Disclaimer: Oh the joys of owning the world of HP, joys that sadly, only JK will ever experience. In other words, JK owns everything but the plot.
Chapter 1: The Mark
Hermione undid the top button of her shirt and pulled it down her shoulder to expose her collar bone. She was standing in front of a mirror in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, trying to tune out Myrtle's insistent babbling. Her efforts were quite successful as she had been doing this since first year.
In the reflection, she saw herself. She also saw the familiar mark of a fern, embedded in her skin. Not any different than when it had first appeared there.
She let out a resigned sigh, and redid her uniform. Myrtle was still talking, asking something about her 'tattoo'. Hermione didn't answer of course, the less any one else knew about her situation, the better.
Myrtle already knew more than Hermione would have liked. Myrtle knew that the situation went a little deeper than just a silly tattoo that Hermione wanted to keep hidden, but she didn't have a clue as to what it really was.
Myrtle was there when Hermione had first discovered the mark, and she had been there every time she went to check on it. Through the years, they had become friends of a sort. They came to each other and sometimes talked for hours on end and it was because of this friendship that Hermione trusted Myrtle to keep her secret. That, and Hermione threatening to never come back if she did, which meant Myrtle would lose the little company that she got. Usually, Hermione would patiently listen to Myrtle as she rambled, but today Hermione wasn't in the mood.
She looked at herself in her reflection again, and repeated the mantra that she had gotten accustomed to. You are strong. You are independent. You have a choice. After her breathing went back to normal, Hermione headed out the door. Try as she might, she couldn't stop her mind going over the passage that she had read so many years ago.
Destiny's Mark. Destiny's Mark is one of many of the Wizarding World's unexplainable anomalies. When two that are destined for each other meet, the mark appears. The mark is one of the Maidenhair fern. This fern is believed to grow as the bond between the destined couple, grows. The Mark always resides on the persons left side of the body, above their heart. Because of this, the Mark tends to be hidden on a persons body.
In the past, only two cases of the Maidenhair's Mark have been recorded, and both times, the couples found love in one another, no matter the situation. Some might say that this mark is a blessing, guiding you towards your soul mate, but the Maidenhair Mark also has a downside. If the couple that are destined take too long to unite, then the mark starts to turn into a curse, much like the affects of a Veela pining for a mate that rejects them. Because of this, Destiny's Mark has been considered to some as the Maidenhair's Curse. If, for some reason, they destined couple do not unite with their destined mate after a certain period of time, then the mark will start acting like a poison to the body, making it weak and weaker.
Marked mates find that they are drawn to each other. At first, they will not be able to explain this attraction. At first, this attraction will be purely physical, but as the destined mates spend more time with each other, they will find that the attraction will go deeper, becoming emotional as well.
In one of the two recorded Maidenhair Mark cases, one of the spouses passed away in an unexplained accident, and her mate died soon after. Some say that he died from having to carry the burden of the mark's curse combined with the grief of his lost love.
Hermione sighed. She did not want die to a tragic death because she couldn't find her so called 'destined mate'. She had been looking for the seven years that she had been at Hogwarts. She had been able to cross a few people off her list, but had not gotten very far. Though she couldn't be blamed. It wasn't as if she was going to go around the whole school pulling boys shirts down until their shoulders were exposed. No matter how tempted she was to get her search over and done with.
The excitement of having this mark growing on her had worn off during third year, and now she was starting to find the search a bit tedious.
How on earth was she going to find this 'mate' out of all the males at her school. The mark was not age specific, but this year, she was able to confirm that her mate was indeed in her year. She had read that if she was away from her mate for a long period of time, her mark would start to fade, causing it to ache. The mark had been there her first year, and had shown no signs of fading all the way up to seventh year, which meant that her mate had to have been in the same year as her all throughout Hogwarts, otherwise her mark wouldn't have been consistently there the whole time. That meant that about half searching had been for nothing these past years.
She sighed yet again, and made her way down the corridor, headed towards the quidditch pitch. Though she usually wasn't a fan of the brutal sport, she quite excited to watch the Gryffindor vs Slytherin match, though she would still cringe when someone got hurt. Everyone got excited when these two house faced one another, as they were the strongest out of the four, and almost matched in skill level. Gryffindor still tended to better the other house just slightly though.
"Hermione! Over here!" Hermione turned towards the voice and saw Ginny waving at her happily. Hermione made her way over to her friend. Normally Ginny would have been out there on the pitch, but she had hurt her leg playing the last match, and Harry had insisted that she sit this one out.
"Hey Ginny, did I miss anything so far?" She squeezed into the seat next to her friend.
"Not much, the games only really just started to pick up." Ginny grinned, Gryffindor was leading by 20 points already, and that was a lot considering how close Gryffindor and Slytherin games were.
Hermione turned her attention back to the players. Soon, she was engrossed, watching them. Slytherin had just scored, closing up the gap between the points.
Players were whizzing past each other, with speed that Hermione had never managed to accomplish. Harry dodged a bludger, and she winced when she saw the ugly ball whizz past his head. It had been less than a fingers length away from hitting him.
He continued on flying, his eyes searching the entire time for a flash of gold. His cheeks were flushed red, and his hair was whipped back in a way that only wind could accomplish. He looked as if someone had injected him with adrenaline. She knew how hard the Gryffindor quidditch team had been practising for this game, both houses wanting the pride that came with winning over their rivals.
Hermione moved on from Harry, and found herself watching Malfoy. He did not seem on his game today. His movements and reactions were a lot slower than usual. He was also searching for the illusive snitch, but he didn't seem to he be doing it wholeheartedly. Hermione frowned at this, as she knew that in game against Gryffindor, the Slytherin seeker would have usually been giving it his all to win, but she just brushed it off. It wasn't her problem anyway, so she carried on watching the game.
The score was 90 all. They were tied with Slytherin, and this seemed to rally up the crowd even more. Even she started to join in with the enthusiastic shouts that her house was chanting.
Ron saved another goal, just nicking it before it got into one of the hoops. The crowd cheered even louder. He grinned when Gryffindor started chanting his name, he was really on him game today. Another Slytherin tried to score while he was distracted, but Ron saved it again, though Hermione could tell that he had exaggerated it a bit, making it look more dramatic. The crowd however, went wild.
That was when a bludger decided to aim for him. It went hurtling towards him, gaining speed. Ron sat, oblivious. Just as the the ball was about to hit him though, one of the Gryffindor beaters whacked it away from him, in the other direction. Hermione exhaled shakily, this sport was going to be the death of her. The crowd cheered again, though some jeers could be heard from the Slytherin stands.
Hermione watched at the bludger went flying in another direction.
Heading straight for Malfoy.
He was sitting, facing the direction that the bludger was coming in, and had a clear view of it. Anyone with common sense would have immediately tried to get out its way, but it looked like he wasn't going to. His eyes were drooping, and it looked as if he wasn't even focusing on the game anymore.
He caught sight of the bludger too late. His eyes widened and even though he tried to swerve out of its way, he was too late.
Hermione tried to look the other way but it seemed she couldn't tear her eyes away from the scene happening before her. She watched as the bludger collided with his torso. Hard. He got knocked off his broom, and Hermione watching, feeling sick, as she watched his body tumbled down, down, down, and land with a 'thump.' The cheering came to an abrupt halt. Some shrill screams could be heard, the loudest coming from one Pansy Parkinson.
People immediately went to his aid, and the game momentarily paused as they all watched the blonde haired Slytherin get rushed to the Hospital Wing, looking very much dead. His body seemed to be jutting out in an odd direction.
In the end Gryffindor won by default, and they all headed back towards the school. It seemed that the while school was speculating about a certain blonde haired Slytherin, not the actual quidditch game they had just watched. It had been a while since someone had gotten that seriously hurt, especially for Malfoy. Usually, he was too on his game to get hit by a bludger.
"Hey Hermione! We're heading back to the common room to celebrate! You coming?" Ron came up behind her and slung his arm around her shoulder, grinning.
"Uh, sorry Ron. I don't really feel up to it. I might join you guys later." Ron shrugged and went off with the rest Gryffindor, shouting a chant that he had made up for Gryffindor.
She didn't know why she had turned down his offer, but for some reason, she just didn't feel up to it. Hermione walked down the corridor, planning to head to the library. She was musing over something they had learned in Transfiguration, when the suddenly, the walls started to spin around. She clutched her head, and her eyes squeezed shut as a wave of nausea hit her. She felt her knees go weak as her surroundings started to blur.
She stayed conscious long enough to feel herself fall to the cold floor. Her vision went black.
Depending on the feedback I get, or lack of, will decide if I continue with this.
So... Uhhh... Review with your thoughts if you want more!