Summary: In honor of Valentine's Day, here is a one-shot of the Valentine's Day date that Mari and Kyle had that was mentioned in Chapter 16 of Unity and the Goblet of Fire, along with the evenings that a few other couples in Unity had together.
Disclaimer: I do not own the world of Harry Potter. It all belongs to the fantastic author J.K. Rowling.
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!
Mari nervously toyed with the small wrapped present in her hand and wondered if Kyle would like it. On previous Valentine's Days, she had exchanged platonic cards with her two best friends, and later on with Unity. But now she and Kyle were dating, and it was the first Valentine's Day that they were celebrating as a couple. They had agreed to exchange presents, and Kyle had planned something for the two of them an hour after the conclusion of lessons that afternoon.
"Calm down, Mari," said Daphne, who was currently doing Mari's hair. "Kyle really cares for you and he'll appreciate any gift you give him because it's from you."
Mari blushed at this, making Tracey giggle as she sorted through Mari's wardrobe to figure out what outfit was best. "You know it's true, Mari. Here, why don't you wear your white skirt with the pattern of red hearts? It's perfect for the holiday, and you'd look pretty in it. Now for a top."
Millicent held up a scoop-neck white blouse with red embroidery. "What about this? It matches the skirt and everything."
"That's perfect!" exclaimed Daphne. "Mari, you can wear my red flowered silk scarf. Millie, could you get it from my trunk?"
When Mari's hair was done, she donned the blouse and skirt and the dress shoes she'd worn at the Yule Ball, except with a Color Charm on them so that they were sparkly red instead of blue, and Daphne helped her tie the scarf around her neck. After that, the three girls helped Mari apply some cosmetics, not enough to be very noticeable, but enough to accenuate her beauty, and she sprayed on just a hint of rose perfume. Finally she added a pair of earrings that she transfigured into the shape of hearts.
"Perfect!" pronounced Tracey. "You look lovely, and just the right balance between dressed-up and casual."
Millicent sighed. "If only I could look as pretty as you do. I'm only pretty when I get dressed up, like for the Yule Ball, and even then, I was nowhere as stunning as Hermione or some of the other girls. And my date was Ken, who's several inches shorter than me, so we looked kind of awkward dancing together."
"Well, it's not our fault that we Japanese tend to be on the short side," said Mari with a slight laugh. "Well, I'd better go meet Kyle now or I'll be late. See you girls later, and I promise to tell you all the details. Or most of them, at any rate."
Kyle was waiting at the halfway point between the Slytherin and Hufflepuff common rooms as they had planned. He was wearing black dress pants and a dark red buttoned shirt and carried a small present and a bouquet of pink roses, Mari's favorite flowers. "Happy Valentine's Day, Mari," he said, handing her the roses and gift.
"Thank you, and Happy Valentine's Day, Kyle," answered Mari, breathing in the sweet scent of the flowers. "Oh, here's your present. I hope you like it."
"I treasure everything that you've ever given me," pointed out Kyle, unwrapping the present. It was a silver wristband with runes of love, strength, and protection engraved, and embued with several charms that would protect the wearer from all spells except the Unforgiveables and a few other very powerful spells. "Thank you, Mari. I love the gift."
"You're welcome, Kyle," replied Mari, opening her box, which contained a delicate silver bracelet with red coral roses dangling from it. "Oh, this is lovely! Help me put it on please."
After the bracelet was on, the two of them went to the Room of Requirement, where Dobby had decorated it for the holiday and a table for two had been set up next to the sofa. They sat down, Kyle looking very nervous for some reason. After a few seconds of silence, he said, "M-Mari, I t-think I love you."
Mari dropped her roses in surprise and stared at him. She definitely wasn't expecting him to say that, at least not until they had been dating for for a few months more. After she had recovered, in which time Kyle had turned a bright scarlet and looked as if he wanted to take back his words, she said with complete honesty, "I think I feel the same way, Kyle. I love you, and I could only ever date you, or even m-" She broke off before saying 'marry', since they were only fifteen. Or rather, Kyle was, while she'd turn fifteen in mid-March.
Kyle's blush faded and he looked relieved and happy. "I think I fell in love with you when we first became friends, Mari. Hey, remember the pretend wedding you had with me back when we were seven, a few days after Halloween?"
Mari nodded. "Oh yes, all the girls under nine decided that we were going to get married. I picked you, since you and James were the only boys I knew really well, other than Stuart, who was too old to play stuff like this, and I saw James as more of a brother. That was fun."
"It wasn't fun for James, though," pointed out Kyle. "Carlie Taylor or whatever her last name was picked him to be her 'husband', and she wasn't quite six yet."
"I remember," said Mari, giggling. "He looked so uncomfortable, and Stuart kept laughing when he was performing the ceremony. And when Stuart asked James if he took Carlie to be his wife, before he could say that he didn't want to or anything else, Carlie said for him, 'Yes, he does.'"
"And there was all the stuff that James went through after the 'wedding'," added Kyle. "Carlie took it seriously, and made him spend time having tea parties with her and doing other stuff she thought a husband should do for his wife. It's a good thing she got adopted a few months later."
"Of course, she did put up a big fuss about, saying that she didn't want to be divorced from her husband. I don't know where she got that idea from. At least I knew better when you were adopted, and didn't take the pretend wedding with you so seriously."
"You know, that could have been a sign of our future. We are a couple now, and could very well get married for real someday."
It was Mari's turn to blush, but she liked the idea. "Is that a proposal, Kyle?" she teased.
"No!" he exclaimed, looking horrified with himself. Then he realized that she was joking, and added, "Well, maybe a few years from now I will propose to you."
Mari grinned, then shifted her position on the sofa and leaned over to kiss him. That developed into a full snogging session, though not quite like the one Stella and Krum had when they were saying good-bye to each other after the Yule Ball. Kyle gently ran his fingers through Mari's hair as they kissed, and she stroked his back.
After awhile, they broke apart and spent the next half hour holding hands and simply talking. Then Dobby appeared to serve them dinner. Throughout the meal, they talked and laughed, and every once in a while playfully fed each other bites of food like Kyle had seen his adoptive parents do at their twentieth wedding anniversary party last year. It was very enjoyable.
Meanwhile, Dean Thomas and Su Li were walking about the grounds and talking at the same time. The two had felt an attraction for each other since the previous month, and Dean had worked up the courage to ask Su out for a sort of date on Valentine's Day so they could work things out. Now they had decided to offically become an item.
After a few seconds of silence in the middle of their conversation, Su stopped abruptly underneath a tree by the lake and looked up at Dean. "Dean," she said seriously, "we can't let anyone outside of Unity know about us, all right?"
"Excuse me?" asked Dean, looking surprised. "But why not, Su?"
"Or rather, we can't let my family know about us," responded Su. "Besides my brother, anyway. You see, Chinese people don't usually date blacks, much less marry them. My parents probably wouldn't approve of our relationship if they knew. My grandparents and other older relatives definitely wouldn't. When I was visiting China two summers ago, one of my older cousins was dating, and my paternal grandmother told me that she didn't care who I dated when I was older, as long as he wasn't black and he was nice to me and I liked him. My family isn't prejudiced against blacks when it comes to being friends with them, but dating and marriage is another matter, and most other Chinese people think the same."
"I don't want you to get in trouble with you family," said Dean, looking alarmed. "Perhaps we shouldn't have a relation-"
Su stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the mouth, effectively cutting him off. When she broke it off, she said firmly, "I don't care about what my family thinks. I really like you, Dean, and I want to be your girlfriend. We just won't tell my family yet, other than Wen-Jing, who won't say anything other than to warn you to not hurt me."
"If you're sure, Su." She nodded, and so he leaned down slightly to kiss him. She returned it, and a second later it turned into a snogging session under the tree.
Luna and James were sitting in a corner of the Ravenclaw common room. James would have much rather been in the Room of Requirement, but Unity had all insisted on letting Kyle and Mari have it for their date. Luna hadn't really discussed much about her life with anyone other than Bianca and Ginny, so all Unity really knew was that her father was editor of The Quibbler, her mother had died when Luna was nine due to a spell going awry, and that she tended to take things on faith and not on just facts. Now however, she was telling James about her childhood and anything else she could think of, and he in turn was telling Luna about his childhood at Sunnybrook Orphanage.
"You really had a pretend wedding once?" asked Luna, laughing hysterically, mostly at the expression at James's face.
"Yeah, and it wasn't fun. Her name was Carlie Tyler, she was almost six, and she took the whole thing too seriously. For four months after, she made me have tea parties with her, and kiss her like other married couples, except on the cheek, and all this other junk. I was so relieved when she got adopted, even if she did throw a fit about it. She got the idea that our being apart from each other was a divorce, and her adoptive parents had to set things straight."
Luna continued laughing, but in between laughter she apologized, saying, "Sorry, I know you didn't like it, but it is rather funny."
"It is sort of funny now, but it wasn't at the time," admitted James.
"Well, what happened after that?" asked Luna when she had calmed down.
"She wrote a letter a few months later, saying that she loved another boy in her class and asked for a divorce so she could marry him someday. I immediately wrote a letter back saying yes."
Luna started laughing again, but stopped when James leaned over and kissed her, which he hadn't done since the night of the Yule Ball. She blinked, then hesitantly returned the kiss. After that, without their having to say anything, they knew that they had something that was more than simple platonic friendship.
Author's Note: I wanted to include something with Sirius and Minister Kishi, but it was taking too long to write this, and I really have no idea what Tokyo is like, nor do I really want to take the time to go onto Wikipedia or wherever and look it up. The thing Su said about Chinese people normally not dating or marrying blacks is true. In fact, my mother and grandmother said basically the same thing Su said her grandmother did. I'm not in the mood for a relationship at the moment, so it doesn't really matter to me anyway.