Louis finally confessed to the breakup, but had chosen not to divulge the truth of its details to their parents. As far as they knew, he and Sarah had just come to blows over the tournament and it had ultimately torn them apart. He'd tried to pull that with Victoire, but the second she and Dominique had been given a free moment at their uncle's party that evening—a party Louis had ultimately been told to come to after an hour long, private conversation with their father up in his room—Dominique had told her the truth.
Victoire, the peaceful, prim, calm, rational person that she was, then proceeded to smack Louis upside the head when no one else was looking.
"What is wrong with you!?" she'd said once she found Louis, who'd parked himself at a game of Gobstones with Freddie and Hugo Weasley.
For being someone that everyone wanted to talk to lately, he'd somehow done a masterful job of avoiding almost every single member of their family with nothing more than a few polite words that night. Both of their parents were quietly explaining that he wasn't up for talking much due to a combination of the breakup and recovery from his mishap at Durmstrang, and of course everyone respected that because it was Louis. After watching him be so coddled, it was actually refreshing to see Victoire give him a little pop.
Life seemed to mostly return to a more normal pace after that. Christmas came and went, with lots of boxes and family dinner; everyone seemingly in decent moods for the day. Louis, who was still mopey and annoying about it, started appearing downstairs for meals and the occasional conversation now. Their mother still doted on him and treated him as if he were some fragile vase that could break at any time, but at least he didn't seem to be relishing in it. On the contrary, he seemed rather annoyed and usually would retreat back up to his room if she went too over the top.
On the day after Boxing Day, he actually plopped himself down in Dominique's room with her for a few hours just to escape. They didn't talk about anything important, but he seemed to want the company.
"I'm going over to Jack's tonight," he said at one point, now sprawled out on her bed while he tossed an old Snitch he'd found on her bedside table up and down over and over again. "It'll be nice to just get out for a bit."
She looked up from where she sat on the floor in front of a pile of Quidditch magazines that she was currently organizing according to the publication date. "When did you talk to Jack?"
"I owled him yesterday."
"I thought he was planning to come here?"
"Probably was, but I wrote him first. Told him I need to get out for a while and that I'd come out to him."
She tossed the magazine she'd been currently sorting to the side. "I want to come."
He immediately shook his head. "No. This is a lads' night. No girls allowed." He glanced back at her. "We're not even going out. We're just going over to his brother's and drinking. Very quiet."
She found herself beginning to glare at him as annoyance began to sweep over her. It was a combination of her being explicitly told she couldn't come, but he also seemed to think that he could go back to the way things once were. He and Jack were obviously still best friends, she'd wouldn't argue that, but it wasn't the same as it was before he and Sarah had gotten together. They weren't the same inseparable kids they once were; the terms of their friendship had changed. He'd put Jack on the back burner for Sarah, and while that was life and part of growing up, it didn't mean that Jack hadn't gone and made other connections and friends since. If Louis thought he was going to change that, he had another thing coming.
"You're aware Jack's my friend now, too."
"Ok? He's always been your friend."
"No, he hasn't," she said. "We were friends because we had you in common. You and Quidditch. That was it. But he and I are actually really good friends now after you and Sarah spent the last year off on your own. You're not going to come and think things are the same as they were before and leave me out of everything."
He laughed. "What are you on about? I'm not trying to leave you out, I just want a night with my mate who—yeah, I've lost touch with a bit lately. Things are different, I get that, but Nic, you and I do bloody everything together. And that's usually fine because we get on so well, but sometimes I need to get away from my sister."
"I don't know," she mumbled, "you've made some really stupid decisions lately when I haven't been around to keep you in line.
He shrugged, as if he couldn't argue that. "Don't act as if you want me around all the time."
She looked back at her magazines. "You honestly don't bother me."
He went back to throwing the Snitch up and down again. "I get that you and Jack are friends now on your own. It's great. I'm not going to steal him away or whatever you've cooked up in your head. We can all be friends. We can all go out tomorrow or the next day or whatever. But not tonight. Tonight, you need to find something else to do."
She pulled out her wand and began moving stacks of magazines back into their storage box. "Fine. I'll find something to do. Maybe I can owl my other best friend and ask her if she—" She purposely stopped. "Ohhhhhhh wait."
Louis sighed in an overdramatic sort of way, as if he clearly didn't like where this was going.
"She's still at school," she continued in a very put-on sort of tone. "She didn't come home because she was sad and depressed because some dickhead went and broke her heart into a million pieces. What an arsehole."
Louis sat up and lobbed the Snitch in her general direction—missing her by several inches—before standing from the bed as if to make an exit. "And this is why I need a night away from you."
But it hadn't been just a night. As it turned out, he disappeared for days. After one night away, he'd owled home to let them know he was fine and not to worry; that Jack's brother and his band had gone on a road trip to their next performance and they'd tagged along. He'd be back when it was over in a few days, though he gave no specifics.
Dominique found herself beyond annoyed after reading the letter. For one, with Louis away, there was absolutely nothing to do around the house other than her homework. And yes, there was a lot she needed to get done, but she hadn't wanted to spend three days straight doing that—especially when her boy-genius brother could have helped her blow through it in half the time had he been home.
Two, it was Louis' fault that Sarah wasn't home to distract her and allowed her someone to visit herself. Granted, had she come home, Dominique was certain she would have had to listen to several angry rants about Louis, but it would have been something. After the second day of being bored out of her mind, she'd have taken that. They could have ranted about Louis together since he was currently on both of their shit lists.
Three, if Louis was with Jack, that meant Jack was distracted and busy. If he was distracted and busy, she didn't get to see him. She didn't know what they were doing, but she found her thoughts drifting to him constantly—about their kiss, their dance, their moments. She had hoped she'd have seen more of him over this break, but he hadn't popped by the house even once. Davies had come by more than Jack had; she hadn't even gotten so much a second-hand, "Jack says hello" when her brother owled home. She'd heard nothing. Perhaps she should have stayed at Hogwarts as well.
It wasn't until New Years Eve, days before they were to return to school, that Louis reappeared. Her family was having a belated birthday dinner for Victoire—whose birthday had been the day before, though she'd chosen to spend it with Ted on some romantic evening. Her mother had prepared one of her famous chocolate souffles as well as a dinner to celebrate. Along with Victoire and Teddy, her Uncle George and his family, as well as her Aunt Ginny and all three of her children had come over. All the younger cousins had grouped off to go run along the beach despite it being nearly freezing outside.
James had hung back to listen to the Puddlemere and Ballycastle Quidditch match on the radio with Dominique. He seemed to be at the age where he wanted to be seen as older and taken more seriously, hence skipping out on the giggles and shouting on the beach with the children. Dominique didn't mind the company after her last few days; it was nice to have someone to chat with about Quidditch.
Just before dinner was served, there had been different kinds of screams now drifting in from outside. They were surprised and cheerful, almost playful. Dominique stopped her conversation with James about the three best Seekers in the league right now, and turned when the front door flew open. In walked Louis, looking desperately in need of a shower and wearing clothes she'd never seen before. It appeared as if he hadn't slept in days, but he was smiling and apparently in a great mood.
"Where the hell have you been?" she asked him. Their mother appeared from the kitchen at the same moment to give him a look that asked the exact same question.
He turned from Dominique to his mother, still smiling. "Did you not get my owl?"
"You've been gone for days, Louis," her mother said, just as Ginny appeared from the kitchen with a glass of wine in her hand to look Louis up and down. She didn't seem to know what to make of his current state; she seemed to have a few questions.
"Oh, well, it was just a bit of an adventure," he said with a shrug, as if it was no big deal. "Sort of just happened. I traveled up and down the coast in Ireland in a van with these Muggles, but it was fantastic."
Victoire and Teddy had appeared behind Ginny, their expressions curious as well. Everyone was staring at Louis as if he were a strange creature who'd materialized out of thin air, though he didn't seem to mind in the least.
"Why is everyone here?" he asked, looking around. "Are we having a party?"
"It's a birthday dinner for your sister."
"Wasn't her birthday yesterday?" He glanced over at Victoire. "Happy birthday, by the way."
Victoire raised her glass up in a sarcastic salute.
"I'm going to go shower and then I'll come down and be social," he said, immediately heading for the stairs. Their mother did not seem to be particularly amused, but seemed to be biting her tongue in front of their guests.
Ginny proceeded into the living room, walking over to where James and Dominique were sitting near the radio. She took the nearest seat on the sofa, while—on the other side of the room—Teddy and Victoire took a seat, but were chatting about something amongst themselves.
Her aunt gestured to the radio. "I assume Puddlemere is winning?"
"Safest bet you could ever make," James said as the announcer on the radio proclaimed Ballycastle had scored and we now within two-hundred points of the lead.
Listening to this match only reminded Dominique of Jack and how he'd be making a hundred excuses right now for Ballycastle's losing. It made it hard to concentrate on the actual Quidditch when he kept popping into her head every time the word Ballycastle was spoken.
"Harpies won their match earlier," Ginny said. "Beat Appleby pretty thoroughly." She smiled at Dominique. "I think we've got a great chance this year."
"I would love to see them make it to the championship," Dominique said with a dreamy sort of smile. "Anyone but Puddlemere."
"I hate Puddlemere," James muttered before glancing back at Dominique. "You know who's a big Puddlemere fan? Alice."
"Alice from Quidditch? She's never said anything."
"I think she hears everyone slag on them all the time and keeps quiet. Doesn't seem like the type to challenge you, or Tommy, or Jack."
"It's not a challenge to stand up for your team," Dominique said. "She needs to speak up."
"You're quite scary," James said bluntly.
"Honestly, James?" Ginny said, rolling her eyes at her son before settling her gaze on Dominique. "But speaking of people on your Quidditch team, I hear you've gone and taken up with someone on it. How's that going?"
Dominique stared at her rather blankly; James looked from his mother and back to her, as if that were news to him. Dominique's expression must have shifted into something more closely resembling shock and alarm, because her aunt suddenly backtracked and said, "I'm sorry. Was that not…? Perhaps I got the wrong information."
"What information did you get?" she asked, genuinely wondering where she would have picked up any sort of story like that.
Ginny suddenly looked a bit embarrassed. "I shouldn't have even said anything. I must have misunderstood. Harry and I had dinner with Neville the other night and he mentioned you and someone on your Quidditch team having been caught by Filch in the corridors after hours." She gave Dominique a very particular look, as if alluding to what Filch had caught her doing, though not saying it outloud.
"Who?" James asked, looking at Dominique. "And doing what?"
"Mind your business," Dominique said to him, still more than surprised that Professor Longbottom went and gossiped about his students with his friends. Who knew they were as bad as the students?
"It's got to be Jack, then," James said. "I mean, who else would it be? You two are like this—" He crossed his fingers and held them up to show her. "And I saw you two dancing at the Christmas Party."
"Wait, Nicki was dancing with someone?" Victoire asked, naturally choosing that exact moment to be a nosy brat and tune into their conversation. "Who? What are we talking about?"
"Nothing," Dominique said as Ginny threw her son a silencing look, warning him to drop it. He apparently didn't get the hint.
"Filch caught Nicki and someone on the Quidditch team after hours in the corridors messing around," he said . The little shit. It was as if he wanted to be cursed into the new year.
"Oh yeah?" asked Ted, suddenly intrigued. "You know, I managed to get through all seven years without ever having to deal with Filch. I feel as if everyone else has a story, but I never did."
"He never bothered me either," Victoire said, though her eyes were quickly back on her sister as her expression grew playful. "And who were you messing around with? Who's even on the team this year?"
"My guess would be Jack," James offered. "They're both close and always together. Plus, I saw them dancing at the Christmas Party together."
The playfulness in Victoire's face slid off into something else entirely. Even Ted's face seemed to say he'd been taken off guard by that. He'd turned to look at Victoire to gauge her reaction, though she didn't take her eyes off her sister. When he turned back, he was smirking. "Your brother's best mate."
"Ohhhhh," Ginny said softly as she stood from the sofa, now apparently wanting to escape this awkward situation. "Now I understand. Wow do I. I am sorry I said anything."
"For the record," Dominique said, now addressing the small group in front of her. "I have a perfectly good explanation if you would all just listen."
"I did, too," Ginny said, patting Dominique on the back as she made her way to exit the room. "But the heart wants what it wants."
"Does Louis know?" Ted asked.
"He does not, because—"
"Louis would be a bloody hypocrite if he got upset," Victoire said to Ted before again turning back to Dominique. "And how long have you two been—?"
"Would you just listen!?" Dominique snapped, forcing her sister into silence. "Yes, Filch caught me and Jack kissing in a corridor, but we only did it in the first place because…"
She then proceeded to tell them about the entire events of the Christmas party evening. From the reason she and Jack went together in the first place, to the rows Louis and Sarah had, to her and Jack following them through the school and finding them in the Astronomy Tower breaking up, to distracting Filch. She told them every detail and when she was done, not one of them looked particularly convinced. Victoire especially was staring at her as that was a load of bollocks.
"Those sure were a lot of words to say that you wanted to snog in an empty corridor."
"I didn't want to snog in an empty corridor!" Dominique said, now getting annoyed. "Why would I have done that when—" and she suddenly felt herself channeling Professor Longbottom, "—I live in the same house with him and could do it anywhere in Gryffindor Tower? Or when we're alone at Quidditch? Or any other bloody time because he and I are often alone together."
"And now everyone knows what you're doing when you're alone," Ted quipped. Victoire threw him an amused smile, though Dominique fought every urge in her body to curse their stupid faces.
"Look, could you at least be upfront with Louis and tell him?" Victoire asked. "Can we all stop with these secret relationships that ultimately lead to fights and fallouts?"
Dominique pulled a face and aimed it directly for the two of them, who'd kept their relationship a secret from everyone but her—and she'd only found out accidentally—for months before it finally came out. "You're one to talk about keeping secrets."
"Which is why," Victoire said, now pointing at her, "I'm saying we should nip it in the bud from the start and you should tell Louis."
"There's nothing to…" She hesitated, thinking now of Jack's hands on her waist and his tongue in her mouth. "It's...there's nothing to tell Louis."
At that very moment, footsteps thumping down the stairs led to Louis appearing seconds later, looking clean and far more like his usual self. He was pulling a jumper over his wet head of hair as he walked into the living room asking, "Tell me what?"
Dominique groaned. How did she end up in the situation? Victoire was now staring at her as if urging her to speak, but she genuinely felt that this was a nothing story; they were all blowing it out of proportion. It wasn't even that she didn't want to tell Louis—she'd saved him that night, after all, so why shouldn't he know?—but she didn't want to tell him like this. This made it seem far more scandalous than it actually was. It's not as if they were talking about the real kiss she and Jack shared.
"Tell me what?" he repeated, glancing around the room. "What is it?"
Victoire stared at Dominique and she stared right back. She wasn't going to do it just because Victoire was a know-it-all who thought she knew best. She couldn't make her.
"Jack and Nicki got caught snogging in the Astronomy corridor by Filch after the Christmas Party," James said, reminding everyone of his presence. Dominique immediately let her dark glare settle right onto him. He must have a death wish.
"James," Ted said, throwing him a half amused, half scolding look. "Come on, mate."
"No one else was saying it," he offered. "Thought I'd move things along."
Dominique turned back to Louis. "Ok, but there's a perfectly good—"
"I know," he said, shrugging as if he didn't care while he took the nearest seat on the sofa and began randomly adjusting the sleeves to his jumper. "Jack told me. I heard the whole story."
That was rather surprising to hear. She hadn't anticipated Jack being the one to break the news to Louis, even if there was a very good story behind it. Now she wondered if he'd told him anything else. "He did?"
"He did," Louis said, as he continued to roll his sleeves up. "He told me you did it to distract Filch. It worked because I didn't get caught. I appreciate it because I wasn't thinking straight that night, so the last thing I would have needed would have been to get blasted for being up in the Astronomy Tower after hours." He mused on that thought. "I'm pretty sure McGonagall would have had my head. She really hates people going up there when they're not supposed to."
"That's all he said?"
Louis nodded, looking preoccupied.
She smirked, feeling pleasantly surprised. It quickly turned smug as she turned it onto Victoire and Ted. "Told you."
Victoire rolled her eyes though Ted was still looking doubtful. His expression was very much, "Whatever you say."
Dinner was served shortly after, with James, Albus, Lily, Freddie, and Roxy all sitting at the kitchen table while everyone else was crowded around the dining room table. Dominique could fondly remember the days when it had been she, her siblings, and Ted all left in the kitchen so as to not disturb the grown-ups, but it seems somewhere along the way she'd gone and become one of those very adults who had gotten a chair at the big table. It seemed James, for all his efforts, wasn't quite there yet.
The food was spectacular, but it always was when her mother cooked. There was chatter about how Christmas had been spent and what everyone's New Year's plans were. Louis regaled them all with a watered down, very innocent sounding version of his adventures with Jack and his brother's band for the last few days. They had apparently met people from all walks of life, slept in a shithole motel, dealt with a van that broke down at least twice—though Louis said Jack's understanding of both cars and magic came in quite handy there, even if they had to keep it a secret from the Muggles—and watched the sunrise almost every day since they'd stayed up all night.
Jack had apparently even gotten a tattoo at some point, which had caused both her parents and Dominique to stare at Louis in an alarmed sort of way. She because she was shocked to hear it and now had so many questions she wasn't about to ask in front of her extended family; her parents because they were afraid Louis had done the same.
"I didn't," Louis said as he speared a potato with his fork. "If I ever get a tattoo, it's going to be a proper one done through a wizard artist. The Muggle tattoos don't even do anything."
Everyone other than her and her mother seemed to think it was wonderful that Louis had gone out and had an epic experience after what he'd been through. It was evident that her mother still wasn't happy about the lack of communication while being on the mend from Durmstrang; Dominique was still annoyed that she'd been left out of this great adventure entirely. She was left twiddling her thumbs while Louis—who only needed to get over his break-up because he'd caused it—was getting pats on the back and told "you're only young once" and "it's good since you've been under so much pressure lately." It was almost amazing how untouchable he was.
After dinner and pudding, Ginny and her kids were headed home, where hopefully Harry was off work by now so that they could enjoy a quiet New Year's Eve. Or rather, as quiet as it could be with three of their own children, plus Freddie and Roxy—who were spending the night with them. George and Angelina had plans to go out and had convinced both of Dominique's parents to join them.
She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen her parents go out randomly—without there being a preplanned occasion prompting them—but it was nice to see them get out and plan on having a bit of fun. It was also rather depressing considering her parents were having more fun than she was lately.
Teddy and Victoire were going to Diagon Alley to meet friends and invited both Louis and Dominique along. Louis turned them down immediately, saying he needed a night in and that he hated going on out night's like New Year's. Everywhere was crowded and full of people who got pissed out of their minds and didn't know what they were doing. Dominique genuinely mulled the offer over, but ultimately said no. Yes, it would have been a night out of this house, which she desperately needed, but Louis had a point about the crowded places and drunken idiots. Plus, if he was home now, she at least had someone to talk to.
"If you change your mind," Victoire was saying as she put on her cloak. "We'll be at the Dragon's Breath until at least eleven. Maybe later if it's not too crazy. After that, I don't know where we're going."
"I'm going home," Ted said, reaching out to give her shoulders an affectionate squeeze as he stood behind her waiting for her to leave. "I have to work at five in the morning and you seem to be under the impression that I'm making it to midnight."
Victoire looked back at her sister very pointedly. "He's making it to midnight."
"He's not," Ted quipped. "He's going to have a drink or two, but then he'll be in bed by ten."
"Why is he talking about himself in the third person?" Dominique asked, causing Ted to let out a short laugh
"I can't help that I'm superstitious," Victoire said as she turned to open the door, letting cold air suddenly blast Dominique where she stood. "I believe that the person you kiss at midnight on New Year's is the person you're meant to spend the year with." She looked at Ted. "I remember having that conversation with you last year on New Year's. And we kissed at midnight. And we're still together, so..." She made a face as if she'd just provided rock solid evidence to support her claim.
Louis, who'd been in the living room but was now passing toward the kitchen, mumbled, "That's a load of bollocks."
"Well, it only works if you don't go cheating on the person," Victorie snapped back, watching as he disappeared into the kitchen. "Maybe if you weren't kissing other girls and making really shitty decisions, Louis William Weasley!"
"Alright, come on, we're letting the cold in," Ted said, reaching out to grab Victoire's hand. He glanced back at Dominique. "Happy New Year." He then loudly called, "Happy New Year, Lou."
"You too," Dominique said, shutting the door behind the both of them once they'd left. It was now just she and Louis, and he'd decided he wanted to listen to a new music album he'd acquired. He'd gone upstairs to find it.
She figured she'd check the Quidditch recap for the end of the Puddlemere and Ballycastle match. She flipped the radio back on and heard a commercial for Spello-Tape right as Louis returned with a vinyl record in his hands. She waved him off when he attempted to switch it on, telling him she wanted to hear the match recap before he took over the radio. He set the vinyl down beside her and the radio and collapsed on the sofa to wait his turn.
"No Nymph Chasers?" she asked, picking up the record that—surprisingly—wasn't by his favorite band. It was second nature for him to put Nymph Chasers on when he was sitting around.
He shook his head. "I'm trying some new stuff."
She looked over at him. She knew immediately that it was because the Nymph Chasers reminded him of Sarah. That band had been the reason they'd come together in the first place due to their shared love of them; they'd probably built a hundred memories around almost all of their songs. Now, they were a painful reminder of a time when he wasn't a prat. Serves him right to have his favorite band tarnished by all of this.
"So, what'd Jack get a tattoo of?" she asked nonchalantly, attempting to not sound too interested in the answer as a commercial for Quidditch gloves played in the background.
"A duck," Louis said.
She pulled a face. "Why?"
"He and his brother have some meaning behind it," Louis said. "His brother got one done at the same time Jack got his. I don't know the whole story. He might have told me, but I was wasted that night so I don't remember."
"Of course you were," Dominique said with a roll of her eyes. "You made it seem so innocent and carefree at dinner, but in reality you were probably drunk or high or attempting to get shagged—"
Louis held up a hand to stop her right there. "Yes, to the first and the second. No, to the third. I barely talked to any girls the entire time I was gone. Some of the other guys were trying, but I didn't."
"You want a gold star for not sticking your bits in some girl?" She reached for her wand and suddenly cast a small spraying of stars and light—almost a mini-firework—out of the tip. "Here, have a few."
"Well, that was unnecessary."
She smirked as she randomly opened the old cupboard that the radio sat on top of. It had always been in her living room for as long as she could remember. It's where her family kept discarded old books and photo albums; trinkets and dusty bored games that weren't meant to see the light of day again. The last few days— in her bored stupor—she had started going through it; seeing if there was anything of value or interest inside. She hadn't found anything yet, but she'd only done the top half. The bottom was still cluttered with rubbish she hadn't explored.
"It was just really nice to be distracted," Louis said, answering a question that no one had asked. "It was nice that no one really giving a fuck who I was, or that I'm some champion, or some bloke from the papers. Just to get away and be nobody."
She hummed, though her attention was half inside the cupboard. Nothing in here had been touched in ages—though she immediately started pulling out the games to see if there was anything of interest inside. A chess set. Chutes and Floo. Witch's Wordplay. She hadn't seen some of these games since she'd left for Hogwarts.
"Are you even listening?" Louis asked, and only then did she realize that he was still talking to her. She looked up and feigned innocent, holding up Witch's Wordplay for him to see.
"Remember this?"
He was staring at her in a half annoyed sort of way, but his attention quickly went to the box in her hand. "You think all the pieces are still in there?"
"Maybe," she said as she tossed the box to the ground before opening it up. There was one game board and a bag full of letter tiles that one had to put together to make words for points. If you spelled out magical words, they would glow certain colors based on the level of points each was worth. As kids, she and her siblings would always strive so hard to get the tiles to turn purple—which awarded the most points you could get.
Before she'd really thought much about it, she was already setting up the game and Louis had moved onto the floor to join her. This seemed fairly appropriate when she thought about it. Bantering with Louis and wasting her time on insignificant things was probably the way she should be ringing in the new year seeing as that was how she spent so much of her time on a regular day. Why change things?
"Remember, you have to pick a tile out of the bag to see who goes first," Louis began to say, though she quickly shushed him when the announcers on the radio suddenly came back talking about something having to do with an unprecedented upset. She leaned closer, even though the room was otherwise silent and she could hear perfectly fine.
"No one could have seen that remarkable comeback from Ballycastle coming, and if you say you did, you're a liar. They were down by three-hundred and forty points near the halfway point, but somehow managed to not only make up the gap, but also catch the Snitch against—what many say is not only the strongest Puddlemere team in ages, but also one of the strongest collective Quidditch teams in ages. Cather, what do you think happened to Puddlemere that caused them to fall apart at the end?"
"Interesting question, Mav. I think it all comes down to—"
"Did Ballycastle beat Puddlemere?" Louis asked, having pulled out his own letter tile to examine. "Shit, Jack will be thrilled. He was talking about that yesterday. That's big, isn't it?"
Dominique still hadn't picked her jaw up. Puddlemere had lost? They'd actually lost? And to bloody Ballycastle? This was huge. Jack was going to lose his mind. She started to laugh, still completely shocked at what she was hearing. She looked up at Louis. "It's huge. He's going to go absolutely mental. This shakes up so much of the Eastern division." She stood up, suddenly feeling the need to walk or jump or pace around given the weird burst of adrenaline that had hit her.
"I hope he got to listen," Louis said casually, holding up the bag of tiles. "You going to pick one?"
"Why wouldn't he have listened?" Dominique asked as she walked over and put her hand in the bag. She drew out a "U". Louis turned his around and revealed a "T".
"He'd mentioned he wasn't sure he could," he said, readying himself to go first. "He had plans or something. Plus, you know he goes almost full-Muggle when he's home."
Full-Muggle. It was a term Louis had coined for Jack back when they were kids. It meant that he would go home and reassimilate himself into Muggle culture fully in order to blend back in with his family and friends. When they were smaller, it was easier for him since he wasn't allowed to do magic outside of Hogwarts anyway, but now that he was an adult, Dominique had to wonder how that even worked. How did he not use magic for everything? But she barely knew anything about being a Muggle. Perhaps it was easier than she thought.
"I think he gets the Prophet," Louis added as he started to lay down the word Doxy, causing the tiles to glow purple straight away given that his X landed on a bonus spot. "So, by morning he'd know."
"I refuse to believe he didn't listen to one of the biggest matches of the season," Dominique said, walking over to examine her own letters. "I'll have lost some respect for him if he did."
"I'd imagine it's harder than you think leading a double life around all those Muggles when no one understands what Quidditch is," Louis said as she played an H and an E off his X to spell Hex. They glowed a modest, low scoring red.
They went back and forth, with Louis coming out strong with words like Centaur and Elixir, though she'd got Crucio and Phoenix in there for some decent points. If Louis would just stop stealing all the bonus spots, she'd have already pulled ahead.
"You done with the radio?" he asked, reaching to grab the record he'd gone to retrieve earlier. She nodded as she attempted to work her Q to fit into a bonus spot next to the A Louis had laid earlier, but she was immediately jolted out of her thoughts once the sound of an angry, screaming noise started pouring out of the radio. This certainly wasn't anything like the Nymph Chasers, and Dominique immediately regretted any negative thing she'd ever said about them if this was Louis' new interest. She made a point to cover her ears and stare at her brother, but he merely smiled and nodded his head. "They're good, right?!"
She shook her head and motioned for him to turn it down, but he was too busy banging his head around in a way that had to be a joke. She instead stood and retreated to the kitchen to escape and get a glass of water. There was no way they were about to listen to that all night.
As she sat at the table, she lowered her hands from her ears and looked up at the clock on the wall. It was only half past nine. Still two and a half hours until midnight. Two and a half hours until she could finally kiss this year goodbye and all the rubbish that had come with it.
She wasn't one for resolutions or clean slates, but she could appreciate that a new year meant allowing herself to try again. Davies had been a mistake, but she was leaving him in this year, never to be thought of again. She had new people to think about, and perhaps this year would open up more opportunities for that. Not to mention, Quidditch was going to start getting really serious now that it was the second term. Then, of course, her exams. After that came graduation and the end of Hogwarts. This was going to truly be a year of change.
There was a knock—or rather a pounding—at the door. Dominique looked up from her glass of water and glanced out of the kitchen and into the front foyer. The idea of someone pounding on her door at half past nine gave her pause since nothing good ever came from pounding. Louis' music seemed to have drowned out the noises for him as she noticed no movement from the living room. The pounding returned, only faster this time.
She couldn't see anything outside from the kitchen, but she was suddenly very afraid that it was Davies again. Not that she was afraid of him, but she was afraid of the confrontation that would have to occur if it was him. Would he have been so stupid as to come by after what her father had said to him? Lately, he seemed brazen enough to attempt to show on a night like New Year's Eve to talk to her.
"Is someone knocking?" asked Louis, appearing in the entryway to the living room and catching her eye in the kitchen.
"Yes, but you need to answer it," she said, nodding toward the door. "If it's Davies, tell him to fuck off. I don't want to see him."
"He's not still coming around, is he?" Louis asked as he pulled his wand out. "Didn't you say dad told him off? How does he know dad isn't home?"
Dominique shrugged as the pounding continued once more. Louis walked over and checked out the nearest window. Whatever he saw made him drop his wand and start to laugh.
A/N: Before anyone says it (because someone always does) YES, I know Victoire's birthday is actually in May. I KNOW. Every time I bring up her birthday it comes up, and-go figure-her birthday is the one that comes up most often in my stories. This Victoire's birthday is in December, because I started this way back before JKR let us know when her birthday actually was. And anyone who's read "AYitL" knows that I focus much of the first part of the story around her December birthday; it was too late to change. So yes, I know. I know. It's the one detail I will forever ignore. :)