Disclaimer: The rights for a number of these characters and the world they live in is all accredited to J. K. Rowling

Year One

"Will you miss me?"

Juliet teasingly scrunched up her nose in consideration. "I don't know, Caelum," she said, breaking into a smile at her younger brother, "how much will you miss me?"

"Not a lot," Caelum sniffed.

Juliet pouted. "Can I have a hug before I go?" she asked.

Caelum grinned and opened his arms wide for his sister. Juliet bent to wrap her arms about him before pulling away and patting his unruly curls. "I'll miss you," she promised.

"Albus says James writes him specifically twice a week," Caelum informed her.

Estelle shook her head at the exchange, smiling fondly.

Juliet smiled. "I'll write you three times," she said, never one to be outdone. She paused. "Unless I have homework," she decided, "then you ought to write me first."

Caelum nodded.

"Caelum!" Albus called. Both Juliet and Caelum turned to see James and Albus coming their way, their parents having met each other just beside the barrier on the platform and right behind the two brothers.

Caelum and Albus walked off together, Estelle following behind them to keep them in her line of sight as the pair was drawn towards all of the pets students were taking to Hogwarts. Juliet smiled at James and straightened her robes.

Hermione strode over and fixed the pink ribbon in her daughter's hair. "You have everything?" she asked again.

"Yes, Mum."

"Are you—"

"Absolutely positive," Juliet said quickly.

Hermione laughed. "Alright."

Draco chuckled as he put his arm around his wife's shoulders. "She'll be fine," he said.

Hermione looked at him incredulously. "This coming from the man who spent the entire morning talking about her getting lost in the castle," she said.

"It's a big school," Draco defended.

"I'll be fine," Juliet said, not quite sure she believed herself.

"Yes, you will," Hermione agreed, kissing the top of her head and eyeing the scarlet train nostalgically.

"Mum," Juliet whispered, "who did you sit with on your first ride to Hogwarts?"

Hermione smiled. She knew her daughter had been trying to keep her anxieties to herself about going off to school. It was nice to finally have the opportunity to quell her nerves. "Honestly? I spent most of the train ride trying to help Professor Longbottom find his toad. Of course, back then he was just Neville. It wasn't until we were nearly at school that I found Harry and Ron on the train."

Juliet smiled nervously. "What if…what if all the compartments are full?" she asked.

Ginny shook her head. "Trust me, Julie, you'll find a compartment. You can sit with James."

Juliet met James' eyes. "That's okay," she said, noticing that James didn't look terribly happy at the idea. She couldn't have expected him to want to be friends with her at school. He was a second year. He had his own friends.

James shrugged. "You can sit with us. I'm sure there'll be space."

Hermione picked up Draco's wrist and slid his sleeve back to read his watch. "You two had better get on the train, then," she said. "You'll want to settle into a compartment."

Juliet nodded while James looked at his parents questioningly. The train left at eleven o'clock exactly, they still had some time.

Draco hugged his daughter firmly, said goodbye and then let Hermione take his place.

"Owl us which house you're in," Draco said.

Juliet nodded. She went on to hug Harry and Ginny as well, not quite as long, just as James let go of his mum and embraced Hermione and Draco briefly.

Juliet was holding back tears as she told her parents she loved them once more. She went to grab her trunk when she stopped and began to look about the platform. "Wait," she said, "where's Stelly?"

Hermione spotted the woman, still with Caelum and Albus as Albus stuck his fingers through a bird cage. She waved her over.

Juliet hugged her nanny tightly. "I'll miss you, Stelly," she vowed. Before Estelle could get a word in, Juliet asked, "You'll miss me, too, won't you?"

"Oh, I'll miss you dearly," Estelle returned. "Heaven knows Caelum's going to be a handful without you around."

"Hey!" Caelum protested.

The group laughed at his outburst and then said a final goodbye to James and Juliet.

"I can't believe you're already in your robes," James said. Juliet helped him push his trunk onto the luggage rack and then grabbed her own and had him help her to lift it up as well.

They sat down. "I like to be well-prepared," Juliet said. "Besides, this way I won't have to scramble to change into them with everyone else."

"So, which house do you think you'll be in?" James asked.

Juliet's lips pursed thoughtfully and she combed through the ends of her hair. "My mum predicts Slytherin," she told him, "and my dad says Gryffindor. Everyone's been saying I could end up in either."

James poked her shoulder. "What do you think?" he asked again.

Juliet shrugged and swatted his hand. "I don't know. Are the people in Slytherin nice?"

"There's nice people in every house," James said. "I only know a few blokes from Slytherin, but they're alright. Dad says none of the stereosayings are true. You know, like the Slytherins being evil and all that."

"Stereotypes," Juliet corrected. "My dad was in Slytherin. All of the Malfoys were."

"But your mum was in Gryffindor with my parents," James reminded.

Juliet considered this. Pansy had been in Slytherin, she remembered. She wondered if the Sorting Hat would know.

"I bet you'll be in Ravenclaw," James snorted, "with that big brain of yours."

Juliet frowned. "You think so?" She hadn't truly thought she could be in anything other than Slytherin or Gryffindor.

"Bet the hat won't even fit on your head. Or be able to sort your thoughts out." James stared at her head for a moment. "You think too much."

She hit him, rather hard, with the back of her hand and then crossed her arms, leaning back in her seat and away from him.

James saw that he had upset her. She was acting strangely though, he mused. He teased her all the time and she didn't mind. Or, well, it usually took a lot more teasing before she reacted like this.

"Oh, come on, Lettie," he said. "I didn't mean it badly."

"Don't call me that," she snapped. "Next thing I know, everyone at school will be calling me that." Her nerves were getting her riled.

"I think you'll be in Gryffindor," James said.

She fought a smile, knowing that he was only admitting this because he felt guilty for upsetting her, and stared at her lap.

"Hey, you'll see me play a real game of quidditch now," he continued.

"Might see you lose," she said.

"Gyffindor doesn't lose," he said surely. "Not while I'm their seeker. Dad says I'm about as good as he was at my age."

"What makes you think you'll be on the team again?" Juliet asked, still a tad annoyed with him.

"I practised flying all summer," James told her. "I better make the team. And I'm still little enough to play seeker. I figure in a year or two I'll be too big and then I'll try out for chaser."

"Too fat?" she suggested.

He glared. "Too tall," he said, "and muscled. Muscle weighs more than fat you know."

"I know," she quipped. "But I think your ego weighs more than any of that."

James opened his mouth to say something when a few boys entered the compartment and said hello to him, laughing and pushing each other as one animatedly told a story of his summer adventures.

"Who's this?" one asked, looking at the blonde girl curiously.

Juliet thought it rather rude that the boy didn't address her but James. She supposed she should have it expected it though; he was a boy after all.

James replied, "This is Let—" he stopped himself. "Sorry, this is Juliet."

She took it upon herself to offer her hand.

The boy stared at it as though it were a formality with which he was unfamiliar.

"You shake it," James interjected with a laugh.

He received a glare in response before his friend shook Juliet's proffered hand. The two others followed suit.

She turned to James expectantly.

"Oh," he gestured at them, "this is Kurt, Max and Antony."

"Nice to meet you," Juliet said politely.

"So…you're a first year?" Max asked. The boys set to work, helping one another in getting their trunks stored away.

Juliet nodded. "I am."

"How do you two know each other then?" Kurt asked as he sat down next to her and Max and Antony sat opposite them.

Juliet went to reply but James beat her to it. "Family friends," he said. She merely confirmed this.

"Not Harry Potter's kid then?" Antony asked.

James glared and Juliet rolled her eyes. She knew how much he hated being pegged as Harry Potter's son.

"No," Juliet said. "Not a Potter."

James smirked. "No, she's Draco Malfoy's daughter. Hermione Granger's her mum."

"Excuse me."

"What are you going to do firstie?"

"Excuse me," Juliet repeated, louder this time.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the boy twirled a wand between his fingers, tossing it high in the air and catching it, "is this yours?"

"Hey!" She marched up to the group.

"You don't know how to use this," the boy taunted, his friends laughed. "What do you say boys? We ought to show him how, don't you think?" Juliet's mouth dropped open as she saw the first year turn to run and the older boy pointed his wand at him, using the boy's wand against him, and began, "Immobul—"

"Hey!" Juliet slipped between the older boys and put herself between them and the first year. Knocking the one boy's wand arm down before her own arms crossed and her eyes blazed as she stared up at them without waver.

For a second, the three Ravenclaw boys looked taken aback. Then one of them looked at the boy cowering behind her and sneered, "This your girlfriend? You're letting a girl protect you?"

Juliet glared. "Give him back his wand," she demanded.

The group laughed. "No," they said.

Juliet was oddly unaware of the crowd slowly gathering around them in the corridor, the students sensing the impending fight. Instead, her gaze stayed trained on the boys. "Give him back his wand or I'll get Professor McGonagall."

"Oh, we're so scared," the leader taunted sarcastically. "Get out of the way, darling."

"No," she said, holding out a hand, "the wand please."

They gave her the strangest look, not quite believing what they were seeing, and whispers floated through the crowd. Finally, the ring leader of the bunch reached forward and wrapped an arm around her middle, hoisting her light frame up and forcibly moving her aside.

"Hey!" she screamed. "Don't touch me!" Her arms flailed and her legs kicked. He was losing his one armed grip on her and then suddenly her foot connected with something hard and solid. At the boy's cry of pain and sudden release of her, she realized it had been his shin. When she fell, landing hard on her knees and wincing at the contact with the stone floor, the boy was at her height, bent over and holding his shin.

She forgot to cry in pain as she glared fiercely at the boy and plucked the wand easily from his grip. She got to her feet and memorized the faces of the others involved, turned to the victimized boy and handed him his wand. "Sorry, about that," she said, "some people are so dim-witted there's only one way to deal with them."

The boy she'd kicked was standing again. "You stupid bint," he cursed. His wand was suddenly directed right at her, along with the wands of the two others with whom he stood. "Furnunculus."

It missed her by about a hair as she was suddenly yanked aside by her sleeve and the other students dodged aside to avoid it.

"Run!" James ordered, still holding her sleeve and pulling her along as he broke out into a sprint down the corridor.

She ran beside him, he knees screaming in pain, hearing the sound of the boys' footfalls and yelling behind them. James tugged her around a sharp corner and she swung out wide around him as she struggled to keep up and anticipate where he was going. James stopped, looking around, and then pushed back a tapestry and shoved her through it, none too gently. He hurried in afterwards.

"What are you doing?" Juliet panted. Her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the alcove and she squinted to focus on James' figure.

"What am I—What are you doing?" James demanded. "Are you mental? Those are fourth years."

"That was bullying!" Juliet cried.

James clapped a hand over her mouth. "Would you keep it down?" he whispered harshly.

She pried his hand from her mouth. "What are you doing?" she asked again, her voice lowered. "They're going to go back and hurt him."

"They followed us you dolt," James said. "Your little friend is safe. If he knows what's good for him he'll have run back to his common room by now," he muttered.

"Common room?" Juliet repeated. "He needs to go to a professor. He can't let them get away tormenting people. It's wrong."

"What happened back there?" James asked. "What'd they do to your little Slytherin friend?"

"Slytherin friend?" Juliet echoed. "Who?"

"The boy, who is he anyway?"

"Oh, I don't know," Juliet said. "A first year, I think." She peeked around the tapestry but James quickly pulled her back and shut it once again.

He sighed. "You took on three fourth years for someone you don't even know?" he asked.

"James, I didn't 'take on' anyone. I was just helping."

"You take Gyffindor courage to a whole new level, Lettie," James said.

She let her gold and scarlet tie, just the same as his, slip through her fingers smoothly. "Don't—"

He shushed her and listened as the boys passed them.

"Where the hell did they go?" one asked.

"That way," another replied.

"We checked—"

"Well, where else would they go?"

They heard the group walk away and Juliet let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding. "You better stay near professors for the next while," James advised. "I get the feeling their looking for revenge."

"Please," Juliet dismissed, "I'm just one of many first years. They won't remember me."

James tugged gently on a lock of her platinum hair. "You're kind of hard to miss."

She took her hair from him and began braiding it to one side. "I'll be fine. Perhaps, I'll check the library for a few easy jinxes…"

"I don't understand," James said. "So, you stood up for a kid, so what? It's not like you duelled them or something."

Juliet laughed. "I…I may or may not have kicked him as well," she admitted.

"Lettie, you didn't," James said. "No. What is wrong with you?"

"Hey," she said, tying her plait and tossing it over her shoulder. "What's that supposed to mean? It was defence. He grabbed me first. Dad says if a boy ever touches me and I don't like it, I have every right to hit him."

James was suddenly very serious. "Wait. What'd he do to you?"

"He…" Juliet floundered to articulate it. "He grabbed me like this," Her arm encircled James' waist, his arms flying up to shoulder-level in his confusion of what she was doing, "and then he lifted me up!"

She put all her strength into it, every bit of effort to lift him, but he planted his feet firmly. "I get it, I get it," he said. She let go of him.

"You're heavy," she said.

"Weakling," he teased.

"Well, I kicked him," Juliet stated, "and then he put me down. Or…well, he dropped me anyhow."

"Are you okay?" James asked.

"Fine."

"He dropped you on the floor and you're fine?" James questioned doubtfully.

"Landed on my knees," she told him.

James pulled out his wand. "Lumos," he whispered. "Lemme see 'em."

"What?" Juliet moved away from his wand tip and put a hand on his wrist to lower the light from shining in her eyes.

"Your knees," James clarified. "Let me take a look at them."

Juliet warily unbuttoned her outer robe and then lifted her skirt a tad, looking down at her knees. Her pale skin was red and scraped slightly raw. It reminded her of a strawberry, this one rough looking spot. James sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth at the sight of it.

She watched him, the light from his wand giving off a dim glow to lit his features. He had a sort of pained expression on as he examined her scrapes and bruises, his brown eyes sympathetic and the corners of his mouth turned down a bit.

He brought the light closer to her knees, prodding one of them by accident. She yelped. "Watch it," she said, "it still hurts."

"Uncle George gave me some Bruise Removal Paste. I might have packed it with my toiletries," he mused. "Come on. We'll go back to the common room and check."

Juliet nodded and moved to step out from the alcove. She was held back by James' hand as he walked backwards. "Not that way," he said. "No doubt they're still wandering about looking for you. The arses."

"Language," Juliet berated.

"No mums at school," James said with a smirk.

James took her hand and began to lead her back in the alcove, which turned out to be not an alcove at all but a passageway. She recalled James telling her about how Hogwarts was filled with them, how she'd read about them in Hogwarts: a History, and how she'd never imagined she'd actually travel through them.

Juliet shook her head as James pulled her along in the darkness. She stopped to take her wand from her pocket, whispering the spell to provide them with some light. "Mum says foul language is only called upon in situations of extreme emotion and incitement," she informed him. "Swearing only proves that you lack a sufficient vocabulary."

James laughed. "Well, then you sure as hell don't need to swear, do you?"

"I can still owl your mother. Better yet, your grandmother," Juliet threatened.

James grinned. "I don't give a damn."

"James Potter, I swear—"

"So, you do swear," he teased.

"Stop it." She rolled her eyes. "So, how many passageways have you been keeping from me?" she asked.

"Plenty," he said. "If you stop harping on my colourful vocabulary, I might tell you about them."

"Really?" She tried not to sound too excited at the idea.

"Absobloodlylutely."

He took her back to the common room and told her to wait while he ran up to his dormitory and searched his belongings for the healing paste. He returned with it a few moments later.

"Skirt," James said, lifting her legs by her ankles to stretch out on the couch.

Juliet folded the hem of her skirt to above her knees, displaying her swelling joints with a frown. "I can do it," she said, holding a hand out for the jar.

James shook his head. "I'm playing mediwizard."

"Not on me you aren't," Juliet said, covering her knees with hovering hands.

He swatted her hands aside. "We both know you're just going whinge and take forever with it anyway."

"No, I won't."

"Yes, you will."

Her arms folded but she allowed him to open the jar and scoop out a liberal amount of yellow goo and begin spreading it on her injury. It hurt. It hurt a lot. Juliet pressed her lips together and held back tears, not wanting James to call her a baby as he so often used to when they were younger.

He looked up at her as he went to put paste on her other knee. "Don't cry," he said, "it doesn't hurt that much."

"I'm not crying," she said.

"Yes, you are. You've got tears in your eyes."

"It stings, okay?"

"Well, you don't have to cry about it."

"I'm not crying," Juliet insisted.

"Does it really hurt that much?" he asked.

"I'm not crying," she said. But then she was as he put a little too much pressure on her scraped skin.

"Yes, you are."

She brushed the tears away. "Are you done?" she asked. He was twisting the lid back on to the jar and cleaning his hands of the goo with his wand. She got up from the couch, said a rather dry 'thanks' and then disappeared up the girls' staircase, wiping at her cheeks.

"Wait!" James called. "Lettie—" He stopped. "Julie!"

She was gone. He sat down on the couch, knowing he had no chance of making it up the girls' staircase to go after her. The common room was deserted. He thought maybe he'd wait for her but after a few minutes, his stomach got the better of him and he felt in dire need of a trip to the kitchens.

Juliet cleaned herself up and read a while until she thought the coast to be clear of James. Her stomach growling may have been a strong incentive to leaving the dormitories as well. When she went down the staircase however, she saw James on the couch and quickly turned to go back the way she'd come, pausing indecisively.

"We've missed lunch," James called.

She didn't move.

"I made a trip to the kitchens," he added.

She swivelled to face him slowly.

"You'll be late if you don't leave for class soon," he warned. "Eat the sandwich on the way?"

She sighed.

"I'll walk you to class through a passageway?" James tried to coax.

"Okay," she relented. "Fine."

He stood up and met her at the portrait hole, handing her the promised sandwich and leading her out to the corridor.

He took her to class through the walls of Hogwarts and told her about the many other passages he knew of. When they came to the dungeons, James left her to go to charms and she entered the classroom to the whispers of students discussing the earlier display in the corridor.

Juliet didn't mind them.

But that was it.

They smiled and acknowledged each other in the corridors, common room and Great Hall at meals. They saw each other over the holidays, and spent the entirety of their time together at the Christmas parties. They didn't discuss school much. James didn't tell anyone about the altercation Juliet had gotten into with the fourth years, and Juliet didn't dare breathe a word of it either.

She saw him at the quidditch games, cheering at the top of her lungs for Gryffindor and watching James chase the snitch. He was quite good, she had to admit. She made sure to congratulate him for every win, and the other quidditch players she passed. He had smirked at her as she stood in the stands and he waited for a sign of the snitch. She was sure of it.

James wished her a happy birthday when it rolled around; giving her a card he'd made himself. It read 'Happy 12th Birthday Lettie' in chicken scratch penmanship and was slipped into her bag sometime after breakfast that morning. His name was also signed on the present sent to her via post from Harry and Ginny, alongside Albus' and Lily's.

She sat with her own friends on the train ride home, though James waited for her on the platform before venturing through the crowds to search for their respective parents.

Draco spotted her first and picked her up in a hug, kissing her cheek and asking her what she thought of Hogwarts.

James was trying to pry Albus off of him.

Juliet told them school was great, hugged her mother, Estelle, and nearly fell over as Caelum took a running start to hug her.

"Julie! I missed you! Albus and I drove Stelly mad! Mad!" he laughed.

From his blue tongue, lips, and excessive energy, Juliet surmised that someone had fed her brother sugar-filled sweets of some kind. "Did you?" she asked.

"Did you and James learn any new games with the other kids?" Albus asked excitedly.

"It was school, Al," James said. "We went to class."

"Oh. Well, that's okay. Me and Caelum got tons of stories."

Draco picked up Juliet's trunk and put his arm around her as she hugged his waist and grinned at her parents. "I love you," she said.

"We love you, too," Hermione replied. "And we missed you terribly. Ready to head home?"

"Mhm," she agreed. "Bye." She waved at the Potters collectively. They said goodbye as well and it wasn't until she had turned and begun to head towards the barrier when she heard him reply over Caelum's chattering.

"Bye, Lettie."

She shook her head, frowning as she always did. "Don't call me that."

A/N: So you all are probably going, "She said the story was over. What in the world is this? This isn't Dramione." And to that I say, 'tis all true.

I began writing this in preparation for a different sort of epilogue than what actually 'made the story' you might say. Now, I've heard from a few of you that you're now James/Juliet shippers. So here they are in their own story

In case you haven't read "When in Doubt" the following is all you need to know:

Juliet is Draco's daughter, her biological mother is Pansy, who died giving birth to her. When Juliet was an infant and Draco was a hapless single father, Hermione swooped in to save the day and helped him take care of Juliet. They became close friends, and "When in Doubt" is the story of their romance. Caelum is the biological child of both Hermione and Draco. Hermione adopted Juliet when she was still an infant.

Anyways,

Scarlett