Soulmates

Chapter One- Soulmates

Soulmates are rather strange, aren't they? The person you're destined to be with; the love of your life; the one you will adore forever. Sometimes you might think that you've met your soulmate, but no, you haven't. Sometimes you don't realise that you're soulmate is literally the person sitting right next to you. How do people manage to end up with their soulmates, if they don't know who they are?

See, this is a muggle problem. Wizards don't have to worry about that. Muggles can go from person to person wondering if they've found their soulmates or not, but not wizards. All wizards have to do is see if the drawings on their own arm matches those that are on their partners. If they match, soulmates. If not, go find someone else. Sometimes people have more than one soulmate, but it still works the same way. However, not everyone has a soulmate.

Wizards have a way of telling. It's really quite simple. All you have to do is draw a heart on the back of your right hand, and the outline of it will change from whatever colour it was to a specific colour. This colour determines whether or not you have a soulmate. If you do, it will have a red outline, and if you don't, it will have a green outline. If it has a red outline, the next thing that happens is that the heart will fill itself with a colour. This one will determine how many soulmates you have. No wizard has more than three soulmates, and to have three soulmates is quite a rare occurrence. If you have one soulmate, it the inside of the heart will go blue, if you have two, it will go purple, and if you have three, it will go pink. The next and final thing to show up, is a circle around the heart. This will determine the gender/s. If it's a boy, the circle will go orange, for a girl, the circle will go brown, and for both, it will go grey. If you don't have a soulmate because you're aromantic, after the outline goes green, the heart will fill with white. If you don't have a soulmate because your soulmate died, the heart will immediately fill with black. 

If you had two soulmates, but one of them died, half of the heart will turn purple, and the other half black. If you had three soulmates, and one of them died, two thirds of the heart will be pink, and one third will be black. If you had three soulmates, and two of them died, one third of the heart will go pink, and two thirds of the heart will go black. 

That's how wizards tell who there soulmates are. They also have a way of communicating with them too- when a wizard writes (or draws, or tattoos, or scars, or cuts etc.) on their skin, it'll show up on their soulmate's skin in the exact same place. Let's say that a wizard draws a line on their wrist. This means that their soulmate will see a a line on their wrist that they know they didn't draw. The only things that don't show up are the heart when finding out about your soulmate, and those produced by magic. For example, if someone ends up with a scar because of a spell that went wrong, their soulmate won't get the scar, because magic was the reason behind it. 

Also, if a wizard and a muggle are soulmates, when the muggle draws on their skin, it'll show up on the wizards, but not the other way around. However, there is no actual way to determine whether your soulmate is a muggle or not before meeting them. 

*****

Draco always wanted to write on his arm. "No," Father would always say when he saw his son heading towards a quill without any parchment, "you mustn't draw on yourself, Draco. Soulmates do not matter. We have already arranged your marriage, and you will not argue it."

"But, Father," Draco would plead, "I would only like to have a friend to talk to. You and mother are always telling me to make friends."

"This 'soulmate' of yours will put dangerous ideas into your head; you'll fall in love with them, and we simply cannot have you ruining this marriage." Lucius would say.

Draco would continue to plead, only to be sent to his room by his father, where he would spend his time looking at all the markings on his arms that he knows he didn't put there.

*****

Harry didn't have much to do in his childhood. His relatives didn't seem to like him much but he couldn't understand why. He was left to entertain himself with his own devices. He was five when he discovered how fun it was to write all over his arms. He'd draw pictures; he'd write names; he'd write random phrases he heard during his day; he'd do pretty much everything he thought of doing on his arms. This is how Harry ended up spending the majority of his time at the Dursely's- in his room underneath the stairs, a pack of pens lying underneath his bed, one in his hand drawing on his arm. It drove his Aunt Petunia mad when she saw what a state he looked when he was forced to emerge.

"Oh my goodness, Harry! Go and wash that off right now! We can't have anyone coming here and seeing you like this! They might think you're actually our son! Go, now, and don't come back until it's all off!" His Aunt would usually cry out. 

Harry would head to the sink, sent there by his Aunt Petunia, where he would spend his time washing off his arm, knowing he will eventually cover his arms in ink once again.