Briar carefully pulled her raven-colored hair up into a high ponytail to get it out of her face before she headed to breakfast.

Most days, she enjoyed eating some oats or some bacon and toast, but today, she wished she could just skip it. Her roommates didn't allow this though, waking her up early with their excited squeaks. That morning, they whispered to one another while perched precariously on Daphne's bed, hopeful smiles on their faces. Briar pulled her pillow over her head and groaned as Daphne giggled, "I hope I have Theo."

On their way to breakfast, all of the students in third year and above began to whisper to one another about the soulmate letters going out that morning. Everyone was buzzing with energy, but Briar felt as though someone was forcing her to carry a Hippogriff on her back, her limbs weighing her down as she moved towards the Great Hall with her roommates.

They all sat down at the Slytherin table, and Malfoy gave Briar a smug smirk. He leaned across the table and snickered, "I bet you hope it's me. Everyone does, obviously."

Pansy nodded from beside Malfoy as she rested her head on her palm. Briar just shook her head and turned to face Dumbledore, hoping this day could be over already.

Briar was already sick of this. Is this what the next 5 years at Hogwarts would feel like? Oh merlin, she figured she should just drop out now.

Dumbledore announced, "Hello, students. For the third years, today is the first day you'll receive a hint about who your soulmate is, and this will hopefully start to spur some of you on towards your soulmates. As you will see shortly, your first soulmate hint will tell you a letter in the name of your soulmate. This will hopefully get you thinking about who your soulmate could be and assist you in creating some of those deep connections with your peers."

As Dumbledore finished saying this, the Great Hall became flooded with owls. Letters fluttered from their claws and found their correct recipient with a graceful landing on that student's plate.

Briar slightly rolled her eyes when her letter fell in front of her. Briar Davies was written in such a delicate cursive, and she figured that someone at the Ministry had put extreme care into spelling out her name. It was unfortunate because it was a waste of their time. No amount of beautiful handwriting or whimsical nonsense from the Ministry could make Briar believe in love or soulmates. She knew that this was just a way for the Ministry to control the students to ensure that wizards and witches would continue to procreate, and she hated that this was considered a happy tradition among students.

The fellow Slytherins around her tore into their letters immediately, but Briar just stared at it in disgust for a few moments. She eventually picked up her letter and tore off an edge to reach the note inside, knowing that she would have to read it eventually. She retrieved the ink-stained page and read the single letter written in swooping penmanship across the entire page.

.

She furrowed her eyebrows at this. How completely unhelpful this was. L? Seriously? Just from her year, it could be Malfoy, Goyle, or Blaise Zabini, and that was 3 of the 5 boys. At least, this ruled out Crabbe and Theodore Nott.

Briar shivered at the thought that her soulmate could be Malfoy. At least her father would be happy if that were true.

Briar was moving to put the note back into its envelope when Pansy tore it from her hands. Pansy stared at it, her face starting to form a nasty frown as her mind thought of one particular name with an L in it.

Malfoy leaned over Pansy's shoulder to see what Briar's letter was, and his smirk widened when he saw it was an L. He snickered, "See, I told you it would be me. My name has an L in it, Davies."

Briar ripped the page from Pansy's hands as she snapped, "Blaise and Goyle also have L's in their names, genius." She crumpled the letter in her hand and stood from her seat.

Malfoy was glaring daggers at her, but she didn't care. As she stormed out of the Great Hall, she shoved the letter into the trash, eyes flashing with rage when a group of younger students glanced at her actions with wide eyes and curious glances.

Briar didn't know who the L belonged to, and she certainly didn't care to find out.

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