A/N: Please read and review if you have a minute or two to spare!
Title: The day Lysander Scamander met Roxanne Weasley
Summary: Lysander has never felt like he belongs. And there's also that whole business with soulmarks and soulmates: he's pretty convinced will never happen to him. Unless… soulmate!AU
Word count: 1,314
Triggers/warnings: Bullying
Genres: Friendship, Romance
Characters: Lysander S., Roxanne W., OC
FOR HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
House: Ravenclaw
for assignment 3:
Subject/Task number: Etiquette/Task #1: Flaming write about someone insulting someone else
for august auction:
Day 14/Auction 2: soulmates: the first words your soulmate says to you are tattooed onto your skin
FOR ILVERMORNY SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
House: Wampus
for summer assignment #5:
Class/Task: Divination task #4 Omens write about a message turning the course of someone's life
Bonus prompts: NA
Lysander Scamander had never really felt like he belonged. He had an identical twin brother, but apart from their appearance, they didn't share much. Lorcan was almost obnoxiously independent and boisterous, so much that Lysander didn't really feel that much attachment to his twin. He also had two loving parents, but they were both so lost in their own world they never really understood him. After all, they had named him after a Shakespeare character, and made his first name rhyme with his family name. Surely it was universally acknowledged that having your two names rhyme was weird and instantly mark you out? Well, for Lysander, it sure did.
And then there was that whole funny business with soulmarks and all that. As if his life wasn't complicated enough without those. Soulmarks were said to have start appearing in the late 11th century, when the famous witch Ephredite the Experimenter had messed up a rather complicated love potion. Ever since that fateful day, wizards and witches around the world had the first words their soulmate ever spoke to them etched upon their skin. It was said to be utterly painless and appeared in random places all over the body. Which meant that if you went home to shower and found "Excuse me" in your back, it could easily be any random stranger who had bumped you in the street. Yep, soulmarks were funny that way.
Lysander didn't really believe he would ever meet his soulmate. Soulmates were for people who belonged.
A few months ago, Lysander had been sorted into Ravenclaw, like his mother. She had been exceedingly proud of him, but gave him all sorts of recommendations he couldn't possibly comprehend, his father always approving whatever she wrote just after in the letter. His mother and father were soulmates, and both had some strange words (nargles and of such) tattooed above their right eyebrow, adding to their comical appearances. It was painfully clear they belonged with one another, something Lysander didn't quite have.
And those same few months ago, he had immediately become the victim of the Ravenclaw resident mean girl: Anastasia Smith. She took pleasure in tormenting him, whispering nasty words in his ear, hiding his homework and slipping him cruel messages. The messages were the worst though, because they always seemed to come back, no matter how much he tried to destroy them. They always seemed to remind him how much he didn't belong.
But it wasn't really his fault he wasn't as clever or intelligent as the other Ravenclaws expected him to be. His dyslexia made it impossible to correctly read his assignments and he spent hours going over his essays to make sure there were no spelling mistakes, then often lacking time to complete other pieces of homework. Nevertheless, the cruel ways of Anastasia continued.
One day, when it was all too much, he sat down and cried on a window sill in the empty Divination tower. He had received a particularly hurtful message which always seemed to return to the fold of his school shirt collar whenever he wasn't looking.
"'You're too dumb to have a soulmate', seriously, if that's the best insult she's got she's not as clever as she thinks she is," the voice behind him startled him and he immediately got up and wiped his tears
"You really shouldn't cry because of her, she's not worth it." In front of him was a girl, and not just any old girl. It was a singularly beautiful girl, with ridiculously frizzy brown hair with soft golden tones and chocolatey warm skin. She was dressed in Gryffindor robes, but with the sleeves scrunched up to her elbows, her top two buttons undone, the tie barely made and one sock loosely pooling around her ankle.
He was so surprised at seeing her there he couldn't say a word, but only looked at her in amazement. He had already seen her around, and he knew they were in the same year.
"Hey, aren't you Lorcan Scamander's brother? I'm Roxanne Weasley. I'm in Gryffindor with him."
He could only nod, his mouth glued shut. Suddenly, fear overcame him, what if she thought he was the same as his brother?
"Though you look nothing like him," she added. He stared at her in puzzlement. Hadn't she seen that they were twins? And identical twins with that?
"Oh don't give me that look!" She laughed. "I know you're twins but you look so much kinder, so much sweeter. Lorcan is so bossy and annoying! I like you much better already."
Lysander just ogled at her in amazement as her blue eyes twinkled mischievously. "You know what, let's be friends! And you know what friends do? They help each other out."
She grabbed the piece of paper in his hands. "Goodbye ridiculous nonsense. My dad, you know, George Weasley, owner of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, taught me a couple of tricks." Roxanne quickly muttered a spell Lysander didn't know and the cruel message disappeared in a bunch of pink and blue fireworks.
The paper didn't reappear in his collar and Lysander gasped, absolutely flabbergasted. He desperately wanted to thank her, but his throats was still terribly dry.
"And the next thing to do is prove her wrong! You definitely aren't dumb, I've seen you in class and you're far cleverer than me, that's for sure."
Lysander tried to tell the girl she was wrong, that surely she was a lot more intelligent than what she thought but he still remained stubbornly muted. She only laughed at the desperate signs he was making. A such a beautiful laugh it was! Deep from the chest and loud and proud into the open.
"And about that stupid soulmate thing, I'll bet you any money you want that you'll find yours before that mean girl. She'll probably have to search far and wide to find someone who will tolerate her!" Roxanne declared.
He smiled at her and suddenly his throat felt clear again: "And you think anyone can tolerate me?"
She threw her hands up into the air. "Oh so you can talk! Of course people can tolerate you, I certain-"
Suddenly her eyes widened.
"Are you okay?" Lysander asked her hurriedly. Oh well, there it was. She had finally noticed how weird and bizarre he was. She surely would never want to speak to him again. He just wasn't meant to have friends…
"Ohmigod ohmigod ohmigod!" Roxanne shrieked, "Look at my wrist, look at my wrist!"
Lysander struggled to make out whatever was going on with her wrist, till he saw a fine line of words carefully wrapped around her wrist, like a delicate bracelet. He could make out the words 'anyone' and 'tolerate' in his own handwriting.
Realisation dawned upon him as he quickly grabbed his own wrist and unbuttoned his perfectly ironed shirt. There, black on white, were the words "'You're too dumb to have a soulmate', seriously, if that's the best insult she's got she's not as clever as she thinks she is", spiralling around his own wrist in ratty uneven handwriting.
"Ohmigod! We're soulmates! That's absolutely crazy!" Roxanne was continuously shrieking.
She drew him into a hug, and for once Lysander felt like he belonged.
And that's the story of how I met your mother!
And how you got your soulmark, daddy!
Yes! Actually, one day I should probably thank Anastasia Smith for what she did. If she hadn't given me that message, I might have never spoken to your mother.
And I wouldn't be born?
Nope, poppet, you sure wouldn't. Funny how one little message can change your like. And get tattooed on your skin forever.
Oh, I can't wait to get my soulmark.
All in due time, poppet. Now let's get you to bed, where you belong.
Noooo! I don't want to go to bed yet!
Don't make me say it twice!