A/N: I'M BACK! WHOO! HAPPY HOLIDAYS! HAPPY NEW YEAR! MAY YOUR 2018 BE AWESOME AND HEALTHY! btw, I also wrote about Morgana and Merlin in this continuation, but their story is different than what happened to the Morgana and Merlin in Psychology.
I.
Morgana and Merlin.
II.
Two of the most powerful witches and wizards in Camelot at that time. Perhaps, even of all time. A Dark Witch and the wizard who condone it. Love had—and still has—a perverse sense of humor, Hermione thinks. History never really wrote about the failings of soulmates, the pairings that never sparked a single shred of true love, romantic love, love between friends. No, it is washed of tragic love stories and a sprinkling of happy endings.
But what she—and the monster—had is something called a broken soulbond. Like what Morgana and Merlin had.
Records shows their first conversation went swimmingly. In the aftermath of their initial contact, Merlin only had to cast a few dozen Memory Charms due to the enormous fallout between the two. Three Muggles died.
"Will your flowers ever stop shrieking?" snarled Morgana as she hurled dark curses at the nibble wizard with a dark brown beard. Fire licked at the trees, and villagers screamed in agony as their clothes melted away in the sheer heat.
Merlin was doing all he could to prevent an astounding number of deaths. Still, he managed to give some parting words. "Avada Kedavra!"
A small footnote in Morgana's diary said it was actually a Mandrake. She expressed her intense desire to destroy every single one of them. Evidently, she had failed. Mandrakes exist to this day, Hermione notes.
Surprisingly possible, the relationship—or lack of one—between Morgana and Merlin deteriorated even further. If they were an actual couple, Hermione would call out so many counts of domestic abuse and incidents. They were pure awful to each other. When Merlin was trying to help King Arthur win over Guinevere, Morgana tried two times to kill Arthur and then attempted to poison Guinevere at their wedding. She sent her son after them to cause much mayhem and turmoil between the king and queen. She finally found success when she found Guinevere's true soulmate, Lancelot.
As far as Hermione could tell, Mordred was not Merlin's son. He was born before Morgana had met Merlin. And they, she internally cringed at that thought, had not ever consummate their bond.
When Morgana finally destroyed Merlin by putting him into a permanent slumber, she wrote a curious section in her diary:
"Impossible. I feel not a moment of love for desire to the wizard who was supposed to be my soulmate. He was everything I was not, and I sought to crush him and stuff his life out as if stomping on a simple, dim-witted frog. I have felt no broken heart over this act though my fellow witches and associates have warned me again and again that I would feel devastating sorrow when he fades away. Instead, I feel the purest of joy as I sense him slip away."
With the war raging in her everyday life, she was unable to research more about the bond between her and Lord Voldemort. Between forming secret alliances with foreign governments and perfecting a bastardization of Muggle and wizarding weapons with George Weasley to be used against the Death Eaters, she never found a perfect time to learn more about the bond. The imperfect bond.
After the war has ended, Hermione took a job as a historian. She devoted herself away from wars, curses, and her own feelings. The early histories about Hogwarts were of simpler times. The journey of the first witch across the Atlantic to a greater shore was something that called to what's left of the adventure in Hermione's soul. But it is the mention in a diary of a married Muggle named Sam Prior living during the Salem Witch Trials that caught her eye. He spoke of a broken soulbond, after he condemned his witch soulmate to be hanged and felt absolutely no remorse over his repulsive action.
Just as Morgana has done to Merlin.
Just as she has done to Lord Voldemort.
Not a single thought of hesitation or remorse. Not a single moment of true mourning.
She runs her fingers over those words. The ones written on her smooth skin in delicate words and smooth, beautiful handwriting. She remembers what she first said to him all those years ago.
On the autopsy of Lord Voldemort's twisted, serpentine body, there was heavy, old, dark residue on his forearm, close to his wrist. A curious mortician reversed the damage, but the handwriting on his arm was blurry. She sent a copy of the words to be placed in the autopsy file and then cremated the remains.
When George, Neville, and Hermione pored over the report, George paused over the photo. He squinted, reading the words soundlessly, and commented, "Whoever is his soulmate, I feel terribly sorry for them."
Hermione peered closely at the words.
One last act of kindness.
She, after a long moment, let out a sigh. It was confirmed. The monster was truly her soulmate. But why him? Why?
III.
It was Morgana's fifth journal that told Hermione how disturbed and curious Morgana was by the lack of love she possessed for Merlin. The next eighty pages of parchment are filled with theories and ingredients. Morgana had crossed off some complete pages, added bits of parchment between other pages, and inserted logical ramblings that Hermione followed. She pointed out potential plants to be used in her potion project. Hermione's not surprised to find some of these plants to cause hallucinations and motion sickness along with other unsavory side effects.
Then at the final page, where Morgana had perfected her project, Morgana listed out the exact instructions with a suggestion to drink about two to three cups of the cooled potion. Hermione runs her finger up and read Morgana's potion's name. "Alium se orbem terrarum."
With further research, Hermione translates it to English.
Alium se orbem terrarum. Another World.
It would take only a forthnight to brew, and Hermione is curious about one thing Morgana has written in tiny print at the bottom of the page—below the final instructions. After so many pages of pure frustration at Merlin and the fact that he was her soulmate, Morgana had chillingly wrote only three simple words that made Hermione's heart clench.
"I now understand."
IV.
She drinks the potion on a Friday night, the full moon hanging high ahead with its brightness eternal against the sparkling sky. If it went wrong, she reasons, she has the entire weekend to work out the problems. The glass-clear potion tastes of a warm sweetness, victory, happiness, and above all, an irrational amount of hope.
It tastes of everything she has ever wanted but never had.
And with that sweet aftertaste in her mouth, Hermione set down the empty glass and quietly fell into a deep slumber, her body slowly falling down into the worn rugs of her bedroom.
V.
He could not move forward nor backwards. He is stuck somewhere, some place, some time. It is cold, and he rests there just shivering in the unyielding darkness. He is hungry yet his stomach feels no hunger. He curls deeper into himself, as if he could gather up whatever warmth he has left.
Then something odd happens.
He could not move his head, but he could feel the place he came from opening to him. The pain, the sorrow, and the despair screams louder than before.
Gathering up all the will he has left, the man pushes himself up from the floor, naked and shivering. He feels the peace of the forward, but it is beyond his reach. But the place he knows is within reach. He only has to run.
The man born under the name of Tom Marvolo Riddle returns to the world of the living.
VI.
What would it be like if they never met on battlefield but instead at peace?