Sweet Juliet

Chapter 21: The Unbreakable Vow

(A/N: Quite the Severus-filled chapter, lovlies! Sorry for the long wait! Enjoy, and everyone have a happy holiday! I'm going to try and get the next chapter done tonight, and have it up by tomorrow. Review please!

Lacewing flies, leeches, powdered bicorn horn, knotgrass, fluxweed, shredded boomslang skin, cherries, and a bit of the person you want to turn into. Juliet mentally reviewed the ingredients, trying to figure out everything she would have to steal from her father. The word "steal" still chilled her blood. She didn't want to do this—at all—but she was more terrified of what would happen if she didn't than the wrath of her father if she was caught.

She sat in the common room the day after she was assaulted by Moody's imposter, absentmindedly biting the tip of her quill. The fake Moody had ordered her to go to her father's private stores at midnight that night and bring him the ingredients immediately. He had told her that she would be free in the morning to go and watch the third task, but she had a sinking feeling that it wouldn't be that easy.

It was eleven o'clock, and the common room was surprisingly empty. She supposed everyone had wanted to get to bed early before the last task the next morning. Her mind on other things, Juliet scarcely registered the footsteps descending from the boys' dormitory.

"Juls?" called a familiar voice. "What are you still doing up?"

She looked quickly over her shoulder. "Oh, hey Harry. I've...just got a lot on my mind, that's all. Nothing to worry about."

Harry sat down beside her, eyebrows raised. "Juliet, I consider us good friends. I think I would know when something's wrong. You can tell me, you know. Something happen with Mal—er, with your boyfriend?"

Juliet could have laughed. She'd forgotten all about her plans with Draco—he would probably not be too happy with her—and thinking that her distress now could be attributed to something as trivial as relationship problems was...almost comical.

"No," she said, the corners of her lips twitching. "It's not Draco. I guess I'm just...a bit behind on schoolwork. It's rather overwhelming."

Harry held up his hands in defeat. "Hey, you don't want to tell me right now. I can respect that. Will you tell me when you can, though?"

Juliet smiled a full smile this time, glad for his understanding. "That I can promise, Harry." She squeezed his hand. "Have I ever told you what a wonderful friend you are?" He just grinned as if to say that he knew. She rolled her eyes.

"So, are you nervous about the task tomorrow?" she asked.

"Don't remind me," Harry groaned, running a hand down his face. "I wish they would tell us what it is, so I could prepare somehow. I've thought about it, but I haven't the slightest clue what it could be. To be honest with you, Juls, it scares the hell out of me."

"That's completely understandable, Harry. No one blames you for being afraid. I would be too." He simply shrugged, not affirming her statement one way or the other. They sat there on the couch for a long while, trying to talk about trivial things to keep each others' minds off of what they were really thinking about. Juliet was truly glad to have a friend like Harry Potter. She wished he and Draco didn't hate each other so much.

Much sooner than she would have liked, it was ten to midnight. She had to get Harry out of the common room.

"You should get to bed, you know. You've got quite a task tomorrow...pun intended." Harry only smiled, though Juliet could tell he knew that she was trying to get rid of him. He offered no protest.

"Goodnight, Juliet. And...good luck. With your, er, schoolwork."

She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "Thanks, Harry. Goodnight."

She left the common room a few moments later, hidden as best as she could be. She didn't have an Invisibility Cloak like Harry, and didn't dare ask to borrow it to avoid arousing suspicion, but she did know how to put a Disillusionment Charm on her own cloak. If she was quiet and careful, even the eagle-eyed Filch and Mrs. Norris wouldn't be able to spot her.

The journey from Gryffindor Tower to her father's office in the dungeons was a long one, and it gave her ample opportunity to think. For the first time in a long time, she had been consistently wishing to work things out with her father. She missed him a great deal, and was finally willing to hear him out and try to forgive him.

But now, it appeared she would never have the chance. If she wasn't caught, she would feel too guilty to even look her father in the face. If she was caught, well...she didn't even want to think about it. Either way, rebuilding a relationship with her father remained firmly out of her grasp.

She wondered vaguely where she would go once the school year ended.

Soon, far too soon, she had reached the door to her father's classroom, beyond which lay his private stores. The fake Moody had everything he needed except for three ingredients—lacewing flies, fluxweed, and shredded boomslang skin. That was all she had to steal. Five minutes, and then she could try to forget about it. Provided he didn't kill her.

She shuddered to think about how he got a piece of the real Moody.

The door to the Potions classroom creaked a bit when she opened it, and though it was rather quiet, the noise was like thunder in her ears. Juliet crossed the classroom quickly as with as little sound as possible. There it was, right in front of her. The door to her father's private stores.

"Alohamora," she whispered. The lock clicked softly and sucking in a deep breath, bracing herself for the worst, she pushed the door open...

Nothing happened. Everything remained deadly silent and if Juliet strained her ears, she could catch the faint sound of her father's low, even breathing from behind the closed door of his private chambers. She clenched her fists, fighting the urge to just turn and run back to Gryffindor Tower before it was too late, and stepped forward into the tiny, closet-like room.

She almost wished some sort of curse would set off a blaring alarm and give her away. Anything to save her from this guilt.

She knew right where Severus kept the ingredients she was looking for. In the back corner, close to the ceiling, relatively near each other. She climbed the ladder, one hand on the small bag concealed in her cloak. Any sane person in her situation would have rather kept a tight grasp on their wand, but she knew she could never pull a wand on her father.

Twelve lacewing flies, in the bag. Shredded boomslang skin...a good amount of fluxweed. There. It was done, and she could leave. Take the ingredients to the fake Moody, and then pray with all her might that he let her live.

One step down the ladder, two...

"Petrificus totalus." The curse hit her in the back with the force of a punch. Her whole body went rigid and she began to fall from the tall ladder, unable to try and stop herself or even scream...

Then, suddenly, a strong pair of arms caught her. The familiar smell of cranberry hand soap, bought by her as a Christmas present every year, was unmistakable. She couldn't turn to see her father, but she could feel his ragged, enraged breathing against her side. He laid her down on the ground and she was able to look up at him. He couldn't see who she was yet, as she was still hidden behind the Disillusioned cloak, but fury raged in his black eyes and his nostrils were flared.

He ripped the hood of the cloak back from over her and suddenly those eyes, still angry, widened and were touched with hurt.

He raised his wand once more and, taking in a shaking breath, muttered the counter-curse.

"Finite incantatem." As soon as she was able to move again, she began shaking with fear. All hope was gone in that instant.

"Juliet," he whispered. "What the hell are you doing?"

At the sound of his voice, concern slightly overpowering the anger, realization hit her. This was her father. Whether he was or had been a Death Eater or whatever was going on, he was still her father. He had protected her for her entire life, and he could protect her now. If she just explained things to him, he would know what to do. He loved her, and he would always know what to do.

She felt like an idiot for taking so long to realize it.

"Professor Moody is an imposter," she blurted out in a rush before he could say another word. "I mean, the man who we've all thought is Professor Moody isn't really him. He's been using Polyjuice Potion." Juliet scrambled to her feet, grabbing his hand and holding it as though her life depended on it. She felt just like a little girl having one of her nightmares again, and it made her want to cry. "Dad, you've got to help me. I...I'm so sorry about the awful things I said to you, I just..." She couldn't hold it in any more, and all the tears she had been holding back during the weeks since their falling out flooded out of her.

She expected him to just get up and leave or to reprimand her or something, and she wouldn't have blamed him if he did. Instead, he did the last thing she expected.

He took her in his arms, as if she really was a little girl again, and stroked her hair, trying to calm her down. "Juliet," he murmured. "Just tell me what happened. Everything will be all right, just tell me what's going on." If it had been any other time, she would have been overjoyed. She had her father back, and nothing was different. Everything could return to the way it was. Now, though, she was too busy fearing for her life and worrying that she had made a grave mistake and endangered her father's too by telling him.

She took a deep breath, pushing these thoughts away. He had to know.

"I was on my way to talk to you," she said shakily, "to try and work things out." He smiled slightly at that, but it quickly disappeared as she continued to explain. She told him about how she stumbled across the fake Moody and how he had threatened her and given her the task of stealing the ingredients. Fury filled Severus' eyes when she told him about the fake Moody's physical abuse, but he fought to keep it off his face so he didn't frighten Juliet even more.

"What do I do?" she whispered when she had finished her recounting. "He's expecting me there with the ingredients any minute."

Severus thought for a moment. "You're going to take them to him."

"What? Dad, he'll kill me!"

He grabbed her hands and held them tight. "I won't let him, Juliet. Listen to me. If you don't bring him what he wants, he will go after your friends, and I know you don't want that. I'll go with you and if he tries anything, if his hand even so much as twitches towards a wand, I'll stun him and you run. I need to figure out who he is."

She didn't want to bring it up, but she figured there was no way around it. "If you're a...Death Eater...doesn't that mean he's on your side?"

Severus looked away. "I'll explain all of that later, Juliet. I just need you to trust that I am the man you have always known me to be. Nothing less, nothing more."

She nodded. "I believe you."

Severus performed a—much sturdier—Disillusionment Charm on his own cloak, donning it and following Juliet out of the Potions classroom. She led the way to an empty classroom near Dungeon eleven, where she had been instructed to meet the fake Moody. It didn't take long to get there and, as ordered, she knocked seven times, each knock three seconds after its predecessor. After a moment of undisturbed silence save for the pounding of her heart, the door opened.

The fake Moody looked like hell. Even worse than when she first met him. His nearly translucent skin was covered with a thin film of sweat, and the dark circles under his eyes were more pronounced than they had been. His eyes kept flitting around nervously, probably looking to see if Juliet had brought anyone with her. She prayed that her father remained perfectly still and undetected.

"Do you have what I asked for?" His voice was raspy and strained.

She held out the small bag wordlessly, her small hand appearing from inside the Disillusioned cloak. He snatched it away from her, looking inside and taking stock of its contents. Then he fixed her with his bone-chilling leer once more.

"Thank you so much, Miss Snape. You've been of great help to me, but I'm afraid I can't risk you running off and telling anyone what you know."

She could almost feel her father's muscles tense at the same time as her own.

"You can't kill me," she said, trying to sound brave. She willed her father to stay still.

The fake Moody got very close to her face. "Don't you think I know that?" His cold hand closed around her wrist. "It would be too suspicious. No, I can't kill you, but I can force you to keep my secret."

Her eyes widened. She knew exactly what he meant.

He was going to make her take the Unbreakable Vow.

…...

"I'm going to kill that man." Severus was almost as enraged as the time Juliet left the castle and returned to Spinner's End, but this time it wasn't directed at her. Even so, it was rather frightening.

"Dad," she said, trying to soothe him, "there was nothing you could do. As long as he didn't try to hurt me, you promised to stay out of sight. We'd have much bigger problems if you'd given yourself away." Severus only glared at the door, not responding to her.

Taking the Unbreakable Vow hadn't been nearly as bad as Juliet had expected. She had thought it would hurt or be uncomfortable in some way, but the only discomfort she felt was the close physical proximity to the fake Moody.

"Who was that man, Dad?"

He glanced at her, trying to keep his anger under control. "His name is Barty Crouch Jr."

"Mr. Crouch's son?"

"Yes."

Juliet thought about that. Mr. Crouch had been more or less a nice man, if not a little odd. He worked for the Ministry, and she never would have suspected that the fake Moody was related to him.

"So what does this mean?" she asked, fear starting to creep up and replace her shock.

"It means you can never reveal that the man who everyone assumes to be Alastor Moody to be an imposter. Or...or you'll die."

"That shouldn't be so hard, right? I just won't talk about it."

Severus grabbed her shoulders and shook her just the tiniest bit, his eyes wide. "Juliet, listen to me. You must be very, very careful. You make even the smallest slip, and it's over. There's no way to go back on an Unbreakable Vow."

She blinked. "Then I guess I'll just have to watch what I say."

Severus sighed and she hugged him around the middle. "I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you, Juliet. I just got you back. I don't want to lose you."

"You're not going to lose me, Dad. Never again. I love you."

"I love you too, Juliet."

When she returned to Gryffindor Tower and was finally settled in her bed, Juliet tried to make sense of the emotions swirling around in her. She was happy, of course, to have her father back. She was confused about why she was suddenly so willing to forgive him for what he was. Most of all, though she refused to show it, she was afraid of what would happen if she did slip up.

The third task was in just a few hours. She hoped with every part of her being that Barty Crouch Jr. wouldn't succeed in what he was sure to be doing—trying to kill Harry.

No. She wouldn't let that happen. She would die before that happened.

(Nice long chapter, my dears. REVIEWWWWW!)