(21 : YOUNG MEN'S LOVE THEN LIES. . .
NOT TRULY IN THEIR HEARTS)

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GRYFFINDOR PARTIES WERE HIGHLY COVETED amongst Hogwarts students. Whilst all houses had their share of wild parties, Gryffindor parties seemed to be synonymous with scandal, leaving the students who didn't receive an invite to live vicariously through the secondhand tales and sordid rumours. James Potter's seventeenth birthday was no exception.

Of course Juliet had heard about the house's rowdy reputation, but she failed to prepare herself for the level of intoxication she found when — much to the ire of the Fat Lady — she ambled through the portrait hole. A blonde girl was dancing on the table precariously in high heels, two ginger boys were rather inconspicuously putting out a small fire and Sirius Black was doing a rather accurate Dumbledore impression for a gathering crowd, complete with a wig and a long white beard. Considering it was only eight p.m, Juliet's eyes bulged at the various scenes as she squeezed through drunken bodies in search of a friendly face.

"Ho ho, Miss Fawley!" yelled Sirius, spotting the girl and abandoning his crowd of admirers in the process. "What brings you to the Lion's Den?"

"Ho ho?" mocked Juliet. "Isn't that more St. Nick than Dumbledore?"

"Tough crowd, I see. Give me a second," said Sirius, taking a deep breath and steepling his hands. He looked her dead in the eye and then recited in a mournful tone, "Know this, Miss Fawley, happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to locate the firewhisky."

    "Much better," she agreed, amused. "And who am I to argue with Dumbledore? Point me in the direction of the alcohol, Black."

     Throwing an arm over her shoulder, Sirius steered her away from the drinks table. "As curious as I am to find out what kind of drunk you are," he began pointedly, "I feel like I should be more concerned with how you got into the common room."

    The redhead rolled her eyes. "If you must know, I was invited."

   "You're telling me Prongs finally grew a pair?" snorted Sirius.

    Shrugging off the comment, Juliet scanned the room for Lily Evans. "Huh? It was Lily who invited me, actually."

He smirked. "Does that mean you two are friends now?"

"I guess so," replied Juliet, unsure.

     Apparently Sirius found this hilarious as he exploded into uncontrollable laughter, leading Juliet to wonder how much he had to drink before she arrived. Leaving the Gryffindor to his hysterics, Juliet slipped from his side in search of someone to calm him down.

     "Lupin!" shouted Juliet, relieved upon seeing the back of the gangly boy near the stairs. "Sirius is having some sort of manic breakdown. I think you need to sort him —" The girl froze upon reaching the boy. "—out. Do I even want to know how he got so pissed?"

     In front of Remus, James was sprawled out on the stairs with a birthday tiara on his head. Although he wasn't completely gone, his eyes were half-lidded and he seemed to have little awareness of his surroundings. In contrast, Remus was unexpectedly clear-headed, yet exhausted. Juliet knew Remus had always been rather sickly in appearance, but his pale pink scars seemed more prominent than before and there was an unmistakable lethargy to his movements as he failed to get James to stand.

     Remus and Juliet shared a resigned look and both knowingly said, "Sirius."

     "Um," struggled Juliet, "should I go find Pettigrew or someone to help?"

     "It's fine, I can do it," Remus waved off, only to grunt when he tried again. "Right. Maybe I do need some help. Do you think you'd be able to levitate him up the stairs with me? I, um, never attempted anything this heavy."

     James blinked up at his friend. "Did you just call me fat, Moons?"

     All Remus did was sigh, nodding to Juliet as she grabbed her wand. "It's going to be a long night. Wingardium leviosa."

   
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"Are you sure?" Remus checked for the fourth time. "I can handle him from here."

The redhead sent him a half-smile, but it might've resembled more of a grimace for all she knew. "Lupin, I'm perfectly capable of dropping your friend on his bed. You, on the other hand, should go and find that girl before she changes her mind," she encouraged. Whilst they were levitating James upstairs, a petite girl with dark, curly hair had approached from behind and made a flirty comment about Remus' 'brilliant arse.' Ever since then, Juliet was trying to convince Remus to actually enjoy the party instead of mothering his friends. "It's really warm down there anyway. I need a breather."

Distrustfully, Remus eyed James. "If he says something stupid, you have my permission to hit him. He can be a . . . mopey drunk."

"Thanks, but I'd hit him with or without your permission," she chirped, giving him a light push. "Now go! You're leaving me with James, not a ghoul."

What she didn't mention was that she owed him one because she had been in the same position around Halloween. Despite not even being friends back then, James had dropped everything to help Juliet. Plus, the redhead only came to the party for Lily's sake and she couldn't even find her. The thought of being the only Slytherin at the party was unsettling — the hatred and misinformation being spread about her house was only growing worse as more and more of her housemates turned to Voldemort.

     With one arm wrapped around James and the other braced on the wall, Juliet kicked the door open. It had a sign that read:

MARAUDERS ONLY!
ENTER IF YOU DARE.

     "You're such nerds," sniggered Juliet.

     Either unbothered by the remark or not hearing it, James flopped onto his bed within seconds of entering the dorm. At least, Juliet assumed it was his bed from all the Quidditch posters nearby. The redhead watched his birthday tiara unceremoniously fall off his head and roll into the middle of the floor.

Although she knew she had done what she promised, something stopped her from leaving immediately. The messy-haired boy had been oddly quiet the entire way and something about it made the redhead's skin itch. James Potter never shut up — it was his natural state of being! — so it felt wrong to see him deeply immersed in his thoughts and visibly troubled.

     Lingering in the middle of the room, Juliet swallowed. "Knut for your thoughts?"

"My thoughts are worth at least a sickle," retorted James, struggling into a sitting position. "But, well, I — I can't stop thinking about her, no matter how much I try and I don't know what to do, Moons. It feels like there's a stampede of hippogriffs in my stomach every time she looks at me. What do I do? Love shouldn't hurt this much, right?"

Noting that his words weren't quite slurred, but his posture was rather slumped, Juliet took a seat beside him. Perhaps he wasn't as far gone as she had thought. "I'm not Remus," she said, softer than she would've normally. "But, I suppose you need to figure out if it's worth it. Have you ever thought about why you even like her?"

His already dilated eyes widened. "Why wouldn't I like her?"

"I understand, she's pretty —"

"It's not that," he protested. "I like that I'm never bored with her. I like that I don't know what to expect. I like that she gets along with my friends. I like that she's not afraid to have her own opinions, knowing we'll disagree. I like that she doesn't try to be brave but still manages to be. I'm constantly trying to be brave. And I like how hard she tries not to smile when she's with me, then does it anyway. I like how the second you think you know her, she throws you a curveball and it feels like you're meeting her all over again. I like that I might even love her." Running his hands through his hair, James was breathless by the end of his speech. "Don't get me wrong, she's beautiful too. Godric, she's so beautiful with her red hair and blue ey—"

     The redhead choked back a laugh. "How drunk are you? Even I know Lily has green eyes."

     "Lily?" echoed James, the name twisting strangely round his tongue. "I'm talking about Juliet."

     Juliet's heart stuttered. James couldn't love her — they didn't know each other that well. Until a few weeks ago, she didn't even think they were still friends. Outside of that, she was betrothed and everyone knew it was always meant to be James and Lily. Merlin, even some of the Slytherins had running bets on when those two would get together.

    Leaping from the bed, Juliet placed as much distance as she could between them, acting like he'd given her electric shock. "You don't know what you're saying. You're drunk."

    "Well sober words are drunk thoughts," mused James.

     "That proves my point," she snapped. "It's drunk words are sober thoughts. And, as the rest of the school can vouch, Lily is the one you like and have liked for the past six years. You don't lose feelings that fast."

James squinted, as if he still wasn't sure what was going on. "You know, I don't think Lily likes me very much. She's not very nice to me."

Pointing at herself, she exclaimed, "Neither am I! I—I insult you and ignore you and I'm starting to think you're a bit of a masochist." Juliet took a calming breath. "I—I need to go. Happy Birthday, James."

In her rush to leave, Juliet stepped on the boy's plastic crown and it broke under her foot. As if the teenager needed further proof all she knew how to do was break a good thing.

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A.N: Jules stans, make some noise! We have progress at last. Writing this chapter was so fun but getting the flow right was hard. Rip the water fight scene between the two I had to cut. For once, I don't have much to say in this note, so thank you all for commenting and reading as always.

Question, do you have any 2021 goals or resolutions? The only thing I want to do this year is get into uni, honestly.