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ing as though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force-fed poison.

'Please, Hermione, tell me you weren't one of the forty-six,' said Ron, as they left the Great Hall for their first lesson. Hermione suddenly became very interested in searching her bag for her timetable and didn't answer.

Amelia sighed heavily and rolled her eyes. 'Hermione, he is twice your age. Girl, you are smart, creative, independent, and WAY too good for any of the losers here! I'm sure there might be one or two people in this school that would be WAY more interesting than him and your age.'

All day long, the dwarfs kept barging into their classes to deliver Valentines, to the annoyance of the teachers, and late that afternoon, as the Gryffindors were walking upstairs for Charms, one of them caught up with Harry.

'Oy, you! 'Arry Potter!' shouted a particularly grim-looking dwarf, elbowing people out of the way to get to Harry.

Hot all over at the thought of being given a Valentine in front of a queue of first-years, which happened to include Ginny Weasley, Harry tried to escape. The dwarf, however, cut his way through the crowd by kicking people's shins, and reached him before he'd gone two paces.

'I've got a musical message to deliver to 'Arry Potter in person,' he said, twanging his harp in a threatening sort of way.

'Not here,' Harry hissed, trying to escape.

'Stay still!' grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Harry's bag and pulling him back.

'Let me go!' Harry snarled, tugging.

With a loud ripping noise, his bag split in two. His books, wand, parchment and quill spilled onto the floor and his ink bot- tle smashed over the lot.

Harry scrambled around, trying to pick it all up before the dwarf started singing, causing something of a hold-up in the corridor.

'What's going on here?' came the cold, drawling voice of Draco Malfoy. Harry started stuffing everything feverishly into his ripped bag, desperate to get away before Malfoy could hear his musical Valentine.

'What's all this commotion?' said another familiar voice, as Percy Weasley arrived.

Losing his head, Harry tried to make a run for it, but the dwarf seized him around the knees and brought him crashing to the floor.

'Right,' he said, sitting on Harry's ankles, 'here is your singing Valentine:

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