Year 1: The Bonds of Friendship

Chapter 5: January 2014

"Had a good holiday?" Brooke asked when Dominique entered the train compartment.

"Yeah," Dominique replied. "You?"

"Alright I guess," Brooke shrugged.

Dominique frowned, wondering why her friend looked sad and then realized it would have been Brooke's first Christmas without her mother.

"I wonder where everyone else is," Dominique wondered aloud, changing the subject. She hadn't seen Miles or any of the other first year Gryffindors when she was boarding the train.

"I don't know, I haven't seen them," Brooke replied.

Dominique shrugged. "Oh well," she said. "We'll find them eventually. Wanna play exploding snap?"

"Sure," Brooke agreed as Dominique opened her trunk and produced the deck Victoire had bought her for Christmas.

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When the train finally pulled into Hogsmeade station, Brooke and Dominique descended onto the platform and began making their way towards the carriages that would bring them up to the school. As they neared the carriages, Dominique caught sight of Miles and called out to him.

"Hey! Miles!" she yelled over the sea of students separating them. "Miles!"

Miles turned his head and spotted Dominique pushing her way through the crowd towards him.

"Hey Domi," he greeted her when she reached him. "What's up?"

"Where've you been?" Dominique wondered, not having seen Miles at all on the train.

"I was sitting with the guys," Miles replied, gesturing to the four other first year Gryffindor boys he was standing with.

"Oh," Dominique muttered, wondering why this news upset her. "Well do you maybe want to ride up to the school with us?" she asked, gesturing to Brooke, who had only just arrived, having had a difficult time pushing her way through the crowd.

"Well I was actually going to head up with these guys, but I'll see you in the Great Hall later," Miles replied.

"Oh right," Dominique muttered. "Sure."

"What's the matter?" Brooke asked as Miles and the other boys climbed into the next carriage and shut the door.

"I don't know," Dominique shrugged. "Nothing I guess."

It didn't make sense for Dominique to be upset about Miles spending time with the guys. She had hung out with Brooke all day. Miles was allowed to have other friends just like she was. But nevertheless, Dominique felt sad.

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As the term began, Dominique found that Miles was spending more and more time just with the guys. She could sense a split happening between the first year girls and boys of Gryffindor house and she didn't like it one bit. Sure, Brooke was one of her closest friends, and the other girls were fun to spend time with too, but Dominique missed her best friend.

"Hey," Dominique greeted Miles one morning, sitting down next to him at breakfast in the Great Hall. "How're you?"

"Good," Miles replied. "Hey I haven't seen you in a while, where've you been?"

"I've been around," Dominique replied defensively. "You've been the one that's been hard to find. Always hanging with Tom and the guys."

"What're you talking about?" Miles asked, seemingly confused. "Every time I see you, you're hanging with Brooke or playing exploding snap with the girls."

"Yeah, Victoire got me a deck for Christmas," Dominique replied. "I'd invite you to join, but I can never find you when we want to play."

"I guess we've just been missing each other a lot recently," Miles observed.

"Yeah," Dominique sighed. "I miss hanging out with you, you know. Maybe we could do something today?"

"Yeah," Miles agreed. "I've got plans after class with Tom, but maybe we could do something after dinner?"

"Sounds like a plan," Dominique smiled.

Tom appeared then and insisted that Miles had to come with him to see something hilarious Timothy was doing out in the Entrance Hall. Miles asked if Dominique wanted to come, but Dominique declined politely, instead choosing to join Brooke and the other girls further down the table. Now that she'd been able to talk to Miles and made plans, she didn't mind so much that he was with the guys.

"So did you and Miles talk?" Brooke asked when Dominique sat down next to her.

"Yeah," Dominique said. "Yeah, everything's good."

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The rest of the day dragged on as Dominique waited anxiously for dinnertime to come so that she could spend some time with her best friend. When dinner finally did come, Dominique ate quickly, wondering when Miles and the rest of the guys were coming down to eat.

"I'm sure they'll be here soon," Brooke assured Dominique.

"No, he's ditched me, I'm sure of it," Dominique disagreed.

"You're being ridiculous," Brooke said.

"No I'm not. Miles doesn't need me anymore now that he has his other friends. I'm yesterday's news," Dominique insisted.

Brooke rolled her eyes. "Look, there he is now," she pointed as the five Gryffindor boys entered the Great Hall, laughing and pounding each other on the back.

Dominique sat up straighter and watched as Miles bid his buddies goodbye and made his way over to her.

"You're finished eating already?" he asked, looking at Dominique's empty plate. "Dinner only started like, fifteen minutes ago."

"I was hungry," Dominique shrugged. "What've you been up to?"

"We were down at the Quidditch pitch," Miles replied. "Tom's uncle taught him how to fly one-handed over the Christmas holidays and we were all trying it."

"Why would you want to fly one-handed?" Dominique asked.

"How else is a beater supposed to hold a bat while flying?" Miles countered.

"You're telling me you want to be a beater?" Dominique asked.

Miles shrugged. "I don't know, maybe. I've thought about maybe trying out for the team in a few years and I think I'd make a pretty good beater."

"Well I think Quidditch is dumb," Dominique declared.

"You've got to be kidding me," Brooke cried, jumping into the conversation. "Quidditch is a fantastic sport."

"Yeah, that's what my family keeps telling me too," Dominique crossed her arms grumpily.

"You just think you don't like it because of your weird problem with flying," Miles said. "I'm sure if you went to a game, you'd love it."

"We'll all have to go sometime," Brooke declared.

"Sure," Dominique said uncertainly. Hopefully she could find some excuse to get out of that one when the time came. "So what do you want to do tonight Miles?" she asked as Brooke got sucked into a conversation with Brittany and Holly.

"Anything really," Miles shrugged. "Hey, have you ever played gobstones?"

"I haven't actually," Dominique confessed.

"My parents bought me the game for Christmas, we should totally check it out," Miles said excitedly. "It's a two-person game, and I haven't had anyone to try it out with yet."

"Awesome," Dominique agreed.

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"Alright, so how does this work?" Dominique asked as Miles opened the box and laid the pieces out in front of them on the floor. They'd claimed an empty space in the back corner of the common room so they wouldn't be in anyone's way.

"Well this is clearly the board," Miles said, unfolding it and laying it out along the wall. And then I guess we each get five gobstones – there's green or there's purple, which do you want to be?"

"I'll be purple," Dominique decided.

"Great, so I'm green then," Miles said, separating out the five green gobstones. "And then according to the instructions, we take turns rolling them, and we get more points the closer to the center they get. See the rings? The manual says the outer ring is one point, the middle ring is two points, and the center is five points."

"Do we count the points as we go, or only at the end?" Dominique wondered.

"Only at the end," Miles replied.

"So we can knock each other's gobstones out of the way if we wanted?" Dominique surmised.

"That's right," Miles agreed. "That's what makes it so much harder."

"Alright, who goes first?" Dominique asked.

"Do you want to?" Miles offered.

Dominique thought for a second. If she went first, Miles would have the last shot. And the last shot was the only one that couldn't be knocked out of the way.

"You can go first," Dominique decided, pretending to be generous. "It's your game after all."

"Well alright then," Miles agreed, grabbing a gobstone and moving into position. "Here I go."

He threw the stone with too much force and completely missed the target.

"Nice shot," Dominique mocked.

"Let's see you do better," Miles challenged.

"Watch and learn," Dominique said cockily, switching places with Miles and narrowing her eyes in concentration. She aimed, took a deep breath, and threw the stone. It rolled right past the target and hit the wall behind the board.

"What was I supposed to learn from that?" Miles questioned. "Besides how to lose the game."

Dominique rolled her eyes. "It was only my first try," she muttered. "Just you wait."

The two continued to play the game for a couple hours, finally getting the hang of throwing the stones and succeeding in actually getting some points. Though neither would be competing in a gobstones tournament anytime soon, they were quite enjoying themselves and found the game to be quite entertaining.

"I'm hungry," Dominique declared suddenly.

"Seriously?" Miles asked. "Didn't you eat dinner?"

"Well I didn't eat much," Dominique admitted. "I was excited to hang out."

"Well dinner's over by now," Miles replied. "So unless you want to go all the way down to the kitchens again…" He trailed off when Dominique's face lighted up at the mention of the kitchens. "Oh no," he muttered.

"Please?" Dominique asked. "I'm starving. I mean, unless you have something besides sugar quills and licorice wands hidden in your trunk."

"I've got some fizzing whizbees," Miles offered.

"I need something more substantial than candy," Dominique insisted. "Come on, it'll be an adventure."

"It's almost curfew and the kitchen is all the way in the basement," Miles complained.

"I know a shortcut we can take on the way back," Dominique informed him. "Come on, don't make me go alone."

Miles sighed. "Fine, but we'd better hurry. It's already a quartet to nine."

"Yay!" Dominique exclaimed gleefully, jumping up and running over to the portrait hole.

The two hurried down the stairs as fast as possible, bypassing the Great Hall on the first floor and running down the final flight of stairs to the basement level where the entrance to the kitchens was. Dominique opened the door to the kitchens and they were immediately greeted by a hoard of house elves eager to serve them.

Dominique requested a sandwich and was given a small basket full of every kind of sandwich imaginable. Grateful, Dominique thanked the elves, taking the basket and grabbing a ham and cheese sandwich to eat right there as they exited.

"We have five minutes left till curfew," Miles said. "Where's this shortcut?"

"It's down in the dungeons," Dominique replied.

"What?" Miles cried. "You want to go even further from the common room? Are you insane?"

"Trust me," Dominique insisted, leading Miles back up to the Entrance Hall and then towards the stairs that led to the dungeons.

"Where are we going?" Miles asked as they ran through the dimly lit corridor.

"We're almost there," Dominique promised. "You'll see."

They continued to run until Dominique came to a stop, turning around and frowning.

"What's wrong?" Miles asked. "Where's the shortcut?"

"It should be here," Dominique replied. "This is where she said it would be."

"Where who said it would be?" Miles asked.

"Quinn," Dominique replied.

"Quinn Adams?" Miles questioned disbelievingly. "From Slytherin? What were you doing talking to her?"

"I wasn't, I just overheard her telling Karen Bonell about a shortcut down here that led to the fifth floor. She said it was behind one of the tapestries, but there aren't any tapestries down here," Dominique said.

"Well obviously she was just messing with Karen," Miles pointed out. "You know Quinn's not friends with anyone outside of Slytherin."

"I'm sorry," Dominique apologized. "Now we've missed curfew and we're stuck down here in the dungeons and it's all my fault."

"It's not all your fault," Miles said. "I agreed to come out with you, so it's partly my fault too."

"Yeah, but I'm the one that was hungry in the first place," Dominique said in frustration. "I don't even want these dumb sandwiches anymore." She threw the basket on the floor angrily.

"Well don't get all worked up yet," Miles insisted. "We could still make it back without getting caught. Come on, I saw a staircase over there."

This time, Miles led the way, locating the nearest staircase and ascending it.

"Where does this even lead?" Dominique asked when it seemed the stairs were never-ending.

"I don't know," Miles confessed. "I've never used this staircase before. I assumed it would take us back to the first floor and that we could find our way from there, but we must be at the third floor by now."

Finally, the staircase opened up into a corridor and Dominique and Miles hurried out to figure out how to get back to Gryffindor Tower.

"Where are we?" Dominique wondered. "What floor is this?"

"I don't know," Miles said. "I don't recognize anything."

"I guess we should just pick a direction and start walking," Dominique suggested. "Hopefully we'll find something familiar."

The two walked on, but nothing they passed gave them a clue to where they were. As they continued down the corridor, they started to wonder if they would ever find Gryffindor Tower again.

"And what do we have here?" an unfamiliar voice asked from behind them.

Dominique screamed and grabbed Miles' hand as the two spun around in fear only to find themselves face to face with Mr. Clarke, the night patrolman.

"You scared us," Dominique said, relieved it wasn't a serial killer or something.

"What're you doing out of bed after hours?" Mr. Clarke demanded.

"We got lost," Miles explained. "We were trying to find the common room, but we have no idea where we are."

"A likely story," Mr. Clarke said, unconvinced. "Names?"

"Miles Bailey," Miles said.

"Dominique Weasley," Dominique added.

"Weasley eh?" Mr. Clarke asked. "I believe I know your sister. She also has a penchant for wandering the castle after hours."

"You mean that one time?" Dominique asked.

"One time that she got caught," Mr. Clarke corrected. "Who knows how many times she's been out without being caught."

"Probably never," Dominique replied. "She's definitely not the troublemaker of the family."

"No, I suppose that would be you, wouldn't it?" Mr. Clarke asked.

"No, our younger brother Louis," Dominique told him. "He's always getting up to mischief."

"Well be that as it may, the facts remain that tonight, you were caught wandering the corridors after hours," Mr. Clarke reminded her.

"It's like Miles said," Dominique insisted. "We were just lost. We wanted to go back to Gryffindor Tower, we just couldn't find it."

Mr. Clarke sighed. "I should report you or take house points or something," he said hesitantly. "But for tonight, I suppose a warning will do."

"Thank you Sir," Miles said gratefully. "We promise; this will never happen again."

"Could you tell us one thing though?" Dominique asked. Mr. Clarke nodded. "How do we get back to the seventh floor?"

"You must be very lost indeed," Mr. Clarke observed.

"Why do you say that?" Miles asked.

"This is the seventh floor," Mr. Clarke revealed.

"It is?" Dominique asked, shocked. It hadn't felt like that many stairs when they'd been climbing them. "How did that happen?"

"Come on, I'll show you the way back," Mr. Clarke declared, leading the way in the opposite direction that the first years had been walking.

I didn't take long before Dominique realized where they were.

"Well that's why we were so lost!" she exclaimed. "We were on the Ravenclaw side of the seventh floor. We never come down here!"

"Well we have no reason to," Miles pointed out. "It's not our fault we didn't recognize it."

"How did you children find yourselves there in the first place?" Mr. Clarke asked when they arrived at the entrance to Gryffindor Tower.

"We found a staircase that led us there," Miles answered.

"And what were you doing so late at night down in the dungeons?" Mr. Clarke asked suspiciously.

"Potions assignment," Dominique jumped in before Miles could rat her out about the kitchens. "We were in the after-hours lab and lost track of time."

"Well, mind you keep better track of it in the future," Mr. Clarke said, bidding them goodnight as they gave the password and climbed through the portrait hole.

"Well that certainly was an adventure," Miles said once they were safely back inside.

"I'm so sorry," Dominique apologized again. "I didn't mean for all that to happen."

"Don't worry about it," Miles insisted. "Nothing happened, we didn't even get docked points."

"Yeah, well I'm still sorry," Dominique muttered.

"Come on," Miles said. "Another round of gobstones before bed?"

"Sure," Dominique agreed, a smile appearing on her face. "You'd better watch out, because I'm definitely going to win this time."