CHECK YES JULIET ▷ JAMES POTTER [1]

𝟒𝟏. 𝐍𝐎 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘

(41 : NOT A DUMP WE; 'TIS  . . .
NO TIME TO PLAY NOW )

✧࿐ ཾ✧

     DECEMBER BLED INTO JANUARY AND Juliet returned to Hogwarts with more than the pressure of exams weighing on her mind. It reached a point that she had supply of Invigoration Draughts hidden beneath her bed because she refused to sleep entirely. In part, her reasoning was due to the constant state of fear her nightmares left her in — nightmares of vicious werewolves and vengeful fathers — but it was mainly because there seemed to be a countdown clock looming over her head.

Lord Voldemort's task was her most pressing problem, of course. Regulus continued to help her on that front, pretending nothing had changed between them following his confession of infatuation. In fact, it was him who had arranged a meeting with the goblins on her behalf and convinced them to forge using mercury instead of silver. Goblin and wizard relations were known for being fraught, but the Blacks had been loyal purchasers of goblin-wrought creations for centuries, so the creatures quickly agreed once some thinly-veiled threats were exchanged. Every accidental touch between them may have made her more cautious than before, but she was grateful for his assistance all the same.

     On the rare occasion she wasn't holed up in an abandoned classroom trying to solve the mysteries of immortality, she was left wondering if there was a way to escape her marriage contract without ending up dead. Something about marrying Regulus felt cruel if she would never return his feelings, felt too much like she would be giving him false hope. If James had never crashed that Halloween party, maybe she would've learned to love Regulus. But James was a once in a lifetime type of love. It was James who looked out for her even when he hated her — he protected her from the blast in Hogsmeade, he opened up his home to her over Christmas twice and he used his family connections to gift her a Ministry-authorised portkey as a precaution for the Malfoy wedding, despite the fact they were broken up. It was James who taught her how to identify emotions like happiness and love when she didn't know how to feel anything but indifference. And it was James who she saw a future with, a future where she would flourish and thrive.

All of which brought her back to her third and final problem . . . how to tell James Potter that she was in love with him.

"Ugh!" Juliet screwed up the parchment she was writing on, tossing it onto the pile. At least twenty pieces of parchment had now been discarded, leaving her shared dorm unbearably messy.

J̶a̶m̶e̶s̶,̶ ̶I̶ ̶a̶m̶ ̶a̶p̶p̶r̶o̶a̶c̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶t̶o̶d̶a̶y̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶I̶ ̶m̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶f̶o̶r̶m̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶I̶ ̶l̶o̶

N̶o̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶I̶ ̶s̶a̶y̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶u̶n̶d̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶a̶s̶t̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶t̶h̶ ̶I̶ ̶l̶o̶v̶e̶ ̶y̶o̶