Dominique's the outcast of the family, though no one's willing to say it. Sorted into Slytherin House, taking after her father's side of the family. The Weasleys shun her because she's not in Gryffindor, and the Delacours shun her because she doesn't look a Veela, isn't tall and willowy and blonde like her sister, like she should be.
They don't say it, but they don't need to say it. She feels it as acutely as a stinging blow to the face, like the time Victoire slapped her for taking the last pastry at breakfast and no one spoke up in her defense. Is it any wonder that she embraces her Slytherin side? Finally, a place all to herself, a place she can belong. When Lily Potter is sorted there as well, she feels sick to her stomach and can't even clap.
"Ignore it," Scorpius whispers in her ear, but she can't. She wants to smack the triumphant look off Lily Luna's face, wants to pull that red hair clean off. It's not fair, damn it, but since when has life been fair?
"She only wanted to be in here to piss off her family," Dominique hisses back, digging her fingernails into her palms until it hurts.
"I know," Scorpius soothes. Lily sits at the end of the table, flashing smug smiles around the Hall, especially toward the Gryffindor table, where her older brothers sit and glare at her.
"I hate her," Dominique mutters to her on-again, off-again boyfriend, hiding behind her own hated red hair. When she was eleven, she tried dyeing it blonde, but it only took in patches, and her sister laughed herself silly until her mum took pity on her and magicked the dye off. It's one more reminder of her heritage, and one more reminder she wishes she could hex off.
"Don't worry," Scorpius murmurs, his lips curling into an unpleasant-looking smile. "We may stick together outside of the dormitory, but inside..."
A matching smirk graces Dominique's face, although she wipes it off in time to look pleasant at Lily's overly curious face gawping around.
"Welcome to the hated side of the family," Dominique longs to say, but she doubts it will be true. The Potters and Weasleys fawn over Lily Luna, the baby of the family, the pretty little princess with guileless brown eyes and dimples.
Lily will never be hated. Not like Dominique.
And some secret part of her loathes herself for it.