#masqueradechallenge

Our masquerade collection is now ready to view! We’ve got 7 fabulous fics for you to put your sleuthing skills to 🕵️‍♂️

Don’t forget to leave kudos and a comment! You’ll find the poll to guess at the bottom of each fic. You have until October 27th to submit your guesses!

Use the form below to submit your guesses!

An Idiot in Love || Read on AO3 || 1,3 K words Written for Jilytober Masquerade 2023 with several @jilymicrofics excellent words from the July prompt list 💘 and completely ignoring the prompt @joyseuphoria handed out, but that's another story ;-) as a gift to Joy and @athenasparrow. 25% of you guessed correctly!

With his heart in his throat his foot in his mouth he lost all control and removed any doubt and I'm writing a story about an idiot in love

James slipped off his Invisibility Cape as the portrait closed behind him. This late at night, the Common room was empty as usual, the embers still smouldered in the hearth. The last of the night hawks had only just left for their dormitories.

Silence hung in the Common Room like a soft cotton blanket. Out of habit rather than necessity, he stealthily walked over to the stairs and that’s when he heard it. Her.

Her voice, Lily, unmistakable, undeniably her.

He knew her every tone by now, wasn’t proud of his familiarity with her icy hisses, aggrieved shouts and sharp acidic reproofs, but over the past year he had learned by heart her gentler tones, patient explanations, curious questions, poor concealed amusement, even supportive yet firm words for a friend in need. He couldn’t help it; he had meticulously committed the full range of Lily Evans’s timbres to memory.

Written for the Jilytober 2023: Masquerade Challenge @jilytoberfest Prompt:  am taking the stairs because there’s a huge dog inside the lift and my office is 20 floors above and oh look at that, this handsome man always climbs 22 flights of stairs.

Lily Evans was a very professional young lady. She wasn’t the kind to dilly dally at work at all, no, she left her personal life at the door of the Scrivenshaft’s skyscraper when she came in every morning and worked diligently for eight hours while thinking strictly professional thoughts in her strictly professional attire. And if she thought less than strictly professional thoughts on her one-hour break, well, that was nobody’s business. It was a break, after all.

Not that there were very many unprofessional thoughts, even at break. Lily liked to stay present in the moment, and she was reasonably happy at her workplace. She may not build lifelong close relationships there, but she did like her coworkers enough to spend her free time walking across the road to get sandwiches and coffee with them and chat about frivolous nothings.

“...and then I spent the rest of the morning figuring that out, so I haven’t really had a moment to be tired, but now I’m surprisingly drained out”, Lily said, talking to Marlene McKinnon, her next desk neighbor, one sunny Monday as they walked back with their extra strong coffees. It had been a rather nerve-wracking morning for ones still unused to the chaos the office sometimes descended into.

Marlene nodded sympathetically. 

“Things can get a little heated up this time of the month”, she reassured. “You’ll see it’s nothing to be alarmed by soon enough - all bark and no bite.”

They walked into the building, moping just a little about Mondays, and then an awkward silence reigned briefly as they waited for a lift.

“This building is way too tall if you ask me”, said Marlene to fill the silence. “I have to get here five minutes early just to account for the lifts, and one of them is always out of order.”

“I’m not a huge fan myself”, Lily admitted. “But what can you do? It’d take way longer to take the stairs.”

“Ha! I’m not sure I’d make it to the top at all!” Marlene laughed, and Lily thought that was the end of small talk about lifts.

She was so very, very wrong. She was soon to discover that the lifts weren’t a topic of small talk at all, no, they were the roadblocks on every employee’s path to success, the cog in the otherwise smooth machinery that was Scrivenshaft, the creation of the very devil himself to wheedle hapless young women into damnation.

Lily hated the lifts. Soon they were eating up two thirds of her lunch breaks, till she gave in and started packing herself a little snack to avoid having to leave her desk, and she may have forgiven that, and the fact that they seemed to grow more and more unreliable every day, forcing her to come in earlier and earlier and leave later and later every passing day, if only there was limit to the lifts’ crimes against humanity.

The lifts were evil incarnate, and yet, she depended on them for her very survival. It was an entirely unbearable situation, and someday something would have to change, but she soldiered on bravely till he came into the picture.

It was after nearly a fortnight of suffering that she first saw him. She was still new, still not quite filled with bitterness, still hopeful that the struggles were temporary, and therefore still capable of being surprised when she saw someone make their way to the stairs instead of standing in line for the lifts as they all did.

“Who’s that?”, she whispered to Dorcas, one of those employees who had been much longer than most of them. “I know the lifts are tiresome but… he’s not really going to walk up twenty flights of stairs, is he?”

Dorcas looked bored.

“Maybe he doesn’t need to go up twenty floors”, she replied briefly, which was entirely unhelpful, because there weren’t any offices below the fifth floor anyway, so the man was in for quite a trek either way.

Lily would later find out that all of Dorcas’s replies had a tendency to be brief, the older woman was notoriously unforthcoming with information. She would also notice that Dorcas had never answered her question, and she still had no idea who the man was.

Once she’d seen him, he seemed to appear constantly before her, leading her to assume that he must work there as well. When Marlene couldn’t help her figure out who it was with the little information she had, she took to trying to find out more about him in non stalkery, professional ways.

Perhaps her professionalism was wavering just a little bit.

She made a little game of it, just now and then, noticing little things about the mystery man to tell Marlene, who was proving her wrong by quickly becoming a fast friend of hers. 

“He wore a blue shirt”, she’d first described, but that predictably led nowhere, and with time she found ways to be more specific.

“I saw him on the twenty second floor today, I can’t imagine how he’s doing it”, she said another day, and that was a little more helpful.

“He basically skipped up the stairs! How does the man have so much energy?”, she’d grumble sometimes.

“I suppose that explains how he’s so fit”, she’d admit, but only on break, because that was an unprofessional thought, and she only had them on her breaks, and only in front of Marlene, although others in the office had heard of lift man by then.

Months passed.

“It’s a little unfair, you know”, Marlene would remark now and then. “To call him lift man when all we know about him is that he doesn’t use the lifts.”

“He has made his whole personality about the lifts, Marlie, what else could I call him?” Lily would protest, and Marlene would accuse her of projecting because she herself was becoming obsessed with the lifts, and then the pair would bicker like lifelong friends they might actually be becoming.

Lily was starting to be rather happy, and the walls of professionalism were starting to relax. She was bonding with her coworkers, her work life was proceeding smoothly, and though she was no closer to unraveling the mystery of the lift man -not that there really was a mystery to solve- she rather enjoyed the little game she and Marlene had bonded over. 

If things felt too good to be true -and here Lily would have protested that they didn’t feel that good- the fates intended to balance the scales very soon.

The lifts were to blame, of course. As had been already established, they were the source from where all human sorrow flowed into the world, and they could not accept the calm in Lily’s life, her defiance of the chaos they spread.

The lifts demanded revenge, and they timed their vengeance well.

It was a wet Thursday morning, and Lily Evans was running disastrously late. Her once professional bun had been replaced by a slightly sloppy braid, her high heels swapped for sneakers, and her calm, professional gait had vanished in favor of frantic running when she arrived at Scrivenshaft that morning. 

She put the causes for her circumstances firmly to the back of her mind and reached out for the lift button. Surely there would be one upside to all of this, surely the lifts would be faster now that everyone was already in their offices, she told herself. The lifts would be kind to her today.

Fate laughed at her naivete, the lifts chuckled at her optimism.

Out of order signs hung proudly on two of the three lifts in the building, a little dust starting to gather on them, and a passerby often noted how problematic the situation could be without doing anything to remedy it.

No one, however, was as afflicted by it as Lily Evans was that day, because when the doors to the third lift opened, and they were, indeed, faster without the morning rush, Lily found herself face to face with what she at first assumed to be a hellhound.

Lily didn’t necessarily fear dogs, but this was no ordinary dog. It looked like a wolf, and when she held its gaze for a moment, Lily knew true terror deep in her soul. She looked around for a moment, realized very quickly that she was all alone at the moment, and bolted for the safety of the stairs.

They weren’t far, but Lily was panting anyway when she reached halfway up the stairs and looked behind to see if she was being pursued.

She was, but not by the creature she was running from.

No, she was facing the lift man instead, and he looked a little alarmed. Panic flared as Lily wondered how much of her antics he had witnessed.

“Hello”, she said, trying to smile. “I’m Lily.”

To his credit, the lift man smiled right back, as if the situation wasn’t absurd at all.

“I’m James”, he replied. “I think I’ve seen you around. Lily Evans, yes?”

And just like that, Lily did know who he was. She had emailed him. They had had at least three brief exchanges in an online meeting. They didn’t work together on a daily basis, but she was still floored for a moment by the realization that she had no idea what James Potter looked like before this moment.

Well. That was partly why she was floored. Lily couldn’t exactly deny that she was momentarily very distracted because she’d never seen him from up close like this before and he was much prettier than she had realized.

“That’s me”, she replied, recovering quickly. “Sorry, it’s been a crazy morning, I didn’t realize you’re James Potter.”

Lift man -James- climbed up the few stairs between them to join her.

“I don’t blame you”, he smiled, “I never put up profile pictures. Can’t have people distracted.”

Lily found herself relaxing a little as he gestured to himself, grinning at his own joke.

“I’m afraid my distraction is unrelated”, she sighed as they fell into step. “It’s the lifts.”

“Work of Satan himself”, James said promptly, and Lily’s heart fluttered a little.

“That’s what I say!”, she exclaimed.

“I concur wholeheartedly”, he replied. “They’re my lifelong nemesis.”

Lily could have kissed him there, as they stopped for a moment at the second floor to catch a breath. 

Or so she thought.

“What are you doing?”, she half squeaked as he pressed the button summoning the only functioning lift to them.

“Waiting for the lift?”, he said, sounding confused.

“I thought they were your nemesis," Lily protested. “James, you can’t take the lift.”

“Lily”, he said very patiently. “The stairs don’t go any higher, because no one would climb up more than two flights of stairs, and I sure as hell wouldn’t climb up twenty-two flights.”

Lily looked around. He was right. The stairs didn’t go any further.

“We can take the fire escape”, she suggested. James could accompany her or not, but there was no way she was going anywhere near the lifts ever again.

He looked surprised.

“Lily, I hate the lifts as much as you do, but…”

“You don’t understand”, she interrupted. “There’s a dog in there, a big, angry vicious dog, and we need to get away before the lift arrives and it attacks us.”

She sounded unhinged even to her own ears. James paused for a moment.

“How about”, he suggested “we wait for the lift, and if the dog is still in there, I protect you with my life and we take the fire escape?”

Lily considered this for a moment.

“And I buy you coffee to compensate for the ordeal”, he added.

“Well, okay, then”, Lily relented, pleased that he seemed to enjoy her company as much as she enjoyed his.

They waited, but there was no awkward silence to fill, and when the lift doors opened and no dog presented itself, James gallantly declared that it was doubtlessly a trick of the lifts.

“I believe you completely”, he reassured her.

“I suppose I should buy you coffee instead, since you were prepared to defend me with your life”, Lily offered, hoping he’d take her up on it. 

“We could do that”, James agreed, “or we could get dinner together this Saturday and work on a petition to banish the lifts.”

Lily’s eyes widened a bit in surprise.

“As friends, of course”, James added. “We’ve been through so much together.”

“That sounds great”, Lily smiled. 

They exchanged numbers and reluctantly parted ways at the twentieth floor.

Despite the morning’s difficulties, Lily found herself smiling a little all day.

James had picked the perfect place for dinner. Light, breezy and casual, perfect for their new budding friendship. Lily was instantly at ease, and she loved the food there.

“Oh my god this is absolutely amazing”, Lily gushed over her pasta. 

“I know right!”, agreed James, just as enthusiastic about his onion rings. “I’m pretty good company!”

“No, really, how have I never heard of Leaky Cauldron?”, she said. “This is heaven, James, you’ve brought me to heaven.”

“Underrated gem, this place”, he said. “You’re very welcome.”

“I haven’t thanked you yet”, Lily protested, and then her tone softened. “But I am now. Thank you for offering to fight a dog for me, and for keeping me company, and for bringing me to my new favorite diner.”

“Happy to”, James replied, a faint blush spreading over his face. “You’re pretty good company, my new favorite friend, as long as you don’t tell my old favorite friend.”

“I can do that”, she laughed.

“Speaking of my old favorite friend”, James continued, “I do actually know a bit about the dog’s backstory.”

Lily listened, riveted, while he explained how his friend had seen the dog wandering the streets that morning and decided to launch a very ill thought rescue mission. He reassured her that the dog and the friend were now both safely stashed away at their respective homes, and the lifts weren’t to blame for once after all.

They had more to talk about than either of them expected, and when the dinner was over, they decided to get an ice cream, and when somehow there was still more that they absolutely had to discuss, they agreed to meet for dinner again.

And again. 

And then for lunch, and then for coffee. Lily introduced James to Marlene, who gleefully spilled the beans about their speculation about the mysterious lift man, and James introduced her to Sirius, who apologized for his part in scarring her with the dog.

Lily didn’t believe in workplace romances, but she hadn’t believed in workplace friendships either, and she had been proven very wrong there, so she took a leap of faith a few weeks later and asked James out.

“I’d love to get dinner with you this weekend”, she replied deceptively casually one day when James asked her if she had plans, “but I’d like it to be a date.”

And James had beamed , grinning ear to ear as he took her up on it.

And then professionalism went out the window entirely as he leaned forward, just a little, and left a kiss on her cheek.

“See you soon, Evans”, he said as she stood there, beaming back at him.

Sharper Than Hope

Masquerade Challenge for @jilytoberfest 2021

Summary: “You’re…” A lick of lips; something sharper than hope on my tongue; another attempt. “You fancy me?”

[LIAM] Here you are.

[ERIC] Thanks! So just here... and here... and... I think I’m done.

[LIAM] Brilliant. Now I just need you to do one last thing before I sort out your hours. If you could stand up, please.

Somewhere Along the Way A series of one-shot/two-shots in response to the @jilytoberfest​ tropes challenge.

Our annual masquerade challenge is back! Make your own masks to help your readers identify you or throw them off your trail!

Rules for the authors:

Maximum word count: 2000

Should design a masquerade mask for themselves to post at the end of their fic on ao3. The mask can be something related to your personality to make it easier for the readers to guess!

Submission deadline: 28th September

How to enter: Send an ask to this blog by the 15th of September to sign up and receive the collection and google form link!!

The winners are….

@annabtg , @goldenlionprince @eastwindmlk 🎉🎉

All three of them got all of the fics right!! This has actually never happened before so a HUGE ROUND of applause and kudos to you all!!!

Anddddddddddd the authors are: