Harry was somehow buttoning up his shirt while simultaneously putting on his left shoe. Predictably, he fell over.
Grumbling, he sat up only to face an amused blonde with suspiciously twitching lips.
"What?" he said, defensively.
The blonde shrugged, and then made several hand motions very quickly, her smile widening.
"I'm not so sure about that", Harry replied, sitting up. "Hermione might come close to hexing my head open if we're too late"
The blonde made more hand motions – 'She's very unpredictable'.
"These days", Harry agreed, finally putting on his left shoe.
She signed 'Let me help you' and leaned in, rearranging his shirt's buttons.
"I'm not invalid", Harry replied.
She looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he sighed, tying up his right shoe.
The blonde looked at her watch, got up and left the room, smirking suspiciously.
"Elle, what are you doing? We're going to be late", Harry called, getting no response.
"Elladora", he drawled, a habit he'd picked up from her.
Suddenly a loud crack sounded.
"That little…" Harry grumbled, apparating away. She'd left without him!
-
At half past seven Neville had arrived, as he had said he'd help set some things up for the party before everyone arrived. He opened the door to the condo shared between Lee Jordan, the Weasley twins and, oddly enough, Padma Patil. He instantly surmised that he was back at The Final Battle – he'd just entered a battlefield.
People were running around; lights and flashes of color blinded Neville; pieces of furniture were turned over… After a few minutes of observation – he'd got oddly giddy watching the lights - Neville decided to knock, loudly. He raised a fist and knocked three times against the doorframe.
Okay, maybe not loud enough.
Irritated, he lifted his fist again and banged on the door. Still getting no reaction, he drew out his wand and let loose a loud gunshot-like bang.
That got everyone's attention.
Sheepishly, Neville sheathed his wand and raised a hand.
"Hello"
-
It turned out that Hermione's pregnancy-induced short temper had been set loose by a stray sex joke from one of the Weasley twins, resulting in a twisted sort of conga line as Hermione chased the twins, Ron chased Hermione, Crookshanks chased Ron and everyone else followed for the heck of it.
As Harry observed the damage caused by the last half-hour's activity he smiled, relieved at the thought of not having to be the one to fix this place up in the end of the night.
Finally calming down enough, Hermione with the help of several girls fixed up the mess. Danger loomed over them when Lee made a sexist women-to-the-kitchen type joke, but thankfully Ginny had had the foresight to cast Muffliato. The downside was that Hermione was getting on Ron's case about the annoying buzzing sound and why he wasn't doing anything about it.
Hermione had been prone to these dangerous moods ever since she'd read that pregnant women experienced something Hermione had eloquently dubbed 'Pregnancy Dimness'. Hysterical as she was about not being as smart, she'd taken to snapping at everyone; Ron had tried to reassure her that even if she got dumber, she'd still be smarter than most people he knew. That comment did not cheer her up.
Several people put up hands against their eyes as they were blinded by ridiculously bright shades of blond. That, of course, signified the arrival of the Malfoy clan: Draco, Luna and their three storms.
This sight was not unusual - the initial shock at seeing that pair had died after about a year at the latest. Draco's intolerance for aloofness and "spacey" individuals, while still present in general, seemed non-existent in regards to his wife. After consuming a ridiculous amount of liquor some years prior, Draco had admitted that Luna's brutal honesty was what had first attracted him. That and he wanted to find out if her earrings were edible at all.
Each of their three children was wriggling, trying to escape their parents' grips.
The young parents received a view of amused raised eyebrows.
Draco grumbled something as his two sons hanged off his arms like monkeys.
Luna peacefully propped her daughter against her hip and smiled at the assembly. "The house elf fell ill", she explained. "The babysitter is picking them up within the hour".
"You thought it was a good idea to bring your four-year-old children to a party?" Hermione looked rather worried as she considered, once again, her friend's sanity.
"I figured they wouldn't cause any trouble", Luna replied. Behind her, her sons were climbing on one of the tables, knocking assorted glasses and bottles to the ground.
Harry was once again relieved that he wasn't the one who'd have to stay up and fix everything.
-
The condo began filling up as more and more guests arrived. Thankfully, the Malfoys' babysitter had made a miraculous appearance after about thirty minutes, so the damage was minimal.
Hermione was complaining about not being able to drink 'real drinks' as Ron was discreetly keeping his own glass of firewhisky out of sight.
Dean and Seamus had already got a head start with the drinks and were now cheerfully recounting previous New Year's disasters.
"Neville went to kiss Mandy's cheek…" Dean slurred.
"But she had other plans", Seamus sniggered. "And they knocked into each other and fell!"
"Managing to break two chairs in the process", added Ginny maliciously.
"Cool!" exclaimed Seamus, pointing. "Neville fits the decorations!"
And sure enough, Neville was failing to hide his red face from view.
"Not to mention you two", grinned Draco, mysteriously coming to Neville's aid. "Actually knocking yourselves unconscious when you bumped into your glasses instead".
A round of sniggers was heard at Ginny and Seamus's expense, as they went as red as Neville.
"What about Ron?" Ginny tried to create a diversion. "Surely he's done something worse".
Ron was suspiciously trying to melt into the floor.
Two pairs of twins narrowed their eyes.
"Wait", said Padma slowly. "I don't actually remember anything to do with Ron at New Year's".
"No awkward snogging tales", Fred continued, mouth twitching.
"No disastrous collisions", added George, waggling his eyebrows.
"He's never got kissed at New Year's", muttered Colin.
"What?!" several people exclaimed, while the twins grinned evilly.
Ron looked like he couldn't decide whether he should hide from view or beat Colin to the ground.
Elladora made a few hand motions, her smile widening.
"How did that happen?" Harry translated, smirking because he knew she knew how, just creating a riot.
"Well, last year he obviously didn't", said Ginny.
"He was getting his leg mended after breaking it at practice", recounted Colin, still keeping a safe distance from Ron.
"The year before… He's got pissed and passed out", added Lee.
"Before that Hermione was out of the country", said Harry, ignoring the glare he received from Ron for participating in this humiliating conversation.
"The year before that some bloke had grabbed 'Mione and kissed her and she and Ron had spent the rest of the night fighting", Fred recalled, smirking.
"The year before Ron had got held up at work and by the time he got home, Hermione was already asleep", added George.
"Then there was your last year at Hogwarts… most of us were unconscious or critically injured during the Christmas holiday", added Luna calmly.
"And before that Ron and Hermione weren't together, so it's not likely Ron could've got anyone to kiss him", Fred grinned.
Even Ron didn't think to argue with that statement.
After a few more sniggers at Ron's expense, a few more New Year's tales and a few more drinks, mostly everyone was prone to sudden and unexplained bursts of laughter. This, of course, managed to cause several collisions, which went mostly overlooked.
Parvati, quite giddy herself, suddenly noticed Elladora and Harry conversing in signs and smiled sleepily.
"I'd love to learn sign language", said Parvati wistfully.
Elladora signed something while smirking that made Harry go red.
"I'm not translating that", Harry declared stubbornly.
Elladora's smile widened and she continued signing.
"No way. Those words are not coming out of my mouth", he exclaimed, shaking his head.
Elladora leaned in closer to Harry, signed something briefly and kissed his cheek as he sighed and closed his eyes in defeat.
"She said, 'if you did, we wouldn't be able to have sex talks while you lot are in the room anymore'", he recited monotonously.
Laughter and sniggers burst out of random people within hearing range. Fred and George could barely breath while Ron simply looked horrified, seemingly trying to come to terms with what he'd just heard. Draco raised an eyebrow at Elladora.
Elladora looked very pleased with herself and she smiled innocently at Harry as he glared at her.
"You two… actually…" Ron was still quite speechless.
"So…" George leaned in closed to the pair.
"Just for general knowledge", added Fred nonchalantly.
"What exactly do those talks entail?"
Elladora smiled sweetly and raised her middle finger.
No one had trouble understanding that sign.
-
"COUNTDOWN!" screeched a drunk, swaying Seamus. "COUNTDOWN! COUNTDOWN! COU-"
"Yes, I think we got the general idea, love", Ginny intervened, guiding him safely to his sit.
Hermione could be heard arguing with Fred as George was messing with something behind his back. Ron was desperately trying to get her distracted enough to finally get a kiss this year.
Luna was explaining how every New Year's, Muffleumps took advantage of people closing their eyes and kissing at midnight to plant cotton and lacewings in everyone's ears. That said, she started wondering at the sudden disappearance of her earplugs as Draco managed to look innocent while pocketing them.
"Fifteen seconds!" exclaimed Padma.
"Ten!" her sister followed.
"Nine!"
"Eight!"
Elladora looked at Harry and smiled awkwardly, unaccustomed as she was to public displays of affection. Harry raised an eyebrow at her, smirking as she hit his arm for making fun of her.
"Five!"
"Four!"
Harry leaned in until their noses touched.
"TWO!"
"ONE!" Something exploded over at one of the tables and started emitting whistles and lights.
Hermione was suddenly heard yelling at the twins, but her words ceased just as suddenly as they appeared as Ron, determined as he was to not go another year without a kiss from his wife at New Year's, had grabbed her and kissed her.
All of this was lost on Harry and Elladora as they continued to kiss, oblivious to their surroundings. Finally, they broke the kiss as loud music and various levels of shouting surrounded them.
Elladora looked into Harry's eyes, her own eyes bright, and signed something. Harry smiled.
"I love you too"
-
-
-
Aww – Fluff! I LOVE post-Hogwarts happy scenes (e.g. Happy Birthday Mini Mee by Solstice Muse. Read it!). I made this one-shot in three hours while I was half asleep, so expect a major editing process sometime this week.
Elladora is my own character, which I'm hoping to show more of in this fic I've been working on for a year. I refuse to post it until it's finished. I'm struggling to make her as un-Mary-Sue-ish as possible.
Just a hint about her – she's one-side Black.
Anyway, please leave comments. I won't deny that I hate flames, but anything is appreciated as long as it's in good taste.
I know there are a million 'signed something's… but I don't know sign language, so bear with me.
Now I'm off to take my last (and one of the most important) exam of the year… help…
CU…