I am finally posting one of my HolidayStories! This is the first instalment in a serious of Valentine's Day one-shots of both canon and non-canon ships. This one is about Harmione and their Valentine's Days throughout their years at Hogwarts.
Year 1.
They are eleven, and while they know, vaguely, what Valentine's Day is, they don't really care. It's just another day for them. The trio is together this year, grimacing every time they pass a snogging couple in the halls, which is often. They stop for only a few minutes in the dining hall, despite Ron's protests-couples are everywhere, and Harry and Hermione don't want to watch all that PDA happening.
In Potions, it is Ron's turn to sit at a separate desk, according to Hermione's schedule. Pansy makes a point to sit with Malfoy. This day does mean something to her, and she likes to think of their relationship as inevitable. Harry and Hermione sitting together, without Ron, on Valentine's Day catches the attention of Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, who quickly spread it around the school that Harry and Hermione are sweet on each other. Harry is confused, and Hermione blushes. Ron is so oblivious that he doesn't even realize that it's happening.
Year 2.
They are twelve, and Hermione has an inkling of her feelings. The boys are still too immature to realize much of anything, but that isn't surprising. When Lavender shyly asks Ron to take a walk with her, he accepts. He doesn't look at it for what it is, and is so thick during the walk that Lavender eventually storms off. Harry and Hermione are left alone in the common room while Ron is with Lavender, and Hermione helps Harry study. They sit so close to each other on the bench that Hermione is nearly in Harry's lap, but this is the way that the two friends are.
When Lavender storms back in, minus Ron, the pair glance up in complete unison. "Ronald," she hisses, "is a complete and utter moron." They glance at each other and look back down. She isn't interested in telling the story, so they'd get it from Ron when he came in, bewildered.
Lavender is too annoyed with Ron to start a rumour about them this year, despite the studying, so dinner is just like normal, with more snogging. They are more used to it this year, but still find it gross, so they leave as soon as possible.
Year 3.
They are thirteen, and Harry is growing up. Hermione is relieved that she can have an intelligent conversation with one of her friends, although Ron is still hopeless. Ron, now, is thinking about girls. He thinks that by now he should have a girlfriend, so he goes to seek out Lavender or Parvati. He doesn't care which. Hermione and Harry frown on this, but Ron won't be dissuaded. He only thinks he should have a girlfriend, and has no care for who that girlfriend is.
When he goes off in pursuit of the two girls, heading to Hogsmeade, Harry and Hermione are left alone. It's a Sunday, so most of the older couples are in town, and the castle is mostly empty. Hermione could have gone to Hogsmeade as well, but she decided that there would be too many couples and so stayed back to study and keep Harry company.
"Hermione," Harry asked, "Why do you think they're still letting students go to Hogsmeade with Black on the loose?"
Hermione looked up from her notes, which were spread out all over the table they were sharing in the common room. "Sorry, could you repeat that?"
"Why do you think they are still letting students go to Hogsmeade with Sirius Black on the loose?"
Hermione brushed her hair back behind her ear and said, "Oh. Well, I'm not sure. That doesn't seem like a good idea. I hadn't thought about it." She unconsciously starting closing her books and putting her notes away. She did this whenever she needed to give something else a lot of attention. Right now, that was Harry.
"Huh."
Later, when everyone came back, the pair stopped their studying and asked Ron about his time in Hogsmeade. They weren't alone again that day.
Year 4.
They are fourteen, and Hermione knows what her feelings are. Harry thinks he fancies Cho, but he doesn't realize that you can't properly fancy someone if you can't stand to have a conversation with them that is more than five minutes long. He loves to have long conversations with Hermione, though, and he thinks that she's pretty. She is pretty, in fact, and Ron has noticed it, after the Yule Ball. He's still bitter about her turning him down for Krum, and it's causing him to be a little cold to his female best friend.
Hermione marches up the stairs to the boys dormitories and shoots a quick aguamenti in Ron's face while she shakes Harry's shoulder. "Wake up! Both of you! We have Snape first and we can't be late, so we have to get to breakfast quickly!"
The boys groan their protests, but she draggs them out of bed. She summons their robes from their trunks and shoves them in their faces. "Get dressed! Now!" she tells them, and leaves the room.
Harry and Ron groan, then flop backwards into bed. Hermione's muffled shout of "Get up!" from the stairs gets them moving again. They know that she expects them to be dressed and ready quickly, or she will come barging back in. Soon, they are ready to go outside. When Hermione sees them come out of the door, she grabs Harry's sleeve and pulls.
"Why is it," she huffs in exasperation, "that you two sleep in so late? Do you simply not care about being prompt?"
"God, Hermione," Ron complains, "Why are you always so insistent about everything? Can't we make our own decisions?" He is still disgruntled from his cold awakening and hasn't been feeling very kind towards Hermione recently anyways, so he takes it out on her. Hermione merely shrugs, in a sort of, if-you-would-get-yourself-places-on-time-without-me-then-maybe-I-would-stop-doing-this, way. Ron grumbles about it some more, but Harry just goes along with it. He knows complaining gets you nowhere from all of his years at the Dursleys'.
However, when they get to the dining hall they have their choice of seats and little competition for food. Ron likes the dining hall like this, but he wouldn't admit it. Hermione would get too much satisfaction from knowing that. It also proved to be a good decision when they get to Potions. Two tables at the very back are open. It's Hermione's turn to sit alone, so she sits at the table in the back middle, while the boys take the back left table.
When the rest of the Gryffindors in their year show up, Neville sits with Hermione, because he knows that she will help him not screw up. Hermione sighs a little, but not loud enough for him to hear and doesn't otherwise complain for the rest of the class.
Unfortunately, Pansy Parkinson notices that Hermione isn't sitting with Harry, and jumps to conclusions, since it is Valentine's Day, after all. "Rita Skeeter was right! Harry and Hermione aren't getting along anymore after she broke his heart at the ball!" she whispers to her fellow Slytherins. Her peers jeer and laugh with her, and when Snape sweeps by, he ignores their conversation, and instead comes over to Hermione and Neville.
"Alright, Longbottom. I want you to perform the next step in the recipe for me, without Ms. Granger's help," he sneers. Neville looks at the book for the next step, nearly quaking with fear. The next step is to add in the powdered claw, which isn't too difficult. Neville nearly spills some, but takes a deep breath and keeps his hands steady enough that none escapes its container. Snape mutters "Hmm," in response, adding, "I suppose you can take five points for Gryffindor, for not being an absolute mess for once."
Its better than usual, so the Gryffindors congratulate him, although they do it very quietly. They don't want to give the professor an excuse to take those points, and more, away from them for talking loudly during class.
By the time Potions is over, the entire school seems to think there is a permanent rift between Harry and Hermione. When classes let out, Krum wants to spend the afternoon with Hermione, but she turns him down on the basis that she has a lot of homework to do. That may be true, but it was also a reluctance to give the impression that they were dating. Viktor seemed to think that they were, despite the fact that Hermione had clarified on the night of the Yule Ball that they were only friends and that was all that they could be.
It was possible that he was a little drunk and didn't remember the incident well.
Hermione ended the day in a funk. Ron had been sexist and demanding while they were doing their homework, and Harry still seemed to be pining after Cho. Who cared about celebrating love, anyway?
Year 5.
They are fifteen, and Harry has been closed off ever since his first detention with Umbridge, back in September. Harry is still caught up in Cho, and Hermione is sick of it. The way he talks about her isn't really with love. It is dangerous for him to date someone who is so confused about their own feelings. Neither of them are really sure if it is a good idea to be with the other, but they both do it regardless.
Hermione spends Tuesday, February 14, 1995 in classes and studying. She barely sees her two best friends in a situation where they could chat and have fun, because Ron's pining after the more attractive girls of Hogwarts and Harry is with Cho.
It's miserable, but at least the library is empty but for people like herself, who weren't dating anyone and want to use the quiet time to get some work done.
Yes, Valentine's Day in Hermione's fifth year isn't fun.
Harry isn't having a good day either. After several classes in which he is ridiculed for sitting with Hermione and ridiculed for not sitting with Hermione, he goes to find Cho. They go out onto the grounds, looking for a quiet spot to sit. They find it in the shade at the edge of the Black Lake. The problem now is that the Black Lake is where Cedric had rescued Cho the year before, and now, looking at it on Valentine's Day of all days, she begins to cry. Harry, not having dealt with many crying girls, has no clue how to deal with it. He just sort of pats her back and says it will be okay, and lets her cry into his shirt.
So he spends his Valentine's Day comforting his crying girlfriend about her past boyfriend.
Valentine's Day in Harry's fifth year isn't fun.
Year 6.
They are sixteen, and Harry is over Cho. Now he looks at Hermione the way he used to look at Cho, but Hermione doesn't think she has a chance. She has buried her feelings and forced herself to be happy with whatever Harry wants, which she is certain isn't her. Harry isn't thick about his feelings this year. He knows that the way Hermione matters to him has changed, and he knows what they have changed to. He is sure, though, that Hermione wouldn't like him. Him, with the messy hair and slow brain. He knows that a lot of girls would date him for his fame, but Hermione has never been one of them.
During classes, the schedule of who sits alone is completely disregarded, as Ron sits with Lavender and kisses her whenever he thinks the professors aren't learning. He often misjudges this, and gets in trouble, but he just laughs it off and keeps trying. This isn't a bad arrangement for Harry and Hermione, as they both want to sit with the other, but wouldn't want to offend Ron.
When Divination rolls around and Hermione goes off to some other class, Harry and Ron sit together for the first time all day. Lavender wants to sit in her usual place with Parvati. She won't slack off in Divination, not in her favourite class. The boys sit in the back, as usual, and when they stop paying attention they begin to talk about relationships, just because of the day.
Harry, of course, knows who Ron likes. He has, after all, been dating her for quite a while. Ron, though, has no clue of his affections for Hermione. He's not sure that he wants him to know, so when Ron asks who he likes, he hesitates. He should just say nobody, at a normal speed and with no inflections, but of course, he simply cannot do the thing that makes any sense. Instead, he stays silent, and so Ron jumps to the obvious conclusion: there is a person, and it is either embarrassing or complicated.
Harry considers his fancy for Hermione to be both embarrassing and complicated. It is embarrassing that he had fallen for one of his best friends, and of course, if Ron knew, that would make the dynamic in the trio complicated. Ron, of course, thinks of none of this. He only realizes that there is a person.
"So, mate, who is it? Who's the lucky girl?" he asked. When Harry continues to hesitate, his eyes widen, and he asks, "Oh, wait. Is it, um, a lucky guy?"
The thought seems so absurd to Harry that he laughs out loud. "No," he says once he finishes laughing. He says a quick "sorry" to Professor Trelawney for laughing in class, and moves on. "No, there's no lucky guy."
"Okay," Ron says, "so who's the girl? Come on mate, you can tell me anything!"
With great reluctance, Harry mutters, "Hermione."
Ron translates after a second, and his face lights up in disbelief. "Hermione... wow. I was not expecting that."
Harry barks a laugh and responds, "Me neither, Ron, me neither. The issue is," he quiets down, "that I'm pretty sure she doesn't like me. I mean, I'm pretty sure she doesn't like anyone, but if there was a person, it wouldn't be me. You get what I'm saying?"
"I get what you're saying," Ron frowns. "I'm not sure that you're right, but I hear what you're saying."
There's a pause in which Professor Trelawney dramatically predicts something completely inconsequential. Then Ron says very seriously, "I think you should tell her."
Harry turns toward his best friend in surprise. "You think I should do what?"
"Tell her. How you feel, I mean. If it worries you that much, tell her that you don't expect anything and that you just wanted her to know, or something. I just don't think you should keep that bottled up."
"Huh. And what if it completely changes our friendship and makes us eternally awkward around each other?" Harry parries.
"It won't," Ron proclaims with confidence.
Later that night, Harry takes Ron's advice.
Hermione kisses him.
Year 7.
They are seventeen, and they are on the run. They live out of a tent in close quarters with Ron, and they hunt horcruxes instead of going to school. There is little time for romance, but they love each other more deeply than ever.
Maybe it isn't the life they would lead if they had the choice, but it could always be worse. They had to keep telling themselves that. It could be worse. It could be worse. It could be worse.
And it is true. It could be worse. Harry could have been caught and killed by death eaters. Hermione could have been thrown into Azkaban for being a muggleborn. Ron could be followed everywhere for being a blood traitor friend of Harry Potter.
When it is the day of love, but you are living out of a tent with another person, it isn't exactly the time for a romantic date. What they did do, though, was beg Ron to go on watch for a bit, just so that they could have a dance. One dance.
They dance for the duration of one song, and then they stop. That is what they have time for. That's the longest break they can take from the war.
"I promise you, Mione," Harry tells her, "that one day, we won't have to worry if this dance will be our last."
"Happy Valentine's Day, Harry," she whispers.
Thank you guys so much for reading! Review for more, and tell me which couples you want to see! Depending on how much I like the couple, they might have something like this with the whole course of their relationship, or they might have just one year.