Sweet Juliet

Chapter 10: Hogsmeade

She had never wanted to kill anyone in her life more than she did at that particular moment. The Gryffindor fourth years were in the middle of their study period, sitting at their long table in the Great Hall, and Harry and Ron were being exceptionally irritating.

Juliet had never seen Ron as angry as he had been the night Harry's name was pulled out of the Goblet of Fire. He thought that Harry intentionally put his name in the Goblet and didn't bother to tell him. Hermione and Juliet knew this was ridiculous, of course. Harry told Ron everything. He would have thought to mention it if he had found a successful way around the age line.

A week later, there they sat with Ron on the far left, Juliet to his right, Hermione next to her, and Harry the farthest from Ron that he could possibly be while still sitting with his other friends. The two boys kept shooting furtive glares at one another—though not quite furtive enough that the girls didn't see them.

"Would you two knock it off?" Juliet whispered sharply, her patience finally snapping. "You're being distracting." She was not looking forward to going to Hogsmeade with them the next day. At that moment, she would have rather jumped off a cliff.

"Oh yeah?" Ron's voice was acid. "Well maybe he's distracting me. Tell him to leave and there won't be a problem." Juliet resisted the urge to roll her eyes and opened her mouth to retort, but Harry beat her to it.

"If you're so distracted by my presence, then maybe you should leave," he said.

Hermione threw down her quill, paying no mind (for once) to the ink blot it left on her essay. "Oh, shut up, both of you. You're going to get us into trouble. Professor Snape hates you being around Juliet enough as it is, Harry, don't you two give him reason to keep her away."

Juliet glanced over her shoulder and, sure enough, her father was glaring at them down his nose. She pressed her lips together and turned back to her parchment. Ripping off a spare piece, she scrawled a note on it quickly.

If you don't shut up, my dad's going to have an anuerism. Don't make me make you sorry that you were born as males.

They glanced at the note, and Juliet smirked when they grew pale. They returned to their work silently as she ripped it up and threw the pieces in a side pocket of her bag. Neither boy talked for the rest of the period.

…

Juliet didn't particularly like eating in the Great Hall. It was crowded and loud, and she preferred not to have a bunch of sweaty boys and screeching girls pressed up against her while she attempted to eat. She chose to take her lunch to the Entrance Hall most days, and Neville and Luna usually joined her.

It was one of these such days, and Juliet was enjoying the eight different kinds of cheeses that she had picked up immensely.

"You know," said Luna, "my mother could never eat cheese. She was lactose intolerant."

"My Gran's sister is too," said Neville.

"I could never live without cheese," said Juliet. "It's the best thing in the world…next to chocolate, of course," she amended.

Luna smiled her far-off smile and her eyes sparkled dreamily. "Now that my mother could eat. She used to make the best desserts for me and Dad. Every night it was something different. Pies, cakes, cookies, all sorts of different candies…"

"Luna!" cried Juliet with a laugh. "Stop, you're making me crave chocolate so much!"

"Who's craving chocolate?" asked a voice from behind Juliet. Neville and Luna smiled and waved, so Juliet figured it was safe to look over her shoulder.

"Hey, Fred," she said brightly. "Wanna sit down with us?"

"Actually," he said, "I kind of needed to talk to you about something, Juliet. You got a minute?"

She nodded, but he didn't continue. She continued to watch him expectantly, and the atmosphere grew more awkward by the second.

"Erm…" said Neville hesitantly, "I think he meant alone, Juls."

Juliet could have slapped herself. No wonder he was just standing there saying nothing! A moment ago she was thinking that he looked a bit idiotic, but now she felt like the idiot.

"Oh, right," she said lamely and stood up, grabbing her bag. "I'll see you guys later," she called over her shoulder. Luna and Neville waved and returned to their lunches. She glanced back at them once more and saw Neville laugh at something Luna was saying. She took his hand and placed it palm up, trying to point something out on the lines there.

"So," said Fred, drawing her attention back to him when they turned a corner into an empty corridor. "Well, I know this is kind of last minute, but…would you maybe consider having lunch with me in Hogsmeade tomorrow? Like…erm, like a date, I suppose?"

Juliet bit her lip. Fred was nice and all, and she had to admit that she had noticed that he was somewhat handsome, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to go out with him. Well, that and her father wouldn't be too happy about her dating a Gryffindor.

She looked up at Fred, ready to say no in the kindest way she could think, but she stopped dead when she saw the way his eyes were shining hopefully, never once leaving her face. She sighed and gave in.

"All right. I'll have lunch with you. Meet me at the Three Broomsticks at noon?"

Fred beamed. "Of course. Thanks so much, Juliet."

"No problem," she laughed. "It'll give me a good chance to get away from your brother and Harry, anyway. Poor Hermione will have to deal with them on her own."

"What's their deal?" asked Fred. Juliet shrugged.

"I have to get to class," she said. "See you later."

….

By morning, Juliet was feeling extremely conflicted about her date with Fred. She got up and dressed without waking Hermione or their other roommates and headed down to the Great Hall. On her way, she almost ran smack into three people on the stairs.

She managed to stop herself just in time, but not before the boys in front of her whirled around, gazes and wands pointed at her menacingly. When she saw that it was Draco and his two "friends", Crabbe and Goyle, she rolled her eyes.

"Put those things away before you hurt yourselves."

Draco smirked and stowed his wand in his pocket. The others did the same. "Sorry, Juliet. Didn't know it was you."

She grinned a bit in spite of herself. "What's so secretive that you all have to be so jumpy anyway?"

"Now, now," said Draco playfully, "if I told you that, it wouldn't be a secret anymore."

"So get lost," said Goyle gruffly, glaring at her.

"Easy, boy," she said, not taking her eyes off of Draco. "Come on, tell me."

"All right," he said. "It wasn't really a big secret anyways. We were just trying to figure out how Potter managed to get his name in the Goblet of Fire." He spat Harry's name as though it would poison him if he let it stay on his tongue too long. "Got any idea, Juls?"

She shrugged. "No clue. I'm not even sure if Harry put his own name in at all. Could have been someone else. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you Draco?"

"Oh, ye of little faith," he said. "Don't worry, I wouldn't even want to be associated with someone who put Potter's name in the Goblet. The stupid boy always seems to have a way of making it out of things unharmed, and winning the Tournament would just inflate his already enormous ego."

"Draco," Juliet reprimanded with a frown, "I don't understand you sometimes. Harry really is very nice. I don't think he's bigheaded at all."

"Think whatever you want to think, Juliet." She pressed her lips together, just imagining the silent but I know more than you, that she was sure he had added. She sighed resignedly, not bothering to argue back. She wasn't in the mood to fight with Draco at that moment.

"Anyway," she said, "you wanna get some breakfast?"

"Sure, I'm starved. Crabbe, Goyle?"

They took one look at Juliet and looked as though they had swallowed a lemon. Draco took this as a no and shrugged. He hooked his arm with hers and they walked to the Great Hall together.

After breakfast (Juliet ate at the Slytherin table), she met up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the Entrance Hall. Despite the two girls' pleas that they try to get along, Harry and Ron were still not speaking to each other.

….

After just a half hour in Hogsmeade, Juliet was ready to wring their necks again. When they weren't openly sniping at each other, they were sending glares at whoever got in their way—more often than not, unfortunately, this happened to be Hermione or Juliet.

Finally, someone came to save them, about an hour before Juliet had to meet Fred for lunch.

"How's it going?" yelled Seamus, jogging up to them with Dean by his side.

"Oh, fabulously," said Hermione, every syllable dripping with sarcasm. Seamus didn't seem to catch on, because he only smiled wider.

"You wanna come check out Zonko's with us?" asked Dean.

Ron smirked. "Yeah, I'll go. See you later Hermione, Juliet."

Harry looked after the boys, making it utterly obvious that he would like nothing better than to go with them. Juliet punched his shoulder as hard as she could and then stood glaring, her hands on her hips. Harry jumped about ten feet in the air, then whirled around, scowling at Juliet.

"What the bloody hell was that for?"

"Come on, Harry," said Juliet, "everybody can tell that you want to go with them. Just try and make things right with Ron! It's not that difficult!"

"I won't apologize for something I didn't do," he said viciously, glaring at the place in the crowd Ron had just disappeared into.

"I didn't say apologize, Harry, I said make things right. At least try to sort things out with him. He's your best friend Harry, I would think you would want this stupid fight to end."

"And him too," said Hermione quickly before Harry could protest. "You're both being stupid. Just let's all be friends again, please."

Harry just scowled deeper, stubbornly refusing to respond. Hermione groaned and quickened her pace. Juliet raised her eyebrows at Harry, but he wouldn't look at her. If the two of them didn't get over their stupid little argument soon, she was going to pull all of her hair out.

…...

Juliet was never more grateful to see Fred than when she walked into the Three Broomsticks. Harry had gone off somewhere with Hermione and she was glad to be free of being the victim of Harry's surly attitude.

"I may kill your brother and Harry," she said huffily, plopping ungracefully down into the seat across from Fred. "They're worse than a pair of first year girls, the way they act when they're mad at each other."

Fred grinned. "Ron's always been like that. He and Ginny used to go at it all the time when they were younger. I thought they'd rip each others throats out."

"What's it like having so many siblings?" asked Juliet, picking up the menu in front of her. "I always thought it must be fun, having other children around all the time."

"Eh, it's all right, I suppose," said Fred. "Sometimes they can get on your last nerve, but I love my family. Even my crazy old Mum and my Muggle-loving Dad." Fred said 'Muggle-loving' so fondly that Juliet didn't think for a second that he was biased.

"I've met Percy, you and George and Ron, of course, and Ginny. Don't you have two other brothers?"

Fred nodded. "Bill and Charlie. Bill works for Gringotts and Charlie works with dragons in Romania. I think you'd like them. So, what's it like being Snape's daughter?"

Juliet didn't know whether to roll her eyes or laugh. Everyone seemed to think that she lived in a cave and her father slept in a coffin and didn't feed her or something like that. They didn't realize that her father really was a good man. He had saved her from the hell that was her mother's house and loved her all her life.

But she wasn't about to say all of that to Fred.

"Fred, my father isn't a bad person. He loves me very much."

Fred leaned back in his chair and gazed at her thoughtfully. "I didn't think Snape was capable of loving anything. But I suppose you would know better than I do."

They continued to talk like that as they ordered their food and ate it. Juliet found, a half hour later, that she was really enjoying herself. She was surprised, though she felt guilty about it. She hadn't thought Fred was her type, but he was actually very sweet.

Then the shouting started. "Why don't you make me, Potter?"

"Oh, good Lord," muttered Juliet under her breath. That was Ron's voice. She shot Fred a look that said I told you so.

Ron stormed up to the table she and Fred were sitting at, Harry hot on his heels. Hermione hung back across the room, her face buried in one hand. The entire room full of people were staring directly at Harry and Ron, not even trying to hide it.

"Juliet!" yelled Ron, his ears burning scarlet. "Tell him—he pointed an accusatory finger at Harry—that he's being a stupid prat, and if he wants me to forgive him he needs to own up to what he did!"

"I didn't do anything, you idiot!" snapped Harry, slamming a fist down on the table. A few drops of Juliet's pumpkin juice spilled out onto the clean white tablecloth.

"Let Juliet talk, Potter! She's going to agree with me. Granger might take your side, but Juliet obviously likes me more! She's on a date with my brother!"

That did it. Juliet shot up out of her chair, eyes burning murderously into Harry and Ron. "You think I went out with Fred to somehow prove to Harry that I like you better? That is the most idiotic, pathetic thing I have ever heard, Ron." Harry smirked, but it went away quickly when Juliet rounded on him. "And you! You should be trying to make things better, not worse by trying to get Hermione to take a side!"

"But—," Harry began, but Juliet cut him off.

"No! You've had the two of us in the middle of your fight too long! I don't know about Hermione, but I am done. Until you both grow up and stop acting like spoiled children, I'm not talking to either of you!" Without another word she grabbed her back from the chair she had hung it on and stormed out of the pub, letting the door slam shut behind her.

I need to talk to my dad…

The walk to the dungeons where Severus' office was located seemed to take forever, but she finally got there, slightly winded, but still too angry to notice. She was about to knock on the door, but the sound of gruff male voices from within stopped her.

"I know you've felt it too, Severus!" The voice sounded like Igor Karkaroff. "The Dark Lord is stirring! Look at the Mark on your arm!"

Juliet felt as though her blood had frozen cold and her heart refused to pump. Her father? Have the Dark Mark? No, it couldn't be. Her father was a good man, he would never have joined the Death Eaters… Yes, any second now he would throw Karkaroff out and report him to Dumbledore for trying to slander Severus' name.

"I'll tell you this one last time, Karkaroff," he said, and Juliet let out a sigh of relief, "we are not to speak of such things. If Dumbledore or the Dark Lord found out, we'd both be dead."

She couldn't move. She couldn't even breathe. Her father was a Death Eater. All of the students who hated him had been right all along.

Severus Snape was evil.