JULIET {remus lupin}

SEVENTY THREE

 No one had died, yet, but the grief had already reached Arabella and Juliet. The realisation that they were estranged. Estranged from the most engulfing family, but the only family that they had ever known.

Juliet settled back into Hogwarts easily, head girl duties and NEWTs taking up the vast majority of her time, and distracting her immensely. She waited patiently for the letter from Remus, that he had promised to send, containing some sort of 'bad news'.

Ophelia's absence was noticed, and only seemed to depress Arabella more. Their once dorm of four was now three, and instead of staying up laughing and talking, the three witches would lie in bed at night silently, with Arabella occasionally climbing into bed with Juliet and casting a silencing charm so that Persephone could not hear them talking.

Regulus Black paced outside the girl's dorms on a crisp February morning. Juliet had not shown up to potions, Arabella and Persephone were sat together, not speaking, so he knew she'd be alone.

Sharply inhaling, he knocked on the door.

"Yeah?" Came Juliet's quiet voice.

He instantly softened at the sound, they hadn't spoke in so long. He looked out for her silently, though, threatening younger Slytherins when they said anything about her, and refusing to engage in gossip about the witch when he was home, even when Nathaniel Romilly had a wand to his throat.

Regulus pushed open the door and Juliet sat up in bed, pulling her duvet over her bare legs. 

"You missed potions," was all he said.

"Yeah," she said. "Tired."

He nodded, and gestured to Ophelia's empty bed, "may I?"

"Yeah."

"You okay?"

"I am," she smiled shakily. "Looking forward to being out of this place."

"I wish we could stay forever," was all he replied.

"Really?"

"I can't think of anything worse than living permanently in Grimmauld Place."

"You and Ophelia won't get your own place?"

He paused when she said that, "you heard?"

"Persephone told me," she said. "Congratulations."

He smiled tightly, thinking of Ophelia. Since their mission at Christmas, the witch had not spoke a word to him. Her dark mark was infected, and she scratched at it daily, not leaving her room and only whispering to Kreacher, Regulus' elf.

"I've been waiting for you to say you hate that place for years," Juliet said, looking at the man opposite her.

Regulus sighed, "it's taken years to admit it to myself. And now it's too late."

A few months prior, Juliet would have begged him, promised him he could be good. But now, she didn't.

Instead, she said, "Sirius would take you in in a heartbeat."

Regulus' heart dropped at the mention of his brother, he'd dreamt about him a lot, recently. Waking up Ophelia with sobs and screams. Sirius dying. 

"I'd never endanger my brother that much," he said. 

"What's changed?" Juliet asked. "You haven't spoken to me this candidly in years."

Regulus leant back against the neatly made, untouched bed. Since his act over Christmas, he knew that he needed to tell the witch what he had done, so much so that he had written to Remus Lupin, who he later found out had been at the scene soon after he left, begging him to let himself speak to Juliet. The man had obliged, probably relieved.