24th December 1991
Harry was woken — sorry, rather dragged and shaken awake, by his mother and no-one would know that this small little family was going to hoist a Ball in just a few hours. Yes, a freaking Ball!
Harry was tasked with welcoming all the guests till the evening, and he was given a portkey to-and-fro the house and the manor. The ballroom was themed light-blue and cyan, and was adorned with chandeliers, exotic lamps, ribbons and velvet all round the room. There stood a massive Eastern white pine tree adorned with numerous decorations and a star bigger than Harry's head on the top, which Harry himself had put on with his broom.
The tables were levitated and set, with the most fine-looking steel cutlery and ceramic plates, as opposed to the silver ones present in the kitchens, because then Uncle Moony wouldn't be able to enjoy.
Harry and Padfoot mount their brooms to put on the decorations, although they had more fun with them than actually work.
Then Harry got dressed up in an expensive suit gifted by Uncle Padfoot. It looked really nice on him — the matte black jacket, with a Chinese silk tie and matching pants and boots and a white shirt looked impressive according to James, overly handsome according to Padfoot and adorable(?) according to Lily on the eleven year old Harry.
Harry was left to stand at the gate after lunch to welcome the evening guests. He was glad that at least Uncle Paddy was there with him, because he probably wouldn't know half of them. But he didn't really expect for anyone to arrive this early, when suddenly he felt the muggle repelling wards tighten at a point way below too close to the manor than usual. He looked through his omniculars but regretted his decision too early.
There she was, with her two parents, looking too adorable not to stare. She had worn a periwinkle blue dress, with her hair no longer bushy, but curled into beautiful ringlets, a couple of which fell onto her face at just the right places. At the back, she had tied her hair in a proper bun, probably with a lot of sleakeazy, and wore the same flower as the dress on the right side of her hair. Sirius caught him probably, for he nudged him and playfully said,
"Go down already. Instead of stalking from far away just go and kiss the unlucky girl", to which Harry mocked retching — but his stomach was turning upside down for real, albeit in a good feeling way.
"You are such a git", he said and moved down. He could've used more of Sirius's extensive vocabulary in this regard, but refused to spoil his mouth just yet.
He walked down the hill where the two adults were probably arguing with their kid.
"You mean that your friend Harry is going to keep a ball in that little tower over there?", Mr. Granger asked Hermione.
"Can't you see Dad? That's a gigantic manor!", she huffed an pointed towards the top.
"Good evening, Mr. Granger. Mrs. Granger", he said and offered his hand to each of them.
"Good evening, Harry I presume?", Mrs. Granger asked to which Harry nodded.
"Uh.. Well, you see Harry — where exactly do you — you know, where're you hosting the ball?", Mr. Granger asked a bit awkwardly.
"Oh, for that — just think about what I say, alright? The Potter Manor can be found at the top of Stinchcombe Hill", and at their doubtful faces, he said, "Go on! Think about it!"
Helen was dumbstruck for a moment when he said that. Obviously she knew that! Come to think of it, why did she need to know that Potter Manor was located at the top of Stinchcombe Hill —
"Oh my goodness! That's a ruddy big manor!", Helen exclaimed and pointed at the top while Hermione just rolled her eyes.
"Honestly, Helen — language!", he said and chuckled. But he knew inside that it was indeed shocking for the manor to appear in an instant as if it was always there.
"I assume it was charmed for us not gifted folks not to know any better about it?", Edward said to which Harry happily nodded.
"Yessir! And even if you knew that Potter Manor was here, and this is Stinchcombe Hill, you didn't know the whole thing from my mouth so you couldn't piece it together and you won't be allowed to see it", Harry said as he guided them over to the Manor.
"So you were using a logical puzzle to withhold the complete picture. And if and only if we knew the complete picture we could crack the code! That's quite ingenious!", Edward exclaimed.
"Yeah! And add in the fact that only those few with a magical signature — picture a particularly unique radio frequency, can explicitly tell you about this thing, you wouldn't know any better if I didn't tell you about it"
"Just the perfect encryption for you wizards to use!"
"Perhaps Eddie and you can sit along for an afternoon chat to discuss about all this and us ladies wouldn't be bored to kingdom come", Mrs. Granger said as they reached where Sirius was standing.
"Sirius, this is Mr. and Mrs. Granger and their daughter Hermione. She's my batchmate in Gryffindor", he said formally — for the first time to Padfoot of all beings!
"A pleasure, Mr. Granger. May I dare say you both look absolutely stunning this evening", and he bowed and kissed Mrs. Granger's knuckles.
"Quite the charmer, Eddie", she said while Harry just rolled his eyes and said, "More on the lines of eccentric instead"
And so it went on. He had the ever-growing urge to run off when he saw the fudgy minister and his wife but still grudges on nevertheless. After impressing the Italian and French ministers with his linguistic proficiency, who seemed to genuinely want to know Harry than his father, he and Sirius finally moved in for the ball to start.
"Ladies and gentlemen, witches and wizards, high dignitaries and my dear Goblin friends", James said from the podium for the orchestra, "I am deeply honoured to get the opportunity to welcome your most gracious presence in my home for the very first Potter Yule Ball. Now not wasting any time, let's begin", and he held Lily's hand, who was wearing a brilliant white dress to the dance floor.
Everyone who had their partners with them joined in, while those who did not went to ask others for their hand. Harry excused himself to a mug of butterbeer, while silently enjoying the waltz and tapping his legs to the rhythm. Soon enough, a girl whom he recognised as Daphne Greengrass approached him.
"Well I learnt from the Prophet that you just learnt to dance properly. Although I don't believe in that rubbish, is it really true?", she asked from genuine curiosity.
"Well, no of course. I learnt many dances till the age of 9", Harry said, sighing.
"Then would you mind showing me a few of your moves, Scion Potter?", she asked batting her eyelashes and rolling her eyes at Harry's reluctance.
"An absolute pleasure I assure you, but I'd excuse myself, Miss Greengrass", he said diplomatically.
"I get it that you are afraid of people staring at you, she hit the bullseye blindfolded.
"Um. . . Yeah", he said uneasily.
"That's why I came here. You see, there are a lot of other empty girls over there, like Hermione, Tracey and Weasley, so I'd thought that I'd get you away from their prying eyes or at least get you to know one of them for the evening"
"That'd be graciously wonderful, Miss Greengrass. If you'd allow me", Harry mustered all of his courage into his hand while his face paled as white as chalk.
"I'd be most delighted, milord", and she took his hand and Harry guided him (yes, himself more than Daphne) to the floor.
It wasn't due to his dance skills that he was sloppy. It was due to the occasional gaze of somebody landing on him that made him shiver so violently.
"Stop being a prat or otherwise you'd be even more started at, Potter", she said as Harry almost stepped on her shoe.
"Dropping the honorifics so soon, are we?", and Harry relaxed himself to feel the faint ley line crossing from below which was much shorter than those of Hogwarts, but still enough to calm himself down. He danced much more gracefully, and that made both parties happy. As taught by Sirius, after the dance he led her to the counter for drinks where surprisingly Hermione Granger, the daughter of two dentists was drinking the most sweet milkshake on the counter, which happened to be strawberry-vanilla with deliciously sweet cream on the top with a chocolate stick.
"What will your parents say?", Harry sighed dramatically as if thoroughly disappointed and glanced towards her parents.
"Shh! What they don't know doesn't hurt them", she whispered and continued with her drink.
"I assume you've already met Hermione, yeah Harry?", Daphne asked bringing him a coke.
"Yeah we met on the ride back", Harry said.
"Before he lit up a freaking troll off of me", she said casually.
"Really? I never knew shy Potter was a knight in shining armour! So he was the guy you were ranting about being your—", but she was cut off with a beet-red Hermione continuing, "my new pen friend", while Harry (thankfully, Hermione thought) remained oblivious to the near tongue slip.
"Harry, why don't you show Hermione just how much of an extraordinary dancer you are", she said and winked at Hermione.
"Uh... If Hermione has no issues", he again near stuttered. He quickly realised the quirks of having pre-arranged dates even for an eleven-year-old.
"I-I would love to do so", and she took Harry's hand.
This time it was Hermione who was shivering throughout while Harry repeated the same advice Daphne gave him mere moments ago, causing her to relax a bit, but not completely stop shivering. Anyways, it was a good dance, on a slower rhythm, making it easier for her not to step on Harry's shoes.
"You were dancing pretty beautifully with that Neville guy. Do you — you know — are you not comfortable?", Harry asked, a bit concerned.
"No Harry! I'm perfectly fine! I guess the. . . The fruit punch the twins gave me must have something in it", and she fake-laughed.
After sharing a few more conversations with some ridiculous James-Potter-seekers, just before the clock struck midnight, the door to the ballroom was rather forcefully opened and Kingsley Shacklebolt, an auror under Dad's department, led a regiment of aurors through the carpet towards a stunned Minister, who realised they'd just caught the fudge he had made throughout his career.
"Minister Cornelius Oswald Fudge, you are hereby arrested for the following crimes: extreme bribery, money laundering worth at least five million galleons, theft, irresponsibility of duties under the oath for the Minister of Magic, among others. You are hereby stripped of your title as the Minister of Magic for the United Kingdom of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland and debarred from any position in the Magical government of any nation, active immediately"
"That's preposterous! You're surely mistaken there! You cannot just ruddy arrest me without any warrant!", when the said piece was thrust in his hands, "um. . Only the Director of the DMLE can arrest me!", when James happily came and tied Fudge's hands in a magic-suppressing handcuff, although the man was worse than a squib at wandless magic.
"This was your plan all along! You ba—", and he was swearing like a sailor when with a casual flick of James' wand, his pretty rich vulgar vocabulary was silenced. James shrugged and said boringly, "You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to the presence of an attorney. Any words thus spoken by you or any magic performed by you may be used against you in a court. You are to hand over your wand right away and have the right against invasive legimency investigations — the last part may be just for a few more days", while all the while resisting the urge to just put his hands up and scream success.
"I excuse myself and deeply apologise for any trouble you have faced due to this unexpected confrontation, but as you saw there is a matter of national importance needing my immediate attention", just when he'd finished the last man he'd expected to say anything positive about him — Lord Greengrass, said, "Don't worry, Lord Potter. We haven't faced any issues — rather, it was a much kore splendid evening than we'd expected on such short notice. Do go, Lord Potter, the Wizarding World needs you", and all the people applauded to a smiling James.
The Minister was still yelling like mad under the silencing charm, and after they were outside James had to lift the curse due to stupid mandates.
"you and your mudblood who—", and he suddenly stopped, dread evident in his eyes. James still remained utmost calm — only those who knew him very closely knew how much temper a silent James can behold, and his calm icy voice even caused the most experienced aurors to shudder, "Sure, Cornelius assholed fudge, I'll personally make sure that the Dementors enjoy a long make-out session before a painful snog to death", and smiled a dark grin as they apparated to the Ministerial apparition point.