Greenland, 1850

Like most things, it started with the government. Well, to be exact, it started in a damp, cramped, malodorous, room crowded lit with candles and filled with government officials arguing in low, harsh whispers. The shadows and stubble on their faces were darkened and elongated due to the dim light produced by the uneven, rapidly waning candles sitting in the middle of the circular table that the men crowded themselves around.

Outside the room stood an elegant woman, rather tall in stature, with silky red hair cascading down her back in flawless, buoyant waves. She wore a gown made of pure white silk, nearly glowing in the poor lighting of the corridor. An amused smirk left the right side of her lips curled upward while her hip was cocked ever so slightly to the left. She stood with her arms crossed and her ear tilted towards the closed door, picking up intermittent bits of the heated conversation raging inside. Finally, not being able to remain silent anymore, she rolled her glimmering grey-blue eyes and swung open the door.

Immediately, the men rose from their seats and moved to the edges of the room, adjusting their posture to be as straight as can be while whipping off their top hats and bowing down to the sparkling lady.

"Lady McKinnon!" stammered the best dressed of the men, quite obviously the leader of the group. "We weren't expecting you. Welcome!" he added hastily after a moment, finally remembering his manners.

"Of course you weren't, darling," she responded, making sure to scan each inhabitant of the room with her intimidating gaze while standing still. She swept the dusty room with her eyes once more before finally taking a self-assured step forward into the room.

Her shimmering white heels emitted a sharp, high-pitched sound the moment they met the chalky floor.

Click. Click. Click.

She made her way halfway across the room, pausing in the middle. She demanded attention with her every step, with the way her gown flowed and rustled beneath her, the way her nose tilted upward, her unfaltering gaze, and the most conspicuous, the way she seemingly lit up the whole room.

Click. Click. Click.

She resumed her path, gliding the rest of the way, and stopped at the far end of the room where the candles struggled to illuminate those who chose to stand there, and instead filled the area with ominous shadows.

"I see that you've all found yourselves entangled in the web of another quandary, gentlemen," remarked the glowing lady with the barest hints of a chuckle. "I find it rather amusing, but who am I to criticise you? I am, after all, a few thousand years older than the lot of you, and have gained far more wisdom in my bountiful years."

"You see, Madame McKinnon-"

"Oh, please," she interrupted abruptly, "call me anything but Madame, for I find the term to be far too dreadful and decrepit for my liking."

"Yes, well, Miss McKinnon, we've noticed a severe downfall in the population of the earth recently and we're quite concerned. You see, we're unsure of what plan of action to take to solve this problem, so if you were to provide us with any words of advice, we would be ever so pleased."

"Oh my, that is a rather significant problem, dear. What could we do without humans finding more ways to wreak havoc and bring more damage to this beautiful planet?"

"Lady McKinnon, this is a grave problem, and we require your wisdom far more than we desire your humor today," one official glared ever so slightly at the whimsical woman.

"Oh yes, you're absolutely right, darling, this underpopulation issue is simply a horrendous dilemma. You may all rest assured from this point onward, for I possess a flawless solution! Though I hate to be arrogant, allow me to say this solution is as flawless as myself, and we all know, I'm yet to fail anybody in any galaxy!"

"Fantastic!" boomed the leader. "Would you care to present it to us, Miss Marlene, or shall you put it into action first?"

"Certainly I'll present it, dear sir! It should be quite evident that the waning population is a rather large effect of lack of reproduction, due to your incomprehensible human desire to turn your backs and hold grudges against one another. Why you do this is beyond my knowledge," Marlene paused to roll her eyes and shake her head, much to the dismay of the government officials, "but I propose a new solution to you all. Soulmates!" she chirped.

"Soulmates?" repeated the befuddled leader, named Addington. Low mutters and murmurs began to ripple throughout the room as the bizarre word was repeatedly rolled across the tongues of each individual, each of them trying to familiarize themselves with it.

"Yes, deary, soulmates. Each individual on this earth will be assigned to another at birth. They will be aware of one another when they're each put in a situation where they each carry out the same exact thoughts, word for word. For example, Addington," she suddenly points at the leader and a crimson red colour blooms across his cheeks.

"Yes?"

"You met your current spouse at an outing where you both exclaimed 'This idea is simply outrageous, and frankly, preposterous!', did you not?"

"Correct," Addington confirmed, the bright colour in his cheeks draining ever so slightly. He glances about the room, hoping that nobody noticed him during his subtle moment of weakness.

"That's how you humans will know you've met your soulmate from here onward! And for the particularly oblivious folks, the initials of their partner will appear on the fourth finger of their left hand in the shape of a ring! Should the person prefer to not end up marrying their soulmate for whatever reason, they will be prompted to have them eliminated from their memory and be reassigned another soulmate. Any questions?"

"No," the crowd mumbled, scratching their heads in bewilderment. After all, how could this possibly solve their problem?

"Splendid!" Marlene clapped her hands giddily. She raised her left hand into the air and snapped her fingers together.

The instant she carried out that action, yet another sharp clicking sound echoed throughout and rang in the ears of the men while a cool breeze fluttered in.

"It's been done! You'll notice, gentlemen, the initials of your wife or husband written on your fourth finger. Yes, Addington, I'm aware that you're homosexual, and that's nothing to be ashamed about, dear," she winked. "I'd best be off! You're not the only planet that needs my help! Oh, and next time, include some more women with the decision making," she winked once more.

The ends of Marlene's gown started spiraling around her, enlarging themselves and becoming even brighter while they did so. The lady began to rise off her feet, hovering above the floor, astonishing the officials, and a breeze began to form, whipping back the hair of everyone in the room stronger than the winds of a hurricane might.

Suddenly, the lady disappeared, and the only thing that remained was a bright, sparkling white cloud consuming the room and rising up towards the ceiling, higher and higher with each second. Finally, it began to descend to the ground, baffling the men, yet before they could draw conclusions, the cloud hit the ground with a loud bang. The door slammed shut, the candles were extinguished, and the officials were left unconscious on the cold, dusty floor.

The next morning, the dazed men woke up, having no recollection of the previous night, yet they knew to make a worldwide statement, informing the population of these so-called soulmates, something they couldn't manage to wrap their own heads around.

Since that day, every human on the earth has flawlessly met their match when they'd least expected it, causing the population to regrow, bringing a steady flow of newborn babies each day. All thanks to Lady Marlene McKinnon, a whimsical wonder of nature.

---

Cokeworth, England, 2001

"Mummy, look!" cried the voice of a small toddler with flaming red hair, no older than the age of two. She toddled over to her mother, clutching something in her chubby fist. She finally reached her kind-eyed parent and opened her hand to reveal a mesmerizingly beautiful flower in full bloom, a sweet aroma radiating off of it.

"That's right, honey!" praised the woman, in the age of her early thirties. "A lily, just like your name!"

"Mum!" called the voice of another child, this time blonde, and at most, two years older. She ran to her younger sister and held out something in her fist.

"Oh, and a petunia! Wonderful, sweetheart!" the mother, named Camellia, beamed at her two daughters.

They each giggled, noise that could bring peace to the world, and admired the flowers they held in their hands and shared their name with.

---

Upper Flagley, England, 2001

"Oh, Monty, look at that!" a woman with a heart-shaped face tapped the shoulder of a relatively older man while pointing to her son, who's roaring with laughter while running in the vivid green grass outside of an old mansion.

"What is it, Mia?" answered Monty, wrapping his arm around his wife's waist while leaning down to plant a kiss on her temple.

"It's James! He looks so blissful and carefree," she smiled, wiping away a small tear from her eye. She loved her son more than anything in the world, and more than anything, she loved seeing him happy.

The young boy started running towards his parents. "Daddy! Mummy!" he shouted, a large grin stretching across his face, bringing out a dimple on his left cheek.

"Yes, darling?" inquiried his mother, matching his glee.

The toddler held out his hands, cupping something in them, to reveal a colourful, vibrant butterfly, slowly flapping its wings in his small hands.

"It's beautiful," his father remarked, his voice low. "Why don't you set it free? Butterflies prefer flying to enclosed spaces."

The child complied, opening his hands and releasing the butterfly. He watched if fly away in the distance, admiring the breathtaking shades of blue and black.

"Bye, Butterfly!" he waved, laughing while he did so.

---

Each child was barely above the age of two. Neither of them knew it, but 15 years later, they're lives would irreversibly change forever when they cross paths and identify each other as their soulmate at Hogwarts School for the Gifted and Talented.

a/n: I don't know how I did it, but I wrote this whole prologue in about an hour and a half. Chapter one will be next and hopefully that'll be out by the end of next week. 

Also, can anybody tell me why people in infomercials say 'taking this medicine can improve your risk of depression' in such a cheerful voice? It's just weird. Like, why do you have to do that?

Anyway, that's all for now! Have a wonderful rest of your day/night!
Bye, loves!
~Madeline