December 1993
On the 22nd December, Remus and Juliet sat in an empty carriage of the Hogwarts Express, with the witch huffing and pulling down the door blind as soon as they were inside, and locking the door with her wand. Remus watched her with amusement as she sighed and leant back onto her seat.
"Bloody kids," she said. "They'll drive me mad."
He grinned and said nothing, staring out of the window at the mountains.
"James and Anne replied," Juliet said, looking up. "Said they will spend Christmas at... mine."
He smiled, "that'll be nice. It'll be good to create some happy memories."
The witch hummed in agreement, "I asked Tonks too, the auror. Said Ted and Andromeda are welcome too, they've helped me out a lot over the years."
"That was nice of you."
The witch nodded and chewed her lip, quietly fearful. She hadn't been to Romilly manor in years, it had never been a particularly pleasant place.
"You don't have to come with me before you know, Remus," she sighed. "I feel awful, Anne has been so excited to see you."
"She'll see me on Christmas Day," he reminded her kindly. "I wouldn't have you go there alone."
She nodded and smiled.
"It'll be nice to have a home again. Somewhere that's actually mine. Romilly or not."
"You'll always be a Romilly, Juliet," Remus grinned
"She laughed, closing her eyes.
Remus hadn't known what to expect of Romilly Manor, at school he'd never given her wealth much thought, being best friends with Sirius Black and James Potter had exposed him to that world far before he thought anything of Juliet. He knew she had grown up with money, of course, but then and again, hadn't most Slytherins? Or most members of the sacred twenty eight?
The Romilly house was huge. Larger than the Potter's, even. Imposing towers with ivy climbing the sides of them. Juliet was staring emotionlessly, Remus staring in shock.
"Merlin, Romilly."
She sighed and said nothing.
"Now I understand why you were so insufferably stuck up."
The witch rolled her eyes but still didn't speak.
"Are there wards?"
"Dumbledore said we'd get in fine," she said, pushing open a gate and revealing a perfectly trimmed walled garden.
"Who maintains this?"
Juliet began to speak, "I'd assume-"
A furious looking house elf swung open the door and Juliet groaned.
"Lolly," she nodded, marching towards the elf.
"Miss Juliet," she said, looking disgustedly at Remus. "And a halfblood, a were-"
"That's enough," the witch snapped. "I'm living here now, Lolly. You answer to me."
"Master Romilly-"
"Nathaniel is gone, Lolly. Never to return. This is my house. You serve the house of Romilly and I am Juliet Romilly. Clear?"
The elf bowed, casting another filthy look to Remus. He watched the witch next to him in admiration, getting slight glances back to who she was when he first knew her. Juliet waved her wand, a portrait of Nathaniel crashed to the floor, she set it alight, putting it out once charred. Then, she uncovered a portrait, and sighed. It was her, age seventeen, finally an adult. Remus bit his tongue at the likeness, the witch he'd fallen in love with.
"Merlin, I was quite pretty back then, wasn't I?"
"Still are, Juliet."
"Now I understand," she said quietly, smirking to herself as she hung the image of herself in the place where Nathaniel's was.
Remus grinned, "understand what?"
The witch laughed, looking at her younger self's smile.
"Why you were so infatuated by me."
Remus burst out laughing and shook his head, grinning between Juliet and the portrait of her younger self, who looked at the man and winked.
"Salazar, let's go before I get jealous," the witch joked. "Lolly!" She shouted, smiling sweetly as the elf approached, "two rooms, please. I'll take mine, put Remus in a guest. Oh," she paused, pointing at Nathaniel's burnt portrait, "and clean that. We'll be having guests here on Christmas Day."
The elf nodded, clicking her fingers and vanishing.
"Hard to believe you aren't a pureblood sometimes," he said, following her down corridors lned with portraits and ornaments. "Merlin, I had no idea your father was so rich."
Juliet turned around and felt a little guilty, noticing Remus' unreadable expression.
"Take anything," she said. "I don't want any of it."
"What?" He laughed.
"I know your house is-"
"I don't need charity, Romilly."
Juliet smiled tightly at him, cocking her head to his room, scowling at the elf who muttered something about half bloods.
"Remus," she said, just before he closed the door. "I'm going to set up wards, for tomorrow night. And I have some wolfsbane."
The man softened, "thanks, Juliet."
"It's our land for a good few miles."
He nodded, appreciative to have wolfsbane outside of Hogwarts, and somewhere to be free that didn't end in him having to go back to his falling down house, "cheers, Jules."
Remus lay still on a sofa in the Romilly drawing room after the full moon, he couldn't believe how easy wolfsbane made everything. Sure, he had woken up tired, a little in pain, but gone was the anxiety of remembering nothing, and gone were the intense injuries he had often self inflicted. Juliet sat opposite him, flicking through a large book, occasionally glancing up to ensure that Lolly the elf was decorating for guests tomorrow, on Christmas Day, properly.
"What are you looking at?"
Juliet smiled, standing up from her armchair and nudging Remus a little, making him move up so she could sit beside him, handing him the huge book. When the man opened it the first photograph was a younger Nathaniel Romilly, but unmistakably him, grinning with an arm around a witch who looked incredibly similar to the one beside him. Juliet turned the page and Remus sat up to look properly, smiling sadly. Sirius and Regulus Black stood on either side of Juliet, both with a hand on their shoulder, no older than nine or ten. The witch sighed heavily.
"Can you believe it ended up being Regulus that was the good one? Or at least, the decent one."
"Regulus killed people too." Was all that Remus said.
"You never gave him a chance at school."
"He hated us all. Also didn't help that he was engaged to the girl I fancied."
Juliet laughed at that, not meeting the man's eye, and turned the page. It was her and Regulus again, older now, fourteen or fifteen, arms wrapped around each other, laughing. He flicked through, Juliet with the Rosiers, with Barty Crouch, with Narcissa and Bellatrix Black, various ones with her father. On the final page was a photo which formed a lump in the man's throat. The Juliet he remembered, her arm around Arabella, who was kissing the witch on her cheek, Juliet pulling a false disgusted face.
"I sent this to Regulus the new year we spent at Cornwall," Juliet said softly, stroking Arabella's face. "He must have put this in here, Merlin. That will have been a while ago."
Remus nodded, his hand lingering over Arabella's face. Juliet wiped her eyes and sighed, masking a small sniff.
She looked at Remus, her eyes glimmering, "fucking hell, I miss them all a lot."
"Me too," he said quietly. "Even Sirius."
Juliet nodded, "me too. I miss him too."
Remus pulled the photo which he had shown Harry out of his pocket, Juliet laughed, recognising her writing from the year prior on the back. He handed it to her and she grinned.
"I love this photo."
"Me too," he said.
"We were so happy that day."
"I know, we all were."
Juliet sighed and gently linked her arm with Remus', pulling him closer to her and resting her head against his arm lightly. He put his head onto hers and smiled.
"Life will never be like that again," she said.
"I know that, but we'll be alright, Juliet."
A/N juliet is gonna be so much longer than anticipated as i dont have time to write the chapter lengths that i wanna be writing!!!