Harry Potter and the Year of Surprises by erinpotter

The Party - part one

About half an hour after the party started, everyone got a little hungry so Ron and Harry went down to the kitchens to see if they could scrounge some food. They went into the kitchens and found Dobby who was, as always, happy to oblige. He stuffed cakes, sweets, and anything else he could find into their outstretched arms.

‘Thanks Dobby.’ Harry said, through the mountain of food.

‘Dobby is happy to help his friend, Harry Potter. How is you keeping?’

‘Very well, thanks Dobby. What about you, and Winky?’

‘Dobby is fine. I is good and Winky is making wonderful excellent progress. She is sometimes helping me make the beds while the students are at class.’

‘That’s good Dobby. I have to go now but tell Winky I was asking for her.’

‘Dobby will .Bye Harry Potter. Dobby hopes to see you soon.’ Dobby waved goodbye to Harry and Ron as they sneaked back up through the secret passageway.

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Back at the party, everyone was glad to see Harry and Ron, but more happy to see the food.

‘Great!’

‘Brilliant. I'm starving!’

‘How did you get all this?’ Seamus asked.

Harry grinned. ‘All the house elves worship me. I'm like, the elite! And they think Ron is wonderful because he takes all their food. Strange creatures, I've always thought. If someone was taking the food I'd spent hours on, I wouldn’t be very happy with them!’ he said. 

Seamus laughed and went away to sit with Lavender. Harry and Ron returned to the sofa where Ginny and Hermione were sitting. They each had a glass of wine in their hand and were in deep conversation.

‘Hey you two.’ Hermione said. ‘We were just wondering if we should try a bit of Firewhiskey. If we don't hurry up, it’ll be all gone.’

‘Well, I'm going for it.’ Ron said. ‘I've always wanted to try it!’

Harry nodded. ‘Yeah, mate. Me too. Are you two going to try it, or are you too scared?’

Ginny stood up. ‘No! We’re both going to! Come on Hermione!’

‘We are? I mean, WE ARE!’

The foursome walked over to the table the drink was on. Harry expertly grabbed four shot glasses and poured the Firewhiskey into them. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘On the count of three, we all down it. In one go. One…two…THREE!’

Harry grabbed his drink and sank it. He watched out of the corner of his eye as his three friends did as well. One it reached his stomach, Harry realised why it was called Firewhiskey. It went right to the bottom of his stomach and burned his insides, and then it slowly rose to the top of his chest again before falling into the pit of his stomach and cooling down.

‘Oh my God!’ Hermione shouted. ‘That was bloody brilliant!’

Ron, who had not been as successful in his drinking, had spluttered the drink all down his front. ‘B…b…brilliant?’ he chocked.

‘Yes!’ she said, obviously hyped up. ‘I want another!’ she tried to grab the bottle but Harry reached it before her. ‘No Hermione. You’re only supposed to take one drink of this if you are going to at all. It gets you so drunk that your vision gets impaired in two glasses!’

‘Really. Oh dear. I think that Jenny from sixth year must be blind!’

Harry turned around and saw Jenny asleep in the corner. He re-read the bottle. It told him that if she had less than five drinks, she would wake up in an hour and the effect would be gone.