A Different Story

Chapter 28

18th Of December, 1992

While searching for Justin so he can explain his actions at the previous night’s dueling club, Harry overhears a group of Hufflepuffs gossiping about him. He confronts them, but leaves abruptly in fury, causing him to blunder through the castle unfocused. Hurrying through a dark corridor, Harry trips over a petrified Justin and discovers the oddity of a petrified ghost. Before Harry can decide to run or raise the alarm, Peeves shouts the news, causing the corridors to fill with students and staff who see Harry standing at the scene of the crime, which creates a commotion.

The next few weeks went by very slowly for Harry. Everywhere he went, people gave him dirty looks. He did get a letter from Ignotus and Helena stating that they believed in him and that he shouldn't let others keep bringing him down, and that if he really wanted to, they could manage for him to come home until this all blows over. He, of course, said he wanted to stay, but he really appreciated their concern and their efforts.

Harry and his friends and cousins wanted to stay at Hogwarts this year for Christmas, so they could have the experience. The holidays were a quiet affair. They all received gifts, and they all spent the whole Christmas day in the courtyard of the castle.

Many expensive gifts later, the children were in the Great Hall, enjoying the feast Hogwarts had to offer. The weeks after Christmas were quite uneventful. It was not until a few days into the month of February that things changed a little bit for the children.

14th Of February, 1993

Harry hadn’t had much sleep because of a late-running Quidditch practice the night before, and he hurried down to the Great Hall, slightly late. He thought, for a moment, that he’d walked through the wrong doors. The walls were all covered with large, lurid pink flowers. Worse still, heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling. Harry went over to the Gryffindor table, where Arcturus was sitting looking sickened, and Hermione seemed to have been overcome with giggles. "What’s going on?" Harry asked them, sitting down and wiping confetti off his bacon.

Arcturus pointed to the teachers’ table, apparently too disgusted to speak. Lockhart, wearing lurid pink robes to match the decorations, was waving for silence. The teachers on either side of him were looking stony-faced. From where he sat, Harry could see a muscle going in Professor McGonagall’s cheek. Snape looked as though someone had just fed him a large beaker of Skele-Gro.

"Happy Valentine’s Day!" Lockhart shouted. "And may I thank the forty-six people who have so far sent me cards! Yes, I have taken the liberty of arranging this little surprise for you all and it doesn’t end here!" Lockhart clapped his hands and through the doors to the entrance hall marched a dozen surly-looking dwarfs. Not just any dwarfs, however. Lockhart had them all wearing golden wings and carrying harps.

"My friendly, card-carrying cupids!" beamed Lockhart. "They will be roving around the school today delivering your valentines! And the fun doesn’t stop here! I’m sure my colleagues will want to enter into the spirit of the occasion! Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you’re at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I’ve ever met, the sly old dog!" Professor Flitwick buried his face in his hands. Snape was looking as though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force-fed poison

"Please, Hermione, tell me you weren’t one of the forty-six," said Harry as they left the Great Hall for their first lesson. Hermione suddenly became very interested in searching her bag for her schedule and didn’t answer. All day long, the dwarfs kept barging into their classes to deliver valentines, to the annoyance of the teachers, and late that afternoon as the Gryffindors were walking upstairs for Charms, one of the dwarfs caught up with Harry.

"Oi, you! Harry Potter!" shouted a particularly grim-looking dwarf, elbowing people out of the way to get to Harry. Hot all over at the thought of being given a valentine in front of a line of first years, which happened to include Ginny Weasley, Harry tried to escape. The dwarf, however, cut his way through the crowd by kicking people’s shins, and reached him before he’d gone two paces.

"I’ve got a musical message to deliver to Harry Potter in person," he said, twanging his harp in a threatening sort of way. "Not here," Harry hissed, trying to escape. "Stay still!" grunted the dwarf, grabbing hold of Harry’s bag and pulling him back. "Let me go!" Harry snarled, tugging.

With a loud ripping noise, his bag split in two. His books, wand, parchment, and quill spilled onto the floor and his ink bottle smashed over everything. Harry scrambled around, trying to pick it all up before the dwarf started singing, causing something of a holdup in the corridor.

"What’s going on here?" came the cold, drawling voice of Draco Malfoy. Harry started stuffing everything feverishly into his ripped bag, desperate to get away before Malfoy could hear his musical valentine. "What’s all this commotion?" said another familiar voice as Percy Weasley arrived.

Losing his head, Harry tried to make a run for it, but the dwarf seized him around the knees and brought him crashing to the floor. "Right," he said, sitting on Harry’s ankles. "Here is your singing valentine:

His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,
His hair is as dark as a blackboard.
I wish he was mine, he’s really divine,
The hero who conquered the Dark Lord.

Harry would have given all the gold in Gringotts to evaporate on the spot. Trying valiantly to laugh along with everyone else, he got up, his feet numb from the weight of the dwarf, as Percy Weasley did his best to disperse the crowd, some of whom were crying with mirth. "Off you go, off you go, the bell rang five minutes ago, off to class, now," he said, shooing some of the younger students away.