It was February 14: Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil's favorite holiday. They had something special planned to make this year's Valentine's Day exciting.

"Lavender," whispered Parvati, "do you have them?"

"Yes," answered Lavender. They both burst into a fit of shrill giggles, causing everyone in the Gryffindor common room to give them a funny look. They stopped laughing and decided to play a game of gobstones for the time being.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Ron and Harry were talking by the roaring fire, Hermione was (no surprises here) poring over a gigantic book the size of a reference dictionary, Colin Creevy and his brother Dennis were sneaking up behind the big armchair Harry was sitting in, hoping to take a surprise picture, and Dean and Seamus were playing a game of exploding snap in the corner. Neville, who had just spilled a whole bottle of ink on his potions essay, was frantically trying to clean off the stain, while Fred, George, and Lee were causing a big stink by hurling dungbombs at each other. Everyone else was either doing homework or chatting casually. After awhile, most of the people in the common room had gone to bed.

"Now's our chance," whispered Lavender, opening her bookbag. Lavender slowly pulled out a large plate of two dozen cookies wrapped in foil. She carefully unwrapped it, trying not to make too much noise. Then she set the plate on the table. She and Parvati exchanged a mischievous glance. They had secretly concocted a love potion, and Lavender had added it into cookie dough. Now all they had to do was trick the right people into coming over and eating the cookies.

"Remember, the potion makes you fall in love with the first person you set eyes on after you drink it. We'll have to make sure that they see us first!" reminded Parvati. Both she and Lavender knew that love potions were strictly outlawed at Hogwarts, and they had to be quiet about this whole thing. Parvati looked over at Dean and Seamus playing exploding snap. "Hey, Dean and Seamus, do you want to play gobstones against us?" shouted Parvati. Seamus and Dean winked at each other and called back, "Sure! Just one second."

At the same moment, Colin and Dennis Creevy had just been told off by Harry (who did not like his picture unwillingly taken). They were walking across the common room, looking discouraged, when they spotted Lavender's plate of scrumptious looking cookies. "Look, cookies!!!" exclaimed Dnnis, and he and Colin rushed over to the plate. "Ooooh, Lavender, can I have a cookie?" said Colin hungrily. "NO!!!" shouted Parvati and Lavender at once, but they were too late. Both Dennis and Colin had grabbed two big mouth-watering cookies and had thrust them into their mouths. They chewed happily for a couple seconds, looking at Lavender and Parvati's horrified faces. Suddenly, Dennis and Colin's eyes went out of focus, and they both looked like they had just come out of a coma. Colin spotted Parvati, and Dennis started staring at Lavender. Suddenly they both got dopey grins on their faces. Parvati had an appalled look on her face. Colin had just grabbed a daisy from a vase nearby and was offering it to her. "Lavender, I, uh, think it's time for us to go to bed," Parvati said as she grabbed Lavender's arm and started running. Colin shouted, "NO! Parvati, don't leave!" Colin and Dennis bolted after the two girls like lightening. Lavender and Parvati ran for her lives with the two brothers at their heels. Lavender screamed, "Oh, no, Parvati, what have we got ourselves into…!"