A/N: There are OCs, femmeslash, and femmeslash with OCs. If any of those ideas don't appeal to you, please back away now. School is coming up for me so I can't promise stable updates but please don't let that idea discourage you from reading this fanfic. Thanks to xoxcrescentmoonxox for her amazing betaing skills!

Hogwarts started for fifth year Dominique Weasley swiftly and quietly. It would have taken her by complete and utter surprise if it wasn't ingrained in her mind that school started promptly on first day of September. She, with luggage, older sister Victoire (17-almost-18) and younger brother Louis (just a few months shy of 14) in tow, walked toward the crimson Hogwarts express.

When doors of the train closed, each Weasley child went their separate ways. Victoire carefully glided to her Ravenclaw friends, as if she had all the time in the world, her perfectly groomed strawberry-blonde hair trailing behind her. Louis fervently skittered towards his fourth year friends with the hugest, stupidest smile plastered on his face, eagerness exploding out of his very being. Dominique, unlike her siblings who flocked to their bubble of friends, decided on sitting alone in a compartment.

Dominique began to search for a compartment. Not many people understood her when she said she liked being alone, since she was able to clear her mind easier. When she got nervous, without fail, her mind raced and she found it embarrassing to have to calm her anxious mind in front of her friends. She tied her thick auburn hair

What broke Dominique of her frenzied mind was a dull thump just outside of the compartment she had just settled in. She poked her head out cautiously in case someone fell because of a fistfight someone started. After all, she didn't want to be accidentally pulled into something like that, it would absolutely suck if she had to start school with something as terrible as a black eye. Instead of the violent fistfight she imagined, it was a visibly shaken looking girl who was on the floor trying to find something she had dropped. Without a thought, Dominique fell to the floor to help pick up fallen objects (school textbooks, mostly).

"You didn't need to help me, you know," the girl said once she gathered her books together.

"But I wanted to," Dominique said simply, a small grin spreading across her face. The girl's deep blue eyes wavered when Dominique looked her in the eyes. "I am very grateful for that," the girl answered, avoiding eye contact as politely as she could manage.

"Your welcome. And if you want, you can stay in my compartment," Dominique said with a gesture towards the compartment she sat in.

"Are you sure you don't mind? I don't want to bother you….""If I minded, I wouldn't have offered." Dominique guided the other girl into the compartment while saying, " Seriously, I don't bite. Stop looking like you're going to die if you sat in a compartment with me."

With that remark, the girl giggled a little. She took a seat with a flourish.

"You don't look too familiar. Are you a first year?"

"Noelle Davies, fifth year Ravenclaw," she explained icily. Her face softened when she said, a tiny grin trying to form on her face: "I hope I'm not that young looking!" In fact, Noelle was very mature looking solely because she carried herself with the poise of royalty. Her heart shaped face, big blue doe eyes and delicately splattered freckles gave off the impression that she was much younger than she was, and most people who learned of her true age were varying degrees of shocked.

"Dominique Weasley, fifth year Slytherin. Pleasure to meet you, Noelle." Dominique felt relieved to get introductions out of the way although she wished desperately Noelle wasn't so quiet. All Noelle did was keep her nose in a book, only looking up occasionally to ask the time. Dominique was surprised how careful Noelle was to read a page, as it seemed Noelle took her precious time to scan each page. Dominique was not much of an intellectual and didn't have the patience to read thick books for pleasure. She would much rather be outside, enjoying nature and the world around her.

Noelle turned into an intimidating figure when she was reading intently, causing a silence that Dominique could only interpret as completely and utterly awkward. Dominique seemed surprised at herself because she couldn't find the words to break the silence that Noelle seemed to impose. On any other occasion with any other person, Dominique could articulate an obscure thought and spin that obscure thought to make sense and eventually tell a great story to interest anyone who wanted to listen.

The train couldn't arrive at Hogwarts fast enough.

Upon exiting the train, Noelle and Dominique traded quick goodbyes.

"Write me a letter from the Ravenclaw dorm to tell me how you're doing, okay?" Dominique joked. There was a part of her that was serious, that genuinely wanted to keep in touch with the Ravenclaw even after their only successful chat. Dominique wasn't sure how much they would talk during the year and frankly, that idea scared her more than she could articulate.

Dominique was a people's person, yes, but once she lost contact with someone, it was almost impossible for her to regain that connection she lost with a friend. Dominique spent hours thinking about her unusual, if not extremely amusing, quirks and how her deeply fatal flaws seemed to contradict each other. She tried not to think too deeply about herself after nine-thirty at night because if she got philosophical that late at night about anything, it would make her depressed and weepy. She hated herself when she got depressed and weepy.

"If you promise to write me something from the Slytherin dorm," Noelle retorted, breaking Dominique out of her thoughts and surprising the redhead slightly. She wasn't sure if Noelle actually meant what she said, since Noelle's humor was very hard to distinguish from a serious tone of voice. Dominique feigned solemn thought about the maybe-serious-maybe-joking trade the they made.

"Deal!" They shook hands to make things more official, laughing as they did so.