(31 : THE LEAN ABHORRED MONSTER. . .
KEEP THEE HERE IN DARK)

✧࿐ ཾ✧

SUNLIGHT FILTERED THROUGH THE WINDOWS, stirring Juliet from what was a fitful sleep. Throughout the night, she found herself waking up in a cold sweat, the memories of sharp claws and even sharper teeth permanently etched into the back of her eyelids. There was a small mercy in it finally being morning — or at least she thought so as she groggily pushed herself into a sitting position on the hospital bed.

     "Oh! You're awake, dear." Madam Pomfrey hurried to her bedside, which was already scattered with a couple of 'get well soon' cards. "Be careful not to overexert yourself, even potions can only do so much. Now, do you remember what happened? You briefly came to when I was wrapping your bandages last night, but you were hardly coherent."

     Looking down, Juliet noticed there were large bandages wrapped around her abdomen. "I remember," she replied shortly, a twinge of bitterness in her tone. "Am I a —"

     "Oh goodness no," said the matron. "You came in with a mild concussion, bruised ribs and minor bleeding. I'll provide you with an ointment for the bruises that you'll have to apply for the next week or so and I'd like to hold you here for observation the rest of the day. Whilst the source of the bleeding did seem to be scratches, they were far too small and too easily healed to be from a," her voice quieted and her eyes shifted to the only other occupied bed where Remus Lupin was still asleep, "werewolf."

     Her sleep-addled brain barely latched onto what the woman was implying. Remus Lupin was a werewolf.

     In an effort to hide her discomfort at the revelation, Juliet focused on keeping her voice even as she inquired, "W—who brought me in?"

     "I did," a new voice answered from the doorway. "I hope you don't mind that I'm here. I thought we could talk. James wanted to come, but today's the last Quidditch practice before the first game and he's captain, so . . ."

Glancing between the odd pair, Madam Pomfrey sensed she was intruding on something. "I'll be in my office if you need anything, Miss Fawley." Before scurrying off, the woman sternly added, "And Mr Black, please refrain from hexing every Slytherin you see, especially if they're already in the hospital wing."

"No promises, Poppy." Giving the matron a mock salute, the dark-haired boy dragged a chair as close as possible to Juliet's bed. "How's my favourite Slytherin doing? When Prongs saw you —"

Comprehension sparked, lighting Juliet's eyes. "Anteoculatia. Prongs."

Sirius furrowed his brows. "What?"

"It all makes sense now — why you call him Prongs. His favourite hex is anteoculatia, which I thought was strange at the time, but it's because he is a stag, isn't it? I saw his patronus last year and the stag last night looked familiar. At least the eyes did," rambled Juliet, all the pieces slotting together. "And if James was the stag and Remus was the werewolf, that means you were the dog, right? Or is that Peter? Merlin, it feels insane to say it, even for you lot, but you're — you're all animagi."

At a loss, Sirius flashed her a nervous grin. "Um, woof?"

     "Sirius!" scolded Juliet, her heart thumping wildly. "It's not funny. You're aiding and abetting a werewolf."

     He held up the palm of his hand. "Woah, back up. We're not aiding and abetting anyone because being a werewolf isn't a crime."

"It should be!" snapped Juliet. "He could've killed me."

Instantly defensive, the Gryffindor recoiled like she had slapped him. "You really want to talk about killing, Juliet?" Sirius yanked a vial of blue-silver liquid out of his pocket, the glass tube stained with dirt. "You dropped this last night. Now, I'm curious, how exactly did you procure unicorn blood when it's illegal under the British Ministry?"

With a passive face, she shrugged. "So is being an unregistered animagus."

Of course she was only making an educated guess by saying the boys were unregistered, but it was proved correct when Sirius stiffened. Something akin to satisfaction flooded her veins, knowing they were at a stalemate. He couldn't do anything with the knowledge she possessed unicorn blood unless he wanted to be exposed for not registering as an animagus.

     "Being unregistered isn't hurting anyone," he countered, a flicker of doubt passing his features. "Can you say the same for whatever you had to do to get this blood from a poor, defenceless unicorn?"

"I didn't kill it, if that's what you're implying," hissed Juliet.

Sirius lowered his voice. "And Remus didn't kill you."

"That's not the convincing argument you think it is." The girl leaned in, both their hard-lined faces inches apart. "I was in control of my actions and I made the active choice to not kill. Remus — Remus becomes an animal where his singular instinct is to kill. In that state, his morals are nonexistent. Werewolves are —"

     "Dangerous?" Sirius finished with a scoff. "We go to school with Death Eaters, but sure, be scared of the boy who folds his socks!"

     Faltering, Juliet contemplated his words. Unforgivables had been used more than once by her own housemates in the Hogwarts halls, she was even close to casting one herself in the Forbidden Forest. It wasn't her place to judge Remus when she ultimately encountered him — or his wolf — because she was doing a task for Lord Voldemort himself. In such morally ambiguous times, the line between good and evil was blurred. Yet, the remnants of her fear from last night presided over the rational part of her brain that knew all of this.

     It had been the type of fear where her saliva thickened, her heart pounded and her muscles ached. It had filled her up like a balloon and she was still waiting to explode, for her guts to splatter all over the hospital walls. Because her fear had always been erratic and all-consuming. Last night was no different. Not that a Gryffindor like Sirius would ever understand how it felt for her because fear didn't rule his life.

     "Just give me the unicorn blood," she demanded.

     "You're my friend, Juliet, but Remus is my brother. He comes first." The boy paused, a touch of menace in his grey eyes. "If you tell anyone about his furry little problem, you should know that I'll tell everyone about your screwing-my-best-friend problem."

     With narrowed eyes, Juliet caught the vial that he tossed at her before walking out.

✧࿐ ཾ✧

     "Juliet!" exclaimed James, bursting into the hospital wing and pulling her into a hug. In his haste, he hadn't even bothered to change out of his Quidditch uniform.

     Pushing the boy away from her, Juliet feigned confusion. "Um, do I know you?"

     His face dropped as he turned to Sirius, who was trailing behind him. "You said she was fine, Padfoot! You said —"

    Juliet erupted in laughter. "I am fine, James."

     "You're so mean." James pouted. "Just for that, I'm not going to tell you about how Mum invited you over for Christmas."

     "You just did, mate," Sirius pointed out.

     With a long sigh, she shifted in her bed and looked away. "I wish I could, but I have to attend the Malfoy wedding on the 22nd of December. Plus, my parents would never let me stay with your family's . . . history."

     "Just write to them saying you're staying at Hogwarts for the holidays then," suggested James. "You can pretend that Dumbledore is letting you use his Floo for the wedding. Even if you only stay a few days, Mum misses you and we really liked having you last year."

     "I'll think abo—"

     A groan interrupted her and Sirius immediately moved to his friend's side. After a particularly violent full moon, it seemed that Remus was only just stirring. Sirius offered him the pain potion that Madam Pomfrey placed on his bedside whilst James was more concerned with studying Juliet's reaction.

     Resisting the urge to flinch, Juliet gripped the sides of her bed. "Nice nap, Lupin?"

Whilst Juliet didn't know whether or not he remembered the full moon, she did recognise the regret that plagued his features when he spotted her. Like it wasn't the first time he'd been faced with the situation. Juliet found herself unnerved by the familiar resignation, the reluctance acceptance, as Lupin bemoaned, "What did I do?"

"It wasn't you, Moony," assured Sirius.

Biting her tongue, the redhead wondered if there were more werewolves running around Hogwarts. Otherwise, it definitely was Remus Lupin.

"Then who was it, Sirius?" shouted Remus, still on edge from the full moon. "I'm a monster. I attacked another student. How many chances do you think Dumbledore will give me? It's not safe for me to be at Hogwarts, I've always said this and —"

Juliet stilled. "Another?"

She knew it was the wrong thing to say the second she said it, but she could feel herself shaking at the insinuation she wasn't his only victim. The longer she stared at the scarred boy across from her, the more he began to morph into the beast she had encountered the night prior. In a blink, Remus was growing razor-sharp fangs that were dripped in crimson blood and elongated claws that were sharper than any sword.

"Juliet, are you alright?" James placed a hand on her shoulder.

Wrenched back into reality, she managed to nod. "Just tired still. I didn't sleep well."

In spite of his confusion, James took the hint. "Right, we shouldn't have barged in he—"

"Juliet," blurted Sirius, "do you think Remus is a monster?"

"You don't have to ans—" began Remus, but she could feel James' eyes burning into the side of her head.

She forced a smile. "Remus, you wear knitted sweaters and look like a strong gust of wind could knock you over," intervened Juliet, her words a little stilted. "I'm not scared of you."

James squeezed her hand. Juliet squeezed it back. In truth, she wasn't scared — she was goddamn terrified.

✧࿐ ཾ✧

A.N: Shall I run from the angry mob with the pitchforks now? I know a lot of you wanted Juliet to be best buddies with Remus, but she was raised with the pureblood idea that werewolf were vicious monsters and would have likely died had James not been there. She's clearly a little traumatised, but is willing to pretend otherwise for now. All the same, I hope you liked this chapter! Chances are there'll be no update tomorrow sadly as I have an important assessment on Friday morning so'll be spending my night revising. I'd much prefer to be writing this, to be honest.

Question, what is your favourite fictional friendship? First one that came to mind for me is Paris and Rory from Gilmore Girls. In HP, I really like the bond between James and Sirius. Ironic considering we don't really see it, but I love them and when Sirius calls Harry 'James,' my heart breaks.