ambitious, cunning, adaptable | hp x dm

chapter twenty five: the king of serpents

Valentine's Day came in a flurry of charmed hearts with wings fluttering around the castle, little Cupid's following lovestruck older students around and delivering valentines and Lockhart in powder pink robes. Harry thought the whole school looked like it had a pink, red and white glittery bomb go off inside of it. Not to mention the kiss-o-grams, candy-grams, singing-grams and rose-grams were getting a little annoying. He had woken to find ten bouquets of chocolate roses by his bedside and it put his whole day in a very bitter mood. Especially since said gift was from a "secret admirer". Harry was willing to bet they were all from Pansy trying to pull his chain and half of it made him proud to call her his friend while the other half wanted to smother her with a pillow.

"Honestly," Blaise drawled as he opened another lace trimmed fuzzy pink heart card. "It's all kind of pathetic."

"Yeah, you look like you're miserable, Mate." Harry shot back, smirking.

"Happy, Happy Cupid's Day! You've got love, hooray! Be kind to a witch or she could be a -- snitch. Give her a kiss and you won't miss. She could be the one! And now this song is done!"

Harry groaned as he looked over at the Gryffindor table, where all the cheery singing was coming from. Fred and George had a stack over a foot tall for each of them and it seemed all of their cards were going to belt out off-key, haphazard love songs until the end of time. When another song burst out of a card, he was ready to stuff bread in his ears just to block out the sound. If this is what came from love, it could take a hike.

"Hullo, Harry."

Harry looked over at Millicent who looked just as embittered as him. "'Lo, Milli," he didn't want to brag, but he was the only person who got away with calling her that. "Got the Valentine's Day blues too?"

"I got a candy-gram from a Hufflepuff boy. The chocolates had nutted anyone with proper sense knows I'm allergic." She dropped down opposite him with a scowl on her face. "Besides, Valentine's Day is just an excuse for lovestruck, stupid people to spend inordinate amounts of money on things that don't even matter and never last." She stabbed her fork into a deviled egg and broke it in half before taking a bite.

"You're just angry the person you like didn't send you a Valentine!" Pansy sing-songed, snuggling up against Millicent before getting elbowed to the floor for her efforts. Pansy pulled herself back up into her spot and smoothed her hair down. "Well, fine then, be a grump."

"Happily." Millicent took a swallow of her water and set the goblet down. "I'd rather not have an idiot follow me around anyway. I have far too many important things to do."

Pansy frowned at Millicent before turning her attention to Harry. "What about you, did you get anything special?"

"You mean aside from the ten bunches of chocolate roses you sent me? Thankfully no."

"How did you-- I mean. Ten bunches of roses this is the first I've heard of such a thing!" Pansy took a bite of her macaroni salad to cover up her mistake. "Someone must have sent you a Valentine. Anyone?"

Harry shook his head. "I said no. And I'm glad."

Pansy huffed before reaching around a fourth-year girl and tapped Draco on the shoulder. He leaned back to look at her before straightening up and handing her a stack of various pastel shaded cards. Pansy squeaked happily and flicked through them. "Boring, boring, boring, boring, boring, boring, oooo -- Desmond Knox. He's that fourth year Ravenclaw, isn't he?"

Draco didn't give a verbal reply but nodded his head before swallowing whatever he had been eating. "He sent me one last year too. He doesn't seem to understand I'm not interested."