House of snakes

Chapter 8

Harry pulled at the hem of his emerald green dress robes. Most of the guests had already arrived for the New Years gathering, but he and Hadrian still had to wait in the sitting room for the last party to floo in.

The fireplace flared bright green and a tall redhead stepped out.

"Bill," Hadrian greeted.

"Hello, Hadrian," Bill said. He stepped aside as one by one his family came through.

There were a lot of them, Harry thought. All with bright red hair. He was kind of stunned. He remembered the two parents, Molly and Arthur Weasley, as well as Percy from Sirius' trial, but the rest were new to him.

"Let's go outside," Hadrian said as he greeted the last of them.

They all tromped outside to where Hadrian had set up several pavilions with tables and chairs. One of the pavilions was the children's area. There were already a number of kids there. Harry was excited to meet them all. They'd be his first magical friends his age, after all.

"Harry, why don't you take Percy and his younger siblings over there. I'm sure Bill and Charlie would like to hang with the adults."

"Okay!" Harry agreed readily. Five of the Weasleys detached and followed him to the kids' tent. Harry walked to the middle of it and saw everyone turn to look at him.

"Hello everyone," Harry said. He remembered some of what he'd learned about wizarding etiquette. He was the host here so it was his job to introduce everyone, but he actually didn't know anyone's names other than Percy.

The group said hello back. Harry cleared his throat. "Right, well I'm Harry. I know some of you probably know each other already, but I think we should all go around in a circle and introduce ourselves. Is that alright?"

Most of them seemed to nod and one by one they said their names. The Weasleys were Percy, Ron, Ginny, and the twins, Fred and George. Then there was Luna Lovegood. Hadrian had invited Luna and her father because they liked the Quibbler so much. Harry smiled at the blue-eyed girl. She smiled back dreamily.

After Luna were Susan Bones and Neville Longbottom. Neville seemed shy. Harry could barely hear his name and had to ask the boy to repeat it.

Then there were Millicent Bulstrode, Daphne Greengrass and her little sister Astoria, and Pansy Parkinson. After them were Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott. Finally Draco Malfoy introduced himself.

"It's nice to meet everyone," Harry said. "Um, so we have exploding snap, wizards chess, and some other games. Food will be at seven."

They split up into groups after that. Harry made sure to make a couple rounds to talk to everyone because he wanted to be a good host.

Ginny and Luna sat together immediately. Apparently they'd already been friends. Harry took Astoria over to them because he thought they were the same age and the other four girls didn't seem to want her with them. Astoria seemed hesitant around Ginny and Luna at first, but soon enough the girls were caught up in a discussion about pets they wanted when they were older.

Pansy and Millicent seemed fine together and Harry was a bit hesitant around girls his own age so he left their group after only a quick conversation. Daphne didn't seem to want to talk with those two, but neither did she move to join any other group. Susan too was sitting by herself. Harry asked them both if they liked chess and when they agreed he set them up at one of the boards and left them to it. When he looked over ten minutes later, they were laughing together.

Percy and the twins were sitting in a corner with one of the childproof potions kits. Harry checked on them briefly before moving on. The last group was all the boys that were Harry's age. They seemed divided down the middle. Ron and Neville sat together across from Draco, Theodore, and Blaise.