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Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters and places from the Harry Potter world, which is trademarked by JK Rowling. However, all plots are my own and are in no way endorsed by JK Rowling or anyone affiliated with the Harry Potter universe.
Chapter 1: September 2014
"Now Dominique, remember, I promised Aunt Audrey that Molly could sit with you on the train. She's not going to have any of her own friends to sit with and she's going to need a friendly face," Fleur Delacour-Weasley said as she bid her daughter goodbye at King's Cross train station. Victoire was already long gone, off to search for her own friends.
"Yes maman," Dominique said, inwardly groaning at the thought of an entire train ride with her annoying cousin. She couldn't understand why Victoire couldn't do it. Victoire only had two friends, while Dominique had three. Mathematically, it made more sense for Molly to ride with Victoire. There would be more room in the compartment. Of course, Dominique realized why she'd been chosen. She was much closer to Molly in age after all. But it was all just so extremely unfair in her opinion. She's had to fend for herself her first day and she'd done alright for herself.
"Alright, you have a good year," Fleur smiled, kissing her daughter on the head and shoving her in the direction of the train.
"Bye maman," Dominique waved as she climbed onto the train. "Bye Louis!"
Now that it was her second year, Dominique felt much more confident as she grabbed her trunk and began to make her way down the corridor to find her friends. They'd agreed to meet somewhere in the fourth compartment from the front, and Dominique had been sure to count before she'd boarded the train.
"Hey Tom!" she greeted her friend upon finding the appropriate compartment. "Have the others been by yet?"
"Nope, you're the first," Tom said, helping Dominique get her trunk into the compartment. "How was your summer?"
"Super," Dominique replied as she levitated first her own and then Tom's trunks onto the luggage racks above them. For some reason Tom had elected to leave his in the center of the compartment on the floor, right in the way of everything. "What about you?"
"Alright," Tom responded. "My brother wouldn't shut up all summer about how excited he is to come to Hogwarts. I practically had to peel him off me on the platform or else he'd have followed me in here."
"Yeah," Dominique nodded. "My cousin Molly's starting this year too. My parents made me promise to let her sit with me, so hopefully she can't find us."
Tom laughed. "I'm sure she's not as bad as my brother," he said.
"You're right," Dominique agreed. "She's worse."
Tom didn't have a chance to respond to this, because at that moment, Brooke and Miles both arrived at the door, having come from opposite directions.
"Hey guys!" Dominique exclaimed, giving Brooke a hug and then taking the initiative and levitating their trunks up onto the luggage racks. She was the best at Charms after all.
The four friends settled in, discussing their summers and their suspicions about the new Headmaster and Defence Professor, who would most likely be introduced at the welcome feast. For the first half hour, Dominique would glance at the door every few minutes, hoping that Molly wouldn't show up, but once they'd been moving for a while, she decided that Molly was probably not coming and had found somewhere else to sit.
As relieved as Dominique was, she discovered that she was actually a little insulted. Were she and her friends not good enough for Molly? Thankfully, Tom realized what was running through Dominique's head and assured her that Molly not showing up was a good thing and that she'd probably just wanted to acquaint herself with her peers. Dominique agreed that Tom was right and the rest of their train ride was quite enjoyable.
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They arrived at Hogsmeade station without incident and Dominique and her friends proceeded to make their way up to the castle and into the Great Hall for the sorting ceremony. Dominique was desperately hoping that Molly would get sorted into Ravenclaw, which would mean that she wouldn't have to see her as often, but just as with almost all Weasleys since the beginning of time, Molly was sorted into Gryffindor. Tom's brother and Miles' sister also got sorted into Gryffindor, making for a lot of groans from their end of the table.
"I mean, I love my sister," Miles said when Flora skipped over to the table, the flower in her hair bouncing as she did so, "but she is so annoying."
"I can tell just by the flower in her hair that Molly is not going to enjoy rooming with her," Dominique observed.
"I told her not to wear that thing," Miles sighed. "But she insisted."
"Don't worry," Dominique assured him. "The flower's not that bad. Molly just hates everything."
"Really?" Miles asked.
Dominique and Brooke shared a look.
"Okay the flower's pretty bad," Dominique admitted.
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The next day brought with it the beginning of classes, which was the one part about returning to Hogwarts that Dominique had not been looking forward to. Their first class was potions with Professor Abbott-Longbottom and Dominique realized almost immediately that she'd promptly forgotten just about everything over the summer and now she was going to have to revise all her first year notes all over again.
"Didn't you do the summer work?" Tom asked when Dominique couldn't remember whether acidic potions were meant to be stirred clockwise or counter-clockwise.
"Sure I did," Dominique defended. "But I did it all at the beginning of the summer to get it out of the way. So it's been almost two whole months since I've thought about any of this stuff. The only thing I'm still good at is charms, because I spent the summer showing off to my younger brother Louis."
"You know it's against the rules to use magic outside of school, right?" Tom reminded her.
"Sure," Dominique shrugged. "But it's not like anyone caught me, so I'm good."
"You'd better be careful about that," Tom warned. "If you do get caught, you could be expelled."
"Who's getting expelled?" Miles asked, entering the conversation late.
"Don't worry," Dominique assured Miles. "Nobody's getting expelled."
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By the end of the week, the second years were overwhelmed by all the work they had to do. It was like the teachers were punishing them for relaxing over the summer by piling on the work as if they had their final exams the next week. Brooke's older sister Mallory assured them that this was only temporary, to scare the second years so that in future summers they would be sure to keep up to date on their studying and Dominique felt much better knowing this.
On Friday evening, a notice went up on the bulletin board: Quidditch tryouts would be happening the following Saturday and all Gryffindors were welcome to try out.
"We should go," Brooke said excitedly.
"I thought you weren't going to try out this year?" Dominique asked in confusion. "Isn't the position you want already filled by the captain?"
"I didn't mean to try out," Brooke explained. "I meant to watch."
"You want to watch Quidditch tryouts?" Dominique repeated, not sure she heard right. Who in their right mind would want to do that?
"Sounds like fun!" Tom agreed enthusiastically. "Count me in."
"Me too," Miles agreed.
The three second years turned to Dominique and she immediately raised her hands in surrender. "Oh no," she cried. "You guys promised. I went to that one game and you said if I did that I'd never have to watch Quidditch again."
"I do believe the agreement was that we'd never force you to go to a game again," Miles stressed the word 'game'.
"This counts," Dominique said. "In fact, this is worse than a game. No way. I'm not going."
"Please?" Brooke pleaded, batting her eyelids. "We'd be ever so grateful if you'd join us."
"Would you though?" Dominique asked. "I'd just ruin the experience for you anyway. I won't have fun, so you won't have fun. You'll spend the whole time worrying about me not having fun."
"She's right," Tom agreed with Dominique. "It won't be fun for anyone if we force her to go."
"Thank you," Dominique nodded in Tom's direction. "I appreciate that."
Tom shrugged. "I just don't fancy listening to you whine the whole time. I want to size up my competition in peace."
"Oh is that what you'll be doing?" Brooke asked, amused.
"Sure," Tom nodded. "If I decide to try out next year, I'm going to need to know what I'm going to be up against."
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When the day of the tryouts arrived, Dominique bid farewell to her friends and returned to the common room by herself for an afternoon of leisure and relaxation. When she arrived, she noticed that Victoire and her friend Kara were sitting in a couple of armchairs on their own, and Dominique decided to approach them.
She enjoyed talking to her sister from time to time but didn't much like her sister's friend Brianna. Seeing the two girls without Brianna, Dominique decided to take her chance.
"Hey," she said, taking a seat.
"Hey," Victoire greeted her. "What's up?"
"My friends are watching the Quidditch tryouts," Dominique said.
"You didn't want to go?" Kara asked.
"Nah," Dominique shrugged. "Quidditch isn't really my thing."
"Me neither," Kara confessed.
"So where's Brianna?" Dominique wondered.
Victoire rolled her eyes. "Off trying to convince the new Headmaster to advertise for the healthy food trolley on the train."
"The what?" Dominique frowned.
"You know, the trolley on the train with healthy food. We've talked about this before," Victoire prompted.
Dominique thought back and shook her head. "Nope," she said. "I don't remember this conversation at all. I thought the only food on the train was candy."
Victoire nodded. "That is unsurprising," she said. "Most students don't know about it, which is why Brianna is so obsessed with advertisement."
"She doesn't really think the school's going to finance this, does she?" Dominique asked.
Victoire shrugged. "Who knows?" she wondered.
After this, the conversation immediately died. Dominique couldn't think of anything else to say, and apparently neither could Victoire or Kara.
"Well, I have to go to the library," Dominique said, standing up. "It was great talking to you both."
"Yeah," Kara agreed. "Anytime."
Dominique waved sadly as she backed away. If it had just been her and Victoire, maybe the conversation would have stood a chance, but with Kara there it was awkward. If Dominique was being honest though, she and Victoire barely talked anymore either.
Now that Victoire was deemed old enough, she was allowed to stay at home on her own when their parents were both out, but Bill and Fleur still weren't ready to leave her in charge of her siblings after the debacle two Christmases ago, which meant that Dominique and Louis had been shipped off to spend their days with various Aunts and Uncles whenever both parents had to be out of the house. And whenever the family gathered at the Burrow, Victoire would immediately find Teddy and hang out with him, leaving Dominique to play with the younger cousins.
As much as Dominique understood that Victoire was getting older and needed her own space, Dominique missed how close she and her sister used to be. Before Dominique had started Hogwarts, Victoire used to send her letters about her adventures at Hogwarts. They had communicated more then than they did now, living right next to each other.
Dominique arrived in the library in low spirits, which plummeted even lower when she found herself faced with her cousin Molly, who was studying with some friends. Dominique tried to escape before Molly saw her, but she was unsuccessful.
"Dominique," Molly said by way of greeting. "You're in the library."
"I am," Dominique nodded.
"Were you looking for a book?" Molly wondered.
"Nope," Dominique shook her head.
"Did you come to study?" Molly asked.
Dominique shook her head again. "No, just visiting."
Molly sighed loudly in exasperation. "This is the problem," she cried, talking more to her friends than to her cousin. "People don't respect the sacred space of the library."
"So I'm just going to go," Dominique said uncomfortably, slowly backing out of the room.
With nowhere to go, Dominique started aimlessly wandering around the school. She thought about joining her friends at the Quidditch pitch, but knew that if she caved this time, they would never let her forget it and she would end up being forced to join them more in the future. She supposed she could retrieve her things from the dorm and work on some homework, but she wasn't much in the mood. She thought about visiting the Great Hall for a snack, but she wasn't hungry and didn't feel like eating alone anyway.
Eventually, Dominique found herself wandering around the greenhouses aimlessly looking at the plants that the various years were going to be studying.
"Dominique!" Professor Longbottom said in surprise when he found her. "What are you doing in here?"
Dominique shrugged. "I was bored and the door was open," she said.
"It's Saturday," her Professor said. "Shouldn't you be with your friends?"
"They're watching the Quidditch tryouts," Dominique shrugged.
"I guess you don't care much for Quidditch?" Professor Longbottom asked.
Dominique shook her head sadly.
"Well there's nothing wrong with that," the Herbology Professor said, picking up on Dominique's melancholy.
"But now I have nothing to do," Dominique lamented. "They're all off having fun and I'm wandering the greenhouses."
"Well you know, it's healthy to sometimes do things different from your friends," Professor Longbottom said. "You just need to find something that interests you that you could do when they want to watch Quidditch."
"Like what?" Dominique asked.
"I understand you're quite good at Charms," Professor Longbottom said. "Have you considered joining the Charms club?"
"That's like extra school," Dominique made a face. "I don't want to do extra school."
"Okay, that's good," Professor Longbottom said optimistically. "Now we know what kinds of things to avoid. What else do you like to do?"
Dominique shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "I play gobstones with Miles sometimes."
"What about joining the gobstones club?" Professor Longbottom suggested.
"Isn't that for losers?" Dominique asked.
"I was in the gobstones club," her Professor said.
Dominique bit her lip uncomfortably, unsure how to tell Professor Longbottom that this meant he was probably a loser when he was at school.
"Why don't you check it out at least?" Professor Longbottom suggested. "I happen to know they're meeting after dinner tonight."
"I'll think about it," Dominique decided, making her way to the door. "I should probably get back to the common room anyway; the tryouts will be over soon."
"Well I hope to see you there later," Professor Longbottom smiled.
"Oh, you're still in the gobstones club?" Dominique asked in surprise.
"I'm the faculty advisor," her Professor clarified.
"Right," Dominique nodded, backing out of the room.
As she walked back to the common room, she thought about what Professor Longbottom had said. He was right about one thing – she needed something to do that interested her for when her friends wanted to do Quidditch stuff. She couldn't just spend her time waiting around for them to get back day in and day out. And she certainly didn't want to end up back in the greenhouses with Professor Longbottom again.
When she returned to the common room, her friends had already returned and were sitting in one of the corners of the room where there was a group of armchairs.
"Where've you been?" Brooke asked when Dominique sat down.
"Nowhere special," Dominique shrugged. "Here and there. How were tryouts?"
"Pretty standard," Brooke replied. Most of the team from last year just got picked again. There were only two changes to the roster – a chaser and the keeper. Actually, I think they're both in your sister's year."
"Probably Caitlin and Adrian," Dominique nodded. She'd listened to Victoire complain about Caitlin enough times to know that she was eventually either going to make the team or die trying.
"Yeah, those were their names," Brooke agreed. "Anyway, next year Claudia Cloude will have graduated, so I'm thinking if I train enough this year in my spare time, maybe I can make seeker next year."
"And one of the beaters is in seventh year," Miles added. "So if Tom and I train enough, one of us might be able to make the team next year too."
"That's great," Dominique said, forcing a smile. "So I guess you're all going to be spending a lot of time down at the pitch during free time?"
"Whenever it's available," Brooke nodded. "We've got to get in shape if we're going to try out as third years. Who knows who we could be competing against next year? There were some pretty good players out there today after all."
Dominique thought about Professor Longbottom's suggestion again and realized that he was right. If her friends were going to be training all the time, she was going to be on her own a lot and she would need something to do if she wasn't going to go insane.
"So I was down in the greenhouses earlier," Dominique said tentatively. "And Professor Longbottom was talking about the gobstones club – "
"Oh my gosh, the gobstones club?" Tom cried. "Seriously? That's got to be the lamest club ever. Who would join that?"
"People with no lives obviously," Brooke chimed in. "Losers with no friends of their own."
A lump formed in Dominique's throat and her heart sank. "Oh yeah," she forced herself to laugh. "So lame. Anyway, he tried to convince me to join and I was like, I'd rather run through the castle naked than join such a lame club."
"I can't believe he tried to get you to join," Tom said. "Doesn't he realize that you have a life? You don't need gobstones."
"Yeah," Dominique agreed. "So weird…"
As her friends continued to make fun of gobstones club, Dominique wondered what she was going to do now. Obviously she couldn't join gobstones now. Her friends would think she was so lame. Of course, the fact that she'd even considered it meant that she probably was that lame, but she couldn't let her friends know or they might decide she wasn't cool enough to hang around with anymore. She would just have to figure something else out. Maybe she would just get really good at school and spend all her alone time studying. Her parents would like that.
She looked up and found that Miles wasn't participating in the conversation about the lameness of gobstones club and instead was carefully watching Dominique. She immediately plastered a smile onto her face, but it was too late; he'd seen her expression and he knew.
She was about to make an excuse and run away when Miles silently mouthed the word sorry. Dominique frowned, unsure why he was apologizing, and he inclined his head in Tom and Brooke's direction as they continued to make fun of gobstones and shrugged his shoulders.
Dominique's fake smile softened into a real smile as she understood what he was implying. She shrugged her shoulders back, as if saying what can you do?