Saturday, July 26
Neville's Day
*****
Neville never really planned on getting married, which meant that he never planned on having a stag party, so he wanted Harry's to be the best ever.
Especially because he didn't think any of the other blokes in their group would ever want to have a stag party now that they knew the massive amounts of chaos that could happen.
Also, Neville felt a bit like maybe nobody expected him to come up with anything to make the top of Harry's list, and he really was determined to surprise them all with something extra fun and clever to do. And he found the missing piece to his 'Neville Day Puzzle' the day before when they'd been walking around London with Luna.
There was a pub they passed with a little sign on it, indicating that you could book private rooms for parties. Neville was pretty sure most pubs had that, but what they didn't all have were poker rooms and karaoke nights.
And that sounded like something that Harry would think was a real lark and secretly love.
So when everyone got up and finished breakfast, they lounged around in the bloody giant hot tub for a bit until it was closer to lunchtime.
"This is so peaceful," Susan sighed as she laid her head back and enjoyed the bubbling water soothing them all.
Neville grinned when Harry hummed noncommittally.
Poor Harry, he didn't want peace, he wanted chaos.
Neville hummed silently and stretched out. "We should go soon," he told the others. "Our reservation is at noon."
"Reservation?" Draco perked up and everyone else looked intrigued, which caused Neville's smile to grow. "What reservation?"
Neville picked at his nails, hoping his surprise would go over well. "I booked a private room at a pub downtown for the day," he said. He glanced up and smiled at Harry, hesitant at first then more confident when Harry looked interested. "We have an open bar, a full poker setup, and karaoke after eight." Harry smiled, which made Neville feel ridiculously pleased when he added, "It's got a full restaurant too."
Neville used to worry about being pushed out of the group in favor of the others who were smarter, stronger, and more interesting than he was. He didn't know what Harry Potter saw in little sniveling Neville Longbottom, but he'd always been so grateful for being included. And now, with Harry looking so eager and happy, Neville thought maybe it was silly to worry about being kicked out of their gang.
And really, Neville knew where he stood. He was a good friend, a dependable friend. He was underestimated by others, but never by his friends. Other people's eyes roamed past Neville when they saw his more interesting and attractive friends and that was when Neville got to shine. Because being underestimated had earned Neville the ability to be ignored to an extent- and people spoke freely around him.
It was something that Harry appreciated anyway, as he always looked to Neville when he needed information on someone.
Harry leaned forward toward Neville eagerly and lowered his voice. "Is karaoke really dangerous?"
Neville laughed and looked fondly at Harry. He and Harry didn't have much in common; Harry loved chaos while Neville craved peace. Harry was always on the hunt for the next great adventure, but Neville always tagged along happily because Harry was one of his best mates and he would follow him to the edge of the world.
Harry taught Neville how to be more confident. Harry taught Neville how to stand up for others. And Neville would gladly take this chance to teach Harry how to relax and still have fun.
"After a few drinks?" Neville grinned and nodded. "Yeah, I reckon it'll be dangerous."
Harry's smile was sharp and excited while the others (particularly Hermione's) were amused.
"Brill," Harry nodded.
Brill, Neville agreed.
Neville was thrilled as he and his friends had made it to the pub and the room he'd reserved was even better than he imagined. It truly looked like a place made solely to play poker with the professional looking table, the shining chips, and the cards laid out for them.
"Wicked!" Ron cried. His eyes were shining as he took in the poker set up and the window in their room that connected directly to the bar. "Nev, this is awesome!"
"What is this?" Harry laughed. He stepped over to the table behind the poker table and picked up what looked like a thick brown cigar from a pyramid stack of cigars. "I feel like I'm in that film we watched, Sue, what was it called?"
"Casino!" Susan cried, spinning around and grinning at their private room. "Neville's a bloody genius, he is!"
Neville didn't preen often, not like Blaise and Harry loved to do, but boy did he preen then as his friends all praised his idea.
It was nice, being the one to make everyone smile so happily.
They played a round of Texas Hold 'Em, Harry's favorite card game, while they ate lunch and laughed and joked around.
They played five-card draw, Neville's personal favorite game, and everyone seemed to be gaining competitive edges.
They played another round, and Neville bemoaned his diminishing chips while Harry, Blaise, Susan, and Ron smoked cigars and began eyeing the bar window with interest.
By the time they started the fourth round of cards, with Ron kicking all their arses, Harry had decided to start ordering drinks.
And that's when things began slipping into the chaos that Harry loved so much.
"I taught the Gryffindor girls and Padma poker," Susan said after taking a shot of a smoky liquor and shuddering at its taste. "Padma was really good, and Lavender very bad."
"I heard about that," Neville grinned. He had ordered something from the menu that was blue with a neat little umbrella in it and found that it tasted like a sweet. "Except it wasn't regular poker, was it, Miss Prefect?"
"What other kinds of poker are there?" Harry asked, a slight slur to his voice that was nearly imperceptible if you didn't know him as well as they all did.
"Strip poker, I assume?" Blaise asked Susan with an approving smirk. "Did Padma beat you, or did you simply want to get naked in front of them?"
"How dare you?" Susan asked with false indignation. "I am a Hufflepuff, I play fairly."
Everyone laughed, except Harry, who was squinting at Susan quizzically.
"What's strip poker?"
Godric Gryffindor.
Neville loved Harry so much.
Susan and Blaise took too much fun in explaining the game to Harry. And everyone snickered as Harry looked shocked at their explanations.
"Losing means you get naked?" he hissed. "What the fuck? Why would you play then?"
"You just don't lose and you stay clothed," Theo said, shaking his head at his brother indulgently. "It's quite clear."
Harry still looked shocked and he absently accepted the shot that Draco slid him and he downed quickly. "That's mad," he said.
Neville chuckled and wiggled his brows at Harry. "I'm guessing you don't want to play then?"
Harry probably would have said no. Neville was really just teasing him. But then Blaise spoke up and Neville knew that their night was about to get weird.
"Harry doesn't want to lose," he told Neville with a mischievous glimmer in his playful eyes. "Quit pressuring him. He's not very good at poker."
"I'm out," Hermione said immediately, moving from the poker table to the table with the buffet of food laid out.
"Me too," Luna said quickly with a flustered pink blush. "I don't think I'll win."
Neville would have loved to join the girls, but he was a Gryffindor and nobody else moved, even if they did eye one another warily.
Neville was sweating as he eyed his cards then eyed Ron, Draco, Blaise, Theo, Susan, and Harry.
Do you know how hard it is to play such high stakes poker with a bunch of Slytherins (Neville firmly believed that Susan's sorting was a mistake)? Very.
None of them looked concerned in the slightest.
"Ready?" Susan murmured to them. "Let's see it boys."
Draco lost his trainers and socks that round after a heated debate on how many items the four articles counted as that was solved by Hermione and Luna's vote of one.
Luna brought them all pints of lager that Neville drank gratefully just before Susan called for their cards the next round.
Harry hissed something in Parsletongue and glared at them all as he took off his socks and trainers as well.
Neville was heavily regretting the warmth of the room, as they had all shed their jackets long ago.
"Ready? Play."
"Shame," Blaise grinned. He reached down and grabbed the hem of his shirt and slowly drug it over his head before tossing the shirt on the floor. "Cowards," he taunted Harry and Draco.
It was easy for Blaise to taunt them when he had a damn six pack of brown abs that even a straight man could appreciate.
"God damn," Neville groaned the next round when he lost. He took a deep breath then elected to remove his shirt as well.
He wasn't a coward.
He did blush though when Susan whistled and winked at him. She was as shameless a flirt as Blaise was.
Neville returned the whistle along with Ron and Blaise when Susan lost next and also took her top off, leaving her clad in a white bra, jeans, her socks and trainers.
Neville only whistled because he knew Susan wanted them to. He then very carefully did not look at Susan's chest again.
"I…" Harry blinked at the cards on the table. "Sonofabitch," he swore quickly in a single burst of air. "God damnit. Ron is cheating!" he cried.
"I am not!" Ron yelled.
"Take it off, take it off!" Susan and Luna chanted, both sounding a little drunk.
Harry closed his eyes for a moment before he opened them back up and very determinedly removed his black tshirt.
Neville wasn't sure why he was embarrassed, Harry had a great body. He was lean and tan and had some interesting scars to add character. Something that Neville would never say as Harry's eyes promised pain for anyone who commented, but Theo was mad enough to remark on.
"Lookin' good, little brother," he said with a wink.
"You're disgusting," Harry sneered before twitching his pinky and causing Theo to yelp and then laugh.
After another hour, the seven of them were sitting around the table in various forms of undress.
Susan was in her bra and panties, having lost her socks and trainers, her shirt, and her jeans.
Neville would have offered her a blanket or jacket or something, but he got the impression that Susan didn't much mind sitting there mostly naked.
Harry was in his jeans.
Neville was in his jeans.
Draco was in his jeans.
Theo was in a tank top and jeans, having apparently worn the tank top under his tshirt.
Blaise was down to his pants and socks and trainers, though if that was intentional or not remained to be seen.
Neville thought it probably had been, as Blaise had to really work to remove his trousers with his trainers still on.
Ron was smugly wearing all of his clothes.
"Ready?" Susan asked them, definitely drunk by now. "Go!"
Everyone threw down their cards and Neville let out a wail of drunken dismay.
"Take it off! Take it off! Take it off!"
The girls were definitely drunk- except for Hermione who seemed to be chanting just to chant.
Neville stood up and tried to channel all of Blaise's confidence as he unbottoned his jeans and kicked them off quickly.
Susan and Draco whistled at him and Ron told him to 'do a spin', which Neville did with as much good humor as he could.
Harry was squinting at him with slightly glazed eyes before he turned to Theo and raised his brows. "'S it just me, or does Nev have a great arse?"
Neville laughed and swore to not drink much more that night.
He needed to stay sober enough so he could remember to one day tell his grandkids that Harry Potter said he had a great arse.
"Let's quit," Harry said after the next round was dealt and cards were traded and bets were placed. "Isn't there karaoke? Can we do that?"
"After this round," Draco smirked. "What's wrong, Potter? Scared?"
"You wish, Malfoy," Harry snarled. Though the way he gulped his Jack and coke, a delicious drink in Neville's opinion, made Neville think he was a bit scared.
"Last round then, boys," Susan said. "Everyone ready? Play!"
Neville threw his cards down and let out a whoosh of relief as someone's cards were worse than his.
Harry's.
Everyone's eyes flew to Harry's very flushed and red face. Then, in a show of solidarity, they all began chanting slowly, picking up speed as they went.
"Take it off. Take it off. Take it off."
Harry stood up and kicked his chair away irritable. "Fred's going to be pissed," he warned them in something mixed between a slur and a drawl. Harry slowly undid the button on his jeans and began lowering them while the eight others were caught up in the show.
Harry had no sooner fully removed his jeans, standing there with a red face and in his black pants that somehow looked more expensive than Neville's entire outfit, than a waitress walked in with a tray full of fresh crisps and refills of their other snacks.
"Oh my." Her eyes went wide as Hermione burst in to laughter and everyone else turned various shades of red—
Not Ron.
Ron was such a smug bastard.
Neville was glad he gave him a spider tattoo.
Wanker.
The waitress didn't look embarrassed though even as Harry quickly sat down and crossed his arms over his bare chest. She looked torn between eyeing up Harry or Blaise.
"I have food, if you're still hungry," she said with a little simpering look on her young and rather cute face. She batted her lashes at Harry flirtatiously. "Or anything else you'd like."
Neville fell over on Susan as he laughed at Harry's irritated scowl. Harry probably wasn't trying to make her look more interested, but he was failing- badly.
"Yeah, I'd like you to leave," Harry said curtly. "Bye."
Everyone, even Harry a little, laughed when the waitress put the tray on the table where Hermione and Luna sat and left the room in a huff.
The poker players quickly got dressed and Harry threw a friendly arm over Neville's shoulder.
"Can we please go do karaoke before one more person see's my fuckin scrawny legs?"
Neville laughed and crossed his arm over Harry's. "You've got great legs, real toned," he assured him before hastily adding, "Let's go sing, yeah?"
And boy did they.
They all drank more and more, even Theo got pissed much to Hermione's chagrin. At some point, Ron announced that it was Harry's stag party and then strangers started buying them all drinks even.
Contrary to what Harry thought, Neville thought maybe muggles weren't really so bad.
The girls started the karaoke off with some horribly catchy song called 'Barbie Girl' that had the other patrons of the pub torn between laughter as the three of them made up dance moves and jeers as the song itself was truly horrible.
Then Ron and Draco sang a song by a band Harry liked, Queen, aptly called 'You're My Best Friend' to general cheers and applause.
Blaise bravely sang one by himself, slurring all the words, called 'The Stroke'. Neville laughed so hard at him that he nearly wet himself.
Neville agreed to let Harry pick a song for him- which was a mistake since, even drunk, Harry seemed to know muggle rock and roll pretty well (apparently a side effect of living with Professor Snape and being around Professor Black so much) and Neville stepped on stage, squinting at the lights, when the music started up.
'Pour Some Sugar On Me' was about the most suggestive song Neville had ever heard and his face was positively radiating heat as he sang it.
He refused to not make his friends laugh though as he put his heart and soul into the words and even gyrated his hips to general cheers and laughter.
"You fuckin legend," Harry howled when Neville stepped off stage. "I wouldn't have sang it, would I? I'd'a said 'fuuuuck you'."
"Yeah?" Neville snagged Harry's beer and took a drink before grinning at Harry in a blatant challenge. "Suppose you're too scared to let us pick one for you then?"
A muscle in Harry's jaw ticked and Neville's other friends high fived and hurried to help him pick a song.
"Jokes on you," Harry said with a calm that did nothing to hide his wary eyes as he went to take the stage. "I fuckin love Ozzy, don't I?"
"Excellent, let's see a damn performance then," Draco yelled from the front of the crowd mixed of their friends and a bunch of drunk muggles. "Give it up for HARRY FUCKING POTTER!"
Neville screamed along with his friends while Harry wobbled on the stage and adopted a very casual, rather arrogant, type of stance with the microphone in his hand and his eyes on his friends, opting to ignore the telly screen where the words were.
Either he really knew the words pretty well, or he wasn't going to sing at all.
The music kicked on and everyone started swaying and Harry's lips twitched up in a little smirk.
Neville loved that smirk.
Harry pulled the microphone to his mouth and kept his eyes on their softly swaying and dancing group as he began singing along.
"Times have changed and times are strange.
Here I come, but I ain't the same.
Mama, I'm coming home."
"Harry can fucking sing!" Susan yelled over the muggles singing along with Harry. "God damn, GO HARRY!"
By the last chorus, Neville and his friends were all singing along as Harry finished the song.
"'Cause mama, mama, I'm coming home!"
Harry took a sarcastic bow on the stage then promptly leapt off it and barely landed on his feet.
Neville suspected there had been some sort of wandless-insane-Harry-Potter-chaos-magic at play at that because Harry was drunk.
Harry was drunk and nostalgic as Neville supported his weight while they stumbled back to the hotel not much later.
"Nev?" he slurred.
"Yes, Harry?"
"Why'd you pick that song?"
Neville glanced over at his very adorably drunk friend at the peculiar question and shrugged a little then hefted Harry up more securely. "Dunno, it just said it was a top hit, which sounded like it meant good, right?"
Harry nodded then gave Neville a sweet smile that Neville suspected Harry could only ever produce while this intoxicated.
"You're a good friend," he said, very serious in the way that most drunks were, "I love you, Nev."
Neville laughed and hugged Harry to him a little more tightly for a moment. "And I love you, Harry. Let's get your drunk arse in bed, yeah?"
*****
Sunday, July 27
Blaise's Day
*****
Blaise was perfectly content to sleep in as long as possible. His day didn't end at the strike of midnight, and it didn't truly begin until two.
So when Ron woke him up and the clock only said ten in the bloody morning, Blaise jinxed his hair grey and went right back to sleep.
"There's sleeping beauty," Theo scoffed when Blaise finally got up a little after noon. He sauntered into the sitting room and found his friends all lounging on the furniture and floor with some muggle movie with a lot of dancing teenagers happening. "Lazy arse. We shouldn't even give you a potion."
"A potion?" Blaise quirked a brow at Theo before he pushed Draco off a chair and took it with a smug grin. "Whatever for?"
Ron stared hard at him for a moment then snorted. "You're not even hungover, are you?"
"Nope." Blaise grinned at the incredulous looks the others gave him. "Special Zabini secret, afraid I'd have to kill you if I told you."
"Pft." Harry's eyes were on the movie, but he was clearly eavesdropping. "Juliana would tell me."
She would.
She adored Harry.
Better yet though, Harry adored her.
"Anything for her future ex-husband," Blaise drawled with a grin when Harry's cheeks darkened a few shades.
"Piss off."
Susan, ever Harry's guard dragon, cut in before Blaise could tell Harry what a well thought out and articulate comeback that had been. "What's the plan today, darling?" she asked him.
Susan's question finally got Harry's attention and he turned from the telly to Blaise with a mad little light in the back of his deep green eyes.
Blaise wore his 'entirely detached from this situation' look and summoned a file to buff his nails. "Hmm? Today?" Blaise glanced up, unwilling to miss the look in Harry's eyes when he told him his plan. "I thought perhaps we'd go jump off a bridge and then, if we all survive, we'd go see that muggle band Harry likes, what were they called? Led something?"
Blaise knew what they were called, he remembered that Harry had gotten a muggle music device from Snape on his twelfth birthday that played songs from a band his mother had liked. And Blaise knew that Harry listened to that album so much that the disc had broken and Hermione took pity on him and replaced it.
"Blaise…" Harry's eyes were so bright that Blaise imagined he could close his own eyes and simply see sparkling emeralds forever. "Tell me that you don't mean bungee jumping and Led Zeppelin?"
"Aah, yes," Blaise smirked a little, "that is what I meant."
"They don't… they don't tour anymore?" Harry said hesitantly. "Sirius and I tried to find tickets last summer?"
"Mmm, it is sometimes a question of who you know," Blaise said, causing Luna to giggle for some reason.
"And you know muggle rockstars?" Draco asked skeptically.
"Me?" Blaise looked up and blinked innocently. "Heavens, no. Stepfather number six had a brother who worked in the music industry though, and I wrote to him. He worked some magic, pulled some strings, and the band decided on one last show. With a new drummer, of course, as theirs is rather dead."
It had also cost an exorbitant amount of gold, but Mother didn't fuss over it when Blaise explained how much Harry would adore it.
Hermione's lips were twitching, as if she were fighting off a smile. "Did all this a couple weeks ago, did you?"
As if suspicious ex-step-uncles could be contacted and bribed into coaxing retired muggle rockstars from retirement in a manner of weeks.
"Yes," Blaise lied smoothly. "And we should get dressed now if we want to jump off a bloody bridge."
Blaise didn't quite appreciate the looks that the others gave him. As if Blaise's humiliating crush on his engaged best friend was somehow public knowledge.
He did however appreciate the look that Harry gave him.
Susan and Theo could whine however much they wanted.
If Harry was going to rank their ideas for them at the end of the week, then Blaise was obviously winning.
Not that he cared much about that in the moment, because Harry had him quite distracted by his blinding smile.
One person should hardly be allowed to be so devastatingly attractive; himself aside.
Blaise snagged Harry and apparated to the ridiculous bridge jumping business while the others were still getting ready. Technically, they apparated to the alley behind the business after leaving the address for the others. But Blaise had something to do before Hermione and Theo arrived.
Blaise smiled brightly at Harry as he threw an arm over his shoulders. He smiled all the harder when Harry didn't even tense up. "Harry, you won't tell Granger if we work a little magic first, will you?"
"Probably not, no," Harry agreed.
"Excellent."
Harry and Blaise were very casually, not at all smugly, waiting with the 'instructor' when the others came charging through the door as quiet as raging hippogriffs.
"We're here!" Susan calls, her cheeks pink from apparation and her golden arm entwined with Luna's daintier arm. "And we're ready to jump off a bridge!"
"I'll need you all to watch this video first," the instructor said, a flat affect to his tone that Blaise hoped Hermione wouldn't recognize. "Right through here…"
Hermione shot Blaise 'a look' as she stepped in the room though, so Blaise assumed that she figured it out.
It truly wasn't his fault that they didn't have bungee days on Sundays and it wasn't his fault that they didn't actually jump off bridges in London, as it had sounded like. And Harry would prefer a bridge than a weird muggle crane thing- Blaise was certain of it.
This company did both of those things now though; Blaise wasn't miffed over a single imperio, not if it made Harry happy.
An hour and a half later, six wizards, two witches (as Hermione stoutly refused to even join their group up top and was instead taking videos from the lower level), and a mildly imperio'd group of bridge jumping experts were on the top level walkway of Tower Bridge and Blaise was panicking.
Only internally.
"You look ready to barf," Neville muttered to him.
Possibly not internally.
"I don't like heights much," Blaise admitted, feeling queasy as he looked down at how terribly high they were.
"You play quidditch?" Ron asked, gobsmacked to learn that Blaise had a mild fear.
Blaise did play quidditch. Because Blaise enjoyed being fawned over. And Blaise knew Harry's team needed an additional player last year. He had no intentions of playing this year with Harry gone and his assistance unneeded.
"I do, yes," Blaise agreed lightly.
"And this was your idea?" Theo hissed, looking as discomforted as Blaise was.
Blaise made a strangled and undignified noise as he flapped his hand to where Harry was grinning like a madman beside Susan.
He would hardly choose something that didn't seem to involve risking their lives for his day for Harry.
"We can do two at a time. Who wants to go first?" One of the muggles asked them once they'd finished setting up the equipment.
It wasn't planned, it wasn't coordinated, but they all seemed to turn to Draco at the same time.
"Me?!" Draco yelped, his pale pointed face taking a green tint. "Why me?!"
"Come on, Draco," Luna smiled over at him as she seemed to be so gracefully waltzing around the beams. "I'll go with you, it's going to feel amazing, just like flying."
Blaise and Ron grinned at one another as Draco deflated in the face of Luna's pretty little speech to Draco. That girl was as manipulative as any woman- it was no wonder that she had worked her way into Narcissa's heart already.
Everyone watched as Draco and Luna were buckled into harnesses and attached to cables that Blaise hoped wouldn't snap under their weight.
There were crowds of muggles beneath them, oohing and awing and ready for the spectacle.
Blaise mentally prepared the speech he would feel obligated to give at their funerals.
Draco was sweating so badly that his blonde hair was sleek against his forehead and Luna was bouncing on the balls of her feet with the same sort of manic excitement that Blaise saw inside Harry.
"Are you ready?" The muggle asked as he backed away. "Don't forget- arms out, jump out like you're diving on a diving board."
Draco's wail carried over to the others with the wild wind. "I don't know what that means!"
Luna's laugh was loud and bright and happy. "Hold my hand, this will be fun!"
Blaise's stomach did a somersault as they counted down for the young couple-
"THREE… TWO… ONE… JUMP!"
Blaise's scream froze in his throat as they actually jumped off the god forsaken bridge.
Draco's scream was loud and sharp and terrified though, just as Luna's shriek was joyous and thrilled.
When the two of them were pulled back up, Draco's eyes were wild with adrenaline and Luna's hands were shaking.
"That was… BRILLIANT!" Luna screamed. "WE ALMOST HIT THE WATER AND THEN WE BOUNCED UP!"
"And then nearly hit the bridge," Draco moaned.
"Don't be silly, that was never a risk."
Draco caught Blaise's eye and jerked his chin in a nod and the knot in Blaise's stomach tightened.
Ron and Neville went next- neither looking very excited nor very secure as they fidgeted in their harnesses.
Ron did make an admirable stab at levity as he offered Neville his hand. "Hold my hand, Nev?" he grinned. "I need a big strong Gryffindor to keep me safe," he batted his lashes coquettishly.
Neville laughed, the tension in his shoulders melted, and he snatched Ron's hand and brought it to his lips for a playful kiss. "Whatever would your mother say?"
"Probably think we're a couple like she did me and Draco," Ron laughed. "We should really be more concerned about your gran though."
"Enough chit chat!" Harry yelled. "Ron, you wanted to be in that tournament and Neville you're a bloody Gryffindor. SO JUMP, YOU CHICKENS!"
"THREE… TWO… ONE… JUMP!"
Ron's scream outweighed Neville's both in volume and in the sheer pitch of it.
"I can't do this," Theo moaned when they finally pulled the two shaking and grinning boys back up to the ledge.
"Too bad," Susan grinned as she slapped Theo's shoulder merrily. "Because we're up, darling."
"Who's going to raise my daughter when I die?!" Theo screamed at Blaise after being secured to the harness.
"It's all science or math, or whatever that bloke said," Harry called back to him. He was sitting beside where Blaise stood and looked the image of peaceful as he dangled his legs over the rails. "You love that daft shit!"
"I hate you though," Theo told Blaise with a wild look of fear in his eyes. "I will never forgive you!"
"Shut up and jump, Nott," Draco yelled, much calmer now that his jump was complete.
Susan grabbed Theo's hand and Blaise winced for his friend as her golden grip was surely breaking his fingers.
"THREE… TWO… ONE… JUMP!"
Susan let out a war cry and seemed to drag Theo with her as she leapt off the bridge in the bravest display yet.
How that loyal, brave, cunning, witty witch managed to avoid being a hat stall, Blaise will never know.
"Harry, I can't," Blaise croaked after they had his harness attached and they were hooked up to the chords. "I'm sorry, I truly can't."
"Hey." Harry frowned over at him and took note of Blaise's pale face and sweat-slicked skin. "Nobody got hurt, yeah? This will be fine."
Blaise shook his head as he looked down at the impossible depth below them.
The murky water.
The metal and cement bridge with muggles with cameras pointed up at them and Hermione with Harry's camera recording.
The suddenly flimsy seeming ropes he was attached to.
"I can't," Blaise said. He began clawing desperately at the harness on him. "I'm sorry, take Susan, I can't."
Blaise's scrambling fingers were stilled by a small and cool hand on top of his. He looked over and saw that Harry was giving him his most charming smile.
"If you don't want to, you don't have to," Harry said, his voice only loud enough to reach Blaise's ears. "But if you want to give it a shot, I'll hold your hand and we'll do it together and I won't even laugh at you."
Blaise swallowed harshly as he looked from Harry's eyes to the hand still on his. "Fine," he said, his voice raspy with fear instead of raspy from damage. "We'll do it together."
"Together," Harry agreed with a genuine smile. "Ready?"
No.
"Yes."
"THREE… TWO… ONE… JUMP!"
Blaise didn't scream- because he was simply too seized with terror to do so. Harry squeezed his hand tightly as they leapt off the bridge and flew head first down, down, down to the water. Just when Blaise was certain they were going to break the surface- they bounced back up impossibly high.
Harry let out a whoop of laughter and Blaise managed to snap his head over to look at him at just the right moment.
Harry was bouncing back upwards, the sun shining behind him. His hair was flying every which direction and Blaise had never seen such an honest smile on his face.
Blaise did that.
He made Harry smile like that.
"How was it?" Hermione asked them once they were all back on the blessedly solid ground. Her lower lip looked chapped, as if she spent the whole time gnawing it in worry- a true possibility.
"Absolutely fucking brill," Harry said in a gush.
"You guys all looked terrified," Hermione hedged, holding Theo's arm tightly and sounding as if she were the terrified one. "I can't believe you did it."
"Terrified?" Harry scoffed and put his arm around Blaise's shoulders. "We weren't scared at all, Mione, Blaise wanted to jump again."
Blaise absolutely did not want to do it again, but he loved Harry for covering for him.
"It was easy," he drawled, winking at Hermione playfully.
"Excellent," Susan clapped, "so you'll go again?"
Blaise scowled at Susan and she winked at him.
The girl was a Slytherin at heart, truly.
The gang all changed into more suitable clothing for a muggle concert rock and roll thing, and Blaise was feeling very satisfied with the overall image their group portrayed.
They were all rather attractive in their own ways. Hermione with her sweet swell of a stomach. Luna with her dainty fairy like looks. Susan with her radiant vitality. Theo and his brooding eyes partially hidden by his dark hair. Draco and his regal features and his excellent fashion sense. Neville and his burgeoning muscles and his sweet face. Ron and his lanky height and his flop of messy red hair.
And Harry of course, who Blaise suspected could make a pillowcase look inviting and was positively indecent in his tight jeans and leather jacket paired with his bright eyes and his thick black hair.
"Let's go hear some terrible music, hmm?" Blaise said with a smile.
Harry shook his head at him and stuck his hands in his jacket pockets. "It's not terrible, Blaise, it's fuckin amazing."
The music was actually terrible.
Blaise would never understand Harry's taste in music. It wasn't even a muggle versus magical dilemma, it was merely that this band was an affront to Blaise's ear drums and there were millions of better songs in his opinion.
But his opinion didn't much matter, because Harry was in heaven.
Harry, who typically despised crowds and despised being touched and shrunk to the sidelines, was in rare form. He was singing along with the words and he was allowing Susan to dance with him as they stood directly in front of the stage with thousands of muggles pressed around them all screaming their adoration of the band.
"I love this song!" Harry screamed when the music changed and a new song started. His eyes flickered around their paired up and dancing friends-
Theo wrapped around Hermione and swaying sweetly.
Draco and Luna jumping around like first years on a feast night.
Neville and Ron who managed to integrate with some muggle girls with too much lipstick and eyeshadow.
Susan, who had, so stupidly, traded Harry for a nearby muggle girl in fishnets with blue tipped hair.
-and then landed on Blaise, who had been mostly enjoying the show that was Harry having the time of his life.
"Blaise!" Harry yelled over the guitar starting up. "Dance with me!"
Blaise took a drink from the flask that they'd so easily snuck into the venue and nodded casually. "Alright then. Let's dance."
All the songs the band had played had been fast and meant to pump the blood of the audience. The songs were all meant to dance closely, to jump, to sweat.
'Black Dog' was rather suggestive though and it was only due to an ironclad willpower that Blaise kept from reacting as Harry danced with him.
"Like this," Blaise laughed when he realized how unskilled Harry was at dancing. He grabbed Harry's hip and pulled him closer and then attempted to show him how to roll his hips in the way that most seventeen year olds were so gifted at.
"Yeah?" Harry laughed and began singing along and Blaise had a brief wish that he could die just then.
Blaise would feel peaceful if he died while Harry was moving his body against his and scream singing so happily along with Jimmy Page.
"This was the best fuckin day ever," Harry confided to him when the songs switched again and there was a soft final song being started. Harry's eyes were so filled with sparkles that Blaise imagined it was difficult for him to even see. "I always wanted to go to a concert, I didn't think I'd get to."
"We'll go every summer," Blaise told him.
Harry smiled, but he lost a couple sparkles in his eyes. "Yeah," he agreed. "Every summer the gang should come here and listen to a concert."
"Maybe a different band," Blaise laughed.
Harry hummed and sang along quietly now as the band sang about a stairway to heaven.
On the way back to the hotel though, Harry grabbed Blaise's elbow and pulled him to the back of the group with an intense expression.
"Promise me that you'll take the gang to go see a concert next summer," he said. "Every summer. Just the gang all together. Please?"
Blaise couldn't imagine why it was so important to promise such a thing, but Harry never said please, so clearly he found it important.
"I promise that I will drag us all to go see a concert every summer," he said solemnly. He crossed his index finger over his heart in an X. "Would you prefer a vow?"
"No." Harry let out a loud sigh and smiled. "Thanks Blaise, you're a good friend."
They rejoined the others and laughed together about how Ron had fallen madly in love with the pretty muggle girl he'd been dancing with and Blaise forgot all about Harry's odd intensity about his promise.