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one — til the bitter end
☾
HIS CRIMSON BLOOD STAINED HER FINGERS, her stormy eyes laced with worry. There was a heavy feeling of dread in her stomach, and there was a thousand thoughts running through her mind all at once. Blood-covered tissues surrounded the two of them; he sat still as she tried to clean up the mess.
"Fucking hell, that hurts," Sirius hissed, taking in a deep breath as his twin sister tried to clean up the nasty cut on his cheek. He squeezed his eyes shut and tightened his grip on Juliet's free arm, his knuckles white. "Honestly, Jules, it's not as bad as it looks —"
"Oh, shut up and let me clean it," Juliet mumbled back, her fingers trembling. Her makeup, which she had put on for a ball they had attended earlier, had smudged a little bit, and her hair was starting to come out of its bun. "You and I both know you'll start crying like a baby when it gets infected. Honestly, what's the need for you to go start stupid arguments with them?" she asked, referring to their parents. "It won't change their views, Sirius. You know that."
"How can you just sit there?" he snapped back in response, as Juliet carefully placed a plaster onto his cheek. "How can you sit there when they talk so lowly on Muggle-borns and half-bloods? Does it not bother you, how they think they're so much more superior just because of their blood?"
"Of course it bothers me, you absolute idiot," she scoffed, "but I'm not stupid. I'm not going to go start some pathetic rebellion if I know how it ends. Look at yourself, Sirius — getting a fucking plate thrown at you just because you defended some random half-blood who you probably don't even know."
Sirius did not reply. Instead, he simply looked around his room until his gaze finally landed on his wardrobe. Juliet sighed as she pulled the ruby throw-blanket off of his bed and threw it over the two of them as she rested her head on his shoulder.
"It's scary, y'know," she admitted, so quietly that Sirius almost didn't hear her. "Hearing all the screaming, all the things being thrown around or broken . . . not even knowing if you're . . ."
"Alive?" Sirius finished for her, as she trailed off. She only nodded; there was still a dreadful feeling in her stomach, the one that would never leave when she was in this house. "You really don't have to worry, Jules," he said quiety, his eyes softening as Juliet yawned. "You're stuck with me for many more years. Besides, they can't kill me now, can they? After all, I'm one of the two male heirs to the Black family."
Juliet rolled her eyes slightly at his reasoning; realistically, she knew that Orion and Walburga would only really need one heir to the family, but she kept her mouth shut. "Promise me you'll be okay?"
"I always am, aren't I?" he laughed gently. "And we're almost adults, Jules. We can probably find a way out, and we can get some little Mugge apartment with Reggie and it can be just like old times, before Hogwarts."
