Chapter 7: March 2016
"I hate Summer Snow!" Brooke exclaimed one evening. She'd just returned from Quidditch practice and was raging mad.
"What did she do this time?" Dominique asked with a sigh.
"She stole my practice snitch!" Brooke cried in outrage.
Dominique frowned. "Aren't there tons of practice snitches down there that you can use?"
"Well sure," Brooke nodded. "But there's this one that I prefer. It's more spontaneous and unpredictable than the others, so it's better for practice."
"Okay…" Dominique allowed, deciding that now wasn't the time to argue about the merits of certain snitches. "Well how do you know Summer stole it?"
"She knows it's my favorite snitch and now it's missing!" Brooke cried.
"Well that could be for any number of reasons," Dominique pointed out. "Someone could have borrowed it and not returned it. Madam Volant could be getting it… I don't know, cleaned or something – "
"They don't clean snitches," Brooke corrected.
"Whatever," Dominique shook her head. "Maybe it's having it's wings repaired."
"Snitches don't – "
"My point is there are tons of reasons it could be missing that have nothing to do with Summer Snow," Dominique insisted.
Brooke shook her head. "No, I'm sure about this. I saw her lurking around the pitch today during practice. When she saw me she smiled in this way that I just knew she'd taken it."
"Well did you ask her about it?" Dominique wondered. "Because conflict resolution works best when there's actual communication involved."
"Seriously?" Brooke demanded. "You're going to talk to me about conflict resolution?"
"What?" Dominique asked defensively. "I'm just saying – "
"Yeah, I heard you," Brooke muttered. "But I have a better idea."
"Hmm?" Dominique wondered. "What's that?"
"I'm going to steal her favorite practice snitch," Brooke declared.
Dominique shook her head. This wasn't the answer. "No Brooke, don't – "
But then Brooke had reached her hand into her pocket and had pulled out a small golden ball and was showing it to Dominique.
"Please tell me that's not Summer's favorite practice snitch," Dominique pleaded.
"I can't do that," Brooke shrugged, pretending to be apologetic when Dominique knew she wasn't.
Dominique sighed. "And what are you hoping this will accomplish, exactly?"
"Well now I have leverage," Brooke explained. "I give her back her snitch, she gives me back mine."
"So you're blackmailing her," Dominique surmised.
Brooke made a face. "I don't think that's exactly the definition of blackmail," she said.
Dominique rolled her eyes. "Whatever then. You're holding her snitch hostage. You're threatening her. It's all bad stuff."
"You're one to talk!" Brooke cried.
"Am I?" Dominique returned. "When have I ever done anything like this?"
"That's not the point," Brooke countered. "The point is maybe if you had, you could resolve your conflicts quicker."
"What conflicts?" Dominique demanded. "Who do I have conflicts with?"
"Quinn Adams comes to mind," Brooke said.
Dominique sighed. "Quinn and I aren't having any more conflicts," she explained. "We're good now. I don't bother her, she doesn't bother me. If I'd tried something like you're trying with Summer, she'd still be messing with me."
"Why are you so sure she'd done with you?" Brooke wondered. "Don't you think it's more likely she's just waiting for you to let your guard down?"
"Well my guard's down," Dominique said. "And nothing's happened."
"Exactly," Brooke nodded. "You're sitting in the palm of her hand."
Dominique rolled her eyes. "I think we're getting a little off topic here. This snitch of Summer's that you've stolen – "
"Right," Brooke nodded. "Tomorrow I'm going to tell her to either make the trade, or I owl her favorite snitch to some stranger in South Africa, or Argentina, or somewhere really far away."
Dominique blew out a breath. "Fine," she allowed. "Do what you want. But if it turns out poorly, remember that I was never on board with this plan."
"Fine," Brooke shrugged. "I don't need you on board. I know what I'm doing."
"Go take a shower," Dominique demanded. "You stink."
"Whatever," Brooke rolled her eyes, even as she headed towards the stairs that led to the dorms and the bathrooms.
DdDdDdDdDdD
The next day, Brooke had a Quidditch practice immediately after class. She had carried the snitch around in her bag all day and was eager to find Summer before heading down to the pitch to make the trade.
"Well good luck with that," Dominique muttered as class let out. "I hope it works out for you."
"Thanks," Brooke smiled. "Anyone want to come with me?"
"I'll come," Tom volunteered. "And I think I'll come watch your Quidditch practice as well. I haven't been in a while and should really see how those beaters are doing."
"Super!" Brooke said. "Miles, what about you?"
"Not today," Miles shook his head. "I've got to go to the owlery. I have to send a letter to my parents."
"Aww," Tom said mockingly. "Is mommy's little boy homesick?"
"Shut up," Miles said, punching Tom lightly in the shoulder. "You write letters home too."
"I'll come with you Miles," Dominique volunteered. "I wanted to write a letter home as well."
"Great!" Miles exclaimed.
So the four of them split up, Miles and Dominique heading to the first floor and the Entrance Hall so that they could make their way to the owlery, and Brooke and Tom heading to the library in the hopes of catching up with Summer Snow.
"So Brooke and Summer really don't get along," Miles observed as he and Dominique crossed the grounds.
"That's for sure," Dominique nodded. "One week it's hiding Brooke's clothes during a practice, the next it's enchanting the practice snitch to seek Brooke out instead of flying away from her, and now it's stealing her favorite practice snitch. When will it end?"
"Never," Miles said simply. When Dominique gave him a look, he elaborated. "This is Quidditch. It's team vs. team rivalry. That only ends when one of the players is off the team, and from the looks of it, both of them will be on their respective teams for many years to come."
"This is so pointless," Dominique sighed. "Why bother with any of this stuff at all? It's so… juvenile."
"Juvenile?" Miles laughed. "Did you really just say that?"
"What's so funny?" Dominique demanded. "It's a word."
Miles shook his head. "Never mind," he muttered.
Dominique crossed her arms. Now she was irritated with both Brooke and Miles. At least Tom hadn't annoyed her recently.
"Oh come on," Miles said, sensing Dominique's mood. "Don't be like that."
"Like what?" Dominique demanded.
"All weird and moody," Miles said, calling her out on it.
Dominique sighed. "You're right," she realized. "I am being moody. Merlin, I don't know what it is, I just – "
"Don't worry about it," Miles assured her. "It's fine."
They arrived at the owlery and climbed up the stairs to the main entrance. Miles had his letter all prepared and sought out one of the school owls to send it with.
"Hey, do you have a quill?" Dominique wondered, searching through her bag. She had ink and parchment, but her last quill seemed to have snapped in half since her last class. She would have to find a better was of transporting those, because it kept happening.
"Here," Miles muttered, fishing a quill out of his bag and handing it over.
Dominique spread her parchment out against the stone wall of the owlery and began writing.
Dear maman and papa,
I got your last letter and was sorry to hear that Aunt Gabrielle and Michel had broken up. However, I was glad to hear that Grandmaman was doing better – it was worrisome when she came down with that cold.
Things at Hogwarts are good. My classes are all going rather well. My best subject remains charms, though I'm also quite good at transfiguration. I have decided that I absolutely detest history. I know I promised to give it another chance and not to judge it based on my teacher, but I really think I just don't like the subject at all. Of course, Professor Binns doesn't make it any more interesting.
"Are you almost done?" Miles wondered, having sent his letter along. He was hovering over Dominique's shoulder trying not to read her letter, which Dominique appreciated, though she could do without the hovering.
"Just about," Dominique promised.
I'll write more next time. My friend Miles is with me and apparently is in a rush to go, though I can't imagine why that would be. You remember Miles right? You met him that time we had ice cream. Anyway, I love you both.
Dominique
"Alright, I'm finished," Dominique declared, handing Miles back his quill and rolling up the scroll of parchment to make it easier to tie to an owl's leg.
"Great," Miles said eagerly. "Let's send it off and get back to the castle."
"What's the rush?" Dominique wondered, sensing Miles' antsy-ness. "Are you late for something I don't know about?"
"No," Miles shook his head. "I'm just… hungry."
"Well dinner's not for some time," Dominique pointed out.
"I know," Miles said. "I just figured I could grab a snack on our way back in. There's usually food in the Great Hall at this hour."
"Alright," Dominique allowed. "Just give me a minute."
She chose an owl and whistled for it to come down. Gracefully, it swooped down from it's perch and down to where Dominique and Miles stood, landing on the large rock in the middle of the room where Dominique could tie the letter to it's leg with ease.
"Do you have to tie the world's longest knot?" Miles frowned when Dominique took her time with the string.
"Sorry if I don't want it to fall off mid-flight," Dominique said, making a face. "Can you please explain to me why you can't wait two minutes for me to finish before we go back to the castle?"
Before Miles could answer, three figures entered the owlery and Miles shifted so that he was standing in front of Dominique.
Frowning at Miles' action, Dominique peeked around him to see who it was and found that it was Quinn, Catherine Flint, and Marsha Bowman.
Realization flooded through Dominique when she saw who it was, but also irritation at Miles. Hadn't she explained hundreds of times that Quinn wasn't waiting to attack her again? She and Quinn were good. They were even. There was no reason for Miles to be getting so worked up.
"Miles, don't be an idiot," Dominique muttered. She and Quinn might be even, but if Quinn felt like Miles was a threat, who knew what she might do to him?
"I know what I'm doing," Miles muttered back.
Now with a reason to hurry, Dominique finished tying the knot and sent the bird off to deliver her letter.
"Come on, let's go," Dominique muttered to Miles.
Quinn and her friends weren't even paying attention to them as they passed them. From the looks of things, they were each focused on choosing owls to deliver their own letters.
Once they were outside and the door behind them was closed, Miles let out a sigh of relief. "Well that could have ended badly."
"What are you talking about?" Dominique demanded. "Were you not in the same room that I was? Didn't you see how uninterested in me Quinn was?"
Miles thought about it. "Well she did seem pretty uninterested…" he muttered.
"Exactly," Dominique agreed. "She's done with me. I'm of no consequence to her. In her world, I don't even exist anymore."
Miles shrugged. "Well it's better to be safe than sorry," he said.
"It's also better to be invisible," Dominique pointed out. "So next time maybe don't flare at her so hard. It's a good thing she was looking at the birds or she might've taken offence."
"I'll keep that in mind," Miles nodded. "Now come on, I'm starving."
DdDdDdDdDdD
At dinner later, Dominique and Miles met up with Brooke and Tom, fresh from Quidditch practice.
"How did it go?" Miles wondered. "Did you get your snitch back?"
"I did," Brooke nodded proudly. "Good as new."
"I'm glad it worked out," Dominique said, the words sounding forced.
"Thanks," Brooke returned.
Brooke, Tom, and Miles then launched into a conversation where Brooke and Tom told Miles about the practice they'd just been at, and Tom filled Miles in on the new developments he'd noticed in the beater's training. Miles and Tom started making plans for their own practicing, which they were still doing in the hopes of making the team the next year.
In the midst of all the Quidditch talk and practice planning, none of them noticed when Dominique slipped away from dinner, suddenly no longer hungry.
Out in the Entrance Hall, Dominique was at a loss as to where to go. She ended up wandering up to the second floor, where she headed to the library. Madam Maxwell was there and Dominique, not feeling inspired to read a romance at the moment, walked up to the front desk to ask for a recommendation.
"What sort of thing are you in the mood for dear?" Madam Maxwell wondered.
Dominique shrugged, unsure. "I don't know," she muttered. "Maybe something where the main character's friends are always leaving her out of stuff and she ends up alone in the library? Got anything like that?"
"As a matter of fact, I do," Madam Maxwell said excitedly, leading Dominique back to the fiction section.
Dominique had said it less because that's actually what she wanted to read and more because she'd wanted someone to sympathize with, even if it was only Madam Maxwell. But she figured that if there was a book about her situation, she could only benefit from reading it. Maybe it would give her some advice on how to bond better with her friends.
"Here we are," Madam Maxwell pointed to a whole shelf. "This is the friendship shelf of the fiction section. I would recommend either Invisible or Friendship is for Losers."
Dominique frowned at the book titles. Both seemed a little extreme for her case, but she chose Invisible and followed Madam Maxwell back to the front counter to check it out.
"I'm sure this will put everything into perspective for you," Madam Maxwell said, handing the book back once it was catalogued.
"Thanks," Dominique said, unsure what the librarian meant by that, but not bothering to ask.
With a sigh, she shoved the book into her bag and headed back up to the common room. Odds were her friends wouldn't even be back yet, and she could just slip up to her dorm without anyone even noticing. Maybe Invisible was a fitting title after all.
DdDdDdDdDdD
When Dominique arrived in the common room, she was shocked to find her friends all waiting for her eagerly.
"What's going on?" Dominique frowned. "What are you all doing here – with a gobstones board?" she frowned at the game that was half set-up in the corner.
"Well you seemed a little down at dinner," Brooke said. "We thought this might cheer you up."
"But you hate gobstones," Dominique pointed out.
"I do," Brooke nodded. "But you love it."
"You don't have to do this, you know," Dominique said. "I can just read. I have a book."
"You can read some other time," Brooke insisted, grabbing Dominique by the arm and shoving her on the ground by the board. "Tom already called first game."
"Really?" Dominique asked in surprise. She knew gobstones was not Tom's favorite either and would have expected Miles to call first game.
"Well I realized we've never actually played each other," Tom said. "I thought it was about time we remedy that situation."
"Well alright," Dominique felt herself smiling. She threw her bag to the side and claimed her marbles while Tom got himself into position to roll his first. He'd even taken the less-desirable first turn.
"This is really nice of you guys," Dominique said. "Thanks."
"Well you had to suffer through Quidditch talk all through dinner," Brooke pointed out. "The least we could do was something you like, even if we aren't fans."
"You know," Dominique said as she rolled one of her marbles, knocking Tom's out of the way. "I can't help but notice that of the two things you mentioned, Miles enjoys both of them."
"I hadn't thought of that," Brooke said. "Hmm… I guess we'll have to find some way to remedy that."
"Maybe after gobstones, we can paint each other's toenails," Dominique suggested. "Miles will hate that."
"You're right, I would," Miles agreed.
Brooke made a face. "Yeah but, is that really something you'd want to do?" she wondered.
Dominique thought about it for a moment. "No," she said. "That's more Victoire's thing than mine."
"Well we'll think of something," Brooke declared. "It's not true friendship unless you're all miserable at some point or another."
Dominique laughed. "Gee, that's cheery," she commented.
"You know what I mean," Brooke rolled her eyes.
"Yeah," Dominique nodded. "Yeah, I do."
