Hey there, I hope y'all are excited, because I am going to make you relive your memories of the 14 days of love. Don't be confused. I mean the Valentine's fortnight. If you don't know what it is, read on and plan for a grand one next year.

Although Valentine's Day is celebrated on February 14, the fortnight of love actually extends from February 7 to February 21. It commences with presenting a single red rose or several roses to your to-be or existing lover and ends with a day that you must avoid if you intend to keep your relationship intact. Don't miss "This Month's Valentine's Special Topic by Hiya" if you are a keeper who wants a long-term relationship and is aiming for a lasting bond. Conflict is inevitable, but it is how you handle your disagreements and contradictory beliefs that shows whether or not you love each other and if your connection is meant to last for the long haul.

The first seven days of Valentine's fortnight actually represent the period of courtship that a couple goes through prior to getting together. Usually, this week culminates with a date on Valentine's Day. Although this week is meant for those who are freshly dating, committed and married couples engage with equal gusto in these rituals to refresh their attraction and romance. These seven days are better known as Valentine's Week in the modern world. Little lovey-dovey gestures build up to the much-anticipated day of finally expressing one's true love—the much-awaited Valentine's Day.

The seven days in Valentine's Week, in order, are:

1. February 7: Rose Day: Gifting one or more roses to one's partner. The symbol of love for ages, the red rose, is the best romantic gift that nothing else can surpass in terms of imagery and beauty. Roses in myriad other colors are also widely available nowadays, and if you or your sweetheart are not particularly a fan of the red variety, there are so many others to choose from.


2. February 8: Propose Day: Proposing love to the partner. Of course, they need to know that you want them. How else do they know how you feel about them if you do not propose a relationship?


3. February 9: Chocolate Day: Ahh, the delicious scent. This is the day for gifting chocolates, of course. One decadent bite, and they are lost. Consumption of dark chocolate is also good for the health of a crucial organ in your circulatory system, obviously the heart.


4. February 10: Teddy Day: Who needs a little hug? Everyone does. But if you are not comfortable yet, just hand them a teddy bear—a cute stuffed toy that will remind them of you forever.


5. February 11: Promise Day: Promises of love are made. Of course, promising to be together forever is great, but what matters more is making heartfelt promises that are kept even in the face of obstacles that other aspects of life throw in the path of your romance. Thorns are present in every rose bush, but that doesn't mean you would want to altogether avoid the rose plant with its lovely and beautiful flowers.


6. February 12: Kiss Day: This one is self-explanatory. Remember Cho Chang kissing Harry Potter under the mistletoe? Or maybe Ron Weasley kissing Hermione Granger in the Room of Requirement? In any case, my favorite remains the first kiss between Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley, for it was the climax of a long, one-sided crush into a deep, mutually long-lasting bond.


7. February 13: Hug Day: Hugging your partner. Hugs provide warmth and show your love, affection, and care like no other gesture. Do it more often, and you will feel happier. Let me tell you why. Scientific studies suggest that holding hands and hugging release the love hormone oxytocin from the posterior pituitary of lovers, making them feel drawn to each other and helping establish an inseparable connection that transcends the boundaries of rational comprehension. These shifting levels of chemicals in the brain not only make you feel what we call "love", but also keep you feeling stress-free, lighter, and cheerier in general.

February 14: Valentine's Day: This one no longer needs an explanation if you have been thoroughly reading every line of this issue of our magazine until now.

Valentine's Week ends here. For those who made it to February 14, congratulations. However, for some, things go downhill after the popular mid-February date. I sincerely hope you were not one of them. Some legendary people have named this second half of the Valentine's fortnight the Anti-Valentine's Week, and it symbolizes the levels of love decreasing and the attraction spiraling downward. If you do not want the clutches of fate to spoil your relationship and would like to prevent four sneaky horse-riding enemies of proper communication from forcing you to partake in Anti-Valentine's Week, check out "This Month's Valentine's Special Topic by Hiya". Remember that improper communication, hurtful words, and disrespectful gestures are the ultimate destroyers of love.

The Anti-Valentine's Week goes as follows:

1. February 15: Slap Day: Ahh, this is the ultimate insult to avoid. This is more about a metaphorical slap than a physical one, for those who are wondering. It symbolizes the feeling of being slapped across your face when you realize all of a sudden that your lover is not as perfect as you thought they were.


2. February 16: Kick Day: Hmm, the day when you kick your lover out. Well, not literally; this represents the point in your relationship when one of you decides to call it quits because your dreams are shattered, the honeymoon period is over, and the veil of perfection has been lifted. Now you see your partner in all their raw reality, with all their flaws, and you forget to be on your best behavior as well.


3. February 17: Perfume Day: Do you smell that in the air? It has a fishy odor. Although some couples who are still very much in love on February 17 use this day to gift each other's favorite fragrance in a bottle of perfume to their significant other, this day symbolically means getting a whiff of your partner drifting. Suddenly, the pleasant smell of romance has faded into an odor that you cannot stand, and you can feel it in your gut that he/she is no longer yours.


4. February 18: Flirting Day: Your partner flirts with someone else. Of course, this can be a hard one to stomach. It may or may not have been you who caused the downfall of your relationship, so don't take it out on yourself. If it has come to this stage, move on. Maybe you were just not compatible with each other. Don't cling to something or someone that does not give you value and respect in your life, because you deserve the love that you give.


5. February 19: Confession Day: So, your partner confesses that they like someone else. You know. You were waiting for this because you knew already. Anyway, let them be and let them go. Remember that if they were yours, they would return on their own. Do not try to stop anyone by force. Whoever is meant for you will come right back to you at the right time and place.


6. February 20: Missing Day: Ahh, the day when you miss each other. This symbolizes the stage when you have successfully ended the relationship and perhaps even partially moved on but can't help but think about them once or twice in the day. It is unclear whether this day is celebrated to signify a possible reconciliation or to indicate that you need to move past the last ties that hold you back from leaving the relationship with your now-past lover.


7. February 21: Break-up Day: It ain't really hard to understand, unless you haven't moved on successfully. This day symbolizes the final breaking of the heart, when both of you realize that your relationship is as good as over, permanently, and learn to come to terms with and accept that new reality. This is certainly a stage to both be proud of if it was not the right love and be ashamed of if it was your fault for not communicating properly if you let the misunderstandings creep in and spell the doom of your romance.

Many couples successfully make it past Anti-Valentine's Week and stay as much in love as ever. You can be one of them, too. You just have to know how to actually remain in love forever, even after the involuntary stage of affection rushing through your brain and irresistible attraction coursing through your veins ceases to exist. Any relationship, beyond the stage of attraction and courtship, relies on commitment, mutual trust and respect, friendship, good communication, and voluntary effort towards sustaining the connection from both sides. Remember that true love that lasts a long time involves a significant amount of voluntarily staying in love, vowing to have each other's backs, and being willing to compromise and sacrifice for the sake of each other's comfort and happiness. While true love is rare and thus special, most of it comes from within you, because it is you and how you feel about it that determine your actions and how you contribute to the relationship, making up at least half of the dynamics between you and your partner, and that is a significant portion that can change the whole course of your love life. Radiate love from within yourself, and you will see the whole world changing in front of you, the walls crumbling down, castles building themselves up, and love, beauty, and romance creeping slowly but surely into your love life.

When it comes to love, it's all in your head, so think right, and you will find the right love.

Valentine's fortnight is a relatively new concept as compared to Valentine's Day and love. It is a set of new dates made up by modern youth with references to the different experiences that they go through during Valentine's month. So, how was your month of love? Irrespective of whether you are coupled or not, Valentine's fortnight can be an interesting period of time to treat yourself, if not a loved one. Reminisce about your shenanigans and have a great laugh.

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- Hiya Debnath, Journalist, Editor-in-Chief, Compiler, Publisher, Hogwarts Monthly Magazine.