Accidental Valentines

"Harry! Pay attention," Hermione chastised, snapping her fingers in front of his face to redirect his focus back to her. With his vibrant green eyes once more centered on her whiskey brown, she repeated, "This letter is to be sent to Flint and Goyle, rescheduling our Tuesday tutoring session since no one will be productive with the reveal ball that evening." Handing it off to him and lifting up a second, she continued, "And this one is to be sent to," looking around she lowered her voice before saying, "Warrington, Cassius Warrington. Do you have that?"

"Hermione, I'm not a bloody idiot. I can follow simple instructions. Besides, their names are right there at the top. You've literally made it fool proof."

"And yet you and Ron always manage to find some way to muck things up," she muttered, jerking her arm back as her friend flicked her.

Rapidly returning the assault, she thanked her best friend and headed out of the Great Hall in order to make it to Ancient Runes on time. For as easily as her friend was distracted these days by his assigned secret admirer recipient, Luna Lovegood, Harry was a rather dependable sort. If she needed anything done or assistance with something, he was often the first person that came to mind. What she was not counting on though after she left was for the witch who had been assigned his name in the school wide lottery to become unhinged at his gentle rejection of her in favor of Luna and dose him with a love potion — an unfortunately frequent occurrence given the fame that had been born due to his parents' and godfather's roles in ending the Voldemort War more than ten years ago. So while she was happily learning the application of Norse Runes, Harry was being rushed to the hospital wing with an overdose while Luna took up the task of sending her post.

In theory, the lottery had been a good idea implemented by the teaching staff and overseen by the Head Boy and Girl as well as the school Prefects. Starting a month out from Valentine's Day, each student was assigned someone in another house to whom they were to play the role of secret admirer. The intention was more platonic than romantic but over the last five weeks, relationships were beginning to form and with the reveal ball only days away, those who had connected with either the person assigned to them or the person they were assigned to, began breaking things off with the other person involved in the triangle leading to hurt and vengeful feelings.

For Hermione, she had been caught between a rock and a hard place. She and Marcus Flint were proof that the lottery was truly blind beyond house sorting. As his Charms tutor, the two should never have been matched given her partial control over his grade. They had been though and despite it not having lasted a secret beyond his first letter to her — his handwriting something she was more than familiar with after months of reading over his essays — and through their continuous letters that had progressed to the exchanging of small gifts, she had found herself falling for the quaffle head Slytherin and she suspected as his letters grew in length and personal detail that he returned her growing affection.

However her problem — or rather her additional problem given the doubt she harbored that maybe he was only pretending given her control over his grade — came in who she had been assigned. While Marcus was her secret admirer, she was Cassius Warrington's, his best mate. Try as she might to prevent it, she found herself falling for both the Slytherin quidditch players, something that had been keeping her up at night as the days until the reveal ball dwindled.

Both wizards had their merits and faults in equal measure. Cassius, like her, was an intellectual. He could fill in several feet of parchment with academic and theoretical discussion with several feet more to say following her replies. It was a point that gave him the edge over Marcus who while not slow, was in no way the type to while away an afternoon discussing the differences presented on a topic across various resources. Marcus however pulled through and tied things up in other ways.

Where Cassius was the sort to touch her mind, Marcus touched her heart. Without fail, he always recalled the days when she would have an exam in class or get a new marking back, asking how she did. Small details — like her preference for strawberry flavored sugar quills over raspberry or green apple — never escaped his notice. He was more forthcoming about himself and regularly opened doors and windows of conversation to learn about her. She found she could write just as much to him as she did Cassius about their deep secrets and inner wishes, her words often running away with her the further she dove into exploring him and herself.

When put together, the two balanced each other out and made up the perfect person. It was a realization she had come across during one of her nights of worrying about choosing wrong, that had finally illuminated just how triad dynamics — like what Harry's parents had — could work. When she had first met his mum and two dads it had greatly confused her muggle raised mind, sending her to the library to try and dive into understanding. Ultimately it had been a concept that she understood in the abstract but still couldn't fathom. At least not until she found herself caught between two wizards much as Harry's mum had been with James and Severus.

In the end though, she had decided it was a situation she didn't see working. Unlike her friend's dads, the quiet probing she had done into Marcus and Cassius alluded to them not having an attraction to each other or any other wizards for that matter. As Parvati had called it, they were strictly witchly. Thus came about her decision to approach them each separately ahead of the ball and nip any further personal interactions in the bud — something they were not supposed to do until Valentine's Day itself but she felt too cruel to leave until they were in the Great Hall surrounded by the student body. And it was as she was in her favorite alcove in a forgotten wing of the fifth floor awaiting Cassius that she realized Luna had taken the presented opportunity of her almost boyfriend having been poisoned with artificial infatuation and meddled.

Closing her book at the sound of coming footsteps, Hermione smoothed a hand over her curls ready to have the first of two hard conversations only to find both Marcus and Cassius partially ducked under the arched opening, the echo of steps she had heard having been the sound of their synchronized pace.

"What are you doing here?" she asked one or maybe both, unsure of who exactly she wanted to address first now that her entire plan had turned to ash.

"You sent us each a letter asking that we meet you here," Cassius smiled, shaking his head as if he thought her confusion funny.

"No… I sent one to you… Marcus should have gotten a letter about rescheduling our next meeting."

"So you don't want me?" he asked, his grassy green eyes turning sad despite his face remaining neutral.

"No!" she shouted. Realizing how much her voice carried in the small space, she lowered it and regained a crumb of composure as she repeated, "No, I do want you… I mean I want you here… I mean…" pinching the bridge of her nose, she groaned, "Godric, make me stop talking."

Sitting down at her feet and resting his back on the stone window seat she sat in, Cassius looked up at her with jewel colored blue eyes and teasingly asked, "So which is it, little witch?"

"Merlin, I have no idea. I had a plan and now with you both here it's all blown to hell. I swear, Marietta better run if she sees me coming because this is all her fault and I plan to make her pay for it, severely."

"You're right," he said, becoming overly familiar as he reached across her lap and pushed on her thigh to scoot her down, making room for Marcus's broad shoulders to sit on the floor on her other side, his hand moving much further down to caress the inside of her ankle once both were settled. "She is cute when her nose scrunches up like that."

"I am not cute, I am hacked — wait, you two talk about me?"

"Of course we do," Marcus chuckled, resting his cheek above her knee. "You didn't think we could both like the same witch and not start planning how best to equally garner her attention did you?"

"Admittedly we came to blows on the pitch when we first figured it out but that didn't last but a moment or two," Cassius clarified. "Is that not what you wanted to discuss with us?"

"Well no," Hermione confessed. "I had planned on telling each of you that while I've enjoyed these last weeks, I decided that once the reveal ball happened, I didn't wish to continue things further."

"Why not?" they asked simultaneously.

"Because I can't choose and it doesn't seem fair to ask to have you both when you'd have to share me."

"Not all triads are like Potter's parents. Some exist in what we call a V — two parts attached to one but not to each other," Cassius explained. "If you're amicable — which we hope you are — we would like that with you. I don't think individually Marcus or I could fully be what you deserve in a partner but together, I think we could be exactly what you want and need."

"But what about—"

"Hermione," Marcus interrupted. "Is the perceived imbalance your only reason against this? Or do you have other reservations?"

"No, that's mostly it. I mean I don't like that part of your grade in Charms is administered by me — I worry you won't be wholly honest and forthcoming in a relationship with me so as to keep your markings up — and I do wonder what people will say but mostly it's the imbalance."

Leaning over her lap, the two unexpectedly kissed each other before pulling back and sharing a look of having found the experience abysmal.

"There, now you can see for yourself that we definitely do not want more with each other, only you," Cassius supplied.

"As for my grade," Marcus picked up, "I've been transparent with you this entire time, that isn't going to change just because our relationship develops multiple layers."

"And everyone else?"

"The novelty will wear off in a week or two once they get used to seeing us together," Marcus started.

"And for those whom it doesn't," Cassius continued. "We'll either help them along in getting it to wear off or make sure they keep their mouths shut on it."

"But while unique, triads are not as uncommon as you would think," Marcus finished. "Potter's parents just happen to be the only successful and famous trio in the last two or three hundred years."

Leaping without thought — something she rarely did despite her having been sorted into Gryffindor — Hermione nodded, "Okay, let's try it," earning a quick press of lips to hers first from Marcus, then from Cassius, before both each kissed the cheek that was closest to them, leaving her head spinning as she wished for more, their movements having been too fast for her to respond.

Harry was a magnet for drama, Marietta was a menace, and Luna was meddlesome, but the three of them had come together to create the happiest of accidents for Hermione, securing her not one, but two Valentines. It was an outcome to a plan gone wrong that she decided earned Marietta a single day of reprieve before she teamed up with Luna to avenge Harry. Until then, she planned to stay exactly where she was, plotting how best to steal more kisses.