just for me ⚘ a Fred Weasley Fanfiction

65. a lost dog

For the next month, Juniper put all of her time, energy and thought into her O.W.Ls. She stopped pranking with Peeves, monitoring the halls with the Inquisitorial squad, gossiping in her lessons, and learned how to summon food to her dorm. She studied alone in her room through the night, and in the back corner of the library, and in any abandoned, isolated part of the castle she could find. She did not want to interact with anyone.

By the time she had finished her final exam, History Of Magic, she had convinced herself that the month had flown by. When in reality, it hadn't. It had probably been one of the worst months of her life, comparable to last August.
It felt like torture, forcing herself to think of nothing but studying, but that torture was nothing compared to the thought of not being with Fred. She had allowed herself to think and have feelings about it that night with Draco in the common room, and she vowed to never let herself feel that way again. Which would be hard now that exams were over, there was no studying to do, and in less than a fortnight, she was due to go back to Grimmauld place and face everything that she had been putting off. The sound of Harry, Hermione and Ron arguing after the exam  really set the reality of living with them again into her head, and she was desperate to not relive it again. So on her way back to the Slytherin common room, she stopped by Professor Snape's office, hopeful that he had a solution for her.

"Trust me, I wouldn't want to live with them either." He groaned after 20 minutes of Juniper arguing with him. "But there is no alternative living option for you, Miss Jones."

"Why not?" Juniper pleaded, sounding like a broken record at this point. "Don't teachers live here? Why can't I? You guys won't even notice I'm here!"

"Believe it or not, we teachers have a life outside of Hogwarts. You cannot be left unsupervised in the school for an entire month." He drawled, beginning to pack up his desk. "I do apologise for your situation with the Weasley's, but your safety is more important than a silly break up-."

"Can't we kick all those Deatheaters out of my house? It's legally mine, they can't stay there."

"I can guarantee that Deatheaters have done far worse things than home invasion." Snape rolled his eyes. "No auror is going to take it seriously."

"This is so unreasonable, I'm going come back in September self-lobotomised."

"Oh dear." Snape replied dryly. "That's a shame."

Draco waltzed into the office, looking as proud as ever, not acknowledging Juniper. Which Juniper was quite thankful for. They hadn't mentioned anything about what had almost happened, and she like it that way. She'd prefer to block it our of her memory forever. Draco and Snape looked at each other for a moment, waiting for Juniper to get the hint and leave. So she hopped off the desk she was sitting on, about to storm out of the office, frustrated that Snape wasn't able to help her in the slightest.

"Headmistress Umbridge would like to speak with you. She has Potter, Granger, the Weasleys and others in her office. They got caught using her Floo network." He rushed out, turning on his heel to leave. Snape pulled on his black robe, gesturing for Juniper to follow him out.

"Believe me, Miss Jones. I thought about self-lobotomy years ago, too." He muttered so Draco wouldn't hear.
Juniper followed them both to Umbridge's office, slipping in behind Draco undetected. She saw Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom all being restrained by the Inquisitorial squad.

"I need a bottle of Veritaserum, as quickly as possible, Professor Snape." Umbridge ordered, her hand gripping into Harry's hair, pulling his head back harshly.

"It will take a month to brew completely." Snape answered, emotionless. He and Umbridge argued back and forth about the availability of Veritaserum, before Harry ended up yelling at Snape.