Mid-Summer 2026

If Merlin himself had told Chance twenty years ago that in 2026 he would be standing at the entrance of a huge tent waiting to greet a mass of his former classmates for a party that he and his wife were hosting, the man probably would've shouted a string of expletives before super-AKing him, making a journey to find the Resurrection Stone to bring him back to life, then super-AKing him again. Nevemind that he would've only been eleven years old at the time. He would've found a way, damnit, because everything about that situation sounded like something from a nightmare. Having a wife, for one thing. A bloody party. Former classmates. Greeting people!

As it was, this was the man's current and incredibly unfortunate reality. He was leaning against one of the roman columns that Bahh had ordered to be placed at the large opening of the extravagantly decorated party tent, suited up in his finest formal attire, cup of rum in hand (honestly, he'd had a drink in his hand since about noon), and already counting down the minutes until this whole ordeal was over. They were in a large clearing of Epping Forest, an ancient woodland which was actually quite nice to look at this time of year despite the fact that it was nature and hot. It had been a mild day for summer, considering, and the night was cooling rapidly as the sun was setting. The inside of the tent was perfectly comfortable, though. He could feel a decent draft drifting from the doorway.

This party had been in development for months, shortly after Isabella began attending Hogwarts in September. In all the anticipation for her daughter’s first days at school, Bahh had apparently started feeling nostalgic and brought up the idea for a large gathering of old schoolmates, to catch up and reconnect and all that rubbish. Being the supportive, adoring (and not really listening) kind of husband he is, Chance told her that it was an excellent idea. At first, the plan was only for the alumni from Slytherin house, each with a plus one, to attend, but word seemed to have spread quickly and soon they began receiving RSVPs from people they neither knew nor invited.

If only he'd known what sort of hell that woman would bring forth... It was worse than when she'd been pregnant all those times, and that had been borderline traumatizing for the man. They’d gone through four party planners, half a dozen assistants, thirty-eight venues, fourteen caterers, and Chance kept finding samples of stupid decorations scattered all over the house. He’d taken to burning them for fun. Bahh had been frantic at her best, irritable most of the time, and so wrapped up in this thing that she’d forgotten to pay him special attention, causing him to become irritable as well. While he had always found her extreme dedication incredibly attractive, she had become a monster woman.

So now here he was, unable to argue his way out of having to greet their guests. Chance wasn't sure why his wife thought it would be a good idea to force him to do the job, considering he was an arrogant git and would most likely offend the majority of them before they'd even had an opportunity to procure an alcoholic beverage from the open bar. He’d tried to convince her to hire someone to do it, but that would have been too impersonal, she’d argued. Whatever. After twelve years of marriage, the man had learned that he had to do stupid things if he wanted to get… happiness.

The appearance of the first arrivals pulled Chance out of his thoughts. He took a swig of his drink, preparing himself for the torture.

And so it begins.

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Welcome to the first (and probably only) Carter hosted Alumni+ Extravaganza of Doom. Here you can post your entrance and interact with others who have arrived. In case you care to godmod it, Chance will greet you in one of the following ways:

An indifferent head nod.
A narrowing of his eyes.
Taking a drink as you walk by.
Not even looking at you.
Something you might think is a smile but probably is the result of a rude or hilariously insulting thought in his head.
A vaguely amiable greeting if he knows you.

Who is invited?
All alumni, children of alumni, other adult characters, and VH24 pre-Hogwarts or student characters of half to pureblood status if it is likely that their parents would attend such a thing. No mudbloods. There is a mudblood sniffing hell hound on the premises.

Why are you so blood-racist?
Because you exist.

Can I really not attend your awesome party?
You may attend at your own risk, mudblood. But I make no guarantees for your safety.

What does the place look like? I didn't feel like reading your stupid RP.
We are in the middle of Epping Forest outside of London in mid-summer, in one of those wedding-like tents that is enclosed and cool, lit with those dumb fairy lights and decorated in bluish-green and such (there is a smaller, identical tent for the children). Enchantments have been made to ensure no muggles will stumble in (although that would've been entertaining). There is a fireplace, champagne fountain, an open bar, juice boxes for children I suppose, plenty of food, live entertainment (as in musicians, not... nevermind), a dance floor, tables and chairs scattered around, perhaps a petting zoo. I don't know, if you want it to be there, sure, it'll be there. Oh, and there's SWAG. All the good parties have SWAG.

Do I only post in this thread?
No, you‘re not confined to this thread only. You may create your own party threads in which you interact with people of your choice or just sit there like a creeper or whatever you want to do. You can add the links to those threads here and I’ll add them to a list on this post so people can stalk them as they please without much effort in searching.

Isabella's thread for the kids is here, although they're more than welcome to run around like idiots with the adults, as all brats are wont to do.

It had been a long time coming since Aurora had gone for a night out with her husband. It was probably going to be a long time still for her to get her wish. She was supposed to attend one of her husband’s former housemates party and bring the kids along. Perfect. She couldn’t even drink while her children were around. Maybe she could make an acception? Maybe she would be bored to tears that she would have no choice but to indulge in Elderflower Wine. She would have to wait until she got there to see if she was in the mood to stay sober or attempt to pass the time more quickly for the sake of her sanity.

“So, you ready?” Aurora randomly asked as she clasped a necklace around her neck and scrutinized her appearance in the mirror. This should be an interesting night out. Chance Carter was Spike’s former housemate, and they did business together. Occasionally, there were playdates between the children, and so she knew she could let her kids run about with the Carter clan while she mingled and pretended she actually had a social life.

Upon arriving at Epping Forest dressed in a dark blue gown with a trail of sparkles that looked like shooting stars, she ushered the kids ahead of her and Spike and linked her arm with her husband’s. As she approached the familiar man who was obviously there to greet them, Aurora smiled. He greeted Spike as friend, but upon looking at her, there was something different in his eyes. She could tell there was something about her that he didn’t like, but obviously tolerated for Spike’s sake.

She was a half-blood, and he didn’t care for it.

But, she smiled anyway. “Chance,” she murmured and extended her hand towards him. “What a wonderful set up you have here.” If giving him all the credit would earn her brownie points with him, she was going to do it.

It was hard to be late to a party of purebloods. Most of them tried to be "fashionably" late themselves, the snotrags, because they were obsessed with being the center of attention. They wanted, expected everyone already in attendance to fawn over the delight of their presence being so overwrought with happy feelings because they had FINALLY showed up and it wouldn't be a party without them. IE- Snotrags.

It was such a useless lump of crap, the majority of the pureblooded elite were. Jenna rolled her eyes and a kink in her shoulder as she entered the 'adult' tent at the Carter Family Bash. She was not attempting to be late, because it was too much trouble. When she was younger she'd been the epitome of it all: scandalous attire, aura of intrigue, required air of ennui, sufficiently dramatic entrance, and her triple-patented back-off cloak. She still had the cloak, but as for the rest she'd learned to her cost that she actually valued part of her life. And given that weakness she'd discovered the real world of work, dedication, and stark terror at the knowledge of how easy it would be to lose what matters most.

Where she had once gone after knowledge with an unquenchable thirst, the things she knew now had a terrible price. She had a decent reservoir of money but not all prices were monetary. And while a woman with a past may have nothing to lose, a woman with a future couldn't be too careful. Jenna James was still a dangerous woman but not for the reckless disdain and brash antics she'd been known for in her days at Hogwarts.

Given the fact that there was a need for a cordoned off area for Children told Jenna that Bahh and Chance had grown up too, but it was reassuring that since the children were for all intents and purposes cut off from the adult festivities, he hadn't changed that much.

"Carter," she handed her cloak to whatever nameless creature was waiting for it and accepted the nod she got in greeting for what it was, "You're slipping, dear." She smiled and kissed his cheek patronizingly as her gaze slid across the unwelcome sight of Aurora Braelin, whom she didn't feel required a greeting. If it's been her party, she wouldn't have been invited at all. Then again, Jenna didn't have time to arrange parties, her institute was pretty much everything in her life right now.

"If you'll excuse me I'll just disappear before any of those trying Montagues appear." Her conversation was still directed to only Chance. She turned so that her shoulder would hopefully cut off anything annoying being said by anyone else and she made her way through the tent tent to another location, keeping to the outside shadows and pondering the usefulness of information she was likely to glean from anyone tonight.

Riiiiight.

Sebastian Montague just couldn't think of anything more appealing than going to a party that would be filled with the kinds of nobodies that he spent most of his life avoiding. His childhood had been filled with parties like that, socialising with other families and pretending he gave a damn about their third home in Italy, or their investments in the Swedish cattle market. Blah blah blah. When it came down to it, all those people cared about was whether your blood was pure and your bank was full. He was alright on both counts.

Still, he actually knew and liked Chance, so it probably wouldn't do to ignore the invitation. Not least because he expected his father might be in attendance at some point as well. Keep the name going and all that. At least Lysandra was likely too young to show; though the pair of them had somewhat gotten past their differences in the last few years, that did not mean he wanted to see her out at a party. She was fifteen. That was a gross age.

He didn't want to have to kick anyone's arse for looking at her the wrong way.

It turned out that the blond arrived just in time to hear his name being mentioned, or at least part of it. His eyebrows raised as he watched the woman go, not really sure who she was, nor why she thought a Montague might be interested. Old bat. Breezing past the other woman, for he had no interest in mingling with randoms, Sebastian offered Carter a grin. "Thought this was meant to be THE social event of the year?"

More like a meet-and-greet for all the boring, pretentious families who thought they were important in the wizarding world but really were quite the opposite. Influential his arse.

Amanda's life had been occupied by Quidditch and taking care of Cadence for a while. Quidditch was amazing, and having a child provided surprising joy (most of the time) but she was tired of her routine. Drop off Cadence at the nursery school (now preschool!) or a babysitter, go to practice, pick up Cadence, make food, and pass out. Repeat unless if it was a game day which was when she would drop off Cadence at her parents for how long the game would take. That was one of the cons of playing a sport where the games didn't have a time limit. Thankfully, she hadn't been in anything longer than a couple of days. But she felt like there was no "Amanda" time where she could just do whatever she wanted. She had followed her dreams and succeeded, but what good is it if you're not sure if you're happy? So when she had received the invitation for the party at Carters', she almost burst into tears because it was exactly what she needed. A chance to get away from Quidditch and Cadence to be herself again. Maybe she'd see some of her old friends again because she had lost contact with most of them other than the ones who played in the pros once she had became a regular starter for the Falcons, then the Arrows. That was kind of awkward but it all had worked out anyway.

So, she had just grabbed an older black dress that still fit (and looked hot on her) and a pair of fierce heels that an amazon would be proud of and did a couple of beautifying spells. Amanda had managed to beg to get a day of practice off to go, but it didn't give her enough time to shop for something new. Maybe she would have cared more about that if she had just graduated a couple of years ago. Despite the invitation saying that kids were welcome, Amanda had decided to go drop Cadence off at a friend's house for a sleep over to avoid potentially awkward moments with the father of her child. The said father had no idea that he was Cadence's father and Amanda did not want to let him get close to Cadence lest he connected the dots and realized that their tryst had resulted in a child. He was married now at least, so that was a load off her mind. One of the reasons why she had never told him was because she knew he would feel obligated to marry her and to be honest, Amanda did not want to become Mrs. Douglas.

Once she arrived at the location of the party, she started walking towards one of the tents but a whiff of sick and high-pitched screams made her change direction to the other tent. Less she knew about what was going on in that tent, the better. Good thing she didn't bring Cadence. Once she was in the proper tent filled with well-behaving adults and a pleasant aroma, she grabbed a glass of... something. Hopefully alcoholic. She took a sip as she scanned the room for familiar faces. Yep. Alcoholic and rather strong to boot. Being 6'0 barefooted then at least over 6'5 in the kind of heels Amanda liked to wear was always fun at parties because she could find her friends and scare off lowly peons.

Spotting a familiar-looking blonde head, she made her way towards Sebastian and tapped on his shoulder with her glass. "Hey Montague, I haven't seen you since the last time we played each other, how have you been?" She then noted that the host and her former mentor, Chance Carter was nearby and she acknowledged his greeting. Amanda wasn't too sure if he even really remembered her because the shining highlight of her experience being a mentee was meeting up in a hallway and abandoning a fellow mentee who had fainted. Welcome to Slytherin. So, she wasn't sure if she should say something to Chance or not because what if he didn't remember her? It had been years since they last saw each other and the invitation didn't mean that he remembered her since it was probably Bahh who put her name on the guest list.

As of last week, Cade Douglas was 28 years old. He'd been out of school for ten years now. He was maybe a year or two away from being made Vice President of his father's company. He'd been married for almost four years to a part-Veela from a family with an overwhelming number of gingers. He had two kids, for Merlin's sake! His son, Cooper, had turned three a few months ago, and his daughter was eight months old. It was safe to say that, at some point when he wasn't looking, Cade Douglas had grown up.

It had been a pleasant surprise for him to receive an invitation to a party at the Carter house. He didn't know them overly well, outside of the typical pureblood friend-of-a-friend nonsense, but he was fairly sure that W.G. Douglas Advertising and Carter Services had a few high-profile clients in common. Maybe he'd have to talk shop with Chance sometime.

Not tonight, though. Tonight he was going to mingle with his gorgeous wife, Dominique, on his arm, and maybe catch up with some classmates. Hayden had said he was coming with his wife, hadn't he? He saw a fair bit of Hayden, of course, since their kids played together, along with Luca's kids, and Della's kids, and Chase's kid. The lot of them were bloody monsters. Coop and Silas -- Della and Oliver's oldest -- were already inseparable.

"See anybody we know, love?" he asked Dom, who seemed to have located a tray of hors d'oeuvres and was picking through it, presumably looking for something that didn't look like it once had eyes.

"Not yet," she said absently. Then she glanced up from the tray, and her eyes widened. "Oh, there's Amanda Overton. Wasn't she in your year?"

"Mmhmm," he confirmed noncommittally, studying the blonde across the room. Amanda was one of the few people outside his immediate group of friends that he'd actually seen since graduation. He'd run into her a few months after a nasty break-up, when he was still hung up on Madeline, and they'd gotten drunk and... yeah. That had been a few weeks before he and Dom had started seeing each other.

Right then. No reason to say hi to her! She hadn't even seen him yet. "Oh, hey," he exclaimed. "I think I see Hayden and Andie. Let's go that way!" And then he steered his wife to the opposite side of the room.