The cadre had planned that the first Hogsmeade weekend they would have lunch together at The Three Broomsticks to celebrate Neville and Harry's success, but Harry planned to ask Daphne to be his date. He planned to take her to Honeydukes and give her some chocolates as a gift afterwards. He was nervous but he knew that even if Daphne said no she wasn't the only girl in school and they would still be friends. He wanted to take her because he found her attractive and unlike many girls who looked at him she at least could hold a sensible conversation.
He put off asking her until two days before.
"Hey, Daphne can I walk you to Hogsmeade this weekend?"
"Sure, Harry."
"Cool."
That weekend however the cadre wound up all walking together. At The Three Broomsticks they went to the room Neville's Gran had booked for the celebration where they had a sumptuous lunch of roast duck, wild rice with mushrooms, broccoli, carrot parsnip puree, spinach salad w/ dried cherries, glazed pecans and blue cheese with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, and rolls with pecan tart a la mode for dessert all washed down with butterbeer.
Lady Augusta was there to celebrate with Neville and to chaperone since the cadre had so many young ladies. Harry inwardly snickered since they were never supervised in the mornings and usually they were dressed much more revealingly than they were in their school robes. But he allowed her to keep her illusions as did the rest of the cadre. When the dessert course was served she stood.
"I want to thank all of you for coming, and celebrating Neville's achievement of passing his government test on the first try. I'm even prouder of the fact that he set a new standard when he did it by achieving the highest score that has ever been scored by a first time test taker. To Neville!" she lifted her glass of elfwine.
"To Neville!"The group raised their butterbeer glasses.
Neville, blushing a brilliant scarlet, stood.
"Thank you. I accept your adulation." The group laughed heartily as he had intended. "I want to acknowledge someone else who was critical in my achieving this. Harry, without your drive I wouldn't have been inspired to take the test, without your teaching I wouldn't have had the skills to learn it all, and without your friendship I wouldn't even have the confidence to try let alone succeed; so thank you. Also I wonder how many people at the ministry were astounded when two first time test takers passed. To Harry!"
Lady Augusta wore a surprised expression as the cadre raised their glasses to Harry. She hadn't realized he too had passed.
Harry stood. "Thank you, Nev. I'm glad that you allowed me to experience the fondest dreams of most teachers, to have the student surpass the teacher. While I passed, I did not set a new standard which is what we really came here to celebrate. To Neville," he paused while the group again raised their glasses to Neville, then continued, "and I have one more toast. To Lady Augusta, who went against the standard of waiting until sixteen and believed in both of us enough to put us in the class, and who has supplied us with this really excellent party."
The group laughed then raised their glasses "To Lady Augusta!"
After that party evolved into various conversations. Neville introduced his Gran to everyone. Conversations included Hermione quizzing both Harry and Neville about the class then shifting her attention to Lady Augusta.
Lady Augusta was slightly appalled by Hermione Granger's intense manner and refusal to be sidetracked into social niceties but when she noticed Neville and Harry's exasperated eye-rolls she figured that this was standard behavior for this girl. She decided to see if the chit could take a hint. She gave a disparaging sniff. All that happened, was Harry started to smirk and Neville blushed on his friend's behalf. Augusta sighed. She really needed to convince Minerva that etiquette lessons should be required for the Gryffindor students.
Harry decided that if he didn't want to give in to his desire to laugh at Lady Augusta's annoyance with Hermione, he needed to leave. "Thank you again for the party Lady Augusta. Unfortunately I have a few errands I need to run and time waits for no one. If you will excuse me, I need to collect Daphne…"
"I will forgive you your absence." She knew from the gleam in his eye he was leaving rather than continue to control himself regarding the Granger girl.
Harry went over to Daphne. "Daphne, are you ready to go run your errands?"
"Of course, just let me collect Tracey." She stepped away before Harry could protest.
Harry blinked, disappointed that he apparently hadn't made himself clear that he had asked Daphne for a date.