Year 4: Friends and Foes

Chapter 36: February 2017

"I've decided to ask Adrian out for Valentine's day," Dominique declared to Brooke one afternoon.

"That's bold," Brooke commented. "You've never even had a proper conversation."

"Well how are we supposed to have one if I never ask him out?" Dominique demanded. "You're always saying I need to find my Gryffindor courage and take the first step."

"But Valentine's day?" Brooke asked, unsure. "That's a really big first step."

"I know," Dominique agreed. "But what can I say? I'm tired of waiting around, and it's not like he would have plans with anyone else. He's technically single."

"If you're sure," Brooke shrugged. "I'm not going to try to stop you."

"Good," Dominique nodded. "Because you would not succeed."

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In the days leading up to Valentine's day, Dominique waited for the perfect opportunity to ask Adrian out. It was difficult as usual, because Dominique wanted to ask at the perfect moment. Eventually, she decided to wait until the end of one of his Quidditch practices again. The last time she'd attempted it she'd botched it, but this time she didn't have to worry about Summer interfering, so she was sure she would be fine.

In the days leading up to her chosen practice, Dominique obsessed over every little detail, from her hair to her shoes. She needed to look, sound, and be absolutely perfect. Even without Summer in the mix, Dominique was going to have to bring her A-game. She wasn't just competing against fourth year girls, but fifth and sixth year girls as well. Adrian could go out with almost anyone and she had to make him see why she was the optimal choice.

Before she knew it, the day arrived and Dominique spent the entire morning primping and pampering herself in the bathrooms. It was a Saturday, so there was no class, and the Gryffindor practice wasn't until after lunch. Dominique even considered enlisting the help of her sister, but Victoire was in a strange state recently and Dominique thought better of it.

At lunch, Dominique headed down to the Great Hall to eat, but found that she was too nervous to have anything substantial. She picked and poked at a salad until Miles got fed up with her nonsense and declared that they were going to go down to the pitch a bit early.

Dominique figured it couldn't hurt, and so she followed Miles down and chose a seat in the stands while he went to get dressed in his Quidditch clothes. Dominique was careful to choose a seat from which she would be able to watch the practice properly, and also from where the players would be able to see her. She needed to watch Adrian so that she could talk about the practice knowledgeably to make it seem like she knew what was going on. And of course she needed him to see her, because how else was she going to make an impression?

It wasn't long before the other players arrived and practice began. The team captain, Kurt Robins, said a lot of words that Dominique didn't understand, and then the players did a lot of stuff that Dominique didn't see the relevance of. As usual, Adrian waited by the goalposts while the other players practiced their various formations, and then stopped a goal every now and then when they tried to score on him.

When the practice finally came to a close, Dominique immediately stood, intending to go and lurk by the changing room doors to corner Adrian when he was finished. Unfortunately, she found her path blocked.

"Get out of my way, Summer," Dominique demanded, not in the mood for the Slytherin girl's games.

"Do you really think you're going to go talk to Adrian again?" Summer demanded, almost mockingly. "Remember how badly that went last time? I think you should just stay away."

"What I do is my business Summer, not yours," Dominique insisted. "We both know your chances with Adrian are over ever since you threw up all over the Great Hall."

"No thanks to you," Summer muttered. Dominique ignored this. She'd tried to explain she'd had nothing to do with the incident, but Summer didn't want to believe her.

"What are you even doing here?" Dominique asked. "Just go away. Go back up to the castle, and go back to whatever it is you do when you're not harassing me."

"I may not be able to have Adrian," Summer declared. "But I'll be damned if I let you have him."

"I don't think there's much you can do about that," Dominique pointed out. "If Adrian decides he likes me, then that's his choice. It has nothing to do with you."

"Oh yeah?" Summer challenged, pulling out her wand and causing Dominique to jump back in surprise.

"Put that away," Dominique ordered, fear rising in her chest. She had no idea what Summer planned on doing with it, but she suspected whatever it was she wouldn't like. "Students aren't allowed to use magic except for in class."

"That's a load of crap," Summer declared. "We use magic all the time and the Professors don't say a word."

"Not against each other!" Dominique cried. "It's different when you're just doing a simple levitation or lighting charm. We aren't supposed to duel each other!"

"I don't think it'll be much of a duel if I'm the only one with a wand," Summer pointed out.

Dominique immediately started feeling around for her wand, trying to remember where in her robes she'd stashed it. There were so many pockets and it always had a habit of sneaking into the most unlikely of places.

"Don't bother," Summer sneered. "By the time you found your wand, I could already have blown you to pieces."

"But you're not going to, right?" Dominique asked nervously. After Quinn, she wasn't sure exactly how far Summer was willing to go.

"Of course not," Summer shook her head. "All I'm going to do is make sure you look as foolish in front of Adrian as I did when I threw up that puking pastille."

"What are you going to – "

"Oh look, there he is," Summer pointed to the pitch, where Adrian had emerged and was walking with Caitlin to meet up with his friend Cameron. "Baldeo," she cried. A jet of blue light shot out of her wand and surrounded Dominique's head. When it vanished, Dominique tried to figure out what she'd done.

"I don't feel any diff – " Dominique paused. She felt a strange breeze on her head – one that she was unfamiliar with. Slowly, she raised her hands to her head and felt it. She screamed.

"YOU BITCH" she screeched at Summer. "You bald-ed me!"

"Now you know how it feels," Summer smirked, flipping her own long hair over her shoulder and turning towards Adrian. "Hi there Adrian, how's it going?"

Dominique didn't want to look, but her eyes were drawn to him. She looked down onto the pitch to find Adrian trying to stifle his laughter while Cameron and Caitlin were outright laughing and pointing at her.

Tears coming to her eyes, Dominique turned and fled. She couldn't stay a second longer with Adrian looking at her and people laughing at her. She had to hide.

She tore through the castle at breakneck speeds, going so fast that nobody had the chance to recognize her, let alone notice that she was completely bald. Dominique supposed it helped that her entire face would look different without her hair framing it, and it would take a minute or two for someone who didn't know what had happened to place her.

She got to the portrait hole and practically shouted the password at the Fat Lady. Then she ripped through the common room and up into her dorm, where she jumped into her bed and pulled the curtains around her, completely hiding herself from view of anyone.

She stayed like that, on the verge of crying but not quite letting the tears fall, until Brooke came.

"Domi?" Brooke called out gently. "Are you in here?"

"Yeah," Dominique called back. "But I'm not coming out."

"Okay," Brooke agreed. "But you know, you can't stay in there forever."

"I'm going to make Summer pay for this," Dominique declared. "If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to make her sorry she ever messed with me."

"Don't you think it would be better to leave it alone?" Brooke asked. "It worked with Quinn, remember? You let her have her 'revenge' and then you both moved on."

Dominique shook her head, but realized that Brooke couldn't see. "With Quinn, I was focusing on self-preservation. But with Summer, things have gone far past that. Didn't you see? She made me look like a fool!"

"It wasn't that bad," Brooke insisted.

"Oh yeah?" Dominique challenged. She ripped her curtains open and let Brooke take in the full reality of her bald head. "Now tell me it's not that bad."

Brooke hesitated for a moment, pressing her lips together, and then opening her mouth, and then changing her mind. "It's not the end of the world," she said finally. "You'll fix it!"

"How?" Dominique groaned. "We don't know any hair growth spells yet."

"Then you'll invent one!" Brooke declared. "You've done it before, why not do it again?"

Dominique shrugged. "I guess I could try…"

"That's the spirit!" Brooke said encouragingly. "And then once your hair is grown back, we can just move on and forget this ever happened."

Dominique shook her head. "No, I'm going to get Summer back," she declared. "Because I'm not the one that made her throw up in front of the whole school, and I'm not going to let her punish me for something that wasn't my fault."

"If you retaliate, things are only going to escalate," Brooke warned.

But Dominique didn't care. She was determined. And when Dominique set her mind to something, there was no changing it.

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When Dominique was not immediately able to create a spell to grow her hair back, she realized she was going to have to emerge from her dormitory with her bald head. She would need to go to the library and do some research if she was going to figure this out. So Domi routed through her trunk until she found a suitable hat, and she put that on her head to make the effect less noticeable.

When she emerged, her fellow Gryffindors were amused, but didn't make fun of her. She could tell most of them were trying their best not to laugh, and she appreciated that, but it was difficult not to react at all, and she caught many giggling behind their hands.

She knew that out in the castle though, the other students would attack her mercilessly. Especially the Slytherins. They would spare no thought for Dominique's feelings and would openly mock her as long as her head remained bald.

But Dominique sucked it up, mustered all of her Gryffindor courage, and emerged into the corridor, heading down to the library to check out some books on hair growth spells.

She wasn't able to stay in the library long. There were too many looks and whispers and comments being made, and she knew her self-confidence wasn't going to hold for too much longer. So Dominique took the books she needed and headed back up to Gryffindor, where she would at least be among friends.

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"Any luck so far?" Miles asked after a couple of hours.

Groaning in frustration, Dominique shut the book she was perusing and threw it on the pile.

"Nothing yet," she muttered. Everything she'd read had been about growing hair longer when it already existed. Even naturally bald people had hair follicles in their head that could be coaxed into growing. But as Dominique had learned after attempting the first few spells on herself, Summer had somehow removed even those, making it next to impossible to return the lost hair.

"Why don't you take a break?" Miles suggested, moving the books to the floor and taking a seat with her on the couch she'd claimed. "Clear your head?"

"I guess," Dominique muttered grumpily. She was annoyed. She'd planned this day out in her head, and it had gone completely opposite to how she'd intended. "I just can't believe she did it to me today, of all days."

"Really?" Miles asked in surprise. "Because I can. She wanted to do it when it would hurt the most. I think she succeeded."

Dominique sighed. "Yeah," she muttered. "Adrian was nice about it – well we didn't actually talk, but he seemed to be trying not to laugh at least. But he'll never go out with me now. Not after what's happened. From now on, I'll always be the bald girl, just like Summer will always be the puking girl."

"Well hey, if it makes you feel any better, I'll hang out with you on Valentine's day," Miles offered. "Who knows? We could have fun."

"Thanks Miles," Dominique said, appreciating the gesture. "But it's not really the same. And besides, isn't there some other girl you'd rather spend the day with?"

"Not really," Miles shook his head.

Dominique was touched by this, but it didn't change the fact that spending Valentine's playing gobstones with your friend was just depressing. It had bee fine when they were younger, but they were in fourth year now. They were getting much too old for those kinds of things.

"It's fine," Dominique sighed. "I'll probably just hang with Brooke in the dorm. That is, assuming she doesn't already have plans."

"I think she and Tom were going to do some drills down at the Quidditch pitch," Miles said. "You know, since it'll be empty, given the school will all be busy doing other stuff."

"And you don't want to go with them?" Dominique asked, surprised.

Miles shrugged. "I don't know, I guess practicing Quidditch on Valentine's seemed kind of sad. Especially knowing you'd be up at the castle alone."

"Well you can go ahead and join Tom and Brooke if you want," Dominique said. "I'll probably just sleep the whole day away to avoid dealing with it."

"We have classes that day," Miles pointed out. "You at least have to get up for classes."

Dominique shook her head. "Just tell all the Professors that I'm out with a cold. I'll return to the real world the day after."

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The next day, Dominique spent hours in the common room, combing through volumes of hair growth spell books, trying to figure out how to create a spell of her own to restore her hair to its former beauty. She read about spells to grow hair longer, to style hair shorter, to make it curly or straight, add braids or wind it into a bun. She read about spells to change hair color, thickness, and texture. But she hadn't yet found a spell to fix her problem.

"Just focus Domi," she muttered to herself around lunchtime. Not wanting to emerge from Gryffindor Tower, Miles had had to bring back her supper the night before, and Brooke had fetched her breakfast that morning. Dominique had really been hoping that she'd be able to go down to the Great Hall herself for lunch. "You've done this before. You create your own spells all the time. You just need to focus."

Dominique closed her eyes and imagined her hair how it used to look. At first, she was scared when she couldn't recall it immediately, only able to see her bald head in her mind's eye. But then she superimposed hair onto her face and she recognized her old self in the image.

She focused purely on her hair, remembering it's wave, the feeling of it on her neck, how she loved throwing it around. She remembered how long it took to grow out in the first place, and how as a child she'd always been jealous of Victoire, who's hair had somehow always been longer than hers.

And then, without warning, an unfamiliar word came to Dominique's mind. A spell. She reached for her wand, still not opening her eyes, and turned it around, pointing it at her head. She uttered the words and just sat there as she felt little pinpricks poking at her scalp from underneath the skin. It was working.

She sat completely still as she felt her head become covered, and then the hair started to grow longer, brushing against her ears, and then her neck, and then her shoulders. When it came to a stop, Dominique moved her head back and forth, eyes still closed, just experiencing the feel of it being there again. It felt about the same length, and when she reached up and touched it, it felt about the same thickness and texture as well. Dominique smiled.

"Oh my goodness!" a voice cried, causing Dominique's eyes to fly open. "Dominique, what have you done?"

Dominique frowned. "I grew my hair back," she said, in reply to Holly's question. "Doesn't it look good?"

"It's green!" Holly replied back.

Dominique faltered. "W-what?" she demanded, not willing to believe it.

"Your hair – it's green," Holly replied.

Dominique jumped out of her seat and ran up the stairs leading to the girls' dormitories, taking the steps two at a time. When she came to her landing, she went straight for the bathroom she shared with the other fourth year girls and looked at herself in the mirror.

Just as Holly had said, Dominique's hair was green. And not a cute mermaid-y green, but a bright in-your-face green. It was like a kiwi had exploded all over Dominique's hair.

Dominique wanted to cry. But she didn't. She'd fixed the being bald problem, and she would fix this one. She just had to refocus her attention on the color-changing spells. She had books on those. She could do this.

Dominique returned to the common room, green hair pulled into a tight bun and hidden under her hat. Holly apologized for yelling so loudly and explained that she'd just been surprised. Dominique wasn't mad. She would have been surprised too if she'd glanced at Holly and suddenly seen her hair turned bright green.

"It's all good," Dominique assured her. "I'll get my hair back to it's normal color soon. And actually, the green hair gave me an idea."

"What kind of idea?" Holly wondered.

Dominique smiled evilly. "Oh, just for a little surprise I'm planning for someone," she said.

Summer had better get ready. Because once Dominique had fixed her hair problem, she was emerging from this common room full steam ahead. And she wasn't going to stop until Summer was destroyed.