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Fred stared with wide eyes at the gold lettering as it appeared on his wrist. There was no way. Shit.
"Who is it then?" George asked, coming to bounce on his bed as Fred clamped his hand over his wrist.
"I can't tell you that," Fred said. "You know I can't tell you that. I can't tell anyone that."
George scoffed. "If they're really your soulmate they'll know that you tell me everything. And they'll be fine with it."
Fred rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Don't you think this is different?"
"No," George said.
"You're just lucky that Angie is older than you," Fred huffed.
Soulmates were a tricky thing and there was a weird sort of unofficial tradition with them. Because the oldest of the pair received their soulmate's name when that soulmate turned sixteen, it was up to them to befriend said soulmate for the year until their name appeared on their soulmate's wrist. It was a strange but often sweet way of getting to know someone before the expectation of romance was introduced.
The same unofficial tradition also involved keeping your soulmate's name to yourself, not even telling the person you were destined for. Occasionally, the oldest soulmate wouldn't even attempt to befriend the younger one if they felt like it would be detrimental to the relationship, usually with soulmates that had larger age gaps or deep-seated family feuds amongst other things.
"Come on," George said, staring at Fred emploringly. "Who is it?"
Fred scrunched his face up and groaned.
"That bad?"
Fred nodded. "I'm going to have to tell her," he said.
George gaped at him. "Fred, you can't do that," he said, shaking his head. "No one does that."
"Well, I'm going to have to," Fred said. "I can't not. With this particular witch, if I try to befriend her she'll likely think we're pulling some kind of prank, and if she ever believes we're not it'll take her ten seconds to figure it out," he muttered.
"So say nothing," George said.
"If I say nothing, a year from now she'll scream at me for saying nothing," Fred said.
George snickered. "Are you serious? You're soulmate is Hermione Granger?"
Fred whined and rubbed his hands over his face, knowing there was no point in denying it and so there was also no point in hiding it.
George whistled, Hermione's name shining brilliantly from Fred's wrist.
"Well, I wouldn't tell her today," George said.
"Why?" Fred frowned.
"Because its obviously her birthday," George said, rolling his eyes. "I'm not saying that it'll ruin it, but you're probably best off waiting until tomorrow at least."
Fred sighed and then nodded. "Yeah, probably."
"I still can't believe you're going to tell her," George muttered.
"Wouldn't you?" Fred said.
"No." George shook his head and then shrugged. "But then, maybe that's why I'm not her soulmate."
Fred chuckled and groaned again, throwing a pillow over his face as George just laughed at him.
...........................
The next day, Fred looked everywhere for Hermione. He asked Harry and Ron where she might be and got given dubious looks by the pair of them. It took a lot for him to convince them that he wasn't seeking her out for nefarious reasons. Finally, they told him she was likely in the library.
Fred found her hidden away behind several stacks of books in what looked like her very own little den. He'd be surprised if Madam Pince even knew about this forgotten corner of the library.
Hermione gaped at him in shock when he sat down, his gaze fixed firmly on her.
"I've been looking for you everywhere," he said.
Hermione instantly narrowed her eyes. "Why?" she asked, her voice both cautious and curious all at once.
"Because there's something I need to talk to you about," he said.
"I will never condone you testing your products on first years," Hermione said, folding her arms and staring stubbornly at him.
"If it makes you feel any better, George and I test them on ourselves a lot before we ever give them to anyone else," Fred argued, easily losing sight of why he'd come to find her in the first place.
"Amazingly, it doesn't," Hermione drawled sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.
Fred growled in frustration. "Do you have any idea how infuriating you are?"
"If it's even half as much as you, then you've got it easy," she clapped back.
Fred shot her a flat look. "And what if its more?"
Hermione winced. "Then I'd just give up while you still can."
Fred whined, mostly in amusement, and dropped his head on the table, his arms outstretched above his head.
After a few quiet seconds, Hermione cleared her throat. "Are you disappointed its me?" she asked.
Fred slowly rolled his head to the side so he could look at her. "No," he said. "It makes a frustrating amount of sense." He paused for a moment and then said, "are you disappointed it's me?"
Hermione shook her head, her curls tumbling around her shoulders. "No. It does make sense."
"How did you know?" Fred asked. "How did you know that's what I wanted to talk to you about?"
Hermione shrugged. "I was sixteen yesterday. And it's literally written on your wrist. It doesn't look like you've even tried to hide it."
Fred frowned and sat up, staring at the skin where Hermione's name sat. "But, I glamoured it..."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Glamours don't work on soulmarks. At least, not for more than a few minutes. Maybe half an hour, at most."
Fred scrunched his face up and put his hands over his eyes. "Shit. I'm sorry. I was supposed to break it to gently you-"
"You weren't supposed to break it to me at all, you were supposed to either say nothing or try and make friends with me," Hermione huffed.
Fred gave her a flat look. "I'm your soulmate, Granger. There's no point in pretending you'd have taken either of those things well."
Hermione narrowed her gaze and then sighed in defeat. "No. I wouldn't."
Fred smirked softly at her. "I took one look at your name and I knew I had to tell you. Do you know how many wizarding traditions I've broken doing that?"
Hermione scoffed. "Do you know how many wizarding traditions I've broken just by existing?"
Fred laughed. "Fair point."
"What did George think?" Hermione asked, a smirk of her own plastered across her face.
"I didn't tell him, I swear!" Fred said, looking incredibly guilty as he pleaded with her to believe him. "He figured it out after-"
"After you told him you were going to tell me," Hermione said, nodding. "What did he think?"
Fred shrugged. "Same as me. That it makes perfect sense." He smiled at her, his eyes shining in amusement. "The prefect and the prankster..."
Hermione groaned and rolled her eyes, dropping her head on the table much like Fred had earlier. "I am never going to live this down," she hummed into the wood.
Fred snickered. "I don't suppose there's any perks to being the soulmate of a prefect?"
Hermione shot him a disapproving frown, and then her expression smoothed out and she got a mischievous look in her eye. "I don't suppose there's any perks to being the soulmate of a prankster?"
Fred eyed her cautiously but curiously, much like she'd done when he'd come and sat in front of her in the first place. "What do you have in mind?" he asked.
Hermione grinned. "No testing products on first years and I'll give you the prefect schedule," she said.
Fred chewed on his lip as he contemplated that. "What about second years?"
Hermione shook her head. "Third years," she offered.
Fred nodded and held out his hand, smiling widely. "Third years and above, and I get a prefect schedule," he said.
Hermione shook his hand. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."
Fred laughed and eagerly accepted the copy of the prefect schedule Hermione made him.
"Please don't tell anyone I gave you this," she muttered. "They'll have my head."
"On my honour, I swear no one will know that I have it, and if they ever find out, I promise I'll never tell them it was you," he said.
"Thanks."
Fred took a quick look at the schedule before his eyes flicked back down to his wrist. He ran his thumb along her name, glistening gold, and sighed. "I'm going to have to get some kind of bracelet or band to cover this up," he said, mostly to himself as he thought out loud.
"Why?" Hermione said. "I already know. What's the point in covering it up?"
Fred looked at her in astonishment. "Because everyone else will know."
"Fred, the minute we start being civil to one another, they'll know," she said, chuckling at the shocked look on his face.
"Its just not done," he said, shaking his head. "I know what you're saying but, it's unheard of. To wear a soulmark so nonchalantly like that, before your soulmate is seventeen...its...it would cause mass hysteria."
"I thought mass hysteria was your thing," Hermione said, pinching her lips together as she looked at him innocently.
Fred took one look at her doe eyes and curbed amusement, and his stomach dropped. She really was his equal, his match, in every way.
"You don't want me to cover it up," he said.
Hermione winced, a guilty look stealing over features as she shook her head. "No, I don't. I quite like the idea of you wondering around school basically branded as mine."
Fred gaped at her. "It means the same on your end. You're mine, too."
"I know," she said, and then showed him her blank wrists. "Or so we hope."
"Granger!" Fred cried, absolutely stunned and yet wildly amused and also a little bit turned on. "D'you want to go on a date?"
Hermione laughed and then nodded.