(26 : IF YE SHOULD LEAD HER . . .
INTO A FOOL'S PARADISE)

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IN 296 DAYS, JULIET FAWLEY was going to become Juliet Black. Until then, she was squeezed into a toilet cubicle on the Hogwarts Express with James Potter's hand up her skirt and his lips pressed to her neck. His touch caused shivers to run down her spine and she regretted not swallowing her pride sooner. Every stolen moment with James felt simultaneously like her first and her last.

"James," she murmured, untangling her hands from his hair, "the prefects' meeting starts in five minutes."

     "Mmm, I'm sure the Head Boy will understand," he remarked dryly.

     Juliet placed her hand on his chest, her hand covering the pocket proudly displaying the Gryffindor's 'Head Boy' pin. "And I'm sure that Lily will be all too hex-happy if we show up late for the first meeting." The redhead raised her hands in mock surrender. "But if you want to face the wrath of Lily Evans, feel free to have fun in here alone."

     He groaned. "We can continue after the meeting though, right?"

     "In here?" Juliet raised an eyebrow, inclining her head towards the toilet seat James had taken to sitting down on. "You certainly know how to romance a girl."

"It's a wonder I've been single for so long," mocked James, his expression softening when he looked up and met her blue eyes.

Grabbing him by the tie, Juliet rolled her eyes and pulled him up. "Come on, Romeo."

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After saying their goodbyes, the two separately made their way to the prefects' compartment, timing their arrivals so they were a few minutes apart. Despite Juliet feeling like there was a scarlet letter branded on her forehead, nobody glanced twice at her smudged lipstick, nor did they notice how James Potter's infamous messy hair was a little messier than normal.

Apart from one.

Per usual, the prefect meeting was uneventful — after all, it was her third year in the role and she knew everything already. However, she feigned attentiveness and was relieved when the students were released with promises of the patrol schedule to be sorted before classes began. She was about to leave and find an empty compartment — maybe sneak in another snog with James — when a hand on her arm stopped her cold. In truth, it had slipped her mind that Regulus Black was one of the younger prefects.

"Regulus," she greeted amicably as she attempted to brush past him, all too aware they were the only ones who remained in the compartment.

     He applied a gentle pressure to her arm. "Give me five minutes, Juliet."

     At his nerve, her lips thinned and she openly stared at his left arm, knowing what was concealed beneath his Slytherin robes. "Unless it's an explanation as to why you passed my name onto You-Know-Who," she spoke in a low, menacing tone, "I think we're done here."

     "You're a Fawley, do you really think the Dark Lord didn't already know your name?" Regulus challenged, wanting nothing more than to hide his left arm from the scrutiny of her gaze. "You can't be mad forever. We'll be married in less than a year and we'll have to engage in more than a polite conversation eventually. You may have ignored me all summer, but I refuse to let you ignore me at Hogwarts." His coldness was a far cry from the boy who had laughed with her in the library. "If someone realises we aren't speaking and word gets back to the Dark Lord —"

     "I'd hope your precious Dark Lord has better things to do than concern himself with teen drama," she cut him off sharply. "You're a Black, Regulus. Regardless of your family's fall from grace, that name still carries plenty of weight and plenty of girls would've wanted to be your bride. Girls that aren't me. Yet, I'm the one that was picked and you won't tell me why." Juliet mirrored his attitude, curling her lips into a sneer. "I'll stay mad as long as I damn well please."

     Regulus shook his head. "You're no—"

     The compartment door slid open. James Potter stepped in, his wand hanging loosely from his fingertips. Juliet's mouth twitched upwards at his entrance.

     "Is everything alright in here?"

     "Perfect, Potter," drawled Regulus. "Now leave us alone. In case you couldn't tell, we were in the middle of something."

     Yanking her arm out of Regulus' hold, she stumbled backwards into James and he immediately steadied her. "If by 'in the middle of something' you mean I was about to tell you to go fuck yourself, you'd be right," snarled Juliet. "Like I said, we're done here."

     When Juliet stormed out, James didn't think twice about following her. The two stopped at the end of corridor and exchanged some brief, hushed words. Regulus' eyes flickered between the two in suspicion, but he said nothing.

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Juliet and James were snogging. Again.

One second Juliet was reprimanding James for intervening when she had it handled, the next she was on his lap in an empty compartment. The kiss was more forceful than normal, more desperate. Her talk with Regulus left her feeling like she had been drenched in icy water — it was what made her realise exactly how much she stood to lose with James. Less than a year ago, she would've settled for marrying Death Eater. Now, she had a taste of heaven and could never go back.

     "Julie . . ." murmured James, holding onto the redhead in front of him like she was his lifeline.

     She didn't have the restraint to pull away at the use of the nickname she loathed so much. In fact, it was starting to sound kind of nice from him — the total admiration in his voice was enough to make any girl weak in the knees. As she went to deepen the kiss, the sound of approaching footsteps caused her to lurch back. Within seconds, she had her wand pointed at James' throat.

     "Your foreplay is disturbing." Sirius pretended to shiver and turn back around upon walking inside the carriage.

     Pocketing her wand, Juliet relaxed. "Oh, it's you. A little warning would be nice next time."

     "A warm welcome from my favourite Slytherin as always," he commented. "I wouldn't get too comfortable though. Pete was right behind me and —" Sirius looked over his shoulder to see an out of breath Peter trying to catch up "—there he is."

     Peter was rather red in the face as he plopped down beside Sirius. "Where've you been, Prongs? I thought you had died when you didn't come to our usual compartment." 

      "He was extremely torn up about your possible death as you can see," added Sirius with a solemn nod.

     "Well if he were dead, I was planning on taking his Alberic Grunnion chocolate frog card," said Peter with a longing sigh. "S'pose I'll have to wait a little while longer until he kicks the bucket."

     Juliet shifted. "Who's Alberic Grunnion?"

     "He's a legend! He's —" Sirius began to rant.

"The inventor of dungbombs," Remus Lupin informed her, standing in the doorway. He was clearly doing the first patrol down the train.

As if only just realising there was a girl in their compartment, Peter scrunched up his nose. "Wait, what is she doing here?"

"Prongs, that's what," snorted Sirius.

Juliet kicked him in the shins. "Oops, sorry about that. I was trying to stretch my legs," she falsely justified, standing up. "And she was talking to Potter about the patrol schedule. I don't know who the bloody hell he imperiused to get Head Boy, but he's already hopeless at it." The Slytherin casually smoothed the creases out of her uniform. "If you'll excuse me, I'll be going now. It's like I can feel myself losing brain cells around you four."

"Love you too, Fawley!" Sirius called after her retreating figure.

It took all of Juliet's strength to repress a smile.

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     Unfortunately, Juliet didn't see James for the rest of the train ride.

A part of her thought she'd be feeling more nostalgic considering it was her last year at Hogwarts, but all she felt was dread. Juliet longed to be as naive as the bright-eyed eleven years old clambering in boats to cross the lake with Hagrid. Instead, she found herself noticing all the things that were wrong this time around. Like how she could now see thestrals — something that made her flinch at the end of last year until a Ravenclaw offered her an explanation. Like how there were fewer carriages than normal and the population of Hogwarts was already thinning. According to rumours, even one of her own roommates weren't returning for their final year. Despite being a half blood, Holly was pulled from the school. Of course it was more than students going into hiding though, some were simply dropping out to join Voldemort as he rose to power.

Thus, Juliet went through the motions of returning to Hogwarts, but she struggled to pretend it would be a normal year. Everyone in the Wizarding World could sense a war was nearing. Whilst some people could shelter themselves from the reality, Juliet didn't have the luxury. All she could do was clap at the right times when a new student was sorted in Slytherin, wondering if they knew how heavy a burden the green and silver robes could be.

"Did it hurt?" Juliet heard someone nearby whisper.

The boy swallowed, tugging down the left sleeve of his robe. "A bit, but it was worth it. I already have my first assignment."

Disgusted, Juliet tuned the conversation out and took an immense interest in her dinner, pushing food around her plate. In the midst of this, she blinked and her silver fork was suddenly a rubber snake.

Shrieks broke through the Great Hall's quiet chatter. One particularly distressed student flung their rubber snake across the room and it hit a Hufflepuff in the face, another fled the scene in their panic. At the Gryffindor table, Sirius was trying to coax James to kiss the snake and the Marauders were laughing like hyenas. Naturally, it was their welcome back prank.

Even in the crowded Great Hall, Juliet managed to catch James' gaze — like magnets, they were drawn to each other. Taking advantage of the distraction, she stuck her tongue out at him. He feigned offence, but returned the gesture. And the best part was nobody would ever know.

     As long as they lived in their fool's paradise, they were untouchable.

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A.N: The first chapter of Seventh Year is here! This is really establishing the statuses of important relationships, but it was very fun to write. I have a lot planned for this year. I hope you all enjoyed and thank you for almost 35k. To celebrate, I added a (low key crappy) trailer at the start of this book. I'm also working on getting a new cover, so be aware of that for future updates too.

Question, what are your controversial Harry Potter opinions? Mine are probably Snape didn't deserve redemption and the writing is actually mediocre, the series hinges on the world building and the fans.