[Special] Parties are chaos. Even more so when it is a magical party.
"Bravo!" everyone shouted as Draco and Harry were guided toward the Hogwarts kitchens. The moment they stepped inside, they were met with a surprise. Most of the students were already there, waiting for them in the middle of a huge celebration filled with food and drinks. There was even a large banner hanging on the wall that read: Congratulations to our Hogwarts Champions.
There were truly a lot of students there, and most of them cheered for them the moment they came in.
Harry could not help but notice that it was not just Ravenclaw, his own house, present. There were also students from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and even a few from Slytherin. The latter were clearly a minority, just a handful, but they were there. In particular, one Slytherin who liked to act as some kind of undercover spy, selling information about what his house was up to, was now sitting calmly among the others, eating as if nothing were out of place.
"Harry, Harry, that was incredible. I cannot believe those explosions, with that much control. It was like you were some kind of bomber or something," Colin said as he approached, genuinely excited and animated.
"It really was impressive. Potter, did you make those grenades yourself?" Seamus asked, stepping closer with clear interest.
"Well… yeah. A while ago," Harry replied to the overly excited Gryffindors.
"Malfoy, you were amazing. How did you even come up with such wonderful magic?" Lavender Brown said, stepping far too close to Draco, who immediately took a step back.
"It just came to me," he replied, trying to keep his distance, even as Lavender and her friend Patil kept moving closer and closer.
"Okay, okay. We need our house members back, please. Thank you," Terry said as he approached with several other Ravenclaws, escorting Harry and Draco away like some kind of security detail.
They made their way through the crowd of students trying to talk to them, quickly reaching the table where most of Ravenclaw was gathered, greeting them warmly.
Hermione and Daphne were there as well. Neither of them looked particularly happy overall, though it was clear they were pleased with the victories.
Harry caught bits of their murmuring before they noticed him.
"I need to come up with better strategies for Fleur," Hermione muttered quietly.
"That idiot did not listen to me. I am going to have a serious talk with him," Daphne whispered.
Then they stepped forward to greet them.
"Oh, look. The royalty has arrived," Daphne said, eyeing them with a mocking tone.
Harry and Draco looked at her, slightly confused.
"She means how you were sitting on thrones during the trial. That is what they are calling the three of you now," Hermione explained, pointing toward a corner where the Weasley twins could be seen running back and forth with a piece of parchment, scribbling something down. "They are even holding a vote to decide what your titles should be."
"For the record, I voted for 'Kings of Idiots'," Daphne added with an amused smile.
Harry rolled his eyes as he sat down and accepted a mug of butterbeer from Astoria, who was busy devouring every snack she could find alongside Luna and Tommy.
Billy, meanwhile, sat nearby with a faintly annoyed expression, staring at Harry before glancing toward a corner of the room. There, Red was completely tied up, rolling around and struggling to free himself without much success. That explained more than enough, so Harry decided not to ask about it for now.
"Ahem… ahem," Fred said as he attempted to speak into a microphone similar to the ones the judges had used earlier. The sound echoed through the entire kitchen. "Testing… seems to work just fine. Now that our two Hogwarts champions are present, maybe we can ask them to say a few—"
Before he could finish, the doors burst open.
The room fell completely silent when the headmaster stepped inside, wearing a serious expression.
"And how exactly are you having a party… without inviting me?" Sirius said, a playful smile spreading across his face. Behind him came Selene, Susan, Pandora, Wanda, Professor Flitwick, Professor Sprout, and McGonagall, the latter wearing a long, severe expression that clearly disapproved of the entire celebration.
"Do not worry. For today, I will allow curfew to be pushed back a bit. But in exchange, I expect everyone to behave for at least a full week, so Professor McGonagall has nothing to complain about," Sirius said, gesturing toward her. She responded with a clearly annoyed look, full of unspoken objections.
The students erupted in cheers and welcomed the professors with open arms.
Some even offered them butterbeer and food.
Sirius then walked over to Harry and Draco's table and gave them both a firm pat on the back.
"You did well. I told you to show off, and you really did," he said happily, continuing to pat them.
He was immediately shoved aside by Wanda and Narcissa, who stepped in to stop him from bothering them. Both moved closer to offer their congratulations as well.
"You did quite well," Wanda said as she ruffled Harry's hair.
"Looks like you had fun," Narcissa added, her smile subtle and almost imperceptible, visible only to those standing directly in front of her.
"A little," Draco replied, clearly pleased.
"Alright, go enjoy yourselves. We will stay off to the side so we do not bother you too much. We will just make sure you do not cause any trouble," Wanda said, running her hand over Harry's head and then over Tommy's and Billy's.
"Sure," Harry replied with a smile.
Selene then stepped a bit closer to Harry.
"By the way, the insect got away. I could not catch it. It is quite slippery. But I am not too worried; I think I know who it is," she said before walking off, not without casting a sidelong glance at Daphne, her eyes narrowed slightly, as if suspecting something about her daughter.
Daphne, for her part, immediately straightened up and tried to avoid her mother's gaze. Which, of course, only made her look even more suspicious.
Meanwhile, the cheerful students began laughing and eating, enjoying themselves without worrying too much about anything… until the doors opened once again.
Luciel, Fleur, and Katerina stepped inside.
"Hey, look, our exchange students are here!" George shouted, while the rest of the Hogwarts students greeted them warmly, even knowing that two of them were champions from another school.
"Technically, they are half Hogwarts champions, so if they win, we win too," Fred added shamelessly.
Luciel smiled as he greeted several familiar faces he had met back when he had been an exchange student himself, just like the girls.
"We arrived a bit late because we had a small congratulatory dinner, though not nearly as loud as this," Luciel said as he looked around, taking in all the chaos and noise from the students with an amused smile.
Quickly, the three of them were invited to sit near the Ravenclaws, with Fleur and Luciel settling close to the Hogwarts champions.
"As always, it looks like you have fun with everyone, don't you?" Fleur commented softly as she sat down beside Hermione.
"Fleur, you got here just in time. We need to—" Hermione began, but before she could start a strategic discussion, Luciel stopped her.
"It is fine. We still have no idea what we will be facing in the next task, and it is good to rest while we can," he said, helping calm his cousin.
Hermione stared at him for a moment before finally accepting it.
"So… do you have any idea what might come out of the egg?" Terry asked with interest, looking at the four of them.
That caused the entire table to fall silent as everyone stared.
"Well, not yet. They are supposed to hatch shortly before the second task," Fleur replied, pulling her egg out of her pocket, just as Ludo had instructed them to keep it.
At that exact moment, without anyone noticing, Red appeared right behind her, snatched the egg from her hand with his mouth, and swallowed it whole.
"There it is. Sabotage at its finest. Well done, Red!" a Hogwarts student shouted, as everyone burst into excited cheers.
"Ah!" Fleur cried when she realized Red had swallowed her egg, jumping to her feet instantly to chase after him. Hermione immediately joined in to help. "No, Red, please no!" Fleur shouted as she ran after him, while Red dashed across the entire kitchen, causing even more chaos.
The rest of the students only grew louder.
Harry watched the scene and sighed before standing up. He stepped directly into Red's path, grabbed him by the waist, and the moment the dragon spat the egg out, Harry stopped it midair with his magic.
"Behave. We do not need to cheat to win," Harry said to the foolish dragon, who tilted his head at him as if he did not understand the issue at all. He had simply seen something interesting and swallowed it.
Harry let out another sigh and released him, turning around to hand the egg back to Fleur.
But at that moment, he felt something strange run through his body. He looked down, then glanced at Draco, who had also stood up, feeling just as odd.
Both of them then looked toward Daphne, who had her mouth tightly shut and was watching them closely.
Suddenly, two explosions of smoke burst from their bodies, and they felt the change.
Draco transformed into a beautiful girl, fury written all over her face.
Harry, on the other hand, became a young man in his early twenties, his expression annoyed yet undeniably captivating. He let out a sigh as he handed the egg to Fleur, who froze completely upon seeing him change right in front of her.
The demonic aura surrounding him now felt even deeper, pouring out from every pore of his body.
It left not only Fleur utterly stunned, but also every girl who had never seen him like this before. After all, the last time had been at Beauxbatons.
"You idiot!" Draco shouted, now in her female form, as she lunged toward Daphne. But Daphne had already taken off running, a playful smile on her face.
The adults seated in the corner had been watching everything unfold, and McGonagall stood up at once, clearly alarmed by the use of such dangerous transformation magic.
"Do not worry, Professor McGonagall. I made sure it is not dangerous. It only lasts a few minutes," a calm voice said as it approached the professors' table.
It was Nicolas, accompanied by his wife, Perenelle, who was smiling as she watched the chaos unfold.
"It is amusing to see young people having fun with such simple things," he remarked, observing the students laughing as they enjoyed the spectacle.
Harry sat back down to continue eating, completely ignoring the chaos, while Tommy and Billy chased after Red, trying to catch him again and corner him before he caused even more trouble. Even though Tommy was incredibly fast and Billy had magic on his side, the small dragon remained annoyingly slippery, dodging everything while knocking objects over in his path.
Hogwarts truly was a noisy school.
But it was also, perhaps, the moment when it felt the most united. No house divisions. No class barriers. Just teenagers enjoying their school.
McGonagall closed her mouth for a moment, ignoring the mess and focusing only on the smiles around her. Then she looked toward Sirius, the temporary headmaster, whom she had initially believed was not the best choice for the position.
Perhaps, after all, he was not such a bad one.