A/N: Obviously, I own none of the rights to either of these series. Those belong to J.K. Rowling and Haruichi Furudate, along with whatever publishers, producers, etc., are involved with both series.
"I can't do this anymore."
Hermione stared at Ginny. She'd just come back from her shower and had entered the room to find the other girl sitting on her bed. "Can't do what?"
"All this silence! If Fred were here—" Ginny seemed to waver slightly then forged on, "If Fred were here he and George would have had everyone laughing the day after the battle, despite all the funerals. Mom would've berated them, but we would all be secretly glad, happy that someone could take away the sadness." Ginny's eyes were swimming now, but she just blinked a few times, then pulled in another determined breath. "But he's not. And that's awful and terrible, but this… this doom and gloom can't go on. We won! We beat Voldemort, yet it feels like we lost, because we did loose so much." She was looking at her hands now. They had been clenched into fists, but now were loosened.
Hermione sat down next to her. "Things will get better. Slowly. Everyone's still grieving, that's all."
Ginny nodded stiffly. "But I want something happy now."
"Ginny…." Hermione didn't know what to say. Happy things were few and far between at the moment. "Fleur's pregnant, that's good right? You'll be an aunt."
"To a French princess." Ginny rolled her eyes. "Yay me."
"I thought you two were getting along better, now."
"We are, I'm really thankful for how good she's being about Bill's scars and everything, and I'll even admit she's not as vain as I thought, but…" Ginny shrugged. "She's still so particular and persnickety about so many things. Like last night!" Ginny jumped up. "She made this huge fuss about how the baby jumper mum made wasn't the right shade of pink."
"It was hardly a huge fuss." Hermione raised an eyebrow. "She just asked your mum if she minded if she changed the color slightly."
"Which was rude!" Ginny huffed. "Anyway, I wasn't thinking about my impending aunt prospects, though that is kinda a happy thought."
"What were you thinking about, then?"
"I'm going to do the soulmate spell. See if Harry and I are really meant to be together."
"But you're already dating."
"Yes, but it's every little witch's dream to marry her soulmate, ok? And I know Harry is mine, just like Mom says she knew Dad was hers, but I want proof. I want to do the spell."
"Is the spell even a real thing, Ginny?" Hermione couldn't help but scoff a little at the idea. It sounded too much like divination to her.
"Yes." Ginny's voice was stern and she bounced off of her bed to wander over to the bookshelf at the far end of the room. Hermione had looked at it once, years ago, but it had mostly been filled with children's books about Harry or tawdry romance novels, so she'd never paid too much attention to it. Ginny pulled out a slim green novel, then thrust it into Hermione's lap. "There. You like that author. I know you do. I heard you ranting to Harry about how his historical series would make better textbooks than Binns' nonsense. I recognized his name, but couldn't place it for a while. Then I remembered. He wrote this." She tapped the title. "The History of Soulbonds in Britain's Magical Families."
Hermione had to admit, she did like the author, Arnold Bagshot. She'd somewhat soured on him after the whole mess with Bathilda during the war, but whatever had happened with his relative didn't mean anything about the man's own scholarship. "I'll read it. At the very least the title suggests that soulbonds are something Britain's magical families have believed in."
"Exactly. The spell is real, I'm telling you. And it will prove that Harry and I are meant to be, which will give me something happy to think about."
"But Ginny, why do you need some spell to tell you that your perfect for each other?" It was at times like this that Hermione became a bit exasperated with the girl.
"I don't, but…" Ginny sighed. "It would just make me happy. And I want that right now. So I'll do the spell."
"What if it says you aren't soulmates?"
"It won't." Ginny grinned.
Hermione stared at her, unconvinced.
"Oh, fine. If it doesn't I'll be sad, alright? But I wouldn't dump Harry or anything like that. Loads of people don't marry their soulmates." Ginny sighed, "Especially in Europe." She laid back on her bed and Hermione shifted to look at her.
"What do you mean, especially in Europe?"
"Well, anywhere that has a school-based system of magical education, really. If you're around your soulmate as your core matures, you don't have the recognition spark or whatever that you get when you meet them after your core has already matured." She sighed. "It's a bit ridiculous to go around doing the spell on everyone you went to school with, though, so people generally just do it on those that they're already interested in, usually with that person's permission. It's rude to cast spells on people without their permission, of course." Ginny grinned, "that doesn't stop a bunch of seventh years from doing it, though. Nor will it stop me."
Hermione sighed and managed to refrain from pointing out that this was likely because Ginny was just a seventh year girl, herself.
"Any way, that's why so many witches and wizards marry young, despite our longer lifespans than muggles. We find our soulmates and settle down, or people, purebloods usually, do arranged marriages in order from forming a bond of any kind with 'the wrong sort.' Pureblood parents would rather their children have an unhappy marriage than a happy one with a muggleborn. That's what happened with Andromeda and Ted Tonks, you know. She realized he was her soulmate and ran away with him before her parents could marry her off to someone else."
"What if people do the spell after a few dates and they aren't soulmates?"
"Usually they break up, but sometimes they don't." Ginny shrugged. "With so many dead from the war, a lot of people will probably get married to people they're friends with, even if they aren't soulmates." Because their true soulmate had likely died. It was a harrowing thought. Ginny continued, "It's what I'd do with Harry."
Ginny slipped under her covers. "Any way, we should call it a night. I just wanted to let you know."
Hermione nodded numbly, her mind reviewing all the information she'd just been given. She looked down at the book in her hands. It all just seemed so ridiculous. She remembered Lavender and Parvati going on about it… Hermione shook her head and put the book on her nightstand. She'd think about it more tomorrow.
"Nox."
