AN: We get a bit of Sassy!Juvia and I'm sorry, but I have to warn you: Trigger alert for torture.

I dedicate this chapter to Giushia, who made an amazing doodle of this story sometime ago and I never properly thanked her! Thank you dear, and if you are still reading this story: I hope you enjoy the chapter. ;)

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Seventh Year – Part I

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"Lumos." Juvia whispered underneath her blanket to not awake her roommates and took the paper she used to talk to Gray with at nights, since they didn't share a Common Room and sometimes wanted to communicate. She grabbed a quill and quickly wrote on it.

'Are you alright? Safe?' The words faded a few seconds later.

She waited, her heart beating fast inside her chest and fearing the worse. What if they had been caught? What if one of them was hurt and in need of assistance? Oh, Merlin, what if she did the wrong thing? She should've gone with them.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the paper vibrated a little and words appeared, her breath got caught in her throat as Gray's handwrite filled the paper.

'We are safe for now and we're not harmed.' The words disappeared after a few seconds and then more words appeared. 'How about you? How is everyone at Hogwarts?'

Juvia almost cried in relief: her Gray-sama was alive and as well as one could be while running from a Dark Wizard, it seems.

'We are okay.' She wrote. 'Worried about you. All three of you.'

'Be careful. Everyone knows we are dating, they could try to see if you have any information.'

'Juvia doesn't have any information and you won't tell her anything you are doing, so she'll never know anything.'

'I don't care, be careful and tell the others to be careful as well. When we are ready, we'll sent for you.'

'Shouldn't have told me that.' Juvia wrote with a sigh. 'No information, Gray-sama. Juvia can give you as much information as you want, but not the other way around.'

'You are right, sorry.' He wrote and then added it. 'Something new at Hogwarts?'

'New teacher of Defence Against Dark Arts appointed by the Ministry. Juvia will have a class with him in two days.' She wrote. 'He kept looking at Juvia during dinner, it was creepy.'

'Bloody hell.' Gray answered her. 'What's his name?'

'Invel Yura.' Juvia told him.

'We'll look into him but trust your instincts, if you think he is up to something, he probably is.'

'Juvia knows. Don't worry, Juvia will stay out of his way as much as she can.'

'I have to go, we are leaving early in th-' He stopped writing once he realized he, once again, was giving away information. 'I have to go.'

Juvia actually chuckled. 'You will get the hang of it. Good night and be safe. Juvia loves you.' She teared up as she wrote the last words.

'I know. Be safe too. Write me tomorrow night.'

'Of course. Good night.'

'Good night.'

Juvia stared at the paper for a few moments before she finally took it away and hid under her pillow. "Nox." She whispered and the light on her wand was extinguished.

#

The first few classes of Defence Against Dark Arts were interesting, but the new teacher, Invel Yura seemed okay enough, asking some of the students to read a chapter of their books out loud as he explained a few spells: he didn't let them practice, though.

Juvia did her best to stay out of his sight and sat on the back of the class, which was highly unusual for her. Gajeel sat next to her, all but sleeping during the reading and Juvia could see Levy throwing exasperated looks at him – they shared the class with the Ravenclaws that year – and then looked at Juvia, who just shrugged at her, smiling.

One day, once class was over, Juvia woke Gajeel up as usual and while they were getting their books to go down to the Great Hall to eat, the Professor cleared his throat and everyone looked in his direction.

"Miss Lockser, a moment, please?"

Juvia frowned and saw Gajeel tense and the moment Levy arrived to stand next to her boyfriend, she casted a worried look at the other blunette – she was well aware of what was happening.

"Of course, sir." She told the older man, who walked to his office, leaving the door opened for her.

"We'll wait here." Gajeel told her and Juvia shook her head.

"No, go on. Juvia can take care of herself and if he sees you here, he could become suspicious. Even more so." Juvia said in a whisper. "We'll meet at the Great Hall."

"Be careful. That guy gives me the creeps." Levy told her friend and Juvia nodded, taking her things with her and walking towards the office.

"Close the door, please." Professor Yura said once Juvia entered the office. He was looking outside the window behind his desk, hands behind his back. "Take a seat."

Juvia sat down on one of the chairs in front of the desk and waited.

"I was a Ravenclaw when I studied here." The Professor said. "I was always a very good student and coming back brings a lot of memories." He finally turned to look at her, fixing his glasses. "Your grades are exceptional, so were your O.W.L's. I wondered why you sit on the back, though. You seem like a girl who would seat on the front row."

Juvia was surprised he even noticed that – her gut was sending alarms to her brain – and she finally answered a moment later. "Juvia's friend sits on the back and she just sat next to him. Juvia can learn just as well from any seat." She lied.

"I see." Professor Yura nodded and sat down. "It is of my knowledge three students didn't come to Hogwarts this year and one of them is your boyfriend."

Wanting to thread lightly, Juvia just agreed. "Yes."

"Do you know why?"

"No." She lied with ease.

The older man smirked a little, sending shivers down Juvia's spine. "You see, I know you are lying, Miss Lockser. I know you spent the summer with Gray Fullbuster. I find highly unlikely he didn't share he wouldn't come to school this year."

Juvia narrowed her eyes and decided to play along to see how much information he had. "How would you know that, sir?"

"People talk." It was his answer.

"Not the people who knew about it." The Slytherin told him.

"Maybe they told the wrong people." Juvia hummed in acknowledgment but didn't give away anything else. "So... do you know why Gray Fullbuster, alongside with Lucy Heartfilia and Natsu Dragneel decided not to come to school this year?"

"They are seventeen now, they can decide not to return here." Juvia shrugged. "So, they decided."

"Do you know where they are? I would like to convince them to finish school, is my job as a teacher, you see."

"No idea." She didn't lie – in their nightly messages, Gray never revealed where they were.

"So Gray Fullbuster is no longer your boyfriend?"

It hurt her to, but she answered: "No."

"Is that so?" He put his elbows on the desk and crossed his hands to use as support for his chin. "I heard he was very passionate about you two dating when people were having problems accepting a Gryffindor and a Slytherin together."

How did he...? Juvia cleared her throat. "You sure hear a lot of things, Professor."

Invel's smirk deepened a bit. "You are being very sly."

"And you are asking some very personal questions."

"I am only concerned about the welfare of my students." He told her.

"They were never your students." Juvia rebuked, getting annoyed.

"Oh, my." Professor Yura chuckled. "You know, during the few classes we had together and the information I gathered, you didn't seem like much of a Slytherin, not the Slytherins I remember, that is, but here you are, showing your bite."

"You have not seen my bite." Juvia hissed, dying to add 'yet', but instead, she added: "Sir."

"No, I have not and I look forward to see it." He said and he put his hands back down on the table and Juvia took a glimpse of his right forearm, seeing a tattoo she had seen before, the same mark in the sky just a few months before. The hairs on the back of Juvia's neck raised, she was suddenly very afraid and regretted not having Gajeel waiting for her back in the classroom but if she showed weakness, he would exploit that. Her gut was right: he was a bad man. "I think we will be seeing a lot of each other this year, Miss Lockser."

Juvia got up, books in hand and said, in her best controlled voice. "Juvia thinks so too, sir, we do have classes together twice a week after all. Good day."

She turned around and left the room as fast as she could, heart beating fast, adrenalin and fear rushing inside her veins.

That wasn't good at all.

#

"Bloody hell." Cana said while walking around the Come and Go Room, the next night after the closest friends of those who weren't there, managed to set up a time to talk. "He looks at me funny as well, I think he knows I'm Lucy's friend."

"Are you sure you saw a Dark Mark on his forearm?" Wendy wondered.

"Yes. There's no mistaking it and... Juvia feels as if he did that on purpose." The blunette told them and there was silence in the room for a few seconds.

The Come and Go Room looked nothing like the other times she had been there: it was very bare with the exception of having a round table and enough seats for everyone.

"Mira, Erza, Ever... they graduated now." Cana sighed. "They would know what to do."

"We shouldn't be seen together." Lisanna proposed. "My brother would say it was the manly thing to do." Lisanna sighed, missing her siblings, both had graduated from school already. "This year... it's nothing like the others. They are targeting Natsu and okay, he has Lucy and Gray as backup and that's great that they are together, but we have our own enemies here."

Levy nodded, agreeing with her fellow Ravenclaw. "He already singled out Juvia because he knows she's Gray's girlfriend and tried very subtly to intimidate her. I fear this will only escalate as they don't find Natsu."

"So what? We just stop speaking?" Gajeel asked, wondering how he would be with his own girlfriend during that year.

"In public, let's keep it to the minimum." Cana said. "You and Levy can't just stop, of course, it would cause more suspicion than necessary, but us?" She pointed to the rest of them, with exception of Juvia. "No, too risky. We should meet up once every two weeks, though and swap information but if it's something urgent..."

"We break the rule." Juvia nodded. "Juvia agrees. "It's better we know nothing besides what is happening inside the Castle. Juvia can pass on any usable information to Gray-sama, so, if it's something really important, talk to Juvia."

"Agreed." Everyone nodded.

"Stay clear of Professor Yura and say nothing to anyone else. We are the only ones we can trust." Juvia said.

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One day, there were some new faces around the school, all appointed by the Ministry to be "auxiliaries" at the classes and suddenly everyone felt as if they were being guarded in a prison rather than being at a school.

The worse ones were Dimaria Yesta and Ajeel Ramal who, it seemed, loved to harass any student they thought was too weak to defend themselves. Some of the others were quieter, but not less intimidating.

At almost every class there was an "auxiliary" to supervise it, to make sure the students were learning what the Ministry thought it was right until one day, they became agitated and disappeared for the day.

Juvia commented to Gajeel during lunch that she had a bad feeling inside her gut about that and the night before she hadn't been able to get a hold to Gray – he had yet to reply her last message.

The Slytherin and Hufflepuff seventh years had been having a class of Charms with Professor Gildarts when both Dimaria and Ajeel barged in.

"What is going on? What do you want?" Gildarts hissed in annoyance at them – no teacher liked the new additions to the castle.

"We need for Juvia Lockser to come with us." Dimaria said in a bored voice while walking right where Juvia was seated next to Gajeel, making both Slytherin plus Cana and Biska to tense.

"What for?" Gildarts asked, putting himself between the two wizards and Juvia – she noticed his hand reached for his wand and the others' did too; it could turn into a fight at any second.

"We need to talk to her, Professor." Dimaria offered him a fake smile, her hand tightening on her wand. "Ministry business."

"I fail to see what a seventeen-year-old taking Charms class has to offer to the Ministry." Gildarts all but barked.

"That's for us to know, you do not have clearance." Ajeel was the one to answer and the tension was growing so much, some of the students were recoiling in fear.

If the three of them broke into a fight, it could be catastrophic with lots of injuries of innocent bystanders. Decided, Juvia got up from the seat.

"It's no trouble, Professor." Juvia offered him her best fake smile. "Juvia is sure it's something quick. Can you take Juvia's things back to the Common Room if Juvia doesn't return until class is over, Gajeel-kun?" With his eyes, Gajeel was warning her not to go but she couldn't risk it. "Huh?"

"Yes." He hissed between gritted teeth – he hated being cornered like that.

"Alright, then." Juvia stepped around the teacher. "Excuse me, Sir. Juvia will try to come back before class ends."

Even Gildarts seemed to think it was a bad idea for Juvia to go with them but there was little he could do at the moment. "If you are sure."

"Juvia is." The fake smile was still on and she nodded at the two wizards who came to retrieve her. "Shall we?" She raised her chin and walked towards the door, the feeling in her gut clearly saying she wouldn't attend any other class that day.

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She knew things would go south as soon as they headed towards the dungeons and didn't go to the Slytherin Common Room and the Potions Classroom. They were heading to Dungeon Five, one of the most secluded classrooms in the Castle, almost never used.

She wasn't expecting to see all the auxiliaries from the Ministry and the Defence Against Dark Arts inside it, waiting for her.

As impassive as she could be, Juvia asked: "Did you want to see Juvia?"

"Yes." It was Professor Yura who answered and then pointed to a single chair in the middle of the room. "Take a seat, please."

The blunette gulped but did as told, the weight of her wand inside her robe barely a consolation – there was no way she could fight them all and get out of there alive.

"You see, Miss Lockser, there was a sighting of your boyfriend and your two friends close to Glasgow. Do you know anything about that?"

"No." She really didn't – Gray hadn't break the rule and never told her where they were.

"Well, when some... friends, arrived to check it out, they were already gone."

"Are you still ensuring they return to school for educational purposes?" Juvia asked.

"Let's stop pretending." Dimaria rolled her eyes. "You know what we are and we know what you are."

Juvia was confused. "What Juvia is?"

"You are the reason they will come to Hogwarts." Invel said, calmly. "We know you communicate with them. I believe in you when you say you didn't know about them being near Glasgow, you are clearly too smart for that, because... what? The less you know, the safer you will be? Is that the plan? If you don't know anything we have no reason to come after you?"

Juvia's only answer was to raise her chin in defiance. "Smart." Invel praised her and started to circle the chair Juvia was on. "But... what if, just what if, you knew nothing of real value and you still suffered as if you did?"

It was as if cold water was inside Juvia's veins all of a sudden. "What do you mean?"

"What if they know you are being persecuted just for being Gray Fullbuster's girlfriend and their friend? What if they knew you were being, well, let's be honest: tortured, in here even though you know nothing? They are Gryffindors."

"And we all know how hot-headed and reckless we can be." Ajeel chuckled. "I am the living proof of it."

The blunette gulped. "So... you will torture Juvia to get their attention?"

"We are at war." It was Invel's simple answer, as if they were having a business transaction.

"Just answer Juvia one question." She was brave enough to ask. "Why You-Know-Who wants Natsu-san so much?"

Invel tilted his head, pondering his options, but he answered her anyways: "Blood calls for blood." Before Juvia could ask what that meant, the white-haired man pointed his wand at her and said, calmly: "Crucio."

Juvia felt pain in each cell of her body, her whole body tensed and she fell on the ground, yelling and bending her body in everyway it could bend. It seemed as if it went on forever, but surely, it couldn't be more than a few seconds. It didn't matter, she never in her life felt so much pain.

The moment it was over, her body went slack and she was breathing heavily, body still spasming from the pain, when, without any notice, Dimaria did it again and Juvia could swear she was going to die. Her heart hurt, her lungs, she couldn't breathe and she could feel pain from head to toes and she was sure she was going to throw up the moment it was over.

The second time the spell was stopped, just as she predicted, Juvia turned around to her side and vomited everything she had in her stomach, choking a few times, all while spasms of pain still haunted her body and she shook in agony. Her head was pounding, she was filthy, every muscle in her body hurt and she thought she might never walk again – she couldn't feel her legs.

"The next time you speak to your boyfriend, you tell him this is just going to get worse until he appears." Invel told her while Juvia was still struggling to breathe. "I am not a very patient man, Miss Lockser. The Dark Lord wants Natsu Dragneel and if I have to torture and kill you, I will, make no mistake." He and the others started to walk towards the door. "Now do get yourself cleaned up, this is a respectable institution."

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Juvia stayed lying on the dirty floor of Dungeon Five for Merlin knows how long and when she finally managed to sit down, it was as if the world was spinning around her. She was filthy and she really needed a bath but there was no way she could walk around the castle until she found a bathroom the way she was. God, she had a little bit of vomit on her robe.

With legs still shaking, Juvia got up, holding on to the chair and took off her robe, folding it and then loosed her hair from its messed braids, letting her wavy blue hair flow behind her back.

She retrieved her wand and whispered a spell to clean her blouse and her skirt and the dirt from her skin before she walked out from the Dungeon.

Juvia knew her friends would be looking for her as soon as classes were over, but Juvia couldn't deal with them at the moment. Everything hurt and she needed to lick her wounds.

Thankful that most students were still in class, Juvia managed to limp her way to a prefect's bathroom – she would need to thank Lisanna for sharing the password with her – and when she finally entered the bath, her body seemed to relax a little, as it usually did where water was involved.

She couldn't believe a teacher had casted the Cruciatus Curse on her; and it was nothing like it was described on the books. People think they knew pain, but nothing would ever compare to those minutes in hell. Nothing.

The Slytherin was feeling so tired she almost fell asleep in the tub, but caught herself before she did and she knew it was time to go back to the Common Room.

All she wanted to do was to go to her bed and stay there for a week to see if the aches of her body would ease up, but the moment she stepped inside the Slytherin Dungeon, Gajeel was in front of her.

"Juvia!" He pulled her to a corner and asked, in a lower voice: "What happened to you? You missed supper! What did they want with you?"

"Not tonight, Gajeel-kun." Juvia said, weakly.

"What do you mean 'not tonight'?" Gajeel frowned in confusion. "Why do you look so tired?"

"Not tonight." Juvia started to walk towards the stairs that led to the girls' dorms. "In the morning. We'll talk in the morning." She moaned a bit while going up the stairs.

"Juvia." Gajeel's serious tone made her stop and turn to look at him. "Should I be worried?"

She thought about lying, she thought about telling her how fine she was, but she just didn't have the strength to do so. "Yes, you should. Tomorrow." She promised him when she saw him pale – if Juvia was saying it was time to worry, it was. Big time.

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After getting changed to her fuzzy comfy pajamas, Juvia was about to go to sleep when she felt a vibration come from underneath her pillow. She grabbed her wand, pulled the covers up and whispered "Lumos".

'I'm sorry I didn't write you yesterday, we had to move during the night and I couldn't stop. It was a close call.' The words disappeared a moment later.

Juvia's eyes watered, finally knowing exactly what he meant. She grabbed a quill to answer him.

'It's okay. Are the three of you alright?'

'Yes. Just tired, but I didn't want to go to sleep without hearing from you. Bloody hell, I miss you. We should've stayed at my house forever.' He wrote and Juvia sobbed, thinking back on all the good memories they made in that house. 'How are you? Anything happened the past couple of days?'

Invel's words came back to her and Juvia was sure he was appealing to her self-preservation, thinking she would run and tell Gray all about Dungeon Five. Well, he had another thing coming.

'No, nothing happened. Everything is fine.' She wrote back.

There was nothing in the world that would make her betray or put her Gray-sama or her friends in danger.

She fell asleep after a few more notes exchanged between her and Gray and she cried for ten minutes because of how lonely and afraid she was.

She was Juvia Lockser, though, and she'd rather be hurt herself than people she cared about. Invel Yura wouldn't break her that easily.

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AN: Soooooo sorry, I hate to put Juvia through this crap, but his has been in my mind since the story began and next chapter things will get intense!