Cho Chang, Cedric Diggory, and Harry Potter

Well, this was a tangled web, wasn’t it? Harry seemed to like Cho the moment they first faced off against each other for a Quidditch match, but the route from first meeting to first date was long and torturous. The first date itself was pretty torturous too – on Valentine’s Day, no less – although it was, at least, mercifully short.

Of course, the main reason it was so torturous was Cedric Diggory. Handsome Hufflepuff hero and tragic Triwizard champion Cedric asked Cho out before Harry could get a look-in which clearly didn’t help, but it was his untimely death that really put paid to Cho and Harry’s relationship. Cedric remained a presence even after his death, and the complicated emotions he provoked in both Cho and Harry were too much for a teenage crush to bear. Still, Cho did give Harry his first kiss and a disastrous first date story for the ages. But we bet he never went back to Madam Puddifoot’s.

Leta Lestrange, Theseus Scamander, Newt Scamander (oh, and Tina Goldstein)

We don’t know all the ins and outs of this love triangle (or love cube, as it became) but something went pear-shaped somewhere. In Fantastic Beasts, Legilimens Queenie Goldstein was able to read Newt’s feelings about Leta easily because he was hurting, which was connected to the friendship they’d had when they were both outsiders at Hogwarts. So far, so mysterious.

But the next time we saw Leta, in The Crimes of Grindelwald, she was engaged to Newt’s brother Theseus. What was that all about? Did Leta simply break Newt’s heart, as Queenie implied when she said: 'She was a taker. You need a giver.' – ? Or was it more complicated than that? Theseus didn’t seem aware Newt might have had feelings for Leta, so did Newt hide them? Nobody seemed sure, least of all poor Tina Goldstein, who mistakenly thought it was Newt who’d become engaged to Leta because of wizarding celebrity rag Spellbound’s incorrect reporting, and began dating someone else as a result. Newt, perhaps you should just have been honest in the first place. Not every Goldstein is a Legilimens.

Hermione Granger, Viktor Krum, and Ron Weasley

Ah, yes, remember when Ron was really jealous of Viktor Krum for a stupidly long amount of time but seemed to have no idea why? What a wild ride that was. Although perhaps not for Hermione, who had to put up with Ron’s mumbled asides for more than two years: telling her off for 'fraternising with the enemy' when she dared to go to the Yule Ball with Viktor, calling him Vicky, complaining about the letters she wrote him, holding the fact that she’d snogged him against her years afterwards. Hmmm. On reflection, this was quite a one-sided triangle, but it did lead inexorably towards…

Ron Weasley, Lavender Brown, and Hermione Granger

There’s nothing so romantic as snogging someone because you’re jealous of the fact that your best female friend and haven’t-yet-admitted-it-crush did it two years ago now, is there? Perhaps we’re being uncharitable, but Ron’s relationship with Lavender Brown seemed more of a belated response to Hermione and Viktor than anything else. Or, as Ginny said:

He certainly proved Ginny wrong though, didn’t he? Snogging Lavender whenever he could, in full view of Hermione and anyone else unfortunate enough to have to witness it. Unlike Ron, though, Hermione’s jealousy and upset was immediately obvious, and when we think about the way Ron acted we can’t really blame her for setting a flock of birds on him. Lavender didn’t fare too well either, with Ron unable even to do the decent thing and break up with her. All-in-all, it was not a good episode for Won-Won.

Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter

This was mostly only a love triangle in Ron’s mind because, as Harry told Ron after he’d stormed out on them, he loved Hermione like a sister. But Ron – who was used to being overshadowed by his older siblings; used to his own mother forgetting he didn’t like maroon or corned beef; and, of course, used to playing sidekick to his heroic best friend – didn’t seem to know that. Which is not entirely surprising. Harry and Hermione were close enough for Rita Skeeter to spin her own false story about them during her salacious Triwizard Tournament coverage; a story that many – Molly Weasley among them – believed. So when it was Ron’s turn to wear Slytherin’s locket during the Horcrux hunt, obviously the horrible thing spoke to all his darkest fears. It exaggerated every worry he’d ever had, and made him brood on his paranoid imaginings. We suppose that in some roundabout way it did also help Ron acknowledge his feelings for Hermione, but that’s about all we can say for that particular piece of jewellery.