A/N: This is for the Going, Going, Gone! Challenge at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the prompt pairing type: triad. It's also for the fanfic resolutions - Find your 'go to' headcanon/AU/setting. Write a fic with everything switched around. This is one of my favourite scenarios and I thought it would be good to do. It's also for the pinata challenge easy level for cross-gen and is 1318 words.
Rabastan looked at his brother as if he had gone mad.
"Out of all the craziest things I have ever heard you say this is one of them."
"It's the only way to carry our line on, Rabastan. Or do you have any better ideas? Maybe we could snatch a girl off the streets. That would work perfectly for what we want," Rodolphus said sarcastically.
"You're right, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. What if we end up with a mudblood? What then?" Rabastan asked.
"Then we end up with a mudblood. We are calling the Fates to give us the best chance we have of carrying on our family, it would be...unwise to sneer at the woman they give us."
Silence enveloped for a moment.
"You said us?" Rabastan said eyeing his brother critically.
"I thought that we could either do it separately or together. It would mean that we could be certain a child would be born," Rodolphus explained.
Rabastan knew that his brother was right, but he didn't want to be tied down to a witch who potentially hated him.
But would the Fates really do that to us?, he thought.
The resounding answer was yes, but he also knew that even if she hated him, or them, all that he had to do was prove to her he wasn't as bad as he seemed.
"I'll do it."
"Good," Rodolphus said.
"But I want us to do it together. One witch going missing won't garner the same attention as two going missing on the same night. Hopefully it won't be someone too important," Rabastan explained.
Even though they had been released from Azkaban five years ago and had been model citizens since, many of the wizarding world still hadn't forgiven them. They had been accused many times over the past five years of crimes they didn't commit and the younger aurors had even started to apologise when they came asking for alibis. The thought that they could go back to that hell hole if the
"I understand what you're trying to say, but there would be a higher chance of a child being born if there were two witches."
"What ritual were you going to do?"
"There is one to call a soulmate. It sounds the best as it guarantees that the Fates will bring you the witch most compatible for you," Rodolphus informed him.
"Let me go over them as well and then we can make our mind up. I don't want to do something I don't fully understand. They are still legal aren't they?" Rabastan said hoping that they wouldn't get in trouble for doing it.
"Do you really think I would even consider doing something that would get us chucked back in that place? I will give you three days to look over them and decide. There are not many and there are some which can only be completed at certain times of the month or year. The soulmate ritual can only be done on a solstice or equinox and after next week we will have to wait another three months to do it," Rodolphus told him.
"Where are the books? I can get started now."
"They are on the table in the library."
A week later
Rabastan had read through all the books and rituals and had come to the same conclusion as his brother. The soulmate ritual was by far the easiest and safest out of all of them. The ancient text had stated that more than one person could do the ritual at the same time and it would call the right amount of soulmates for them, and that there wouldn't be any magical backlash if they a witch didn't appear.
Raw magic swelled in the ritual space as the brothers chanted for their soulmate. A circle of wind whipped around them but neither man never lost concentration.
Once the chanting stopped, the wind extinguished the candles surrounding the ritual circle. They had been the only light in the room and the brothers were glad that they had decided to keep their wands on them.
"Lumos," Roddolphus said.
"What do you want with me?" the witch in front of him asked.
Her wild brown hair and eyes looked vaguely familiar to him, but Rabastan couldn't place them. All he knew for certain was that he felt a pull towards her.
"We're not going to harm you. You're our soulmate. We called you with an ancient ritual," Rodolphus told her.
"Why should I believe you when you tried to kill me before?"
Rabastan's eyes widened a little.
Hermione Granger. That was the witches name. He knew she had looked familiar, but he didn't realise who she was until now. He remembered that they had dueled against each other during the final battle and that he had sent the killing curse at her more than once.
"Hermione, please. I know that you don't trust us, and I know that we have never given you reason to, but we are telling the truth. Why don't you follow us upstairs and we can show you the book we got the ritual from. You can decide after that what you believe," Rabastan said trying to appeal to her intellectual side.
The use of her first name had garnered the witches attention, and the brothers could see that she was fighting the curiosity that was building up inside her.
After a few moments of silence she said, "I will have a look, but if I think you're lying I will leave."
As they guided Hermione up the stairs and to the study, Rodolphus gave her a brief explanation on why they had done the ritual.
"Here is the book. We will let you read it on your own and you can call us in when you're ready," Rodolphus informed her as he set the ancient tome on the coffee table in front of her.
"Thank you."
"Do you feel the pull as well?" Rabastan asked once they were outside the room.
"Yes. Do you know what she meant by trying to kill her?" Rodolphus asked in turn.
"It was during the final battle. We ended up duelling one another and I shot a few killing curses at her," he replied grimacing a little.
"I hope she doesn't hold it against you too much."
"Neither do I," Rabastan said.
The next few minutes were tense as they had no idea how Hermione would react, but after being called back in their fears were quelled by her response.
"I believe you and I will give you a chance. If you hurt me though, I will walk away no matter how much it hurts me to," she warned them.
"We won't hurt you. Not intentionally anyway," Rodolphus replied.
"What Rodolphus means is that there will some misunderstandings between us at some point and there is no doubt that we will hurt each other feelings, but it won't be done on purpose," Rabastan explained.
Hermione nodded.
"So what do we do now then? Do we...do we have to…?" she asked nervously.
"The book says that we should consummate the bond as soon as possible, but if you want to get to know us a little bit better then I'm sure it can wait until tomorrow," Rabastan answered gently.
"I like the sound of that," Hermione said gratefully.
After she sent an owl to her friends letting them know that she would be away for a few days the trio spent the whole afternoon and evening talking and getting to know each other.
Rabastan was glad his brother had managed to persuade him to do the ritual as he would have kicked himself if he missed out on a chance with Hermione Granger. There would be a lot of tears and misunderstandings between them, but he knew in the end it would be worth it.