Summary: When a Valentine's Day dance sends the school into a hormone-induced frenzy, romance may just bloom in the most unlikely of people.

A/N: As previously stated, I am not a fan of Valentine's Day. However, I write this in the spirit of love. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Everything but the words on the page, and a few of the characters, belong to the extraordinary J.K. Rowling.

Valentine's Fever

Chapter One

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

This thing, called love

I just, can't handle it

~Queen, Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Love was in the air. That much was painfully obvious from the increase in couplings and public displays of affection. Even the most unobservant had made comment about it. It was always the same at this time of the year. As the cold days of January dredged on into more cold days of February, the young hormone-driven students suddenly began a crazed ritual; single individuals who had previously been completely content with their relationship status –or lack thereof- began frantically looking for a partner. Valentine's fever was in the air.

Rose could have cared less about this time of year. Her hormones weren't raging; she didn't suddenly feel a need for romantic companionship. Her biggest worry at the moment was how she would finish her three papers before the end of the week. Rose would have loved to remain oblivious to the upcoming holiday. Sadly, the crazy Valentine's fever had a firm grip on nearly the entirety of the school, and Rose was thrust into the scary and dangerous world of dating at Hogwarts…

The god awful red and pink posters appeared overnight almost as if it were the work of house elves. Rose knew that couldn't be true; -the headmistress would never have allowed it- bit she wouldn't put it past her Gryffindor contemporaries. It seemed that the female population of Gryffindor was the most affected by it. They were the ones trying to find partners with the greatest frequency and most desperation. It was a member of Gryffindor house, the exceedingly cheerful Millie Finn, which strongly advocated for a Valentine's Day dance to 'revel in the emotion of the season.'

Rose had hoped that it would only be the Gryffindors, and possibly the Hufflepuffs, who would even consider attending. When she woke up the morning of February 9, she was sorely mistaken. Even her best friends Carly and Ella –though she was beginning to question their friendship- had been swept up into the madness that completely permeated Hogwarts.

Rose was hiding away in the library, working hard on her papers. Miraculously, Valentine's fever had yet to reach the library. It appeared as those madly in love did not want to spend time with schoolwork. Rose was just happy to have an escape from the manic atmosphere in the halls.

Taking a quick break from her work, and glancing at her surroundings, Rose was pleasantly surprised to find that she was not the only one more focused on schoolwork that issues of the heart. She saw most of Ravenclaw house smattered around the library at various tables and among the stacks. Sitting at the table closest to her was the sole Syltherin in the entire library.

Scorpius Malfoy had always peaked Rose's interest. From what she'd heard about the Malfoy family, she'd expected him to be haughty, stuck up, entitled, and superior. The few times she'd interacted with him, she'd discovered her expectations were incorrect. Scorpius was shy, reserved, self-deprecating, and extremely intelligent. He was nothing like the rest of his family. It had always made Rose want to discover more; anomalies fascinated her. However, she'd never said more than a few words to him. He wasn't a priority to her.

Sitting in the library, she only gave him a fleeting thought, mused about the fact that he seemed unconcerned about love and relationships, and then returned to her work. Scorpius was a curiosity, an enigma, but of minor importance in the grand scheme of her life.

Before she could give him any further thought, banging of doors and loud, girlish squeals disrupted the sanctuary of the library. Rose sighed and turned to look for the source of the disturbance. Standing in the doorway, a smile that consumed nearly her entire face, was Rose's friend –though she was quickly becoming ex-friend material. Caroline Meyers quickly made her way through the tables filed with staring and glaring students, stopping when she reached Rose's table. She pulled out a chair, plopped down into it and stared at Rose expectantly.

"Hi, Carly, you're in a good mood today," Rose observed, giving her friend a withering look as she did do.

"Randy asked me to the dance, Rosie! Of course I'm happy!" Carly exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air and kicking her feet like a little girl. Rose rolled her eyes at her friend.

"Carly, you're in the library. Take it down a decibel or we'll get thrown out. Plus, I need to focus on these papers." Now it was Carly's turn to roll her eyes.

"You're so lame sometimes, Rose. Schoolwork is so not important right now! It's almost Valentine's Day. You should be focused on finding a special someone to spend the weekend with. Being alone on Valentine's Day is really sad."

Rose once again glared at her friend and lifted one of her large textbooks to block her out. She loved Carly to death, but her friend was so boy crazy, Rose often wondered how her brain had room for anything else. Carly was much more Gryffindor than Ravenclaw, yet somehow she ended up in the house known for with and brains. It was one of life's greatest mysteries.

"Don't ignore me when I'm trying to help you!" Carly exclaimed, her voice sounding perturbed though Rose knew she was faking it. Things rarely bothered Carly; she was very live and let live. Rose rolled her eyes at her friend, something the copper haired girl found herself doing a lot around the brunette.

The sound of a chair scrapping and sliding across the run down carpet finally pulled Rose from her book. She looked up and saw that Carly had pushed her chair back and was preparing to leave. Carly turned to Rose and gave her a sly look.

"You'll come around to my side eventually," Carly sing-songed before she turned on her heel and left the library. Rose sighed and returned to her book, attempting to remove Carly's words from her mind; she didn't need Carly's insane comments taking up space she needed for schoolwork.

Rose, like countless times before, was eventually able to loose herself completely in her work. Hours passed like minutes as she searched through the stacks, read through thick volumes, and quickly wrote out pages and pages of notes. It was in this state, focused solely on research and textbook reading, that Rose was at her happiest. She didn't need a guy as long as she had her books, at least at this point in her life.

She'd tried to explain that to Carly but the brunette had never understood it. Rose was at home amongst books; Carly was at home amongst people. Carly was wicked smart, but she detested studying and researching of any form. Once again, Rose was left wondering why the two very different girls were such good friends.

Rose was only drawn out of her study frenzy by the sound of someone nearby clearing his or her throat, loudly. Rose looked up, about to give whoever had made the disruption a piece of her mind when she met the apologetic, deep grey eyes of Scorpius Malfoy.

"Sorry to break your focus," he began, his voice soft and apologetic, "but it's time to leave. The library is closing up." He motioned to the large clock above the librarian's desk. It read 9:59. Rose had spent six hours in research mode and missed dinner. As soon as that thought registered, her stomach grumbled from hunger.

"Thanks for the heads up," she responded, a grateful smile crossing her face. He nodded a goodbye at her and then walked out of the library. Rose watched him walk away before she turned to her books and bean picking up. Once she was finished, she took a deep breath and headed out into the love infested hallways.

She weaved and dodged through the hallways, avoiding couples publically displaying their newfound affection and lonely boys looking for some companionship. All she wanted was to grab some food from the kitchens and return to her dorm room. There she'd only have four hormone-crazed girls to deal with.

Rose lay awake. It must have been at least one in the morning, yet she could not fall asleep. It was, like usual, all Carly's fault. Rose had assumed that her dorm room would be more bearable than the common room or the halls, because it would contain fewer love-crazed individuals; she'd forgotten about Carly's special ability to annoy and infuriate. When Carly put her mind to it, she could drive Rose up the wall faster and more vigorously than one hundred people.

Carly had been in special form that evening. She kept arguing the same asinine points that weren't convincing Rose in the slightest. Rose could have cared less about the social ramifications of going stag on Valentine's Day. Yet Carly continued to argue them' she even convinced Ella and their other roommates to join in on her side.

Rose had gotten so worked up and angry, and now she couldn't sleep because of it. Finally, after attempting, and failing, to fall asleep for several hours, Rose gave up on sleep for the moment. Instead, she rolled over and grabbed her book. Normally, she didn't read late at night because the light from her wand was known to disturb her roommates. Tonight, she could care less.

Her novel de jour was buried under some of the books she'd checked out of the library that day. She removed them, and as she did, a small piece of parchment fluttered to the floor.

Rose figured it was a scrap from her busy note taking that evening and bent down to pick it up. As she brought it up to her face and the wandlight, she found it was covered in writing that looked nothing like her small, loopy script. It was neat, elegant, slanted writing that she didn't recognize. Intrigued, Rose looked at it closer.

O my love is like a red, red rose

That's newly sprung in June;

O my love is like the melody

That's sweetly played in tune.

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

So deep in love am I;

And I will love thee still my dear

Till a' the seas gone dry,

Till a' the seas gone dry my dear,

And the rocks melt in the sun;

I will love thee still, my dear

While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee well, my only love!

And fare thee well a while!

And I will come again my love

Though it were ten thousand miles

Rose's first impression of it was that it must have been written for one of her roommates. They were all in the throws of love and were the most likely owners of the love poem. However, as Rose thought about it more, that scenario seemed less and less likely. The sheet of paper had fallen out of the middle of her stack of books. If her roommates had left it on her bedside table, it would have either been on top of the stack or beneath it. Rose would've had to acquire it at some point that afternoon in the library before she packed up her stuff.

The next mystery Rose had to solve was who, followed by why. Rose had never had anyone express even the tiniest amount of interest in her. The only people she was close to were Carly, and Ella, who were female, and her family, who were related to her. There was no male she could think of who could have wrote her a love letter.

That led Rose to the conclusion that her receiving it must have been a mistake. Someone could have left it on the table before she got there or while she was in the stacks. She could have found it on the floor by the table and mistaken it, as she had earlier, as hers. However, someone definitely hadn't meant to give it to her.

For some reason, that realization made Rose feel sad. Deciding not to dwell on the feeling or the poem, Rose grabbed her book and began to read.

To be continued

A/N: Hope you liked it! Next chapter posted in a week. The poem used was written by Robert Burns and is in no way of my own creation.

Drop me a review!

Edit: A reviewer alerted me to the fact that I misrepresented the artist/ band responsible for the song Crazy Little Thing Called Love. I knew Queen was responsible for it, but an internet search produced a connection to Elvis. Guess it just goes to show you that the internet cannot be trusted for everything. :P My error has been corrected.