For The Last Time | Jily

CHAPTER 14

~ The Fat Lady Conundrum ~
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The Gryffindor house, and some students from the other houses, were all buzzing with the excitement for the upcoming party. However this meant all the Gryffindor common room saw for the following week was a frantic Remus and panic stricken Lily rushing around sorting out all the details for the party. Finally, it was the eve of Halloween and Lily's tension was becoming almost visible.

"Remus! Remus!" Lily yelled from across the room, "have you asked the fat lady to accept the other password for tonight yet?"

"Uh not yet, I'll have to do it later sorry," Remus replied quickly.

Lily sighed worriedly, "but how are the other students supposed to get in? I've heard quite a few from the other schools planning on coming. And Sev finally agreed to come to this party, I can't say he can't come now!"

James, who was sitting on the sofa pretending to read a magazine, had been listening to their agitated passive aggressive conversation for the last half hour, waiting for an opportunity to become of use again, even if it did mean helping Snivellous get to the party.

He looked over at Lily, "I can do it."

Lily rolled her eyes, "for the last time Potter, I don't need your help."

"Jeez Evans you have no faith in me whatsoever do you?"

"Have you seen your record Potter? Of course I don't trust you."

"I got it," he stood up and started walking, "see? I can do it right now. Don't worry about it."

He stepped outside and shut the door so he could look at the portrait full on, "Hey Lizzie, how you doing."

The Fat Lady looked down suspiciously at James, "hmm I know you Potter, you never talk to me unless you want something. Also do not call me Lizzie, it is Elizabeth or you shall not be getting anything from me today."

"Sorry, Elizabeth, I was just wanted to know if you knew about the password for the other students for the Halloween party?" James smiled sweetly.

"No, I haven't been told yet," she sneered annoyedly at him and sighed, "go on then tell me, what's is it this year?"

"Bumblebore," James tried to hide a laugh.

"Bumblebore," the Fat Lady rolled it over her tongue amusedly, "and why, may I ask is that?"

"This years theme is Teachers, so we thought we'd go with that."

"Hmm, alright, I'll allow it," She sat back upright with a look of indifference on her face.

"Brilliant," James grinned happily, "oh, one more thing, there's probably going to be a lot more people this year that normal, you know as people from the other schools might be-"

"WHAT?" The Fat Lady bellowed fiercely at James, "students from other schools? In my common room! I don't think so, this is a place for Gryffindors I don't want to let-"

James' eyes widened and he started to panic, "hey, hey, ahaha it was just- just a joke! Aha..."

The Fat Lady narrowed her eyes and her lips pierced menacingly, "do not take me for a fool, Potter."

She kept muttering things to herself about the idea of students from other schools in her common room. James was not starting to sweat, he thought this would be an easy job, to show he could help. What would Lily say now?

Just then, the portrait swung outwards, almost hitting James in the face.

Lily's head popped out, "everything okay out here?"

"Yeah, no, yeah everything fine," James gulped nervously, pushing his hands through his hair repeatedly.

"Only I thought I heard-"

"Is that Lily Evans I hear?" The Fat Lady piped up again, "Have you heard what this boy is suggesting?"

Lily frowned and stepped out of the entrance, "ehh, I'm not sure, what was he suggesting?"

"That students from other schools should be allowed here for the Halloween party! I mean could you imagine!"

Lily's breath fluttered for a second but she regained her composure and glared at James, "James what lies have you been telling Elizabeth? Students from other schools? That's ridiculous, we barely let anyone from other houses come in, Merlin's beard Potter."

James was taken aback and spluttered on random, unformed words in shock and confusion.

"Ah, thank you Lily," the Fat Lady smiled graciously, "trust the Potter boy to lie to his superiors."

James face was frozen in a state of awe, he dared not say anything for fear or being yelled at again. So instead, he let Lily lead him back into the common room, where upon she hit him in the head with a newspaper.

"What we're you thinking?" She sighed and spun away from him.

"I did what you wanted me to do! I told her about the password, and I may have accidentally mentioned about the other schools," he replied guilty, "and, hey, since when do you call me James?"

"You've been here for 5 years, you know she hates other houses in here, other schools? Forget about it," Lily scolded him angrily, then added slightly embarrassedly, "and what do you mean... that's your name, i always call you James."

"Well sorry, it just slipped out, I didn't think she'd freak so badly," James followed her round the room as she strung up decorations, "and no you don't, you always call me Potter or prat or- or just 'eugh'."

"You should have been more careful James, you could have ruined all our planning, what would we have done then huh?" Lily turned to face him, still mad about what had happened.

"There look!" James narrowed his eyes like a detective, "you did it again, called me James,"

Lily rolled her eyes and walked to hang more stringers up again but James didn't notice as he was whispering to himself, "James, why James? She never calls me James."

He looked up and stumbled along to lily again, "look, Potter, you had a great idea alright, but that was it, maybe just leave this to me and Remus alright? Just stay out of my way."

And with that she brushed past him, more stressed out than she had been before other people couldn't get into their common room. As she strung up the deportation she thought to herself.

What were they going to do now? The fat lady might be on the look out for non-students, that meant the Beaubaxtons and Durmstrang people could no longer come as their own teachers, they'd have to come as Hogwarts teachers. Would they have to try and hide their accents? Maybe they could smuggle a couple in at a time with other houses.

Lily groaned in frustration and then squealed and jumped back as the banner she was putting up fell down in front on her. She sighed and waved her wand to string it back up again.

This Halloween party better be worth it, she thought bitterly.

A/n I went to London for a couple days during the holiday to shop and see Six on the west end and holy hell it was fantastic 10/10 recommend.

Q: do you like horror films?
(I cannot stand them, watched one once and I couldn't sleep and cried all night, never again)

Word count: 1122