𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕷𝡣𝖛𝖊𝖗 𝕬𝖓𝖉 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖊𝖑𝡣𝖛𝖊𝖉
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January 1976
Festivities were over. Winter break was over and soon enough it was time for the kids to return to school. They had a marvelous time together, playing around like they were children again.
With their secret out, the couple were more comfortable around each other, which had James sometimes glaring at them. He loved them together, but couldn't help his overprotective brother self to come out when he saw them kissing for more than two seconds.
Of course, they would get annoyed at him, but everyone would just laugh it off and life would move on.
"Miss Potter, a sassy and coquette girl, had a secret of hers revealed during the festivity organised by her parents. A love song followed by a confession led to the truth that had her twin unable to process the emotional blow. Indeed, dear readers, Juliet Potter has been dating none other than her brother's best friend, Remus Lupin! The intimidating and the pretty. An adorable couple, and quite an unexpected one! But is it really that unexpected? The entire community knows of the young witch's charm, not so surprising that she has him wrapped around her little finger." Pandora read to Juliet, who was red in the face.
They had been back to school the day prior, lots of questions were thrown in the couple's way but they simply did their best to ignore it all. Everyone had kept The Daily Prophet's article about them hidden from Juliet, by fear of awakening her rage.
And Pandora Lestrange, who had unfortunately not been told of keeping it away from the brunette, had agreed to read it to her, sitting on a bench next to her in the courtyard. Juliet was not red from humiliation, she was furious.
"THE ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS BITCH!" Juliet yelled in horror, snatching the newspaper out of the blonde's hands. "SHE SAID WHAT!?"
"She called you sassy and coquette." Pandora innocently repeated.
Letting out another outraged scream that had the Marauders, but also Amos, Daphne and Alastor rush towards her, she glared at the few written lines.
"She's calling me a slag!"
"Oh dear, surely that's not what she meant..." Daphne tried to calm the girl down, failing to see her boyfriend signalling to her to stop talking.
"Not what she meant!? 'The entire community knows of the young witch's charm', she's saying I've slept with everybody!" She showed them the article.
"Well, that's surely a misunderstanding?" James attempted to reason with her, not believing his own words, but absolutely terrified of his sister.
"You! All of you! Why would you keep this from me!?" She hit Sirius, who was standing the closest to her, with the now folded newspaper.
"Ouch! What do you mean why? That's why! Look at you! Such a violent woman!" Sirius complained, protecting himself as she kept hitting him, letting her anger out on him.
"Okay, that's enough." Remus calmly stepped in between the two, taking the newspaper out of her hands and holding her wrists firmly. "Padfoot didn't write that article, did he? Don't let your anger out on him."
The girl huffed, the red in her face not fading one second, to everyone's surprise. They expected Remus to be able to calm her down but he seemed to have failed.
She sat back on the bench, Daphne and Pandora on either sides of her as she buried her head into the palms of her hands.
It was quiet for a few seconds, the boys were too scared to talk, and the girls were quitely comforting the brunette. Well, Alastor was not doing any of those things, he simply rolled his eyes at the drama.
"It's okay, everyone will forget about it soon anyway, so will you. Hey, maybe you'll laugh at it in a few years!" Daphne attempted to cheer her up.
"This is so humiliating." Juliet's voice broke a bit and Remus' face fell. They all knew she was upset, but none of them had noticed she had started to cry.
It seemed childish to be this upset about that from an external point of view. But being portrayed in such a way publicly in a newspaper read by millions in the Wizarding community, was like the end of the world to a teenager.
"Hey." Remus cooed, kneeling down in front of her, his hands gripping her thighs and giving them a comforting squeeze.
She refused to pull her hands away form her face.
"Would you guys mind giving us a minute?" He turned to the rest of the group, who nodded, slowly stepping away from the scene.
The werewolf waited until they were far enough before turning back to his girlfriend, giving yet another squeeze to her thighs which made her pull her hands away from her face, wiping a few falling tears and looking away.
His heart broke at the sight of her teary eyes and red nose.
"Look at me, love." He demanded softly, and she slowly turned her head towards him. "It's alright. Everyone knows that Rita Skeeter is always overexaggerating and that you are far from what she described you to be."
"But why would she say such a thing? Do I really seem like that to people?" She sniffed.
It was a new sight. Of course, when one was part of a family so influential like the Potters, it would be important to keep a good image. Juliet never wanted to bring down her family in any way so she always made her best to be perfect in as many things as she could. A skill that she lacked would be compensated another way. She had trouble with spells? Well, it doesn't matter, she just accomplished a potion none other managed to make in class before her.
She took it on herself to make sure people saw them as the great family as they were, her being portrayed like such ruined all of that. In her mind, now they would simply be seen as extraordinarily Aurors who have a troublemaker and a slag as children. Where did they go wrong? Find out in Rita Skeeter's next article!
It was terribly cruel for a woman that was a few years her senior, an actual working adult, to be shaming and make such defamatory allegations towards a teenager, a minor, some girl many simply saw as a child.
"Of course not." Remus denied immediately, his heart breaking more every second. "What makes you say that?"
"Well, if it wasn't the case, Mulciber and Avery wouldn't have-"
"No, don't you dare." He cut her off immediately, not noticing his nails digging into her skin at the mention of the two Slytherins. "Don't you dare start blaming yourself for what happened to you. It was not your fault, do you hear me? It's not your fault. They are the sick ones, they are the cruel ones. Nothing that you ever do or say can be a pretext for them to do what they did or said."
She could see the anger in his eyes, as if he was remembering what had happened almost a year ago. But she could not bring herself to say anything. What more could she say?
"Do you understand?" He insisted. He needed to make sure she knew it was not her fault.
"I understand." She whispered.
Looking into her eyes for a few seconds longer, he went to sit next to her, opening his arms, silently inviting her to hug him. Letting out a shaky sigh, she wrapped her arms around his waist.
Watching the scene from afar, her friends couldn't help the sympathy but also anger they were feeling towards the woman.
"We need to do something about that skank." Sirius said, frowning.
"Whatever you'll do, I'm in." Daphne affirmed, and Amos nodded.
"I've got an idea." Pandora whispered, a mischievous grin appearing on her lips.
"And I have connections." Moody leaned in, clearly wanting to be a part of that plan, surprising the rest who stared at him. "What? I'm bored, and not heartless."
Juliet always had her friends' backs, accompanying them and supporting them in their decisions. They were not going to sit there and watch someone humiliate her.
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unrelated but I'm obsessed with eddie munson