Hermione awoke early on Friday with a pleasant buzzing feeling. Nothing, she felt, could ruin such a lovely day! She jumped out of bed, and, humming, pulled on her robes. She paid uncharacteristic attention to her hair this morning, as she wanted it to look perfect for her love. With a satisfying jolt, she suddenly remembered that tomorrow was Valentine’s Day. Excitedly, she wondered what Draco had planned for her. She was sure it would be something absolutely spectacular. No other girl was as lucky as she, to have such a lovely boyfriend! Ron and Harry just didn’t understand. She sighed. Ron was especially against it, although Harry seemed to view the whole thing as a joke, which, in her mind, was worse than outright opposition. But they would come to accept Draco and her together soon enough, she was sure of it.
The other Gryffindor girls were beginning to stir. A few rolled out of their beds and sleepily began to prepare themselves for the day. Parvati Patil came up behind Hermione. She stood behind her for a second, obviously trying to think if how to broach a topic of conversation.
“So,” Parvati began tentatively, “I hear that you and Malfoy are, er, going out now?”
“Yes, that’s right.” Hermione turned around and smiled at the shocked expression on Parvati’s face. Some of the other, more awake, girls had heard the short exchange and were also looking at her with mixed expressions of surprise and disgust.
“But ” but he’s a Slytherin! You-Know-Who’s house!” Lavender Brown exclaimed incredulously.
Hermione was suddenly not feeling so warm and fuzzy. She turned to Lavender and said coldly, “I know that, Lavender. But I, unlike you, find myself able to look past such things and not be a stupid great prat. Good morning.” She turned and stalked out of the dormitories, her less-bushy-than-normal hair swinging peevishly.
Once in the common room, she marched right past Ron and Harry, who had obviously been waiting for her, and straight through the portrait hole. Draco was waiting for her just outside.
He took one look at her angry countenance and asked worriedly, “What’s wrong, my love?” He took her hand and they began walking towards Great Hall.
Hermione sighed irritably, then turned to smile at Draco. “Nothing, really, darling.”
“It’s not Harry and Ron, is it?” Draco asked, his eyes clouding over menacingly.
“No, not them, not this time anyway. It’s just the girls in my dormitory, that’s all. They seem to think that anyone from Slytherin is a clone of You-Know-Who.”
Draco smiled bitterly. “Such is the curse that we of the noble house of Slytherin have to endure. But you don’t think such things, do you, Hermione, dear?”
“Of course not!” Hermione turned and gave Draco a quick kiss on the lips. He put a hand to her cheek and smiled, his gorgeous eyes twinkling. She leaned forward a bit, and nearly fell on top of Draco when a loud, fake cough came from behind.
“Ronald Weasley!” she shouted shrilly, glaring at the red head. “Leave me alone!” Clasping Draco’s hand tightly, she pulled him along the corridor at a furious pace.
“What?” she heard Ron call after her. “You’re so touchy lately!”
If she were a little braver, Hermione would have gladly sat with Malfoy at the Slytherin table, but there was also the fact that his friends were most likely to object violently to her presence. So she settled for blowing kisses at him from the end of Gryffindor table. She could hear Ron trying his hardest not to gag and smiled to herself.
Hermione barely survived the classes without Malfoy, and for once in her life, she actually looked forward to potions in the early afternoon. Nothing Snape could do would dampen her cheery mood. Unfortunately for her, she had underestimated Snape, which is a thing that one should not do when one is in such a position as Hermione.
She was in the midst of measuring out the amount of giraffe bile needed for her Noxious Brew when something landed lightly on her desk. She smiled as she saw what it was. Unfolding the note, she read:
“I love you so, my dear sweet witch,
I fear that I’m in thrall,
For who but you
Could cast such a spell
To capture my heart, dear witch?”
Pulling out a quill, she replied:
“This spell of love has captured me too,
You are not alone in this.
I see in your face,
Incomparable bliss,
I only have eyes for you.”
And so it went, back and forth. The poems became steadily sappier, and Draco’s rhyme scheme steadily worse. Hermione didn’t care, however, about such trivial things as rhyme and meter when there was love in the air. She soon forgot about her potion entirely, devoting the rest of the class period to finding the perfect way to express her feelings for this gorgeously platinum blond Slytherin.
“And what is this, Miss Granger? Where is your potion?” Snape’s voice suddenly asked testily. Hermione looked up into the face of her greasy haired potions teacher, her stomach sinking. “I see that you have measured out the giraffe bile, but why is it not in your cauldron? And what could possibly have distracted you so much that you still remain on step three?”
Hermione, turning pink, rather stupidly tried to hide the parchment on which she’d been writing, but she wasn’t fast enough. The movement alerted Snape and he reached down, grabbing the parchment from her hand. She stared hopelessly at Draco, who had pained expression on his face.
“And what is this?” Snape asked for the second time. He scanned the parchment as a cruel smile spread across his face. He cleared his throat and inquired maliciously, “Am I reading this correctly, Miss Granger? ‘Draco, my love, my only one’ … ” he read in a mocking voice. The Slytherins laughed loudly and even a few of the Gryffindors tittered. “’I only have eyes for you’. What is this rubbish, Miss Granger? Are we feeling a little desperate for Valentine’s Day? Potter not paying enough attention to you?”
Hermione could feel her face burning. She snuck a glance at Draco. He was staring determinedly at the blackboard, but there was a faint pink tinge to his pale cheeks.
“Twenty points from Gryffindor, Miss Granger, for passing notes, disrupting class, and failing to complete your assignment. And a zero for the day, I believe. Evanesco.”
Hermione’s eyes began to fill with tears. She angrily blinked them back, refusing to make eye contact with anyone. When the bell rang, she picked up her things and angrily left the dungeon, heading straight for Gryffindor Tower.
Harry was stunned. Not too long ago he had found the whole thing rather funny, enjoying Ron’s indignation. But now, because of the Twin’s demented sense of humor, Hermione had just received a zero in potions and would probably never be able to show her face in public again.
“This has gotten way out of hand,” he muttered to Ron as they headed to Great Hall for lunch.
Ron nodded, his eyes blazing. “It’s just like Malfoy to do something like this. When I get my hands on him ”“
“You still don’t see it, do you, Ron? It’s not Malfoy who’s done anything. He’s the butt of the joke too.”
“A joke is it? Well I’m not laughing, mate! And why did Snape have to go and read those bits aloud? Does he have no respect for anything?” They both sat down and Ron angrily began attacking his meal. After a moment he paused in his desecration of the meat and asked, “If it’s a joke, who’s behind it?”
Harry smiled cynically. “Think about it for a sec, Ron. Who, in this whole school, has a sick enough sense of humor to pull a joke like this?”
Ron thought for a moment and then he turned his head to stare at his brothers. “Them,” he whispered murderously. He stood up, clasping his knife dangerously, and walked over to where the twins were seated.
“What is wrong with you two?” he yelled. “I mean, I knew you liked to create trouble, but this? It’s bloody sick, is what it is, and if you two don’t switch it back right now, I swear, I’ll ”“
“Calm down, Ron!” Fred said, alarmed. He pulled Ron down between himself and George and asked as he removed the knife from Ron’s hand, “What is this all about, now?”
“YOU KNOW WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!” Ron roared.
“Stuff it! You sound like mum!” George whispered. “What did we do this time?”
“Don’t pretend like you don’t know,” Ron said nastily, though quieter.
Fred gave him a scathing look. “Let’s just pretend that we are pretending, alright? What are you so mad about?”
Ron stared hard at his brothers.
“Ah yes, the two lovebirds,” George murmured after a moment. “So we wanted to have a bit of fun. Where’s the harm in that?”
Harry raised his eyebrows. “Hermione was caught passing notes to Malfoy in potions. Snape took twenty points from Gryffindor and gave Hermione a zero,” he stated. “Have fun explaining that to Hermione when she comes around.”
“A zero?” Fred reiterated.
Ron nodded.
“Hermione?“ George asked incredulously.
“Which is why you have to fix it.” Ron said.
“And soon,” Harry added.
The twins averted their eyes. “What? Just give her the antidote to whatever you gave her,” Ron pointed out.
“Uh, well, dear little brother of mine, you see,” George began lamely. “Er, we only made the one, er, thingy, so ”“
“There’s nothing you can do about it?” Harry asked disbelievingly.
Fred smiled, relieved that Harry had understood so quickly and that he wasn’t shouting. “Right you are. So seeing as there’s nothing we can do about it, it’d probably be a good idea if we just waited for it to wear off, right?”
“And when will it wear off?” Ron asked through clenched teeth.
“Hmm, now there’s a question,” Fred said happily.
“You don’t know.”
“Well, it could be by tomorrow, or it could take another whole week. Not quite sure about that.” George said helpfully.
Ron put his head in his hands as a small moan escaped his lips.
“Cheer up, little bro,” Fred encouraged, patting his brother on the shoulder. “It’s you we could’ve made fall in love with Malfoy.”
Ron groaned.