-ˋ 87

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by hvgwcrts

by hvgwcrts

CHAPTER EIGHTY SEVEN
✧
-: sixth year :-

── IN WHICH THEY RECOVER

. . .

The celebrations continued far into the night, and the group of friends were awake and partying well into the night, and the sun was about to rise when the last person finally fell asleep.

As planned, the picnic would go ahead, and Tiger was up and busy with only a few hours of sleep, rushing to try and clean up as much as possible. They had easily missed breakfast, and with the same plans to miss lunch, Tiger had disappeared down to the kitchens.

She racked her brains all the way down, trying to remember how James had gotten into the kitchens the first time. Having descended down the stairs, it suddenly came to her as she stood in front of the portrait of the fruit bowl.

Tiger reached forward and tickled the pear, watching as it giggled and turned into a door handle. She walked forward and entered the kitchens, making several of the house elves jump as she accidentally let the door slam behind her.

Her question of whether they would or wouldn't remember her was answered quickly, as they crowded around her. Expecting to hear her last name, she was pleasantly surprised as she heard choruses of 'Miss Tiger' instead.

"Miss Tiger, where is Mr Potter?" One of them chirped, and from that came a chorus of James's name.

"He's asleep, but I'm sure he misses you all very much." Tiger informed them, and the buzz of chatter once again appeared, and died down accordingly as they stared at Tiger expectantly. "I was wondering you could prepare a picnic?"

Everything the Howell girl said seemed to evoke some excitement in them, and she watched, shocked as they seemed to practically bounce around her, everyone crowding now.

She answered all their questions about what she was wanting, and a piece of parchment was presented to her, along with a plate of treacle tarts. Tiger sat for a few minutes, eating and writing down all the different foods that the others and the house elves had suggested.

The elves took the list and promised to have it ready by around 1pm. A rather elderly-looking house elf (which really made Tiger think of the lifespan of these extremely helpful creatures) had informed her that she shouldn't worry about cleaning the common room, and with everything sorted out, Tiger returned to Gryffindor tower.

It seemed that in the half-hour she was gone, people had begun to woke up. Of course, many had gone to bed at a reasonable time, but a lot of the older years had stayed up far past midnight.

Lily, Lydia, Remus and Peter managed to get back up to bed, and it was assumed that Tiger, James, Marlene and Sirius had stayed up for longer, and had fallen asleep on the couch. Whilst the house elves had informed her not to tidy up with common room any further - her cleaning skills were quite obviously not up to par with the staff of Hogwarts - they had given her several things that were good for hangovers.

She was rather impressed with how used they were to the Quidditch celebratory parties by now. And as it was a Gryffindor one - as legendary as they were - the elves most likely knew how drunk people could get.

"Good morning." She chirped, entering the Gryffindor common room to see that the three she had left on the couch were in that sort of half-awake daze. Tiger opened the bag of the hangover stuff, placing it down on the coffee table.

A squeak escaped her lips as her boyfriend reached out and tugged her into his lap, her face resting far too close to her jumpy heart for her liking. He got comfortable there, and the girl stared for a moment before reaching up and flicking him on the forehead.

"Oi!" He grumbled, about to get comfortable again but Tiger lifted his chin, and he propped it up on her shoulder. "Yes?" James asked, eyes wide and almost puppy-like.

But Tiger wouldn't give in. "I've not planned this picnic for you all to enjoy before we have our two weeks of exams and it will not go to waste!" She said, and as the tone turned rather upset towards the end of her sentence, James's eyes seemed to spark with life, no tiredness remaining within them.

And with James being brought back to action with Tiger's tiny sense of sadness slipping into his speech, it wasn't long until the Gryffindor captain had everyone else up and getting ready. Tiger had dashed back up to her dorm to put one of her many bikinis on and pulled a summer dress over it.

James's face turned pink as she arrived back in front of him, and he very nearly dropped the large hamper that had been delivered by the house elves. "You look great." He mumbled, his spare hand finding it's way around Tiger's waist.

"Alright calm down." The girl replied, and despite his blush, James smirked. Soon enough, the group were ready, all looking practically prepared for summer, and together, accompanied by the picnic and a rather large blanket as promised by Tiger, they made their way down the banks outside of the castle.

There they would board a few of the small boats that were usually used to transport the first years across the Black Lake on their very first day. They travelled the short distance to the small island just off the shore.

Which was where they would spend the rest of the day, stress-free and relaxing without even thinking of the exams that were coming up in the next few weeks.

And then, after the exams, the end of their sixth year.

✧

a/n
i feel like this chapter
was a bit all over the place
but i'm trying to finish sixth
year on chapter ninety
so next chapter will be the picnic
and probably a bit longer, chapter
89 will probably be focused on their
exams and 90 will be their
last day! <3