Main Prompt: You can read your soulmate's emotions
Secondary Prompt: 1.[dialogue] "This isn't what I wanted.", 5.[word] obvious and 15.[word] helpless
Word Count: 1818
~wWw~
Hermione was done with relationships. She was done with them forever. She had tried just like she was supposed to, but it hadn't worked. All that ended up happening was she got burned. She got hurt, and the walls around her heart hardened just a bit more. She didn't know if she could take it anymore. It was just too much—too much pain. Too much to fix. She was just too broken. The walls around her heart protected it from further harm but not from the damage it had already gone through. Hidden behind those walls was a shattered mess, and she didn't know how to fix it. She was helpless, and there was nothing she could do to fix it.
It didn't matter anyway.
Hermione reluctantly pulled the covers away from herself and began getting ready for the day. She didn't want to leave the warm haven of her bed, but she didn't have any other choice. She had to go to work to get on with her life. It was time to move on.
~wWw~
In a light open room across the country, a woman the same age as Hermione felt no hope for the future. There was nothing in the future worth living for. Pain shot through her heart, bringing tears to her eyes.
These weren't her emotions. They were her soulmate's.
Her family had always been able to feel the emotions of their soulmates. For some, it was a blessing, allowing them to find their soulmates with ease. For others, it was a curse, forcing them to feel things no one would choose to feel such as despair, or realising that their soulmate loved another. In this case, it was a sign of hope. Her soulmate hadn't been killed in the war. Her soulmate was still alive, albeit in pain.
~wWw~
The pain was temporarily gone, even if for a second. Hermione was sitting in her office working on some paperwork and trying to take her mind off what she had gone through.
There was a light knock on her door. Hermione looked up, seeing the shape of a person through the frosted glass door. Memories flashed through her head, memories of Ron visiting her at work. Dropping off lunch for her, checking up on her, reminding her of a date. And just as soon as the pain was gone, it was there again.
"Yes, come in," Hermione called out, shaking her head slightly in an attempt to bring her back to the present. Ron stepped into the room, a somber expression on his face. This only caused the memories to come back at full force. She tried to trap them in the walls surrounding her heart, using her will to strengthen the barrier. She wouldn't let him see the pain he had caused.
"Hermione, I'm sorry, this isn't what I wanted," Ron murmured. Hermione barely looked up. She couldn't stand to see his eyes, to keep remembering.
"I know it isn't. We weren't right for each other. We both knew it, but neither of us wanted to accept it," Hermione said, pushing down the emotion growing in her chest.
"That doesn't make how I ended things right," he said. "I shouldn't have ended things with a letter, but I was scared I would lose my nerve. I'm sorry."
"Neither of us wanted it to end this way, but this is where we are. I'm sorry, I don't think I can be friends with you anymore," Hermione said, still looking down at the papers in front of her. She couldn't let him see the tears threatening to drip from her eyes.
"I'm sorry," Ron said again. He waited a moment, as though he had more to say, but Hermione didn't look up. She went back to work, and finally, Ron turned and left the office. Hermione glanced up as he did so, and once again, her mind was flooded with memories. Him bringing her flowers to brighten up her office. Coffee on long days. Little notes. His arms around her.
No, she couldn't allow herself to do this, to go down the rabbit hole of remembering.
Hermione focused on her paperwork, trying her best not to allow the feelings of hopelessness to overwhelm her. Every time she thought they had left, they came back harder than before. It came in waves, slowly eroding anything other than hopelessness and pain. She just wanted it to stop. But it never did.
~wWw~
Across the country, a woman was getting progressively more concerned. She could feel the waves of hopelessness her soulmate was experiencing. Her soulmate wasn't doing well, and there was nothing she could do about it. She was helpless to help the one person she was perfect for and who was perfect for her.
Before the hopelessness had started, there was a moment of joy. She wondered what it was. What had caused the joy and had caused the pain? Or maybe she should be wondering 'who' caused it?
~wWw~
As the workday came to an end, Hermione didn't want to leave her office. As much as the small room was filled with memories of Ron, her flat was worse. It was where they had spent so much time together, opening up, healing from the war, joking around, and just being together. She stayed in her office two hours past the end of the workday, using the time to catch up on her paperwork and distract herself from her memories as best she could. Finally, Hermione realized that she couldn't put it off any longer. She packed her belongings up and left her office, heading out into Diagon Alley. Even in the evening, the alley was still bustling with people.
Instead of turning down the street to her flat, Hermione found herself mindlessly walking in the other direction. She didn't have a destination in mind, but anywhere was better than her flat right now. For the first time since Ron had ended things, she allowed herself to think freely.
Ron had hurt her, but it was clear why. She was unlovable, broken. It was apparent now that she looked at it, and she wondered how she didn't realize this sooner. The few relationships she had been in had ended badly. Her previous partners went on to have great relationships, but not her. They just got progressively worse. She would fall for them, and then they would leave, leaving behind a few more scars on her heart. She tried to heal them, but nothing seemed to work.
~wWw~
She felt it again, the deep, mournful hopelessness of her soulmate, and rather than allow herself to feel down, she decided that it was time to do something about it. Without a clear destination in mind, she turned on her heel and apparated away. The only thoughts in her mind were those of her soulmate's. Even if she didn't know who her soulmate was, her magic did, and she hoped her magic knew how to find her.
She appeared in an alley and, after noticing the street signs, quickly suspected that she was in Muggle London. She began to walk, following where her magic guided her, leading her out of the alley and past the Leaky Cauldron. She didn't know where she was supposed to go, only that it was in this direction. Her magic eventually led her into a small coffee shop. She joined the line without much thought, only to recognize the woman in front of her, Hermione Granger. She could feel the gentle tingle of her magic puttering out.
"Hermione?" She asked. Hermione turned around, looking at the other woman.
"Daphne?" Hermione asked.
"Funny running into you here," Daphne said with a smile.
Both women stepped up to the cash together and ordered. Daphne quickly paid before Hermione had the chance.
"Hey," Hermione said, attempting to protest the other woman's actions.
"Hey, what? Don't I owe you a drink anyway?" Daphne asked, recalling their last day at Hogwarts. They had both elected to return for their seventh year after the war ended and became friendly because of it. After the war, Daphne's magic had been out of wack preventing her from discovering what was right under her nose. Though Slytherins didn't need to return to Hogwarts due to being mostly untouched by the reign of the Carrows, Daphne didn't agree. She felt that she had more to achieve and wanted a chance to redo her last year properly. They had been partners in numerous classes and often studied together.
~wWw~
"Greengrass?" Hermione asked as she walked into the eighth years' common room. It had been decided they would have their own space, a place where they could hide from the younger students prying questions. Before returning, Hermione had no clue who was going to be there. It could have been anyone.
"I figured I'd be seeing you around here," Daphne said. "And please, call me Daphne."
The two girls spent most of their free time together. They weren't friends but they were more than classmates. They studied together for hours, saying only a handful of words to each other during that time. They shared peaceful silences. They had both been through a lot in the war and they found comfort in each other, a feeling of peace neither had felt before. Both were damaged in their own ways from the war, but while they sat together, often in silence, the pain lessened and things seemed more normal.
After they graduated they said their goodbyes and made promises to keep in touch, but the real world was a lot busier than either had thought and they had drifted away from each other. By the time either of them had realized, both felt that it was too late to do anything about it.
~wWw~
"Walk with me?" Hermione asked once they had finished their drinks
"I would love to," Daphne said. It felt right between them, different then their time together at Hogwarts but better. Looking back, it was apparent. They had always seemed to get along well. She had found peace in Hermione. She was surprised that she hadn't seen it before.
The pair walked and chatted until long after the sun set beneath the horizon, with no destination in mind. Neither seemed to want to leave the other. Daphne felt a peace that she hadn't for a long time and could sense that Hermione felt the same.
"Would you like to go on a date with me?" Daphne asked, blurting out the words that had been on her mind for the last hour. She had been going over them in her mind, again and again, trying to muster the courage to say them.
"Yes," Hermione said with a bright smile. "Took you long enough," she joked. Daphne smiled at the other woman. Hermione truly was her soulmate. Maybe now she would get her chance to be happy.
Maybe now they both would.