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Part 15

"Erin!" The girl turned as she heard Harry calling her. "Erin!" Harry drew up next to her; it looked like he had run down the hallway to catch up with her.

"What's up?" Erin asked as they walked along.

"Ron and I just went to see Hermione and do you know about that card Lockhart sent her?" Harry asked looking absolutely appalled.

The black-haired girl rolled her eyes. "Yes, unfortunately. She sleeps with it under her pillow. Sheesh, you'll never see me that hung up over a teacher."

Harry smirked. "Ok, Erin, come on, who do you have a crush on? Hermione has been skirting around it all year."

Erin went red. "I'm not telling you!" She looked away from him. Man, it was probably obvious to everyone but him. She had harbored that not-so-secret crush on him for a year and a half now. Well, only Hermione, Ron and Ginny knew about it…and they hadn't told…well, she had a feeling that other people knew even if she had never said anything. Some people assumed, of course, with that article in the Evening Prophet, but they didn't know about her crush.

"Erin, come on! I'm your friend! You can tell me! It's Ron, isn't it?"

"Ick, no!" Erin exclaimed sticking out her tongue. "Never in a million years would I have a crush on Ron."

"Neville, then." Harry guessed.

"No, it's not Neville, though better Neville than Ron."

"Hmmm…Oliver?"

"No, not Oliver. Harry, I'm not going to tell you."

"What are you two talking about?" Ron asked suddenly appearing on Erin's other side.

"I've been trying to guess who Erin has a crush on." Harry explained.

Ron snorted. "Harry, you'll never guess and she won't tell you."

"You're not telling either, Ronald." Erin said warningly.

"Ok, ok." Ron laughed. "So, Harry, have you told her yet?"

"Not yet, I got sidetracked." He looked around to see if anyone was listening and then continued. "After Ron and I visited Hermione we noticed that Myrtle had flooded the bathroom again, so we went to check it out. What we found was a diary that someone had tried to get rid of. But it's blank, nothing in it."

"Do you have it with you?" Erin asked.

"Yeah," He said taking it out and handing it to the girl.

Erin looked at it carefully and then took out her wand. She didn't say anything but she tapped it a few times. "Nope, I guess there isn't anything written in it. " She handed it back to him.

It was a few days later and Hermione was out of the hospital wing when they walked into the Great Hall for breakfast and found pink everywhere. "This is not happening." Erin said.

"Oh, it's so pretty!" Lavender squealed behind them. "What lovely decorations for Valentine's Day!"

Hermione was radiant as they sat down at the Gryffindor Table. Erin reached for some orange juice and poured herself a glass just as pink confetti started falling from the ceiling. She sighed and took out her wand in a moment there was a clear space around them free of confetti and the stuff coming down shifted off to the sides. "HEY!"

"Sorry, Seamus." Erin said. "I guess you have to figure out the counter-spell to stop it."

He raised an eyebrow at her in confusion, he was positive they hadn't learned anything like that in class. "Nice, Erin." Hermione said. "Confuse the boys."

"It's what she's good at." Ron said looking sour and sick at all the pink around them.

"Attention everyone! Attention!" Lockhart was standing up at the head table and waving his arms around. Erin couldn't believe her eyes. Lockhart was wearing pink robes.

"Harry, tell me I'm seeing things." She said.

"I wish I could." He said just as surprised and horror-struck. "I didn't even know they made pink robes for men."

"You'd be surprised." Erin said rolling her eyes. "But, yes, I don't fancy seeing Lockhart in colored robes."

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty-six people who have already sent me valentines!" He beamed.

"No, I did not." Erin said after a look from Ron.

Then the three of them looked at Hermione. She looked calm and disinterested. "Hermione," Harry said, "Please tell me you were not one of the forty-six."

"Shh, I'm trying to listen." She said.

"I have taken the liberty of this little surprise! And it doesn't end here!" He clapped his hands and in marched about a dozen dwarves in diapers…and wielding bows and arrows. "My cupids! Just give them a card and they will deliver it!" He smiled wider. "And the fun doesn't stop there! Why not ask Professor Snape to help you whip up a love potion? And how about Professor Flitwick! He knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've ever met! The sly, old dog!"

"Flitwick needs a hug." Erin said as the little wizard buried his face in his hands. Snape just looked like the first one to ask him about a love potion would be force-fed poison.

At lunchtime Erin made sure no one was looking and she cornered a dwarf. She dragged it into a private place making sure no one was watching. "Ok, I have a deliver that I want you to make in private, got it?"

"Whateva ya say, miss." He said looking bored and rolling his eyes.

"Good, because I am going to make it worth your while."

"How?" He asked suddenly interested.

Erin held up a small velvety red pouch. "I have a little something known as a small vial of Paradoxie in here."

The dwarf's eyes went round. "Good stuff?"

"The best. I made it myself." She said. "Now, here's what you are going to do. You will get the vial after you perform the service."

He nodded eagerly. "Yes, miss."

Erin was walking along with Harry when a dwarf, luckily not the one she hired, stopped Harry in the hall. "Oy, Harry Potter! I got a musical valentine for yeh!"

"Not here!" Harry said trying to get away.

"Stay still!" The dwarf said grabbing Harry's bag.

"Let go!" Harry insisted, the bag ripped in two spilling ink, parchment and books. Harry tried to pick everything up and the dwarf took the opportunity to grab Harry around the ankles.

"Now stay!" The dwarf said. "Here is your singing valentine: His eyes are as green as a fresh picked toad, His hair is as dark as a blackboard. I wish he was mine, he's really divine, The hero who conquered the Dark Lord!"

Erin tried not to laugh at that, but she couldn't help it. Harry was finally allowed up and the crowd dispersed. "Erin, that was humiliating."

Erin just grinned. "Well, at least it was you and not—"

"Erin Lyancomp!"

"Oh no!" Erin yelled and ran for it.

"Hold on, you!" The dwarf actually got a hold around her knees causing her to fall to the floor.

"No!" She pleaded.

"Stay still!" He said and then he emptied his bag right on top of the poor girl.

"Do you have to do that to get mine?" She asked.

"They are all yours." He said.

"WHAT?" She went so bright red. "Ron, I'm going to kill you."

"I only sent you one." He said coming up. "I didn't have time to do all that. And if I did I wouldn't have the energy, there has to be fifty of them there."

Erin quickly counted. "46." She moaned and then stuffed them all in her bag. She noticed it was just the three of them left in the corridor. Class had already started.

"Harry Potter!" It was the dwarf she had commissioned!

"What now?" Harry asked helping Erin up.

"This is private enough, I reckon." He said. "I have been specially sent to give you a valentine in private."

"Private?" Ron snorted.

The dwarf ignored them and cleared his throat. "A poem written by the one who loves you…" Harry looked bewildered. "Sometimes late at night I go outside and look up at the sky. I don't want to give up this fight, but I question and just ask why, why am I not granted this light? The stars twinkle and shine as my heart just breaks again. Can't I be shown just one sign? Is this just another thing the fates ordain? Why can't I have what's mine? I can't help the tears as they fall from my eyes, the pain in my heart just sears and it feels like my soul just dies. I just want to stop these fears. I whisper his name to the night. I just want to shriek and yell to the sky, to rage and claw and fight. Don't ask me or my heart why, don't question the darkness turned to light. I watch in wonder at the stars that shine waiting for the sign to come again. If it came, then what is this sign? Can I trust my heart to know and ordain the man I feel by right is mine? So again they fall in torrents, my tears, again I question what is before my eyes.

"I do not question the pain that sears and makes me wish for the heart that dies, because it is to my mind that fear. I fear the coming of the night; I dread the watching of the sky for the one I would gladly lay aside the fight and not question with the why, just to feel in my soul the unquenchable light. I lie in bed staring at the ceiling his face fills my mind. I can't stop this feeling I just want to die and peace find. How can a heart so broken ever find healing? These walls have ears and what stories they would recount if they had mouths and tears. The words I whisper to the night in great amount, I curse and I love and it hears. I wonder why I stay and do not leave, why I cannot give up the fight in me and to this hope I so desperately cleave. For my heart longs for his face to see, leaving me no longer to grieve. The lights play across the ceiling, the shapes enter my mind I see images of us, loving, feeling. It is hard for me to find the way to start healing. I think I hear his breathing in my ears for I heard it more times than to recount. So once again my eyes fill with tears though I ask to what does this amount? Is it possible that he hears? In the night I imagine him there, but he leaves, I talk to him and him to me and to this wise I desperately cleave to have my dreams someday to see and my heart no more to grieve. I lie here and stare at the ceiling as the images fill my mind. And for him my heart has this feeling. Someday I hope to know and find and in his embrace find healing. For his voice to reach my ears and his love and endearment recount and from my eyes not sorrow, but joyful tears. All the years and all the pain to have no amount of the wonder and love he hears."

Harry stared in shock. "Is this a joke?"

"No joke, boy." The dwarf said and turned leaving them there.

"Let's get to class." Erin said cheerfully, though Harry still had a look of pure amazement on his face.