Title/Link: Point Me

Team: Appleby Arrows

Position: Keeper

Season 9 Round 12

Task: KEEPER: An arrow on your wrist points you in the direction of your soulmate, like a compass.

Bonus Prompts: n/a

Summary: Hermione found it strange that her birthmark on her wrist was in the shape of an arrow. But when it started to move, she KNEW something else was afoot! Cedmione Soulmate!AU

Word Count: 1440

A/N: So, while I'm in the middle of writing a different Soulmate!AU for Cedmione, I get this prompt with the arrows, and I just can't help it :3 This is a perfect opportunity to increase my rarepairs.

Also, for you sticklers, Japan created gel pens in 1984, and it came to America in the late 1980s, sooooo...

Thanks to my Captain DaughteroftheOneTrueKing and the rest of my team for reading through and beta-ing.

I hope you enjoy! :)

Point Me

Hermione Granger was a studious girl, and never one to be pegged as popular. Her classmates tended to find her odd, and would either bully her as children often do, or avoid her entirely. Her existence in primary school was very lonely, and so she retreated into her books. Magic and monsters often filled her senses, and while she dabbled in nonfiction as well, her favorite genre seemed to be romance fiction.

Her favorite trope to read was soulmates. People who often didn't know each other existed, or even enemies, coming together because a greater power deemed it so. Hermione couldn't help but be entranced by the notion. It was hard for her to understand social interactions sometimes, not to mention, when a boy from her primary school would ask her out as a joke, she always wondered what might have been wrong with her, what could she have done differently to make them stop? So the notion of the universe finding and pairing her with someone who was meant for her and who likes her for her, filled her with such hope, she could continue on.

And then on her 11th birthday, she found out magic was real.

It made sense, after all. A few years ago, she remembered a situation where kids were chasing her home, and calling her a beaver. She had to jump across a river to get away, but it had rained horrendously the night before and the riverbanks were overflowing. She had wished really hard to be able to get away, and she jumped, and suddenly she landed in her front garden. She had been startled enough that she had never told her parents what happened. They wouldn't have believed her anyway.

That hadn't believed her about her birthmark, after all.

Hermione had been born with a birthmark on her left wrist that was in the shape of an arrow. It had started out simply enough, but then on her 9th birthday, Hermione had woken up and her birthmark had changed. It no longer looked like a faded jagged scar, but was fuller now, and had some decoration. When she had tried to show her parents, they had mechanically brushed it off and complimented her on her choice of a gel pen tattoo. As the birthmark became more pronounced and detailed, Hermione took to wearing thick bracelets and watches in order to cover it up. It was tiring to keep explaining the same thing over and over again.

Yes it's a birthmark, no I'm not drawing on it, yes it's doing that itself…

On September 19th, 1990, when Hermione came home early from her Weekly Wednesday Cram School classes, she found a strangely dressed woman waiting with her parents in the sitting room. After the routine smalltalk, the woman, Professor McGonagall, got to the reason for her visit.

She had magic!

With jubilation, Hermione had to contain herself from not shouting out in glee. She knew she wasn't like the other kids! And now she could go to school with people just like her!

After what seemed like forever to get her parents to agree to send her to this boarding school in Scotland, it was quick work to schedule Professor McGonagall to come back the following Saturday so they could go and get her school supplies together. The next two days saw Hermione being euphoric, and upon her classmates hearing she would be going to a boarding school in Scotland the next fall, the kids seemed to let up on their bullying.

Her favorite parts of shopping had to have been the bookstore and getting her wand from Ollivander.

10 ¾" long, vinewood with a dragon heartstring. Her very own magical focus! Her joy was quickly replaced by confusion, however, when the Wanamaker made an offhand comment.

"That Vinewood wand will pair well with your soulmate's wand." And Hermione wasn't sure that she had heard him correctly.

"What do you mean, sir?" she had asked, and he gestured to her pale wrist where her arrow laid. She had been instructed to take her bracelets off to get measured for her wand, and she was startled to find she had forgotten to put them back on.

"Soulmates, Miss Granger. You have one. Magic makes the arrow point to them upon your 11th birthday," he had replied before going to ring up her purchase. Hermione stood in the middle of his store, shocked.

"So THAT'S why it moved!" she exclaimed, missing Mister Ollivander's fond look.

"Indeed."

Hermione had left his shop, intent on learning everything that she could, and devoured the book they had later bought on the subject.

Being born with an arrow on your wrist wasn't rare, but it just wasn't talked about in polite society. It often was that those who knew didn't think about it, and those who didn't know never thought to ask.

Months later, Hermione sat in the Hogwarts Library, wondering what was wrong with her. She had been sorted into Gryffindor, and thought her housemates were supposed to be her family, but the children here were just as cruel as the children in her old life, and she had no clue how to fix it.

She had foolishly thought that once she was with people who were like her, she would find acceptance, and perhaps even make friends.

It must have been a foolish wish, however. Magic made everything sting more, and she had promised her parents she would give it until the Christmas Holidays, but it was only the beginning of October and she already wanted to go home.

A chair next to her scraping on the rug startled her out of her thoughts, and Hermione hastily scrubbed the tears from her face.

"Hi, I'm Cedric Diggory, Hufflepuff 3rd year. What's your name?" a voice asked and Hermione looked to find a cute boy sitting before her. She was instantly on guard. The kids at her Primary used to do this to her too. Lull her into a false sense of security before laughing. She wondered how long it would take him to get to that point…

"Hermione Granger, Gryffindor 1st year," she replied quietly.

"How are you liking Hogwarts so far?" he asked, looking genuinely interested in her answer, and something seemed to loosen in her chest, a tentative smile on her face.

They probably sat and chatted in the library for almost an hour before Cedric cleared his throat.

"So, I know that this might sound crazy, seeing as how you're muggleborn and all, but do you believe in soulmates?" Cedric asked. Hermione immediately felt her face flame up as she averted her gaze. She forced herself to look back at him, however, before she nodded.

"Not so crazy," she whispered back, worried that if she spoke any louder, the tenuous connection between them would shatter. "I've read about them. A connection between two people so strong, it's as if the Fates paired them together. Some call it the red string of fate, others have more rare instances...like the arrows." The intensity in Cedric's gaze made her breath hitch, and she kept her gaze locked with his. "I thought mine was a birthmark, but then one day it moved, and I knew it was something more!"

"The arrows help you find your soulmate. They move, and point to your other half, so you will always know where home is...at least that's what my mother said," he replied, fidgeting with the sleeve of his jumper.

"She sounds kind."

"She was."

"But why are you asking about soulmates? Cedric, what's going on?" Hermione asked, and she saw the Hufflepuff hesitate for a moment before pulling up the sleeve of his jumper to reveal his arrow, which was pointing straight at her. Taking a closer look, Hermione realized that his arrow matched hers exactly.

"I was just wondering if yours matched mine…"

Hermione stood and made her way around the library table to where he sat, her eyes transfixed on the arrow on his wrist that moved with her before she stopped before him. Her eyes meeting his once more, she removed her watch from her left arm and let it drop to the floor, before holding her arm out to him.

Her arrow pointed back at him.

And Hermione realized that, while the other kids here at a school for magical people might not like her, at least one person does, and it was in that moment, as Cedric leaned towards her and hugged her tightly, that she swore she would never let him down. She didn't need friends, so long as she had her soulmate.