Friend of a Friend

Checking carefully the number of each house, Juliet counted in her head until she got to the right number. And then, standing there she double checked the number about three more times. She was second guessing herself to a level, that under normal circumstances she would have made her just give up entirely. But today wasn't normal circumstances. If they had been normal circumstances she would have stayed as Miss Mad's house, and waited for him to show up. Zander always shows up. If she had had her mirror she wouldn't have had to do this at all either - he would have answered that, at some point. Again, he always did when she needed him. But she didn't have it - not at the moment.

She couldn't just-just-

Shaking her head, she walked quickly up the walk jumping the steps in her anxiety to get to the door, to get who was inside. Best case scenario, Zander was inside. All Juliet really hoped was that they knew where he was. Worrying her lip she pounded on the door.

"Hello? Anybody?"

Her leg was twitching, tapping the front stoop nervously as she waited for someone to respond. The couple of seconds she had had waited still felt like too much, it wasn't rational to her that she hadn't given whoever was inside enough time to answer.

She knocked again.

"Hello? Please? Anybody? Just..."

Taking in a deep breath she tried to calm herself, to keep herself from knocking again. The best she could do was go back to her fiddling. Fingers playing with her hair, and her foot tapping. She didn't know what she'd do if no one answered.

Julian frowned, slumping back in his chair. Crossing his legs, he continued to stare back at all the photographs spread out on the table in front of him. He'd forgotten about most of these. He'd been looking through his belongings, trying to decide what to just throw out and what to keep when he'd happened upon a collection of photographs.

He hadn't seen most of these in years.

They were a combination of Muggle and Wizarding photos with a theme that centred mostly around him. He wasn't in every single one of them, but one way or another he had something to do with it.

Standing up, he pulled one off the table, a small smile lighting up his face as he scanned it. How many moments had the Rousseaus had in which they'd been legitimately happy? He could hardly come up with five, but at least this one had been recorded.

Though the memories were fuzzy, he vaguely remembered the family vacation that winter when he was five. Twelve whole years ago, he thought, making a face. It made him feel infinitely times older. But that trip to Disney World had actually been rather amazing.

Grinning down at all their faces and struggling to remind himself that moments like that were never going to happen again, he sat back down, his eyes glued to the photograph.

His head turning absentmindedly towards the door, he blinked as it dawned on him that there was someone there. Carefully folding the photograph in half, he tucked it into his pocket as he made his way towards the door.

Pulling the door open, he blinked down at the girl there. Why was there a complete total stranger on his doorstep? Peering down at her, Julian tilted his head, taking her in for a moment. With his luck, she was probably the sister or best friend of that girl who'd thought he'd been dating her.

"Hello," he said curiously, leaning against the door frame. "Can I help you?"

By the time that the door had opened, Juliet's fidgeting had moved on from playing with her hair, to picking at her cuticles. She would wince every so often when she tugged painfully at the skin, but she wouldn't actually stop. Worrying her lip she let out a slight humming sound as she waited to be answered. In fact, she had raised her hand to knock on the door again, when it was opened. The action was sudden and it caused her to jump before she took in the person that opened the door.

Juliet wasn't entirely sure who would answer her call. In her deepest hopes, she wished that it would be Zander himself and she could be done with this frantic search, however she knew that had been unlikely. Still, she wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but the boy who answered the door... some how wasn't it.

Nor was the French that he responded with - although considering where she was, that should have been what she was looking for.

"Oh yes Hello," she jumped to alertness, her face automatically flushing but her panic over road the natural embarrassment she felt, "I err- You do speak English don't you? God I hope so, cause I can't- my French is- Zander tried but-" finally seeming to hear herself she cut off with an embarrassed nod. Clearing her throat she looked at her feet, trying to take a breath and calm herself to a state to not sound like an idiot.

"Is Zander here? If he isn't, do you know where he is? I have no idea and I- I-" again she was blabbering and again she had to take a deep breath, "I really need to talk to him."

He watched the girl, his curiosity giving way to amusement. She was acting almost as if it'd been him who'd approached her and not the other way around. A corner of his mouth turning upwards, he pulled himself off the door frame, glancing absentmindedly past her.

"You're in luck," he grinned, speaking in English this time. "I can speak English pretty well." Tilting his head slightly at the mention of the Zander, his gaze became curious once more.

He wasn't surprised that Zander had more friends - it'd be strange if he didn't - but why had she come here of all places when there were tons of people who were closer to the Angelique than he was?

"Sorry," Julian said, shaking his head. "I've hardly seen him all summer. He drops by sometimes, but I really don't know where he is."

Juliet was aware that her appearance on his front door must have seemed strange; it wasn't particularly logical and might have in fact been slightly desperate. She didn't care, perhaps she was desperate. That bubble of paranoia, that stab of fear, uncertainty was already brewing inside of her. There had to be other people she could see, others that would calm her down but it wasn't for certain. Even if they could she didn't want to bring them into it, the mess of emotions that she didn't know how to deal with. Her mentor would be ashamed, and this wasn't the sort of thing for Savannah. The girl had her own problems to deal with. Juliet would always see their relationship as one where she was the one who needed to take charge. Juliet took care of Savannah not the other way around. Wrong or not that was the way that she saw it.

No, in the end it had to be Zander or it was no one. Maybe she should have had more people to turn to, maybe this wouldn't have been a problem if that were the case - but truth be told getting a hold of Zander had never been a problem before this moment.

"Right, of course," the disappointment seeped into her voice despite the fact that she had expected that answer all along. "I'm sorry I bothered you like this. It's just, I don't know a lot about what he does when I'm not around- he doesn't really do much sharing does he? This was the only address of someone else I knew he knew that I had."

Talking seemed to be making the panic slightly better, making the fear slightly less. She didn't know if it was enough to keep going - it probably wasn't enough to last, but it was enough to think rationally for the moment.

"Well any way I'm sorry I bothered you. If you do happen to see him before me could you tell him Juliet's looking for him? It would be greatly appreciated." Nodding, she turned to leave, teeth worrying her lip again. Just the one step she took was enough to lose that small sense of security she had. The paper in her pocket crinkled. No! she wouldn't give up here. If she walked away now she'd be at a loss as to where else to look, she couldn't afford to be at a loss. "you wouldn't have any idea at all as to where else I could look? It's... sort of important. It wouldn't have to be a guarantee just.. a chance. All I need is a chance."

He brushed strands of hair out his eyes, feeling twinges of guilt at the look on her face. But what else could he say? He really didn't know where Zander was. If he knew, then this would've been an entirely different story.

"It's fine, really." Julian waved it off. "Zander - he really doesn't. He is pretty quiet, isn't he? And he doesn't really talk about himself when he does talk." In all honesty, what did he know about Zander? Almost nothing, and he'd known the boy for a year now.

Frowning slightly at the thought, he simply made a mental note to fix that this year.

He nodded in response to her, though how she'd gotten his address still piqued his curiosity. If Zander had given it to her, why hadn't he just given her his actual address?

"Of course I will," he said, shoving his hands into his pockets. "I'm not that mean." A corner of his mouth flitted upwards in amusement. Waving in farewell, a small smile spread across her face as she - Juliet? - seemed to change her mind.

"Places where Zander could be..." he frowned. He really should get to know him better. "Um, I guess he could be at another friend's house...?" Julian shrugged his shoulders, at a loss of where else Zander could be.

Juliet breathed through her nose nodding her head slightly to his words before it became a nervous tick and she kept doing it. It was only with great force that she managed to still the action. Though she could still feel the impulse to go back to doing it, biting at the back of his head.

Not meaning to insult the boy's attempt to help, Juliet couldn't help but let out a slightly bitter snort and give a grin, "So... pretty much anywhere right? That boy makes friends and gets house offers faster than my sister gets date - and my sisters a bit of a floozy." Juliet honestly didn't understand how he didn't understand how he got friends.

Closing her eyes she took another breath, attempting to level out the panic and disappointment. If she could just think, if she could just calm down and think she must be able to come up with something. There had to be something that she was-

"Okay- this may sound odd but you wouldn't by any chance have a phone - er Telephone, muggle thing," she gave up trying to explain it. If the boy didn't know what it was, then he wouldn't have one, "would you? That I can use?"

He tilted his head, resuming his amusement at all her little nervous habits. There had to be a reason why she needed to see Zander so badly, and he couldn't help but feel a little curious. But it wasn't his place to ask. He hardly knew her, and he wasn't about to ask for her life's story.

Though, wasn't there always that change -? No, he supposed if something was wrong with Zander, she wouldn't be looking for him. Giving her a cursory look over, he gave his head a slight nod. She was the one who most likely had a problem.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, I tried. What more you do you want?" Julian pulled a face, though his tone was more weary than rude. The girl looked entirely too stressed out to not take pity on. Letting out an amused snort, a corner of his mouth flitted upwards. "Older sisters. They're all the same, aren't they?"

Humming softly, he absentmindedly glanced around the street, leaning his head against the door frame. Slowly turning back to the brunette, he raised an eyebrow. "I'm not some stuffy old Pureblood, you know. Or I suppose, you don't." Gripping the door frame with his hands, he leaned outside, craning his neck up to peer at his house. "I guess the large house makes me look it."

Frowning slightly, he shrugged it off, returning his gaze to her. "Yeah, I have a phone." Rifling through his pockets and finding it empty, he frowned over his shoulder. "I could get it, or I could just -" Glancing back at the girl, he asked, "Do you want to come in?"

The girl let out a tired sigh. Being panicked was exhausting; it took all her energy just to stay sane, she didn't have any left over for manner, kindness or anything else. Still, those were some of the things that Juliet's personality was fundamentally based on - even when she felt like curling into a ball, and hiding away from the world and all the terrors that is saw fit to send her way, she couldn't not try to make up for her language or her tone.

"Sorry. I know, its just-" she pursed her lips, and clutched her hand into a ball at the side of her shorts, the paper crinkling again at the action, reminding her why she was here - what she needed from the boy who had completely vanished on her. His next words actually caused something of a wry snort smile to cross her face, "You have one too then?"

Worrying her lip she looked over her shoulder and then back at the boy. Her heightened state of panic was saying that she shouldn't do this - that she shouldn't go into a strangers home, but the boy looked harmless (Of course she'd been tricked by that one before hadn't she?). Besides, Zander was his friend - this boy had said himself that he stayed here on occasion. Juliet would just have to trust that Zander wouldn't befriend someone who would in turn harm her.

"Okay." She nodded slowly, staking a step towards the door and into the building, "Thank you."

"It's fine really." He waved it off, shrugging his shoulders. People had thought worse things of him than that. But that was mostly by his choice, he didn't have the right to complain. "Of course I do," he grinned down at her. "Havingreally agic doesn't mean I have to forget about my whole family being Muggles."

There were certain people in his family he'd prefer to never think of again, but he couldn't get that. Even if there was some potion or something out there that could, forgetting them would not just leave gaping holes in his memory, it'd also erase parts of who he was.

Even if he hated those memories and wanted to be someone else sometimes, he was who he was, and that wasn't going to change anytime soon.

"I'm not dangerous if that's what you're thinking," he said in an attempt to dispel any of concerns. Raising his hands above his head, he added, "Wouldn't hurt a fly." Besides, what had a fly ever done to him? The only times he ever hurt people were when he got angry. And getting angry was more work then it was worth. Fiddling with the large ring around his thumb, he moved out of the way to let the girl inside. "You're welcome," he said.

Entering his house behind her, he glanced atound the foyer absentmindedly before returning his gaze back to her. "I'm Julian, by the way." For a moment, he wondered if Zander had ever mentioned him, but decided against asking. Did he really want to know?

"But doesn't it mean you kind of want to sometimes?" Her voice as droll as she hovered inside the door, looking around at the décor with blank eyes bouncing on her feet nervously, a habit that she couldn't quite stop. "You stay here by yourself most of the time? It must be kind of lonely." The observation came off of her lips before she even really thought about it, and her thoughts moved so quickly back to her usual worries that she forgot to apologize for the fact that it might seem rude.

Taking in a deep breath, she let it out and forced a nervousness sort of laugh out of her throat at the same time. He said she was safe here, and she needed to trust him, she wanted to trust him. She wanted to stop worrying, to stop panicking, "Sorry. I didn't really mean to suggest... I've just had some really bad choices in trust recently."

"Julian?" For the briefest of moments she forgot her own worries, panic and fears and focused on the boy before her, the things she had heard about him instead. She opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again. He was helping her when she needed it, there was no point in suddenly yelling at him for things he had done in the past - even if Juliet was still unhappy about them, "It's nice to meet you. Umm, so... phone?"

He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, though a small frown pulled at his lips. Her words were true, at least somewhat. Lonely? He was Julian Rousseau, he'd practically grown up alone. He'd gotten used to being alone. It didn't mean he liked it, but he'd gotten used to it.

And besides, in all honesty he hardly spent that much time here. His house was boring, and he'd never liked being indoors that much to begin with. Even if the rehab center didn't make have him check in everyday, he was sure he'd find an excuse to go outside anyway.

"I have house elves," he said, shrugging again. "I'm not totally alone." And if he really wanted to, his friends were only a turn away.

"Haven't we all?" He offered a small smile in her direction. He flexed his fingers absentmindedly, chewing on the inside of his cheek. If he hadn't been so prone to trusting people when he'd been younger, his life could've turned out completely different.

Julian glanced back at her at the sound of his name, nodding slightly. "Nice to meet you too." Nodding again, this time more decisively, he stepped away from her, glancing around. "Right, phone. Now where did I put it...?" Frowning, he wandered towards the kitchen where he'd been before she'd showed up. Reappearing moments later, he stuck his head out the doorway. "You can sit down, if you want." He jerked his head towards the room he'd made a de facto sitting room. "I'll be right back."

And with that, he vanished again.

"I think my mentor's house elf hates me," it was the first easily conversational thing she had stated. There was even a slight hint of her usual impish grin trying to push its way onto her strained features, "But I can be a bit of a slob sometimes. Cleaning up after me is a full time job."

Nodding slowly as he disappeared, her arms found their way around herself, wrapping around her middle protectively, as she felt her insides begin to swim and her brain begin to fire rapid questions at her. What if she wasn't overreacting? What if she was dragging other people into something dangerous?

What if it was just dangerous? What if he-

She jumped when he reappeared. Letting out a squeak and then giving a weak nod, biting the inside of her lip to attempt to keep some composure. Glancing at his retreating back she took a deep breath, she turned to look in the direction that he had nodded his head. Her arms stayed where they were around her middle, she continued to worry the inside of her cheek and it was getting to the point where she was almost going to bite down to bleed. Feeling sick to her stomach she sat stiffly on the edge of the closest seat to her, keeping her head down, and glancing at the paper that she had pulled out of her pocket instead of anything in the room.

He let out a soft laugh, a grin beginning across his face. "You can't be that messy." Wouldn't she have to look it if she was as disorganized as she claimed? And he didn't think she looked like a slob. But appearances could be deceiving; he'd spent years being a poster boy for that saying.

A kitten padded down the hallway, ears perked up. Peering up at Julian as she passed him, he offered her a little smile before he resumed his search for his cellphone. It had to be around here somewhere. He couldn't have just - oh. Mentally smacking himself, his objective changed, and he headed upstairs in search of his wand.

Jumping onto the couch, Karma's familiar mewed softly in greeting. Nuzzling the girl, she purred in an attempt to calm the panicking Hufflepuff.

It wasn't long until Julian returned, phone in one hand and wand in the other. "Found it," he said, grinning slightly. Handing it to her, he sunk into an armchair, swinging his feet absentmindedly.

"I'm pretty bad," was the response that she managed, a smile that was almost the usual kind one that she gave everyone gracing her face before she was back to looking at the paper in her lap, fretting over the words that they presented for her. It was a simple sort of statement, it didn't even have to be all that threatening. That was what she kept telling herself as she poured over the words again and again, but she still couldn't help wondering... it was still...

The kitten made her jump, the mewing not enough to give her proper warning of its arrival. Her jumping displaced the letter that she had been half sheltering with her arms, sending it toppling to the floor instead, where she forgot about it in her panic. It took a long moment of simply staring at the creature for her to be able to rationalize that she was safe. Hesitantly she reached out a hand for the kitten to paw at lightly before Juliet allowed herself to take comfort from stroking its soft fur.

That was what she was doing when the boy returned, the suddenness of that action causing her to jump too. She hadn't been this jumpy in what felt like ages. Her anger at the dramatic set back was also becoming melded into her panicking making her one big ball of emotions. A ball that grabbed the phone from him with only a hurried thank you, punching in the numbers slowly only because it took her a moment to remember them. She didn't often have need of calling Zander the Muggle way.

Tapping her foot she waited as it rung. And Rung. And Rung.

Then Finally

"Hello-

"Zander-"

The voice kept going, directing her to leave a message. It was just his voice mail. With the break of a pent up breath that sounded a lot like a sob she let the phone fall back to the table and covered her face in her hands instead. She didn't know what she was going to do now. That had been her last hope. Now...

Now Juliet was just lost, and tired and afraid.

"Sorry," he said, cringing as he took a step back. He remembered being that jumpy once. Had it really been a whole year already? Frowning slightly, he rubbed at the bridge of his nose. The memories of that brutal beating were still fresh, as if it'd just been yesterday.

But somehow, despite the odds, he'd managed to overcome it, at least somewhat. He was still terrified that it'd occur to him again, and it was the entire reason that he couldn't go back home again.

Smiling softly as he watched Juliet and Nightmare, Julian tensed as he watched the girl dial. For her sake, he hoped she did reach Zander. She looked so panicked and scared...

If he knew what to say, he would've tried to console her. But Nightmare seemed to be doing a good job at that.

His face falling at just the expression on her face as she hung up the phone, he chewed on his bottom lip. Nightmare crawling her way into Juliet's lap, she purred loudly. Slowly rising from his chair, he plopped down near her on the couch, crossing his legs as he simply watched her.

"Hey," he said softly. "I'm sorry that you didn't find him." Pausing, he brushed a hand through his hair, trying to come up with something else to say. "If you want - I mean, you don't have to. But if you want to tell someone-" Julian shrugged his shoulders. "You could always tell me."

It wasn't like he could just throw her out of his house.

Juliet looked at the creature on her lap, face rather helpless as she began to run her fingers through the soft black fur. Her mind had given up trying to figure out why the creature felt familiar and was simply taking some - very minimal - comfort from this warmth, the purring that it made. It made her feel slightly more safe. At least some creature in the room was happy - seemed to know what it was doing.

Juliet was completely lost as to what she was doing with her life, at how she had made such a mess of things, trusted the wrong person again and she didn't know for sure but she was pretty sure that she was putting Julian in an awkward spot. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye as he sat down beside her, her look sharpening slightly at his offer.

In silence she looked at him, worrying her lip as she tried to think about what he was talking about - whether she wanted to do it or not. She didn't know this boy, she hardly knew if she could trust him any more than...

But Zander trusted him, and she did need to tell someone - if she didn't she would imploid, crack and fall down into a hole that she wasn't sure anyone could pull her out of.

"Well you see... I received this letter this morning..." she reached her hand into her pocket, going for the paper only to realize it wasn't there. Her eyes widened in panic and she looked around frantically for it before she located the sheet where it had fallen. Her shoulders dropped once more and she focused on the kitten in her lap instead. "It wasn't... I suppose I use to call him a friend, but then a few weeks ago he well tried to be more than friends but I said I wasn't interested, and he's too old anyway. An actual adult. I thought maybe... well I ran away before anything really could be settled but I thought he got it, but then I got the letter..."

She pointed to the sheet on the floor, not having the energy to go and get it. There hadn't been anything fundamentally bad about it... merely a restatement of his affections, how he wasn't going to give up. Somehow some where in all those words things had started sounding threatening rather than not. Juliet didn't know what to do with it - she needed someone to tell her she was overreacting. She wanted to someone to tell her she was overreacting, but part of her really didn't think she was.

"You could read it... if you want. Tell me if... If you think its all in my head I won't be offended by you saying so." After all, its what she wanted.

He ducked his head slightly at her silence. He couldn't blame her, not really. He could hardly tell his problems to anyone, not even his own friends. Though he doubted that she was anything like him, he'd learned from experience that most people were unwilling to tell their entire life story's to strangers.

He doubted being a friend of a friend changed much.

Glancing up at the sound of her voice, Julian nodded along to her words. He followed her gaze, unable to really help himself. It was one of the many habits from his childhood he was yet to shake. There was something about looking around that made him instantly think of danger.

The seventeen year old brushed his hands through his hair, chewing absentmindedly on his bottom lip. He didn't have the slightest idea how she felt. He had admirers, but the oldest ones were hardly a year older than him.

But he understood unwanted attention. That was something he felt that everyone had encountered at least once. And he was no different.

"Okay." He nodded slowly before reaching down, plucking the letter off his floor. Blue eyes flickering over the words - it took a moment longer for his brain to process the English words and he found himself mouthing the words without really realizing the action - a small frown creased at his forehead.

Well, he certainly wouldn't want to have this letter sent to him. But he couldn't let Juliet know that. She was panicking because of it. If she even got an inkling that he thought the letter's message was anywhere near what she assumed to be, she'd panic even more.

And he really didn't like it when people panicked.

Looking back up at her, he handed the letter back to her. "It's all in your head. The letter - nothing's really wrong with it. Sure, it's a little weird, but nothing worse than that." Julian shrugged his shoulders.

She reached out a hand and took the paper, folding it obsessively in her hand as she worried her lip and nodded her head. That's what she wanted to hear, it was the answer that she needed to hear.

That was why she couldn't quite shake the feeling that the boy was telling her that for that reason alone. And if he was doing that, then it had to be what she thought it was, and if it was what she thought it was then what the hell was she supposed to do with that?

Was there even anything she could do with that? Maybe if she just avoided the man, but if he still worked at her school then how could she do that? She could switch schools... but there were no other schools in Britain and Juliet barely understood French certainly not enough to be taught in it, and couldn't speak a word of Russian, so neither of those options were applicable.

Maybe she could just get Miss Mad to teach her. She would do that, surely. Especially if Juliet could prove that she was in danger. But of course, she wasn't in danger, not at all.

This was just-just. It was an overreaction, Julian had said so himself. And even if it wasn't surely someone who claimed to love her so much - he hardly knew her... and if she thought about it she wasn't sure he'd ever used the word love - would actually hurt her.

And yet... the unwanted advances were bad enough, and the man didn't seem happy the last time she had said no.

"Thank you," she finally said, looking up and taking a breath. "That was... very... thank you."

She looked back down at her lap, the paper still there.

"Well, I suppose I should stop wasting your time. I'll just-just-" go. She needed to go, that was what she was trying to say.

He tilted his head, his expression somewhere between concern and worry. Did she believe him? He wasn't entirely sure, but even his lying skills couldn't compete with someone panicking over the chance that he was wrong.

He could say it over and over again - and could believe it as well - but if someone didn't want to hear it, he might as well have been speaking Spanish.

But at least for her sanity and well-being, he hoped she believed him.

"You're welcome," Julian said, glancing down at Nightmare as she curled into his lap. Scratching behind her ears, he looked back up at the brunette. "Go?" he said softly, finishing her sentence.

He couldn't blame her. Other than the letter and Zander, it wasn't as if they had anything to talk about. And after that letter, he couldn't fault her for not wanting to spend time with someone who was virtually a stranger.

He nodded in the door's direction. "Let yourself out."