Friendly Competition

[18] A Damning Rose Petal

Over the next few weeks, Draco thought he and Harry did a rather good job of keeping themselves professional in front of the students. Surely, with no further incidents since That Night, they would let it go.

Unfortunately, with Valentine's Day coming up, he was afraid they might be paying closer attention.

Still, when the fourteenth of February arrived, he left a vase of flowers on Harry's desk for him to find later. He bit his lip. It would be fine. He had been meticulous — no roses, nothing 'love colours', and nobody else was even likely to see it.

He stuck a small card to the vase with a light sticking charm, and hurried out of Harry's office. It wouldn't do to be seen anywhere other than the dungeons, as he'd slipped away from breakfast early with the excuse that he'd needed to prepare for class.

"Good morning, Professor Malfoy!"

"Good morning, Sir Nicholas." Draco rolled his eyes where he trusted the ghost couldn't see, and kept walking. He dearly hoped the ghost wouldn't follow after him, as they were often wont to do.

As a student, he'd hardly run into any of the ghosts, but, whilst they'd left him alone for the beginning of his first year of teaching, that had quickly come to an end.

Nearly-Headless Nick in particular had always seemed to be lingering around in the corridors whenever Harry and Draco were having a conversation during the winter holidays last year, and he'd scarcely let up since. Much to Draco's chagrin, the Fat Friar had seemed to join in more often than not this year — although Harry insisted there was nothing strange at all about it.

Draco held that there was no way it wasn't intentional, and he let out a sigh of relief when Nick drifted off down another corridor, leaving him to continue on to the Potions classroom in peace. It seemed there wasn't a whit of privacy in this castle sometimes.

~*~

Not willing to tempt his students into derailing classes with more talk of his personal life, Harry decided to forgo any festive lesson plans for Valentine's this year.

His fourth years were doing admirably with their shield charms, so he decided to let them off early after he handed back their essays. However, when he opened the door to his office, he stopped in surprise.

A vibrant bouquet of yellow and orange flowers sat in a vase on his desk. He carefully moved them over so he could grab the stack of essays, and a small card fell off of the vase.

I already feel like saying forever. Happy tackiest holiday, love.

P.S. I know you don't know what they mean, so ask Neville.

"What does it say?"

Harry turned to see the class watching him through the doorway, and stuffed the note in his pocket. "Nothing."

He grabbed the essays and shut the door tightly.

~*~

Needless to say, many of the students had been intrigued by the flowers in Professor Potter's office, and they were delighted when Professor Longbottom announced that, in the spirit of the holiday, they would be studying what certain plants symbolised.

They thought the flowers had to be from Professor Malfoy, and the idea that there might be some extra, secret message hidden in them spurred the students onward enthusiastically.

Neville was shocked by how studiously the class took notes that day.

The fourth year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs in both Professor Potter and Professor Longbottom's class filled in their friends who hadn't taken Herbology during lunch.