Party Prep
Seamus Finnigan was glad to be back at Hogwarts to finish his education.
It had been a rocky journey for him truth be told. His dad wasn’t prepared for all that raising a magical son required, and his mam almost didn’t let him return to Hogwarts in their sixth year when Voldemort first returned. She preferred he stayed home with the family in Ireland until the worst had passed.
But he did return. And not only that, he joined Dumbledore’s Army with his classmates and fought alongside them during the Battle of Hogwarts.
But the battle was finally over. While the scars and the trauma remained, life had to move on. And it did, slowly and painfully. The year after the war was spent on rebuilding — both their lives and the structures around them.
Hogwarts was repaired and refurbished. The blood was cleaned, walls were fortified, and a memorial was built to those who had fallen. One year after Harry Potter defeated Voldemort, Hogwarts opened its majestic doors again and invited students back home.
This included the students who were unable to complete their final year thanks to the war. The Ministry offered them an eighth year to finish their education before venturing out into the world. It wasn’t explicitly said but it was probably also a year to heal. As full-fledged adults, the returning students were given more freedom than the younger levels.
The returning 8th years had their own dorm, all the houses were combined to promote inter-house unity, and they were allowed to leave the school at any time as long as they gave prior notice to the Headmistress.
It wasn’t a bad deal. Seamus was glad to be completing school while he figured out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. And the same seemed to be true for most of his classmates. With the possible exception of Hermione Granger who had always seemed to know exactly what she wanted to do in life.
She had thrown herself into her studies and looked more determined than ever to make the Wizarding World a better place for everybody from those with the purest blood to muggleborns to marginalized magical creatures.
In the past, he would have thought she was fighting a losing battle. But now, he realized there probably wasn’t anything Hermione couldn’t do once she put her mind to it. Plus, things were already changing. If he hadn’t been around to see it, he wouldn’t have believed it.
But they often say change starts with the youth and it did. When the students returned at the start of term in September, old rivalries were still present and prejudices ran deep. Seamus didn’t think that would ever change.
But over time, inter-house unity began taking hold. Old enemies made amends, rivals found common ground, and everyone began working together to hide from Hermione when she wanted to run review groups for their more difficult lessons. Even Draco Malfoy, marked former Death Eater, had made his apology rounds with the help of Luna Lovegood.
It hadn’t come easy. But over the last six months, the wounds had begun to heal. And now as Seamus looked around the 8th year common room it was with fondness instead of fear. Students from different Houses didn’t just co-exist, they mingled.
Take tonight for instance. When Seamus looked around the room he noticed Hermione was studying with Padma Patil and Ernie McMillan in one corner, their books spread across the table. Blaise Zabini was playing wizard’s chess with Ron Weasley on the coffee table. Harry Potter was talking movies and music with Theodore Nott and Luna Lovegood. And Ginny Weasley and Pansy Parkinson were having a butterbeer together while flipping through muggle fashion magazines.
It was … nice.
Seamus cocked his head to the side, now if he only could help his classmates move past this cautious ground of tenuous friendship and explore deeper relationships.
He knew he wasn’t the only one to notice Blaise constantly finding reasons to talk to Ginny whether it was quidditch or new advances in flying technology or that Neville put fresh flowers in Pansy’s dorm every Monday morning. And most of all, he knew everyone was completely over watching Draco Malfoy pining across the room with Hermione’s name written all over his heart-eyed lovesick gaze.
Hmm…
Seamus looked at the package his folks had sent from home nestled in his lap. Maybe there was a way.
“I think we should have a party!” he said to Dean Thomas, who was seated across from him and reading a book.
“A what?” Dean asked, putting his book down.
“A party!” Seamus repeated. He was used to having to repeat things often to his friends, many of whom still got a bit confused thanks to his thick Irish accent. He held up his box, “Specifically a St. Patrick’s Day party!”
“What’s a St. Patrick’s Day party?” Blaise asked looking up from his chess game. He immediately perked up at the thought of a party and wanted to know more.
“It’s a fun celebration we have back home all the time,” Seamus explained. St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and every March 17, on the anniversary of his death, the country throws celebrations all over from Dublin to Belfast to Cork. There’s more history behind it of course, but essentially it’s just big parties with lots of alcohol where folks celebrate Irish culture, wear green, and get pretty smashed.”
“Get smashed?” Ginny called from across the room. “That I can get down with! I’m in! We haven’t had a party in forever, and this sounds like a lot of fun!”
“It IS a lot of fun,” Seamus agreed holding up his box from home. “I haven’t celebrated properly in a couple of years but Mam sent me this package from home and it reminded me how fun it can be. Look!” He pulled out a gray tee shirt that said, “Kiss me I’m Irish” on the chest, a necklace of four-leaf clovers, and what looked like a box of cereal with a leprechaun cartoon on the front.
“So wait, you get kisses just for being Irish?” Ron asked with a raised brow. “What about the rest of us?” Seamus noted his sideways glance at Luna while he asked.
“Well, honestly, there’s no better day than St. Paddy’s to get lucky!” Seamus replied suggestively wiggling his eyebrows. “You’ll have the luck of the Irish on your side. And hey, once you’re trashed maybe your inhibitions will be lowered enough to finally make a move!” he concluded.
The room fell silent as they pondered this fact. They had to admit he had a point. So much of the earlier part of the year was spent healing and trying to move forward and rediscover themselves, there wasn’t much time left for romance.
In fact, if anything, the first four to five months of the year involved couples figuring out they just weren’t right for each other. Hermione and Ron barely made it past the summer after the war before realizing they were better off as friends. Harry and Ginny amicably separated by Halloween. And even Draco had told his parents to “sod off” and that he would most certainly NOT be entering into any marriage contracts.
By December, almost everyone was single, and new bonds had started to form.
Blaise and Ginny often went flying together or practiced their quidditch moves on the pitch. Ron regularly offered to help Luna on her random treks to the Forbidden Forest to look for nargles, wrackspurts, or whatever her latest obsession was. And Neville had volunteered to help Pansy with her more challenging herbology assignments.
And of course, there was the most obvious pair of pining idiots. At least as far as Seamus was concerned. After Draco had apologized sincerely and profusely to Hermione at the Halloween Ball the two were often seen in the library studying together or debating magical theory or potions. They often argued, both having a stubborn steak, but it was never malicious. If anything, they seemed to like to enjoy butting heads.
To anyone with half a brain, it was foreplay plain and simple.
But despite being so smart, they were both incredibly oblivious. Draco refused to see Hermione take longer to fix her hair or slide on lip gloss when she was going to “study with him” at the library. And Hermione refused to see that Draco was the only one (aside from Padma) who willingly joined her (groan) hours-long review sessions.
Perhaps this party was a chance to nudge everyone in the right direction. As for him, after a brief stint exploring his feelings for Dean that ended in both of them deciding to just stay friends, Seamus had his eye on someone else — free-spirited Daphne Greengrass. She was fun and she seemed to enjoy his company. They had shared a pint or a plate of crisps a few times. This party was the perfect chance to see if she shared his interest in exploring their relationship further.
“So what do we have to do to prepare?” Harry asked. He was sitting adorably close to Theo and was looking over the records in the latter’s lap.
“We can all work on that,” Seamus said. “I can make up a list and maybe ask you all for help putting everything together. What do you think? Off the top of my head, I was thinking maybe Pansy can help with decorations. I’m thinking balloons, glitter? Maybe Dean can create some cocktails for us? And Harry and Ron can help with arranging snacks?”
“Harry absolutely can handle that,” Ron laughed popping a cauldron cake in his mouth. “All the house elves love him! He can ask them for anything!”
The room began buzzing with excitement as people started talking about the party and their ideas. From across the room, Hermione asked, “Do we really have time for a party? Aren’t we meant to be focusing on our studies? The year is coming to an end after all.”
Everyone collectively groaned. “Which is exactly why we need this!” Seamus answered. “The year is coming to an end. Pretty soon we’ll be scattered who knows where? We deserve one last hurrah before then!”
“Besides it’s still far enough from N.E.W.T.s to be safe,” Theo added. “We still have months to prepare for those. What’s one night of debauchery?”
Everyone laughed and started to agree, “Plus, can’t you think of any shenanigans you want to get up to before the year ends?” Seamus asked sneakily. “There nothing, or NO ONE, you want to try your luck with?”
Hermione’s face turned beet red and she pressed her lips together as she touched her collarbones — a sure sign that she was flustered. Her eyes found Draco’s across the room and she quickly turned away before he could see her sweat.
“Fine,” she answered before the conversation could go any further. “Let’s do it. Is there anything I can help with?”
“As a matter of fact,” Seamus answered, “I know just what you can do!”
_______
Everyone had agreed to the party on the Friday a week before March 17 which gave Seamus approximately nine days to get things done. He made a list that evening and began doling out responsibilities as early as the next day.
He put Pansy and Ginny on decorating duty and instructed them to go all out gaudy and cover everything in green, sparkles, and clovers. They were more than happy to oblige. He knew they didn’t need as much help from him which allowed him to focus on other tasks.
Harry and Ron promised to take care of the snacks and they listed fun options to have at the party. Seamus decided it was likely best to forego traditional Irish fare for more fun options like finger foods, crisps, and the like. He left the two to figure it out. To Ron’s delight, Luna offered to help with the food, and even mentioned making “weed brownies.” Seamus wasn’t sure what those were, he just hoped they didn’t taste like dirt.
Dean agreed to mix up some drinks and made a list of alcohol and mixers they would need including ideas for how to make them green and how to make them strong. Padma offered to help him figure it out and Blaise had offered to grab some wine and traditional wizarding alcohol, so that was another check off Seamus’ list.
Theo, who had fallen in love with muggle music after he first heard Hermione playing records in her room, was in charge of music. He had asked Hermione for help getting a vinyl player and quickly amassed a large collection of classic hits and even modern records. When Seamus asked him to create a playlist for the party, he was thrilled and couldn’t agree fast enough.
This left Seamus to work on the few other “magical touches” he had planned for the party. And this meant getting help from three very specific individuals.
First, he asked Neville to meet him in the greenhouses on Saturday.
_______
“We’re going to need four-leaf clovers,” Semaus explained showing Neville a photo on the phone his father had given him before he went back to school. While Seamus’ dad had come to accept and begrudgingly love the wizarding world, he still preferred the muggle means of communicating with his son.
“Not a problem,” Neville answered. “We have a bunch of them in Greenhouse C. Would you believe some wizards use them in potions or mojo bags? Professor Sprout keeps both three-leaf and four-leaf variants.”
“Do you think we can nab at least one each for everyone attending?” Seamus asked. Since returning to Hogwarts, Neville had become something of a teaching assistant to their Herbology professor and often helped her care for the plants. He had even been given his own plot in one of the greenhouses for his cross-hybrids and experiments.
“Sure, it shouldn’t be a problem,” Neville answered. “We’re constantly growing them so they’ll be replenished in no time. What are we going to do with them? You know that on their own they aren’t inherently lucky right?”
“Yes, I know, but I was thinking maybe we can infuse them with a bit of liquid luck?” Seamus explained. One of their recent potions projects was brewing Felix Felicis and he only needed a couple of drops per clover, an amount he would have no problem acquiring.
“Hmm,” Neville answered already pondering how they could make it work. “So imbibing it through inhalation, like inhaling lavender can help you stay calm or peppermint can refresh and invigorate?” he mused. “You know, it could work. I can separate the clovers and put them in their own planter and add a couple of drops to the soil. This way they can absorb that throughout the week before adding a drop to each one right before the party.”
“That’s perfect!” Seamus exclaimed. “We can hand one out to each person individually and I’ll even tell them to give them a little kiss - for luck,” he winked.
“I have to admit, this is a great idea,” Neville said. “It appeals to both my scientific nature and my desperate need for luck in general.”
“Oh, and did I mention, Pansy said she was really looking forward to seeing how these turn out?” Seamus asked nonchalantly. “She even mentioned coming down to the greenhouse to see how they are coming along.”
“She did???” Neville asked trying to remain calm even though his ears had turned decidedly pink. Neville had grown a lot since the war and he had begun turning heads with his broad shoulders, expressive eyes, and muscles toned from days spent carrying soil and working in the greenhouses.
But whenever he was around Pansy he looked like a shy first-year again. Luckily, she didn’t seem to notice and had spent the bulk of her time in the greenhouses to visit him despite not having Herbology on her list of N.E.W.T.s.
Seamus smirked, “Yup, she said she wanted to help,” he answered. He noticed Neville stand a bit taller at that as he began collecting a big enough planter box, loam, and soil. Looking at him thoughtfully, Seamus predicted Neville probably wouldn’t need to wait until the party to enjoy a little luck himself if Pansy had anything to say about it.
_______
Hermione was in the library when Seamus approached her on Saturday night. He looked a bit tired and she noticed his hands were covered in soil.
“Oh, sorry,” he laughed rubbing them on his trousers. She had him hold them out on the table and performed a quick scourgify on them before asking him what he needed.
“Another fun aspect of St. Patrick’s Day is heaps of leprechauns, rainbows, lucky charms, and pots of gold,” he started.
“Oh I know,” she answered. “A did a bit of reading on the subject. It seems like a lot of fun!”
Of course she researched it he thought.
“Also, I knew I recognized that box of cereal in your mom’s care package,” she added. ”i remember always wanting to try Lucky Charms when I was younger. There was a shop down the street from where we lived that carried American products and I remember thinking they looked really good. But my parents said most American cereals were just big boxes of sugar and never bought any for the house.”
Seamus chuckled, “They aren’t wrong,” he admitted. “But fuck, do they taste good.”
He laughed, “I’ll tell you what, there’s a big bowl of Lucky Charms with your name on it if you can help me with this,” he said.
He pulled a galleon from his pocket and held it up to her. “I already have Neville working on ‘lucky charms’ so I was thinking enchanted galleons would be a fun way to add a pot of gold element to the party.”
“That’s cute,” Hermione answered grabbing the galleon and looking it over. “And you need my help to cast a what - protean charm on these? What do you need it to do?”
“A protean charm of sorts,” Seamus said. “I was thinking of charming the galleons to have positive messages like ‘Get lucky!’ or ‘Make Your Move!” or something like that,” he said. “Then I wanted to charm 2 galleons to be partners with each other and have them send the same message. It’ll be a bit of a fun game for everyone to find the person with the matching galleon to theirs.”
Seamus paused, “What do you think?”
“Well, the charm work should be easy enough,” Hermione started. “What happens when you find the person with the matching galleon?”
Leave it to Hermione to ask for the point of the exercise or want clarity on what happens next. He noticed that her eyes slid over to the door where Draco had just walked in with this black satchel on his shoulder. She turned away quickly before he caught her staring.
“Whatever you want to happen,” Seamus answered. “You can laugh about it and share a pint, you can get to know each other better, or…” he lowered his voice conspiratorially, “You can follow the galleon’s advice and get lucky….”
It was the second time in so many days Seamus had seen Hermione blush. She shook away inappropriate thoughts of sharing a galleon with Malfoy and squeezed the coin in her hand. “Okay, lemme practice with the charms today but it should be easy enough. Where are we getting all the galleons from?”
“From me, Granger,” Draco said with a smile as he reached their table. He put his bag down on the seat beside her and slid into the one beside Seamus. “I’ve given Seamus a proverbial pot of gold he can play with. He promised to return them to me after the party,” Draco smiled and shrugged as though it didn’t matter either way. Andit probably didn't. After all, he had way more than enough galleons to spread around.
“Good man!” Seamus answered clapping Draco on the back. “I’ll see you tomorrow after lunch for our thing okay?” He stood up to leave.
“Sure,” Draco said dismissively. He smiled at Hermione across the table. “Ready for our review session?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” Hermione answered with an equally disarming smile as she pulled out her Ancient Runes textbook.
Seamus shook his head as he walked away. He paused at the library entrance before taking one last at the pair of mutually pining idiots. If he played his cards right, the two of them would be doing much more than studying in over a week’s time.
_______
Draco loved spending extra time in the Potions Lab. Professor Slughorn had noticed his proficiency early on and encouraged him to try his hand at more difficult potions after class hours.
He used to supervise him but after noting that Draco knew what he was doing and wouldn’t do something stupid like blow up the school, Horace often left him to his own devices in the lab.
This is where Seamus found him on Sunday after lunch. Draco was checking a healing potion he had designed that combined the effects of the Wiggenweld Potion and a Pepperup Potion. He also added hints of turmeric and willow bark to help with the pain.
Since the war, Draco had become obsessed with potions and healing. Because he had seen so much pain and suffering, he focused on these specifically. He sought to find better solutions to injuries, wound care, and pain relief.
Hermione had actually given him the idea last November when he saw her taking a muggle medicine she called aspirin to help with her headache. He commented that while healing potions existed in the wizarding world, they were often solely meant to heal specifically and not brewed to help manage pain.
She had become so intrigued with the idea that she helped him look up magical ingredients that could help with better pain management. Then she looked over his notes on how he planned on putting them together with either Wiggenweld or Essence of Dittany.
He was grateful for the help and it was during those late nights looking at ingredients and testing brews that he noticed he had begun to look at her differently. Her hair, which grew up to ten times bigger when the brewing room heated up,used to scare him. Now he thought it looked adorable. And he found himself basking in her familiar scent of jasmine and honey and (Merlin help him) the apple shampoo she always used.
He would often shake his head and remind himself that in no world would the Golden Girl ever look at him as anything other than a friend. And then he would double down on his brews or his studies and try to push her from his mind.
“Hey mate,” Seamus said pulling up a stool beside Draco’s bench. He watched as Draco made a few more notes about things he wanted to try on the potion before putting the cauldron under a Stasis charm and turning to give Seamus his full attention.
“Yes, after lunch right?” Draco asked putting his notes to the side. “What did you want to talk about?”
“So everything for the party is pretty much covered,” Seamus began. “But I was hoping to add a fun, harmless little potion to the mix. And that’s where you come in.”
Draco leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest skeptically. “Okay, what did you have in mind?”
“Nothing too dangerous,” Seamus explained quickly. “Hermione told me that you are an expert at combining brews and creating your own blends and I was thinking you could help me put something together that lowers inhibitions a bit maybe with a hint of amortentia. Just a small amount - nothing dangerous.”
Draco mulled over Seamus’ words. In theory, he already knew how to get started but he wanted to clarify what exactly Seamus had in mind for this specific blend.
“Why do we need an inhibition-lowering potion?” he asked. “Isn’t that what firewhiskey’s for?”
“Sure alcohol helps,” Seamus answered. “But it’s possible people want to feel relaxed and lower their inhibitions without impairing their cognitive function. Also, it’ll be fun to offer a special St. Patty’s brew alongside the alcoholic beverages.”
“Okay, lowering inhibitions without impairing judgment I get,” Draco admitted. “But why the touch of love potion?”
“It’s to help people get their heads out of their arses and maybe admit they have feelings before the school year ends,” Seamus admitted. He knew Draco would be too proud to admit he was one of the people who needed to do just that, so Seamus deflected. “For example, how much longer are we supposed to watch Blaise flirt with Ginny before he does something?”
Draco rolled his eyes and stood up, “Yeah, I get it,” he answered heading to the ingredients cabinet. He plucked up some ashwinder eggs, rose thorns, lacewings, and moonstone and added some nettle, St. John’s Wort, and charcoal. He put the ingredients on the table and pulled out his notebook to a fresh page to begin jotting down potential calculations and ingredient percentages for the brew they were trying to make.
“The only one that doesn’t need help is Theo,” Draco mumbled, pausing as he completed an equation. “If he gets any more obvious he’s going to snog the Chosen One right on the common room couch.”
“Yeah, but Harry could use the push,” Seamus said looking at Draco’s notes. The blonde wizard nodded in agreement and then looked up.
“Okay, let’s try this ingredient ratio. I think it should work,” Draco said. “I don’t want to brew them together because that’s too unpredictable but I think we can brew a basic inhibition-lowering potion and then alongside that brew a watered-down version of the love potion, something I reckon is similar to the Weasley’s joke shop version. Then when they are both almost done, we can add a few drops of that into the original potion.”
Seamus nodded. Sounded like a plan to him. “And charm it green?” he asked.
“We can probably add flowerheads or grass pulp to turn the potion green without worrying about any charms impacting the potion effectivity,” Draco answered. “Let’s start brewing the potions first. These are both safe and standard computations,” he said, swiveling his notebook around so Seamus could see. “But we should probably start now since we only have a week. Amortentia usually takes seven days to brew but we can probably do this version in just three or four which gives us time to do it over if we fuck up.”
“Do you fuck up often, Malfoy?” Seamus challenged.
“Me, rarely,” Draco answered. “But you’re helping so I can’t be sure.”
Seamus laughed good-naturedly. Potions never was his strong suit. “Fair enough mate,” Seamus said. “How do we start?”
To his credit, Draco gave Seamus the relatively easiest parts to do. These included chopping and smashing ingredients and getting them ready to drop in the cauldrons. While Draco was fastidiously stirring the love potion, he turned to Seamus and said, “Mate, can you increase the flame on that just a little bit?”
“Sure,” Seamus replied. He pointed his wand at the fire under the other cauldron and doubled the flame underneath.
Draco heard the fire grow and turned around in a panic, “No!” he yelled, “That’s too high! I said just a little, too much heat could make that…”
He didn’t have a chance to finish his sentence before the cauldron began to bubble and then explode its contents straight up like a geyser.
Draco quickly cast a shield charm but not before a touch of hot potion singed off a portion of Seamus’ left eyebrow.
“Shit, sorry about that!” Seamus exclaimed. “I guess I was bound to blow something up eventually.” He shrugged with a smile and began to clean up the spilled potion. “Listen,” he said to Draco, “ We both know I’m probably a danger to us both here. Want me to see if I can send Hermione down to help? She was curious earlier at lunch about what we were going to be brewing.”
Draco tried to act nonchalant as he continued dropping ingredients into his potion and stirring carefully. “I mean, yeah, if you think she’s available,” he said. Seamus kindly pretended not to notice as Draco straightened up to his full height and ran his hand through his hair.
“Sure, I’ll send her down,” Seamus said. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling too wide as he finished scrubbing down the table. When he was done, he put a fresh cauldron on top. “Thanks for the help, Malfoy. Really looking forward to this.”
“Me too,” Draco answered though it was obvious he was now lost in thoughts about a certain swotty curly-haired witch.
Seamus didn’t push. There’d be time for that soon. He smiled and wiped his hands on the washcloth at the front of the classroom before he left.
Everything was in motion now. Preparations were in full swing and he was confident that this was going to be a St. Paddy’s Day to remember.