The morning's first rays of sunlight spread themselves across the lawn, making the dew covering the grass glisten and twinkled as though thousands of fairies were playing on the lawns. Fairies could not be overlooked as a possibility however, as the building that rose high above the lawns was none other than Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Fairies in the grass would not have been at all out of place.
In one of the towers, the Gryffindor Common Room could be found, decorated in the house colours of red and gold. In armchairs by the newly lit fire, two sixth year boys were sitting, eyes heavy with fatigue and yawning at regular intervals.
The first was Harry Potter and his presence in the Common Room at the hour of six o'clock in the morning was a regular occurrence. Roaming the school corridors after hours, getting detentions from his least favourite teachers and numerous games of Quidditch kept him so behind on homework that he had no alternative.
The other boy was Harry's best friend, Ron Weasley. His presence could also be expected at this time as he often took part in Harry's after hour jaunts and played Quidditch just like Harry.
This morning however, there was a third presence in the armchairs round the fire that was definitely not normal. Hermione Granger, class know it all, was known to always have homework handed in on time and to an unbeatable standard. She had never received a punishment for not handing in homework on time and had never received any grade that could be considered a fail, except perhaps in Divination, which she had walked out of in the same year that she begun it. As a complete bookworm, she had been disgusted to find that books could not help her a great deal in the subject and to Harry and Ron's amusement had walked out of the class in a temper. This was however, the only incident Harry and Ron could recall and to see her sitting with them by the fire scribbling down answers to Transfiguration homework was a great surprise.
"Why didn't you do that last night?" asked Harry for the third time that morning, looking up from his Potions essay. He was not doing very well with it.
"I told you," snapped Hermione "I was busy" She picked up a book and flicked through it until she found the right page, then, scribbled something down on the parchment before her.
"Busy doing what?" asked Ron joining the conversation. He seemed pleased for any excuse to stop working for a bit. He was attempting the same Potions essay as Harry and was having even more trouble. He had been hoping to ask Hermione for help, but now that he saw her, so busy with her own homework he knew that to ask her for help was out of the question.
"Nothing much" said Hermione sounding irritable and began to put her homework back in her bag. She did not want to talk about it. Ron and Harry wisely let it drop, not wanting to annoy her even more. Harry scribbled down a few more paragraphs of his essay. He read it through quickly and deciding that it didn't make sense put his quill back on the parchment to score it out. At the last minute however, he stopped and folding the essay, put it in his bag. He did not really care what grade he got for it. His Potions grade was the least of his worries. He had Quidditch as well and he put it before Potions. Now that he thought about it, he supposed he put anything before Potions. Sighing, he picked up his bag and stood up. He glanced at his wristwatch and saw that the time was half past seven.
"Coming?" he asked Ron and Ron nodded and followed him out of the portrait hole.
At breakfast, Hermione didn't say much, but Harry noticed that her eyes were flitting about all over the place, coming to rest every so often on a boy. Harry was puzzled. Hermione had never shown any interest in boys before unless you counted Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker that had come to Hogwarts during the Triwizard Tournament two years previously and attended the Yule Ball with Hermione. Harry tried to follow her gaze to find out who or what was so fascinating all of a sudden. Her gaze kept darting all over the place however, making Harry's task almost impossible and in the end, he gave it up. It went from his mind and he turned his attention to breakfast.
Breakfast finished all too quickly for Harry. He had Potions first thing and was dreading Snape's response to his abysmal attempt at the homework. He got up reluctantly, to follow Ron and Hermione out of the hall, hurrying due to the fact that none of them had wished to go to Potions and were now running late.
As they entered the classroom, Harry looked around, expecting to see Snape at the teachers table. There was no one there however and feeling slightly relieved, he sat down at his desk. The door shut with a loud bang and Harry looked round to see that Snape had been standing just behind the door. He walked briskly to he front of the class and looked around. His eyes fell on Harry, Ron and Hermione and his lip curled.
"30 points from Gryffindor for our three late-comers" he said, causing a great many smirks from the Slytherins. "I trust you can all make up for your lateness by excellent homeworks" He strode over to their desk and held out his hand expectantly. Harry, a feeling of dread inside him, handed over his homework. Snape walked back to the front of the class. He sat down and surveyed the class. "Do the questions on the board while I mark the homework" he said and then took out a quill, placing Harry, Ron and Hermione's essays on the top of the pile.
It was about an hour before Snape looked up once again and ordered them to stop work. He held up the homeworks and Harry could see a large D on the top one in red ink. He made a guess at whose it was and felt sure he was right. He slid down in his chair, expecting embarrassing remarks to be made about his homework any second. However, Snape put his to the back and drew out a different one. Harry glimpsed it before Snape turned it over and could have sworn he had seen a large red heart in the top right hand corner.
"This homework was done to a very low standard," Snape said "However, I feel inclined to read Miss Granger's out to you." Harry looked sideways at Hermione who was looking bewildered.
Snape cleared his throat and waited until everyone's attention was on him before beginning to read.
"Dear Hermione" he began "I felt I had to write this letter to tell you how I feel about you." Harry was shocked. He looked sideways at Hermione who had blushed suddenly scarlet and was covering her face with her hands. "I have always admired you greatly," Snape continued. "You are so kind and clever that no one can help, but love you. That is precisely my feelings Hermione; I love you more every day. My heart leaps every time I see you and I feel I cannot keep this to myself any longer. That is why I wrote this letter. Yours lovingly, an admirer." Snape folded the letter and looked at Hermione over the heads of the Slytherins who were clutching their sides and laughing as though they could never stop. "How very touching," said Snape his smirk more pronounced than ever.