November, 1978

Juliet Lupin believed October had come to a nice close. The month of being spooky had finished with her sharing a bottle with Regulus Black, two days after his lips had been on another girls. She didn't want to think about whose germs had been in his mouth and then on the bottle they shared. She did not want to shame him either. The honey haired girl sat at hufflepuff dining table, Felix and Carrie opposite her. Her friends were deep in discussion as she ate her honey on toast; Juliet wasn't ignoring them but her attention was elsewhere.

Her eyes remained on Slytherin table where Regulus sat between Evan and Barty Crouch Jr, bruises on the side of his neck. The boy often walked her back to her common room (claiming Evan would kill him if anything happened to her) but last night, he didn't. Last night the boy mumbled a bye and left her alone. She didn't mind, but it was a bit odd.

"... which was really strange. Juliet, are you even listening?"

"Hmm?"

"You best be drooling over someone fit."

She lifted her fingers to her face, brows furrowed. "I'm not drooling."

Felix and Carrie turned their heads, an 'oh' sound leaving their lips. The two found that Juliet's gaze had been on a certain boy they had paired her with — simply because Regulus seemed to hate everyone, and they did not need him working with death eaters, have girls throwing themselves at him or have anyone get into fights during their evening duties.

Carrie grabbed her warm drink, sipping the tea as she stared back at her friend, shaking her head. "He's no good."

"They've been sayings he's got a thing for Greengrass, been hooking up for few weeks."

Juliet hummed, taking her eyes away from the curly haired boy as his gaze found hers. She tucked her hair behind her ears with two hands. "I'm not interested in him."

"Sure thing, blondie." Felix told her, lifting his own hot cup of tea and sipping on it. He watched as Juliet's pale cheeks turned red. "You're looking pretty pink for a girl who isn't interested."

"No, really I'm not. He was a little odd last night, is all."

Carrie watched Juliet cautiously as she began to eat her ham and scrambled egg on a bagel. She knew Juliet had a peculiar care for all things living and breathing — she always brushed it down as childhood trauma, Carrie wasn't sure what the trauma was but something must have made her so anxious about human rights and living things. "Maybe he's an odd drunk, you were drinking Daisyroot. Not everyone agrees with it like you."

Felix cackled slightly to himself. "Just because you're a lightweight. Daisyroot is practically juice."

"That's why it's deadly—"

"I don't think it was the bottle. He was just off, like something wasn't ok with him towards the end of the night."

Carrie and Felix shrugged, in all honestly Regulus Black was not someone they cared about. Both being muggleborn, the Black boy wasn't really their biggest advocate. They didn't see the appeal of a boy with tainted beliefs, but it was what it was. They couldn't exactly tell her to never talk to him and that he's evil, because Juliet would only argue that he wasn't that bad and that he's a product of his child hood. They sometimes thought she spoke too much or cared too much, but they supposed it was better than nothing.

"Sure, blondie. You don't need feel sympathy for everyone."

"I advocate for all." Juliet grumbled to herself as they began to leave the table. She hated being criticised — nearly as much as her nerdy brother. Their parents hadn't really raised them to take criticism, it had come quite a shock at school when the teachers would disagree with them.

Juliet waited in the cold hallway as hushed voices spoke and giggled moving closer in her direction. Waiting for Regulus was not her favourite activity, especially in the dungeons where the girl was often cold. But, luckily got her the hushed voice was Greengrass who tried to cradle Regulus' arm and talk to him — not that he seemed to interested. Upon finding Juliet the dark haired girl kissed his cheeks, her own ones flushed before scurrying away to Slytherin common room. "Nice girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Oh."

The two fell into a nice paste walking together, they often did, though usually it wasn't so quiet around them. The two typically shared niceties at least, but his head seemed to be elsewhere as he rubbed his arm, face screwed up as he did so.

"You shouldn't do that, it'll get infected if it's anything like a real tattoo."

"Excuse me?"

Juliet met his eyes. "You have the mark, right? Sirius is adamant you do. If it's anything like a real tattoo you shouldn't rub or scratch it."

"You don't know me."

"Your brother does, he worries about you."

"He's not my brother."

And once again, the two fell silent, Regulus separating his arm and hand as he widened the space between them. He didn't focus as he walked, he had much more important things to worry about. Things Juliet would probably know because despite her angsty nature in defence against the dark arts this year, she had an odd knack for defence and was very clever when it came to dark arts. Annoyingly so! He never understood why she cared for such a lesson considering she wanted to work in politics and make a name for herself with her equal rights movement — he wasn't too sure how successful it was going, he didn't care to know.

He watched the side of her face as she tucked her hair behind her ears with two hands, her head facing the floor. She was rather pretty in her tight fitted trousers, long sleeve shirt (sleeves rolled up to her elbows) and grey knitted sweater vest, her tie a little loose around her neck. She always was pretty.

Their night winded up being pretty quiet.