Chapter One:
Hermione had never liked valentines day. Not because she never got anything, she had recieved her fair share of cards and chocolates and some... flowers in her time.
But, that was her problem with it.
Flowers.
Flowers were very personal, you know? Every girl has her favourite kind of flower, whether it be red roses or white lillies. The smell of them or the shape or the colour is what draws them to you, that makes you smile. So, when hermione recieves flowers that arent her favourites, it irritates her. ESPECIALLY when she had put an awful lot of
emphasis on her favourite flowers to the person she recieved the roses off.
Now, Hermione was a clever girl, she realizes that roses are awfully expensive, and quite frankly, you could get twice as many of her favourite flowers than you could roses.
It wasnt too much to ask was it? She knew that she had mentioned her favourite flowers more than once. Perhaps Ron wasnt listening, ofcourse not. He was too busy paying attention to whatever Harry was saying about quidditch. The fact that his girlfriend was giving clues about what she wanted for valentines day didn't matter, and this wasn't just her being selfish, Ron had made it quite clear that he wanted new keepers gloves from a private shop in diagon alley, (and they weren't cheap either.) 45 galleons! She had saved all her birthday money and lent some of her parents to pay for them.
Yet here she was, thanking the house elf that brought the roses to her room and plastering a silly fake smile on her face, as she would when she thanked Ron for them later.
But that didn't stop the niggling feeling of disappointment at the bottom of her stomach. She thought Ron cared, but the more she thought about it, the more she remembered the looks Ron had been giving Lavender Brown. She knew Lavender still loved him, she just wasn't sure if Ron still loved her. In all fairness, Lavender was very pretty, her hair had gone from frizzy blonde, to sleek curls, her curves had matured, giving her an hour glass figure, and her breasts had swelled to a size 34DD. Hermione was jealous to say the least, Lavender was perfect, to be fair, she couldn't blame Ron's eyes for wandering.
Hermione's eyes began to sting with silent tears at the thought of him cheating on her, she inwardly scolded herself. Ron wouldn't cheat, he wasn't that kind of guy.
Trust Ginny to pick now to walk right in to her dorm.
"'Mione! Whats wrong?" She ran to her side and gathered her in to a massive hug, then withdrew, staring her in the eyes intently.
"Has-ron-cheated-on-me-with-lavender-brown?" Hermione blurted before she could stop herself.
"Of-of course not! Lavender Brown is a dirty little skank. Ron only has eyes for you sweetie, why would you ask that?" She reassured her friend putting emphasis on the 'only.' But Hermione didn't trust Ginny one bit, especially the way she couldn't look her in the eye.
"Ginny, what aren't you telling me? Whats going on?" Hermione studied her best friends reaction carefully.
"I was going to tell you herm, i was i swear, but harry swore me to secrecy, and ron promised it would never happen again, and he he really loves you 'mione, he does-" she was rambling, Ginny always rambled when she was hiding something big. She felt the tears pooling in her eyes, once again. "Spit it out Ginny, what did he do?" Her voice portrayed alot more confidence than she felt inside.
Ginny sighed and looked at her friend. "Ron slept with Lavender at Semus' new year party, Oh 'mione i'm so so so sorry i didn't tell you," Ginny began to sob uncontrollably.
Hermione closed her eyes and felt the moistness spill over her eyes and down her cheeks.
"Has it happened more than once?" Hermione whispered.
"No. But I can assure you Ron regretted it." Hermione felt broken, she asked Ginny to leave, then fell back on her pillows, she let out the body shaking sobs thats she'd been holding when Ginny was with her.
Rons betrayal richocheted around her heart, smashing it in to an infinite amount of pieces. Today was valentines day, how could she find this out on valentines day? A knock on the door shocked her out of her thoughts. She crawled of the bed and wiped her eyes, she sniffed in and composed herself, taking a deep breath, she opened the door, only to let it out in a gasp.
She couldn't see the house elf that carried the flowers, she couldnt even make her mouth work to thank him as she took the flowers from his weighed down arms. So she nodded 'thanks' and hurried back inside. She placed the flowers on her dresser then stepped back to admire them. They were beautiful to say the least.
Italian grown purple tulips. Her favourite flower. They were wrapped in a midnight blue ribbon and a spell had clearly been put on them to intensify and spread the smell, already she could smell the sweet intoxication that she recognized from her childhood, picking them with her mother when they visited the holiday home in Italy.
Before she got that letter. Before she learnt of her magic. Before she got involved in the war... Before she met Ron.
Ron? Did Ron get her these flowers? The smile that had spread across her lips dropped and turned in to a look of confusion, no, Ron got her the roses, he's not cheap, but he would only get her one bunch of flowers, no matter how much she spent on him. She reached forward for the card that hung from a thinner strip of ribbon, funny, the card was green. Slytherin green!
"Huh," she sounded her confusion then read the note inside the card...
'A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.'
DM.
Dm? DRACO MALFOY? No no no, no there were plenty of boys in slytherin and of course she was just assuming that this boy was in slytherin because the card was green. She was assuming it was a boy, oh no, it must be a boy.
DM? dmdmdmdmdm...
Darren Myles?
2nd year hufflepuff?
Dean Menforth?
Ravenclaw 3rd year?
She couldn't for the life of her think of another boy with the initials DM in slytherin. If this was Malfoy, this was a joke. Ofcourse it was. That was the way he and his little band of followers thought right?
Her brain began to spin, what a cruel joke. Hermione's eyes began to fill with tears again. How dare he? That stupid ferret! How dare he treat her like this on Valentines Day?
So this is the first chapter of the re-write, what do y'all think? Those of you who read the previous version- your comments would be good, and new readers- REVIEW!
None of this would've been possible with out my amazing Beta Reader livi harkness, she's wicked!
~ZS#LH~
xxxxxx
