Dominique slammed her trunk shut in a satisfying sort of way. She'd been doing nothing but packing and unpacking for the last month, but this was the final time until Christmastime. By the end of the day she would be back at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for her seventh and final year. She would be one step closer to no longer being a student and letting adulthood completely wash over her. Not that it didn't sometimes feel it hadn't already.
At the door of her room, Louis suddenly appeared. He was already dressed to leave for King's Cross, looking particularly casual in his Muggle clothes. He seemed to be standing taller these days, which she had to assume was somehow tied to being the new Head Boy and feeling in charge. People would let him, too; he had that magnetism about him.
Tall, handsome, charming, popular—everyone at Hogwarts ate it up. Everyone but her. She knew the real him—the one who could be anxious and vulnerable and snarky and obnoxious. The one that was prone to debilitating nightmares and sudden anxiety attacks if he didn't keep up with taking the daily potions he'd been prescribed since he was eight. He didn't let any of that bubble to the surface often, but she knew him better than anyone. She tended to prefer her version of her brother over the one the public got to see. It was far less polished and much more real.
"You all packed?" he asked.
She nodded, looking around her room to see if she'd forgotten anything. "You?"
"Just finished."
"Sarah meeting you at King's Cross?"
He nodded before he let his face grow stony. "Is Davies coming to see you off?"
There was his obnoxious side. She took it back. She didn't always enjoy the other sides of her brother. "No."
He hummed before turning away. "Go figure."
She glared at him as he went; not at all surprised by his response, but not appreciating it either. She knew he wasn't happy with some of her choices, but it really wasn't any of his business. He had no idea what it was like inside of her head.
For someone who knew her as well as he did, he didn't seem to grasp that they didn't work the same way with relationships. He'd been carrying-on and snogging girls since he was ten; practically beating them off with a stick. He'd been through the ups and downs of adolescent hormones and dating; he knew that if one relationship didn't work out, he'd have another one lined up in days. She didn't work like that.
She oddly had a hard time with those feelings; she shut down when it came to crushes and romance. While her friends were holding hands and getting their first kisses, she was running away from the idea of all of that. She hadn't kissed a boy until she was nearly seventeen, and when she had it had been Henry. It hadn't exactly been romantic—there were no flowers and rainbows and overwhelming feelings of love—but it had been nice and it had made her feel desired. She'd never felt that before.
Perhaps that was why she'd grown attached to Henry. He'd actually taken the time to make her feel attractive and sexy—even when he was an arsehole. It was like a curse. She knew she shouldn't, but when he'd come by her house a few days earlier, she'd crumbled like a house of cards. She'd not only kissed him and immediately turned around and slept with him, but she'd also let him back into her life.
They'd never had a proper relationship, but what they had was oddly theirs. They weren't together, but they also were. She'd claim him, but she'd never, ever use the word boyfriend. It wasn't that kind of thing, which worked just fine for her. He said he'd write to her—which she didn't believe—and that he'd try to visit her during Hogsmeade trips. She'd come home for the holidays and they could reconnect. It was meant to be casual, which was all she needed. Someone to hook up with on occasion with no serious emotions or real feelings.
Louis hadn't seen it that way. He'd returned from a day's shopping in Diagon Alley—a shopping trip she'd never met them for—with a lecture she was already expecting. Why would she take him back? Why wouldn't she cut him out? Why on Earth did she fuck him? What was wrong with her? He's a fucking arsehole. She could do better. They were all questions she didn't have an answer to because she knew it didn't make sense. She wasn't going to change his mind. Why try?
She'd spent her last two days of summer holiday avoiding Louis and his comments; choosing instead to dodge him and their friends. She didn't want to have any conversations about Henry right now; she wanted to ignore it. There was an eight hour train ride back to Hogwarts where she'd be stuck in a train compartment with all of them; they could ask all of their questions then.
Back in her room, she grabbed her wand and charmed her trunk to be feather light as she pulled it out into the corridor and down the stairs. Her father was busy in the kitchen, though once he heard her, he placed the dish towel he'd been holding down and walked into the foyer.
"About time to go." He checked the time. "We should probably be leaving."
"You are aware you don't have to take us to King's Cross anymore?" she said as she dropped her trunk down with a dull thud. "We're seventeen."
"I will never not take you to King's Cross," said her father, who stood as proudly now as he did on her first day of school. "My parents did it with me when I was a seventh-year, so I'll do it with you."
"Your parents had about a hundred kids," Dominique muttered. "They weren't taking you, you just happened to be there when they had to take the little ones."
He laughed at that. "Regardless, it's tradition."
Tradition. Her parents seemed so heavily invested in it. She and her siblings would always wake on the first day of school and have the same crepe breakfast. Their mother would run through a checklist of all the things they had to take to school with them and make them all triple check that they had everything packed.
Then their father would take them all to King's Cross where they would cross through the barrier at Platform 9 ¾, board the train, and wave goodbye like all the other students. That was all well and good for when they were smaller, but she and Louis were seventeen now. They were adults. They didn't even have to take the train to school anymore; they could both easily Apparate to Hogsmeade and walk up to the school as many—if not most—of the other seventh-years did.
But they couldn't do that because...tradition. Well, that and the fact that Louis was required to take the train since he was Head Boy. He had to hold a prefects' meeting on the way to school along with the newly appointed Head Girl. More importantly, he now had his own private train compartment that came with unlimited snacks. He and the friends of his choosing could enjoy that perk, which was really the only reason Dominique was willing to suck up the train journey this one last time.
"It's your final 'first day of school' ride," said her father, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Enjoy it. You don't get anymore of these."
"Thank Merlin for that," said Dominique. "There's a reason you don't take a train anywhere, Dad. Once you can Apparate, you do."
"Oh, let him have this," said her mother, bustling into the foyer with a bag full of—what Dominique could only assume—were snacks for the train. Her mother had never been fond that the train seemed to only offer candy and, as she called it, junk. If someone dared to bring up the subject, she would always launch into a lecture of how at her school, Beauxbatons, the food was always far better and healthier. Dominique was not about to remind her of the unlimited black licorice wands that she would soon have at her disposal.
"Lou!" her father called up the stairs. "Let's go! You cannot miss the train!"
"They'd probably hold it for him," Dominique mumbled. "Can't leave without the prince of Hogwarts."
"Heard that!" yelled a voice from the top of the stairs, just as her brother hustled quickly out of his room, his trunk dragging behind him. He led it all the way to the stairs and let it thud down each and every one until he reached the bottom.
"Was that really necessary?" she asked him.
"Bringing my trunk downstairs? Yes. I'm sure I'll need my things at school."
"No, I meant the whole acting like a Muggle—a lazy one, at that—to get it downstairs. Forget your wand? You might need that."
Louis rolled his eyes, "Did you manage to fit all that scathing wit in that trunk of yours?"
"It's always the first thing I pack. You know that." She grinned at him, though he was now making a point to ignore her.
For as much as she loved her brother, she sometimes wondered how the two of them were even related, let alone twins. Back when they were small children they at least looked fairly similar: blonde hair that they had inherited from their mother—though Louis' had darkened significantly now that he was older— bright smiles that they had inherited from their father, and blue eyes and other various attractive features that they had inherited from both of their beautiful parents. These days, that was where the similarities ended.
Louis was just like both of their parents—intelligent, attractive, charming, and good at everything. He would probably grow up to be just like them; successful in his chosen career and married to an equally perfect person before starting their own little family of perfectly attractive children. Boys were keen to be his friend and wanted him around, while girls were more than keen on him and wanted him around as more than a friend.
It was only getting more and more apparent the older he became that he was fairly unstoppable once he put his mind to something. He probably was going to grow up to be Minister of Magic or someone very important. Though, despite all of this, he remained fairly grounded. His head could easily be bigger than his body if he let his own hype get to him, but Dominique liked to think that was her true role in her brother's life.
She kept him in check and could always be counted on to let the wind out of his sails a bit. Sure, he may have taken and passed four of his N.E.W.T exams early as a sixth-year, but he also wet the bed until he was eight thanks to those nightmares he always had. She was always there to remind him of his shortcomings when he got a little too high on himself.
On the contrary, she was not the charmer that her brother was. She was the loud, brash, in-your-face and mostly unapologetic one. She said what she thought, sometimes without thinking, which more often than not got her into trouble that she easily could have avoided if she simply filtered herself. She was an average student in a family full of practical geniuses, but she was an excellent athlete-something no one else in her family could boast of being. She cared more about Quidditch than school, and she never bothered to hide that fact.
She had always felt like black sheep of her otherwise perfect family. Her older sister, Victoire, much like Louis, had lived a charmed life. Beautiful and intelligent; always the top of everything and always revered by the masses. While she and Louis worked and studied for everything, they always made it seem so easy to be so perfect and popular. Dominique, in contrast, could never quite figure out the people-pleasing part that came so easily to her brother and sister. She had lived the same happy, healthy life that their parents had provided for them— the same resources and opportunities were available to all three—and their parents loved them all in different ways.
She couldn't even argue that she'd unfortunately missed out on inheriting her parents' good looks because—conventionally speaking—she was just as attractive as the rest of her family. But while Louis and Victoire were prim and polished with their good looks on display each and every day, Dominique, from a young age, had often done everything in her power to mask her pretty face, slim figure, and shiny silver-blonde hair. Something about the idea of being attractive struck such a chord of anxiety in her that she'd spent most of her adolescence ignoring her appearance entirely. It wasn't until a year ago, at sixteen—after she decided to chop her generally unkempt hair—that something inside of her clicked and she began even attempting to look presentable.
In the past, she had just never cared if she was dirty from hours spent on the Quidditch pitch or looked slovenly as she wore her brother's over sized clothes. It had never mattered to her what people thought; her attitude had soon started to match her outward appearance in order to combat the people who felt she should have been more like her sister. "You'd be so pretty if you just tried like Victoire…" a few would say. Those comments always pushed her further in the opposite direction.
At seventeen, though, with her hair grown out to her shoulders and properly brushed everyday, she was now starting to embrace not hiding herself to the world. She was by no means out on display or flashy, but her clothes now fit her, she showered after Quidditch practice instead of opting not to, and she didn't attempt to repel people with her looks. Much of this had been due to Henry coming into her life last year, though she also assumed that it was partly her becoming more of an adult.
"Is this everything?" their father asked, glancing at both of their trunks and her broom sitting beside the door. "We're ready?"
Louis and Dominique nodded in very similar ways. Their mother was standing there looking teary eyed, which was another tradition of sorts. She didn't like to come down to King's Cross because she knew she would cry and didn't want people seeing her upset. She and Dominique had that in common. Other than their very first days of school, their mother refused to come. She instead insisted on saying goodbye to them from the comfort of her home and letting their father do the actual work.
"Have a great first term," she said, reaching for Louis first and already letting the tears come freely. "I will miss you so much, but Christmastime is just around the corner."
"What if I stayed at school for the holidays?" Dominique asked. "I mean, I've heard N.E.W.T.s can be so intense you need all that time to study."
Her mother's head shot up off of Louis' shoulder with a look of horror. "You can study here. You will come home. I will come and get you if you do not."
"We're coming home," Louis said, shooting Dominique a look telling her to knock it off. Always the people-pleaser, even with their own mother. She couldn't compete. She wouldn't be surprised if the only reason she had to come home for the holidays was because it would look awful for them to tell Louis he had to, only to tell her she could do what she wanted.
"Dominique," her mother said, walking over to hug her. "Please be good. Your exams…"
"I know, Mum," she said, feeling the crushing weight of her hug around her chest. Her mother was much stronger than people gave her credit for. "I'll be good. I'll study. I promise."
"We have to go," her father said as he observed them from the door. "Train leaves in twenty minutes."
Their mother went and hugged them both again, this time kissing them on both cheeks and showering them with 'I love yous'. She told Louis how proud she was of his Head Boy achievement and wished him the best term possible; she again told Dominique to please be good and enjoy her final Quidditch season. She was full on crying by then end of their goodbye, which Dominique had to admit hit her in the feels. She went and gave her an extra hug.
After numerous more 'I love yous' from all parties, Dominique and Louis both grabbed their trunks—and her broom—and gave their father similar looks of readiness. They all knew where to go and in the next moment, Dominique's home disappeared immediately from view only to be replaced by a secluded back alley that she knew to be behind King's Cross station. Louis and her father were already there. Her father volunteered to retrieve a trolley as the pair waited, both discussing how dumb it was that they had to pretend to be Muggles for ten minutes.
"What if I walk a levitating trunk through the station?" Dominique was asking once her father returned. "Give them all a show?"
"There really should be a way to just Apparate inside of Platform 9 ¾," Louis muttered, helping his father lift his trunk onto the trolley.
"You can both deal with it for a couple of minutes," their father said as they navigated through the busy train station and Muggle commuters. Dominique noticed a small first-year with overbearing parents fussing over their belongings. He had a large owl sitting in a cage, and she wagered they had to have been Muggleborn given how unsubtle they were acting. Her own father was observing them carefully; probably gauging whether he should offer some assistance.
"Is anyone getting Sorted today that we know?" Louis asked, glancing at Dominique before his father. "Freddie got to be eleven by now, right? Hugo too, maybe? I can't ever keep their ages straight, but I know they're all due soon."
"Freddie and Lucy are both headed into their first years," said their father, referring to, respectively, her Uncle George and Uncle Percy's children. Louis wasn't wrong to be confused. They had a lot of aunts and uncles-and even more cousins-to count. She and her siblings were the oldest of the bunch, followed by their cousin Molly who was a fifth-year now. After her came James Potter, who would have been headed into his fourth year. Then beyond that, there was a large pocket all in the nine to twelve year-old range that mostly blended together. She could barely keep track of them.
"The whole family will be here today," their father continued. "It's the only year each of us have a kid headed off to Hogwarts. Keep an eye out for everyone. I know George will be a wreck with Freddie leaving."
"Not the whole family," Dominique corrected. "Doesn't count when Uncle Charlie's not around."
Her father's expression seemed to say that was obvious. "Right, well not all of us. It'd be nice if Charlie turned up here—or anywhere, for that matter. It's been too bloody long."
She grinned. Her Uncle Charlie was one of her and her father's favorite people, though he lived in Romania training dragons and usually only turned up for a few days every several years to remind everyone he was still alive. He was cool, and funny, he'd been a Seeker, and never really cared what anyone thought of him. He would openly roll his eyes at her grandmother when she would ask him if he was ever going to settle down with someone nice and possibly have grandchildren. His answer of, "Don't you have plenty already?" always made Dominique laugh louder than it probably should have.
She'd always idolized him a bit, probably because her grandfather once told her and Louis how much they reminded him of a younger version of her father and his brother. Louis was the charismatic, clever one who always rose to the top; Dominique was the rebellious athlete who always marched to the beat of her own drummer. They were so very different, but so very close, just as the oldest Weasley boys had been. The similarities of the two had grown widespread throughout the family that it was still often brought up—only to be shut down by her father who would always quip, "As long as she doesn't run off like Charlie did. I'd like to see her more than once every few years."
It was also-and Dominique strongly believed this-this reason she felt her father was so tolerant of so much of her misconduct and antics. He didn't say it as much as the other Weasleys did, but she knew she reminded him of his brother—his best friend that he never got to see. She was certain he'd have never been as tolerant of some of the things she did or said had her uncle not broken him in over the course of their entire lives.
Louis had stopped outside the wall at Platform 9 ¾, gesturing for Dominique to go first. "Ladies first."
"Such a gentleman," she mumbled, rolling her eyes as she looked at the barrier that was separating her world from the Muggle world. She closed her eyes and passed through; the rest of King's Cross vanished behind her. She had no time to dawdle, knowing full well that Louis would be straight on her heels. She stepped forward and out of the way as the Hogwarts Express appeared along with the hundred or so people who were there to see it off. It suddenly hit her that this really was the absolute last time she had to do this.
"Is Sarah meeting you here?" their father asked after having walked through the barrier himself with Louis on his tail. He was glancing around at all the wizards and witches kissing foreheads, hugging goodbye, helping smaller students load their trunks onto the train.
"She is," Louis said, glancing up and down the platform. "She should be here somewhere."
"Hey, Louis," said a boy in Hufflepuff robes that Dominique didn't recognize. He had smiled and waved to her brother as he passed, and could be heard telling his parents, "He's the Head Boy. I saw the badge, but everyone already suspected." The group of them turned once more to get a good look at him.
"You know him?" their father asked.
"Don't think so," Louis said absently, barely paying attention to the passerbyers. He was busy now tapping his trunk with his wand and causing it to levitate.
"Louis is the type where you know him but he doesn't know you," Dominique joked, addressing her father. "Very popular, you see."
Her brother rolled his eyes as he pulled his trunk off the ground. "I'm starting to wish I didn't know you."
"Hey, Lou," their father said suddenly, pointing to Dominique's trunk, "Why don't you go put you and your sister's things on the train?"
"Is her wand broken?"
"Just be a gentleman and do it," he said with a pointed look, as if that was his final word on the matter. He turned to Dominique. "I want a word with your sister before you two leave."
Dominique shifted her weight awkwardly as Louis, begrudgingly, went to charm their trunks and her broom, pulling them both toward the train. Two more girls randomly passed him as he walked by and spoke shy-sounding hellos. One blushed absolutely scarlet once Louis smiled and said hello back, which her friend was now laughing at.
"Dominique," her father said, clearly looking for her undivided attention.
She sighed and looked at him, already knowing what he was going to say. She'd gotten this lecture every first day since her third year.
"Be good," she said, attempting to beat him to the punch. "Please don't physically harm anyone. Don't curse anyone. Keep the detentions to a minimum. Work hard. No one expects you to be Louis or Victoire, but we do expect you to work as hard as you can. You're really quite clever if only you'd just focus."
Her father stared at her. He looked torn between amusement and wondering whether or not he actually sounded like that.
"Also, probably something about how important N.E.W.T.s are," she added. "Please study for them. Don't piss them away."
"Nic, I love you."
"Oh, right. That too."
Her father reached out and pulled her toward him, wrapping his arms tightly around her. "I love you for you. No one expects you to be Lou or Vic or anyone but you, I hope you know that."
Dominique returned the hug, taking in the smell of her dad's robes. It was an indescribable smell, but it was her father through and through. She did sometimes wish she could bottle it and take it out when she felt homesick.
"But seriously," he continued, "the whole not hurting or cursing people thing, that's sound advice."
She laughed into her father's chest.
"And with N.E.W.T.s, do your best. That's all anyone can do."
Dominique pulled back from her father. "I figure even if I do fail all of them, I'll make Louis give me a job when he becomes wealthy and successful."
He shook his head, but smiled and gave her arm one last reassuring squeeze. "Alright, where's Lou. I need to talk to him, too."
They both turned to scan the platform in the direction Louis had disappeared in, though after a few moments, Dominique found someone else in the crowd headed toward them. Sarah's familiar face appeared with her hair pulled up a ponytail; she was grinning excitedly at the sight of them—as if they hadn't seen each other ages instead of days.
"Hey!" she said brightly, smiling at both Dominique and her father. Dominique had to assume she was putting on this friendly face for the benefit of him since Sarah still hadn't had the chance to scold her about Henry yet. "Where's Louis?"
"Dropped out," Dominique said. "Couldn't take the pressure. Something about running away to see the world."
Louis reemerged from the crowd then, having dropped off all of their belongings. He snuck up behind Sarah and gave her a playful shake, which couldn't possibly have startled her, but she still feigned that it did. Dominique turned away to hide her eye roll.
"Hey," Louis said to her, leaning in to kiss her hello. It was a rather quick kiss, but he still let it linger seconds longer than Dominique would have ever had the courage to do in front of their father. The privilege of being the lone son.
"Lou," their father interrupted with a clearing of his throat. "A word. Real quick." He gestured with his head to follow him several yards away.
"Yeah, ok," Louis said, throwing Sarah a smile before turning to share a look of mutual understanding with his sister. The goodbye chat on the platform—more Weasley traditions.
"It's cute your dad still comes down here with you two," Sarah said, observing Louis. "My parents were thrilled to not have to make the trip this year."
"I guess. He likes to see his siblings since they're all here seeing their kids off." She coughed a bit. "If we're being honest, I can't believe I even have to take the train. I don't see anyone else from our year here."
"I saw Lira Chin down there," Sarah said, pointing at nothing in particular down the platform.
Lira Chin, a quiet, well-behaved, and exceptionally clever Ravenclaw girl who—while not a shoo-in for Head Girl—had definitely been a top contender. Her presence here meant she'd obviously been the one to get it, which meant she was only here because she had to be.
"Alright, let me rephrase," Dominique said, "I don't see anyone else from our year who isn't a school Head, sleeping with one of them, or related to them." She continued to look up and down the platform aimlessly, wondering then whether Jack—her brother's best friend and the source of many of her daydreams and dirty thoughts recently—was coming. In her haste to avoid her brother and Sarah lately, she hadn't bothered to ask about him.
She and Jack Ians hadn't spoken since the last day of the Quidditch Trials—after her secret crush ended up becoming not so secret. She had discovered that he'd found out about her feelings for him and she was now doing everything in her power to hide that. It had been easy to do when he wasn't around—especially with Henry as a distraction—but she'd have to see him at school now. They lived in the same house, they shared the exact same group of friends, and they played Quidditch together.
They'd left things a little weird, but she had full faith that once everything got ignored and swept back under the rug where it belonged, things would go back to normal. It didn't change the fact that she was still incredibly anxious to see him.
"Are we waiting on anyone else?" Dominique asked, attempting to sound nonchalant. "Or is it just us? Have you talked to some of..." she paused, "...the other people."
Sarah threw her a very particular look. "The other people?"
"You know," she said. "Other friends of ours. People who may also want to see Louis' special train compartment."
Sarah continued to stare at her. Dominique knew bloody well that she was aware of exactly what she was trying to say, but she apparently wasn't going to let her have it that easily. "Are you talking about someone in particular?"
"I mean..." She shrugged, watching as Sarah now smirked at her. Fuck. She was going to make her say it. "I don't know, Jack?"
"Ahhh," she said, faking surprise. "Jack. Right. Forgot about him." Her expression turned a bit sour. "You too, it seems."
"I literally just asked about him."
"That isn't what I meant," she said a little cooly, now watching as Louis finished up his chat with their father. "No, Jack's not coming. He's Apparating. You'll see him at school." She smiled at Louis once he returned and slunk his arm around her.
"Why?" Dominique asked, feeling oddly deflated all of the sudden.
"Ask me again in a few minutes," Sarah said, smiling at their father, who was now wishing her a good term. There was a final round of goodbyes with him, where he once again told them he loved them and wished them luck. Hugs were given once more and in a hurried sort of way, and a few more "be goods" and "I love yous," before the three of them started walking across the platform, passing all the parents that were also doing their final goodbyes.
"Why did he decide to Apparate?" Dominique asked again, now climbing the stairs up to the train behind Sarah. "He'd mentioned to me over the summer he'd come."
"He changed his mind," Sarah said, following Louis down the train's corridor toward the front. "He didn't say one way or the other, but I have a feeling it had to do with you."
Dominique didn't reply to that. Her? What? Was she serious? How true could that possibly be? She had to be acting overdramatic.
"Did Louis tell you what Jack did when he found out you and Davies were back together?"
"We're not really back together," Dominique said. "Not as you all seem to think. I mean, we are, but we're not—"
"Ok, whatever the fuck it is," Sarah interrupted, though she was keeping her voice low. Dominique had to presume it was because of Louis, not that it mattered. He was now playing the Minister of Magic game where he had to greet each and every person who stopped to say hello to him in the corridor.
She let her tone drop to a low volume as well. "No, Louis didn't tell me. What did he do?"
"He threw a full glass beer bottle straight into that big brick wall in the back of Flynn's garden," Sarah said, turning her gaze entirely onto Dominique as she continued to walk. "It was two nights ago. Louis showed up at Flynn's and told everyone, and even though I knew you two had spoken, I had hoped you'd…" She trailed off. "Anyway, while I just started swearing at you, Jack apparently throws things."
Dominique let her eyes stay focused on the runway beneath her feet, her thoughts now all over the place. "He was angry?"
"We're all angry!" Sarah said as they reached the front of the train. "But after what I'd heard happened at the Trials, a part of me thinks he had a little extra reason to be angry." She swung around on her. "What the hell are you thinking? Why did you let him back?"
"Check this out," Louis said, having already entered the Head Boy compartment and now investigating the collection of sweets and benefits it provided. "Nic, they've even got black licorice wands. You can eat all of them. No one's going to fight you for them. Oooh, but I get all the peppermint imps."
Sarah was still staring at Dominique, who suddenly wished she was anywhere else than where she was. Was this really how the next eight hours were going to be? She had expected some questions, but not an anger fueled inquisition. Why were she and Louis so convinced they were perfect? What right did they have to criticize her choices?
"Hey, Sar," Louis said, turning around with a bag of candy. "It's your favorite—" He stopped when he noticed the stare down between the girls. "What's happened?"
"I'm not doing this," Dominique said. "I'm not sitting in a train compartment with the two of you all day so that you can judge me and give me shit because you think I can't make my own decisions."
"Nic," said Louis as the adjacent compartment's door—the one belonging to the Head Girl—opened. Out popped the blue-black hair of Lira Chin. She seemed to have been waiting for Louis to arrive.
"Hey, Louis," she said brightly, "Congratulations on becoming Head Boy!"
"Yeah. Thanks. You too," he said, still watching his sister. "Nic, no one thinks you can't. We just don't understand why."
"And I would love to know why," Sarah interrupted. "You know Davies is just—"
"I'm not doing this," Dominique repeated, now turning and brushing past a very confused looking Lira. She heard Louis call after her; ask where she was going, but she ignored him and immediately rushed back down the train's corridor.
A loud whistle and the sound of steam now billowing from outside filled her ears as she made it to the door and managed to slip herself off the train and onto the solid platform. No one even seemed to notice. Parents were busy waving off their children; children were hanging out the windows doing the same in return.
She'd wondered if any of her family had seen her, seeing as they were all here, but she didn't hear anyone call her name or otherwise try to get her attention. As she moved against the sea of people, the sound of the train departing and the wheels turning made her stop and look back. The Hogwarts Express heaved itself forward, pulling out of the station with the calls of 'goodbyes' and 'I love yous' following after. She wasn't on board for the first time in her school career.
She quickly picked up her pace and disappeared back through the barrier wall and back into the Muggle part of the station. As she walked, she realized that she just had to find somewhere to go for the next...eight hours.
Shit. That was a long time when you had nothing to do and nowhere to go. Going home was an option, but there was a chance her parents were still there and then she'd have to explain to them why she wasn't on the train as she was supposed to be. Henry and Victoire wouldn't be around. She could go and wander around Diagon Alley, but she didn't have much money on her, having packed everything away in her trunk. She could go to Hogsmeade and wait things out there, but again, she didn't have much money on her. Maybe she could go and kill time at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, but there wasn't even a guarantee her uncle or aunt would be there today. They clearly had just been here seeing Freddie off on the train.
She sighed, glancing around the busy train station at the Muggles going about their business. It seemed she had some time to kill.