Chapter 30 - VALENTINE'S DAY

Daphne POV

I woke up in the morning, I sat up straight away, extremely excited for the day. I opened my bedside curtains and saw a rose and a letter lying on the desk next to my bed. It must be Harry! I quickly picked up the letter and ripped it open.

Dear Daphne,

Happy Valentines Day! I hope you have a brilliant day! Meet me at the Room of Requirement later tonight after class! I have a surprise planned for us then! I hope you love the Rose! Have a great day today Daph!

Love, Harry

I smiled widely at the letter. I then picked up the rose and smelled it. I couldn't help smiling as I got changed out of pajamas and into my robes. Tracey gave me a knowingly smirk the entire time.

"Prince charming send you that?"

No longer embarrassed about when Tracey used to tease our relationship, I huffed out my retort.

"Yes! He gave me the rose...and a card!"

"Oooooo... " whistled Tracey.

We then both walked out of the room after getting dressed and headed for the great hall. I was so excited to see Harry tonight, I couldn't wait until then. I wished I didn't have classes today… I was eating in the great hall with Tracey when I saw the Weasley girl fuming and leaving the hall.

Hahaha, Harry must have foiled her plan.

I peacefully ate my breakfast before heading off to Transfiguration class. We were currently discussing in class about Animagi. I found it intriguing to become an Animagus. We started this unit in transfiguration near the start of the year. I have talked to Harry so many times about it due to my love for transfiguration. I always thought it would be cool to transform into an animal. Harry, however, didn't seem too interested in becoming one, he stated that he was more interested in learning spells and other types of magic.

Simply put, he just probably didn't want to put in the time and effort to turn into an Animagus himself. I mean... I had been doing a lot, A LOT, of research to become one.

I have been to the Room of Requirement to see if there were any additional books on becoming an Animagus as the books in the library were a bit vague. Harry had helped me with training in wandless magic as I would need it to shift in and out of my Animagus form. I had not made much progress with it… it was very difficult. I tried doing the exercises he told me to, which was to sit cross legged in a meditating position and try to lift an object by wandlessly casting wingardium leviosa, but my object would only twitch slightly and lift off the floor for a brief second. I then broke out of my thoughts as Mcgonagall started to pair us off in class.

After my last class of the day, ancient runes, I quickly bolted back to my room to get changed before heading straight for the Room of Requirement. Tracey had help me pick out my outfit. I wore a dark navy blue dress. The dress skirt went until just above my knees. I then wore a light blue cotton jacket on top. As I approached the corridor I heard two people talking and quickly hid behind a stone pillar that was right around a corner. I then listened for a bit, hearing the Weasel girl talk.

"Alright! Ron, don't screw this up again! We overheard Fred and George… Harry is coming to the seventh floor for some reason and this is my chance! Don't screw this up!"

"Alright, alright Ginny, knock it off!"

I stood behind the pillar stunned in silence until I heard a whisper from behind me.

"Care to keep me company Milady?"

I turned around and saw Harry! Wow, he really dressed well this time compared to our trips together to Hogsmeade. He wore a very nice dark green bomber jacket, that matched his eyes, with a white t-shirt underneath. He then had black jeans on. However, I lost coherent thought when I saw the bouquet of flowers in his left hand. I almost squealed in delight before he made a Shhh gesture with his spare hand.

"Here... take this!" whispered Harry.

He then handed me his invisibility cloak and told me to put it on. I was confused as to why he didn't come underneath the cloak with me. He then smirked and took out his wand and disappeared.

He disillusioned himself!

We then walked around the corridor three times, trying our best not to laugh when we passed Ron and Ginny waiting in anticipation for Harry. The door then formed behind the corner of where Ron and Ginny were staring at, therefore they couldn't see us enter. Once inside, I gasped at the sight and let Harry's invisibility cloak drop onto the floor. The Room had become a balcony on the Eiffel Tower overlooking Paris! Harry undid his disillusionment and walked over to me with his bouquet of flowers. I turned around and grabbed him immediately to snog the living daylights out of him.

After our incredibly heated kiss, Harry sat me down at the table and an house elf by the name of Dobby appeared. He brought us our dinner. We laughed and joked about many things since the start of this year. We then got into a serious discussion about Animagi.

"Wouldn't it be cool if my Animagus form was a magical animal, Harry? Even though this has never happened, what do you think? Oh! What if my corporeal patronus turns out to be my Animagus form! I am still working on it, I haven't formed a corporeal patronus yet… but I am almost there! I'm-"

I then cut myself off abruptly as Harry sat there smiling at me not saying anything.

"You don't think this is a good idea do you?"

His eyes widened and he quickly started waving his hands.

"No no no no no, Daph, I think it is brilliant that you are this passionate about becoming an Animagus! I just really liked watching you talk about it… And yeah your corporeal patronus might be the same as you Animagus! My Dad's patronus was after all the same as his Animagus form so maybe…"

He then stopped midway and took something tiny out from his jacket pocket. He waved his wand and enlarged the object. I gasped when I saw what it was.

"Is that…? Is that a mandrake leaf? How did you get one without pissing off Professor Sprout!"

"Well I have my ways… I just thought since you really wanted to become an Animagus… I would help you get started, I began to look into the process and since you need a mandrake leaf for the potion I-"

I jumped out of my seat and walked around the table to give Harry a kiss.

"Thank you so much Harry! This means so much to me!"

I then sat back down and we continued to talk about Animagi. I had to keep the bloody leaf in my mouth for a month and cast a spell daily, but it would be well worth it. The next lightning storm would be next month, two days after the Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff Quidditch game in March. Our dinner then eventually came to an end. Harry then took out some sort of parchment and placed it in front of him on the table. Harry then smirked at me.

"Oh yeah Daph, I forgot to tell you about this… It just didn't cross my mind over the last couple of months because of how hectic everything has been."

He pointed his wand at the parchment.

"I solemnly swear, that I am up to no good!"

Lines then started to form on the parchment and labels started to appear. After it was fully formed, I recognized some of the locations on it.

Gryffindor Tower… The Great Hall… Castle Courtyard… It then hit me! This was a map of Hogwarts!

Harry explained to me the concept of the map. It was ingenious! We looked at the two labels that were still outside the Room... which was interestingly not listed on the map, in the seventh floor corridor stood Ron and Ginny. We both collapsed in hysterical laughter as they still stood there. My stomach started to hurt as I was laughing so hard.

The irony! The Weasel tried to stop me and Harry having a good time, but it was instead her not having a good time! Oh how the tables have turned.

Harry went to pick up the Map when he suddenly stopped laughing. He became pale and deathly still, his face losing all signs of happiness from before. I then followed his line of sight and saw him glaring at a label that was moving on the map… "Peter Pettigrew…"