For the Houses Competition. This is a soulmate AU, and also I've messed a little with timings and stuff. Nothing incredibly major though. Title from Feelings by Hayley Kiyoko
House: Ravenclaw
Year: 6
Category: Standard
Prompt: Meeting soulmate
Word count: 1153
For someone who grew up surrounded by magic, you'd think that Ginny would be more on board with the idea of soulmates. Even Muggles accept them as part of everyday life, and most of them would freak if they ever found out what real magic looks like. But, for Ginny, the whole thing is bullshit. It's just two stupid little letters, why should they have any control over her life? She isn't having some arbitrary markings on her arm telling her who to fall in love with, or whatever. It's bullshit.
Besides, the two letters on her arm, they could be anyone's name. Just because she meets one person who just happens to have both names beginning with 'L', doesn't mean she's found her soulmate. LL - that doesn't mean anything. She asked Molly, years ago, how she'll know when she's met her soulmate.
Molly's answer? "You'll just know, sweetheart."
Ginny had rolled her eyes, deciding in that moment that this soulmate business wasn't worth her time. She watches her siblings and friends all obsess over who their soulmate might be; she just sighs and leaves them to it. She doesn't know why they care so much, it's not like any of it matters.
She starts dating Dean Thomas when she's fifteen. She still hasn't found her soulmate yet, and she's grateful for that fact, although an annoying, stupid part of her does secretly wonder if she ever will. But Dean's nice, and if he's who she wants to be with then she damn well will, soul mark or not.
They agree not to show each other their marks, although they both already know that they wouldn't match up even if they did. It's nice that way, and Ginny's just glad that Dean doesn't mind being with her even though she's not his soulmate. They have a good time, going out for coffee dates and weekends in Hogsmeade, studying together and chatting, like any old couple. Ginny even starts to believe that she's actually managed to defy the whole system, that, whoever this LL is, they're no soulmate of hers.
She should have known that it wouldn't last.
They're in The Three Broomsticks one day, like they always are at this time, and it's fine. It's normal. They're talking amiably, like always, and Dean leans in to kiss her, like he's done a thousand times. Except, this time, the movement causes his sleeve to slip down his arm, and Ginny sees.
SF, clear as day on his forearm, the letters staring at her accusingly.
Dean turns red as a beet when he realises that she's seen, and hurriedly pulls his sleeve back and turns away from her, staring awkwardly at the ground. Ginny wants to tell him that it doesn't matter, that she always knew they weren't soulmates, so she doesn't care that his arm says SF and not GW. But she can't say that, because the horrible truth is that it does matter. She knows exactly who SF is, and she feels sick with guilt when she realises what it must have been like for Seamus, to see them cuddled together every second of the day, when really it should have been him in her place.
"Dean, I-" she starts, but there are no words for this. "I'm sorry," she finishes lamely, then gets up and leaves him, forcing herself not to cry. It's not like their relationship meant anything, anyway.
She spends some time, after that, thinking on the problem of soulmates. She still stands by her judgement - the entire system is crap. Why couldn't she and Dean just be happy? Why was it that the stupid, pointless letters on their arms have to say no? It's not fair.
(Deep down, she knows that, even in a universe without soulmates, they never would have worked anyway.)
(She knows it, but she ignores it.)
It's not long after Dean, when she quite literally bumps into Luna from Ravenclaw. The girl is just standing in the middle of the hallway, staring at nothing, and she doesn't even bat an eyelid when Ginny slams right into her.
"I'm terribly sorry," she says dreamily, still staring at that middle space. "I can be ever so clumsy."
"Right…" Ginny replies, eyes flitting back and forth between Luna and whatever she's apparently so focused on. "I'll just be - going - then."
She turns to walk away, but then Luna suddenly stops staring into space and catches Ginny's sleeve. Ginny stops abruptly, feeling an unfamiliar jolt go through her at the sudden contact. She glances down at Luna's hand, then up at her face, uncomfortable with the intensity Luna is staring at her with.
"You're Ginny Weasley, right?" Luna asks.
Ginny sighs. "Yes, that's me. I assume you guessed that because of my hair?"
Luna blinks, apparently confused. "No. We had potions together last year." She drops her hand and looks at Ginny expectantly. Ginny flushes, feeling incredibly stupid in that moment.
"Right, yeah, of course we did." She can't look Luna in the eye, embarrassed at forgetting. She really only knows the girl's name because everyone at Hogwarts knows her. Loony Lovegood, they call her, although Ginny has always disliked that nickname for some reason. Probably something to do with the LL on her arm -
Wait.
LL.
Ginny's head jerks upwards and she looks Luna fully in the face. Pale silver eyes stare innocently back at her, and Ginny feels a shiver run down her spine as her heart begins to beat that little bit faster. Her face flushes an even deeper red, if that's possible, and she grabs Luna arm and leads her to a more empty corridor.
"I'll show you mine if you show me yours," she whispers, intimately aware of how close Luna is to her.
Luna smiles, as if this is what she's been waiting for this entire time, then slowly reaches down and pulls the sleeve of her robe up. GW, her arm says, in blazing back letters, and there's that feeling again, that familiarity and want. An idiotic part of her brain is arguing that it could be someone else, it could be her brother, even, but she mentally kicks that part of her into submission.
"You'll just know," Molly had said, and Ginny knows.
She can't stop a grin from breaking out across her face, and she yanks her own sleeve up, exposing the LL inked across it. Luna's smile widens when she sees it, and she suddenly surges forward and pulls Ginny into a tight hug. Ginny's releases a breath of shock, but she quickly recovers and hugs Luna back with the same ferocity, feeling suddenly complete.
When they finally pull apart, Ginny links their arms and they walk away together, neither able to stop themselves from smiling. Ginny still might not buy into the whole 'soulmate' situation but, she has to admit, it did a damn good job this time.