Author's Note: Greetings friends! This is my first attempt at a Harry Potter story, so it might not be my best work. I'm still new at writing these characters.
What did everyone do for Valentine's Day this year? I celebrated Singles Awareness Day/Anti-Valentine's Day with my friends. We wore dark clothing, wrote sad poetry, egged our ex-boyfriends' houses, and requested breakup songs on the radio.
I have made a major decision. I will no longer celebrate Valentine's Day. In its place, I will observe Singles Awareness Day.
Singles Awareness has very few followers. It seems as though everyone has a significant other this year. Al has a girlfriend, Lily has a boyfriend, Dominique has multiple boyfriends, even Scorpius is dating and I'mnotjealousshutupLily. I have no one, unless you count the time I snogged Lysander Scamander when I was drunk. And quite honestly, I don't want anyone to know about that.
I am happy to be single. At least, I'm going to pretend I am. If I don't, Scorpius will take full advantage of my miserable state. He'll go on and on about spending the entire day with his perfect new girlfriend and noI'mnotjealousgoawayJames. And I honestly don't understand why everyone thinks I fancy him. 'Cause I totally don't. At all.
"Planning anything exciting for tomorrow?" Hugo asks me.
"Do I look like I'm excited?" I reply bitterly.
"No, not particularly."
"Well, then I must not be doing anything exciting. Besides, I don't celebrate Valentine's Day anymore," I tell him.
"And why is that?" he asks curiously.
"It's a waste of time and money. Why dedicate one day of the year to showing your affection? Shouldn't you do that every day? I just think it's stupid, that's all."
"No, I really don't think that's it," he says.
"What else could it possibly be?" I demand to know what he's thinking.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about." And he's right. I know what he means. I choose to play stupid anyway.
"No, I don't know what you mean," I say unconvincingly, and he raises one eyebrow. Instead of responding, I decide to leave the common room before he can tell me exactly what he means. Because he's going to say the same thing everyone says. And I can honestly say I'm not jealous of Scorpius's new girlfriend, whatever her stupid name is. Is it Poppy? Oh, I don't know.
I march through the hallways and I don't know or care where I'm going. I just hope I don't have to face any of the happy couples who haven't yet realized the idiocy of St. Valentine's Day.
I stop abruptly and look to see what has kept me from pacing the halls any longer. Of course. Of all the couples I could have run into right now, it had to be them. Scorpius looks amused at my annoyance, whereas the girl next to him looks like she doesn't know where she is. Leave it to Scorpius to pick beauty over brains. Actually, she really isn't even that pretty.
"You okay, Red?" he questions, and suddenly it's becoming hard to breathe. I don't know why, I have absolutely no feelings for him whatsoever. The girl, who's name I can't remember for the life of me (Patty?) looks puzzled. I think she's trying to figure out why he called me "Red." I understand, I mean, my hair is obviously orange!
"Yeah, fine," I reply. "Just thinking."
"Are you really? Well, there's a first time for everything," he jokes. The girl laughs loudly and clings to Scorpius tightly. I want nothing more than to knock all her teeth out, but I don't think that would be appropriate. I guess it shows, because now Scorpius looks anxious and Blondie has stopped laughing.
"Well, you take care of yourself," he says uncertainly, as if I'm going to pounce on his girlfriend (Prudence? Penelope? What is her name?) He flashes a smile that makes my stomach flip and my heart flutter. They walk away, his arm around her waist, and I have to remind myself over and over, "I'm not jealous, I'm not jealous, I'm not jealous…" 'Cause I'm totally not. At all.
I remember why I began observing Singles Awareness Day. It prevents this from happening.
"And she's just so…stupid and fake and…annoying. I don't even think she's capable of speech. She just stands there and giggles at his stupid jokes! And I swear to God, I'll yank her unnaturally blonde hair out of her head, I'll do it!"
"Rosie," Hugo starts. "Are you even listening to yourself?"
"I mean, really." James joins the conversation. "There's nothing wrong with keeping your feelings to yourself, but you make them so obvious!"
"We all know the real reason you started Singles Awareness Day," Lily says.
"I really appreciate you all intruding on my personal life, it's quite fantastic," I say. The entire sentence was dripping with sarcasm.
"You're the one who decided to tell us about your newfound detestation of Patricia Laurence," James points out to me.
"Patricia! That's her name!" I shout. It's a good thing we're the only ones in the common room, otherwise I'd have a dozen pairs of eyes staring at me.
"See, you hate her, but you don't even know her name! There's only one logical reason for that. You're jealous," Hugo tells me.
"I'?" I say, rushing and slurring my speech. It sounds like one long word. The three of them grin at my humiliation before continuing.
"The poor, sweet girl is in denial," Lily cries. "You shouldn't lie to yourself, Rose."
"This is the last time I come to the three of you for help!" I declare.
"Maybe next time Scorpius can help you!" James taunts as I turn toward the girl's dormitories. I assure myself that tomorrow will be better, so long as I spend Singles Awareness Day by myself.
I've decided that one of the traditions of Singles Awareness is sleeping in until lunch. This decision was made this morning, when I slept in until lunch. I guess every one of my roommates are too busy with their Valentine's plans that they forgot to wake me up. I run a hand through my unmanageable red hair as I literally fall out of bed. So far, today is turning out to be dreadful. As I expected.
I had also expected, and desired, to spend the day alone. So I'm reasonably surprised to see him sitting in the middle of the Gryffindor common room. On Valentine's Day. Alone. And he doesn't look happy.
"What are you still doing here?" I inquire. He doesn't even acknowledge my presence until speaking.
"I might as well ask you the same thing," Scorpius retorts sourly. I walk over to the couch in the middle of the room and take a seat next to him.
"If you must know, I don't believe in Valentine's Day. What's your excuse?" He doesn't answer, so I try again, more sympathetically. "What's wrong? Please tell me," I plead.
"It's nothing. Doesn't even matter," he says, but I can tell that it does matter. He doesn't usually act this way. Almost every time I've seen him he's had a smug grin on his face and charismatic look in his eyes. Now, his mouth is turned downward in a scowl and his eyes have an irate glare in them.
"What happened, you find Patricia snogging a fourth year in a broom cupboard?" I tease him.
"As a matter of fact, yes I did," he replies. He looks like he's trying hard not to explode.
"Oh. Really?" He nods. I didn't think that was the case at all. Although, I can't say I'm really surprised.
Neither of us are sure what to say right now, so we sit in silence for a few minutes. I realize something I hadn't thought about before. Scorpius, a Slytherin, was in the Gryffindor common room.
"How did you get in here?"
"What's that?" he asks, his silent reverie interrupted.
"How'd you get in the Gryffindor common room? Where'd you get the password?"
"James gives the password to Al who gives it to me," he explains. "Truthfully, it's a lot more pleasant in here than in the dungeons." I can't help but smile at his ability to make jokes even when he's caught his girlfriend cheating.
A fantastic idea occurs to me. Something that might make today a lot better for us both.
"Scorpius, how'd you like to celebrate Singles Awareness Day with me?"
"What in the name of Merlin is Singles Awareness Day?" he questions.
"Basically the Anti-Valentine's Day. The holiday for single people," I clarify and I see a hint of a smile playing on his lips.
"Sounds fantastic. What do you wanna do?" he asks.
"Well, I think you should buy me a drink in Hogsmeade," I say manipulatively.
"Yeah, we'll see."
"And after that we should come back here and throw things at the Hufflepuffs. And Moaning Myrtle," I suggest, not entirely serious.
"Most definitely!" he agrees enthusiastically.
"And then we can sit here in the common room and vent about our nonexistent love lives."
"That should be cheery," he says sarcastically.
"Well, come on then!" I insist. He smiles at my eagerness even if he's not exactly looking forward to buying me a drink.
He suddenly looks a lot happier than before and I'm glad that I was the one to lift his spirits. Not Al, not thick-headed Patricia. All it took was Rose Weasley and her false holiday. A false holiday created to make me feel better about being single on Valentine's Day. And I can sincerely say it's worked.
Although, I don't think it was Singles Awareness that's made me feel better.
So as we walk out of the castle, arm in arm, I admit to myself that maybe I was a little jealous. Because this feels…nice, I guess. Better than nice. It's kinda fantastic. And I know by the grin on his face and the warm look in his eyes, he feels the same way.
Today is turning out to be the best Singles Awareness Day ever. Maybe even the best Valentine's Day ever.
How'd I do? Tell me by clicking that little box. You know, the one that says "Review." Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed it!