I Need A Girl Like You (Tia)

[Deleted]

Liam and Tia decided to meet in Hogwarts that fateful day. The day where Tia was going to try and help him find someone to replace Tamara, since she was dating his best friend. A part of Liam could hardly believe that he was actually giving this a try, but at the same time it wasn't a surprise at all. Tia was one of his closest friends and she convinced him. It was as simple as that. Tia thought this would work and was determined to try it, so Liam was going to go along with her on it. That didn't mean he thought it would work, but he'd give it a try. At least by doing this Tia probably wouldn't push him anymore. Especially if it worked.

All these thoughts and more flooded through his mind as he made his way to the village. It was a nice spring day and in the very least he was going to enjoy the fact that he wasn't cold while making his way there. He smiled at the people he saw, though he didn't really talk to any of them. Liam had a hard enough time talking to people the he knew and felt comfortable with. Once he made it to the village, he leaned up against the outside of Honeydukes, looking up and down the street as he looked for his friend. Where was she?

@tia

[Deleted]

i am my own.

TIA HAD ALWAYS ENJOYED A PLAN, SHE LIKED TO map out her days of homework and studying in to little bite-sized notes in careful, cursive handwriting. Each quarter of her time she preferred squared away in to some kind of schedule. This desire for order and control would help her help Liam, she thought. She'd been carefully making a small list all week in preparation for their meeting at Honeyduke's that weekend.

She was early, of course, slipping in to the sweet shop with a small velvet coin purse filled with a few galleons and sickles. Inside, Tia found herself already scanning faces, looking for somebody who she thought might be good for Liam. Of course, looks were such a small factor, but she thought she saw a few pretty, familiar faces among the bunches. Though, her hyper critical thinking didn't make her feel good as she picked apart fellow students.

Tia bought a little pot of pink coconut ice while she waited, retreating to the door when her mind started spinning in helpless circles. She crunched the sweet, buttery shaving until she saw Liam's hunched, awkward frame loitering out the front. Slipping between a couple of babbling students as they headed through the door, Tia popped her spoon in to her mouth and slid up beside her friend while he craned his neck in the opposite direction, grabbing his shoulder harshly.

"Are you excited..?" She hissed in to his shoulder, pulling the spoon from her mouth as she fought a grin around a pink smear at the corner of her mouth as her friend jumped. "Because I am." Tia pushed the pot of coconut ice at her friend as she dipped her head to rifle around in the small, over-the-shoulder bag she'd brought with her. "I made notes, and a few suggestions..." She said absently, a pink stained tongue poking out behind her teeth as she lifted out a roll of parchment stained through with ink. "To prepare."

She hadn't told Liam about her planning before but somehow, Tia knew the mere idea would put him off right away. Instead, she'd worked alone, off her own observations about her friend and what he might like. Mostly, she just hoped it would help, but also that it might make him realise that wasting his time with her sister was not an option anymore. They were going to find him a new girl. 

@liam

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Liam turned around quickly, wondering who in the world would be grabbing his shoulder but then he heard the voice and he understood almost instantly. Tia found him before he could find her. He shrugged at her question. "I'm not ... not excited," he said lamely, making the comment a question. Then he smiled, "I'm glad you are." His eyes widened a little as she pulled out a roll of parchment with her notes and such. She'd planned dates for him? 

"Uhhhh ... so do you already have suggestions or are we looking together?" He asked slowly, not really sure what Tia's plan was. Still, he'd go along with it, at least for now. This whole thing was her idea and he could see how excited she was to try and help him find someone to like other than Tamara. Maybe it would work. He kind of hoped it would, but wasn't sure. Ugh, he was just a mix of all sorts of complex emotions right now. Might as well get started.

@tia

[Deleted]

i am my own.

TIA MADE NO COMMENT ABOUT LIAM'S OBVIOUS lack of enthusiasm, he'd turned up which was more than she'd expected of him. He was a sucker in love, after all. "Me too." She said, but she was already pulling her notes from her bag and so sounded rather absent-minded as she spoke.

"Both," Tia answered, shoving her notes in to Liam's chest and taking her coconut ice back. It was so sweet she could feel it in her teeth, but it didn't stop her from spooning up another mouthful as she watched Liam with her notes. On the parchment was a list of his most admirable traits. 'Clever, funny, loyal', and a list of traits for his potential new interest, 'confident, sweet, NOT a Hufflepuff'. She thought it smarter if there was less chance the other girl knew Tamara. Otherwise they'd just end up lamenting about her precious sister until their faces turned purple.

"There's a girl in my tutoring group." Tia began, discarding her spoon in her empty ice pot. "She's not the smartest, but she's got... spirit." It was a very detached way of speaking about somebody, but Tia hardly noticed. "Penny Hardwick, she's a Gryffindor and a mean beater." Tia had often found herself internally complimenting the girls undeniable charm. Plus, she'd asked about Liam once while Tia had been trying to teach her basic laws for Charms and Tia had been so annoyed that she hadn't forgotten. It had eventually come in handy.

Sidling up to her friend, Tia nudged his shoulder and wiggled her brows. "She thinks you're cute." She sang the word 'cute' like a fluttering girl and almost laughed at her friend's expression. 

@liam

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Liam was a little surprised that Tia didn't get after him for his lack of a positive attitude. She simply said that she was too. She was what? Not not excited? Meaning she was excited, or was she just saying that to try and calm down his nerves. If that was the goal, she definitely failed. The closer he got to actually doing this, the more nervous Liam felt. He'd never really looked at other girls much, being too focused on Tamara to really care much about others. Except for Tia, of course. She was his best friend. Which was why he was actually about to go through with this.

He nodded when she said "both", but then he had a bunch of pieces of parchment thrust into his hands. He stared at the papers, at first more confused than anything. Then he started to read them and his eyes widened. Her list of traits was kind of funny, but also wasn't too bad. Obviously Tia put a lot more thought into this than Liam expected. She was actually serious. That realization made him look at her notes more closely. If she was putting all this effort into trying to help him, Liam was going to do his best to be as accommodating as possible. He smirked when he saw that one of the qualifications was not being a Hufflepuff. Very smooth.

When Tia started speaking again, Liam looked up from the notes and watched her. She started speaking about a girl who had a lot of spirit. Penny Hardwick. Liam racked his brain, tryin to picture the girl in his mind. As she explained a bit more about the girl he nodded. "She's brunette, right? Just a few inches taller than you?" He wasn't sure if he was thinking of the right girl, but at least he was trying. That was about all Tia could ask from him. 

His eyes widened when she nudged his shoulder, saying that Penny thought he was cute. "She- what- h-how do you know that?" The words came out in a squeak, not at all flattering, but Liam hardly noticed. How in the world did Tia know someone thought he was cute? 

@tia

[Deleted]

i am my own.

THE FACT THAT LIAM HAD AGREED TO TURN UP AT all did not escape Tia's notice. She was glad that he was trying, truly. It was a step in the right direction, as far as she was concerned. And she took the task of finding him someone very seriously. He was her friend, best even if she thought about it for a moment. And he was struggling. Tia felt it her supreme duty to help him with that, as long as he agreed, of course.

"I'd say it's more of a honey?" Tia corrected, having studied with the girl a while and spent most of the week deciding whether or not she was the one for her little experiment. Just like how she knew that Penny was in Honeyduke's at that very moment, perusing the aisles. Though she almost felt bad at the sheer shock on Liam's face when she told him what Penny thought about him.

"You met me at the library that one time, remember?" Tia said obviously. "She saw you, and she actually thought you were my boyfriend or something..." Tia shook her head with a snort, amused as she recalled the encounter. "When I told her you weren't she said 'that's good'," Tia quirked her fingers in quote marks at that, lifting her brows in encouragement before continuing, "Then she said you were cute." Tia hadn't ever thought she'd have to tell Liam this particular story, but that was back when she was quite secure minding her own business.

"She's inside you know..." Jutting her chin, she motioned through the foggy display window where students lingered inside. Just a few steps away from the register, Penny Hardwick was weighing two little bags of smiling mashmellows in each hand. "You should go say hi." It seemed very simple to Tia, but she doubted Liam would agree as she shot him an expectant look. 

@liam

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Tia disagreed when he described the color of hair of the girl he thought she was talking about. Nope. Apparently he was wrong. It wasn't so much a bad thing as annoying. He wanted to know who exactly Tia thought he'd get along with and it was annoying to Liam that he didn't know.

He nodded to Tia slowly, not really knowing what to say when she started talking about meeting her at the library. What was she talking about? They met at the library plenty of times! It wasn't like that was an uncommon thing for him and his best friend to do. He blushed a little when Tia explained the conversation she had with the other girl. Why was he so embarrassed about this? "I don't know if she's ever talked to me before," he mumbled, feeling strange that some girl thought he was cute and that it was a good thing he didn't have a girlfriend but hadn't ever talked to him before either. It didn't make sense to him. 

Tia pointed inside the shop, telling Liam that she was just inside. He looked in the shop. There were plenty of blonde girls inside! He shook his head fiercely and took a step back. "I don't know which one she is," he told her in an embarrassed tone. Liam wasn't about to go in there and say hi to lots of people he didn't know. It was hard enough doing that with one girl. "I'm not cut out for this," he groaned, turning away from the shop. Why did he agree to this in the first place?

@tia

[Deleted]

i am my own.

THOUGH A PART OF TIA CRINGED BEING THE ONE passing such private information along - she didn't like to gossip, she still desperately wanted to make Liam feel better. To pull him out of the funk her sister had put him in. So, she revealed a little, non-sequential comment in the hopes that it would trigger something. A date? Maybe something more. Strangely, Tia was hopeful.

"I mean, you can be sort of intimidating..." Tia revealed bluntly, shrugging her shoulders as she closed the lid on her coconut ice and popped the container in her over-the-shoulder satchel. "You've got the 'silent mystery' thing going for you." She waved an open hand at his lanky silhouette impassively. She didn't really get it, if she were honest. He was a great friend, and funny too when she'd gotten to know him, but she didn't understand the other girl's attraction. Maybe she simply couldn't see past the fact that they bickered like brother and sister.

While she tried to usher him inside, Tia felt the tension in Liam's frame. She wasn't the biggest fan of introductions either, but it was for a good cause. "It won't be so bad," She tried to reassure him, but it seemed to miss the point as Liam was already turning away in agitation. She rushed to catch him, snagging the back of his shirt and trying to drag him back towards the sweet shop. "No!" She snapped firmly, laying a halting hand on his shoulder in an attempt to stop him. It wouldn't work if he really wanted to leave, but she hoped he got the idea. "I made a list and everything," She rounded on him, planting herself in his way. "We're doing this." She was quite sure of her success, she'd done the formula.

"We'll go in together," She tried helplessly, shifting from foot to foot restlessly. "I'll say hello, introduce you..." She widened her eyes expectantly. As if it might convince him. It had to, she had no more ideas. She hadn't factored in the possibility that Liam might just refuse. It was for his benefit, after all. "It'll be fine..." She placed a very reluctant hand on his shoulder and tried for an encouraging smile. "She's nice." 

@liam

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Liam frowned when Tia said that he was intimidating. "Intimidating?" How was he intimidating when he could hardly get out a coherent sentence when he was with people ... other than Tia, of course. Then she explained something about "silent mystery" and his eyebrows furrowed. "Silent mystery," he mumbled, trying to digest the thought. He was definitely quiet around most people, maybe that did come off as mysterious, but he'd never thought of himself that way. He'd more often considered himself an idiot for not being able to talk like a normal person. 

Tia stopped him from walking away from the shop. Of course she did. She was so determined he meet this girl, he should probably just give in, but he was so nervous. She snapped at him and Liam paused, looking down at her. She'd pulled him out of his "flight" response, at last. She said that she made a list and they were doing this. He made a face, not looking forward to this at all. What if he made a list and then she had to introduce herself to random people. Then again, she wasn't the one pining after someone who was already taken. 

Liam couldn't remember a time when he'd felt so tense in his life, but Tia was obviously trying to help. She offered to go in with him, saying that she would introduce him to the girl and Liam started to cave. Tia was too good of a friend for him to flat out refuse her help, especially when they talked about this before. He gave a hesitant nod. "Okay ... I'll go with you then," he agreed, glancing back at the shop. "You sure about this?" Liam's voice was low, but sincere. If she said she was, he'd go with her. 

@tia

[Deleted]

i am my own.

HE DIDN'T KNOW IT, BUT TIA GOT WHAT PEOPLE saw in Liam. He was quiet and introspective, but it didn't translate further than that unless you knew him. He could appear intimidating, but he had a dry sense of humour she'd always liked. There were a lot of things she liked about him in fact, though she wasn't likely to tell him so. All of this had simply helped her find somebody she thought might suit him. But, then again, her taste wasn't exactly 'tried and tested'.

"Trust me," She assured him, nodding her head firmly. "It's a thing." And then she was trying to urge him inside, but his reluctance made her itch a little bit. Was she doing the right thing? Encouraging him when he was still hopelessly in love with her sister? She persisted none-the-less, simply because she'd done a lot of work and she wanted to at least see it through to an introduction.

"Okay," She sighed in relief, patting him more firmly in the shoulder before she pushed him towards the door with her, lest he change his mind again. "I'm sure." Because one of them had to be. The bell above the door jingled and Tia almost jumped as she peered towards the register, where they'd last seen Penny. And there she was, looking in to her bag of treats as she headed towards them, towards the door.

"Hey!" Tia yelped, panicked by the idea of her leaving before they'd even started. "Penny- hi!" Tia had never spoken to the girl outside of study room and Penny looked a little taken aback at first, stopping in front of them and blinking blindly before her mind caught up and she looked between Tia and Liam. Tia thought she looked a bit red suddenly, but she said hello none-the-less. Asking how she was, though her eyes intermittently flickered between Tia and Liam.

"You remember Liam, right?" Tia said after typical pleasantries, reaching a hand around his back and nudging him forward a little. "I just- I remembered you said something about extra tutoring for potions?" She'd really thought about everything, and giving them an excuse to spend time together was her number one priority. "Liam's second only to me." She flashed him a quick grin, lifting her brows daringly. "So, I figured, maybe he could help." She dug her fingers in to his back expectantly, trying to remind him that it was his turn to speak. "Study buddies, right?"

@liam

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Liam nodded slowly when Tia told him to trust her, that being silent and mysterious was an appealing thing. He didn't really expect that. Liam more often thought he looked like an idiot with how long it took him to reply to people that were trying to talk to him. He almost always struggled with it, which was something he absolutely hated. "Okay," he answered slowly, not wanting to fight or argue with her. Especially since he didn't know if she was right or not. 

She pushed him toward the door and Liam didn't fight it. She was certain that this was work and while Liam really didn't think that someone like Penny- or anyone really- would be interested in him, he decided to trust her. Tia was one of his closest friends. If he could trust her, who could he trust? 

The girl Tia talked about was heading toward the door, looking like she was about to leave. Liam opened his mouth for a second, but then shut it again just as fast. He jumped when Tia shouted "Hey" and then started talking to Penny, who definitely looked a little bit surprised. He forced a little bit of a smile, nodding and mumbling a quiet "Hey." Man, Liam needed to get better at talking to people. This was embarrassing. 

Penny nodded, staring up at him when Tia asked if she remembered Liam. The girl seemed more than a little taken aback, slightly dumbfounded. Tia continued talking, mentioning Penny needing tutoring for potions and then recommending Liam. He felt her pushing into his back and nodded again, "Y-yeah, study buddies," he answered, trying for another smile. "If you're interested." He didn't want to make Penny feel like she had to study with him, but he found he wasn't entirely against the idea either. She was pretty. Maybe ... maybe Tia was right about him spending time with other girls to get his mind off of Tamara.

@tia

[Deleted]

i am my own.

IT TOOK PENNY A MOMENT, MOST THINGS DID, but eventually she seemed to realise what was on offer to her. She nodded once at first, before a slight colour came to her cheeks and she agreed  enthusiastically. "Great!" Tia said, already planning her escape so they could get to know each other. But, she had to do it smoothly, otherwise they might notice. And then she realised she didn't care, because that was the point.

"That's it settled then." Tia declared, clapping her hands together as she took a step away from Liam and Penny. "You guys should discuss schedules." She suggested, pointing between them both. "I have to grab uh... present for my sister." She said, a very devious smile on her face. "You guys should head to the Three Broomsticks." She tried to be casual about it, shrugging her shoulders and pretending to rifle around in her bag.

"I'll meet you there in an hour... or something, Liam." She lifted her head, giving Liam a long look. "Nice to see you, Penny!" She said, giving her a little encouraging nod and a pat on the arm as she passed, before turning and giving Liam a brief thumbs up behind Penny's back. She fled the scene before either of them could protest and ruin her plan. Better that than giving Liam time to worm his way out of it, she thought. The whole thing thrilled her though, and she peeked over her shoulder once before disappearing behind an aisle to wait until they left.

- END TIA.  

@liam  
can decide the poor fate of penny and liam.

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[Deleted]

Penny was nodding enthusiastically when she realized what was actually going on. She seemed very excited to be able to do something with Liam and he wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that. Sure, she was pretty and seemed nice ... but Tamara was still hanging out in the back of his mind. The other girl was smiling at him, blushing a little though, so Liam was trying to give her his attention. Besides that, Tia would probably knock him upside the head if he didn't at least give this a try. 

The next thing he knew, Tia was not so subtly slipping out. Of course she was. Penny turned to him with a wide smile, saying that she was available almost always and was sure they could find a time together. Liam smiled, telling her that he was available on Tuesdays and Thursdays if she wanted to meet twice a week, or they could do once a week if she'd prefer. 

He wasn't really paying attention, but heard Tia suggesting that they should go to the Three Broomsticks. "You want to go?" Liam asked Penny, offering his arm. The girl grinned up at him, taking his arm with a quiet squeal. Liam definitely felt tense, but at least she wanted to talk to him. The pair went to the Three Broomsticks and Penny led the conversation, not really making Liam say much, which actually made himself feel a bit better about doing this. Apparently Tia did her homework well. 

--- the end ---

@tia