"What's the point of Valentine's Day? It's such a stupid holiday," James groaned as another couple walked by hand-in-hand.
"It's so gits like you can finally get up the courage to tell girls like Lily Evans that you like them," Remus rationalized. "Supposedly St. Valentine was also a wizard, but I think that's just speculation from the wizarding world. There were rumors spread around that St. Valentine also didn't exist. Instead Valentine was an ancient wizard who was a brilliant potions master. He invented the beginning of what Laverne de Montmorency would later develop into what we now call a love potion."
Evy, James, Sirius and Peter all gaped at Remus. He glanced up from his parchment when no one said anything and simply shrugged. "It was part of last night's reading materials for potions class. I think Slughorn thought he was being clever in giving us themed homework or something."
"Think we'll try to make one in class tomorrow?" Peter asked, his eyes widening with what appeared to be excitement.
"I don't think we're supposed to learn that until fifth or sixth year, Peter," Evy said.
"Looks like Peter is going to have to wait a few more years before he can finally get a girlfriend," Sirius teased.
"Oh shut it," Peter squeaked. "Just because you got three boxes of chocolates from girls this year doesn't mean you can pick on the rest of us."
"That was supposed to be a secret," Sirius frowned.
"Three?" Evy asked in surprise. "Aw, Sirius, you didn't have to go out and buy yourself chocolates to try and impress people. That's not sad at all that you're pretending to have a Valentine, let alone three of them."
James and Peter chuckled. Remus rolled his eyes and ignored them.
"I'll have you know that I did not buy them for myself, thank you very much Evy. One was from a third year Ravenclaw, one from a second year Hufflepuff and one from a first year Slytherin, which is probably poisoned s I tossed those." Sirius smirked at them as he ran down his list of admirers.
"So what are their names?" Peter asked.
Sirius puffed up his chest like a gorilla. "I don't kiss and tell. That wouldn't be the polite thing to do," he said.
Evy laughed. "Since when do you keep secrets?"
"Well," James defended, "he's not so bad at keeping secrets. He kept a secret about me hiding a dead toad in Filch's desk just last week."
"You're the reason our whole Charms class had Saturday detention?" Peter asked.
"Which isn't so secret anymore," Sirius grimaced.
"Oops," James shrugged. "Point is, if Sirius says girls bought him chocolates, I believe him"
"Well I don't," Evy said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Just because no boy bought you anything for Valentine's Day before doesn't mean you have to ruin the fun for everyone else, Evy," Sirius snapped.
Everyone's jaws hung open as four heads turned to face Sirius. "Take that back," Peter said.
"That's messed up, mate," James said, shaking his head.
Evy jumped to her feet and huffed. Without a word, she turned and bolted out of the Gryffindor common room. She flew up the steps, not sure where she where her feet were taking her. She stopped when she reached the Owlery.
Dodging dropping and rat skeletons, Evy stood by a large window, the cold air whipping her hair around her face. "Stupid boys," she mumbled. Ripley, her family's barn owl, swooped down and landed on her shoulder. Evy ruffled her feathers, watching the owls circling around the tower outside.
Despite the bitter cold, the scene was quite beautiful. The sun was beginning to set over the Forbidden Forrest. The dark trees looked bright and fiery under the fading pink sky. Stars twinkled on the edge of the bright orange light of the horizon and the moon peaked out from behind a sliver of wispy clouds. Down below, students were couple together, keeping close to one another for warmth. Some held hands. Others walked over the frost covered grasses. One couple was trying to throw rocks into the Black Lake, maybe to catch the giant squid's attention.
Evy pulled her robes tighter around her, her hands stuffed under her armpits for warmth. "Stupid Sirius," Evy mumbled. "Why should I care about Valentine's Day? It's a dumb holiday anyway."
"It's not so bad," James voice echoed around the Owlery. "We all split up to look for you, you know. Sirius feels horrible."
Evy guffawed. "Right, I'm sure he's so upset over calling me out on being an ugly girl that no boys like."
"You know he didn't say that," James said, crossing his arms. "And the three of us like you. He was tired of you teasing him about his chocolates. He doesn't like getting all that attention from girls."
"Then he shouldn't have kept talking about it. He was enjoying it," Evy said.
"Well it was Peter's fault for bringing it uo. But anyway, I don't know. Sirius is kind of moody. Complicated, I guess," James shrugged. He reached down and pulled out a tiny square package from the pocket of his robes. "Sirius is wrong, by the way. I got you a little something for Valentine's Day. My mom makes them." James held out the small gift to Evy.
"Happy Valentine's Day, Evy. You know, just as a friend," he smiled. "Lily's the only Valentine for me."
Evy giggled and began up unwrap her package. "Did you get her something too?" she asked.
James nodded, his jet black hair bouncing along his forehead. "Yeah, I got her some chocolates that taste like rose petals. So she's getting flowers and chocolates all in one."
Evy smiled at him. "That's really thoughtful of you James. And economical." Evy finished unwrapping the small box of chocolates. "These look so good," she said as she glanced through the plastic lid to see a small assortment of homemade candies and chocolate truffles nestled inside the palm sized box. "Thank you, James."
"You're welcome Evy. Think you're ready to go face Sirius now?" he asked.
Evy groaned. "If I have to." They linked arm in arm and walked down the steps, through the castle and into the Great Hall for dinner. Remus and Peter were sitting down and spooning food onto their plates. "Hey, where's Sirius?" Evy asked as she and James sat down.
"He went back to the common room. He said he had to change something," Peter said before spooning a lump of potato into his mouth.
"I think you mean he had to fix something," Remus said pointedly, glancing in Peter's direction.
Peter looked up from his food and shrugged. "That's not what Sirius said to us," Peter pointed out. Remus shook his head and cut into his chicken breast.
A few minutes later, Sirius bounded through the Great Hall and sat next to Evy. She turned in her seat just a fraction towards him. "Evy, I am so sorry," Sirius began. "I was mean and I was out of line and I shouldn't have said anything like that."
"It's ok Sirius," Evy said. "I shouldn't have picked on you about the chocolates. That was mean of me."
"It's ok, Evy," Sirius said, nudging her knee underneath the table.
"So are we going to study for Transfiguration tonight?" Remus asked.
"You bet," James smiled. Everyone looked at him like he had grown a second head before he shrugged and mumbled. "What, it's like my only good subject."
Evy and Peter laughed. "That and Flying," Remus noted.
"True," Jame smirked.
"We should go get our books. Study in the library? The common room is full of couples sitting by the fire," Peter suggested.
"Great. I'll meet you guys there in half an hour," Evy said before leaving the table. She rushed up to her dorm room, hoping she had enough time for a quick shower before she had to study. She grabbed her towel and soaps before stopping in the middle of her dormitory. A small, yellow box had been placed onto her bed with a card attached. As Evy moved closer, she saw that the box was a metal tin with the design of a cartoon sun on the lid. The sun smiled up at her, then winked.
Evy pulled the plain white envelope off the top of the tin and opened it. She slid out a card with a vase of flowers on the front. Inside the top line was scribbled over so much that Evy couldn't read it. The rest of the card read:
Evy,
XXXXXXXXX..You are my sunshine.
Looks like I get to be your first ever Valentine's gift. And this is the first Valentine's gift I've ever given anyone. Let's keep that a secret between us.
XOXO
Sirius
Evy had to read the card three times to be sure she had understood it. Sirius gave her a Valentine's Gift… How strange… She pulled off the lid and nestled inside was an assortment of chocolate frogs, pumpkin pasties, and fizzing whizzbees along with some sort of muggle chocolate called Hersheys that came in an ugly brown wrapper.
Evy smiled and tucked the card under her pillow. She stashed her candy away before any of her roommates noticed and retreated to the washroom for her shower. Perhaps Valentine's Day wasn't such a horrible holiday after all.
***Please, please, please review! They really make my day and encourage me to keep on writing!
