CHECK YES JULIET ▷ JAMES POTTER [1]

- 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐈𝐒 𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 (𝐀𝐋𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆)

(AE : MY TRUE LOVE IS GROWN . . .
TO SUCH EXCESS)

(THE ALTERNATE ENDING)

✧࿐ ཾ✧

31ST OCTOBER 1981

     JULIET WAS SPENDING YET ANOTHER Saturday night alone when a sudden knock at the door startled her. Her body tensed at the sound, knowing that it couldn't be Sirius or Regulus as they were both keyed into the apartment's apparation wards. Immediately reaching for her wand, she remained wary as she approached the door and peered through the peephole.

     At the sight of the person on the other side, she threw open the door. "James?"

     Sure enough, James Potter stood there, soaked from the rain. The Gryffindor's face was flushed bright red from having to run up several flights of stairs to reach Sirius' apartment. Still breathless, he leant against the door frame for support and proceeded to wring out his damp t-shirt, causing a small puddle of water to form at his feet.

     "James?" repeated Juliet, a little harsher this time. "You're meant to be in hiding. Did something happen?"

     Behind the redhead, an unfamiliar owl swooped in through the window and knocked her wine glass to the floor. It had a letter ominously addressed to 'J' hanging from its beak. Before she could approach the animal, James caught her wrist and spun her back around. Juliet stared at him expectantly, but his mouth ran dry when her bright blue eyes met his and he was suddenly sixteen in the halls of Hogwarts again.

"Five years," James eventually spluttered, his fingers gently brushing over the pulse point on her wrist. "It's been five years since I crashed that stupid Slytherin Halloween party with the boys and you're still on my mind. Nothing's changed. I'm— I'm as hopeless and lovestruck as I was back then. And I just wish we could go back, go back to that night and do it all again."

Reluctantly sighing, Juliet beckoned him into the apartment and slammed the door shut. "You shouldn't have come here. Voldemort wants you and your family dead. This is dangerous and reckless and so completely, totally, utterly —"

"I ended it with Lily." As if it was an afterthought, he grimaced and then added, "Not that I'm sure we ever even began."

Her breath hitched. "What?"

"If I'm honest, it was over before I even said it was," he admitted. "I tried to fix it, but we were beyond broken. All we ever did was argue and the only thing that has been keeping us together is Harry. It wasn't — it wasn't what either of us wanted from a relationship. Both of us were doing it to please other people. Lily did it for her parents and then they — they passed, and I was doing it because I thought it was the noble thing. I fell in love with the idea of Lily and I messed up what was already our reality in the process." James hated himself for it, for once again being too caught up in his own rigid sense of morality. The self-loathing in his voice was palpable. "Juliet Isabelle Fawley, I am begging you for one more chance."