Chapter two.

Ginny never paid much attention to her shadow. It was there, it was bigger than most, but there was always something else more important on her mind. One day it might be drawing a picture of what she imagined the Boy Who Lived would look like. Another day it might be learning how to fly with her brothers, and having to make a pleading face when they tried to exclude her. The only time she ever really paid any attention to her shadow was mildly admiring how it chased her as she flew, waking up earlier than everyone else so that she could practice. She did her best to outfly it and the sun, faster and higher than she knew anyone else would go.

"It's just a shadow," she said dismissively when there was such a conversation with her family. "What does it matter?"

"Careful, dear," her mother had said. "That's your soulmate you're talking about."

"I don't see the point in obsessing," she'd shrugged. "No one ever meets their soulmates."

Her mother looked concerned, setting a plate in front of her and smoothing her hair. "That's not true. I met your father. I've known plenty of soulmates who have found each other. It's not impossible."

Ginny mumbled as the last of her brothers came down for breakfast. "I just don't see the point, I guess. What if my soulmate is a prat?"

"Having you as a soulmate-"

"-he'd have to be."

She waited until her mother's back was turned before taking a spoon full of porridge and slinging it at the twins.

*

As it happens, she met plenty of people that found their soulmates- and plenty that didn't. She met people who found their soulmates and decided they were better off without. Ginny decided she was better off without meeting hers. Besides, by the time her friends were finding their soulmates she had a war on the mind to keep her from searching for hers.

Harry and Luna were first. They realized it in the midst of an evil, pink coup d'etat- barefoot in the forest to feed the thestrals that only the two of them could see. They were sickeningly perfect for one another, inciting an enchanted peace in the other that she was happy to see for her friends.

Hermione and Fred discovered their shadows the same year Harry and Luna did, and their relationship was sudden. They found out who they were to each other and it was as though they always knew, which surprised everyone. Especially Ginny. She'd thought Hermione would be of the same mind she was about her own shadow, but Ginny had never seen anyone so in love with another person aside from maybe Harry and Luna. Maybe her parents.

Ron and Pansy Parkinson were a surprise, at least. It was the Final Battle, and they finally collapsed into each other's arms at the end. Pansy became another friend, her snobbiness melting away into a fierce personality that inspired Ron to stand up and stop being a putz- a word Harry used once that she quite liked the sound of as it left her mouth.

Maybe she thought about her soulmate sometimes.

Maybe, after a family dinner watching the joy on her friends' and family's faces, she took a few minutes laying awake in her bed at night to think about the bliss she might have if she were to ever meet her own soulmate. Maybe she took a few minutes to wonder where he was, if he was doing alright. If he ever thought of her.

Or maybe she just stared at the moon until she fell asleep.