Archive of Our Own ^beta

The Great Hall was only half-filled by the time Peregrine plopped down next to Miles. He had left early that morning to drop by the library before breakfast, so his friends had left the common room later, without him.

Miles, usually half-asleep in his bowl of milk at this point in time, was wide awake, staring at something across the room, and sighing dreamily in a way that made Peregrine want to gag.

“He's so pretty.”

No need to ask who the pretty boy in question was, because, of course, Peregrine and his closest friends would all crush on the same guy. Up until recently, he hadn't even known that Terence was anything but straight. Some of the comments he made about his new friend, though, made it quite clear that he wasn't the straightest guy around.

Them crushing on the same guy wasn't fair, if you asked Peregrine. He had been the first one to admit to it, yet no one gave a damn about the 'bro code'. Sure, Peregrine didn't care about it either – he disregarded most Muggle-related stuff, but Terence had been the one to mention it, and now, he ignored the golden rule or whatever! Surely, there was a rule somewhere in there that stated they couldn't all pursue the same person, right? Right?

Alas, all of his friends were as stubborn as him, so they could either surrender and admit defeat or outdo each other when it came to wooing the Potter heir. Or share, if it came down to it, although none had dared to suggest that out loud.

“Have you been here for long?”

“Lucian has been here for longer,” Miles piped in. “Waste of time, if you ask me. Harry doesn't go to the Great Hall that early.”

Miles would know. He was on speaking terms with Potter. They all were, more or less, but Terence and Miles were on actual friendly terms with the Potter heir, unlike most of them. It wasn't bad! They were all cordial. Peregrine just wouldn't call them friends. It was their own fault; they weren't Gryffindors, jumping headfirst into a situation. No, they had to observe first.

Surprisingly (considering his House), Potter was everything they could wish for in a partner. Seeing Potter going toe to toe with Dumbledore -as he tended to do much more often this year- only made him even more enticing in the Slytherins' eyes. Ever since school started again, the headmaster had been trying, more than once, to catch Potter and invite him into his office (weird and very suspicious). Potter had declined every time, citing other matters of importance, even going as far as to say that if it didn't relate to school, he didn't think they should talk. Which was true. Dumbledore never asked any of them to their office if it wasn't school-related. He knew better. He wouldn't want to risk their parents' wrath. That he was willing to risk Harry's guardians meant that either his family wasn't influential enough to cause them trouble (unthinkable, even if they weren't, the fact that they were Harry Potter's family would make people at least listen to what they had to say if they wanted to destroy Dumbledore) or that they weren't good guardians. Considering some red flags Peregrine had noted, he would have to go with the latter, and the theory made him livid.

But, anyway! Peregrine refused to think about Potter's family.

Peregrine glanced at the Gryffindor table before grabbing a piece of bread from Terence's plate and launching it at Miles.

The Keeper yelped and glared at him.

“What was that for?!”

“Stop staring like a creeper, and eat your breakfast.”

Miles glared a bit longer before obeying with a grumble.

Peregrine risked another glance at the Gryffindor table before focusing on his plate.

This year, he would do something about his crush.

He would.

On the other side of the Great Hall, Harry was enjoying his breakfast with his friends when Seamus plopped down next to him. Dean sat down next to Neville and greeted them.

“Well, someone looks cheerful today,” the Irish boy said, looking at Harry's grinning face. “A bit weird if you ask me. You're never this cheerful on Valentine's Day.”

Harry's smile turned into a grimace. He already knew what Seamus was about to say and had no way to shut him up.

“Then again, if I had received that love poem, I would run for the hills, too. Did you ever find out who it was from?”

The grimace grew a bit more pronounced.

“No, and I didn't try.”

Sure, Malfoy had teased Ginny, but the guy had no way of knowing who it had been from, and if it was Ginny, she certainly never said anything about it. Not that Harry asked her; he had been way too embarrassed by that poem, thank you very much. He still was, even years later.

No, no. He didn't want to know. The person never made themselves known, and Harry was fine with it remaining a mystery.

Despite his best efforts, he felt his lips quirk upward.

“Seamus,” he sighed.“Sometimes, I want to strangle you with your belt.”

Seamus wiggled his eyebrows, grinning.

“Ooh ~ kinky.”

“Seamus!” Hermione hissed while Ron raised a perplexed brow.

“Not like that,” Harry denied, although he, too, was grinning from ear to ear.

Seamus grabbed a pancake from a plate and applied a generous portion of maple syrup.

“So,” he started in a too casual tone to mean anything but mischief. “Ready to face the day? Ready for the Valentines?”

Harry knew what Seamus was referring to. Every year, it was the same thing; Harry was inundated with love letters from admirers.

This year would be different, though. He could feel it.

A teasing smirk appeared on the lips of the green-eyed teen, surprising his housemates.

“Yeah, I think so.”

The day started like any other day, but there was a certain feel in the air. Everyone could feel it. Dean could feel it. Lavender, who was hanging at his arm for some reason, could feel it. Hell, even Ron could feel it, and that guy (he loved his friend, but seriously) was blind and oblivious.

Of course, today was no ordinary day. Dean could see some of the younger, or more romantic-inclined students practically vibrating out of their skin. Collin Creevey was clutching his camera, ready to catch the moment – any moment.

They were on their way to Charms when Harry skipped to them, giggling. He was holding an envelope.

Dean arched a brow at him.

“You okay?”

Sure, Harry looked ecstatic, but considering Dean had very rarely heard him giggle, it was a cause of concern.

“I'm great,” the boy replied, still giggling.

Dean was not... worried, but he was slightly concerned. He glanced at the envelope, then back at Harry.

“Secret admirer?”

Harry grinned sharply.

“He left it for me to find it.”

Harry always did enjoy playing hide and seek around the castle. He was also very good both at hiding and finding people (things too, apparently). They played some chaotic games of Hide and Seek, even inviting students from other Houses. It had been wild.

Lavender gasped and leaned forward, still clutching Dean's arm.

“Your first letter of the day, Harry?!”

Harry offered her a smirk.

“I actually like this one,” he said, handing over the envelope.

Lavender took hold of it, delicately pulling the letter from the envelope and unfolding it.

“Oh.”

She looked up, smirking.

“This one knows you well.”

Indeed, they did. Not many people knew Harry enjoyed reading poems. Even fewer knew he liked Percy Bysshe Shelley's poems. He had been sighted before with Keats, Lord Byron and even occasionally Rimbaud's collections of poems, but this one? Harry didn't have anything of Bysshe Shelley, so how that person knew of his interest was a mystery.

“Do you know who it is, Harry?” Parvati asked, eyes sparkling with glee, while Hermione, Ron and Seamus were bickering ahead of them.

“I have an idea.”

He didn't know for sure, but he knew it was one of them for sure. He had, after all, noticed the interest some Slytherins had for him. He was flattered and not insensible.

Harry wondered what the rest of the day would bring, but for once, he wasn't dreading today's date.

It was quite a refreshing change.

By early afternoon, Harry had gently let down no less than a dozen students, and accepted gifts of friendships from a few others – because Valentine's Day might be a romantic celebration, but who was to say that only lovers could celebrate?

So, yeah, Harry and his friends exchanged little gifts – bracelets, recipes, even chocolates.

Harry eventually left his friends to go to the library, taking advantage of the empty block they had before Transfiguration. Hermione, for once, was not with him. She had to visit Madam Pomfrey for a “girls' thing”, and Harry was fine not knowing.

He worked diligently on a side-project of his, slowly working his way through Magical Law books and Creature Law books. At some point, he stood up to look for another book on the shelves.

When he came back to his table, a box was waiting for him. A heart-shaped box from one of his secret admirers. Harry glanced around, but seemingly no one was observing him, and if they were, they were well hidden behind a shelf or two. Harry sat down and delicately opened the box. His smile grew larger when he saw what was inside. Chocolate, sure, but it was Muggle chocolate – stuff that he never got to enjoy because the Dursleys would never waste money on him. Kinder, Kit Kat, as well as some stuff he didn't recognise.

His boys (not that they knew it, yet) were spoiling him.

It was probably time to put them out of their misery.

With a chuckle, he grabbed his things, gently put the box in his bag, and left the library with a spring in his step.

“You gave him chocolates!?” Terence cried out, looking at Miles with betrayal in his eyes.

Miles gave his friend an indignant look.

“You left him a rose! I saw it!” he defended himself.

“Wait. You gave him something too?!” a new voice intervened.

Lucian turned around to face Perry.

“Of course, I did. Wouldn't want him to think we forgot him.”

“I doubt he even knows you exist.”

Theodore Nott's mocking statement went ignored as Peregrine narrowed his eyes at his best friend.

“What did you give him?”

Lucian smirked.

“Now that would be telling. What did you offer him?”

Peregrine pursed his lips. He was not about to admit that he spent hours working on his calligraphy to rewrite a poem from a Muggle author that Potter favoured.

Not because it was Muggle, but because it would be admitting that his writing was less than perfect, and he had spent enough time loudly proclaiming the opposite to his best friend.

Lucian sighed and nodded, resigning himself to finding out the truth much later.

“Do you think he got them?”

“I saw him accept mine.”

“Can you really say that he 'accepted' them if you didn't give them in person?”

“Shut up. I don't want to hear that from you."

“Someone's been leaving valentines for me all over the castle today, and I’m pretty sure I know who,” Harry announced as he sat down next to his group of friends while they were waiting for McGonagall to show up.

He didn't say that he was pretty sure it was multiple people, because he didn't feel the need to. Saying something like that would only encourage Hermione to ask questions.

“I thought you hated Valentine's Day,” the lioness said, frowning in confusion at the giddy tone she detected from her friend.

“Did you not listen to earlier?” Parvati asked, but she was ignored by her Housemate, much to her exasperation.

“I do,” Harry replied. “Most of the time. But I'm actually happy with the identity of my Valentines this time around.”

Neville, who had missed some of the conversation this morning, blinked.

“You... are?”

Lavender, who was about to take her things from her bag to put them on the desk, stopped to stare at him.

“I didn't even know you were interested in anyone! I mean, I got that from how excited you looked today, but you never gave any sign of being interested in anyone before.”

Harry laughed, hiding his mouth behind his hand as he felt his cheeks heat up from finally admitting this.

“Yeah, I... I think I'd like to get to know them.”

Lavender caught the pronouns and gave him a soft smile. She probably thought he was intentionally using gender-neutral pronouns because he wasn't ready to come out. She wasn't exactly wrong, but she wasn't completely right either. Harry intended it as plural, but he wasn't quite ready to vocalise it.

“I'd say good for you, mate,” Dean said before Hermione could get a word out.

He gave her a look, knowing she probably wanted to prod, and, much to Harry's relief, she relented.

Ron tilted his head to the side.

“What's that?”

He was pointing at Harry's bulging bag. It wasn't his usual schoolbag since he had been in the Gryffindor tower before leaving for Transfiguration. He didn't have much in it, so he never bothered with feather-light or extension charms.

Harry pulled a small teddy bear holding a heart from the bag.

“It was on my bed.”

“On your bed? So it's a Gryffindor?” Lavender asked, giggling.

“Nah. Not a Gryffindor.”

Hermione gasped.

“Harry! This is serious. It could be a breach of security.”

But Harry rolled his eyes.

“Hermione, Hogwarts' security is a joke. We didn't need Sirius Black breaking in to know that.”

Sure, now they knew that Sirius was innocent (or at least, he, Ron and Hermione did), but that didn't change the fact that the guy managed to infiltrate the castle and break into their common room.

Hermione wilted with a sheepish expression on her face.

“Oh, yes. You are right.”

Their conversation was cut short by the arrival of their Head of House, but Harry swore to himself that he would go find his Slytherins before the end of the day, as he put the plush back in his bag.

It was two hours before dinner when Terence suddenly stopped babbling about a board game to stare at something ahead of their group.

They were gathered near the hall, enjoying an abnormally warm and sunny afternoon.

“Oh, shit!”

Potter was approaching. Potter was walking towards them, a serene smile on his face.

“Is he- He's walking towards us!”

“Maybe not. Maybe he's – oh, shit!”

Lucian suppressed a squawk when Peregrine accidentally elbowed him in his haste to strike a somewhat natural pose (it wasn't natural at all).

“Harry!” Terence squeaked.

The younger teen smiled shyly at them.

“Hi.”

Miles managed to clear his throat without choking.

“Hi,” he greeted him with an awkward, dorky smile (as Terence would say).

Lucian mumbled something that sounded vaguely like a greeting. Peregrine waved, oddly shy, and Terence finally got a grip on his emotions and wrapped himself like a scarf around the boy.

“Harry! I missed you!”

Potter laughed and hugged the Slytherin back.

“I missed you too. I got your rose. Thank you, Ter.”

Harry knew, Terence thought, a blush rising on his cheeks. Shit.

'I mean,' he thought. 'It's not like it was supposed to be secret... kinda.'

He didn't think that far. He stopped thinking when he felt Harry's lips on his cheeks. His eyes widened. He swore here and now that he felt his brain melt as his cheeks heated up. He barely registered the grumpy, jealous looks his friends sent him.

The black-haired teen patted Terence on the arm until the older boy released him, then walked to sit on the low wall between Miles and Peregrine.

“I wanted to thank you all for your gifts.”

Miles and Lucian exchanged a look, but Peregrine was too focused on the Gryffindor to notice it.

“I – How do you know?”

The boy chuckled, his lips stretched into a grin he couldn't have suppressed had he tried.

“I just know. I loved them, thank you.”

Miles was treated with the rare sight of Lucian and Peregrine blushing. It was weird. So weird. Kinda cute too, but so, so weird.

Potter didn't seem intimidated despite being surrounded by Slytherins, Peregrine noted. Then again, if he was, he probably wouldn't walked straight into a viper's nest. He seemed... at home, among them. It should have been weird, but he did seem at home.

Peregrine couldn't stop watching him as Miles and Terence dragged him into a conversation over the gifts, which soon turned into an entirely different conversation.

He snapped out of it when he saw how close he had gotten to the younger teen – damn it! Leaning back, Peregrine licked his lips nervously and swallowed, ignoring Lucian's smirk.

“Sure, it's a date”! He heard Potter reply cheerfully.

Peregrine blinked.

“What...” he whispered before leaning towards Lucian without looking away from the Gryffindor. “What did I miss?”

“Miles and Terence were rambling about the new café-library that opened last month, and said that Harry would love the place and that we should go sometimes, and... I don't know if he's serious or not, but -”

“D- Date?” Miles squeaked, and they watched Potter...Harry tilt his head to the side, seemingly confused.

He was not confused, Lucian thought. Potter knew exactly what was going on here. He was sure of it. In fact, the more he listened to Miles and Terence ramble about the boy, the more he wondered how the guy managed to avoid landing in Slytherin. It probably involved begging.

“Yes? Isn't that why you guys gave me Valentines?”

There was nothing innocent in the look he gave them, even if he acted innocently. Lucian knew better. He was teasing them.

Lucian leaned forward, unusually mischievous:

“Sure. Let's make it a date.”

He was rewarded by the second of eyes widening before Harry's smile morphed into a grin.

“Great. I'm looking forward to it.”

“Wait,” Miles intervened, confused. “Who is going on a date?”

“Us,” Lucian replied.

Harry didn't say anything, but he gestured to the group with a tilt of his head.

“Oh. Oh, that's – that's cool. That's super cool.”

Miles, you dork, Lucian thought, smirking.

“Sorry, guys,” Harry said when he dropped into his seat at the Gryffindor table. “I know I said yes to go with you to Three Broomsticks next weekend, but there's a change of plans.”

It was almost dinner time, but the Great Hall wasn't completely filled yet. A glance at the Slytherin table told him that his... boyfriends?- were already seated.

“Oh?”

Lavender looked at him, having seemingly already an idea about what he was about to say.

“Really?”

Seamus wasn't pouting. He was not.

He couldn't resist smiling back when Harry flashed him a grin.

“Yeah. I've got a hot date to keep.”

Ron choked, Seamus gasped, while Hermione and Dean gaped at him. Lavender giggled, and Parvati only smiled while Neville blinked.

“Already?”

“You got a date?!” Ron exclaimed before Hermione shushed him when a couple of heads turned in their direction. “How? We only left you alone for a few hours.”

Harry grinned.

“I found my secret admirers, and we agreed on a date.”

“Secret ad -” Ron started, but Parvati caught something in what he had said, and she gave him an incredulous look.

“Admirers?! Plural?”

Her incredulous expression morphed into a somewhat impressed look upon seeing him nod, and she squealed in delight.

“Oh, we have to get you ready for that date. It's going to be glorious!”

Harry laughed and didn't bother trying to protest. He knew it would be useless against Lavender and Parvati. There were forces of nature.

“Wait – Really?”

Hermione looked from Harry to her roommates before groaning.

“Harry!”

Harry didn't know if she was scolding him for not telling her anything or for going on a date with multiple people, but he didn't really care. Whether she came to terms with whatever was bothering her or not, it wasn't his problem.

Nothing was going to ruin his day. He was in too good a mood for that.

Besides, Hermione looked more resigned than scandalised.

She would get over it, Harry thought as he glanced at the Slytherin table.

Four pairs of hungry eyes stared back.

Harry turned back to the conversation, snickering and refusing to give them the identities of his admirers/boyfriends.

A very good day, indeed.