RP: Ron's Party at Xanadu

[shh_hermione]

Date: 2 March 2005
Characters: Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, Charlie Weasley, Roger Davies, Luna Lovegood, Blaise Zabini, Cedric Diggory, Eleanor Branstone, Ernie Macmillan, Ginny Weasley, Lee Jordan, Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin, Terry Boot, Viktor Krum, Percy Weasley
Location: Xanadu
Status: Public

Comments

[shh_harry]

Harry had been tired and sweaty after work, as usual, so he'd stopped at home as soon as he was done. Cocoa had been bouncing up and down in excitement, though Harry wasn't sure if the puppy was happy to see him or just had to pee. Whatever it was, Harry had taken him for a long romp, tuckering him out so that he wouldn't be awake and lonely all night long. Then he'd showered, shaved, and changed into a clean shirt and pair of jeans for the party. His hair hadn't cooperated, not that even expected it to anymore. Then he fed Cocoa, let him outside one more time, and made his way to Xanadu.

He entered the empty club and made his way up to the second floor. Hermione was the only one there yet, and Harry was glad he was early. "Hallo," he said brightly making his way over to her and kissing her cheek. "You look great!"

[shh_hermione]

Hermione looked up when she heard footsteps, turning to smile at Harry. "You're early!" She kissed his cheek and reached up to fix his hair. "This must be a special occasion, since I can probably count on one hand the amount of times you've actually shown up early for something, Mr. Potter."

"No one else is here," she said. "Rather stating the obvious, I know, but I thought I'd point that out. You can enjoy the bar before we find a nice corner for hiding in if people do show up."

[shh_harry]

"I'm quite proud of myself," Harry agreed. "Look, I'm clean and everything."

Nodding at the bartender, he ordered a White Russian and settled back to observe the room. "They'll show up," he said. "And then yeah, I definitely want to hide under a table or something. You have a good day?"

[shh_roger]

Roger'd not been to a party since before the year's end. Come to that, he'd not been to a nightclub in... Merlin. Years. Not, he thought as he fished a pair of black socks out of his top drawer, that he'd missed it. But, it was Ron's birthday celebration, and Roger wanted to be there-- Ron had become a pretty good friend. And as his friend, Roger had to do his part in making sure Ron wasn't without a birthday drink in his hand. Maybe each hand. You only turned twenty-five once, after all

[shh_parvati]

Parvati grew increasingly nervous as they approached the club.
She really didn't know if she was ready for a large crowd of people. Hopefully, they would arrive early enough to where she could get comfortable with her surroundings before the crowds arrived. Having a drink in hand wouldn't hurt much either.

It was really too cold to talk much as they walked, but still, every now and again he would look her direction and smile, making her feel warm to the tips of her toes. It might have been nice to link her arm with his or take his hand, but she didn't quite have the nerve.

He held the door of the club open to her, and she breathed a sigh of relief at the near absence of club-goers. "I think the party's upstairs," she said. "Do you want to head up there now, or get a drink first?"

[shh_charlie]

"Maybe we can get a drink down here first?" Charlie answered. "Catch our breath?" Partly, he wanted to prolong their time alone together before having to divide his attention upstairs.

He helped her off with her coat and checked them near the door, before leading her over to the downstairs bar. "Wine?" he asked. He couldn't take his eyes off her, and after having that one small taste of kissing her at her flat all he could think about was kissing her again.

If this party weren't for his brother, he would have suggested they skip it altogether.

[shh_parvati]

"That sounds perfect," she said. "It's quiet down here, we can catch our breaths and warm up."

It occurred to her that there were much pleasanter ways to warm up than standing around a bar. She couldn't believe how natural kissing him had felt. Maybe it was the wine, she thought. You might want to slow down on that.

Somehow, though, she knew that it was something about him that made her feel that way, and at the moment, she didn't want to share him.

[shh_charlie]

The bartender brought their drinks and Charlie put a few coins down on the counter. He’d seen a few familiar faces come in, but hadn’t spotted his brother yet.

“Maybe we should go upstairs, after all. Say our Happy Birthdays before it gets too crowded. That is, if you don’t mind.”

Impulsively, he reached over and covered her small hand with his own and gave her a small smile.

Part of him did feel obligated (although glad, too) to go see his brother, and part of him was hoping they could just make an appearance and get out of there. Every fibre of his being wanted to be alone with her again, even if only just to kiss her again.

[shh_ron]

So, finally, it was the big night. The night of the first birthday party he'd had since... almost forever. Certainly since before Ron started Hogwarts. The last few days had been great, first dinner with his mum and Bill, followed last night by a brilliant evening with Lavender. When he and Lavender were ready to leave her flat, they Apparated to Xanadu and went up the stairs.

Scanning the large room, Ron saw only a few friends -- Harry and Hermione, of course, and Roger and Parvati, who had come with Charlie, which made Ron smile. He'd hoped there would be a bigger crowd; he'd even purposely not arrived on time. Still, it was a good start.

"Well, I'm ready when you are," he said to Lavender, taking her hand.

[shh_lavender]

Lavender took Ron's hand, giving it a squeeze as she smiled up at him. "I'm ready," she said. She looked around; there didn't seem to be too many people here yet, even though they weren't there right on time. A hint of a smirk crossed her face as she thought about why they weren't altogether punctual.

She was pleased to see that Parvati was already there, and with Charlie, no less. And Harry and Hermione were there, too, talking to someone Lavender didn't really recognised, but she guessed Ron knew. Was he with Hermione? Hmmm.

Lavender smoothed down her top with her free hand, glad that she'd worn it with her black trousers rather than picking out a dress from her wardrobe. She rarely wore trousers as it was, so this made a nice change, plus this top went nicely with her pink shoes.

"Do you want to get a drink or anything?"

[shh_ron]

"Yeah, I'll get us some drinks," he said. "Wine okay for you?"

She nodded.

"Okay, I'll be back in a bit." Looking around he saw that Harry was now talking with Luna and Hermione was chatting with Roger. No surprise on that one. Eleanor had arrived with Ernie, and Remus with Tonks. And now Lee had shown up. "You want to talk to Parvati while I get the drinks? Or not, your choice."

Ron headed to the bar and got a white wine for Lavender and a firewhisky for himself. As he headed back toward Lavender, he ran into Lee - almost literally. "Oi, Lee, hope I didn't spill anything on you."

[shh_lee]

Lee had just gotten to the party and was trying to find Ron and then, all of the sudden, there he was. With drinks. Drinks that could have potentially landed all over the front of his jacket. Luckily, Lee had leant back with his upper body in order to avoid a harder run-in.

Grinning, Lee shook his head in amusement, "Nah, you're fine. In fact, I think that's the best save I've seen yet. That was close."

[shh_luna]

Luna had been quite surprised to get an invitation to a party for Ron tonight. She had been to exactly three parties in her life: an office party at the Quibbler offices that she'd attended with her father, a birthday party for her one-and-only real boyfriend while in mediwitch training-- that she'd not been invited to but had actually hosted, and, of course, Slughorn's party when she'd been fifteen. Harry had been nice enough to ask her to go with him as friends. It was-- until today-- the only party she'd been invited to. Ravenclaw parties in the dorms didn't count, because while she'd attended them, it had really only been because she'd lived there. There'd been nowhere else to go

[shh_harry]

Harry noticed that the man of the hour had arrived, but he decided to give Ron and Lavender a bit of time to get their bearings and say hello to people first. He figured going to talk to someone who wasn't with their significant other was a good idea too. Not that he wasn't happy for Ron or Hermione, of course. It was just that it was a problem when you were the only one of your friends not dating. The lack of someone to look at you in that particular way or casually take your arm became more conspicuous

[shh_luna]

Luna was tapping a foot to the music and contemplating visiting the bar when she heard a voice beside her. She smiled and turned to find Harry there. It was rather surreal. Here was someone she'd not seen since she'd been fifteen. And it wasn't as if she'd not heard of him over the years, but most of it had been speculation. And, well, the war was over so she knew that he was alive and about. But seeing him that way was an entirely different thing.

And, he liked her shoes.

She smiled at him. "Thank you," she said, "I'm rather fond of them, myself." She looked down for a moment and back up at him, pushing a shock of hair behind her ear before meeting his eyes somewhat searchingly. "How have you been, Harry?"

[shh_harry]

Well, she recognized him. That was good. It was probably stupid to think that she wouldn't recognise him, but it had been what felt like a million years. He wondered how much he looked like he had when he was sixteen.

"As good as you can be after everything," Harry said with a small smile. "I haven't really seen that many people since we came here, but I'd heard you were around. How about you? What have you been doing all this time?"

[shh_ernie]

Ernie held Eleanor's hand as they made their way upstairs. There weren't too many people here yet. He spotted Luna and waved; he was curious as to what she thought about Superman and Lois Lane. Harry was here as was Ron and...Lavender Brown. He hoped that they weren't as into those public displays of affection as they once were.

Parvati...or was it Padma? He was forever getting the two of them mixed up. Whichever Patil it was, she was with a redhaired bloke...another Weasley maybe.

And Hermione was standing there, talking to Roger Davies. Ernie wondered if Cedric were here or not. Hardly seemed fair if he weren't.

"Ready to mingle?" he asked Eleanor with a smile. "Maybe say something to the guest of honor?"

[shh_eleanor]

Being younger than most of them, Eleanor didn’t recognize many of the guests. Hermoine, Ron and Harry of course. And Roger Davies, who she had met at Romilda’s party. Most of the other’s were only vaguely familiar. She found herself moving closer to Ernie, even if they did seem to have arrived before most of the guests had.

“Yes, I’m ready. I reckon we ought to go wish Ron a happy birthday.”

[shh_ernie]

Ron seemed a little too wrapped up in Lavender at the moment. Thankfully, there was no snogging.

"I can't believe that Ron's dating Lavender again," Ernie said to Eleanor. "Sixth year..." He shuddered.

Instead, Ernie decided to head in Hermione's direction. Just to check up on things. Someone needed to look out for Cedric. As a fellow Hufflepuff, that duty fell to him.

Eleanor seemed a little nervous. "Are you alright?" he asked as they made their way to Hermione and Roger.

[shh_eleanor]

“Oh, you mean all the snogging in the Great Hall during mealtimes?” she asked with a grin when he mentioned Ron and Lavender. “At least they seem to have calmed down a bit.”

They started walking toward Hermione, which Eleanor was grateful for. “I’m fine. I just get a bit nervous in large gatherings, but this isn’t too bad,” she told him in what she hoped was a reassuring tone.