"I can't believe you're going out with Lorcan!" Lily exclaims once again. Dominique grins at her, a little bashfully. "And," Lily continues, "that you didn't tell me!"

Dominique's expression turns sheepish. "I really am sorry about that," she repeats. "I could have sworn I mentioned it to you. And anyway, you figured it out, so it doesn't really matter."

"That's not the point! It was insulting." But there is a smile on her face as she says it. "I'm supposed to be your best friend."

Dominique doesn't reply "But you are" to that; she doesn't need to. They both know there is no one else who can stand between them, and even though Lily can't help but feel a small stab of jealousy at the fact that Dominique has a boyfriend, she knows that what Dominique and Lorcan has is a very different – and less permanent – relationship when compared to what the two cousins' share. Being of the same age, she and Dominique had spent their childhood together, and not even the fact that she'd been placed in Slytherin when they came to Hogwarts could dampen their friendship.

Lily is, and always had been, determined that nothing will ever come between them. Not their houses; not Dominique's boyfriend; not even her immense, long-term crush on the very girl she was talking to. Nothing.

A quiet falls over them. Not a silence, because in the trees surrounding them birds are calling to each other, and the delicate waves of the lake lap at the shore within hearing distance from where they sit. No, it is a comfortable lack of conversation that the pair could have kept up for hours.

But Lily is bursting to know the details of Dominique's new relationship, and she is still sketchy on the details. "Have you slept with him?" she asks suddenly and blushes, surprised at her own forthrightness.

"Lily!" Dominique exclaims, sounding half-shocked and half-delighted by her friend's question. "No! Of course not!"

"Really?" Lily asks slyly. "Have you done anything at all like that with him?" Her boldness is a little diminished now; while she is close enough to Dominique to ask her these questions, she can't quite bring herself to say words like "blowjob" or "handjob" now that the spontaneity of the moment has evaporated. She knows she'll be turning red even as she politely sidesteps the more vulgar words.

Dominique blushes as well and looks down at the patch of grass she is slowly destroying by picking the blades and attempting to plait them. Lily leaps upon her lack of answer and takes it as evidence.

"You have!" she exclaims. "How far have you gone?"

Dominique turns even redder. She giggles nervously, and Lily can't help but join in. It's that sort of conversation. Up until now, she's never thought that she might have a sadistic streak, but she can't deny that she's enjoying watching Dominique squirm at the interrogation. She's adorable when she goes all shy.

No, she thinks to herself, pushing that notion out of her head. She can't think like that. She can't afford to. Her expression turns more serious as Dominique begins to answer.

"Well, it's mostly been just kissing and stuff," she says vaguely. "And a few weeks ago he started… you know, touching me… above the waist and stuff…." She gestures vaguely to her chest, blushing crimson. Fleetingly, she looks Lily in the eye before turning away.

"Did you like it?" the other girl bursts out.

Dominique giggles nervously. "Yeah, it felt… nice, I suppose."

Lily wants to say, "I suppose?" very sternly, like she isn't going to accept that as an answer, but Dominique continues to talk, and Lily's eagerness for information overcomes her impulse. She can always find out later, anyhow. "I think he sort of wants to go further, but I'm not so sure whether I should or not."

"He's not pressuring you, is he?" Lily asks severely. "Because I can beat him up for you, if you like. Even better, I can get James to do teach me that spell where he can't say anything but swear words for days!"

"No, no!" Dominique laughs. "He's my boyfriend, Lily. I don't want you to hurt him – or humiliate him. And he's not pressuring me. We've barely even talked about it, to be honest. It's just that… well, whenever we have discussed going further… I get the feeling he's ready now, and he's just waiting for me to be okay with it. I don't want him to get bored while I'm still trying to decide what to do."

"Dom," Lily says seriously, sitting up. When issuing advice, it's necessary to sit up. It makes you look wiser than you you do when you're lying down. "If he's a decent guy, he'll wait. And if he doesn't, then it doesn't matter, because if he won't even let you take some time to make your mind up, then he's not someone you want to be having sex with anyway."

"Do you really think he'll wait?" Dominique asks, biting her lip.

"Of course he will," Lily says, lying back down. "If he doesn't, then he's a complete idiot. You're worth waiting for, Dominique Weasley."

"Thanks, Lil," Dom replies, and Lily has to turn her head to the side so she's facing away from Dominique, otherwise her cousin might read the sadness in the Slytherin girl's eyes.

'I'd wait for you,' she thinks sadly.


"Lily," Dom hisses to her friend in History of Magic. "Oi, Lily, wake up!"

"What? What?" Lily says blearily, lifting her head. "Was I snoring again?"

Dominique giggles. "No," she whispers, "but class is almost over. We've got a free period next, and I want to have a word with you. Can we talk afterwards?"

"Sure," Lily says, stifling a yawn. She'd meant to go to bed early the night before, but the book had been so interesting that time had flown past her, and the next time she checked her watch, three hours had gone by and it was one in the morning. Still, it wasn't like sleeping in History of Magic did any harm; everyone did it at one point or another, whether they'd intended to or not.

A week had passed since their conversation by the lake, and Lily has almost completely forgotten about it. She remembers sometimes when she wonders if her best friend is still a virgin, and whether Dominique will even tell her when she isn't any longer. She likes to think that her cousin will talk to her about it, but she's not so sure.

The last five minutes of class drags, and not only because she's curious as to what Dominique wants to discuss with her. Binns is the most boring teacher that has ever set foot in Hogwarts, and his classes are made all the worse by the fact that he will never leave. If they haven't fired him in the last fifty years, the chances are that it's not going to happen in the future. Even death hadn't spared his students from his droning voice.

Finally, the bell rings and the students all get to escape Binns' and his monotonous lesson. "Thank god," Lily breathes as they squeeze through the masses of people in the corridors. "That voice is enough to drive you insane." Dominique giggles, and Lily continues to joke. "I bet his students from when he was alive threw a party when they heard he was dead. In fact, I bet one of them offed him, just because he was such a terrible teacher."

"Lily!" Dominique exclaims, still laughing. "I don't think anyone would kill their teacher just because they were boring."

"I dunno," Lily says, grinning. "I might've done it if he was still alive." This makes Dominique laugh even more, and Lily feels a pleased flush rise to her cheeks.

"Where are we going?" she asks curiously as Dominique purposefully leads them down a corridor.

"Room of Requirement," Dominique says, blushing. This makes Lily curious; why would the Room of Requirement make Dominique blush?

They reach the corridor where the room was concealed, and Lily waits patiently as Dominique walks back and forth three times. The door appears in the wall, and Dominique pulls it open slowly. When Lily sees what room it is, she grins. "The Room Where Everything is Hidden?" she smirks at her cousin. "I expected better of you, Dominique. What could a goody-two-shoes like you possibly be hiding in here?"

Dominique looks surprised. "You know this room? What have you hidden?"

"Nothing much," says Lily in an offhand voice. She picks up a skull and curiously examines the bottom of it. "I just like to see what other people have deemed worthy of keeping secret." Her eyes pause on what must have once been a cauldron, but is now far more melted than cauldron. "Some of it's quite interesting, don't you think? And I've always wanted to know what caused those piles of ash, but I've never worked it out."

"Maybe someone tried to burn what they'd hidden?" Dominique suggests. Then she pauses. "Wait, people look through the stuff here?" She sounds worried.

"No, I think it's just me," Lily says. "I like this room."

Dominique looks torn between concern that her secrets might not be as safe as she thought they were, and amusement that her cousin is so unusual. "Of course you do," she says dryly.

"So why did you bring me here?" Lily asks, prodding a comfortable-looking chair suspiciously. When nothing leaps out of it, she throws herself into it and sighs, fighting the urge to just… fall asleep from utter relaxation. She's very tired, and this chair is even more comfortable than it looks.

"Well, um…." Dominique shifts nervously. "I got this book out of the library, okay?"

"I'm sorry, I wasn't aware I was having a conversation with Rose," Lily yawns. "I thought this secret rendezvous was going to be interesting."

"Shush and let me finish," Dominique scolds. "I got this book out from the library – from the restricted section, and…."

She trails off again, but her last words make Lily perk up with interest. "Restricted section, huh?" she asks. "Is that why you borrowed the cloak from Albus the other day?"

"Yeah," Dominique says. "I got this book out." She walks over to a small, round table. It's wooden, and Lily can see that its varnish is beginning to fade. Upon it is piled a large assortment of objects that includes, but is not limited to, a skull, an ancient-looking candle, and what appears to the teeth of a small animal. But that's not what Dominique reaches for – she ignores the creepy objects and begins to shuffle through a stack of books.

"This one," she says, pulling an embossed red book from the middle of the pile. She hands it to Lily, who reads the title and smirks.

"Sex 101: Tips for a Witch's First Time?" she reads aloud. "You dog, Dom. You're actually going to have sex with Lorcan?" She tries to bury the small ache in her chest under the excitement of the situation.

Lily wouldn't have thought that Dominique could blush any more than she already was, but she is quickly proved wrong. "I- I was going to," Dominique says shyly. "But I wasn't sure how to do it, or what to do about or… anything, really." Lily grins; her cousin is so innocent. She didn't even have a boyfriend and she could answer some of those questions for her. "But I was reading through it, and I got to chapter two…."

Dominique trails off again, seemingly unable to finish, so Lily opens the book and flicks to contents page. "Learning to pleasure yourself?" she reads out.

Dominique nods. "It said it was a good idea to… you know, know how to do… that," she said. "To yourself. Before you have sex."

"You mean masturbating?" Lily asks. " Wait, you've never masturbated before?" Dominique shakes her head shyly. "Huh," she says. She glances down at the book once more. "It makes sense, I suppose," she muses. "To know how to do it to yourself, I mean." She leans back once more into the comfort of the chair. "At least that way you'd sort of have some idea of what to do."

"Yeah," Dominique says blushing. "And if gives you tips and stuff for doing it and I tried, I did, but I couldn't..."

"You couldn't?" Lily asks.

Dominique shakes her head. "It felt weird," she said. "Have you ever…?"

It was funny how Dominique didn't even seem to need to finish her sentences for Lily to know what she was asking. "Yeah," she says, and she knows that now she'll be blushing. "I thought everyone did."

"I thought that only boys could do it," Dominique blushed.

"No, girls can do it too," Lily says absently. A thought strikes her. "You don't think it's weird that I masturbate, do you?" she asks worriedly.

"No, no," Dominique rushes to reassure her. "I'm sure lots of people do it. And I thought you might, which was why I wanted to talk to you." She bites her lip nervously.

"I wanted to ask if you could sort of… teach me how to do it?"