A/N: I wrote this for the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday but it was taken off because I had a song in it. BUt I'm reposting it because I really like it. It's short but sweet. Hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: Do I look like famous? Do I look like I have just written five incredible prize-winning stories and am finishing up on the sixth? Do I look like I have three children? Do I look richer than the Queen? If you're pathetically inclined to know the answer, the answer is NO to all of them. Because I am not J.K. Rowling and therefore own absolutely nothing in this story….cept the plot of course.
My Valentine
By ByeByeBirdie
Valentine's Day is a waste of a day. I hate the holiday, if you can even call it that. It's an absolutely pointless day throughout the 365 day-cycle that should not be celebrated in any country for any reason.
It is simply a holiday for the card companies. Sure, the Hallmark business can't wait for Valentine's Day, along with Godiva chocolate and you can't forget the flower companies. But there is absolutely no retold story behind it, like Christmas or Easter. You don't go to church on the day, you don't get a year older, and the first person who retells the story of St. Valentine to me will certainly be a hero in my book.
The worst part is that obviously I can't share my thoughts with anyone because I'm boyfriend-less and anyone else will just think I am jealous. Which I'm not.
No seriously I'm not. I just think it's a waste of a time to share your love on the same day that millions of other people are sharing their love. If you love someone, they should know it; you shouldn't have to force candy and jewelry upon them just to show them.
Okay, maybe I am a little jealous.
I'm Lily Evans, I'm seventeen, and I'm anti-Valentine's Day if you couldn't already tell. I don't have a lot of friends and I certainly don't have a boyfriend but I get by. I don't hate my life—I never have—and I don't find myself feeling so alone all the time like some of the other girls I know. Basically, I find myself pretty successfully stable and heading towards a bright future. I know, sounds positively boring, but I'm thinking that I can deal without a boyfriend in the future. However, being jobless isn't in my life plan.
But then why is it that every time this stupid holiday comes around, I lock myself in my room, bury myself under mountains of work, and try not to let the tears slip down my face?
If you couldn't tell, today is Valentine's Day. But that's not the worst part. It is also Friday, meaning I had to sit through not only four boring lecture classes with people making lovey-dovey eyes with each other and blowing kisses across the room, but I also get the pleasure of sitting in my room on the infamous Hogwarts date night without a, that's right you guessed it, date.
It's not that I couldn't have gotten a date if I wanted. I didn't want to. Well, okay, maybe I did want to have a date but I didn't want to ask anyone. I wanted to be asked. I wanted it to be special but apparently, God forgot about me this Valentine's Day and that is why I am stuck in my room being pitifully mocked by everyone else, mainly anyone who's watching over me including God. I swear I will get God back one day.
The twentieth time I glanced at my clock that night, it read nine-thirty and I was curious as to what my best friend Alice and her boyfriend Frank of two years were doing at that point. If I knew Frank, and I did, they were probably on the grounds near the lake on some romantic late-night picnic with champagne and strawberries just kissing each other romantically and staring up at the stars, both thinking how perfect the night truly was. Unlike me, Alice absolutely adored Valentine's Day. She thought that having a holiday to honestly and accurately prove your love for someone was absolutely brilliant.
I think she's gone permanently insane.
And along with that comment, I couldn't help but point out to her earlier this week that the only reason she enjoyed the holiday was because she had a boyfriend.
She gave me a look, told me I was being pathetically critical, and stomped off not speaking to me for a few hours until she realized that without me she really didn't have anyone to talk to.
I glanced at the clock again and groaned. Only two minutes had passed by and I was positively bored out of my mind. I had already finished all of the work I needed to and started on some extra-credit work. I knew I could have grabbed my Charms book and read the following chapter for the next class until I fell asleep, but for some odd reason I wasn't in the mood. I was rather enjoying sulking and criticizing the holiday and I wasn't about to interrupt that with a textbook.
I sighed and quickly tore off my school robes and got changed into a comfortable pair of dark flannel pants and a black tank top, trying to tell myself that I wasn't wearing black as a statement but just because it was one of my favorite shirts.
Of course, every other night I went to bed in a red tank top so really that logic didn't make any sense whatsoever, but no one had to know that.
I grabbed my wool blanket off the end of my bed, searched my bookcase for a classic, removed one of my favorites Little Women, and decided to sit by the commons room fire and read until Alice came back and raved about her date where I enviously would swoon and tell myself inside I wasn't jealous while repeating over and over again to her how lucky she was.
I sauntered down to the commons room and was extremely grateful when I saw that it was completely empty. I did have to admit that the holiday certainly did have some perks. I settled into my favorite couch by the fire, propping my head up with a pillow and getting cozy and comfortable, muttering a spell to put a warm fire in the fireplace and grabbing the book off the table that I had just previously place it on. But before I opened my book and began to read, a sudden desire to be out on a date came rushing over me out of nowhere.
I stared deeply into the fire, tears residing like little pools in the bottom of my eyelids and wondered what was so wrong with me that I couldn't get one measly date for one stupid holiday.
It was then that for the first time in a long time, I felt lonely. And not the kind of lonely that could be quickly replaced by Alice returning. No, it was the kind of lonely where for the first time in my life, I wish I had someone to share it all with. I wanted someone that I could trust. That I could tell anything to and he would actually talk back to me and truly listen. I've never had that with a peron of the opposite sex and I was beginning to think I never would.
I tried not to think about it, but after reading the first chapter of Little Women and realizing that I could not tell you what had happened, it was obvious that falling in love was the only thing on my mind.
I never thought that love was necessary. I always thought that if it was meant to happen it eventually would. But as the minutes ticked by and the younger students dragged themselves into the commons room with very lovesick looks on their faces, I knew that I wanted to be lovesick for someone also. I hated being alone. I hated being lonely. I hated always being the third wheel when it came to Alice and Frank. And I hated knowing that this was all making me absolutely crazy.
I hate Valentine's Day. It brings out the worst in people.
It brings out the worst in me.
Did I mention that I hate Valentine's Day?
I snapped my head up when I heard soft footsteps on the stairs of the boys' dormitory coming down to the commons room.
I groaned. I wanted to just be alone. Please, please, please let them leave…
But what I was greeted with turned out to be more of a surprise than I ever could have imagined.
"Potter?" I muttered out loud, louder than I had expected, staring at him with an odd look. And for some reason I just couldn't tear my eyes away.
James Potter was a mystery to me. He was insanely popular with a bit of a big head, would rather be hanging out with friends than doing work, always playing pranks on people around the school and acting as if he were five years-old; however, there were times where I thought I saw another side of him. There were times where he actually seemed…nice and perhaps not so arrogant. As if he could be a mature seventeen year-old that he tried not letting other people know.
James slowly walked over to me, after quickly skimming the room and seeing that no one was around, and stood over me. "Uh…mind if I join you?"
I wanted to mind. I thought I wanted to be just by myself with my anti-Valentine's Day thoughts. But as I opened my mouth to say no, the words "Yeah, sure," came out of my mouth instead.
He took a seat on the other side of the couch, smiling at me in a reserved way, a way that usually wasn't the usual Potter tactics. And I couldn't help but wonder if he was up to something.
"So…what are you doing here at ten o'clock on Valentine's Day? Shouldn't you have some hot date?" I asked, putting down my book and trying to figure out why one of the most eligible bachelors at Hogwarts wasn't out sneaking into Hogsmeade or something crazy like that.
James looked at me, one of those silent looks that sent chills down my spine, and opened and closed his mouth a few times before finally admitting, "The girl I wanted to go with never would have said yes."
I was surprised by this. First of all, it almost seemed impossible that someone would have said no to him; he was indeed one of the most gorgeous, most popular guys in the school and I wasn't afraid to admit it. And even so, I still didn't understand why he didn't ask out some other girl. Anybody would have gone on a date with him on Valentine's Day. But I didn't say any of that; I didn't want to act rude or inconsiderate. "You didn't even ask her?"
James shook his head slowly. "No…I figured I'd save myself the embarrassment," he explained, staring intently and apparently nervous at his hands.
I smiled at how positively cute he looked when he was embarrassed, trying to get the image of Potter cute out of my mind. But I couldn't help and think that James Potter wasn't so bad. I never really got along with him, but he did have a good side and I just wish that he could show that more to other people and not just to me.
After a long, and rather surprising comfortable silence, I said, "I still think you should have asked her. You never know what could have happened and instead of being here stuck with me, you could be out with her right now having an awesome Valentine's Day."
James looked up, staring into my eyes with a look that I had never noticed before; an urge of deep longing or something crazy like that. "You think so?"
Staring into his eyes sincerely, I slowly nodded. "Yeah."
James hesitated, staring at me with the same look but stronger and took a deep breath. "Okay…" he said clearly but with definite uncertainty. I was about to ask him what he meant by that when he opened his mouth and quickly continued, "Lily Evans, will you be my Valentine?"
I sat there frozen, my book slipping out of my hands and crashing to the floor. James Potter wanted me to be his Valentine? He…he wanted to ask me? I was absolutely floored by the idea and it certainly didn't make much sense to me. I thought we had some sort of written agreement that we didn't particularly like each other. Apparently I was wrong.
"You…you wanted to ask me?" I stuttered, staring at him in absolute shock. If I hadn't had pinched my arm and noticed the pain of it, I certainly would have believed this all to be a dream.
James looked deep into my eyes, hardly blinking, and smiled slowly. "Yeah."
I still didn't believe it. I was so certain that I was dreaming. That, or James had gone completely insane.
And he was right. If he had asked me a few days earlier, I would have laughed, wondered who dared him to ask me, and stomped off angrily. But looking into such longing eyes, I knew he was being sincere. I knew he truly wanted me to be his Valentine.
And so I did something I never thought I would have done in a million years. I said yes.
"I would love to be your Valentine, James Potter," I responded clearly, tucking a few strands of hair that had fallen into my face behind my ear.
Turns out that Valentine's Day isn't so terrible.
A/N: I'm in the middle of writing another Hogwarts LJ story and am hoping to start posting within the next month. Review to this and maybe I'll think about posting it sooner….I know it's blackmail, but I'm good at being evil.