ღ chapter forty
( partner in crime )
MARLENE MCKINNON WAS the world's most interesting woman to Juliet Black, who bore her name as a tribute. She had blonde curls, blue eyes, and freckles, frozen at the age of 21, just like Stevie. They were both forever young, only six years older than what Juliet was now. Their age was a haunting reminder for Jules; they'd barely been in their twenties when they'd been killed on Voldemort's orders in their home, bodies found in the nursery. She was sparkling and vibrant, even in her ghostly state, her eyes scrunching up into slivers when she smiled.
The person sent to kill them had left Aster alive in a small act of mercy, and as Marlene, invisible to anyone but Jules explained, had done so because he couldn't kill a baby. Peter Pettigrew had been the one to fool them all, but he would forever have to live with Marlene and Stevie's blood on his hands. Dorcas Meadows was killed by Voldemort personally just weeks before, but he had leaked her location the same way he leaked the Potter residence in October.
Jules found herself in conversation with Marlene and Stevie until the early hours of Boxing Day, watching the sun come up over the mountains from the Ravenclaw common room's beautiful windows. "How can I see you?" Jules asked Marlene. "You aren't a ghost only I can see, are you?"
"How much do you know about Solene Valentine?"
"Who?" Jules asked, wrinkling her nose slightly. Her grandparents lived in Paris and she very rarely saw them. They distanced themselves from her mother after Sirius was thrown into prison, and the last time she'd visited them had been a few years ago. But her grandmother was named Ines and her grandfather Victor. She'd never heard of a woman named Solene.
"Marlene," Stevie warned softly. "You have to let Cordelia tell her. It's not our place."
"Cordelia needs to know she can't wrap her in bubble wrap forever!"
Jules heard footsteps coming down the stairs, her head whipping in that direction. There was a gentle touch to the side of her head, and when she looked back, Marlene and Stevie were gone. "Black?" Lisa Turpin asked, walking down the stairs. "It's early... oh, you never went to bed."
"I'm going now," Jules mumbled softly. "Shower's free, right?"
Lisa nodded, lips pressed into a firm line as she watched Jules ascend the staircase leading up to the dormitories. The fourth year girls were at the very top, like they had been since first year, meaning that they got the best view. Jules in particular, was tucked right in next to one of two massive bay windows, the blue silk bedspread and satin sheets tucked neatly, unlike the jumbled mess they'd been in when she'd left for the ball. She pulled her softest pajamas from her trunk, fumbling around in the dim light creeping around the curtains.
The bathroom had three shower stalls side-by-side, and and the same number of sinks in a row, with the toilets on the other side, separated by a narrow wall. Jules felt absolutely exhausted, every bone in her body a deadweight dragging down her muscles. What was her mother hiding from her?
She toweled dried her citrus shampoo scented hair after her shower and crawled into bed. Everyone arose late on boxing day and no one would bat an eyelash if she stumbled into the Great Hall at noon completely famished.
That was why the eyes boring into her sleepy form as she piled lunch onto her plate six hours later were so shocking. There were gentle whispers carried throughout the hall and Calliope looked like she'd swallowed a toad at the table. "Why the fuck is everyone staring?" Jules hissed.
Calliope shrugged, trying to hide something in her hand, which Jules recognized as the Daily Prophet. "Give me that," Jules said, snatching it from her hand, only for her mouth to fall open in horror at the sight of herself on the front cover of the newspaper.
DAUGHTER OF A MURDER
Infamy comes naturally to fifteen-year-old Juliet Marlene Black. Born to infamous murder and fugitive Sirius Black, and auror Cordelia Valentine, Juliet's life was marked by tragedy when her father murdered twelve people. Evidently too young to remember anything, her mother deemed it right to grant her daughter anonymity. The question of importance here, is whether or not that was the right decision.
Juliet Black was previously known as Juliet Valentine, and was sorted into Ravenclaw like her mother. But sources say she is just like her father. "She punched my friend in the face," an anonymous student claimed. "She's got a real nasty temper, that's for sure. And she's always getting into trouble."
It seems she is an intelligent girl, as a source leaked her exam results for us. She is among the top ten students in her class and did not fail a single subject. This is not surprising considering who her mother is but we will remind you that Black himself was an intelligent student during his years at Hogwarts.
After Black's escape from Azkaban during her third year, Juliet found herself confronted by the fact that she was the daughter of a murderer, which evidently caused a rift between her and her peers. Some tell us that she has been ostracized at school due to her heritage, but some parents claim that they have a right to fear her.
"Black's got powers we can only dream of!" A parent expressed. "So why would his daughter be any different? The Blacks are all mad anyways, they're known to be very involved in dark magic, so Miss Black's got a long family line of tradition in the dark arts. I wouldn't want my daughter anywhere near her."
Her mother, auror Cordelia Valentine, refused to comment. As you all know, Miss Valentine has been an outspoken advocate for those charged with crimes, demanding that they all stand trial. She has written multiple books on wizarding laws and has had extensive healer training prior to her auror years. But the stain of the Black family will forever remain attached to her noble name.
The question really is, will Juliet Black be just like her father, or not?
IT WAS TIME now to think of the homework they had neglected during the first week of the holidays. Everybody seemed to be feeling rather flat now that Christmas was over — everybody except Harry, that is, who seemed slightly nervous. Jules couldn't blame him, between the amount of extra work Mcgonagall had assigned her to research and trying to scour the library to help him with the egg, she'd been sleepless. Not to mention the whole article fiasco, which had the whole school looking at her like she'd grown two heads. God, Jules was going to kill Rita Skeeter the next time she saw her.
February the twenty-fourth looked a lot closer from this side of Christmas, and Harry still hadn't done anything about working out the golden egg. His inability to solve the clue was leaving Jules riddled with anxiety because she really wanted to see him win above anything else.
As the first day of the new term arrived, and she set off to lessons, weighed down with books, parchment, and quills as usual, her shoulder-blades pained from everything she carried around. Her parents had sent her a letter and some sweets, it seemed to try and lift her spirits up after the horrid article. They'd been a little distant lately, but Jules figured that they were busy with the impending arrival of the new baby and all.
Snow was thick upon the grounds, and the greenhouse windows were covered in condensation that blurred the windows into a frosted haze. Her boots sunk into the dazzling white snow as she trudged up and down the slopes of what used to be a green lawn.
Nobody was looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures much in this weather, though as Ron said, the skrewts would probably warm them up nicely, either by chasing them, or blasting off so forcefully that Hagrid's cabin would catch fire. When they arrived at Hagrid's cabin, however, they found an elderly witch with closely cropped gray hair and a very prominent chin standing before his front door.
"Hurry up, now, the bell rang five minutes ago," she barked at them as they struggled toward her through the snow.
"Who're you?" Ron asked with wide eyes. "Where's Hagrid?"
"My name is Professor Grubbly-Plank," she said briskly. "I am your temporary Care of Magical Creatures teacher."
"Where's Hagrid?" Harry repeated loudly.
"He is indisposed," Professor Grubbly-Plank replied shortly.
Soft and unpleasant laughter reached Juliet's ears, and she knew exactly who the culprit was. None other than Draco Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherins. All of them looked gleeful, and none of them looked surprised to see Professor Grubbly-Plank. Jules made a hand gesture towards her cousin that was so rude she wouldn't dare do so around her mother.
"This way, please," Professor Grubbly-Plank instructed, and she strode off around the paddock where the Beauxbatons horses were shivering.
They all followed her, the quartet looking back over their shoulders at Hagrid's cabin. All the curtains were closed. Was Hagrid in there, alone and ill?
"What's wrong with Hagrid?" Jules whispered, hurrying to catch up with Professor Grubbly-Plank.
"Never you mind," she said as though she thought she was being nosy.
"I do mind, though," Jules mumbled hotly. "What's up with him?"
Professor Grubbly-Plank acted as though she couldn't hear her. She led them past the paddock where the huge Beauxbatons horses were standing, huddled against the cold, and toward a tree on the edge of the forest, where a large and beautiful unicorn was tethered. Many of the girls let out squeals at the sight of the unicorn, causing Jules to roll her eyes.
"Oh it's so beautiful!" Lavender whispered. "How did she get it? They're supposed to be really hard to catch!"
The unicorn was so brightly white it made the snow all around look gray. It was pawing the ground nervously with its golden hooves and throwing back its horned head. "Boys keep back!" Professor Grubbly-Plank barked, throwing out an arm and catching Harry hard in the chest. "They prefer the woman's touch, unicorns. Girls to the front, and approach with care, come on, easy does it."
Jules smiled softly as the unicorn gently nuzzled into her palm, catching eyes with Hermione on the other side of the paddock where she stood wringing her hands nervously.
"I hope she stays, that woman!" Parvati exclaimed when the lesson had ended and they were all heading back to the castle for lunch. "That's more what I thought Care of Magical Creatures would be like; proper creatures like unicorns, not monsters."
"What about Hagrid?" Harry said angrily as they went up the steps.
"What about him?" Parvati replied in a hard voice. "He can still be gamekeeper, can't he?"
Parvati had been very cool toward Harry since the ball. Padma had told Jules that Parvati was angry Harry had not paid her attention, the same way Padma was annoyed with Ron, even if she didn't care for guys anyways.
But Parvati was certainly telling anybody who would listen that she had made arrangements to meet the boy from Beauxbatons in Hogsmeade on the next weekend trip. "That was a really good lesson," Hermione said brightly as they entered the Great Hall, Jules nodding in agreement. "I didn't know half the things Professor GrubblyPlank told us about uni —"
"Look at this!" Harry snarled, and he shoved the Daily Prophet article under their noses. Hermione's mouth fell open as she read, mirroring how Jules felt.
"How did that horrible Skeeter woman find out? You don't think Hagrid told her?"
"No," Harry said, leading the way over to the Gryffindor table and throwing himself into a chair, furious. "He never even told us, did he? I reckon she was so mad he wouldn't give her loads of horrible stuff about me, she went ferreting around to get him back."
"Maybe she heard him telling Madame Maxime at the ball," Hermione whispered quietly.
"We'd have seen her in the garden!" Ron pointed out. "Anyway, she's not supposed to come into school anymore, Hagrid said Dumbledore banned her."
"Maybe she's got an Invisibility Cloak," Harry offered, ladling chicken casserole onto his plate and splashing it everywhere in angrily. "Sort of thing she'd do, isn't it, hide in bushes listening to people."
"Like you and Ron did, you mean," Jules teased.
"We weren't trying to hear him!" Ron insisted. "We didn't have any choice! The stupid prat, talking about his giantess mother where anyone could have heard him!"
"We've got to go and see him," Harry insisted. "This evening, after Divination. Tell him we want him back... you do want him back?" he shot at Hermione.
"I — well, I'm not going to pretend it didn't make a nice change, having a proper Care of Magical Creatures lesson for once — but I do want Hagrid back, of course I do!" Hermione added hastily, quailing under Harry's furious stare. The entire scene was made funnier by Ron's silence as he elbowed Jules in the ribs, warning her that they might have to break up a fight soon.
So that evening after dinner, the four of them left the castle once more and went down through the frozen grounds to Hagrid's cabin. They knocked, and Fang's booming barks answered. "Hagrid, it's us!" Harry shouted, pounding on the door. "Open up!
Hagrid didn't answer. They could hear Fang scratching at the door, whining, but it didn't open. They hammered on it for ten more minutes; Ron even went and banged on one of the windows, but there was no response.
"What's he avoiding us for?" Hermione said when they had finally given up and were walking back to the school. "He surely doesn't think we'd care about him being half-giant?"
Jules rolled her eyes. "Evidently he does, genius."
( AUTHOR NOTE )here's an update in honor of hitting 50k !! thank u sm<3