JULIET {remus lupin}

TWENTY

"What's going on with Persephone?" Juliet asked Arabella Greengrass as the two sat in the empty Slytherin common room.

"I don't know if she'd-"

Juliet rolled her eyes, "tell me."

"Is that an order, Romilly?" The witch smirked.

"You can think of it as one," Juliet replied sweetly.

"I'm telling you because you're my best friend, not because I think-"

"Get on with it."

"Caius controls her family's money- or rather their lack of-" Arabella said bluntly.

"The Parkinsons-"

"They've got nothing, or little to nothing anyway. Persephone's marriage to Caius is the only thing saving them, that's why she's so..."

"Eager to please?"

"Exactly, she's got a lot on her plate. Her entire family's future depends on her."

"Merlin, I can't even imagine-"

"I know, so go easy on her."

"I could give her money or-"

Arabella shook her head, "Penny is far too proud for that, she'd die if she even knew I'd told you."

"Perhaps I could write to my father, ask him to find hers a job in Gringotts or the ministry perhaps, he has a lot of connections."

The witch shrugged, "I suppose you could, but they've been poor for a while now, and there must be a reason for it."

"They're a well-respected family, though. I don't understand- how do you know?"

Arabella shrugged, "my dad told me."

Juliet was shocked at that, her father never told her any inner workings of pureblood families.

"Oh, alright then."

"Don't tell her I told you, please."

"Of course."

"And I- well- I heard something else."

"What?"

"Look, you're patrolling with Regulus this evening aren't you?"

Juliet groaned at the reminder, "yes, I am."

"Barty has been going around telling people you were with Lupin-"

"Fucking Crouch?" Juliet snapped suddenly.

Arabella shushed her and looked around nervously, "he'd be saying the same about Pen if Caius hadn't already-"

"Jealous prick," she scoffed.

"Juliet, he's a half-blood Gryffindoor, I know you weren't speaking to him all night but you were wrong to speak to him at all."

The witch narrowed her eyes at her friend, "thank you Greengrass, but if I needed advice on how to act I'd ask someone a little more important."

"Don't be a bitch, Juliet. I'm just telling you what to expect from Regulus."

"I can handle myself."

"Can you?" Arabella snapped, "because this year you're doing an awful job of it, what's changed?"

"Nothing," she hissed.

"Is it to do with your mum?"

Juliet rolled her eyes, "she died two years ago, don't you think if I were to act out over that I would have done it last year?"