Year 4: Friends and Foes

Chapter 32: October 2016

All through the remainder of September and beginning of October, Dominique diligently attended her friends' Quidditch practices. She'd hoped that Brooke would introduce her to Adrian, but Brooke had adamantly refused. Dominique could tell that Brooke was a little hurt that Dominique wouldn't come and watch her practices for her, but would for some guy she didn't even know, but Dominique couldn't do anything about the past.

She still hadn't exchanged a word with Tom, despite the fact that she'd been at every practice he'd had. She'd thought that once he saw her there, he would at least say something, but apart from some very confused glances at her in the stands, there'd been no communication. Dominique was still waiting for the day he would finally apologize.

Miles was over the moon. Not knowing about her true motivation, Miles was convinced that his new position on the team was what had gotten Dominique out of the castle and into the stands. At practices, he would occasionally try to show off by doing flips and things that Kurt would ultimately yell at him for, because they weren't a part of the drill they were running.

And even though Dominique was attending all their practices and watching all the drills they were running, she had still learned absolutely nothing about Quidditch whatsoever. Apart from the obvious basics, she had no idea what was going on up there, and she didn't care. She just spent her time watching Adrian fly, watching Adrian stop goals from going through the hoops, and after he had successfully caught the quaffle before a goal was scored and then thrown it back to the nearest player, she would watch him run a hand through his beautiful sandy-colored hair and she would sigh quietly to herself.

Since Brooke wasn't going to introduce her, Dominique was just going to have to introduce herself. It was much more intimidating, walking up to a guy you barely know by yourself, and it would have been really nice to have a buffer, but Dominique was determined. Though she hadn't built up the courage quite yet, she was on her way there. And of course, the more time she spent at the pitch, the more opportunities for Adrian to notice her on his own.

One day, about mid-way through the month, Dominique felt like she was ready to finally approach Adrian after practice. She'd thought about the first words she was going to say to him over and over and was convinced that she'd come up with the wittiest line ever. She couldn't wait around for ever.

As practice came to a close, the players started to head into the changing rooms and Dominique started to prepare herself. Her plan was to catch Adrian on his way out of the changing rooms and back up to the castle. For one thing, waiting until after he'd showered meant that he would be clean, and for another, she'd be able to walk with him back up to the castle rather than having him have to run off to go shower.

Just as Dominique was about to get up and go stand near the exit of the changing rooms, someone sat down next to her.

"Hi," the young boy said. He looked about Louis' age, and actually, Dominique was pretty sure it was Louis' little friend from the astronomy club.

"Um… hi," Dominique said, glancing around to make sure she hadn't missed Adrian's exit yet. She hadn't.

"My name's Justin," the boy introduced himself. "Justin Spinnet."

"You're a friend of Louis' right?" Dominique said, turning to face the second year. "I'm Dominique, his older sister."

"Pleased to meet you," Justin said, holding out his hand.

Dominique wasn't sure what Justin was doing here, but she really wished he would just leave.

"So you like Quidditch?" Justin asked, making small talk.

"Not so much," Dominique shrugged, becoming uncomfortable with the boy's continued presence.

"Ah, but you like Quidditch players?" Justin surmised.

Dominique shifted uncomfortably. "I'd really rather not discuss this with you," she said. "Can't you go talk to someone your own age?"

"You know, I'm a Quidditch player," Justin said, ignoring Dominique's comment.

"What?" Dominique asked, hardly believing her ears. Was this little kid hitting on her?

"Well not yet, but I'm going to be," Justin carried on. "I wasn't ready for the team this year, but next year will be a completely different story."

"That's great," Dominique said. "Maybe we can catch up next year then."

"Cool," Justin said, standing up finally. "Well I'll see you later."

He walked away and Dominique breathed a sigh of relief that he was gone. If there was going to be a winner for awkward conversations, that would be it.

"Hey Domi," Brooke's voice drew Dominique from her thoughts. "Ready to head back?"

"Oh I was actually going to – " Dominique trailed off. Adrian had already left the changing rooms and was heading back up the castle with another player. Dominique sighed. Not only had Justin initiated a completely unwanted conversation, but he'd messed up all of Dominique's plans. "Yeah, I guess we can head up," she muttered.

DdDdDdDdDdD

The next day in Charms class, the fourth years were just starting to learn a new spell – the flame-freezing spell. While their new Professor's style of teaching was extremely different than the elder Professor Flitwick's had been, Dominique found herself quickly getting used to this new style. The new Professor Flitwick was much more dynamic than their previous teacher and was also a lot more hands-on. Instead of learning all the theory first, her method involved diving straight into casting the spell and then learning the theory as they went. Dominique loved this.

So that morning, instead of sitting through a boring lecture about the history of the flame-freezing charm and the technical details of how the charm worked, Professor Flitwick quickly described the wand-motion, wrote the incantation on the chalkboard, and then gave the class free reign to see what they might come up with.

"This is great," Dominique muttered to Brooke as they began to attempt the spell on their practice candles. The candles were specifically made so that if the flame-freezing spell were successful, the entire candle would turn blue, making is so that the students could practice the spell without having to burn themselves after every attempt checking if their fire was hot or cold. "We should always do charms this way. None of the boring stuff and all of the fun stuff."

"I'm sure we'll have to do the theory eventually," Brooke pointed out.

Dominique chose not to hear Brooke's comment.

After about twenty minutes of attempting the spell, still nobody in the class had successfully cast it. Dominique was starting to get frustrated. Charms was supposed to be her best class, so why wasn't she excelling?

Professor Flitwick called for the class' attention and everyone quieted down to listen to her.

"Alright, now remember everyone. The wand motion is a sharp diagonal followed by a soft arc, and the emphasis needs to be on the second and fourth syllables of the incantation, not the first and third," she said. "Let's try again."

It wasn't much to go on, but Dominique gave it another try. She wanted to show Professor Flitwick that she was the best in the class. The elder Professor Flitwick had known her potential for charms, but the younger Professor Flitwick still didn't really know her.

After another twenty minutes of trying to get the charm to work, Dominique was fed up. It wasn't happening. But then Dominique was hit with a stroke of genius. She didn't necessarily need to get the flame-freezing charm to work, she just needed her candle to turn blue so that Professor Flitwick would think that she'd cast the spell.

Changing her approach, Dominique stopped trying to imagine a cold flame – something that was difficult to picture in her mind – and instead imagined a blue candle. She closed her eyes, visualizing the blue candle in her mind, and let everything else filter out. When she felt ready, she opened her eyes, focused on her candle, and started moving her wand.

It was as if her arm was moving of its own accord, and Dominique let it. Unfamiliar sounds came out of her mouth, but Dominique went with it. Next to her, Brooke paused in confusion.

"What - ?"

But Dominique didn't hear her. She was so completely focused on what she was doing, that nothing else existed.

And then, just like that, the candle turned blue and Dominique came out of her trance.

"Hey, you did it!" Brooke exclaimed. "But how – that wasn't the spell Professor Flitwick taught us."

"I'll explain later," Dominique muttered, seeing that their teacher was on her way over.

Professor Flitwick reached their table and immediately congratulated Dominique.

"My uncle told me to watch out for you, and it looks like he was right. You're the only one in class so far that's managed to cast the spell. Good for you."

"Thank you," Dominique said, accepting the praise. Though she hadn't actually pulled off the spell her teacher thought she had, she'd done something even harder. Performed a spell she hadn't yet been taught. Dominique was proud of herself.

"I look forward to working with you more in the future," Professor Flitwick added before heading back towards the front of the class. It was nearing the end of the lesson and it was time to wrap things up.

"Okay, what did you do?" Brooke demanded as soon as class was over.

"Okay, don't be mad," Dominique pleaded, worried that Brooke would think she'd cheated – which she had a little bit. "But I didn't actually pull off a flame-freezing spell. I only changed the color of the candle. The flame was hot the whole time."

"Hang on," Brooke said, stopping dead in her tracks. "You pulled off a color-changing spell? Isn't that way more advanced than flame-freezing?"

Dominique shrugged. "The color-changing spell was actually a lot easier, I thought," she admitted. "It was a lot easier to picture a blue candle than to picture a cold flame. I mean, a cold flame just looks like a regular flame."

"Who said anything about visualization?" Brooke asked. "Professor Flitwick just said wand motion and incantation. There was no visualization involved."

"Visualization helps me cast spells," Dominique defended herself. "When I can see the spell happening in my head, it's a lot easier to get it to happen in real life. So I imagined that candle turning blue, and then it just happened."

"You did a lot more than that," Brooke pointed out. "What about that big wand flourish, and whatever words those were that you said."

Dominique shrugged sheepishly. "I honestly don't know where any of that came from. I just imagined the candle turning blue and the rest just sort of happened."

Brooke shook her head. "I seriously don't understand you," she said. "I believe you, but I don't understand you."

Dominique shrugged. "I'm not a hundred percent sure I understand me either, if that helps at all."

"It doesn't," Brooke laughed. "But thanks. Oh, and do me a favor?"

"What's that?" Dominique asked.

"Next time, try to do the spell we're actually trying to learn," Brooke requested. "Don't try to show us all up by pretending you can do it when you can't."

"I wasn't – " Dominique stopped herself. There was no point denying it, because it was exactly what she'd done. She'd wanted Professor Flitwick to know that she was the best in the class. She needed to own that. "Alright fine," Dominique nodded. "Next class I'll try to get the actual spell to work."

DdDdDdDdDdD

The following afternoon, the Gryffindor Quidditch team had another practice scheduled and Dominique was ready to take advantage of the opportunity to finally talk to Adrian. This time, there would be no stopping her. She wasn't going to let that kid friend of Louis', or anybody else stop her.

When Brooke was ready to head down to the pitch, Dominique immediately closed up her books and hurried to join her. While Dominique was excited, Brooke only seemed annoyed.

"Really?" she asked. "You're coming to practice again?"

"I'm really going to do it this time," Dominique insisted. "I'm going to introduce myself."

"Sure you are," Brooke said, sounding unconvinced.

"No really, I am," Dominique promised. "I would have done it last time except for that second year kept talking to me."

"Alright, let's say you do finally work up the nerve to talk to him," Brooke said. "Then what? What are you going to talk about?"

"Well I don't know," Dominique frowned. "We'll just have to see where the conversation takes us."

"You have nothing in common," Brooke insisted. "You're completely different people. He might be attractive, but he would bore your out of your mind."

"How can you know that?" Dominique demanded. "I've never even talked to him yet. Maybe it'll turn out we do have tons in common. It's not like you and him are best friends or anything, you don't know who he really is, you just see him at Quidditch practices."

"I know pretty much all he's interested in is Quidditch, which you hate," Brooke pointed out.

"I do not hate Quidditch," Dominique defended. "I just think it's boring."

"See?" Brooke said. "How are you going to get along if you can't talk about one of the most important aspects of his life?"

"I get along great with you and Miles, even though you both play Quidditch," Dominique pointed out. "I don't see the problem. We'll just talk about other things."

Brooke sighed. "Look Domi, I just don't think it's meant to be. You're so different. And he's a sixth year."

"That's not an issue – "

"I know you don't think it's an issue, but it is," Brooke interrupted. "Your sister's relationship with Teddy is very different from what you could ever hope to have with Adrian. She's known him her whole life, and you didn't even notice he existed until this year despite the fact that he's attended Hogwarts since before we started in first year."

Though Dominique knew Brooke meant well, she was getting fed up of her friend's pessimistic comments. If Dominique was going to finally talk to Adrian today, she needed to be building her confidence up, not poking holes in a relationship that hadn't even begun yet.

"Look, I appreciate what you're trying to do," Dominique said. "But would you mind just not? My mind is made up. I'm doing this no matter what you say, and I'd rather not walk into things with a bunch of doubts in my mind."

"Fine," Brooke said, backing off. They'd reached the pitch and were now standing just outside the changing rooms. "But just don't get your hopes up too high, alright?"

"Whatever you say," Dominique replied, gesturing to the changing rooms to indicate that Brooke should go get ready for practice.

With a sad smile, Brooke took her leave and Dominique climbed up into the stands and got into position to watch the game.

Thankfully, it was a nice day, and Dominique didn't mind being outside in the sun. While she waited for the team to get changed and have their pre-practice meeting, she pulled her latest copy of Witch Weekly out of her bag and casually started flipping through it.

As soon as the players emerged onto the pitch, Dominique shoved her magazine back into her bag. On the off chance Adrian glanced up at her in the stands, she wanted him to see her watching his practice, not reading a magazine.

She caught Miles' eye and waved at him, causing him to smile widely and wave back. She tried to catch Brooke's eye, but the girl was in deep conversation with Kurt Robins, the team captain, and didn't spare Dominique a glance.

Adrian was talking with the older of the two female chasers and also didn't look in Dominique's direction. Dominique didn't worry about it though. Once the practice was over and they got to talk, things would be different.

The practice was one of the most boring ones Dominique had been to yet. She never had any idea what was going on, and today in particular seemed more about flying formations for the chasers and beaters, meaning that as the team's keeper, Adrian didn't have all that much to do. At least when the chasers were trying to score on him, Dominque got to watch him fly around the hoops and catch the quaffle before it got through one of them. Today he was mostly just hovering on his broom and watching everyone else train.

When the game came to an end, Dominique decided it was time to make her move. She wasn't going to wait until after he'd showered like last time, because she didn't want to miss her chance again. So while the players were packing up their equipment, Dominique got up and made her way through the stands to the pitch, and then began to cross it to where Adrian had landed.

As Dominique approached, she noticed another figure approaching from the opposite direction. At first, she didn't pay the individual any attention, figuring they were coming over to see one of the other players, but it soon became obvious that both of them were headed for the same person.

Dominique turned her head slightly, moving her gaze from Adrian to the other approaching individual to find that it was none other than Summer Snow. Dominique frowned. What was Summer doing here, and why was she crossing the pitch to talk to Adrian?

Dominique reached Adrian at the same time as Summer, and both girls just stood there, staring at each other with a mixture of confusion and frustration. Dominique couldn't believe it. Here she was, finally having worked up the courage to talk to Adrian, and Summer was going to stand in her way?

"Er – hi?" Adrian said, breaking the awkward silence that had existed ever since the two girls had stopped walking.

Suddenly, Dominique remembered that she wasn't here to glare at Summer Snow, but to talk to Adrian.

"Hi," Dominique said, looking away from Summer and back at Adrian. "I just wanted to say that I've watched a few of your practices and you're really good."

"Thanks," Adrian smiled, still glancing from Dominique to Summer with a puzzled expression.

"Yes, and I just wanted to say that I think you really know how to handle a broom, and you're going to give the Slytherin team a run for their money," Summer added.

"You made the team again this year?" Adrian asked, his face suddenly turning more animated.

"I did," Summer nodded.

"Well I definitely look forward to facing off against you at some point," Adrian said. "Even if you are the seeker and me the keeper."

"Same here," Summer nodded.

"Well," Adrian said, glancing back at Dominique and then to Summer again. "I'd better go get changed. It was nice chatting with you both."

Dominique smiled and waved, but Adrian wasn't looking. He'd already turned around and was on his way to the changing rooms.

"What do you think you're doing?" Summer demanded, pulling Dominique's attention away from Adrian.

"What do I think I'm doing?" Dominique demanded. "What are you doing? Spying for the Slytherin team? Because if I'm not mistaken, that's against the rules."

"I couldn't care less about spying on Gryffindor's pathetic little team," Summer rolled her eyes. "I have my eye on one player in particular, and that player is Adrian."

Dominique felt her blood start to boil. If Summer Snow thought she was going to steal Adrian away from her, she had another thing coming.

"You and Adrian will never have anything," Dominique informed her. "You're the enemy. He would never go out with someone who plays on the Slytherin team."

"Oh, and you think he'd go out with you?" Summer asked skeptically. "Since when are you even interested in Quidditch? I don't think I've ever seen you at a game before."

"I've been to Quidditch games before," Dominique said. It wasn't a total lie. She had come to a game that one time her friends had forced her to.

"Whatever," Summer said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Just leave Adrian alone. He's mine."

"Oh, we'll see about that," Dominique said, squaring her shoulders.

"I suppose we will," Summer said, standing taller.

With nothing left to say, Dominique spun on her heel and stalked off the pitch in the hopes of finding Brooke so that they could head back up to the castle.

One thing was for certain. Summer Snow was not going to beat her to her first date with Adrian Carter.