A Weasley Kind of Romance

Chapter Two: Mouth

-Juliet- (Fourth year)

To say the least, Fred Weasley made my life at Hogwart's a living torment. On the very first day of classes, he told me he knew a shortcut to get to my defense against the dark arts class. He led me into some secret passageway he knew about, and told me to just keep going straight, until you find a door.

I followed his instructions, and when I opened the door, a wave of water gushed out and completely soaked my robes. Not only that, but as I stood in the doorway, dripping, screams erupted from above me and I heard a teacher bellow "GET OUT!" I registered where I was the instant the door was slammed in my face; the teacher's bathroom.

Soaked, I stumbled to Professor Quirrell's classroom and mumbled a pathetic explanation to him. He nodded bleakly and, stuttered, "Miss Clearwater, I'm-I'm a-f-f-f-raid I- I'm g-g-oing to ha-v-v-v-e to s-s-subtract ten…ah… points for late, um, -lateness."

The class glared at me, and a bushy-haired girl in the front row frowned disapprovingly at me.

That was just the first spell. In my second year, Fred dropped water balloons full of botuber pus on my head; and paid Peeves to run down the hallway shouting to anyone that I, Juliet Clearwater, had a crush on Harry Potter. Blushing, I cleared this up with Harry later, who just smiled awkwardly.

Third year, he jinxed me with a spell that made me scream "I LOVE YOU!" to anyone who touched me. And he also bewitched my textbooks to scream insults at me in class (Are you part pixie?) or (Your Mum is so ugly even a dementor wouldn't kiss her.). And, oh, how could I forget, there was the time Fred put an exploding snap card in my omelet. I was picking egg bits out of my hair for the rest of the day.

I thought he would never be able to outdo himself, and, surely, there were no more tricks, spells, charms, hexes, or jinxes he could do. I was mistaken.

"Bonne Matin, Juliet!" The Beauxbatons girl who I had come to befriended waved me over to her table.

"Hi, Claire." I sat down next to her and reached for a plate.

She turned towards me and I saw her eyes were alight and glowing. "Your friend, ze one who- ah, play ze tricks on you-"

I nearly choked on my pumpkin juice. "FRED? He is not my friend."

"Oh, desolee, well, he asked me to ze ball! I am soo happy!" She exclaimed. This time, I really did sputter out my pumpkin juice. Claire wrinkled up her petite nose at the mess.

"Claire, that's, uh, fantastic! Really, absolutely excellent! GREAT!" Penelope told me I was a rotten liar, and she was right.

She smiled at me, eyes twinkling. I felt quite guilty for feeling so…oh goodness, I wasn't jealous, was I? No, of course I wasn't. For Heaven's sake, I didn't fancy Fred Weasley. Maybe he would finally get off my back.

"Zere he is!" She lifts her head and points her chin towards a red-headed Weasley striding into the great hall. He has a dreadful smirk on his face, and I instantly know that's not George Weasley. Only Fred smirks like that.

"Oh, Claire, that's not Fred, that's his twin brother, you see-" Just as I'm explaining the confusion to her, a large brown owl swoops over the Gryffindor table and drops a red envelope on my plate.

I instantly scoot back from the table. My chair makes a loud screeching noise and all the eyes in the Great Hall snap up, towards me.

"Oh…no…"

The red envelope begins to sizzle.

"Is zat a 'owler?" Claire's nose is wrinkled again.

"That's a Howler, all right." Seamus yells.

"Open it, Clearwater." Another Gryffindor urges.

"I got one from my Gran once…I didn't open it…it was awful." Neville shakes his round face sadly.

Fingers trembling, I peel open the Howler. A pair of chapped lips emerge from the envelope, and, oh my word, I recognize those lips. My twelve- year old self fantasized about kissing those lips.

"Juliet?" A man's voice, strained yet stern. "I hate to be so terribly rude, but I'm afraid you have encroached upon my personal life for far too long. As a first year, it was tolerable, and I was patient. You were only twelve, and I couldn't bring myself to break your heart."

No, no, no. Please dear no. He's not yelling, but it's worse than that. His voice is horrifyingly calm, yet stern. It echoes across the entire school, forks poised in midair, all eyes fixed towards the small Gryffindor girl who just got a Howler.

"As time, went on, however, you became more persistent. Lately, your constant invitations to the Yule Ball have put my job, yes, my job, at jeopardy. Fudge threatens to hex the next owl that comes swooping into my office bearing the silvery invitation. And, surely, Juliet, you do realize I can NOT possibly leave my job and travel to Hogwart's just to attend a silly, trivial, ball? I have much more important things on my mind.

"Oh, yes, how could I forget, how dare YOU intervene with my relationship with Penelope? When you were younger, Penny and I were able to laugh at how you fancied me, but now, Penny threatens to end our engagement due to your jealous streaks. All I ask of you, Juliet, is that you PLEASE leave me alone, or I just might write to Mrs. Clearwater. I'm afraid I do not have the time nor the patience to deal with a little girl like you. Your feelings for me have crossed the line from flattering to harassment. I beg of you to stop before you embarrass us both."

I want to die. I want to die. I want to die. My face hurts and I try to swallow the lump that's building in the back of my throat.

"Best of wishes, Percy Weasley, Assistant to the Minster of Magic." The letter hisses and collapses in a mound of ashes on the table. Snorts of laughter ring around the room.

Percy Weasley?

Oi, Clearwater got a massive crush?

Juliet, I didn't know you fancied Percy!

How desperate are you?"

Tears pool in my eyes and I fight them down. I rush out of the Great Hall and into the first empty classroom I see, locking the door behind me with a charm. I feel so utterly stupid, crying and sobbing in a Hogwart's classroom, but never in my ENTIRE life have I ever been humiliated like that.

My stomach hurts, I can feel my breakfast rising. I lean over the wastebasket and vomit. The whole school knows; they know you fancy Percy Weasley. Even worse, they know exactly how he feels about you; he positively hates you.

I couldn't imagine a more dreadful situation, unless death eaters stormed the castle. Actually, I wish death eaters would storm the castle so this whole incident could be forgotten.

How could Percy do something like that? How could he?

Oh. My. Percy wouldn't do something like that. Percy would never ever mortify me in front of the entire school. But someone would. Hot, white rage boils in my veins.

"Expulso!" I feel the ground shake. The door blasts inwards with a massive blast.

There he is. That idiotic imbecile!

I don't even have time to register the guilty expression on Fred Weasley's face before I lunge at him.

SMACK. The sound of my palm slapping his face echoes across the empty classroom.

I stand there, frozen, my chest heaving, rage and anger pouring out of me. His face is unreadable. We are rooted to the spot. My eyes are boring into his guilty- looking brown ones.

"Listen, Juliet, I'm sorry, I swear, I didn't know it was a Howler, I thought-"

"I don't care what you thought." My voice is freakishly calm.

"It's not as bad as it seems-"

His pathetic words trigger the rage in me.

"HOW DARE YOU? YOU- YOU ARSE! JUST WHEN I THOUGHT YOU COULD BE ANY WORSE-"

Fred puffs some air into his cheeks and looks around, bored. I want to strangle him.

-Fred-

At first, I tried apologizing and explaining the situation, but then I realized it was no use. She looked murderous.

"LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU, FRED WEASLEY!"

I thought about mentioning how much she sounded like my mother, but decided against it. Slowly, I dragged my eyes across her face, until I met her burning hazel eyes, magnetized by her scrutiny.

"YOU! YOU ARE AN INCONSIDERATE LITTLE- she was positively seething, and I relished the sight of her being so livid. "YOU'VE OUTDONE YOURSELF THIS TIME, !"

She looked quite cute when she was angry. Her face was a brilliant red color, and her eyes turned darker. She even had her hands on her hips, and for a moment, she looked like my Mum. Only younger and better-looking.

"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME? YOU ARE AN IDIOTIC, SELFISH IMBECILE-"

Merlin, she was screaming at the top of her lungs, the whole hallway was frozen and listening.

"I DIDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING TO YOU! AND FOR SOME SATONIC REASON YOU STILL FIND IT SO DARN AMUSING TO PICK ON ME AND MAKE MY LIFE ABSOLUETLY MISERABLE-"

I decided not to explain the reason why I still "found it so darn amusing to pick on her", because, honestly, I didn't know myself.

"Hey, Juliet," I mock-whispered, leaning towards her, "The whole castle can hear you."

"I DON'T CARE IF THE WHOLE BLEEDING CASTLE CAN HEAR ME! YOU-"

She was close, awfully close now. Little wisps of hair had fallen out of her normally-neat hairstyle and were framing her face. She was biting her bottom lip while she sucked in her cheeks, breathing heavily.

"Alright, alright! I am truly sorry for the Howler, but I promise, I didn't know it was a Howler! The lady at Zinko's told me it was a simple letter, and if it hadn't of been a Howler, it might have been funny, and I did do a swell job at making him sound, pompous, didn't I?"

Her eyes widened and she froze. She was biting her lip awfully hard, it looked like it was about to bleed. Her eyes watered, oh please Merlin, don't let her cry.

"SHUT UP! SHUT YOUR MOUTH FRED WEASLEY! DON'T- " With that last scream, her voice cracked and she quite literally, burst into tears, before I was able to point out that she was the one with her mouth wide open. Something wormed its way into my stomach, but I pushed it back down…it felt like guilt.