Chapter Text
Hermione looked at the clock next to her bed and with every second she could feel herself growing more and more nervous. Only two more minutes, then she officially turned seventeen. To say she was nervous would have been an understatement. Because this seventeenth birthday was a special one. It wasn't only that she would turn to be an adult in the wizarding world, she'd also finally learn about her soulmate, as that was when the connection opened and she could finally talk to him or her. Maybe not right away, definitely not in the middle of the night, she decided, as she supposed doing mind speech at such an hour and therefore risking to wake the other person was considered impolite. But tomorrow… tomorrow she would try to reach out and then she'd finally know.
One more minute. What if she didn't even like him or her? What if her soulmate was someone horrible, like Draco Malfoy? Or what if the other person still wasn't of age? She'd not be able to reach him or her then and Hermione figured that this would probably be the biggest disappointment for her.
The seconds trickled by but then, finally, her clock announced midnight. For some reason, she had expected to feel something, anything, but there was no big bang, no trumpets or anything alike. But what was worse was, that Hermione didn't feel a thing and certainly no connection. She sighed.
“Helloooo? Hello? Hello? Hello? Here’s your very own soulmate speaking. Are you there?” a voice suddenly rang through her head and instantly she stiffened on her bed. Was this…?
“Hi,” she replied, closing her eyes with a smile. The voice was definitely a male one, she realized, sounding somewhat familiar, too. But somehow she did not feel very much like guessing. For that she was way to impatient, she realized. "I'm Hermione," she introduced herself, “Hermione Granger.”
For a moment there was silence, but then the voice answered: “Hermione? Really? Huh, wouldn’t have expected that. It’s George.”
Hermione blinked in surprise. “George? As in George Weasley?”
“How many other George’s do you know?” her soulmate asked and Hermione could almost picture the teasing smile on his face.
“Fair point,” she mumbled aloud and hoped her words did not transmit. “How come you called me? It’s midnight. Or did you know it was me? Did you suspect?”
“Nah. When Freddie and I became of age, none of us found our soulmates. For a moment we had hoped we’d just get each other, as being able to do mind-speech with each other would have simply been amazing. But no. There wasn’t a peep from him. And so we made the deal to call for our soulmate every day at midnight.”
Hermione had to smile at the thought. It was kind of cute. “So Fred called out for his soulmate, too?” she asked, imagining them sitting next to each other, probably on a bed. But she was disappointed a moment later.
“Nah, Freddie found Katie Bell months ago. Now it was just me looking out for my other half. I’m glad I finally found you,” George admitted, his voice sounding almost relieved. “It kind of got lonely with no one to talk around.”
For a moment Hermione was confused by his words but then she remembered Ron saying something about Fred having found a girlfriend and Hermione assumed it must have been Katie. Now that she thought about it, the two of them kind of fit, with their shared passion for sports. Her and George on the other hand…
“What are you doing this weekend, Hermione?” George suddenly asked.
“Uhm, I wanted to go through my Transfiguration notes again and maybe spend some hours in the library,” she answered hesitantly and a moment later she realized how boring that sounded. After all, this was George Weasley she was talking to and everybody knew that the boy loved having fun. Hence there was a good chance he'd be disappointed with her now.
“Brilliant!” the redhead replied a moment later, not sounding disappointed at all. She furrowed her brows in confusion.
“Brilliant?” she asked in disbelief. “Why?”
"Well, it sounds like you have lots of time, love. How about we meet at Hogsmeade? Just you and me,” George suggested in a giddy voice.
“You mean like on a date?”
She heard her soulmate chuckle in return. “Actually I thought we should get to know each other first,” he said and suddenly she could picture him with a wide, amused smile on his lips. “But if we end the meeting with a snog behind the Three Broomsticks I’m sure as hell not complaining. So? Are you coming?”
Hermione hesitated only for a short moment. The decision really wasn’t a difficult one. After all, George was her soulmate, the person she had hoped to meet for years now. She could not wait to learn more about him, because at the first glance Percy seemed the much more fitting Weasley brother for her. And still, it was George who was her second half and Hermione could not help but start getting curious about him. Because there had to be similarities between them, right?
"Sure," she replied, attempting to sound casual, when in secret she could barely suppress her giddiness. Soon she would meet him - her soulmate - and get to know him - properly. And who knew? Maybe the meeting would really end with a snog for them? Because suddenly Hermione realized that she would not mind snogging George Weasley at all.