It was Valentine's day at Hogwarts. Letters were delivered, love was in the air. And Harry sat in the middle of it unaffected like all the past years. Ginny had broken up with her latest boyfriend recently, so Harry saw that she was a little down throughout the day. Apparently Ginny had thought the boy had been too controlling of her actions. Hermione had told him that it was a sore spot for the girl given her possession by Tom Riddle in her first year.

Luna and Neville were still going strong, and seemed happy with the cards they had bought for each other. Everyone kept gossiping about who had sent them Valentines, since most of them were anonymous. Harry was sitting next to Hermione as they walked out of their last class. She was a little down that no one had sent her a Valentine this year.

Suddenly a house elf appeared in front of Harry, holding a pink heart shaped box.

“Valentine for Mr. Potter, sir!” the house elf squeaked before handing Harry the box. He blinked and accepted it before the elf disappeared again. Someone had sent him a Valentine? This had never happened before…

“Are you going to open it?” Hermione asked as Harry kept staring at it.

“Yes,” Harry said before diverting to sit at a nearby bench. He unwrapped the big red ribbon holding the box closed. He opened it and there was a wide assortment of chocolates with a little tag on top. ‘Love, Romilda Vane’. Huh, she had been looking at him a lot during class lately. But he had thought it was just because of his latest time in the newspapers, not anything more. She was interested in him?

He reached inside and had some of the chocolate. It was good. Not as good as Lupin’s had been, but nearly so.

“Hey, Hermione, you want any?” Harry asked as he saw her eyeing him. She shook her head and looked away. Huh.

“Hermione, do you remember that chocolate that Professor Lupin gave us after the dementors came on the train in our third year?”

She nodded, looking a little confused.

“Neville and I finally got around to going there and buying a bunch of it over winter break. You want to go try some later?”

Hermione perked up at the thought, “Sounds good, Harry! That really was some good chocolate. I’m glad you got a Valentine of your own. Sorry if I’m ruining the mood.”

Harry shook his head as he ate another chocolate, “It's fine, Hermione. I only care about the chocolate, you know that about me. I would feel more sorry for Romilda Vane for not knowing that if I were you.”

“That’s true…” Hermione said, trailing off at the end. Harry had another chocolate, and then closed the box.

“Still, these chocolates are pretty good,” Harry said, “I should thank Romilda for them next time I see her.”

They stood up and started walking off.

— — —

As Harry sat in the common room with his friends a few hours later he started feeling strange. His thoughts had kept coming back to Romilda Vane and what she looked like. Her full lips, her glossy black hair, the way her Hogwarts uniform pushed out at her chest… It was wrong, Harry didn’t care about those things. Or did he? Was this the moment things would change?

Harry stared intently at Hermione and looked at the same things he kept thinking about whenever Romilda Vane popped into his head. Nothing, looking at Hermione’s arm made him feel the same as looking at her chest or hips. Ginny was eating some of the chocolates from the box that Romilda Vane had given him, but Hermione and Neville had been too enamored with the better chocolates that he and Neville had bought to do so. He watched Hermione as she took another bite of the chocolate.

“Harry, what in the world are you doing?” Ginny said after eating one of the last brown little chocolate bites in the box. Harry blinked and straightened. Neville, Ginny, and Hermione were giving him strange looks as they sat around him.

“I’m feeling very strange things about Romilda Vane,” Harry announced, “I wanted to check if I felt the same things when I looked at Hermione, but it isn’t working. I feel the same... Sorry, that was rude of me, Hermione.”

“Why were you looking at her chest and hips?” Ginny said accusingly, “If you were checking her out you could at least be a little less obvious about it! I mean get a grip…”

Hermione looked mortified at Ginny’s words, “Ginny,” Hermione said in a hurry, “Has Harry ever looked at a girl like that before? Just think about it. If he says it then I believe him.”

Ginny looked confused but her eyes went distant as she seemed to think. “But…” Ginny stammered, “What? C’mon Harry, there’s got to be at least someone you’re interested in. You went to the Yule ball with Fleur Delacour!”

“Romilda Vane apparently,” Harry said thoughtfully before standing up, “Fleur is a friend, but I wasn’t interested in her romantically in the least.”

“What are you doing?” Neville asked as Harry started walking away.

“To go talk to Romilda,” Harry replied over his shoulder, “I’m sure when I see her I can understand this. Maybe I’m finally going through puberty and this is only the start.”

“Ugh, gross Harry!” Ginny exclaimed and then suddenly shot up to her feet as well, “I- I’ll go with you! We’ll find her together! Get some answers from her!”

“Alright,” Harry said looking back as Ginny rushed forward, leaving her bags behind.

Hermione and Neville went to stand as well, but Ginny turned around and shook her head.

“We’re fine, right Harry! We can go on our own to find her.”

Harry gave a side glance at the girl who suddenly seemed so eager to go with him. Her cheeks were flushed and she had a slightly dreamy look on her face. How odd.

“Yes, let’s go Ginny,” Harry said “No time to waste,” he finished before the two of them left and went into the main castle.

— — —

Behind them, Hermione and Neville were left in confusion.

“What just happened?” Neville asked in wonder, “Harry suddenly has a crush and then Ginny just rushes after him like that? Should we follow them?”

Hermione slowly turned to the open heart shaped box that lay open on the table, nearly emptied on chocolates. She got a sinking suspicion as she thought about what had happened.

“Neville,” Hermione said, “They were both eating from Harry’s Valentine chocolates. A box from Romilda Vane.”

Neville looked at the box and his face scrunched into confusion and denial, “No…” he said, “Surely not…”

“They must be laced with Love Potion,” Hermione confirmed, the idea now solidifying in her mind. “We’ve got to go after them.”

“Let’s go,” Neville agreed as they stood and rushed after Harry and Ginny.

— — —

Ginny seemed to become more and more eager as they went along looking for Romilda, practically pulling him along as they checked for places.

Finally they found her in the hallway chatting with one of her friends. When she saw Harry approaching, she smiled and whispered something to her friend. The girl slipped away with a knowing look, leaving Romilda alone. Although Romilda did seem to be glancing at Ginny a lot as she stood at Harry’s side. Romilda walked to the side and Harry and Ginny followed her into one of the unused hallways.

“Harry Potter?” Romilda said as they drew closer, twirling her black hair with her finger, “What are you doing here? Happy to see me?”

“Let’s go into one of the abandoned classrooms! It’s too open here for good conversation, isn’t it Romilda?” Ginny said excitedly, staring at Romilda in fascination as she did so. Romilda compiled without saying anything and opened the door for the two of them who went inside.

Harry was staring at Ginny while frowning slightly. She was acting rather strangely…

“Ginny, are you okay?” Harry said as Romilda closed the door behind her with a distinct thump.

Ginny looked up at him in surprise at the question. “Of course I am, Harry! I’m here with Romilda now… I mean look at her, she's so beautiful I think I love her…”

Ginny stared at the preening Romilda with large eyes, drooling slightly as she looked over the other girls body.

“You love her?” Harry said in surprise, “That was sudden. What is…”

“Look at me, Harry,” Romilda said, interrupting him and striking a pose, “What do you think about me? How do I look?”

Harry looked at her and the longer he did so the more uncomfortable he felt. His eyes were being forcibly dragged to rude places as he scanned her body. His eyes were forcefully dilating and his breath was coming heavier despite him not feeling tired. His face and privates were feeling rather hot and strange things were happening throughout his body.

“I… What is… is this a spell?” Harry said, taking a step backward as Romilda took a step towards him. “What’s happening?”

“Don’t worry about that,” Romilda continued, “Don’t you love me, Harry? I love you, Harry.”

Ginny rushed forward, “Romilda! Oh, I love you too, Romilda!”

Ginny wrapped Romilda in a big hug and tried to kiss Romilda, catching the black haired girl by surprise. Romilda shoved Ginny back in response after holding her back for a second, sending the red haired girl tumbling to the stone floor in a mass of flailing arms. Ginny stared up at Romilda from the floor like a hurt puppy, on the verge of tears. Ginny nursed her scraped elbow with one hand while her face crumpled as Romilda looked away from her. Romilda looked back at Harry with a big smile, ignoring the devastated Ginny on the ground.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Stupefy,” Harry said, drawing his wand and hitting Romilda with the spell in one motion before she could react. How dare she hurt Ginny! The dark haired girl collapsed to the floor in a heap, unconscious.

“Harry!” Ginny screamed, “What did you do, you hurt Romilda! Oh Romilda, please be alright…”

Harry cast a levitation spell and lifted Ginny off the ground and floated her farther away from where she’d been crawling towards Romilda on the floor.

“Ginny, you’re being controlled somehow,” Harry said, still having trouble tearing his eyes away from Romilda’s sleeping form even now, “We both are. We have to get out of here.”

“No…” Ginny denied, “You just want to be with her, don’t you? I love her, please don’t take me away from her…”

Ginny had tears running down her cheeks. Harry felt a pang of doubt. Did Ginny really feel this way? If Romilda caused a response in him then maybe it wasn’t so improbable that it was causing such strange behavior from Ginny? Maybe she really was just that attractive? But Romilda had shoved Ginny down to the ground and pretended as if Ginny wasn’t even there after…

Ginny reached for her wand, but Harry summoned it to him out of her hands and caught it. Ginny began thrashing and shouting at him as he opened and entrance to the chamber with his locket and brought her inside. Ginny cried even harder as they entered, and realizing his mistake Harry quickly formed another tunnel to somewhere else and quickly reentered. They popped back out in another abandoned classroom, and Harry dropped Ginny’s flailing form back to the ground.

She immediately leaped up and ran for the door, but Harry locked it with a spell. She banged on it for a while before turning back to him as the tunnel to the chamber closed behind him.

“What are you doing Harry! Bring me back to Romilda!” Ginny cried before rushing up to him as if to attack. Harry levitated her and she flailed wildly again and screamed at him in frustration. If Harry was hesitant before, he was sure of it now. Something was definitely wrong with her. And with him. Even now he couldn’t stop thinking of Romilda’s full lips and how he should try to kiss them when he saw her again…

He carefully levitated two chairs and a table towards them as Ginny kept insulting him and claiming he was jealous of her love for Romilda. He carefully levitated her downward so she was sitting in the chair.

He then focused carefully then cast a petrification charm on her lower body, then a sticking charm on the bottom of the chair so it would stay in place as she thrashed around. He was slightly proud of his spellwork, balancing this many spells at once while Ginny was shouting at him was difficult. And while his strange thoughts of Romilda kept trying to distract him as well.

Harry sat in the chair opposite Ginny and simply watched her as she furiously shouted at him to let her go. She flailed around but with her bottom half petrified, she stayed on the chair and was unable to hurt him.

“Ginny,” Harry said as she paused to take a breath after one of her tirades and streams of insults, “We can’t leave until we know we’re ourselves again. I- I don’t like this either, but all we have to do is wait. Romilda will still be there to talk with us in a couple days right? How would she feel if the only reason you loved her was because you were under a spell or a love potion? I used a stunner on her, she’ll wake up in ten minutes or so and be perfectly fine.”

Ginny closed her mouth and calmed down as Harry finished speaking.

“It was really only a stunner?” she said weakly.

Harry nodded, “I promise,” he said.

“You’re right,” Ginny said dejectedly, “I wouldn’t want Romilda to think I only love of her because of some magic. But after we get checked no more excuses, okay! I want to go right back and tell her how I feel.”

Harry sighed slightly but nodded. Romilda had hurt Ginny, but… if that’s what she really wanted then Harry shouldn’t try to force her away. It was her choice for these things.

“Now, can I get my wand back? I want to go to the hospital wing and get this over with,” Ginny said grumpily.

“And you won’t try to attack me anymore?” Harry confirmed and after Ginny’s reluctant nod he released her from his spells and handed over her wand. She seemed a little down, but they quickly made their way to the hospital wing as Ginny practically ran there in front of him.

Madame Pomfrey sat there seemingly organizing one of the cupboards.

“Madame Pomfrey,” Harry said, shaking his head as Ginny went to say something. The woman turned to them and blinked to see them standing there.

“Oh, what can I do for you two today? Are either of you hurt?” Madame Pomfrey asked them closing the door to the cabinet in front of her and straightening.

“We’ve both been acting oddly,” Harry said, “All of a sudden we’re both in love with Romilda Vane? I think it might be some sort of spell or love potion. Ginny is acting very strange and I’m worried about her. Is there any way for you to check?”

“Will this take long?” Ginny said irritably, “I don’t want Romilda to think we just left her there all alone…”

Madame Pomfrey raised an eyebrow and opening the cabinet again began rifling through muttering under her breath. Eventually she emerged with a certain bottle, and measured out a bit with a spoon and placed them in two glasses of water she poured from the nearby wall faucet.

“Prepared this just in case. It doesn’t happen every year for Valentines day, but nearly so,” she said, “Antidote for love potion. Just drink up, and then we’ll see. If that doesn’t work then we’ll start checking for spells.”

Harry complied and drank the whole glass of liquid in one go. After a moment of hesitation Ginny followed his example. Harry let out a sigh of relief as his unnatural focus on Romilda Vane washed away. Was that how everyone else felt all the time? How did they manage to pay attention to anything if they had to deal with that all the time constantly? Now that Harry had felt it for himself, he was a little glad that he wasn’t attracted to anyone. It had just been uncomfortable and like he was losing control of himself and his thoughts. And he hadn’t even had the worst of it, Ginny…

“That fucking bitch!” Ginny shouted furiously, interrupting Harry's thoughts. Ginny drew her wand and started to stomp off, her face scrunched up in anger after shoving her glass back into Madame Pomfrey’s hands roughly.

“Language!” Madame Pomfrey shouted at Ginny’s back before accepting Harry’s glass as well.

“Thanks for the help,” Harry said quickly before running off after Ginny who was almost out of the door into the main hallways again.

“Wait, Ginny!” Harry shouted as she started jogging away, “What are you doing?”

She stopped and turned around, “Getting revenge on Romilda Vane! She laced those Valentine's chocolates with love potion! I- she tried to take advantage of you, make you fall in love with her like you were like her doll or plaything. And… she did it to me too, I’ll kill her!”

“Don’t actually kill her,” Harry said slowly, “But revenge sounds good. You think she’s woken up yet?”

They stared at each other for a moment before they both started running again, in total agreement. They didn’t want Romilda to escape her punishment by running off somewhere else.

— — —

“Are you feeling better now?” Harry said as the two of them walked out of the classroom again, a Romilda Vane absolutely loaded up with curses laying on the floor behind them. Ginny had cast most of them in her rage, and had grown rather inventive towards the end. They both started walking off back to the Gryffindor common room together.

“I suppose,” Ginny said, still looking angry but having cooled off a little. She glanced at Harry, “You should be the one that is upset about all of this. I mean, she tried to control you and force you to love her. It was only an accident that she did it to me too.”

“I don’t know…” Harry said, “It was very uncomfortable while I was under the love potion, but I didn’t lose full control like you did, Ginny. Probably because I’ve never felt that way my whole life, it was just so foreign to me. I think I’m a little glad it happened now that it’s all over. I can’t believe the rest of you are dealing with feelings like that constantly... Do you feel like that whenever you look at a guy you find handsome?”

Ginny blushed a little, “Er, yeah. But not that intense. Those memories feel so gross now that I’m not under the potion and so… into Romilda. I definitely don’t feel that way now when I think about her. Is it like that for you?”

Harry shook his head, “I don’t find anything gross or repulsive like that now that I’m normal. It’s just not something I think about normally unless someone draws attention to it. It is like how everyone acted when we first got here before puberty. I’m thinking now that it might be a good thing for me.”

“How is that a good thing?” Ginny asked, “Don’t you want to date people, be able to return the feelings of people around you? Like Hermione, she’s so into you. I know it’s true. You shouldn’t discount it just because of one bad time with a stupid love potion.”

“It is? She would want to date me?” Harry said in surprise. She wanted to date him? But… she knew how he felt, that must be why she hadn’t asked. He should talk to her, he didn’t want her to feel like she had to hide things from him. She should be with someone that would be able to return her romantic feelings. Harry couldn’t do that for her even if she was his best friend in the world.

“You didn’t know?” Ginny said in surprise, “Oh. Hermione’s going to kill me…”

“Ginny,” Harry said, trying to think how to explain his current thoughts to her, “How would you feel if I told you if you had to take a love potion all the time to fit in with everyone else?”

“What?! I wouldn’t do that, that was horrible,” Ginny said.

“I would act far differently if I suddenly developed romantic feelings overnight. Isn’t it basically the same thing as the love potion except for everyone instead of for a single person? We both might lose control and would rather remain with our own natural feelings. It’s just that I’m at a different starting place than the rest of you.”

“I- I’m sorry, Harry,” Ginny said, “I didn’t think about it that way, I’m sorry. That was mean of me to say to you.”

“It’s fine,” Harry said, “I’ve been thinking about it a lot ever since the Yule ball last year with Fleur. I thought things might be better for me if I developed those feelings. But they weren’t nice at all, nothing like how I imagined. I’m not sure what I truly thought it would be like honestly. I shouldn’t be trying to fit in with normal people anyway. I’m nothing but abnormal.”

“Well, that’s true,” Ginny said, “But we all like that about you, Harry. How abnormal you are. I mean, who else would just stun Romilda Vane and float me away kicking and screaming without any hesitation? You saved me from embarrassing myself even more than I did. Normal people are boring.”

“Thanks, Ginny,” he said, “You’re rather abnormal yourself,” he finished to compliment her.

She looked confused for a second, before laughing, “Oof. At least I’m not boring though.”

Hermione and Neville came running around the corner and slid to a stop as they spotted the two of them.

“Harry, Ginny!” Neville said, “The chocolates, they were laced with…”

“Love potion,” Ginny finished for him, “Too late, the both of us already got the antidote. Nothing too bad happened, we just finished cursing Romilda Vane into oblivion in revenge.”

Hermione gave Harry a nervous glance, “She’s alive and not permanently injured,” Harry said to reassure her. He should talk to her later...

She relaxed, “Oh, that’s good then,” Hermione said, “I can’t believe she would do something like that! I mean they were selling those things at a bookstore of all places…”

— — —

They all went back to the common room and threw the heart shaped box and remaining chocolates into the fire, but Ginny saved one.

“Wait, I have an idea…” Ginny said, “One last piece of revenge. Give her a taste of her own medicine.”

Neville eyed her hand and the enclosed chocolate, “Er, will that work?” he said.

“I guess we’ll see,” Ginny said cheerfully, “I can’t wait.”

Neville looked at her and raised a brow, “Remind me to never get on your bad side, Ginny.”

“Will do,” Ginny replied before sitting back on the couch by the fire where they had been before.

— — —

Romilda Vane was found and healed of her various curses after a few very painful hours of sitting alone in the classroom, her wand across the room and out of reach. Now, three days later she had begun to relax as Harry and his friends didn’t seem to have taken any more revenge. Although all of them except Harry himself kept shooting her nasty looks. That was good, she still had a chance with him! She would just have to seduce him the old fashioned way.

Speaking of which, how had the love potion not worked on Harry Potter? He had barely even been affected by it. She would have thought she had brewed it wrong, but clearly it had worked on Ginny Weasley. That had made her feel all sorts of strange things, her thoughts kept drifting to that moment and how Ginny had... Her lips approaching Romilda's... But her focus was on Harry Potter! The Boy Who Lived, and someone who had done so many other amazing things ever since he came to Hogwarts.

Romilda absently reached out and took a big bite of a muffin sitting on the table nearby. She drew back as there was a strange crunch as she bit down and the taste of chocolate washed in her mouth. She looked down at the muffin as she finished that bite and swallowed it. Huh, they were making chocolate chip muffins now? This was great. She didn’t notice Harry’s friends relaxing when they saw her finish off the muffin.

For the three days after that, Romilda Vane did nothing but admire herself in mirrors and be incredibly narcissistic about her amazing appearance. Something that irritated everyone around her, especially her friends who were already on the vain side already. They didn’t appreciate Romilda constantly talking about how much better her appearance was in comparison to everyone else.

After those three days when the effects of the love potion finally wore off, Romilda didn’t even realize the cause of her strange behavior. She was beautiful after all, she thought. But despite her returning to her normal self, her friends and the rest of the class remembered her arrogant behavior in the past. And every vain thing she said after rang loudly in the ears of those who were listening. And like that, Romilda’s reputation took a sharp negative turn in the school much to the delight of Harry’s friends…