𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗹𝘆, james potter

-ˋ 27

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
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-: seventh year :-

── IN WHICH THEY WALK TOGETHER

. . .

The rest of the week seemed to pass quickly, a multitude of classes taking up the time. And in between them, those who had been called up to Dumbledore's study could only wonder when the next meeting would be - the headmaster had promised it, it was just a matter of when the lessons would begin.

Since her return to school at the beginning September, Tiger had been rather diligently ignoring Leo. So much so that she had rarely even noticed his presence in any of her classes. Well - that was the last week, mind preoccupied by what Dumbledore had told and asked of them.

But as it neared the end of October, it seemed that Leo deemed it time to talk about the situation. He had been waiting for Tiger to process it all, take it all in and decide what to do. There had been plenty of time between their first day and that Saturday - almost two months, in fact - and Leo had decided he had done enough waiting.

"Little Miss Tiger." The boy swung an arm around his former girlfriend's shoulder, the girl jumped out of her skin, stopping walking for just a moment. "Where you off to?" Leo asked, pulling his arm back before she got a chance to shrug it off.

"I'm going down to the Quidditch pitch. James has his first match tomorrow, seeing as it's the first of November." Tiger replied, continuing forward and not saying anything as Leo continued beside her, glancing up and down her outfit.

She was wearing rather baggy jeans and a white blouse, with a Gryffindor sweater pulled over it and a tiny lion pin attached to her collar. "You used to wear those sneakers all the time." Leo pointed out, and Tiger glanced down at her old beat-up Converse.

"Is that one of your weird segues into the next topic? You're wanting a civilised discussion?" Tiger asked, stepping down the stone steps onto the grass path, slipping slightly on the remnants of the mud from the rain that had occured days before.

Leo's arm shot out almost instinctively, stopping her from falling and holding rather carefully onto her forearm until they reached the dry side of the muddy past, retracting his arm. "Just didn't want you ruining your outfit." He quickly said, Tiger nodding as she took a moment to pull a stray curl up into one of the butterfly clips that decorated a small part of her hair.

"And yes, I do want a civilised discussion. No tears, hopefully, just the chance to talk over everything now that you've maybe been able to take it all in?" Leo continued, as they continued down the path to the Quidditch stadium, where they could see the Gryffindor team darting around in the sky, a whistle blowing every so often.

"Okay." Tiger shrugged. "I suppose this was going to happen sometime soon. And I don't really have a lot to do whilst waiting for practise to be over - so sure." A smile appeared on Leo's face, which quickly disappeared as he almost slipped on another patch of mud.

"You're not even going to help me?" He exclaimed, after regaining his balance and trying to move carefully out, Tiger having avoided the patch and was now laughing. "At least I tried to help you."

"I think I'm allowed to laugh at you slipping." She continued, once she had managed to calm down and Leo had successfully made his way out of the mud. "Y'know, considering you were dead and all."

"And that will be our first topic of discussion." Leo's voice was bright, despite the rather disgruntled look on his face as he checked his shoes, the pair approaching the Quidditch pitch.

A whistle could be heard again, and Tiger managed to spot James rather suddenly turning away from his team and shooting downwards, pulling his broomstick up at the last moment and coming to a stop. 

"Tiger." James's voice was so clearly filled with warmth as he addressed his girlfriend, but seemed to freeze up as he turned to Leo, jaw set. "Leo."

"Leo.. you should go wait up in the stands." Tiger glanced between the two boys before ushering Leo over to the staircase that led upwards, the boy taking it as she turned back to James. "You need to calm down a bit there, Captain."

"Oh, you know I love it when you call me that." James had a rather dopey grin on his face as Tiger punched his shoulder, giggling. "Don't be mad at me just because I don't like seeing your dead ex."

"Well I think we all figured out he's not dead, so you can cross that off your list of things against him." Tiger nodded, eyes wide with hope as she looked up at him.

"How on earth can you expect me to be happy with your dead boyfriend suddenly being alive. Do you know how much shit he's caused you - of course you do what am I saying? It's just that you didn't deserve any of that but he gets to waltz around all alive and everything and-" James started rambling, until he spotted Tiger staring at him with a certain look in her eyes. "What? Did Jordan flick mud on my face again? I'm going to kill that bas-"

"Shut up Potter." Tiger quickly said, a smile on her face. "You don't have mud on your face - and I don't know, it's just nice to know that someone like you exists. Even if you're absolutely clueless half the time." 

"I'm happy someone like you exists as well." James replied, and Tiger tilted her head.

"No reply to my comment?"

"I'm choosing to ignore it."

"Being the bigger person - well Prongsie, haven't you grown?" Tiger smiled, before approaching him and standing on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on his cheek, and all anger towards Leo instantly exaporated. "Go on, your team's waiting."

And as James flew back up to where the six others was waiting, Tiger climbed up the rickety staircase to join Leo, hoping that it would all end up well.

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a/n
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