Andromeda Black grew sympathetic to the cause of the gender-benders and as Head Girl, called for a meeting with Headmaster Dumbledore to get the rules relaxed. Fortunately Professor Dumbledore had no interest in seeing these rules enforced anyway, so these school rules were provisionally abolished, however approval from the school board was required to officially remove the rules from the rulebook.

Meanwhile, the Valentine's messages began reaching their intended recipients, as prefects took out the first batch of the day and shook them out of the box as if to wake them up. The messages were to be distributed in batches in-between lesson periods, so as not to disrupt the teachers.

It quickly became evident that some students were more beloved than others. Quidditch players, in particular, received a large share of the messages.

Fabian saw that his brother was already at the point of being beleaguered by parchment hearts masquerading as butterflies. These parchment hearts would only quell after being read, but, not having nearly enough time to read all his messages, the unread parchment hearts grew ever livelier and began sitting on his head or his nose, or his ears, now to dart into his schoolbag, or now to squeeze itself into an overfull pocket already stuffed with other parchment hearts.

Frank Longbottom seemed to suffer a similar fate, but struck upon the brilliant idea of charming those around him to read his messages for him. This gave the students who were enamoured of Frank the perfect opportunity to declare their love for him, and Fabian saw some students secretly discard messages from rivals they did not approve of.

Gideon, however, was not prone to opening himself up to flirtatiousness, so he ran to Fabian for help. Fabian willingly agreed, and went around trapping Gideon's wild parchment hearts into a large sack so that they would not disturb other students.

During lunch, he sequestered the two of them in an unused classroom to read, as quickly as possible, all the messages that Gideon received. Fabian took this opportunity to ask if Gideon and Marlene were an item, to which he sheepishly replied that he had no idea.

"No idea? What do you mean no idea? It seems a matter of time to me. It is inevitable." Fabian said.

"Yes, well, what are the markers of an official relationship? What exactly are those things two people have to go through before they can call themselves a couple anyway?"

"The two of you have been really good friends for ages, Gideon."

"Yes, but maybe we want it that way."

"Do you?"

"Doesn't matter what I want. It's what she wants."

"Does she want to keep it friends only?"

Gideon shrugged.

"Well if she does then you should get over it! And if she doesn't, you should really do something about it. So, which is it?"

Gideon began to laugh nervously.

"Fine then, be a right git!" Fabian huffed. He went back to reading the Gideon's Valentine's messages.

Roses are red, violets are blue. Take off your shirt, and I will love you. This message was blatantly signed off.

"This one's from Frank," Fabian said, passing the slip of parchment over.

"Listen to this," Gideon said, as he begun to quote from another message. "I'm not in love with you, but I think you're in love with Frank Longbottom. If you would be so kind as to snog him in public, it would really mean a lot to me. It would nourish my poorly teenage heart and I will always think fondly of it as the best moment of my life."

"I second that," Fabian said, with a suggestive waggle of the eyebrows.

"You could do it for me. Pretend to be me and snog it out with Frank." Gideon laughed, and then there was an awkward pause in which Gideon didn't say anything but Fabian could almost hear him thinking—so little brother, are you really, honestly into boys?

"Yeah, yeah I'd like that," Fabian replied, looking straight into Gideon's eyes, hoping he would get the hint. "Doesn't mean you will."

"But we're identical," Gideon said. "If you are, does that mean I am too?"

Fabian's heart skipped a beat. He felt his throat get a bit dry. "Are you?"

"I don't think I am," Gideon said hesitantly. "Or maybe I am."

"You don't have to decide now, Gideon. You don't ever have to decide."

Gideon gave him a hug. "Thanks Fabe," he said.

Fabian smiled wanly and went back to reading the parchment hearts. He wanted to say, you don't ever have to decide because people will love you anyway. We're not always identical.

"I'm sorry," Gideon said abruptly. "What you said to me—I really wish I could have said that to you first."

"It's okay," Fabian said, brightening up. "I know you love me no matter what."

"Yes, I do," said Gideon, breaking into that devastating, warm smile that only he could give, the one that made any person feel like they were the only one in the world that mattered to him and the one that won him the hearts of so many.

Gideon pulled something out of his bag. It was a crumpled-up piece of papyrus, crudely cut into the shape of a heart. "This is for you, because they didn't have any papyrus versions up at the booth, and I thought they would have some because you're a prefect and all."

"No one cares about me but you, Gid," Fabian said half-jokingly.

Lunchtime was soon over and the twins parted for their separate lessons. Fabian didn't bother to read the message on the papyrus heart but left it in his pocket.

...

The rest of the school day passed in a pinkish blur, tinged by all the young lovelorn hearts of the school.

"You would think," Alice said, "that if they were truly serious about it they would be happy to confess their love on any other day, but no, somehow everyone in this school only ever falls in love at Valentine's."

Fabian nodded meekly.

Alice shot him a sharp look. "Are you in love too?" she demanded.

"Maybe I am," Fabian mumbled.

"Are you serious?" Alice asked, and from her expression Fabian could tell that she was perfectly serious in asking this question. Alice was the most straightforward person he knew, and perhaps also slightly less attuned to the emotions of others and was therefore unable to grasp when a person was showing signs of being in love.

"No," Fabian lied, knowing Alice would take his answer at face value.

Somewhere, Fabian thought, his love was prancing around the school halls trailed by pink parchment hearts, bathing in the adoration of others. He wasn't too sure if what he felt for Evan Rosier was truly love, but he knew that it made his insides hurt sometimes and other times it made his insides feel all mushy so it must be a kind of love.

After he was done with prep, Fabian decided to head back to Ravenclaw Tower for an early night when Evan Rosier accosted him.

"I have got something for you, my love! Come with me to my secret lair, and we shall eat, drink and be merry!"

The secret lair turned out to be the fifth floor loo, the site of their first snogging. From under his robes, Evan pulled out a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates.

"For you," he said with a flourish.

Conjuring up another two glasses, he skillfully opened and poured the wine out to drink. Fabian unfurled the ribbon around the box of chocolates and dug in. Somehow, neither seemed to mind that they were in a loo.

"For your after dinner entertainment," Evan began flirtatiously, "would you like a striptease?"

Fabian choked on the chocolate truffle he had been nibbling on. "Pray tell, how is that remotely appropriate?"

"How," Evan countered with a gesture, "is this bottle of wine appropriate? Yet you seemed quite happy to quaff it all."

Fabian hemmed and hawed and failed to come up with any reasonable excuse, so he picked up the bottle of wine to observe its contents. It had a picture of a heart on its label.

"The name of this wine," Fabian said. "It's the Welsh word for heart. Is that coincidental?"

Evan shrugged. He seemed more preoccupied with preening in the mirror above the sink. "All I know is that it's from France," he said.