Love From, Your Secret Admirer || Harmione

Part 1

"The evening of the eighth of February was cold. Blisteringly so. The type of chill that wouldn't be out of place in the Siberian wilderness, or the stone heart of the mob-boss in a backroom. It was nights like these that lead to undesirable activity. Heh, well, undesirable from my perspective. Those reckless hooligans think themselves to be 'tough' or 'formidable', but they don't know what it's like deep underground, with the psychos and masterminds and psycho-masterminds. Those reckless hooligans think themselves to be smart, but solving their petty murders and robberies is child's play compared to the puzzle and challenge of the Dark Horse. I've solved every case I've ever gotten, apart from his. He's my arch-nemesis, my Achilles Heel, my-"

"Harry, what the fuck are you going on about?"

Harry was instantly brought out of his musings by her voice and was momentarily confused as to where he was. Until he wasn't. Gryffindor common room. Staring out the window overlooking the Black Lake. Wearing-

"For goodness sake, take off that ridiculous trench coat and fedora!" Hermione snapped, as she stomped towards Harry, with Ron standing to the side gawking at him. "And what on earth are you smoking? Is that parchment paper?"

"Uh... yeah? I just... rolled up a bit of parchment paper and cast incendio at the end of it..." Harry muttered.

Hermione simply huffed and started to unbutton Harry's trench coat for him.

"Honestly, Harry, you and Sirius spent far too much time watching 'Film noir' over Christmas. Your continuing obsession with the genre is unhealthy, especially your ghastly fedora." Hermione said as one of her hands snatched the abomination off his head.

"Hey! Fedoras are cool." Harry exclaimed, scandalised.

Hermione glared at Harry as she finished the last button on his coat. "No. No, they are not. You're just embarrassing yourself in front of the wizards, looking all," she gesticulated vaguely over Harry's attire, "Sherlock Holmes or something!"

"Actually, Sherlock Holmes wears a deerstalker, not a fedora-"

"I. Don't. Care." Hermione harshly thrust Harry's trench coat and fedora into his arms before her tone softened and she gently touched his arm, "Besides, I'm sure you'll be able to put your blossoming 'detective skills' to use over the next few days."

And with a smile, Hermione sauntered off to the girl's dormitories, leaving a confused Harry to stand miserably with his detective costume in his arms, sending an icy glare towards Ron, as though daring him to laugh.

He did.

"Honestly, mate, you looked absurd!" Ron said after he calmed down many moments later.

"What did she mean by putting my 'detective skills' to use? Do you know?" Harry asked, ignoring Ron's vile and spiteful comment.

"No idea, mate," Ron said, though Harry had an inkling that he was being purposefully evasive in his tone, before batting away that ridiculous notion, "Anyways, have you seen what's been put up on the notice board?"

Ron led Harry over to the board, where a small gaggle of girls were giggling.

"Why is there a small gaggle of girls giggling?" Harry quietly asked Ron.

"Look!" Ron pointed towards the top of the board, where in large vibrant flashing pink letters it said:

Valentine's Love Letter Service

"What am I supposed to be looking at?"

Ron stared incredulously at Harry.

"I literally just pointed it out to you," Ron rubbed his face in an exasperated manner, "The... the big fuck-off lettering about a 'Valentine's Love Letter Service'!"

"Oh. Right."

"Come on, you should read the details as well."

Ron pushed past the small gaggle of girls who were still giggling, who then all stopped giggling when they saw Ron.

"Piss off," Ron snapped at the girls.

With the girls out of the way, Ron jerked his finger towards the parchment stuck underneath the large lettering.

It's approaching Valentine's Day and the newly formed Love Society (under the supervision and charms expertise of Professor Flitwick) have a treat in store for you!

We are offering a challenge and a service to all you wannabe love-birds!

Over the course of a week, starting February 9th and ending February 14h, we will provide a service for you to have anonymous love-letters delivered to your crush, only there's a twist!

These letters will start off anonymous, and every subsequent letter will include more and more hints to your crush as to who you are. Our very own Professor Flitwick knows some nifty charms to ensure varying levels of anonymity in the letters, so you don't have to worry about writing cryptic messages yourself, the charms will do the hard work for you!

As frequently or as infrequently as you want (we recommend once a day), you can send love letters, via us and our special Valentine's owls, to your crush!

Our challenge is this: The sooner your crush figures out who's sending them letters, the more house-points both you and your crush will get! (No cheating. Trust us, we'll know if you do!)

The more letters you send, the more obvious the letters will be as to who is sending them. For example, if you send one letter a day, the first letter will be almost impossible to figure out, but the letter sent on February 14th will be practically screaming your name!

Sign-ups start from when this appears on your common room notice boards, and ends on February 14th.

We hope you take advantage of our service!

Love from,

The Love Society

"Ok..." Harry said, "Why are you showing me this? Wait, are you going to be sending me love letters, Ron? I love you, mate, but like a brother. I'm sorry to break it to you-"

Harry was interrupted by a hard whack on his arm.

"No, you idiot! I'm showing this to you because Her-" Ron coughed, "because I thought you should keep it in mind over the coming week."

Harry was simply confused, gently rubbing his arm, "Ok...?"

"Let's just head off to bed, then," Ron sighed.

The two boys headed off to their dormitory, Ron muttering something about how 'hopeless' Harry was. Harry didn't think he was hopeless. He had lots of hope. Why Ron thought he had less was baffling to him.

After getting ready for a good night's sleep, Harry laid down in his bed pondering the significance of Ron showing him the 'Valentine's Love Letter Service' thingamajig. Ron laid down in his bed pondering the number of brain cells Harry had.

"Ron?" Harry sleepily murmured.

"Yeah, mate?"

"I'm just thinking, I'd love it if Hermione took part in the service and sent me love letters." There was a gasp and then Ron started spluttering, but Harry ignored him, "She's just so... I can't explain it. Words could never do her even a smidge of justice... I love her..."

And with that, Harry's snores filled the dormitory.

"Took you far too long to realise that..." Ron muttered.

Maybe Harry had more brain cells than Ron thought.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Join the HMS Harmony Discord at https://discord.gg/2GcXw8R