Valentine's Day at Hogwarts

The End

"Um, Merula, can we talk?" Charlie called as Merula stalked out of the great hall after breakfast. He and Tonks hurried after her retreating form as she made her way back to the dungeons.

"Just why would I want to waste my valuable time talking to you, Weasley?" she answered, not bothering to turn around or slow down.

"Because..." he trailed off, not sure where he was going.

Tonks took the initiative. "I would have thought you'd be in a better mood today."

Merula Spun around, her wand held out, her grin wicked. "You don't want to see me in a bad mood," she said. Just as suddenly as she picked it up, she dropped her wand. "Wait, what? Why? What's today?"

Tonks smiled, and Charlie realized she was even more crafty than he'd given her credit for. She really would make a good auror. If she could stay out of trouble.

"Because the news is out. Everyone knows you fancy Sarah, so you can finally stop hiding your feelings and ask her out."

Merula froze for an instant, then pushed Tonks against the wall. "Who's been saying that?" she demanded.

Charlie gave a quick glance about to see if any teachers were around, then went to Merula's side.

"Now, let's calm down a bit," he tried to say, but Merula ignored him.

"Tell me where you heard that disgusting lie or I will curse you to oblivion."

For her part, Tonks remained perfectly calm. "I don't know, everyone's been saying it."

"Well, it's not true!" the slytherin girl hissed, "I hate Spellman. Hate her with every bone in my body."

"Alright, alright, calm down," said Tonks, finally managing to break Merula's grip and slid away from the wall. "If that's true, there's no need to be so defensive."

"I...I just--" Merula looked confused and angry. It was almost funny. "Whatever, you and your obnoxious friends just leave me alone."

"Fine," said Tonks, raising her hands. "We were only trying to help."

Merula scoffed. "Why would you help me?"

"That's what people with hearts do," said Charlie, earning him an eye roll from Merula.

"Because we want to help Sarah," answered Tonks. "She deserves a good Valentine's Day this year, and we were going to try to set her up with a date."

"And you thought that she and I would make a good couple?" She gave a high, not altogether natural laugh. "You two are dumber than you look."

"Alright, we'll leave you alone," said Charlie, leading Tonks away.

"But if you did fancy Sarah," said Tonks as Charlie dragged her away from Merula's arm reach, "and wanted to let her know, Valentine's Day would be the perfect time to do so."

"I don't!" she shouted as the two made their exit. "Everyone else in this school may worship the ground that girl walks on, but not me."

"Well, that was easy," said Tonks, once they were a safe distance away. "Unfortunately for Sarah, it seems like she can expect no less than 5 invites out for Valentine's Day."

Charlie furrowed his brows at her. "How could you have possibly gleaned that from that conversation?"

"That's Merula for you," said Tonks without a doubt. "She gets all angry and aggressive when you call her out on the truth."

"She's always angry and aggressive."

"True," said Tonks. "She must always be hiding something. Well," she added clamping her hands together, "our work here is almost done."

Charlie could have screamed. "I thought our work was done."

"Nope," said Tonks cheerily. "You were right. Five invites will be stressful to Sarah. I'm thinking we go talk to her, figure out which of our eligible bachelors or bachelorettes she's interested in, and make sure they..."

"Nope, that's it. We're done. I refuse to meddle anymore," said Charlie. "We've done enough already. Let's just let them decide for themselves if they want to ask Sarah out, and let Sarah decide for herself who she wants to go with."

"But," Tonks began.

"We took things too far last time, and literally crashed Sarah's date, Tonks," he said. "Let's get out now, while we still can."

There was a long pause, but he saw Tonks slump, defeated. "Fine," she said. "I just hope we've given Sarah a good Valentine's Day. She deserves it."

"Well, we certainly give her a memorable one," muttered Charlie, more to himself than to her. "Now c'mon, I'm way behind on my History of Magic essay."

Tonks groaned. "Playing matchmaker is so much better than studying." But she followed him down the corridor toward the library.

________________________________________________________________________________

As the sun poked through the curtains of her four poster bed on Monday morning, Sarah awoke in a better mood than she had been in weeks. She'd finally gotten a good night's sleep for one thing, and felt refreshed and ready for the day's events.

But she also couldn't help but feel excited about the supposed Valentine's Day events going on this week. She felt somewhat silly for admitting it, even to herself, but the thought of a little fun and maybe even romance gave her hope. She could use a break from worry.

She sat up and drew the curtains, as, in the bed across from hers, Rowan did the same. "Morning," her friend said, stifling a yawn.

"Morning. Ready for today?"

"I hope so," said Rowan stepping into her slippers. "I don't really like surprises. Or Valentine's Day. Or romance..."

"You sound like Ben," said Sarah. "C'mon, it'll be fun."

They dressed and walked down to breakfast, Sarah feeling more like her old self than she had for weeks.

The match with Ravenclaw loomed around the corner, the threat of exams remained constant, and prefect duties still needed to be done. Against all that, Sarah could handle some Valentine's Day fun at lessons. The guest speaker didn't concern her at all. She was ready for a good week. And who knows? She thought to herself as she and Rowan entered the great hall and made for the Gryffindor table, maybe the Valentine's Day spirit will inspire me to figure out what I'm feeling and get some things off my chest.

She sat down next to Charlie and helped herself to some bacon and eggs.