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.

The only problem now was that somebody had to go in and identify what the flowers were. There had definitely been sunflowers, but there had also been others.

Eventually, a Gryffindor volunteered.

After his final lesson, the brave Gryffindor headed up to the Defence classroom and knocked on the teacher's office door.

"Har⁠— Er, Mister Ellington? Can I help you?"

One of the weirdest things for Harry to get used to while teaching was the always steadily increasing ⁠— according to Neville's reports ⁠— number of students named after him. It never got less odd to think about, so he tried not to; to just treat it like when he'd happened to have another Harry in his class in primary school. Not such a big deal. Just a common name.

"Erm, yes, I had some questions about my essay," Harold said.

"Right. Come in, then." Professor Potter sat back down at his desk.

Luckily for Harold, the flowers were still there, although they had been moved off to the side.

Perfect.

After asking a few simple questions about what he could improve, he left. He needed to get to the library and talk with the others.

~*~

The students crowded around a table in the back of the library.

"Okay, so there were sunflowers and yellow honeysuckle," Harold told the crowd in a low voice, trying not to earn Madam Pince's ire by making too big a ruckus in the library with so many of them, "but I don't know what the other type was. They were orange and yellow, and each had a big load of petals in the middle."

A Hufflepuff held up a book and slid it over to Harold.

"A flower identification guide. I thought we might need it," she said proudly.

Harold flipped through the illustrations for a while. "I'm not sure if it's even in here... Wait— It looks pretty similar to this one. Maybe from a different angle? And the colours are different."

"A dahlia flower," someone said. "That definitely could have been it, and they come in loads of different colours."

"Right, so we just need to find all of them in our notes now, then," another person said.

"I already looked up the sunflower!" a Hufflepuff boy said excitedly, and then quickly dropped his voice lower. "I meant, we already knew that one, so I looked, but Professor Longbottom just said 'loyalty', so I decided to check a few more books while we waited to see, and I found this." He pushed the book to the middle of the table so everyone could see, and pointed at the passage about sunflowers.

"Sunflower — tends to symbolise loyalty, adoration, and longevity," a Gryffindor girl read aloud. "Ooh, that's good. Has anyone got honeysuckle yet?"

"Yes!" Someone else leaned forward and put their hand out for attention. "My notes said it could mean upcoming nuptials, and this book says 'Honeysuckle shows love, tenderness, and the giver's unending affection. It can also symbolise a happy life or upcoming nuptials'."

"Well that's interesting⁠—"

"Romantic!"

"I wanna know what the card said so bad."

"Wow, who knew a Slytherin could be such a charmer."

Some of the students gave smothered giggles at that, still trying not to be busted for being too rowdy.

"Okay, what does the dahlia mean, then?" someone tried to redirect back to the mission at hand.

There was a scramble for notes and books, and pages started being flipped frantically.

"It's not in our Herbology notes at all!"

"Wait⁠—" someone else cut in. "I found something! Oh, this is good."

"What?" several people asked at once.

"It says 'Dahlia — generally sends a message meaning 'forever thine', and signifies an eternal bond'."

"Wow. I wonder if they're getting married?"

"Nah," one of the Gryffindors dismissed. "If they can't even tell us they're together, then there's no way they're already getting married."

"Alright. Well let's keep an eye out during dinner to see if anything else interesting happens," one of the girls decided.

There were general noises of agreement, and the group finally started to disperse.

~*~

Mercifully, the day passed quickly and free of gossip from the students.

Draco wiped his quill and set it down, gathering the marked assignments into a neat pile. Sure, Valentine's Day was a silly holiday, and ultimately meaningless, but all the same he was rather glad he'd finished his work for the day before dinner.

He walked to the Great Hall in good spirits, and started to take his seat next to Harry, when he felt something falling on him. He looked up to see a small shower of rose petals coming down gracefully.

"Hmm, must be a leak in the ceiling," Harry said wryly.

Draco laughed, "You're a fool."

And it was true, this was way too conspicuous. But...it was also quite cute in Draco's opinion. He looked down at the petals and raised his eyebrows, blushing slightly. "Red and salmon? I should have known that would be the extent of your knowledge."

Harry shrugged, unbothered. "I do what I can."

Draco couldn't help the smile that crept onto his face, and he placed his hand on Harry's knee under the table. Harry's hand joined his and intertwined their fingers.

"Thank you for the flowers," Harry said.

"Of course. You asked Neville about them?"

"Yes. I very much agree with the sentiment." Harry squeezed his hand, and Draco looked down at his plate to hide his widening smile.

"I've finished with all my work for the night. Have you got much?"

"Nope. I'm done as well. Proper motivation works wonders."

Draco rolled his eyes, and continued eating his shepherd's pie, wishing that the meal would just be over with already.

Once pudding finally began to appear, Draco decided it had been quite long enough. He held up the salmon rose petal he'd been toying with, and raised an eyebrow. "Do we really need pudding?"

"I think I'll be fine for one night."

"Good. I'll leave first. Follow me in five."

Harry smiled. "Because we definitely can't have anyone knowing the obvious."

"Obviously," Draco said primly, "it's none of their business."

"Okay," Harry laughed. "Leave now so I can escape too."

~*~

Two sixth year Gryffindors excitedly took notice as Draco strode out of the Great Hall.

Philip grabbed his friend Sophie's arm and perked his head up. "Look!" he hissed. "Potter is totally going to leave after him ⁠— c'mon, let's go get Ambrose."

"You don't think we'll look suspicious?" she hissed right back.

"Just say we're going to the library if anyone asks. It'll be fine!"

"Ugh. Alright."

The two got up and went over to the Ravenclaw table as casually as they could manage.

"Huh?" Ambrose turned, pastry in hand, as Sophie tapped him on the shoulder. "Oh. What are you two doing over here?"

"Malfoy left early," Philip said, with a significant look.

"Aaand... now Potter is leaving after him," Sophie added.

Ambrose gave a put-upon sigh. "And you want me to go spy with you?"

The Gryffindors smiled at him.

"Can't I at least finish pud?"

Sophie rolled her eyes. "He's disappearing! You can always get more from the kitchens later ⁠— you remember where that Hufflepuff showed us, right?"

Ambrose gave another very put-upon sigh, and got to his feet, grabbing another pastry to take with him. "Fine. I'll come spy with you."

They both grinned at him.

Professor Potter had a fair lead on them by the time they reached the main staircase, but they were able to keep an intermittent eye on him as they climbed.

Eventually, when they had finally nearly caught up, however, he didn't reappear when they peeked up over the bannisters.

"I think he got off on the sixth floor," Philip said. "C'mon."

They all started running, Ambrose bringing up the rear and still licking the sugar from his fingers.

They reached the sixth floor and stopped, panting.

"Which way?" Sophie asked.

Ambrose held his wand in his palm. "Point me," he said, and it shakily spun a few times, before weakly pointing right. He shrugged. "Better than nothing."

The other two smiled at him ecstatically.

"This is exactly why we bring you!" Sophie hissed to him as they crept down the corridor to the right. "Now, I think Tanitha said that the entrance to his room was a pillar?"

"Should've asked more specifically," Philip grumbled.

"Yeah, well you're saying that a little late—" Sophie was interrupted by a loud thump from the wall. More specifically, the pillar in the wall they were passing by.

"That'll be it, I think," Ambrose said wryly.

Philip fished around in his pockets, eventually pulling out two extendable ears. "Well, only one way to see for sure. Not sure how well they'll work though. I don't see any cracks around the pillar."

He held one out for Ambrose, and shared the other with Sophie, and they each placed their ends against the bottom of the pillar.

"All I can make out is some mumbling," Philip said. "Damn."

"Me too— Shite! It's Mrs Norris," Sophie whisper-screamed.

The other two turned to look where Sophie was pointing down the corridor.

"Filch won't be far behind, we can't look suspicious," she said, hurriedly snatching up both extendible ears and hiding them away in her hijab.

"To the library," Philip said. "We forgot something in Gryffindor tower if he asks!"

They all sprinted for the stairs.

In record time, the three of them were collapsing into chairs in the back of the library.

"Well, that was all for nothing," Philip groaned.

"Well we know they were probably both in there. Unless Potter was talking to himself," Sophie tried to bring up the mood.

"Would've rather stayed for pudding," Ambrose sulked.

"Quit whingeing, at least you got more than us. Here's your extendables," Sophie held them out to Philip.

"Thanks. The library's oddly busy."

They watched as twenty or so students crowded around a large table near theirs.

"They're surely not all studying together?" Ambrose asked.

"Oh there's no way. I'd bet ten Galleons it's about the Professors," Philip responded.

The other two nodded, and the three drifted closer to the group to try to pick up what they were saying.

~*~

The Gryffindor and Hufflepuff fourth years convened again in the library after dinner.

"I couldn't see hardly anything," a Gryffindor complained in a hushed voice.

"Yeah, the Hufflepuffs are almost right in front of them, so what happened?" another Gryffindor asked. "I saw confetti or something when Professor Malfoy sat down, and then they left early. Well, they left separately, but it was soon enough, I'm sure they just thought they were being sneaky."

Several students gave smothered laughs, and a Hufflepuff boy began explaining.

"Not confetti, it was rose petals. I'm not too sure what the different colours mean, but I know there was red, and that's just love, innit?"

"And, er, I'm pretty sure they were holding hands," someone offered quietly, and the fourth years looked up to see a group of three sixth years had gravitated closer to the table. The hijabi girl raised her hand to offer a small wave with a smile, and continued. "Potter was only using his left hand, so they must have been holding hands under the table or something."

"Or something," a seventh year Gryffindor butted in, peeking over her shoulder with a smirk. "Ah I should've known the younger years would be all gossipping about Potter and Malfoy too."

"Nance," a younger Gryffindor said, flushing. "It was a private conversation."

"Lilibeth," she sing-songed right back, before lowering her voice again. "It didn't seem very private to me. You don't want to share your intel with your big sister? I bet I have more I can tell all of you if you tell me first."

Beth rolled her eyes at her sister's slight ribbing. "Fine, fine, whatever. There were flowers in Potter's office this morning that we were looking up the meaning of before dinner."

Nancy's eyes gleamed. "Ooh, and what were they?"

Beth looked to the others for help, and someone else held up a scrap of parchment.

"Sunflowers," they read off, "which mean loyalty, admiration, and longevity. Yellow honeysuckle, which means love, tenderness, unending affection, and can symbolise happy life or upcoming nuptials. Yellow and orange dahlia flowers, which mean 'forever thine' and signify an eternal bond." They looked up. "That was all, we're pretty sure."

"Oh, but there was a note!" someone added in an excited whisper.

"We didn't manage to see what it said, though," someone else said glumly.

"Interesting." Nancy looked speculative. "Not quite as interesting as what happened at dinner, though." She grinned. "It's funny how they think they're being all inconspicuous."

"What did you see?" Philip asked. "I mean, besides what we've already been over?"

Nancy's grin turned wolfish. "The rose petals were red and salmon."

"Okay, and that means...?"

"How could you tell salmon? You sure they weren't just pink or peach or something?"

"Ah," Nancy said, clearly enjoying this. "Yeah, I wouldn't have ever known for sure except for what Malfoy did."

"What?" several people asked at once, leaning closer.

Nancy finally decided to stop dragging it out. "He picked up one of those petals and raised his eyebrow at Potter right before they both left. Do you know what salmon means?"

"Just spit it out already, Nance," Beth said, echoing the rest of the spectators' frustration.

"Desire."

There was silence for a few moments.

And then, all at once, a flurry of whispers.

"Oh. Oh."

"Wait, does that mean what I—"

"You don't really think they're..."

"I wouldn't doubt it!" Nancy said, with slightly malicious glee. "It's Valentine's Day ⁠— celebrate the love!"

"Merlin, I don't want to think about my teachers like that," someone complained.

"Nooo, how are we meant to look them in the eye knowing all that?!"

Nancy ignored the whingeing and sighed wistfully. "Ah, I still wish I knew what the card said, though. Did you ask? How did he act?"

"Yeah," Beth said, aimlessly scuffing her shoe against the floor and trying not to think too hard about the new revelation. "He was all super secretive about it."

Her older sister laughed. "I bet it was something dirty. Malfoy does seem like he could be a bit of a freak, if you know what I mean."

"Urgh!" Beth shoved her sister's shoulder. "Would you stop with that! In flowers? Really?"

Nancy just shrugged. "You never know."

"...Could we please stop talking about our teachers'...extracurricular lives? I'm starting to regret being nosey," one of the Hufflepuffs complained, looking a bit queasy.

Nancy waved her hand. "Fine, but I can't believe you lot really didn't know. It's not a surprise for the rest of us ⁠— only finally being confirmed." She paused and began to giggle again. "Or did you really think Malfoy had an unfortunate run-in with a badger a few months ago?"

"Oh."

"Huh. Now that you mention it..."

"Nooo, not again."