(49 : COME TO REDEEM ME . . .
THERE'S A FEARFUL POINT)

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SEVENTH YEAR WAS FINALLY OVER, Dumbledore was delivering a farewell speech and the leavers were having one last meal in the Great Hall before they were to be waved off, taking the same enchanted boats that first brought them to the castle. By the time they were invited to eat, some students were crying and others were throwing their ties up in the air. At the Slytherin table, a certain redhead couldn't stop rolling her eyes — their houses had seemingly defined them for seven years and suddenly people wanted to forget that, forget how much power those same ties once held.

Juliet didn't understand why people were so emotional. Hogwarts had served as an escape for her, but it was a cutthroat place to be at times. Especially with the constant house rivalries. Knowing that, she was simply focusing on the future. It wasn't panning out like she had thought it would when she boarded the Hogwarts Express at eleven, but she was strangely eager to build a new life with James.

In fact, the only thing that currently stood in the way of the couple was her wedding.

As she glanced to her left, her stomach twisted at the sight of Regulus. Although she hadn't told him outright, they both knew in their hearts that they wouldn't be getting married the following week. "Reg," she began softly, "do you think we could talk before I head to the boats?"

"I've been meaning to talk to you about something too. I didn't really know how to bring it up though." He was relieved for the excuse to talk to her and surreptitiously inclined his head towards the door. "Come on, I know somewhere we can go."

     From across the room, Lily Evans watched Juliet and Regulus sneak off together with a small frown.

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     'Somewhere' ended up being one of the many abandoned classrooms Hogwarts had to offer. It was a large room, the stools coated in dust and the desks having been pushed to one side long ago. As Juliet pushed up to sit on one of the desks, she absentmindedly brushed her fingertips over a pair of initials — ones that had likely been scratched into the wood before she was even born. She idly wondered if 'E.B + F.P' actually lasted beyond being school sweethearts.

"Do you want to go first?" Regulus offered, taking a seat beside her.

Juliet decided it was best to rip off the bandaid. "I won't be marrying you next week. It's not — it's not safe for me to tell you everything right now, but I wish it didn't have to be this way and I'm sorry."

Regulus snorted. "No. You're not."

Her brow crinkled. "What?"

"You're not sorry at all," he clarified, keeping his voice neutral. "I'm not holding it against you, Juliet. I want you to be happy and maybe you could've been happy with me, but it was cruel of me to put you in that position, especially with the Dark Lord involved." Regulus turned to look at her, resigned. "You'll be abandoning your family and your blood, you'll be abandoning me for Pot—him. It's not something you can ever come back from. The Dark Lord will take your betrayal personally and he'll seek retribution. Do you understand that? Are you prepared for that?"

     "I don't have a family anymore. It wouldn't change anything even if I did. I am done with the pureblood bullshit, I — I don't even think I want to be a Fawley anymore." Her voice was strangely timid, her raw loathing for the pureblood regime having broken her down into a mere husk of hatred. "I know you don't understand, I know you don't like Ja—"

He grimaced. "I don't, but I overreacted when I found out about him. I — I thought it was something he took some kind of sick pleasure in, taking away the people who meant the most to me," admitted Regulus, a note of bitterness in his voice. "Potter is the perfect son, Potter is top of his class, Potter is the quidditch captain, Potter is popular, Potter does everything right. And so do I, Juliet. I do all of those things and nobody ever chooses me."

Juliet could've choked on the boy's pain, it was almost tangible. "There's someone out there who will choose you. I know —"

"I don't need relationship advice," he laughed lightly. "You know, I couldn't fathom why people preferred him at first. Then I realised that he was never the problem, I was. It was never about what we had in common, it was about what we didn't. Potter never remained passive when his friend — his brother — was hurting. Potter never gave the name of a girl he fancied over to the Dark Lord. It was easy to blame him, but I know now . . ."

Juliet's breath caught in her throat, wondering why his voice faded in thought. "Know what?"

"That I need to cut those puppet strings."

     The revelation startled Juliet, even if she had suspected it. He'd seemingly cut back on hexing 'impure' students, distancing himself from the likes of Flint and Snape. In fact — apart from when they'd been arguing — Regulus had remained at Juliet's side most of the year. Any pride she felt at the prospect of a Death Eater wanting to rectify their mistakes was cancelled out by the fact she didn't know how to help. After the wedding, she would be forced into hiding and she wouldn't be returning to Hogwarts, so it wasn't like she could've supported Regulus in that sense either.

"What changed your mind?" asked Juliet.

"Horcruxes." Once the word left his lips, the room became ten degrees colder. He shook it off and pulled several pieces of parchment from his pocket, all of which were hand drawn and annotated in unfamiliar handwriting. "When you were set your task, I decided to look into some alternatives to the elixir. I found horcruxes in my family's library and immediately scrapped the idea because they're — they're dark, really dark. It involves storing a fragment of your soul in an item but only after committing a murder. They're near impossible to destroy and I think — I think he never really needed that elixir." Regulus paused, his palms sweating as he flattened out the notes. "I think he wanted an excuse to kill you, Juliet."

Her blood was like ice. "He doesn't need excuses to kill people. I don't understand what you're implying."

"I'm not implying anything. I'm telling you that you had an impossible task because he needed a reason to spill your pure blood. Lucius made a strong case against you multiple times in the meetings, your own father made out that you were a waste of magic, but you weren't a blood traitor. It would have undermined the Dark Lord's entire manifesto if he had killed you without purpose." He pointed to a diagram of a locket. "And I'm also telling you that he's in possession of a horcrux. Maybe more than one. Believing in blood purity is one thing, evading death is another. You were right, what happens when he gets bored? When all the muggles and muggleborns are dead? He'll never be satisfied by his power."

Familiarity prickled at her neck as she studied the parchment. "Hold on, how do you know all of this?"

"He kept making comments, bragging about how he has conquered death and his beliefs will be immortalised in the Wizarding World, claiming he has gone further along the path of immortality than any other," he explained carefully. "I thought he was merely arrogant, then we went looking for that diary and I saw the plans for a cave. Blood wards, inferi, it seemed excessive . . . so I stole the plans from Malfoy's study."

     Her tone was cautious. "You stole them? What exactly are you planning to do?"

     A storm stirred beneath the blue of his irises as the boy's eyes darkened. "I'm going to find the horcrux and destroy it. As soon as the Hogwarts Express —"

     "You're going to get yourself killed," she argued immediately. "A few pieces of parchment talking about the protections around some seaside cave is not a plan. You stole these plans in December, he probably already knows that they're missing and is on high alert. For all we know, he might've added to the protections."

     "This isn't something that I decided spur of the moment," he insisted, his voice raising an octave. "I've been planning this for months. It's not something I can forget about, what he has done is despicable."

     "Just . . . let me think for a second, alright?" Juliet hopped down from the table and began to pace. "You can't destroy it yet. You're thinking too much like a Gryffindor right now, you're rushing into something because you're angry. Even if you say you've planned it, it's too soon. Voldemort will be expecting it, so we wait." She ignored how the boy blanched at the use of the name. "When he lets his guard down, we strike. Whether that's six months or two years from now, I want you to owl me and I'll come with you. I won't let you do this alone."

     Regulus shook his head. "I won't drag you into anything else involving the Dark Lord. I made that mistake before."

     "I'm already involved," she retorted, throwing her hands into the air. "It's a nonnegotiable point. You need to promise me that you will send me a message before you go to that cave. I don't know what will happen to me after the wedding, but we'll figure out a way to stay in contact."

     "Okay. We're in this together." He kept his head looking straight ahead, desperate to blink away the tears rimming his already puffy eyes. "You don't have to —"

     "I want to," she cut in.

      He finally faced her. "Why?"

     "Till death do us part, Reg," whispered Juliet. "We may not be getting married anymore, but it's still till death do us part."

     Then, she did something unexpected — she pulled him into a hug. He stiffened like she had when James hugged her for the first time, not accustomed to such an affectionate gesture. It took him a few moments before he reciprocated it, but he eventually melted into her, burying his head into her chest. His soft whimpers were the only sound that could be heard as they echoed off the walls.

     The two Slytherins stayed like that until it was time for Juliet to leave.

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It was her last ever ride on the Hogwarts Express and she was ending it how she had started it — alone. Regulus had given her a lot to think about, she found an empty compartment on purpose. After plucking a book from her carry on, the girl was about to lift her luggage back overhead when she heard:

"Do you need any help with that?"

Upon hearing a familiar voice, Juliet jumped and spun round. If it hadn't been for a pair of muscled arms shooting out and pushing her luggage back, she would've been crushed by her bag.

"I'm good, thank you," she said before deciding to tease him. "I didn't quite catch your name . . ."

"Oh, James!" He stuck his hand out. "James Potter."

Juliet didn't cover her hand with her sleeve this time. "Juliet," she answered, a bright smile threatening her act. "Now, do you want to keep shaking hands or do you want to snog?"

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A.N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and Reg coming to Juliet about the horcrux because I adore their friendship. Nobody actually commented on the fact he stole the plans to the cave when they were in the study, which shocked me, but I don't know if everyone was just distracted by the kiss. I also couldn't resist a final train scene to make up for the lack of James. I know it's been a long time for some of you, but the end meeting mirrors their first.

Question, what would you use as a horcrux? There's also one more chapter until the war section of this book, any theories?