Prologue
Soulmates are a rare thing in the wizarding world. Almost everyone had them but very few actually found them. One of the first things you learn about soulmates is that your soulmate is your perfect match in every way and meeting your soulmate is a blessing from Lady Magic herself. In some very rare cases where one soulmate was significantly older than their other half, the older one would stop ageing until they met their soulmate. To identify their soulmate one has to touch them as the moment you touch your soulmate their name appears somewhere on your body. That is also one of the main reasons why many wizards and witches avoid touching each other skin to skin. They wear gloves outside of their home until they have found their other half. Touching somebody without their permission is punishable in wizengamot.
The majority of those who cover their skin are purebloods and halfbloods. The reason for that is that while they are taught how precious soulmates are, they are also taught that it is dangerous to have other people knowing about your soulmate before you are ready. As in multiple times in wizarding history wars have started over people using other’s soulmates to their advantage and in many cases one soulmate has been used to hurt the other.
Most muggleborns don’t cover their skin as they believe in the freedom to love whomever and not in having predestined partners given to them by somebody else. That might also be why most of those who don’t have a soulmate tend to be muggleborns.
All this is why the 11 year old Tom Marvolo Riddle didn’t think it was possible for him to have a soulmate. He had lived his whole life in the Wool’s orphanage and he always knew that he was special. When he was young he was exorcized by some priests that the orphanage matrons had hired due to their belief that little Tom was possessed by demons. Strange things happened around him all the time, one time after some kids beat him and he got so angry that if you looked closely you could see the air crackling like electricity. The next thing he saw was all three of the boys who beat him, on the floor screaming. Luckily the matrons weren’t around or he would have been in trouble.
When Dumbledore delivered his Hogwarts letter he was surprised, but not shocked as he had already figured out that he had magic, how else would he explain all the things that he could do. Tom remembers clearly asking Dumbledore about his gloves which, like everyone about Dumbledore that day, were covered in patch stars. Dumbledore's answer however is something that was going to haunt him for the next 40 years. After explaining soulmates to him and telling him about how amazing they are, Dumbledore coldly said “But you don’t have to worry about soulmates, you don’t have one as you are just a muggleborn”.That devastated young Tom because he had already begun fantasising about having someone who would love only him. But when Tom looked at the professor, anger replaced the sadness quickly. He looked genuinely happy about the fact that Tom won’t have a soulmate, he was humming to himself and sucking on the candy he had offered Tom earlier. If you asked Tom that was probably the moment he decided that he hated Albus Dumbledore.
That sentence haunted him all throughout his Hogwarts years, he saw his allies (cough friends cough) finding their soulmates and being happy, while knowing he could never have that. What drove it really home for him that he was unloveable, was when he discovered that he was conceived under the effects of the amortentia potion. People conceived under the effects of that potion have an 85/100 chance of not being able to feel emotions much less love.
By the time he discovered that he was the heir of Slytherin and technically a halfblood, he was 25 and all but given up on the idea of love. He didn’t think it mattered because nothing had given him any indications that he could have a soulmate and if it wasn’t with somebody destined to be with him then he didn’t want love. While many had pointed out that he hadn’t aged past 20, Tom didn’t even consider that to be because of a soulmate. You see he had accidentally made a horcrux in his 7th year of Hogwarts while playing with Hel the basilisk and reading a book on rituals. Luckily he only killed someone's cat, though it was nearly that Ravenclaw Warren who was just around the corner snooping in other people's business as usual.
After returning from his travels around the world at 27 years old Tom had decided to go the politician route instead of his first plan of being the Dark Lord. After seeing the world he deemed the Dark Lord route a little too extreme, though it wasn’t completely off the table, he was trying to save the wizarding world and its traditions from mudbloods and their sympathisers who were trying to change the olde ways of magic and dishonour Lady Magic, not annihilate the whole british magical society . Tom chose the politician route because the wizarding world would not survive being in another war so soon after Grindelwald, their numbers were small as they were and a war would only reduce it and put them on the brink of extinction.
Throughout his first years of being a politician Tom had managed to make lives easier for several species of creatures and legalise some forgotten magics that Dumbledore had banned deeming them too dark to be allowed. By 1950 he had made such a difference that the light section of wizengamot was desperate to get rid of him and they were willing to go to the extremes to achieve that.
Following their Lords orders, a group of light wizards went and killed a few muggles, leaving only their heads at the ministry atrium with a letter saying.
*We are coming for the blood-traitors and mudbloods next,
Lord Voldemort,
Heir of Slytherin’
As he was lord Slytherin people started suspecting Tom so after a year of opposition at every step and more murders with letters pointing at him, he decided to quit politics and take up the Dark Lord path, trying to better the world that way. Even though he didn’t choose the name, everyone started calling him Lord Voldemort the moment he first made an appearance as a Dark Lord.
So he went for the next 20 years, terrorizing and killing the light side….but never those who didn’t deserve it in some way and never muggles who hadn’t hurt anyone. Lord Voldemort didn’t do useless killing, still trying to kill as little as possible and preserve magical blood. He had long forgotten his desire to have someone to love, to have a family. That all changed during the Christmas holidays of 1977.
Regulus Arcturus Black, born June 25, 1961 as the second son of Orion and Walburga Black, little brother of Sirius Orion Black, the spare heir to the house of Black. By 3 Regulus understood that if he isn’t gonna do it himself then no one is going to do it for him, unlike his brother who never had to lift a finger because he had everyone doting on him because he was the heir. The only people that Regulus had were his grandfather Lord Arcturus Black and his loyal house elf Kreacher. Regulus spent most of his time either reading in his family library or asking his grandfather questions about the things that he had read. His favourite childhood memory is a memory of Arcturus telling him about soulmates and little Regulus telling him ‘I can’t wait to find minef’ with shining eyes.
Regulus looked exactly like his grandfather, people often joked that he was his child and not Orion’s with how often they were seen together and their similarities. While Arcturus was described as the typical tall, dark and handsome with his silver eyes and jet black hair, little Regulus however was absolutely adorable with his head of dark curls, high cheekbones and the signature Black shining silver eyes that almost all of the family possessed though none were as bright as Regulus’s.
In 1971 Sirius Black was sorted into the House of Gryffindor, the moment the news reached Walburga and Orion they exploded and almost disowned Sirius on the spot for disgracing their family like that. Their solution was to call Regulus and start training him more intensively in secret, in case something happens to Sirius as he was not to be trusted anymore as a Gryffindor. While Sirius’s training had been mostly fun and games until that point, Regulus got a strict military style regime and one wrong move would result in either a crucio or a diffindo being thrown at him. They were preparing Regulus to fill the spot Sirius would leave when he inevitably defected seeing as he was a gryffindor now.
They started the same regime on Sirius the moment he set foot in Grimmauld place. Luckily for Regulus they let up on him a little when he was sorted into Slytherin a year later. There he was welcomed by his cousins Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa who were all really happy for him and welcomed him into the Slytherin house.. He made friends with Barty Crouch Jr, Evan Rosier, Pandora Lestrange and a halfblood Severus Snape.
In Hogwarts Regulus was a straight O student, the youngest seeker of the century and the teachers favourite. He himself would say his life at school was fantastic, if you exclude his brother and his friends ‘the marauders’ bullying Severus, until Sirius ran away, got disowned and Regulus was made the heir, all in the span of a few weeks before his 5th year at Hogwarts. His parents worsened their lessons and by the time his 5th year ended, he was a totally different person, gone was the somewhat happy, chatty and starry eyed child, instead there was a stoic, witty and sarcastic young man who was preparing to take the dark mark.
By the time Regulus had to take the dark mark in his 6th year, he hadn’t talked to his brother in over a year and to be honest his brother didn’t make any effort either so Regulus didn’t blame himself for that. Currently Regulus was standing in front of Lord Voldemort, removing his black silk gloves because the mark goes onto the skin. When his turn came Regulus braced himself for the pain everyone had warned him about.
One moment Regulus was on his knee in front of Voldemort the only thought in his head being ‘I have to do it to protect my future’. The next Voldemort started talking.
Voldemort, in all his snake like glory, took out his wand and asked Regulus to swear loyalty to him “Do you Heir Regulus Arcturus Black sweat to adhere to my commands, support my goals, listen to my orders and not share anything you hear related to our cause. In turn I, Lord Voldemort (in parseltongue *Tom Marvolo Riddle*) shall protect you and yours, so mote it be”. There was a moment of silence and we could hear people holding their breaths. “I do” came the loud and clear voice of Regulus, waiting for the pain of receiving the mark. “Very well” said Voldemort and inched closer to Regulus reaching for his arm.
The moment his fingers touched Regulus’s arm there was a bright flash of light. As the light faded everyone was left in a shocked silence, Voldemort himself was completely awestruck and unable to comprehend what had just happened. Regulus however thought he was dreaming, his parents had convinced him that his soulmate was dead but apparently that was just to set up an arranged marriage, because right where Voldemort’s fingers had just touched in beautiful cursive was written:
‘Tom Marvolo Riddle’
The moment it reached his brain Regulus glanced up at Voldemort… or was it Tom now? He didn’t know, so he would ask later. The moment his sight landed on his soulmate who was already looking at his own arm where in beautiful contrast to his pale skin stood
‘Regulus Arcturus Black’
“Unbelievable” murmured Tom, he looked at starstruck Regulus and made the one decision that would change the wizarding world as we know it. He pulled Regulus into his embrace and apparated to his bed chambers, Regulus firmly against his chest and whispering only one word over and over again to the shocked boy.
“Mine!”