Year 5: Out of Sync
Chapter 50: June 2018
It was June. The O.W.L.s had arrived.
It was the morning of their first exam: defence against the dark arts. The seventh years had their herbology N.E.W.T.s and Dominique caught her older sister's eye from across the examination room as she sat down.
The table before her was a little wobbly and she frustratingly ripped a bit of parchment off the bottom of one of her exam pages and folded it up and then stuck it under the leg of the table that was too short. She would have just done a spell, but they'd been warned about using magic in the examination room and Dominique didn't want to be removed before she'd even had a chance to write her exam.
They were provided with quills and inkwells, which had been charmed with anti-cheating spells prior to the students' arrival. Her exam lay on top of the table, facedown.
The head examiner stepped to the front of the room and introduced himself. He quickly reminded them all of the rules – not that they needed reminding. Their professors had been drilling the rules into them for months now. And then with a flick of his wand, a large hourglass appeared, and the sand began to count down the time they had left. It was a three-hour exam.
Dominique flipped over her exam and scribbled her name at the top as she read the first question.
What is a pogrebin and how can they be defeated? Please describe in no more than 100 words, including appearance, where they can be found, and Ministry of Magic classification.
Dominique nodded to herself. She could do this. She knew about pogrebins. She wrote out her answer and moved to the next question.
What is a lobalug and how can they be defeated? Please describe in no more than 100 words, including appearance, where they can be found, and Ministry of Magic classification.
Dominique frowned and looked through the next couple of pages of the exam and saw that they were all remarkably similar, asking the same question about a number of the dark creatures they'd studied over the years. She then saw that it wasn't until the second half of the exam that questions about duelling and defensive magic came up.
She settled in and let all her studying of dark creatures pour into her mind as she wrote out an answer for the second question. When she was finished, she moved on to the third.
What is a quintaped and how can they be defeated? Please describe in no more than 100 words, including appearance, where they can be found, and Ministry of Magic classification.
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Three hours later, the head examiner, Professor Henderson, called time, and Dominique's exam immediately zoomed off her desk to land in a pile with the rest of the fifth-year defence exams at the front of the room.
"You are all dismissed," Professor Henderson announced. "We'll see you all back here after lunch for the practical components of your exams."
Dominique didn't dare speak a word until they had exited the Great Hall again, remembering her professor's warnings about speaking in the examination room, even after exams had been collected. As soon as she stepped into the Entrance Hall though, she let out a huge sigh.
"That was horrendous!" she cried, almost collapsing to the floor.
"So much worse than I was expecting," Brooke agreed. "And what was with all those questions about dark creatures? All Professor Derlid ever wants to teach us is how to duel. I assumed it was because dark creatures weren't as important on exams."
"I guess he just prefers duelling lessons," Dominique said, in agreement. "But if that exam was in any way foreshadowing of the practical, I'm going to be reviewing dark creatures over lunch. I wouldn't put it past the examiners to bring one or two in for us to fight."
Lunch was a strange affair. The fifth and seventh years were having a working lunch, textbooks spread out on tables next to them as they tried to feed themselves without breaking eye contact with their notes. Dominique was determined not to be caught off guard, and while she'd felt able to answer the theoretical questions about dark creatures, she was less confident in being able to face off against one. After all, despite all the practice time she'd put in, it wasn't as though there were a place at Hogwarts she could go to practice actually facing off with any of these creatures.
After lunch, everyone was instructed to wait in the Entrance Hall to be called into the examination room one at a time. The seventh years were fewer, but their exams were longer, and Dominique estimated that for every three fifth years that were called, one seventh year was called.
Dominique waited with Brooke, Tom, and Miles off to one side of the Entrance Hall. Benches had been placed around the space to allow students to sit, but Dominique and her friends just sat on the floor. Dominique saw William sitting with his friends but ignored him as he'd been ignoring her since their argument the previous month. There would be time to figure things out with him later, but for now Dominique had exams to worry about.
The were called alphabetically, so Miles was one of the first to leave. When he returned, he glanced in his friends' direction, but as per the rules, couldn't say anything to them. Instead he smiled encouragingly and headed towards the Grand Staircase. Dominique felt reassured. He'd smiled. That had to mean the exam wasn't that bad. If it were bad, he'd have come out looking a lot more frustrated, right? Unless it had gone poorly but he hadn't wanted to psyche his friends out.
Dominique fretted over this as first Brooke and then Tom were called, leaving her alone. This was the problem with having a last name that started with W. Though it meant that she could put off things she wasn't looking forward to longer, it also meant she had to stew and stress longer as well. But Dominique used her time to her advantage and kept studying right up until her name was called.
She was assigned to a Professor Cunningham, and as she walked over, she looked around the room that had once again been transformed. Four cubicles had been set up, two for the O.W.L. students and two for the N.E.W.T. students so that nobody could cheat by watching the other person. Dominique stepped into Professor Cunningham's cubicle and immediately noted that there was nothing else there besides the examiner. No table, no chair, no place for him to write even, and certainly no dark creatures.
"Dominique Weasley?" Professor Cunningham inquired.
Dominique nodded in confirmation.
"You have your wand?" he asked.
Dominique drew it. She wondered if anyone had been stupid enough to come to the defence against the dark arts practical examination without a wand. Then, suddenly, without any warning, a jet of purple light appeared headed straight for her.
Dominique raised her shield charm just in time and successfully blocked the spell.
"Good," Professor Cunningham said approvingly. He waved his wand and conjured what appeared to be some sort of dummy or mannequin. "Now if you could cast a stunning spell?" he requested, pointing at the dummy.
Dominique turned to face it and tried to pretend it was a human. It was weird fighting something that wasn't able to fight back – in Professor Derlid's class they always worked with partners. But Dominique supposed it wouldn't be productive to have her curse the examiner.
Professor Cunningham kept her for another twenty minutes, asking her to cast spell after spell. He never made any notes or wrote anything down, and when it was over, he simply thanked her.
"How did I do?" Dominique asked curiously.
He shook his head. "You'll find out soon enough," he replied cryptically.
DdDdDdDdDdD
The next day was dedicated to ancient runes, which meant that Dominique had a full day off to study with Brooke and Tom. Miles joined them in the afternoon, since there was no practical component to the ancient runes exam and eventually the rest of the fifth year Gryffindors joined in too, Tom even volunteering to do another last-minute crash course in potions for them all in preparation for their upcoming potions exam the next day.
The morning was once again dedicated to the theory exam, which was even more challenging than the defence against the dark arts exam. Dominique found herself faced with questions about the properties of obscure ingredients she'd only ever used once, and other questions that asked her to write out the entire recipe for various potions.
In the afternoon, things were conducted a little differently. The seventh years had had their muggle studies exam that morning, but since the subject had no practical component to it, were absent that afternoon. Dominique realized that it had likely been designed that way as instead of being called in one by one, the fifth years were all ushered in and positioned at makeshift potions stations that had been set up all around the room. As they were required to brew an entire potion for their exam, Dominique supposed it wouldn't be efficient to have them come in one at a time.
Each student was presented with a different potion to brew, so that they couldn't cheat off one another. Dominique disappointedly discovered that she'd been assigned the confusing concoction, a potion they'd learned in their third year that was both complicated enough that she wished she'd learned it more recently, and distant enough in her memory that she wasn't confident she'd be able to recall all the steps and ingredients.
She had to try though, and so she began.
DdDdDdDdDdD
The remainder of the O.W.L.s passed in much the same amount of stress and difficulty. On Thursday, they had transfiguration, which Dominique felt better about than her previous exams. On Friday they had care of magical creatures. The following Monday they began with herbology and then charms on Tuesday, which Dominique sailed through. Wednesday morning was dedicated to history of magic and then they had the afternoon off to prepare for a very intense Thursday, which consisted of muggle studies in the morning, followed by a theoretical astronomy exam in the afternoon and a practical astronomy exam that night.
Thankfully, Dominique didn't have to worry about any exams on Friday, because the final day of exams was dedicated to arithmancy. Thankfully, the examiners had enough sense to give the arithmancy students the morning off though, and so Brooke and Tom were able to sleep in a bit before writing their arithmancy exam in the afternoon.
Both too soon and not soon enough, the O.W.L.s were over. It occurred to Dominique that for a lot of her courses, she was never going to have to study for them ever again. She'd sat through her last history of magic lecture, spent her last night staying up late to watch the stars in astronomy, and written her last essay on the uses of various types of plants.
There was also a lot still on the line. If Dominique was going to be a curse-breaker, she didn't just need ancient runes. She would need to continue in charms, transfiguration, and defence against the dark arts as well. And while she was confident that she would pass her charms O.W.L. with flying colors, transfiguration and defence were still up in the air. She would just have to wait for her results though. There was nothing left that she could do.
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William sought Dominique out the week following the end of exams. Dominique had thought about going to him as soon as exams were over, but something had stopped her. Perhaps she'd been too afraid of having the inevitable conversation. Perhaps she'd just wanted to hold on to hope just a little bit longer. But when William came and found her out by the lake, she knew what was coming.
"Can I have a word?" William asked politely.
Dominique had been outside sunbathing with Brooke, but upon William's approach had sat up and covered herself again.
"Sure," she agreed. She stood and joined him as he began to lead her along a path around the lake.
"So we should talk about – "
"Yeah," Dominique agreed.
It was an awkward topic to bring up and neither seemed to know how.
"I didn't, you know," Dominique finally said. "Sleep with someone else. I was never going to."
"I know," William replied. "I never thought you would."
Dominique nodded and they continued walking.
"Dominique this isn't working," William finally said.
"We can make it work," Dominique insisted. "If we try hard enough. We were just stressed about exams."
William shook his head. "No," he disagreed. "It's about more than that one argument. It's about all the arguments."
"Couples fight," Dominique defended. "It's normal to fight."
"But it's all we do," William said. "We fight, and then we make up and it's great for a minute, and then we're fighting again. And I don't want to be fighting all the time."
"Maybe we're just still getting used to each other," Dominique suggested. "Maybe it's just taking time to adapt. I still have to get to know your friends better, and you have to get to know mine."
William shook his head again. "That's not the problem," he said. "It's us. We're fundamentally different. We want different things. I realized it when you said you wanted to be a curse-breaker. I don't want to be working at the Ministry and dating a curse-breaker."
"And if I didn't become a curse-breaker?" Dominique suggested.
William sighed. "It's not about the job, it's about the lifestyle. I want stability. I want someone who's serious about settling down living a nice quiet life. You want excitement and adventure. You don't want to settle down, you want to have fun."
"We still have two years before that's even going to be an issue," Dominique pointed out.
"That's true," William agreed. "But I'd rather spend those two years looking for someone to settle down with than wasting my time on something that can't last."
"That's what I am to you then?" Dominique asked, a pang of hurt tugging at her. "A waste of time."
"It's not that I don't enjoy your company," William assured her. "It's just that you're not the most productive use of my time."
"Well that's nice," Dominique said sarcastically, trying to use the sarcasm to minimize the hurt she was feeling at his words. "I didn't know relationships were about productivity. I thought they were about feelings. I really liked you."
"I liked you too," William said. "But – "
"No I get it," Dominique said, cutting him off. "I'm not what you want. It's fine. I guess I won't burden you anymore. You're free to go."
"Dominique – "
"Go!" Dominique cried, nearing the verge of how much more of this conversation she could take.
William took half a step forward and then thought better of it and turned around and left. Dominique managed to make it about another five steps before she fell to the ground in tears.
It would have been one thing if William had said he just didn't love her. It would have been one thing if he'd said that he was in love with someone else. But his breaking up with her hadn't had anything to do with feelings. For him it had all been rational, a cold calculation of the facts. Was that all Dominique was? Was she just a factor to be calculated into someone's life?
When she'd started the year off, Dominique had been searching for passion. She'd been looking for someone to make her feel, and she'd thought she'd found that in William. But it had never been an emotional affair for him. While Dominique had been risking falling for him, he'd been evaluating her potential against the potential other girls provided.
It was humiliating is what it was. Dominique felt humiliated. She felt used in a way worse than back in the fall when she'd sleep with a guy knowing that for them, it was all about the sex. The thing was, back then, she'd been using them too. But this time, she'd opened herself up only to discover that William had never been opening himself to her.
Brooke came and found Dominique eventually and seeing her friend in pain, just hugged her until Dominique felt better and ready to go back inside the castle.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Brooke asked.
Dominique shook her head. Brooke wouldn't understand. She and Tom had the perfect relationship. They had what Dominique wanted. What she'd though she and William had been headed towards. She was jealous. And she was ashamed. She didn't want Brooke to know the truth.
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Dominique spent the remainder of the term rather subdued. There were no classes to attend, which meant that if she wanted, she could stay in Gryffindor Tower all day. Though she didn't want to retreat from the world and hide in her room, she also didn't want to run into William in the halls quite yet, so instead she stayed in the common room playing gobstones with Miles and studying ancient runes.
"You're coming along really well," Miles commented one afternoon as he looked over Dominique's progress with her runic vocabulary. Though she was still lagging behind on her grammar, she'd learned almost all the vocabulary she needed to know to take the O.W.L. in August.
"Thanks," Dominique replied with a grin. "I've been practicing."
"I would've expected you to be spending more time with William now that classes are done," Miles commented. "Though I suppose your dedication to becoming a curse-breaker is commendable."
Dominique frowned. "Brooke didn't tell you?" she asked.
"Tell me what?" Miles asked.
Dominique took a breath and swallowed. "William broke up with me."
"Oh," Miles said in surprise. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine," Dominique replied, not wanting to get into it. "Obviously, he wasn't right for me anyway. I'll just have to find someone better. If there's even anyone else there that would have me."
"Of course there is," Miles said emphatically. At Dominique's quizzical look, he faltered. "I mean to say – I'm sure there is."
"Thanks," Dominique responded. "But I'm not so sure."
If there was someone out there interested in her, why hadn't they stepped forward already? If someone wanted to ask her out, they could have done it already. Since nobody had – Dominique had to assume it was because nobody wanted to.
"Trust me," Miles assured her. "There is someone else out there for you, who's going to be a thousand times better than William ever was or ever will be."
"You really think so?" Dominique asked hopefully.
"Absolutely," Miles confirmed.
Though Dominique didn't know why he was so confident, she found Miles' confidence reassuring. She felt strengthened, with the belief that maybe there was someone out there for her. Though she grieved for her lost relationship with William, she couldn't say that she felt for him the way her parents seemed to care for each other, or the way her sister Victoire cared for Teddy. And in the end, that was what Dominique wanted. If she had to wait for it, then so be it.
"Thanks," Dominique said with a smile. "You're a really good friend, Miles."
Miles looked down for just a moment and then back up. "That's what I'm here for," he said. And if there was any sort of longing or sadness to his statement, Dominique didn't hear it.
