Valentine's Day at Hogwarts

The Chosen Ones

It wasn't hard to work out which students received letters from Gilderoy Lockhart. At breakfast the next morning, six dapper snowy owls, each carrying a large, lurid pink envelope descended upon them. To Sarah's surprise one of the owls dropped a letter on top of her eggs.

"You're so lucky!" Rowan squealed as Sarah picked it up. It looked very like the love howlers they'd made in Transfiguration, and she worried that it would start singing Lockhart's praises. She opened it and read aloud to Rowan:

Congratulations, Sarah Spellman! You have been randomly selected to attend Gilderoy Lockhart's book signing of Voyages with Vampires at 5:00 Thursday at Flourish and Blotts. Be sure to dress your best, as there will be plenty of photographers about. Be at the Headmaster's office at 4:40 in order to depart. Try to breathe as you take it all in until then. Again, congratulations!

"Must be going by floo powder, then" said Charlie through a mouthful of bacon. "The train wouldn't get you there in only twenty minutes."

Sarah looked around to see who else had gotten a letter. Next to their table, she saw Penny waving at her with another pink envelope. That was good. If she had to listen to Gilderoy talk for another few hours, at least she'd have a friend with her. To her surprise, she also saw Andre with a Lockhart letter at the Ravenclaw table, sniffing his letter deeply. Sarah sniffed her own. Lavendar.

She didn't have time to look for any other pink letters before Rowan was up and herding them all to class, but as the entered the entrance hall she heard, "Sarah!" and turned to see Barnaby running towards her, holding Lockhart's letter up like a trophy. "We both actually got one!"

She grinned. "Brilliant."

"I can't wait to sign books with you."

"I think Lockhart will be the one signing the books, B."

"Oh," his shoulders slumped. "What do we do then?"

"I guess...watch?"

He frowned, obviously a lot less interested in book signings. Then, like a candle, he lit up again. "Well, I'm glad you'll be there."

There went her heart again. "Me too."

"I'll see you tonight!"

He hurried off, leaving Sarah to scoff at Rowan, who had watched the whole exchange with giant eyes, her hands pressed against her cheeks. "Could you be more obvious, please?"

"I might die of cuteness."

"Oh, come on. We've got to get to Divination."

Sarah led the way, being sure not to look at Rowan's face.

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The week went by slowly for Sarah, as she was quite looking forward to visiting Diagon Alley. Their themed lessons continued. Trelawney put them into pairs and made them try to see each other's Valentines in the crystal ball.

"It looks like you'll be spending Valentine's Day alone in a cloud of fog," said Sarah to Ben, gazing sleepily into the murky orb with her chin on the table.

"I suspected as much," he said. Once it was his turn, he told her, "I see a figure, but it's too shadowy to make out who it is. No wait, there's more than one. It's a whole group. I'd say four or five people." He looked up from the crystal ball in admiration. "You must be getting several Valentines, Sarah."

She scoffed. "More likely our crystal ball is faulty," she said.

Other lessons included a study of Cupid's constellation and the planet Venus in Astronomy, an incredibly boring lecture on laws regarding wizard to muggle marriage in History of Magic, and studying sirens and selkies in Care of Magical Creatires