During the summer before seventh year, Lucy had chopped off the majority of her strawberry blonde waves, and drowned out most the strawberry with blonde. Her hair now stopped just above shoulders, just enough length so that she could tuck loose strands behind her ear while she was reading or writing. Molly used to say she'd be better off going bald with all the time she used to spend fiddling with her hair, trying to keep it from attacking her vision, throwing it up into buns and ponytails, braids, and on occasion, pigtails on either side of her freckled face. Whatever she did it never seemed to help, not really. That's why her hair finally made it's way to the chopping block two weeks before the beginning of the new school term.
Now, already seated in their usual compartment on the Hogwarts Express, Lucy waited for her cousins to finish up with their family goodbyes. She watched as a pink haired Dom hugged her father and mother, as a blonde haired Louis looked on impatiently, probably wondering if he'd even have the chance to say goodbye to his parents before the train left the station. Dominique was the type who adored her parents, Lucy could clearly see why. Uncle Bill and Auntie Fleur were quite obviously the coolest parents of the clan. Uncle George would argue that statement, but he more often than not fell into the embarrassing dad category, to Fred and Roxanne's displeasure. Lucy's parents fell into the 'overbearing, yet, never around, and want me to be as perfect as Molly' category, which wasn't really a real category, but nobody exactly envied her for being the daughter of Percy Weasley. It wasn't as if she didn't love her dad, she really did, if anything the only reason she was thinking these things now was because she was feeling bitter over the fact that neither of her parents had been here to say goodbye to her today like every other parent who was on Platform 9 and 3/4. They'd both been working. Things at the Ministry had been hectic recently, although nobody would tell her why. She'd even pleaded with Molly, who'd been interning there with her parents, to tell her what was going on on the drive to King's Cross, all she said was, 'you'll find out soon enough'. That was something that irked Lucy, her parents and sister seemed to know everything, and she was always left in the dark. She was an outsider in her own family. Which was understandable, given that not a fibre of her being wanted to work in the bloody Ministry of Magic, and that she'd been sorted into Slytherin and not Gryffindor like her father, or Ravenclaw like her sister and mother. She looked out the window now and wondered what it would be like if she was the daughter of another Weasley. None of her cousins may have envied her, but she sure as hell envied all of them.
Her compartment door slid open, pulling her eyes from the window and her head from her thoughts "Hey 'Sander, hurry up! Luce is already here." The tall, lanky prat, plopped himself down in the window seat opposite her and relaxed. "Phew," he sighed, looking out of the window as she looked on at him. "Mum made us get here by Thestral again. It's a bloody nuisance with our trunks."
"Why didn't you just shrink them?" she questioned, raising her brow playfully. One thing to know about Lucy; she liked to tease people.
Lorcan gave her a look that suggested that he hadn't thought of that simple solution, but she saw his confidence return quickly when he thought up an excuse that didn't make him look as much as numpty as he was. "Ah, but there's rare treasures inside that couldn't possibly be shrunk."
"Oh, yes, I heard the British Museum was trying to get hold of those socks you haven't washed since third year."
"I'll have you know that those socks are the rarest of treasures- Hey! what the bloody hell have you done to your hair?!" She honestly didn't expect him to notice. He reached across and took a strand in his fingers, his thumb brushing ever so slightly against her skin just below her ear, sending shivers down her spine. She instinctively swatted his hand away, and he sat back down properly in his seat. He didn't complain, he must have known he shouldn't have done that the second he did it. See, Lucy and Lorcan Scamander weren't friends, and they weren't cousins, but what they were was family, sort of, not by blood of course, but by her Uncle Harry's inclusion of the Scamanders into the family. Her father never particularly liked them, Lucy never had any sort of strong feelings towards any of them. She got along with them, the way you did with distant cousins that you only saw once or twice a year at special family gatherings. She'd only seen him once over the summer at the Burrow's annual family barbecue, and they hadn't even spoken that day, she had spoken to his twin however when they got into a debate over the latest episode of a muggle time travel TV show they both happened to watch. Although with both Lorcan and Lucy being in their final year, the only time they were likely to talk was on these train journeys, and that was only because it had become somewhat a tradition that herself, the Scamander twins, Dom and James would share the same compartment before going off with their own respective group of friends until the next train journey. Dominique was, however, her respective group of friends, or more like, friend. Singular. Being the only other Weasley who fell into Slytherin house, the two girls became instantly inseparable.
Nothing was said in the compartment until Dominique arrived. Her pink hair was gathered in heap on top of her head, a very oversized Stone Roses t-shirt hid her stick thin body and her yellow doc martens made her tiny feet look about twice their actual size, but she still looked like a model. That's what Veela blood did for you. Lucy looked down self-consciously at her old greying black jeans, and over-worn brogue boots and decided she still looked pretty good even in comparison to her cousin. There was more meat on her bones, but she still lacked the curves that her sister had, and other than Victoire, Lucy was the tallest of the girls at the moment, but she had the feeling that little Lily Luna would eventually claim her spot. Lucy looked up from herself when Dom came crashing down next to her on the seat, and put her feet up on the seat opposite next to Lorcan.
"Why is Lysander chasing Tybalt?" Tybalt was the monster snowball that roamed the school leaving white cat hairs all over everybody's robes that belonged to Lysander. Dom directed her question at both of them, they both responded with half-arsed shrugs. "Bloody useless, the both of you." And as if on queue a loud 'meow' followed by a 'James, catch him!' was heard from outside.
The three looked to the door as a disgruntled James Potter appeared in the compartment's doorway, covered with little white hairs (it was really unfortunate that he'd decided to wear a black shirt), muttering something along the lines of, "Forget a damn basket, that thing needs an iron cell with sixty locks and bolts." He perched himself on the seat next to Dominique, seeing has her feet were still occupying the space next to Lorcan, and Lysander would want to share the side with his brother. Speaking of Lysander, he followed James into the compartment with a very annoyed looking Tybalt clutched in his arms. Before Lysander could sit down the train buckled as it set off from the station, making him stumble and dropping the monster. The face of pure panic crossed his face, he wasn't prepared to chase that thing again, but it was unnecessary. Lucy watched as the cat wandered over and jump up on Dominique's lap, curled up and started to purr as she stroked him.
"Ha, he likes me!" Dom rejoiced, as Lysander took his seat next to her feet.
"He's not the only one." It was said in a way that the other boys didn't hear because they were too busy trying to rid themselves of white cat hair, but Lucy had heard it. Lorcan was now smiling at Dom in a way that made her feel uneasy, and then when she looked at Dom, she saw that she was smiling back.
A/N: Just wanted to say hi! This is my first fic I've published in about five years so I hope you guys enjoy! Nothing much really happened in this chapter, just setting stuff up. Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon. Review and Critique if you wish.