AN: I do not own Harr Potter, I do not earn any money from writing this story, this world belongs to JK Rowling, no matter how much I change it and how much I wish even a small percentage belonged to me.
The adults once again left the dining hall to find the children. Sirius hoped they were where he last left them and led them to the quidditch pitch. As they neared the quidditch pitch, they could hear the cheers from most of the children who were simply floating lazily on their brooms. Harry was barrel-rolling, ducking, and nose-diving to escape the ever constant barrage of blugers.
Amelia turned to Sirius, "I thought you sent Remus to make sure that she would not go over board again."
Sirius just smiled and pointed at the opposite side, "I did, he's right there, with the other beater's bat. Seems that Harry is just too good for Tonks's beater skills so he decided to help Tonks instead."
As they were talking, the rest of the group let out one loud gasp. Harry was tumbling downwards at neck-break speed. Most of the adults with auror training, pulled their wands out and began casting the aresto momentum spell. Before any of them could complete the spell, Harry pulled up from his dive and snatched at the air. He slowed his momentum, turned and slowly landed with one hand in the air.
As the shock left their bodies, most adults started running towards Harry, while Tonks and Remus slowly descended.
Amelia reached him first, "Harry, what on Earth was that? You could have killed yourself."
"Hi Aunty, I was just diving to get the snitch, I was tired of dodging the blugers from Tonks and Remus," he responded.
Sirius started laughing, "Padfoot, can you be serious for one moment in your life, your godson almost died."
McGonagall came up behind them to interrupt, "I'm sorry to disagree with you Amelia, but that was one of the best dives I have ever seen. Harry how did you learn to do that."
At the attention from the normally severe professor, Harry couldn't think of an answer, "Umm..."
Rose floated over to them, "ever since I gave him the training golden snitch, he has been doing all kind of rolls, dives, and other crazy tricks to catch it. I think he's up to level eight on the snitch. Isn't that right Harry?"
McGonagall's eyebrows shot up into the sky, "level eight? Our current seekers cannot get higher than level nine, and they have been playing for their house teams for years. Can I see that golden snitch please?"
Harry handed over the snitch, unsure of just why she seemed so surprised. However the professor started beaming at him, "this says that you just reached level nine! You sent me a letter asking for me to change the rules for first years, isn't that right Mr. Potter?"
Harry's ears started burning red, "yes professor, I apologize if that was rude. I only wanted to be able to practice so that I could join the team next year."
"Mr. Potter, while I am not able to change the rules, I am able to provide you with an exception. We can't have Gryffindor's newest seeker get rusty from lack of practice," she told him with pride before remembering something, "that is, if you are aiming to join the house of the Lions?"
Sirius, Rose, and Harry answered at the same time, "are you kidding, of course we will be in Gryffindor."
Frank slapped the back of Sirius's head, "YOU are not going to be going to school, they are."
The crowd nearby started chuckling, however when McGonagall failed to hide her whisper, "thank Merlin for small favors," everyone who knew Sirius at school erupted in laughter.
Harry recovered first, "professor, are you serious?"
She looked down at the spitting image of her second favorite student and number one headache and smiled, "of course Mr. Potter, I will talk to Mr. Oliver Wood about it so that he isn't blind sided by this."
"Who is that professor?"
"He is the team captain for Gryffindor this coming year," she responded, "he may even be able to come visit you here, if your guardians are alright with it."
Amelia looked like she wanted to say no, but changed her mind at the last second, "it will be alright Minerva, however I do ask that you please look after him, I love him like a son and would hate for anything to happen to him because he dashed towards the ground at one-hundred-fifty kilometers per hour."
Tonks snorted from behind Amelia, "of course he wont be going that fast, his broom only goes up to one-hundred-thirty."
Amelia turned to Tonks, "I see you don't want your reference letter towards the auror academy."
Tonks's hair changed to a flat gray and her faced paled, "what I meant to say was that Harry is very mature for his age, and would never do anything that stupid, right Harry?"
Harry wiped the dreamy look on his face, "right. You have nothing to worry about, Aunty. By the way professor, is Gryffindor looking for a chaser too? Rose is amazing and would make an amazing addition to the team."
Minerva looked to a red-faced red hair who was nodding, "I am sorry, our other positions are currently occupied, however Alicia Spinnet is looking for a replacement who is better than her. Her father wants her to devote her time to studying as she is nearing her OWL year, but she refuses to leave the position unless she is being replaced by someone as good or better than herself."
Rose looked up and tried to control her blush, "well I will just have to prove myself to her and yourself professor."
McGonagall was beyond happy, although she had a somewhat though discussion with Amelia and the others, she would be leaving with new brooms for the school, a new seeker, and possibly a new chaser, and if not, at least they would have a replacement for when Alicia left school, "I'm sure you will Rose."
Amelia interrupted them however, "well I am glad to see that you're not hurt Harry, but it is getting near time for the rest of our guests to arrive. Please go get showered so we can meet them."
There was a chorus of "yes ma'am" from the children, although she could have sworn that Tonks, Remus, Sirius, and Frank were part of the chorus.
She led everyone back inside while the children congratulated Harry on his new position on the Gryffindor team. Sirius was telling anyone who would listen that his godson was the new seeker for the team. No one payed much attention to him as they had all been there when it happened.
~~~IGYB~~~
The children were all showered and changed, ready to accept the first of their guests.
The floo flared up and Amelia's friend Laci Smyr came out with her husband Jean, and their son, Alex. They had been family friends since Amelia and Sirius visited France. Sirius got spectacularly drunk and got lost. Amelia had to hunt down her husband while starting to rethink marrying him the week before when she bumped into Laci who shared a similar look.
It turned out that Jean was also drunk and was wondering around, so the two decided to combine their investigative powers and wait for them while drinking cocktails at the bar nearby. Eventually both Sirius and Jean came back holding each other up talking about their amazing wives. Ever since, the four adults had been great friends and visited each other regularly.
"Bonjour Alex," said harry.
"Comment vas-tu Alex?" asked Rose.
Alex looked at the twins and responded in English, "Harry, you still sound like you have food stuck in your throat, and I'm well Rose, how are you?"
Harry glared at his friend for a moment but ignored it while Rose answered, "I'm doing great, I managed to get to the safe zone, so no pranking alright?"
"You got it Rose, is he fair game though?"
Rose smiled at her brother, "both him and Neville are fair game."
"Oi, don't bring me into this," yelled Neville from the other side of the welcoming room.
Rose ignored his shout, "if you could please wait for us in the dining hall, we do not want it to get too crowded here."
"Of course mademoiselle," he said before following his parents.
Harry looked at his sister, "you know he has a crush on you right?"
"Oh please, he's ten. He's probably just imitating Sirius or Mr. Smyr," she responded, "by the way, Manon didn't come, are you disappointed?"
Harry's ears once again burned red, "I've told you, I'm not interested in her. She's like eighteen years old. Besides, she's probably staying with her real mom, you know she doesn't get along with Mrs. Laci."
She smiled at his embarrassment, "awfully informed for someone that doesn't care about Mademoiselle Manon Smyr."
Before he could respond, the floo flared up once again. Four girls walked out followed by two adults, "hello Lord Black, Lady Black, Lord Longbottom, Lady Longbottom."
Neville rolled his eyes, "Daphne cut the formalities, you know they're not needed here, who are your friends?"
"I was doing it for their benefit you know, they need practice. This is Marietta Edgecombe and Pansy Parkinson, they're friends from ballet school," she introduced the taller girl first, she had long brown hair and hazel eyes. The smaller girl, had shoulder length black hair and brown eyes, Neither seemed too interested at being here. "I hope you don't mind that I brought them along."
Sirius and Frank walked up, "of course not, they'll just have to be told the secret. Otherwise they'll get sick and disoriented. Let us just check them first." Sirius and Frank waved their wands quickly over both girls. They were checking for any portkeys, listening charms, locations charms, and any other charm spell or artifact that would let anyone else know where they were or let them overhear anything said. They were then told the secret which only let them know about the welcoming room, dining hall, guest bathrooms, and backyard.
This fidelius charm was cast to provide them the ability to easily give people access to their house, without actually giving them access to the main house which was under a different fidelius charm. Once the guests left, the fidelius charm would be removed, and a new one would be cast.
"Go ahead girls, we are expecting more people, so please head into the dining hall," frank told the girls, and then welcomed Astoria, Cyrus, and Isabella, "I'm glad you all could make it. Please enjoy yourself Astoria, I know you haven't been able to attend the last few parties. Let me know if you need anything alright?"
Astoria curtsied, "thank you Lord Black, I will keep that in mind."
Cyrus came up to Sirius, "she's been practicing, just let her. If you ask her to skip the formalities, she'll think that you're treating her like that because of her illness."
"Of course Cyrus, please make yourself at home."
Thirty minutes later, the rest of the guests had arrived. In total, about thirty guests had arrived, David Klass, his wife and two children, Anita Emerson and her daughter, the Finnigans, and a few others.
They all gathered in the dining hall for an elegant spread prepared by all of their house elves plus a few borrowed from Hogwarts. Some of the pureblood children were distinctly avoiding the muggle food such as pizza, hamburgers and hot-dogs. Eventually Neville convinced Daphne and Pansy to try pineapple pizza and instantly the two were hooked. They asked Neville to let their elves get his elves to teach them the recipe.
Seamus joined in eating the muggle food, as he had experience with it, but refused to eat the pineapple pizza stating that it was an abomination to pizza. The girls glared at him for besmirching their new favorite food and caused him to snap his mouth shut before leaving to find Harry.
Alex seemed to be trying to join Rose anywhere she went to the obvious annoyance of Harry. He was smaller than average, and looked like if Draco had cut his hair shorter and had just came off his broom. All in all, Harry did not like him.
Like Harry, Rose noticed that her brother was also being followed. Astoria was never further than a meter from her brother, but instead of being frustrated, she found it adorable. The girl was probably hooked on the rumors of herself and her brother being super wizards who can were trained by Merlin himself.
Many young witches sent her brother fan-mail, while many young wizards sent her fan-mail as well as love letters. Both had a large pile of betrothal contracts from families all over who were trying to tie themselves to the Potter line. It didn't hurt that the Potters were immensely wealthy but could not do anything about it until they were of age. All in all, they were both used to the adoration of strangers and sometimes even friends. However, where she ignored it, Harry and Sirius wanted to hunt down anyone dumb enough to try to snatch Rose for themselves.
It worried her how they would react when she finally decided to date. She couldn't think of that at the moment, they had a party to enjoy, and the games were about to start.
The first game was a treasure hunt. The children would be grouped into teams of four and would then be sent out into the massive backyard to find specific objects. To make it harder for them, the elves had placed many similar objects throughout the back yard.
Sirius was in charge of this first game and gathered up the children, "Alright kids, to make this more interesting, we will be randomizing you into teams. To do so, you will each come sit down on this stool and pick a slip of paper from this old hat," for some reason most of the adults laughed at this, "once you have your slip of paper, you will join your fellow teammates under the banner that correlates to your slip of paper. These will be Tigers, Ravens, Serpents, Mongooses," again the adults laughed, "Dragons, and Unicorns."
After a few moments the teams were divided. Harry was in the Unicorns with Hannah, Daphne, and Alex. Rose was in the Ravens with Pansy, Lee-Anne Snivey, and Wednesday Adams. Marietta found herself in Mongooses with David Klass, Bianca Emerson, and Luna Lovegood. Alice Liddell, Annabeth Chase, Sarah Hart, and Samantha Cook were the Serpents. The most excited team was the Dragons, consisting of Astoria, Kyle Whiggins, Marty Alfonse, and Tracey Davis. And Neville was in Lions with Susan, Perseus, and Jamie Klass.
At the sound of the whistle, all six teams took off to find their items. Harry's practice at being a seeker was a great benefit to the team and was able to find most of the items with no problem, however, half a tennis ball was being elusive. It was Daphne who told him to find a whole Tennis ball and see if they could cut it in half. When he finally found it and went to grab it, it turned out to be sitting on a glass surface that made it look like a whole tennis ball.
The Unicorns managed to return and claim second place behind the Serpents, with the Dragons in third, Lions fourth, Mongooses fifth and Ravens last.
The next game was to be a three legged race, they were told to choose two members to be in this race. The results surprised everyone as Ravens and Serpents tied with Rose and Lee-Anne managing to catch up to Annabeth and Sarah.
After a series of games consisting of pie-eating, gnome catching, math problems, and even archery, which Wednesday was scary good at, the Serpents were in the lead with Dragons, Unicorns, and Ravens tied for second. The last game was to be hide-and-seek. The adults went all out, once Minerva was conned into leading the adults in transfiguring the entire backyard into a small village, the kids would have ten minutes to use anything in a shed provided for them to help them in hiding.
Rose went and found some child-safe paint which she used to paint her body like a log, she didn't have time pain all of herself, so she only painted the front of her bottom half and used a low hanging branch to hide the top half. Harry used a net to secure himself to the ceiling of one of the buildings, confident that it was dark enough for him to not be seen. The rest of the children found boxes, covers, and other items to hide in, while also leaving others around the place to waste the seekers time.
After a lifetime of waiting, Sirius, Frank, Tonks, and Gomez Adams were dispatched to find the children. Within the first five minutes, the entire team of the Mongooses was out, along with half of every other team. Sirius could be heard cursing McGonagall's expertise in transfiguration as the mock village had a surprising amount of hideaways. Twenty minutes in only Harry, Annabeth, and Rose were still hiding.
Tonks let out a scream when she tripped over a log and pulled on a branch, which revealed Rose. Gomez heard the scream which had him turn around with his wand still lit and found Harry. Once all the kids were back at the starting position Amelia used a sonorus to call out for Annabeth so that she could return as the winner. Surprising everyone, she dug herself out of a large hole next to the closest mock building.
"How did you have time to dig a hole large enough to hide yourself in," asked Amelia.
"Oh, I remembered that we caught an especially large number of gnomes from there earlier and assumed that they had dug a lot of tunnels there," she said, as if it had been obvious. "I was right, so I used a shovel to make the hole bigger, placed the smallest box I could find on top of the hole, and hid."
Amelia got over her shock and announced the Serpents as the winners, they each received an invisible wand holster, a mokeskin pouch, and a fifty galleon voucher for Flourish and Blotts. All four girls thanked their hosts for their prizes before following everyone back into the dinning hall. The children were sent to wash up in the showers while the elves washed their clothes.
Once everyone was clean they gathered around the middle table which held three large cakes. The middle one was chocolate and had "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSE" written in gold, the left was vanilla and said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEVILLE" in blue, and finally the right was strawberry and said "HARRY STINKS" in an ugly yellow.
Harry glared at his godfather who laughed and pointed at Tonks, who was doing a terrible job of whistling and acting innocent. Amelia quickly fixed it to "HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY" in green, and had everyone sing happy birthday for the three.
Everyone enjoyed the different flavored cakes, and towards the end Amelia had to break up a food fight which had Neville and Harry covered in cake.
At nine the guests wished the kids happy birthday and hugged them goodbye. Bye ten the house was back to normal with only the Longbottoms sticking around. The three kids would have a sleepover after their birthday party every year and they couldn't break tradition. Alice and Frank stayed partially to help clean up, but mostly because they were too tired to floo or apperate home.
The children left their gifts forgotten for the night, as they would open them in the morning.
AN: Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter, next chapter will have the kids opening their presents and then going on the Hogwarts Express, which means that chapter ten should be Hogwarts! Review please!