This story is dedicated to the amazing, fantabulous lokilette, who is a constant source of inspiration and support. Hope you like it, you fluffy ball of cuteness. I heart you xx
A Broken Promise, Kept
It has been ten years since that day.
-oOo-
Ten years ago
"I'm pretty sure it was around here…"
"You said the same thing twenty minutes ago!"
"This time I'm really sure. I swear, it was around here somewhere…"
"This is ridiculous. I'm going back."
"There it is!"
She pauses and looks over her shoulder to see him pointing excitedly towards a huge, ancient looking tree up ahead. He grins at her. "See? I told you it was here."
Rolling her eyes, she stomps through the wild grass and comes to stand beside him, raising her chin to eye the tangle of branches and leaves overhead. "This is the legendary Tree of Promise? It looks just like every other tree in this creepy forest."
"I'm sure this is it," he says, climbing one of the thick, coiled roots and pressing a hand against the mangled trunk.
"And what makes you so sure?" she demands, crossing her arms as she glances around the small clearing. "Anyway, can we just do whatever it is that you want to do and leave? It's getting dark and cold, and I refuse to spend the night wandering through an ancient forest. Merlin knows what sort of magic is alive in this place."
"Oh, quit with your whining, the sun isn't going to set for a couple more hours." He jumps from one root to the other, loses his footing, and swings his arms as he tries to regain balance. She sighs as she walks up and steadies him.
"I swear, if you break a leg or something, I will leave you behind without a second thought."
He shoots her a grin and holds a hand out. "Come on."
Pursing her lips, she stares at his muddy palm, then at the huge tree, then at his excited grin, and finally gives in with a sigh and takes his hand. "Alright, but let's hurry."
He pulls her up, and they slowly clamber over the bent and misshapen roots as they make their way around the tree. It takes longer than they had anticipated; the tree is humongous, and its roots curve and zigzag all the way around it, barely giving them stable footing. By the time they reach the point they started from, the sun is already setting, and they're both exhausted.
She looks at the tired expression on his face and says, "You better not be thinking that this wasn't such a good idea right now, because I didn't spend hours trekking through a forest and around a tree so you could give up."
He chuckles sheepishly and rubs the back of his neck. "Sorry. I didn't think it'd be this hard."
She huffs and holds her hand out, pinching her lips together when he looks at her in surprise. "Well? Don't you have something to say?"
"Er..."
"Do not tell me you didn't think of something—"
"I did! I did, just give me a moment, sheesh."
She holds up her hands. "Alright. Fine. No pressure."
He clears his throat, looking awkward, and grabs her hand as he presses the palm of his other hand against the tree. She follows suit, and glances at him sideways, watching as he shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath. He opens his mouth, and her heart begins to race.
"I promise that we will come back here…"
He closes his mouth. She blinks.
"What? That's it? That's your promise? You have got to be joking!"
He flushes, frowning at her. "Well, if you've got something better to say, then why not you say it?"
She purses her lips. "You said this tree will make any promise come true for a thousand years since it's made, right?"
He brightens up. "That's it! Then, let's promise to come back in a thousand yea—"
"Don't be ridiculous. Wizards or not, we're never going to be alive for that long."
He glowers at her, sulking. "Fine, what's your brilliant idea, then?"
She rolls her eyes and tucks a strand of her fiery hair behind her ear. "Let's promise… that we'll come back here, today, ten years from now." She looks at him. "How's that sound?"
He nods once, deliberating. "Fine. It sounds fine."
She smiles, smug. He grumbles softly as he holds his hand out to her. She takes it, and they both turn to the tree and close their eyes.
"At the count of three. One, two, three—"
"We promise that we will come back here again—"
"On the same day—"
"Ten years from now—"
"Without fail. We promise."
"I don't think you're supposed to promise twice," she says, but he's already jumping to the ground.
"Well, come on! It's nearly dusk, and I refuse to spend the night wandering through an ancient forest."
He grins at her, and the moment her feet are on solid ground, she strides up to him and smacks him atop the head. "Haha, very funny. Now, let's go."
"Wait. I forgot something."
She watches as he doubles over and looks for something. A minute later, he picks up a jagged rock and walks over to the tree. She crosses her arms and waits as he goes around it, out of sight. There are some scratching sounds, and she tuts impatiently.
"Scorpius!" she yells. "Come on!"
There's a muffled reply, and he runs back around the tree a moment later, a triumphant grin on his face. As he nears, she notices some dirt on his nose. "There's a smidge of dirt on your nose. Right there." She points.
He rubs his sleeve against his nose, but the dirt's still there. "Is it gone?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, then. Off we go!"
He grins, folding his hands behind his head as he hums a cheery tune and skips away, but she lingers for a moment longer, eyeing the tree and wondering if either of them will remember some stupid promise they made as kids.
"Who even knows if we'll still be friends ten years from now," she mutters, and he looks over his shoulder at her.
"You say something?"
"Nothing," she replies as she catches up with him. "Nothing at all."
-oOo-
Ten years later
"It's Saturday afternoon, and we're done with work, so, what say you and I spend the rest of the weekend having some fun?"
She looks up at her best friend and sighs. "Renée, I've told you a dozen times already—I'm busy this weekend."
"Yes, I know, but since you won't tell me what you'll be busy doing, I'm going to refuse your refusal."
She scoffs as she arranges the last of the paperwork and Levitates the pile to her boss's office. "You can keep refusing my refusal all weekend, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm not going partying with you."
"Who said anything about partying?" Renée says as they walk towards the lifts. "I said we would have some fun. I never said anything about partying."
"Same difference," she replies as they step into the crowded lift.
The moment they step out, she makes a beeline for the entrance, leaving Renée to handle the wizard who had struck up a conversation with them in the lift. It doesn't take her long to reach home, and even lesser time to pack a small backpack, write her parents a letter informing them that she would be spending the weekend at their cabin in the Forest of Dean, and Apparate to her destination.
She spends most of the afternoon cleaning the small cabin, making her bed, and cooking up a meagre dinner. Once there's nothing left to do, she opens the cupboard under her bed and sifts through the boxes in it. Finding what she's searching for, she picks up the old photo album and sits cross-legged on the ground as she opens it. She flips through it, smiling at the memories it brings back.
It has been years since her family vacationed in the Forest of Dean, but when she and her brother were much younger, they would come camping here every summer without fail. One summer, right after her second year at Hogwarts, the Potters had decided to accompany her family on their camping trip—along with Albus's best friend, Scorpius Malfoy.
Initially she had been against him coming as she had found him to be the most aggravating, I-am-so-perfect know-it-all, but she eventually warmed up to him when she came to realise that he had a very likeable personality and that they shared a lot in common.
That was the summer when he had found the Tree of Promise and they had taken that childish oath.
That was the last summer that her family had gone camping.
She shuts the album and sighs. What she had been looking for isn't inside it. Maybe it's in another one, she thinks, but she knows for sure that it isn't. Her mother was very meticulous, and all the photo albums were dated and contained pictures from only the year they were meant for. Maybe I missed it because I wasn't paying attention.
Flipping through it again, she finds that it isn't in the album after all, but just as she's about to shut it, she sees something sticking out from behind one of the photographs. Curious, she pulls the picture out and flips it over, and lo-behold, there it is: the photo of her, Albus and Scorpius in front of the cabin.
She touches the picture, smiling as she watches the three young children in the photo laugh without a care in the world. But when her eyes focus on the laughing blond in the centre, who has one arm around her and the other around her cousin, she feels her heart sink.
Their relationship had fallen apart quicker than she had thought it would.
The moment they had realised that they were in love with each other was the moment it had all ended.
If there is one thing she regrets, it is the fact that they had never even tried. They had never even thought that them being together could be a possibility. He had always been Albus's best friend, and she had always been Albus's cousin, and when Albus finally left to walk down his own path, it was inevitable that they drifted apart.
She knows Albus and him are still in touch—much more than Albus and her are—but somehow that only leaves her feeling more empty than sad.
What they had, it was something she would never forget.
Just like the silly promise she still clung on to with the faint hope that he still remembered.
She looks out the window and sees that the sun is staring to set. Placing the album back in its box, she keeps the box in the cupboard, closes and locks it, only pocketing the photo of the three of them. Once she has everything she needs, she takes a deep breath and sets off, hoping that she doesn't get hopelessly lost and never finds the tree… or him.
It is nearly dusk by the time she finally manages to find it. The Tree of Promise looks just as it had a decade ago—gnarled roots, humongous trunk, low-hanging canopy—the only thing missing is him.
Pushing her depressing thoughts to the back of her mind, she tightens the straps of her backpack and clambers onto the roots. It doesn't take her as long to circle the tree as it had the first time she had done it, but she still loses her footing several times and has to cling onto the trunk for dear life. Once she's back to where she had started from, she takes a deep breath and looks over her shoulder, heart hammering away in her chest.
She had always imagined this scene: she would reach the tree first, and finally, when she goes around it and looks over her shoulder, he's standing there in all his platinum-haired, smug-faced glory, smirking up at her with a superior expression. Then he would say something snarky to piss her off, and she would jump down to the ground, stride up to him, smack him atop the head, and say, "Haha, very funny."
But that was how it was in her head. Reality, unfortunately, is painfully different.
She can't help the choked laughter that spills from her lips as she eyes the empty clearing. She uses all the powers of her mind to project him from her head and make him appear before him, but even a witch's powers are limited. Some things are, and will always be, impossible.
Swallowing thickly, she turns back and presses her forehead against the rough bark, knowing it would leave a mark against her pale skin. "I'm here," she whispers. "I kept our promise. Just like I said I would."
She sniffs, surprised by the salty taste in her mouth. She doesn't remember when she had started crying. Sliding down, she turns around and leans back, sobbing into her hands.
Maybe he was already here, she thinks, but she knows that's not true. There was no way for him to get to the tree without passing by the cabin first, and she had been there all afternoon. She would have heard him, no matter how quiet he had been.
Maybe if I wait for a little while longer, she decides, wiping away her tears as she sits with her knees pulled up to her chest, staring straight ahead. She starts at the smallest of sounds, heart thumping, only to be disappointed over and over again. By the time the sun has sunk low into the horizon, she knows that she has waited in vain. There is no way he would come after sunset.
Sniffing, she blinks back her tears as she slides to the ground and dusts herself off. "Why are you so upset?" she asks out loud. "You had expected nothing less. He isn't someone who would remember some foolish promise that he made years ago with the girl that broke his heart."
Stepping away from the tree, she pulls out the folded photograph from her pocket and brushes her thumb against his face. "Haha," she chokes out, "very funny. Looks like you managed to get the last laugh even until the end. Good for you, Scorpius. Good for you."
She holds the photo up, making to tear it, but she has neither the heart nor the courage to do so. Scoffing at her own foolishness, she begins to walk away, but suddenly remembers something. Heart racing, she spins on her heel and runs around the tree, eyes frantically looking for whatever it was he had carved all those years ago.
It may have faded away, her mind tells her. He may not even have written anything. But just as she is starting to give up, she spots it. Falling to her knees, she brushes her fingertips against the worn scrawls and feels a sob escape her lips.
There, on the lowest root, scratched in the awkward manner of a twelve-year-old boy, were the letters that made up his name and hers.
Scorpius and Rose.
Rose and Scorpius.
A foolish promise made by their foolish twelve-year-old selves, not knowing that it would never be kept.
"So idiotic," she sobs as she scrubs the tears from her cheeks. "So pointless."
She starts to stand up, but a sudden thought occurs to her, and she holds up the photograph that she's still clutching in her hand. She folds it so that Albus is no longer seen, and with a silent apology to her cousin, she pulls out her wand and tacks the picture onto the tree, just above Scorpius's scrawl. Touching it one last time, she rises to her feet and makes her way back to the cabin.
Her strides are quick and purposeful, and she manages to reach the cabin just a little after sunset. Quickly finishing her meal, she packs and locks everything away and steps out. She had intended to spend both Saturday and Sunday there, but now, there was no point. It only made sense for her to leave behind all the painful and happy memories she had accumulated there and never come back.
The last flare of hope had dwindled, and she no longer has anything keeping her attached to the cabin or the forest or the tree. It has become just another memory from her childhood that she will look back on when she's old and grey, and maybe add it to the many stories she would tell her grandchildren.
Murmuring a final goodbye to the cabin, the lake and the woods, she clutches the straps of her backpack and Disapparates.
-oOo-
He's a day late.
By the time he had looked up from his papers and glanced out the window, the sun had already set, and it had been too late to go prowling through an ancient forest.
When he arrived at the cabin the next day and found it empty, he felt that it was an apt punishment for someone who couldn't keep one, stupid promise. But when he had seen the fresh firewood by the fireplace and the newly made bed, his hopes had skyrocketed. He had all but raced to the tree, knowing exactly where it was from the sheer number of times he had walked through the forest in his head, but when he had reached it, he had found himself alone in the clearing.
Now, having circled the tree, he feels a lump form in his throat as he presses his forehead against the bark and whispers, "I'm sorry that I broke our promise. I'm so sorry."
Clearing his throat awkwardly, he jumps down and walks around to where he remembers having carved their names into the tree. When he reaches it, he's more than surprised to see an old photograph stuck above the worn carving. He squats down and pulls it off, staring at his younger self laughing, one arm thrown carelessly over her shoulder. He brushes his thumb against her face, smiling at the dimple that forms in her cheek as she reaches up and intertwines her fingers with his.
This was probably one of his happiest memories with her. When they were still young and innocent and didn't have to make painful decisions that would ruin everything. He regrets not having chased after her. He regrets not fighting for her. He regrets never telling her how he felt even though it was painfully obvious to both of them.
But most of all, he regrets not having kept his promise.
The promise that he forced her to make simply to prove a point. She had been sceptical about the thousand-year-old Tree of Promise, and he had just wanted to prove that he knew better. Albus had refused to take sides, so he had dragged her down to the tree and insisted that everything he had read about it was true.
Maybe it is true, he thinks as he stared at the photograph. She remembered. She fulfilled the promise.
He is so lost in his own self-loathing woefulness that he doesn't hear the crunching of the leaves or the person approaching him.
"Scorpius?"
His head snaps up, eyes wide and heart racing. No matter how many years pass, he will never forget that voice. Her voice.
"Rose?" he chokes out, scrambling to his feet. "Wha—What're you doing here?"
Her expression mirrors how he feels, and she raises her hand to point at the picture he's still holding. "I came back for…" she trails off, too surprised to talk. "I just—it was the one thing I didn't want to leave behind. What are you doing here?"
He swallows thickly, not knowing how to answer the question. How is he supposed to tell her that he had broken their promise?
But he has to. At the very least, he doesn't want to have another thing he would regret later on. "Sorry," he mumbles, shifting from one foot to the other. "I… couldn't keep our promise."
He stares at the picture, unwilling to look at the expression on her face, so he's surprised when she says, "Who says you broke it?"
He looks up at her, confused, and she tilts her head to the side in the same way she always used to.
"But… I did. We promised to return here on the same day that we made the promise—which was yesterday. But I didn't… I didn't turn up."
She chuckles, making his heart thump in his chest. "Maybe so, but don't you remember? You said that the promise can come true for a thousand years after it's made. You might be a day late, but your deadline is still a thousand years away."
He laughs at that, shaking his head. As always, she knew exactly what to say to cheer him up.
"You're amazing," he says before he can stop himself. She falters, and he quickly tries to cover up his mistake with a, "I mean, I didn't actually think you'd remember some ridiculous promise you were coerced into making."
She tucks a strand of her flaming hair behind her ear. "How can I ever forget a promise I made with you?"
He stares at her, mouth hanging open, and she flushes, ducking her head in embarrassment. "Rose," he begins, but she holds her hand out and cuts him off.
"Anyway, I just came back for the picture, so…"
He feels his heart squeeze tight, but he nods and steps forwards, holding out the photograph. "Right. Here you go."
She holds the other end of it and tugs, but he doesn't let go. She looks up at him, confused, and before he could change his mind, he says, "Since we're already here, why not do the ritual?"
"You mean… you want to go around the tree again?"
He shrugs, and she looks up. "It's nearly dusk. I don't think that's such a good idea."
"Well," he says hurriedly, "maybe we can just… stand in front of it or something."
She seems reluctant, but gives in after a moment. "Alright."
They go around and stand in front of the tree. He looks up at the dense canopy and feels her warm fingers brush against his. He glances down at her, heart racing, and she says in a soft voice, "We should probably hold hands."
He nods, swallowing back the lump in his throat, and intertwines his fingers with hers. Just the familiar feeling of her hand in his gives him a rush, and all the memories from years ago that he had buried deep down come tumbling back. Before he gets too involved in the moment, he clears his throat and says, "At the count of three. One, two, three—"
"We are here today, ten years after we made our promise—"
"And we're a day late, but hopefully that can be forgiven—"
"We are here, together, on the promised day—"
"And our promise is now—"
They glance at each other and say together, "Fulfilled."
He swallows, suddenly overcome by emotion, and sees that she's barely keeping her tears at bay. "Rose, I—"
"Shut up and kiss me, idiot."
She turns towards him and tilts her head back, the same, intense fire in her eyes that he remembers from so many years ago, and he can't help but grin as he squeezes her hand and leans in. "Yes, ma'am."
A/n: This story was inspired by a Naruto and Sasuke Doujinshi called Rendezvous. That one ended on a sadder note, but I'm all for happy endings, and them not meeting each other just broke my heart, so yup.
I gotta say, this is probably my favourite Scorose story that I have written till date. I just love it too much.
I hope you liked it half as much, Loki.
Comments, constructive criticism and whatever else are always welcome, as always! Let me know what you thought!
(For those of you who are wondering: yes, the Renée mentioned in this story is the same one from my other Scorose, Lithium. I just love her too much.)
Thank you for reading!
Lots of love~
Arty xx