Year 1: The Bonds of Friendship
Chapter 7: March 2014
Dominique awoke one cold morning in early March shivering. Cracking her eyes open, she noticed that the window between Joy and Brooke's beds was wide open. Pulling a sweater over her shoulders, she padded over to the window and pulled it shut, wondering why anyone would open it in the first place.
Still freezing, Dominique decided that a nice hot shower would do her some good. It was early still, so she would have time to just stand and let the hot water warm her up. Since all the other first year girls were still asleep, Dominique had the bathroom all to herself; a luxury she didn't often get. Taking her time, she turned the water on in the shower and opened her bathroom kit, retrieving all the supplies she would need before finally stepping under the nozzle and sighing happily as she began to warm up from the outside in.
Soon, the other girls began to wake up and make their way into the bathroom too, so Dominique decided it was time to wash her hair and get out of the shower stall to give the other girls the chance to take their morning showers too. There were only three shower stalls for the five girls after all, and they were all morning showerers.
"Dominique, is that you?" Brooke's voice called out as the shower in the stall next to Dominique's began to run and Brooke presumably entered it.
"Yeah," Dominique replied. "Good morning," she added.
"Morning," Brooke returned.
Dominique squirted some shampoo into her hand and started lathering it into her hair.
"Hey Brooke, do you have any idea why the window between yours and Joy's beds was wide open all night?" Dominique wondered curiously.
"It was open?" Brooke asked, surprised. "No wonder I was so cold when I woke up."
"You didn't know?" Dominique asked.
"Nope," Brooke responded. "Joy must've opened it. No idea why though."
"I didn't open it," Joy's voice sounded as the water in the third and final shower turned on. "Maybe it was Holly or Brittany?"
"Why would they open a window so far from their beds?" Dominique wondered.
"I don't know," Joy responded. "Why would anyone open a window overnight at all in the middle of winter?"
Suddenly, without warning, the flow of water from the shower stopped just as Dominique was about to rinse out her hair. Dominique paused, listening to see if it was only her shower, but she found that she couldn't hear water in any of the other shower stalls either.
"Guys?" she began hesitantly. "What's going on?"
"I don't know," Brooke said, confused. "The water just stopped."
"Is this some sort of prank or something?" Joy asked.
"Is what some sort of prank?" Brittany's voice asked as she joined the other girls in the bathroom.
"The water just stopped running," Brooke explained. "Try the sinks."
For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of turning faucets, and then Brittany spoke again. "Nothing," she said. "There's no water in any of the sinks."
"What's going on?" Dominique wondered in confusion.
"You don't think they're still mad about the snowball fight thing, do you?" Joy wondered.
"You think the sixth years would shut off our water because they're mad we lost a snowball fight?" Dominique asked, thinking it sounded a little far-fetched.
"I'll go see what's going on," Brittany said. "I'll be right back."
The bathroom door opened and shut and the three girls waited in the shower stalls to see what Brittany would find out.
"I just put shampoo in my hair," Dominique said.
"Me too," Joy added.
"I have soap all over my body," Brooke contributed.
The bathroom door creaked open and Dominique immediately demanded to know what was going on.
"Apparently there's no water in the entire tower," Brittany reported. "Not for the girls or for the boys. Everyone's freaking out and some of the prefects have gone to find Professor Longbottom to sort it all out."
"So what are we supposed to do?" Dominique asked.
"I don't know," Brittany shrugged. "Hang on, I'll go back down and see if they've got Professor Longbottom up here yet."
Brittany left once more and Dominique shivered. She grabbed her towel and wrapped it around herself to keep warm while they waited to find out what they were supposed to do, or whether the water would be returning anytime soon.
The door creaked open again.
"Brittany?" Brooke called out.
"No, it's Holly," Holly replied.
"Do you know what's going on?" Brooke asked.
"What do you mean?" Holly asked. "What about?"
"There's no water anywhere in Gryffindor Tower," Joy explained.
"What?" Holly cried. "How is that even possible?"
Just then, Brittany returned from her second recon mission.
"Okay, Professor Longbottom's down in the common room. He says there's no water anywhere in the castle and that it might take some time to get it running again. We're just supposed to make do until they can fix the problem."
"That's it?" Dominique cried. "This is a magic castle, can't they just cast a spell to get the water running again?"
"Not if it's a magical problem," Brittany pointed out.
"So where does that leave us?" Brooke wondered.
"I guess we'll just have to towel off the soap as best we can," Joy sighed.
"This is so not how I envisioned my morning going," Dominique complained as she attempted to get as much of the shampoo out of her hair with her towel as possible.
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When the girls had done all that they could do to make themselves presentable, they descended to the common room. As soon as they reached the main level of Gryffindor Tower, they found themselves swept into a cacophony of mayhem with Professor Longbottom at the center. Students were yelling at him and hurling insults at him while he failed in his attempt to explain the situation calmly.
Dominique spotted the boys across the common room and motioned to the portrait hole, indicating that they should follow them out and down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
"You three don't look so good," Zeke observed, meaning Dominique, Brooke, and Joy.
"We were all in the shower when the water shut off," Joy explained. "Weren't any of you guys?"
"We were pretty much done. It was only Miles that was still in there, right Miles?" Zeke said.
"Yeah, but I'd already washed all the soap off," Miles replied. "Not like you girls. Dominique, do you have shampoo in your hair?"
"I thought I'd got it all!" Dominique cried, upset.
"It's not much," Miles assured her. "You can hardly tell."
"My head itches," Joy complained. "I think some of the shampoo is drying onto my scalp."
"My body itches," Brooke grumbled, scratching at her shoulder. "I don't think I got all the soap off after all."
"I feel fine," Grant said.
Joy punched him in the shoulder. "Thanks a lot," she said sarcastically.
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At breakfast, Headmistress McGonagall announced that the water shortage could last up to a few days.
"A few days?" Brooke cried when the information was revealed. "I'm going to itch like this for a few days?"
The Headmistress apologized for the inconvenience and advised that anyone looking for various hygiene spells speak to Professor Flitwick. Luckily for the first years, they had Charms first thing, and Professor Flitwick was more than willing to help everyone to get back to clean.
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The following morning, Dominique awoke shivering once again. As she had the previous morning, she pulled a sweater on and got up to find that the same window was wide open once again. Irritated, freezing, and without hope of a hot shower to warm her up, Dominique decided to spend her time waiting for her roommates to wake up flipping through a textbook Professor Flitwick had given them containing a few simple hygiene spells.
She started with a spell for washing her face and found that it worked better if she modified the wand movement slightly so that instead of curving upwards at the end she simply came to a stop in the center. Next she tried a spell for brushing teeth and found that if she skipped the third syllable of the incantation, her mouth would be left feeling minty fresh in addition to having clean teeth.
Soon, her friends began to awaken. Dominique passed on her modifications to the spells to them and they all received fantastic results. When Brittany and Holly awoke, Dominique questioned them about the open window, since she had never gotten around to it the previous day, but they both claimed to have had nothing to do with it.
When the following morning, Dominique awoke once again to find the same window wide open, she decided that enough was enough. That night, when everyone went to sleep, she stayed awake, reading ahead in Charms and playing around with some more spells to see what kind of results she could get by changing wand motion and intonation.
Suddenly, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and she turned to identify the culprit. It was Brooke, climbing out of her bed and walking towards the window.
"Aha!" Dominique whispered, so as not to wake the other girls. "I caught you. What are you doing opening the window anyway?" she asked.
Brooke ignored her, opening the latch and swinging the window panes outward.
"Hey, earth to Brooke," Dominique said, frowning. Brooke was just standing there, staring out the window while Dominique got colder and colder. "Brooke, what are you doing?" she asked, getting up and padding over to her friend.
Still Brooke ignored her, staring up at the sky without making a sound.
"Brooke!" Dominique hissed, grabbing her friend by the shoulder and shaking her a little. "What's up with you?"
"What?" Brooke asked, shaking her head and turning around in confusion. "Dominique? What's going on?"
"You tell me," Dominique frowned. "All of a sudden you just climbed out of bed and opened the window, and when I asked what you were doing, you just ignored me. Have you been sleepwalking again?"
"Oh no," Brooke said, her face paling. "I didn't even – I've been taking my potion."
"I guess you need a stronger potion then," Dominique said. "Listen, is everything alright?"
Brooke shrugged. "I guess so," she muttered.
"Why do you think your unconscious self wants to stare out the window?" Dominique wondered.
"I think I was staring at the moon," Brooke said. "Mom loved the moon."
Dominique smiled sadly and wrapped her arm around her friend. "The moon is beautiful," she agreed.
"I miss her," Brooke said, tears welling in her eyes.
"I know you do," Dominique said sadly, rubbing her hand up and down her friend's shoulder. "Is there anything I can do?"
Brooke shrugged. "Not really I guess. Just don't tell the others about this."
"Of course not," Dominique said, shutting the window when a gust of cold air blew in. "Here, get back into bed."
Dominique helped Brooke back into her bed and then sat on the edge of it.
"Go to sleep," Dominique told her friend. "I'll watch over you."
"Thanks Dominique. You're a good friend," Brooke replied, closing her eyes and drifting off back to sleep.
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The next day before breakfast, Dominique took Brooke to the hospital wing to see Madam Eldridge.
"What seems to be the problem girls?" the hospital matron asked.
"It's my sleepwalking," Brooke explained. "The potion you gave me stopped working."
"Let me take a look at that," Madam Eldridge said as Brooke handed her the bottle of potion. She inspected the bottle for a moment before finding the problem. "Here we are, right on the bottom – it's expired."
"Expired?" Brooke repeated.
"Yes, all you need is a fresh batch of sleepwalking potion," Madam Eldridge said. "I believe I have some in my office, let me just go fetch it."
"Well at least we know it wasn't your fault," Dominique said while they waited for Madam Eldridge to return. "It was just expired potion."
"Yeah, but I'm still doing it," Brooke muttered. "I should be able to sleep soundly without needing to take a potion."
"And you will someday," Dominique assured her. "But I guess that day just isn't today."
"I wish it could be," Brooke said.
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Finally, after a week and a half, water returned the Hogwarts.
"Thank Merlin!" Dominique explained when she saw the notice on the noticeboard in the common room.
"I'm going to take a shower right now," Brooke declared. "I don't care how good those hygiene spells are, nothing beats the real thing."
"I should probably return that textbook to Professor Flitwick," Dominique commented, thinking of the book he'd given them full of hygiene spells.
"Well if you'd rather do that than shower, be my guest," Brooke said. "But I'm going to take full advantage of the water while it's here."
"There's only three shower stalls anyway," Dominique pointed out. "I'll just take the second round of showers."
While Brooke, Joy, and Holly hurried off to clean themselves up, Dominique grabbed Professor Flitwick's textbook and headed down to the second floor to deliver it back to him.
"Thank you Dominique," he said when she handed it over. "I appreciate getting this back. You never know when you might have to look up a spell here or there."
"Thanks for lending it to us," Dominique replied. "Some of those spells were really helpful."
Just as she was about to leave, Professor Flitwick dropped the book and a sheet of parchment fell out it.
"What's this?" he asked, bending down and picking it up.
Dominique looked closer and realized it was her notes on how to improve some of the spells.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she blushed, grabbing it back from him. "I didn't realize I'd left that in there."
"But what is it?" the Professor asked, peering closer. "Are these modifications to the spells?"
"Yeah, it's nothing," Dominique muttered.
"It certainly isn't nothing!" Professor Flitwick insisted. "Let me see that properly."
Reluctantly, Dominique handed the parchment back over and waited anxiously as her Professor read it over.
"I know it's just silly – who cares whether your mouth feels minty as long as your teeth are clean, right?" Dominique muttered.
"Do these actually work?" Professor Flitwick asked.
Dominique frowned. "Yeah," she replied. "Sure."
"Do you mind if I hold onto this?" Professor Flitwick asked.
"I guess not," Dominique shrugged, eager to get away and back to Gryffindor Tower.
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"What took you so long?" Brooke asked when Dominique returned.
"Professor Flitwick got all weird about my notes for those modifications I made to some of the spells," Dominique replied. "He wouldn't let me leave."
"Well all three showers are free," Brooke said. "So take your pick."
After a week and a half of no running water, the shower felt glorious. Dominique stayed under the water much longer than she needed to, just enjoying the feeling of the water against her skin and the feeling of being truly clean.
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"So do you want to play a round of gobstones later?" Miles asked as he and Dominique headed to the Great Hall for breakfast the following morning. "Maybe after last period?"
"Sounds like fun!" Dominique agreed enthusiastically.
"Miss Weasley!" Professor Flitwick called out suddenly from across the Entrance Hall. "Miss Weasley, may I speak with you a moment?"
Dominique paused in confusion. "Go ahead, I'll be right in," she said.
Miles continued on into the Great Hall while Dominique walked over to her Charms Professor.
"Yes?" she asked, wondering what this could be about.
"I've been testing some of the modifications you made to those hygiene spells," Professor Flitwick began.
"Oh I know," Dominique muttered. "They're not very good."
"Quite the contrary," Professor Flitwick disagreed. "They were phenomenal. I think you have a real gift."
"A gift?" Dominique asked.
"For Charms," Professor Flitwick clarified.
"Oh," Dominique said, unsure what to do with this information.
"I've looked over your classwork, and you're definitely at the top of your class. In fact, you're one of the strongest students I've seen in a long time," he added.
"Thank you," Dominique said.
"I know you still have a long way to go, but I think you should consider a career path in Charms," Professor Flitwick added.
"Oh," Dominique said, surprised. "Well thank you, I'll definitely consider it."
By the time Professor Flitwick let Dominique go, there was no time left to eat before making the long trek up to History of Magic. She didn't get a chance to talk to Miles all day, so when they finally met up to play gobstones after Transfiguration, Miles was very curious to know what Professor Flitwick had had to say.
"He told me I had a gift in Charms," Dominique said matter-of-factly as she rolled one of her gobstones.
"A gift?" Miles asked.
"Yeah. He suggested I consider a career in Charms. As if I'm even thinking about that sort of thing yet," Dominique said, switching places with Miles.
"Why would he say a thing like that?" Miles wondered.
"I made some modifications to a few hygiene spells and he found them and apparently he was pretty impressed," Dominique explained.
"What spells?" Miles wondered as he rolled his gobstone and knocked Dominique's out of the way.
"Just some of the hygiene spells," Dominique replied. "Only minor things, nothing crazy, but he was all excited about it."
"I mean, you are only in first year," Miles pointed out. "So that's pretty cool. And you were the first one of us to master the levitation spell. Maybe you really do have a gift."
"Don't you start with this too," Dominique warned, rolling another gobstone.
"Sorry," Miles apologized immediately.
"It's just a lot of pressure all of a sudden," Dominique explained. "Now if I do badly on an assignment, or if I have trouble with a spell, I'm going to feel bad about it, like I let Professor Flitwick down or something."
"Don't," Miles said, taking a turn rolling a gobstone. "Nobody expects you to be perfect just because you figured out a few improvements to some simple hygiene spells."
"Are you sure about that?" Dominique asked, rolling her final gobstone. "I win," she smirked when she knocked Miles' gobstone completely out of the target.
"Definitely," Miles said. "Even professionals mess up sometimes, so nobody's expecting perfection from you."
"I guess so," Dominique shrugged. "Why did he have to say anything at all, anyway?"
"Come on, let's just forget about all this," Miles suggested. "Another game?"
"Anytime," Dominique smiled. "You're going down."