Dominique burst into Lysander's office, a triumphant grin blazing across her face. "Look what I have."
Annoyed, Lysander glanced up from his computer briefly. "You could at least knock."
Choosing to ignore his curt tone, she brandished a piece of paper at him. "Do you even care what this paper is?"
"Unless it's a snappy opening line for this story I really don't care." His hazel eyes were transfixed on the screen.
Dominique blinked at him slowly. "You know, you might be a genius and everything, but you can be really narrow-minded sometimes."
That got his attention. His gaze snapped up at her. "What is it you want, Dominique."
She almost told him to call her Dom, but decided against it. Choosing to let her work speak for itself, she placed the paper down on the edge of his desk and stepped back.
Still appearing exasperated, he snatched the paper and skimmed over it. A moment later, his eyes widened just the tiniest bit, and she knew she'd taken him by surprise. "This is gold. Where did you get this?"
Dom couldn't keep a small, slightly smug smile from tweaking up the corners of her mouth. "Pennysworth's office."
His pleased expression vanished in an instant. "You took this from his office?"
"Obviously. It's perfect! It's hard evidence that Pennysworth is taking over for Bomsnox because no one can find him," Dom exhaled in a rush of words. She had snatched the letter from a stack in his office, and she knew it would make the perfect evidence for their opening story.
Lysander shook his head. "You might have gotten Cuffe to buy into this story, but you have the journalistic instincts of the Whomping Willow." He tossed the paper back onto his desk. "You can't take evidence from a suspect's office, Dominique! What if he notices it's gone? What if he realizes you're the only person who could have taken it? What if your cover is blown and we have no way to finish this story?"
A lump popped up in her throat. He was right, she was an idiot. Why hadn't she thought of any of that? "I—"
"But obviously you wouldn't consider those things because you've never covered a real story and you've only ever been second best." His caustic tone bit into her.
Dom's breath caught in her throat.
His hazel eyes flashed brightly as a cocky grin slashed across his face. "Once again," he scoffed, folding his arms across his broad chest.
Dominique's gaze flicked from him to the list posted on the wall of the hallway. It read out its horrifying message:
Hogwarts Fifth Year Class Results
1. Lysander Scamander
2. Dominique Weasley
The rest of the list disappeared in a blur of tears that swarmed to her eyes without any warning. He had beaten her. Again. He always came in first in their class, every year, without fail. And every year she came in second. In the one thing she was good at, her school work, Lysander always managed to squeak ahead. And he never let her forget it.
"Hey, better luck next year, Weasley." He gave her a hard nudge with his elbow. "Maybe a little more time studying and a little less time chasing the Slytherin Quidditch Captain?"
Her heart thudded in her chest as she watched his irritating smile settle on his face, and he flashed her a wink. She hated him.
But there were no tears in her eyes as she faced him now. The only emotion welling up inside of her was burning, churning anger.
Though she felt like she might explode, Lysander's voice was cool and calm, but as biting as it always had been. "Go back to his office this second. Make up an excuse. Take this paper back there and put it exactly where you found it." Not even meeting her eye, he turned back to the computer screen and began typing.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking," Dom managed to choke out.
He let out a short bark of a laugh. Still typing. "That much is obvious."
Once again he was a step ahead of her, and instead of merely hurting her pride, it was hurting her chance at a reporter's job. Spinning around, she fled, before her fury could come pouring out in a stream of curse words. But she realized she had no one to be angry with but herself.
Swallowing a deep gulp of air, and feeling none of the joy or confidence she had felt last time she faced his office door, Dominique reached up and knocked tentatively.
"What is it?" his sharp tone inquired.
She pushed the door opened and stepped inside slowly, hardly able to look him in the eye. "I returned the letter without him noticing, and I copied down exactly what it said so you can use it in the story." She held the copied paper out to him.
One of his straight, dark eyebrows flicked up. "Thank you." He took it from her outstretched hand.
Dom turned to go, sure that if she stayed a moment longer he would find another reason to cut her to pieces.
"Dominique."
She didn't turn around, pausing with her hand on the doorknob.
"Wait a second, would you?"
So now he decides to use a polite tone? Dom remained there, not facing him, but not opening the door to leave.
Lysander let out a heavy sigh. "You can look at me, I'm not going to fly off the handle again."
Her blue eyes were wide as she pivoted to face him once more.
"Sit down for a second." He gestured to one of the two red plush chairs on the opposite side of his desk.
Feeling her palms begin to sweat, she took an uneasy seat on the edge of a chair and waited for the storm to begin again.
He pushed his fingertips together, elbows resting on his desk as his hazel eyes bored into her. "I'd like to apologize."
Dom couldn't have been more shocked if he had jumped from his seat and begun dancing a jig.
"Don't get me wrong," he continued with a small, wry smile. "You messed up big time."
Of course. Even when apologizing he wouldn't miss a chance to point out my stupidity.
"But there was no excuse for the way I treated you earlier. I'm the superior journalist on this team and I'm supposed to be teaching you how this works, not scaring you out of your shoes."
Though his words were as condescending as she would expect any apology from this arrogant man to be, Dom could see a glimmer of sincerity in his eyes.
"Honestly, Dominique, there's a lot riding on this story." Lysander pushed a hand through his hair, a gesture she already had become accustomed to in their week working together. "I'm known as the 'boy wonder' around here, for better or worse. That comes with its perks, but it also means a lot is expected of me. This is a huge story, and our success or failure will reflect on my career enormously. The stress got to me."
Dom surveyed him thoughtfully. In all of her years at Hogwarts and all of the time she spent competing tooth and nail with him for the top spot in their class, she never would've imagined there would come a day when he would apologize to her. And not only that, but that he would reveal anything other than his self-assured attitude.
He leaned back in his chair and watched her. "So, what do you say? Forgive me?"
She gave a small smile. "Sure." It did nothing to erase the hurt she had built up over their years of competition and the sting of the barbs he had thrown at her. But this could be the beginning of something new between them. Maybe even a friendship.
The bright grin was back, as if he had known all along his apology would work its magic. "Great. Now what do you say you help me craft this opening line? It's a stubborn little bugger."
For once, she felt as if her smile might match his. "I'd love to."
