Year 3: Those Fragile Bonds

Chapter 26: February 2016

As usual, the arrival of February meant that Dominique and her friends were suddenly bombarded by the presence of lovestruck couples all over the castle. Dominique could barely walk from one class to another without running into a private moment that she didn't want to be a part of.

"We should make a pact," Dominique announced to the group one night. "None of us ever act this ridiculous just because it's Valentine's season."

Her friends agreed readily, though perhaps not as enthusiastically as Dominique would have liked. She could never understand why this bothered her so much. She loved reading romance novels, so why was she so adverse to seeing it in the real world?

The weekend before Valentine's Day was a scheduled Hogsmeade weekend, and for the first time that year, Brooke agreed to join her friends on the trip.

"Seriously?" Dominique practically squealed. Ever since the beginning of the year, Brooke had insisted on using Hogsmeade weekends to practice Quidditch on the empty pitch. It was a perfect opportunity, as the pitch was usually free for most of the day.

"Yeah," Brooke nodded. "We just had a game last month, and our next one won't be for a while, so I can afford to miss out on some practice time and have some fun."

Dominique was so excited, she could hardly contain herself. She couldn't wait to show Brooke all the cool shops and places to visit in the village. While shopping with Tom and Miles had been great, it wasn't the same as going with her best friend.

The day of the trip was cold – the air was sharp and biting. Dominique supposed this would have deterred some students from venturing out, but she was determined to experience Hogsmeade with Brooke, so she bundled herself up in her warmest winter clothes and with her friends started trudging along the winding path down to the village.

"It's f-f-f-freezing out here," Brooke said, her teeth chattering. "Are you sure we shouldn't turn back?"

"No way," Dominique shook her head, bracing herself against the cold wind. "If we turn back you might never come back."

So the four of them continued to make their way down to the village.

When they arrived, they made a beeline for the Three Broomsticks, needing to warm up, perhaps with a nice hot butterbeer. Unfortunately, it seemed that every other student had had the same idea – the pub was packed.

Most of the tables were already full with students, but Miles managed to locate a small table in the back corner that was free. It looked like it was only meant for two people, but after locating a couple of free chairs from tables seated with odd-numbers of people, the four were able to squash themselves around it.

"I'll get the drinks," Tom volunteered, standing up.

"I'll come with you," Brooke added, joining him. "You'll need at least four hands to carry them."

So Brooke and Tom headed over to the very crowded counter, leaving Dominique and Miles at the tiny table, facing each other.

"So what did you have in mind for today?" Miles wondered. "I can't imagine you're picturing a nice stroll down the lane in this weather?"

"No," Dominique said sadly. While it would have been nice to just walk down the main street of the village and point out all the features of the village to Brooke, it was much too cold for such an activity to be anything but excruciating. "But we can still shop. If we work our way through the village systematically, then all we'll have to do is bolt from one doorway to the next before we're inside again."

"One thing I'm definitely not looking forward to is the walk back to the castle," Miles said, making a face. "I already feel like my ears and nose are going to fall off, and we've only just started the day."

"The butterbeer will warm you up," Dominique promised. "And I'm sure when we get back the elves will have the common room fire roaring."

"You really think we're going to get anywhere near that thing tonight?" Miles asked. "All the upperclassmen will have claimed the prime spots long before we get there – and even if we got close, they'd probably kick us out."

"Well the whole room will be warm anyway," Dominique said. "It doesn't matter that we aren't close, just so long as we're there."

Brooke and Tom returned with their butterbeers and Dominique took hers gratefully, taking a tentative sip. It was still very hot, and it burnt her tongue a little, but she was so cold she ignored it and took an even larger gulp, feeling the hot liquid travel down her throat and settle in her belly.

"That's good," Dominique sighed. She held her hands on either side of the mug to warm them and felt herself relaxing.

"So have any of you guys started the potions assignment yet?" Tom asked conversationally.

"No!" Dominique cried, not answering Tom's question but protesting it. "No talking about school today. We're not there, so we don't have to worry about it."

"Okay," Tom agreed. He was silent for a moment as he shifted his train of thought. "So Brooke, how do you feel about going up against Slytherin soon?"

"Actually, I – "

"No way," Dominique shook her head. "We are not talking about Quidditch either. Come on guys, we're at Hogsmeade. Can't we just have a normal conversation?"

"Quidditch is a pretty normal topic of conversation," Brooke pointed out.

"Yeah, but then I'm left out of the conversation," Dominique pouted.

"Fine," Tom sighed. "We won't talk about Quidditch."

The group fell into an awkward silence, which was broken when Miles spoke. "So I've been thinking about Valentine's Day – "

"Ugh," Dominique groaned. "Not Valentine's Day! I'm sick of Valentine's Day. Can't we talk about something else?"

"Okay seriously Domi, what do you want to talk about?" Tom demanded. "Because this is getting ridiculous."

Dominique shrugged. She hadn't had any particular idea in mind. She only knew what she didn't want to talk about.

"Okay, Domi, you have three choices," Brooke said then. "We can talk about school, Quidditch, or Valentine's Day. It's your pick."

Dominique considered for a moment, trying to decide on the least terrible topic.

"Fine," she said finally. "Yes Tom, I have started the potions assignment, but I haven't gotten very far."

"Really?" Brooke deadpanned. "You chose school?"

Dominique nodded. "It was the lesser of three evils," she declared.

Brooke shook her head. "Miles, go ahead," she said. "Tell us what you were thinking about Valentine's Day."

"Oh," Miles said awkwardly. "Well I was just thinking that, you know, since none of us have dates or anything, that we could spend it together. Maybe have a gobstones tournament."

Dominique perked up at the idea of a gobstones tournament. As Miles very well knew, she quite enjoyed playing gobstones, especially against him. Brooke and Tom weren't as good, since they didn't play as often.

"A gobstones tournament?" Tom frowned. "That's how you want to spend Valentine's Day?"

Miles shrugged. "I thought it could be fun."

Dominique nodded enthusiastically. "I agree," she said. "And we could make it even more elaborate than last time, so that we all get to play everybody instead of just playing two games and then having the winners play each other."

"Yeah, maybe we could each play three games – so I'd play against you, Tom, and Brooke in turn – and then we could accumulate points and whoever has the highest points is the winner," Miles suggested.

"That's really good," Dominique nodded. "And if we had time, we could even go around and play everyone twice."

"I think once will be sufficient," Brooke interjected. "That's already six games, and they aren't short."

Miles acquiesced. "Alright, so we'll do one round then," he said.

"Oh, I'm so excited," Dominique said, clapping her hands together as she said so. "This is going to be so much fun!"

DdDdDdDdDdD

To Dominique's dismay, the four of them didn't last too long in Hogsmeade. They made it to some of the more popular shops – Honeydukes, Scrivenshaft's, and Spintwitches, for Brooke's sake. They didn't make it to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes or any of the other shops though, because the cold was getting too much, and they all agreed that it was time to return to the castle.

The trek back was worse than before, because now the wind was coming straight at their faces. Dominique tried to pull her hood closed in front of her face, but the wind kept blowing it open again. At one point, Miles volunteered to walk directly in front of Dominique, and Tom in front of Brooke, in the hopes of cutting some of the wind before it reached them, but it wasn't much better.

When they finally arrived back at the castle, the girls hurried up to the dorm to change into warmer clothes. Dominique pulled on her biggest sweater that hung all the way to her knees and made her feel like she was wrapped up in a warm hug, and Brooke pulled on her warmest, fuzziest socks to warm her toes.

"What're those?" Dominique frowned, pointing to an unfamiliar pair of gloves on Brooke's bed.

Brooke glanced where Dominique was pointing and then laughed. "Oh, those are just Tom's gloves," she said. "He gave them to me when I was complaining about how mine are so thin and useless."

"Oh," Dominique nodded. "What did he do?"

"I think he just shoved his hands in his pockets," Brooke replied. "I couldn't do that because I didn't have pockets."

Once the girls had finished changing, they returned to the common room, where the boys had already found a spot near, but not directly in front of the fireplace.

"Not bad," Dominique complimented them on their chosen location.

"Thanks," Tom replied. "You two should sit on that side," he said gesturing to the end of the couch nearer to the fireplace. "It's warmer."

"Thanks," Brooke said, taking a seat and leaving room for Dominique to curl up next to her. "This is great."

By the time the upperclassmen came and kicked Dominique and her friends out of the prime fireplace spot, it didn't even matter, because they had already managed to warm up. They happily vacated the couch and found seats further towards the back of the common room where Brooke, Tom, and Miles started talking about Quidditch and Dominique decided to take a nap.

DdDdDdDdDdD

When Valentine's Day arrived, Dominique awoke in a grumpy mood.

"Why do we even celebrate Valentine's Day?" she insisted as she got dressed, pulling on her uniform in frustration. "It's so stupid."

"Well a lot of people really seem to enjoy it," Brooke pointed out. "So I guess it serves it's purpose."

"I guess," Dominque muttered. "If it's purpose is annoying me."

Classes were extraordinarily irritating. When Dominique had been in first and second year, Valentine's Day had never really affected her classmates. She's had to witness the couply-ness in older students, but never in her own class. Now that they were in third year, she found herself beyond irritated at the flirtatious glances between Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, secret grins between Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, and outright eyebrow wagging by some of the Slytherins.

So by the time classes were over, Dominique was more than happy to play some gobstones and forget about all her dumb classmates and their ridiculous attitudes.

"Alright," Miles said, setting the game up in a corner. "Who wants to play first?"

"I do," Dominique immediately volunteered. "Come on Brooke, I'll play you."

So Brooke reluctantly agreed to play the first game, gathering her marbles while Dominique got ready to take the first shot.

The game was practically a joke. Brooke could barely get her stones within the approved limits and Dominique ended up with more than double Brooke's points.

Tom and Miles played next, and Tom did almost as badly as Brooke, though not quite.

"This is pathetic guys," Dominique insisted. "You should really practice more."

"Why?" Brooke frowned. "It's not like we even really care. I don't know what it is about this game that you and Miles love so much, but I'm only playing because you guys were so excited about it."

"Really?" Dominique demanded. "That's the only reason?"

Brooke shrugged. "Well yeah," she nodded. "Why else would I subject myself to such a boring game?"

"Boring?!" Dominique cried in sudden outrage. "Gobstones is not boring, it's extremely fun! But if you hate it so much, then why don't you just leave?"

Brooke looked hurt, and Dominique immediately felt bad for her outburst. Brooke was trying to do a nice thing, but playing even though she didn't love the game, and Dominique was attacking her.

"Brooke I – "Dominique started to apologize, but Brooke wouldn't let her.

"No," she held up a hand. "It's fine. I understand. Come on Tom, let's go find something else to do."

Tom seemed reluctant to leave, but when Brooke stood and stared down at him, hands on her hips, he sighed and joined her.

Sorry, he mouthed to Miles as the two left the common room, disappearing out the portrait hole.

Left alone with Miles and the gobstones board, Dominique blew out a breath and sagged against the wall. How had everything gone so terribly wrong? What was wrong with her that she lashed out at her best friend like that?

"It's going to be alright," Miles assured her.

"No it isn't," Dominique muttered miserably. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm angry and irritated and mad all the time. I don't know where it's coming from, but it just bubbles up and I can't control it."

"Do you think you need to see Madam Eldridge?" Miles wondered.

"I'm not ill!" Dominique cried, offended. She realized she was doing it again and tried to calm herself down. "Sorry. But I don't think this is something Madam Eldridge can help me with. A potion isn't going to solve all my problems."

"You never know," Miles shrugged. "You might want to think about it."

Dominique shrugged. "Maybe," she allowed, more to make Miles feel like he'd helped than because she was actually going to consider going. "Brooke probably hates me now."

"No she doesn't," Miles promised. "You'll work it out, you always do. Just tell her what you told me and she'll understand."

Dominique sighed. "I guess," she nodded. "I never thought I'd be wishing for the days we were arguing about her skipping the first Hogsmeade weekend to practice Quidditch. At least then I knew why I was angry."

"I'm sure it's just the fact that it's Valentine's Day," Miles assured her. "Obviously it's not your favorite day of the year."

"That's for sure," Dominique agreed.

The two were silent for a few minutes, and then Miles tentatively gestured at the gobstones board.

"Want to play?" he wondered. "We both know the tournament was just a formality. The only match that matters is me against you."

Dominique grinned. "You're on," she nodded.

DdDdDdDdDdD

Four games later, Dominique was pretty worn out from all the gobstones. While she'd beat Miles in their first game, he'd rallied and managed to beat her in the three successive games.

"I think we should start keeping score," Miles suggested. "You know, tally our points each game and see who can get the most points by the end of the year."

"You're only saying that because you won three out of four of the games," Dominique rolled her eyes. "You think you'd win."

Miles shrugged. "Maybe," he allowed. "But in that first game when you beat me, it was by a far larger margin than any of the times I beat you, so you never know."

Dominique considered that. "Alright," she nodded. "Let's start keeping track then."

Miles produced a scrap bit of parchment from his bag and marked down their respective scores for the games they'd played that night.

"There," he said once he was finished. "Good to go."

Once that was done, Dominique helped Miles to pack up the game and they rose to head to their dorms.

Up in her dorm, Dominique got ready for bed slowly, hoping that Brooke would return soon so that she could apologize properly. She was about to give up and crawl into bed when the door opened and Brooke entered.

"Brooke!" Dominique said.

"Dominique," Brooke nodded her head in acknowledgement.

"Brooke you have to let me apologize, I don't know where that come from," Dominique said pleadingly. "I'm really sorry for yelling at you."

"I was trying to do a nice thing," Brooke said. "I could have said no to the tournament, but I played nice and participated."

"I know," Dominique said miserably. "And I really appreciate that. I shouldn't have said the things that I said."

Brooke let out a breath. "Alright," she allowed. "Let's just forget this ever happened."

Dominique breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks Brooke," she said. "You're the best friend ever."

Brooke smiled. "And don't you forget it."