𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗹𝘆, james potter

˗ˋ 04

CHAPTER FOUR
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-: sixth year :-

── IN WHICH QUESTIONS ARE ASKED

. . .

"Is Tiger your real name?" One of the girls asked, and Tiger looked over at the girl, trying to remember the name. Marlene. It was the girl sat in between the ginger haired girl - Lily, and the dark haired Lydia.

"Yes, I still don't know the story behind it." Tiger smiled. "Maybe the Howell family has some obsession with animal names. Remus and Lupin having links with wolf and everything."

Remus looked a little panicked beside his cousin, and she realised why. They didn't know he was a werewolf. "Of course, it's probably something between Auntie Hope and my dad." Tiger managed to play it off, just as the hall doors opened one again.

McGonagall was leading the first years down the aisle, and when she met Tiger's eyes, a small smile once again formed on her lips, before removing it and nodding curtly at the girl.

"This is where the fun begins." Sirius told Tiger, leaning across the table, his voice slightly quietened from it's usual volume. "You ready?"

Tiger nodded, only slightly confused. "You don't have to join in if you don't want." James mumbled to her, slightly turning around in his seat to the girl sat beside him. "It's just some fun that me Sirius, Peter and Remus have."

"It's fine." Tiger smiled, meeting James's eyes, before lifting her arm and pushing up his glasses, which were sliding down his nose. "Don't want you to go blurry." She said, before returning her attention back to the sorting.

James paused, somewhat confused by her last words. Then, he matched them with her actions and realised what she was on about. His glasses - he was practically blind without them, and the bridge, which sat on his nose, was too wide and wouldn't sit properly.

"You should really get that sorted." Tiger mumbled to him, then almost jumped out of her skin when a shout came from beside her. "So this is what Sirius wanted me to get involved in?"

James nodded, laughing. He craned his neck so he could see over the fifth year in front of him. "Just look at them and take a wild guess what house they're in." He told her, as he shouted his guess for a girl who had just sat down on the stool.

Tiger watched for the first two goes, in which Sirius managed to guess correctly twice, Remus none, and James and Peter once. It took a few turns for Tiger to properly get the hang of it - not that there was much to do, but get into the swing of it - like when abouts to shout, how to tell just from the way they walked.

"See the tension? Tell-tale sign of a Slytherin-to-be. To get into Slytherin is normally something which is expected from your family." James explained, in the quietest mumble he could muster. Besides them, Sirius shouted out his guess - which was Slytherin - and when he got it right, James nodded knowingly.

Tiger had initially questioned why James had said it so quietly, but it wasn't long until she realised. She glimpsed just the tiniest change in emotion on Sirius's face as the girl he was guessing for walked over to the table of green.

She remembered one of the nights back when Remus had just finished his second year at Hogwarts, and Tiger had visited along with her parents for the summer. The summer was filled with Remus and Tiger walking up onto the moors near the Lupin's forest cottage, where Remus had told Tiger all about school, all the details he had left out in his letters.

All about his best friends, James, who was already flirting with Lily and planning more pranks than they could ever manage in a year. Sirius, his trouble with his parents and the change in his brothers attitude. Peter, who didn't have neither Sirius or James' physical attributes or talent for quidditch, but was filled with jokes and laughed at the most inappropriate times - like that one time when McGonagall was telling them off for something rather serious, or when they had detention with Slughorn, who was in the worst mood that the boys had experienced and expected complete silence.

The three best friends which Remus had made knew, of  course, about his condition. The idea of this made Tiger anxious, initially. Remus hadn't had a lot of friends growing up, too isolated and too scared. His cousin was like a built in one, there and accepting and ready to be his friend.

She would never have thought that she would get to express her thanks to those three boys, and now she would have the chance to, but only when the moment was right.

Because she knew that each of them had other things to deal with, as much as they didn't like to admit it. Sirius was the reason why James had decided to tell her quietly. Remus hadn't told her everything, but she could hazard a guess that sorting could be a touchy subject.

Her eyes flitted across the table, her gaze catching Lily's for only a moment as she looked back at James. The girl didn't seem to have any expression on her face, but was looking rather curiously at Tiger, in a way which made the Howell girl feel transparent, like Lily could see right through her.

"This one's a Ravenclaw." Tiger suggested quietly, not sure if she was willing to shout something for the whole hall to hear, only for it to be wrong. She waited, listened as the hat announced it, and when she looked back at James, she had the biggest smile on her face.

"There you go." James chuckled, and felt maybe that he would be entranced by the girl's smile, had they been anywhere else. But he was in the Great Hall, and there were other first years to guess houses for.

Sorting was over as quick as it began, and although James and Sirius would argue that there was more that year, Tiger knew that it was nothing in comparison to the many students which Ilvermorny.

Then, more food than Tiger could ever imagine appeared on the table in front of her. She watched as everyone else tucked in, the hall filled with chatter.

"Are you not hungry?" Someone asked, and Tiger's eyes drifted over the mass amounts of food to Lydia. "The food refills on its own, so you can have as much as you want!" Lydia smiled and Tiger nodded, slowly reaching over the table for the mash potatoes.

"At Ilvermorny we were split up into smaller tables, and more often than not my table would get the lost, bust also the most scared looking ones. It was a unspoken rule that they got their share first - so I guess it's just a habit." Tiger replied, continuing to put small amounts of food on her plate.

"You don't have to worry about this here. More than enough food to go around." Marlene mirrored the smile on Lydia's face, as Tiger took small bites of a piece of chicken.

"Do they have treacle tarts?" She wondered aloud, not asking anyone in particular, but rather anyone who would listen.

"They usual do." James told her, a knowing smile on his face. "If not, I'll take you down to the kitchens later and get you a whole tray." He promised, and Tiger, with her mouth full of mash potatoes, looked over at him with a hopeful smile on her face.

"You promise?" She asked, and held out her pinkie. James couldn't help but laugh, his gaze focusing in on the bracelets will slid down her arm, disappearing beyond the grey robes. "Prongsie. Do you promise to take me to the treacle tarts."

"I promise." James quickly said, and the serious expression which Tiger had on her face quickly disappeared with the sound of her laughing.

James found himself laughing along, but was truly serious about the matter. He didn't know why he felt so serious about it either. It was just some treacle tarts. But it was treacle tarts for Tiger, and if she wanted them, James would help her get them.

He had always been like that for his friends.

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