Harry begged Madam Pomfrey to let him attend the finals party but she wouldn't have it.
"You were put through a very intense ordeal, Mr. Potter. There is no way I am letting you out of this hospital wing until I am thoroughly confident in your health."
When word got out he wasn't allowed to leave the hospital wing, his friends made it a point to keep him company throughout the day. Neville came by first and admonished him for not being more careful.
"I told you to take care of yourself and not even a day later you're confined to the hospital wing."
"Well, to be fair, I was in pretty good shape up until the end there."
Neville rolled his eyes and pulled out a chocolate frog from his bag and handed it to Harry.
"Why do I get the feeling that you are going to be one of my bigger headaches while here at Hogwarts?"
Daphne, Tracy, Padma, and Blaise stopped by in the afternoon. Harry couldn't tell whether to be embarrassed by all the attention or to join in on the banter flying around.
When the sun finally began to set, Harry's friends wished him well and left to prepare for the end of term party.
Hermione had brought him a book to pass the time but he just couldn't get into it, his thoughts kept going back to his friends and the party.
They must be having a blast.
Eventually Madam Pomfrey did her last check on him before heading to her quarters behind her office. Bored to death, Harry decided to just sleep and get to tomorrow as fast as possible.
"Harry…"
…
"Harry wake up…"
"Shake him."
"I don't want to scare him!"
"What's he going to do? Bite you?"
"Would you two get a move on! Pomfrey could come out at any moment!"
"Fine!"
Harry felt himself falling off the bed before hitting the ground on his side.
"Umph!"
"Oh my god! I'm so sorry, Harry!"
For the second time that day he found himself tangled in blankets on the floor of the hospital wing.
Sitting up, he blinked away the sleep in his eyes to see Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George crouched on the other side of his bed, clearly trying to keep out of site.
"What are you doing here?"
George stepped forward and helped him out of the blankets before handing them back to Fred.
"Did you think we would allow you to miss out on the biggest party of the year?"
Fred had stepped up to the bed and dropped a small cloth doll on the bed and drew his wand. Harry watched in amazement as the doll grew to full adult size.
"What is that?" Harry asked, trying to keep quiet but finding it difficult.
George grinned and pulled the blankets up over the doll so only the top of its head poked out on the pillow.
"This is how you don't get caught!"
Fred waved his wand again and a mop of messy black hair sprouted on the doll's head.
"With this, she won't notice if she just looks out the window of her office," Fred said as he tucked the doll in. When he was satisfied, he looked up to Harry and nodded. "Now, let's get out of here, yeah?"
Ten minutes and a change of clothes later, Harry Potter walked into the most chaotic party he'd ever seen. The entire first year common room was packed with what looked like every student in Hogwarts.
"Yeah, it's always like this for the end of year party," Fred said, draping an arm over Harry's shoulder. "The O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. students are finally done and want to let loose in a big way. Most of their friends from the other years want to celebrate with them and end up coming even if they normally wouldn't."
There was food out on tables all along the outer window with bars every few meters. A massive space in the middle of the room had been cleared and a dance floor had been set up. Floating lights flashed to the music playing from the same set up from the party at the end of the fall term.
The atmosphere of the room was one of complete release with not a person acting responsibly.
The group had come just inside the door and paused to look at their fellow students. Harry was pulled from his thoughts by the music suddenly stopping.
"Ladies and Gents! Its Harry Fuckin' Potter!"
The crowd turned to see the small group at the front of the room and cheered, many of the students raising a glass. His friends approached and welcomed him to the party. He received hugs, high fives, and fist bumps from everyone except Blaise who brought him a drink.
"Don't say I never did anything for you, Potter," he said with a smirk.
"I'm overwhelmed, Zabini," Harry said, accepting the drink and taking a swig. He looked around the group for a moment.
"Who gave me the shoutout over the speakers?"
The whole group turned to where the speakers and microphone were set up.
"I don't believe it," Fred said, his mouth hanging open.
"What happened to Percy?" Ron asked, equally aghast.
Percy was clearly drunk off his face and gyrating wildly around the dancefloor in some approximation of dancing.
"I guess since O.W.L.s are over and he's not coming back for a mastery, he felt like he could really let loose."
George's words settled over the Weasley brothers for a moment before they shared a massive grin and sprinted out to the dancefloor, each brother doing their best to copy Percy's wild flailing as closely as possible.
Flabbergasted, Harry followed his friends over to their usual hang out area and began relaying some of his story from the night before. For some reason he didn't want to mention Voldemort. He felt it wasn't the right time. When he looked over to Hermione at his side, she nodded in understanding.
The rest of the night was filled with dancing, drinking, and a general abandonment of any sort of decorum. The Weasley brothers, finally in solidarity after years of Percy being a wet blanket, had led the room in a dance contest, several drinking games, and an impromptu basketball game using a throw pillow as a ball. Ron quickly dubbed the new game "Floor Quidditch", completely ignoring all the muggleborn and muggle-raised's explanations of basketball.
It was nearing three in the morning when Harry began winding down. He had quite a bit more to drink than he intended and was sitting on the floor against a couch with Hermione laying on the couch behind him. She had stayed by his side all night, intent on not letting him go too overboard.
"You did fight a dark lord, after all."
She had her arm hanging off the couch to his left, her hand playing with the stem of an almost empty wine glass. She was talking to Tracy about… something. He couldn't really remember what but he was struggling to stay awake. Hermione's voice was soothing and he felt his eyes close and his head fall back against the couch.
Hermione's voice faltered for a moment before he heard her giggle, clearly a little drunk herself. Then he felt her fingers slide into his hair and start massaging his scalp.
"Holy balls, Hermione, that feels fantastic."
Her hand froze, still tangled in his hair. When she spoke her voice came out soft and unsure.
"I- uh, thought you were asleep."
"I will be soon if you keep doing that."
She started to pull her hand back but he reached up, snatching her wrist and firmly placing it back on his head. At the same time he grabbed her other hand and pulled it across his chest, awkwardly hugging her arm.
"That didn't mean I wanted you to stop."
Harry heard Tracy giggle before he felt Hermione's hand start moving again. He sighed and drunkenly nestled his face into the crook of her left arm, her right hand scratching his scalp in the most wonderful way.
"You are an amazing girl, Hermione," he said, his voice soft.
He could hear the smile in her words when she whispered, "Thank you, Harry."
Harry woke up to a massive headache and someone's hand on his face. The view when he opened his eyes was not what he expected. He was looking out from underneath a coffee table into the disaster left over from the party the night before.
He was laying on his side, his back up against a couch. He turned to lay on his back, the hand on his face falling to his chest. After a moment, he struggled into an upright position, a thin blanket falling from his shoulders. He finally realized it was Hermione's hand and the memory of her playing with his hair snapped to the forefront of his thoughts.
He smiled before another spike of pain flashed through his head. He groaned and stood up, placing the blanket on Hermione.
Looking around he saw people scattered in various positions across the room. The Weasley brothers had built a fort out of a few tables and a Weasley Christmas sweater was hanging from a broom as a makeshift flag. Three of the brothers were sprawled out behind the tables as if under siege.
Harry noticed another, smaller fort had been built across the dance floor. This one had a few older students littered around it. Harry did a double take as he noticed Malfoy on the top table, wearing what looked like a hufflepuff Quidditch jersey.
The rest of the room was in a similar state with smaller groups all around. He even noticed a few couples that apparently hadn't minded having a little fun behind nothing more than a couch.
I can't believe things were that crazy.
The urge to use the restroom became a top priority so he made his way to the toilet. A few minutes later he walked out of the restroom feeling relieved. He was about to wake Hermione when the portrait at the front of the room and in stepped two nightmares.
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS THIS!"
The deputy headmistress looked like she might blast the room to smithereens. Many people in the room sat up at her voice, wondering who was making all that noise.
One such person was Percy Weasley. Laying in the middle of the dance floor, shirtless with his girlfriend Penelope laying across his chest, he sat up squinting at the bright light coming in through the massive windows. When he noticed Professor McGonagall he blinked in confusion for a moment before his eyes almost shot from his head.
"Professor!" He said, scrambling to his feet. Noticing his missing shirt he looked around only to see that Penelope was wearing it.
By this point the rest of the room had begun to wake up and the gravity of the situation seemed to spread.
"In all my years teaching at this prestigious school, I have only seen a mess this dreadful once before! I swore then I would never allow it again! Everyone in this room will clean this room to perfection! I will return in two hours and if this room is not spotless, I will make sure every single one of you is forced to repeat the previous year!"
With that, she turned on her heel and left the room, leaving the second nightmare standing there, glaring at Harry.
Harry bowed his head and approached, knowing he wasn't going to like what came next.
"Imagine my surprise when I go to check on mypatient, only to find a giant doll with messy black hair."
Harry stood in front of Madam Pomfrey, wishing he were dead.
"Now, I know you are young and Merlin knows you seem to have inherited your father's penchant for chaos, but somewhere inside that thick skull of yours is a little piece of your mother."
Harry winced. This calm dressing down was much more painful than any beatings he'd received as a kid.
After a few moments of silence, he heard the mediwitch sigh and begin casting diagnostics over him. When he looked back up, she was still glaring at him.
"Well if you can handle a night like last night without dying, I am sure you can help clean up. If you feel anything wrong I am ordering you to immediately come to the hospital wing. Understood?"
Harry nodded vigorously before wincing at his hangover headache. Madam Pomfrey looked around the room. For just a moment he thought she smiled before she looked back at him.
"The 'once before' Professor McGonagall mentioned was the night your parents passed their N.E.W.T.s."
Harry was taken aback at her words. She let her smile grow and turned to the door. Before leaving she looked back at the aftermath of the party.
"Maybe I'll have the house elves bring up a batch of pepper-up potions."