Hey!
A while ago I found a thread about Soulmate AUs, and I was completely inspired to write loads, so this is the first instalment.
Inspired by aceofultron's post:
"soulmate au where instead of your soulmate's first words to you written on your skin it's their last words you ever hear them say so you don't know who your soulmate is until you lose them"
Enjoy!
Dr Corrigan, an expert in his field, had studied long and hard to become a Midwife. It was not common for men to be accepted as midwives, but he'd worked tremendously and had ultimately become one of the best in the city hospital. Having helped thousands of women give birth, and been the first to see thousands of children, he was shocked to witness a scene which confused him.
When Hermione Granger was born, Dr Corrigan had no explanation at all for the words that patterned the young child's skin.
This being because, as a muggle, he'd never before seen the Words of a Soulmate.
All magic children are born marked with a phrase of words written somewhere on their body. Many witches and wizards have looked into the origin of this phenomenon, but most have proved unable to discover anything of interest and the majority of society accepts that their Words are here to stay.
Growing up in the muggle world, Hermione was unsure what to make of hers. They sat on the outside of her right thigh, just within sight without the use of a mirror, and as a child she spent quite a while studying them.
Her whole phrase ran only about twelve centimetres, and said this:
"I'll be home later, love"
She didn't know what to make of it.
Her parents, as confused as they were, asked muggle specialists for any reason for their daughter's specific birthmark. But the most peculiar thing happened; each professional they asked consistently forgot who the family were as soon as they left, as if they had never met them in the first place. This pattern was of course the work of the Ministry of Magic, but as unfamiliar as the Granger family were with such things, they didn't have any explanation.
That was until she entered the magical world. Since that moment she began to hear lots about these Words, and how everyone with magical blood is born with them. They have always been seen as very private, however, so she had never seen those belonging to her friends or professors, but she accepted that that was the way it should be.
Having them high on her thigh, she was easily able to cover them with the clothes she wore, and in this she was very lucky. But for those with Words in obvious places, cloth was commonly used to cover them until such a time when they become proficient enough at spells that they could cover them with a temporary colour charm.
But even after coming from the muggle world, it was not the sheer abundance of people with these tattoos which shocked Hermione the most, but what these words signified. Because firstly, they meant that she had a Soulmate. They were the words of another being that was supposed to be perfect for her, who had the potential to fully understand and accept her. But even through this revelation, the second part was what hit her the most. Because once learning that she may be able to find this person, the tragedy was that these were not the first words that she would hear from them, nor the most important. These were the last words she would ever hear them say to her, so she would only know they were her soulmate once they were gone.
February 1997
Hermione forced herself to sit just a little longer. She knew it was none of her business, but somehow she just couldn't bring herself to ignore it.
During her lunch breaks at school, as Harry and Ron would talk about quidditch or some such topic which she wasn't interested in, Hermione would often notice what was going on around her. It's not that she was listening in on other people's conversations, but she was an observant witch and strange patterns of behaviour seemed to catch her attention.
It was the eighth time in the last two weeks that she had noticed Malfoy getting up half way through lunch, casually giving some kind of excuse to his friends as to why he was leaving early. It had started off with logical reasons like homework he hadn't finished, a letter he needed to send, but as the time passed they had gotten much less believable. Not only this, but he always left with an expression of apprehension, not one that was obvious, but Hermione prided herself on her ability to read people, and for some reason it left an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. She knew it seemed odd to pay him this much attention, but she was curious and didn't have the self control to stop.
She was currently sitting at the Gryffindor table opposite Harry and Ron. As they had been doing for the last few days, they were continuing their conversation about the upcoming match between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, but she paid them little mind. On the odd occasion Quidditch could capture her interest, but never when she was this focused thinking about something else. She just couldn't bear not knowing.
After a minute longer of ignoring the itch to follow Malfoy she gave up. Hermione pushed away her plate, picked up her bag and headed out the hall, excusing herself by saying she was off to the library, being confident that none of her friends would try to follow her. It's not often that she chose to keep things such as this from her friends, and it's not as if she lacked any faith or trust in them, but with Harry's current suspicions about Malfoy's allegiances, she didn't want to pour unnecessary fuel on his distrust. So, until she knew more, she was keeping her curiousness to herself.
Malfoy had left the hall a good ten minutes before her, but she didn't worry about not being able to see him in person. She stopped once she was adequately far away from the hall, and fished around in her bag finding the Marauders map, having pinched it out of Harry's suitcase earlier that morning. She searched the floors, starting from her position and going upwards, methodically checking each corridor until she caught a glimpse of his name.
"Why would he be on the seventh floor?" She muttered as she watched his name move from the staircase down the left corridor.
She followed the corridor with her eyes, passing the north wing at one end to the arithmancy classroom at the other. She almost dismissed the long stretch of clear hallway until it hit her.
"Oh! Of course," she muttered.
She folded up the map, quickly whispering the phrase to conceal its contents and hurried up the Grand Staircase. She was so lost in her thoughts that she hardly noticed as she passed each floor continuing solidly up the winding stairs which, fortunately, choose to remain in place for the entirety of her journey.
Now quite out of breath, she followed the seventh floor corridor until she found the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, and slowed to a stop looking at the wall opposite.
"Right" she thought, "I need to find Draco Malfoy".
She repeated the phrase in her mind and proceeded to pace past the wall three times until a door formed within the brick.
The wall itself was made of large sandy coloured blocks, towering tall over Hermione, and like the castle itself it looked impressive to even those most familiar with it. This new door was no different. It was made out a dark, rich wood and stood at least 7 feet tall. There were intricate patterns caved into the face of it, and it looked both eye catching and at one with the castle at the same time.
After a quick moment to appreciate the magic, she stepped forwards and opened the door, stepping through and letting it close behind her.
The view that met her eyes was not one she expected.
As familiar with the room as she thought she was, a small part of her still expected it to take the shape of the training room she and the others had used when in Dumbledore's army. It had taken the form of a large enough space and held a plethora of magic books and fighting equipment; it was perfect for their needs at the time.
Now however, the room was massive. It was at least eight times the size that it was before, and was filled with multiple mountains of discarded items, reaching all the way up to the high rising ceiling. Hermione's eyes flicked across the room taking in the scene, the muted colours, dim lighting and the remarkable stillness. She was not able to study it in too much detail though, because after only a second of entering she was distracted by a ruffling sound coming from somewhere amongst the mess.
The rest of the room was otherwise silent. It was filled with the kind of noiselessness which only came from complete abandonment, as if no one had entered this variation of the room in centuries. This was untrue of course, so as the sound of movement came again, Hermione made to follow it.
Careful, so as to not make too much noise, Hermione began to pick her way through the pathways between the piles of junk towards the sound. Finding the right direction was tricky, as she had so little to go on, but she gently stepped down the winding walkways for several minutes until the source of the sound came into view.
Draco Malfoy stood in front of a large cabinet, fiddling mindlessly with the edge of a piece of dark green fabric wrapped around his wrist. The cabinet was wedged into a larger pile of damaged books and broken chairs, and he had obviously stepped over various objects in order to get so close to it.
He looked deep in thought, but as she watched he seemed to blink away his concentration and lean his forehead against the closed door, closing his eyes. His shoulders began to shake with emotion, and he brought his hand up and briefly held the piece of fabric against his eyes to dry them.
Hermione felt frozen.
This was not at all what she expected. Had she met a disinterested, scathing or even angry Malfoy she may have found it easier to handle, but this was not something she felt prepared to deal with.
Determined to challenge him another day, she pressed down her growing concern and carefully stepped back, retracing her steps and leaving the way she came.
Thank for reading!
I'm aware this is very short, but it's going to be a multi-chapter fic. I've got loads more planned and some of it written, so I will update it soon.
Not everything is set in stone yet, so if anyone has any ideas of how it could continue, I'm open to hearing your suggestions!