Moonage Daydream
Sunday, 13 December 1998
“Theo, love,” Harry said, pressing a kiss to the top of his head, “time to wake up. We need to get Ted to Grimmauld and get ready for your party.”
“I don’t want to move,” Theo grumbled, “I’m so cozy.”
“I know, baby,” Harry said with a fond smile, “but it’s time to wake up.”
“Fine,” Theo sighed, “are we going to Grimmauld or sending him with Mimi?”
“Mimi.”
“Is this party here or in the 8th Year Common Room?”
“Neither?”
Theo sat all the way up at that and looked at Harry in question, “where, then?”
“Potter Manor.”
“Wait, what?”
“Yup,” Harry said, pulling Theo off the couch.
“Did you happen to tell anyone that there was going to be a mass exodus from the school tonight?”
“Mary and Bill know and they’re the ones on patrol tonight.”
“How’s everyone getting there?”
“Floo, now go change and I’ll get Teddy to Grimmauld.”
* * *
An hour later, Harry and Theo went across the hall to grab Neville before they all went down to the 8th Year Common Room.
“Alright everyone,” Harry said, gathering the attention of the crowd, “the floo address is Griffin House, most of you have already been there but I’ll go through first so I can add anyone who hasn’t to the wards, see you in a minute.”
“You heard the man,” Neville said, grabbing the container of floo powder after Harry stepped through the flames, “head on through.”
Blaise and Pansy had been at the house for most of the day decorating and helping the house elves stock the rooms with snacks and alcohol, so they were waiting when Harry arrived.
“How was Greece?” Blaise asked as Harry stepped into the receiving room.
“It was great,” Harry responded with a bright smile, “thanks for mentioning it to me, he loved it.”
“Good,” Blaise said with a nod, “we have the ballroom, the conservatory, and this room fully decorated, the elves know that a lot of people will probably end up staying over, Hermione somehow figured out how to project the sound from her boombox through the whole main floor, and Neville came with us this morning to put the wards in lock down.”
“Smart,” Harry said, stepping away from the fireplace so he wouldn’t get trampled by everyone who was about to come through, “I’m going to run down to the ward stone and just make sure it worked.”
Harry thanked the pair for decorating once more before he headed down the stairs at the back of the room and went to the far corner of the basement where the property’s ward stone was located. He grabbed the ward book so he could add people who hadn’t been to the manor yet and then double-checked that the house was on lockdown, meaning that no one could get in or out in any way except for through the floo. He was hoping this would stop people from wandering off but, more than that, he was still wary about having a massive group of people left largely unaware without a strong defense around them.
He still woke up at least once a week thinking he was in a tent in the middle of winter in the Forest of Dean so he decided locking down the manor wasn’t as much of an overreaction as some might say.
With the wards taken care of, he headed back upstairs to find a much larger group than he’d left.
Since they weren’t at Hogwarts, they’d been able to invite nonstudents, but he was still slightly thrown off by the sight of Marcus Flint, Graham Montague, and Cassius Warrington standing in his house.
“Lord Peverell,” Marcus greeted.
Harry couldn’t help but start laughing at the insanity of this interaction, “please, please call me Harry, all of you.”
“Told you,” Oliver Wood said, appearing out of nowhere and grinning over at Marcus who was staring at Harry in confusion.
“Oliver!” Harry said, whipping around at the sound of his old Captain’s voice, “what are you doing here?”
“You’ll invite a bunch of snakes into your house, but you’re confused by me showing up?”
“Am I confused about you, Oliver Wood, King of the Gryffindors, showing up with a bunch of snakes to another snake’s birthday party? Yes. Yes I am.”
“You’re not the only one who can date a Slytherin,” Oliver replied, slinging his arm around Marcus’ shoulders.
“What is happening right now?” Harry asked, looking around the room to see if he was being punked. He looked over at Draco who looked just as confused as Harry felt and raised an eyebrow.
“I have no clue, mate,” Draco said with a shrug.
“What the fuck?” George said, stepping out of the fireplace followed closely by Fred, Katie, and Angelina.
Angelina took in the scene, shook her head as if it’d clear her vision, and said, “I feel like my dad just brought home a new boyfriend and none of us know how to respond.”
“Why are you all acting like this?” Oliver asked, looking between his former teammates.
“Because you’re cuddled up with Marcus bloody Flint!” Fred exclaimed, apparently not able to hold in his shock any longer, “did any of you know about this?” he asked, turning toward Draco and a few other Slytherins that had gathered around him.
“I sure didn’t,” Draco said, holding up his hands in surrender.
“You know,” Harry said, looking between them, “it sort of makes sense when you think about it.”
Everyone turned to look at him while Oliver held up a hand as if to say, ‘you see?!’
“What are you talking about?” Draco said, looking entirely bewildered.
“They were always at each other’s throats; it was either going to end with them dueling in the great hall or screwing in a broom cupboard.”
“Quidditch locker room, actually,” Oliver cut in.
“That was not necessary,” Harry said with a shudder.
“That’s like saying the two of us were bound to either duel or screw in a broom cupboard,” Draco argued.
“You tried to Crucio me in the girl’s bathroom, and I hit you with a dark curse that absolutely would’ve killed you if Snape hadn’t shown up.”
“Great point,” Draco conceded.
“I, for one,” George said, “would have bet on a broom cupboard for the two of you.”
“Gross,” Draco responded.
“We’re cousins,” Harry pointed out, sounding totally disgusted.
“That hasn’t necessarily stopped the Blacks in the past,” George pointed out.
“This conversation is over,” Harry said, reaching out to smack George upside the head, “back to Wood and Flint, do you mean to say this has been going on since you were in school?”
“Yes?” Oliver responded.
“Since when?”
“Your second year,” Marcus answered, gesturing between Harry and Draco, “after Weasley started puking slugs we got in a fight and, well, one thing led to another and…” he trailed off.
“I feel like I definitely told you lot about this,” Oliver said, turning toward the Weasley twins, Katie, and Angelina.
“I definitely would’ve remembered that, mate,” Katie said, patting Oliver on the shoulder.
“At least this isn’t happening at the Ministry Ball,” Cassius said, looking rather amused.
“Anyone else have any surprises?”
“I’m pretty sure Cho is dating your cousin,” Angelina said, looking over at Harry.
“My cousin is right there,” Harry said before he totally thought through what Angelina had just said, “… wait … do you mean Dudley?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright,” Harry said, shaking his head, “alright. Okay, cool. Anyone else?”
“George and I are dating,” Katie announced, holding up her and George’s intertwined hands.
"About bloody time,” Harry muttered under his breath, “anyone else? No? Alright, party time,” he said, turning on his heel and walking out of the room.
“What’d I miss?” Ron asked as Harry stepped into the conservatory.
“Wood and Flint are dating, Cho is apparently dating Dudley, and your brother finally landed Katie.”
“Merlin,” Ron breathed out, “well good on George, never thought he’d actually succeed.”
“Where’s ‘Mione?”
“Over there somewhere,” Ron said, gesturing toward the drink table, “you want something to drink, mate?”
“I’ll go grab something and find her, I want to tell you two something.”
“Alright.”
“Granger!” Harry called as he approached the crowd.
“Potter!” Hermione called back, “what do you want to drink?”
“Whatever you’re having,” he responded, “then can you come with me?”
“Sure,” she responded, turning back to the table and filling a second cup. “What do you need?” she asked as they walked back through the crowd.
“Tell you in a minute, let’s find somewhere quiet. Ron! Come here.”
“Coming!” Ron responded, weaving through the crowed to join Harry and Hermione.
“Let’s go downstairs,” Harry said, grabbing his cup from Hermione and leading the group out of the room.
“Alright,” he said once they were in the potions lab with the door closed, “first, Hermione, Wood is dating Flint, Cho is dating Dudley, and George and Katie finally sorted it out.”
“Confused but not shocked, mostly just confused, and thank God,” she responded, “what else?”
“Theo finally admitted that he sees Teddy as his kid and we decided that Teddy’d call him papa once he starts talking.”
“Wow,” Hermione said, pausing to think for a second before she pulled Harry into a tight hug, “that’s great, Harry.”
“She’s right,” Ron said, reaching out to squeeze Harry’s shoulder, “that’s great. For both you and Teddy, but why are you telling us?”
Hermione looked at Harry for a second before a knowing look took over her face, “he’s not sure if he should ask Theo if he wants to officially adopt Teddy.”
“That was on my mind,” Harry admitted, “but I don’t think I’ll ask that until we’re at least engaged. I really just wanted to tell you. But I also wanted to ask you if we could spend a day just the three of us over break? Life’s gotten so crazy recently.”
“I think that’s a responsible decision,” Hermione said with a nod, “and, of course, I’d love that. What should we do?”
“I came up with a tattoo idea for the three of us,” Ron said, “maybe we could do that and then just hang out? Or is there somewhere you’d like to go?”
“We could even do a weekend,” Harry suggested, “I have properties all over Europe and Ron and I haven’t gotten to travel much, and you haven’t really travelled since you were a kid, ‘Mione.”
“Then let’s pick somewhere and go,” Hermione said with a smile, “what’s your idea Ron?”
“A trinity knot.”
“Oh, that’s perfect,” Hermione cheered, clapping her hands in excitement, “I love it.”
“Great idea,” Harry said, clapping Ron on the shoulder, “anything else or should we rejoin the party?”
“I’ve got nothing,” Ron said with a shrug.
“Meeting adjourned,” Hermione said with a laugh, picking up her cup from where she’d set it down and leading them out of the basement.
“Hi, love,” Theo greeted as the trio walked into the ballroom that was currently looking more like a packed club than a formal setting, “where’ve you been?”
“Getting my mind blown by Flint and Wood and then I was downstairs talking to these two,” he answered, gesturing at Ron and Hermione over his shoulder, “you having fun so far?”
“I am,” Theo said with a smile.
“Think you lot have gotten used to our kind of parties yet?”
“Not sure,” Theo laughed, pointing over to where Ginny had pulled Blaise and Pansy up onto a table to dance, “what do you think?”
“I think if I can get you dancing by the end of the night I’ll have succeeded.”
“I’ve told you before, I have no clue how you’re supposed to dance to songs like this.”
“It’s really not that hard,” Harry said with a laugh, “you’d just have to follow my lead.”
“There’s no way I can keep up with you. You go dance with Hermione and Ron and I will sit here and drink.”
“I like that idea,” Ron said, raising his glass toward Theo.
“You heard them,” Hermione said, grabbing Harry’s hand and pulling him into the crowd of people, “let’s dance.”
“How can he dance like that,” Theo wondered, gesturing toward Harry who was now dancing between Hermione and Katie Bell to Whatta Man, “to this sort of music but he can’t do a formal waltz to save his life?”
“Was the last time you saw him waltz the Yule Ball?” Ron asked.
“Yeah.”
“Bad sample, that. I promise he can dance better than that. He was out of his mind with nerves, I was being a royal pain, and there’s a solid chance he was too distracted staring at Ced to even begin to focus on the steps.”
“That’s good,” Theo said with a laugh, “we’re all going to have to dance at this Ministry Ball.”
“Really not looking forward to that,” Ron sighed, “and they’re making us do a public thing for our Orders of Merlin.”
“I think you lot have to actually wear your medals, by the way.”
“Great,” Ron grumbled, “this feels like karma for all those times I was a right jerk to Harry when I’d get jealous of his fame.”
The conversation turned from dancing and the upcoming ball to exams, winter break, and Greece.
“Watch out,” Theo said a half hour later, nodding his head toward Hermione who was bee-lining toward Ron.
“Ronald,” Hermione said, grabbing Ron’s arm as soon as she reached them, “you’re dancing now. Come on.”
“Alright,” Ron answered, “but if I have to dance, so does Theo.”
“No way,” Theo said, taking a step back, “I am nowhere near drunk enough to pretend I can dance.”
“That’s alright,” Harry said, appearing behind Theo and wrapping his arms around his waist, “we can work on that, you two go have fun.”
“What are you doing, Harry?” Theo asked.
“Have I mentioned how lovely you look tonight?”
“You have, several times, what do you want?”
“I want my boyfriend to make out with me in a dark corner like any good, debaucherous teenager would.”
Theo turned all the way around and took in the sight of Harry. Harry whose hair was mused and whose skin was flushed from dancing. Harry with his sleeves rolled up and half his buttons undone, leaving most of his tattoos and both his wand and fang holsters visible. Harry with his bright green eyes and lopsided grin and toned muscles.
“I think I can do that,” Theo decided with a nod, reaching out and pulling Harry into a kiss by his collar.
“Fuck,” Harry breathed out as their lips met.
“I can do that, too,” Theo whispered, lips brushing Harry’s ear.
“Christ, Theo,” Harry said, pulling Theo closer by his belt loops, “you can’t say shit like that and not follow through.”
“Who said I wasn’t going to follow through?”
“It’s your birthday party, we can’t just disappear.”
“It’s my birthday and I say we can.”
“The house is full of people.”
“Your bedroom door has a lock, doesn’t it?”
“Good argument,” Harry said, pressing a kiss to Theo’s neck, “you’ve convinced me, let’s go.”
“Eager,” Theo teased, grabbing Harry’s hand and pulling him out of the room.
“Says the man dragging me through the halls,” Harry quipped.
“Shut it,” Theo lightly scolded, “it’s my birthday.”
“So you’ve said,” Harry teased before stepping closer, grabbing Theo’s hips, and whispering against his ear, “and what do you want for your birthday, darling?”
“You,” Theo responded as they reached Harry’s bedroom door, “I want you.”
* * *
“Where the hell is Harry?” Hermione asked, scanning the crowd.
“Last I saw him was forty minutes ago and Theo was yanking him out of the room,” Neville said, “if they don’t resurface soon you can track them down at your own risk.”
“Did he leave his jacket down here?”
“What are you looking for?”
“His lighter.”
“Why?”
“So I can light this joint.”
“Hermione,” Neville said with a laugh, “you have a wand.”
“I’d actually forgotten that,” she muttered.
“Let me?” Neville asked, reaching out to take the joint from Hermione, deciding that if she’d forgotten that magic existed then maybe she shouldn’t be casting fire spells.
“Harry!” Hermione yelled. Neville turned around to see Harry and Theo walking back into the room hand in hand. Harry’s hair was, surprisingly, neater than it had been when he left the room but the visible bite mark on his right shoulder was certainly new.
“Mione!” Harry yelled back.
She pointed to the still unlit joint in Neville’s hand and raised a brow in question.
“I won’t say no to that,” he answered, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a cheap lighter.
“Where’s Sirius’?” Hermione asked.
“I keep it in his jacket pocket.”
“What is with the two of you and lighters? You have magic,” Neville said, though he passed the joint over for Harry to light without any real protest.
“It’s the principle of the thing,” Harry responded.
“That makes zero sense, love,” Theo said, slinging his arm around Harry’s waist and tucking himself into his side.
Harry lit the joint and took a drag before offering it to Hermione who shook her head and pointed at Theo, “you joining us, birthday boy?”
“Why not?” Theo said with a shrug.
“Really?” Harry asked, looking at Theo in surprise, “Theodore Nott is agreeing to do muggle drugs?”
“Theodore Nott wants to see what the hype is about,” he answered.
“This’ll be good,” Neville said, looking positively giddy.
“Maybe he’ll finally dance with me,” Harry said, passing the joint over to Theo.
“Maybe,” Theo responded, taking a drag and managing not to hack up a lung.
“Well done,” Hermione said, patting him on the shoulder and taking the joint for herself, “Harry are you aware you look like you’ve been mauled by an overeager vampire?”
“Vaguely,” Harry responded with a crooked grin.
“Alright,” she said with a shrug, “as long as you know.”
“Oh!” Harry said, perking up as the music changed, “this is my song!”
“Every song is your song, love,” Theo said with a fond smile, “you’re going to have to be more specific.”
“Black Dog!” Harry cheered.
Hermione paused to listen for a second before her eyes lit up and she pulled Harry out of Theo’s grip, “we’re dancing now.”
Black Dog was followed up by Go Your Own Way then Changes and by the Rolling Stones’ Star Star, Theo was apparently high enough that he didn’t protest when Harry pulled him close and started dancing.
“How do you know all of these songs?” Theo asked, rather happy to find out that dancing to this sort of music mostly just involved being pressed up against someone and moving generally to the rhythm.
“Well, this song really doesn’t have that many lyrics,” Harry pointed out.
Theo listened for a moment before he laughed, “I guess you’re right, but you know what I mean.”
“I don’t know, really,” Harry said with a shrug, pulling Theo even closer somehow, “we had music playing in the living room a lot and Dudley always had the radio playing in his room and I’d listen through the wall.”
“Did you lot only listen to 70s rock in Gryffindor?”
“No,” Harry answered with a laugh, “that’s just the genre I like the best and after finding Sirius and my parents’ music collections I’m guessing that’s because it’s all I listened to for the first 15 months of my life.”
“How’d you learn to dance like this?” Theo asked, leaning further into Harry and about five seconds away from dragging him back upstairs.
“I don’t really think it’s a learned skill, Theo,” Harry said with a laugh, “I think you just have to relax and listen to the music.”
“Well, I don’t think you should ever stop.”
“You like watching me dance?”
“Apparently not as much as I like dancing with you,” Theo answered, pulling Harry down into a lingering kiss.
“Knew you’d like it.”
“Would you like it in writing that you were right?”
“I think I would,” Harry said as the next song started blasting through the room, “great song,” he said with a bright grin.
“How’d you recognize it that quickly?” Theo asked before he shook his head and answered his own question, “it’s Bowie, isn’t it?”
“Well done,” Harry said, pressing a kiss to Theo’s cheek, “it’s Moonage Daydream.”
“He really has a lot of songs about stars and moons,” Theo commented.
“I’m fairly certain that’s about 80% of why Bowie was Sirius’ favorite,” Harry said with a laugh.
“So, if you didn’t only listen to 70s rock, what else did you all listen to?”
“Hip-hop,” Harry said definitively, “watch out if Bust a Move comes on, Ron, Dean and Seamus go nuts.”
“And I’m sure you and Neville are never involved.”
“Oh, we are,” Harry admitted, “we’re just less of a threat to the general public’s safety.”
Theo let out a laugh at that, shaking his head, “what else?”
“Euro pop is probably the other big one,” Harry said, “especially ABBA, we also like -” he interrupted himself as the music changed again, whipping around to look for someone.
A second later, Fred and George appeared at Harry’s sides.
“Sorry, Theo,” Fred said, grabbing Harry’s left arm as George grabbed his right, “we’ll need him for four minutes and eight seconds.”
“That’s incredibly specific,” Theo said.
“It’s closer to 3 minutes and 30 seconds now,” George said before turning toward Harry and Fred and yelled “PRESSURE!” right into their faces.
Theo took a step back and simply watched in confusion as the trio started scream singing Under Pressure.
“I’d forgotten about this,” Angelina said, stepping up next to Theo and looking some mixture of amused and afraid at the show going on in front of her, “I really don’t know how I forgot about this. They’re insane.”
“How did this even start?” Katie asked, coming up on Theo’s other side.
“Who the hell knows,” Angelina answered, shaking her head.
“This is nothing compared to their rendition of Dancing Queen,” Ginny said, stepping up beside Angelina.
“Did I hear Dancing Queen?” Harry said, head snapping toward Ginny like a dog who’d just heard the word ‘treat.’
“Why, Ginny,” Katie sighed, “why?”
“Because it’s fun,” Ginny said with a wicked grin as she turned back toward Harry, “where’s the boombox?”
“Ask ‘Mione.”
“On it,” Ginny responded, turning to find Hermione. “Remove anything breakable or valuable from their immediate vicinity,” she called over her shoulder with a smirk as she disappeared into the crowd.
“Have you seen this yet?” Katie asked Theo, looking almost apologetic.
“No?”
“Oh, you poor dear,” she said, patting him on the shoulder, “get ready.”
Absolutely nothing anyone said could’ve prepared Theo for the sight of Harry, Fred, and George when Dancing Queen came on. Every Gryffindor in the room was entirely unphased but everyone else was staring at them in utter confusion.
Theo could understand why. The three of them were currently putting on what looked to be an elaborately choreographed strip tease.
“How the fuck did this even start?” Susan asked.
“Quidditch practice,” Katie explained, “I know it started at quidditch practice, but I have yet to figure out why.”
“Boys,” Angelina said, as if that answered everything.
“I’m starting to understand how people ended up wandering about the forest during Gryffindor parties,” Theo muttered.
“Your boyfriend is strange,” Blaise said, coming up behind Theo and clapping him on the shoulder.
“I’m well aware, Blaise, thank you.”
“You love him though.”
“That I do.”