Weddings and Waiting Rooms

Tigs tugged at the fabric tassels on the edge of the chintzy cushion. They were frayed, probably due to the amount of times people had nervously played with them. The entire office was reflective of that old fashioned, tasselled cushion. Tigs looked around, there were decorative plates on the wall, a thick, patterned rug, and an incense stick burning on the mantle place. It was obvious that someone had tried very hard to make the room seem homely. A very tall, greying man came in and sat down on the sofa opposite Tigs.

"Good morning, Miss Tighe," he said, his voice was posh and smooth, "Shall we commence with your fourth session?"

Lily woke up at 11:30 to knock at the door. She rolled out of bed lazily, rubbing her eyes, and answered the door. James Potter was stood, waiting, on her doorstep. He was wearing jeans, a Harrington jacket, and a raglan t-shirt. Considering he wasn't used to matching muggle clothes, Lily thought he looked very good. His hair was as messy as usual, his hazel eyes twinkling underneath the thick rims of his glasses. Though he always looked good, that morning he looked particularly attractive, and Lily found herself feeling self-conscious as she stood in front of him in her pink dressing gown. She gathered her dressing gown around her, making sure to hide her childish pyjamas, and twiddled with her un-brushed hair.

"Morning Evans," James grinned, the sun shining from behind him.

"James? What are you doing here?" she yawned, crinkling her eyes at the bright sunlight.

"I thought we could do something today," he said, stepping inside the porch. Lily walked into the sitting room and James followed her.

"Just me and you?" she asked.

"Yeah, well Tigs and Sirius have that wedding thing, Remus is out with his mum and Peter's still on holiday," he reeled them off.

"Okay yeah, I suppose we can do something," Lily agreed, "I just need to get ready, you can come up if you want." James followed her up the stairs, past a very old fashioned bathroom and into what he assumed was Lily's room. There were very few signs of magic in the room, all the people in the posters stood still, and all of Lily's school equipment was bundled into the bottom of her wardrobe.

"Petunia's boyfriend has been staying over," Lily explained, "He doesn't know about magic,"

"Ah," said James, knowingly, "Is this the awful one?"

"Yep," confirmed Lily. She took a sundress out of her wardrobe and left to put it on. She came back a few minutes later, plonked down on the stool in front of the dresser and began to brush her hair. She tied it up in a ponytail and, deciding she didn't have enough time for makeup, turned to James and said she was ready to go.

"Beautiful," said James, grinning. Lily rolled her eyes, but a smile creeped back across her face.

"Come on then, let's go."

"Same time next week?"

"Sure," replied Tigs, smiling, "See you later." She pulled the handle of the office door, it was a big, heavy brass one, and the door was stiff. She let the door slam behind her, put a cigarette between her lips, took out a lighter and lit it. She looked across the waiting room, a line of people sat waiting to go in. They were all looking at Tigs like she was an animal in a zoo.

"You can go in now," she said, pointing at the door. She walked out of the room, smoking, and into the warm summer air. Tigs had begun attending weekly sessions with the therapist, on Remus' recommendation, and it was helping immensely. She had to leave out all the details about magic, but she was still learning to cope more and had stopped having nightmares as frequently. She walked into a back alley, stubbed out her cigarette, and disapparated. She landed on the steps of her house, looked over her shoulder to make sure that no one had seen her, then unlocked the front door. Her owl, Henry, was perched on the windowsill with three letters at its feet. Tigs picked them up and collapsed on to the sofa. She opened up the first letter, which was written on thick, heavy parchment.

Tigs,

I told Samantha how I feel about her. She told me she thinks she feels the same. She even admitted that she remembered kissing me! She wants to try a relationship, but has asked us to keep it on the down low for now. I'm so happy!

Love,

Amelia

Tigs smiled as she folded the letter back up and placed it in her pocket, she would write her response later. The next one was a small note rather than a letter, it wasn't in an envelope and had just been folded shut.

I'll meet you at 3pm. Looking forward to it,

Sirius

The last letter was much longer than the first two and Tigs recognised the handwriting instantly. The words were scrawled across the paper, huge blots of ink dotting around it. It smelt strongly of ink because its writer always loaded up their quill too much. Remus.

Tigs,

I'd just like to apologise again for not being able to come with you tonight, I really wish I could be there. I really can't get out of this thing with my mum. I know how hard it will be for you, just remember that Sirius knows some of what you're going through, and I know he sometimes comes off as a bit of dick but he really cares about you. If things get bad, talk to him. It'll be over before you know it and you can leave whenever you need to. Even if you just say hi to Hattie and then leave, you've done more than enough. I'm glad to hear that therapy is going well, the doctor sounds really nice. I can't wait to see you back at school on Thursday,

Remus x

Tigs read it through twice. Her and Remus had both been very busy since the rally and hadn't managed to see each other. She wasn't sure what the next step would be in their relationship, she only knew that she didn't want to be with anyone else. She checked her watch, it was 2 o'clock. She needed to start getting ready so she headed upstairs to her room.

"Okay, here goes!" said James, gripping the rope swing tightly. He pushed off from the bank and swung out across the lake. He swung up high, and then swung back to the bank.

"Jump off now!" shouted Lily, gleefully. James tried to jump off but left it too late, and ended up swinging back over the water.

"James you need to jump!" Lily repeated, laughing. James jumped, missing the bank by quite a way, and landed in the clear blue water below. Lily burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, which was only made worse when James emerged, sopping wet.

"Help me out," he laughed, flicking water from his hair. Lily climbed tentatively down the bank and reached out her hand towards James'. He clutched at her hand gently, before pulling her so that she too fell in. She emerged from the water, dripping wet and spluttering.

"You bastard!" she squealed, playfully hitting his shoulder. The pair burst into laughter, unable to control themselves. James leant in and pushed a piece of wet hair from Lily's face. His hazel eyes met her green ones and, in that moment, there was no one but them in the whole world.

At exactly 3pm, Sirius knocked on Tigs' door, dressed in a rather dapper set of dress robes. The door swung open and Tigs, looking a lot more feminine than usual, was on the other side. Sirius was slightly taken aback. Tigs usually wore jeans, even during school, and rarely wore anything particularly girly. To see Tigs in a dress that wasn't for school or for a costume was uncommonly rare, so when Sirius saw his close friend stood in front of him in a dress reminiscent of the 1920s it took all he had not to start.

"Er… are you ready?" he said, awkwardly.

"As ready as I'll ever be," sighed Tigs, standing to one side so that Sirius could get in. She shut the door behind him, took his arm, and then disapparated. They landed on a quiet road in a small village a few hundred miles south. Tigs pulled a thick piece of cream coloured paper with golden lettering from her pocket.

"It says the church is just around the corner," she said, reading off the paper. She made to walk down the road when Sirius rested his hand on her shoulder.

"You don't have to do this Tigsy," he said, tenderly.

"If Hattie wants me there I have to go," said Tigs, plainly.

"Okay, as long as you're sure," replied Sirius, and he followed her down the street.

James climbed up the steep bank of the lake first, before turning around to help Lily up. They scrambled up on the higher, flatter ground where Lily dried their clothes with a flick of her wand. The trees around them were quiet, and sunlight dappled the ground at their feet. It was a hot day, so the coolness of the shade from the trees was a huge relief. They spent the rest of the day in the woods together, climbing trees, making dens, scaring birds by sending up sparks with their wand. They had long conversations too, in fact, much of the day was taken up by them sat on the cool ground, talking. By the time they began to return home, moonlight was dappling the ground rather than the sun. Soon they made it out of the woods, and Lily looked up at the sky. It was clear and dotted with stars, the large full moon sat in the centre of it.

"It's a full moon," said Lily, pointing at it.

"Yes it is," said James, craning his neck back. He crossed his fingers in his pocket, hoping that Remus had a good night.

They soon found the pretty little church whose address was written on the invitation Tigs had received several weeks earlier. Hattie, Tigs' older cousin, was getting married and, much to Tigs' surprise, had invited her to the wedding. Tigs had a very distant memory of playing with Hattie when she was very young, but since she had been cut off from her mother's family for most of her life, she was unsure why Hattie had invited her, nor why she had attached a very persuasive note to the invitation expressing that Tigs would be very welcome at the wedding. Initially, Tigs had discarded both the invitation and the note, but after a long hard think she decided to act on her therapist's advice and deal with her problems head on. Sirius had agreed to accompany her after Remus had explained that he was busy.

The church service was nice enough, Hattie looked beautiful, though Tigs conceded that she wouldn't have recognised her in any other context. Hattie was a quite a few years older than Tigs, and the two had never been at Hogwarts at the same time. The man she was marrying was rather good looking as well, the invitation listed his name as Patrick, but neither Sirius nor Tigs knew him. They found out later from one of his relatives that he was American, and that was why neither Tigs nor Sirius knew him. The reception was held in a rather grand village hall, and for the most of it Tigs and Sirius stayed together, rarely talking to other people, many of whom threw dirty looks in their direction every couple of minutes.

"Fancy a dance?" asked Sirius, gesturing to the dance floor.

"Yeah alright," said Tigs, Celestina Warbeck was playing and neither of them particularly liked her. The song was relatively upbeat and, despite the number of people on the dancefloor, Tigs and Sirius were the only ones really dancing. Hattie moved on to the dancefloor with her new husband and after a few minutes danced her way over to Tigs.

"Edith!" she exclaimed, "So glad you could make it!"

"Thanks for inviting me," replied Tigs and, much to Tigs' surprise, Hattie pulled her into a tight hug. She waved goodbye and turned to talk to someone else.

"Shall we get some drinks?" said Tigs, raising her voice over the music. Sirius nodded and the pair vacated the dance floor and headed for the bar.

"Two butterbeers please," Tigs asked the barman. She was just paying when she was interrupted by an elderly woman sat on the bar stool next to her.

"You've got some nerve coming here," she said, nastily.

"Excuse me?" asked Tigs calmly.

"You heard," she spat, "Filthy half blood, you dishonour our family name."

"Well that's alright because I haven't got your name," said Tigs coolly. The woman ignored her.

"Swanning in her when you know how your father forcibly seduced your mother, how dare you try to be a part of this family."

"I'm not trying to be part of this family. I received an invitation from Hattie, so I came," Tigs did her best to keep her cool, she knew that getting angry wouldn't help her. The woman ignored her again.

"And bringing that treacherous Black boy," she shot Sirius a look.

"He's actually my boyfriend," lied Tigs, "And if you don't mind, we're going to go home now, have a threesome with a muggle, free some house elves, and then go on a campaign for the rights of werewolves. Cheerio." The woman looked as though she had just been slapped across the face, Tigs maintained a constant sycophantic smile, took Sirius' hand, and left.

Hi everyone,

This is the last summer chapter I'm afraid! Sorry for taking so long to update, next chapter should be up soon. Thanks so much again to AGirlLostInTime for another lovely review! Please please review, it gives me life! Let me know what you think might happen next!

Love and kisses,

ImagineHP