「001. 'our tree' 」

'HONEY FIGURED everything would turn out just fine.'

the biggest lie she'd ever told herself. the most unexplainably and undoubtedly biggest fib she'd ever let herself believe even if it was for just a moment. the biggest lie of the century, perhaps. saved for the history book titled under 'biggest lies of the modern wizarding age' where her face would be slapped over the two pages because she took the cake for the biggest lie.

that was to say: honey was having a miserable time, and she hadn't even hit a week into the holidays.

she'd arrived home, blissfully ignorant to the fact that her parents still existed and that her aunt and uncle (along with her cousins) weren[t coming until the eighth of july. which was a long way away.

her days were filled with blistering heat which she was not used to- along with the added torture of her parents arguing and yelling at each other- honey wondered what she was going to do with herself for a while.

she took to bothering lee to waste most of her time, and in the span of the three days she'd been back at home for the summer holidays- she'd sent a whopping total of four letters- and had received a total of five responses back.

the first two letters had been dedicated solely to hermione because she was bored out of her mind on the first day and had thought it would be an excellent idea to send an owl to hermione (well- send pygmalion. who apparently wasn't an owl and nobody had bothered to tell her). the letter was mostly nonsensical, but the second had been added as an afterthought when she'd sent their family owl with a 'letter' (a note of apology) to hermione.

the reply had been a quick scribble from hermione full of questions ("are you okay? how are you bored so soon?" "please don't paint lee's piano neon orange, i feel like he might not appreciate the sentiment or your unique taste." with the final- "P.S: i got your note. it's ok, don't worry! i'm sure we're all going a bit mad. if you have the chance, send a letter to harry too! the dursley's always drive him mental!")

the second letter had been dedicated to both of her cousins: fitzgerald (they just called him fitz) and maeve baudelaire- first cousins from her mums side. both pureblood (their dad's dad turned out to have invented the charm on chocolate frogs? it was a bit wild). the letter had been messy as well- written on her second day out of sheer excitement for their arrival in exactly a weeks time from when she wrote it.

MAEVE AND FITZ. (she was eccentric in her letters to her cousins).

how's nice? is it nice? ahah- that wasn't finny fitz and it never is. don't use it on anybody when you come over.

(fitz liked to flirt with any person who was single that gave him consent to. bless him).

anyways you lot are coming for the quidditch world cup, right? i can't believe it- i told you i was commentating this year, right? me and lee are absolutely fantastic (did i mention that i fell off the stands because the snitch was near me and harry grabbed my arm? fred and george- you know them i'm sure i've mentioned them- won't shut up about it).

i hope you bring more food- me and lee are wrecks back here. mum and dad are about to tear each other apart and then piece themselves back together before they do it all over again. you should just be thankful your parents have a healthy relationship because it's a raining pile of fucking fire back here.

(it was safe to say honey was maybe a little jealous of maeve and fitz's good relationship with the healthy relationship their parents had with each other).

if you don't bring me back chocolate i'll practise a good hex and aim it straight at you and then blame lee for it like i usually do. also FITZ- is it true you really melted the ice statues back at beauxbatons? you bugger- how aren't you expelled yet? if you were at hogwarts snape would've stringed you up by the guts and had his merry way with expelling you. i assume you'd be in slytherin- sneaky dickhead and all.

and maeve- what the fuck do you mean you're bringing clothes over? i mean- appreciated, but why's your aunt claire forcing you to bring over clothes? dresses and suits? we're not having a fucking ball at our house maeve, tell your mum they're appreciated but she really doesn't need to do that.

(unbeknownst to maeve and fitz- it would 100% set off some sort of argument one way or another because every little thing seemed to do that these days- more so than usual).

and don't worry- the headaches are getting better. not many violent nightmares.

(she'd taken trelawney's tea consistently. it wasn't taking too strong of an effect but she hadn't woken up screaming yet so she assumed something good was going on there. as for the 'headaches'- well, maeve and fitz didn't really know about the seer thing- she hadn't found a chance to tell lee yet either. she was hoping to just pull it all out of the bag with the her cousins and brother all in one go).

take care (fitz don't get yourself expelled from your posh school. hogwarts can't deal with you and i know your dad would rather die than send you to dumstrang- so just keep your fucking self together. and maeve- you've got to introduce me to fleur- i'm sure she has enough blackmail on you for us to become fast friends!).

much love (and equal hatred),
HONEY!!

honey hadn't expected a letter back so quickly- but she'd gotten it within a day. the next morning, she'd received two letters- each of varying length.

fitz's seemed to go on forever (he had a dramatic flair to him- whilst simultaneously being the 'artsy' and 'goofy' person mixed with what honey would call 'lee jordan flirting' syndrome. which was to say they had terrible chat-up lines but made up for it because from past partners- he'd been called dead handsome. honey wasn't sure if that made everything else better- but she wasn't going to judge).

whilst maeve's was a bit shorter and sweeter (she had a tendency to be a lot calmer than honey was and was seen to be reflected in her letter. it was why people found her prettier and nicer- and generally why she got more compliments from people when they were out in public together. she was still a she-demon, but she was more restrained in most things).

the fourth and final letter she'd sent took barely a minute to write, and was on her third day- written in the evening after she'd gotten her letter from maeve and fitz. it simply read:

meet by the tree tomorrow?
- honey

the response had come within twenty minutes (it wasn't much for an owl to fly from a house half an hour or so away).

sure.
- emmery

honey settled into her bed that night, a wreck of nerves and anxiety.

this certainly didn't turn out just fine.

(not yet, anyways. that prediction for the world and her would take a few more years before it properlly came true).

the day came quickly- mostly because it was the next day. she didn't bother to notify her parents of the fact she'd be going over to the tree. half the time they were shouting at each other- and the other half they were ignoring each other and powering up to go back to shouting which left her and lee with a lot of nothing to do.

she got dressed quickly, a white vest top paired with jeans that were a rust colour. she didn't have time to fix her hair- so she wrapped a stray orange scarf around to make it look like a headband before she shoved some toast in her mouth and made her merry way over to the tree with her old pair of trainers she reserved for traversing the land between their two houses to three (because there was a lot of mud. rain or shine).

the walk felt longer than usual. maybe it was because she wasn't running like she used to. before, she'd sprint to the tree with glee after her parents had broken their argument for just one moment to listen to honey (which- they rarely did anymore) to say they'd let her go out for a while to the tree.

the tree had been honey's favourite place in the world. the tree was enchanted- on the better side of enchanted compared to the whomping willow and had been a place full of childish doodles the girls had done in their youth. the last she'd seen of it- they'd left crayons scattered on the table, pencils everywhere and paper on the floor, broken and snapped colouring equipment had littered the floor from their penultimate shouting match.

both had left the tree opposite ways with a distinct crack coming from the tree as they both exited opposite sides like the split of their friendship was too much on the tree.

that had been two years ago- the summer of second year. and neither had visited the tree after.

she ventured to the tree, reassurance in the familiar pathway- worn from the times she'd ran through the same way.

she arrived first.

the tree looked older. more roots had swirled and grown at the bottom, levees lush and green from the summers sun casting natures painting onto the grass below it. the sun shined through the cracked, the painting laced with golden light.

she smiled at the tree, a sad little smile on her face as she saw it- the smile was almost a wince but to the less knowledgeable person it looked as good of a smile as ever. it didn't stur as honey got closer but stood inanimately as she got closer. a tree that once used to push a branch out- leaves wiggling like a wave seemed to stand grieving, hidden with dangling leaves to the world.

when she got to the trunk, she placed a hand on the trunk.

it didn't respond.

she frowned.

"long time no see, hey?" mumbled honey as she looked at the tree.

it didn't move, and she frowned a bit more.

"c'mon- don't you remember me?" honey said to the tree. she knew it looked weird to an outsider- but this tree had been a space of comfort for years, and she'd be damned if she let it die. "i'm honey, remember? honour jordan? my... my- mum... my mum and emmery's nan- charmed you, don't you remember? you used to let us in without a fuss."

the tree didn't move, except a shudder to let several leaves drop to the ground. despite it being blazing with heat of the gushing sunshine from summer- leaves fell like teardrops.

"wow," she said softly, feeling a stab of guilt as she ran a hand along the trunk, "we hurt you, didn't we? we left you alone for two years and-" she paused, ripping her hand away as she clenched her fists, "you're a tree and i'm talking to you like you're a person. this is stupid, why did i come? emmery isn't even here and-"

"it's not stupid," said a voice from behind the tree, soft crunches from the grass coming closer.

emmery tates walked over to her with an awkward wave- decked out in green as usual. she wore a wrap-dress, a light shade of green that had small patterns of flowers dotted randomly. she looked shorter, which could be explained by the undeniable non-platformed shoes she was wearing. simple green sandals that seemed to be the exact shade of her dress along with two simple plaits spiling over her shoulder- strands of dyed red hair framing her face.

"talking to our tree, i mean." she continued. "i tried going up to it a few times- it wouldn't let me up even when i tried to climb up. it didn't even let me go in before it through me off. i broke my wrist once and had to come to school with a cast because my nan's shit at healing charms and managed to break a bone instead."

honey distinctly remembered in second year after the easter holidays. they'd had a nasty little argument during that break and had yelled at each other.

"i remember," replied honey quietly, "it was er- i think i laughed at you behind your back about it."

"don't worry," emmery said in a similar quiet tone, "i laughed when that potion blew up in your face. besides- er-" she winced, "we weren't exactly nice to each other last year, were we?"

"suppose not."

"yeah."

silence.

"i really missed our tree," honey mumbled finally, "it's a bit shit it won't let us up. d'you think it hates us?"

"maybe," shrugged emmery, "it's quite plausible. magic thrives on interaction- if we stop interacting with it like we did, the magic slowly fades and deteriorates. why'd you think toy brooms stop working after a while? we grow out of it and they just become normal again. bet our tree hates us because it's magic is dying or something."

honey snorted and emmery sent a frown at her. "what? what's so funny?"

"it's weird to be around you, s'all."

"and what does that mean?"

"nothing bad- i wouldn't yell or snap at you this soon." honey admitted, "no- it's just weird to be around your smartness again. i know plenty of hufflepuffs who are dead intelligent, but there's something about ravenclaws that just give it a better effect, y'know? you see something shiny and don't do your homework because the death of magical objects is so much more interesting."

"say the same about you," retorted emmery, "i've seen plenty of stubborn ravenclaws but hufflepuffs finesse it so well. loyalty to your emotions, i suppose? stubbornness to take back things you've said."

there was a little dagger notched at honey's throat, but honey (for once) didn't snarl back.

"i'd rather my parents die than have them here."

"but you wouldn't, would you? always wishing for mummy and daddy back you little-"

"it was wrong of me to say that," honey said, clearing her throat. "it was wrong of me and insensitive."

"- when lee fucks off to do something-"

"-so who's going to be there? who will be there for you?"

"for what it's worth, i shouldn't have said what i said either," emmery added. "i shouldn't have said all of that to you."

"at least you didn't push somebody down the stairs," honey retorted.

"but i hurt my friend," emmery softly replied, "and then we continued to bitch at each other."

silence, again.

"we are shit people, aren't we?"

"oh- absolutely."

the tree rumbled, and a hesitate but sturdy-looking branch cowered towards them, another smaller one making an up gesture.

the girls looked to each other.

maybe their tree didn't hate them, maybe the last lingering of magic was fighting back for them.

the place seems to be left in the exact way it had been left after their last argument- but not a speck of dust was in sight. she'd never noticed it before, how oddly dustless the tree house used to be. she suspected out of ease that perhaps her mum and emmery's nan had cast a permanent cleaning charm on the house- and maybe that's why it seemed so spotless.

"we left a fucking mess," assesed honey, a bit shocked at her capability to screw things up at the tender age of child.

"we certainly did," emmery nodded, "should we clean it?"

the leaves rustled like they agreed.

"i think our tree wants us to," honey noted. she looked at the meticulous sorting system they used to go by. "d'you want to pick up the pencils and i can do the crayons? we can still use broken crayons.... i think."

the two girls bent down- the treehouse still large even with the girls growing heights, this was mostly honey who did the growing. emmery seemed to have not grown in the slightest since the start of second year where she shot up and then proceeded to never grow again whilst honey was still growing- a bit awkwardly willow-ish in nature, even though she knew she wasn't that tall. her brother was something of a giant in comparison.

honey set out to pick up the crayons, sorting them by colour into the crayon box as a few moments of silence passed over them.

"i'm... sorry," muttered honey, too scared to look to emmery- instead looking straight to the box as she picked up a crayon that had a colour somewhere between red and purple and found herself at quite a conundrum as to where to put it. "for being a shit friend, and stuff."

she heard another pencil drop into its box, sorted again in colour.

"i'm sorry too," emmery replied, "for also being a shit friend. and for... sort of abandoning you in second year."

"you didn't abandon me, let's face it," grumbled honey, "i'm just over dramatic- i thought about it last night, you see. the arguing was getting worse and it's not like you could've done anything else."

"i could have been more understanding," emmery quickly retorted, "i'm..." she faltered, "i think i'm a bit too privileged when it comes to certain things. i've got my nan and grandad- and they might not be my parents but they raised me. i've got a sister and a brother who's in love with his fiance. i don't think i've properly heard my nan and grandad shout at each other because their arguments just include them ignoring each other and it usually sorts itself out."

she looked over at honey.

"i don't really know what it's like to live in a house that's constantly shouting. and i don't think i ever will, but my eleven year old brain didn't really seem to comprehend sensitivity well." she hummed as she placed another pencil down, "remember when you started crying in the end of first year when i insisted we go over to yours and spend all of our time their for the holiday?"

"thank you, emmery, for that traumatising memory," honey blankly replied- voice void of humour.

"i- well, sorry about that. for um, bringing it up and what i did."

what emmery had did- in fact- was insist they stay at honey's house whilst the shouting seemed to blow the whole house down. honey hadn't understood it, really. because when she'd been at home the year prior, her parents had had arguments- but they hadn't been like the ones she'd seen when she got home for the summer. their buffer (honey) had been gone, and it seemed they held no remorse for the words that slipped out of their mouths like knives aimed at the others heart.

emmery had insisted just a week into the summer she should stay over at honey's house for a change. and poor honey had cried her eyes out because of stress before she'd yelled and screamed at emmery in their treehouse- the last day they were in the treehouse together- and had let her anger topple over like a volcano. she'd snapped crayons, broken pencils and had screamed some more- sending emmery into tears as well.

"i'm sorry for making you cry," honey said quietly- barely a whisper. "i was... i know you think-" she didn't want to cry- because honour jordan never cried. never. "i know you think you had like an even amount or whatever in hurting my feelings or some shit- but i was- i am difficult, emmery. i'm- i'm terrible to a lot of people and i've only sort of stopped being a dickhead to ever person i meet. i shouldn't have screamed at you- or let my anger out like that. i shouldn't have made you cry."

"i don't think either of us are at the main fault," emmery said firmly, "and i'll stand by that. i think we had a part to play in the deterioration of our friendship." she glanced at honey warily, "i got scared of our conversations in second year. because every talk seemed to start an argument. so i started talking to kai more. and he's a good friend, honest. he put up with me last year whilst i wallowed and was a callous bitch and even went along with my fred and george charade to check up on you when actually i-"

"oh i know that was you," interrupted honey, "he told me in divinations. i didn't believe it, at the time. i thought he was making it up or something. thanks, by the way. for checking up on me."

"i might of been hating you, but you were still my friend, i think."

"i'm sorry," honey said again instead of letting the previous topic expand. "i'm sorry for saying those things to you- i'm sorry for using my parents as an excuse and-"

"jesus christ honey, STOP IT!" emmery said- her voiced pitched to a yell at the end. "stop that right now."

"but i was using it as an excuse. i still do, really."

"you can't let yourself be wrong every time." emmery hissed, "you said shit things- they really hurt. similarly, i said shit things- and i'm assuming they hurt. we both hurt each other but we're going to get nowhere if we keep harping on about the past."

"well- fuck, alright then." muttered honey, "i'm trying out a fucking technique, ems. hermione used it and i thought i might as well too but if you want me to be difficult ms jordan i bloody well can be-"

emmery giggled. it was such an odd thing for the two twisted friends that honey completely paused with what she was doing and let the remaining crayons clatter to the ground.

"ems," emmery repeated.

"it just slipped out, don't be a tit about it." grumbled honey.

"ems."

"fuck alright then!" announced honey loudly as she shoved the remaining crayons in the crayon basket- not bothering with colour matching anymore (it was all bullshit either way). "is it so bad to sort of miss you're annoying and stupid presence? you come here being all nostalgic to the bloody tree and expect me not to be a softy about this shit? we have a long bloody way to go emmery because trust me we aren't what we used to be- but i miss our first year! we were so-"

"stupid."

"exactly!" hissed honey, "my parents weren't a proper disaster in the making, i still did ballet most of the time and pygmalion was still a bloody owl!"

"he's not an owl?"

"you've missed the whole point of the sentence."

"ravenclaws like shiny and distracting things."

"fuck off," grumbled honey, her annoyance deafened over emmery's laugh.

they laughter died, and they said nothing for a while.

instead, they went back to cleaning. honey took out her mismatched crayons, and emmery went back to dutifully sorting the pencils. once that had been done and fully sorted, they'd picked the paper up and the scattered stack turned into one pile. the place looked clean, like somebody had actually took the time to clean it.

well, somebody had. two people, really.

honey looked around at the walls of the treehouse. there were badly drawn flowers and people scattered around which hadn't been taken off for some strange reason. emmery's messy handwriting at age six grace a drawing of the two girls who looked like they had bulbs of garlic for fingers and arms that were sticks. honey's outline had been done in brown, whilst emmery's had been done in peach with honey's hair in two curly pom-pom looking pigtails she used to sport when she was younger.

the two where holding hands (or at least touching fingertips. emmery never did and still probably didn't hold enough technical skill to draw hand holding). honey was dressed in orange (it had- and still was her favourite colour) whilst emmery was dressed in bright blue (she'd went through a phase of liking blue before she latched onto green like there was no tomorrow when she was nine). below the picture, it said in the sloppiest version of emmery's handwriting: me + honey. BFF <3

"that was such a terrible drawing," emmery murmured. she'd come to sit beside honey- who hadn't even realised she'd sat herself cross-legged to inspect the old drawing. "can't say i've gotten much better at drawing."

"your handwriting has improved, though." honey said.

"not as nice as yours," emmery smiled softly, "it was the only thing i couldn't perfect- bar drawing and a love of quidditch. your's was always so pretty and nice..."

they sat in silence again, and honey inspected another drawing.

this drawing was definitely done a bit more recently. she recognised it as her own. it wasn't good either, but it was a bit better. honey, as an eleven-year-old by the looks of it, had attempted to give herself braids in the photo (which hadn't turned out well), and was stood in badly drawn hogwarts uniform next to emmery. this was most certainly drawn the christmas they'd returned to their respective homes for christmas in first year.

honey had a long yellow tie on, and emmery had her respective blue. honey, as she tried to remember as she stared at the photo, had hated her uniform and had proceeded to make the skirt look like more of one you'd find on ballgowns- and instead of it's dark colour, had coloured it for their respective houses messily. underneath, in honey's swirled writing wrote the words: em + honey !! hogwarts best witches :)

"i missed the way we were before we hated each other," whispered honey like it was a secret.

"i did too," emmery said in the same tone.

silence.

"we're too old for that, though." honey admitted.

"yeah," mumbled emmery. "this isn't first year. we can't... we can't go back."

"then let's not," honey decided, shifting to look to emmery. "let's not."

"you're right," emmery nodded. "let's start again."

honey had heard those words before- but was too caught up to say a word.

instead, she smiled.

and for the first time in what felt like forever, emmery smiled back.

(when they left the treehouse, leaves swirling around like confetti, the two of them exiting the same way).

there was more to do, but for now this was fine.

(it would turn out maybe a bit more than fine).

rosie speaks!

no because i listened to  only a matter
or time for literally or this im not lying
this is the only thing i've listened to.
it literally fit the vibe of them reviving
their friendship bc bittersweet and just the
guitar matched summer.

also IM SO TWR I MANAGED TO INTRODUCE
MAEVE AND FITZ HERE A BIT IM SO GLAD
ugh they're so iconic <3

maeve's pronouns are she/her and she's
queer and happy to be here. fitz is pan
and goes by he/him !!

i hope you guys have fun with this act
because GoF is totally underrated and
deserves a lot more love <4

stay safe and wear a mask !!

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