Thankfully, apparition was successful and Harry landed with Sirius and Remus on either side of him on the path near the gates to Malfoy Manor. Harry had never been through this entrance before, he always floo'd over with Severus. It was a different perspective.
"Harry!" Hermione cheered.
Right on time, Harry walked up the path to find Hermione, Luna, Neville, Dean, Seamus, and the Weasley clan. Luna's father, Xenophilius was present, and so were Arthur and Molly. It seemed the other parents didn't mind Luna's father, Xenophilius and also the Weasley parents being in charge of their children.
Also, the only kids from clan Weasley who were there were Ron, Ginny, Fred, and George. Harry knew Charlie was in Romania working with dragons and William Weasley, who usually went by Bill, was working as a curse breaker for Gringotts.
"Hi, guys and girls," Harry greeted.
"Thanks for inviting us," Ginny smiled.
"I extended it out, but it was Draco who actually sent the invite." Harry informed calmly. "Might wanna thank him. It's his party. Be warned now that Pansy, Theodore, Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle are present and among the adults is Professor Snape. I advise best behaviors, no fighting with the others…Draco invited you as a courtesy to me knowing you're my friends too."
Harry approached the gate and put his hand on it lightly to set off the wards, but to his surprise, the gate opened at his touch. "Huh…" He wasn't expecting that. Hadn't Severus said one of the Malfoy's had to open it?
Walking through more, Harry saw the doors to the manor opened as Lucius stood with Narcissa, then Draco stepped out. "There's my little brother." The teenager grinned.
"Aw, I'm touched, Dray." Harry smiled as Draco shook Harry's hand. "You're only twenty-six days older so shush. Anyway, curiosity winning here, how come the wards let me in?"
"We keyed you into them after the w-," Draco started and Lucius lightly tapped his staff into Draco's leg. "The first time you visited here. You can always pass, Harry. That and father altered them to guest level of security until everyone arrived, which is you and them. So come in."
"Thank you for inviting us," Neville spoke up.
"You're quite welcome, Neville." Draco replied. "Now, come." He led them inside.
The teenagers went in first, then the adults right behind them. Lucius was last with his wife, he reset the wards to high security before they turned inside and closed the doors. Draco led the teens to the ballroom, where everyone else was.
"There you are, Harry!" Pansy was first to wrap Harry in a tight hug. "How've you been?"
"Lovely, how about you, Pans?" Harry smiled.
"Great." Pansy replied.
"Harry!" Theodore was next to shake Harry's hand, then Vincent and Gregory, last was Blaise, who greeted Harry with a light hug.
"Hi, guys," Harry said.
"Alright. Tables set up towards the back are drinks and food. The rest in place are just for people to sit down. There's music too, nothing crazy. We're simple." Draco stated.
"I brought my boombox like you asked me to, Dray." Harry informed.
"Yes!" His Slytherin friends cheered with excitement.
"Where is it?" Draco looked around.
Harry opened his bag and pulled out a large black radio, then flipped it around and added the batteries to it. "Where did you get that from? That bag is tiny…" Ron wondered.
"Undetectable extension charm…" Harry responded.
"I trust you put that charm in place while still at school, Mr. Potter…Because doing magic outside of such is against the underage restriction." Severus stated, arms folded over one another.
"Did it just before coming here, Professor Snape." Harry told him with a smile. "The Ministry can't call me on it if they don't know about it."
"The trace, Potter. Don't tell me you've forgotten in your chosen one status?" Severus retorted.
"Trace only applies to the wand, Snape…" Harry remarked. "And I didn't use mine."
"Professor or sir," Severus narrowed his eyes.
"I'm not a teacher, and there's no need to call me sir," Harry winked. Severus kept himself composed but sputtering at the comment. Cheeky brat.
"Harry, why are you testing him?" Hermione chastised.
"Cause he can't do anything to me during the holiday and not in school." Harry told her.
"Watch it, Mr. Potter…You'll find yourself spending a lot more time with me when school resumes." Severus warned. Harry gave him a smirk that only some saw, his eyes asking if that was a promise they'd spend more time together at school. Severus only rolled his eyes and sighed. Curse his perverted husband. Severus knew exactly what the teenager was suggesting. "Brat…"
"Dungeon bat," Harry snarked back.
"Lazy," Severus argued.
"Git."
"Don't push your luck, Potter." Severus warned.
"I'd like to think my sheer dumb luck has done me well over the years." Harry stated.
"Indeed." Severus commented.
"You know you love me, Professor," Harry chuckled as he finished with the radio/CD player and set it upright and got it turned on.
"Regrettably," Severus scoffed.
"Alright, party time!" Draco called once Harry got his music playing.
. . .
Only about an hour had passed since the start of the party, Harry took notice that the adults were getting along despite the past, but that was likely some blood purity tradition. Guests in another's house commanded respect, no matter what history was between them. Harry remembered from second year that Arthur Weasley and Lucius Malfoy were not on good terms.
Harry knew indefinitely that Severus was not good with Remus or Sirius. Molly seemed to mind her own or spoke with Xenophilius. As for the teenagers, Harry was sort of the middle man in mixing his old Gryffindor group and his friends in Slytherin, which he also was part of. The radio was still playing random music but the Gryffindors knew quite a few of them and hummed along or sang once in a while, but not loudly.
We built this city…
The next song had begun as the whole of the old Gryffindor group knew it, and Harry too. They all smiled together.
"We built this city on rock and roll. Built this city…We built this city on rock and rolllll!" The group began excluding Harry because he only laughed and stepped back with the Slytherins. Fred and George were also out of the singing, but standing off to the side to watch.
"What are they doing?" Draco asked.
"Singing along." Pansy stated.
"I wanna see this," Blaise turned one of the chairs from the table around, then sat. Harry and the rest of the snakes did the same, watching the Gryffindors, and one Ravenclaw being Luna, stand together.
"Say you don't know me or recognize my face. Say you don't know who goes to that kind of place," The group began. "Knee deep in the hoopla, sinking in your fight. Too many runaways eating up the night."
Hermione walked over to Harry smiling, grabbing his hands to pull him forward. "What are you doing?" Harry asked her.
"You were once a Gryffindor, you know the tradition!" Hermione stated.
"Hermione, it wasn't tradition! It was just for fun!" Harry argued.
"Then come have fun, mate," Ron helped Hermione drag Harry to stand with them and the others.
"Marconi plays the mambo, listen to the radio. Don't you remember? We built this city…" The group, except Harry sang. Harry, instead, laughed and shook his head.
"We built this city on rock and roll! We built this city. We built this city on rock and roll. We built this city. We built this city on rock and roll!" Harry finally joined in with them as Remus and Sirius were smiling and capping to the beat.
"Someone's always playing corporation games. Who cares, they're always changing corporation names. We just wanna dance here, someone stole the stage. They call us irresponsible, write us off the page." The group continued. "Marconi plays the mambo, listen to the radio! Don't you remember? We built this city…We built this city on rock and roll. We built this city. We built this city on rock and roll. We built this city. We built this city on rock and roll."
"It's just another Sunday. Tired old street. Police have got the choke hold. And we've just lost the beat!...Marconi plays the mambo, listen to the radio. Don't you remember? We built this city. We built this city on rock and roll!" The group now began clapping along. "We built this city. We built this city on rock and roll. Built this city. We built this city on rock and roll. Built this city. We built this city on rock and roll. Built this city. We built this city on rock and roll!" All of them threw their fists in the air. "We built this city!"
"That was lovely, kids!" Molly clapped with Xenophilius and Arthur, also Sirius and Remus.
"Harry, I've known you this long and never knew you could sing." Blaise commented.
"Wasn't just me, ya know." Harry reminded.
"But where did all that come from? Tradition?" Draco asked.
"Not tradition. It's…Just something we did in Gryffindor to pass the nights. We'd hook up the boombox, let it play and sing along to whatever came on that we all knew." Harry informed.
"It started out as only muggleborn first, then the half-bloods who grew up muggle. The purebloods would catch on and eventually we turned it into one big party in Gryffindor Common Room." Dean explained.
"Would you do some more for us?" Narcissa asked. "I found it quite enjoyable."
"Harry, did you bring your CDs?" Hermione asked.
"Would I ever bring my boombox without them?" Harry rolled his eyes at her as he dug through his bag that had been left on his chair, pulling out a black book that he unzipped and left open on the table full of discs.
"I'm surprised that your device works within Hogwarts walls," Severus mentioned. "Anything that passes the wards outside such as music players, phones stop working."
"Worked just fine for us." Ron shrugged.
"Odd." Severus thought aloud. It shouldn't work inside Hogwarts, but it did when everything else failed. How? It was going to bug Severus until he figured it out.
"Now, what are these circle things?" Lucius wondered.
"They are CDs. Objects with music recorded on them, rather than the random things playing through the radio." Remus stated.
"Extraordinary." Lucius replied.
"Merlin, he sounds like my dad with the fascination of muggle things." Ron remarked.
"Remember that like you, Ron, most pure bloods used magic for everything…Or swore off muggle things as being a disgrace." Hermione told him.
Harry popped a CD in and closed the lid, then pressed play. "We'll go with something we're still in season for, technically." He stood up and backed up to stand with his friends. More appropriately that they were members of the army, which was disbanded, but not over. Like reserve. "Form up." Harry snapped his fingers.
"Yes, sir!" The friends lined up, the males shoulder to shoulder as the girls took place in front of them. Ginny was between Ron and Dean, while Hermione was in front of Harry, then Luna was between Neville and Seamus. The twins sat with their parents to watch.
"Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Let your heart be light. From now on our troubles will be out of sight…" The girls began alone.
"Have yourself a merry little Christmas. Make the yuletide gay. From now on our troubles will be miles away…" The boys sang. "Here we are as in olden days. Happen golden days of yours."
"Faithful friends who are dear to us, gather near to us once more. Through the years, we all will be together. If the fates allow. Hang a shining star upon the highest bough...And have yourself a merry little Christmas now." The seven of them continued together.
"It sounds incredible, like a choir," Molly beamed as she leaned against Arthur and he put his hand around her shoulders.
"It is lovely," Narcissa agreed.
"Faithful friends who are dear to us, gather near to us once more. Through the years, we all will be together. If the fates allow. Hang a shining star upon the highest bough…And have yourself a merry little Christmas…Now…" The group finished softly.
"You sound awesome singing along," Pansy smiled.
"That was all us," Seamus told her. "We only had the music for the instrumental queues. That wasn't like the song we did first."
"The one we did first was us with the original singer. We sang along with it. The one we just did, while it has an original artist to it, was only the music. Not the lyrics." Hermione explained.
"I love it even more now." Narcissa clapped. "It was beautiful, your voices all mixed perfectly."
"Should have heard us when the army was active," Dean chuckled.
"Ssh!" Harry scolded with Neville, Seamus, and Ron.
"Army?" Severus asked. "What army?"
"Oops." Dean shrunk into himself as the others sighed, knowing their secret was blown.
"I-It's nothing. J-Just a little group of friends who formed a club…" Hermione tried.
"Nice try, Miss. Granger…But given the amount of precarious situations you've been found in with Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, also known as the Golden Trio, I'm not buying that for a second." Severus stated. "Now, speak. What army?"
"Yeah, wait a sec…What army?" Draco pushed.
"Last year, Umbridge was the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher…But she never taught us anything. It was always book work, she claimed we'd never need to know how to protect ourselves from dark spells because Harry and Dumbledore were lying about the dark lord returning to life the year before…" Ron explained. "Hermione cracked a joke that Harry could do a better teaching job as he's actually faced Voldemort before…"
"But that is what actually created the idea. We pulled Harry aside and told him, he agreed, so we gathered those interested…And started a defensive magic club with Harry leading it." Hermione informed.
"We called it Dumbledore's Army." Luna spoke softly now.
"We met a couple times a week in a hidden room of the castle, and Harry would teach us how to defend ourselves." Ginny added.
"It was composed of only students from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw…" Dean mentioned.
"You didn't tell us about this?" Blaise questioned, looking at Harry.
"You all sided with Umbridge…Supported her medieval methods and teachings. She was a nightmare." Harry informed. "I couldn't tell you guys. You were helping her try to bust people for breaking the rules."
"It wasn't that bad…" Theodore stated.
"You didn't see how she tortured students, Harry especially." Hermione remarked.
"She purposely targeted him for quote, leading the charge in saying Voldemort was back, unquote." Ron stated.
"Harry, was she torturing you?" Remus asked.
"With her relentless detentions and lines…" Harry remarked.
"Teachers have the right to assign detention if you're getting in trouble." Severus sighed.
"Yeah, do teachers have the right to assign those detentions for weeks on end? Force students to write hundreds of lines? Miss meals? Work hard labor without magic all day? How about keeping them past curfew?" Harry inquired of his husband.
"No, teachers are not permitted to do those things. Detentions can run from after the last class of the day to dinner time, or after dinner until right before curfew, say 9:45 pm." Severus stated. "And yes, they can order you to do physical labor without magic, or write lines."
"With a blood quill?" Neville wondered. "Cause that's what Umbridge made Harry use. For weeks on end."
"Blood quill?" Severus said in a cold tone. "A blood quill, Potter?" The teenager nodded. "Why didn't you come to me? Those are forbidden. They're dark artifacts."
"I tried to go to you…And you always told me that there was nothing you could do if I mouthed off to my teacher and got detention for it. You'd dismiss me before I could even tell you…And before you ask, I did go to McGonagall and Dumbledore. McGonagall was the only one to speak to her."
"To be fair, you did mouth off in class that day…" Vincent reminded.
"I didn't mouth off, I told the truth. It's beyond me how anyone could have denied Voldemort being back, who didn't see him at the end of fourth year? Like, honestly? The whole school saw me and him fight." Harry muttered. "She argued that I was obviously traumatized from the dangers of being fourteen and competing in such dangerous tasks that I dreamt it up…" He mumbled.
"Yeah…She did kind'a refuse to believe the truth." Draco agreed.
"Bloody awesome fight, Harry. I can't believe you got close enough to sock him in the face," Ron chuckled.
"It was not comical in the slightest, Mr. Weasley…Mr. Potter nearly depleted his magical core that day." Severus reminded. "Was rather impressive, though. I'll admit to that. Moving on…Potter, I'm sorry for dismissing you and not hearing your side of things last year. I am both your teacher and head of house, it was wrong of me to turn you away when you had a legitimate problem…"
"It's fine, over with now." Harry shrugged.
"So…This army, it was led by you, Harry?" Narcissa asked gently.
"Yes, ma'am," Harry nodded to her.
"Oh, none of that now. I told you, call me Narcissa. Or even Aunt Cissy. You're practically family, sweetheart." Narcissa smiled. "What did you teach them?"
"Anything I knew that I felt they could in a duel with someone using dark magic." Harry revealed.
"He taught us basic defense," Ginny said.
"Disarming, repelling, body-binding," Neville mentioned.
"Levitation, stunning," Luna added.
"Explosions, fire and water summoning," Fred and George spoke together.
"Cutting charms," Dean shrugged.
"Healing and wrapping," Seamus stated.
"Shields," Ron remarked.
"And the best, but hardest one…The Patronus Charm." Hermione informed.
Remus and Sirius didn't seem shocked, but the rest did. "The one used to ward off dementors?" Arthur asked.
"That would be the one." Harry nodded.
"You know that spell. It's…NEWT-level." Severus mentioned.
"Remus taught me it in third year," Harry informed. "When the dementors were around Hogwarts all year to look for Sirius, who, at the time, had escaped Azkaban."
"Why would you teach him that charm?" Molly asked.
"Harry needed a way to protect himself from them." Remus stated. "Harry has true horrors in his past that most could only imagine enduring, the dementors affected him more than anyone else. Harry got attacked on the train ride in, during the quidditch match."
"I had saved Harry on the train. Harry, Miss. Granger and Mr. Weasley were in the compartment I was in." He explained. "So after the Christmas holidays that year, I taught him how to cast it. Rather impressive too. Only took three tries before he could form the shield." He smiled.
"And by the end of the year, I'd been able to cast the other two forms as well." Harry replied.
"The corporeal and barrier?" Severus questioned. "You taught all the students in the army how to cast this?"
"I did. They all managed it too." Harry nodded.
"That is astounding." Severus remarked. "That is not only a seventh year spell, but not one that not every witch and wizard can cast. Even with proper instruction. Well done, Mr. Potter."
"Thanks…" Harry smiled a bit.