Do you have any thoughts on a Hermione/Draco/Harry (maybe Ron if he feels left out lol) poly ship? I've been a huge fan of Hermione/Draco for ages and Harry/Draco has a lot of good foily stuff that bakes well into a romantic plot. Harry and Hermione don't strike me as the sharing types (the neglected only child thing, Harry at home, Hermione in the society she chooses to integrate in), however I can see some ways in which it can work with Draco because of all their shared memories. Harry and Hermione have a kind of adopted relationship lol but he seems to finally stop treating her too much like an older sister/mother by the end of the books so if the hate-lust for the pointy aristocrat won out even that could reasonably fall to the way side. You have a compelling way of writing ships though so if this interests you, I'm curious how things might take shape in your voice 👀
I've written Hermione/Draco, and I've written Harry/Draco, and in both cases Draco brings a (very necessary!) grounded, practical element to the relationship. But! I think poor Draco would have a lot of trouble grounding Hermione and Harry at the same time, because the two of them need very different things in order to feel safe and secure.
I talked it over with @niche-pastiche, and we tried out a few things:
(Viktor Krum has been thrown in for some extra balance and structural integrity: we've written Viktor/Ron and Viktor/Hermione, and he was a lovely, stabilizing influence both times. Viktor is just generally lovely.)
But! He wasn't included in the brief, and we did think of a way to make it work without him:
I think to give this the best chance of working, Harry/Draco and Ron/Hermione need to be very comfortable committed couples. And THEN you need a Harry and Ron who have... always been kind of attracted to each other. (neither of them have realized this) (Hermione has known since the tent) (it's not hard to make this totally canon compliant.)
This is a very confident Hermione who... wants to give Ron a Valentine's day present, basically. I've always thought that a healthy, happy Hermione would also be - quite horny. And very straightforward in that desire, the way that she's straightforward about everything. (She likes pretty quidditch players, it's not that deep.)
So she decides that Ron would be happier if he had a chance to be with Harry, and obviously she invites Draco out to brunch and, and just comes in with - "Did you ever get the impression that Harry... well... was hung up on Ron a bit?"
at which point Draco is like - "Merlin's teeth, are you serious? All this time, Harry's thought Weasley was straight."
(one of my favorite Lucius/Narcissa headcanons is that they're the type to bring a third in every now and again, and Draco is aware of this. So he wouldn't be so very shocked at the prospect.)
Anyhow, Draco and Hermione bond over their partners being dense, and just pull out all the stops planning a Valentines' night in a hotel suite. Draco's not going to be left out, but there are a few positions he has in mind for Harry that require a second person, and Hermione just wants to wear some pretty (scandalous!) clothes and watch some pretty quidditch boys, and see Ron blush.
(of COURSE she ends up involved by the end, I'm sure. Every single one of these people is so competitive, there's no way it isn't going to manifest in their dynamic.)
I actually think it would end up being very sweet, and *very* funny.
