JULIET {remus lupin}

EIGHTY SEVEN

October, '82

One Year Later

Remus Lupin sat in a cafe in Shoreditch in the muggle part of London, smoking a cigarette and staring at the daily prophet. The front cover had a photo of James and Lily Potter on, in memoriam, it read. One year since the Sirius Black massacre. He read the tributes from Gryffindors in the year above him, or below him. Colin Jones had written one. On the next page were photos of everyone who was lost in the war. A year since the war ended. There was Marlene McKinnon and her parents, Peter Pettigrew and his parents, the Prewett twins. Frank and Alice Longbottom, Damien Jones. What the Daily Prophet didn't include was photos of Arabella Greengrass, or Persephone Parkinson. Or even Regulus Black, who Remus supposed was also a victim of the war. 

He drank his coffee and ignored a muggle woman looking at him from where he sat, flicking through the paper, on one of the last few pages there was an article about death eaters in Azkaban. Sirius' photo took up an entire sheet, it was him looking calm, being led out of a courtroom in the Ministry. Looking as polished and handsome as ever. Only a psychopath could be so calm and contended. Remus often pondered on where his friend had gone wrong, the last year had been tumultuous for him, he had spent months debating what he believed about Sirius, trying desperately to come up with alternatives to the reality. He never thought that he would be the last marauder standing, people he had known in Hogwarts gave him awful pitying looks if he went anywhere in wizarding London. He had bumped into Milly Abbott in muggle London last week, he had patrolled with the girl sometimes, and only yesterday he had seen James Roberts, the Ravenclaw from his year who was friends with Severus Snape. He hated the pity, he knew he needed to leave London. He hadn't attended the Potter's funeral for the very same reason, instead, he sat at their grave, alone, every week. He should have tried harder to convince them about Sirius. Those war years were blurred for him now. 

The next photo was of Bellatrix Lestrange, then Barty Crouch Jr, then Dolohov, all captured and in prison, Bellatrix screaming madly. He still couldn't think about what happened to Alice and Frank without crying.

 Then there was Juliet, a small mention of her at the bottom. Remus was glad they didn't put a photo. His last memory of her was seeing her post cruciatus curse in the Ministry, he hadn't been allowed back in his flat when they released her, and they arrested her again hours after they got Sirius. Her alibi assumed to be a lie, as he too was guilty and Colin Jones kept up his story of seeing her. The article reminded readers that as there was no proof of murder, Juliet was simply imprisoned for six years, then she would be a free woman. Dumbledore had vouched for her as much as he could. He would be twenty-seven by that time, and she twenty-six. He knew he would probably never see her again, that didn't change the fact that he had no doubt of her innocence. 

Remus regretted a lot of things, he regretted his distance from Juliet, and from James and Lily. He regretted refusing to see Harry Potter one last time before Dumbledore took him to his muggle family. Lily's sister, he remembered the grief his friend had with her in school, and pitied the child.

Then, there was a photo of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, the man shaking the Minister for Magic's hand. Lucius had claimed to be under the imperius curse, if Remus had seen Juliet, he probably would have urged her to do the same, but apparently she did not even try to fight it. Nor did Sirius. Lucius now had a high-earning job in the ministry, he was a respected man in the wizarding world. It made Remus sick.

The final page of the prophet was a list and photographs of children who had started Hogwarts this year, he scanned the list and smiled slightly at a grinning Bill Weasley, he'd met the child several times, having become friendly with Arthur and Molly in the last year, they had become the only people he had anymore.