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"Dignity and love do not blend well, nor do they continue long together."
--Ovid
Chapter Nineteen: Valentine's Day

"I've been thinking about what you said." They were in potions class, so Tom was talking at Luna over his simmering cauldron. As it was Valentine's Day, Professor Slughorn had decided to get into the spirit of things and have his class make Amortentia potion.

"Really?" Luna said politely.

"Yes. You said there were wars where you came from. Were you talking about the muggle war?"

"No," she replied.

Tom narrowed his eyes at her. "Well, then what were you talking about? There aren't any wizard wars going on."

"Oh. I…yes, I meant the muggle war, Thomas," she said, never taking her eyes off the page of her book with the recipe on it.

"You did not. For someone who doesn't like dishonesty, you sure lie a lot, Luna," he snapped, dumping a spoonful of beetle's eyes into the potion.

Luna looked up at him. "You wouldn't like the truth if I told you."

"You wouldn't know, seeing as you've never tried it," he replied sulkily.

A slight smile crossed Luna's lips. "You're pouting."

"I am not!"

"Yes. Yes, you are," she said, taking a goat hoof and beginning to grind it into a powder.

Tom was silent for a moment, watching Luna struggle to grind the hoof. He smirked at her putting all her weight down to crush it and having nothing happen. Finally, she looked up at him. "I suppose you don't want to help?"

He sniggered, but took the hoof from her and quickly ground it up. He dumped the fine powder into their cauldron and the potion inside at once turned an intense fuchsia. Tom scowled.

"Um, Tom, isn't it supposed to have a 'mother-of-pearl sheen?'" Luna asked, stirring the potion questioningly with a ladle.

"Yes, so what did you do?"

Luna raised her eyebrows. "How do you know it was me? It may have been something you did."

"I always make my potions perfectly, Lovegood. It must have been you. Either way, it's too late to fix it now. We'll just have to take a lower grade."

A moment later, Professor Slughorn bumbled over to their cauldron. Normally, he only glanced inside to make sure that it was flawless as usual. He did the same, only the color of the potion inside caused him to double-take. "Er, Mr. Riddle, and Miss Lovegood…what's happened to your potion?" he stammered.

"I don't know, sir," Tom said earnestly.

Slughorn appeared to recover, and he cleared his throat before saying, "Ah, yes. Who was the one who put in the Ashwinder eggs?"

Tom slapped his forehead. "I was supposed to put the eggs in, sir. I forgot."

"Tom? Oh, well. Yes, well, that was the error in the potion."

"It was my fault?" Tom said, still in disbelief.

"Er, yes, it would seem so. Just add the eggs now; the potion will come out all right, just not as powerful. Then put some in a vial and bring it to my desk." Suddenly, Slughorn's eyes brightened and a smile played across his face. "No worries, my dear boy, little mistakes are common by young men when they have other things on their mind." Slughorn winked pointedly at Luna before bustling off to the next pair of students.

Tom avoided eye contact with Luna as he corrected their potion and took a sample to Slughorn. The bell rang, signaling that class was over. Tom begrudgingly walked out of the classroom with Luna by his side.

"I do hope you won't be in a sour mood for the rest of the day," Luna said as she drifted alongside him.

Tom made a grunting noise.

"What did the potion smell like to you, Tom?" she asked, switching topics.

"What do you mean?" he growled.

"Well, Amortentia smells differently to everyone, depending on what they are attracted to," she said.

He rolled his eyes. "What did yours smell like, Lovegood?"

"Ooh, to me it smells like raspberries, Christmas trees, and…." Her voice trailed off.

"And what?" he prompted.

She smiled sadly. "And like you smell when you're really close to me."

Tom's heart did a flip flop, but he didn't let it show on his exterior. "Interesting," he said.

She shrugged. "Anyhow, what did yours smell like?"

"I don't smell anything," he told her.

She cocked her head. "Really?"

"Yes, Lovegood. Really."

"Oh," she said, her face falling. "Well, I've got to go to the library for a while to do some homework. I'll see you at dinner." Without waiting for his reply, she scampered off towards the library.

Tom watched her leave. Once she was out of sight, he made his way to the Slytherin common room. He ignored the students who greeted him, and went directly to his dorm room. He locked the door behind him so that none of the other boys could interrupt him.

He knelt down on the floor and looked under his bed. There was his diary, several huge books about the various dark arts, and a very small package. It was the last thing that he removed from beneath his bed.

Sitting on his bed, he opened the box.

Luna sat at a table in the library, but she wasn't working. She was doodling on a piece of parchment that was supposed to be her Charms essay. After a while of this, she finally sighed heavily and decided to put her things in her dormitory and then head to dinner.

She gathered her things, slung her bag over her shoulder, and made her way up to Ravenclaw tower. She had deposited her things and was once again leaving the common room when she ran into Cat and Tristy.

"Hi Luna," Tristy said, offering a small smile.

Cat frowned a little bit and said, "Hey."

Luna smiled warmly. "How are you? I don't talk with you as much anymore."

"Yes, we've noticed," Cat replied dryly. She looked critically at Luna for another moment, before sighing and saying, "Look, Luna, we miss you. You're hardly around anymore. We see you in class and things, but you don't really talk to us. It's like…it's like you're so wrapped up in Tom that you have no time for us anymore."

"Oh!" Luna felt her eyes grow wide. "I'm so sorry! I didn't even realize – I'm sorry!"

Cat smiled sadly, and Tristy squeezed Luna's hand briefly. "It's all right, Luna," Tristy said. "We just miss you."

"I didn't really realize that you would miss me. I didn't even realize I was doing it! I'm sorry," Luna stammered.

"It's all right, just quit it," Cat said, finally grinning.

Luna nodded emphatically. "Oh, yes. Absolutely."

Tristy giggled. "Shall we go to dinner?"

The girls headed down to the Great Hall. Throughout dinner, they talked enthusiastically as if they hadn't seen each other in ages. Luna didn't even notice that Tom wasn't at dinner.

Luna, Tristy, and Cat were leaving the Great Hall when Luna caught sight of Tom sulking in a corner of the Entrance Hall. She signaled to her friends, who rolled their eyes but smiled, and she went over to him.

"Hello, Tom," she said. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Tom seemed edgy and irritable. Or rather, Luna thought, more irritable than usual.

"Did you get anything to eat?" she asked.

"No. I didn't feel like eating," he replied.

Luna noticed that his hand was in his pocket and he seemed to be fingering something inside it. "What's the matter, Tom?"

"What? Nothing. Nothing's the matter," he snapped.

"Oh. All right, then," she said. "Well, I'm going to go to bed, then, if nothing's the matter." She turned and started to walk away.

"No!"

She turned back.

"No," he muttered. "I have something for you."

Luna raised her eyebrows. "A present?"

"Yes, a present," he snapped.

"Is it like the last present you gave me? Because that wasn't really a present at all, as you told me," she said, chuckling, remembering the kneazle who was curled up on her bed in her dorm.

He scowled. "No, this is a real present. I actually got it while – while thinking of you." As he said this, he had a look on his face as though he had just tasted something sour.

Luna smiled. "Well, what is it then?"

Tom shuffled his feet, causing Luna to giggle. "What are you laughing at?" he spat.

"Nothing. What's my present?" Luna persisted.

"It's not a big deal. It's just something I want you to have," he said, taking whatever it was he was playing with out of his pocket. It fit inside his closed fist, so she couldn't see what it was.

"Well, show me!" she said, growing impatient.

He wavered for a moment on the brink of giving her the gift, before shoving it into her hands and muttering something that sounded suspiciously like, "Happy Valentine's Day, Lovegood."

In her hands was a gold chain, much like the one that had gotten her into this whole mess. At the end of this one was a single stone in the shape of an oval. The stone was shining a bright red hue and it was warm. Luna felt her jaw drop as she gazed at it.

"It glows red whenever we are both thinking about each other. It doesn't work if you're just thinking of me, or – or the other way around," she vaguely heard him say. "It was just an ordinary necklace, but I enchanted it."

Luna tore her eyes away from the necklace and looked up at Tom. She noticed how his usually sleek black hair was mussed up as though he had been running his fingers through it too much, and she noticed how his face was firm, but his eyes were giving away his feelings. She smiled. "Is this your way of saying that you love me without actually saying it?"

Tom's face twitched oddly, and he said, "I told you it was no big deal."

Luna's smile widened into a grin. "You don't give presents to anybody, Tom. It is a big deal."

"It is not. I simply thought you might enjoy it, so I decided to give it to you."

"On Valentine's Day?" she asked, still grinning. "Ooh, Tom, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you have a soft spot for me!"

"You're completely barmy," he snapped, looking down his nose at her.

"You love me, don't you, Tom? You love me!" she insisted, beginning to dance on her feet a bit.

He turned to walk away, saying, "Complete pain in the ass. That's what you are."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, Thomas, stop it. You have to at least help me put it on."

He turned back to her. "Fine. Are you done being obnoxious?" he snarled.

"Never," she giggled, and held the necklace out to him.

He snatched it from her angrily. She turned her back to him and moved her masses of hair out of the way. He put the necklace around her neck and clasped it. He felt her shiver as he touched the sensitive skin on the back of her neck. He moved closer to her, putting his hands on her waist. She tensed, and he moved his face close to her neck. He inhaled deeply, breathing in her scent. He gently kissed her neck. "That's what my Amortentia potion smells like."