Chapter Two: The Fat Lady
I am the one all have forgotten.
The one who oversees the comings and goings of generations of Gryfindore children.
I am The Fat Lady.
I wasn't always referred to by my weight.
People once knew me for accomplishments both my husband's and my own.
It's easy for me now though. Even if it hurts no less every time I hear that label. I became used to labels while I was alive…
The Fat Lady
Mother
Wife
Friend
Lover
Witch
Pureblood
Simple Minded
Peacekeeper
Homely
Peacemaker
Teacher
The list went on and on…
But back then I also had a name…
ME….
Friend and helper of Helga Hufflepuff.
Study Partner and fellow debater of Rowena Ravenclaw.
Comforter to Salazar Slytherin when his wife and my best friend Phoenix Slytherin ne Black died.
Babysitter to all of their children and mother to my own.
Godrick Griffendore's wife.
…Fiona Griffendore ne Peverell.
But no one remembers that.
No one knows…
They no longer know me or the other spouses.
They no longer know exactly why Salazar Slytherin left.
They no longer know the twisted relationships whose existence both brought us all together and threatened to break us apart.
But it doesn't matter does it?
The damage is done and all we who are trapped here in time can do is wait.
And then the day finally came.
A first year Ravenclaw who looked so much like his father had back in his school years walked up to me, curiosity flaming in those innocent emerald eyes.
"Are you the Fat Lady Mam?" He asks hesitantly and I paste on a smile. Thinking of how much like Rowena's son Raven he was.
"Yes dear, if you want to go into the common room you need to have the password." Knowing exactly whom he was from the talk around the school that was already happening even though it was only the first day of classes.
And I feel sorry for the boy who has to deal with what I have to.
The Potter who couldn't get into Griffendore.
The middle child of Harry Potter and all the labels this poor child has to bare because of it.
And all the labels he will accumulate over the years.
Albus Severus Potter
"No thank you, but…" He hesitates just a moment, eyes trained on his scuffling feet as his mother had done when in trouble with her favorite professors, one hand running through his hair like his father's had unconsciously done when he was nervous, and the other fiddling with his school robes.
"But?" I push. Then smile, truly smile, for the first time since Hogwarts crumbled in my eyes and my heart was ripped into two, as his response echoes around us through the empty broken halls of the castle that was once my home.
"W-what's your name?"
Maybe, just MAYBE, there's a chance…
A chance that maybe all is not forgotten.
But in the back of my mind I know that that's all it will ever be…
… A Chance…