Magical - Harry Potter Fanfiction

23| The Valentine

As Harry and I walked into the Great Hall for breakfast the next morning, the walls were covered with large, obnoxious pink flowers and heart-shaped confetti was falling from the ceiling. Harry and I went over to the Gryffindor table where Ron and Hermione were sitting. Ron didn't look very pleased, but Hermione looked like something was funny.

"What's going on?" Harry asked as we sat down opposite them.

Ron pointed to the teachers table. Lockhart was wearing bright pink robes to match the decorations. The other teachers were looking very irritated, mainly Snape.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all and it doesn't end here!"

Lockhart clapped his hands and through the doors of the Great Hall marched about a dozen dwarfs. They were all wearing golden wings and carrying harps.

"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" Beamed Lockhart. "They will be going around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn't stop there! I'm sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a love potion? And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about entrancing enchantments than any wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!"

Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Snape was looking like the first person to ask him for a love potion would be force-fed poison.

"Hermione, tell me you weren't one of the forty-six people who sent Lockhart a valentine?" Ron asked as we left the Great Hall for our first lesson of the day.

Hermione suddenly became very interested in searching her bag for something and didn't answer.

"She probably wrote all of them," Ron whispered into my ear.

I giggled.

All day, the dwarfs kept barging into our classes to deliver valentines, the teachers got very annoyed.

"What's this?" Draco asked, picking something up off the floor when we were walking to charms that afternoon.

It was the diary!

"Give that back!" Demanded Mia.

"That was stolen from me yesterday, I wonder how it got there?" Harry asked.

"I wonder what you've written in this, Mia Black!" He said, opening it.

"Hand it over, Malfoy," said Fred sternly.

"When I've had a look," said Draco, waving the diary tauntingly at Fred.

"Give it back, now!" Percy demanded. "As a school prefect -" Percy began before he was interrupted by Fred.

Fred pulled out his wand and shouted "Expelliarmus!"

The diary shot out of Draco's hand into the air and Ron caught it, grinning.

"Fred!" said Percy loudly. "No magic in the corridors. I'll have to report this, you know!"

"Ron, that diary's mine," Mia said, stepping toward Ron. 

"Actually, we found it, you stole it from us!" Ron accused. 

"No, you stole it from me first," Mia said. "You found it in the girls bathroom, didn't you?"

"Just hand it over, Ron," I said.

Ron sighed and reluctantly gave Mia the book.

After our lessons ended for the day, we went back to the common room. We decided that we would not say anything to Hagrid unless there was another attack. More and more days went by and Harry and I didn't hear the voice once, so we hoped that we would never need to talk to Hagrid about why he was expelled. It had been nearly four months since Justin and Nearly Headless Nick had been petrified, most people seemed to think that the attacker, whoever it was, had retired for good.