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Harry could barely think as he walked through the castle, as he made his way up to the headmaster’s office. As he tried to process all of the death he’d just witnessed. Or maybe as he tried not to process it.
He needed to focus on who he could save, instead of who had already been lost.
With his head feeling like it was full of fog, Harry didn’t notice them until he was almost directly in front of them; Two figures in Slytherin robes huddled at the end of the hallway. They were girls, girls that looked oddly familiar, but he wasn’t sure of their names. The one in the front, who he was pretty sure was in his year, raised her wand at him as he approached.
“Let us pass, Potter,” she hissed, spitting out his name in that way that a lot of Slytherins did. Like he was dirtying them just by saying it. “My sister and I aren’t interested in participating in this battle, on either side. We’re just trying to get to the Great Hall.”
While Harry wasn’t sure he believed them, he wasn’t going to stand in their way or try to fight them. Not unless they attacked him first at least. Which, with the way the girl was pointing the wand at his face, might actually happen. Her hand was trembling though, like she really thought he would attack her and her sister without a reason. Is that really what Slytherins thought of him? Or did they just think that because they were like that themselves?
Harry quickly threw that thought aside. Not all Slytherins were bad people, just like not all Gryffindors were good ones. He knew that better than anyone.
He was about to reassure her, to tell her he was just walking past, when he noticed something on her arm. Her trembling had caused the sleeve of her robe to slip down, revealing a pure white lotus flower on the back of her wrist.
Breathing in sharply, Harry felt the fog in his head suddenly clear. He glanced behind the first girl and looked at her sister who was clinging onto her shoulders, her own robe sleeves having slipped down as well.
Harry could just make out a similar flower on her left wrist, just as white, but with pointed petals.
A water lily.
Before he could think better of it, Harry stepped forward and reached out, grabbing both of their wrists. His fingers encircled the flowers there, sending a bright jolt of emotion through him. They tried to tug away, but Harry knew the exact moment they noticed his own marks. They both stilled, gasping in unison as their eyes went adorably wide.
“You’re our-” the younger sister began, her eyes moving between Harry’s hand on her arm and his face before she closed her mouth, seemingly too stunned to finish her sentence.
Harry was stunned too. A battle where all of their lives were on the line, where the entire wizarding world was at stake, was a terrible time to discover your soulmates. He’d waited years to meet them, to see what they’d be like, and now he would probably never know.
Fate was cruel.
Or maybe it was kind?
“Stay safe,” Harry said, giving them the softest smile he could muster before he released their arms and turned and walked down the hall, leaving his soulmates behind without even knowing their names.
But he had at least etched the memory of their pretty faces into his mind.
Into his heart.
He was just about to turn down the next corridor, when he heard a shout behind him.
“You better stay safe too, Potter!” the one in his year yelled, the one with the lotus flower. And this time, Harry couldn’t hear any of that disgust in her tone when she said his name.
He heard something else.
He glanced down at his wrists, at the pretty lotus and lily flowers that he’d stared at his entire life. Harry hoped he’d be able to do what she said. He hoped he’d be able to stare at these flowers, and their matching ones, for many years to come.
But at least if he couldn’t, he got to meet his soulmates right before the end.
That alone would give him the strength to do whatever needed to be done.