AN: Chapter 2 folks! Thanks for your reviews and alerts! They mean so much to me. I really hope you like this chapter. I'll probably be posting the next chapter tomorrow or on Sunday. Anyway, enjoy!
Chapter 2
While Dominique entered a peaceful a sleep, a shadowy figure wrapped her in a blanket of comfort. It caressed her pale skin gently, delighting in the texture. The shadowed figure smiled mischievously as it entered her mind and saw her deepest fears. Chuckling softly, it realized it had found its latest prey. Placing a kiss on her forehead, the figure was swallowed into the darkness.
Dominique arose the next morning with a strange feeling in the bottom of her stomach. Her heart beat in an irregular pattern as she mad her way to the laboratory. Looking in front of the mirror, he heart stopped all together as she noticed a small patch of particularly white skin on her forehead. As her fingertips grazed the area, her body internally shuddered and she suddenly felt sick. Immediatley drawing her hand away, the lurching feeling in her stomach was gone. Brushing off the strange event, she prepared for her first day of classes, applying make up to the pale skin.
As she entered the Great Hall, she saw that nearly everyone was already eating and having their own private conversations. Suddenly feeling out of place, she quickly grabbed an apple and fled the crowded room.
Heading towards the courtyard, she wondered what made her acting like this. Not once in all her seventeen years did she recoil at the sight of people. In fact, she embraced people and the social aspect of life. In the Great Hall though, she felt…claustrophobic. She felt trapped in her own skin and was too afraid to go up and approach someone. Something inside of her was fighting the urge to go talk to her friends. For the first time ever, she felt isolated from the world.
"Hey!" Dominique immediatley recognized the sweet yet fiery voice of Irina.
"Hey," Dominique replied half-heartedly. An instinct to flee kicked in but Dominique stayed her ground.
"What happened back their? I was waving at you to come but you stared at the room like a deer in headlights," Irina said.
"I just, um, became overwhelmed by the fact that this was my last second day at Hogwarts," Dominique lied shakily.
"Oh, okay," Irina said relieved, missing Dominique's lie. "I was spending the entire night reminiscing about the past. I don't think I ever got any sleep."
"It's so strange. Hogwarts has been my home away from home for such a long time. I remember thinking when I was a first year that this year would never come. Now that it has, I still don't believe it, " Dominique admitted shakily.
"Neither do I. But let's go make the best of it. Come one, we have to go inside to get our time tables." Irina held her hand out, intending for Dominique to clasp on.
"Alrighty," Dominique replied while taking her hand. In the middle of their slightly depressing conversation, she had managed to regain her momentum. Together, they practically skipped their way back inside the castle.
"Is it supposed to be this color?" Onya Yaskcivya, a Hufflepuff, asked.
"NO, it's supposed to be a pea green, not a teal," Ben answered her question.
Dominique continued to work on their NEWT level potion that was supposed to be able to make the drinker see his dreams right in front of him. Though she wondered where this potion would ever be useful, she carried on with Ben and hers potion.
"Hey Blue? Can you hand me the clear vial please. I think we are ready to turn in our potion," Ben asked Dominique, using the special nickname he concocted just for her.
"Here you go," Dominique said while placing the vial in his hand. He carefully ladled some of the pea green potion in. Right before he was about to screw on the top, Professor Engywook stopped him abruptly.
"Ah, finally a pair that has been able to perfectly brew together the potion! Would we like a demonstration?" He asked the class and everyone nodded their head in response. "That's what I though. How about…Dominique! You should be able to enjoy the pleasures of your work."
Dominique gave him a half smile before receiving the vial.
"Now, I want you to drink the potion in one giant gulp," Professor Engywook said somewhat didactically. "Everyone stand back a little bit for her dreams are about to burst from the depths of her mind!"
Even though being startled and scared by his word choice, Dominique nevertheless gulped down the potion in one swift notion. The potion was quite bitter and had a nasty aftertaste. She cringed her face in disgust before widening her eyes uncontrollably. She felt like a dementor was sucking her dreams from the previous night right out of her. Right after she came back to reality, her dream was in full action and displayed in front of the entire NEWT level Potions class.
At first, Dominique saw herself wandering around a deserted alleyway without any sense of where to go next. Dominique stared at her dream confusedly; she did not remember this happening in her dreams last night. Her dream self was now eyeing a pair of people walking with fright in her eyes. To her dream self's great distress, the couple walked right through her without noticing a thing. This happened several more times before she ran away with tears in her eyes.
The dream next showed Dominique inside her dormitory dancing around at 2 o'clock in the morning. A hazy shadowed figure surrounded her, watching her every move intently. The dream Dominique however remained oblivious to the fact that she was being watched and continued to sway and twirl softly across the room. After a while, she went inside her bed and slept while the figure continued to watch her. The shadowed figure then bent over, placed a soft kiss on her hand, and then faded into the blackness. The figures then blurred together before they vanished into the air.
Every in Dominique's class slowly turned towards her and cocked an inquiring eye. Getting the same feeling as she did earlier in the morning, she grabbed her stuff and then bolted out the door just as the bell rang.
For the rest of the day, Dominique avoided communicating with any person at all. She went to class to class with people staring at her. Of course they had heard about her episode today, gossip spreads around like wildfire at Hogwarts. Dominique's usual self would have relished in the attention even though it wasn't the kind of attention most people look for. The usual Dominique would have played it coy and brushed the whole thing off. But this was the unusual Dominique where everything about her was the exact opposite of her usual self.
The next time a peep came out of her mouth was when dinner came. Against her own personal desires, Dominique decided to the Great Hall. Much to her relief, the room did not become quiet just because she arrived. She navigated her way to the spot Irina saved for her and sat down. Irina looked at her best friend thrilled and completely ignored the looks the other girls were giving to her as they had deemed Dominique a "freak". Irina and Dominique chatted amiably about their classes and whose death was predicted in Divination until the strong voice of Professor McGonagall was heard.
"Attention students, I would like to make an announcement," she said but some Slytherin boys made the foolish mistake to continue to talk. "ATTENTION!" Professor McGonagall bellowed and the boys quickly gave her their full, undivided attention.
"As I was trying to say," she said while eyeing the boys, "I was trying to make an announcement. After months of pleading by some students, Hogwarts will be having its first ever Homecoming Dance. Apparently, in the muggle world schools have dances to welcome their students back to another year of learning. The dance will be held on October 1st and only students that are in their fourth year or older may attend. That is all."
The room was quickly filled with squeals of joy from the girls and groans from the boys. Almost immediatley, the dynamic of every conversation changed to dresses and dates.
"I'm thinking about a pale blue dress for myself. What about you Domi? Domi? Dominique!" Irina shouted angrily while snapping her fingers in front of Dominique's eyes.
"Um yeah that would look great on you. I don't know, I'll find something at Hogsmeade I guess…" Dominique's voice trailed off into a whisper.
"You really are acting strange these days," Irina said before turning to the other Gryffindor ladies to discuss the importance of shoes. Dominique internally sighed and swirled her food around on her plate. After what seemed like an endless dinner, she headed to her dorm silently.
Enclosing herself in the scarlet and gold comforters, she briefly wondered if she would have any dreams like the one she apparently had the night before her. Sleep overcame her before she had time to really think about the subject. Unlike the night before, the bed didn't provide some strange warmth and comfort. The only occupant of her room that night was herself. But the figure will come back eventually. The Lonely always comes back.
AN: Did ya' likey? A review would be absolutely lovely . Virtual cookies for anyone who does! They might make me update even faster, who knows?