Hermione's routine was thrown off in the middle of February, by something she had not expected to be a big deal: Valentine's Day.
Given it was a Muggle, originally Christian holiday, Hermione hadn't thought Hogwarts would pay the slightest bit of attention to it, but apparently, Valentine's Day was a big deal amongst her peers.
This irritated her.
Severely.
"It's not a Wizarding holiday!" she ranted in the common room, Blaise watching her with amusement. "It's Muggle. There is absolutely no reason for us to be celebrating this."
"But it's fun," Tracey objected. "When else would we get to send valentines to people?"
"Valentines are juvenile and trivial," Hermione said firmly. Tracey looked aghast.
"It's such fun, though," Tracey repeated. "It's nice to have Valentine's Day! It helps cheer everybody up after the dreariness of the winter."
"That's what Beltane is for," Hermione snapped, and she noticed Draco stick his head up, looking at her. A couple other of the Slytherins did too.
"Beltane isn't widely celebrated anymore," Blaise commented from her side, examining his nails. "Wizards say some of the traditional rituals are archaic and dark. More of them celebrate Easter, now."
"Another Muggle holiday?" Hermione couldn't believe it. "Yule and Christmas are so close in tradition that I can understand, and Samhain and Halloween are fairly close as well, but Easter? This is ridiculous."
"Aren't they your holidays, though, Hermione?" Pansy's simpering voice made Hermione twitch, even before she saw the pug-faced girl emerge from the crowd. "Didn't you grow up with them?"
Hermione gave her a dark look. "You'll notice I'm not the one celebrating them."
She gave a lingering look up and down Pansy, who was wearing a black sweater with pink hearts on it. Pansy flushed and glared at her.
"It's not like you'll get any valentines, anyway," she sniffed, stalking over to the other side of the common room.
Hermione ignored her and turned to Blaise.
"Am I really expected to participate in this farce?" she demanded. "What are the wizarding rules regarding a Muggle holiday?"
Blaise shrugged.
"It's my first time at Hogwarts, too," he reminded her. "How should I know?"
"People generally only send things to people they fancy."
Adrian Pucey emerged from seemingly nowhere, plopping down in a chair to Hermione's right. She stared at him, and he grinned.
"You were asking quite loudly," he said, and Hermione's face colored.
"So I don't have to get my friends anything?" she asked.
"You might send your closest friends something small, if they're of the opposite gender," Adrian clarified. "You wouldn't send Tracey something, for example, but you might send Blaise something."
Blaise shot her a grin, while Tracey nodded knowingly.
"That makes sense," she agreed. "To acknowledge the love of a friendship, but not push it to something more."
"You'd send something fancier, like chocolate or flowers, to a real valentine," Adrian told her. "You generally send chocolates to a boy. They don't care for flowers as much."
"Fair enough," Hermione sighed. "I can probably do that. It's on Saturday, right?"
"It's this Friday, Hermione!" Tracey's voice was almost shrill. "How can you forget that?!"
"Because it's dumb," Hermione said, rolling her eyes and getting to her feet. "I guess I'll go figure this nonsense out."
Blaise was snickering as she left the common room, but Hermione could feel Draco's eyes tracking her as she went back to her room.
Just what was his deal, she wondered. Did he take personal offense to her not liking Valentine's Day?
She snorted. It wasn't like he was about to send her a valentine, anyway.
She began rifling through her things, her remark about Beltane forgotten.