Chapter 3

There were four other teenagers sitting at the table, when the girls entered the kitchen. All of them were red-heads. Three boys and one girl. Two of the boys looked absolutely identical. "Good Morning!", Hermione and Juliet greeted when they entered the room and Hermione went on:

"Juliet let me introduce to you some members of the Weasley family. This is Ginny." Ginny extended her right hand and Juliet shook it.

"and these are Fred and George.", Hermione said.

"Pleasure to meet you.", both said in unison, when Juliet shook their hands.

"And this is Ron.", Hermione pointed at the last boy with red hair, who was pretty busy with his breakfast.

-Pesur-, he mumbled.

"Ron this is DISGUSTING,", Hermione shrieked. Juliet grinned widely.

"Anyway.", Hermione went on with a scowl on her face. "This guys, is Juliet!"

Hermione and Juliet sat down beside Ginny. Juliet helped herself to some bacon and scrambled egg. Now she could understand why Ron was always stuffing his face when Mrs Weasley had cooked, it was delicious. They all had breakfast silently. Juliet was silently wondering where Harry was, but she figured that he still had to be in Sirius' old room and she wasn't too keen on facing him again. When everyone was finished they could hear some talking in the hallway, it seemed that the order meeting had just finished.

Sure enough some order members entered the kitchen. Four men and two women. One of the women was Mrs Weasley, the other one was still pretty young and Juliet gasped when she saw that suddenly her hair colour went from red to green. When she felt Juliet's eyes on her she quickly extended her hand.

"Hi! I'm Tonks.", she said.

"Nice to meet you, Tonks. I'm Juliet." Then she went to help Mrs Weasley clean the table and she promptly smashed some of the dishes.

The four men were still standing in the kitchen, eying Juliet all with different expressions on their faces. One short man with red hair looked at her very friendly and warmly smiling. Juliet assumed him to be Arthur Weasley. The next one just seemed to be absent minded, because he seemed to be brambling to himself. He had a scarred face and one of his legs was replaced by a wooden stick, while one of his eyes was obviously magically. This had to be Mad-Eye Moody. The next man's expression was hard to read. He seemed to be kind of surprised, but at the same moment very happy. Only his eyes showed some tiredness and sadness Juliet had never thought she could see in one man's eyes. This man had light red hair and was wearing a tattered cloak. Juliet assumed him to be Professor Lupin. The last man's expression was very easy to read though it quite startled Juliet. The last man looked very shocked and utterly disgusted at the same time. His eyes were showing so much loathing, which Juliet had never seen before. His black hair was very filthy. She knew who it had to be and Lupin told her in his next statement that she was right. He too had seen the man's facial expression and he elbowed him slightly and muttered under his breath:

"Leave her alone Snape!"

Snape – she had never liked the portion teacher while reading the books and she didn't like him anymore now after setting eyes on him in real life. She understood now why James and the rest of the Marauders and Harry for that fact never liked him, she didn't like him either, there was just something about him that absolutely disgusted her, so she stared back at him with all the serenity she had. Snape noticed that and quickly looked away. Mrs Weasley who didn't seem to have notice any of that started to introduce all of the male order members to Juliet, unnecessarily as it turned out since Juliet had guessed correctly. Snape just nodded at her, while Moody shook her hand his face unmoving. Arthur Weasley was practically beaming when he was introduced to the girl but it was Lupin that surprised her mostly.

She expected him to be just sad or to have a bad temper since he just lost his best friend he ever had a few weeks ago but she had never expected him to act the way towards her like he did. He smiled warmly at her and squeezed her hand a bit as if he wanted to say:

"Don't worry, it will be alright."

After all the kids were done with their breakfast Hermione showed Juliet the way to the study, where Dumbledore was waiting for her. Hermione excused herself and made her way back upstairs to join her friends. Juliet was left standing in front of a closet door. She breathed deeply. She was very nervous. In a way she admired Dumbledore or better to say she respected him at least she had, but since she had read about Sirius and Dumbledore's failure in saving him, she had shared Harry's anger. Sirius had been one of her most beloved characters in the story and now since she was just inside it, she could feel the pain more clearly, it was at least some of the pain that Harry had to be feeling. When Juliet had read about Sirius' death she had spend nights crying over it, she almost had felt as if she had lost a close friend. And now in a way she had. She shook her head angrily. She didn't want to think about that right now and besides that was stupid she had never even met Sirius.

Juliet suddenly realized that she was still standing in front of the shut door and that her new headmaster was probably waiting just inside and it wouldn't be wise to let him wait. She sighed one last time and bravely opened the door and stepped in. Dumbledore was obviously studying a piece of parchment; she could see some sort of family tree on it. He quickly put it away when he noticed her.

"Oh hello Juliet", he said pleasantly. "It's so nice of you to join me. I am Albus Dumbledore as you already might have guessed."

"I know.", Juliet answered stiffly. "Hermione told me that you wanted to see me. So here I am."

"Why don't you have a seat?", Dumbledore asked and pointed towards a chair at the other side of the desk.

"Sure.", Juliet answered and sat down. She ran her hand through her hair, but she didn't even notice it, since she always did this when she was nervous. And now she definitely was nervous. Dumbledore seemed friendly but also very serious, as if he was going to say something very unpleasant or important or maybe both?

Dumbledore sighed.

"I think I owe you an explanation. Where shall I start?", Dumbledore asked as if he was talking to himself.

"I guess at the beginning would be helpful.", Juliet had found her courage again, Dumbledore chuckled.

"You are right. At the beginning. So tell me Juliet, what do you know about your parents?", he asked. Juliet was caught off guard, she hadn't expected this question.

"Well.", she said and silently asked herself how much she could tell him, but after all this was Dumbledore so she decided to tell him the plain truth.

"Well, I lived with them since I was born. My mum seemed always a bit quiet but it was my dad I had the most problems with. I just...well...didn't get along with him. We didn't seem to share a lot... So I wasn't too sad when you decided to take me away from there..." Juliet didn't speak any further; she had suddenly noticed the change in Dumbledore's face. He seemed very sad now.

"I thought you would say that.", Dumbledore said quickly. "Juliet I need to ask you this. Do you want to know the truth? Are you prepared for the whole truth? Once I told you there will be no going back." Juliet didn't take too long to decide, after all her life until now had been a total crap, so how worse could it get?

"Yes Sir.", she said quietly but strongly. "I want to know the whole truth."

Dumbledore nodded gravely.

"I thought so. So about your parents. The people you grew up with weren't your real parents."

Juliet felt as if someone had hit her very hard against the head. This bit of information was hard to swallow, but she decided not to interrupt Dumbledore and so the headmaster went on: "Your real parents died when you were just around one year old, actually they were killed. They were wizard and witch as you might have guessed. We, that is me and the order of the phoenix decided that you should grow up far away from this world. We wanted to keep you safe."

This all sounded strangely familiar to Juliet but she still didn't speak. Dumbledore went on: "You even got a brother. I see now that it was wrong to separate you both since the two of you had truly needed each other but it is now he needs you most. That's the reason I sent for you. You are the only one who might be able to help him since he had a pretty tough life until now. He..."

But Juliet had heard enough, suddenly she couldn't sit still anymore, she jumped up and started pacing, she ran her fingers through her hair and started to speak, she didn't even notice that her voice was trembling.

"Ok, Sir let me get the facts straight. I am about to turn sixteen, my parents were killed when I was one year old, that meant you had heaps of time, no a hell lot of time to tell me the truth, but you decided not to, to keep me safe...I understand, it's hard but I do. Then you are telling me that my mum and my dad were witch and wizard. I even understand this...I even like this. But! This would make me part of the magical community and it would mean since I am not a squib (after all you accepted me to Hogwarts now!) that some magical people could have raised me, but ok I understand this wouldn't have been safe alright. But does keeping people safe in your language means to give them a life like hell? I beg your pardon, but this is what you did to me and after all I know this is what you did to Harry Potter, not that he has anything to do with that...!"

She was interrupted by Dumbledore's calm voice.

"But he does, he has a great deal to do with this. See, Harry is your brother, actually your twin. Half twin I should say."

"He is WHAT?", Juliet managed to croak out but then something clicked in her brain. She now fully understood Dumbledore's plans and it made her even angrier.

"This is getting better and better. YOU DIDN'T EVEN CARE ABOUT ME ONE BIT WHEN YOU SENT ME OFF, BUT NOW THAT YOUR WONDER BOY IS GETTING IN TROUBLE YOU SUDDENLY REMEMBER ME? YOU MUST BE KIDDING! DUMBLEDORE YOU MADE MY LIFE HELL, I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHO I TRULY WAS UNTIL NOW. AND THE ONLY REASON YOU TOLD ME IS HARRY POTTER!" Juliet couldn't take it anymore, she spun around and left the room. When she bolted up the stairs she didn't notice the Extendable Ears which were being pulled in from upstairs. Tears were dwelling up in her eyes now and she didn't watch where she was going. She opened some door and just stormed inside, not wanting to see anybody.

She stopped short when she heart some loud angry voice.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING IN HERE? GET OUT!", Juliet recognized Harry's voice and though it was dark in the room now she could even make out Harry's features in the dark. But Harry was the last person she wanted to see right now and right now she was having a really bad temper.

"STOP SCREAMING AT ME, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE. WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU? YOU ACT LIKE A SPOILED BRAT. IF YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED THERE ARE ALSO OTHER PERSONS IN THIS WORLD BESIDE THE FAMOUS HARRY JAMES POTTER. I AM SICK OF YOU! I AM SICK OF EVERYBODY. DID YOU JUST LEARN THAT YOU NEVER KNEW YOUR PARENTS? DID YOU JUST LEARN THAT ALL YOU KNEW ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY WAS A LIE? NO YOU DIDN'T! YOU HAVE SOME WONDERFUL FRIENDS WHO REALLY CARE ABOUT YOU BUT YOU DON'T EVEN BOTHER TO LISTEN TO THEM. HARRY JAMES POTTER, I AM SICK OF YOU."

She turned around again and flew from the room, she had started crying again, she was running up the staircase until she found some empty room, it was all full of dust but she didn't care. She locked the door and flung herself on the bed, sobbing very hard.

Harry was still stunned. He had have experience in the past with crying girls, heck he had thought he knew all about them since he had been together with Cho. But he had never had a girl screaming at him like this. Sure Hermione and Ginny could get mad but not that mad, after all he was strangely reminded of his own raging when he had heard her screaming. He had realized that they had about the same temper.

While the girl's word now slowly began to sink in, Harry felt ashamed of himself. The girl clearly had had a point. Since he had been picked up from the Dursleys early this summer, he had just spent one week over there, he had been acting like a brat. The thoughts of Sirius had made him sad and irritated and he had made sure that all his surroundings had noticed. He had locked himself up since he had arrived at Grimmauld Place and had refused to talk to anyone.

And then Dumbledore had brought this girl in. He didn't know anything about her, just that she seemed awfully familiar and that she had a really bad temper once she was set up. The first time he had met her was when he found her on his way back from the bathroom strolling around in Sirius' old bedroom and his temper had gotten the better of him. He already regretted this.

By now he had realized that the girl could have been just lost or just wanted to get to know the house. This second meeting though had puzzled him most. Harry had realized now that he had completely messed this one up. The girl had already been crying when she entered the room and instead of comforting her, he had screamed at her again. But he hadn't expected that she would scream back. This was exactly what he had needed. It had brought him back to his senses after his long period of depression.

There was a soft knocking on the door. Maybe it was her?

"Yes?",Harry said."Please enter" And in came Hermione, Ron, Ginny and the twins.

"Sorry to disturb you Harry.", Hermione said a little bit frightened. It gave Harry a sting into his heart seeing his best friends standing at the door, looking scared. Scared of him.

"No guys. I am sorry. Sorry that I didn't have a grip on myself once I came here. And I am sorry for screaming at you guys, I know now that you just wanted to comfort me, but I was just depressed."

The five of them looked at each other confused. They had never expected this. All of them stepped inside the room. Harry went over to them. Ginny and Hermione hugged him, while Ron, Fred and George just shook his hand.

"It's good to have you back mate.", Ron said. "It's good to have you back."