Year 4: Friends and Foes

Chapter 33: November 2016

As October turned into November, Dominique still hadn't found her opportunity to talk to Adrian alone. Ever since her failed attempt to talk to him that had been ruined by Summer, Dominique had felt even more nervous about trying again. She needed a new strategy.

She continued to attend Quidditch practices in the hopes that he would notice her, but so far, he hadn't. Dominique had to find some way to make an impression, because as far as Adrian was aware at this point, Dominique was invisible.

Meanwhile, Tom had been acting rather strange over the past few weeks. It almost seemed like he wanted to talk to Dominique, but couldn't work up the nerve. Dominique wasn't sure what was going on, but she knew if he wanted to talk to her, he was going to have to initiate it. She was still pretty upset about everything he'd said to her at the end of last year. Selfish and entitled; that's what he'd called her. The words still stung when Dominique thought about the conversation they'd had.

So when Tom really did come up to her one day in the common room, Dominique was shocked.

"Dominique?" Tom said tentatively, standing awkwardly next to the couch she was stretched out on. "Do you think we could talk for a minute?"

Lowering her copy of Teen Witch, Dominique looked up at Tom and studied him for a moment. There was a part of her that wanted to say no, to say that she had no interest in talking to someone who would say what he'd said to her and treat her how he'd treated her. But there was another part of her that was tired of fighting with Tom, was tired of tearing her friends apart, and who actually missed the guy.

"Sure," Dominique nodded. She stood and allowed Tom to lead her to a couple of armchairs in the corner of the room where they could have a private conversation and she sat down, ears open, but heart still only partially receptive to what he had to say.

"Listen," Tom said hesitantly, seeming not to know where to begin. "I've been thinking and… I think we should try to put all this behind us and try to be friends again."

"That's it?" Dominique frowned. She'd been hoping for an apology, for an admission that the things he'd said to her were hurtful and wrong and not at all true. This sounded more like he wanted to sweep their issues under the rug and pretend it hadn't happened.

"Well I just think, you know, it's been hard on Brooke and Miles these past few months, and you seem to have realized the error of your ways, and – "

"The error of my ways?" Dominique asked in disbelief. "Did you really just say that?"

Who did Tom think he was, coming in here and treating her like she was the bad guy?

"Well yeah," Tom said defensively. "I just mean, you know, last year you weren't very supportive of Brooke. You never went to any of her games, you could barely tolerate even a five-minute conversation about Quidditch, even though it's a big part of her life, and of Miles' and mine too. But now this year you went to tryouts to support your friends, you've attended every practice we've had… It seems like you've realized that your friends matter and that you want to be there for them, and I appreciate that."

It took Dominique a minute to process everything that Tom was saying. On the one hand, she was shocked and a little offended. Did Tom really think that her attending the Gryffindor Quidditch practices was a result of the things he'd said to her at the end of last year? Was he really so self-involved that he thought that some mean comments were going to cause Dominique to change her whole personality? Not to mention, he clearly had no remorse for his own words and actions, which Dominique really didn't appreciate.

There was also a part of Dominique that thought the whole situation was kind of funny. Tom thought she was going to the practices for him and Miles and Brooke, when she was really going for Adrian. Of course, Miles thought the same thing, and Dominique wasn't about to explain herself, but she did still need to set the record straight about one thing.

"I'm going to say this once, so listen closely Tom Kelley," Dominique said as clearly as possible. "My going to your Quidditch practices has nothing to do with anything you said to me last year. In fact, if it was just a matter of that, there's no way I would be sitting through hours of long, boring flying around in circles. What you said to me last year was mean and hurtful and spiteful, and if you were any kind of friend, you would never have said those things. And if you can't realize that, then I don't think we can be friends again."

When Dominique finished, she gave Tom a moment to absorb everything that she'd said. When Tom finally did speak again, his face was much more subdued and serious.

"I know what I said to you wasn't completely fair," Tom agreed. "While I stand by some of what I said, calling you selfish and entitled was wrong, and saying what I did in the way that I did was unnecessary. As a friend, I should've found a better way to express my frustrations and I'm sorry for that."

Dominique considered Tom for a moment. His words did seem sincere, and Dominique could hardly fault him for not apologizing for his feelings. He'd admitted that he shouldn't have said what he'd said in the way that he'd said it, and honestly, that was enough for Dominique. This feud had been going on far too long and it was time to mend fences.

"I accept your apology," Dominique declared with a nod.

"Really?" Tom asked, seeming a little surprised.

"Yeah," Dominique confirmed. "I think it's time to just forget about what's happened and move forward."

"I agree," Tom said. "Thank you for hearing me out."

"Of course," Dominique smiled.

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The first few days of being friends with Tom again were more than a little awkward. Brooke and Miles tried their best to make the transition back to a foursome as smooth as possible, but there were still some bumps along the way. Though they were reconciled, there was still some tension between Dominique and Tom, mostly stemming from the fact that it had been so long since they'd spent any time together.

After a week, things were finally starting to feel like they were going back to normal. Dominque and Tom could have conversations with each other without needing Brooke and Miles as a crutch. They could partner each other in class and work together on their homework. Quidditch was still an awkward subject when it came up, but Dominique was confident that eventually they would get past the awkwardness and go back to the easy friendship they used to have.

That weekend was scheduled to be a Hogsmeade weekend, and Dominique was extremely excited about that. It would be the perfect opportunity for her and her friends to get away from the castle and just enjoy the day together. She was really hoping it would play a big role in bringing her and Tom's friendship back to where it once had been.

So on Saturday morning, Dominique showered and got dressed in a great mood, even humming as she did so, which irritated Brooke to no end. They met the boys for breakfast in the Great Hall and then walked the familiar route to the wizarding village.

"Where to first?" Brooke asked as they walked down the high street, looking around at all the shops, which were for the most part unchanged from the previous year.

"How about the Three Broomsticks for some butterbeer?" Dominique suggested.

The others agreed and soon they found themselves seated around a small table in the overcrowded pub filled with other students who'd all had the same idea.

"Did you hear the rumour about Professor Flitwick?" Brooke asked once they all had their drinks.

"The new Professor Flitwick or the old Professor Flitwick?" Dominique asked for clarification.

"The old one," Brooke specified.

"No, what?" Dominique asked, eager for the gossip.

"Well Holly told me that he'd been using some spell to stop him from aging, but that the spell was only supposed to be temporary and he used it too many times, and that's why he had to retire. It was catching up with him and now he's stuck in St. Mungo's aging the equivalent of a year every week," Brooke said.

"That's horrible!" Dominique exclaimed. "No wonder it was so sudden."

"Yeah, and Brittany told me that he asked his niece to apply for the job in the hopes that the Flitwick legacy could live on or something like that," Brooke added.

"Aww, that's so sweet," Dominique simpered.

"And then I overheard Joy talking to Zeke, and she said…"

Dominique didn't hear the rest of Brooke's tale because at that moment, she'd glanced over in the direction of the front door and had noticed Adrian walk in, completely distracting her.

"Domi?" Brooke asked. "Did you hear what I said?"

"Oh, yeah," Dominique muttered, shaking her head. "Wow, that's pretty intense," she said, figuring that was generic enough of a response. "Hey, so how's the team shaping up?" she asked, knowing that once her friends were on the topic of Quidditch, they wouldn't even notice if she wasn't paying attention.

"Oh, really well," Tom exclaimed immediately, starting to analyze each of the players individually.

As Brooke and Miles began to contribute to the analysis, Dominique allowed her gaze to drift across the pub to where Adrian had sat down with a group of his friends and she rested her chin on her hand as she began to daydream about him. Dominique wished she had the courage to go up and talk to him, but she was too nervous. She couldn't do it front of all these people. What she needed was to catch him sometime alone.

Suddenly, Adrian and his friend Cameron stood, excusing themselves from their group of friends and headed towards the door. Before they could get too far, Dominique pushed back her chair and stood up abruptly.

"I have to go to the bathroom!" she exclaimed.

"Well thanks for sharing that with the whole building," Tom said sarcastically.

"Sorry," Dominique replied, realizing how loud she'd spoken. She hurried towards the hall that led to the bathrooms, and when her friends weren't looking, she snuck to the front door and slipped outside.

She wasn't even entirely sure why she was doing this. She told herself she was just curious – she wanted to know what kinds of shops he liked. Casting her eyes up and down the main road, she caught sight of Adrian and Cameron heading into Honeydukes.

She followed them in and cautiously approached. They were looking at the cauldron cake display, so Dominique busied herself with the nearby display of sugar quills.

"What do you think?" Cameron was asking. "If I buy the cauldron cakes, I can't buy any potions ingredients, and I'm running a little low."

"Yeah, but Professor Abbott-Longbottom will let you borrow from the potions cupboard anyway, so what's the point in wasting your money there?" Adrian pointed out.

Cameron agreed and took a package of cauldron cakes up to the cash, Adrian following behind him. Dominique silently applauded Adrian on his wisdom – he was right, it was a much better investment to buy the cauldron cakes than to buy ingredients that were available for free at school anyway.

As the two boys waited in line so that Cameron could make his purchase, Dominique realized that she'd been gone from the Three Broomsticks for a while. Her friends were surely going to start wondering where she was soon. Just as she was about to abandon ship and sneak back into the pub, Miles voice startled her so hard that she almost jumped through the ceiling.

"Domi?" he asked in surprise.

Dominique froze and turned around, coming face to face with her friends. "Hi guys," she said nervously.

"What are you doing in here?" Tom asked in confusion.

"Oh, you know, I was just… looking at the sugar quills," Dominique said lamely, gesturing to the nearby display.

Having made his purchase, Cameron passed by the fourth years, Adrian right behind him, and they left the store. As they did, Dominique's gaze drifted to them and Miles saw, realizing what was going on.

"Seriously Domi?" he asked in shock. "You ditched us to come stalk some guy?"

"I was not stalking him!" Dominique cried. "I was just… following him."

"Not really that big a difference," Tom pointed out.

"So this is why you've been watching our Quidditch practices!" Miles cried in outrage. "You've just been coming to ogle Adrian!"

"Can we talk about this somewhere else?" Dominique asked self-consciously. The whole store could hear them and Dominique didn't like knowing that everyone was listening.

"I don't think so," Tom replied. "You're being very quiet Brooke," he added, rounding on their other friend.

"What?" Brooke asked in alarm, having tried to stay out of the argument.

"You knew," Miles accused her. When Brooke didn't disagree, the boys only got angrier.

"You knew she was only coming because of Adrian, and you let us think she was there for us," Tom shot at her.

"It wasn't that – " Brooke was interrupted.

"Both of you lied to us," Tom said angrily. "The least you could've done was be honest. Come on Miles," he said, leading the way out of the shop.

Watching her friends walk out of the store, Dominique felt like her stomach had dropped out of her belly. Whatever progress she and Tom had made was surely going to be ruined now. And what of her friendship with Miles.

"What have I done?" Dominique muttered to herself in dismay.

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Later that night, Dominique sat with her friends in awkward silence.

"Listen guys, I'm sorry about ditching you earlier," she said, feeling like someone needed to say something.

"It wasn't very nice," Miles said.

"I know," Dominique replied. "I don't even know why I did it, I just got up and suddenly had the urge to follow him."

"So you like this guy?" Miles asked bitterly.

"Yeah, I do," Dominique blushed.

"Are you going to ask him out or something?" Miles asked.

"I don't know," Dominique shrugged uncomfortably. "Maybe."

This was why she hadn't wanted to tell Miles about liking Adrian earlier. She didn't want to be having this conversation.

"Well I for one am shocked," Tom declared, his voice showing how angry he was. "I really thought we'd come to an understanding, Domi, but apparently I was sadly mistaken."

"What do you mean?" Dominique frowned. Sure it wasn't nice that she'd ditched her friends, but what did that have to do with Tom specifically?

"I thought you were coming to Quidditch practices to support your friends. I thought you'd realized that you were being selfish by refusing to go to games and that you were trying to make amends. I thought that you were thinking about someone other than yourself, putting yourself through something you didn't enjoy for the sole purpose of knowing that it was making other people happy. But it turns out you've been completely self-involved this entire time. You only go to practices because you're crushing on Adrian, you obviously don't care about your friends at all, because you'd rather stalk some guy who doesn't even know your name all around town than hang out with us. You're still just as selfish and entitled as you ever were, and you obviously have no concern for anybody's feelings but your own."

Tom was standing at this point, practically towering over Dominique, and Dominique was having none of it. She stood to square off with Tom, who she now realized she could never be friends with again, if even after all this time he was still saying the same mean things about her right to her face.

"You listen here," she said, steam practically coming out her ears at this point. "I don't know who you think you are, but you have no right to yell at me and say the things you're saying to me. Just because I don't enjoy Quidditch doesn't mean I'm a bad friend. Just because I may choose not to go to a Quidditch game Brooke is playing in doesn't mean I don't care about her. Having a crush on a guy doesn't make me self-involved, it makes me a teenage girl with normal teenage girl feelings. I'm allowed to think about my self sometimes. Friendship doesn't mean ignoring all my feelings in favor of making my friends happy. Friendship means that I care about my friends and they care about me. I'm not the problem here. You are.

"You suck the life out of me. You make me feel like anytime I do anything for myself, I'm letting everyone else down. You make me feel like I'm not good enough to be friends with you, or with Miles, or with Brooke, and that's not right. If you were my friend, you would care about my feelings, but you don't. You care about Brooke's feelings and you care about Miles' feelings, but you don't care about mine. I don't know why my feelings don't seem to matter to you, but if they don't then I don't see any reason why we should continue to pretend anymore. We aren't friends and we never will be."

Having said her piece, Dominique bolted for the staircase. She didn't feel like listening to another word Tom might say, and she wasn't sure she could without bursting into tears.

She knew Brooke would follow her, and waited, curled up on her bed, for her friend to come and comfort her. It was almost twenty minutes before Brooke pushed her way through the door, and by then Dominique was all cried out.

"Hey Domi," Brooke said tentatively approaching the bed.

"Hey," Dominique said, pushing herself up so that she was sitting upright against her headboard. She felt bad for putting Brooke and Miles in the middle of everything again, and for making the scene that she did, but she didn't regret a word of what she'd said.

"So that was pretty intense," Brooke said, taking a seat next to Dominique on her bed. "I think it's safe to say that you and Tom are never going to be friends again."

Dominique nodded. "I'm sorry," she said. "But I think it's better this way. If he thinks so poorly of me, then I don't want to be around him anymore."

Brooke nodded. Dominique could tell there was something she wanted to say, but she wasn't saying it.

"Go on, spit it out, whatever it is," Dominique insisted.

Brooke sighed. "Okay, well it's just – and I don't want you to think we're being bad friends here – "

"It's fine," Dominique sighed, realizing what Brooke was trying to say. "I don't expect you or Miles to pick sides. You can be friends with Tom and I both if you want to. I just don't want to be around Tom. So as long as you're okay splitting your time like you have been, then I don't care if you still want to be friends with him. At the very least he does seem to care about your feelings."

Brooke sighed again. "I hate this," she muttered, curling herself into a ball. Somehow Dominique ended up being the one to wrap her arms around Brooke to comfort her.

"It'll all be alright," Dominique assured her. "We'll figure this out. It's not an ideal situation, but we'll make it work. And you know I'll always be your best friend, right?"

"Yeah," Brooke sniffed. "And you know I'll always be yours, right?"

Dominique smiled and leaned her head on her friend's back. "Of course," she replied.