Part 4: Valentine's Day

The second Saturday of January dawned bright and clear, allowing everyone an enjoyable Hogsmeade weekend. Colin, who thought that the weather was perfect for taking photos of Hogwarts castle and its surroundings, decided to stay in school with his younger brother. Kim also planned to stay in school the whole day to practice with her band. Not wanting to be the third wheel with Sarah and Edmund, Ginny decided visit Hogsmeade with Luna Lovegood.

Luna was a blond-haired Ravenclaw in Ginny's own year. She lived with her father in a rook-shaped house on the top of a hill near Ottery St. Catchpole. Her mother had died while conducting an experiment that had gone wrong when Luna was only nine years old.

Ginny had known Luna since they were about six or seven. She was the type of person who couldn't be described to other people without drawing blank looks. Many people found Luna to be rather odd, which, Ginny had to admit, she was. Her classmates and most other Ravenclaws often made fun of her and treated her like an outcast, and Ginny often found herself defending Luna against them. Luna, however, always seemed unfazed by their taunts and would only respond with a dreamy smile.

Luna's oddness was actually one of the things Ginny liked about the girl. She found Luna's views to be quite novel and refreshing. Luna was very nice, honest, and open-minded. She never judge people based on looks or first impressions. Even if people were continually mean to her, she didn't think they were bad people. She was one of Ginny's closest friends.

Ginny and Luna stopped by Hagrid's cabin before going out to Hogsmeade. They wanted to check in on him to see if he had recovered from Rita Skeeter's stupid article, but Hagrid was either not in his cabin or he refused to see them. They gave up after fifteen minutes of fruitlessly knocking on his door and made their way to the front gates. Ginny tried to look for Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville at the gates, but she could not find the four fourth years among the throng of students queuing up to go outside. Pushing her disappointment away, Ginny followed Luna into the well-worn path to Hogsmeade.

Ginny and Luna made the usual stops at Hogsmeade, starting with Scrivenshaft's to refill their school supplies. After that, they went to Gladrags where Luna bought a hand-woven hat made of what the owner called abaca fibers, though Luna insisted that it was made of the spittle of a large (and most probably imaginary) magical creature called the Leaping Funguar. The hat surprisingly matched the necklace of butterbeer corks Luna wore around her neck.

They had lunch at the Three Broomsticks, where Ginny once again tried to look for Harry and the others. They weren't at the inn either, but Ginny and Luna did run into Michael Corner. After lunch, Michael went with Ginny and Luna to Honeydukes and Zonko's, saying that he needed to shop there but had no one to go with. Seeing as Michael had been hanging out with his classmates, Ginny could not help but think that he was purposely following her. She could not decide whether this was creepy or flattering. Michael was nice though, and he didn't seem to mind Luna, so Ginny let him come with them.

The sun was already low on the horizon when Ginny and Luna decided to go back to Hogwarts. Michael said goodbye to them at the road outside the Three Broomsticks, where Ginny could see his friends waiting for him inside.

"He likes you," Luna said as they started on the path to Hogwarts. She sounded like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Ginny had no doubt who 'he' was. She felt a blush creeping up her cheeks, and, not knowing how else to respond, awkwardly said, "Er…."

Luna looked sideways at her. "There's no reason to be embarrassed by it, you know," she told Ginny matter-of-factly.

This, of course, made Ginny turn even redder.

"He's alright," Luna continued after a while. "He's not one of the people who keep teasing me, and he doesn't hide my things."

"Yeah, but he doesn't tell them to stop bothering you either," said Ginny, feeling slightly disapproving of Michael. Harry would have, she added in her head, completely ignoring the fact that Harry did not know Luna.

"Well, I have you for that," said Luna calmly.

Ginny stared at Luna, struck by the certainty with which her friend had said her statement, like it was the undisputed truth—which it was. Ginny let out a small chuckle. Luna always spoke the truth like no one else could.

They talked about the upcoming Quidditch match between the Holyhead Harpies and the Caerphilly Catapults the rest of the way to Hogwarts. Or rather, Ginny talked about the upcoming match while Luna speculated whether the Catapults used real catapults to launch the players into the air.

The two girls parted ways once they reach the castle, with Luna heading to Ravenclaw tower and Ginny to Gryffindor tower. Ginny immediately spotted Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville as she entered the common room. They were sitting by the fireplace and seemed to be discussing something serious. Hermione was frowning deeply while Ron was looking at her with a half-worried, half-admiring expression on his face. Looking around the common room, Ginny saw that her classmates weren't there yet, so she made her way to Harry and the others.

"—really going to find—"

"Hi," Ginny said as she took the seat next to Hermione, interrupting the other girl's tirade. She unceremoniously dropped her bag of Scrivenshaft's products on the floor nearby.

"Hi, Ginny," Harry greeted with a wide smile, making Ginny's stomach do a flip-flop. Neville also grinned at her in greeting while Ron and Hermione gave her a half-hearted smile. "Did you go to Hogsmeade?" asked Harry, eyeing her bag of Hogsmeade products. "We didn't see you there."

"Yeah, I was looking for you guys too," she replied honestly, feeling slightly triumphant that Harry noticed her absence. "We must've missed each other." She looked at the less-than-happy expression on Ron and Hermione's faces. "What's going on?" she asked curiously.

"We ran into Rita Skeeter at the Three Broomsticks," said Ron darkly. "We overheard her talking to her photographer about Bagman, and then Harry here—" he looked accusingly at Harry, who put on a sheepish expression (which Ginny thought was very cute) "—decided to confront her about Hagrid. And then—would you believe it—Skeeter asked us for an interview about him! And Hermione—" Ron gave a half-awed, half-scared look in Hermione's direction, "—just blew up! She called that Skeeter bitch—"

"Ron!" chastised Hermione.

"—'horrible'! To her face!" exclaimed Ron. "I mean, don't get me wrong, you're absolutely right," he told Hermione, "But you shouldn't have said that to her face. She's going to come after you next," he added worriedly, and Ginny finally understood the concern on his face.

Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron. "I don't care," she said vindictively. "That Skeeter woman is a lunatic. She doesn't care who her target is, anyone will do to her, anything for a story. I mean, look at Hagrid—what did he ever do to her? I'm going to find out how she managed to sneak inside Hogwarts. I'm sure it's illegal. I'm going to find out," Hermione set her jaws determinedly, "and I'm going to report her."

"And I'm saying that you should be careful," said Ron.

"She's got nothing against me," Hermione said stubbornly.

"Hermione! This is Rita Skeeter we're talking about!" Ron exclaimed exasperatedly. "She'll find something against you!"

Hermione twisted in her chair to face Ron directly. "Are you saying that I shouldn't do anything about her just because she might find something about me?" she asked angrily.

"No! Of course not!" said Ron hurriedly as he backed away slightly. "Look, I know that whatever you're planning to do, we won't be able to stop you. And I've no doubt that you'll be able to do it—we'll even help you. But you should just be careful! We don't want lies printed about you on the front page of the Daily Prophet."

Even though Ron kept saying 'we', Ginny couldn't help but think that he really meant 'I'. Hermione looked mollified at his statement, and she finally stopped arguing back, her cheeks taking on a pinkish tinge. Ginny, Harry, and Neville grinned knowingly at each other.

"Hagrid's decided to come back and teach, by the way," Harry said after a moment.

"Really?" Ginny asked happily, thinking that this was the best bit of news she had heard since Christmas. "How'd you find out?"

"Well, after Hermione blew up at Skeeter, she dragged all three of us to Hagrid's," replied Neville, who seemed slightly amused by the whole thing. "Dumbledore was already there so he opened the door for us—"

Ginny nodded in understanding. Ever since the article about him was published about two weeks ago, Hagrid hadn't opened his door to anyone, no matter how loudly they knocked.

"—and we finally got Hagrid to listen to us," continued Neville. "Not before Harry told that touching tale about his Muggle relatives, though," he added jokingly.

"Oi!" exclaimed Harry, throwing a pillow at Neville, who raised a hand to block it. "Don't you make fun of that—we wouldn't have convinced Hagrid if I hadn't told him about them."

Ron grinned at Harry and Neville while Ginny and Hermione rolled their eyes at the two boys' childish behavior.

"I'm glad Hagrid's coming back to teach," said Ginny, frowning slightly as the pillow Neville had chucked back at Harry sailed right under her nose. "Thank Merlin you guys talked some sense into him."

"I'm still going after Skeeter," Hermione declared vehemently.

"We know," everyone else said in unison.

The rest of January passed by quickly and relatively calmly. Snow was still thick on the ground, but the blizzard that had assaulted Hogwarts on the first week of the term had finally died down. Despite the calm weather, Ginny had not gone for another fly at the pitch with Harry. She had had a lot of essays that needed to be finished and she could not afford to take the time to go flying. Deep down, however, she knew homework was just an excuse. She was hardly the type of person who would prefer writing essays over riding a broom.

The truth of the matter was that she was scared; scared of being alone with Harry, scared that she would make a fool of herself, and scared that her feelings for him would deepen. But most of all, she was scared that he would find out. She could handle being around him—she liked being around him—but not alone. She took every possible way out so she did not have to go flying with him. She even resorted to actually making her homework so he would not get suspicious (this had earned her a raised eyebrow from Hermione). While this was good in the sense that she no longer did her essays at the last minute, surprisingly lightening her workload, she was beginning to really miss him. She wanted to spend time with Harry. She just didn't want to be alone with him, and she couldn't just suddenly hang out with the fourth years. She had always spent her free time with other people—sometimes with Luna, sometimes with her classmates, and sometimes with Fred and George. It would be a little suspicious, not to mention desperate and somewhat disloyal, if she chose to hang out with him instead of her friends, even if she was also friends with his friends, not to mention with Harry himself…sort of.

Ginny contented herself with daydreaming about Harry, reminiscing about the times they had spent together and imagining about times they should have spent together. She had been doing just that during Potions class in early February when a loud 'thud' and a rattling of bottles interrupted her visions of flying with Harry.

Ginny jumped on her seat and forced herself to look at the front of the class, dragging herself back to reality. She stared at the potion ingredients Snape had just placed on his table as he turned his back on the class and started writing something on the blackboard. Her eyes fell on a jar of what looked like toads (poisonous, if Ginny guessed correctly) suspended in green liquid. It would have looked disgusting, but the liquid was the exact shade of green as Harry's eyes.

His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad, she thought absently.

Ginny cocked her head to one side, thoughtfully considering the statement. It actually sounded good, like a line in a poem. A small smile played across her lips and she rifled through her book bag. She fished out piece of parchment with an already graded History of Magic essay written on it and began to write on the clean side.

His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad

Ginny's grin widened as she stared at the words on the parchment. Not bad, she thought smugly. She could definitely make something out of it. She scratched her chin with the feathery tip of her quill, thinking about how to continue.

What next? What are the other things about Harry that she liked so much? The way he quirks his eyebrows? His brilliant smile? His messy, jet-black hair—

Yes, she definitely liked his hair. She began to write the second line of the poem.

His hair is as dark as—

As what? As night? Dark as night? That comparison was overused. Ginny looked around the Potions classroom, hoping to get some sort of inspiration from the gloomy dungeon. She let her eyes stray towards the potion ingredients at the front of the class, hoping she could find something to compare Harry's hair to, just like with his eyes. There was nothing, however—Clabbert dung was the only thing dark enough, and it was hardly a flattering comparison. Not that 'fresh pickled toad' was, but it was definitely better than dung.

Ginny looked past the potion ingredients on Snape's table, and it finally hit her. She grinned as she continued with her 'work'.

His hair is as dark as a blackboard

The next line came easily to her: I wish he was mine, he's really divine.

She thought for a moment, smiled, and then wrote: The greatest Seeker of Gryffindor.

Ginny read through her poem, feeling rather proud. Her grin kept getting wider and dreamier. It seemed only a moment later, however, when the parchment was snatched rudely away from her. She snapped her head up, prepared to yell at whoever had taken the poem. But, to her horror, she found herself face to face with none another than Snape—the stealthy bat.

"Why, Miss Weasley," said Snape in a dangerously calm voice, "I've never seen you so happy about note-taking," he added before reading the poem she had written.

Ginny saw Snape's lips thinning visibly as his eyes traveled along the parchment. She felt her face heat up with mortification. She looked nervously at Snape's face, and then at her classmates, who had all turned to stare at her. An alarming thought came to her mind and she felt herself turn even redder.

What if Snape made her read the poem to the whole class? Everyone would find out about her crush on Harry! It wasn't exactly that hard to figure out. Green eyes, black hair, Gryffindor Seeker…. What if her classmates told Harry about it? That would be so humiliating!

She noticed Snape walking away from her and caught some of what he was saying ("—and ten points from Gryffindor"). Ginny stared at the Potions Master's back as he made his way to the front of the class. She blinked, feeling rather dumbstruck.

That was all? Ten points from Gryffindor? What if Snape had read the poem to the class and she had somehow blacked out? Panicking, Ginny looked around at her classmates. No one was laughing at her. Everyone had turned their attention back to the blackboard and they were all diligently taking down notes. After staring at each of her classmates, Ginny finally allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief. She could not believe that she got off that easily.

She should have known that wasn't the end of it.

"Weasley," Snape called after the end of class, "stay behind."

Resigned to punishment, Ginny grimaced at her friends as they gave her sympathetic looks. She waited for everyone to file out of the classroom before approaching Snape at his table.

"You will come here for four Saturdays, starting tomorrow," Snape said without looking up from his inspection of the potion ingredients. "Two-thirty, on the dot," he emphasized. "You will know what you'll be doing then."

He did not explain that he was giving her detention, and he did not tell her why. He did not need to. Ginny nodded mutely, unsure of what to say. Snape finally looked up at her. He raised his eyebrow almost imperceptibly as he took Ginny's poem from his pocket and slapped it on the table right in front of her.

"I'm sure pickled toads—" Snape eyed the offending ingredient, "are quite fascinating," he said sarcastically. "But I trust that next time, you would pay attention to other ingredients as well?"

Snape's face was impassive, but Ginny could have sworn that he was trying not to smile.

"Yes, Professor," said Ginny quickly, too grateful that he had not read her poem to the whole class to be angry at the four weekends of detention.

Snape's face remained impassive as he turned back to inspecting the potion ingredients on his table. Ginny grabbed her poem, turned to leave, hesitated, and then turned back to Snape. She swayed on the spot, not really knowing why she was still standing there.

"What are you still doing here, Weasley?" Snape asked after a while.

"Oh, er…" said Ginny stupidly.

She wanted to know why Snape did not read her poem to the whole class. That seemed like a very Snape thing to do. Yet, all he did was take ten points from Gryffindor and give her four Saturdays of detention. But perhaps, it was best not to question his decision, lest he change his mind.

"Thanks, Professor," she said instead.

"Get out," said Snape, his voice getting dangerously low, but this time, Ginny was sure that he had broken into a small smile.

Ginny grinned cheekily at Snape before turning on her heel and heading out of the Potions classroom with much greater dignity than someone who had been caught writing love poems.

Maybe Snape isn't so bad after all, she thought as she walked out of the classroom.

Later that night in the Gryffindor common room, she took out a piece of parchment from her book bag and crumpled it. She had realized how stupid her poem sounded—like some lunatic from a mental asylum had written it. She was confident enough to say that she was a pretty good writer. She had even helped her friend Kim with the lyrics to a song she was composing. But the poem…well, it was silly. The Potions classroom was simply not conducive to creative writing.

Before heading up to her dormitory, Ginny tossed her poem into the fire. Unbeknownst to her, two identical pairs of eyes were shrewdly observing her actions. She did not see the crumpled parchment zoom out of the fireplace as she turned towards the girls' staircase.

Betaed by: NancyDrewGirl