Written for Quidditch League, Round 12

Team: Wigtown Wanderers

Position: Chaser 2

Prompt: You can't see colour until you meet your soulmate

Additional prompts: (emotion) startled, (word) direction


Also written for Hogwarts Challenges & Assignments - Term 15, Assignment 3 - Mindfulness & Meditation, Task #4: Write about someone having trouble falling asleep.

Word count: 2548


take a chance on this

When she climbed aboard Hogwarts at nearly 12 years old, Angelina hadn't met her other half yet. She knew this because her world was still without colour—she wouldn't be able to see it until she found her soulmate. As she dragged her trunk down the narrow corridor of the train, she found herself looking around at all of the other young witches and wizards. Maybe one of them was the person who was meant to "complete" her.

Angelina couldn't help but roll her eyes at the thought.

Even at the age of four, when she had first heard of soulmates, she had immediately found the idea off-putting—annoying even. It disturbed her that everyone was fine with having their future spouse chosen for them, just because it would supposedly make their magic greater and more powerful. Of course, she now knew that not everyone married their soulmate, as the bond was simply between two people who were suited best for each other, whatever that meant. But still, who was fate or magic or whatever else to decide who was best suited for her? If it weren't for the lack of colour in her world, she wouldn't care at all. She was going to forge her own path in life, fate and soulmates be damned.

"Oi, watch it!" a voice behind her yelled. Startled, Angelina spun in the direction of the shout to see if the person was talking to her. At the exact moment that her eyes fell on the stocky boy who had spoken, however, vivid colour began to seep into her vision, as if an artist was taking a paintbrush to her world.

Angelina squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself against the onslaught of colour. This experience was even more overwhelming than her mum had said it would be, and she nearly fell to her knees. All she wanted to do was curl up in a ball on the floor, but the corridor was bustling with students in search of compartments. To escape the chaos, she ducked into the nearest one, dragging her trunk behind her, and collapsed onto the seat there. After struggling to catch her breath for a few moments, she realised that she wasn't alone.

"You alright?" a boy with dreadlocks asked, frowning at her in concern. She nodded, wondering what had happened to the redheaded boy who had just turned her whole world upside down.

"Yeah. Just, uh, trying to get used to a new environment," she replied.

"Oh, yeah, it's mad out there," the boy said, shaking his head. Angelina decided not to correct his assumption, choosing instead to focus her gaze on the floor, which was a nice, calming shade of grey.

The boy, whose name was Lee Jordan, offered to help her put her trunk in the overhead compartment. She readily agreed to his assistance, but not before pulling her colour chart out and shoving it into her pocket.

Lee soon busied himself with looking out of the window at the English countryside. Angelina took advantage of his preoccupation to consult the chart, which her mum had given her before she left for Hogwarts.

"Just in case you need it," she had said.

It was nice to be able to name the colours that surrounded her, Angelina thought, but she quickly realised a problem: half of her colours were still missing. She could see shades of red, yellow, and blue, but orange, green, and purple hues were nowhere to be found. They just appeared to be various shades of grey on the chart in front of her.

"Hey, Lee?" She carefully folded the chart and slipped it back into her pocket. Lee looked over at her. "Have you...found your soulmate yet?"

He shook his head. "No, why?"

"Never mind," Angelina sighed. She had hoped that he might be able to tell her if there were any orange, green, or purple objects nearby. Of course, if there weren't, she didn't know what that meant for her. Was it possible to have two soulmates? She had never heard of that happening before, but it probably wasn't outside of the realm of possibility.

Lee seemed to have given up on looking out of the window.

"Want to see my tarantula?" he asked, eyeing her hopefully. Angelina wasn't sure that she did, but it sounded like a good way to keep herself from thinking too much about her potential second soulmate.

"Sure."

Lee grabbed the cardboard shoebox sitting beside him and placed it on his lap.

"This is Bert," he said, opening the lid and pulling out an enormous, fuzzy black spider. "He's very friendly, want to hold him?"

Angelina shook her head. "No, thanks."

Her reply didn't deter Lee from chattering on about Bert—and tarantulas in general—for the next half hour. Angelina feigned interest until he ran out of steam, then told him that she wanted to take a nap before they reached the school. Wishing that she had thought to bring a pillow, she curled her legs up against her chest and tried to drift off.

Unfortunately for her, sleep didn't come easily. Not only was her head tilted in an awkward position, but she also felt a sense of unease at the thought of having two soulmates—as if one wasn't enough! Her mind raced as she contemplated the unusual situation she seemed to be in. She tried to comb through every soulmate conversation she had ever been privy to, but no recollection of anyone having more than one soulmate surfaced. Perhaps she could find out more at Hogwarts. If not, she could always send a message home to her mum in hopes that her mum could shed some light on the matter.

Sleep finally overtook Angelina as night fell over the countryside beyond the train's windows. Her slumber was punctuated by strange dreams about the stocky boy and Lee's tarantula, and when she awoke, she felt as though she hadn't gotten any rest at all.

Lee had already changed into his Hogwarts robes while she was sleeping, and he smiled sheepishly at her when he saw that she was awake. "I'll close my eyes if you'd like to put on your uniform now."

Angelina changed quickly, but only after making sure that Lee didn't peek. The train was beginning to slow down, which meant that they had to be close to their destination. Sure enough, when she glanced out of the window, she could see the twinkling lights of Hogsmeade.

Angelina sighed. At least they were close. She still felt a little overloaded by her new ability to see colour, and she couldn't wait to lie down on a proper bed and get some decent rest.

Before long, the Hogwarts Express had pulled into Hogsmeade station and Angelina, Lee, and the rest of its passengers disembarked, some looking around in confusion while others strode confidently towards a fleet of carriages.

"First years!" a deep, booming voice called. "First years this way!"

Angelina and Lee followed the rest of the first years over to a very tall man with a scraggly beard.

"The name's Hagrid. Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. Come with me," he said. "I'll show you to the boats."

As she moved closer to Hagrid, Angelina looked around and saw the stocky boy—her soulmate, she corrected in her head—hovering nearby. Apparently, he was a first year, too. She could see now that he had flaming red hair, and the sight of it made her flinch because of how vivid it was.

Beside her fated companion was a boy who looked identical to him in every way. Upon seeing this second boy, Angelina experienced the same unnerving feeling that she had before, and she realised that her vision was filling in with new colours.

She gasped. That must be soulmate number two. Her soulmates were...twins?

Lee shot her a worried look. She opened her mouth to reassure him that he was okay, but having the full spectrum of colours available to her proved too overwhelming. With a pained moan, she pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes and sank to her knees.

"What's happening?" Hagrid's voice sounded from somewhere above her, concerned. "Alright there, young lady?"

"I—" Angelina shook her head. "I don't feel so good."

"Back up, back up, let me get a good look at her!" Hagrid said loudly, and Angelina heard, rather than saw, her fellow first-years take several steps back. "What's your name, then?"

"Angelina Johnson," she said quietly. "I... I'm having trouble with all of the—the colours."

She didn't want to give any more detail than that—not now, not with her two soulmates standing right there. She could barely even bring herself to look at them, let alone acknowledge who they were to her.

"Say no more, Miss Johnson," the giant man said gruffly, though his voice was much softer than before. "After the Sorting, you can see Madam Pomfrey. She's, er, experienced in this sort of thing."

Angelina nodded gratefully and allowed Hagrid to pull her to her feet. Holding onto his arm, which was roughly as thick as a tree trunk, she slowly made her way along a dimly lit path. Soon, the path gave way to an inky black lake. A fleet of small wooden boats floated upon its glass-like surface, and the first years began to whisper amongst themselves when they saw them.

"No more than two to a boat!" Hagrid called, so Angelina climbed into a vessel with Lee after exchanging a look with him. The redheaded twins shared one between themselves as well, she noted.

Minutes later, the boats had magically sailed the group of students and their leader to a small dock near the front of the castle. Angelina shivered—though whether that was because of the chilly night air off the water or something else, she wasn't sure.

"You can lean on me," Lee whispered.

Angelina nodded and closed her eyes, allowing Lee to put an arm around her waist and guide her up the steps and into the castle. Once inside, she was able to squeeze her eyes shut again while she and the others awaited the Sorting Ceremony.

The ceremony itself passed in a blur, probably due to Angelina's disoriented state. She was sorted into Gryffindor, and just one student later, so was Lee. The redheaded twins were among the last to be Sorted, and they joined Angelina at the crimson and gold-swathed tables as well. She didn't know whether to be pleased about that fact or not.

The feast that followed was delicious. Angelina forced herself to focus on her plate of food rather than look in the twins' direction. They were loud and boisterous even though they were probably suffering just as much as she was.

When the plates had been cleared away, and Professor Dumbledore sent them off to bed with wise parting words, Angelina stood to follow the Gryffindor Prefect. A nudge from Lee jostled her from thoughts of sprawling onto a nice, comfy bed, however.

"Hey, didn't Hagrid say something about going to see someone named Madam Pomfrey?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah!" Angelina tapped an older-looking Gryffindor on the shoulder. "Excuse me, where can I find Madam Pomfrey?"

"The Hospital Wing is in the west wing—you'll have to pass through the Entrance Hall and then make a left and a right," the girl said, giving her a curious look. No doubt she was wondering what sort of ailment had befallen a first year on their very first night at Hogwarts.

Angelina followed the girl's instructions with little difficulty. Several minutes later, she found herself walking into the infirmary, where she was greeted by Madam Pomfrey.

Madam Pomfrey was stern-faced, but when Angelina explained her predicament—leaving out the part about apparently having two soulmates, however—the matron's facial expression softened.

"It's a nasty feeling, seeing all those colours at once, isn't it?" she asked. At Angelina's nod, she added, "Yes, well, we have a room for students to avail themselves of when the sensation gets to be too much. It's quiet and there aren't any windows or bright colours to bother you in there. Here, it's just through that door."

Angelina shuffled off in the direction of the room that Madam Pomfrey indicated. Upon entering, she breathed a sigh of relief. Just as the matron had promised, it was a windowless room with grey walls and only a few wooden benches lined the walls. The drab colours were quite soothing after the explosion of hues she had been dealing with all day.

She sank onto a bench and stared at the wall for an indiscernible amount of time. At some point, however, the door opened and the redheaded twins—whose names were Fred and George, she had learned at the Sorting feast—walked inside. Startled once more, she quickly straightened up and eyed them with apprehension.

"Hello," one of them said, flashing her an easy smile. "Don't think we got your name at the feast earlier. We were...well, a little overstimulated, as I'm sure you can understand."

"Yeah, I can. I'm Angelina," she said, surprised by how loud her voice sounded in the mostly-empty room. "You're Fred and George, right?"

The twins exchanged a glance that she couldn't read.

"Sure are," the other twin said at last. "I'm George, by the way."

"And I'm Fred," his brother added unnecessarily.

"Right." Angelina looked from one to the other, studying them to see if she could notice any differences between them. She couldn't just yet, but she was certain that it was only a matter of time, given their connection to her. "I'm sorry, you'll probably have to remind me which of you is which...for now, anyway."

"So you're open to getting to know us better?" Fred asked.

Angelina wasn't one to dance around a subject. She preferred to get right to the point, and get to the point she did.

"Well, seeing as you're both my soulmates, I think that makes sense. Don't you?" Angelina thought back to the incident on the train when she had first seen one of the twins. They hadn't followed her then, and she needed to know why. "Unless... you're not open to our bond. I noticed you didn't come after me when I saw you—one of you—on the train."

"Ah," George said sheepishly. "We would have talked to you then but our brother, Percy, called us away to lecture us about upholding the Weasley family name. We spent the whole ride cursing him under our breaths."

"Anyway, we'd definitely like to get to know you too," Fred said, slinging an arm around Angelina's shoulders.

She turned to look at him and nearly jumped back when she saw how close he was. She could see every freckle, every eyelash.

"Great." She cleared her throat. "Just to be clear, though, we have lots of time to figure out how our bond works, or if it even works for us. We're still young—younger than a lot of people are when they find their soulmates. I think we should just take things really slow. Perhaps start with friendship and go from there?"

"I agree," Fred declared, and George nodded along with him.

Angelina smiled. "Shall we find our way up to the common room together, then?"