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She was 5 when the marks first started appearing. Back then, they were just scratches and scars, that were quite normal for kids her age. Once while at the park, she had felt a searing pain in her right hand. At first, it was so bad that she thought it was broken but then it suddenly healed in a few minutes, as if by magic. She forgot about it.
He was around 5 when his marks started appearing. Random scratches on the knee, the occasional cut on the hand and the like. When he was 7, a small scar had appeared above his left eye, just missing his eye. He had felt worried for his soulmate. It had disappeared in a few months. He forgot about it.
She was 12 when the bruises started appearing on her back in the form of red, angry lines. She had felt sad, for her soulmate, and angry at the person who was hitting them. They kept appearing till she was 15, when it stopped. She never forgot them.
He was 15 when the cuts started appearing on his wrists and thighs. At first, the only appeared once a month or so, but slowly they started appearing everyday. He never forgot them.
During the summer before 6th year, she had felt agonising pain on her left wrist, where small red lines were forming a bruise that looked a lot like a Dark Mark. She started wearing full shirts, even in the summer. She knew who her soulmate was.
She knew they could never be together. There were too many odds.
He had been forced to take his Dark Mark the day before his birthday. He cried himself to sleep that night, haunted by the fact that his soulmate probably knew who he was, and that they thought he was serving the bastard willingly.
It was when the Golden Trio were at the manor that he found his soulmate. Said soulmate was being tortured by his psycotic aunt, who kept firing the cruciatus curse and engraving that vile word on her arm.
He felt like burrowing his face in a pillow and crying and murdering his aunt and father at the same time. He decided to go with neither of those.
She looked at his face as he realised that they were soulmates. She saw anger, joy, fear and pain. Before she realised what was happening, her pain started numbing, while his face twisted more and more in agony. He was taking away her pain.
He took it all. He knew they could never be together. He still took it all.
She stood at one end of the Great Hall, staring at the large doors. It was over. The war took away their innocence, thousands of lives and disrupted peace but it was over. People were crying tears of joy as well as sorrow. She didn't know how to feel. She had lost a lot of friends like Fred, Remus and Tonks, but on the other hand she could finally have some hope for a future with him. As if by magic, said young man walked through the door, his eyes scanning the area for a few seconds, and finally landing on her.
No cliche speeches, no love confessions, nothing. But as he cocked his head to the side and grinned at her, she knew all that other stuff was not meant for them anyway. She started to run.
All he could make out was a blur of brown curls and flailing limbs before she jumped into his outstretched arms, sobbing with relief. As he finally held her close to his chest, he made a promise to himself that he would always be by her side, as long as she wanted him there. But judging by the way she was clinging to him and and pressing kisses into his neck, he knew that he was where he was supposed to be.
She felt him burying his nose in her hair and gently pressing kisses onto her forehead.
"Hey there", Hermione whispered.
"Hi", Draco breathed back.
They could talk about the cuts on her wrists and the bruises on his back later. Right now, they were happy.