2020
The crowd of people making their way to the bank holiday breakfast thickened as Dominique Weasley approached the Great Hall. Anyone else might have given up in the crush, but Dom never had any trouble getting through crowds; the beautiful 18 year old had a way of getting exactly where she wanted without too much effort. She need only toss her dyed pastel pink hair to move past the 5th year Ravenclaw, flutter her thick eyelashes at the prefect holding open the door- and she was through. Dominique was beautiful, and knew exactly how to use it.
Her beauty lacked the innocence of Victoire's- the soft hair and skin, pink lips and blue eyes- but rather had a certain hardness about it. They had the same pale face and cute nose, but Dom was full of intimidatingly gorgeous angles and cheekbones and dark hazel eyes which were full of Slytherin ambition.
She scanned the hall for someone to sit with, her eyes quickly falling on a few of her cousins at the Gryffindor table. Fred, James, Roxy and Lucy had all arrived for breakfast already. She made her way confidently toward them, enjoying the eyes that watched her as she passed her own house table. Her unSlytherin-esque disregard for house tables often caused a amongst her house mates, but she didn't care much for many of them anyway. Monty Welsummer waved at her to join his little clique for breakfast, but as most of those seated with him were the vapid social climbing types,she declined with a polite smile. Monty looked utterly dejected, but Dominique couldn't help that her cousins were far more interesting than his tedious set of Slytherins. Not that she didn't like them all. Alison Macmillan was undoubtedly her best friend (beside Fred), and although most of the other girls in her dorm were the bitchy sort, they were nothing Dominique couldn't handle. And the boys were the perfect fit for Dominique, because, although they were rarely the purest of character, few of them actually cared if she blew them off the next day. She couldn't deny that she stuck to the Slytherin boys for her little flings.
When she reached her cousins, Fred looked up at her and smiled.
"Morning!" Dom returned the smile cheerfully.
"Hello." Called the cousins, all in various stages of breakfast. Dominique chose a seat next to Fred and poured herself a cup of coffee. The group, out of house uniform for the bank holiday memorial, were dressed in bright clothes appropriate for the mild spring day it was, although Lucy still adorned her outfit with her Hufflepuff scarf, marking herself out from all the Gryffindors on the table.
"Heard anything from Vic?" Lucy inquired.
"No, only sent her a card yesterday. I suppose she'll write tomorrow."
"Oh! I hope she's having a lovely day."
"Well, it is her first without Teddy since they split." Said Roxy to Lucy, as if she had said something incomprehensibly stupid. Lucy looked a little affronted, but, as always, chose not to comment. Dominique gave Roxy a reproachful look, for it was typical of her cousin to forget that other people had emotions.
She felt an urge to defend Lucy: "Yes, but she's not to upset anymore- she knows its for the best," Dominique informed them all, now serving herself some eggs, "Where's Louis?"
"He's even worse than you- sending his letter to Vic." James laughed.
"Is that where Lorcan is, then?" Asked Lucy quickly. Something about her tone, an undertone of worry, caused Dominique to look curiously at her younger cousin. At 16 years old and in her fifth year, her cousin had suddenly turned quite beautiful. She had large, deep brown eyes, an athletic, quidditch players figure and rosebud lips. As usual, her camera was hung around her neck, ready for any photo opportunities. Her brown-ginger hair (the most unusual of all the Weasley reds) was in its usual high ponytail. But Lucy suddenly looked quite anxious.
James exchanged a meaningful look with Fred, "Oh, no," he said lightly, buttering his toast, "He's with Jennifer Lockhart." All of the cousins looked up. The tone with which James had chosen to disclose this information indicated that this pairing was one of significance.
Roxy was the first to speak, "What, that Ravenclaw bitch?"
"What's he doing with her?" Dominique screeched.
"Girls! She's not that bad!" defended Fred.
"She said I was a snobby cow when I hit her with the bludger last match!" Roxy declared.
"You are a snobby cow!"
"She's a sore loser."
"This is beside the point." said James, amused by the outrage he had so deliberately created, and now mashing up banana to spread on his toast.
"Well, what is the point?" Dominique challenged, "And that's disgusting, by the way." She noted, nodding at the banana goo. James grinned sheepishly.
"I asume that you're talking about Jenicorn. And if you are: the point is that Lorcan isn't asexual!" exclaimed Louis, sitting down between James and Roxy.
"Jenicorn?" Said Roxy, scathingly, whilst Lucy pouted: "Well, we knew that." speaking now for the first time since the bombshell was dropped.
"You're joking! Our hermit Lorc hasn't even talked about a girl before. I'm a prostitute compared to him!"
"You are a prostitute, Lou." Dominique teased.
"That was one time!" Louis declared indignantly. "And anyway, it's not like I asked for the money. She just gave it to me the next day, I thought she must have accidentally taken it or something."
"Perhaps she just thought you were really, really good? I know that's hard to believe but some people have low standards, you know." James turned to his best friend cheekily.
Lucy, thankfully, interrupted their conversation, "Lorcan hasn't spoken about a girl… ever?"
"Nope, like Lou said, we thought he was asexual." James grinned with delight at the surprise at his best friend's relationship, and the fact that he'd been the one to tell everyone.
"You know, just because he's never spoken about someone doesn't mean he's asexual." Roxy began, confrontationally. "Maybe it's just because he has respect for girls so, unlike you two, he doesn't like degrading them at every chance he gets." She said pointedly.
This began a huge feminist debate between Roxy and James, the latter of which insisted profusely he just enjoyed "appreciating nature's talent."
However, Dominique was watching Lucy quite closely, now. There had been something like desperation in her voice as she'd posed the question, and now she returned to her pancakes sullenly.
Dom shrugged internally, deciding that even Lucy must feel unhappy sometimes, and turned back to the boys, eager to know more, "So, they're officially together?"
"Dunno." answered Louis.
"He just told us that he was meeting her on Tuesday. Then she sat with us that lunch-"
"No, Wednesday lunch." Louis corrected James.
"Wednesday lunch. Then, yesterday, we saw them snogging after supper."
Roxy mimed vomiting into her plate.
"Didn't look very nice." Fred confirmed to his sister.
"Well, what can we do? It's his first girlfriend, let him make mistakes, ey?"
The cousins all made various noises of agreement and continued with their breakfast.
"Vic's staying in London this weekend." Louis told his sister.
"Oh really? I thought she might come up here with mum and dad."
"Nah, wouldn't risk running into Ted, would she?" He said, a bite of anger heard in his voice.
"He's in Germany." said James abruptly, with a glimpse of defence in his eyes.
"Oh, okay," Said Louis, realising he had pushed the 'bastard-hurt-my-sister-act' too far, and turning back to Dominique, "She's staying in Sophia's new flat. It's not far from Diagon Alley."
This prompted a comment from Fred about Sophia's younger sister Illana's 'rack', which in turn caused a very violent reaction from an outraged Roxy.
Dominique ignored this very common dispute, something had pricked in her mind. It always felt a little like Louis was showing off to her whenever they talked about Victoire. Dom adored both her siblings, but in a very different way compared to Louis and Victoire- who new absolutely everything about each other. It was her own fault, she supposed, going around talking about her 'Wall' and pretending she didn't care about anyone thought of her, because now no one expected her to even have emotions.
Shaking off these thoughts, Dom tried to engage Lucy in conversation whilst Roxy was swearing loudly at her brother, Louis and James (she stopped quickly once Lily Potter, in her first year, climbed up next to James to tell her elder brother something). However, Dominique noticed that Lucy was unusually despondent and unreactive. Lucy was by far the most cheerful of her cousins, always happy and laughing with anyone who wanted to talk. Now she was quite the opposite. And it seemed as if this business with Lorcan had set it off…
Fred interrupted her train of thought, grinning mischievously at something, "Look who's just arrived for breakfast."
Dom looked up. Sure enough, Lorcan and Jennifer sat at the Ravenclaw table, very close together. James, Louis, Roxy and Lucy all turned around to get a look.
"One at a time! One at a time!" Fred cried gleefully. "Okay, James and Lily, you two look," He said, kindly including their youngest cousin. Slowly, James craned his head around and took a close and disgusted look at his best mate and his girlfriend. Lily stood up on the bench, said "Ooooh, is that Lorcan?" and skipped off again down to her friends.
Fred continued, "Louis, your turn…Now Roxy… go on Lucy." Lucy stole her look just as Jennifer reached up and placed her lips on Lorcan's.
Lucy stood up immediately, "I'll see you lot at the memorial." She said, sounding as if she had a sudden cold, and then hastening off out of the hall.
Dominique looked around at the others. None of them had noticed their cousin's odd behaviour; the boys were too busy wolf-whistling at a blushing Lorcan and Roxy was laughing along with them. She sighed helplessly. Dominique wasn't good with emotional stuff- and neither was Lucy. She wasn't even particularly close to her, so why should she go after her? Surely James, who she was closest to, or even Louis, should talk to her. She could take one of them aside, and explain what she suspected. No, imagine how Lucy would feel if Lorcan's best friends knew. It would have to be Dominique.
She stood up as well, "I better be off, I said I'd go for a run with Alison." And then she too hastened away.
Dominique found Lucy in the quidditch commentators' box. She was sat in Lorcan's usual chair, absently fiddling with her camera, staring out at the pitch where she flew so frequently. She heard Dom enter: "Sorry, I know I'm not supposed to be in here, Professor-"
"Luce, it's me." She interrupted quickly.
Lucy swivelled round in the chair, taking in her cousin, "Oh… hi." She said weakly. She wasn't crying, which was a relief. Now Dominique thought about it, crying wasn't a very Lucy thing to do. She just looked very lost.
Dominique moved towards the bench and perched on it, "So… Lorcan, huh?" Dom cringed as she spoke. She was not good at this.
"Yeah, can you believe it?" Lucy began, false chattery, "Never thought he'd get-" She trailed off.
"Luce, it's okay. I know you like him."
Lucy gave a fake-surprised look, and then a strained laugh, "I don't! Of course I don't; that would be weird."
Dom just raised an eyebrow.
Lucy gave out a long breath.
"No one knows, Lucy. I just worked it out and I promise you I won't tell anyone."
"Are you sure?"
"When you left, no one even batted an eyelid."
Lucy turned back around to face the pitch and the girls became silent.
At length, Lucy said, "I'm stronger than this. I shouldn't care, and I feel stupid; I let my hopes up."
"It's not weak to feel, Lucy." (Inside her head, something was chanting: you're a hypocrite, you're a hypocrite, you're a hypocrite)
Lucy looked at Dominque for a long time.
"I was taught from a very young age that I would never be good enough for my father or sister. My mum was the only one that showed me real love. Can you imagine how that feels? So, I told myself, forced myself to ignore any hurt I felt." Lucy spoke with a bitterness Dom had never heard in her voice, "I guess that's why I'm in Hufflepuff; I just don't react to people hurting me. And actually, I'm sick of it now. I'm sick of being trapped as Lucy-who's-always happy, because Merlin knows I'm not happy now. But I'm not allowed to show it even to my closest friends, and I don't know how to deal with all this hurt. I can't even tell my god-damned sister. I don't want too- she wouldn't care. She wouldn't understand. I don't think she knows what love is. She's never shown it to me, anyway. I know it's cliché but Lorcan gets me more than anyone, and he always has. He sees what Molly does to me, how she bullies me, and how Father pretends he's proud of me. But he can only see me as a sister. And it's too late now anyway. He doesn't want to be there for me anymore."
"And the worst thing is, I love him so much I could never possibly blame him."
Lucy fell quiet, and Dominique realised her cousin had her eyes closed. All of the cousins knew that Lucy and Molly didn't get on, but this- this confession-this was so much worse.
And she loved him. Dominique wasn't even sure she knew what love was. All she knew was brief flings and Slytherin boy's beds at 2am after a party when they were both a bit drunk. How did Lucy, 16 years old, two years younger than her, already know what love was? But Dominque wasn't surprised, really, now she thought about it. Lorcan and Lucy had always loved each other, hadn't they? She could remember their games at the Burrow, and Lorcan and Lucy would run around hand in hand. And she could remember them whispering two summer's ago, curled up on a sofa at Shell Cottage, and she remembered earlier that day on the beach when Molly had laughed horridly at something Lucy had said, and that Lorcan had been the only one to ask if she was okay. And now she remembered Lorcan's expression when Lucy had broken up with that dreadful boy, Thomas, and how the odd mix of anger, hurt, relief and love in his eyes had always stuck with Dominique. They had always been best friends, and now she realised they had always been in love. Only, Lucy had worked it out before he had.
Dominique was not a 'huggy' person. But on the second of May in the commentator's box, there was nothing to do but wrap her arms around Lucy and hold her as she dissolved into tears, and tell her it would be okay. Dominique still held her as they made their way back up to the castle, and was with her for the whole day, and there for her for the rest of her life.
A/N: Well, I'm pretty sure I'm giving up this fic as I've been writing something else for a while now. There were supposed to be a few chapters in between this one and the last but as I had it written and liked it I thought id update one last time before putting it to bed.
anywho- hope you like it