“Why are you always so rude?” was etched onto his skin, written on the curve of his hipbone.
Cormac McLaggen kept it to himself. He wanted to choose his own partner. He didn’t believe in soulmates, and besides, it’s far too personal to share with just about anyone. Hell, even his parents didn’t know about his soulmark!
Padma’s parents knew about her soulmark, though, as did her twin sister. “Now there’s finally something memorable about her.” While most people were elated about their soulmark, Padma wasn’t. Not about hers. Every time she looked at the words in the mirror, those words nestled within the slope of her shoulders, she cringed and wondered, not for the first time, why she had to have a soulmate that clearly didn’t care about her. (What had she done wrong in a previous life?)
Relationships should be built on trust, mutual respect and positivity. None of which that sentence embodied.
She resolved to ignore her soulmark. It didn’t matter. She would choose her own partner, if the time ever came. But it wasn’t until Padma went to school and witnessed Umbridge’s reign of terror first hand in her fifth year, and Marietta’s betrayal of Dumbledore’s Army, that those words meant something.
During the fall out of Marietta’s betrayal, Padma quarreled with everyone who so much as looked at her the wrong way to let out her pent up frustration, and yes, Cormac McLaggen was included in that category.
“It’s her own fault, really. She shouldn’t have ratted us out. Besides, the jinx is an improvement. Now there’s finally something memorable about her.” Seemingly without thinking, Padma shot back: “Why are you always so rude?” and froze while Cormac arched an eyebrow before a grin grew on his features as he answered her question: “It’s in my nature.”
william moseley as cormac mclaggen // shanali martin as padma patil // @toverkunst