AN: Prompts will be displayed at the bottom to avoid them potentially giving away things.
Beyond the Mirror
AlwaysPadfoot
Daphne is eight years old when she notices something strange about the mirror in her room.
She's sat reading a book when the mirror seems to shimmer and the reflection changes right in front of her eyes. Instead of showing the reflection of her room, it shows a different room entirely. Marking her page, she puts the book of her bedside and hesitantly walks across to the mirror.
The reflection doesn't show her; it doesn't show anything that is familiar at all. Beyond the glass is a smaller bedroom than hers. The walls are painted pastel pink and the wooden floor white. It's bright. There are two skylights in the ceiling, but Daphne's attention is drawn to the bed. Facing away from her is a girl with bright red hair. She's lying on her stomach, kicking her legs up and down, and it looks like she's colouring something in.
Daphne puts her hand against the mirror. It's as though the room is right there, but she can't get to it. Frowning, she knocks tentatively against the glass.
The girl's legs freeze and she turns to look over her shoulder. Her eyes widen. The redhead gets off the bed and walks across to the mirror.
"Hi, who are you?" Daphne asks.
The girl frowns, scrunching up her freckled face, and signals that she can't hear what Daphne is saying to her. She's about to try and say something again when the girl smiles, runs over to her desk and comes back with a crayon and some parchment. Daphne watches as the girl writes something in wobbly purple letters and holds it up.
My name is Susan.
Daphne can't help but think the girl's pretty clever for thinking of writing things down. She runs across to her own desk and rummages for some parchment and a quill. When she finds some, she rushes back to the mirror and sits in front of it. Unscrewing her ink, Daphne dips the tip of her quill into it and writes a message in response.
I'm Daphne. I'm 8. Why are you in my mirror?
Susan responds: I'm 7. I'm in here because we must be soulmates. My aunt says soulmates can see each other in the mirror.
Daphne frowns and replies quickly: What's a soulmate?
Susan writes lots about soulmates and Daphne reads fast. It feels a bit strange, that the mirror is their only way to communicate, but they make it work. Susan says that soulmates are the person you will love the most — the person that you will marry and live with one day. Admittedly, Daphne is a little confused because she thought that girls could only love boys, but Susan is nice and they write messages to one another all afternoon, so maybe she's wrong.
The two girls fast become best friends.
oOo
On September first, Daphne is itching to search the Hogwarts Express for Susan.
She has to wait until the train pulls away from the station before she can leave her compartment. Otherwise, her parents might wonder what she's up to. But as soon as Kings Cross Station is in the distance, she begins her search.
It feels as though she will never find her, but finally, about halfway down the train, they bump into one another. There's a moment of realisation between them. Then, Susan wraps her arms around Daphne and hugs her tight.
"I'm so happy to finally meet you," Susan says excitedly.
"Me too," Daphne admits, reciprocating the hug.
"Have you got somewhere to sit? Come sit with me?"
Daphne nods, happy to have an excuse to not sit with the pompous, flat-faced girl who hadn't stopped talking that she had been sitting with. Susan takes her hand and leads her down the train to a compartment in the front carriage of the train.
She had been nervous. Scared that her soulmate might not like her when they met in person, Daphne had spent nights thinking this exact moment through and how it could go wrong. None of the bad things she'd imagined happened. Susan had taken her in with welcome arms like she had metaphorically when they'd met through the mirrors.
The bounce in her step, her clear excitement, makes Daphne relax — fears melting away.
This is perfect.
Comps and Prompts
Romance Awareness: Day 21 — The reflection in the mirror is your soulmate's reflection.
Assignment 3: Gardening, Task 9 — Write femslash.
IHC: 470. Item - Ink
365: 213. Plot Point - Meeting on a bus/train/transport
WC: 714