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A/N: The title speaks for itself. This part was tough, and it took an unreasonably long time, even given the interruptions of life ( and there have been a LOT, good and bad) Hope all you readers who check this out will enjoy it!



Paris Thirteen " Dinner, Dancing, Elves, Fairies and More"


When the music stopped, there was the usual confusion of people caught in mid conversation, and looking a bit embarrassed, as if uncertain how much of their conversations had been overheard. Harry was glad he hadn't begun to suggest a private corner to Hermione, Lavendar and Pavarti were already staring at them. He promised himself he'd dance with each of them at least once and make sure they understood he and Hermione were now more than friends.

Ivy, Chris and Dumbledore were in front of the area where the band would be playing, and Dumbledore began to speak.

"We'd like to welcome you all this evening, as we celebrate our friend Harry's birthday. I won't embarrass him with long speeches, but I know I speak for all of you when I wish him many, many more birthdays as happy as this one. This is your first birthday celebrated as your parents would have wished, Harry. May we all enjoy it as Lily and James would . Now, Ivy has a few announcements, I think."

"Harry, we are all so happy to be with you to celebrate. As most people here now know, Lily was my dearest friend, and what a joy it is to finally be able to show you some good times, as Professor Dumbledore says, as your parents would wish. We will have time for lots of toasts later,as well as a surprise to end the evening. Before dinner I would also like to welcome all of you who have made the trip to be here. We have a new arrival who some of you will not have seen in quite some time, Remus Lupin. I'm happy to tell all of you that Remus is well on his way to having his affliction completely controlled, and it's a joy that he could be here with us, looking so well. Please join me in welcoming Remus!"

With that Ivy, Dumbledore and Chris began to applaud, joined by more and more guests, some of whom looked extremely shocked and a bit uncertain. Harry thought how clever Ivy was to immediately make it impossible for anyone at the party to snub or treat Professor Lupin unkindly. She and Hermione certainly believed in plunging right into difficult situations most people would have tried to ignore.

When the applause began to fade, Ivy continued, telling the group to find their names on the tables and the food would be served. Harry found himself at a table with Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Adrian and Danielle. All around them, friends sat, laughing and talking happily. Harry had the same sensation he'd had that afternoon, sitting with their friends at the ice cream shop, just complete happiness. He was startled to look up from admiring the table with its fresh yellow roses and violets in round clear glass bowls, to see a large group of house elves coming in, proudly carrying huge trays and pushing carts of delicious smelling food. He turned to Hermione in amazement and managed to croak out," Y-you had house elves prepare the food? What happened to S.P.E.W.?"

Hermione looked sheepish, but said cheerfully, "This is a bit different, Harry, they aren't here as slaves. Dumbledore asked for volunteers who wanted to come help. But the condition for coming was that they had to spend two days just enjoying themselves here, before they began preparing the food. Before we came back in, Professor Dumbledore was telling us that some of them were about to have nervous fits, not working, but by the end of two days, they all admitted they had enjoyed it. Though all of them said it would never take the place of scrubbing a dirty floor or feeding a few hundred people."

"Good news for us, that." Ron said, grinning at Hermione. "Will you give it up now?"

Danielle looked from Ron to Hermione and back with a bewildered look. " What is it that Hermione gives up? You want her dinner? I think there will be plenty, Ron, even for one so hungry as you."

Harry and Hermione looked at each other, unable to stifle their laughter. "So, you found out very quickly what Ron finds most important in life ?" Harry asked, expecting to see Ron glowering at him. Instead Ron just laughed.

"Oh yeah, we're well on our way to knowing each other." he replied. "And if it stays this much fun, I have a feeling food is going to drop way down on the list."

Danielle's cheeks turned much pinker when she heard this, but she smiled and said," The house elves will always be much happier working. Mama and Papa have always insisted our house elf come along on holiday with us, so that she would not take the whole house apart, cleaning while we were gone. Poor thing. she is having a difficult time, knowing that I will be far away this year."

" Far?" asked Ginny. " Where will you be?"

"She 's coming to Hogwarts, Gin, " Ron told her. Harry thought Ron looked like a cat who had just been presented with its favorite treat, and Danielle was beaming too.

" Yes, " she said. "It was just finally decided this afternoon. When Mama found out Ivy and Chris will also be at Hogwarts, she was able to help me persuade Papa. Only Max does not know, and I fear he will not be happy."

Harry didn't think Max would be very happy either. He didn't know the French boy very well, but he did know Max felt very close to his sister, and was already not very happy about his friend Adrian leaving. He wondered how he'd react when he found out Danielle had already met and developed a mutual crush on a Hogwarts' student.

The food they ate was delicious, and everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time, when they heard talking out in the entrance. Ivy and Chris started to rise to go to the other room but before they could, Hagrid swept in, followed by Lee Jordan and a boy who looked younger than Lee and the Weasley twins, but older than Harry. He was dark haired and had blue green eyes. The boy,who Lee introduced as Damien, looked friendly, but Harry for some reason felt a strangeness from him. Things were confusing for a few moments as Hagrid greeted everyone in his usual boisterous way, and Lee explained why he and his companion were arriving late. Hagrid managed to squeeze into a couple of chairs at one of the outer tables, and Lee and his friend sat with others who would be entering their seventh year. Things were a bit crowded and Seamus asked the new boy to join them. Harry was glad, because for some reason, he felt he needed to find out more about him.

"So, you're a friend of Lee's?" asked Seamus. "Have you been visiting all summer?"

"Oh, no," said Damien. "I just arrived several days ago. Lee and I hadn't met before, but our moms met years ago at school. My mom did a year at Hogwarts, and now I'm going to do the same. Lee suggested I come along, said it would be a good chance to meet some of the students before term started."

'Hmmm' thought Harry. 'Even without a Triwizard's tournament, this looks like a year with a real international group.' He was going to be watching Dumbledore carefully, to see whether the headmaster reacted in any way to this new student. Now, though, it was time to concentrate on the delicious food in front of him, and enjoy being with his friends, What a change from other years, when by this time he would have been alone in his room at the Dursleys' crossing off his birthday as just another day toward getting back to Hogwarts. Now though, his plate was full and Hermione was looking at him in a way that made him want to pull her outside those French doors and kiss her until neither of them could stand up.

Hermione grinned at him, as if she had read his mind and leaned over to whisper "Soon". He shivered as her lips brushed his ear, and he thought 'Oh, this girl loves to torture me, but I'll pay her back, and VERY soon!'

The rest of the supper passed fairly uneventfully, and when everyone was finishing up, the members of the band stepped up and began to play. They were very good, Harry thought, and seemed able to play anything. Fred, George, Lee, Angelina, Alicia and Katie were the first ones on the dance floor, but they were quickly joined by Chris and Ivy who amazed them all by being quite proficient at the same dancing the teenagers were enjoying.

"I think they've managed to forget I exist during the school year. I bet they go out dancing every night!" Hermione pretended to pout as she said this, but Harry thought it was very obvious she was proud of her parents. Now, if he could just remember to dance the way Hermione had taught him, before they left for Paris. He grinned to himself as he thought back on the rainy afternoons when they had started out practicing dancing to some fast and loud music, but ended up on the window seat, very close together, watching the rain, in case anyone asked but really doing something entirely different. Hermione had put Crookshanks' basket directly in front of the door and he had obligingly meowed very loudly whenever anyone approached. Crookshanks had actually begun to earn a warm spot in Harry's heart recently.

The dance floor was very crowded when they saw Fred and George hurry toward the arched opening to the front room, and they came back in with several people who looked vaguely familiar to Harry, at least the girls did. He saw Fred and George talking to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, who beckoned for Ivy and Chris to join them. After a few moments, all of the group moved onto the dance floor and Harry realized where he'd seen the girls. Fred and George has been talking to them in the French wizarding street. Apparently, they had been in on the party location, and asked them to drop by with a few friends. Angelina, Katie and Alicia seemed to be enjoying meeting the French boys too. He was glad to see Hermione was doing nothing more than smiling at Fred and George as they suddenly seemed to have forgotten how to dance. Their partners, who were very pretty and very stylish, were quite happily involved in " teaching" them again. Ron and Danielle had danced over to the large plant again, and Harry expected to see them disappear from sight any moment. Unexpectedly, Hermione pulled his head down and whispered "Would you like to explore the house a bit? I've got a set of keys."

"You mean it?" Harry said, almost afraid to believe his luck. She nodded and very quickly led him out a small door that was almost hidden by one of the food carts. They were in a dark stairway, and Hermione quickly pulled out her wand, and muttered "lumous" . They went up the stairs and found themselves in a room with a glass ceiling, lots of plants, and some long couches with only one arm. In the center of the room was a fountain that had different colors and soft music coming from it. There were twinkling lights that Harry recognized as fairies, but Hermione walked over, swished her wand and the fairies swarmed away.

"Little pests!" she said with a grimace. " I suppose I'll catch it now, they'll probably turn up downstairs, and will be pulling someone's hair, or something. I forgot this room had a fairy infestation. It seems Perenelle, Nicolas ' wife had this fondness for them and they still breed more freely here than anyplace."

Harry saw what she meant, there were cocoons hanging that he recognized as belonging to fairies. As they stood there another swarm flew out from under the fountain, surrounding them, until Hermione swished them away. He led her over to one of the strange looking couches, sat down and pulled her onto his lap.

"This is an interesting dress, Hermione. It almost feels like it's made of some metal, it's so cold and smooth, but it moves with you like it's part of you. I like it, it's like you with a smooth, silver skin."

Hermione laughed and snuggled in closer " That's funny, you like it for the same reasons my dad didn't. I wasn't sure you'd notice."

" Not notice? Am I blind? No, I wouldn't mind if you wore dresses made out of whatever this is all the time, in all kinds of colors. I can see how your dad would say that though. I do seem to feel like touching you more than before, and I wouldn't have thought that was possible."

Hermione moved Harry's hands so that they were on her hips and leaned back to look at him. " I wouldn't have expected seeing you in a tuxedo to make me feel that way either," she told him. " You look amazingly natural in formal wear, I would never have expected such a handsome escort tonight. This'll be something to remember when we're back in our robes at school"

Harry groaned and buried his head in her hair, "Don't remind me! Usually I'm having such a miserable summer, the main pleasure of the day is marking off another day till time to get back for the start of term........somehow this year isn't that way."

"Not for me either. And, guess what... I haven't done my summer homework. When we get back, I'll have to shut myself up in my room and get to work."

Harry couldn't believe his ears. Hermione hadn't done her homework? He knew she usually finished it at least by the second week of vacation, while he was struggling to do his, having to work at night, after his aunt, uncle and Dudley were asleep and out of the way. But still........" You won't be shutting yourself up alone, remember, we both have work to do."

"Somehow, I think we'd get distracted by"other things" but, what the heck, we can give it a try. But first, I think Harry Potter needs some birthday kisses, before we go down for cake, toasts and surprises.

Harry could find no problem with this plan ,and he and Hermione spent a very pleasurable time, stretched out on the couch. All too soon he felt something tickling, then stinging the back of his neck and he turned to see the fairies were back and seemed determined to stay.

"Okay, Wizard - that's our signal to leave the private party," Hermione said regretfully, giving him a huge hug and, standing up. "They'll be looking for us soon. Now let's get all festive again, hang on, this may feel a bit odd." Hermione pulled him to his feet and muttered, "Wrinkle finitium". He felt several little pulls in all directions, but when Hermione lowered her wand, he could tell his shirt was neat and starched again.

They looked at their reflections in the glass walls and both laughed. "One thing about being a witch and wizard," Hermione said through a giggle, "Unless they actually catch us DOING something, no one knows just how well we just celebrated. But let's go, before my self - discipline leaves first."

" Um, there's one thing I'm wondering though. Hermione, I may be crazy, but there's something about that guy, Damien who came in with Lee Jordan, I don't know what it is." Harry felt somewhat foolish, but he'd always shared his feelings with Hermione as far as possible dangers. He wasn't going to stop now, even though he knew it would make him feel worse than before if she scoffed at his intuition."Did you feel something sort of,well, sinister? I can't put my finger on it, but it's there."

"Maybe Harry, but I can't honestly say, I wasn't paying that much attention, so much was happening. I 'll talk to him when we go back down. Or maybe dance with him?"

"NO!" exclaimed Harry, without thinking. " See, Hermione, it's a feeling like my scar hurting. It makes no sense, it just happens."

Hermione began to look alarmed now "You mean you think he's connected to You Know Who somehow? Oh, Harry, we need to tell Mom and Dumbledore! We said we would."

" Okay," replied Harry. "But let's wait until we've talked to him together and separately. Maybe the guy is just nervous."

" I don't think so, Harry," Hermione said, not reassuringly. "One thing I did notice about him..... he didn't seem to be lacking self confidence. Let's not let it spoil the evening though. I don't think we are in danger right now,we'll just have that constant vigilance."

Harry grimaced as he remembered the "fake" Mad Eye Moody but he knew that much was true. Even though this had been a terrific summer, they still had to be on guard. And he wasn't letting anyone spoil this party.

Slipping into the dancing crowd was not as difficult as Harry imagined it might have been. He and Hermione parted for a while and danced with different partners. He spent some time, as he had planned, with Lavendar and Pavarti, and even though they still looked skeptical after he had managed to tell them he and Hermione had become very close, at least he had tried. Besides, how could he not feel this way about Hermione, he thought, as he watched her shining form dancing with various wizards in the room. Lavendar and Pavarti were certainly pretty and it would be hard not to notice them, in their bright colors and abundance of flashing jewelry. Somehow though, he liked looking at Hermione,Ginny and Danielle more. Maybe he should dance with Danielle, and with Ginny, if he could tear them away from Ron and Adrian.

Harry saw, across the dance floor, that Percy and Penelope seemed to be very happy about something and he wondered whether Percy had decided to propose. It kind of looked that way, they both had a goofy look on their faces. He wondered how Mrs. Weasley would react to the first of her children leaving home to get married.

After dancing with Ginny and Danielle, Harry was siting at a table with Adrian, Fred and George, discussing the coming year's Quidditch team and Gryffindor's chances of winning the Quidditch Cup. The band stopped after a song and they saw that Ron and Hermione were up in front of the band, calling for everyone's attention. Fred and George pulled Harry to his feet, and they walked up to join Ron and Hermione. There was a huge decorated birthday cake and before he could protest, his two best friends had each taken one of his arms and were leading the room in singing birthday greetings. He knew he must have been all the colors of red that existed, and he felt as if his neck and ears were on fire, but it wasn't all that unpleasant. As mugs of butterbeer were passed out, he couldn't help thinking back to the year he had sat glumly on the garden bench on Privet Drive, thinking everyone he had known at Hogwarts had already forgotten him. What a different world he now lived in! Looking around at all the friendly faces shining, and making toasts to him, Harry felt all the years he'd spent in misery and loneliness were truly behind him.No, he still didn't have his mom and dad, but what a huge family he did have, not only the Weasleys but Hermione's family and the prospect of Sirius being free to give them the home together they'd hoped for.

They all enjoyed the cake and finding the various trinkets the house elves had hidden. He smiled when he saw Hermione hold up a tiny broomstick, and Ron and Danielle laughing as they compared the matching hearts they'd found in their slices of cake. He saw Dobby waving to him from beside a food cart, and then found himself biting down on something hard. It turned out to be a tiny cottage, which he hoped meant he and Sirius would soon have that home. Everyone jumped as someone squealed loudly and looked to see Penelope laughing happily, as she held up a ring with a sparkling stone, and Percy standing there with his usual smug look. Still, Harry grinned when he noticed Percy was carefully avoiding his mother's eyes.

Ivy then made her way to the band area, and called for their attention. " Now for our final event of the evening, if you'll all step through the French doors, you'll find a Quidditch area has been set up. You'll find brooms there, and robes in two colors. If we need space for two teams, I will expand the area.There should be time for at least one game, assuming nothing very unusual happens. Don't worry about being seen, Albus and I have set up wards around the restaurant and gardens, similar to those at Hogwarts."

"Harry , you will think I've gone crazy, but I think I feel like playing," Hermione said, as they all rushed happily through the doors. Harry stared at her, but smiled as they joined the others. Life and Hermione never stopped surprising him. There was no way of knowing how this evening would end. Life and Hermione were full of surprises. One thing he knew though, even with all the dangers he'd been involved in and would be in the future, he wouldn't trade places with anyone!.


Disclaimer: I own very little here, just the characterization of Ivy and Chris, Danielle, Adrian and the mysteriously sinister, as yet un-named "new guy". Thanks, and great admiration to J.K Rowling, who's brought magic of one kind or another into our lives. Also thanks to the people who have encouraged me, and given me ideas, including but not limited to 007, Tes-Sama, Gryffindor Archer, Electra, Hermione Gulliver, Caesar, Angel, Holly, Jess, Robert, Chase, Chris and Lis. Special award to "GF" who's now survived me writing two of these fan fiction things. Maybe someday you'll read them, but I won't hold my breath. (I don't plan to play soccer, after all!)

Year Five will be coming soon!