Author's Note: Written for…
Written for…
Romance Awareness. Prompt: You're born with a mask that doesn't disappear until you meet your soulmate
Unmasked
1,020 words
Molly has no idea what she looks like. Beyond her red curls and crystal clear blue eyes, her appearance is a mystery to her. As a child she would stare at the mirror for hours, wondering if she looked more like her mother or father. It was impossible to tell with the long silver and green tendrils curling and looping around her face, creating an irremovable mask.
The pattern of her mask was as ingrained in her mind as her sister's, or their cousins'. Molly knew her mask as well as she did the back of her hand. It was, for the time being, her face, after all. Until she met her soulmate, the only person in the whole world with an identical mask to hers, and their coverings they were born with would fade away.
She'd been teased her entire life about the colors of her mask. Right up until she was sorted, James had been quick to tell her that her mask was a sign she would wind up in Slytherin, but Molly proudly took her place in Ravenclaw and excelled there.
Lucy lost her mask in her first year, when she met a fellow Gryffindor boy. Molly was overjoyed for her, as she was for each and every cousin and friend who had found their soulmates, and took the time to study her sister's face for the first time. But there was always a hint of jealousy there, that it hadn't been her mask that faded away.
:-:
She was so close to the end of her school career, and Molly couldn't have been more scared. Just a few more weeks and she'd be leaving Hogwarts forever and going after her dream of becoming a successful potioneer. She just had to get through one Defense essay and then her NEWTs.
Professor Andrews was kind, at least, and for their final assignment in his class, he was allowing them to write about whatever subject they wanted so long as it had something to do with the Dark Arts. Molly had decided to write about the magic practiced in the middle-ages, even before Hogwarts was founded.
It wasn't hard to get a permission slip to go to the restricted section of the library for research. Molly was Head Girl, after all, and the only detention on her record had been from first-year, when James pulled her and Freddie into a prank.
Still on her first book, Molly had a scroll filled with interesting facts about how magic was tracked and used during the middle-ages before she got to the section in the book about the founders themselves. There was a chapter in the book about Salazar Slytherin alone, with a depiction of the man beneath the chapter header.
There were very few accurate paintings of the founders around, Molly learned that day. Masks back then were thought to be very plain with minimal patterns. Slytherin's mask was usually shown as being completely black and devoid of any decoration. But, as she realized as her fingers traced over the illustration, his real mask was ornate. An emerald green with silver swirls over the forehead and loops along the bridge of his nose.
It was like looking in a mirror.
:-:
It wasn't difficult to find an ancient ritual thought to send a person through time. It was right there in the very book she'd been reading. And while it was a book about dark magic, and probably a dangerous spell that had never been succesful, Molly couldn't help but write down the instructions anyway.
It had to mean something that she shared Salazar Slytherin's mask. She still hadn't found her soulmate, and from what she knew, he never lost his mask either. If it was true, if they were soulmates, there had to be a way to meet him.
She did the ritual at night, when she was supposed to be patrolling the grounds. Deep in the forest, where no one but the centaurs could find her, Molly stood in a circle and burned a scroll of parchment that had the exact date she wanted to travel to. She closed her eyes, letting the cool wind pass over her, but when she opened them again, it didn't appear as though anything had changed.
It was only as she left the forest and laid her eyes on the castle that she knew something was definitely different. The entire grounds seemed to have change. Hagrid's hut was gone, and so were the greenhouses. The forest wasn't cut back like in was where she'd come from - the trees were almost touching the bank of the lake.
She looked up at the night sky, smiling as she noted that all the stars were out of alignment. It had really worked!
:-:
"How did you find us?" Godric Gryffindor demanded of her.
"This is absurd," Rowena decided from her position by the fireplace. Molly sat in a chair in the center of what she took to be the faculty room, surrounded by three of the founders. "No Muggle could get through my wards."
"She must be," Godric continued, the gold of his mask shining as it caught the light of the fire. "If she was a student we would have heard from her sooner."
Helga cleared her throat softly to gain their attention. "This hardly matters. And I don't think Salazar would appreciate-"
"It's late, why are we having a meeting in the middle of the night?"
Molly couldn't recognize the new voice, but she was sure she could guess whom it belonged to. The other founders went eerily silent as each expected another to explain. Molly rolled her eyes at their cowardice and stood from the chair, turning around until she faced Salazar Slytherin.
She looked into his dark eyes, the only part of him she could see beneath the mask, and reached out her hand to touch his. "I'm your soulmate."
And just like that, she could feel the warmth in her face as the tattoo faded away, as well as see it right before her, as Salazar's own mask disappeared, leaving behind a handsome man.