On the eve of the Valentine's Dance, all of Watford's students were brought in to the ballroom for the party of the year. Columns of pink balloons towered over the students. the walls were covered in pink and red hearts with little sweetheart notes, "I love you, -Dominique" "You'll always be my sweetheart, -Nick" "Never let me go, -Simon." On the banquet table, were candies and cakes and a big bowl of punch, in which Dev, Niall, and Niall's brother, Corey, were inconspicuously pouring into as many tiny tequila bottles as they could without their dates noticing.

Everyone was full of laughter and love for people they were there with. Simon and Baz entered together, hand-in-hand and immediately, Simon rushed over to the dance floor, dragging Baz with him. Together they danced slow dances, fast dances, and all the in-between dances until Simon finally pulled them both out of the mess of people and brought them to the table Penelope and Micah had reserved.

"Are you okay, Baz?" Baz slouched deep into his chair. "Yeah, I need a minute-"

"I'll go get us some punch." said Simon, and he trailed off to the banquet table without even saying goodbye. When he got to the table, Agatha was there eating candies and laughing at something a girl in the upperclass was saying. She spotted Simon, and ended the conversation without hesitation. She marched over to Simon as he hunched over the bowl, pouring a glass of punch and glaring into the red sea of lemons and cherries. "Simon!' She said. "Simon, can I talk to you about something?" Simon gave a weak smile, and held his tongue, a question was not going to set him back anything. Nothing at all. Baz would be his very soon and a question was not a lot of time. "Sure Agatha."

"What's in this punch?" She asked. Simon frowned. "Can we talk in private?" he said.

Now she was frowning. She took him by the wrist and pried the cup from his hand, dumping the contents back in the bowl. "We do need to talk, but on my terms." She dragged him from the room, steaming. She couldn't believe what had gotten into Simon. Even worse, he had dragged Micah into it too!

She was dancing with her date, Phoebe, when she saw Micah pour a whole liter bottle filled with a weird dark purple drink into the bowl. At first, she shrugged it off and kept dancing. Yet, something didn't feel right. After Simon shifted into the sweet little psycho that he was now, carving "Simon loves Baz, Baz loves Simon," into any surface he could find, it seemed entirely possible that any one of her friends could quickly descend into madness in an instant like he did. So she went to Micah. "Hey Micah,"

"Hey Agatha! How's your night been."

"Pretty Good! How about you, aren't you glad to see Penny again?" He had a dead look in his eyes that she didn't like. "She's okay I guess." Agatha paused after that, but decided that it was more important to ask about the drink first. Whatever it was, if he had dranken some of it, he seemed completely out of it. "Hey, what did you pour into the punch bowl?" she said. Micah looked fear-striken. "Please don't tell him you saw, no one was supposed to know, he told me not to tell anyone."

"Micah…" She realized she was dealing with Micah at a very weird state. He didn't understand much about the situation, or what was going on. "Micah, he didn't say you coldn't tell me who gave you the bottle right?" It was a bit of a stretch, but it worked. "Well...no, he didn't say I couldn't tell you that." And he stared at her, waiting for an answer. "Who gave you the bottle, Micah?" she said. "Oh." He said, and he pointed to Simon. "Simon gave you the bottle?" Agatha said. Why would Simon want to spike the punch bowl? "Do you know what it is?" She asked. Micah shook his head, "I can't remember."

Agatha made her way to the nurse's station with a cup of the punch. The nurse told her that someone must've spiked her drink with a love potion. "What if I've already taken a sip?" she asked. The nurse looked at her. "Well, it wears off with time, but I don't think you've been affected by it. This specific potion makes you act more like a zombie with a kindergarten's vocabulary." they said. "It brings you into a state in which all you can really think about is love and spreading that love."

Fresh from her mind came Micah, the smart and sweet boy who once spent twenty minutes bickering with Penelope about the linguistics of an old greek spell, now struggling to use his words and resorting to pointing.

Quickly, things started clicking. Micah was obviously drugged and told by Simon told to pour the potion into the punch bowl. Although, she still didn't understand why Simon brought the whole school into this. Wasn't Baz all he wanted?

Agatha went back to the punch bowl and accidentally knocked into the array of tiny bottle Baz's friends left under the table. Did the nurse even notice that there was barely any actual punch in that drink?

It was probably too late to do something with the punch. Students had already drank a lot of what was in the bowl and now it was down to it's last sip. Agatha watched for Simon, tried to see where he was to try and confront him, but ultimately she decided it was easier just to wait for him by the punch bowl, where he had to reach at somepoint to poison Baz.

Now here she was, dragging Baz into the hallway outside the ballroom, enraged that she'd been right about him all along. "Simon, what did you have Micah pour into the punch bowl?" she said. He smirked, "A love potion."

"Why?"

"I just wanted everyone to feel as wonderful as I do." So he knew about the love spell. Agatha's eyes grew wide. "Simon, not everyone wants to feel that way."

"They may not know, but I've never been happier than the way I am now." He took both her hands and his and his face melted away all the malice she'd seen before. Now Simon was the sheer image of sincerity. Kind and caring, the way he used to be. "Agatha, did you really love me?"

"Of course I loved you, I still do."

"I mean did you really love me the way I love Baz and he loves me? Did we really ever have that?" he said "I've been thinking. It seemed that you were never really that interested in dating me in the first place, as if we only started because it seemed like the thing to do. We thought it was expected of us.

"Yet, I was never really happy. Even if we were together, I still felt so isolated from you." Simon started crying, his voice started choking up. "But Agatha, I'm really happy with Baz. With Baz and with this spell, I never feel alone when I'm with him." Agatha pulled him into a hug, feeling that finally she could talk some sense into him, finally he was vulnerable enough to let her in. "Simon, you're already surrounded by love. You don't need a partner to make you feel less alone. You have me and Penelope, we'll always still be there for you." Simon pulled away. "Agatha, I'm sorry," he said "I really hoped you'd understand, but it seems no matter what I say, you still don't get it." He threw a light blue powder in her face, and all of a sudden it seemed that she was swept in a blue powder tornado. "Sleeping powder." She thought. "Goddmanit."

After dragging Agatha's snoring body into the Mage's Office, he locked the door with a spell, hoping no one would be needing the room or go looking for her.

That night Micah and Penelope were also dancing the night away. However, Penelope was growing increasingly suspicious of Micah and his strange behaviors. All day, he'd been completely mindless and surprisingly unaffectionate. Why come all the way to the other side of the world, just to get distracted by anything and anyone who isn't your girlfriend?

After hitting the dance floor, Micah and Penelope drew away from the crowd and found Baz sitting alone at their table. "Hey Baz," Penelope said. "Hey."

"Where's Simon?"

"He went to go get punch." Penelope peered out to the banquet table and couldn't catch a a glimpse of him. "You look a bit lonely." Baz stared at the table. "I think he's planning something." Penelope stifled a laugh remembering Simon's "he's plotting" theories. "What do you mean?" She asked.

All night as they danced, Simon was saying weird things. "What if this was the last night of your life?" and "I've got a surprise for you." and "Baz, how much do you love me? Good. I've got a surprise for you." All night a terrible feeling was swirling around in the pit of Baz's stomach, something he couldn't understand from the other ones. He told Penelope, this and slowly she started to play with her hair, a nervous habit saved for the most stressful occasions. "I really think he's going to do something unhinged. I thought he was getting better in the past few days. There were fewer weird comments and he stopped being so dependant. Still, I feel like he's been hiding something from me. He's been disappearing a lot and I assumed that he was with you, but I think maybe he's just been lying to me. Have you seen much of Simon?"

"No, whenever I ask to hang out, he usually says he'd rather hang out with you."

"Ouch."

"That's our new Simon."

"He's probably been hanging out with Ebb," Micah said, staring up into space. Baz and Penny looked at each other, then turned to Micah. "What do you mean?" Micah slowly turned his empty eyes toward her with a smile that rivaled Pennywise the Clown. Baz got shivers. "Can you keep a secret?" he said. Penelope hesitantly shook her head yes. He bent towards her ear. "Love potions." He started to laugh and pulled away. "He told me not to tell anyone, but I got so excited after telling Agatha."

"What?" Baz asked. "Love potions…" Penelope trailed off, her eyes were wide and her mouth was open as she realized the full horror of the situation. "Baz, Simon's been making love potions with Ebb. That's where he's been going."

"Micah, how do you know this?" Baz said. Micah focused his eerie stare on Baz again. "They gave me some to put in the punch." He pointed to the now practically empty bowl of punch, surrounded by students with the same empty stare that Micah had. Some weren't even moving. Just standing in place staring into nowhere and giggling. Others were locked into their dance partner's eyes, unblinking. Now Baz was shell-shocked as he and Penny stared off into a sea of teenage zombies crowding the floor. "Micah," Penny said "When did you take the love spell." She pleaded and pleaded with the universe, even if she knew the answer. "Well, in those chocolates that you gave me, silly!" Her heart dropped. "Micah, was the only reason you came because you were under a love spell?" Micha laughed again. "Penny, we hadn't written letters in months! I was surprised to even get the chocolates from you. But when I got your chocolates and letter saying that you wanted to see me, I jumped right on a flight over here.

"I felt so lonely with you before, I was thinking of breaking up with you. Now, I'm always happy to be with you. That's what Simon wants, for other people to not have to be lonely anymore. And I think that's amazing!" Penelope ran from the table, and Baz chased after her.

HedoesntlovemehehatesmeanditsallbecauseIdidnteventhinktosendhimacardoranythingforvalentinesdayforcrowleyssake. She rambled on and on in her head as she rushed from the ballroom. And right after her was Baz, sprinting after her. When he caught up to her, she was in the girls bathroom, sitting at the back wall on a short bench. Baz up to her thinking, "What am I going to do?" He'd never comforted anyone before. Well, he'd never successfully comforted someone.

He sat next to her knowing that was a start. Then he struggled for words. What would he want to be told right now. A thought hit him; she was going through the same thing he was. "Penny, I'm sorry." He said. "Go away!" She shouted without facing him, "I just want to be alone. Go."

"It hurts to be with someone who doesn't love you back in the way you do. I understand that, it's been hurting me for weeks whenever I remember that this isn't Simon it's just some virus working through him. I don't want to be loved by a version of Simon, I want the real and honest thing," said Baz.

Penelope wailed even louder and Baz decided he wasn't going to comfort her just by talking about his own problems. So, he wrapped his arms around her and gave her a hug, as tight and as warm as he could. Still, Penelope cried louder, but she also turned to face him and wrapped her arms around him too. She dropped her head on his shoulder and cried. "I know Penny. I'm sorry." He said.

Back in the ballroom, Simon scowled at the empty bowl of punch and cursed Agatha for beating him to the punch. He looked forward to coming back to Baz at the table. To his displeasure, the only one at the table was Micah. "Micah, where'd the others go?" Simon said. Micah frowned, "I thanked Penelope for the chocolates she gave me and she ran away crying." He said. "Oh, and Baz went with her."

Simon forced his eyes closed and rubbed at his temples, nursing a raging migraine at bay. "Micha, what did you tell them?" he said. Micah looked at the floor and stuck a finger in his mouth. "I got excited. I'm sorry. I told them about the love potion." Simon's blood boiled, he was ready to terrorize Micah with all the rage he'd been building for4 weeks. But, before he could reach that moment, he slowed his breath, and took a few deep breaths.

The plan was a little off-track, but it was still pushing to the finish. The love potion was only temporary anyway, a little side step at most. Something that would make the next step a little easier. Under the table, Simon grabbed at a long leather bag, embroidered with little hearts and angels and cupids. He opened it, and checked to make sure the bow was still inside.

"Wait here, Micah." said Simon. "I'm going to find them." Simon left the ballroom with the bow in hand. He would not be coming back.