Thank you all for reviewing the last chapter. It's always wonderful to get so many reviews and new followers. I said it before but I have to say it again: never did I have more followers than now. We're getting close to 600 and I'm both excited and terrified at the same time that so many people are reading this story.
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WHAT IF
Chapter 21 - Making Decisions
The last D.A. meeting before the holidays was a revision of everything they had learned till now. Harry didn't want to start something new and Hermione was glad that she didn't have to concentrate on learning something new. She was still trying to wrap her head around the soulmate thing.
"Hey Hermione, you already got a partner?" Terry Boot walked towards Hermione again as he had during the last three meetings. Till now Hermione had always told him no because she had Ron as some kind of permanent partner. But this morning Ron and she had had a row about some stupid homework she wouldn't let him copy and now Hermione was more open to a new partner.
"No, I'm free today." She answered while glaring at Ron, who gaped at her.
"Brilliant," Terry grinned and they occupied one corner of the room to practice. Terry proofed to be an excellent training partner. His spell work was perfect and his reactions almost as good as Hermione's. For a while, they dutifully followed Harry's instructions and practised the spells they learned till now. Terry obviously didn't need any more practice, like Hermione, so she wasn't surprised when he suggested a little duel.
"Would make things a bit more interesting, wouldn't it?" He grinned and Hermione narrowed her eyes at him.
"It would," she agreed and got into position. Hermione didn't think that Terry was as arrogant as Ron to think he could beat her easily. But still, Hermione was suddenly very determined to show him how interesting she could be if provoked.
To Hermione's own surprise Terry Boot proofed to be a quite good duellist. He was quick with his spells and was not afraid to hit Hermione with everything he got. After just five minutes they were battling a full-blown duel. Hermione vaguely registered that the other members had stopped their own practice to watch them, but she didn't care.
Terry was flinging another stinging hex at her but Hermione cancelled it out with a grin and a shield charm. A second later she shot a stinging hex towards Terry. But he was lucky and narrowly escaped with a jump. However, that was Hermione's chance. While Terry was still in mid-movement, she cast a disarming spell and finally got him. With an exhausted laugh, she caught Terry's wand and twirled it playfully.
"Should have known that Hermione Granger would beat me," Terry said with a grin and walked over. In contrast to Ron who always pouted a bit when Hermione was better than him, Terry seemed neither surprised nor angry.
"Well, at least you tried," Hermione joked. "But seriously, that was really good. You're an amazing duellist."
"You're both," Harry approached with a big grin. "But next time you give us a warning before you decide to try to kill each other, okay?" The whole room erupted into laughter and only now Hermione and Terry realised that it had been dead silent. Everyone had been watching their little duel. Hermione felt how her face warmed, probably blushing in a bright red.
After the meeting, Harry stayed suspiciously behind with Cho Chang while Hermione walked off with Ginny. Together they strolled back to the common room.
Hermione absentmindedly started her letter to Viktor. She felt a bit guilty for writing him so scarcely during the last months. Ron was sitting beside her, working frantically on his latest essay. Much later Harry finally came back, an odd little smile on his face. Whispering he told them about his first kiss with Cho.
It turned out to be one of the best evenings of the year. Just the three of them, sitting in front of the fire and talking about everything and nothing. Just like in their first years at Hogwarts, when everything had been easier. Or at least less depressing. Umbridge's presence in the castle and her constant meddling with their lives really made Hogwarts a worse place.
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The next morning Hermione woke up with a little joyous flutter in her stomach. The holidays were only a day away and this year she was actually glad to go home. She missed her parents and she needed a bit time away from the school, Umbridge and Fred. Maybe the holidays would help her to make a decision about whether she wanted to tell him about the soul mark or not.
Just as Hermione wanted to walk into the Great Hall, she was stopped by Neville who looked even more nervous than normal.
"Hermione, last night Harry and Ron-"
"Miss Granger, could I have a minute?" Umbridge interrupted them and Hermione saw how Neville's face turned white.
"I fear you will have to wait, Dolores." Professor McGonagall rounded the corner. Both she and Umbridge seemed a bit out of breath and Hermione thought that they might have raced each other to get to her. What the hell was going on?
"I need to talk to Miss Granger first about her prefect duties since Mr Weasley is not available during the train ride tomorrow." Umbridge's face turned dark red but McGonagall ignored her and made Hermione follow her.
"Professor, what is going on?"
"The headmaster will answer your questions," McGonagall led Hermione to the headmaster's office, where Professor Dumbledore was already waiting for her.
"Miss Granger, sit down. May I offer you some tea? Or a biscuit?" Professor Dumbledore asked in his usual calm manner. Hermione declined politely, too nervous to drink or eat something.
"Very well," the headmaster leaned back. "I have to inform you that Harry and the Weasley children all left the castle during the last night. They're currently at Grimmauld Place with Sirius. Arthur Weasley was injured during a mission for the Order and is currently at St Mungo's. As far as I know, he will survive. Of course, the sudden departure of five students in the middle of the night alerted Professor Umbridge, who's now trying to gather information."
"Of course, Professor, I won't tell her anything," Hermine said eagerly. "Professor, can I go to Grimmauld Place too? I want to be there for Harry and the Weasleys." Hermione's heart was aching with worry for her friends. Ron and Ginny were surely terrified and she could easily guess that the Twins would be furious.
"I wanted to ask you this exact same thing. Hermione," Dumbledore watched her over the rim of his glasses. "We were alerted of the attack on Arthur by Harry. He had a vision about the attack." Hermione stopped breathing. That was bad. Really bad. Harry would surely be devastated about having seen the attack.
"When can I go? I have my things already packed," Hermione announced forcefully. If the others had left Hogwarts at night then there had to be a way for her too.
"I fear you will have to wait for the official start of the holidays. Professor Umbridge will only become more suspicious if another student vanishes right under her nose." Hermione wanted to argue, wanted to convince the headmaster that it was necessary for her to leave as soon as possible. But she knew it wouldn't help her. When Dumbledore had decided to do something a certain way then there was no way to change his mind.
Professor McGonagall accompanied Hermione back to the Great Hall, giving her all the necessary information about the train ride tomorrow. Since Gryffindor was one prefect short, they had to share the prefect duties differently than planned. It wasn't that much work but made a good cover story for Umbridge.
The pink menace started to question Hermione as soon as she walked into the defence classroom. But since Hermione hadn't been there when Harry had vanished during the night - Lavender and Parvati even backed her when Umbridge questioned if Hermione had left her dorm room - there wasn't much the horrible Professor could do. It seemed like she had already questioned Neville, Seamus and Dean during the morning, but all three had said they only knew that Ron had brought Harry to the hospital wing. By the end of the day, Umbridge was clearly foaming with anger. But there was nothing she could do.
The 24 hours till the train left Hogsmeade the next day proofed to be one of the hardest in Hermione's life. She felt helpless and frustrated, guilty because she had to lie to her parents, and tired from constantly avoiding Umbridge and her nagging questions. When Hermione finally boarded the train with Neville she had the feeling that her holidays would be very different from what she had expected.
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With shaking legs Hermione stumbled out of the Knight Bus and thanked all Gods and higher powers that she had survived the trip. Hermione had thought it was a good idea to take the Knight Bus for the short trip between King's Cross and Grimmauld Place but now she wished she had decided on muggle transportation. A taxi would have been more expensive and probably slower but at least not so sickening.
Hermione breathed in one last time before she knocked. It was almost six in the evening and she was tired, felt a bit sick but still hungry. She wanted nothing more than to rest a bit but as soon as the door was opened she saw how Ron and Ginny stormed towards her.
"You have to talk with him!" Ron exclaimed.
"He's ignoring us and hides in Buckbeak's room." Ginny hugged her as a greeting. Hermione had some trouble to follow them because Ron and Ginny started to interrupt each other again and again.
"Behaves totally mad-" Ron barked.
"Thinks he's possessed by you-know-who." Ginny rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"-and hasn't eaten since yesterday morning," Ron concluded like it would explain everything.
"Stop!" Hermione finally interrupted them. "Could you not do that? I think only Fred and George can do this twin speaking thing and still get the message across."
"Thanks, Granger," George rounded the corner. "At least some recognises the immense talent we have." Grinning George hugged Hermione too as a greeting and for a moment she was surprised. Neither of the twins had hugged her as a casual greeting till now.
"That's not the point right now," Ron cried. "Harry is isolating himself from us, he doesn't eat and I'm sure he doesn't sleep. Hermione, you have to do something. You're better at these things than I."
"Okay, okay, calm down. First things first, how is your Dad?"
"We visited him yesterday morning. He's fine," George laughed. "Already driving Mum mad with some crazy Muggle things. He got… stitches? She almost killed him." Ron, Ginny and George all grinned at the memory.
"That's wonderful. So, what's wrong with Harry? What happened? Dumbledore said Harry had some kind of vision about your father being attacked. Why is Harry so upset? He had this kind of visions before, right?" For a moment the three Weasley children looked at each other and Hermione uncomfortable before finally, Ginny started to explain what they had heard in the hospital. How they had come to know that Harry hadn't seen the attack as an outsider but from the perspective of the snake.
"And know he probably thinks that he was the snake," Hermione huffed. "One day I will get it inside his thick head that you can't apparate in and out of Hogwarts." And with that Hermione made her way upstairs, still in her cloak. With determination she hammered against the door to Buckbeak's room, demanding Harry to come out.
It took Ron, Hermine and Ginny an hour to convince Harry that he hadn't been the snake. That this was just - as before - part of his connection with Voldemort. Hermione admired how calm Ginny explained to Harry how it had been for her to be possessed by Voldemort and why it was different from Harry's experience. For the first time, Hermione thought that maybe Ginny really could be a good match for Harry, especially when she was so confident and purely herself around him.
Hermione was just on her way down to ask Mrs Weasley if she needed help with preparing dinner when someone intercepted her on the first floor. A second later Hermione found herself in an empty room with George, who grinned sheepishly at her.
"Granger, I have a favour to ask," he ruffled his hair with one hand. "Could you talk to Fred, maybe? I think what you said the other day about Angelina… it really got him thinking, I think." Hermione narrowed her eyes at him.
"And what do you want me to talk with Fred about? Angelina again? I'm not sure if I'm the right person for that. I have no idea what happened between them."
"No…" he sighed. "I don't know. It's just, he behaves funny and I don' know what to do. It's the first time in our life that I can't get through, he's so stubborn."
"George, what exactly do you want me to do?" Hermione bit her lips, a nervous habit from her childhood days.
"I have no idea… could you just go upstairs and," George shrugged, having no words and no idea obviously what he wanted.
"I will think about it," Hermione smiled and then went downstairs to the kitchen. Honestly, she was a bit excited that George wanted her to talk with Fred. Nervous and confused, but still excited.
After helping Mrs Weasley with the preparations for a while Hermione took two plates of sandwiches upstairs with her. One she brought to Ron and Harry who were thanking her with full mouths. Harry's self-induced isolation during the last two days had made him very hungry apparently and Ron was always hungry like a wolf. Hermione rolled her eyes at them and then went to search Fred.
She found him - to her surprise - in the library. Fred was leaning over some books in deep concentration and didn't even recognise Hermione's arrival. With a smile, she placed the plate beside him and laughed when Fred jumped a bit.
"Didn't know you could sit still for more than five minutes. Must be fascinating literature," Hermione teased and grabbed a sandwich for herself. Maybe this was the funny behaviour George had mentioned. A Weasley twin concentrating on reading rather than causing explosions. That really was odd.
"Very funny," Fred didn't take a sandwich and didn't seem very talkative. Another point on the list of odd behaviour.
"So, what are you researching?" Hermione pulled one of the books closer and skimmed the pages. Her eyes widened when she recognised the complex spells. "Fred, these are really advanced defence spells. They aren't even teaching those for N.E.W.T.s. What do you want with that?"
"I want to join the Order," Fred grabbed the book back, an angry frown disfigured his handsome face. "Bill and Charlie are both in the Order. I bet Percy would be allowed too if he wasn't a total prat. It's just George and me who aren't allowed to do anything. I mean, even Ron is always in the middle of everything with Harry. He is allowed to fight. And so are you."
"It's not like anyone allowed it. And we're not actively searching for a fight. It just happens." Hermione shrugged but she knew it wasn't what Fred wanted to hear.
"Maybe, but it's not the same," Fred huffed. Hermione chewed on her sandwiches slowly while she listened. She let Fred talk because she felt that he needed some time to rant to someone.
"Mum is doing everything she can to prevent George and me from joining the Order. She doesn't want us to help. Everyone else is allowed to do their part, to fight, we're the only ones left out. Because we're too young, not out of school, not experienced enough. She has an argument for everything. I bet she was the one who made these rules, specifically for us. I doubt that Sirius and Remus waited till they were out of school to join. She probably thinks we're too stupid, because we only got three O.W.L.s each, and never became prefects." Fred murmured the last words almost inaudible but Hermione understood well enough. Carefully she put her sandwich down and moved closer to him.
"Fred," she placed a hand on his shoulder to make him look at her. "I doubt that your Mum thinks you're stupid. She might be not very impressed with your dreams right now but I don't think it has anything to do with thinking you're stupid or lazy or not being prefects. Your Mum is simply afraid. She doesn't want you hurt. I mean, she has three family members already hurt because of V-Voldemort in the last years. Ginny, now your Dad and Ron got his fair share of broken bones and hospital visits too."
"Yeah, but she's still letting Bill and Charlie in," Fred huffed.
"I would like her to see trying to keep them out," Hermione grinned. "Bill and Charlie are both off-age, out of school and-" Hermione threw Fred a warning glance when he tried to interrupt, "-they both have incredibly dangerous jobs. Maybe your Mum is used to being worried about them and just wants to keep the rest of her children safe. Think about it, she wants ministry jobs for you because they're safe desk jobs with no danger of getting burned by a dragon or landing in prison in Egypt."
"Never thought about it like that," Fred sighed. He buried his face in his arms, resting his upper body on the table. "I mean, I know she's worried about all of us, but… It's just so frustrating, not to be able to do anything while half of my family is out there, fighting, getting hurt."
"Fred, is this about your dad?" Hermione asked, again softly. She had a feeling that Fred needed to be handled carefully right now. He wasn't himself. He seemed like a little boy, sitting in front of her worried about his family and pouting because his Mum forbid him from joining the grown-ups. And Hermione got it, she really did. It was frustrating and annoying that the Order didn't tell them anything - barely the basics, when they needed to - even though they were all already in the middle of it. With a very pained expression, Fred looked up to her.
"He almost died, Hermione, and there was nothing I could do. Sirius forced us to stay here, sit in the kitchen and wait for Mum. I never felt worse in my whole life and believe me, I had a lot of shitty days while testing products on myself." A lopsided smile tugged on Fred's lips but there was no real fire behind it. "I just want to be able to do something."
"Well, you're leaving Hogwarts in a few months and then there's nothing holding you back of joining the Order. I know, it's much to ask of you, but you just have to patient for a short while. Maybe make Umbridge's life miserable meanwhile?" Hermione grinned at Fred' shocked face.
"Hermione Granger, did you just ask me to prank the bloody hell out of the old toad?"
"Maybe?" Hermione offered Fred the plate full of sandwiches a second time and now he grabbed one. "But if you ever tell anyone I will deny it and give you detention. Have a reputation to uphold."
"Well, I take what I can get." Fred cheerfully bit into the sandwich and Hermione also started to eat hers again. They spent half an hour in the library together, chatting about all the prank ideas Fred had for Umbridge and emptying the plate.
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The next days after Hermione's arrival at Grimmauld Place were wonderful and odd at the same time. Everyone was in an excellent mood now that Christmas arrived. They visited Mr Weasley at St. Mungo's at Christmas morning which was a rowdy affair with so many people. Their mood was only slightly dampened by meeting Neville while he visited his parents with his grandmother. Hermione was shocked that she had never heard about this before and her heart ached for Neville. She couldn't imagine anything more painful than having parents who didn't remember you.
They spent Christmas Eve at Grimmauld Place with a wonderful dinner. Everything was loud and cheerful, every now and then some fireworks exploded - and Mrs Weasley didn't even scold the twins and Sirius - and Hermione decided that she had made a good decision with coming. Even though she felt guilty for lying to her parents, she still felt like these people were her family too. Especially the twins were worth it. George seemed to be absolutely thankful that Hermione had talked Fred out of his funk and Fred treated Hermione more warmly than ever.
On Christmas Eve Hermione made her way back to the room she shared with Ginny from the bathroom after brushing her teeth when she was suddenly stopped in the middle of her movement. It felt a bit like a stunning spell but with the difference that she was still able to move, just not able to leave this special place. Confused Hermione tried to make a step forward but she bounced back instantly. An annoyed huff escaped her. She was one hundred per cent sure that this was a Weasley product from Fred and George. The question was, what did she need to break the spell?
"Blimey, Hermione, that wasn't meant for you. We wanted to catch Sirius," Fred rounded the corner, an apologetic frown on his face.
"And what exactly is this?" Hermione folded her arms in front of her chest. She was only in her pyjamas which were a gift from her parents and had, unfortunately, a little pattern made of snowmen on a bright red, plush fabric.
"Captivating mistletoe, trap your friends and family for a little holiday fun," Fred grinned and pointed to the ceiling. Curiously Hermione looked up and stared at the little, levitating mistletoe above her. Since the ceiling at Grimmauld Place was so high she hadn't seen it while coming out of the bathroom. And even if she had, she would have never thought that the blasted thing would trap her.
"Very funny," she rolled her eyes. "And now that you successfully found a way to even terrorise Christmas with your pranks, would you mind freeing me? I'm tired." Hermione tried to sound annoyed but a small smile tugged on her lips. She loved those little run-ins with Fred.
"Of course I will free you. But remember, you asked," Fred winked and a second later he stood right in front of Hermione, leaned down and then... the world stopped when Fred's warm lips pressed against hers.
Thank Merlin I brushed my teeth, Hermione thought before she finally realised that Fred Weasley was kissing her. He. Was. Kissing. Her. Right now. And Hermione was having a minor freak-out. Determined to enjoy the moment she shut her eyes and leaned into the kiss. Her heart started to break every racing record with its fast beating. Her stomach coiled almost painfully. But it was undoubtfully the best moment in her short life. Even though it was just a peck, it was the best kiss ever.
And then the kiss ended, too soon, and left Hermione with a longing for more. She wanted to pull Fred back to her but she was still too stunned to fully comprehend what just happened. She blinked confused while Fred grinned down at her, self-confident and seemingly unaffected by the kiss.
"Mistletoe trap which ends with a kiss, should have known. And how exactly would you have freed Sirius?" Hermione asked while she blushed furiously. She was sure that her face and cleavage were as red as her pyjamas.
"Business secret," Fred winked. "Merry Christmas, Hermione, and good night." Then he walked off to the bathroom himself, whistling a bit on his way.
Hermione barely slept this night. Her mind was swirling with questions, the most prominent one being 'Why had Fred kissed her?'. In the last days, Hermione had gained something she had wished for since last year. A chance to get to know Fred better. And now that they were finally becoming friends, he kissed her. Out of the blue. But Hermione was also fighting with the question if she should tell Fred about their soul marks. Now seemed to be a good time. But maybe she needed some more information about soulmates to make up her mind. So Hermione did the one thing she always did when she was in doubt. She went to the library the next morning.
And the Blacks had a wonderful, large and well-sorted library. There Hermione hoped to find more books and information about soulmates in general. She had so many questions about this whole concept and the marks. Most of her classmates treated soulmates like it was the most normal thing in the world - which it probably was to them -, but none of them had a really good knowledge about it. They all just accepted that the marks were there and that soulmates existed. But that wasn't enough for Hermione. She needed to know more.
But after three hours at the library, Hermione flopped down on one of the plush sofas and sighed in frustration. Even with the help of the finding aids - big books which contained the name, author and place of every book in the library - Hermione had found nothing on soulmates. She had opened a few promising books but after closer inspection, they all turned out to be a disappointment. Instead, she had found a frightening amount of books about dark arts.
"You should be careful, Hermione, who knows what nasty cursed my mother planted in this library." Sirius stood in the doorway, leaning against the doorframe, and smiled at Hermione sadly. Since Hermione had arrived at Grimmauld Place she had noticed how deeply unhappy and restless Sirius was. He had been a delight during Christmas and the days prior, but now that the new school term got closer, his mood also changed. Back to the moody man he had been during the summer.
"Don't worry, I didn't find anything anyway," Hermione waved her hand at the small stack of books beside her.
"Really?" Sirius wrinkled his nose and walked towards. "What did you search? My father prided himself to have one of the best collections besides the libraries in Hogwarts and in the Ministry."
"I wanted to research about soulmates," Hermione answered with a light blush. Somehow it felt embarrassing to admit that she had taken an interest in something so… girly?
"Ha," Sirius let out a barking laugh, not unlike to a dog. "Well, you won't find anything about that here."
"Why is that? I thought it would be quite interesting to most witches and wizards."
"Yeah, but only to those who actually acknowledge soulmates as a real connection between two people. Most pureblood families rather like to ignore the soulmates and their own marks. They never actively try to find their own soulmates." Sirius frowned and his mind seemed to be somewhere far, far away.
"Sirius?" Hermione asked patiently after he hadn't talked for a few minutes.
"Oh, sorry," the man snapped out of his thoughts suddenly. "Unpleasant memories. Where was I? Ah, yes, purebloods don't care much for soulmates. Now, a bright witch like you surely wants to know why, and the reason is as simple as its stupid. You see, Hermione, every witch and wizard has a soul mark and therefore a soulmate. And there lies the problem. When everyone has it that means that everyone is the same. Equal."
"It means that purebloods aren't better than Muggleborns," Hermione whispered when realisation dawned.
"Smart girl," Sirius grinned. "You know, my mother always ranted on about how soulmates are only propaganda against purebloods. A sneaky attempt to try and pair us off with muggleborns and destroy pureblood society. My mother thought that the ministry wanted to mix us all in order to weaken the powerful old families. Of course, this is nonsense, but many purebloods still think like that. So they ignore their soul marks and soulmates because if they would search for their soulmate it would contain the danger of discovering something unpleasant."
"So, they're just ignoring the soul marks in order to maintain their blood purity? They sacrifice their own happiness for that?" Hermione asked in disbelief. She had always wondered why not everyone in the magical community was searching for their soulmate. She had always wondered why there were so many people not married to their soulmate when there was allegedly the perfect partner out there somewhere for you. And she had always wondered why the students of Hogwarts had no means to find their soulmate. It would be so easy to have a book with photos of the marks and everyone could search for their soulmate. The ministry could do something similar too. But now she understood.
It was a political decision, maintained by the old pureblood families. And with a large part of the community not willing to find their soulmate it made no sense for the rest to search. Because if your soulmate was a pureblood then your chances of finding him or her were almost zero. It was simply too frustrating to search a soulmate under these circumstances.
"You know, there are always exceptions. I have a cousin, her name is Andromeda, she's a few years older than me. When we grew up she was a well-behaved Black, like everyone expected. She was sorted into Slytherin and a lot of purebloods were interested in her. The day she left the family, it was shortly after her graduation, there was a family meeting. My uncle had planned to announce her engagement to some git but Andy had other plans. She loudly announced that she had found her soulmate and was going to marry him. You should have seen the face of my mother and uncle. The horror, the shock, the anger. They screamed at her, tried to threaten her, but Andy didn't sway. She had her things all packed up and left with not a second of hesitation. A week later the Prophet announced her marriage to muggleborn Ted Tonks and that was the day she was blasted from the family tapestry. Andromeda had always been my favourite cousin but after that, she became my personal hero." Sirius grinned at the memory. Hermione only stared at the finding aid in her hands. She didn't know what to make of this.
"Purebloods are stupid gits," Hermione finally murmured. The thought alone that someone decided against being with their soulmate just because of prejudice… In that very second, Hermione made the decision that she would tell Fred. Maybe he would laugh at her. Maybe he would not. But she would risk it.
"Sirius, how can you be sure that someone is your soulmate?" Hermione asked shyly.
"Easy, when the mark changes the second time. The first time is when soulmates touch each other. It's a bit unreliable but it helps sometimes. But the second time, well that's the important one. The mark only changes when both soulmates have seen each other's mark." Sirius grinned. "For reasons, I don't want to explain right now, James saw Lily's mark sometime during our second year. But the sappy git wanted to woo her properly before telling her. Well, when they finally started to date he chickened out again and again. So Remus and I ripped James off his shirt in the middle of the common room one day, so that Lily could see it. It was the most hilarious thing ever to seem them both blush while his soul mark changed. Lily almost ripped his head off for not telling her."
"So, it only changes when both have seen it but they don't have to see it at the same time? That's pretty unreliable too," Hermione huffed.
"Well, destiny doesn't like to be reliable or predictable, love." Sirius winked. "So, who is your soulmate?"
"Um," Hermione felt how her cheeks heated up.
"So, it's someone I know. Not Harry, maybe Ron?" Hermione shook her head vigorously. Sirius made a little humming noise. Hermione tried to show a blank face but the littlest twitch seemed to tell Sirius everything.
"Older, but not much? Ah yes, still a student? Aha, and I know him… Is it a boy? It is," Sirius grinned wolfishly. "Older boy still at school and I know him. Well, seeing as I don't know that many people, why don't you just tell me which of the twins it is?" Hermione glared at him, contemplating if she should deny everything. But seeing as she already made the decision to tell Fred, it was maybe good to get another opinion.
"You couldn't possibly have guessed it just like that," she huffed.
"No, I didn't. I saw you staring at them during breakfast," Sirius laughed again. "But I couldn't see which one of them you were staring at." Hermione blushed again when she remembered how she had stared at Fred during breakfast unwillingly. After her sleepless night, she had tried to get some kind of reaction from him. To see if the kiss had affected him at all. But Fred and George had joked as always and Hermione was none the wiser. Now her lips tingled again from the memory of the kiss.
"It's Fred," she finally admitted. Sirius let out a whistle but not in a mocking way.
"Pranking delinquent and muggleborn bookworm, quite a good combination if you ask me," he smiled warmly and the warmth spread through Hermione immediately.
"You don't think it's stupid? An unlikely match? We're so different…"
"Yeah, as were James and Lily. Being soulmates isn't about being similar or always having the same opinion, it's about completing each other. And for that you need differences." Without thinking about it Hermione crashed herself into Sirius' chest and hugged him tightly.
"Thank you," Hermione whispered into his robes. "That's exactly what I needed. I think I'm going to tell him now."
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Okay, I'm terribly excited! The next chapter will be a real changing point for the story and I hope you will like it. The slow burn will begin to burn more brightly but let me warn you, the full-grown fire will still take some time. As always, leave me a comment with your thoughts. Reviews (especially nice ones) are fueling my writing ;)
