Harry didn't really understand a bit about the Soul Mate shit that apparently only happened when you're a wizard.

That was the part that made wizards nervous and contemptuous of muggles too. Their lack of soul mate marks. It made some of them think that maybe muggles didn't have it because they didn't have souls.

Harry really didn't understand what the big deal was though.

It apparently appeared after one's fifteenth birthday, which made everyone really nervous and somehow excited during the Yule Ball in fourth year, because what if you asked the wrong person?

He'd heard about the marks bringing two people so different but giving them the kind of everlasting happiness that everybody craved. There were couples that argued all the time and couples that were sweet. The one thing common on all the information about soul mates was the everlasting love and happiness bit.

Initially, it was something that interested him. It had something to do with human nature and the idea that no matter what you were destined to do, or where you were destined to go, someone was made for you.

What they didn't mention was what would happen if someone's soul mate rejected them, or a soul mate that was too focused on something else. They whispered about couples that weren't soul mates getting married like it was a taboo.

Like the Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, because her's rejected her and his died early. And they were treated as improper and their children were shunned.

Harry hated it.

The Weasley's were the ones who were kind to him. No matter their parentage, they were still nice people with hearts of gold.

Angelina Johnson's soul mate was Oliver Wood and he was the sort that was so involved in Quidditch that it consumed him, leaving nothing else. Harry had only seen Angelina cry once and that was when Oliver told her he wasn't planning on marrying.

Fred's soul mate was his twin and it was another taboo. Because apparently, all soul mates are supposed tomarry and they were siblings.

What happened to platonic love?

So Harry decided, after the war was over, he would leave the wizarding world, where he would no longer have to cover up his mark that read, in a curling, beautiful script since he woke up when he was fifteen, "Charming Bastard".

He had all the love from his friends and the echoing, all encompassing love from his parents and Sirius and Remus.

He didn't need the eternal love of a soul mate, or the drowning, addicting love of true love. He was fine by himself.

He wasn't incomplete, like some books claimed.

He wasn't one half of a whole. He was Harry and if he could manage to defy dying from Voldemort's wand, he could defy needing another person to feel happy.

He was happy now.

.

Hermione felt awful about hers.

Her soul mate was fine and it helped that both of them started off as friends. It didn't help though that her birthday came before his and he started dating that harpy and she had to endure it mostly in silence because it just generally described him.

'Red-haired Chess Master' could have meant anybody in the country with red hair and a penchant for beating people in wizard's chess. But Hermione knew, in her heart of hearts, that it denoted Ron.

That was the annoying thing about the entire business about soul mates. None of the books she referenced could properly describe the all encompassing awareness. It wasn't love yet. Not for her. She didn't love him that way and trying to explain it to her mum via letters was like explaining colors to a blind person.

It was supposed to feel wonderful, brilliant and like a feather-light charm lifting you up to the clouds.

Nobody ever told her about the soul-wrenching agony of watching him kiss another woman. It made no effing sense since she didn't like him that much. Not yet. There was no feeling beyond platonic friendship.

And then, as if it wasn't bad enough, she started to notice things.

Like how he thoughtfully shushed people when Harry had a headache, how he pushed a reference book closer to her when he thought she wasn't looking to help her with her essays. Or him sometimes making a plate for her when she was too deep in her book and had no time.

It was the little things and the silent way he did his good deeds, not expecting to be thanked, that made her love him.

And it hurt even worse.

Harry, whose birthday came last, was a sympathetic shoulder to cry on.

He didn't complain when she cried or when she ambushed him on the stairs for a bracing hug before entering the Gryffindor Common Room, where Ron was inevitably snogging Lavander Brown.

Hermione didn't understand what the girl's deal was either. Everybody in the dorm knew she had her own fifteenth birthday. The curling marks on her didn't even say anything about Ron. Hermione's mark was more conclusive than Lavanders.

"Golden Hearted Pureblood"could denote anyone in Hogwarts that was pureblooded. The golden hearted bit was subjective.

Hermione suffered and kept silent. She mostly cursed her mark for being so vague. Maybe it could have spelled out, "Red-haired, sixth son"or something.

Her other companion's, surprisingly, were Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley.

Ginny, who suffered the mixed hope and despair of what if her marks spelled out "Green eyed hero"or something.

Luna was a comfort for both of them. Her philosophy of soul mates ought to be put into a book. Hermione vowed to do it once she had the time to do it.

"Magic tells us who is most compatible to us," Luna told them. It was the most solemn they had ever seen the girl. "You don't have to fall in love with them. You can even marry someone else."

Ginny, whose parents were shunned in polite society and had had to suffer being shooed out of establishments, shuddered at the last bit.

"No," Ginny said slowly. "If I can't stand my soul mate, I'm not marrying them or anyone else."

And then Ron had his birthday in an hospital and the words on his throat read, "Curly-haired Bookworm'. Everyone gave her a knowing look once she broke down crying.

Things were awkward though. Not perfect.

Sometimes, Hermione would catch herself thinking that the entire business of soul mates made things harder than necessary.

Wizards were weird. Why couldn't they just treat the thing like a guideline, not a rule?

Hermione was with Harry on that one.

.

Might be forever incomplete. Dunno where I'm going with this one. Ideas are welcome at tumblr.