A/N: Thank you for clicking on this story! Please enjoy!
This story is my entry for Finals Round 1 on the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition forum. The challenge was to write a fic between 1000 and 3000 words, rated K, K plus or T, about a portrait. And that's this :)
Thanks goes to queen-sheep for beta'ing this. You're awesome! However, any mistakes someone might find in this chapter are completely and totally my own.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Framed Friends
"Oh Amanda, Amanda, Amanda," a tall, thin woman called, running through several portraits and pushing away just as many occupants. "Amanda!"
The woman clad in pink skidded to a halt in a big, portal-like portrait, in which a fat lady was snoring soundly.
"Amanda!" the thin woman called out, shaking her friend. "Amanda, wake up!"
Groggily, the woman called Amanda, more commonly known as the Fat Lady, opened her eyes. "It's way past curfew Vi, I was asleep..."
"Oh, but Amanda, you don't want to miss this," the other woman squealed. "You'll never guess what I just saw..."
The fat woman, always interested in the latest gossip, blinked at this and sat a bit more upright. "Oh yeah, what did you see?"
The other woman opened her mouth to start, but Amanda shushed her immediately. "Wait a minute, let me go get some wine. This better be a good story Violet, for waking me up in the middle of the night."
"Oh believe me, it is," Violet said with a giggle.
With a huff, the Fat Lady got up, and staggered through several portraits, before she landed in a portrait with three men having dinner. The three man concerned were all fast asleep, leaving the barrel of wine unattended.
"Well, gentlemen, you don't mind a pretty lady taking away your wine, do you?" Amanda whispered. When the men didn't react – they were asleep after all – she said, "Silence is permission."
Huffing and puffing, the Fat Lady managed to lift up the barrel of wine, and tiptoed away, back to Violet.
"Where did you get it? The Drunk Monks?" Violet asked, as she helped her friend place the barrel on the ground. "I got some glasses, by the way."
"No, The Three Men and The Ghost, they're always asleep around this time," Amanda answered, taking the glasses from Violet and filling them. She held them up against the light, inspecting the colour of the wine. "Looks good and fruity."
"As long as it's better than that slimy stuff you got from Baron Blumental," Violet said, sniffing the wine sceptical. She took a sip, and thoughtfully let the liquid roll over her tongue. "Not too bad, not too bad at all."
"Just wanted to say the same," the other woman agreed, smacking her lips. "Now Vi, tell me... what was so important that you woke me up in the middle of the night?"
"Oh 'Manda, you aren't going to believe this..." Violet said, giggling. "Well, I was just dozing off in my portrait a bit... you know how my portrait is hidden in that dark corner of that small room close to the Great Hall?"
"Yes, yes," the Fat Lady said quickly, eager to hear more.
"Anyway, I was just dozing off, when two students walked into the room. I almost hadn't noticed them, if the girl hadn't bumped into the table-"
"That's what you wanted to tell me?" Amanda interrupted her, sounding disappointed. "Students sneaking out after curfew? C'mon Vi, that's just-"
"I wasn't finished yet, you impatient woman," Violet cut in, a bit annoyed that she had been interrupted in her great tale. "Give me a moment, it's better than just students sneaking out after curfew..."
She paused for a moment to add to the tension, then grinned and continued, "It was a boy and a girl sneaking out. Together."
Her friend stared at her for a moment, then raised an eyebrow. She didn't want to be rude, but she was really wondering if that was all. Violet was known to have a good sense for gossip, and she had expected something good, especially after the fuss from before.
"But..." Violet quickly said, noticing the look on Amanda's face. "That's not all... It wasn't just a boy and a girl, it was one of your girls..."At this, she gestured to the background of the portrait, where behind the other Gryffindor girls were residing. "And... a Slytherin boy."
The Fat Lady, who had just taken a little too large sip of her wine, coughed violently and stared at her friend with wide eyes. After she had calmed down a bit from her coughing fit, she said, trying to sound as calm as possible, "Excuse me?"
The other woman was looking very pleased with herself; and satisfied by the reaction of her hearer, took a small sip of her own wine as well.
"Yes, to say that I was very surprised too would be an understatement," Violet said importantly. "And believe it or not, it gets even better."
"Who?" Amanda asked her friend breathlessly, unconsciously leaning forward. "Who were they?"
Violet was obviously enjoying this. She smiled and smacked her lips, stretching the expectant silence for as long as she could.
"Scorpius Malfoy," she finally said, fighting the urge to smile too wide when she saw the shocked look on Amanda's face.
"The...?" her friend whispered, the thrill of hearing a juicy rumour visible in her eyes.
"Yes," Violet said, nodding solemnly. "The Deatheather's son."
"Oh my... what do you know of him?" Amanda asked, eager to hear more. Because she was the guard of the Gryffindor Common Room, she couldn't leave her portrait very often. For information about the outside world she had to rely on what the students told her, and the information she got from the occasional visits to other portraits.
That being said, that didn't mean she was completely clueless when it came to students. She was very familiar with the Gryffindors, and some of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs when they had been invited to the Common Room by a Gryffindor. Slytherins however... Amanda had hardly seen any in her long life as portrait. But the Malfoy name was even among portraits well-known.
"I don't know much about him, I have to say," Violet said. "He wasn't someone who stood out; rather kept himself on the background. Looks exactly like his father though, if my memory isn't betraying me."
"And the Gryffindor? Who was the girl?" Amanda asked, being sure that she would know who it was.
"Oh Amanda... it's just... I can hardly believe it," she said, purposely adding to the excitement and the expectation in the air. "It's Rose Weasley."
The other portrait gasped, and it took her several moments before she was able to sputter something again. "Rose Weasley? The Rose Weasley?"
"Yes, the Rose Weasley," Violet said, taking in the shocked and excited look on her friend's face. "Unbelievable, isn't it?"
"But, Rose Weasley..." Amanda said, trailing off as she did her best to recall what she knew of the girl. Seventh year Gryffindor, Prefect, lots of cousins, all Gryffindors... Big bush of red curls, lots of freckles, and clumsy and loud.
"Yes, I know!" Violet said, excitement shining of her face. "Their parents were like, archenemies! Merlin, this is going to be big Amanda!"
Slowly Amanda started to realise that too. "I... How long ago was it, Vi? How long ago was it that something like this happened?"
"Oh, I don't really remember. It's been way too long. Gryffindors and Slytherins haven't been close like this since Snape and Evans, and even that exploded in their faces, in the end. They've always been bitter rivals, those two Houses..." Violet answered thoughtfully.
"Oh yes, definitely," she agreed, and upon noticing Violet's empty glass, she added, "Oh, let me refill that for you."
"Thank you," Violet said, after taking a big gulp of her wine. Amanda didn't reply, as she was too busy emptying her own glass in her mouth.
"Some more?" she said giggling when she noticed that Amanda's glass was empty again.
"Some more," Amanda agreed, pouring herself a glass again, and refilling Violet's glass.
"You should tell me a bit more about that Rose Weasley girl," Violet said, "You know probably a lot more about her, being a Gryffindor and all."
"Oh yes, absolutely," Amanda said, giggling too. And with that, the Fat Lady started telling her friend everything she knew about Rose Weasley and her family, to which Violet added her own information about the two students.
Wine flowed freely as the two women discussed all the possibilities and consequences of a relationship between the two students, weighed the advantages and disadvantages for the Houses and giggled at the thought of the many reactions the two would get.
It was therefore no surprise that when Rose Weasley got back to the Gryffindor Tower after her secret rendezvous with Scorpius Malfoy hours later, she was met by an exceptionally cheerful Fat Lady, and though Rose did not know all the reasons for this, she suspected it had something to do with the empty barrel of wine in the corner of the portrait.
A/N: Thank you very much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it. A happy New Year to all of you :) Please leave me a review!
Thanks again!