𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐡𝐞𝐫 | b. black

✧.*┊xviii. target practice

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
target practice

.·:*¨༺ ☾ ༻¨*:·.

𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐒 𝐏𝐈𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐍 of the enchanted dummies chasing Juniper around the garden of Malfoy Manor. Her brunette hair was tied up in a messy bun, flyaways sticking to the sweat on her face.

She was angry. She was terrified. She was heartbroken. She was still in love, but at the same time she hated her. On the other hand, it was impossible to hate her.

But Bellatrix wasn't the same person that she had known twenty-five years ago. She had changed for the worse. There was a reason why she had landed herself a one-way ticket to Azkaban when Lord Voldemort fell from power all those years ago. Juniper had changed too, but a small piece of her still felt like that naive fifteen-year-old girl speaking with Ted in the Hufflepuff common room about how convinced she was that she could fix her.

She should have listened when he said that she couldn't. There was no way to fix someone whose brain had been twisted and warped by power and the thrill of dark magic.

Juniper flinched when someone tapped her shoulder. She whirled around, an arrow drawn. Her chest heaved as she caught her breath. She slowly lowered her bow as Sirius stood in front of her, his hands held up in surrender.

"Juniper, what are you doing?" Andromeda asked, waving her wand to freeze the enchanted dummies covered in arrows.

"Target practice," Juniper panted, swiping the back of her hand across her sweaty forehead. She allowed a moment to come to her senses, breathing in deeply as the cold winter air blew around her.

"Target practice?" Sirius questioned as he handed her a water bottle.

"Did I stutter?" Juniper took a drink of water. Sirius's brows flew up in surprise; she'd never spoken to him like that before.

"Juni, do you maybe want to talk about what this is really about?" Andromeda asked, carefully prying the bow out of her best friend's firm grip.

"There's nothing to talk about, Andy. I tried so hard to forget her, and just when I did, she fucking broke out of prison. That's it. The end. No happily ever after."

"I don't know what happened between you two in the past, but if it's hurting you so much, I think it's time to let it go," Sirius said. "You can't let her get to you like this."

"I've been trying, Sirius!" Juniper snapped, kicking a dummy in frustration. She shook her head, tears threatening to spill out of her eyes. "I really thought I was ready to let go. I thought getting rid of that scrapbook was the final piece to forgetting her, but now she's out in the world again, and all I can do is remember her. I . . . I just wish I could stop remembering her!"

Remembering Bellatrix Black was torture. Sometimes late at night when she couldn't sleep, she could hear echoes of their chatter and laughter. Maybe in some other universe, things ended up differently for them. Juniper just wished she had gotten through to her in this one.

Andromeda was quiet for a moment. "You don't think she's broken out of Azkaban to come after you . . . do you?"

"Deja vu, anyone?" Sirius joked, trying to lighten the mood. He chuckled awkwardly, but stopped when neither girl found it amusing.

When Sirius escaped from Azkaban a couple of years ago, the whole wizarding world suspected that he was after Harry. It was really Peter Pettigrew he was trying to get his hands on. Sirius wanted him dead after betraying their friends during the first war.

"Who knows?" Juniper mumbled, shrugging. She sighed and leaned back against a tree, crossing her arms. "A-All I know is that . . . I don't think any of us are safe. Not me. Not you guys. Not even Ted, Dora, and Thea. The Death Eaters broke out to serve him again. Blood traitors and Mudbloods are the first people they're going to be after."

She grabbed her bow and made her way back into the manor.

"Enjoy your little temper-tantrum, Harrison?" Lucius taunted, smirking at the brunette as he blocked her path. It was quite amusing seeing someone as short as her so angry.

"Watch your mouth, Malfoy, or you'll be my next target," Juniper threatened, her nostrils flaring.

"Well, go on," Lucius urged, raising his arms in a shrug. "There's nothing stopping you. Don't be shy. Or are you too . . . weak to do so?"

Juniper lodged an arrow into her bow and yanked it back, her gaze darkening. "I resent being called weak. Might I remind you that the only reason I didn't aid in your capture when we rounded up the Death Eaters was because of my loyalty to Narcissa. She'd already lost a sister, and she had a newborn baby to take care of. She didn't need her husband taken from her, too. But I've stopped caring. Call me weak one . . . more . . . time. I dare you."

"You . . . are . . . " Lucius drawled, his amused smirk widening, "a pathetic . . . and weak . . . little Mudblood."

Juniper let the arrow fly. Lucius ducked down, and it whizzed past Narcissa as she came out into the corridor, barely missing her. She jumped back, startled, before her head whipped towards Lucius and Juniper.

"He started it!" Juniper dropped her bow and pointed at Lucius at the same time he accused her of starting it.

Narcissa sighed heavily. "I'm too sober to deal with you two and your petty quarrels," she muttered, shaking her head as she walked past them and made her way to the kitchen for a glass of wine.

Juniper watched her with a small frown. "I think we should be more concerned about Narcissa's alcoholism than trying to murder each other," she mumbled.

"I suppose you're right," Lucius agreed bitterly. "I'll use a spell to turn her wine to cranberry juice, and we'll continue this later."

"Sleep with one eye open tonight, you bastard, because I will show no mercy," Juniper said as Lucius walked away. She picked up her bow and continued down the corridor to her room, an uneasiness growing in her stomach.

Something bad was coming. She couldn't quite put her finger on what it was, but she had this terrible gut feeling that something bad was going to happen.