Be My Valentine

By: La Femme Fatale

Disclaimer: I don't own Sirius Black, Severus Snape, or anyone else from the HP book series. Nor do I own Valentine's Day.

Warnings: Slash, SS/SB, language

Takes place during Harry's fifth year. Doesn't have much to do with "Up After Hours" and "Apology", only connections being Nocturne and the vampire thing. Their past isn't the same.

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Severus Snape strode towards his private quarters in a foul mood. The Valentine's Day had always been his least favourite celebration, and now that Dumbledore had announced that a Valentine's ball would be held that evening, he had all the more reason to be pissed off.

'I swear, if Plantagenet, that idiot for a woman, sends me any more Valentine's owls, I'm going to cast an Unforgivable on her, no matter what Dumbledore says', he thought bitterly to himself. Scheherazade Plantagenet was that year's DADA teacher, and a worse diva than Gilderoy Lockhart, and that was saying something. She had been systematically harassing Severus ever since she'd arrived. She thought of him as a lonely man who just needed love, and she was willing to give it to him. She was wrong. Severus wasn't in need of love, not from her, at least. What  annoyed Severus most was that he actually enjoyed music, especially Heavy Metal and Classical (despite the fact that he really didn't seem the type to most of other people), but he couldn't show up in the celebration, for She would not leave him alone if he did.

 Severus closed the door of his habitation. He sighed in frustration when he saw yet another owl sitting on his desk next to the open cage of his own owl, Nocturne, who was pitch-black, save for its face and beak, which were white. She was an old owl, but in a very good shape and Severus took good care of her. He was just about to shoo the other owl outside, when he realized this wasn't one of the owlery's owls, and he knew for a fact that the Plantagenet woman had a cat. Nevertheless, the letter tied to its talon was pink, but it didn't smell like perfume. God only knows how many air-freshener spells Severus had used every time he'd received a Valentine's owl from the DADA teacher. Amazed, yet hopeful, Severus took the piece of paper from the owl and unfolded it. His heart skipped a beat as he recognized the handwriting on the card. The only person on earth whose love he welcomed was Sirius Black, and the card was from him. It only said:

Be my Valentine Sirius

Severus stared at the card for a while, then he took an envelope out from the top drawer of his desk and gave it to the owl that had delivered the card.

"For Sirius", he near whispered, and the owl flew away.

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Sirius Black paced around his room nervously. He had sent the owl hours ago! Surely the journey wouldn't take that long, considering that Hogsmeade was less than four miles away. Finally, his own owl, the light brown Herald, returned, and surely enough, with a different mail to deliver than it left with. Sirius greeted his owl with joy and hastily opened the envelope it was carrying. There was a blank scarlet red piece of parchment inside it. To Sirius, the parchment alone told much, but when he took it in his hand, he felt warmth flow from it to his fingertips and a low, silky voice in his head said:

'I wish you were here, Sirius. I miss  you'

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Won't you review me out of pity if not for anything else? I've got a flu and I'm practically coughing my brain out, but my temperature isn't high enough to let me stay home, so instead I'm going to school. And yes, I know perfectly well it's another week till Valentine's day, but I'm planning another fic that should be ready by Valentine's Day, but it is not yet sure whether it'll make it to the net. After all, not half of my stories do.