Year Two
"Julie, have you done the transfiguration essay yet?"
"Yes, haven't you?" Juliet asked. She lowered her book to see Marta with a blank foot of parchment, quill and ink well in hand.
"Martie!" she exclaimed. "That essay is due tomorrow!"
"I know," Marta replied easily, "that's why I'm doing it now."
Juliet sighed and stood from her bed, going over to her bag and rummaging through it for her notes which she knew her friend would need. "I thought you and Eric went to the library to work on essays yesterday," Juliet said.
"We did," Marta agreed. "But Max and Kurt were there and they were practising this spell...and then they were pretending to duel and it was the cutest thing. You should have come with us."
"No thanks," Juliet said dryly, handing over her notes.
"James was there," Marta added, leaving the parchment and beginning to brush out her hair.
"And?" Juliet prompted.
"And he was looking for you."
Juliet rolled her eyes. "I'm sure he was." She returned to her bed, curling up against her pillows and picking up her book.
"He was," Marta insisted. "I swear it. He kept looking over at us."
"Maybe he was looking at you," Juliet brushed off. Marta was rather pretty, green eyes and dark hair; she was petite and built like a fairy.
"No, he wasn't looking at anyone. He was looking for someone." Marta sighed. "I think he likes you."
"He does not," Juliet contradicted. "We're just friends. If that." She hadn't talked to him much this year, hardly at all. Passing hellos and relaying family messages to one another. Lily had lost her first tooth. Caelum and Albus had each had their own experience with accidental magic. George and Angelina were due to have their second child. She hadn't gotten to ask him about the first Hogsmeade trip, though she was dying to know what the village was like, only ever having been once when she was too young to vividly remember much of anything.
"He's fit though, don't you think?" Marta baited.
Juliet knew this one. It was a trick question. She'd agree and Marta would say she fancied him. If she disagreed, Marta would accuse her of denying nonexistent feelings or simply call her a liar. It was hard to argue James to be unattractive. "Don't you have an essay to write?" she questioned back instead.
"Denial, denial," Marta sang. "Not just a river in Egypt, ladies and gentlemen."
"Oh, shut it," Juliet snapped, grabbing her bag and book and making to leave. "You're a distraction to yourself, Martie. You ought to get some work done."
"Where are you going?" Martie asked, looking up from her still blank parchment with a puzzled expression.
"The library," Juliet replied. "I'll see you at dinner."
Martie didn't come to dinner and Eric had a detention to serve with Filch for his misdemeanour in Defence Against the Dark Arts. It had been an accident really, a spell gone awry that had charred the test papers on the professor's desk. Regardless, he had been given an hour's detention, which meant he had basically dashed into the hall, piled high with food the plate next to Juliet, inhaled it, and then apologized before dashing back out. She was left on her lonesome.
She pulled out a novel and propped it up with her left hand, continuing to eat delicately with her right and pausing between bites to turn her page. She only vaguely realized that people were filling in the space around her and that it was James who had first plunked himself down beside her.
He bumped her elbow, moving her book and quickly getting her attention. "Hi." He grinned.
Recognizing him, she gave a half-hearted glare and righted her book. "Evening," she returned.
"Juliet, no?" Antony asked.
"Yes," she confirmed. She then went around and made sure she had all of his friends' names right. She mixed up Max and Kurt, but they didn't seem offended in any way.
The group was polite to her, making her feel a little rude for having a book out at the table. She tucked it away subtly and listened as they carried on their own conversation. They didn't mind her all that much and she didn't contribute to the discussion. She was content to sit quietly and listen to them go on about quidditch and their past trip to Hogsmeade. Juliet shot James a strange look, which he just caught from the corner of his eye. Their last Hogsmeade weekend had been over two months prior. It seemed odd that they would still be talking about it.
When they had all finished their meals and Martie still hadn't made an appearance, James and his friends stood up to leave. Juliet's eyes swept over the hall's occupants in search of her friends once more.
"You coming?" Max asked, seeing that James was still standing by her expectantly.
She shook herself from her distractions and looked up. "Um...yeah." She swung her bag onto her shoulder and joined them.
On the walk back to the common room she and James were a step or two behind the others. She couldn't help but notice that the boys' legs were substantially longer than her own, and while she fell behind them naturally, James seemed to slow intentionally to stride beside her.
"So, it's a passageway, isn't it?" Juliet asked.
"Beg your pardon?" James asked. His question was anything but subtle in hiding the fact that knew he'd heard her and knew exactly what she was referring to though.
"How you sneak out to Hogsmeade," she clarified. "It's a passageway, isn't it?"
"I don't—"
"Yes, you do," she countered quickly. "And how do you know so many passageways? You've only been here a year longer than me. You'd have to be sneaking out nearly every other night to have found all of them. I wondered why."
James shrugged.
Suddenly her mouth dropped open. "You have the map," she realized.
He froze.
She beamed; proud she'd figured it out. "You do, don't you? Why didn't you tell me?"
"What do you know about it?" James asked.
"My mum only told me some. She told me stories of when she and your dad and Ron used to use it to get around." Juliet had smartly lowered her voice to a whisper. "But...Mum said Harry had shut it up somewhere last she knew." James looked away. "You stole it," Juliet surmised.
"How come you knew about it, knew my dad had it, and you never said anything?" James asked, turning the accusations on her.
They were entering the common room now and Max, Antony and Kurt went through the portrait hole and headed up to the dormitories. James told them he'd be up in a minute and pulled Juliet to a corner of the room to talk privately.
She answered his questions. "Mum said it was a secret. She said your dad probably put it away to keep you and Albus, and Lily, too, I suppose, out of trouble." She paused and then shook her head at him. "Of course, that didn't stop you, did it, you thief?"
"Don't tell anyone," James ordered.
"And what about you?" Juliet returned. "You found the map and you didn't tell me."
"He's my dad and I found it. Besides," he continued, "I haven't told anyone. Only found out how to open it early last year, and I've been pretending to find all of the passageways."
Juliet laughed. "I see, so, you're a thief and a liar."
He glared. "Don't tell anyone," he repeated.
She was quick to ask before she let her conscience stop her. "Will you take me to Hogsmeade?"
He raised an eyebrow.
She blushed. "Not as a date. I just want to see the village."
"You're blackmailing me?" he asked.
"Asking a favour for keeping a secret," she rephrased.
"I'm not sneaking you out of the castle," James told her.
"Why not?" Juliet demanded. "You sneak your friends out."
"They don't care if they get caught," James replied.
"Maybe I don't care either," she said.
James laughed as he ran a hand through his hair. Juliet shook her head internally as he made his hair stick up even more. "I care, okay?" he said. "I'm not sneaking you out. Besides, you'll go next year anyway. You can wait that long."
Juliet sighed. She could wait, she supposed. But, though she'd never admit, it wouldn't be nearly as fun and thrilling to go without breaking the rules. Sneaking out of the castle seemed like a grand sort of adventure, something wildly out of her comfort zone. She so desperately wanted to do that, to harmlessly break the rules and have a bit of fun.
"Please?" she asked again.
"No," he repeated firmly. "If you get caught your parents will find out, and if your parents find out so will mine. Dad will be livid if he finds out I nicked the map."
So, that's what this is about, Juliet realized. He wasn't worried about her getting caught. He was worried about her getting him caught.
"Fine," Juliet said.
"And you won't tell anyone, right?" James asked carefully.
She shrugged.
"Lettie," he warned.
She glared at him in response.
"Come on," he said. "Don't be that way. Just because you're not getting your way, doesn't mean you have to sulk."
Her jaw set angrily but she didn't have enough control to contradict him. She merely shook her head, turned on her heel and left for her dormitory. .
James cursed under his breath and then bounded up the boys' staircase.
James treated her like a bomb in the weeks that followed. He never came too close, never said a word to her, but kept an eye on her with rapt attention whenever she was in the vicinity, always wary and always calculating. Eventually he caught on to the fact that she hadn't told anyone and that she had no intention of doing so. She watched, subtly of course, as he gradually relaxed around her once again.
"Julie! Wake up!"
Juliet was startled awake, sitting up and blinking blearily she made out a Marta-shaped figure at the foot of her bed. "Good morning," she mumbled.
"Good morning?" Marta echoed. "Happy birthday, you silly duck."
"Goose."
"What?"
"Silly goose," Juliet corrected. "The term is silly goose, not duck." She rose from her bed and stumbled over to the window.
"Well, that just makes it all the sillier," Marta chirped.
Juliet laughed. The weather was beautiful outside. All blue skies and bright sunshine, the lake was sparkling and everything was as lively as it could get.
"So, what do you want to do today?" Marta asked, dressed and ready to go. "Everyone's out to Hogsmeade today, so we've practically got the castle to ourselves. Eric thought maybe we'd take our breakfast outside and picnic the morning away."
Juliet nodded absent-mindedly. "Sure." It briefly occurred to her that James wouldn't be able to slip a card in her bag this year if she wasn't in the great hall. She quickly squashed the thought. He probably wasn't going to anyway.
Juliet put on her favourite blue dress and twisted the sides of her hair back with the flower clips Marta had made for her. She took her bag along and followed Marta down to the common room to meet Eric.
Eric grinned and wished her a loud, "Happy birthday, Julie!" before she had even gotten down the rest of the staircase. This started a round chorus of people around the common room wishing her a happy birthday, even from the older students who hardly knew her full name.
Eric thrust a rectangular parcel at her, wrapped in brown packaging paper and tied with white string in a limp bow atop it. She accepted it with a wide smile while Marta gave Eric a quick hit upside the head, while telling Juliet that the present was from both of them.
"I said to wrap it pretty!" she exclaimed. "That looks like post!"
"Well, you shouldn't have given it to me then!"
"Well, I'm the one who went out and bought it," Marta whispered harshly.
"What did you want me to do?" Eric asked.
Before Marta could reply Juliet shook her head. "It's wonderful. May I open it?"
They nodded eagerly and she gently began to peel away the tape and fold away the plain paper. She knew every extra second she took to open the present was killing Marta but she did it anyway while Eric shook his head.
She grinned widely as she saw the red leather of a new notebook. "Oh, it's so pretty I don't know I'll have the heart to write in it," Juliet said, running a hand over the leather. "Thank you so much."
"You're welcome," they replied.
"Now, come on, I'm starving," Eric said.
Juliet carried a blanket and water pitcher outside while her friends went to the Great Hall and prepared three plates of breakfast which they then snuck outside. From their spot on the grounds they could hear the third year and older students leaving the castle for Hogsmeade. The three friends spent the time laughing and talking, basking in the sunshine in between bites of food and having a nice time.
Juliet was in the middle of telling a story when Eric suddenly looked up over her shoulder and Marta burst into giggles. "And then Stelly asked me where the last biscuit had gone and I-" It dawned on her that her friends were no longer engaged in her tale but rather in whatever was behind her. "What is it?" she asked, twisting about to see.
Marta giggled. "Someone's coming to wish you a happy birthday," she sang.
It was from her voice that Juliet knew whom to expect before she even saw him. She sat up and turned about face to see James loping towards them.
"There you are," he panted, finally reaching them and standing over her.
"Here I am," she agreed.
"It's her birthday you know," Marta hinted.
James had his hands on his knees as he caught his breath, leaning down towards her. "I know," he said. He took a deep breath and then spoke directly to her. "Happy birthday," he managed between heaving breaths.
"Thank you." There was a beat of silence in which he just stood there and she waited for him to either say something or leave. She hadn't anything to say to him.
"Shouldn't you be in the village?" she asked finally.
"I suppose. I was looking for you though."
"Well?"
He dropped to one knee and leaned forward to whisper in her ear. "Do you want to come along?"
"Seriously?" she asked in surprise.
He shushed her, glancing at Marta and Eric but nodded nonetheless.
Juliet looked conflicted, leaning around James to look at her friends. "Well, we were going to..." she trailed off unsurely.
Marta shook her head emphatically. "No. We hadn't anything planned really. Just whatever you wanted to do. Go on ahead," she urged.
Eric took a bite of his scone and grinned, nodding along his agreement.
"Okay," Juliet replied carefully. Neither Marta nor Eric looked mad at this in the least, in fact Marta looked rather giddy and Eric was quite content and preoccupied with his breakfast.
James stood and waited while she contemplated her decision, biting her lip and restlessly fixing her dress. She looked up at him a moment later. "Sure."
"Brilliant." He held out a hand and helped her to her feet. He didn't notice how her cheeks tinged pink at his actions.
"I'll see you at dinner then?" Juliet asked, checking once more that her friends were unbothered by her leave.
They nodded and wished her a happy birthday once again before waving her away.
James agreed to stopping by the Gryffindor tower so Juliet could grab her purse and a cardigan in case it became windy. He told her to hurry up all the while, knowing his friends were likely growing impatient and wondering what in the world was taking him so long to come meet them.
Their walk through the castle was quiet as James was busily engaged in the parchment he held, outlining all of Hogwarts, as he led them to the passageway. It was only until they were in the underground tunnel that Juliet had his attention.
"Can I ask why?" she said. "Is it because it's my birthday?"
James shrugged, told her to mind her step as there was a sudden dip in the earth beneath their feet and then replied, "Yeah. For whatever reason, you seemed to really want to go. I figure at least this way it'll be easy to blend you in with the other students."
She paused in her step. "You don't have to take me, James," she said. "I don't want to ruin your trip."
Hearing her footfalls halt, he looked over his shoulder. "You're not ruining my trip, Lettie," he said.
Juliet went to say something but he continued.
"Come on, we'll get you a...birthday...fudge or something," he promised.
She laughed, the sound true and melodic in the silence. "Surely someone will recognize me," she commented after a beat. "Won't the professors be around?"
"Just try not to bump into anyone," James told her. "Look down."
"It's going to be hard to keep from bumping into people when I'm staring at my own feet."
He sighed in exasperation. "Don't draw attention to yourself, alright?"
"I know that," she said. "Can we go to Tomes and Scrolls?"
"Sure."
"And Zonko's?"
"Of course."
"The Three Broom-"
"Yeah."
She fell silent. Clearly, James was not as excited as she was.
"Here." James stopped and handed her a piece of parchment. "Lily asked me to give this to you," he explained. "I think it's supposed to be a picture of you and her in a castle. And, well, either you're princesses or you're both having really bad hair days."
Juliet inspected the drawing closely, smiling at the unsteady lines and sharp print of the young girl's message to her. "Remind me to write her for this later," she said, laughing and tucking it away in her bag.
James nodded. "So, how does it feel to be a teenager?" he asked, if only to fill the silence.
"You tell me," Juliet replied. "I don't feel any different."
James chuckled. "You don't seem any different either," he told her. "Well, except for this rebellious bit you have going. Sneaking out of the castle for sweets and shopping. Am I corrupting you?"
"Hardly," she said.
She watched as he walked in front of her, running his hands along the cool walls of the tunnel and pushing off from one to the other as he went. Her eyes followed him as he went from side to side.
"I'm the same age as you now," she pointed out.
"For two months sure," he said.
It was a while before they finally reached the village. The walk was a long one but Juliet didn't mind. They passed the time with questions of "Would you rather…" and speculations on what their various professors enjoyed in their spare time.
Upon arriving in Hogsmeade, James bought her her promised fudge, her favourite flavour, and engraved the words 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' into it. He had begun writing her name as well, despite her protests against the nickname, when he ran out of space. She ate the 'LE' portion of the confectionary first, smirking smugly at him as she said thank you and shared.
After she had bought herself a sugar quill and a pack of Droobles to share, they left to meet Kurt, Max and Antony at the Three Broomsticks.
The rest of the day was spent enjoying chilled butterbeers and light snacks at the pub and then going around the shops. Juliet used the money she had received for her birthday that morning to purchase a couple of books from Tomes and Scrolls and went with the boys to Spintwitches even though she had no interest in the sporting goods.
Throughout the day, James was on the lookout for any passing students or professors and every once in a while either he or one of his mates would hide Juliet without warning. They spent quite some time in Zonko's while Professor Thatchet took up residence on a bench just outside and waved at all of the students and professors that walked by.
Juliet told them that they needn't stay with her, and that they could go on without her and she'd meet them later but James told her that wasn't necessary. He said that if they had to be stuck somewhere for a little while, Zonko's was rather favourable anyway.
She could tell that his friends weren't too happy at having to sneak a girl around Hogsmeade all day, but they were nice to her. She was christened Birthday Girl for the day by his three friends, and she certainly didn't mind the title. Max in particular made a great effort to talk to her, even going so far as to offer to walk back with her and James to the castle, and they never made her feel awkward about being there.
Their last stop in the village was the Shrieking Shack. As they stood staring at the old and rickety house, Juliet couldn't help but ask, "What makes it so scary?"
None of the boys seemed to know what to say to that until Antony sort shrugged and went, "Well, look at it."
Juliet did look at it. "All I see is a decaying shack," she said finally. "It's sad, if anything."
Max scratched his nose and Kurt rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "It's haunted," Max said. "They say there're spirits, angry spirits, in there."
"I hear they scream and yell and get violent at night," Kurt added.
Juliet absorbed this thoughtfully as she slipped on her cardigan. "Can we get closer?" she asked.
"Are you insane?" Kurt asked. "'Can we get closer?'" he quoted. "That's mental."
"Is this as close as you've ever gone?" she said in confusion, directing the question at James.
"This is as close as we'll ever get," James said.
"Well." Juliet looked at the three of them and their unmoving feet. "Not me," she decided. "I'm going to take a better a look." She made to move forward when James' arm came out in front of her and kept her where she was.
"No way," he said. He turned to see his friends' reactions. None of them looked like they were planning to move any closer. They stood right where they were, at what was deemed a safe distance from the haunted shack.
"Mate, what is she doing?" Max asked.
James' head turned back so fast he very well could have gotten whiplash. The thought didn't even cross his mind though as he saw Juliet moving away from them. She was strolling up to the house, arms swinging at her sides, as if it were nothing but a sweets shop.
"Oi!" he yelled. "Get back here!"
She glanced over her shoulder, stuck her tongue out at him childishly, and then continued on her way. She stopped a few metres from the structure and appraised it curiously.
"I'll give you a galleon to touch it," Kurt challenged.
"Don't encourage her," James snapped. He called a quick, "He's kidding," to her, but she paid no mind to this appendage.
Juliet looked back at him. "Why not?" she asked aloud to herself. She covered the few metres, raised a hand, and pressed her palm against the least rotten and moulding bit of the wood she could find. She waited then, for what she didn't know, before removing her hand and using it to wave back at them. The four stared with their mouths agape.
She sighed as she dusted her hand off and then stepped even closer to peer through the boarded up windows.
James moved as though he was going to stop her but hesitated.
Her slender fingers slipped through the space between the boards easily and she pulled the loosest of them free to get a better look. She could hear James calling for her to come back but ignored him.
She coughed as the dust came flying out at her and tried to clear the air before looking through the window. The most interesting thing she could see was a bit of furniture in the corner, but besides that it was all dust and cobwebs and rotting wood. In fact, she thought, if there was anything to fear about the shack, it was probably that it wouldn't stand much longer unless someone had placed charms on it. It seemed it was biodegrading into the very earth it sat upon.
Now, it was more than just James calling her back, his mates had joined in as well. With a sigh, she marched herself back to them, admittedly disappointed. "There isn't much to see," she reported.
James was glaring at the back of her head as she expectantly held out hand to Kurt. He slapped a galleon into her palm with a disbelieving laugh. She tossed the coin into her purse with a smirk.
"So," she said. "Back to school, then?"
She and James took the passageway back to the castle. James sent Max with Kurt and Antony, despite his willingness to go back through the tunnel. James argued that the more of them missing from the carriages, the more likely the professors were to notice something amiss. Nobody contradicted him and so it was just him and Juliet on the way back, just as they had arrived.
At her request, James allowed her to look at the map while they walked, taking it back from her once they reached the castle. Everyone was in the hall for supper, a good thing since it made leaving the passageway easier as the corridors were clear of people. They went straight to the Great Hall, parting at Gryffindor table as she went to sit with Marta and Eric, and Antony was flagging him down at the other end.
"Good birthday?" Marta asked, grinning as she helped herself to asparagus and Eric made room for Juliet.
She let out a tired and happy sigh as she sat next to her friend. "Mhm," she hummed. "The best."
A/N: Thank you so much for reading this. You have no idea how much of a pain this was. I kept trying to write on Doc Manager and it kept deleting everything when I went to save it. I have written the second half of this chapter three times. At any rate, I hope you enjoyed it and please let me know if there are any mistakes. I hope everyone who wanted to read this was redirected here from When in Doubt…Also, any suggestions or requests at this point are very welcome and will be at the very least considered. Thanks again!
Anyways,
Scarlett