Boycotting Valentine's Day

Chapter 1: The Decision

When I was child, my classmates and I participated in Valentine's Day in order to give and receive the cards. I can remember having competitions about who had received the most cards by the end of the day. Valentine's Day was fun then. No one got left out, no one's feelings were hurt, and everyone was guaranteed cards. Boys were still boys and girls were still girls...and we girls never dreamed about the boys...YUCK!

That was before I had met Harry Potter. Of course, I knew who he was. What person in the wizarding world doesn't know about Harry Potter? He is our savior, The Boy Who Lived. He saved us from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named when he was only a year old. Even though every other boy continued to be icky, besides my brothers, Harry quickly became the exception. There was a time when I used to hope and pray that one day I would meet him and he would sweep me off my feet. Time would pass and eventually we would fall in love and live happily ever after just like in the story books.

I finally met Harry when I was ten years old. I can still remember it as though it was yesterday...but I'm not going to bore you with those particular details, as they are not the point of my tale.

During my first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a year I would basically prefer to not remember might I add, there was a little incident with a singing Valentine's Day Card who everyone assumed was signed by me! Honestly, if I ever find out who is responsible, their head(s) will be mine.

But back to the point.

There I was, en route to my next class when I spotted Harry Potter being bombarded by a dwarf in cupid's clothing. At first, I found it a little hysterical, even if I did feel bad for poor Harry. I mean, seriously, he gets enough attention as it is, when I'm sure he would do anything to just blend in and become a face in the crowd.

I really need to stop digressing.

There Harry was, being basically attacked by this dwarf and just when you thought that it couldn't get any worse, the thing starts singing that damn poem in this horribly squeaky voice. How completely embarrassing...for me! I could've died on the spot when I heard Malfoy's comment about it being from me. At that very moment, I wished that I could evaporate into thin air or just turn into Neville's toad Trevor and get lost.

Valentine's Day only became worse as I continued to get older. Throughout the years, I began to realize that Harry isn't just a hero, a name that everyone knows; I realized that he is a boy who has hopes and fears just like the rest of us. He's extremely smart, an excellent seeker and a wonderful friend. Harry has the world on his shoulders and a family who would put him out on the street as soon as they could. He has a past full of pain and sorrow and each year his life only seems to get harder and harder for him to bear. I realized that I could no longer hero-worship someone who was just as normal as you and me. My silly little fantasies started to disperse and they began to build into the hope of me getting to know Harry better and befriending him.

Let me tell you, trying to befriend Harry Potter is not as easy as it seems, especially when you have wankers for older brothers. I swear, Fred, George and Ron are the biggest gits on the planet. They told Harry that I had a crush on him, and for a while he was a little more than a bit wary around me.

However, I guess I can understand him distancing himself away from me. Honestly, I can. You see, Colin Creevey used to have a crush on me and he told one of the girls in my year and it, obviously, made its way to me. Not that there's anything wrong with Colin; it's just that he's more obsessed with Harry than I ever was.

Well, as soon as I found out that Colin liked me, I felt awkward around him. I literally began to duck around corners and take the longer routes to places in order to avoid coming into contact with him. For future reference, it's not so easy to avoid someone when you have classes with them. That was another horrifying Valentine's Day tale, fourth year to be exact.

Speaking of fourth year, it wasn't until my fourth year that Harry and I became friends. You see, my brother Ron and Hermione- Ron's, Harry's and my best friend- eventually got together after skirting around each other all throughout their first years at Hogwarts. They fought like an old married couple and took grudges with each other faster than Neville loses his Remembrall.

Well, during my fourth year, Ron and Hermione became prefects and therefore had duties to perform that Harry couldn't be a part of. They also started to do their "homework" separately from Harry quite often, which left him- more than once- to occupy himself. I think that Harry started to feel like a third wheel and since it didn't seem that he had too many more friends, I decided that it was a "Now or Never" situation when it came to chance to befriend Harry.

One night, it happened that it was just the two of us in the Common Room, everyone else having already departed for bed. I was up late studying for an upcoming charms test while Harry was, obviously, waiting up for Ron and Hermione. Seeing that Harry was starting to become frustrated, I gathered up enough of that Gryffindor courage and started to talk to him.

Well, it seems that my luck paid off that day, because Harry and I slowly became friends. Whenever Ron and Hermione were off working on another "homework" assignment- which, may I add, Harry knew they weren't doing- Harry and I would sit and chat about anything and everything, while other times we'd just sit quietly and do our homework.

It was during those times that I felt both the happiest and saddest of my life. Here I was, sitting with Harry, who I had come to fancy quite a bit and yet I still wasn't content. You see, it came to my knowledge that Harry was quite taken with the "beautiful, exotic and soft spoken" (Harry's words, not mine) seeker of Ravenclaw, Cho Chang.

During Valentines that year, Ron and Hermione finally admitted that they had been seeing each other for quite some time. Not like it was a shock to any of us; even Neville looked at the pair with a knowing smile.

Throughout the entire day, I continuously caught Harry glancing at Cho; each time, a little piece of my heart breaking away. However, I just grinned and beared it. What more can a girl do when she's in that type of a situation? At least he didn't ask her to be his girlfriend or anything of that sort. He wouldn't dream of doing that.

You see, he still felt extremely guilty about the death of Cho's boyfriend Cedric, who was killed by Voldemort the previous year. Yes, I can say Voldemort now. It's as Dumbledore says, "Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself." It took quite awhile for me to realize the truth behind that comment and be able to say it, though.

Well, Harry felt so guilty about Cedric that he was unable to approach Cho. We all told him that no one blamed him; I even chalked up enough nerve to compare it to my incident from the Chamber of Secrets. I think it was at that moment that we started to become really close. He realized that he couldn't blame himself for something he had no control over. I also think he eventually began to realize that he would never be truly happy with Cho, knowing that the memory of Cedric would always be a sort of wedge between them.

But back to the story, Harry was pining for Cho while I was hopelessly pining for him.

Then there was last year. Harry was finally over Cho and we were becoming the best of friends. We spent the day alone. It just felt right. I seriously thought...well never mind what I thought, nothing happened. Last year was just like every other year. The difference though, is that I could've gone on dates, I could've had the holding hands and the puppy dog eyes.

But no, I gave it all up so I could spend the day doing my homework with Harry Potter. I swear, I thought Ron was thick, but Harry must be the thickest boy on the face of the earth. I have known Harry for six, going on seven years now, been friends with him for three years, best of friends for almost two, and I've fancied him for as long as I can remember. But the boy JUST CAN'T SEEM TO GET IT INTO HIS HEAD.

To make matters worse, I think I'm going crazy. I have actually started to convince myself that Harry might even fancy me back a little. He keeps acting strangely around me and I've even caught him looking at me more than once. But I must be just imagining it, because how could Harry ever like someone like me? URGH! All I wanted was a Valentine for Merlin's sake. I'm 16 years old and I have never had a Valentine; I've never held hands with a guy; I've never kissed a guy; I've never fallen in love. I want to experience these things.

So, I've come to the conclusion that it's time to get over Harry Potter. Maybe I should take some time to myself for awhile so I can think. It seems to me that my life has always had Harry Potter in it in some way, shape or form. I need to see what my life is like without Harry- for a little while at least.

So, that's it! This year I have finally decided to give up! I give up on the card making, the puppy dog eyes, cupid and his damned arrows, love poems, candy, roses, love...all of it!

I can't take it anymore!

There comes a point in time when a girl has to realize that she has been defeated; there comes a time when you should just give up. That is why I've come to the decision, after thinking long and hard about it, that I am boycotting Valentine's Day...

And Harry Potter.