As I woke Wednesday morning I couldn't help but look over at the large glass bowl on my nightstand. Inside floated three large peony heads. At breakfast on Monday, one had appeared on the table in front of me, and yesterday, two had appeared as Angelina passed me toast. I stretched out my body and felt the slight bruise on my neck. It was still sore but it was worth it for the felling Severus's kisses ignited in me, the twins had noticed it and made a comment about Ambrose but id laughed it off. Ambrose hadn't been a problem this week; he was on an internal suspension and was spending his time locked up working in a room of Argus Filch's office. Harry's smile had been the biggest when I'd received the flowers each morning and I couldn't help but notice that he was much more willing to do his potions homework of recent.
Angelina knew the flowers were from the same person as the potions ones were and she couldn't help but ponder over who my admirer was. It was obviously someone in our potions class, which meant Slytherin or Gryffindor. I began to think if she knew who, she'd look at me completely differently, hearing the hatred in her voice when she spoke about the Slytherins. Dad had written me to say that Harry had my presents but that he was on strict orders not to give them to me till Friday and I feared that after Friday I'd run out of thank yous. Dad was being kept totally on lock down and Remus was his 'babysitter', as Dad had described him, so they had taken to cleaning the house again, and now that the Weasleys had left they were finding it a much more mundane task.
Angelina walked me down to breakfast that morning and when we sat, Angelina sat frozen waiting. I poured myself coffee and sat watching her, fascinated. "What's she doing?" Fred slung himself down beside me and began to pile his plate high with sausages and eggs. "Waiting for the flowers." He sighed and shook his head, "You girls!" I shrugged and smiled knowingly up to the staff table, catching Severus's eye, who returned my smile and completed the normal morning gesture, tapping his goblet. Still nothing came to the table, and getting bored, Angelina and I helped ourselves to toast and Marmalade. I looked back up at the staff table and Severus was watching us, a smile playing on his face, as if the joke was on us. I frowned and turned back to our table, but still nothing. Harry came to sit opposite us, and noticing nothing on the table frowned, "What's happened to your admirer Lena?" He smiled and I shook my head laughing, "Maybe Fred scared him off yesterday!" Fred looked at me pointedly and stuck out his tongue.
Yesterday morning when the flowers had appeared, Fred had stood up on his bench and addressing the entire hall, had demanded he know who was sending me them, describing it as "Menacing and slightly stalkerish behaviour" even the teachers had laughed and Fred, shouting "no takers?! Fine then, you've missed that opportunity!" had sat back down beside Harry and I who had been howling with laughter, even Severus was laughing up on the staff table and locking eyes, he'd winked down at me.
I helped myself to another piece of toast and watched as the owls began their morning delivery. And there, among the much bigger, older owls, was tiny Iris, a ribbon tying three large stemmed peonies together, hanging from her beak. She flew down in front of us and the twins hurriedly fed her bacon as she swayed precariously on the table, and holding her in my hands, I noticed that in between her feathers lay specks of gold and pink glitter and as she shook out her wings, I got a full face of glitter. Angelina and I laughed and taking the flowers from the table I noticed a card tied to the ribbon. I untied it and slid it out of the tiny envelope, a little card with a single silver heart on it, that read inside Ti amo was written in tiny black ink. Even never learning a word of Italian I knew as soon as I saw it what it meant and my heart did that weird skipping thing it did whenever Severus touched me. We pulled all our things together to go down to potions, and Angelina took my arm and we skipped the length of the hall.
The boys were right, this week had turned us into screaming, giggly school girls, but we didn't even care and so when we fell into the crowd pushing to get out the hall, and ended up stood right next to the remaining teachers, we continued to laugh and giggle. "Miss Black, how are you this morning?" I stopped giggling and looked up into the kind eyes of our Headmaster, "I'm great thanks sir, how are you?" He nodded smiling, "I'm rather good, young love sets me all of a flutter you see. You certainly have a very dedicated admirer, three days of flowers now is it?" I smiled up at him but he was smiling at Severus who stood on the other side of him. In my childish glee I hadn't seen where my feet had taken me or who stood around us. "Um yes sir, I suppose he is rather dedicated." He smiled back down at me as everyone began to shove to get out the doors to their lessons.
"A shame really that we don't know who he is, he must have a very kind heart indeed, and I imagine you'd make quite the pair!" He smiled from Severus to me and I felt myself blushing deeply, "But maybe it would be safest if you kept your little rendezvouses to inside the castle walls, I had a message sent to me only yesterday, from one of the gargoyles on the gate, appears he had quite the show this weekend." He smiled and scurried off, disappearing into the crowd. Although the last part had been only a whisper that Severus and I could hear, we both blushed deeply and smiled guiltily at one another before turning our backs to talk to other people in the bustling crowd.
Angelina and I hurried off down into the dungeons and, still skipping, peonies in hand, we tumbled into Severus's room. He sat up at his desk and shook his head when we walked in to the room but I saw him smile as he looked down at his desk. Angelina and I couldn't stop laughing but when we reached the boys who sat at our usual desk, we both stopped and stared down at my desk.
Covering the surface of my desk were soft peony leaves and this had caused Fred and George to tumble around in fits of sneezing. There on the desk, sat the little silver box I'd looked at on the Saturday we'd spent working together. The little guilt flowers were shining in the light of the flames under the boys cauldron and Angelina cooed as I took the box from the desk. It really was very pretty and I let my fingers slide over the gilded design. Everyone else in the room had gone quiet and I felt myself tense uneasily.
"Miss Black, if possible I would like to start my lesson and for that to happen, I'm afraid you must clean away this catastrophe. Please hurry." Severus's voice was cold and everyone else flinched, but during the time we'd spent together I'd come to recognise the changes in his demeanour and this voice was only one of them, for everyone else, noticing the coldness in his tone, didn't register that there was an excited edge to it. I flipped the lid of the box and what seemed like a hundred tiny pink and blue butterflies flew out, leaving trails of fine gold glitter behind them. All the girls cooed and awwred but the boys shook their heads muttering, and the only mutter I could register was Fred's, "Cheesy bloody git, doesn't know how lucky he is." I blushed more now at that comment than I did at the stares and attention. And within moments of me pushing aside the peony petals, Severus started the lesson.