn't done that, she would have died there. She was Stunned and tied up even worse than the other guy you saw was. There is no way she would have got out of that on her own. She also didn't get any food at first. It was only recently that she started getting it as well. Yesterday, maybe. I have no idea what day it is. How many days have we been missing?"
Albus shuddered as James described how they had found their mother. "You've been missing almost a week. Scorpius nearly two weeks at this point and Mum three days."
"Only three days? We've been digging quite a lot faster after she joined us. We dug so long in the other direction; I think we nearly got to the sea. I wonder what would have happened if we had hit the water. The cells would have flooded but would we have been able to float to the top and open the cell door, or would we just have drowned? Scorpius thought the latter, which is why we didn't try that. We might have tried it eventually though."
"I am glad you didn't drown. Or die in any other way. And I'm glad you didn't give in to the darkness again."
"You know, that is the strangest thing. I felt like I couldn't do that. I don't know if it was because Scorpius was there and needed me, or just because it reminded me of those dark cells the Death Eaters put us in, but I just knew that if I gave in to the darkness down there, I might never come out. And I didn't want that."
"And I think that shows how much you've worked to overcome this. You may not be such a hopeless case as you think you are," Albus said as he embraced his brother again. "Anyway, what I really wanted to say is that I'm sorry I doubted you. And even more sorry for ignoring you afterwards. We're supposed to be grown men; we should be better than that."
"You don't need to be sorry; I know it was hard to believe. And I didn't exactly try to make up with you either. I also want to say that I'm sorry for being such a brat when I was younger. Being down in that hole means I had a lot of time to think. And it made me realise that I never said that. I regret bullying you so much when we were kids, especially how I treated you after you were Sorted into Slytherin. It wasn't very nice of me; I hope you can forgive me."
"Of course, I forgive you," Albus said with a smile, whilst punching his brother lightly on the shoulder. James instantly punched back, but also with a grin. Soon they were having a fistfight, like they had done when they were kids. It was good to have his brother back.