Summary: A promise is what brought the couple together, and a promise is what will break them apart.

Rated: T

Genre: Family

Warning Tag: References Terminal Illness; Assisted Suicide

Competition/Challenge Block:
Written For: Monthly Challenges for All (Year 3); Hogwarts (Term 14)

Hogwarts: Ravenclaw: A.6; Healer Studies (#8: Write about something impermanent.)

MC4A: Sp Bingo (2D-Sheep/Lamb); Tr Bingo (2C-Chain of Deals); Ship Bingo (1C-Bedside Vigil); Hunt (Mobility Impairment); Link; FPC (Not a Lamp; Ladylike; White Dress; Persistence Still) Star (Wabi Sabi; Pear-Shaped); T3 (Tether); ICs (Short Jog (Y); Bucket Listing (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon (Y); Zed Era (Y); Slytherin MC; Ravenclaw MC; Old Shoes (Y); Risky Business (Y)

Word Count: 2,394

When a Star Maiden Falls

Draco offered the ring his mother had given him to propose to her with. It was an old Black family heirloom of white gold and designed for the gems to be changed to suit one's needs. He'd chosen a blue star sapphire asterism stone with a small moonstone and diamond nestled on each side of it. Astoria didn't even look at the ring presented to her, instead she stared at Draco with a pleading look in her eyes and the slightest shake of her head from doubt.

"Does this mean you promise to uphold my wishes?" she asked.

Draco had not received her conditions on marriage well when she presented them three weeks ago when he asked her to marry him the first time. It certainly soured the otherwise joyful time between them, but it was something she wasn't going to accept lightly, and she wanted to make sure that he understood every single thing that would come along should he decide to commit on being with her. Nothing was permanent, after all.

"If it means you promise me that I get to be blessed to spend every ticking second alive with you, then yes," he responded, still kneeling before her, arm outstretched with the ring held in his steady hand. "I'll do anything for you."

Astoria raised a brow at him, not giving in to the proposal just yet. "Do you promise me, Draco?"

"I promise," he said, followed by a hard swallow. "Do you promise me?"

"I promise to give you every quality second I can give." She held out her left hand for him to slide the beautiful ring onto her finger. "I'd be honored to marry you."

The young couple stood under the ornate archway facing each other with hands intertwined between them. Their officiant slowly wrapped the soft white rope adorned with gold thread around their hands and wrists to make the waterman's knot. A knot that became tighter when pulled on.

"Now you are two people, but there is only one life before you," the officiate said. "May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead and through all the years. May happiness be your companion and your days together be good and long upon the Earth.

"Treat yourself and each other with respect, and remind yourselves often of what brought you together. Give the highest priority to the tenderness, gentleness, and kindness that your connection deserves. When frustration, difficulties, and fear assail your relationship, remember to focus on what is right between you, not only the part which seems wrong. In this way, you can ride out the storms when clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives—remembering that even if you lose sight of it for a moment, the sun is still there. And if each of you takes responsibility for the quality of your life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight."

Astoria felt Draco squeeze her hands before they stepped closer to each other. She smiled warmly before speaking her part.

"I, Astoria, commit myself to you, Draco, as your wife, to learn and grow with, to explore and adventure with, to respect you in everything as an equal partner, in the foreknowledge of joy and pain, strength and weariness, direction and doubt, for all the risings and settings of the sun. We tie this knot to symbolize our connection to one another. It represents our trust in each other, our promises to hold onto, and our combined strength together as one."

Draco repeated the same lines to her in turn before allowing the officiant to close the ceremony.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife."

The birth of Scorpius left Astoria's body virtually crippled, limiting her in every way. To conserve as much energy as she could, she opted to use a wheelchair in order to move around the house on her bad days, which came and went randomly, but seemed to lean more on the bad days as the years trickled by.

Today was supposed to be a good day, and she opted to work on tilling the soil for a vegetable garden Scorpius suggested they start since they finished the citrus orchard on the south side of the property. Tilling was one of the things Scorpius was never fond of, but she was more than happy to prep it for them so he could be involved in the more fun parts of sowing, tending the sprouts, and harvesting the product.

He was at the Potters for the afternoon while Draco was out on a business run she convinced him to go to, assuring she would be alright and that Dizzy would be with her at all times. Of course, she tasked her house-elf to prep supper while she slipped outside to have some alone time. It was sometimes more tiring being constantly tended to, after all.

The warm weather and gentle breeze usually was a good medicine, but not this time. She stopped her tilling when her breath became short and a tightness started stifling her further. The garden tool in her hand slipped from her fingers so her hand could rest on her chest while the other pressed into the dirt below in an attempt to keep her upright.

"D-Dizzy…" she whispered her elf's name, trying to crawl to her wheelchair before blacking out.

She knew she should've waited for Draco to be home.

Draco was upset with her. Astoria knew by how stiff he held himself as he moved around the hospital room and how quiet he got after the mediwitch left. It wasn't much better than the arguments they had in years passed when he voiced his concerns about her pushing herself too far and too often. He never liked her defense about not wanting to be treated like a fragile China doll just because of her condition, and that there was no life to live if she had to stay home and inside where she was to be fussed over at every turn because of it, either. She didn't have to be a legilimens to know what he was thinking about, though she wished he wouldn't dwell on the inevitable as often as he did.

"Does Scorpius know?" Astoria asked, wishing to break the tension that lingered heavily in the room.

Draco turned to face her so quickly it almost made her dizzy from it. He looked at her with such horror that it confirmed he was thinking about the promise he made not once, but twice now. She knew there would most likely be a third time needed before the very end.

"That I am here," she clarified, not allowing herself to look away first.

She could see him let out a breath of relief as he ran a hand through his hair. "No, but he will when I owl the Potters asking if he could stay over tonight."

"No need for that," Astoria said. "I am perfectly fine. Did you not hear the mediwitch? I'll be discharged soon."

He tilted his head at the comment. "She said you overexerted yourself, and you were dehydrated.

"Do you really need another garden?" Draco continued, and she rolled her eyes at what was to come next. "It's getting to be a bit of a strenuous hobby, especially since you are keen to keep the orchards maintained on top of it..."

"Draco…" she started to say calmly.

"...And I already know you don't take as many breaks as you should while you're doing all of that…"

"Draco."

"...You disobey practically everything the healer says and all for what? To keep hurting yourself?" he said, gesturing to her in the hospital bed. "You can't keep doing this, Astoria."

She was annoyed now.

"When frustration, difficulties, and fear assail your relationship, remember to focus on what is right between you, not only the part which seems wrong," she quoted, to which Draco stopped dead in his tracks to stare at her. "In this way, you can ride out the storms when clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives—remembering that even if you lose sight of it for a moment, the sun is still there."

Draco closed his eyes, she could see him take in a deep, labored breath.

"But the sun has to set sometime…" his whisper could barely be heard.

She let out a sigh. "In the foreknowledge of joy and pain, strength and weariness, direction and doubt, for all the risings and settings of the sun. We tied that knot to symbolize our connection to one another. To represent our trust in each other, our promises to hold onto, and our combined strength together as one."

Draco did not respond, instead he moved to sit on the edge of her hospital bed, gathering her hands in his. He did not take his eyes off them. "Why do you always put me in this situation?"

"I don't," Astoria said, "You put yourself in it. I am simply living the way I want to live."

He scoffed at the statement, looking at her with sharp eyes. "This is living? Exhausting yourself at every turn? Being hospitalized once a week? You cannot keep doing this, 'Stori."

Her eyes hardened. "I will keep doing what I love until I absolutely cannot. I do not keep you from your passions, you will not keep me from doing mine."

"I…" his words were lost to the sigh he released, looking away from her and out into the white, plain, sterile hospital room. "I said I wanted every ticking second alive with you, and I meant it. If it means discouraging you from doing things that cause you harm, then…"

She pulled her hands away from his to cup his face, forcing him to look back at her.

"I understand where you are coming from, but you aren't trying to extend the clock, you are trying to preserve it, and that isn't a way to live. I promised you every quality second of my life, and I am upholding it. But I will not sacrifice hobbies and joy from our son to add a few more seconds to it, either."

Astoria gave him a gentle kiss before dropping her hands back into his. Hazel eyes met sad, stormy grey, like an autumn day expecting rain.

"I love you, Draco. Until the very end."

Draco slipped into their bedroom after speaking to the healer in the corridor, Scorpius was sound asleep beside his bedridden mother on their oversized master bed. He looked so peaceful despite the circumstances that it made Draco almost wish he didn't have to face what was ahead.

A promise he made all those years ago had finally come to call and be fulfilled.

He sat in the chair on the side where Astoria rested. Her eyes fluttered open when he squeezed her cold hand before he helped her prop herself upright with the help of her many pillows. She flinched from the pain she was feeling, he knew. All she felt now was pain.

"The healer said there's an experimental potion. It is meant to target the… the… pain. It's adapted from muggle medicine," Draco stammered just above a whisper. He didn't look her way. "It's called Merciful Medley. It will… it will help you be free."

"Draco, my love," Astoria said, voice raspy. "I love you and Scorpius to the moon and back. You will still have… each other."

He shook his head slightly, glancing at his son before his gaze rested back at his cloaks pocket where the potion hid. "It will never be the same."

"No, but it will still be just as special."

Tears pricked his eyes when he felt her frail hand touch his face. He forced himself to look at her then, placing his over hers in the meantime.

"It is my time," she whispered, flinching again from a jolt of pain coursing through her. "Suffering is not living anymore."

A breath hitched in his throat, swallowing the lump that was stuck there, the tears still welled. "Please don't make me do this, 'Stori. Please… Scorpius is… right there. It'd be cruel to..."

Astoria closed her eyes, taking in a deep, labored breath. "Life is not permanent, it is finite. If we take responsibility for the quality of our life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight. In the foreknowledge of joy and pain, strength and weariness, direction and doubt…"

Draco closed his eyes then, fighting to keep the tears at bay. "I… I can't."

"You promised me, Draco…" she whisered. "I kept mine to you. Now, it is time for you and Scorpius to move on… my quality of life is no more…"

He shoved his hand in his pocket then, pulling out the deep purple potion vial from it. Hand shaking, he moved his thumb hover over the topper and hesitated, looking at her dew-stained eyes. The tears leaving streaks down her face.

"Please…" Begging her was pointless, Draco knew.

Her words echoed in his mind about him trying to extend her time, to preserve her in a way, and how it betrayed his promise by exploiting a loophole that delayed her fate. Seeing her now looking so fragile and weak, a far cry of who she was, suffering with every ache and pain as her body slowly failed her. She was right, she always was. It was not a life worth living anymore. For any of them.

Removing the topper from the vial, he shifted to the bed to sit beside her. Running a hand through her hair, Draco wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gently pulled her into a hug, taking in her scent as he did so.

"I love you until the stars themselves fall from the sky."

He brought the vial to her lips, pouring its sweet contents into her mouth. The tears escaped him now as he pocketed the vial and laid her back onto the pillows, pulling the blanket mad of the finest sheep wool up over her and himself as he laid with her as the potion did its work. Astoria's eyes had long since closed, her labored breaths started to become shallow and become less and less frequent. Draco held her until he felt her last breath leave her body brush against his neck.

The one life they shared was no longer.