𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐞𝐫 | b. black

✧.*┊xiv. forming friendships

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
forming friendships

.·:*¨༺ ☾ ༻¨*:·.

𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐈𝐏𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐂𝐊 𝐓𝐎 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐄 that Dorothea wasn't at dinner after the first week of classes. She scanned the group at the Slytherin table and saw that her tormentors, Dylan Rodgers and Blake Miller, were seated messily eating their dinner, so it wasn't likely that she didn't show as a result of being cornered by them.

Juniper excused herself from the table and walked out the back door of the Great Hall. She began wandering through the empty corridors in search of her goddaughter. She asked a few of the paintings and ghosts if they had seen her, and many reported that they saw her walking down to the dungeons.

What Dorothea was doing down there, Juniper had no idea, but there was only one way to find out.

When Juniper descended the stairs, she heard voices from one of the corridors. She followed it and found Dorothea speaking with Hogwarts' poltergeist, Peeves. The young teenager dropped the amethyst necklace that Tonks had given her when Peeves's back was turned and picked it up.

"I-I came down here because I lost this pendent, see? It's very important to me. My sister gave it to me before I started my first year. She said that whenever we're apart to hold it tightly in my hand, close my eyes, and I'd feel her with me. I couldn't let someone else find it."

"Well, now you have your little pendy thingy-majiggy. You better get back upstairs. People might think you're . . . " Peeves laughed loudly, "up to something!" He cackled and flew up, disappearing through the ceiling.

Dorothea let out a breath of relief, but tensed when she saw Juniper. "A-Auntie June . . . "

"What are you doing down here?" Juniper asked curiously as she walked up to her. "And what was Peeves on about?"

Dorothea rubbed her lips together nervously. "Um, it's a secret."

"I won't tell," Juniper whispered with a wink. "I'm great at keeping secrets. Just ask your mum. She never could get me to tell her the secrets I had with . . . with, uh . . . " She waved her hand dismissively. "Never mind. Point is, not even Veritaserum could get me to spill. What's the secret?"

Dorothea glanced over her shoulder at the door leading to Snape's private stores of potion supplies, which she was planning to look through while everyone else was at dinner. She turned back to her godmother and sighed. "I needed to get into Professor Snape's stores for a Mandrake leaf."

"Oh. Why didn't you just check the greenhouses? Didn't you have Herbology today?"

"I . . . " Dorothea's brows scrunched. "I didn't think of that," she mumbled, staring down at the floor.

"What do you need a Mandrake leaf for, anyway?" Juniper asked as they began walking back upstairs.

Dorothea's face tinted pink. "J-Just for, um . . . research purposes?"

Juniper chuckled. "Nice try, Thea." She nudged her gently with her shoulder. "Come on, you can tell me."

"Promise you won't freak out?" Dorothea asked. "Or tell anyone?"

"Pinky promise." Juniper wrapped her pinky around Dorothea's when she held it up.

"Okay, um . . . " Dorothea stopped walking. She was standing a step up, making her about the same height as Juniper, if not barely taller. "So, you know how Dora can use her powers to morph into different animals? Well, I spent the summer researching Animagi. I . . . I want to try and become one. I didn't want anyone finding out and trying to talk me out of it, so that's why I was sneaking around while everyone was at dinner."

"Wait, that's it?" Juniper chuckled. "Thea, you know you could've told me. I don't know if you knew this, but when Sirius and his friends were interested in becoming Animagi, he wrote me letters for advice since I was, in his words, the brightest witch he knew. It took them a few times to get it right, but they were eventually successful."

"I can get it on my first try," Dorothea insisted as they continued walking. "From what Mum's told me, I'm more intelligent than he was when he was my age, so I'm not worried about something going wrong."

"If you need help with anything, just let me know, alright? Potions always was my favourite class."

"I love Potions, but I hate Snape," Dorothea said as they reached the ground level.

"He's not as bad as you think, Thea." Juniper shook his head. "I know he's sorta . . . prickly around the edges, but he's a good person deep down. That part of him has just been hiding for a little while . . . a long while."

"I still can't believe you went to school with him and Sirius. It's hard to believe you guys were ever my age."

"You won't believe how many fights I had to break up. Your cousin and his friends were always picking on Severus. They never got along. From what I've heard, it got worse when I left Hogwarts. That's a huge part about why he is the way he is."

Dorothea frowned, her brows pulling together. "Sirius bullied Snape?"

"James Potter was the worst offender, but yeah. Thea, listen to me." Juniper placed her hands gently on her shoulders. "Don't let any of what I'm telling you affect your relationship with Sirius. It's all the past, and he has done a lot of growing."

"But . . . But bullying is wrong. As awful as Snape is, no one deserves that."

"I agree that it is wrong, and believe me, I had a lot of talks with Sirius when he was younger."

Dorothea suddenly yelped as they turned a corner. She jumped back a couple feet. "You scared me!" She gasped, placing a hand to her heart. "I thought you were a professor!"

"Sorry," Neville Longbottom apologized. "Luna and I noticed you weren't at dinner, so we thought we'd come find you." He grinned at Juniper. "Hi, Professor Harrison."

"Good evening, Mr. Longbottom, Miss Lovegood." Juniper nodded at Neville and Luna with a kind smile. She looked at Dorothea. "I'll let you kids talk. And maybe make some friends?"

"Juni!" Dorothea whined, shaking her head. "No."

"Yes! I swear, Thea, you'll thank me later. I'll see you tomorrow." Juniper walked away, leaving Dorothea alone with Neville and Luna.