Yo! In one of my other fics (I Welcome the Unwelcome), I mentioned I had a fem!Harry Snarry fic in the works. This isn't that fic. This one is actually basically practice. I thought I'd try something shorter and more basic, and see what the reaction is, before posting the other one I've mentioned. This one has nothing to do with any other fic, so you don't have to worry about not knowing what I'm talking about here.

This is a soulmate AU, that still follows canon in some parts, and totally diverts in others. This fic is of a Snarry pairing. There's also fem!Harry. Nothing mature will happen until Harry (Violet) is sixteen, which is the age of consent where I live. If that's still underage for you, then just make note of that. There will also be very little dialogue in the beginning, because I'm speeding through the early years. Fifth year is when the talking will start. Promise. Although I'm entirely aware that those who skip AN's are going to question whether there will be any dialogue or not, because they won't even see this at all. Also, chapters will be of various lengths.

Warnings: Mentions of child abuse-nothing detailed. Fem!Harry. Grey!Harry. Mentions of at least one slash pairing (Sirius/Remus). Other pairings are currently undecided, and will be mentioned once thought of. Also, if it isn't clear yet, soulmates.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters...

When Severus had learned of the concept of soulmates when he had been a child, he could distinctly recall thinking that it was utterly idiotic. Everyone, Muggle or Wizard, spoke of soulmates as if they were some sort of...miracle. That nothing better could possibly happen to a person after they met their soulmate-that it was the best thing-literally-ever.

Severus had watched everyone speak of soulmates so...so proudly. So happily. Those who succeeded in meeting their soulmates were all so incredibly pleased. Severus, even as a child, had thought they were all fools-all of them blinded by this sheer nonsense. There were far better things in life than devoting all one's time to some stranger they had never even met before, or barely even knew. And even the sheer joy everyone else seemed to feel was pure idiocy, in his mind.

His parents, after all, were soulmates too, and things between them couldn't have been more miserable. Watching what his parents had was the main reason Severus found himself so...against soulmates, even despite all the good, positive examples around him, at Hogwarts or not.

And he knew that wasn't logical, he truly did. Being against soulmates the way he was, would be like being against marriage just because one's parents divorced, although perhaps they weren't exactly the same. Regardless, he was entirely aware that it made no sense for him to be this opposed. But even when he began realizing that...

Severus liked Lily. She was a sweet girl, very bright and vibrant, but she was also very...explosive, very loud, very...abrasive at times. But he liked her. Didn't love. Just liked. There was a difference in his mind. Love was something he didn't care for. His father always told his mother that he loved her. But he always hurt her too. Hurt him as well. If what his parents had was love, Severus wanted no part in it. But he liked Lily. Even though she was often rather impatient with him. Even though she didn't understand why he thought the way he did, behaved the way he did, spoke the way he did. She was too happy to understand. But he still liked her.

And Lily had a soulmate. It was made obvious by a small mark on the inside of her left wrist, just where it was for everyone who had one. It was dark, like all marks, but was, unmistakably, a stag with a lily on its breast. Only matching mates had matching marks. So, somewhere out in the world, there was one person, and only one person, who carried the image of a stag with a lily on the inside of their left wrist, just like Lily Evans.

And that person wasn't Severus. But he wasn't upset. He was a little disappointed, yes, but not upset. It wasn't the end of the world that he and Lily weren't soulmates. That was okay. It was.

Not everyone had a soulmate, after all, and it wasn't as if life was terrible for those who didn't. Most just didn't mention it. Just kept it to themselves. And not everyone with a soulmate was fortunate enough to have that mate living at the same time as they were. Sometimes a person had a mate older than them, who died before them. Sometimes a person had a mate younger than them, who was born too late. Sometimes a person had a mate who didn't live in the same country as them. Sometimes a person had a mate who was of a different religion than them, and their families refused to allow them to meet. Sometimes a person had a soulmate who was of the wrong gender, and couldn't even be attracted to one another. Sometimes a person had a soulmate who was simply a terrible person they wanted to have nothing to do with. No one had any say in it. It was just something that happened, and people had to figure out how to deal with things themselves.

And since Severus didn't particularly care about having a soulmate, it didn't at all bother him that the inside of his left wrist remained bare. It didn't. Really. Besides, it was always possible his mate simply hadn't been born yet. He wouldn't get a mark until they were.

It didn't bother him even when he learned Lupin and Black were soulmates. It didn't bother him when Lucius and Narcissa turned out to be soulmates. It didn't bother him even when he found out that Lily's soulmate was Potter of all people. It didn't bother him. Not at all.

Okay, maybe it did bother him, but just a little. Just because it would have been nice to have someone even want to be somewhat close to him. Maybe because it would have been nice to have even one person just care. It didn't have to be Lily either. But the mark didn't appear.

He graduated from Hogwarts without one ever appearing, and ended up joining the Dark Lord, where he was quickly marked as a Death Eater. And maybe, maybe if he'd had a soulmate that wouldn't have happened, but he didn't, and it did.

And then everything changed.

A handful of years had gone by, Severus was now twenty, and still had no soulmate mark. But Lily was pregnant with Potter's-with her husband's child, and for some reason unfathomable to Severus, the Dark Lord was under the impression that this unborn child was the Prophecy Child. He wanted to kill the child, Potter, and Lily-wanted all of them gone.

Severus didn't at all care for Potter, but Lily and the child... The child hadn't done anything wrong, and Lily-she had, for a long time, been his only friend. He wanted her to live happily, and Potter, he was forced to grudgingly admit, made her happy.

So he tried to speak to the Dark Lord, tried to convince him that the child was no threat to him at all, tried, tried, tried. But nothing worked. The Dark Lord refused to listen. Didn't listen to anyone, in fact, which was really very odd, even to Severus. It was not like him to behave this way.

And during all this, during all the havoc, Severus suddenly discovered a mark on the inside of his left wrist. It was a flower he immediately recognized to be a violet, and in the centre was a small, somewhat indistinct shape that looked vaguely like a cauldron.

Severus had no idea when it had appeared, hadn't paid much attention to that spot recently at all, due to what was happening around him, and now that he had spotted it, had a difficult time looking away.

But he didn't have time for this. The Dark Lord's behaviour continued to change, continued to worsen. No one seemed to understand why he was suddenly putting so much stock into a prophecy when he had no care for any sort of Divination in the first place. But no matter what any of the Death Eaters, regardless of their seniority, said or did, the Dark Lord took no heed.

With no idea what else he could do, Severus went to Albus Dumbledore, who listened to everything he had to say. He vowed to protect the Potter family, and gave Severus the job as Potions Master at Hogwarts. Severus thought that would be alright. That Dumbledore, who cared so much for his precious Gryffindors, would make sure everything went well.

But he didn't. Because on Halloween-on Samhain, not all too long after, Severus felt his Dark Mark burn, pushed up his sleeve, and discovered that the mark had faded. It wasn't gone, no, but it had faded.

And just hours later Dumbledore came to him, and told him what had happened. The Dark Lord had gone to the Potter residence in Godric's Hollow. He had killed James Potter. He had killed Lily. And he had tried to kill their child, a girl whose name he vaguely recalled being told was Violet. But the Dark Lord had failed in his final attack. His Killing Curse had hit the child, but it had, for some reason no one quite understood, rebounded back on him. And now Lord Voldemort had been vanquished. Or so people were saying. Severus only needed to look at the Dark Mark on his left forearm to know the Dark Lord wasn't gone for good, and he honestly had absolutely no idea how he felt about that.

Though Dumbledore's expression and tone of voice had been sombre enough at delivering the news, there was something about his eyes...just something he couldn't put his finger on that had Severus raising his guard. Dumbledore's eyes made it seem like he was almost...pleased with what had happened. Pleased with the deaths? Pleased with the survivor? And Severus, who already had so many issues with Dumbledore, was positive at that very moment that he could never trust the old Headmaster. Because there was something definitely wrong here. He just didn't know what.

Potter was dead, Lily was dead, but their child... The child who was seemingly the cause of all this, appeared to be safe. Did that help him at all? No, not really. It didn't make things any better, but he supposed it was enough.

So he remained at Hogwarts, accepting Dumbledore's vague protection, glad it at least kept him out of Azkaban. He went on teaching, though it brought him little pleasure. Children didn't understand how delicate and precise potion making was, didn't understand how it could save or kill. They were too caught up in all that foolish wand waving, that any subject that didn't allow them to do that was a bore to them. Unnecessary.

He was strict-he needed to be to ensure they didn't kill themselves, but even he knew he was being too strict. He was lenient towards the Slytherins, too lenient if one were to ask other Houses, and unnecessarily harsh towards said other Houses, also according to them, but that wasn't quite true. People only saw what they wanted to see, heard only what they wanted to hear.

The Slytherins were the outcasts. Every member of the House of Snakes was treated in the same manner, whether they ever said or did anything wrong, or not. They were always treated not just coolly by members of other Houses, but harshly as well. Many Slytherins came from abusive households, not all, but enough that it was a problem nearly each year. They had too many expectations heaped upon them at home, and a different sort of expectation on them when they arrived at Hogwarts, so they retaliated and acted out. But Slytherins knew loyalty too. They were loyal to one another. They had to be, or else they would have no one they could trust. And that didn't excuse their behaviour completely. Severus didn't excuse their behaviour. He called them out, punished them as well, just not around the other Houses. But the Slytherins weren't the only ones who were harsh. The other Houses all had their own problems that they kept to themselves...

The years continued to pass. Severus never did manage to discover who his soulmate was. It wasn't a priority, he told himself, but nevertheless, he kept his eyes open, trying to spot someone who bore the same mark he did. He did this wherever he went, even when he travelled for Potions conferences, which wasn't all too often during the school year. But he never found them.

Eventually, an entire ten years had passed since the...incident. He didn't like thinking about it, but there were always reminders around him, and now, this year, there was a reminder of an entirely different manner.

Violet Potter had arrived at Hogwarts.

Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!