Chapter 10

When New Year's Eve was upon them the men dressed their best after receiving a formal invitation from Madame Bones that the dress wear was semi-formal, and that many other friendly Lords and Ladies would be attending the party.

This made Harry and Sirius go buy new outfits for the occasion and get neatly trimmed up, and shaved to make it all look presentable. Ron and Hermione had both been invited by the Bones family, as had quite a few members of the DA Susan explained briefly in a letter he had received that morning, and the boy was greatly looking forward to the event, that he knew could very well change his life. At least if he listened to anything Sirius Black said.

The two were walking through the wards side by side in accompany with one another when Sirius said, "Relax Harry I think your beginning to sweat. I haven't seen a man get this nervous over a red head since your dad, and before him, never!"

Remus was in tow with the men when he grinned, "I will never forget how pale looked when he came back from asking Lily to be his girlfriend the first time."

Harry was only recently getting used to the story of knowing that his mum had rejected James Potter well over a dozen times before accepting his invitation to go on a date, and still couldn't believe they didn't have the golden romance like people had told him!

Sirius cracked a laugh at the memory, "We can say what we want about old Prongs, but the man was determined, and he was loyal."

The three held a moment of silence as they approached the main door, where Sirius insisted they entered like proper gentlemen, and not through the floo which was a wizard's rudeness sometimes.

Looking at Bones Manor from the outside Harry realized the massive size of the home, and wondered just why if this was a wizarding home the place even had a doorbell, which Sirius rang to see if anyone would be waiting at the door, "That will be five sickles Mooney old chap, I told you no wizard or witch waits at the door for their guest anymore, its always by the fireplace!"

It wasn't long before a striking woman whom Harry did not recognize at first opened the door, "Harry!"

The women slowly walked over to the young man and embraced him tightly, and for the life of him he couldn't think of an intelligent response, much less his first name. Susan was wearing a short silver dress that hugged her body quite nicely, and showed off everything the girl was blessed with. From her nicely tanned legs, to her widening hips, to her ever-growing bust line that made many boys at Hogwarts drool.

While Harry remained speechless, Sirius saved the boy from embarrassment, "While my boy Harry here seems to need his tongue untied, I hope you don't mind that we dragged Remus Lupin with us, I know you two know each other, and I know your Aunt will remember him, but the poor old chap was sitting alone when we were leaving Potter Manor, and I begged him to come along with us, so he could spend my first New Year's Eve as a free man with me!"

Smiling at the two men to her right she responded with, "Of course! Auntie Amelia is always happy to have more guest in the house, especially because it feels kind of empty with just the two of us around most of the time! It is good to see you again Professor Lupin!"

Remus offered the girl his hand and said, "Please just Remus or Mooney will do. I am no longer your professor, and now that I am entering your home, I insist that we keep it simple!"

The girl laughed, "I think I am familiar with your nickname Mooney, so that will do nicely for me!"

The two Marauders both gave the boy a surprised glance that he had shared that story with the girl, and he turned a bit red, "It may have come up once!"

This caused the men to throw their shoulders back and laugh heartily, and Susan escorted the three inside. It was three hours to the New Year, and most of the guest at Bones Manor had already arrived, including like Susan promised many of the DA members. Among the notable people were Neville, and Hannah who seemed to be getting cozy in the corner when he walked in. When the two Gryffindor boys made, eye contact however they went towards each other at once. As the boy approached Harry noticed he had several small cuts on his face, and a large bruise on his neck, "I was hoping I would catch you here tonight Harry. You have had a busy holiday it seems!"

Grinning at the boy he smiled, "I had some help, but yeah it has been busy, and great! How about you? From the look of those marks, it looked like you came across something that didn't like you!"

This caused the boy's face to nearly split in two, "That was my Uncle Algie, he came into Christmas this year and began bagging on me like he usually does. He then started on Gran, so I told him to shut his mouth. He didn't like my disrespect, so he stood up to teach me a lesson, and we dueled. He got me a couple of good times, but I taught him to respect me for it."

Harry laughed a bit at the boy's crazy family saying, "Well I am glad you are able to use some of what I am teaching to you guys!"

A voice came from behind him that sounded stern and almost like a certain Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts, "The boy is being modest. What he didn't tell you was that his Uncle is an Unspeakable, and one of the best duelist in our family, which given its law enforcement history is saying something. Whatever you are doing Potter keep it up. You have the full support of House Longbottom, and I am glad someone in that school is standing up to things."

Scratching the back of his head with a bit of embarrassment the boy said, "Thank you Madame Longbottom, I am just doing what I can. It's not much, but these are dangerous times we live in."

The women raised her a glass a bit to him, "That they are Mr. Potter. That they are. I won't bother you kids any longer, but I just wanted to congratulate you. If you can teach my nephew the art of dueling, and self-defense, then perhaps you have a higher calling in teaching. Have a good evening."

The teenagers said their goodbyes to the older lady, and circled up talking about their holidays and plans. At some point, Antony Goldstein, Hermione, and Ron showed up, which made their circle even bigger. It kept growing until eleven, where it was almost half the DA!"

Susan and Harry spaced out from the group at some point as the red head could tell he was getting overwhelmed. She decided to take him down to the grounds for a bit for some fresh air, and some personal one on one time together, "It is a beautiful night, if not a bit cold."

Noticing for the first time that the girl was a little bear in her clothes, he quickly removed his jacket without word, and wrapped it around the girl carefully, "Sorry I didn't even think about how cold it must be in that outfit!"

The girl laughed a bit, "Well you know sometimes a girl has to dress to impress, and it can get a little cold once you step away from the party."

Those words felt significant to Harry though he didn't comment on them, as they walked through the garden. The comfortable silence didn't go for long as Harry spoke, "I really do appreciate what you did for me Susan. No matter what you say, I don't think I will ever be able to repay you for that!"

The red head bumped his shoulder lightly with hers as they walked grinning, "It was the right thing to do Harry. You have been robbed of so much in this life, and the fact that I was given a chance to help you and make a difference was important to me. You give so much to help the kids back at school, and I know most of them in a heartbeat would give up just about anything to you if you asked for it. We all feel a little indebted to you."

Shaking his head, "Well you definitely shouldn't, you have done more for me than literally anyone has in my whole life, and we have only been speaking for two months."

"Don't you think that is a shame too?"

Raising his eyebrows, a bit he asked, "What do you mean?"

The girl stopped and faced him, and began nervously twirling her hair, "I don't know, I just feel like we have hit off pretty well these past few months. We made a hell of a team with this whole scheme we through together too. We had everyone fooled, and we put that together in one night. Imagine what we could have done together had we been friends all this time."

The boy offered his arm in a fake arrogance, "Care to take over the world mi'lady?"

The girl laughed at his outrageous suggestion, but took his arm none the less as they continued to walk through the courtyard, "I guess when we go back to school we can tell everyone we broke up. It was friendly, and that it was clean. Not many people would ask questions after the first few days."

Without thinking Harry asked, "Yeah, but what if we didn't?"

This caused both of the teenagers to stop, and then she looked a little bewildered, "What do you mean Harry?"

At a loss for words Harry tried to reach for the right words, but couldn't find them. It was then he heard a voice call over his head, "Harry the New Years is starting, come up here and get Champagne glasses!"

Turning to look at the girl then his calling godfather, he decided to hold off the conversation for a bit and just offered his arm again, "Come on let's go celebrate the new year with some style!"

Smiling at his words the girl took his arm once again and they quickly made their way back to the manor. Upon arrival, most of the party had gathered around a conjured clock that looked a bit like the tower that stood in London, but a much smaller version. Sirius was standing with Madame Bones, and Remus, and he was holding his glass in preparation to speak when his godson and friend walked back into the room, "Now that were all here, I would like to say a few words as we only have a few minutes left in the New Years."

Everyone gave the former prisoner of Azkaban their attention as the clock ticked towards midnight, "This year I started as a man on the run from the law, and life itself, and today I stand before you a free man. In just five minutes we are going to enter a new year, and it is a very important one to me, and the people I call family."

Harry watched his godfather speak carefully, and tried to analyze every word he said, "Though I may be a free man, I know dark times are ahead, but the people in this room, tonight, have reminded me just why we all fight for the light. Why we as people, friends, and family, fight for one another. Many changes are coming, and House Bones, and House Black, are going to take them together. I hope in time, many of you will stand with us, because a fight is coming, and I know many of us lost a lot in the last war, in fact some of us lost it all, but we must stand together, if we want to save it all this time."

The clock showed one minute left and he held his glass in the air, "A toast to the new year, to peace, to family, and to everlasting alliances, for without those things, I would not have a reason for tomorrow! To 1996 Ladies and gentlemen!"

Many people called back the toast, and Harry hugged his Godfather, but then he turned to the red head who has had his attention the whole night. A countdown was going on in the background, but he wasn't processing it. The words Sirius had just spoken rang in his ears, and he knew they were true.

As he approached Susan, something inside him clicked, and he grabbed the girl, and gently brought her to closer to him, as he softly placed his lips against hers. He heard the cheers behind him, and he wasn't sure if it was the New Year, or people were happy to see young people kissing, but either way it was over his head.

Harry felt something he had never felt before tug inside him during the short kiss. It wasn't anything huge, but it was intimate. It felt special. It was his first kiss. It was his first kiss, and it was on the first moment of a new year.

When the two separated, the girl blinked a few times, then said, "Was that why you didn't want to tell people we weren't split up?"

Nervously the boy pulled at his collar a bit, "Yeah, yeah it was."

This surprisingly made the girl smile, and she pulled him back in for another soft kiss, and whispered back in his ear, "Yes, I think I agree then."

The young man's smile in this moment could have lit up a dark room, it could have blinded the dark lord, but instead it made the beautiful young women across from him smile just as large, because she had never seen such a look on his face before.

A stern clearing of the throat happened from behind them, and Harry turned to see the smiling face of Amelia Bones, "Mr. Potter, I hope I don't have to give you the usual threatening speech about how if you hurt my niece you will find yourself in the darkest corners of Azkaban?"

Harry chuckled nervously, "No ma'am, I have had my fair share of dementors in my life, and I don't fancy another casual run in with them, much less on a regular basis."

The women laughed lightly, "Good, you are welcome over here anytime, but I don't think I will be leaving you two alone all day anymore. Heaven only knows what I would have done in this empty manor with a boy here all day."

This made the two teens blush, and others who were listening nearby laugh. Thankfully Harry remembered a last piece of advice Harry had been given by Sirius and asked, "Will you go on a date with me before we go back to Hogwarts?"

The girl looked surprised at the question, but then smiled, "I am sure I can fit you in my schedule Mr. Potter, just when would you like to do this certain date?"

"How about Tomorrow, I can pick you up here, and we can go out and do something fun."

Giving the boy a teasing smile she said, "What kind of fun did you have in mind Potter? From what I have seen of your life, we might have two very different definitions."

"I think I might just surprise you then. I don't get to surprise people very often for something good, ya know?"

"Then I very much look forward to tomorrow night, and our evening together."

Feeling lucky and in the moment, he laughed, "Let's take it one day at a time then from here? I know things can get shaky back at Hogwarts, so let's do it right while we can?"

"That sounds wonderful, but don't forget I still want to know a few things about you! I do believe we have two more years of memories to go through sometime. When you're ready."

Harry forced a bit of a smile at that, "I know, and a promise is a promise!"

The music in the background was starting again now that people were done wishing each other a happy new year, and Susan dragged Harry out to the dance floor saying, "If you're going to be my boyfriend you're going to have to learn how to dance with me, and handle me. I am also a bit of a partier, but for you I don't think that will be a bad thing at all."

She whispered the last part in his ear, and the two danced with the other people on the floor. It was mostly the younger crowd, but Sirius had guided Amelia on to the floor at one point, and kicked it back for a while.

Harry wasn't sure what this new year would bring, but if this was any indication, then it was going to be the best year of his life.