The Means to an End
The most noble house of Gryffindor was up in the common room...partying like there was no tomorrow. They had won the Quidditch cup for the third year in a row (not counting fourth year) and had even done it without their star seeker and captain, the one and only Harry Potter.
The entire house partied throughout the evening. The House Elves delivered food and the party really picked up when a team of about fifty owls flew through the window holding crates of butterbeer. They all flew towards Katie Bell, who untied a letter from one of the owl's legs while the rest of the house untied the butterbeer.
Katie read the letter then shouted out to the crowd, "The butterbeer is from Fred and George!"
The house erupted into more cheers as Katie secretly grabbed one of the butterbeer bottles and put it next to her. No need for anyone to get into that one, she thought to herself. Of course Fred and George couldn't just be generous-they wanted her to test a new product on one of her classmates. According to the letter, inside that butterbeer bottle was a powerful truth serum that tasted like butterbeer. It also inebriated the drinker and had a confundus potion in it so the drinker didn't know they were spilling their deepest, darkest secrets. Katie stood up to head to the restroom, but a stunner flew out of nowhere and hit her straight in the chest, knocking her out.
"Oops," said Neville as he turned the other way. He was going to go over to Katie to talk to her, but had gotten so nervous about talking to the girl he liked that he had lost control of his magic. Luckily he was holding his wand, thus he only fired a stunner instead of blowing a hole in the wall of Gryffindor Tower.
"Neville!" Dean called from his right.
"W-what?" Neville asked nervously, hoping that Dean hadn't seen him stunning Katie.
"Harry's detention should be ending about now," Dean called over the noise. "Why don't you grab him a butterbeer and go get him, that way he can get partying right away!"
"Okay," said Neville, relieved that no one seemed to have noticed his embarrassing show of magical skill. He grabbed the butterbeer bottle that was sitting next to Katie and dashed from the common room, heading towards Snape's classroom.
Harry wiped his forehead with his arm before marking his place in the file cabinet for next week's detention. It was absolutely sweltering in Snape's classroom and to make it worse, Snape had been working on a potion that was boiling over a giant fire.
Harry left the classroom only to bump in to Neville, who exclaimed, "We won, Harry! We won!"
"That's great!" said Harry. "Is the party already in full swing?"
"You bet!" said Neville, thrusting a butterbeer bottle into Harry's hands.
"Thanks," said Harry as they quickly walked back toward the common room. "You wouldn't believe how hot it was in there."
He twisted the lid off and drained the whole thing in less than a twenty seconds, wiping his mouth and smacking his lips afterwards. "Man that was good," said Harry, satisfied.
As they approached the portrait of the Fat Lady, Harry started staggering a bit. "Neville, I-I feel a bit funny," he slurred, holding his hands in front of his face and staring at them oddly.
Neville glanced at Harry oddly. He would've never guessed Harry to be such a lightweight. "You'll be alright, mate," he said.
"Neville," said Harry. "How come you're so nice? You've gotta be the nicest guy in Gryffindor."
"Er...thanks, Harry," Neville said before quickly giving the Fat Lady the password (Quid agis).
The crowd cheered and pulled the two Gryffindors inside, giving Harry slaps on the back and hugs. Ginny ran to Harry, arms held out wide for an embrace, but he caught sight of Hermione. He pushed Ginny aside and staggered through the crowd, stopping right next to the brown-haired bookworm.
