Written for the Hermione's Haven 2017 Roll-A-Prompt Writing Challenge

Voted Overall Favorite, Best Relationship Development, and Best Plot Development

Prompt:
1st roll: Pairing: Hermione Granger/John Watson
2nd roll: Trope: Soulmate/Soul Bond
Word Count: 1500 to 5000 words

The timelines have been played with a little bit to match up the two fandoms in this Soulmate AU. For Hermione, I estimate that this story takes place about seven or eight years after the final battle. For John, it is a missing scene between Season 2 and Season 3 - about halfway between Sherlock's death and his return.

HEALING HEARTS

Hermione Granger

After the final battle, Hermione stayed at Hogwarts for several weeks helping Madame Pomfrey in the hospital wing. Something clicked into place for Hermione during that time and a new future was born for her. As soon as she finished her NEWTS, she enrolled in Healer training and graduated from the program in record time and with top marks. She immediately accepted employment with St. Mungos and thought that her life was set. Everything seemed perfect…except for one thing. Ron wasn't her soulmate!

Soon after the battle, Hermione had comforted Ron in his grief and they ended up in bed together. Even though the act itself had been pleasant enough, Hermione was disappointed to learn that although she had plenty of marks on her own body, Ron had only one. A long rope-like scar, courtesy of one of the brains during the Department of Ministries fiasco, was located on his forearm. She didn't have a matching mark and, therefore, she knew immediately that they were not meant to be together.

"I don't care," he whispered into her hair as they laid in bed that night. "I still want to be with you. Just because I don't have a matching mark yet, doesn't mean I won't eventually."

Hermione knew this to be the truth. Some people were born with their marks and some acquired them later on in life. In fact, she knew of several pairs of soulmates who had found each other after the final battle because of the new marks that they had attained there. Harry and Ginny were a good example of that. Even in the midst of their grief, those two were still ecstatic when they realized that Ginny had acquired a lightning-shaped mark on her forehead from flying debris. It matched his famous scar perfectly and cemented the fact that they were meant to be together. They weren't the only ones, either. Neville and Luna also ended up together due to new matching slash marks across their cheekbones. In addition to the two younger couples, a more surprising mature match was also formed. Minerva McGonagall and Aberforth Dumbledore were now together...with matching marks on their posteriors. Hermione didn't even want to know how they found out about each other's marks in such a location (Madame Pomfrey, and her tendency to gossip, was probably involved). However, McGonagall's new favorite joke was that Aberforth had always been a pain in her arse, so they had just made it official. However, Hermione wondered why they had not become a couple years before since everyone could see how happy they were.

Hermione was thrilled for her friends and hoped that the time for her and Ron would come. Therefore, for the sake of their history and friendship, she continued their romantic relationship as if nothing was wrong, even though everyday it became clearer that something important was missing from their life together. However, she didn't know exactly what it was until the day that she walked into Ron's office and found him on his desk with the new French recruit on the woman's first day at work. Hermione didn't say anything, she just turned to flee from the sight of her boyfriend shagging another woman. To give him credit, though, Ron did eventually pull up his trousers and sought her out in order to sincerely apologize.

"Hermione, I am so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen. I would never have cheated on you, but Giselle has the same shaped scar from a skiing accident that matched mine exactly. As soon as our scars touched, I knew then…without a doubt…that she was mine. The next thing I knew, we were…" his voice trailed off.

As painful as it was, Hermione understood. That's how soulmates were supposed to work. She had heard stories about how couples just couldn't resist each other after their soulmarks had touched since lovemaking supposedly sealed the bond between the two souls and finally made them whole. It was instinctive. Therefore, she could forgive Ron since he had not intentionally hurt her. To tell the truth, she was a tiny bit relieved, as well. She finally understood what had been missing from their relationship. However, that didn't mean that she could stick around and watch Ron with another woman. Therefore, she packed up her room in Grimmauld Place and quickly found her own flat.

Several years passed during which she had other serious relationships. However, her romances with Oliver Wood and then later with Theo Nott also ended when both of the men eventually found their soulmates. It was then that she decided that she was finished with men, love, and the whole soulmate situation altogether. She couldn't bear to keep getting her heart broken when the men she fell for really belonged to someone else.

She wasn't the only one who speculated about her apparent inability to find her soulmate, either. Soon everyone in the Wizarding world knew about it when the subsequent article about her love life (or lack thereof) appeared in the Daily Prophet. When she first saw it, Hermione Granger: Soulmate Failure?, she knew that it was time for a change. In fact, she decided that it was time to head back into the Muggle world. Yes, the problem of soulmates existed there, too. However, at least everybody in that world wouldn't know who she was and perfect strangers would not feel the need to approach her just to comment on her relationship status.

Therefore, she found a new flat in the heart of Muggle London and searched for employment. Fortunately, Muggle medicine was one area that was not shunned by the Wizarding world since a magical human body was identical to a nonmagical one and vice versa. Therefore, Hermione was well trained in Muggle medicine, as well as the Wizarding equivalent, and soon found work in a small surgery. The doctor there was desperate for good help and didn't dig too deeply into her past or credentials once he realized that she had both trained and worked at St. Mungos. In the Muggle world, it was simply known as a very prestigious and extremely exclusive medical school.

Despite a little slip-up when she had treated him like Harry during the interview, Hermione immediately felt at ease in the company of the doctor, an attractive man in his prime named John Watson. With his casual good looks and easygoing temperament, he reminded her strongly of the actor who played the lead character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. She had adored the book since childhood and had also fallen in love with the movie. Consequently, she had seen it several times and soon found out that just like Arthur Dent, Dr. Watson was a quiet unassuming man who had been thrust into some extraordinary circumstances.

She didn't realize all of this at first, though. All she knew was that they were on a first-name basis by the end of the interview. By the time that she finished her first day at work, she also realized that he was a brilliant doctor and a caring, generous man – as evidenced through his interactions with both her and all of their patients. Consequently, their working friendship had been effortless and it soon crossed over into their personal lives, also. He started to bring her coffee after just her third day, when he realized that mornings were difficult for her. She started to bring him lunch after the first week when she realized that he couldn't cook to save his life and existed almost solely on takeout. By the third week, she had found out about his friendship with the late Sherlock Holmes and threw herself enthusiastically into binge-reading the stories of their adventures together on John's blog. Through his own words, she saw a whole new side of the doctor and realized that they actually had a lot in common. Besides the fact that they were healers, they both also knew war and danger and had basically dedicated their lives to helping their best friend. However, just like her, he now showed no evidence of having lived such a life as the one she read about in his online journal. Therefore, she knew that the death of the famous detective had taken its toll on him and realized that it would have been the same for her if she had lost Harry.

She soon realized that they had even more in common than that when they had too much to drink one night at the pub after a particularly trying day at the surgery where they had lost an elderly patient. This led to serious discussions about how they had both lost their parents when they were about the same age and their similarly sad soulmate histories. Just like her, John had loved and lost multiple times and therefore had given up trying to find his special someone. Hermione couldn't figure out why she was so relieved at the thought that he was single and likely to stay that way. Therefore, she blamed it on the alcohol. Why else would she irrationally want such a wonderful man to be alone?

They soon met each other's Harrys (his sister and her best friend) when they both coincidentally stopped by on the same evening after the surgery was closed. Then, when they all went out to dinner together, many embarrassing childhood stories were told, and fuel was provided for several weeks' worth of good-natured jokes. In fact, it was during one of these joking sessions, on a break in-between patients, that she realized that John's smile could make her quite weak in the knees. When she accidently bumped into him in the surgery's narrow corridor soon after that, she also realized that John didn't tower over her like every other man she knew. It was then that she figured out that his weak-knee-making smile was also at the perfect height for slow sensual kissing…and she wouldn't even have to stand on her tiptoes to do it! Her entire body flushed so hotly at this thought that she had to excuse herself and spent several moments in the loo before she could regain her composure enough to face him again. The gentle look of concern for her in his dark eyes when she returned set off a kaleidoscope of fluttering butterflies in her stomach and she knew that she was lost. Somewhere along the way, she had fallen hard for John Watson!

However, she knew that she would never act on it. She couldn't bear to lose someone else that she cared about when his soulmate eventually came along. She couldn't even bear to fantasize that it might be her. After all, she knew that they didn't have any matching scars. She had definitely looked! Unlike her, his neck was unblemished and she didn't have a gunshot scar on her shoulder like he did. Of course, he didn't have Mudblood carved into his forearm, either. She knew that even before she had seen him scrub up between patients. She had never seen his naked torso (even though the thought alone was a bit drool-worthy). However, why would he have a giant purple curse slash that diagonally bisected it? He wouldn't! No...he wasn't her soulmate and, therefore, she tried to keep her distance.

John Watson

For his part, John had vowed that he was done with women, love, and the entire soulmate situation altogether. Never again, he had told himself after he lost Mary when one of their patients had unexpectedly turned out to be her other half. Before that, it had been Lisa in school, Jane in the Army, and Sarah at the clinic. He had already loved and lost too much in his quest for his soulmate.

However, he then met Hermione Granger and his life was turned upside down! From the beginning, he had been intrigued by the pretty petite brunette with the bright smile and the lively hair. His thoughts shot from just intrigued to absolutely smitten, however, when he asked during the interview why a St. Mungo's alumnus would even consider working at such an unimportant little surgery like his. She just sighed and replied "soulmate troubles." He had felt such a rush of understanding and connection towards her at that moment that he had to physically stop himself from reaching out to her. That was even before she reached up, smacked him on the back of the head, and sternly told him to never call his surgery unimportant again.

She apologized, but smiled in a cheeky manner, while she explained that her two best friends since childhood were men who often needed clarity, as well. John then quickly recovered from his surprise and just laughed harder than he could remember doing in a long time. How many times had he wanted to do the exact same thing to Sherlock when he was being obtuse about something, but just hadn't acted on it? That realization helped to quickly cement his friendship (and his attraction!) with the personable young woman.

It didn't take long for him to figure out how amazing she was at her job, also. Hermione was like a gift from Providence after the Mary fiasco had left him high and dry at the surgery without any help. Whatever needed to be done, she handled it competently without complaint. Her organizational skills were second to none and John found that her new color-coded patient information system made their surgery run more efficiently than ever before. Their patients loved her, as well. She always remembered their names and was kind and gentle to everyone, from the smallest child to the grumpiest old man. If he heard her mumble something sarcastic under her breath or saw her collapse into the nearest chair holding the bridge of her nose after a particularly difficult patient had left, he didn't judge. He just made her a strong cup of tea the way that she liked it and gave her a few minutes to recuperate…content in the knowledge that she would do the same for him.

He also realized that the attraction that he had felt for her from the very beginning just continued to grow. He felt a surge of excitement every morning when he saw her at the surgery with her enthusiastic hair already partially escaped from the confines of the ponytail in which she tried in vain to control it...and her eyes that brightened at the sight of him – even when he forgot to bring coffee. However, that wasn't all. When eager male patients asked her out or tried to show her their scars in hopes of a match, he wanted to punch them. When she bit her bottom lip when she was stressed or worried about a patient, he found that he wanted to volunteer for that job himself. When she finally loosened her hair and let it tumble out of its stranglehold and down to her shoulders after her last patient had left in the evenings, he wanted to bury his hands in it and pull her close. When she said her gentle goodbyes and left him with a kiss on the cheek at the end of their workdays, he wanted so much more. When they had to deliver Mrs. Rodriguez's baby because the ambulance was stuck in traffic, the wondrous look on her face as she held the newborn close to her chest, regardless of the mess, made his heart beat strangely and he longed for it to be their baby that she held. In short, he was completely lost. He wanted her…in every way. However, he was determined to not act upon it because he didn't want to ruin their good working relationship and warm friendship when she inevitably found her soulmate and left him. He couldn't bear another such loss like he had with the others - especially after losing Sherlock, too. Therefore, it was only in his deepest dreams that he allowed himself to even fantasize that she might actually be meant for him.

Hermione & John

Things could have continued like this indefinitely with nothing but stolen looks and secret longings, if it hadn't been for the junkie that attacked them one night just as they were locking up the surgery. He burst in, yelled, brandished an enormous knife, and demanded painkillers. However, like the soldiers they were, both Hermione and John stayed calm and assessed the situation. Hermione decided that she could take him out with magic, if necessary. However, she didn't know how John would react and she didn't want to have to Obliviate her dear friend. Therefore, she decided to wait and use her wand only as a last resort.

John, meanwhile, was worried more for Hermione's sake than for his own. He tried to keep the dangerously high man engaged in conversation while gesturing with his head and eyes for her to sneak out the door to safety. However, the man wasn't fooled and advanced on John menacingly. When he unexpectedly turned the knife on Hermione, however, John launched himself at the assailant. The man turned quickly and his weapon grazed the doctor's shoulder. That's when Hermione decided to act.

John watched in shock as she jumped between him and the other man and pulled a small stick out of her pocket. Engorgio, she called outand the stick tripled in size. That looks like a magic wand, John thought and frantically wondered if he had been hurt worse than he realized and was now hallucinating. He reached over to pull Hermione to safety, but could only stare in wonder as she stepped forward instead, pointed her stick, and exclaimed, Expelliarmus! She then moved nimbly to catch the knife that flew hilt-first into her hand. As their attacker just stood there looking dumbly at his now-empty hand, Hermione took advantage of his distraction and threw a Stupefy at him. She then cast an Incarcerous to neatly bind his hands and feet before she turned to hand the knife to John…carefully not meeting his eyes.

"Call the police," she whispered instead and he numbly did so without comment, automatically hitting the speed dial button for Lestrade on his mobile while she checked on the man on the floor.

"He's out cold," she sighed gratefully. "Between that and whatever is in his system, he won't remember a thing. Thank Merlin!" Even in the midst of his shock, John heard that magical appellation and suddenly the puzzle pieces fell into place. Just then Greg answered his call, however, so he had to deal with that situation first.

Even though it wasn't his department, for the sake of his friendship with John, Greg came quickly to the surgery to handle the incident. To him, the case was pretty obvious. Junkie broke in, junkie attacked, junkie was subdued – end of story. However, it was equally as obvious, by the fact that they wouldn't make eye contact with each other, that the good doctor and his pretty partner weren't telling him everything. However, Greg trusted John. Therefore, he knew that whatever the man had left out of his story wasn't for any nefarious purpose. In fact, as his eyes flicked up to Ms. Granger, he suspected that what he wasn't being told was the fact that she was the one who had handled the attacker so efficiently. Detective Lestrade had a bittersweet thought about what Sherlock would've thought about that before he asked John if he would like to go to the hospital to get his shoulder wound examined. Ms. Granger seemed to take offense at the routine question and told him in no uncertain terms that she would take care of Doctor Watson. It was then that Greg wondered if the missing story was something entirely different than what he had originally considered. Good for him, the detective thought optimistically. I hope she turns out to be the one. He has lost so much already. With that thought, he said his goodbyes and left the two alone to handle whatever had caused their awkwardness.

Hermione tried to be professional as she led John back to the exam room and gently pushed him down on the narrow table. "You're still bleeding," she said, as she pulled back the neck of his shirt and eyed the plaster that he had hurriedly slapped on before the police arrived. Despite his protests that he was fine, she made a motion to pull off his shirt in order to treat the wound. However, his hand caught her wrist to stop her and the other one went to her chin to tilt her face up towards his.

"Look at me, Hermione…please?" he asked softly. Her soft brown eyes reluctantly met his. "You're a witch." It was half statement and half question, and she nodded in confirmation. "A good one?"

"Do you even have to ask that?" came her indignant response and he realized that he didn't. Nobody as kind and gentle as she was could ever be considered as anything but good!

"Then why didn't you tell me any of this before?" he asked, sounding hurt at the omission.

"I'm not allowed to tell…except under very special circumstances. Plus, I…um…care…about you and didn't want to take the chance that you wouldn't understand," she told him, flustered but vehement. Then her healer side took over. "Now hush! We can talk about this later…if you want. Right now, I need to take care of this wound properly. We don't want it to leave a scar. You might end up with a soulmate that way…" she joked, but the smile didn't reach her eyes. John simply nodded, still floored by her secret and the fact that she just admitted that she cared for him.

Hermione then carefully pulled off his shirt and...froze. Her eyes widened in shock and her breath hitched when the first thing she noticed was the old scar that diagonally bisected his abdomen. It started under his left nipple and appeared to end up on his right hip, right under the waistband of his trousers. Her heart beat madly as she realized that it seemed to be the exact mirror image of her own permanent reminder of that night in the DoM with Dolohov. John, meanwhile, noticed her shocked reaction to the sight of him shirtless, even as he tried to stave off his arousal as she undressed him. He appreciated her concern. However, he misinterpreted what had caused it and tried to explain.

"Please don't worry, Hermione. I know it looks bad, but it's just an old knife wound from the war. I was jumped from a side alley during a foot patrol. The cut was actually pretty shallow, so it only took a couple of weeks to heal." Hermione heard and understood what he said. However, she didn't answer because her focus was still on the scar and she was desperate to find out if it ended on his hip or not. Therefore, she startled John as her hands went to unfasten his pants.

"Hermione, wh…what are you doing?" he whispered hoarsely as his body started to betray him. He had wanted her for far too long to calmly let her remove his trousers.

"Shh, John," she said quietly. "I have to know!" She undid his button and slightly pulled the waistband away from his hip…carefully ignoring the telltale bulge that strained against the fabric. "Oh!" she breathed as the bottom of his scar came into sight. It ended on his hip, exactly where hers did. She looked up quickly and finally met his gaze. His eyes were dark with desire, but he obviously didn't understand what was happening. "Let me show you," she whispered as she trembled with nervous anticipation. He saw the shiver and his protective instincts took over. He reached out to wrap his arms around her, but she shook her head and took a step back. His confusion was paramount now. Had he gone too far? He could only look at her, while his eyes begged for an explanation.

He then watched in disbelief as she reached for the hem of her own shirt, lifted it over her head, and stood there…still trembling. The first thing he saw was that awful carving on her arm. He had seen it many times when they washed up between patients, but she would never fully explain it. He was sure now that her silence had something to do with her magical secret. Will she be able to tell me now? he wondered hopefully... and then his eyes were drawn to the gentle swell of her breasts, instead. Consequently, the problem in his trousers became much more insistent and so he forced himself away from the tempting sight and glanced downward. At this point, all of his ability to think completely malfunctioned as he gazed, shocked and amazed, upon her very familiar looking scar. He sat there and trembled as his confused thoughts raced around. After all this time?… Is it Hermione?...Could they actually match?...What if they do?...What if they don't? He had to know, but his voice betrayed him when he tried to speak.

"Your scar…is…mine…is…" his voice hitched and then trailed off as he gestured to his own torso because it seemed to be impossible for him to speak coherently at that moment. Then, slowly, desperately afraid of what he might see, he forced himself to look up into her eyes. There he saw a reflection of what he knew was in his own: affection, desire, and hope. He now understood her peculiar behavior from earlier. He, too, had to know for sure. He ran his finger under the waistband of her skirt, and felt her trembling reaction to his touch. He had to force himself not to react, not to reach for her, but to focus on the skirt, instead. He only meant to pull it slightly away from her hip to see the end of the scar, but instead somehow he pushed the whole thing down until it pooled around her ankles. His eyes then took in the fact that she now stood in front of him in an attractive matching bra and knicker set. However, his brain didn't register it immediately because it was completely focused on the exact mirror-image copy of his own scar across her torso. He felt like he could barely breathe at this discovery and he could hear her little pants of breath, as well.

Meanwhile, Hermione, watched his face as he finally realized the truth. She couldn't quite believe it either. Everything had finally come down to this moment. She approached him hesitantly and reached out to run a single finger down his scar. At the sensation, he growled and pulled her against him. In the process, their scars somehow lined up perfectly and touched. Their joining sent such a powerful shock throughout both of their bodies that it broke through the dam of their pent-up feelings. Their focus narrowed to each other and nothing else mattered. Nothing else existed beyond the two of them. Their mouths crashed together and their hands were everywhere as they frantically removed their remaining clothing. They tumbled down together to the floor and were lost in their lovemaking for some time.

Afterwards, the fog of their bonding cleared and they came to their senses to find themselves naked and cold on the hard floor, but filled with a satisfaction and happiness that only those who have experienced the completion of a soulbond could understand. John reached down to find one of their discarded lab coats and pulled it up over them.

"Well, that was…unexpected!" he said truthfully, with a beaming grin, as he leaned up on an elbow to look down lovingly at the beautifully disheveled woman beneath him.

Hermione quickly transfigured the coat into a large blanket to drape over them both. She then wrapped her arms around his neck and smirked at his surprise. "Which part?" she asked cheekily.

"Every damn bit of it," he whispered as he bent down slightly to kiss her. He felt himself responding again to the siren call of her naked body pressed up against him. He forced himself to pull away, however, thinking that they should talk first. "It's amazing! You're actually my soulmate…and a witch!" he exclaimed, still incredulous. "Please tell me that this…" he gestured towards their matching scars and naked bodies still entwined together on the floor, "counts as the special circumstance that you mentioned earlier." Then he gathered her up in his arms and rested his forehead against hers. "I couldn't bear to give you up again, now that I have finally found you! I still can't believe that you were the one that I have been waiting for all along…and the witch thing is just bloody brilliant, too! I have so many questions, though!"

"Oh, John!" she breathed and her affection and relief filtered down to him through their newly formed bond. "This changes everything! You are my other half. You are a part of me and both of my worlds and now I can tell you anything that you want to know…but we can talk...later!" With those words, she suddenly pulled him upright, wrapped her arms around him, and apparated. "Magical travel!" she explained and laughed at his look of amazement at suddenly finding them both in her bedroom…still stark naked!

"Did I mention that I bloody love magic?" he exclaimed excitedly, and she giggled as she pulled him down into her bed and kissed him passionately. He couldn't help but to agree with her then that this would indeed change everything as they soon lost themselves in each other's embrace again – content in the joyful knowledge that they had healed each other's lonely hearts - as only true soulmates could.