The rain outside the tavern was a miserable downpour, mirroring the dark mood Draco had been nursing all evening. He sat in the dimmest corner of the crowded pub, nursing a drink he barely tasted. He was surrounded by noise, laughter, and clinking glasses, but he had never felt more isolated.

He was so incredibly tired of waiting. It was an ugly, heavy feeling to carry, but he was bitter. He had watched as his friends, one by one, found their soulmates. Pansy had practically glowed the day she met hers. Blaise, who had always claimed he was too cynical for the whole ordeal, had been instantly rendered speechless.

Draco had forced himself to offer tight smiles and raise his glass in congratulations, but inside, a dark green envy had clawed at his ribs. He had spent years secretly hoping, searching every face in every room, only to be met with nothing. And when he saw Potter find his soulmate, that had been the final, humiliating blow. Potter, who was completely hopeless with relationships, had managed to stumble into his perfect match while Draco was left entirely adrift. It felt like a personal insult from fate itself.

He had so much more to give than Potter ever could, yet here he was, drinking alone.

His dark thoughts were interrupted by a sudden gasp across the room. A glass shattered against the floorboards, and Draco looked up just in time to see two strangers staring at each other with wide eyed, breathless wonder. The immediate, blinding spark. The room seemed to fade around them as they realized exactly what had just happened.

Draco felt that familiar, bitter knot tighten in his chest. Another one. He was forced to be the spectator to someone else’s destiny yet again.

He couldn't take it anymore. Pushing his chair back with a sharp scrape, Draco stood up. He threw a few coins onto the table and buttoned his heavy wool coat. He needed to get out, to breathe the wet air, to be anywhere but under the suffocating weight of other people's happiness.

He moved toward the exit with a dark scowl, his eyes fixed on the door. He was moving too fast, blinded by his own irritation and the heavy, jealous ache in his chest.

As he swung around the heavy wooden doorframe to push his way out into the night, he collided hard with someone just coming in from the rain.

The impact was solid. Draco barely stumbled, but the other person, soaked through and caught completely off guard, lost their footing entirely. They went down with a sharp cry, hands catching them on the wet floorboards of the threshold.

"Watch where you are going, you clumsy idiot," Draco snapped immediately, the biting words slipping from his tongue before he even registered who he was speaking to. His voice was laced with all the venom and frustration he had been holding in all night. "Some of us don't have the time to pick you up off the floor."

Still scowling, Draco looked down to glare at the person he had just knocked over.

Then, it hit him.

It wasn't a physical blow, but it knocked the breath out of his lungs all the same. A sudden, sharp warmth flared in his chest, radiating outward through his veins like wildfire. The dull, grey ache that had sat behind his ribs for years suddenly dissolved, replaced by a rushing, vibrant clarity. The sights and sounds of the tavern seemed to sharpen, narrowing down until there was only the person on the floor.

His heart hammered against his ribs, loud and demanding.

Draco froze, his biting remark dying in his throat. The cold sneer melted off his face, leaving him looking stunned and entirely breathless. He stared down at them, his grey eyes wide with a mixture of disbelief and sudden, overwhelming realization.

It was them, his soulmate