in which...

...harry and y/n are soulmates

in which Harry and Y/N are soulmates

Harry's always been a bit different from his group of friends. While everyone joked about the concept of soulmates and didn't pay much interest in it, he took it very seriously. His friends often ignored any hints they might've received about the person life bound them to, while Harry paid extremely close attention to anything that might link him to his soulmate. He's always been hyperalert, searching his body for any clues and what they could possibly lead to, if they might've created an accidental map that he could follow, but his skin was pretty unscattered and he never thought he'd be bothered by that.

The concept of soulmates is an odd one to most, but Harry finds it quite beautiful. From a young age you start experiencing the same levels of pain your soulmate is. Physical, or not. You take over their scars and feel whatever they are feeling. The tricky part is, no one else can see your scars and you can't see theirs either; unless they are your intended partner. That means that if your soulmate doesn't have any visible scars it would be a little difficult spotting them on the street. That's exactly why Harry hates the fact that he doesn't have all that many scars on his body. It makes it hard for him and he feels uneasy each time he walks down the street, knowing he might be passing by his soulmate, but be completely oblivious to it.

When Harry was around five he recalls experiencing someone else's pain for the first time. He was walking with his mum back from his aunt's place and he screamed out in pain, losing his grip on her hand and falling down, clutching his knee. Anne was frantic, looking for any signs of an injury on his body, until she realized what the cause actually was.

"Oh, Harry, sweetheart," she cooed, holding her son in her arms, letting him quietly weep and still hold his throbbing knee, "I didn't think we'd have this talk so soon."

That evening as she was bandaging his injured knee, with Harry's visibly confusing indications because he had no idea why his mom couldn't see the obvious red and purple scratch that had begun forming on his skin, she told him all about them. Soulmates. She told him about her and his dad, how they met in high school when he was hiding in the lady's restroom from one of his teachers and accidentally knocked the door right in her face, both of them touching their foreheads at the same time and then ogling each other in instant realization.

Hearing that story, Harry was enticed. He thought it was the most beautiful thing he's ever heard. The fact that he had a person bound to him, that he could one day meet and be best friends with for the rest of his life. It made his heart beat in a strange way. That night, when his mother had tucked him in with a soft kiss to his forehead, he laid awake for a couple more minutes, affectionately patting his knee, hoping the person on the other side could feel it. He woke up still cupping his knee gently.

That's one of the very first and pretty much only scars Harry has ever received from his soulmate. The rest are very faint, some light scratches across his arms or a couple on his ankles, as if he had knocked them against metal chair legs. Sometimes he'd get what seemed like paper cuts on his fingers, and they'd sting, but it was a reminder that his soulmate was still there and still very much bound to him, so it made everything worth it.

Harry sometimes felt guilty by the amount of scars he had accumulated himself and for the pain he might've caused his person. He used to be pretty clumsy as a kid and bruised his body a lot. He still has visible scars on his elbows, white and faded, but still very much there as a reminder of his negligence. He strokes over them sometimes in silent apology.

He has this thin scar right below his chin, from one of his very first unsuccessful attempts at shaving, which had become a staple in his day to day life. As much as he feels sorry, he's still grateful for it, because it's the only visible way he can check if someone might be the one for him. He sometimes just analyzes people's faces and looks for a potential scar below their chin to match his, but ends up feeling disappointed each time he doesn't find one.