A/N: Written for the Character Appreciation Challenge (Character: Angelina Johnson), the Chutes and Ladders Challenge (Prompts: ticket and "watch this genius") and the Ultimate Patronus Challenge (D15, Angelina Johnson)
Warning for mention of Aromantic characters. No hate will be tolerated in the comments.
When Angelina gets her letter, her parents are over joyed. Angelina's unsurprised and a little bit annoyed, she had a great chance of making the Rugby team in the Muggle School she's been attending, and she doesn't want to give it up for a school in which she knows barely anyone.
The hat's boring and Angelina almost falls asleep during its song. How dreary can a place of magic be? It seems to all go by with a blur and before she knows she's a Gryffindor: bravery and chivalry? Sure, as long as it doesn't interfere with her accomplishments.
It's not until she's seated at the table, munching on desert, does something catch her interest.
"What's a head girl?"
A head girl, it turns out, is a student with authority over the entire student body. As it turns out, it's usually the most qualified person for that position and Angelina is determined it will be her.
As the middle child of three siblings, Angelina know how to get attention. She's the best through the next years- straight O student, first female chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team (she will never be more grateful then she was when Alicia came along) and prefect.
There's only one thing that Angelina finds herself failing it- It's not that she doesn't love, because she does, her family and friends and her marks, but she doesn't fall in love the way her friends do. There are no crushes that turn her stomach into a butterfly zoo, no blushing or stuttering.
It's not that she doesn't find people attractive, either- Cedric Diggory's body is to die for and Wood has abs, something that catches her attention very quickly in the change rooms.
It's by her first kiss that she realizes something is wrong. Wood is pressed up against her, talking about getting tickets to some game for their next date, but she doesn't fell it. There's a primal attraction but no romantic feelings.
Wood looks like he's about to cry when she says that their relationship is over, but Angelina is too confused to comfort him.
She tries girls next, and it's the same way. Their attractive, granted, but no emotional needs. Alicia is soft and warm and her perfume is intoxicating but there's nothing more than sexual desire.
And it hurts, because this is Angelina and she always want perfection.
She figures it out when she's sixteen and lost in the Muggle library near her childhood home. Aromantic- a person who experiences little or no romantic attraction to others. Where was this when I needed it? She thinks and turns to go home.
When Angelina graduates, it's with her parents cheering and Lee Jordan chanting the way he used to on the Quidditch fields: "Watch this genius go! Ladies and Gentleman, give it up for Gryffindor's star chaser, Angelina Johnson!"
She has it all, a head girl badge fastened on her graduation robes. She'll figure it out, this whole love thing, eventually.
George Weasley is a mess of half-empty hearts and a joke shop full of explosions, and Angelina marries him in an extravagant wedding. Marriage isn't always about love. It's a union of people in a relationship and they'll always be partners in crime.