Written for The Houses Competition and Monthly Challenges for All - Harmony of Souls Eternal

Head of House Hufflepuff

Category: Short

Prompt: [Speech] "This is the moment you've been waiting for."

Requirement: Overcoming the odds

Word count: 2,030

Fill #2

Representations: Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell, Asexuality, Aromanticism, Lesbian

Bonus Challenges: Schooner, Obscure

Beta: Aya Diefair

She didn't like it. In fact, she hated it. Where everyone else would be ecstatic over having a soulmate, she was not. She was, instead, deathly afraid of meeting her soulmate. Why? Because soulmates were known to be the greatest loves of all time, they were the epitome of romance, they were what every young child dreamt of when they were young – a great passionate love that would never leave. The very thing that she had no interest in. Romance? What use was that?

Alicia Spinnet sighed as she lay in her bed, not wanting to go to sleep just yet. She knew that when she drifted off she would find herself in the misty land that was where soulmates communicated with each other before they met in the real world. So far she had been able to escape meeting whatever poor sod had been saddled with her but it was tiring work.

The mist dimension was not for avoiding your soulmate. It was where you could take comfort in your soulmates presence even when they weren't around physically. Occasionally, Alicia had felt the brush of another soul on the fringes of her own and that was when she had to force herself to wake up. She did not want to meet the person Fate had decided she should love. Whoever it was would be expecting the love that stories were told of and Alicia couldn't provide that.

So went her life. From her seventh birthday onwards, Alicia hid from her soulmate. She lived off small snatches of sleep and pepper-up potions. She drank several cups of coffee every day in the effort to avoid sleep. She learned how to do makeup to make herself look as though she wasn't struggling with sleep deprivation. Her parents were concerned but let her do what she felt she needed to do until they deemed her far too sleep deprived for her own good.

That was when they dosed her up with dreamless sleep. They were aware of her fears and while they thought them unfounded, they did their best to help their daughter. They let her hide and made sure that she never went too long without sleep.

Even when the mists started parting in the mist dimension when she arrived in Hogwarts, Alicia still hid. She knew that somewhere within Hogwarts was her soulmate, she knew they were looking for her. She also knew that they would hate her once they found out she couldn't love them like they wanted.

Three years of desperately hiding in the ever-disappearing mist had Alicia utterly paranoid. She got less sleep than ever, finding herself in the Hospital Wing and begging Madam Pomfrey for sleep aids that didn't allow dreams as well as things that could aid her in staying awake and alert. She played Quidditch because it let her let go of all her fears. She made jokes with her fellow Chasers, Angelina and Katie.

She was fine. She had no need for a soulmate that would make her feel horrid and deficient. It wasn't her fault that Fate had decided to give her a soulmate!

Katie was extremely frustrated by her elusive soulmate. No matter how hard she tried, they always managed to slip away from her. They had always been in hiding. She had asked her parents if they had ever heard of another instance where a soulmate would hide from another and they had answered in the negative.

For years she had been researching reasons why a soulmate would not want to meet the one they were destined for. For years she had tried to approach the flighty soul she sometimes caught glimpses of in the mist dimension. When the mists started parting at Hogwarts she had allowed herself to hope. In vain, it would seem.

Even though the cloaking mist was less than a few wisps now, she still could not see her soulmate. When she wasn't out on the Quidditch field, studying for her classes or hanging out with her friends, Katie Bell slept. She slept in the hope that maybe this time her soulmate would stop running from her.

She needed to meet them. Had to let them know that she wasn't going to be like an average soulmate, though she supposed they were also not quite the average soulmate. What with the hiding and all.

Anything beyond chaste kisses wasn't really her thing. It was, in fact, the farthest one could get from her thing. The thought of any such activities made her feel a tad nauseous and she hoped her soulmate wouldn't expect anything like that from her. But that was why she needed to find them, so that she could finally stop her constant anxiety of being rejected.

It would be nice to be able to stop worrying about it, she thought. When she had first found herself in the mist dimension, she had been excited. She had been seven at the time and quite happy with the idea of having a lifelong best friend. Then she had grown up a little bit and realised that soulmates were more than friends. They were expected to marry and do all the icky grown-up stuff that she hated.

How could she be a suitable soulmate to anyone when she couldn't provide the one thing that was apparently a staple in all relationships beyond friend? Katie was determined that she would find her soulmate, she would tell them that in no way, shape or form would she participate in 'adult activities' and that was that.

If her soulmate decided that they couldn't live with that, then they would have to live without her. She would not chain herself to someone who wouldn't accept her for her, no matter what Fate said. Katie sighed a little as she thought about her mysterious soulmate that she had yet to actually see. They apparently got very little sleep, given that Katie was almost always asleep and only felt them sporadically.

She glanced over to her side and nudged Alicia who was falling asleep in her chair. They were in the library, studying for the transfiguration assignment Professor McGonagall had assigned them. Like always, Alicia was struggling to keep her eyes open. Katie knew her friend didn't get much sleep, it worried her but Alicia had her reasons. What those reasons were, Katie didn't know, but she trusted Alicia to know her limits.

Alicia started as she felt Katie's nudge and grinned sheepishly at Katie's raised eyebrow. "Sorry," she mumbled, still half falling asleep, "didn't get much sleep last night."

"I never would have guessed," Katie shot back, amused and worried. "Anything I can do?"

Alicia shrugged, "Not really. I'm just really, really, trying to avoid something that I want nothing to do with."

"By not sleeping?"

"It only happens when you're asleep. So I don't sleep."

Only happens when you're asleep. There was only one thing that happened purely when you were asleep as far as Katie was aware. She stared at her friend in disbelief as that sentence reverberated around her brain. Alicia blinked at her, "You okay?"

"Only happens when you're asleep." Katie repeated dully, still stunned at the possibility that was unfurling around her.

"Ye-es?" Alicia sounded immensely confused, her nose was scrunched up in its adorable way and Katie heaved out a giant sigh as she realised just how much of an idiot she had been.

"You have got to be kidding me, Alicia. All this time you've been avoiding sleep just because you don't want to meet your soulmate? Really?"

Alicia tensed almost immediately, "I never said anything about soulmates."

"No," Katie snorted, "you've just been avoiding me while I've been spending about half of my life asleep and trying to catch you."

A slow blink. Alicia stared at Katie as Katie stared at Alicia. She could see the tired cogs in Alicia's brain working overtime as they tried to figure out what was going on. Eventually, Alicia got the message, "You?"

"Me."

"Oh," Alicia sighed and placed her head down on the table in front of them. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine, just please stop avoiding me?"

Alicia shook her head and said, her voice muffled by the table, "Not for that."

"What then?"

A shudder went through Alicia, "I can't be what you want me to be. That's why I hid from you. I can never give you what you want!"

Her words hit far too close to home for Katie, she struggled with the same thoughts. "How so?"

Another shudder and Katie had the sudden realisation that Alicia was holding back tears. "Every story about soulmates always talks about how in love with each other they are. That's not me!" Alicia sat up and glared at Katie, her eyes brimming with unshed tears. "I can't do that! There is no way that I can give you any sort of love!"

Katie held up her finger calmly, "Incorrect." Alicia stared at her and Katie continued, "You already love me, don't you? You've said as much plenty of times before."

"But- but that's different! I love you as a friend, not in a romantic sense!"

Katie shrugged, "It's still love. I guess we're both a little weird."

That caught Alicia's attention, "How do you mean?"

"Well, I've been trying to find you for so long because I wanted to tell you that there was no way we would be having a normal soulmate relationship. The thought of doing anything more than hugging creeps me out."

Alicia let out a weak laugh, "Maybe Fate did know what she was doing when she paired us together then."

Katie grinned and pulled Alicia into a sideways hug, kissing the top of her head, "Maybe. Now, shall we continue on with this essay? Where do we find information on the creator of the Vera Verto spell?"

Settled into her side quite comfortably, Alicia shrugged, "Greatest Spell-Creators of the Middle Ages, maybe? Isn't that when she said the spell was created?"

"True," Katie hummed in thought for a bit, debating whether or not to get up and look through the library shelves for the book. In the end, she rolled up the pieces of parchment they had been taking notes on. "On the other hand, I think we've studied enough today. Want to go watch the Giant Squid sunbathe?"

"How could I ever refuse such an offer?" Alicia grinned and joined Katie in packing up before they made their way outside to sit by the Black Lake. If they sat a little closer to each other than was normal, that was fine. They weren't the typical type of soulmates but they were perfect for each other.

As Katie sat by the Lake with Alicia snuggled into her side, she felt the burden she had been carrying for so long finally fall away. She grinned, all that effort and all they had to do was look to their side to find the one they had failed to meet in the mist dimension.

That night, before they both fell asleep, the two shared a smile and knew that they would meet in their dreams. Katie blew out a breath as she lay flat on her back and waited for sleep to take her. "Come on, Katie," she whispered to herself. "This is the moment you've been waiting for."

Slowly she drifted off and as the mists surrounded her, she could clearly see Alicia waiting for her and grinning. "Took you long enough," the other girl jibed.

Katie mock-glared at her, "I'm not the one who is massively sleep deprived because they tried to run away all the time."

"True," Alicia held out her hand, "Want to wander through the mists a bit?"

"How could I ever refuse such an offer?"

They both laughed, linking arms and strolling through the mist dimension that had been devoid of another for most of their lives. Finally, they were together and the fears that both of them had held onto were forgotten. An asexual and an aromantic may be a strange choice for soulmates, but that was okay. They were them and that was all that mattered.