Year 1: The Bonds of Friendship
Chapter 3: November 2013
Charms was turning out to be Dominique's favorite class of all. For one thing, it was practical, but in a non-threatening way. For another thing, Professor Flitwick taught at a pace slightly less fast than Dominique's other Professors, which she liked, because she was able to take the time she needed to really absorb what he was saying. For another thing, Dominique was simply good at it.
They'd just started learning their first charm – the levitation charm – and by the end of the session, Dominique remained the only one to have successfully mastered it.
"No matter," Professor Flitwick assured everyone else. "Most students need a little more practice when they're first starting out. Try to levitate some light objects tonight, and we'll give it another go tomorrow."
As the students filed out, thankful to be done with their last class of the day, the Gryffindors flocked around Dominique.
"How did you do it?" Grant Arnold asked. "You got it on like, your fourth try!"
Dominique shrugged. "I'm not really sure," she admitted. "I just pictured the feather rising, and when I cast the spell, it rose."
"You have to help us," Brittany insisted. "If we can't learn this, how are we supposed to do harder spells later on."
"I'm sure you just need some practice," Dominique said. "But I can help as best as I can."
"Thanks Dominique, you're a lifesaver," Joy said in relief.
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After dinner that night, the first years claimed a long table in the common room and set to practicing the spell. Timothy had borrowed a handful of feathers from Professor Flitwick to practice on, so he laid them out on the table and everyone looked expectantly at Dominique.
"Am I supposed to say something?" Dominique asked.
"Yeah, tell us what to do," Holly replied.
"Oh, okay," Dominique muttered, not really expecting that she'd be leading the practice session. "Well let's see… I guess what I do is I hold my wand like this…" she gripped her wand, holding it straight out in front of her, pointing directly at the feather. To her surprise, everyone copied the motion. "Right," she mumbled, a little caught off guard. "Well then I imagine the feather rising off the table, and I say the words and I do the wand motion just like Professor Flitwick taught us…" She focused on her feather, imagining it levitating off the table and cast the spell. Slowly, the feather began to rise, following the direction of her wand. "And there you go," she finished.
"That's it?" Zeke asked in dismay. "That's basically what Professor Flitwick's shown us dozens of times."
Dominique faltered and then thought back to the conversation she'd had with Madam Volant on the Quidditch field weeks ago.
"I guess, you also have to want the feather to rise," Dominique said. Though she wasn't entirely sure the same principle applied here, she figured it couldn't hurt.
"You're saying we don't want it to work?" Zeke challenged.
"No," Dominique said. "I'm saying that when you cast it, you can't just be sitting there passively wondering whether the spell's going to work. Remember how excited you all were to learn to fly? When you called for the broom to rise into your hand, you were actively willing it to rise, right?" She was met with a few nods, so she continued. "So try and re-create that willingness and re-direct it towards the spell. Expect the feather to rise – desire the feather to rise – and it'll rise."
"We're really supposed to believe that?" Zeke asked. "Weren't you the only one of us who didn't learn to fly? What would you know about it?"
"A lot more than you might think," Dominique said, her defences rising.
"Let's just try it and see if it works before we start turning on each other," Miles suggested in an attempt to keep the peace.
"Thanks," Dominique muttered to him as everyone did as they were told and began to try the spell again.
At first, nothing happened, and Dominique was a little disappointed. She'd really thought the analogy would work for them. Suddenly, she felt something tickling her nose and she looked down to find that it was a feather, being moved purely by magic.
"Who's doing this?" Dominique cried excitedly, looking down to see which feather had moved. "Miles, you got it!" she cried, turning to her friend with a huge smile on her face.
"It worked," Miles said. "Your whole thing about willing it to rise – you were right, I think before I didn't think I could do the spell, so when I cast it, I was expecting it to stay put, which is exactly what happened."
"Amazing!" Dominique said. "Alright, the rest of you keep trying then, because obviously it works."
Dominique could see Zeke frowning, but she chose to ignore it.
"Here Miles, let's try to lift some heavier things, like these inkwell," Dominique suggested, grabbing two inkwells from her bag and placing them on the table in front of them. It took a lot more effort, and she couldn't levitate them quite as high as the feather, but eventually, she got it.
"I wonder how hard it would be to levitate a chair?" Dominique wondered. "Or a person?"
"I would definitely suggest you wait on that one," Miles warned. "Professor Flitwick did say not to try and lift anything too heavy unless he was supervising. We could do permanent damage."
"It's not like we're lifting weights or anything," Dominique pointed out. "We're not going to pull a muscle. If anything, it just won't work."
"I really think it's a bad idea," Miles said. "What if the stress of it weakens your magic?"
"Can that really happen?" Dominique asked.
"I think so," Miles replied. "It's why we don't learn certain spells until we're older and our magic is stronger – because if we tried them now, we'd drain ourselves too quickly."
"I thought it was because the theory got harder," Dominique said.
"Well that too," Miles allowed.
They were interrupted when Timothy's stomach grumbled loud enough for the whole common room to hear.
"Hungry?" Tom joked.
"I guess I didn't have enough to eat at dinner," Timothy said unabashedly.
"You had three servings of potatoes," Brittany accused him.
"What can I say?" Timothy shrugged. "I'm a growing boy."
"You sound like my brother," Dominique groaned.
"Yeah?" Timothy asked. "What year is he in?"
"He's nine," Dominique said, raising her eyebrows. "And it wasn't a compliment." Timothy simply shrugged again.
"Hey, doesn't the Great Hall serve food until like, eight?" Brooke asked.
"You're right!" Dominique agreed. "Why don't I go down and get some snacks while the rest of you keep practicing?"
"I'll come with you," Miles volunteered. "You'll need the help carrying the food back, and I've already cast the spell successfully a few times now, so I could use the break."
"Okay great," Dominique agreed. "We'll be back soon!"
"You'd better hurry!" Tom called after them. "It's five to eight!"
She and Miles exited the common room and hurried down the stairs, determined to make it before the food disappeared. Finally, they arrived on the main floor and threw open the doors to the Great Hall, just in time to see all the food shimmering out of existence in the same way it appeared on the plates at the beginnings of major feasts.
"Oh no!" Miles cried. "We missed it!"
"Ugh, now Timothy's stomach is going to growl all night," Dominique complained.
"Why do they have to take the food away at eight when curfew isn't until nine?" Miles wondered in frustration.
"It's so unfair," Dominique agreed, thinking of the kitchen right below them full of food being disposed of by hordes of house elves. "Hey, wait a minute," she said. "I have an idea."
"What?" Miles asked with a frown.
"There's a kitchen right below us," Dominique relayed her thoughts. "And it's full of food – the same food that was up here seconds ago."
"Yeah," Miles said. "But it's not like we can just walk into the kitchen and ask for food."
"Why not?" Dominique asked.
"A few reasons actually," Miles said, giving Dominique a look that said he thought she was crazy. "For one thing, we don't know where it is, besides downstairs. For another thing, we don't know how to get in, even if we knew where it was. And finally, how are we supposed to know the elves wouldn't just kick us out and tattle to Professor Longbottom and make us lose house points for being in places we shouldn't be?"
"Oh don't worry about getting into trouble," Dominique reassured him. "My uncles used to steal food from the kitchens all the time. Though, it wasn't really stealing since the elves were always overjoyed to give them food."
"Okay, so we won't get in trouble," Miles allowed. "But we still don't know where it is or how to get in."
"Sure we do," Dominique said. "I overheard my Uncle George talking about it with my Aunt Ginny one time. We just have to go downstairs and find the painting of the bowl of fruit and tickle the pear."
"You expect me to believe that we can get into the kitchens by tickling a pear?" Miles asked.
"Come on, I'll prove it," Dominique said, leading the way down to the basement floor.
As they walked down the hallway searching for the painting of the bowl of fruit, Dominique started to wonder if this was for real. Maybe Uncle George had known she was listening and had said what he said to mess with her – he was always playing practical jokes like that. At this point though, Dominique just had to keep going and hope her uncle had been telling the truth.
"Is this the painting?" Miles asked, pointing to the painting in question. It was, exactly as it had been described, simply a painting of a bowl of fruit.
"Looks like it," Dominique said, stepping forward and identifying the green pear on the right-hand side of the bowl. "Here goes nothing," she said. She reached out her finger and stroked it up and down across the length of the pear. At first, nothing happened, but then it started to squirm and soon, little squeaks could be heard, which Dominique could only assume was supposed to be the sound of the pear laughing. It started to heat up, and in a panic, Dominique removed her finger and stepped back. Slowly, the pear began to change shape, going from an oval shape to a circular one, and then it began to protrude out from the painting to become a doorknob.
"Well I guess it worked," Miles said, staring at the doorknob in awe. "After you," he gestured to the door chivalrously, but Dominique was pretty sure he was just afraid to go in first.
She stepped forward and grasped the doorknob, thankful that it wasn't hot, and she turned it, pushing it in and taking a step inside.
"Hello Miss!" a house elf greeted her as soon as she entered. "How can Guppy help you today?" the elf, presumably named Guppy, asked.
"Well my friend and I – " Dominique gestured to Miles, " – were just up in the Great Hall hoping to grab a snack, but we just barely missed the deadline and all the food disappeared before we could grab any."
"Miss is wanting food?" Guppy asked. "We have lots of leftover stew if Miss and Sir is wanting some stew."
"We were actually thinking more like some study snacks," Dominique said. "Something we could take back to our common room. Maybe enough for… ten people?"
"Right away Miss!" Guppy cried, disappearing into the crowd of house elves, all running around and shouting instructions at each other.
"Wow," Miles said from behind Dominique. "This place is so cool! I bet not a lot of students get the chance to see all this."
"Probably not," Dominique agreed.
Guppy returned with four huge baskets laden with sweets and pastries and little cakes – enough to feed a small army.
"Guppy would have made up a fifth basket, but Guppy knew that Miss and Sir could only carry four, so Guppy put extra in the four baskets," the house elf said proudly.
"Wow!" Dominique exclaimed, seeing the sheer abundance of food that Guppy had brought. "This is fantastic, thank you so much Guppy!"
"It was Guppy's pleasure Miss," Guppy said with a big smile. "And whatever is leftover, Miss and Sir can leave in their common room and Guppy will personally make sure to clean it up tonight when she comes to stoke the fire."
"That's so nice!" Dominique cried.
"That is Guppy's job," Guppy replied.
"Well thanks again," Miles said, speaking to the elf for the first time. "We'd better get going though before we end up breaking curfew."
"Come again Miss and Sir!" Guppy called after them as they returned to the hall and the door shut behind them, the doorknob becoming a pear once again.
"Are you good to carry all that?" Miles asked when they started moving, noticing that Dominique was struggling with her baskets.
"Yeah, it's fine," Dominique assured him. "They're just bulky and awkward to carry, but they're not that heavy."
"Are you sure?" Miles asked. "I could – "
"What?" Dominique asked. "You're already carrying two baskets of your own. Unless you've got a third arm you've neglected to tell me about then we might as well keep going."
Miles chuckled, but allowed Dominique to lead the way back to the common room.
"Food!" Timothy cried when they returned.
"Wow, you brought a lot!" Holly commented. "Are you trying to feed the whole of Gryffindor Tower?"
"We just figured it would be better to bring more than less," Dominique shrugged. "It's not like we have the time to go back down."
"Not to mention the food would be gone by now," Brooke added, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. "How'd you manage to get so much of it before it disappeared?" she asked. "And where did those baskets come from?"
"Oh, these?" Miles asked. "We found them."
"Just lying around in the Great Hall?" Brooke asked. "That's very convenient."
Dominique pulled Brooke aside so that they wouldn't be overheard. "Okay, obviously we didn't get this food from the Great Hall," she admitted.
"Obviously," Brooke said. "But what I want to know is where did it come from?"
"Don't tell the others," Dominique requested. "It's better that not everyone knows, or else they might change things to keep us out."
"Keep us out of where?" Brooke wondered.
"We got the food from the kitchens," Dominique admitted. "My uncle inadvertently taught me how to get in – its in the basement, there's a painting of a pear and you tickle it and it turns into a doorknob."
"Seriously?" Brooke cried. "That's so cool! I wish you'd taken me!"
"Maybe next time," Dominique said. "But seriously, don't tell anyone else."
"Fine," Brooke frowned.
"Hey, aren't you guys going to join us?" Tom asked, noticing that Brooke and Dominique weren't partaking in the food.
"Definitely," Dominique said, hurrying over and grabbing a pastry. "So did anyone else get the spell to work while we were gone?"
"I did!" Holly said proudly. "And so did Grant."
"It was easy once I got past my conviction that I couldn't do it," Grant added. "Your method really works. You should talk to Professor Flitwick about including it in his lessons in the future."
"Oh, I don't think that's necessary," Dominique shook her head. "He's been teaching Charms forever, I'm sure he's tried all the different teaching methods and decided that the one he's doing is the best. I'm just a silly first year."
There was a pecking noise at the window and Brooke disappeared to let the owl in.
"Yeah, but obviously your method works a lot better than whatever he's teaching," Brittany pointed out.
"Come on, well all think it's a good idea," Joy said, looking around at everyone and receiving confirmation that they were all on the same page. "Brooke?" she asked, looking over at the girl who was quietly reading the letter the owl had brought. "Don't you agree?"
"What?" Brooke asked. "Oh, yeah, sure," she said. "Um, I think I'm going to turn in," she said, heading over to the stairs.
"But it's not even nine o'clock yet," Zeke pointed out.
"Yeah, I know, I'm just tired," Brooke said, climbing the stairs and disappearing from sight.
"Well see?" Joy asked, returning to the original topic of conversation. "We all think you should suggest it."
"Fine," Dominique said. "I'll think about it." She knew she wouldn't do it, but if offering to consider it would appease Joy, it was worth saying.
"That's all we're asking," Joy smiled.
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Dominique couldn't sleep. It happened occasionally. Some nights, even though her body was exhausted, her mind would be running at top speed and she would be unable to shut her thoughts off long enough even to take a short nap. This was one of those nights. After having tried to fall asleep for three hours, Dominique had decided that it was no use, and so at 1AM, she was sitting up in bed with her back against her pillows, reading the chapter in her History of Magic textbook that had been assigned to be read by Friday.
Next to her, Brooke began to stir, and suddenly she was standing up and walking towards the door.
"Brooke?" Dominique whispered. "What are you doing?"
Brooke didn't respond. Dominique figured she could just be going to the bathroom, but Dominique was bored and had a feeling it was something else, so she got up and followed her.
"Brooke?" she called out, a little louder now. She heard footsteps descending the stairs and hurried down to find Brooke crossing the common room. "Brooke, where are you going?"
Brooke still didn't respond, instead pushing open the portrait hole and climbing out into the castle.
"Brooke, it's after curfew, you're going to get in trouble!" Dominique hissed. "Brooke!"
Her friend was still ignoring her, so making a split-second decision, Dominique hurried out into the hallway after her. "Brooke!" she cried, running towards her friend. "What's going on?" she demanded, sprinting ahead of her friend and stopping directly in front of her.
Brooke's eyes were wide open, but didn't even seem to register Dominique's presence. She simply continued walking around Dominique, continuing on whatever path she was on. Suddenly, it dawned on Dominique – Brooke was sleepwalking.
"Brooke!" Dominique called, hurrying after the girl. "Brooke, you have to wake up!" she cried.
Unfortunately, Brooke still wasn't responding. Dominique knew she had to get Brooke back into the common room before they got caught, but now Brooke was heading to the Grand Staircase.
"Brooke!" Dominique cried. "Stop it! Wake up!"
"Aha!" a voice cried suddenly, causing Dominique to scream. She spun around to find herself face to face with Mr. Clarke. "What do we have here?" he asked.
"My friend is sleepwalking," Dominique explained. "I'm just trying to stop her."
Mr. Clarke pointed his wand at Brooke and a jet of yellow light shot towards her. Immediately, she stopped, shaking her head as she came to.
"Where am I?" she asked in confusion.
"You were sleepwalking," Dominique explained. "I think you were on your way to the Grand Staircase."
"Yeah," Brooke agreed, frowning as she tried to remember her dream. "I was going down to the kitchens. I wanted some cheese."
"Cheese?" Dominique questioned. "You dreamt you wanted cheese?"
"So what if I did?" Brooke challenged. "I can like cheese if I want."
"Alright, fine, you can like cheese," Dominique backed off, not sure why this had struck a chord.
"Girls," Mr. Clarke interrupted. "Are neither of you at all concerned that you've been caught out after hours?"
"You're not going to take points are you?" Dominique asked, dismayed. "Brooke didn't know what she was doing, and I was only trying to stop her."
"I suppose I won't take any points," Mr. Clarke agreed. "But no more sleepwalking."
"How is she supposed to not sleepwalk?" Dominique asked. "It's not like she did it on purpose."
"Go and see Madam Eldridge tomorrow," Mr. Clarke instructed Brooke. "She can give you potions to prevent this from happening again."
"Of course," Brooke agreed, nodding her head furiously.
"And if I find the two of you wandering around after curfew again – " Mr. Clarke warned.
"Don't worry," Dominique assured him. "You won't."
The girls returned to the common room and Dominique began heading back towards the dorms, but Brooke lagged behind.
"Aren't you coming?" Dominique asked.
"No," Brooke said. "I'll only end up sleepwalking again. I'll just wait until morning when I can go see Madam Eldridge," she said, sitting down on the couch by the fire and curling her feet under her.
Dominique began to head towards the dorm again, but something told her there was something more going on.
"Brooke, are you alright?" she asked, taking a seat with her friend on the couch. "You've never sleepwalked before tonight. And you were a little weird earlier too," she noted.
"It's nothing," Brooke said, staring into the fire. Dominique could see tears welling in her friend's eyes and she scooted over and wrapped her arm around her.
"Hey, whatever it is, it's going to be alright," Dominique assured her.
Brooke sniffled, one tear falling, and then another, and then soon she was sobbing.
"It's m-my mom," she said once she'd cried away most of her tears. "That's what the letter was about. S-she'd been sick for a while, and this afternoon, things got worse so my dad took her to St. Mungo's… She died today."
"Oh," Dominique said, at a loss for words. She didn't know what to say. She'd never lost someone close to her and she had no idea to comfort someone who had. Since she didn't know what to say, she decided to hug Brooke harder and just sit with her. "Tell me about her," Dominique said suddenly, not sure where the words came from, but knowing they were the right ones.
"S-she had brown hair," Brooke began. "And green eyes. She was beautiful. And she was really good at baking. Her cookies were the best. I'm going to miss those."
She continued to talk, and Dominque continued to hold her friend as she did, letting her express herself. A few more times, she would just start crying out of nowhere, and Dominique would rub her shoulders. After a few hours, Brooke finally fell asleep on the couch.
Dominique knew the couch must be uncomfortable, but she also knew she was too weak to lift her friend. Quietly, she untangled herself from Brooke and retrieved her wand. Focusing all her energy, she pointed her wand at her friend and cast the levitation spell, raising Brooke into the air and directing her up the stairs and into her bed.
She pulled the covers up over Brooke to her chin and brushed her hair out of her face. She felt so bad for the girl. If Dominique ever lost her mother, she would be devastated.
The next day, Brooke went home to be with her family. The other Gryffindors wondered why she'd left in the middle of the semester, but just as Brooke had done for Dominique with flying, Dominique told them all that it was none of their business and not to ask Brooke when she returned.
Brooke was gone for about a week, and when she returned, she was much quieter than she had been. She didn't study with the group as much, and she took her meals by herself. Dominique felt bad, but also wanted to give her friend her space, if that's what she needed.
One day, when Brooke and Dominique were alone in the dorm, Brooke spoke – one of the first times Dominique had heard her speak since her return.
"Hey, Dominique?" Brooke asked.
"Yeah?" Dominique replied.
"I just wanted to say thanks," Brooke said. "For that night. I really needed someone, and you were there, and it was just way better than being alone."
"Of course," Dominique said. "That's what friends are for."
Brooke smiled. "So do you maybe want to study later?" she asked.
"Sure," Dominique replied, glad to see Brooke was ready to be with people again. "I'd love to."