CHAPTER ELEVEN
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-: sixth year :-

── IN WHICH THE
FAT LADY QUESTIONS

. . .

"So, tell me about this ex girlfriend of your's." Rosie's eyes were wide as she looked around the gigantic room of portraits and the moving staircases. They had stepped onto the bottom of one, making their way up to the top couple as they waited to reach the next floor.

James looked towards her, heart thumping in his ears suddenly. "My ex girlfriend? Why would you want to know about her?"

"Is she going to be here?" Rosie continued, brushing a curl of blonde hair that had fallen out of her Sandy updo out of her eyes. "What's her name.. are you wanting to make her jealous? Because really, I'm down for that."

"What?" James blinked, pushing his glasses up and pulling her off of the stairs and onto the platform, waiting for another one to come. "No, I don't need you to make her jealous... her name is Lily, and yes she will be there. She's in Gryffindor, like me." 

"Lily. Pretty name." Rosie commented, stepping forward onto the next staircase. "And we're going to the Gryffindor common room, right?" 

James nodded, gripping the stone railing as the staircase jumped to life, slowly making his way up it. "Come on, we're here." He said, as it came to a halt again and they walked up to the top, ending up in front of the Fat Lady's portrait. 

"James Potter, that's a surprise." The woman in the painting said, holding onto a champagne glass. Rosie's eyebrows rose, glancing over at the boy beside her. "Considering the volume of the music within, I would have assumed you would have been partying by now." 

"Had to pick up a special delivery." The Fat Lady's attention was drawn to Rosie, who held up her bag, bottles clinking within. "And a guest of honour." James added as an afterthought, catching the Rosmerta girl's eye. 

"Mr Potter-" The Fat Lady looked confused, but James said the password - something in Latin that Rosie didn't quite catch, but was about dragons - and her frame swung forward and James led the girl inside.

Music was blaring from out of nowhere, and the Gryffindor common room was covered in black, orange, purple and green decorations. Streamers hung from the ceiling, material had been draped over the usual red walls and all furniture had been pushed up to the walls, the stacked tables home to many pumpkins and flickering multicoloured candles, the chairs all had people sitting or dancing on them, and Rosie stared as an actual ghost floated around the tall ceiling.

"Nearly-Headless Nick!" James shouted, voice managing to reach her over the music. "He's the Gryffindor ghost! Hey - Sirius!" He pulled her through a crowd of people to a corner, where the same boy who had been trying to convince her to give them more drinks was stood, plenty of eyeliner circling his eyes and a pair of dog ears over his long hair. It seemed that the group had some sort of theme going on. 

"Rosie Rosmerta." Sirius turned towards them, eyebrows raised. "I though James might have been kidding when he said he invited you, but here you are in the flesh. You brought drinks?" 

Rosie held forward the bag. "A pleasure to see you again, Sirius." Sarcasm dripped from her tone as she opened it, extracting a bottle and throwing it towards him, watching as he caught it. "And there's plenty more in there."

Sirius grinned, as did James, before the older of the two began shouting about it, drawing attention to the food and drinks that the latecomers had brought back with them. 

Across the room, a group of girls watched as James dragged the newest addition to Hogsmeade community into the middle of the crowd, a bottle of Firewhiskey between them. 

"That's Rosie Rosmerta?" Marlene McKinnon's eyebrows raised. "I did not see her when I went into the Three Broomsticks a couple weeks ago." 

"Sorry Lils, I don't really blame him. I'd get over anyone rather quickly seeing her." Mary chimed in. "Sorry - you know how I mean it, right?" 

"Of course." Lily nodded. "But really, you guys - I'm not going to be upset about it because I broke up with him. I wasn't that into him. He looks a lot more happier there."

"Probably because they hooked up." Alice added pointedly. "But he does look happier. At least he wasn't moping around."

"I don't know about you three, but I'm going to introduce myself." Marlene commented. "Come on - we'll go get drinks." 

And the group of four girls had smiles on their faces as they mingled in the crowd, making their way over to meet Rosie Rosmerta and get some of the Firewhiskey she had brought along.

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