And the ninth chapter is finally here, enjoy!

* Review Response:
magitech, Ranmaleopard, davycrockett100, Penny is wise, JPElles, thank you for your reviews, folks!
Wyrtha, well, this chapter should answer your questions regarding Harry going to the Malfoy's party.
The Richmaster, since it's not an aging potion that ages him up more-or-less instantly, people that see him every day won't notice anything different about him for the present. Once he returns from the summer break, though...

* AN:
Great thanks to Remilia - The Scarlet Moon and greysongarr for their help with the chapter.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" franchise. No profit is being made. Same goes for any books, video games, anime or manga I may or may not use for ideas.

"speaking"
'thinking'
written text

A Year Too Soon
Chapter IX: To Party or not to Party

A week passed since Harry began brewing his potion, and so far it was progressing nicely. At the very least, he hadn't screwed it up badly enough to necessitate scrapping this attempt and making a new one... Right now, though, the Potter heir wasn't in his 'laboratory', bent over the cauldron of simmering brew; no, he was sitting quietly in the far corner of the Slytherin common room, writing an essay for his next Transfiguration class.

"Potter!" A gruff voice called, pulling the young wizard out of his thoughts. Looking up from his essay, Harry saw Marcus Flint standing in front of him. And the older Slytherin didn't come empty-handed: he was holding a rather fancy envelope. And while the green-eyed Slytherin was pretty sure that he was the addressee of that letter – he could see no other reasons for Mr. Flint to approach him now – he couldn't be sure about it. So he inquired:

"Yes?"

"Here, Potter." The older boy said, while handing over the letter. "Lord Malfoy invites you to the Yule party he's hosting this year." This was certainly not what Harry was expecting: an invitation to some apparently-private party from someone he had never met. Marcus, however, paid no attention to his surprise and kept talking: "Whether you decide to accept this invitation or not, I strongly recommend you write your response in the most polite way possible; Lord Malfoy is not someone you want as your enemy, Potter, so don't turn him into one by being an unrefined hick." Immediately after giving this piece of advice, Mr. Flint turned around and walked away.

Letting out a breath he didn't even know he was holding, Harry looked down at the invitation letter in his hands. He had never been to a party before. Hell, the Dursleys made sure he has never been invited to one, before. Yet, having seen how eager his cousin was to go to one, the young wizard was pretty sure that parties were cool... Still, this was not a normal party he was invited to; it was hosted by a lord. And while he knew next to nothing about how the nobility lived and celebrated holidays, Harry understood that their parties were supposed to be special, with certain rules everyone had to follow and such. And he did not know these rules.

He wasn't going to ask Mr. Flint about them, though: while the older boy wasn't unfriendly nowadays, the Potter heir was still afraid of him somewhat, the events of the first week of the school year still fresh in his mind. Instead, the young wizard looked over the Slytherin common room, trying to spot the people he was actually friendly with.

Unfortunately for him, he couldn't see anyone but Ms. Farley, and, while his relationship with the female prefect was quite cordial, Harry was pretty sure that the seventh year prefect had more important things to do than explaining him the etiquette of the magical high society. But, he was too excited about this invitation to wait for someone else who could enlighten him to show up. Thus, he approached the older girl.

"Um... Sorry..." The green-eyed wizard began, not sure how to breach the subject. Indeed, while he had asked Gemma for advice a few time over the past months, those were all about schooling or the school life in general. This time, however, he was going to ask her for advice about something that had nothing to do with Hogwarts.

"Something I can do for you?" The Slytherin prefect asked, looking up from her textbook.

"Well..." Harry began. "I've just gotten an invitation to a party and... well, I don't know anything about what I should do there and..." Perhaps, due to being both excited and nervous, he found himself having troubles explaining his problem. "Well,.. Here..." He finally gave up and showed the invitation to the older witch. Sighing, Gemma took the letter from him from him and scanned it with her eyes.

"Oh my!" She exclaimed in a small surprise as she saw just who sent this invitation. She also felt a prick of jealousy as her family was not important enough in the magical world to be invited to such parties. Suppressing that feeling, she looked back at Mr. Potter, who waiting for her to say something impatiently. "Well..." She began too unsure about the best way to deal with the sudden situation she found herself in. "I take it, you don't know much about how the high society operates?" She asked. Harry nodded in response. "I guess I can try giving you some basic etiquette lesson – every Slytherin must know what to say and how to behave when dealing with the important people of our world – but that would be the most I can do in the time you have." Indeed, having being raised by muggles, Harry has missed years worth of knowledge about the ways of magical world; fixing that properly would require way more than two weeks he had before the party.

"T-thank you." The green-eyed wizard said. "I'll try to get you something nice to pay you back for your help. What would you like?" His words made Gemma smile a little: unlike many other 'snakes', he always did his best to make his deals square.

"I'll trust your choice." The older Slytherin replied. There was a small pause before she continued: "Still, I'm a bit surprised that you got an invitation. These parties are organized by adults and for adults; children can be found there only if their parents were invited." After a moment she added: "I guess, that's because you're the 'Boy Who Lived'." This made Harry scowl: he didn't like his moniker. That didn't go unnoticed by Ms. Farley. "Sorry, I know you hate being called that – you made it quite clear on the Halloween – Harry, but that's how many in the wizarding world see you. And lord Malfoy is almost certainly one of those people."

"He does?" The Potter heir asked.

"Most likely." Gemma confirmed. "He probably invited you so that he could flaunt the political power of his house and boost its reputation." This certainly didn't make Harry happy: no one liked being used like that. And, once again, the older witch had no problem reading his emotions. "Well..." She began after a moment of silence: "That's how the things always are in the high society; people will always use every opportunity to make themselves and their houses look better and more important. Doesn't mean you can't have fun at the parties, though."

"Alright." Harry nodded.

"Anyway, right now I'd rather finish my homework... We can start your etiquette lessons after the dinner." The Potter heir nodded again:

"Sounds like a plan." He agreed. "Thank you."

~/ *** \~

"Potter." Professor Snape said as walked up to Harry during the breakfast the next morning. "The headmaster wished to see to. Do you have any idea why?" The question caused Harry to stiffen with fear – was his little potion brewing discovered? – but, after a few long moments, he retook control of his emotions.

"I don't know, sir." He replied finally, trying to sound as honest as he possibly could. His head of house eyed him, clearly not believing that he was telling the truth. After a few tense seconds, though, the Potions Master gave up.

"Very well." The man said. "I shall escort you to the headmaster's office after breakfast." And with that the head of Slytherin turned and began walking back to the professors' table. Once he was sufficiently far away, the Potter heir found himself bombarded with questions; many of his housemates wanted to know what was going on and why the headmaster – a man who almost never interacted with the students who weren't either prefects, headboy or headgirl – wanted to see him. Unfortunately for them, Harry gave them the same answer he gave the Potions Master: he had no idea why professor Dumbledore wanted to see him.

After the breakfast, Professor Snape escorted Harry to the headmaster's office, just like he said he would. It was a silent walk: not a word was said until they reached a large and extremely ugly stone gargoyle guarding the entrance to the headmaster's tower.

"Melon Sorbet." The head of the Slytherin house said. Apparently, this was a password of sorts as the gargoyle suddenly sprang to life and hopped aside while the wall behind it split in two. And even though he was quite scared of what might be coming, the green-eyed wizard couldn't help but be amazed by what lay behind the newly-formed arch: a marble spiral staircase moving smoothly upward, like an escalator.

And as soon as Harry and professor Snape stepped onto it and began ascending towards the headmaster's office, the wall behind them suddenly closed up with a rather loud thud, almost making the young Potter jump out of his skin. Damn! Why was a visit to the Headmaster's office such a scary thing?.. Shaking his head, the green-eyed wizard tried his best to calm down: he was well-aware that being scared out of his mind wouldn't help him any with whatever awaited him in the headmaster's office.

At long last, they stood in front of a gleaming oak door with a brass knocker in the shape of a griffin. Professor Snape was about to reach for it, when a voice from inside the office called:

"Come in, Harry, Severus." And then the door opened by itself.

Curious about the place the headmaster lived in, Harry looked around. And he immediately decided that this place was more interesting than the potions laboratory his head of the house conducted his business from.

It was a large and beautiful circular room, full of many little noises. A number of arcane silvery instruments stood on spindle-legged tables, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke. The walls were covered with portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses, some which were sleeping while others were looking at the visitors with mild curiosity. Then, there was also an enormous, claw-footed desk, behind which professor Dumbledore sat, and, sitting on a shelf behind it there was the Sorting Hat, as shabby and tattered as it was during the sorting back on September the first.

"Thank you, Severus." The elderly warlock said. The Potion Master nodded curtly and, turning around, left the office, leaving Harry alone with the headmaster. "Now, Harry, my boy, I'm sure you're wondering why I've invited you here." Dumbledore said.

"Y-Yes, sir." The green-eyed wizard replied while swallowing hard as he tried to keep his nervousness in check.

"Well, I've heard that you've received an invitation to a Yule party from Lucius Malfoy." The aged wizard said, catching Harry completely by surprise: he never even thought that something like this might be the reason the headmaster summoned him. "Have you decided, whether you want to attend it?" It was a few moments before the young Potter snapped out his stupor and gave an answer.

"Y-Yes, sir. I'd like to go t-there." He said.

"Then, I'm afraid, I'll have to upset you, Harry. I can't let you attend this party."

"W-What?" The green-eyed wizard blurted out without thinking, once again caught completely flat-footed by what the aged warlock in front of him said... After a few moments, he recovered enough to at least try and correct himself: "Sorry, sir, b-but..." Harry wanted to say that he – Dumbledore – had no right to do something like that, but for some reason the words just didn't want form... That turned out to be not a big problem as the headmaster somehow knew what he wanted to say.

"Normally, you'd be right, Harry." Dumbledore began. "As a headmaster I have no authority over them outside of school-related matters. Your situation, however, is a little bit different. You have no legal guardian in a magical world and I, as the headmaster of your school, act in loco parentis during the school year. And, because of that, I can forbid you attending that party." Here, he made a small pause before continuing: "But, please, understand that I'm actually doing this for your own good, Harry, my boy." This was followed by another, longer period of silence.

"Assuming I believe this..." The Potter heir began. "Why are you forbidding me to attending the party, sir?" He asked. Dumbledore leaned forward over his table, his bespectacled blue eyes suddenly losing their mirthful twinkling.

"Harry, my boy, I'm doing this to protect you." The aged warlock said. "This party is organized by a man who supported Voldemort during the Blood War. And, no doubt, other supporters of the Dark Lord will be there too. Do you really think it is wise for you to be there as well?" Now that the situation was presented like this, the green-eyed wizard couldn't help but agree that attending that party might not be the wisest thing after all. Dumbledore however wasn't done yet. "And even if all those men had indeed moved on and hold no grudge towards you, they all still are ruthless politicians who will not hesitate to hurt and exploit others if they will profit from it. And you, Harry, are most definitely not ready to deal with people like that. Do you really think that a single night of fun is worth losing everything you have, everything that your parents left you?"

The younger wizard remained silent. The arguments for banning him from going to the party the headmaster presented sounded convincing. And given what he has already been told about the elites of the magical world, the man's worries were not baseless... Still, Harry was very much annoyed that he was once again denied a chance to do things he wanted...

Dumbledore meanwhile just sat behind his table, patiently waiting for his young ward to give him an answer. It was creeping the green-eyed wizard out. And the only way out he could see was agreeing to the headmaster's demand.

"Very well." Harry conceded, his voice, though, making it clear that he didn't like this one bit. "I shall inform lord Malfoy that I will not be attending the Yule party." Dumbledore nodded.

"Thank you, my boy." The aged warlock said.

"Will this be all, sir?" The Potter heir pressed, his voice carrying his desire to leave quite clearly.

"Yes, this would be all, Harry." The headmaster replied with a nod. "But if there anything bothering you, remember, my doors are always open for you." Harry nodded indifferently as he made his way towards the office's doors. He was heading straight to the library as he needed to find out whether the headmaster indeed had the power over him he claimed to have... Just a moment before he closed the office's door behind him, he heard the man say quietly: "I hope that one day you will see that everything I do is for your own good, Harry." And if Dumbledore said that to win him over, it didn't work.

~/ *** \~

"You were sending your response to lord Malfoy?" Marcus Flint asked as he ran into Harry next to the owlry later that day. The Potter heir nodded in response. "Good." The Slytherin chaser said. "It'd be interesting to see what you are like away from Hogwarts, Potter."

"Unfortunately, I will not be attending the party." Harry said, greatly surprising the older boy.

"What? Why?" He asked.

"The headmaster forbade me to attend the party." The green-eyed wizard replied, surprising Mr. Flint once more.

"B-But... The headmaster can't tell you what you outside of Hogwarts! You can't even have detentions during the breaks!" Harry nodded.

"Normally, you'd be correct." He said. "But since I'm an orphan, the headmaster acts as my guardian from September the first to whenever the school year ends. And during this time he does, in fact, have the power to stop me from doing what he thinks I shouldn't be doing." He explained. "I too didn't believe this when Dumbledore told me this, but... that's how the things are, and the school's charter confirms this." Marcus let out a small sigh.

"That's... unfair, Potter." He said. Harry just nodded in response, not really feeling like giving a reply any more verbose. That was alright, though, as the older wizard wasn't looking for a continuation to their 'conversation' either. And so the two of them went about their separate businesses... Well, the young Potter had no 'business' to attend to right now, so he made his way back to the Slytherin dormitories instead.

And as he walked the Hogwarts corridors he thought that, even if the headmaster denied him the chance to go that party, he should continue his etiquette lessons with Gemma. There was no doubt that he'd find that knowledge useful in many other situations. Yeah, he would definitely continue those lessons.

That's all, folks!
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