Archive of Our Own ^beta

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Imagine an AU where soulmates exist, and the whole situation comes from a spell (whether someone did it mistakenly or purposefully doesn’t really matter, but I personally like the idea that it was done purposefully and spitefully by someone in the Black family who had been disowned for loving a Muggle-born of half-blood). 

The way it works is that your own personal magic has a mate out there that works just right with yours—like, they’re totally compatible, maybe you can use your soulmate’s wand and vice versa. For some reason, purebloods often get paired up with halfbloods or Muggle-borns (which is where that spite would come in). And the Blacks, due to this mixing of blood, refuse to entertain the idea of soulmates at all. While other kids in the Magical world grow up wondering who their match might be, the Blacks grow up to revile this so-called albatross. Some of them can break through the brainwashing and some can’t. 

I think some of society would pity them for this view, but other families of the same status would of course adopt this same outlook. It becomes part of the Death Eater ideology, to reject the idea of soulmates. 

For the mechanics of it, I’m imagining there’s no mark, it’s more of a feeling or some magical display when your magicks meet for the first time? Similar to when a wand chooses you. It feels right.

Specific thoughts:

• I really like the idea that Walburga and/or Orion meet their soulmates (around the same time if it’s both of them) and that’s what inspires the marriage of cousins. Bc maybe at that point, society dictates that if you’re unmarried when you find your soulmate, you have to marry them. And they can’t—won’t!—sully the family name like that. They’re good purebloods and even better Blacks. Which means their best option is... a cousin. And neither are happy about it but at least they won’t be stuck with anyone less than pure, right? Right.
  • I’m interested in the idea that the soulmate(s) attempt to speak to them or be part of their lives somehow. Obviously they’d be shut down hard but I think any soulmate of Walburga’s especially wouldn’t be someone who just lays down and takes a rejection like this. 
• I want Alphard to have a soulmate who’s a guy, and who is kept a secret from his family. Idk if I want the soulmate to be a Muggle-born or (the son of?) a squib or something, but I like the thought that Alphard Feels the magical indication and tells this man who doesn’t know a thing about soulmates, “we’re soulmates and we’re fated to be in each other’s lives” and having to prove it. Lots of potential there
  • I love the idea that they have a whole separate Muggle life—idk if that’s OOC or whatever, but the idea of Alphard going from being this posh aristocratic Confirmed Bachelor and then shedding that mask and going to be with the love of his life in this home that’s so totally opposite of what he’s supposed to stand for. It’s so good.
• Lucretia Black being Ignatius Weasley’s soulmate. They’re both purebloods, so it should be okay, but it’s not really. At this point it’s moral principle that Blacks do not deal with their soulmates. Lucretia isn’t disowned for this, but I think it’d definitely be something the rest of the family talks about in mocking/ashamed/disgusted whispers. (Meanwhile, on the flip side the Weasleys see it as another love-match, of which most of their relationships are made up.)
• I’m very very curious about the thought of Bellatrix and Voldemort being soulmates. Romantic or not, it’s so interesting?? She’d grow up staunchly hating her soulmate for having “muddy blood”, and she’d marry a good pureblooded boy like she’s supposed to. But then it’s him. I don’t know Bellatrix’s characterization well enough to say more but questions I have are: Would she grapple with this at all? Would she decide, well if it’s him it’s okay because he knows what’s best for purebloods? 
• Andromeda and Ted are perfect for this. Andromeda having some prejudices to get over, because even if she grew up able to tell it was all stupid, she was still raised in that environment and she’d have to unlearn things. I like the idea that as time goes on, the less guilty she feels being with him.
  • “How could anyone hate this?” She asks, basking in him, in his scent and the way their magic—a combined entity while they’re tangled together like this—sings in the air.
• Narcissa has a soulmate who isn’t Lucius, and she met them once. Maybe it’s a girl she met on her one and only trip to Beauxbatons (they were thinking about sending her there, but the Meeting happened and her parents changed their minds right there). Maybe it was a boy she met on vacation to some other Magical City/Country. Maybe it was someone she bumped into on Diagon Alley on accident. It’s just some... person she’ll never meet again, she’ll never know. I don’t know if she buys into the No Soulmates thing. But I do think she’d always have a question in the back of her mind, what if’s that’ll never be answered.
  • I have this image in my head where it’s like, this thing that would be life changing for anyone else is cut short. They meet and Narcissa barely has a minute to think before her parents or Bellatrix or someone is pulling her away. And she’s a good pureblood, a better Black, so she turns her back and doesn’t let herself look over her shoulder. During the negotiations with the Malfoys, she explains she has met her soulmate but they mean nothing to her and they’re no threat to this marriage. 
  • Basically just, never giving herself even a moment to think about it.
  • And then during the war, when she’s so terrified for Draco, it almost becomes a relief. To wonder about them and what became of them. To look in the faces of the Death Eaters around her and not see that face she knew for only minutes at best ~20 years ago.
• Sirius having either James or Remus as his soulmate and consistently defying his family by loving him. He would hide it from his family definitely, but I almost wonder if he’d try to hide it from everyone else too, at least for a little while until he sees it’s just hurting them both and it’s wrong to hurt his soulmate/hide himself/care what his family thinks. Even in that situation, I don’t know if he’d still be secretive and protective of the connection, or if he’d flaunt it like “see how happy I am without you?”
  • If it’s James. I think he’d be more inclined to show off their connection, he never had any trouble with that before anyway right? So finally revealing that they’re soulmates probably wouldn’t change much in that regard.
    • What if he feels the moment James dies, feels the magic connection between them disappear? And the absence is so much louder than it ever was when it was still there.
    • On a happier note, James’s parents would have even more reason to pseudo-adopt him now lol
  • If it’s Remus. I feel like Sirius’s Animagus form being a dog adds another layer to it, like how James = stag, Lily = doe. Buuuut I also think he’d be more inclined to hide it if it’s Remus. The important people would know, but it’d be a cold day in hell before Walburga ever ever found out.
• Regulus!!!! I really like the idea that his soulmate is a student in his year at Hogwarts. and I like the idea that this person tries so hard to.... be there for him, or get through to him, or anything.
  • and in an angst world, I don't want it to work—I want Regulus to have another regret on his shoulders as he dies, thinking about his soulmate and wondering what could've been. I want them to give up on him in school, because honestly it's PAINFUL being rejected and hurt over and over again, no one can blame them...... except themselves. "if only I'd tried harder. if only I'd stuck around longer. if only, then maybe he'd be alive right now."
  • in a happier world, I want Regulus to finally crack. maybe what happens is that they tell him like, "everyone else is so happy and proud of their soulmates. but I have tried over and over and over again to get you to even be CIVIL with me and it's not working, and I realized I need to just accept that." so they give up on him, and instead of sending him spiraling further into despair/Death Eater arms, it motivates him to worm his way into their heart. and with that support, things end up differently for him
• Tonks grows up totally different from both of her parents. She 1) knows what soulmates are unlike Ted, and 2) isn’t told any propaganda about how awful they are. I really like the thought that she’s kind of like… “if it happens, awesome! If it doesn’t, cool that’s fine too” (but still holds out hope that if she MUST have a pureblooded soulmate, that they’re not a prick). I also think that she’d have this attitude, maybe based on society? (bc if might be a common thought that people have to change themselves for their soulmates) where she’s like “my soulmate will like/love me for who I am, I won’t change myself to fit them better.”
  • I like the thought of her soulmate being Charlie Weasley? Because he’s a pureblood, he’s not a dick, and most importantly, he would feel the same way as her. I HC, as many do, that Charlie is ace and/or aro, so if they’re soulmates then they could both just be themselves and be secure in the knowledge that this is someone who fully accepts them for who they are and won’t judge them for it.
  • If it’s Remus,,, I like that they’d both be half-bloods, breaking the norm. And I think the idea that they could be themselves with each other would work here too—Tonks would take her own desires in the relationship (to be accepted) and see it reflected in him, and they’d have to work on it like in canon but it could be so great.
• Draco with his nose up and his Superior Blood being the worst little shit about all of this. He fully, truly believes that his soulmate is inferior to him—it’s what’s taught to him, either on its own or in conjunction with the idea that Malfoys are just better than everyone else. I think he’d be pretty naive about it honestly? Like he thinks people who feel the same as he does are Correct and people like the Weasleys who revere soulmates are Pathetic and Wrong, and I also think that he would be fully convinced his whole family (bar the blood traitors) feel the same way he does. Finding out about Bellatrix and Voldemort would be shocking and it’d be part of him having to unlearn things, I think.
  • Idc who his soulmate is really but I do have thoughts for a few options:
  • If it’s Harry.
    • I love the idea that they figure it out in Madam Malkin’s when they’re 11 years old. Harry, I think, would scramble out of there freaking out, having NO IDEA what just happened. Meanwhile Draco is in there like…, “oh well nevermind then I don’t deal with scum like that” or whatever the hell. THEN HE FINDS OUT HE’S HARRY POTTER and I want him to have the briefest flicker of doubt. Surely Harry Potter would be an acceptable soulmate, right? But then they actually speak to each other and his mind goes right back to nope nope nope lmao. Draco might tell his parents?? But his friends wouldn’t know, I think.
    • I can’t decide if Harry tells Hagrid what happened or not (he would bc what if he’s defective?? Hagrid should know so that he can take him back to the Dursleys, right?? But he wouldn’t because that was scary and he doesn’t want to go back home). I also can’t decide if Harry would tell his friends (if he doesn’t know it’s a soulmate thing, I don’t know how or why he would? But if he does, would he want to commiserate with them that Malfoy’s his soulmate?).
    • Harry following Draco around angrily, and their magic trying to mix and both of them furiously pulling it in, and Draco unlearning everything and realizing…it’s too late (except it’s NOT but he doesn’t know that)
  • If it’s Hermione.
    • IT WOULD MAKE EVERYTHING 500X WORSE. The bullying and the hatred Draco had for Muggle-borns would be exacerbated. “This is who I was meant for? This is what the universe or fate or magic thinks I belong with?” He’d ask himself, and her, and absolutely everyone who would listen. Hermione, who just learned about soulmates and had maybe a tiny little itty bit of hope inside her about it, would be so fucking angry. She would throw it back in his face but I mean,, she’s gonna come out of this hurt worse than he is.
    • The implications of the torture scene and what their magicks might do 1) in such close proximity and 2) under such stress and 3) after seven years of never/rarely touching. Bellatrix would lose her SHIT if she found out they were soulmates.
    • I do want them to be able to have a happy ending but there’d be a long long road to forgiveness they’d have to take there. I think they could do it though, and I think the first time they really let their magic mingle, it’d leave them both breathless like this is what they were waiting for. I like the idea that they wait to let it happen until they’re on better terms, so it can stand out more positively
  • If it’s Blaise or Pansy or any other Slytherin.
    • I…think their relationship would be really unhealthy lmao, like I could see Draco deciding “well… they’re a Slytherin pureblood so maybe it’s okay” and getting into a relationship, but until Draco got past the idea that he was superior…. It wouldn’t be good. Manipulation on both sides, ya know?
• Finally, Teddy. I’m really interested in the thought that Teddy’s soulmate is a pureblood??? Bc Teddy would be so proud, I think, of his half-blood heritage, and he’d be raised by Andromeda and Harry, who would both definitely value love and companionship and being your authentic self. I really like the idea that his soulmate is this person who’s more reserved, who might’ve been raised believing in soulmates but has reservations or something. And he’s able to open their shell a bit, while still getting to have and keep the things he values.