Chapter 10: June 2014

After their night in the library, Dominique, Brooke, Miles, and Tom all became pretty close. It was almost impossible not to after going through such an ordeal together. As exams neared, whenever they weren't studying with the rest of their Gryffindor classmates, they were studying together as a foursome, anywhere but in the library.

Soon exams were upon them and as they lined up to enter their first exam – Herbology – they quizzed each other in the hopes of ensuring that all the information was at the top of their heads.

"Dominique: how do you get rid of Devil's Snare?" Tom quizzed.

"They hate sunlight, so… lumos solem!" Dominique answered quickly.

"Correct," Tom confirmed.

"Alright, Brooke, how do you tell a spiky bush apart from a prickly plant?" Dominique questioned.

"Oh, I know this!" Brooke exclaimed. "It's the color of the thorns! I think the spiky bush has… yellow thorns?"

"That's right!" Dominique smiled.

"Awesome, okay Miles, you're up," Brooke declared. "What class of non-tradeable substance is the venomous tentacula?"

"Oh I'm not sure… class C?" Miles ventured.

"Yup!" Brooke exclaimed.

"We are so ready for this exam," Dominique assured everyone.

Just then, the door to greenhouse one opened and Professor Longbottom ushered the first years inside.

"Alright, I've placed exam papers at every other seat, so please only sit where you see a piece of parchment," their Professor requested. "Some of you will be sitting at the tables along the sides instead of at desks, but this is only to ensure that you're all far enough away from each other that there won't be any cheating."

"Good luck guys," Miles muttered to his friends as they split up and took seats around the room.

Once everyone was seated, Professor Longbottom checked his watch. "Alright, you can start," he announced. "If you have any questions, just raise your hand and I'll come speak to you where you are so as not to disturb the other students. Also, be sure to write your names on your exams please."

Dominique smiled sheepishly. She'd forgotten to put her name on their last assignment and if it weren't for the fact that she was the only student to forget, Professor Longbottom might not have known it was her assignment.

Taking a deep breath, Dominique turned her test paper over and scribbled her name in the top left corner. Then she lowered her eyes to the first question and began to read.

Question 1: What class of non-tradeable substance does the venomous tentacula plant fall under?

a)Class A

b)Class B

c)Class C

d)Class D

Dominique smiled. She totally knew the answer to this one! They'd just gone over it in the corridor. She happily circled c) and moved on to question two.

Question 2: You are walking through the jungle and you come across a patch of Devil's Snare. It starts winding around your ankles and travelling up your legs. You only have a few minutes before you're completely trapped. What spell do you use to save yourself?

a)Lumos Solem

b)Incendio

c)Diffindo

d)Wingardium Leviosa

Dominique chuckled. Why would anyone use Wingardium Leviosa on Devil's Snare? That would be ridiculous! She carefully circled a) and moved on to the next question.

Question 3: What color thorns does the spiky bush have?

a)Red

b)Yellow

c)Blue

d)Purple

Dominique smirked. This whole exam was so easy; a first year could have written it. In fact, she and her friends had come up with the first three questions on their own already. She was going to ace this. Confidently, she moved on to question four.

Question 4: What magical creature is allergic to the Puffapod?

a)Dragon

b)Troll

c)Giant

d)Goblin

Dominique bit her lip. She and her friends hadn't gone over this material. She knew Puffapods produced seeds that flowered whenever they hit anything solid, but she couldn't remember anything else from that lesson. Her heart sank. Here she'd thought Hogwarts final exams weren't going to be so difficult, but now she was rethinking her confidence. If Professor Longbottom was going to ask such obscure questions, then what would Professor Tonks or Professor Binns include?

Unsure, Dominique circled c) and continued with the rest of her exam.

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"Well that totally sucked!" Tom exclaimed when they were finally released from greenhouse one.

"Tell me about it," Brooke agreed. "I mean, those first three questions were easy, but after that…"

"What creature is allergic to Puffapods anyway?" Dominique wondered.

"Trolls," Miles replied, as though this were obvious.

"How do you remember that?" Brooke demanded.

"I don't know," Miles shrugged. "It was in my notes. I read it when I was revising. I remembered it when I saw the question."

"And you didn't think to share the information with the rest of us when you came across it revising?" Dominique accused.

"I didn't think it was important at the time," Miles defended himself. "And besides, is it really my fault if you didn't write it down in your own notes?"

"Yes," Dominique confirmed, really more upset with herself than Miles, but not wanting to admit it. "Yes it is."

Miles shrugged. "Sorry I guess."

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When the first years were released from their last final exam the following week, they were overjoyed to be free.

"We should celebrate!" Brooke declared. "What should we do?"

"We could play gobstones," Miles suggested.

"But isn't that a two-person game?" Brooke pointed out.

"Okay, so we play two rounds of one-on-one, and then the winners play each other," Miles decided.

"Yeah alright," Tom agreed. "You and me go first man."

While Miles and Tom set up the game and began to play, Dominique and Brooke sat back and observed.

"This sure has been an interesting year," Brooke commented.

"Why do you say that?" Dominique asked.

"Well if you'd have asked me back in September who I'd be hanging out with after exams were over, this is definitely not the group I would have guessed. You maybe, but certainly not Tom and Miles," Brooke replied.

"Is that a bad thing?" Dominique wondered nervously.

"Not at all!" Brooke exclaimed. "I just never would have predicted this. But we've actually got a pretty great group happening here."

"I win!" Miles declared as he and Tom finished their game.

"Your turn," Tom added, gesturing to the girls.

"Get ready to lose," Dominique smirked.

Dominique graciously took the less favorable first turn and rolled her gobstone to a perfect position. Brooke went next and completely missed the target. Dominique took her second turn and claimed a spot right next to her other stone. Brooke tried again, and this time aimed well, but shot her stone too far, resulting in a scramble on the part of the boys to locate the lost gobstone on the other side of the room. By the end of the game, Dominique had all her gobstones sitting happily around the target while Brooke's closest stone still lay outside the target itself.

"Looks like I won," Dominique smiled. She turned to Miles. "You ready to lose?"

"Only if by lose you actually mean win, in which case, are you ready to win, by which I mean lose?" Miles asked, frowning at himself partway through as he became confused.

Dominique shook her head. "Yeah, don't do that," she suggested. "Just play."

It was no surprise that Dominique and Miles were the two winners, since they played each other at gobstones frequently and Brooke and Tom had never played before. It was almost unfair to have forced them to play at all, but then Dominique realized, how else would they ever improve?

In the end, Miles won the tournament, and Dominique grumpily put the game away, suddenly no longer in the mood to play anymore.

"So," Miles began, leaning back in his seat comfortably, "are we going to the final Quidditch game of the season on Saturday?"

"Definitely not," Dominique shook her head.

"What?" Brooke cried. "Oh come on Domi, you have to come. It's the final Quidditch game. The one where we find out who won!"

Dominique shrugged. "I guess I just don't really care about Quidditch. It's boring."

"Oh not this again," Tom groaned. "Have you ever even been to a Quidditch game?"

"Well no," Dominique admitted. "Not a real one. But my family plays a lot. We have a makeshift pitch outside my grandparents' house."

"That doesn't count," Tom declared. "You can't say you don't like Quidditch until you've been to a real game."

"But it's going to be so boring!" Dominique whined.

"Oh come on," Brooke insisted. "We'll all be there. What are you going to do? Sit around the common room by yourself?"

"Why not?" Dominique challenged. "It's so rare I have an empty common room to sit in all alone."

"Oh come on Domi, please come with us," Brooke pleaded. "If you hate it, you never have to come to another game again."

"Fine," Dominique sighed. "But I'm holding you to that last statement."

Miles smiled. "This is going to be fun!"

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Saturday morning was sunny and warm – perfect weather for a Quidditch match. Reluctantly, Dominique allowed Brooke to drag her out of bed and shove her into the shower to get ready to go and spectate – Dominique would have preferred to sleep in, but Brooke wasn't having any of that.

Once they were clean and dressed, the girls descended to the Great Hall to meet the boys for breakfast.

"What a beautiful day for Quidditch," Tom greeted them. "And don't you ladies look lovely this morning."

Dominique glowered at Tom, still wishing for the comfort of her bed and the softness of her pillow.

"Oh come on Domi, if you start off with a bad attitude, then there's no way you're going to enjoy yourself," Tom complained.

"There's really no way I'm going to enjoy myself either way," Dominique countered.

"You know, you're really starting to hurt my feelings," Tom said jokingly. "I would have thought that my presence alone would be enough to cheer you up."

Dominique rolled her eyes and smiled. "You wish Tom."

"Here Domi," Miles said, stabbing a pancake with a fork and dropping it onto her plate. "Have some breakfast."

"Thanks," Dominique said, still smiling. "I love pancakes."

"See? This day is going to be so much fun!" Brooke exclaimed.

"Don't push it," Dominique warned, pouring sticky syrup onto her pancake and digging in.

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After breakfast was over, the four Gryffindors trooped out onto the grounds and down to the Quidditch pitch.

"Ugh, it's too warm out," Dominique complained. "I'm going to get a sunburn."

"Dominique, are you even capable of getting a sunburn?" Brooke asked, referring to Dominique's Veela heritage.

"I don't think so," Dominique admitted.

"Alright, let's make a deal," Brooke declared. "You are not allowed to complain about anything else until the Quidditch game is over. You are going to do your best to enjoy yourself and you aren't going to sabotage this experience."

"But – "

"No buts," Brooke interrupted. "Otherwise we'll just force you to come to more games until you give it a fair try."

"But you promised that – "

"Only if you give the game a fair try," Brooke repeated. "If you don't have an open mind, then it doesn't count."

"Alright fine," Dominique sighed. "Woo, Quidditch. I love Quidditch! Yeah!"

"That was weak," Miles commented.

"Hey, I'm trying, aren't I?" Dominique retorted.

They reached the pitch and climbed up into the Gryffindor section to await the beginning of the match. The game was Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, so the red and green sections were definitely the fullest and the loudest.

"How are we supposed to talk when it's so loud?" Dominique yelled above all the shouting.

"Like this," Brooke yelled back.

"When does the game start?" Dominique cried.

"Any minute now," Tom answered.

Just then, the Gryffindor and Slytherin teams emerged from their respective dressing rooms and crossed the pitch to the center, where they faced off. Madame Volant emerged with the balls and instructed the captains to shake hands. Once they had done that, everyone mounted their brooms and took their positions in the sky while Madame Volant released first the snitch and then the bludgers, taking the quaffle into her arms and taking her place in the exact center of the pitch.

"Let the match… begin!" she cried, throwing the quaffle up into the air.

The players immediately began to fly in every direction. Someone in green grabbed the quaffle first and shot off towards the Gryffindor goalposts. Whoever was guarding the goalposts did a good job blocking the shot though, and before Dominique knew it, the quaffle was zooming across to the other side of the pitch.

Someone was announcing the game, but Dominique wasn't paying any attention to that. She couldn't understand most of the technical words they were using anyway, and she didn't really care enough to follow the game all that closely.

As the game wore on, Dominique started getting tired. She tried not to yawn, but she couldn't help it.

"Domi, did you just yawn?" Miles gasped.

Dominique shrugged. "Sorry?" she replied.

"I can't believe you aren't into this," Miles cried. "Do you realize how close the score is? It's a nail-biter!"

"I guess Quidditch just isn't my thing," Dominique shrugged apologetically.

Miles shook his head and Dominique turned her attention back to the game. As she did so, the golden snitch fluttered down from above and hovered right in front of her face.

"Um… guys…?" she began hesitantly. What was she supposed to do? Grab it? Let it hover there? Unluckily for her, the answer was decided when a player in green swooped down and knocked Dominique out of the way in order to grab the little golden ball.

"Slytherin wins!" the announcer called out.

"Dominique, are you okay?" Miles cried, reaching out to help Dominique up.

"I. Do. Not. Like. Quidditch." Dominique declared through gritted teeth.

Miles sighed. "Well you gave it your best shot," he allowed. "I guess it's just not your thing."

"Thank you," Dominique said. "So we're good? I don't have to come to any more Quidditch games?"

"You don't have to come to any more Quidditch games," Brooke allowed. "But you're really going to miss out."

"You know what?" Dominique said. "I really don't think I will."

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The next day, everyone had to be up early to board the Hogwarts Express. Now that the term was over, it was time to go home for the summer holidays. Dominique, Brooke, Miles, and Tom all clamored onto the train and found an empty compartment quickly enough. Dominique levitated all their trunks up onto the luggage racks above them and they took their seats as the scarlet steam engine pulled out of Hogsmeade station.

"So what do you think next year will be like?" Miles wondered as they all settled in for the long trip home.

"Who knows?" Dominique shrugged.

"I'd try out for the Quidditch team, but I want to play seeker and the captain is seeker," Brooke said sadly.

"Yeah, but she's going to be a seventh year next year, so you can always try out in third year," Tom pointed out.

"Do you think you guys would ever try out?" Brooke asked. "Obviously Domi never would."

"You can say that again," Dominique confirmed.

"I might," Miles admitted. "Certainly not next year. I'd wait until I was older."

"Yeah, me too," Tom agreed.

"What position do you think?" Brooke wondered.

"Beater," Tom and Miles replied in unison.

"Seriously?" Brooke asked. "You'd both want to be beater?"

"Beater is the best position," Tom said. "You get to bang bludgers around with giant bats. Nothing beats that."

"Well it looks like you're going to have a bit of competition in each other," Brooke smirked.

"Or we could train together," Miles pointed out. "Try out as a team of beaters."

"That's not a bad idea," Tom said. "Beaters do need to work together on the pitch, so if we trained together, we'd already be attuned to each other."

"Oh my gosh can we please change the topic?" Dominique cried, unable to take much more Quidditch talk.

"Oh come on Domi, now we can't talk about Quidditch?" Tom cried.

"Sure you can," Dominique allowed. "Just talk about it later, when I fall asleep. Because let's be honest, I'm exhausted and I'm going to fall asleep eventually."

"But we're talking about it now," Brooke pointed out.

"Well I'm vetoing the conversation topic," Dominique decided.

"You can't just veto conversation topics," Brooke disagreed.

"I just did," Dominique declared.

"Alright, alright," Miles cried, trying to keep the peace. "Maybe let's move on and circle back to Quidditch later in the day. We only just started moving, we don't want to start arguing yet. Besides, there aren't too many places to go right now since we're on a moving train."

Reluctantly, Brooke and Tom agreed to change the subject and the rest of the train ride passed smoothly. True to her word, Dominique fell asleep mid-afternoon, curling up against the window, and her friends were able to continue their Quidditch conversation without interruption or complaint.

All too soon, the train was pulling into King's Cross station and Dominique was levitating their trunks back down from the luggage racks.

"Well," Dominique shrugged. "I guess I'll see you guys in September. Unless anyone wants to come to Diagon Alley for ice cream with me and my family?"

"I wish," Brooke sighed. "But I've got dinner with my grandparents tonight."

"Yeah, I've got a whole family thing happening too," Tom added.

"Miles?" Dominique asked.

Miles shrugged. "I could ask my parents," he said. "I'll be right back," he added, running off.

"I think I see my parents over there," Tom pointed a distance down the platform. "See you guys."

"Bye!" Dominique and Brooke waved as Tom disappeared.

"I better go look for my family too," Brooke said once Tom was gone.

"Alright," Dominique said. "Well be sure to write."

"Oh I will," Brooke assured her. "Have a good summer!"

Brooke disappeared too, leaving Dominique waiting for Miles. She began scanning the crowd for her own family and finally found them not too far away. Victoire was already there, and they were just looking for her.

"My parents said yes!" Miles cried, reappearing at Dominique's side. "As long as I'm home by dinner."

"Awesome!" Dominique exclaimed. "Come on, my family's right over there."

With a smile, Dominique introduced her family to her friend and informed them that she had invited Miles to join them for ice cream.

"The more the merrier," Dominique's father said.

"It is so nice to meet one of Dominique's friends. She writes about you all the time," her mother added.

Dominique rolled her eyes. "Well come on," she said. "Let's go!"

Together, Dominique, Miles, Victoire, Louis, Bill, and Fleur all trooped out of King's Cross together, ready for an ice cream treat to start the summer off right.

Thanks for reading! Hope you liked the story.

Reviews are much appreciated.

For more in the House of the Brave series, please visit my profile page. More stories coming soon.

Next up in Dominique's story: Read My Lips