THE LOVER AND THE BELOVED // remus lupin

00. JULIET AND JAMES POTTER

But Juliet didn't know when she started noticing that she was fifth-wheeling the boys.

It quite hit her like lightning the second James did his first prank without her. And with them.

She hated those boys for slowly taking her twin away. She hated James for letting them. She hated Sirius because he was always pulling James with him wherever he went. She hated Peter because he looked like a puppy, following her brother around like he was some sort of divinity.

And she hated herself because no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't bring herself to hate the guy with the coffee colored eyes.

Suddenly, she hated the place everyone else considered home. She just wanted to go back to how things were before Hogwarts, and before those boys. And before that little redhead her brother was chasing around.

Juliet Euphemia Potter wished she had a time-turner so she could go back to when the boys wanted to get in their compartment and kick them out.

But that was a bit mean.

And her mother would send her a howler if she found out.

The first two years at Hogwarts she tried her best to be a part of their group but quickly understood that whenever they included her, it was because they needed her skills in potions for a prank that she wouldn't even get the details on.

By the third year at Hogwarts, Juliet barely could approach the boys. They were becoming so secretive. And they were working on something. So being the nosy little sister she was, she went through James' stuff to find researches on Animagi.

And she decided that she will be one too.

It was illegal, and Juliet didn't know why it was so important to her to prove herself to those boys who called themselves the Marauders. Lame name. Who even gives a name to their group? Sirius' idea. Definitely Sirius. She thought. It was a pretty nice name in fact, but she still believed it was lame to give a name to a group of friends.

In her fourth year, Juliet met Pandora Lestrange, Regulus Black and Amos Diggory. It was a quite unexpected meeting. And everything started with tutoring, the professors idea, really. Because who would have expected a Gryffindor, a Slytherin, a Hufflepuff and a Ravenclaw to become friends?

They would meet often, before curfew, yet in late hours so they would stay out of others' radar.

Juliet knew how Regulus' parents were, which was one of the perks of following her brother and his friends around. And she suspected Pandora's to be the same. She didn't want her friends to be punished because they were befriending a half-blood and a pure-blood that didn't make it to the "Sacred Twenty-Eight" list.

Perhaps it was because they were a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff, both protective and caring, or perhaps it was because they were a year older than Lestrange and Black, but Amos and Juliet felt the constant need to protect their friends.

Juliet had almost forgotten about her brother when she was with them. And she wondered if this was how he felt.

"You try too hard." Regulus told her.

"You don't try hard enough." She replied when she truly wanted to affirm that she knew.

So one day, Juliet Euphemia Potter stopped trying, and it didn't go unnoticed.

* * *

this was very weirdly written. I don't know why I wrote like that when I'm obviously going to go back to my normal way of writing form the first chapter on.

okay, so, this was like an introduction, a view into Juliet's teenager mind, her relationship with her brother and the Marauders, and her unexpected friendship with three people from different houses.

the story will take place from summer of fourth to fifth year, until, well, after seventh year.