2300 words, by google docs

Angelina's born with Fred traced on her hip, in perfect calligraphy, and it's basically a curse. She looks it up on her father's laptop once and it's a surprise to her: there's not actually that many Freds in the United Kingdom. Still, it seems like such an ordinary name. How is she supposed to know if, when she meets a Fred, it's her Fred?

So Angelina keeps it hidden away, figuring that she'll find her soulmate eventually. Just not now.

…

It happens in her first year, which is way faster than she was expecting.

"Hi, I'm Fred Weasley," he says, his hair messy and his grin lopsided. Angelina almost tells him, right then and there, that he might be her soulmate.

But then a boy who looks identical to him sits on her other side and says, "Hi, I'm George Weasley." He has the same messy hair and the same lopsided grin and something in her tells her that these boys will rain down hell onto her.

So she waits to say anything about the tattoo on her hip.

…

Lee asks her out in their third year and she accepts. It's weird and it's awkward and she knows that she's probably too young to be going out with anyone, but Lee's nice and her friend.

She knows that Lee isn't her soulmate, but he seems smitten with her and she's starting to wonder if she could be his soulmate but he isn't hers. Does that happen? She can't bring herself to break his heart, though. Maybe that's her greatest weakness. Maybe she'll never learn how to break Lee's heart and they'll end up together and she'll be unhappy and she'll never be with Fred, even if Fred Weasley isn't her Fred and she'll have to live the rest of her life wondering what could've been and—

Aren't Gryffindors supposed to be brave?

They are, she decides, and so she sits Lee down and tells him:

"I don't think we're right for each other."

"What?"

In that one word, Angelina can her his heart break, over and over and over again and her own heart is in pain and she thinks, for a second—screw it all, screw soulmates, screw her Fred, screw it all—but then she remembers that soulmates are supposed to make her happy. She wants to have pure happiness with Fred.

"I can't do this anymore," she tells Lee, her hand going to her hip, where Fred is still scrawled.

Lee blinks quickly but nods.

"So that's it?"

"Yeah," she says, not sure what else to say. She's never done this before. She didn't realise how hard it was.

Lee nods again before getting up, stiffly, and walking away. A minute passes before Angelina gets up too, walking away.

She leaves her heart there, in pieces.

…

"Stop shifting your dress, Ange."

Angelina sighs as Alicia swarms around her, making sure her hair and her dress and her makeup and everything is in place. Honestly, Angelina thinks that Alicia is more invested in her date to the Yule Ball than her.

She is excited, though! It's with Fred. Maybe tonight will be the night where she finally gets the words to tell him a fact that's she's not sure is a fact: they're soulmates.

"Are you going to tell him?" Alicia asks once she deems Angelina's outfit good enough.

Angelina rolls her eyes. She had to tell Alicia about her tattoo because Alicia has an obsession. She wasn't born with one herself so she takes pleasure in meddling with other people's soulmates.

"I don't know, Alicia. Probably not," she admits. She's still scared that his doesn't match hers. That she's not his soulmate.

"I'm expecting you to have a boyfriend by the end of the night!"

Angelina rolls her eyes, getting up and shifting her dress one last time.

…

"Hey, I have something to tell you," Angelina says, taking a deep breath. There's no time like the present, right? She's a Gryffindor. She can do this.

"One second," Fred says, something glittering in his eyes. "I'm going to get us more butterbeer."

He breaks apart from her, going to the refreshments table, taking her courage with him, and grabbing a couple of drinks. Angelina scans the room and spots Alicia looking at her, grinning.

Alicia nods at her, excited, but Angelina shakes her head with a little sigh.

She can't do it.

"What were you saying?" Fred says, returning and handing her a drink. She stares at his arm, where his dress robes' sleeve have gotten slightly pushed up. She realises with a start that she's never seen his arm before. It must where his soulmate is marked.

She can see an 'A' and an 'N' and is that a—

Fred pushes down his sleeves before she can tell what the third letter is. Something flutters inside of her and tells her that is was a 'G'. Still, she doesn't know for sure if she did see a 'G' and even if she did, there are plenty of names that start with 'ang'. It's probably not her.

"Nothing, nevermind," she says, giving him a smile as her heart plummets. He raises a single eyebrow, but then shrugs it off.

"Want to dance some more?" The request is nice, but she feels queasy from overthinking who his soulmate is. Maybe she should've told him but she can't bring herself to form the words.

"I'm going to head out, actually, Fred," she says instead. She knows that Alicia will murder her for leaving without having Fred as her boyfriend. "Thanks for tonight, though."

With that, she starts walking towards the entrance, her chest a gaping hole.

…

Fred kisses her and her heart explodes. And then her head explodes because—

Does this mean I'm his soulmate? Are we meant to be? Why is he kissing me now? Has he always had such soft lips? What is happening?

She's the one to pull away, blinking hard.

"Oh," she says, she doesn't know what else to say. What do you say to that? She swears, if Fred did it for some type of joke, she will rip his tongue out because he's supposed to be her soulmate and she can't take something like that happening to her and—

"We're leaving Hogwarts." Fred's statement pulls her out of her thoughts with a hard slap. She isn't sure she heard right.

"Leaving Hogwarts?" she echoes. It's too much. Fred's too much. He kissed her and he's going to leave and she's going to be alone? She needs to tell him. She doesn't know how to tell him.

"George and I. We're leaving. Soon."

Angelina's heart sags. Maybe she's just tired; it's almost near N.E.W.T.s and she's been straining herself, studying non-stop. Her brain is too full. She just wants everything to stop, just for a moment.

"You're leaving," she repeats, unable to form her own words. She's too shocked to try. Why is Fred telling her all of this? "Am I going to see you again?"

Fred hesitates and Angelina already knows the answer—that's it. Their relationship is over. Unless she tells him…

"We're opening a shop on Diagon Alley," he tells her, finally. "Come and visit and hopefully you will."

Angelina swallows hard. This sounds too much like a goodbye, but then again, she reminds herself, it is a goodbye… "Hopefully," she says, meaning it.

…

Angelina's head hurts and she can only think about Fred. Fred has consumed her thoughts, consumed her life. He makes her head pound and her heart ache and one afternoon, while making her and Alicia food in their tiny kitchen, she puts down the spoon.

"Are you okay, Ange?" Alicia asks. Angelina supposes that she must've frozen in her place, but she's done. She done obsessing over someone who's not with her. She's done waiting for him to come to her. She needs to go to him, she realises, because they're in a war and she needs her soulmate by her side.

"Ange?" Alicia repeats, standing up and waving a hand in front of Angelina. Angelina juts her head out.

"I need to see Fred," she says, her heart tugging are her vocal chords, telling her exactly what to say.

"You need to see Fred," Alicia repeats, slowly. Angelina nods, and maybe it's her heart controlling her again, but that's all she knows. She only knows Fred and how much she needs to see him—before they both die. Alicia pats Angelina's shoulder and maybe she says something, too, some words of encouragement, but Angelina doesn't hear anything because all she can think of is Fred. Fred's been consuming her thoughts lately, but now it's all she can think. He's so close…

Diagon Alley, when she gets there, is all dark. There are only one or two shops open, but one shop in particular is a huge beam of light. Angelina's heart feels fuller just looking at it. Weasleys' Wizards Wheezes. This is it. She's about to get her soulmate.

Finally.

She walks through the door, causing it to give a little ring, and spots Fred at the front desk. She's so sure it's Fred because her heart seems to be pulling towards him. It's almost painful.

"Angelina," Fred says, his voice cracking as if he hasn't used it in days. Angelina smiles because despite everything, there's Fred. She's allowed to smile, with him.

"Fred," she says, moving closer. She's not even walking anymore, her heart making her glide across the floor to him. She doesn't even know what she's doing but she grabs his face in her hands and make their lips collide.

"You came and visited," Fred says, pulling away after way too short. Angelina's heart is screaming, hungry for more, but she pushed it down and replies:

"How could I stay away?"

She can see Fred take a deep breath and it's nice to know that she's not the only nervous one here, that he's scared too. Her heart is about to jump out of her chest.

"Do you—?" Fred says. He's breathing so hard that Angelina can almost feel his breath. "Do you want to go upstairs?" And that question is so, so tantasing.

"Lead the way."

…

Angelina doesn't know what she's doing. She doesn't know why she kissed Fred, why she talked to him, why she agreed to go to his bed with him. What if everything is all wrong? What if this isn't her Fred?

She doesn't know what to say. Anything would be ideal because the silence is awkward and almost pounding in her ears. She wants to bring up soulmates but there's no smooth way to say it, so she just waits. She's done being in charge. For once, he'll make the first move.

"You know, soulmate tattoos can fade," Fred says after a bit, breaking the ear-splitting silence.

"Really?" She says. What is she supposed to say to that? What is the proper response here? Is he trying to tell her that Angelina used to be his soulmate but know she isn't?

"Yeah," Fred continues, breathing hard. "Apparently if you soulmate dies, or is near death, it could disappear. Seamus, when he was younger was almost killed by his dad. George's tattoo nearly faded. We had no idea what was going on, but it eventually came back, stronger and darker. Now, though—" Fred's voice cracks and Angelina's heart breaks. It breaks for Fred's brother and it breaks for Seamus and it breaks for Hogwarts, the place that was he second home. Now though what kind of home is it?

"Interesting." Apparently Angelina can't get out more than one word. Her brain is having difficulty thinking of anything to say and she's pretty sure that if she even comes up with a response she won't be able to get the words out. Her mouth's as dry as the desert. Fred places a single hand on her arm softly and Angelina is so hyper-aware of every touch that she's wondering if Fred is aware, too, and if he can feel the goosebumps forming on her arm, going up to her shoulder and making everything feel prickly.

"Do you—?" she asks, the words getting stuck in her throat. She hopes he knows what he means because if he doesn't she can just imagine the awkwardness.

"Only if you—" he responses, cutting himself off too and shifting closer to her. The hairs on her body seem to be pointing towards him, wanting their bodies to crash together and just do it already.

"I do," she tells him. It takes everything not to laugh because they're in the middle of a war and they're thinking about…

And then Fred presses his lips onto hers and the thought flies out of her mind because her mind goes blank. There is no war, there is no outside world, there is just this bed and her and Fred, nothing else.

She almost can't stand it when he pulls away. She stays laying down for a bit, before Fred turns on the lights. Sitting up, she can see something small and gold in his hands.

"What is it?" she asks, peering at the object before it hits her. "Is that—?" It must be: the galleons they used in their seventh year, for Dumbledore's Army. Angelina is sort of impressed that Fred still has his but she has no time to marvel at that fact; Fred looks up at her with pure terror in his eyes. Something bad has happened and Angelina can't stop the panic rising in her.

"The battle is starting," Fred whispers. "Get changed. We need to go to Hogwarts."

…

Angelina checks, after the war is over and Fred is gone, but it's faded on her hip, barely visible.

She was right.

for:

auction [angelina]

couple appreciation [love]

film festival [2]

unicorn day [courage]

scavenger hunt [less than 50 fics in archive - fred/angelina - 21 at time of posting]

writing club [character appreciation - angelina (bonus 5 for using fred and george); disney - "any day spent with you is my favorite day. so today is my new favorite day"; amber's attic - 10 (bonus 5); showtime - take a letter miss jones; lyric alley - 20; aaa - this ain't no normal radio show; sophie's shelf - laura]

egg hunt [30]

bingo [20]

easter basket [glue]