MY SECRET ADMIRER

Hermione twisted around in her seat, glaring at Harry and Ron, who had so recently been talking and sniggering quietly. She shushed them and turned back to Professor Binns. She tried to pay attention, she really did, but her thoughts were elsewhere.

A glazed look floated across her eyes as her thoughts floated up to her dormitory, to the perfect white rose sitting demurely upon her pillow beside a not a simple note. It was nothing fancy, just plain and unadorned emotion on paper.

Dear Hermione,

I love you. I don’t know how to say it any more plainly than that. This rose signifies you, eternal, pure and beautiful in every way. Remember that I love you, I always have and I always will, but I can never tell you.

I will always love you,

Your Secret Admirer

This simple note had plagued her mind from that night, one week ago, on, and she was still no closer to finding out who had sent the letter. Hermione had only told one person: Ginny. Harry and Ron may have been her best friends but she needed a girl’s help and opinion, and Ginny was always her closest girl-friend.

‘Are you absolutely sure it wasn’t Ron?’ Ginny asked carefully, running to catch up with Hermione on their break. The older girl sighed in exasperation.

‘Yes, Ginny, yes! For the thousandth time, I am absolutely sure it wasn’t Ron! The note said that they could never tell me they loved me and Ron can tell me any time he wants to. What would keep him from telling me?’ she asked, not really expecting for there to be an answer.

‘Rejection!’ Ginny said. ‘The very real prospect of ruining your friendship, however speculative it may already be.’ Hermione stared at her.

‘Ron thinks I would turn him down?’ she said in disbelief. ‘Why in the world would he think that? Just because I have a Secret Admirer doesn’t mean that my, uh, feelings for him have changed. …But I still don’t think it was Ron!’ she added, changing the subject back to something a little less awkward.

‘Why not?’

‘Because!’ Hermione blurted out frustrated. Ginny looked at her knowingly, and she hastened to think of a reason. ‘He just doesn’t speak like that. “Pure and beautiful in every way?” Since when have you heard Ron speak so poetically? He can hardly put a complete sentence together!’ she lashed out waspishly. She didn’t know why, but she was desperately against the idea of Ron being a romantic. It was just completely against all the facts she had compiled of him.

‘Oh, Hermione, let go of your preconceived notions of my brother! He’s a lot more romantic than you think,’ Ginny said with a knowing look. The older girl groaned and rolled her eyes.

‘Do you always have to do that?’ she whined.

‘Do what?’ Ginny asked innocently, knowing exactly what she had done.

‘Read my mind like that. It’s really annoying,’ Hermione pouted, folding her arms across her chest. Ginny smirked and hurried off to her next class.

Hermione continued to Transfiguration with her mind not in her body at all. She didn’t notice the last class streaming out of the room she was trying to enter. Well, at least not until she ran into someone, knocking them both to the ground.

‘Watch where you’re going,’ she heard a cold voice say. She looked at the person she had run into. It was Draco Malfoy. He evidently hadn’t noticed who he had hit yet. He was dusting himself off imperiously. As soon as he caught her eye, he froze. Then, without another word, he stalked off, leaving Hermione sitting confusedly on the ground.

‘Hermione?’ Harry asked, coming up behind her. She looked up, startled out of her wonderings. ‘What are you doing on the floor?’

‘Oh, uh, nothing,’ she lied, hastily picking herself up off the floor and dusting herself off. ‘I just, uh, tripped, is all.’ Ron gave her a skeptical look but let it go.

Hermione sprinted up to the dormitory, threw her bag in a corner, and sat on her bed, careful not to disturb the rose. She gazed at the note for along time, wondering who could have written it, who loved her enough to write her such a beautiful note, who wasn’t allowed to love her.

None of it made sense. It if was Ron as Ginny suspected, then he had a really lame excuse for not being allowed to say he loved her. And all the people who really weren’t allowed to love her seemed highly unlikely candidates. And she had no way of telling his identity from the note itself.

Hermione had tried every spell and jinx she knew when trying to get some sort of identity from the note. Handwriting analysis, fingerprint detection, everything! Nothing whatsoever had been left on the note to betray its creator.

Hermione began to search for more identity spells between classes, during breaks, even during lunch, anytime she could, and her friends were getting worried about her. She was forcing down a small lunch, top speed so she could get to the library, when Harry and Ron sat down across from her, looking serious.

She put down her fork and pushed her plate out of the way, alarmed at their demeanor. ‘What’s up?’

‘We’re concerned about this growing obsession of yours, Hermione,’ Harry said firmly. She snorted derisively and began to eat again, ignoring the matter that had told her of many times.

‘Hermione, we’re serious!’ Ron exclaimed. ‘You’re not eating much, you’re forgetting to do your homework, it’s just not normal! Not for you, at least.’

‘Ronald, why do you care that I’m trying to find my Secret Admirer?’ she asked peevishly. ‘It’s not like it’s you. It’s not you, is it?’ she added awkwardly. He blushed slightly but shook his head.

‘No, no, of course not,’ he said. Hermione nodded, dubious but sated.

‘Then why are you so worried?’

‘Because it’s not healthy!’ Harry said loudly. Hermione shushed him and glared at the pair of them.

‘I guarantee you that I am perfectly fine,’ she hissed. ‘And you two need to remember that I’m not your little sister, and you don’t need to protect me. For God’s sake, Harry, I’m older than you! You can’t act so condescending and protective. Get it through your thick skulls that I just might be better at protecting myself then you are,’ she said, her voice getting steadily louder.

‘Just let me be!’ Hermione said heatedly. A few of the other Gryffindors were staring awkwardly at them, wondering what could ever happen to break up the Golden Trio. She stood and stormed out of the Hall, leaving Harry and Ron gaping after her.

The moment she got out of the door, a proud eagle owl swooped down and dropped something at her feet. Her heart leapt. It was another perfect white rose and another small note.

Dear Hermione,

I have seen your curiosity, your need. I have decided the time has come for us to meet. Please come alone to the Room of Requirement at 9:00 tonight.

I will always love you,

Your Secret Admirer

Hermione’s heart beat loudly with excitement. Finally she was going to meet this wonderful romantic man that loved her so dearly. Her thoughts wandered and she looked over a previous mental list of possible candidates.

‘No, it doesn’t seem like any of the Gryffindors. They’re all too…friendly. I know them too well. I would have recognized this kind of thing if I had been in classes with them for six years,’ she thought to herself. She checked the time. 7:58. She had another hour before she had to go to the Room of Requirement.

Hermione hurried up to her dormitory, showered and changed into something nice, put on makeup, did her hair, and everything else it takes to get ready for a date. By the time she was done it was 8:50. She grinned nervously and made her way down to the Room and Requirement.

The door was waiting for her. Hermione opened it carefully and, having expected something more angelic and romantic, felt a little let down. It was a warm, dimly lit room full of comfortable furniture and a table set for two. But she couldn’t see anyone else. They had to be there somewhere, they had to have made the door.

Hermione stepped inside and shut the door behind her. She took a few steps toward the middle of the room and felt herself spun around. Before she could so much as look at the man, he had captured her lips in a tender kiss.

It was perfect, the best kiss she had ever had. And she didn’t even know who it was with. She found she didn’t care. He loved her, she could tell by his kiss. He pulled back and Hermione opened her eyes slowly. Her breath caught in her throat, but she didn’t pull away.

‘Draco Malfoy?!’