(47 : OF HONOURABLE RECKONING. . .
ARE YOU BOTH)

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     THE END OF JULIET'S HOGWARTS experience was fast approaching — as was her day of reckoning. Her fate was sealed and some form of punishment was inevitable. Even if she reached the right decision in the end, it wouldn't matter because she was no innocent in the war. Juliet had wronged both Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort, but it was more the latter she was worried about. And that was why she needed a failsafe.

Juliet already had a plan, but the Dark Lord was unpredictable and she wasn't about to underestimate the enemy. Not like he had underestimated her. All of which led her back to the impossible task he had assigned her — creating the Elixir of Life. He didn't think she could do it and that only motivated her more, meaning she had everything to prove but nothing to lose. No matter what she did, he would hate her for deferring sides. Although she had no intentions of becoming a child soldier, she couldn't escape becoming a blood traitor.

For once, instead of slinking through the castle for a late night rendezvous with James, she was out after midnight because she wanted to break into one of the many Alchemy classrooms. It was going rather well until a flash of wand light caught her attention from the end of the corridor.

"Hey! You're not allowed to be out of bed this late," called a strong male voice as he jogged over to the girl.

In annoyance, she pushed the wand light out of her face. "Would you turn that thing down? It's so bright," moaned Juliet. "And you're not telling me that anyone actually takes you of all people seriously when you lecture them for being out of bed?"

     He failed to hide his amusement. "I think that'll be 20 points from Slytherin, Fawley."

     "What?" Juliet yelped. "I'm your girlfriend."

     "Too bad, I want Gryffindor to win the House Cup this year," James retorted, lowering his wand. "And, if anything, I should be the one who's annoyed. I can't believe you're out after curfew, breaking into a classroom, without me."

     The Slytherin raised an eyebrow. "It really isn't that hard. You'd think more of the doors in this place would be charmed against alohomora."

     James stared expectantly at her. "Come on then, what are we doing?"

     "You are going to finish your rounds," she said pointedly before nonverbally unlocking the door. Without hesitation, she entered the classroom and established a makeshift work station. "Unless you know anything about the Philosopher's Stone, you'll only be a distraction. And since I know for a fact you don't even take Alchemy . . . shoo."

     The Head Boy shoved his hands into his pockets, leaning against the door frame casually. "You mean I forgot to mention that my dad's friends with Nicholas Flamel?"

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     After finding out James had connections to Nicholas Flamel, she reluctantly allowed him into the classroom. As much as she disliked the idea of James being involved with anything associated with Lord Voldemort, a fresh pair of eyes sounded promising — especially considering it had been months since her and Regulus last made progress. Juliet skimmed over some details — like the part where she almost killed a unicorn — but otherwise told her boyfriend about her problem.

     "The mercury is goblin-wrought, so it should imbibe what strengthens it. For some reason, the blood isn't being absorbed." To demonstrate her point, the redhead slowly poured a vial of animal blood onto the stone, only for the liquid to roll off. Her limited amount of unicorn blood meant she was using salamander blood as her alternative whilst she was still in the testing stage. "I've followed all the steps exactly. Calcination, solution, separation, conjunction, putrefaction, congel—"

     "Have you ever thought you're just overthinking it?" interrupted James, lifting himself up to sit on the desk as he watched her work. "One time, the boys and I wanted to prank Sniv—Snape — by making his hair glow in the dark." At this, Juliet wrinkled her nose and James continued, "Oi, don't make that face! We were twelve, so it wasn't the best prank, but we went through with it anyway. Moony read about some powder that would do the trick, so I owl ordered it to come the next day and then all we had to do was mix it in with his shampoo. Only issue wa—"

     A groan slipped from her lips. "As much I'm finding this to be a riveting story, I don't think it's relevant, James. Please save reliving the glory days of your tween years until after I've figured the stone out."

"There's a point, I swear," argued the Gryffindor, snatching the stone from the table. In an effort to regain her attention, he tossed it upwards like it was a quaffle and chuckled when he caught it. "The issue was the powder didn't work. We did everything right, but I'd somehow lost seven galleons on a failed prank. Turns out, at twelve, we didn't consider proportions. There needed to be more powder than shampoo." To further illustrate his point, he lifted up the vial of blood and compared it to the stone that was the size of his fist. "Either you need to use more blood or you need to make the stone smaller. If the stone did absorb the blood —"

"It would only absorb a small percentage of the magical properties because the concentration of blood to metal wouldn't work," she finished, amazed. "The magical properties of mercury would override the blood, right?"

He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "I wasn't going to say it in so many words but yeah, I guess so."

She smiled at him. "You know, you're kind of a nerd considering you're usually only one fourth of a whole idiot."

"Thanks," James said automatically before squinting as he tried to process her words. "Wait . . ."

In truth, Juliet recognised James was extremely smart. He pretended that he didn't care in class, but he applied plenty of magical theories to his pranks and had managed to solve an issue that she had struggled with for months. It also made her realise that he had a point before — asking for help may have damaged her pride, but it was typically more beneficial than not.

     "Jokes aside, you're good at this," she murmured, setting the stone back onto the table. Mercury normally melted below room temperature, so all she had to do was break the protective magic of the goblins. "What do you want to do after Hogwarts? I don't think I've ever asked you that."

     "I've, um, already applied to the Auror Programme actually."

      "Oh," she uttered, fixing her eyes on the stone. "I bet you'll be good at that. It's pretty dangerous though."

     The boy immediately noticed her struggle with the enchantments on the stone and he jumped down to stand at her side. "Let me help," he quickly suggested, pointing his own wand at the stone. "Partis temporus."

     She wiped some sweat from her brow. "Incendio."

     Within seconds, the mercury had melted back into its liquid form. A spark of excitement crackled in her chest, but she didn't have a chance to savour the feeling as it was obvious James wouldn't be able hold the spell for much longer. Juliet made quick work of dividing the liquid, deciding to make some adjustments to her original plan as she went along. After all, she was no longer working to please Lord Voldemort and she didn't necessarily care for an Elixir of Life.

But she did care for something else.

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      "Someone who drinks the Elixir of Life can still be killed," Juliet explained. "I don't want to be killed, James."

     The Gryffindor appeared uneasy at the mention of death. "Is this part of your plan?"

     Both of them were hunched over the desk, staring at a ring made of mercury. It was much smaller than stone had been, much more powerful too. All Juliet needed to do was add the unicorn blood and then she would know whether or not she had created something that would save her should she ever be an inch from death.

     "You know I can't tell you that," she replied evenly. "What I can tell you is that I'm prepared to adapt my plan if need be. I'm not under any delusions of war being easy. There are certain factors out of my control and I would be an idiot with tunnel vision if I didn't have a Plan B or C or D." Her hands shook as she grabbed the vial of unicorn blood. "Friends might become enemies and enemies might become friends. People might have to kill and people might have to hide. None of us can predict what will happen and you can't let your sense of morality hold you back. You do know that, right?"

     "Right." He came up behind her and helped steady her hands. "I really hope whatever you're planning works. I don't know if I can imagine a future without you anymore."

     Her eyes softened. "It will. Don't ever lose that hope."

     Together, they tipped the unicorn blood onto the ring and blue-silver veins gradually began to form on the ring. The traces of blood glowed brightly in the dim light before fading into the ring's metal.

     Without thinking about it, she pulled James into a crushing hug and breathlessly murmured, "It worked. It actually worked."

      "I never doubted you," James said softly into her hair.

     The two remained in that position for a long time. Neither were willing to break the sweet moment by reminding themselves of what awaited them outside of Hogwarts. However, if Juliet's day of reckoning was really approaching, at least now she would be ready for it.

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A.N: This is . . . not my favourite chapter in the world and my poor brain cells are fried after working the details out. I tried not to get too technical with everything since that would be boring to read, but I do have a solid theory in case anyone is doubting how possible it is. I'm also going to die on the hill that James is SO SMART, even if he's kind of dumb at times. In my head, this ring is going to work a little like the Gilbert Ring for those familiar with TVD, so it's not quite immortality she's accomplished. If this was a boring chapter, I'm really sorry. It was important for the plot, but the next chapter is going to be really cute if that makes up for it.

Question, would you actually want to live forever? Why or why not?