(44 : YOU ARE A LOVER . . .
BORROW CUPID'S WINGS)

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HIGH HEELS IN HAND, JULIET found herself padding towards the Gryffindor common room. Being surrounded by all those lovestruck couples made her reevaluate everything — there was no point skirting around her feelings when they were at war and their days of bliss might be numbered. The realisation then led to her recruiting Lily Evans as her messenger since she didn't know how else to reach James. The Gryffindor was more than willing to pass on a hastily scribbled note on a napkin to James Potter. Now Juliet could only hope he would actually show.

It was a little after curfew, but Slughorn's party had been in full swing when she left, which gave her a concrete excuse if she was caught out of bed by Filch. Juliet knew it was a risk to be out that late — lingering around Gryffindor Tower of all places — but it was a necessary risk. If she didn't take it, there was no doubt in her mind that she would keep making excuses as to why she couldn't tell James what she had known for more than a month now.

Juliet Fawley was finally prepared to be a lover and fighter. Just like him.

"Julie?" James sauntered out of the portrait hole. "I got your note."

From her place in the shadows, the redhead stepped forward and tapped her nails against her thigh. The moment had been so built up in her head that she didn't know if the reality would actually be able to compare. "Yeah, this couldn't really wait."

Her nervousness startled him. He'd always viewed her as this impenetrable, fierce figure that didn't get nervous. "To the Room of Requirement then?"

"This won't take long," she assured him, a piece of parchment wobbling in her unsteady stands. As a perfectionist, she had laboured over what she should say for weeks. "James, I've been thinking about how to tell you this for a while now and I —"

Snatching the parchment from her hand, James scanned what was written down with enlarged eyes and a muffled snicker. "Please tell me you don't actually have a cheat sheet on how to say I love you right now."

"It's not a cheat sheet," she defended without much conviction. "I didn't want to forget anything. In case you couldn't tell, I'm out of my depth here."

Emotions weren't exactly in Juliet's comfort zone. It was like her throat started to close in on itself and her tongue tied itself into a knot every time she so much as attempted to blurt out 'I love you.' In truth, the Slytherin really didn't trust herself to be spontaneous, to encapsulate the magnitude of her feelings for that one boy in a sentence or two. Even if James couldn't see it, she was trying so hard. Alchemy and Potions made sense to her — feelings did not.

The Gryffindor shifted, noticing her conflicted features and wanting to help. "You know, I heard muggles picture people naked when they're nervous."

"James," she groaned, "picturing you naked really wouldn't help."

"Look, anything you say needs to come from your heart." He scrunched up the piece of parchment to make a point. "Real love isn't anything like Shakespeare. Two people aren't going to meet and share a sonnet, they aren't going to be in perfect harmony and that means real love might be a little messy. Lucky for you, I like messy. But, I — I would still like to hear it from you, if that's alright?"

A spark of a Gryffindor bravery illuminated her eyes — only for a second. Without thinking about it, she uncorked the veritaserum she had stolen from the boy earlier and swiftly brought the clear liquid to her lips. "Ask me how I feel about you."

He caught her wrist before she could finish the vial, gently taking it from her and downing the remnants himself. "It's only fair if we're both being honest, right?"

"Right," she decided, gulping. "Do you want me to go first or —"

James nodded, clamping his eyes shut because he knew what she was going to ask.

The redhead exhaled. "Our argument over Christmas Break . . . did you mean it? Do you really think I'm a bad person?"

"No!" The word bubbled out from his throat immediately. "I was out of line, Juliet. I don't even know where to begin in saying how sorry I am. I said all those things because I was — I was embarrassed. I froze the second we were actually in battle, do you understand how humiliating that is? I've built an entire lifestyle around fighting in this war and it turns out I'm not cut out for it." James chuckled, but it was a dry and empty sound. "Everything in my life has come so easily to me and then . . . something didn't."

"You were right about some things though," she said quietly.

"I wasn't," he argued forcefully. "You didn't crack under pressure once. For someone who wants no part in this war, you are an incredible fighter. You could've ran, but you stayed and you didn't let anything stop you." James grinded his teeth, the shame heavy on his shoulders. "I was treating it like a classroom duel and it almost got me killed. I thought we couldn't fight murder with murder, I don't want to kill anyone, but someone needs to stop them before they can't be stopped."

Juliet nodded absentmindedly. "You were an entitled, self-righteous prat basically."

"I wouldn't have gone that fa—"

"You were," she cemented. "But what I was trying to say before is . . . you were right. You went about it the wrong way and what you said hurt — it hurt a lot because you knew how to make it hurt, but you were right. I've been so scared of making my own decisions because then I'd only have myself to fault if I end up with a bad life, but I'm ready to make a choice. And I want to choose you."

His breathing picked up. "Juliet, how do you feel about me?"

"I'm in love with you and it terrifies me," confessed Juliet. "I didn't expect to fall in love with you at first. And then I woke up one night at 2am and I realised it was too late. I waited for the world to end. Merlin, I'm still waiting for the world to end because I'm meant to hate you. It's the natural order of things." All she could hear was the blood swishing violently around in her ears, nothing else. "But I really don't care about what's meant to be anymore."

"I — I love you too." It was like James had been gasping for breath the entire time and he could finally breathe again knowing she returned his feelings in equal parts. Except, there was one more issue. "Juliet, I love you, but I don't know if we can continue with the secrecy forever. If we decided to pick up where we left off, what would it matter? You were hellbent on marrying someone else in June last I heard."

Juliet swore her heart stopped beating for a second. She could almost hear the click of her walls slipping back into place, guarding her delicate heart. After laying her soul bare, it wasn't the reaction she wanted. Yet, she wasn't the only one hurting. Even if James Potter was a certified hopeless romantic, not even he had the heart to enter what would only ever be a fling with feelings attached. Neither of them would come out unscathed if they went into the relationship with an expiry date. They couldn't be damned from the start.

"And what if I'm not?" whispered the redhead, knowing it was something that couldn't be taken back from how sharply his head snapped up. "I told you, I want to choose you. I have a plan and it would mean we'll be together after graduation. Without all our cloak-and-dagger bullshit."

"What's the plan?"

"What are the chances you're skilled at occlumency?" Juliet probed, only for the boy to shake his head. "Not many people are. Unless you can learn to shield your mind, it's too dangerous for me to tell you. I need you to restore that faith in me. You need to trust me on this one."

He wrapped his arms around her waist. "We're only a secret again temporarily?"

"Yes."

He fixed his longing gaze on her lips. "And you love me?"

"I literally just told you that. Dramatic declaration and all."

He leaned in. "Maybe I want to hear it again. Tell me why you love me, Fawley."

"Probably because the pureblood inbreeding messed with my brain, that or I got dropped on the head one too many times as a kid," she responded lightly. "I can't fathom any other reason someone would fancy yo—"

In impatience, he shut her up with an eager kiss. Their hands started to roam, their bodies not having melded together in so long. It was the kind of kiss that made her dizzy — the kind of the kiss that she wished she could bottle in case she ever needed to explain what love felt like to someone. Juliet's apocalypse never arrived, but in that moment, she knew would've kissed him until the end of the world if it meant they never had to be apart again.

Too immersed in the moment, neither of them noticed as Marlene McKinnon rounded the corner with her mouth agape.

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A.N: We love a reunion! Lots of dialogue but they needed to hash that all out before going back to being the adorable LOMLs are they are. I'll also be curious if anyone figures out Juliet's plan beforehand as hints have been dropped and will continue to be dropped. I will neither confirm or deny anything though. Once again I wrote this and avoided my college work, so I hope you all enjoyed. My English teacher probably won't be nearly as thankful though.

Question, favourite ship of all time? I think mine's Spuffy!