Harry Potter and the Second Prophecy

Chapter 12 - St. Valentine's Day

Harry had always believed that Valentine's Day was a cruel joke; those without "significant others" spent it feeling sorry for themselves, and those who were somehow attached always seemed to be disappointed by the fact that the day never went "perfectly." This Valentines, however, had to be different.

Harry leapt from his bed early this day, spent an abnormally long time both in the shower and in front of the mirror preparing for his rendezvous with Ginny, and raced down to breakfast before most of the rest of his House so that by the time Ginny was ready to emerge from her dormitory, he could be sitting casually by the fireplace in the Common Room, pretending that his insides weren't swarming with a mass of frenzied butterflies.

When Ginny emerged from the stairway to the girls' dormitory, she looked more ravishing than Harry had ever seen her look. Just the top portion of her long red hair was pulled up and knotted at the back, and the rest fell down over her shoulders in a sleek cascade of ginger. Her makeup was scarce and natural, and her long eyelashes were blackened, making her beautiful green eyes appear to smolder. She was dressed in a simple pair of jeans and two tunic-length, stacked, form-fitting t shirts; one was white and the other, overlaying it, was aquamarine. She had a warm wool sweater tied about her waist to combat the cold February outside the castle, and heavy black tread boots laced up on her feet. As Harry gazed at her admiringly, she looked back at him equally as appreciatively.

As Ginny was crossing to Harry, he noticed Camilia appear from the dormitory stairway, looking equally ravishing. Harry could not deny his attraction to Camilia, which was growing ever more strong the closer they became as friends, but with Ginny the goddess she was, he did not give her more than a glance as she dashed off to meet up with Malfoy.

When she reached him, Ginny allowed Harry to take her hand and lead her to the couch in front of the fire. "You look like you're up to something," she coyly teased. "What have you planned for us for the day?"

When she implied that she'd be spending the entire day with Harry, he felt at least ten feet tall. "Just a trip to Hogsmeade, with maybe a few little surprises," he replied.

She hesitated before speaking, and then said, more casually, "You know, Harry, this is kind of strange, don't you think? I mean, you're Ron's best mate, I've had this giant crush on you for the last four years, and here we are, finally, going on a date! On Valentine's Day!" She laughed. "Hard to believe, isn't it?"

"A bit," he agreed. "But what's really hard to believe, Ginevra Weasley, is that it took me four years of living in the same House with you, seeing you every day during breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and spending time with you and your family to realize just how beautiful you are...in and out."

Ginny colored deeply and, at a loss for words, leaned her head on Harry's shoulder, nuzzling into the soft green sweater he'd chosen when dressing that morning with the hope she'd like it. He wasn't sure how long they'd sat that way, but Ginny was beginning to rise from her place on the couch next to him and ask if he'd join her in the Great Hall for breakfast. Just as he opened his mouth to respond, Seamus, Dean, and Ron entered the room.

"...sneak some fire whiskey into her...oh, hey, Ginny," laughed Seamus, elbowing Ron.

"That's enough, you git," Ron said, elbowing Seamus in return.

Ginny looked from Ron to Seamus and back again, and then turned to Seamus once more. "You're not encouraging my brother to get his girlfriend drunk, are you? Because, based on the snogging we've seen, just here in this room, Ron won't need any fire whiskey to make this a Valentine's Day to remember..." She laughed, Ron looked scandalized, and Seamus and Harry's jaws hit the floor. "I'm going to breakfast, Harry," she said, standing up. "You're welcome to come with me." With that, she headed for the portrait hole, and with a final sheepish shrug at a baffled Dean, Seamus, and Ron, Harry Potter headed after her.

* * * * * * * *

Ron and Hermione met up with Harry and Ginny a few minutes later down at breakfast; Ginny was, at first, concerned that Harry wasn't eating, so he let her in on what he hadn't been able to minutes before: he'd already eaten.

After breakfast, a line formed at the entrance to the castle, a horde of students waiting to trudge through the snow in hopes of reaching their romantic Hogsmeade destinations quickly. After various warnings to the students from Filch, making clear the punishment should he dislike any of the items returning to the school with the students, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were on their way. The day was bright and, without the cloud cover from snow, very cold. Their eyes and ears stung from the cold, and by the time they'd only reached the gates, Hermione was already having to cast spells to keep them from winding up frostbitten.

They were nearing Hogsmeade when they heard squeals from a group of third year girls somewhere behind them. They turned just in time to see a large, thick tapestry flying toward them, carrying Camilia and Draco Malfoy. They all leapt aside, and the two floated past, all bundled in their winter coats, looking comfortable and at ease. It might as well have been a horse-drawn carriage from the smug look on Malfoy's face.

Hermione was appalled, primarily because she could not perform the same spell. "How did they do that? Those spells are written in Arabic! I'm pretty sure Malfoy doesn't read Farsi, and I'm certain Camilia doesn't!"

"She doesn't have to, Hermione. She can do all sorts of things we can't, haven't you noticed?" asked Ron.

"But that's a valid spell! She can't make carpets fly without having access to - "

"It's not a carpet, Hermione," corrected Ginny. "It's a tapestry."

"I - well, I - " Hermione looked abashed.

"But we can do loads of things she can't too, alright, 'Mione?" Ron piped up. "For instance, anything simple, anything that requires a gentle hand...well, you all can do anything requiring a gentle hand, I just break things, but point is, you're just as capable, and far less dangerous. Now can we head to Hogsmeade, please? I can't feel my nose," he added.

Ron could occasionally be dense, it was true, but he also often said exactly what Hermione needed to hear. She linked her arm through his, but as they began again to walk toward Hogsmeade, Harry leaned over to Ginny.

"It's not that she can't do the simple things...it's that she doesn't try. I think she'd rather that whatever she does is spectacular," he muttered.

"Harry," said Ginny, stopping all at once and turning him to face her, "Can we please not talk about Camilia today?"

Harry waited for her to continue the thought, but she did not, so he nodded sheepishly, looking at the ground beneath him, and then she caught his arm, turned him towards Hogsmeade, and on they walked.

The group spent most of their time at the Three Broomsticks chugging butterbeer, ordering lunch and enjoying it with more butterbeer, and washing it down with a dessert that was primarily butterbeer. Ron and Hermione decided then to go their separate way and headed out into the cold. Harry and Ginny decided to do some shopping, and Harry suggested they head to Madame Liota's Seer Store. Ginny knew something was "up" when he tried to casually advocate using the back entrance.

Harry had planned it all. Madame Liota had arranged the back room for him specially, at a hefty price of over a fifty galleons, and it was draped from floor to ceiling in pale pink satin and tulle. Giant poufs and pillows were everywhere in the small room, and magical confetti was falling from the ceiling, vanishing before it reached the ground. In the middle of the room was a very low table with poufs on either side, and in the center of the table sat a very small jewelry box, surrounded by rose petals. On one of the poufs sat a dozen long-stemmed roses.

Now that Harry had the opportunity to actually see what Madame Liota had described to him, he was worried that Ginny would find it mildly tacky, but his fears dissipated when she threw her arms around him and planted a sweet, tender kiss on his left cheek. She then strode over to the pouf with the roses, lifted them and sat where they'd been, and laid them in her lap. Harry took the opportunity to join her on the large pink pouf across from her.
"May I open this?" she asked him, gesturing to the jewelry box on the table.

"It's not there for me," Harry countered, smiling.

She reached for the box, and lifted it from the table so that it was now inches from her face. She breathed in, and all at once cracked open the box. "Oh, Harry!" she gushed, practically knocking over the table to get to him once she'd seen what was inside.

Harry had searched for days and days to find just the right item for Ginny, and when he found the diamond earrings she was now clutching, he'd known right away that they should be hers. He had hesitated for just a moment, thinking that perhaps 100 galleons was a lot to spend on a fifteen year-old girl, but according to the goblin who sold them to him, they were flawless diamonds and worth twice that. When he learned they were flawless, all hesitation was gone; the word flawless described Ginny so perfectly to him, he knew they must be hers.

Some hours (and much kissing) later, the two heard a rap on the back door of the Seer Store, and Harry remembered that that was his cue; it would be time to return to Hogwarts very shortly. They had to be back by five o'clock, and he had asked Madame Liota to notify him of the time around four-thirty.

Ginny collected her roses, put on her earrings, pausing to appreciate the weight in her earlobes, and let Harry lead her, arm in arm, out to the road back to Hogwarts. They were through the gates when a tapestry came rushing by, and Harry just had time to notice a large, very old-looking book under Camilia's arm. The book! he thought. He gave her the book!

They watched the tapestry sink to a level barely two feet from the ground right before it reached the stairs into the school, and saw Malfoy leap down first, then offer his hand to help Camilia down. She turned to the tapestry, made a few circles with her right hand, and the tapestry rolled itself. She then motioned, rather absently, to Malfoy, who caught the tapestry in midair. Camilia glanced quickly over her shoulder at Harry and Ginny, then hugged her trophy to her as Malfoy put his arm around her waist and led her back into the warmth of the castle.

"I have to hand it to her," announced Ginny, jarring Harry from his study of the couple, "she can do things I never dreamed possible for a witch or wizard, and she seems to have Malfoy wrapped around her little finger. I just hope that she really does have him where she wants him, because I still think he has more up his sleeve."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," agreed Harry. "But then, I can't say much at all right now because I've lost the feeling in my lips."

Ginny laughed. "Well, what are we standing here for, then? Let's get inside!"

They raced one another to the stairs, surrendered themselves to Filch for a full search, and then decided to race one another to the Gryffindor Common Room. When they reached the portrait hole, Malfoy was kissing Camilia, and he was obviously using his tongue to do so.

"Can't you two do that somewhere private?" asked Ginny, stepping around them to make her way into the Common Room.

"We could," replied a cheeky Camilia, "but I wasn't sure if my bed hangings blocked the view to my bed a full three hundred sixty degrees." Ginny blanched. "With that mental image, Ginny...off you go!"

Ginny's jaw clenched, and Malfoy and Harry looked mutually uncomfortable. Malfoy glanced at Harry, and then told Camilia he'd see her in an hour for dinner. Camilia, however, was not yet finished with Malfoy. While they resumed their kissing, Harry followed Ginny through the portrait hole, and said to her in barely a whisper, "She wasn't serious, right?"

"God, I hope not!" Ginny said, shaking her head. "As far as she's told me, he's never done anything more than grope her once or twice."

"Ginny!" Harry exclaimed, shocked. "How do you...did she...why do you know that?"

"Because girls talk," she replied, shrugging.

Harry had to ask. "Have you two ever...talked about me?"

"Well, we haven't really talked since the whole Malfoy thing, but we used to. I'd tell her what a great kisser you are, and she'd tell me Malfoy is better, and I'd insist that that's not possible - "

"She said Malfoy is better?" stammered Harry.

Ginny laughed. "If you'd let me finish...I would insist that that's not possible because you're Harry and he's...well, he's Malfoy, and then she would finally concede that I'm right."

"Good, because I couldn't take it if Malfoy was a better kisser than me," concluded Harry.

"Well, Harry, honestly we really have no way of proving you're better, do we? I haven't kissed Malfoy, thank God, and Camilia hasn't kissed you."

Harry had almost forgotten she didn't know, and he was instantly glad he hadn't accidentally mentioned it. "Right. True. But I'm still better."

She laughed, and he forced a laugh and turned, wiping the sweat from his brow, trying to think of a new subject, when Camilia entered the room. Grateful for the built-in conversation topic, he asked about the book she was carrying. "So, that's it, is it? Charity Pritchard's book?"

Camilia's eyes became wide, and she hushed him. "Not so loud, Harry! You want the whole friggin' school to know?"

"Sorry," he replied, speaking in hushed tones.

"And to answer your question, yes, it is," she added smugly.

"Was it your Valentine's gift?" Ginny asked her, attempting to be pleasant.

"That, and this," she replied, reaching into her shirt to pull up a pendant attached to a thin chain around her neck. The pendant was a tiny gold heart with a small ruby suspended magically in the center. "It's my birth stone," she offered, "and they're the Gryffindor colors, of course."

"Malfoy bought you something in Gryffindor colors?" asked Harry dubiously.

"Yes, Draco bought me Gryffindor colors, Harry, and please, please, please would you call him Draco? You don't have to to his face or anything, but he is my boyfriend, and it wouldn't kill you!" snapped Camilia.

Ginny grinned. "I don't know about that, Camilia...it just might."

"Whatever," said Camilia through her teeth, and then turned on her heel and headed up the stairs to the girls dormitory.

Ginny leaned over conspiratorially to Harry. "Let her have her book and that stupid necklace," she mumbled, "and her stupid git of a boyfriend, too. I've got everything I could ever want." She reached for her earrings, smiled, and kissed him on the cheek. "I'll see you at dinner...if I'm not in detention for hexing that snooty bitch." Harry looked shocked at her sudden language, and watched her go as she stormed up her stairs.

"Women," muttered Harry, and, shaking his head in disbelief, he turned to head up to his dormitory to change for dinner.