It is 19th September 1979. You are 44. The mark, the one you'd resigned yourself to never receiving, burns itself onto your wrist. 11 years later you are not surprised to see Hermione Granger stagger into the school, looking around herself in wonder. Her neat but cramped handwriting irritates your skin. HG/MM soulmates/marks au

"No! You do not get to look up at me with those pleading eyes and act like everything is fine! Why - didn't - you - tell - me?" Minerva punctuated each word with a firm poke to a shoulder. Hermione bit her lip and looked towards the floor, unable to bear the intense green eyes boring into her. "Wait, are you wearing jeans?"

Narcissa prepares herself for an arranged marriage with someone she had never met properly.

Response to Skeletons in the Closet challenge. Hermione gets offered the job of Transfiguration teacher, and they go out drinking.