Chapter 5 When It's Over

"You can't just assume that because she smiled at you, she likes you. She's a waitress. She's paid to be nice to customers," Harry pointed out, shifting the cases of beer he carried in his arms.

"It wasn't just a regular smile though!" Ron protested. "It was a, 'Hey, you're cute,' smile."

Neville snorted to himself. "You're delusional."

They came upon the lift of the apartment building they were staying in. Already a group of girls stood in front of the doors, waiting for them to open. Harry, Ron and Neville stopped a few feet behind the girls. They each carried something for the party they were throwing that night. Harry carried the beers, Ron the liquor and Neville the food. Harry had invited almost everyone they trained with the past year, as well as some of the new Order members he had gathered for Moody.

"I'm going to agree with Neville," Harry stated.

"You're just upset she didn't smile at you like that! Not every girl has a crush on the great Harry Potter!"

"Of course not every girl has a crush on me," Harry answered, offended. "Some of them haven't met me yet."

Ron rolled his eyes and groaned loudly.

"Are we all going to be able to fit in the lift with that big head of yours?" Neville joked.

The lift doors and opened and let out an elderly man, who they moved aside for. The girls piled into the elevator first and then Harry, Ron and Neville followed.

"Can you hit third floor please?" Harry asked the girl standing near the buttons.

She nodded her head and pressed it for him. Harry could see the floor number six was illuminated as well. The doors slid close and the lift started to rise.

"Is this going to be enough?" Ron asked, shaking the bags he held in his hands and making the liquor bottles clank together.

"We got what, roughly thirty-five people coming? Give or take a few."

"Seamus said his cousin works at a beer distributor and he'll be coming with a lot of beer. Should be enough," Harry stated. "But if not we can always go on a run, or get one of the of agers to go on a run."

The doors to the lift opened and the three Gryffindor's made their way out of the elevator.

"Are you guys having a party tonight?"

Harry turned back toward the lift where one of the girls was standing with her hand to keep the doors open. She was leaning out into the hallway, looking expectantly at the three of them.

"Er...yeah," Harry answered.

"I know this might seem rude but would you mind if we came?" she asked.

"Of course you can come!" Ron answered happily.

Harry whipped his head to stare at Ron and tried to shoot him a look but Ron didn't notice him at all.

"We're in room 3G. Party should be starting around eight but you can come whenever!"

"Thanks. We'll see you boys soon."

The girl leaned backward and moved her hand, allowing the lift door to close. Harry immediately rounded on Ron.

"You idiot!"

"What?" Ron protested. "They were cute and the more girls the merrier."

"They're muggles Ron," Neville pointed out.

"And everyone coming tonight is bloody magical you oaf."

Ron's face quickly turned to one of apology. "I forgot about that."

"Merlin mate, you need to stop thinking with you're penis," Harry muttered, turning toward his door.

"I wasn't thinking with my penis," Ron protested.

They entered the apartment and Harry immediately put the cases of beer he held on the floor. He observed the apartment, noticing all the magical items and the like lying about the living room and kitchen areas. Not to mention the bookcases upstairs filled with magical books and the three bedroom, each one containing who knew how many clearly magical items. There was a section of the wall in the living room with a painted target that was littered in scorch marks from them practicing their accuracy.

"Right, Neville and I are going to make this apartment muggle. Ron, you get to get in contact with as many people as possible and let them know about the muggles who will be here tonight."

Harry took his wand out of its holster on his ankle and quickly waved it at the kitchen counter. All of the old Daily Prophets lifted in the air and flew into the garbage can. He had to duck as Neville sent a bunch of Chocolate Frog wrappers Ron had left on the coffee table from the night before zooming right into the garbage can. Harry moved over to the couch and picked up his Firebolt, which he had been polishing earlier in the day, and moved toward the broom closet. He opened it up and conjured up a cushioned rack before carefully placing his broomstick away. He closed the broom closet door and magically locked it.

He flicked his wand, freezing the magical photos they had littering the walls of all their friends. Harry approached the target practice wall and waved his wand about. A fresh batch of paint flew from his wand and coated the wall, covering up the scorch marks. He let Neville finish up with the living room, making his way up the spiral staircase to the reading room that overlooked the rest of the apartment. The bookcases were filled with books on dozens of magical topics, ranging from ancient runes to defensive magics. Harry stared at them for a moment, trying to remember if when Gringotts had set up the wards, they had set up the standard ward for all magical houses in muggle neighborhoods. The ward basically made all writings that were magical in nature appear to be mundane muggle topics. Just to be safe, he set the ward over the books. It was better to double check than to run into any issues.

Nodding his head in satisfaction, Harry stepped into his room. He popped open the lid of his school trunk and anything that was magical, he banished into the trunk. When that was done, he locked it up and moved over to his bathroom. He had to move some dreamless sleep potions into a pantry, which he locked as well. He didn't know if any of the muggle girls were going to be coming into his bathroom but again, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Satisfied the upper floor was suitable for non-magic knowing muggles, Harry made his way back downstairs. Neville was no where in sight but Ron still had his head in the fireplace. Harry thought of hitting Ron in the backside with a stinging hex but thought better of it. He admitted it would be funny. However, Ron would probably jump at the hex and hit his head on the mantle of whoever's fireplace he was in, and would then moan about the injury the entire night.

"I thought about cleaning up Ron's room but its a bloody mess," Neville stated as he joined Harry in the kitchen. "It would take a team of twenty house elves to clean that thing properly"

"S'alright," Harry mumbled. "Ron can take care of his own room."

Neville nodded his head and opened up one of the cases of beer and began stocking the fridge with the beverage. "This fridge is enchanted to hold a lot more than it should. Might be something those girls notice."

"We'll be fine," Harry assured.

The doorbell rang. Harry moved toward the door, his wand clenched in his hand. He looked through the peephole and saw Seamus and Dean, each one carrying a large crate. Harry threw open the door.

"The IRA meeting is down the hall," he stated, jerking his thumb to the side.

"Taking the mickey out of the mick, eh Harry?" Seamus asked, as he went to take a step forward.

"Woah there my Irish brethren. If I don't properly invite you in, the wards set up here are going to turn you into charred Irishman."

Seamus stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide. "Blimey, that wouldn't be pleasant I suppose."

"I formally invite Seamus and Dean into my apartment," Harry stated as he stepped back.

Cautiously, Seamus reached out with his left foot and put his toe over the threshold into the apartment. When nothing happened, he breathed a sigh of relief and stepped fully in. Dean, smirking at Harry, followed his friend into the room. The two who just arrived placed their crates on the ground before the four teens all exchanged manly hugs.

"What's ol' red doing?" Seamus asked, after proper greetings.

"Ron invited a group of muggles girls without thinking," Neville explained.

"He's making sure everyone is aware we are going to have muggles here so the magical talk is non-existent," Harry finished.

"Were they cute girls?" Seamus asked.

"Yeah."

"Well then good on Ronnie boy! I'll keep my yap shut if it means I get me some action tonight."

Dean shook his head. "Do you listen to yourself when you talk?"

"Wha?" Seamus argued.

"You're still a virgin," Dean pointed out.

Seamus waved his hand dismissively. "Aye but that's bound to change soon. Ladies love me."

"You sure seem to love you," Neville quipped.

"What is it pick on the Irish day?" Seamus demanded.

Harry grinned. "Nah, that's next month."

Dean snorted before bending over and opening up the crate he had carried in. It was packed with several different kind of beers. Harry couldn't identify any of them but then again, being at Hogwarts most of the year, muggle alcohols weren't exactly an abundance in his life. He moved over to give Dean a hand as Seamus opened up the crate he had carried.

Ron came walking over to the group and greeted the two other dorm mates.

"Is everyone coming?" Seamus asked.

"Hermione's in Canada. Parvarti said no and I think out of loyalty, her sister and Lavender aren't coming either."

"You and your ex-girlfriends," Dean said, shaking his head.

Harry scowled. "Yeah well, as far as I know, those are the only four I invited who aren't coming."

"So it's gonna be pretty much a full house?" Seamus asked.

"I didn't invite Ginny, Luna, Colin, Romilda, Derek and Angel. I know its only a year difference and I feel bad for the non-invite but I figured to keep this party sixteen and up."

"You know some of them won't be happy," Seamus pointed out.

Harry nodded his head. "I know but that's a chance I had to take."

"I didn't want my kid sister being here anyway," Ron said dismissively.

"And getting snogged silly," Dean muttered to Seamus, who guffawed.

"What was that Thomas?" Ron asked, stepping forward with his ears turning red.

Dean quickly shook his head as Harry, Neville and Seamus looked on with amusement.

"You get in touch with everyone?" Harry asked.

"As many as possible," Ron answered with a shrug.

There was another knock on the door and all five teens turned toward it. Unconsciously, Harry drew his wand as he moved toward the door. He looked through the peephole and saw the group of four muggle girls all standing there. Harry moved his hand with his wand behind the back, just to be on the safe side and put his hand on the knob to open the door but stopped himself.

What was the protocol to letting muggles through the wards? Was it the same for them as it was magical beings? And what if these girls weren't who they said they were? Although he thought it far-fetched, Harry didn't want to let the group of muggle girls into the house only for them to turn out to be Rookwood and the lot under polyjuice. He didn't think Ron would be able to handle it if it turns out he had been inviting Lucius Malfoy to a party with hopes of snogging him and not some cute muggle girl.

He glanced back at his friends, who all shot him questioning looks, wondering why he was hesitating. Harry mentally sighed and opened up the door.

Dexter Harper walked down the stairs to the entrance hall with a neutral look on his face. Adrian Pucey wasn't someone he would consider a friend of his. Sure, he had been a part of his group that had attacked muggle-born students, blown up the Gryffindor stands at the Quidditch Pitch and released a host of demons on the school, but friends was definitely pushing it. Which was why he was so surprised when a house-elf had told him the former Slytherin was standing in his entrance hall, looking to speak with him.

Adrian had approached Dexter at the beginning of the school year. Although Dexter's dad came from a long line of purebloods, his mother was a muggle-born, and that was a well known fact in Slytherin. He had managed to make a few friends and most in the house seemed to treat him neutrally but a lot of the elites in the house had looked down upon him. When the Dark Lord had risen at the end of Dexter's fifth year, he had used the opportunity to try to worm his way into the upper echelon of Slytherin house. At first he hadn't thought it worked. That is until Adrian had cornered him in the common room that first night back the previous year.

Dexter had been promised he would be forgiven of the sins of his pureblood father for defiling the Harper lineage with a muggle-born witch. All he had to do was help Adrian in his mission from the Dark Lord. That mission had been to send a message and to keep Dumbledore's focus on the school. Potter had been a big issue and had interrupted their plans sooner then anticipated, ousting three of them and making the others lay low the rest of the year. He hadn't seen Pucey since that day they had attacked Hermione Granger in early February. As far as he knew the older teen was staying at the Dark Lord's base of operations because he was still wanted by the Ministry.

"Dexter," Adrian greeted.

Dexter inclined his head as he moved forward to greet his ... friend. "Adrian, pleasure to see you again."

Dexter indicated a room to his left where his father usually entertained clients. As they entered the room, he summoned a house-elf to get them some drinks.

"Is this a social call?" Dexter asked.

Adrian smirked. "You could say something like that."

The house-elf appeared with a bottle of old goblin mead and two glasses. Dexter sat in the chair his father usually sat in while Adrian took the other. The house-elf filled the glasses with three fingers each before quickly leaving the room.

"I'm not sure if you're aware Dexter but that incident in the Forbidden Forest, with Potter and his friends? I was there for that."

Dexter had guessed at that. He knew the Dark Lord's numbers weren't that high at the time and he assumed every available wand had participated in the attack. He just wondered where Adrian was going with this.

"I had heard rumors that your brother had gone running to Potter when he had gone to the Slytherin common rooms requesting help that day."

Dexter felt his palms become sweaty as the temperature seemed to spike a couple of degrees in the room. He licked his suddenly dry lips before taking a quick sip of his goblin mead.

"If I didn't see him fighting at Potter's side in the forest, I wouldn't have believed it myself. You see, the Dark Lord Knows your brother fought for Potter, and he is interested in the fact that one of his potential Death Eaters has a brother fighting for the other side."

"Derek is naive," Dexter croaked out. "It's my mother's influence."

"Yes, well you should make sure that your mother's influence doesn't get him... or you, killed."

Harry grinned as Seamus tried to lead a sing-a-long to some Irish folk song. The Irish teen stood on the coffee table and was waving his arms about wildly. Unfortunately, no one else knew the lyrics of the song and so it was just Seamus by himself singing, quite poorly. Most everyone was around laughing at the Irish teens antics. Harry would have thought Fred and George would be joining Seamus but when he looked around he spotted Fred and Angeline snogging on a couch, and George and one of the muggle girls chatting it up in a corner.

Fleur hadn't shown up, which Harry guessed was probably a good thing since he didn't need jealous girls and lust filled guys thrown in with alcohol. Fleur was a good friend of his but he knew girls couldn't help but feel jealous of the beautiful woman and guys were naturally idiots around her. Everyone else who said they were coming had shown up though and it was safe to say everyone had a great time. There was a few mishaps with talking about wizarding events around the muggle girls but Harry had quickly straighten out the situations.

"Your friend isn't a very good singer."

Harry turned at the girl standing next to him. If he remembered correctly her name was Lynn. She was the girl who had originally asked them about the party and was, at least in Harry's opinion, a very pretty girl.

He turned back to watch as Neville attempted to get Seamus off the table but the Irish teen danced out of Neville's reach, almost falling off the table in the process.

"I'd like to think what he lacks in talent, he makes up in enthusiasm."

"Well with the lack of talent, he definitely has to make up for it somewhere."

Harry snorted in amusement as he brought the beer he was holding to his mouth for a sip. He had tried to remain as sober as possible; to handle any messes that might occur, or the slip ups of magic that might occur. However, he had kind of failed at that, for while he wasn't completely drunk, he was definitely feeling the alcohol in his system.

"So what's your deal? Most sixteen year olds don't have their own flat."

Nodding his head, Harry turned to the girl as she looked at him with curious, half-lidded eyes. He tilted his head as he observed her. He knew the girls were all eighteen years old and would be entering university soon. While Hogwarts was a little different than your typical muggle high school, he would technically be entering his junior year.

"My parents were killed when I was baby and the relatives that raised me weren't exactly the greatest care takers out there. I filed for emancipation as soon as I was able and have been on my own since the start of summer"

"I'm sorry to hear that," she stated, putting her hand on his arm in a consoling gesture.

Harry didn't even glance at the hand on his arm. He knew there was an ulterior motive to just consoling him. "S'alright. Luckily my parents were well off and left me with a trust fund and this apartment. I spend most of my time at a boarding school up in Scotland anyway."

"Boarding school?" Lynn asked. "What for?"

"It's for gifted students."

"What's your gift?"

Harry grinned at her. "That's something you'll have to find out for yourself won't you?"

Harry used the spatula to shift the large amount of eggs around, making sure nothing burned. It was hard work making breakfast to feed almost two dozen hung over people. They had anticipated many people being too drunk to leave last night and so had conjured up cots and the like for everyone to sleep on. Well, Harry had conjured up the cots since Ron and Neville weren't as proficient as him when it came to Transfiguration. He had anchored them with some basic runes to prevent them from simply disappearing overnight while people used them to sleep. The runes didn't mean the cots would last forever, it just assured they'd last long enough for their intended purpose.

Some of the richer guest, like Susan and Terry, had been able to secure a portkey back to their houses. Some of the older guest, like Lee Jordan, hadn't gotten too drunk and had taken to apparating home after spending some time sobering up. Those who stayed and had taken to hooking up with someone else had, to Harry's dismay, separated their cot from the others and conjured screens around them for privacy. Those would be hard to describe away to the muggle girls who were still at the flat.

Harry shook his head. The things that happen when he leaves the party early. It was just fortunate nothing too dreadful had happened. Last thing they needed was a violation of the Statute of Secrecy.

He felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist and hug him from behind.

"Mmm. Smells delicious."

Harry looked over his shoulder to see Lynn, wearing one of his t-shirts and a pair of gym shorts, with the left side of her face pressed against his back. He glanced back at the food. He had a lot sausages cooking in another pan and a skillet filled with hashbrowns. It was pretty simple stuff to make, just a pain in the ass making so much.

"If you were staying in London I'd ask you to be my boyfriend, despite you being only sixteen years old. I mean breakfast every morning sounds fantastic."

Harry raised an eyebrow, not that she could see. They had a great conversation last night before sneaking away to his room but he doubted she was serious about the boyfriend comment.

"Too bad I have to leave in a few days," Harry murmured. "Would have been nice getting to know you better."

"You said you leave on the first?" Lynn asked.

Harry nodded his head as he flipped over a section of the eggs. Lynn released her hold on him and moved to his side. She pulled herself up on the counter next to the stove, sitting with her legs hanging over the edge and observed him as he went about making breakfast.

"That's five days before you leave. What do you say we make the most out of this end of summer fling?"

Harry looked up from the eggs and grinned at her. "That sounds like a great idea."

The sound of a door opening reached Harry's ears. His right hand twitched toward his wand, which was still up in his room. He didn't even have any of his spare wants on him. Which made him think, maybe it would be wise to have a collection of wands that would work for him littered throughout his area of residence. This way, if he ever found himself in a situation like this, where he didn't have a wand on his person, he could always easily have one compatible to him within reaching distance. Just to be on the safe side.

"Food?" Ron called out, his voice dry and scratchy.

"It will be ready shortly," Harry called back.

Now came the big dilemma. Did he try to wake his friends from their fitful sleep or did he allow them to sleep through their hangover? And what if some of them were in compromising positions behind their conjured screens? That was not something he wanted to see. He turned toward the open living room area and observed all of the passed out figures on cots.

"Where did all those screen curtains come from?" Lynn asked, gesturing to the half a dozen areas of the living room where cots had been surrounded by thick curtains.

"You ever go to a boarding school?" Harry asked.

He turned toward Lynn and looked at her with an inquiring look. She shook her head, obviously not sure where he was going with this.

"You rarely have a room to yourself in boarding school, especially your dorm. Privacy is something talked about but rarely achieved. Those who are more, uh, experienced when it comes to these kind of things come prepared. You might not understand. It's a boarding school thing."