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Hermione Granger couldn’t help herself, she clapped a hand over her mouth and laughed.
For a long moment, she felt too stunned to speak. Instead, she stared at Theodore Nott as he strode into the room dressed as Cupid and took an elaborate bow. A one-armed, white, satin toga hung artfully from his stocky, tattooed body, a pair of gold wings protruded from his back, and in his hand, he carried a golden bow, complete with a quiver-full of arrows.
Hermione wasn’t the only one laughing. Pansy Parkinson was doubled over, shaking with silent mirth, and Daphne Greengrass and Ginny Weasley were both giggling behind their hands. “Come on now, girls. You’ve got to admit, this outfit suits me.”
“If anyone can pull it off, it’s you, Theo,” Pansy conceded with a gleeful grin.
Theo smirked, turning in a slow circle and lifting a lazy hand to acknowledge the wolf whistles Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini sent his way. “Gather round, ladies and gents, gather round. For, I have the power of the God Of Love behind me. I have, within these very hands," he wiggled his fingers while giving a cheeky smirk, "the power to pair you up for the annual Hogwarts Halloween Blind Date Contest.”
Hermione watched incredulously as Theo took the arrows out of the quiver and held the empty vessel out to the room. “If you are absolutely sure you want to commit your time and energy to this event, then please, drop your name into this magical, uh, quiver… thing.”
One by one, everyone in the room wrote their name on a piece of parchment and dropped it into the quiver. Theo waved his wand theatrically and then whispered a complicated incantation that he read from a string of carelessly scrawled notes that covered both of his palms.
“Move closer, then, boys and girls. Here, we have the name of our first contender.” Theo prodded his wand into the quiver and a scrap of parchment floated up into the air. The parchment disappeared, leaving a name written in glowing red spell-light.
“Neville Longbottom. Where are you, Neville?” Blushing furiously, Neville stumbled forward, adjusting his pirate costume as Theo pulled out his game partner's name. “Pansy Parkinson.”
Hermione gasped, but Pansy looked delighted as she shimmied across to join Neville. Neville, by contrast, appeared to be completely thrown by her naughty witch’s outfit and had no idea where to look.
Theo continued pulling names out of the quiver. With another of his trademark cheeky grins, he paired up Harry Potter and Daphne Greengrass, Ginny Weasley and Blaise Zabini, Ron Weasley and Milicent Bulstrode, and then paused to stare at Hermione and Draco Malfoy, the only other remaining competitors in the room.
“Well, well, well.” He gave them both what appeared to be a genuine smile. “Look at that. Who would believe it?”
“Who would, indeed?” Hermione suppressed an eye roll as she tried to arrange her face into something friendlier than its current scowl.
“Granger,” Draco said, smiling in his vampire costume and deliberately drawing attention to his magically pointed teeth. “You look stunning tonight.”
“Thank you.” Hermione bit back an incredulous huff as Draco took his place beside her.
“What happens to you now, Theo?” Draco asked. “Who becomes your partner?”
“I don’t have one. It’s my job to direct the game. Keeping tabs on you all is, apparently, going to be a full time job. That’s why I'm standing here wearing these bad boys, and you, Malfoy, are standing over there, dressed as a mere vampire.” Theo smirked as he lovingly stroked his wilting, golden wings.
Briefly wondering if she and Theo could swap places, Hermione glanced despairingly at Draco. Unfortunately, she knew the answer without needing to ask the question. Ginny had persuaded her to sign up for this ridiculous game, and she'd never allow her to drop out of it now.
Ginny had openly admitted that she was signing up for the yearly game played between Slytherin and Gryffindor in the hope of being paired with Blaise, and it looked like her wish had been granted. Hermione’s wish on the other hand….
“It hardly seems fair that you don’t have a partner, though,” Pansy said, giving Theo a devious look. “But, oh dear. It looks like there’s an odd number of us. Whatever could we do, Millie?”
Millicent grinned. “Well, if this ever happens in class, the leftover person joins an existing pair. Thereby making a trio.”
“Oh yes, that could work,” Pansy agreed. She gripped Millicent's arm and gave a dramatic gasp. “But, oh. Oh dear, Millie, I only know of one other boy in this room who’s bisexual like Theo is.”
Hermione watched Theo stare at Pansy with his expression caught somewhere between exasperation and affection. “Oh,” he said sarcastically. “I wonder who that could be?” He looked across the room and caught Draco’s eye. “Not helping, Malfoy,” Theo grumbled when Draco threw him a suggestive wink.
“Well, we can’t have you being alone for the duration of the game, can we?” Pansy continued. “Think about it another way. You’d be doing a good deed. You might stop Granger from murdering Draco. I know it’s Halloween, but we’re supposed to play with fake blood, not the real thing.”
Hermione closed her eyes and inhaled slowly through her nose. The only rules to this game were that each pairing consisted of one player from each opposing house and that the pair had never dated before. To the best of her knowledge, there were no rules that forbade triads from being formed.
Draco was watching her speculatively, as was Theo, and she knew they were both waiting for her to back out. Stubbornness refused to let her do that, so she looked up with a determined smile. “Come and join us, Theo. I’m in if you are.”
Theo looked at her, then his eyes settled on Draco and he nodded. “Alright, then, Granger. Let the games begin.”