Chapter 2- Lies and Liaisons
"All I'm saying Tigs is that now I'm a prefect, I'm going to have to start pulling you up on your uniform, so if you could just stop breaking the uniform code-"
"C'mon Evans don't be like that," started Tigsy
"Yeah Lily people don't want to listen to you banging on about being a prefect," barked Amelia, a little unexpectedly. Tigsy didn't react, continuing to eat her breakfast.
"As I was about to say," began Tigs, shooting a look at Amelia, "Was that my uniform isn't that bad, and as long as you look like you're telling me off for it whenever a teacher comes by then it doesn't matter the rest of the time,"
"I guess so but I don't want to get in trouble-" pleaded Lily
"You won't," said Tigs through a mouth of food, "I will. And I don't care, so it's sorted," Lily looked down at her breakfast, unconvinced. She wasn't keen on Tigs' total disregard for the rules, it reminded her a little too much of a certain Quidditch captain. Tigs had a tendency to wear a very short pinafore, long socks and Dr Martins, which was very fashionable and very mod, but it certainly wasn't to the teachers taste. Lily readjusted her own uniform, straightening her tie. She looked over at Tigs, pinafore dresses weren't even part of the uniform she thought. Lily's mind boggled at how Tigs had got away with this for so long. She hadn't really noticed it herself until she became a prefect. Lily's thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a cold unpleasant voice that she unfortunately recognised instantly.
"Morning Tigsy," came the voice of Evan Rosier, a Slytherin and one of the few people Lily hated more than James Potter. He wrapped his cruel, muscular arms around Tigs' waist from behind.
"Get your slimy hands off me Rosier," snarled Tigs, coolly. She was used to dealing with Rosier's wandering hands. Tigs was rarely angry, she didn't get angry, she only got scary and when Tigs got scary, things happened.
"You know you want it Tigs," smirked Rosier, leaning in to kiss her cheek. Tigs jumped out of her seat.
"Do you really wanna do this Rosier? You know what happened last time," The 'last time' that Tigs referred to resulted in Rosier and his friend Nicolai Mulciber spending a week in the hospital wing.
"I really wanna do you," replied Rosier. At this Tigs' expression changed. Lily, Amelia, Emmeline and Dorcas all knew what that meant. They had seen it before. The Marauders, who had just strolled in, knew what that look meant too.
"Is there a problem here?" snapped Sirius, squaring up to Rosier.
"No problem at all Sirius. Rosier was just leaving," said Tigs'. Her expression didn't change, and she didn't break eye contact with Rosier. Her eyes grew even stormier than usual. She held her wand ready underneath in her pocket. She could hex Rosier in a heartbeat.
"Not without you I'm not," replied Rosier. Tigs flicked her wand casually and Rosier's nose shattered, blood streaming down his robes. Rosier gave the Gryffindors one last watery glare before storming over to the Slytherin table, his hands full of blood and perhaps a few hidden tears.
"Nice one Tigsy," beamed James. Tigs' face returned to its usual apathetic expression, and she sat down again. She didn't look at Lily, who was clearly trying to get her attention, until she tapped Tigs on the shoulder. Tigs looked up reluctantly to see Lily mouth the question 'Are you okay?'. Tigs nodded and returned to her breakfast, boy did she want a cig.
James stabbed a sausage with his fork and took a bite. "Where are the timetables?" he chomped, his mouthful of food. Lily rolled her eyes. "McGonagall's got them," replied Amelia before Lily could open her mouth. Prefects usually gave people that sort of information. "I'll get them," said Remus, pushing up off the table. The Gryffindors watched him go before Emmeline spoke-
"I think Rosier is reporting you to Slughorn," she said, pointing over to the Slytherin table. Tigs looked up from her plate at the Slytherin table and then looked down again.
"James, fancy a smoke?" James looked up at her, his cheeks bulging with food.
"Tigsy please can we just have one nice meal together without you going off for a cig?" interjected Lily.
"Yeah c'mon Tigs give it a rest will you?" pleaded Emmeline
"Yeah please Tigs," begged Amelia.
"Alright!" snapped Tigs, rolling her eyes. She looked over at Dorcas who was unusually quiet. She normally had plenty to say about Tigs' smoking habits. James carried on with his meal as though he had had no interruption. Sirius was quiet too; he was reading Quidditch Through the Ages over his bacon. Remus sat down without any of them noticing, despite the fact that it was quiet.
"Right here you go everyone, Tigs, Sirius, James, Lily, Em, Amelia, Peter and... hmm Dorcas yours doesn't seem to be here but I'm sure I-"
"Here it is! It was stuck to mine," interrupted Sirius. Sirius offered the timetable to Dorcas. She blushed, her face going bright red, and then snatched the schedule out of his hand and left.
"What was that all about?" asked James smirking. Tigs shrugged. Lily again rolled her eyes. Normally she would have picked a fight with James over everything, but this year she had made a promise to herself, and Tigs, to simply ignore him. So that was what she was desperately trying to do. He hadn't even done anything yet, he just irritated her.
"Has anyone got a free period first thing today?" Tigs looked at the group imploringly. They all looked down at their timetables before looking up and shaking their heads.
"I do," said Remus, and Tigs breathed a silent sigh of relief.
"Cool," she said flippantly. Tigs never let anyone know what she was thinking. Inside she was glad that she would have some company during her free, but on the outside, it seemed as though she couldn't care less. The school bell rang out above the sounds of the great hall and everyone except Tigs and Remus got up to leave. Once they had gone and were well out of earshot, Tigs turned to Remus-
"Smoke?" She asked. Remus blinked before replying 'yes' and the two headed outside. The air was cool and crisp but, much to Tigs' distaste, sunbeams still pushed their way through the clouds, warming up the day. Tigs plonked herself down on a grassy knoll overlooking the lake and Remus sat next to her. She slipped a cigarette out of her pocket and lit it with the end of her wand. Remus watched her inhale.
"Here," she said handing him the cigarette.
"Oh, no thanks Tigs,"
"Remus I just saw you looking at it, have a puff its fine I've got more,"
"No it's not that, it's just that I don't." he hesitated to gauge her reaction, "I don't smoke."
"But you're one of the Marauders,"
"Yeah I am but... I've always been too scared to try it in front of James and Sirius in case I do it wrong,"
Tigs smiled, she liked Remus, he was an unlikely Marauder.
"Here try it now, it easy honestly, look you just-" she demonstrated it and then handed the cig over to Remus.
"Now you try," Remus put the cigarette to his lips and breathed deeply. Tigs coaxed him on and he attempted to exhale. He began to do exactly as he feared- cough and splutter.
"That's alright," laughed Tigs, patting his back, "Everyone coughs on the first go, give it another try," Remus tried again and again and soon he was smoking just fine. His thin face lit up with a smile as he and Tigs smoked that cigarette. Tigs stubbed the end out in the grass and ruffled Remus' light brown hair.
"Congrats, you're now officially a chain smoker," she said. Remus laughed loudly and Tigs giggled a little. They then smiled- and these smiles weren't just any average smiles. Tigs was known across school for her ability to light up a room with her smile. It all started in 4th year when James decided to use a jelly leg hex on Nicolai Mulciber. It was in Charms and Professor Flitwick had just left the room to fetch some books. Mulciber had started on James on the grounds of Slytherin losing a Quidditch game to Gryffindor the day before. James had therefore hexed him so violently that all except Mulciber were in fits of hysterical laughter. When Flitwick returned he removed the hex from Mulciber and docked 50 points from Gryffindor, which put most of the class in a very sour mood. Tigs, however, didn't care much about house points and was still amused by the jelly leg hex. So when Flitwick invited her to the front of the class to perform a spell, she couldn't help but smile and the whole class began to smile with her. The impact was so much greater as well because Tigs wasn't a smiley person in general. So in reality, Tigs' smile was only seen as so good because James Potter had used a jelly leg hex on Nicolai Mulciber in 4th year charms.
Now Remus was very different. His smile did not have the same fame as Tigs, but not because it didn't warrant it. Remus' smile, on the surface was relatively average, hence why it often got lost between the toothy grin of James Potter and the soft smirk of Sirius Black. But it was not Remus' mouth that smiled, it was his eyes. When Remus smiled, his light green eyes sparkled with a sort of melancholy happiness. It was something that people never seemed to notice. Tigs did though. She always noticed little things about people. In fact, most of her opinions on people were based on whether the little things that they did irritated her or not. Naturally this made her very particular about who she liked and disliked. Tigs liked the way that Lily braided her hair when she was bored. She liked the way Amelia chewed her pen when she was thinking. She liked the way that Emmeline's handwriting scrawled over the paper unevenly and she liked Dorcas' restlessness. She liked James loud bellowing laugh and Sirius' sense of humour. But most of all, she liked Remus' smile. But right then at that moment, she didn't like Remus very much at all, as he had just interrupted her train of thought.
"Tigs that stuff with Rosier this morning, are you sure…" Remus breathed, he knew Tigs didn't really like questions, "Are you sure you're alright?"
Tigs looked down at the cigarette stub on the grass beside her.
"I'm fine," she replied. Remus looked at her inquisitively. He knew better than to push her on this. Tigs took out a dog eared book with yellowed pages and began to read. She didn't like questions. She didn't like being distracted from her thoughts. She especially didn't Remus' combination of the two.
Lily was struggling. She was surrounded by a mass of students all trying to make their way down the same corridor. She felt suffocated as she tried to push her way through a gaggle of first years. After several minutes of pushing, shoving, and sneaky jabs with her elbows, Lily managed to get to the Great Hall in one piece. As she reached the entrance, so did Tigs.
"Good timing Lil'," said Tigs, smiling at her friend.
"Hey Tigs, how was your free?" smiled Lily.
"It was alright, I got some reading done…" Tigs trailed off, she was staring into the middle distance. Lily followed her gaze until she saw what Tigs was staring at. Professor Slughorn, Head of Slytherin house, was making his way across the hall towards them, followed closely by Evan.
"Edith," began Slughorn. Lily looked at Tigs to gauge her reaction; she hated being called by her first name. Tigs remained expressionless and Slughorn continued. "It has come to my attention that you used magic to break Evan's nose this morning over breakfast. As you know, this is not acceptable behaviour and I will have to dock-"
"I was provoked," Tigs interrupted, her voice cold and seeming to resonate across the hall. Slughorn stuttered and tried to respond.
"Y-Y-You were provoked, you say? Well, well, well, how? How so?"
"Rosier called Lily a mudblood," Tigs' voice rang out, and Lily tried to hide the shock on her face. Rosier didn't.
"What?! No I didn't you lying little bitc-" he started, defiance and annoyance in his voice.
"Yes you did," replied Tigs coolly, "Lily told him to tuck his shirt in, with her being a prefect and all, so he called her that name. I was only defending my friend Professor." Slughorn looked between the two girls with a confused expression.
"I am very sorry girls, you can go. I will deal with Mr Rosier," he said softly. Tigs walked off, a small smile on her face. She was happy that her lie had produced the desired effect. Lily and Tigs walked up to the Gryffindor table silently and sat down. As soon as they touched the seat, Lily whipped round to face Tigs.
"What the hell did you tell him that for?" she whispered angrily.
"Wasn't it obvious?" replied Tigs, furrowing her brows.
"Obvious? Are you kidding?"
"I said that because I knew that Slughorn would take it seriously. He has to address that, Rosier has to get into trouble for using such a slur. I mean, Slughorn was hardly going to do anything if I told him that I broke Rosier's nose because he flirted with me,"
Lily mulled this over for a moment in her mind. Although she was a little annoyed at Tigs, she decided that she was probably right. Slughorn would not ignore such an accusation, especially when Rosier had a history of calling people mudbloods and that Lily was one of Slughorn's favourite pupils.
"Shall we head down to Defense?" came Tigs voice, interrupting Lily's thoughts. She agreed, and the two girls left the Great Hall and headed down to the dungeons, the events of the day still playing on Lily's mind.
Hello everyone!
Thanks for reading in this far! Thank you to my first reviewer all ur fave characters in one! Please review, please be kind though as this is my first fan fiction. Also please let me know your thoughts on the plot, characters etc. I would love to know your thoughts on Tigs (my OC) and whether you believe everything she has said in this chapter. Also let me know who/what you would like to see more of in the future.
Thanks again lovelies,
ImagineHP
