HPHM

Rebekah’s soulmate, she determined at a young age, must be quite forgetful. Growing up, it was a remarkably common occurrence for her to wake up in the morning with some strange and foreign object sitting on her nightstand. Being a witch, she was used to all kids of magical items with powers beyond the imagination. What made these items so strange, however, was the striking mundanity of them.

She remembers vividly the morning she awoke to a small red plastic box on her nightstand. Inspecting it found a small blade nestled on the inside. With her brother at school, she had to settle for asking her parents if they had any idea what the odd thing was.

Her father laughed brightly when he saw in, small enough to fit in her palm. He walked over to his desk nestled in the living room corner and brought back one of his muggle writing utensils.

“This, my dear, is a pencil sharpener.” He chuckled and plucked it carefully from between her fingers.

Putting the pointy end in the sharpener, he turns it a few times. When he removes it, Rebekah is astonished to realize it’s sharper than it was before. How unique.

“I think those are better than quills,” Rebekah giggles and examines both the pencil and the sharpener. “This is so plain! And it’s way easier to write with.”

Her father grins happily at her apparent approval and taps the sharpener curiously. “Where did you get this if you don’t know what it is?” He asks.

“I found it in my room. I think it was—”

“Your soulmate,” her father finishes for her astutely.

Rebekah is more than pleased by this development. Her soulmate always loses the strangest things. She loves getting to see these things. Forming a picture in her mind of what they must be like. If they use lots of pencils, maybe they’re an artist! Or maybe they like writing stories.

Her father, on the other hand, turns away from her with the faintest frown. His brows are furrowed as he considers something in his head and she grabs his hand.

“Dad?”

Her voice snaps him from his thoughts and his frowns is quickly replaced with a smile. “Oh, sorry, Beks. It’s nothing. I’m glad you get to have this.”

In her youthfulness, Rebekah does not pull at this thread. She accepts this reply and focuses back on the pencil sharpener. Maybe if she would have, she could’ve saved herself and her soulmate a lot of time.

~✰~

The night that her brother disappeared, Rebekah couldn’t sleep. She’d caught him leaving in the middle of the night and Jacob managed to convince her to go back to bed and that she’d see him in the morning. Despite listening to him, Rebekah just had a sinking, dreadful feeling that he was wrong.

She tossed and turned all night. Her stomach felt like it had been twisted into several knots. When sleep finally claimed her, the sun had been just beginning to rise.

When she did eventually wake up, it was to the exact news she had feared. She wasn’t sure how she knew, but she did. Her parents could barely say the words.

Nobody really spoke that day. Everyone just cried. Even though Jacob had only been reported missing, it felt like they were mourning him already. Rebekah couldn’t get away fast enough, back to the quiet solitude of her room. At least there she couldn’t hear the despair of her mother’s cries and couldn’t see the emptiness in her father’s eyes.

She changed into her pajamas with haste, hoping that maybe if she went to sleep, she wouldn’t have to feel this way anymore. At least for a time. Though, When she returned to her bed there was something there waiting for her.

Rebekah was surprised to see it. Usually, she only received her soulmate’s things in the morning.

Yet there it was, plain as day. Her steps were hesitant as she approached it. A long day of grief had left her tired and weary. But when her fingers met the soft fur, her tears began anew.

It was a teddy bear, dressed impeccably in a little white bow tie around its neck. The soft fur was a dark, chocolatey brown and felt like what she would imagine a princess’s pillow to be like. There was a small smile stitched into its face and round black eyes watching her. As soon as she touched it, she crumbled again.

Rebekah sat on her bed, pulled it into her lap, and wrapped her arms all the way around it. Her tears got the fur wet, but having something to catch them provided an unspeakable amount of support.

She wasn’t sure if her soulmate had sensed something was wrong and lost it on purpose. Or perhaps they were just that absent-minded. Whatever the case may be, all Rebekah knows is that night, her tears weren’t entirely unhappy.

~✰~

When Rebekah was finally accepted into Hogwarts, she had some faith that she might find her soulmate there.

Throughout the years, they had all come to the conclusion that her soulmate had to be a muggle. That, or perhaps a muggle-born. It was the only explanation they had for all the lost items Rebekah had received up to that point. This might’ve bothered someone else, but Rebekah cared little of the circumstances of her soulmate’s birth. Her own father is a muggle and the best man she knows so this possibility does not perturb her.

Still, she would prefer that they were still of the wizarding world if only so she could meet them sooner.

It was, in fact, right outside of potions that Rebekah met Ben Copper for the first time. Perhaps it was Merula’s bad attitude that had soured the mood or their shy natures that threw her off. It only matters that when they met, the thought did not immediately cross her mind. Surely, soulmates should compliment each other—she thought. Whereas her and Ben could barely take turns muttering their sentences.

Even as the year went on and she discovered he was indeed a muggle-born, Rebekah had all but forgotten about the possibility of meeting her soulmate when faced with the potentiality of getting her brother back.

The task began to consume her. If she could find him, if she could save him then she could bring him back and fix their family! Their mother and father had not been the same since Jacob disappeared. The house was too empty. The old pictures in frames on the wall were too painful to look at anymore.

By the time one might start to connect the dots, Rebekah’s priorities were fully somewhere else.

The only time that this question ever returned to cross her mind, was when Hogwarts held for them a ball in her fourth year.

Of course, it was with no small amount of glee that she found herself accompanying Ben as his date. She would be lying if she said she did not feel something for him. A crush if ever she’s had one, but the distant thought of her soulmate always held her back from seeking more. She does not have time for a boyfriend anyway. Not if she hopes to find Jacob before she graduates.

But when she met Ben at the top of the ballroom stairs, the spark that ran through her felt more magical than magic. She could enjoy tonight at least. They had both certainly earned it.

While they were dancing, a confession slipped off her tongue, one so silly it made her laugh.

“Y’know,” she says. “I had planned to make you a custom tie. It’s probably a lot for a dance, I know, but I’ve been experimenting a lot with painting. I’ve been talking to Filch and he helped me with a charm that would allow me to reflect my paintings onto an object. I thought it would be a nice gift but I guess it wasn’t meant to be.”

Ben’s cheeks pinked at the admission, a small, intimate smile on his face. “How come?”

“I lost it,” Rebekah laughs at herself. How she could manage to lose one of her own projects is beyond her. She must’ve been more distracted than she thought. “It was supposed to have stars on it. The Sagittarius constellation specifically since I know that’s your sign.”

Rebekah had missed the expression on his face then, but his feet stuttered in their practiced steps. Her eyes caught his and asked him an unspoken question.

Ben merely cleared his throat and looked bashfully away. “That’s—wow. That’s a shame. I think I would’ve loved it.”

“Me too.”

~✰~

Graduation was a very bittersweet occasion. Stepping foot into Hogwarts had opened up so many doors and lit the fire of several hopes and dreams. All of which has now been effectively shattered. Aside from the fact that she did manage to save her brother, nothing has panned out the way she wanted. It would not be a stretch to say that she is leaving the school a more hardened woman than the little girl who walked in.

As is tradition, the graduating class is throwing a huge going away party in the school’s largest courtyard. Though, many of her peers can be seen slipping away here and there.

Rebekah turns and checks the time on the clocktower, sighing as she takes a sniff of the firewhiskey Andre had insisted she try a sip of.

“Waiting for someone?”

The familiar voice shocks her back to the present and she turns to find Ben grinning at her. Suddenly, the whole party sounds a little less loud and some of the voices fall away. She smiles back.

“I was worried you wouldn’t show.” She muses and he offers a playful look to the drink in her hand. A laugh rips from her and she shakes her head, turning around to pour out the contents from the goblet she’d been drinking from.

“Well, it’s our going away party. I wanted to make sure I was dressed appropriately.”

Rebekah chuckles takes a step back to examine the outfit he chose. It’s hard to tear her stare away from his eyes, soft and brown, and his hair—the blond strands now more stylishly ruffled than when they were kids. He appears to have settled on a darker outfit than she’s used to seeing on him, but it actually lends itself to a more mysterious look that she thinks he’s been aiming for recently. Admits the dark backdrop of the night, she can’t say it doesn’t feel on theme.

“Recognize anything?” He tries to tease, but the words sound a bit strangled and nervous in his throat.

She offers him a puzzled look before inspecting again. It takes far longer than she cares to admit for her eyes to widen and her mouth to drop open.

“Ben, is that—”

“It’s a tie I’ve had for a while now,” he informs her casually, even if his nervous posture betrays him. “I’ve never really had a good opportunity to wear it, though.”

Rebekah shakes her head, still completely dumbfounded. Her thoughts are raving too fast for her logic to keep up with. “Where did you get that?”

“I found it,” he murmurs then, low but gentle.

His eyes soften and Rebekah doesn’t have the words. “I lost it…”

“I know.”

She blinks and he grabs her hands to pull her closer. She allows it easily. His proximity warms her even though the night isn’t cold.

“Have you known this whole time?” Is the only question all the voices in her head can agree on.

Ben’s chuckle is a breath of fresh air that washes over her. “No. I mean, I had suspicions but they weren’t confirmed until the night we went to the ball together.”

“You’ve known since then?” He nods delicately like he’s afraid of spooking her. “Then why didn’t you say anything?”

He can only shrug. A wry smile makes a crooked show of his mouth. There’s a hint of self-deprecation there that she despises. “It was never the right time. We weren’t ready.”

That is a point she can’t argue. Even now there are things about herself she wishes she could alter, moments and experiences she wishes hadn’t changed her, but it feels like it’s taken her this long to free herself and find herself after drowning for so long in all the things she thought she had to do.

“But I’m ready now,” Ben assures her. This time, his voice is firm, optimistic even. “If you are.”

Rebekah isn’t sure what to say, so she decides to trust her actions to speak for her.

The first time it happened, Talbott had no idea that this would turn into a recurring theme between them.

They’d been assigned to work together in the green house while Professor Sprout stepped out. Having been the two students closest to her when she did, she asked them to harvest her plant for her while she briefly dismissed herself to have a word with Professor McGonagall. This wouldn’t be so bad really if they weren’t trying to do so in front of a live audience.

Thankfully, it seemed easier than they originally assumed and they began their task with relative ease. The students around them elected to chat amongst themselves, filling the greenhouse with idle chatter and distant voices. The afternoon sun spilled in through the window, casting a golden aura about the room.

Talbott almost began to appreciate the serenity of the moment when it was oh so rudely interrupted.

“Have you done this before?” His fellow fourth year asks, hugging her robe a bit closer to her on account of the winter chill in the air. Even with the warming charm it can still be felt in waves.

He nearly doesn’t deign to reply, but does so with an arched eyebrow. “I haven’t.”

This time the other student, Isabella Wallace, turn to look him in the eye, her own sparkling with amusement and mirth. “That so? You’re doing quite well though.”

“Perhaps because it’s in the current chapter of our textbook.” Talbott bites back, perhaps a bit more hostile than was necessary.

Isabella sends him an unimpressed look and he sighs in defeat. “It’s not difficult. You’re also not doing awful.”

A smirk paints her mouth, her brown eyes reflecting the sunshine and looking warm. “My, is that a compliment? From Talbott Winger? The guy with a notorious bad mood?”

Talbott groans and rolls his eyes. “I can always retract it, y’know.”

“Nope, too late,” Isabella shakes her head, her blonde ponytail swaying gently with the movement. “You’ve already given it. The compliment has been received. You can’t take it back.”

She smiles up at him and Talbott scowls and turns away as his chest blooms with warmth. Like a virus.

Isabella grins winningly at his acquiescence.

The animagus debates objecting further or letting the conversation meet its awkward but timely end there when he notices the lack of idle chit chat in the background. He turns his head to examine this change and meets the wide, intrigued glances of everyone else in the room. From his peripheral, he can see Isabella look to do the same.

“What?” She asks lamely, almost childlike.

A kid at the back, a blonde ravenclaw with a mischievous grin, merely points up towards the ceiling.

His eyes first study the space above the ravenclaw’s head, but when he finds nothing he frowns in confusion. That is, until he feels a tug at his robe and he looks over to find Isabella also pointing upwards.

His entire expression slips from his face when he recognizes what he sees.

Isabella blushes but makes an attempt to laugh off the awkwardness. The rest of the class, however, aren’t quite so ready to dismiss what could possibly be enough drama to last their year for the next month and a half. And just when he thought the attentive looks weren’t bad enough, they began to chant.

“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!”

Not entirely unexpected for a band of teenagers, though the whole thing still felt terribly juvenile to him. Talbott even began to blush from embarrassment.

Suddenly, Isabella turns to him and Talbott arches a brow at her. “Do you mind?”

He blinks. “Pardon?”

She goes to reply, but is cut off by the cheers growing even louder. With a shrug and a sigh, she steadies herself by grabbing his forearm and pushing up onto her toes to plant a kiss on Talbott’s cheek. Her lips are a bit chapped from the weather but still somehow softer than he expected them to be as they brush his skin.

Right as she pulls back, leaving Talbott stunned, wide-eyed, and dumbfounded, the door to the greenhouse opens.

“What in Merlin’s beard is going on here? I leave for two minutes and the next thing you know I hear—” Her eyes spot Isabella and Talbott at the front and Isabella hastily drops his arm. Her eyes automatically shoot up to the roof.

Understanding dawns on her.

“Well, I suppose that’s what I get for forgetting I let the students hang up mistletoe in here.”

Their professor shakes her head and shoos them both back to their seats. She resumes her place and carries on with the lecture but this time, Talbott can’t help but allow his eyes to drift up and over the table.

Across from him Isabella is already staring back. When he catches her eye, she doesn’t blush or look away. She merely offers him a warm smile.

It suddenly feels warmer in the greenhouse.

II.

The second time they were caught in such unfortunate circumstances, Talbott had the bright idea to follow her down into Knockturn Alley.

Suffice to say, it wasn’t exactly a fun excursion.

So far removed from the safe boundaries and protective wards of Hogwarts grounds, every step felt precious. The snow crunched beneath his boots but he felt more like he was walking on ice. Whenever he looked up, another dark witch or wizard had their eyes peeled to them. The entire alley felt foreboding and threatening.

Isabella casts him a look over her shoulder as she trudges forth. “I told you that you didn’t have come. I would’ve been fine by myself.”

“Maybe,” Talbott concedes, but his tone still holds a stubborn edge. “Maybe not. But you’re undefeated, Isabella, not immortal.”

She releases a long sigh and stays quiet for a moment. “I wish you would’ve stayed at the castle.”

“I’m aware.”

“You could get hurt here.”

“So could you.”

Isabella rubs nervously at her arms. A frown clear on her face to broadcast her blatant disagreement.

Now sixteen, Talbott had grievously grown to care for the wild Gryffindor. While certainly troublesome and stubborn—and at times immensely frustrating—she was, he had reluctantly admitted to himself years ago that her kindness and selflessness was endearing. Endearing enough, it seems, to warrant a tentative crush on the cursebreaker. Not that he’s yet said as much.

Finally, after what feels like much longer than it likely was, they reach the spot they’re supposed to be at when they meet up with Jae.

Isabella pulls Talbott into a small alcove, but hesitates on the shove.

He follows her eyes to a small gathering of witches and wizards, speaking in frantic, hushed tones. Her fist clenches as she stares at them and she makes to step away from their hiding spot but Talbott reaches out to grab her elbow, stopping her.

“Don’t. We aren’t here for them. They’ll get their karma in due time.”

The brunette looks back once before relenting and settles back against the cold stone wall.

Their little alcove is beyond cramped. Just enough room for them to both lean against the walls at their backs without touching, but certainly not enough for someone to shove down the path between them. He’s much taller now than he’d been before, and he can’t stop himself from looking down and admiring her.

Nose and cheeks dusted a bright red from the snowy weather, hands shoved into her overcoat where she hides her wand. Dark blonde hair falling haphazardly around her shoulder, collecting snowflakes. Her lips chapped and close to cracking.

“Staring is impolite.” Talbott reads from her lips as they curl into a playful, albeit tired, smirk. “It’ll give a girl ideas.”

Talbott starts and clears his throat, casting his eyes away. “Right. I guess I spaced out.”

She doesn’t seem satisfied with this response but lets it pass. She shuffles and it inadvertently brings them closer. He thinks the moment might slip away but then she chuckles, drawing his attention back.

“This must be some sort of joke.”

“Excuse me?”

This time, it’s more of a snicker as she removes a gloved hand to gestures up above them. Talbott doesn’t even need to look to know what it is.

“Mistletoe,” Isabella supplies. “Again.”

Talbott tsks, looking away. He’s momentarily extremely thankful the cold hides his blush. “How ridiculous.”

“I think they’re fun,” Isabella grins and Talbott’s gaze snaps back to her. “Don’t you?”

He freezes, feeling as though he’s melting into the wall behind him. “I, uh—”

Isabella takes a step closer, her gloved hands gently pulling his from his own pockets and holding them. “Indulge me?”

He can’t even say yes before they’re both leaning in.

“Guys!”

They both jump apart, knocking into the brick walls at their backs. Isabella runs at her head, having bumped it on the stone.

Jae gives them a toothy, devious grin, crossing his arms as she approaches them from the main alley.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Talbott grumbles and rolls his eyes before pushing past them both. “Let’s go. We don’t have all day.”

III.

“Talbott? Have you seen my boots?” Isabella calls from their bedroom, her voice barely rising over the intense whistling of the wind outside.

“You left them with the laundry, love.” He calls back patiently.

“The black ones with the—”

“With the laces, yes.” He assures her, followed by the pattering of her footsteps, softened by her fuzzy socks.

She returns a moment later with a triumphant smile as she walks easily, directly into his waiting embrace. He deposits a kiss to her temple.

“I knew I left them there.” She teases.

“I’m sure.” He allows. “You ready to go now, then?”

Isabella nods, but steals his hands away in hers when he reaches for their gift bag. He involuntarily shivers as she pulls him closer to the fireplace by the lapels of his coat, the warmth of it enveloping him with a sharp contrast from the snowy expanse outside.

Their little house in the woods might be modest now, but they do have their plans to expand. Someday. Should the right time and opportunity arrive.

Branches tap at their windows but they pay it no mind. “Before we leave, can I show you something?”

Talbott considers the request. “Will I regret it?”

Isabella, who’d usually balk at such teasing, merely hums and shakes her head with a coquettish grin. “I don’t think so.”

His thumb brushes over the ring on her finger and he knows he’s already given in. “Then I suppose we could spare the time, since you’re so sure.”

Isabella smiles, victorious, and pulls him down into a thoughtful kiss. The fire strokes the warmth in his chest and his hands find purchase at her waist. He kisses her back eagerly, her lips by now familiar.

“How was that?”

Talbott smirks at the huskiness of her voice. “Lovely, dear, though I fail to see what it is you wanted to show me.”

“Look up.”

The words alone pull a chuckle from his throat but he does anyway.

Mistletoe.

Of course.

“Third time’s the charm, right?”