(61 : FOR THERE NEVER WAS A . . .
STORY OF MORE WOE)

(THE EPILOGUE)

✧࿐ ཾ✧

LITTLE WHINGING, AUGUST 1993

HARRY POTTER HAD RUN AWAY, WHICH wasn't the smartest decision in hindsight. Just behind Magnolia Crescent, there was an abandoned park, so the boy begrudgingly lugged his trunk beside a rusting swing set and sat down on it with a huff. He needed time to think — with no muggle money and both of his friends abroad, he had nowhere to go.

     After swinging back and forth for a few minutes, grumbling the entire time, a new emotion consumed him: panic. He was stranded, alone, in a dark neighbourhood and had effectively broken the law by using underage magic to blow up his Aunt Marge. Harry cursed his own impulsiveness as the strangest sensation prickled at the back of his neck and made him feel like someone was watching him.

     "Hello?" Harry — rather foolishly — called into the night, kicking off the swing and clutching his wand at his side.

     There was a violent rustling sound from a nearby bush, then the headlamps from a passing car flooded the play park with light and caused the boy to almost trip over his own two feet as he yelped in horror. A large black dog stood no more than six feet away from him, its head cocked. Hesitant, Harry slowly stepped back, putting some distance between him and the possible stray. In return, the dog tried to move closer, only for the animal to scamper when its ears perked up at the sound of footsteps.

     Harry strained to hear whatever the dog had, but the sound of his own heart was simply deafening. And that was when he saw her. Even with his glasses, he was forced to squint at the sight of a determined young woman — presumably in her early thirties — approaching him. With striking red hair, piercing blue eyes and sharp cheekbones, she was rather intimidating at first glance. When Harry failed to identify a clear escape route, he summoned all of his Gryffindor courage and braced himself for the worst, a spell on the tip of his tongue as a precaution.

     "You're thirteen," the woman stated with a knowing eye roll, surprising the teenager as she took a seat on the second swing. "What are you going to do? Tickle me to death?"

      "You're a witch," Harry observed, not yet letting his guard down.

     Amused, her lips twitched upwards. "Very astute, I see," she commented dryly. "Yes, I'm a witch, but I much prefer to be called Juliet. Juliet Fawley."

     "Er, Harry Potter," he replied, staring doubtfully at the older woman when she offered a hand for him to shake. After a moment of silent debate, he took her hand and weakly shook it, his green eyes snagging on her wrist. A small pair of stag antlers had been tattooed over a whitish scar. He felt he was being rude by staring, but it struck him as odd that the design wasn't moving like most magical tattoos did.

"I know," she confessed. "I'm the one who named you."

Without realising it, Harry grinned, suddenly knowing more than he did before about himself — he wondered if he was named after someone in particular, but he instead found himself babbling, "Wait, you knew my parents? And me?"

Juliet shrugged. "A long time ago. You know, you have your —"

"— Mother's eyes, so I'm told," Harry finished harshly. Whilst he used to preen at the comparison, he now deflated.

"Your father's smile," she corrected pointedly. "And his attitude if that tone is anything to go off."

Looking down at his trainers, Harry scuffed them against the ground, reasonably embarrassed. "I — I didn't mean to snap. But it's been a long night and I hear it a lot, you know?" He didn't quite know what it was that made him confide in the stranger, but he felt like he could trust her already. "'Oh, you have your mother's eyes!' Listen, I like that I have something of hers, it's brilliant really, but I want to know the real stuff about them. I want to know what they ate for breakfast each morning and what their favourite songs were, all those perfectly normal things I should already know. Instead, everyone takes one look at me and then bursts into tears at the mention of their names."

     "Well, let's see, James was always obsessed with the chocolate croissants that they serve at Hogwarts. I think he cried once because someone stole the last one. Lily was more of a fruit person, she always preferred sweet over savoury." Her voice was full of honest affection, no sadness. "Lily liked Elton John, Carole King, The Beatles, that kind of thing. James liked whatever muggle music his friend introduced him to that week. Vienna by Billy Joel came out at the start of our Seventh Year and he wouldn't stop singing it."

     Although grateful for the information, Harry frowned deeply. "Where have you been all this time? Why are you showing up now? It's been years."

Juliet sighed. "You're on my list."

"I don't understand."

"I've spent the past twelve years helping out underage wizards and witches who need an escape. Muggleborns that are scared to lose control of their magic, half-bloods that aren't accepted by either their muggle or magical side, purebloods that want to leave that lifestyle and have nowhere to run . . . I take them in over the summertimes and sometimes the holidays," she explained, shifting under his intense gaze. "After Voldemort fell —"

     Harry blinked. "You say his name?"

     "Some of your father's Gryffindor courage rubbed off on me, I suppose." Her tone was teasing, but it was blatant that something darker lurked beneath. "As I was saying, after he fell, I was a complete wreck. James was dead, Lily was carted off to St Mungo's and my best friend was an accused Death Eater. It felt wrong that I was the one who was left standing somehow. My name was cleared — something that is much too complicated for me to tell you about now — and I became a free woman that inherited a fancy manor and a lot of galleons. But I didn't know what to do with it. I didn't want any of it." Juliet paused, choosing her next words carefully as she added, "My family were supporters of the Dark Lord and we had a complicated relationship. I didn't care for any of it at first. But I eventually decided instead of shunning the Fawley name, I would rebuild it."

     Juliet handed Harry a business card. It was a simple design, using both red and silver as the main colours. "R&J's Mantua, Bravery Looks Different on Everyone," the boy read, confused. Below it, there was the address for Fawley Manor.

     "Your father told me that once and it became our motto," she quietly informed him, as if already on the cusp of nostalgia. "Mantua is a safe haven, a place of chosen exile. Nobody is forced to accept our help, but it is always offered, whether someone asks for it or not. We have a charmed list of every underage wizard in Britain, much like Hogwarts, and it alerts us who is most at risk. That's why I came here tonight. I saw your name and we —"

     "You keep saying we," Harry pointed out, "who's we?"

     "Regulus Black, he's my best friend alongside the R part of R&J," she answered without missing a beat. "My point is, I'm here to offer you a place there. Sometimes kids will stay a few weeks, others a few hours, but you'll have a room there and be safe from whatever you are running from." Juliet inclined her head towards his trunk. "You — you don't have to tell me what happened, but I would've come earlier if I had known you were in trouble. I thought you were happy with Lily's family. Nobody ever told me any different and I have been asking for updates, believe me."

     Harry wrinkled his nose. "Happy? The Dursleys are awful. Sometimes they barely feed me and I lived in a cupboard under the stairs most of my life!"

    "I'm sorry." Juliet swallowed thickly. Her stomach twisted as she internally questioned whether she had disappointed James somehow. The entire time she had assumed Harry was better off without his father's old flame complicating his life. "I don't have any legal claim to you, not over your blood relatives, but I designed Mantua in a way that it wouldn't matter. You don't have to stay with them anymore. If they have any issues, I'll handle it."

     "Dumbledore said —"

     "Dumbledore," interrupted Juliet, "doesn't always know what's best. He has secrets, Harry. About you and me."

Indecisiveness passed over his face and Juliet contemplated if she had really ever looked that young. "I wouldn't need to stay the entire summer, just until my friend Ron comes back from Egypt."

"Weasley, right?" Juliet laughed fondly. "One of his brothers came to us a few years ago. He wanted to run away from home because his mother said studying dragons was too dangerous. Within a few hours, he was crying because he missed his family."

Harry thought it was absurd that any of the Weasleys would ever want to leave Molly and Arthur. He didn't voice it though, rather he stared at the older woman for a long time before allowing his features to soften. "Before we go, do you think you can tell me more about my parents?"

Juliet stilled, knowing her own story was intrinsically linked with that of James Potter and Lily Evans and it was a story that she hadn't told in a while. It didn't hurt anymore — not since she had taken Euphemia's advice and embraced her grief, using it as the ambition needed for her to establish Mantua. Yet, would Harry resent her if she told him the truth about his parents? His emerald eyes cut through her like a knife as he impatiently awaited her answer. Against her better judgement, Juliet nodded and asked, "What do you want to know?"

"Everything," urged the boy eagerly. "Tell me everything. From the moment you first met my dad."

Glancing at the tattooed antlers on her wrist, a wistful smile formed on her face. "In that case, where does every great tragedy start? With a love story . . ."

✧࿐ ཾ✧

A.N: This is officially the end of Check Yes Juliet, wow! I don't know what to say. Thank you so much for the support, every vote and read and comment has meant the world to me. I hope you all like Juliet's ending and her establishing 'Mantua' with Reggie, which is very clearly in honour of James.

Now, I know there's obviously a lot of questions that remain about Juliet's role in the war, so I asked this on my profile, but I'll ask it here too . . . Would anyone want to see a sequel that follows from PoA-DH with Regulus and Juliet? If this isn't popular, I'll forget about it, but I have lots of ideas and I would still include James in some form. I'm thinking currently through flashbacks — ones that are new and aren't from this book.

Also, if you have any questions for me about this book, feel free to drop them below and I'll do my best to answer. I know the meaning of her patronus is one I'm asked a lot, so I might answer some FAQ after I post the alternate ending.