This was written for Quidditch League, for my position as Seeker for the Wigtown Wanderers, for the first round of Finals.
Prompts Taken From Gringotts Prompt Bank:
"Why don't you ever let anyone see the good in you?"" / ""When people see good, they expect good. And I don't want to live up to anyones expectations." - Damon & Elena, Vampire Diaries
"You don't need a speech, you need a drinking buddy. Shots?" – Emma, Once Upon A Time
"You know, for a smart boy you sure ask a lot of dumb questions." – Criminal Minds
Lots of love to my team mate, DolbyDigital, for beta reading this for me :)
Word count: 2457
Wedding Rings
"Maman, will you look at the invitation list?" Victoire asked, pouring over what seemed like hundreds of pieces of paper on the kitchen table. Dominique was stood at the kitchen counter fixing her cereal, but it seemed Victoire had been up for hours, if she'd slept at all. As far as Dominique was concerned, wedding planning was not worth all this fuss.
Fleur moved around the table to stand over her first born and let her eyes scan the paper.
"You're inviting the vampire?" Fleur asked, and Dominique froze.
"Yes, maman. He's Dominique's friend, and I'm inviting the rest of his family. I can't not," Victoire reasoned with a frown. Dominique opened her mouth as if to speak, but decided against it.
"They are not his family. Not really. But, I suppose you are right, mon chéri," Fleur sighed, furrowing her brow.
As Fleur moved back around the table and took her seat, Dominique began to quietly seethe. Lorcan had always fought against the stereotypes that made him out to be the bad guy. He'd always tried to stay on the right side of the law and his humanity. When Luna agreed to take him in, treat him like her own son, it had been the best thing that had ever happened to Lorcan in his seventy-eight years. It was the closest thing to family the eternal seventeen year old had ever known. But to Fleur, he was a vampire, and therefore innately untrustworthy. Even Victoire, who was marrying the son of a werewolf, only invited him out of obligation.
It was almost like they wanted him to be the bad guy.
Well, Dominique decided, she'd show them.
.o0o.
"What the hell are you doing?" Lorcan asked, taking in Dominique's mischievous grin. In the five years he'd been her best friend, he'd learned to recognise that look the moment he saw it, and he knew immediately it meant trouble.
"Oh, come on! It's a wedding! We're allowed to have fun!" she protested. Her eyes were searching, as if trying to find where he'd hidden his adventurous streak.
This wedding was, of course, basically fated, but it was also a Weasley wedding, and Weasley weddings never passed without their hiccups. Dominique, in true sisterly fashion, was planning on being one of them.
"What are you planning?" Lorcan asked tentatively.
"Well, what kind of a wedding is it without the rings?" she asked, her grin growing ever-wider beneath her pixie cut hair. "Come on, she made me wear a dress! She deserves to be made a little bit uncomfortable. I'm just returning the favour." Dominique shrugged, an air of nonchalance around her.
"Losing the rings wouldn't be a little bit uncomfortable. It would be sheer terror, Dom!" Lorcan argued, but his voice was weaker than he intended. He knew Dominique too well, and if she had her heart set on something…
All the same, he didn't miss the moment when worry replaced the excitement on her face. Her eyebrows drew together and she bit at her lip. As soon as the fear had arrived, it left, and Dominique was smiling once again.
"It's fine, we're not actually going to lose them. Just… move them," she shrugged, turning away from him a little.
"Why do you need me?" Lorcan asked, as if he was hoping beyond hope that this was a solo venture.
"You know, for a smart boy you sure ask a lot of dumb questions," she replied, shaking her head at him. Lorcan sighed. He knew what that meant. She wanted him because he was a vampire. Whatever she had planned involved his unique set of skills.
His heart sank a little at that thought. He couldn't help but wonder, sometimes, if she actually liked him for him, or if any old vampire would do in his place.
"I need you to help me get the rings from James. He likes you. He trusts you. He's been avoiding me all week anyway, so he basically made me the monster here. But you have your persuasion thingy, and I need it," Dominique replied.
"You know I could use it to stop you on this hare-brained scheme?"
"No, you couldn't. Well, you could, but I'd only go and do something else. To stop me properly, you need to know the reason, don't you? Well, you don't, so it wouldn't work," Dominique replied, and something in her voice changed and set hard like ice. She was right, of course. He could stop this course of action quite easily, but if there was something more, something under her skin – he couldn't take that away without knowing what it was.
"So, this isn't just to mess with your sister?" he asked, frowning in confusion, unsure how much she would let him pry. As close as they were, Dominique didn't trust easily. If she had cards she wanted to keep close to her chest, he had to leave them where they were.
"No," she replied. "Will you help me?"
Lorcan sighed. He didn't like the plan, not one bit of it. He was used to a little bit of mischief; he didn't really enjoy playing by the rules. But Lorcan always made it his mission not to hurt others. This plan was almost certain to hurt Victoire and Teddy, even if only temporarily, and that didn't sit well with Lorcan. But the flash of something in Dominique's eyes spoke of something more, something deeper. He knew better than to ask for an explanation, but he would have to trust her. He would have to trust that this was due.
He also knew how easily she could get carried away with things. If she was left to her own devices, a simple plan to hide the wedding rings would soon be a plan to hijack the groom if her imagination began to run wild, and that final thought tipped the scales.
"Fine. What are you doing with the wedding rings?" he asked, hoping it wasn't something too crazy.
"Don't worry about that. Once I've got them, I'll hide them. But when the moment is right, when everyone is frantic and searching pockets, you need to be the one that pulls out their wand and calmly summons them. Just… trust me, okay. But for now, help me convince James to take his jacket off."
Before Lorcan could begin to question anything she'd just said, she was off, heading out of the quiet room and into the fray of the hired manor house.
"This is crazy," Lorcan muttered under his breath.
"It's me, of course it's crazy." She looked over her shoulder with a grin. He couldn't help but smile a little, even as he shook his head in dismay. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know, I just thought that today, of all days, you might be a little… calmer. I thought we could just have a nice day without anything elaborate."
"Then you don't know me well enough."
"Just answer me this. Why don't you ever let anyone see the good in you?" he asked, curiously.
"What kind of question is that?" she asked in response, immediately defensive.
"Humour me."
Dominique sighed, and paused in the corridor to turn and answer him. "When people see good, they expect good. And I don't want to live up to anyone's expectations."
"I thought you said James has been avoiding you all week? I'd say you're doing a pretty good job of living up to expectations as it is. They're just not set very high anymore."
Dominique said nothing.
.o0o.
In the ballroom, which today was their wedding venue, tensions were high. There wasn't a lot left to do, thanks to magic, but the women were bustling about the last minute tasks, leaving the men stood around the centre of the room feeling like spare parts. Lorcan made his way over to where James was standing, beside his dad and Uncle Ron, while Dominique found her mother.
She stood by, in the shadow of a pillar, watching Lorcan, waiting for her cue. She wasn't sure what he'd said, but before long, the group were heading to the nearest table and taking their jackets off, resting them over the backs of the chairs.
"This table needs moving, it isn't right!" Fleur announced, searching for her wand.
"Maman, magic might knock the place settings! Get the men to do it. They look like they need something to do, anyway," Dominique suggested.
"Harry! Ron!" Fleur shouted, and the men duly responded, leaving their jackets behind. Dominique smiled and went to sit down, watching. This was too easy.
.o0o.
The ceremony was beautiful. Dominique began to feel a little guilty for her misdemeanour, but it was a little late to go back on it now. She was stood at the front with Rose and Molly, the bridesmaids, and was more than grateful for the front row seat, if only she didn't have to stand up through it. The vows had been written by Teddy and Victoire, which gave them a much more personal and romantic touch than just reciting lines. When the time came for the rings, Dominique had to hold back her laughter at the look of shock on James's face. As Victoire and Teddy looked on in confusion, James's words had the whole congregation pull in a gasp.
"They're not in their boxes."
"What do you mean?" Teddy asked, and Dominique wished she was stood next to him so she could see the look that crossed her soon-to-be brother-in-law's face. Lorcan's expression held enough fear for Dominique to assume, though.
The frantic pocket-searching began as a commotion began to ring through the hall. Dominique smiled as she watched Lorcan, who calmly pulled his wand out as directed and muttered, "Accio rings."
The rings flew from a centre-piece on one of the tables, flying out of their hiding place in the large bouquet to rest on Lorcan's hand.
"Thank you, Lorcan," Victoire said as a collective sigh rang through the congregation.
The bride's eyes immediately settled on Dominique with a look of pure venom. She knew her sister too well. "You," she said, and it sounded a lot like a threat. Dominique just quirked an eyebrow, as if claiming innocence.
.o0o.
"Your sister's going to murder you in your sleep, you know?" Lorcan said when he found Dominique again in the marquis. She was, unsurprisingly, stood at the buffet table, filling a plate.
"Yeah, but it was worth it."
"Yeah? I'll make sure to put that on your gravestone then. 'It was worth it' in italics beneath your date of death," he joked.
"Deal," Dominique grinned back. The grin didn't last long. The conversation with her sister had been tough, and her mother was absolutely livid. In their eyes, they hadn't deserved an almost ruined wedding. In Dominique's eyes, they deserved a lot worse.
"Hey," Lorcan cooed, placing an arm around her shoulders as he took in the sadness in her eyes.
"If you're about to give me some speech about morals and bad decisions, save your breath."
Lorcan shook his head. "You don't need a speech. You need a drinking buddy. Shots?" he asked.
Dominique smiled, happily following him to the bar.
They took the barstools in the corner, and wasted no time when the tequila was brought out to them. Dominique remembered to thank her lucky stars that wizards came of age at seventeen before knocking the sour drink back, chasing it with the lemon.
"Are you going to tell me what this was about?" Lorcan asked, knowing she might show her hand now the game was played.
Dominique said nothing for a while. "They almost didn't invite you."
Lorcan gave her a questioning side glance.
"Because you're a vampire. It's like that automatically makes you the bad guy or something. They said some things that probably seemed like nothing to them, but they were ignorant, and spiteful. I wanted to prove them wrong." Dominique wasn't looking at him; she didn't want to see whatever emotions might pass over his face.
"Dom, it's nothing new to me. Prejudice has followed me my whole life. It's nothing I can't handle."
"But you shouldn't have to," she said, turning to look at him, adamant in her beliefs. "I know you, Lor. You shouldn't have to face that. You don't deserve it."
"Are you serious? You did all that because someone took an unintended swipe at me, that I didn't even know about?" Lorcan asked, confused.
Dominique just smiled a little, suddenly feeling vulnerable at admitting it to him.
Lorcan sighed. "Are all plans, machinations and schemes on hold for the rest of the day?"
"I suppose so," she agreed.
"Then you owe me a dance. For going along with your ridiculous plot."
"But… food…" she protested, a childish pout on her face as she looked at the plate she'd carried over from the buffet.
"Will still be there after a dance," he argued, taking her hand and pulling her to her feet.
Lorcan didn't know why he was feeling so good about things. Maybe love just hung around in the air at the wedding. Maybe it was the happiness all around, or maybe it was the way the shell-pink dress brought out the sea-blue of Dominique's eyes. Whatever it was, as he pulled her to the dancefloor, he knew this was the moment to make his move.
It was a slow song, which Lorcan wasn't complaining about. It meant he could hold her hand, snake an arm around her waist and call it friendly. Dominique didn't even complain.
"I don't think I've ever been so feminine. Dancing with a handsome man in a dress and heels," she commented.
"I'm handsome?" Lorcan asked with a grin. Dominique rolled her eyes; she should have known that was the one thing he'd pick up on. "For the record, you look beautiful today. You really do. Although, it is weird seeing you without your usual jeans. But you can put them back on for Wednesday."
"What's Wednesday?" Dominique asked.
"I was thinking it could be our first date," he told her, smiling a little but biting his lip in nervousness.
"What?" Dominique looked shocked for a moment, but Lorcan didn't say anything as he waited for her brain to catch up with itself. She smiled a little. "Do I not get a choice?"
"Of course you do. I just think I know what that choice will be," he replied.
She said nothing. She didn't like proving people right when she could instead play devil's advocate, but they both knew somewhere that he was right. Instead of saying anything, she took a step forward, and rested her head against his shoulder for the rest of the dance.
A/N: Let me know what you thought!