Chapter Text
The morning sun shone into the bedroom, and Hermione woke up rubbing her eyes. She sighed wearily, feeling a bit sluggish. Today was a day that everyone was eagerly waiting for, her roommates had been talking about it since last night. However, Hermione was the only one who didn't care at all. She simply had nothing to look forward to. Well, since today is Valentine's Day, what can someone without love look forward to?
As soon as Harry stepped into the hall, he was surrounded. by girls giving gifts, Hermione and Ron had a tough time squeezing through to get to the table. As they sat down, Hermione glanced over towards the Slytherin table, almost as if by habit, just wanting to see something, and Draco Malfoy was having breakfast with a mountain of chocolates beside him.
"Oh, Ginny," Ron exclaimed. “Are you getting as much chocolate too?”
“Of course,” Ginny snorted. "Don't underestimate your little sister."
A while later, Ron received a letter from one of the Ravenclaw girls, boasting excitedly around the dining table. At the same time, Harry returned with a pile of gifts and letters. The Weasley twins appeared and helped Harry deal with that pile of chocolates.
“Indeed, eating other people's food is always better,” Fred said with a mouthful of chocolate.
“Have you all got plans for tonight?” Ginny asked. "We're allowed to go to Hogsmeade tonight."
"Of course," Ron said. “No one can’t stay in a room on this day.”
Everyone at the table chatted cheerfully, except Hermione, who had been silent the whole time, focusing solely on her plate of food. She also wanted to go somewhere tonight, but nobody invited her, and she didn't know whom to invite. Going out alone will only make everybody laugh.
“Mione, why have you been so quiet?” Ginny knew Hermione wasn't interested in the topic but wanted her to join in for fun.
"I don't know what to say." Hermione pretended to smile.
"Don't tell me you're going to the library tonight," Harry teased with a slightly mischievous grin.
“Maybe, there are still unfinished essays.” Hermione shrugged.
"Oh, Hermione, that's dull," Ron frowned. “That's what happens when you sign up for too many classes.”
"Alright, I'm done eating. I'll go ahead." Hermione stood up. "Ron, I will take the report to Professor McGonagall now, give me your report and I will take it to her for you."
“Oh, okay.” Ron rummaged through his bag, took out the report that every Prefect had to do monthly, and handed it to Hermione. "Thank you, Mione."
Hermione walked out of the Entrance Hall towards Professor McGonagall's office. As she walked back, turning right down the corridor towards the West Tower, she spotted Malfoy in the opposite hallway, whom she had seen having breakfast earlier. Malfoy was standing with a girl who was handing him a letter. The girl seemed to be saying something, blushing intensely, while he calmly put his hand in his pocket, not in a hurry to take the letter.
Hermione narrowed her eyes. Since last year, Hermione had been noticing Malfoy, his every action seemed to intrigue her, making her pay attention. Each time this happened, a bunch of silly thoughts would flood her mind.
In a sudden moment, Hermione was startled as she caught Malfoy's gaze, and he, in turn, narrowed his eyes at her. Feeling awkward, Hermione turned away quickly and hurried off. She wanted to know if Malfoy received that letter but desperately didn't want to witness the outcome. However, she couldn't just stand there after being seen by him. And his eyes seemed to convey something, but she couldn't read anything.
The first lesson of the day was Charms, and since Hermione had left the Hall earlier, she was the first to arrive in the classroom. Taking a deep breath, she placed her bag on the table and turned to go to the bathroom. After refreshing herself by washing her face, Hermione returned to the classroom. Upon stepping in, her eyes were drawn to the blonde hair in the last row of the class; a few students had arrived, but he was the first one she noticed.
Malfoy wasn't with his group of friends; he was sitting alone at the back of the class, much like how she was seated alone in the middle. A minute later, more students trickled in, and the classroom started to fill up. Her friends finally join her.
"Sneaking off without a word, Draco. Were you off to present a gift to some girl?" Zabini's voice echoed from the back, intriguing Hermione to turn her head, just to have a glance before turning back, inadvertently catching Malfoy's eyes again. She quickly turned her back, suddenly feeling like she was caught doing something clandestine. Through the corner of her eye, she swore she caught Zabini's gaze peculiarly directed at her.
"Granger," Malfoy called out loudly.
Startled, Hermione wondered what conflict he was about to initiate this time. Slowly turning to face him again, she noticed his lips curved into a perfect arch.
"Have you been invited out by anyone this Valentine, Granger?" Malfoy scoffed. "Is it better than last year, eh?”
The Slytherins erupted in laughter.
“What's it to you? It's not your turn either," Hermione replied without looking at him, turning away. She heard Slytherin's laughter.
Just as Hermione opened her bag to get her books, she froze for a moment when she noticed a box of chocolates inside. Hermione pulled out the box but hesitated to open it immediately; it looked expensive.
"You're probably going to the library again tonight, as you haven't received any cards," Parkinson sneered with a mocking laugh.
"Shut up!" Harry interrupted.
"Leave it, Harry. Arguing with them is a waste of time–" Ron pulled Harry back, then glanced at Hermione and noticed a gift box in her hand, exclaiming, "Oh, Hermione, is that chocolate?"
Startled, Hermione looked up, realizing everyone was looking at her after Ron's shout. She thought someone might have mistakenly put it in her bag, but as she retrieved the box, she noticed the words To Hermione Granger written neatly on it. Suddenly, her heart beat faster; someone had secretly given her a gift on Valentine's Day. Who could it be?
When she left the classroom to go to the bathroom, she placed her book bag on the desk. Perhaps chocolate was put in her bag at that time.
"What?" Parkinson leaped from her seat, gradually advancing towards Hermione. "You got chocolates, Mudblood?" She reached out and snatched the box from Hermione's hand to examine it closely. "Oh? Let me see."
"Well, I know this type of chocolate, Hermione," Patil from the upper bench leaned in. "It's from Germany, and it's quite expensive."
"It's like you bought it yourself and then gave it—" Suddenly, Parkinson halted, furrowing her brows as she noticed something on the box. There was nothing else on the box except for the inscription To Hermione Granger, could she recognize whose handwriting it was?
At that moment, Professor Flitwick entered the room, and Malfoy spoke up, "Stop causing a fuss and come back, Pansy."
Parkinson swallowed hard, glanced at Malfoy with some hidden meaning that Hermione couldn't decipher, then tossed the box back onto the table to Hermione, sneering, "It's a knockoff."
As Parkinson returned to her seat, Patil remarked, "She's talking nonsense. That's a genuine gift, Hermione, I swear. Whoever gave this chocolate to you must be well-off."
"Wow, I didn't expect our Hermione to get that," Lavender added. "Congratulations, anyway."
"You have to let Ron and me enjoy that expensive chocolate, Hermione," Harry teased with a wink.
"No. I don't even want to open it," Hermione said.
Hermione admired the box; it was so pretty that she didn't want to open it at all. Also, because of the inscription To Hermione Granger, a style of handwriting she had never seen before. She was thinking of someone, who frequently competed in various places, and could have bought it. That’s Viktor Krum, who often sent letters to her. However, the handwriting was completely different from the handwriting in the previous letters. Hermione sighed and put the box back into her bag, deciding to think about it later, then looked up to inadvertently catch Ron's furrowed face.
"What are you thinking?"
“Thinking about who gave this box,” Ron said. "People who dare to spend a lot of money to buy gifts in this school are not many, they must also be children of a rich family."
Hermione tilted her head; she involuntarily glanced down to secretly look at Malfoy once more. Speaking of the richest person in this school, there is no one else besides him. It seemed he was also looking at Hermione because he quickly averted his eyes when she looked down at him. She narrowed her eyes and quickly turned to avoid attracting attention; perhaps she was mistaken in thinking he was looking at her. Hermione shook her head slightly, focusing on the lesson. She hadn't paid attention to what Professor Flitwick had said.
At the end of the lesson, Harry asked, “Hermione, why were you quieter than usual today?"
Indeed, she didn’t raise her hand to speak during today's class even though she usually asked a lot of questions.
“Mm - just felt a bit tired today.”
"Because you've signed up for a truckload of subjects," Ron grimaced. "Always studying."
Harry packed his books into his bag and urged Ron, "Hurry up Ron, or we'll be blocked off now."
"Bloody hell," Ron sighed, feigning exhaustion. "Being handsome like us is miserable. Alright, Hermione, I'll go ahead."
"See you at lunch," Hermione waved.
As Harry and Ron left, a group of girls flocked over, half of them staying behind while the other half ran after the two boys.
"It's so unfair," Dean lamented. "They have a ton of admirers, while we don't have anyone."
Hermione and the girls giggled. She glanced towards the door; at that moment, Malfoy and his friends were surrounded by the girls outside.
"You've got to admit one thing, Dean," Lavender chuckled. "You're not handsome enough to get that."
"What? We're losing out to Malfoy?" Dean exclaimed, and Seamus and even Neville shook their heads in disagreement.
"The three of you combined still can't match," Patil teased. "I must admit, Malfoy is quite handsome."
"Did he cast a spell on you today?" Seamus frowned. "Say something fair for us, Hermione. Do you think Malfoy is genuinely handsome?"
"Yeah, he's handsome–" Hermione burst into laughter. "–just needs to keep his mouth shut, and he'd be perfect."
The faces of the three boys wrinkled further, but upon hearing the latter part, they relaxed. Patil and Lavender laughed even louder, making the whole group join in.
Leaving the Charm class and parting ways with her friends, they all headed to Divination, while Hermione went in the opposite direction towards Ancient Runes.
Walking for a while, reaching a corridor with windows, Hermione caught a familiar figure. It was none other than Viktor Krum's owl, which had delivered letters to her numerous times. Hermione stopped, waited for the owl to fly over, and perched on the adjacent window ledge.
"Again," Hermione stroked the owl.
Hermione retrieved the letter from the owl's feet, offered it a few biscuits for energy, and bid it goodbye as it flew off. Next was the letter, still in Viktor Krum's familiar handwriting. Hermione smiled; she truly valued this friendship, but it seemed that Krum didn't want to stop at just friendship. Hermione knew this and tried to refrain from mentioning it.
About to put the letter in her bag to read it after her classes, the letter was suddenly snatched out of her hand. Turning around, it turned out to be Malfoy, holding her letter with a frown. Wasn't he just surrounded by those girls a moment ago? When did you get rid of them?
"Well, getting a love letter, huh?" Malfoy teased. “What a surprise, Granger.”
"Give it here, Malfoy." Hermione snatched the letter back but missed.
"Hold on, let me see." Malfoy held the letter high and raised his head to read. "From Viktor to Hermione." He read and burst into laughter.
"What are you laughing at?" she tried to jump up to get the letter back from his hand. "Give it back."
With Malfoy's height, Hermione couldn't reach the letter held so high, so she kept jumping to retrieve it.
"Well, you two are still close, huh?"
As Malfoy spoke, he bent his head down just as Hermione jumped up, their faces almost touching. Both froze for a moment, she was slightly surprised by his expression. His face seemed frozen, she couldn't gauge what he was thinking, no expression at all, just an odd feeling she couldn't quite place.
Malfoy slowly lowered his arm, giving Hermione a chance to grab her letter back. He jolted as if someone had pulled his soul back to the present.
"You’re fucking rude," Hermione bit her lip.
He resumed his usual demeanor, his trademark smirk forming on his lips. She glared at him and walked away. In truth, she was trying to leave quickly to hide her tension from Malfoy. She could clearly hear her heartbeat and felt a little short of breath. She unloosed her tie. What an annoying feeling this was.
~~~
Two hours passed, the Ancient Runes class ended, and Hermione felt quite overwhelmed today with a lot of information to take in. Her current state didn't seem well; earlier she felt unwell, and now she felt even more sluggish. Luckily, she had a free period next and the entire afternoon off due to Valentine's Day.
Hermione didn't rush to find Harry and Ron knowing they had two Divination classes today, so she decided to find a spot to read her letters. It was raining outside, and she walked over to the window, reaching out to catch the falling raindrops. Sitting here, watching the rain, wasn't so bad. Thinking about it, she jumped up and sat at one of the arched windowsills.
Rain often stirs up a multitude of emotions, especially causing one to reminisce about old times. Hermione gazed at the gloomy sky, feeling that her life was similar to it. Dull and dark.
"Stop it," a voice echoed from the covered veranda below. "There's no use training in such heavy rain."
Hermione leaned forward to eavesdrop. She knew it was the Slytherin Quidditch team, and the voice belonged to the burly Goyle.
"You lazy lot, get back here to practice, rain or not," Zabini shouted. "You keep missing the Quaffle. How do we expect to win?"
"We did try, but it's raining today," Crabbe defended.
Hermione chuckled from upstairs; she had never seen Beaters as awful as those two. If they kept it up, Gryffindor had a chance to win because their Beaters – Dean and Seamus – were making progress. She was about to stop paying attention when that voice grabbed her attention once more.
"Leave them, Blaise," Malfoy intervened, throwing his broom at Goyle. "No matter how much they practice, these idiots are still bad. Such heavy rain anyway, it's better to postpone till another time."
"Right, right, and the finals are two months away," Goyle added.
"Two months? If you two don't improve–"
Ignoring Captain Zabini's scolding of the two hefty players, Malfoy walked away inside. Hermione also pulled back.
She remembered what she had to do now. Hermione returned to Krum's letter and the box of chocolates. Comparing the handwriting on the letter and the box – they were completely different. Therefore, the person who might have gifted her the chocolates might not be Krum. Perhaps there was something poisonous in them, a prank. She set this thought aside and decided to read the letter first.
The letter began with Valentine's Day wishes, and asks a few questions. What caught Hermione's attention were the last few lines.
...I have a match coming up in London, so I might drop by to visit you. Can we meet? I hope you'll come...
Since their breakup in the fourth year, they hadn't had a chance to meet again. She never expected Krum to persistently keep writing to her like this.
Lost in thought with the letter, Hermione didn't notice Malfoy's arrival by her side. He cleared his throat to get her attention. Hermione turned around and Malfoy was still in his Quidditch robe, the back of his robe wet and muddy from the rain.
"You again?" Hermione frowned, hastily folding the letter back into its envelope.
"Well, well, what did Prince write in there that the Princess doesn't seem happy about?" Malfoy smirked.
"Don't call us that, Malfoy."
"Why, huh?" he put his hands in his pockets, casually leaning against the wall behind him. "He calls you that anyway."
"What? Krum called me that?"
"Princess Gryffindor. That's ridiculous," he teased again. "Oh, did you not keep up with the sports news? In the latest interview, he revealed he's pursuing a girl he likes to call Princess Gryffindor."
"What!" Hermione widened her eyes and then narrowed them suspiciously. "Is that so, or are you making it up?"
"I don't dare lie about that to the Princess," he shrugged, and she squinted at him for using the term Princess again. "You seem to like that, I suppose," he pouted.
"Who said I like that?" she glared at him. "I have no feelings for him whatsoever."
"Oh, good then," his eyebrow raised, and the corner of his mouth curled up.
Hermione looked at Malfoy in surprise; he was smiling, unexpectedly cheerful. What made him so happy? Had she told anyone about this yet? He looks so handsome when he smiles like that, and she has that feeling again. She swallowed hard, trying to hide her emotions.
The rain had stopped completely now, and the sun was beginning to reappear. The sunlight shone directly on his blond hair, adding to his smile. A gentle breeze passed by, and the sensation of flutter seemed to flood her entire body.
She shook herself abruptly, hurriedly stuffed the chocolate box and the letter back into her bag, then jumped down from the window.
As she was putting the chocolate box back into her bag, Malfoy said, "Don't let anyone else eat it."
"What?"
"Expensive chocolate. Don't waste it on others."
Malfoy then walked away, leaving her looking bewildered. Did he mention her chocolate? She shrugged, pouted, and started to walk away. She thought of nothing else but that he was selfish.