QUIDDITCH LEAGUE FANFICTION COMPETITION
Season 9, Round 12
Montrose Magpies, Chaser 1
CHASER 1: The last words your soulmate will ever say to you are printed on your arm.
Optional Prompts: 3. (word) destined, 7. (emotion) startled, 12. (dialogue) "I've waited my entire life for this. What if I mess it up?"
SOULMATE!AU
Just Us
September 19th, 1977 - early morning
Hermione wakes up to a feeling like her arm is being shredded.
She suppresses a scream, unwilling to wake those in her dormitory up. She tries to get her wand and cast a numbing charm on her arm, cursing herself for not doing it the previous night.
Immediately, the pain ceases. Hermione releases a sigh of relief.
She knows what's happening, of course. Everyone knows what happens on your seventeenth birthday.
The last words your soulmate will ever say to you are printed on your arm, forevermore.
Hermione found the idea of soulmates strange and a little bit creepy when she first entered the magical world, and the feeling has not stopped. Being bound to someone, someone who you might not even know, forever? No thanks.
She takes a deep breath. Go back to sleep, she tells herself.
But she can't.
Her mind is full of possibilities about who her soulmate might be. Hermione hopes sincerely that he is at least tolerable.
An hour later, she looks at her arm again. The last words that her soulmate will ever say to her are there, glistening like they'd been written with a Muggle pen.
I love you. Don't forget it. Please, Hermione...please.
June 25th, 1978 - early morning
Pain.
That is the first thing Regulus registers as he wakes up. Waves of agony are travelling down his left arm, and a tiny little whimper escapes his lips - he daren't scream. It is unbecoming of a pureblood heir, his mother's voice says in his head.
He pulls his sleeve back. A green skull, with a snake protruding from its mouth, is moving - shifting on his arm. Beside that...well, beside that…
Words.
Regulus has always known that he has a soulmate. He has also always known that on his seventeenth birthday, the last words his soulmate will ever say to him will be printed on his arm.
The green skull and snake move quicker, and Regulus is reminded that he has a summons.
June 25th, 1978 - still early morning
By the time Regulus is done changing into his black robes, the words are fully imprinted on his skin. He glances at them.
I love you, too. Don't leave. Please, I'm begging you!
June 25th, 1978 - still early morning
The smoke gate appears, looming in front of him. Regulus bares his left forearm, which bears the Dark Mark ("At least one of you is loyal to the family," his mother sniffed), and the gate disappears.
To an ordinary Muggle, Riddle Manor will look like a dilapidated, deserted manor. But what Regulus sees is a looming castle, dark and foreboding. It exudes Dark Magic, and a lesser wizard will have shivered.
The doors open before Regulus, and he steps inside.
"Who are you?" a voice echoes in the entrance hall.
"Regulus Arcturus Black, Death Eater."
Another set of doors shimmer into existence and open. Regulus carefully, cautiously walks inside.
"My Lord." he kneels.
"Regulus," the silky voice says.
"If I may, my Lord, why was I summoned?"
Lord Voldemort hisses. "Your soulmate's last words to you, of course."
A chill makes its way down Regulus's spine. "My soulmate's last words to me?"
"Are you deaf?" Lord Voldemort is clearly not willing to repeat himself. "Come closer," he beckons.
Regulus obeys. He keeps his head down. When he reaches his Lord, Voldemort takes his left arm and pulls the sleeve so that the words are exposed.
"I love you, too. Don't leave. Please, I'm begging you!" Voldemort says in a mock-baby voice. "How...delightful." It is clearly anything but.
"My Death Eaters cannot be held down by something as trivial as love," the monster hisses, making Regulus nearly jump out of his skin. "You understand me, Black?"
"Yes, My Lord."
"But there is always the allure of love," Voldemort sneers, "For those with hearts. You know what must be done." He draws his wand and touches the point to the I of I love you. "Love is foolish!"
And there is a feeling like Regulus is burning.
He screams and screams and screams, but the pain doesn't stop. It's like nothing he's ever felt before. He screams until his voice grows hoarse and it feels like the pain will never stop.
Then finally the pain ceases and Regulus slumps to the floor, Lord Voldemort still holding his arm.
"Good," Voldemort hisses. "Good…"
Exactly what is good, Regulus doesn't want to know.
June 27th, 1978 - afternoon
"You're late, Granger."
Hermione huffs. "Twenty-five seconds. That's hardly what I would say is late."
"Except I'm talking about what I say, and I say you're late."
"You need to learn that the world does not evolve around you, Black. Stop being self-centered and stuck-up and arrogant. Honestly, how you became Head Boy is a mystery to me."
"Shut up, Granger."
"This is exactly what I'm talking about."
"Shut up. We're supposed to patrol."
Deciding to leave Black alone for the time being, Hermione simply patrols alongside him, blocking him out. For once, snogging students hiding in alcoves are welcome - any distraction to keep her attention off Black.
She turns to the right, and rips a tapestry off the wall to reveal two students who look like one two-headed wizard.
"Thirty points from Gryffindor and Slytherin," she snaps, noticing the girl's robes with displeasure - a Gryffindor should know better.
Once the students grumpily clear out, Black says, "You should have taken forty points from Gryffindor. But oh no, Gryffindors are all so perfect and -"
"If I took forty points from Gryffindor, I would have taken forty points from Slytherin too."
"No, Gryffindor should get more points taken - the girl was doing most of the snogging!"
"Your reasoning is terrible," Hermione glares at him. "Snogging requires two people to do the exact same thing at the same time!"
They're so busy arguing that when they bump into a wall, both Hermione and Black are taken completely unawares.
"Wha -"
Hermione's sleeve slides back as she draws her wand, startled. "Potter, Black, Lupin, Pettigrew," she curses, knowing that the wall wasn't there before.
"Wait," Black grabs her exposed left arm.
"What are you doing?" she asks him, trying to shake him off.
"Your soulmark," he whispers (soulmark has become the short term for the last words your soulmate will ever say to you).
"What about it?" Hermione covers the said soulmark up with her sleeve. Then, out of curiosity, "Where's yours?"
Black's lips seem to be sealed as he pulls his left sleeve up. Hermione gasps at seeing the messy burn, which is where the soulmark should be.
"They burned it off," Black murmurs, more to himself than her. "But I remember. I love you, too. Don't leave. Please, I'm begging you!"
"Monsters," Hermione spits. "Who can be so cruel as to burn a soulmark off?"
"Him," Black murmurs, slightly delirous. "He did it, he said his followers cannot be burdened by love."
"Black - was it him?" Hermione breathes, almost afraid to know the answer.
February 2nd, 1979 - afternoon
"Regulus, we are destined for each other, whether we like it or not. Why are you being so stubborn about this?" Hermione glares at the wizard she has fallen head over heels for.
Silence. Then -
"I've waited my entire life for this. What if I mess it up?" Regulus worries. "You're my soulmate, the person I'm going to be with for the rest of my life. Us being us, there's a pretty good chance."
Hermione's eyes widen. "So that's what you're worried about? Really, Regulus? You should know that I'm stubborn enough to never leave you, no matter what."
He stares into her imploring, amber eyes. "Okay."
"Our blood statuses don't matter, our Houses don't matter, our families don't matter - here, no one and nothing except us matters." She grips his arm. "Just us."
"Just us." Regulus repeats, as a warm feeling blossoms inside of him.
No particular time
It is a funny thing, love is. It can bind you and make you weak, but it can also free you and make you strong.
Lord Voldemort looks at only the cons of love, and not the pros. That is a very severe mistake...
June 27th, 1979 - morning
"I'm going to leave, Hermione - for...for something. Don't worry. I'll be safe."
Hermione and Regulus's relationship has progressed over the past year. Enemies to acquaintances to friends to lovers. Regulus feels guilty, knowing that he will be doing something today to sever that relationship forevermore - but, he thinks, he'll be doing it for her safety, for the safety of all wizardkind.
"How do you know?" she argues, fire in her eyes.
Regulus takes a deep breath. The words come spilling out.
"I love you. Don't forget it. Please, Hermione...please."
Hermione's eyes widen, and Regulus suddenly recalls her soulmark.
The exact words he just said are the words on her soulmark.
It's like Hermione cannot stop herself.
"I love you, too. Don't leave. Please," she grabs his arm, "I'm begging you!"
Regulus takes a deep breath. He knows that this is the last time he's going to see Hermione, and he wants to savour it.
He turns around and leaves, guilt weighing his heart down.
For you, Hermione. Anything for you.
Dedicated to Slytherin :)
WC: 1554
