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He ran through the halls of the Ministry like a man possessed.
Harry Potter knew he wasn’t exactly known as someone who was calm and collected at every single moment. He was a Gryffindor, after all. But to the regulars at the Ministry, even this was out of the norm.
Judging from the frantic glances at his wrist though, people knew exactly why he was running.
You see, Mother Magic made a decision a long time ago. She’d help her subjects find their ‘other half’, so she made it that once you reached the year of your sixth year at Hogwarts, right as the new year came in, a countdown would appear onto your wrist, counting down to the exact moment you’d find them.
What most people didn’t know however, was that this was the first time he’d ever seen something other than zero on his countdown. He’d found his soulmate years ago.
The only problem was that he wasn’t hers.
-
December 31st, 1996
Gryffindor Common Room
For New Year’s Eve, Harry and Hermione thought it was awfully quiet in the Common Room, with only the two of them occupying the couch in front of the fireplace. The idea that they’d be learning when they’d meet their soulmate was something they both were incredibly excited at, and of course, it was something they wanted to experience together.
“Oh, I wonder what they’ll be like!” Hermione exclaimed, an excited look on her face. “I hope they aren’t too tall, I imagine it would be difficult to kiss if they were a whole foot taller than me.”
Harry let out a loud laugh at this. “Hermione Granger, worried about how she’ll kiss her soulmate? I never thought I’d see the day where you act like Lavender and Pavarti!” She punched his shoulder lightly, letting out a giggle as she realized how ridiculous she sounded. “But in all seriousness, Mione, I’m sure they’ll be perfect. You deserve nothing less.”
“How about you then, Harry?” She asked, a curious look in her eyes. He turned and gave her the most intense stare he had given to date, and she felt like he was looking into her very soul. Her breath caught in her throat, and she found herself not being able to look away.
“I’m hoping for one girl in mind.” His mouth barely moved, and his voice was kept very silent, yet to her, he may as well have been shouting in her ears. He turned away, looking into the fire for a moment, before he saw the clock in the Common Room. “I guess we’ll find out in a few moments.”
The two waited with bated breath as they stared at their bare wrists, before he heard Hermione speak again.
“Harry? I want you to know that I’ll never abandon you for whoever my soulmate is, I intend on having you in my life for a long time.” Harry nodded, feeling a lump form in his throat.
“I intend on keeping you too, Miss Granger.”
They heard the fireworks go off in the background, and multiple cheers reverberate from the halls. But for the two, they were only focused on the numbers slowly forming on their wrists. Harry watched as the countdown adjusted as magic took hold.
Twenty-seven years.
Then two weeks.
Then five months.
....Zero?
His eyes furrowed as he saw the number and waited to see if it changed time again, only to see it stay at zero. It didn’t waver. It didn’t go down. Zero.
Then he realized what it meant. His heart soared, knowing he and Hermione were fated to be together. He wanted to pull her close to him, and hold her for eternity, his heart was so whole!
Then he looked up, only to see a disappointed look on her face.
“Oh I gotta wait a whole year still?” Harry felt like someone had just ripped his heart out of his chest, and she hadn’t even looked up yet. She didn’t have him? “I waited all my magical education to meet my soulmate only to find out I have to wait another year?” She sighed in frustration, before she looked up at Harry to see a stricken look on his face. Immediately, she was concerned. “Harry, what’s wrong?”
He shook his head, she couldn’t know the truth. He was convinced that if she found out, it would ruin their entire relationship. “I...I’m fine, Mione...just shocked at how long I’ve got to wait.” He was almost proud of how well he lied to the one person he’d never lie to. “Imagine having to wait a whole decade, eh?” He had a weak smile on his face, before Hermione engulfed him in a hug.
“Oh Harry, I’m sure they’ll make it all worth the wait. They’ll be perfect.” Harry could only hold her tighter, burying his face into her hair. He didn’t want her to see him cry.
‘I don’t need anyone else,’ he thought. ‘I already have you.’
-
It had been a long few years since then. True to the countdown, Hermione had met Jameson Loch a year afterwards, meeting the wizard during her winter trip with her parents. They had been absolutely smitten with each other since, and after Harry had finally put down the rabid dog that was Voldemort, he soon moved to a flat not too far from hers. What pissed Harry off was the fact that he couldn’t even find a reason to dislike the man, he was indeed perfect for her.
Since that fateful night in the Common Room, Harry and Hermione’s relationship had shifted. He slowly increased the distance between them, and sooner rather than later, Hermione had no idea he had gone off to fight the dark bastard until he showed up in the Great Hall, his left arm bent awkwardly in several places, covered in blood and grime, announcing he had just finished him off. She had torn strips off him in the Hospital Wing that night, screaming at how he had left with no warning, or even a notice he was leaving. She dropped into his arms, sobbing fully, and it took everything in him not to react.
He’d always need her in his life, he knew that as a universal fact. But he also was someone who yearned to have a love that his parents had, and knowing the one person magic decided was his wasn’t actually his ripped that chance away.
So he kept a comfortable distance between them both, resigning himself to his fate of being the last of the Potters. He would be happy for her, of that there was no doubt. But he couldn’t have her the way he had before that fateful night. His heart would yearn for what it couldn’t have, and he was sure he wouldn’t survive that pain.
It had worked well for the past year or so. Harry had attained the position of Senior Auror in record time, and it wasn’t because of his fame. The speed and efficiency in which he completed his cases was unparalleled by most in the Auror Corps, and he had a long standing reputation with members of the Dark that was almost comparable to the infamous Mad-Eye.
So, while doing paperwork for another finished case, when he realized his countdown had changed, his heart shook in its place. Through all the discreet studying he had done over the subject of soulmates, there had never been a case of a countdown timer resetting or restarting.
‘Then again,’ he thought to himself as he sprinted through the halls of the ministry. ‘I never could find anything about someone’s timer being zero.’ He didn’t even know where he was running to, but he felt like it was the right thing to do.
He rounded a corner, almost knocking into a pair of Junior Aurors, and glanced down at his wrist again.
Twenty seconds. Twenty short seconds until he met the person who’d be the love of his life. He saw his assistant, a lovely girl named Penny, call out after him.
“Harry! Harry you have an important message incoming!” He turned back, not slowing at all.
“Kinda occupied! I’m sure it can wait!” His mental countdown was in sync with the one on his wrist.
Three. Two. One. He rounded a corner and slammed full force into someone. His head hit the floor, and he swore he saw stars lighting his vision. He groaned, holding his head, before sitting up. ”I am so...Hermione?”
In front of him sat his original soulmate, tears brimming in her eyes. Her ministry outfit was a mess, buttons popped open, with wrinkles being formed all over her dark pencil skirt. He noted she only wore stockings, with no shoes covering her dainty feet, and she looked like she had just run a marathon. The moment her name left his lips, she threw herself into his arms. He immediately wrapped his arms around her frame, noting to himself that this was the first physical contact he had had with her in a very long time.
“Hey hey...what’s wrong Mione?” She sobbed harder at that, and he lifted her into his arms. A small part of him yelled out that he’d be missing out on properly meeting his soulmate, before the rest of him kicked that thought out of his head.
Hermione was more important anyways.
He carried her into an empty meeting room, sending a wandless locking charm to the door, before he sat them both into the plush office chairs that were littered around the room.
Or at least he tried to. The moment he tried to sit her down in one of the chairs, she merely locked her legs around his waist, and her arms snaked around his neck. Giving up on trying, he sat her in his lap, her basically straddling him, as her sobbing reduced to small sniffles.
“You…” she started out shakily. “You’ve been suffering for so long.” He panicked at hearing that, she couldn’t have known, right? Her tearful glare quickly told him otherwise. “This morning, I woke up and everything felt so wrong. I had always wondered why you weren’t as close to me as you always were, but my attention was all focused on Jameson. I should’ve realized that you were lying to me back in the Common Room, realized that you weren’t agonizing over the wait.” One of her hands cupped his cheek. “You were hurting because I wasn’t yours.”
He tried to look away, but a strong hand held his head in place. “Jameson has been amazing to me since I met him, but it blinded me to the fact that you’ve been absolutely perfect since the moment we met on the train. I made us miss out on so much time.” Harry actually shook his head at this.
“It’s not your fault Hermione, your timer was just different. I could never blame you for that.” She smiled at him, tears streaming down her face once more.
“That just makes you all the more amazing in my eyes.” They sat quietly for a few moments, before Hermione spoke again. “Harry, can you do something for me?”
“Anything for you.” She smiled at that again, her face blushing. She held her wrist up.
“Look at my timer.”
So he did, and saw that it was at zero. Usually, this wouldn’t mean anything to him, it had been zero when she met Jameson. But this was different. The smile that was growing on his face made it known that he knew.
“It reset…?” He asked hopefully. His heart began to rise, the same feeling he felt all those years ago. She merely nodded, letting out a small giggle.
“Jameson and I parted on good terms, and he totally understood. His timer is currently doing the same thing.” She brought her face close to his, and his heart stuttered. “So I think it’s high time to make up on our lost time..”
And then she kissed him, and if his own imaginary thoughts of this moment were sparks, this was a full inferno. His hands gripped her hips with force, and her arms pulled him tightly against her. She moaned into his mouth, and he just about died and went to heaven. She pulled away and purred against his neck.
“Oh we are definitely doing more of that soon...” If Harry wasn’t sure if he was alive, that line alone sent him straight into the clouds. He pulled her tightly into his arms, before he whispered out one last thing before capturing her lips again.
“Why rush? We’ve got the rest of our lives.”