chapter one
Fourth year; Triwizard tournament, first task.
“One only finds their soulmate in one case; if one watches their soulmate experience a near death situation, both of their wrists will burn with the pain of almost losing their fated half and a specific matching mark shall bloom on those wrists and bind them together, - unerased - until the end of the life of one of them, as one’s heart cannot beat without the other’s.”
-Wizarding Soulmate magic.
So you could understand Draco’s surprise when his wrist started literally burning him with pain while he was in the stands watching the first task of the Triwizard tournament, at the precise moment in which Potter was almost burnt to death by the dragon’s flames, Draco caught his own wrist and gritted his teeth to prevent himself from fucking screaming his lungs out. After a few seconds when the pain finally ceased he pulled his hand away to take a look at his wrist.
Draco’s eyes widened in horror.
He had a soulmark on his wrist.
It was a stag’s antlers with a snake wrapped around it in red and black ink.
Draco wasn’t just terrified by the prospect of having a soulmate.
The real problem was the fucking identity of that soulmate.
Draco had to see his soulmate in a near death situation to get such a mark, he had read that cursed book about it, and the only person he has just seen experience that is Potter, and not to motion that his mark has a stag’s antlers on it and it is a well known fact that Potter’s patronus was a goddamn stag.
fuck
The moment Harry caught the golden egg and was out of danger Draco got to his feet and dashed to the castle.
He had never run so fast in his life before.
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Because he was fighting a whole dragon, Harry tried not to pay attention to the pain in his wrist and he certainly didn’t notice the mark that had formed there. It was until he went to bed that night that he noticed it. He frowned at it, tried washing it away, tried literally every spell he knew but none of it worked.
He shrugged after a while, he would ask Hermione about it tomorrow.
He did not ask Hermione about it the next day. He tried, but whenever he almost did, he had that gut feeling that told him to do his own research in the library without telling Hermione any of it. Which is weird, because he always tells Hermione and Ron everything….. But again his gut feeling never failed him before, it even saved his life actually.
So Harry, in the end, decides not to tell his friends anything for the moment.
The library is huge, and Harry gets lost quite easily, he is looking for any book about marks randomly appearing on one’s body. But while he wonders in the library his mind is preoccupied with another problem; The second task, the egg did nothing but damage his hearing, he has to work it out quickly so he can have time to prepare well for it, the first task was freaking dragons after all-
Harry turns a corner and he suddenly dumps into someone.
A girl with raven black hair and ocean blue eyes wearing a green tie-
Daphne Greengrass, Harry knows that the hat had quite a tough time choosing between Slytherin and Ravenclaw for the pureblood girl.
“Sorry, didn’t see you there.” Harry says.
“Well Potter, the library isn’t the place I’d usually see you in either Potter.” Yup Slytherin was the right choice.
“I was searching for a specific book actually…” Daphne’s eyes sparkled at that response.
“What is it about? I could help you find it!”
“Out of the goodness of your heart?” Daphne snorted at that.
“No. If you weren’t a Gryffindor why not. But you are. So no, consider it a favor.” She smiled at him, waiting not so patiently for his answer.
Harry sighed. “Fine, I want a book about marks that could bloom on your body and cause you pain…” He didn’t want to share too much information, especially not with a Slytherin.
Daphne’s eyes immediately shoot up to his forehead, and he is quite grateful about it; It will stop any suspicious thought from rising. She then looked back at him and nodded before guiding him further into the library. She searched for a bit before letting out a satisfied sigh and taking a book for a shell, handing it to harry
wizarding magical marks: their meaning and reason of existence.
“There you go. You own me now.” She smirked before leaving him behind and exiting the library.
Harry laughed quietly, sat down and started reading. For the first hour Harry hasn’t found anything that was at the very least close to his situation. He thought about closing the book and continuing another time. Until his eye caught a very interesting chapter’s title.
Wizarding Soulmate magic.
Harry, filled with curiosity, decided to read just that chapter and leave after.
It’s not like it will change anything right?
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“Potter was searching for what!?” Draco hissed at Daphne, who told the whole encounterment to her friends as soon as she came back to the slytherin common room.
“A book about marks blooming into one’s body and causing pain.” She said, trying to repeat Potter’s exact words.
“It must be about that nasty scar he’s got on his forehead.” Blaise muttered loud enough for his friends to hear. Theo nodded in agreement.
“Yeah that must be it.” Pansy then concluded, suddenly the group heard a sharp gasp and turned their heads to see that it was Draco who made that noise.
They soon realized that he was full on having a panic attack.
Theo, who was quite accustomed to Draco’s episodes, quickly ran to the blond’s side without touching him, as he knew it would only make the situation worse. “Draco? Draco, it’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here, I’m here….” Theo trailed off, he was used to this kind of thing happening, but did it mean that he always succeeded in calming Draco down? No, as much as he hated it, he did not.
“Theo, I’m so fucked, shit, shit….” Draco kept cursing while shaking and barely being able to breathe.
“Draco- Draco for fuck’s sake breath, you will be fine, whatever happened, you will be fine because I’ve got your back okay? I’m right here.” Theo tried reassuring his friend as best as he could, and it seemed to work. Draco was slowly calming down and collecting himself. by that time they were both on the floor, having their friends form a circle around them and trying to help Draco too, well at least as much as they could.
After the incident, Draco refused to elaborate on why the hell he had a panic attack. Draco was usually a collected and impassive person especially about his personal feelings, him breaking down so hard concerned his friends, the reason behind it had to weigh him highly, so naturally the helpless fourth years went to their head of house telling him everything in hope that the scary man could do something about it.
That night, Draco, exhausted and emotionally drained, found himself in his godfather’s office.
“Draco.” Snape greeted drily, eyeing his godson closely.
“Professor.” Draco replied unfazed, he was used to the man’s cold tone after all these years.
“Drop the act Draco, we both know you cannot fool me as you do your friends.” Snape snapped, unable to keep his fury at bait anymore.
Draco immediately collapsed on one of the sofas, suddenly looking paler than usual.
“What in Merlin’s name happened to you child.” The potion master spat waving his wand at Draco, running some tests no doubt.
“Had the most exhausting day of my life?” The blond replied coldly.
“Why?” His godfather pressed, clearly displeased by the boy’s unwillingness to elaborate on that.
“Please, Severus, if you care just a little bit about me. Let me go back to my dorm because I do not want to talk about it.” Draco pleaded, he just wanted to sleep at this point. And he is well aware of his godfather’s stubbornness.
Snape seemed reluctant at letting him go just yet, but after deliberating for what felt like a decade he finally let the younger slytherin go back to his dorm with a warning that their conversation was not over yet. And by the man’s stern tone Draco knew not to fuse about it.
The exhausted boy slept as soon as he reached his bed. Praying for this day to be but a mere nightmare.
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It took a few weeks for the Slytherins to finally drop the subject of Draco’s panic attack to the blond’s huge relief, the last thing he wanted was for the rumor to spread that the prince of Slytherin had a fucking panic attack. He needed to keep his emotions and feelings at bait, carefully protected behind his Ice Prince mask. And it worked, everything was back to normal.
Almost…….
The Yule ball was announced and Snape was very explicit in his warning to not bring shame upon the silver and green house during that special night. To Draco it was the perfect excuse to not return to Malfoy Manor; As much as he missed his mother, he still wasn’t in the right mood to confront his father.
“Will you go to the ball with me princesse?” Draco asked his childhood friend Daphne Greengrass. They were in the Slytherin common room in front of the fireplace, just the two of them.
“Why ask me and not Pansy, darling?” She asked, a puzzled look on her face.
“Because I am closer to you than her, you know things she doesn’t, therefore you understand me better and how this proposal is merely friendly without any delusional romantical motives.” He answered simply.
“Well, I guess it will be beneficial for me and will get my parents off my back for a while if I go to the ball with the Malfoy heir, Prince of house Slytherin.” She said mockingly but smiling at her friend all the same.
Draco grinned, he knew he could always count on Daphne.
“Thanks Daphne.” The blond said softly
“Anything for you Draco.” The ocean eyed girl responded as softly as him.
“There you both are!” Pansy Parkinson said loudly as she entered the common room with Theodore and Blaise close behind.
“What were you talking about?” Blaise asked curiously.
“Draco asked me to go to the ball with him.” Daphne answered and Pansy visibly stiffened at the response.
“I’m not interested in anyone at the moment so I thought going with Daphne as friends would be for the best.” Draco added, his eyes clearly on Pansy, making sure the biggest gossip girl in the school understood.
“Oh, yes it makes sense!” She finally said instantly understanding the situation.
“Well, I guess me and Theo need to start looking for dates soon.” Theo screwed his nose in distaste at the prospect; at fourteen, he is still very uncomfortable talking to girls, having to ask one to be his date for a ball is a very displeasing task to him.
“Good luck with that.” Draco snorted, he himself was lucky to have Daphne, talking with the girls in his own house was not something he particularly enjoyed.
He had a date for the ball, now all he had to do was to survive the blasted night in which Potter would - of course - be a main character.
And deep down Draco knew that he would come to fail doing such a simple thing.
Potter was always good at ruining his plans anyway.