Shrieking Shack
December 1975
The runes circling Severus glowed blue and cast a strange shadow on the somber group surrounding him. The five of them sat in a circle, each surrounded by a their own circle of runes. They had spent hours on self discovery, meditating over the runes to see which ones they had a spiritual connection to and which ones represented them the best.
They had carved their runes painstakingly into the floor of the shrieking shack, where they could do so without interruption from other students and teachers. The potion that Severus had brewed over the last couple months was one of the most complicated he had ever done.
At its peak Severus had spent nearly three days at its side with no sleep, stirring every few minutes. The pearlescent potion now coated the runes, filling in the gouges carved by the boys and lighting the room with that dim eerie glow. As they sat in that circle, each surrounded by their own circle of runes, Black and Potter fidgeted in anticipation. In a few moments Severus would prove that Potter chasing Lily was in vain.
Severus held up an ornate dagger borrowed from the depths of the Black vault and sliced his palm quickly with the sharp tip. He passed it to Remus who copied him with a hiss of pain. The last thing to do was to let their blood flow along the outside of the circle, filling the deep cuts in the floor with red blood and misty potion; a sacrifice needed in order to bring forth the image of your true match, or so the brittle old scrolls instructions said.
He was the first to let the drops of his blood splatter across the rune circle. Instantly the dim blue changed to an orangey yellow and the light burst up in a beam, the face of a girl staring back at him.
It wasn't Lily. It seemed as though some weight had been set upon his shoulders. He glanced over to Potter, who had received the dagger from Sirius and passed it along to Peter, who was beside Severus.
Potters blood lit up his circle and Severus froze. He couldn't see her face but he could recognize that red hair anywhere. Potters dumbstruck face was another hint as well. Lily was not his: she belonged to Potter.
He turned back to the girl in front of him. She was a red head as well, more orange than Lily's auburn. With freckles and dark brown eyes on a heart shaped face. Unlike Lily's light and delicate features, this girl had sharp full brows, long lashes and deep dark lipstick.
The longer he lingered on her, the more her image came into focus. Her hair was long nearly to her waist, fading to a pale blonde at the ends. She wore a black long sleeve dress with a little white collar. It reminded him of that show that he and Lily would watch on her television when they were younger.
Pettigrew gave him a shove just then, distracting him from memorizing her features "Why isn't mine working!" he hissed in frustration.
Severus grimaced at him and shrugged, Pettigrew's runes surrounding him hadn't changed from blue to the warm glow that was surrounding his friends. They seemed to flicker out on the describing runes supposed to represent your very core and being. If they were in accurate or carved incorrectly you would not get a glimpse of your soul mate.
Pettigrew's face contorted in anger, he lifted a foot and shoved it through his few glowing runes, towards the four opaque images in the center of their little circle. The blood and potion smeared outwards past the carved line containing the ritual magic and with a deafening roar, all the air in the room became charged with an electric energy.
Severus watched in horror as the girls in front of them steadily became corporeal, no longer a vision, but actually in the room with the group. With four very real thuds they collapsed onto the hard wood floors and Severus shot forward to make sure they were unharmed.