"For Miss Bellatrix Black, one rose from your dear brother!" the Slytherin prefect gave Bellatrix a rose that had a letter. The prefect held a pretty woven basket filled with roses; all notes attached to them.
Hermione leaned over from her potions assignment and read the note from Bellatrix's valentine gift. 'Hi! -Freddie' She was sure this wasn't the purpose of the flowers, but she laughed nonetheless.
"For Miss Hermione Malfoy, two roses! One from your brother as well as one from Mister Black." Hermione narrowed her eyes over at Fred, who sat at the other end of the room. He locked eyes with her and sent a highly exaggerated wink at her. "Mister Black, how many roses did you send out?" He shrugged and had to repress a laugh.
She took the two flowers and read the message, the first one from Fred. The second lay unread until later that day.
'Can I Slytherin your chambers later? [insert winky face]' She read, trying not to laugh.
"No Frederick, you may not." She called out and he faked a heart ache.
"I may not live to see the next day!" and he fell out of his chair. He pretended to die on the floor as other students snickered around him. He then pulled the Ravenclaw who was sitting beside him and told him: "Make sure my funeral looks nice." before falling back to the floor.
The prefect continued to hand out the roses to the students while Professor Slughorn had simply sat in his chair until his students stopped giggling and chatting with each other.
A small crack and a loud cough caught everyone's attention when a Ravenclaw, the one sitting beside Fred, had begun apologizing profusely.
"Mr. Black, you know the way to the Hospital wing?" Fred sat up and hacked his lungs while nodding. "Mr. Lestrange, do go with him."
"You okay Freddie?" Bellatrix badgered him for the hundredth time that afternoon. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes Bellatrix, I am fine." He responded for the hundredth time as well. He kept his eyes on her hands while he leant down to grab his spoon for his bowl of soup. After coming back from the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey had wrapped a bandage around the injury on his head from the broken phial.
Bellatrix had constantly been poking the bandage on his head, trying to see just how much it would hurt if something touched it, but Fred was getting tired of it.
"Does Madam Pomfrey know what fell on your head?" Hermione asked, "A phial did break on your head."
"I think she said it was powdered horn or something." Fred tried to recall. "No harm done anyway."
"How many roses did you send out exactly?" Hermione eyed Fred. "Bellatrix, andromeda and I all got some, and I remember seeing your name on quite a few of those."
Fred snickered in his seat instead of answering, pointing up to the open window to let the owls in. One large owl swooped in with quite a few of them and dropped them on the head table, right on Professor McGonagall's lap.
"Oh." Was all Hermione said as she watched the Gryffindor head open the letter and scan the Slytherin table before stopping on Fred.
"Mister Black, a flattering gift, but unnecessary," She said crisply, making most of the hall giggle.
"You wound me, Professor!" Fred repeated his act of falling off his seat as if he died, causing more laughter to erupt around the tables.
"I will, however, accept them. Thank you." She smiled and transfigured her cup into a vase, filling it with water and dropping the flowers into it.
"This is going to become the norm, isn't it?" Hermione sighed, already aware of the answer he would give.
"Oh definitely." He answered before sitting back up on his chair and finishing his meal.
Author's note
There will be a double update. I apologise, I didn't know how to continue this chapter, but it was a nice little break from everything else. The next chapter should be uploaded before the end of today so I hope you all enjoyed this shorter one.
**** comments encourage me to write, and I love to know what you all thought of the chapters up until now, whether it's your favourite part, a part you found funny or even a funny situation in which you are reading my story! ****