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Soulmates are said to be the most beautiful thing in the world. No one dares question the marks that prove that you are made for one another. The words engraved on skin are completely and utterly right; there is no way the universe could possibly slip up. And maybe that’s the problem. We are so quick to believe what we think to be destined. But, sometimes, soulmates hurt each other, sometimes they tear each other down rather than building each other up. Sometimes, it’s someone else entirely that you fall for.
Years ago, if you fell in love with someone else, you were locked away and the key was hidden from anyone. Yet, still, unfated love stories kept emerging. Somehow, love still thrived. Love flourished, a steady flame in the background.
Soulmates are beautiful when there is love. But love cannot be forced.
Soulmates are magical if the marks are true. But fate sometimes gets it wrong.
Soulmates can be beautiful, magical, wonderful, life-changing and perfect, but they can be torturous, painful, heart-breaking, life-shattering and dangerous. Soulmates can better you or they can break you. And, sometimes, they do both. Sometimes, the idea of soulmates can ruin friendships, shatter what was so brilliant, destroy what felt so strong.
And you can’t know which one your soulmate will be until you’re in it, or until you come out the other end. That’s the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
‘Love you, Sev,’ Lily whispers, lying next to Severus on a field of daisies. She’s nine, but she means it. He’s her best, closest friend, and she loves him, in the normal way. She can’t imagine marrying him like Mum married Dad, but she does know that he’s her best friend and she loves him because of that.
‘Love you too,’ Sev whispers back, ‘We’ll be friends forever, Lily.’
‘Of course we will.’
It’s as simple as friends. It should have been as simple as friends forever, but, when they turn ten a year later, their soulmate marks show up. Soulmate marks which have the words your soulmate will reply with when you say “I love you” to them for the first time written across your skin.
When Sev realises that Lily is his soulmate, he refuses to let her go. Even at ten, he decides that they belong to each other. It’s not too bad, at the beginning, but then things begin to deteriorate.
By the time they’re sixteen, Sev is no longer friends with Lily, he barely loves her. Instead, he’s fallen in with the wrong people and decided that Lily can belong to no one but him. He breaks the promise engraved on Lily’s arm, and it breaks her.
Declaring soulmates as stupid and ridiculous, Lily cuts all ties with her old best friend, mourning what was supposed to be fated love. There’s no such thing as soulmates, only the universe’s twisted way of making people suffer. It’s not that she doesn’t believe in love, just that she doesn’t believe in soulmates. After all, hers let her down in the most devasting way.
‘Marley, I love you. You’re a genius.’ James grins at his friend, a barista who just presented him with the best coffee he’s ever tasted.
‘Very nice, now shut up and get me some cookies.’ Marley returns the grin.
‘Just because you love my mum’s biscuits,’ James grumbles, taking another sip of the coffee. It’s perfect.
‘Shut up. I’d love you without your mum’s cookies, but your mum’s cookies make it better. We’re friends remember.’ Marley reaches over and thwacks him around the head. ‘Now get me cookies and I’ll actually love you.’
‘So you don’t actually love me now?’
It dawns on both of them at the same time. They glance down at the words on their skin, their soulmate marks which match exactly what they just said, back up at each other and smile perhaps more shyly this time.
They do try the whole romance thing, but they work out that they’re better as friends. It just doesn’t work with the two of them as “in love”. It breaks James’s heart a little bit: he always loved the idea of soulmates and your perfect match. To find out it didn’t always work… it ruined love a little bit for him. Not only that, it ruined his friendship with Marley, one of his closest friends before the revelation. Soulmates ruined a lot of things, and James mourns what could have been in the quiet of his room. His soulmate just didn’t fit.
James goes up to Lily with shaking hands. He hasn’t done this for a long time, and Lily’s not exactly keen on the whole dating thing. There’s something about her, though, something sparkling and captivating.
Lily looks over at him as he walks over, one brow raising. ‘Yes James?’ There’s that sceptical look on her face as if she’s suspicious of him.
‘Would you like to get coffee some point?’ The words fall out of his mouth.
A small smile tilts up the corner of Lily’s mouth, even as something at the back of her eyes darkens. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Positive.’ It sounds confident, sure. This is one thing he’s confident about: he and Lily would fit well together. There’s something about the way conversation just comes easy between them, every moment electric.
‘Okay then.’ It’s definitely a genuine smile lighting up Lily’s face. ‘Tomorrow?’
James almost faints. ‘Yep, definitely.’
There’s a twinkle in her eye. ‘See you then.’
‘I can’t be your soulmate, James.’
It’s a quiet evening, and Lily whispers the words as if they’re something awful and devasting. It’s just the two of them, sitting by the lake.
James covers Lily’s hand with his own. ‘I know.’
‘No, you don’t,’ her words are despairing, ‘I really can’t. There’s not even a slight chance.’
‘I know.’ He sighs, running a hand through his hair. ‘I’ve already met my soulmate. We used to be friends, but the whole soulmate thing ruined it.’
Lily blinks. ‘What? I don’t – what?’
‘Marlene McKinnon. Two years ago, we said “I love you” kind of joking around while we were friends, tried dating and it didn’t work out. I lost one of my best friends because of it.’
‘I’m sorry.’
Sighing, James pulls up his sleeve, showing the black letters scrawled on his skin. ‘I kind of hate this now. What about you? Have you met your soulmate?’
There’s genuine grief in Lily’s eyes as she pulls up her own sleeve. ‘Severus Snape. He was my best friend, and we said it before our soulmate marks even showed up. He got kind of… possessive, and it all went wrong. I stopped talking to him five years ago.’
‘That’s awful.’
They fall silent; James tugs Lily closer to him, wrapping his arms around her. He doesn’t care about soulmates right now, not anymore, not with Lily in his arms.
‘We can make our own love story,’ James murmurs, pressing a kiss to her hair. ‘We can create our own destinies.’
Lily smiles. ‘I like the sound of that.’
‘I love you, James Potter.’ Lily whispers the words, just a little afraid of what happens next.
James simply pulls her closer, murmuring back, ‘I love you too, Lily Evans.’
‘I think that’s the best thing I’ve ever heard.’
Neither of them bothers looking down at their soulmate marks. They both know that they’re not soulmates, at least not by the universe’s – and fate’s – thinking. In their own minds, they were made for each other. And they’re perfectly, incandescently happy without the confirmation of soulmate marks.
So, James doesn’t bother reading the words “Very nice, now shut up and get me some cookies” which have already been said to him by Marlene McKinnon, and Lily doesn’t bother reading the words “Love you too. We’ll be friends forever, Lily” because Severus Snape has already promised her that and he didn’t keep his word.
They’ve both been broken by their supposed soulmates, and, in each other, they have found healing in each other. The words engraved on their skin don’t matter compared to the love they feel for each other. Maybe in another universe, fate got it right.
When they announce the wedding, everyone’s a little sceptical, but Lily and James prove them wrong. They last, every moment together like some treasured thing. They last longer than some soulmates, who end up broken and shattered by failed love and marriages. They last despite the murmurings of others, and the rumours and whispers spread around.
Three children come from their marriage, none of whom are tainted by the non-fated love of their parents’. Instead, they realise that love does not depend on words written on their skin. It simply depends on what is felt and shown through every touch, word and deed. As long as love can endure, it is not wrong.
People around them begin doubting what the word “soulmates” really means, and no one can deny, looking at James and Lily, that they were meant to be together. Maybe not destined or fated, but there’s something about the way they interact, the way they look at each other, that can’t be denied or ignored.
Lily and James don’t care what people say. They have found in each other something that can’t be matched or beaten. It’s love, in the truest sense of the word, and neither of them would trade it for anything in the world.
Harry James Potter – named after James’s grandfather – doesn’t marry his soulmate, Cho Chang. Instead, he marries Ginny Weasley, the sister of his best friend and the love of his life. Just like with James and Lily, it’s clear to see that Harry and Ginny are desperately in love with each other. Both of them dated their soulmates for a while, but neither of them went back when they fell head-over-heels for each other. No one can deny what’s between them.
Anna Lily Potter – named after Lily’s grandmother – does marry her soulmate, Neville Longbottom, but not because he’s her soulmate. She’s nine when she meets him just as one of her brother’s friends, but he becomes one of her closest friends. Unlike her mother with Severus Snape, when there’s the realisation that they are soulmates, neither of them changes the way they act around each other. But, friendship changes to something else, and they fall in love. Neither Neville or Anna ever introduces the another as their soulmate.
William Sirius Potter – named for Lily’s father – doesn’t marry. He falls hopelessly in love with his soulmate, Amelia Farkshore, and has his heart broken. Broken in such a way that it doesn’t mend. Amelia uses and manipulates him, before dropping him for something new and more exciting. Unable to recover, William dedicates his life to exploring the world and learning more and more. He spreads the word about soulmates, and almost entirely disproves the destined love. Some people wonder if that was what he was fated to do.
Lily and James were meant to be together, in ways that only they could possibly know, and, years and years later, their love story is written down for anyone to read. No one could deny what was clear to see on the pages, and in the words they whispered to one another when they thought no one could hear. Lily Evans and James Potter were in love. The universe got it wrong. There was no one else they were meant to be with. No one else they could have possibly been with. And that’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.