Mad World Mods (madworldmods) wrote in madworldrp, @ 2007-09-16 20:39:00 |
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Entry tags: | remus lupin, tierney cavanaugh |
Tierney & Remus
LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY potionspromise)
Who: Tierney and Remus
What: Astronomy Lab Extra Credit
Where: Gryffindor Common Room/Astronomy Tower
When: Late, but with a note from the teacher giving them permission to be out after curfew for the lab.
Rating: PG for language.
Tierney looked at the note in her hands and then looked up at the clock and then back at the note. She was so thoroughly fucked. She was failing astronomy, half because she could never seem to pay attention when James was anywhere near her and they had class together, and half because she had yet to do any homework. Not a single smidge of it. On the Wednesday previous the professor had warned her that if she hadn't completed her first essay and done one stargazing extra credit assignment by Monday morning she would be officially failing and a conference with her parents would have to be scheduled. It was now Sunday night and she hadn't done either.
She did have a pass though, a pass to the astronomy tower for after hours, but everyone from her class had already done their work a week ago, and it was pointless to go buy herself because she didn't know the names of the stars from a hole in the ground and she needed to chart out several of them. Contemplating imminent doom an idea struck her. Remus had undoubtedly already finished his assignment, but he could always be counted on to help out in a pinch. She sent a first year into the boys dorm looking for him as she waited on the couch, her book on her lap and her hair pulled back with a quill stuck in the side in an attempt to look studious and slightly pathetic.
Remus had been a little surprised when the first year showed up at his dorm room looking for him; at first he had assumed the child was having some sort of dilemma and needed assistance, but as it turned out, he was only relaying a message. It seemed Tierney had gotten herself into a bind, and he could not in good conscience leave her to flail at the misery of the certain consequences to befall her if she did not complete her work.
So after thanking the boy, Remus grabbed his own Astronomy assignment and text book (just in case -- one had to be prepared for anything) and walked down the stairs. Spotting Tierney on the couch, he nodded his greeting and walked over.
"Hullo. Having problems, then?"
Tierney nodded pathetically.
"Remus I'm failing," she said, half laughing but serious at the same time. "And I know it's my own fault and that I should have been keeping up but I was just-- I don't even know, and will you please go up to the tower with me tonight to help me do my star charts? I promise, SWEAR even, that this isn't some trick just to get a snog out of you," she said, preemptively striking out the thought in case he was worried.
"You will be my angel of mercy, Remus, if you help me," she said, just then noticing that he'd brought down his Astronomy book and breaking into a slightly calmer smile.
"No, I came all the way down here just to deny you my assistance," he said with a little smile before tipping his head toward the portrait to keep her from having much more than a second to fear it might be true. "Come on. Let's get you passing."
After waiting for her to stand, he walked over to the portrait and followed her through it, starting right off for the Astronomy Tower. It was not the first time he had helped someone through a night-before-the-assignment-is-due panic job, and he supposed it wouldn't be the last. Half the time he would just let people copy (if they were James, Sirius, or Peter), but he supposed it was best to let Tierney actually learn if she was going to pass for the year.
They walked in silence to the tower and Tierney only spoke once they were safely away from prying ears.
"You know, you're nearly the only person who hasn't said anything to me about my dad's promotion," she said, as they started climbing up the stairs slowly. You learned quickly in your first year that to try and be fast about it was to run out of steam half way up. These were like a stairway to heaven and they went on for what felt like a mile.
"Not that I want a congratulations, because I don't, I'm more looking for condolences, but since you're opinions are usually more sensible than most I wondered what you thought," she said. It was true, practically everyone had SOMETHING to say on the matter, but she wanted to hear what someone that didn't have Quidditch for brains thought. She knew she had a tendency to over-react but in her opinion her father become the Minister of Magic was tantamount to the world coming to an end.
Remus pursed his lips, his look darkening very subtly at the mention of her father. He had never particularly liked the man; it was no secret that Tierney's family was of a more bigoted nature, but he had only recently found out about the anti-werewolf legislation the man was pushing now that he was Minister, along with various anti-Muggle propositions. He had missed the interview itself, but Sirius, James, and Peter had told him one morning after Kingsley had left the room for breakfast, and as could be expected, it had struck a chord.
"No offense, but I'm afraid I'm not a fan."
Tierney stopped and turned toward him, never having heard Remus use such a dark tone. "It's not going to offend me Remus, I fucking hate him. He's terrible and if people knew half of what he was capable of I should hope some one would be brave enough to assasinate him," she said passionately. "His policies and opinions are disgusting and I'm glad to hear that you aren't sucked in by the line of thinking that just because someone is a Minister only good things can be said about them," she said, turning and starting to walk up the stairs again, slightly embarassed by her little rant.
"He doesn't like me anymore than I like him if that gives you any indication of how pleasant it is at home," she said, slowing down as they reached the last of the steps. "But if you can keep a secret, I think I'm going to try and work against him," she said. "Not that there's much that I can do, but my brothers, especially Callum, can't help but brag to me about the things they know are going on and I'm planning on passing on every bit of that information to anyone I think might be able to use it against him."
"I'm not sure I would go as far as to say I want him assassinated, but I definitely don't agree with the things he's doing with his time in office, even if he's only been Minister for a brief amount of time. If this is any indication of the times to come, I can't help but worry what else he has up his sleeve," Remus said, stepping up the last of the steps and into the room. "I can't stand bigotry."
Pulling out his star chart and text book, he shook his head. "I'm sorry that life at home is so unpleasant. You needn't worry about me spilling your secret. Him being the Minister doesn't make his every action pure and right by default."
"You're such a good guy, Remus," she sighed, pulling out her own text book and blank star chart and taking a seat on the floor after spreading out a blanket she had in her bag. She patted the floor next to her so he'd know she was welcome.
"I don't know why it surprises me over and over except my brothers are complete crap and I tend to just assume the blokes who aren't like them are going to be more like James and Sirius," she said, continuing to snacks out of her bag. "But I think it's lovely that you're just as you are. I think the world could use more of you," she added, before pulling out one last blanket and sitting it over her knees as it could get quite chilly upstairs.
Finally she looked up. "Bugger it all," she sighed, "The sky is half covered by clouds, it's going to take forever for them to move around enough for me to see the entire thing."
Smiling a bit, Remus took a seat on the blanket and set his book and star chart down. "Thank you. I'm not sure the world could handle more Sirius Blacks and James Potters than it already has, as much as I adore them. But although I harbor no fondness for your brothers, I don't think the world needs anymore of them either."
Turning his eyes up to the sky, he pursed and slanted his mouth down a bit. "How typical. I suppose I should have checked before we came all the way up here. We can wait it out and see if the sky clears, but if it doesn't, I'll let you borrow mine. I'd prefer it to be a learning experience, but not at the expense of your failure when you made the effort to do it yourself. The weather isn't something we can control, after all. Unless there's something you're not telling me?" he finished, raising an eyebrow an eyebrow in perfect mock-seriousness.
Tierney laughed, "Are you kidding me?" she asked. "You're asking the girl who can't transfigure a tea cup into a regular cup if she can control the weather? I'm afraid my magic is a bit more limited than that. I take after my grandmum a great deal and the only sorts of magic I'm good at are what she would have considered to be earth magic. Plants, potions, seeing the future, that sort of thing," she said.
"And seriously, you'd let me copy?" she asked in amazement. "I'd hug you if I wasn't quite sure you'd be scarred for life," she teased, looking up at the sky one last time. "We can give it another twenty minutes or so that way I can honestly say I tried and then if we see nothing I'll take the easy route, how's that, Mr. Prefect?"
Shifting her book out of her lap she resumed digging around in her bag until she pulled out some ratty Tarot cards. "Let me read you?" she asked. "As a thank you, and I promise, this is none of that creepy divination crap we learned in our first few years, this gives nothing specific really, more just paths and I'm quite good at it!"
"Well, you never know. It could all be a careful cover-up, a clever ruse and the like," he said lightly. "Just making us think you're bad at it so you can control it undetected."
Shrugging, he gave a kind smile. "Well, I wouldn't want you to fail. It ought to be a lesson to do things earlier, but if you can tell me you will at least try to get your work completed a bit earlier than late the night before it's due, then I can allow you to copy it this time. Waiting twenty minutes sounds perfectly reasonable."
As she pulled the cards out of her bag, he examined them curiously, raising his eyebrows. He had never placed much stock in those branches of magic, but it certainly would hurt to try it, if it was something she felt she did well. "If you want to, then alright. I suppose it won't hurt anything."
Tierney nodded. "Next time I will try to force myself to do it the night before it's due," she agreed with the sort of smile that definitely made the emphasis on the word try a bit doubtful. "And really, I only need help with the charts I spent all afternoon working on my essay," she said, handing him what she'd written so she'd have proof. It wasn't great, but it did show that atleast on certain parts of the information she was fairly well versed.
She shuffled the cards three times and then tapped them with her wand.
"Now, if you ever have any of the other girls read your cards, or probably even a professional on Diagon Alley they'd do it differently, they would probably have a larger set, and even with the same sort of cards they'd give you a different explanation. This is Gypsy magic," she said, clearly quite proud of it.
"My parents absolutely abhor it, but I think it's the very best kind of magic. My grandmum was a gypsy, my mum's mum that is, and she died when I was ten, but before that, she taught me these."
She spoke as she indicated that Remus should choose 3 cards.
She flipped them over. They were The Magician, The Moon, and The Hermit. She gave him a bit of an odd look and then picked them back up and reshuffled.
"Would you like to know what that meant or would you like to choose again?" she asked. If it had been her grandmother doing this she'd have known exactly what that meant, but to Tierney, who'd stopped learning the proper way to do this 6 years ago, that combination was a complete mystery. To her the cards were rarely ever as obvious as they seemed which is the only reason she didn't automatically see what they were trying to tell her.
"You will 'try,' or you will 'try'?" he asked skeptically, though it was an almost amused sort of exasperation that coloured his voice. He had a nagging feeling the next time they had an assignment, this dance would be danced again, but he couldn't help but vainly hope the lesson would sink in. When she handed him the essay, he skimmed over it and nodded, showing his approval that she had at least finished the essay portion.
It was quite a different experience, however, to observe this Tarot card process. He had never actually seen it done before, though he had heard a fair amount about it. She seemed very excited about the idea, and it was making him ever more curious.
The three cards he pulled, however, gave him an eerie sort of feeling. The Magician, The Moon, and The Hermit? The Moon. He didn't know much about Tarot cards, but he knew plenty about the moon and its connotations.
The slightly mystified look on her face gave him a bit of comfort, however, and hinted that she hadn't instantly drawn any drastic conclusions. He didn't really want to guide her to any conclusions...but if he drew again, would they be the same?
"If you have any insight on them, then I'm curious, but I can draw again if you think I ought to."
"Well... I have insight," she said, picking up the moon card and staring at it, even going so far as to flip it in her hand. "The thing is, only muggles should be able to pull it. Not even muggleborns should ever choose it out of a stack. And I can rememebr my grandmum just once explaining it to me because it was there, but I can't remember for the life of me what she said," she sighed. "I've looked and looked for books on Gypsy tarot but it seems to only be passed down the line and never written about."
She picked up The Magician. "This one is easy though," she teased. "You're magical, congratulations. Every one with any magic at all with pick it out every time."
She picked up The Hermit and showed him the card. "The Hermit has internalised the lessons of life to the point that he is the lesson.
There are two major ways that this can be interpreted depending on where you are in life which is usually indicated by the third card. So basically, the hermit means you either need to withdraw from society to become comfortable with yourself or that you need to come out of isolation and share your knowledge with others."
"I'll think on it more," she said with a nod, "But for now I thin kmaybe the moon would indicate that instead of doing one or the other... coming out to share or withdrawing from everyone, you should be doing it in cycles. Like the moon. But it's up to you to figure out if you come out on the fullmoon or hide away then," she teased, having no clue how close to the truth she was stumbling.
"I'm sorry I couldn't give you a better reading, the moon really throws me off. Maybe I'll borrow a pensieve and see if I can draw out the memory of my grandmother and see exactly what it means for a Wizard to pull a moon card," she said helpfully. "It's the least I can do when you're being so great about helping me."
Remus let out a very subtly uncomfortable laugh as she teased about the full moon, but there was a unpleasant jab in his stomach at how incredibly accurate she had been, probably without even meaning to be. Which was pure luck in itself. He decided he would abstain from Tarot card readings from here on out.
"No, you don't need to do that," he said in what he hoped was an assured tone. "Your cycles explanation makes plenty of sense, and it was a fine reading. I'm all about balancing withdraw with sharing, isolation with time spent in the company of others. Besides, I don't mind helping, so you needn't feel like you must repay me."
"If you're sure," Tierney said, getting the feeling that Remus was uncomfortably. "And that's a pretty good reading I think! There are worse. You could draw combinations that said awful things about you but the hermit card has always been one of my favorites," she said honestly.
She looked up at the sky but the clouds seemed to be adding on instead of disappearing. "It looks like you're going to get to let me copy," she said, leaning back on her elbows and looking up. I'm appreciative, but I am sort of sad that I didn't get to look at the stars. I always forget how much I like it up here," she said, pushing herself back up and starting to put away her things in her bag, the whole tarot thing forgotten momentarily.
"I am," he said, feeling a distinct relief settle over him as the conversation began to turn. "I'm glad I didn't get anything too horrible or tragic. What sort of awful things to people get?"
Also turning his head up to look at the sky. "Hmm. So it seems." Looking back down and grabbing his star chart to hand over to her, he nodded. "You can get some fantastic views from up here. It's a pity, but the weather is bound to clear up eventually."
"Well, you'll have to come up with me again next time," she said. "Tell me when you're doing your assignment and we can do them together and then you won't have to rescue me again," she said, finishing with her packing and extending her hand to him to help him up.
"And as for what people can get, they can get combinations with the hermit that mean they're always going to be alone... but you didn't... And people can get things that say they'll always be unlucky in love... OH! OH! OH!" she said. "I could do your LOVE cards!" she said excitedly. "And I don't have to use the tarot deck for that, actually a muggle card deck works best," she said excitedly. "We just use the red cards if you prefer birds and the black cards if you prefer blokes, or both if you're undecided," she said as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"I'll be certain to do that." Holding his Astronomy text book with one arm, he used his other hand to take hers, gracefully pulling himself up. "I'll do my best, as your lab partner, to keep you caught up so that you will not be down to the wire and panicking next time."
As she switched into outward excitement, he instantly switched into internal dread. Love was certainly not a subject he wished to discuss. It was quite possibly among the subjects he least liked talking about -- if it had to do with him, of course. It wasn't really an option, frankly, and thinking about it was only depressing. He knew he was doomed to be romantically alone -- after all, the fact that he hadn't drawn cards to suggest loneliness were more likely indicators that he and his friends would remain together. He couldn't subject his condition on someone else, after all.
"That's probably not a good idea."