Year 5: Out of Sync

Chapter 45: January 2018

The Christmas holidays brought with them a small surprise. A few days after Christmas, Dominique's Aunt Gabrielle arrived on the doorstep of Shell Cottage, a huge smile on her face and an armful of packages.

It had been a surprise, because Aunt Gabrielle was supposed to be on assignment in Estonia. She'd finished a few days early however, and claimed that she couldn't help but come for a visit.

Dominique had always looked up to her maternal aunt. Gabrielle was cool and confident and always did exactly what she wanted no matter what anyone said. She travelled the world, met all sorts of interesting people, and always had amazing stories to tell.

Though her visit was unexpected, the family quickly made room for her. Dominique moved temporarily into Victoire's room so that Gabrielle could take her room. Though Shell Cottage was small, there was always room for family.

One afternoon, while Fleur was out doing some shopping, Gabrielle decided that she was going to try her hand at something domestic. Calling both her nieces and her nephew into the kitchen, she donned one of Fleur's aprons and waved her wand, causing all the cupboards and drawers to open and all the ingredients and supplies she would need to bake something flew onto the counter before her.

"Um, Aunt Gabrielle?" Louis asked, looking around nervously. "What are you doing?"

"I am going to bake some brownies," Aunt Gabrielle declared. "And you three are going to help me. Now who knows what this is?" She held up a measuring spoon.

"Count me out," Victoire muttered, turning around and heading for the door. She'd been quiet and mopey all holiday, so Dominique wasn't surprised that she didn't want to join in whatever fun chaos was about to ensue.

Aunt Gabrielle however, wasn't having it.

"Non!" she cried, waving her wand again and causing the door to close in front of Victoire. Dominique could hear a click and suspected that the door was now also locked.

Victoire turned to face her aunt.

"Aunt Gabrielle, I'm sorry," she said, taking her own wand out. "I would really prefer to be alone right now. I have some things I need to sort out. Also, I'm seventeen, so I can unlock that door if I want to."

"Come on Vic," Dominique encouraged her. "Bake some brownies with us."

Dominique, excited about the venture, had already started opening bags and jars of various ingredients and was thoroughly looking forward to the enormous mess they were bound to make with Gabrielle in charge.

Gabrielle, Louis, and Dominique all stared at Victoire until she finally caved.

"Alright," she sighed, stepping over to the counter. "You win."

Dominique had baked brownies before, with her mother, with Grandmother Weasley, with Grandmaman Delacour… She knew that usually when one baked, they followed a recipe that outlined which ingredients to use, how much of each ingredient to add, how long to bake, and at what temperature.

Aunt Gabrielle was not the kind of person that followed a recipe.

"Alright. Louis, you're on egg cracking duty," she declared.

"How many eggs do you want me to crack?" he asked.

"How many eggs do we have?" Aunt Gabrielle returned. "Crack them all!"

While Louis began cracking all of their mother's eggs, Aunt Gabrielle began scooping sugar and flour into a large bowl while Dominique grabbed the cocoa powder and just started shaking the large container until she felt that there was enough of the brown powder to make the brownies really chocolate-y. Meanwhile, Victoire measured out very small amounts of salt and baking powder, throwing them into the bowl when Aunt Gabrielle wasn't looking.

The whole thing was a free-for all, but that was exactly what Aunt Gabrielle had intended. The flour and sugar made a huge mess, and Louis had managed to get egg bits all over everything. He also got quite a bit of shell in the bowl he'd been cracking them into, and while Dominique, Louis, and Gabrielle ran around screaming in glee and throwing more ingredients into their concoction, Victoire carefully picked the shell bits out of the egg bowl and then dumped the eggs in with all the rest.

By the time they'd finished, they had enough batter to fill six brownie pans, but luckily with magic, they managed to fit them all into the oven, which Aunt Gabrielle cracked up to full blast, and Victoire proceeded to lower to a more appropriate temperature. Then the four of them stood in the middle of the kitchen looking at the mess they'd made in amusement.

"Here, I'll clean it up – "Victoire said, pulling out her wand.

"Non!" Aunt Gabrielle stopped her, now for the second time today. "We will clean it up ourselves."

Though it would have been easier for those who were of age to simply magic the kitchen clean, all three of them knew that there was never any use in arguing with Aunt Gabrielle. As their aunt summoned the broom and mop and other cleaning supplies from Fleur's cleaning cupboard, she stepped over to Dominique.

"So, Dominique," she said, loud enough that everyone could hear the conversation. "You're in fifth year now. What's going on?"

"Oh, pretty much the same as last time you saw me," Dominique said. It had been two years since they'd seen their Aunt, and that had been in France over Christmas. "Although I do have a boyfriend now. His name is William."

"Ooh," Gabrielle said enthusiastically.

"What about you?" Dominique asked. "What happened to Michel?" She referenced the boyfriend Gabrielle had brought to Christmas two years ago.

"Oh, Michel and I broke up a long time ago," Gabrielle waved the question off. "With both of us constantly travelling to different places for our work, we never had any time to spend together. But I want to hear about this boyfriend of yours."

Dominique smiled, and began to describe William to her aunt, excited that she was finally old enough to be able to talk to her aunt about boys.

"And you, Louis?" Gabrielle asked, turning to her only nephew. "Any girls catching your fancy?"

Louis flushed a deep red and he tried to hide his face by stooping down to pick up some dirt with the dustpan. "Oh, I don't know," he said evasively. "I guess I went to Hogsmeade with this one girl, and we're supposed to go out again sometime after the holidays, but I don't know if she's right for me."

"Well you have plenty of time to figure it out," Aunt Gabrielle assured him.

Finally, she rounded on Victoire. "And you Victoire? How are things with you in the boy department?"

Victoire shuffled uncomfortably and Dominique decided to jump in and help her older sister.

"She's dating this guy from Hufflepuff, Joe Sanders. He's Head Boy," she supplied.

"Head Boy?" Gabrielle said in surprise. "Well isn't that something."

"Yeah," Victoire nodded, less enthusiastic than normal. "He's a good guy, I guess."

Gabrielle nodded and then looked around at the now almost-clean kitchen.

"Come Victoire, let's go talk upstairs," she suggested, leading Victoire out of the room. She turned back to Dominique and Louis. "Would you kids make sure to take those brownies out of the oven when they're done?" she requested.

Realizing that they'd forgotten about the brownies, Dominique and Louis immediately ran towards the oven and pulled it open, causing the slight smell of burning to be emitted from the space. Dominique grabbed a cloth and pulled the pans out of the oven, placing them on top of the stove, and then she and Louis inspected the contents.

The brownies were slightly burnt, but still looked mostly edible. They would just have to avoid the black edges and instead eat from the center. Leaving them to cool before trying to cut them out of the pans, Dominique wandered upstairs, hoping that maybe she could be invited to the conversation Gabrielle and Victoire were having. After all, she was fifteen now and had a boyfriend of her own.

But the door to Victoire's room was closed, and upon placing an ear against it, Dominique realized that a soundproofing spell had been placed on it so that she couldn't listen in. Dominique became a little sulky upon that realization. She hated being treated like a little kid when she so clearly wasn't one anymore. Louis was still a little kid. He was only thirteen. But Dominique was an upperclassman now. She should be a part of whatever girl talk was going on in there.

DdDdDdDdDdD

Fleur arrived home a little while later to find the kitchen clean, but completely disorganized and with many of her ingredients severely depleted or gone altogether. Dominique explained about how Gabrielle had decided to bake brownies, and Fleur immediately stalked off to find her sister and chastise her for taking control of her kitchen.

Meanwhile, Dominique went looking for Victoire.

"So, what did you and Gabrielle talk about?" Dominique asked.

"None of your business," Victoire responded.

Dominique frowned. "You won't even tell your own sister?" she asked hopefully.

Victoire shook her head. "It's personal," she insisted. "I'm really happy for you though. Did you say your boyfriend's name was William?"

Dominique nodded excitedly. "William Stimpson. He's in Ravenclaw, do you now him?"

Victoire shook her head. "Sorry, but no," she said.

It didn't matter. Dominique was just excited to be talking to her older sister about this. "I really like him," she confessed.

"That's great," Victoire smiled. "First boyfriends are so wonderful. But… just be careful."

"What do you mean?" Dominique frowned.

Victoire hesitated. "Well, first boyfriends are wonderful, but they also don't last. You're going to have lots of boyfriends before you find the one that you're going to marry, and that means that at some point you and William will probably break up. So just don't get too attached."

"Trust me," Dominique said, interjecting before Victoire could continue. "If anyone's going to be breaking up with anyone, it'll be me breaking up with him. And I have no intention of doing that anytime soon."

"Alright," Victoire said, not seeming altogether convinced, but also not wanting to argue with her younger sister. "Just make sure that you're protecting your heart. Because sometimes stuff happens and it comes out of nowhere."

Dominique decided that she didn't want to talk about boys with Victoire anymore. She'd thought they could talk about how attractive their boyfriends were, and what good kissers they were. She didn't want to talk about protecting her heart and not getting attached. It was clear that something was going on with Victoire, and Dominique decided that it was probably best to stay out of it.

DdDdDdDdDdD

Before long, the Christmas holidays were over and it was time to return to Hogwarts castle. The Hogwarts express left from King's Cross station at precisely eleven o'clock, as always, and Dominique immediately sought out William, having agreed to meet him and his friends in their compartment.

"Dominique! There you are!"

Brooke appeared from inside a nearby compartment, ushering Dominique inside, but Dominique shook her head and planted her feet in the corridor.

"Hey," she said, looking into the compartment to see both Tom and Miles smiling at her expectantly. "Listen, I was actually going to go sit with William. But we can talk at the feast, yeah?"

"What do you mean?" Brooke frowned. "Go find William and then get back here. We've got loads to talk about. We haven't seen each other in weeks."

Dominique shook her head. "We're actually going to sit with the Ravenclaws today," she explained.

Brooke frowned. "But what about us?" she asked.

Dominique sighed. "Look, he's got friends too," she said. "I can't expect him to always ditch them so that we can sit with my friends. Sometimes I have to bend too."

"Or you could sit with us and he could sit with his friends, and the two of you could talk tomorrow," Brooke suggested.

But Brooke didn't understand. William was Dominique's boyfriend. She had to spend time with his friends sometimes, the same way he would have to spend time with hers. They couldn't only ever spend their time together alone.

Dominique regretted as she walked away that Brooke couldn't understand, but she was sure with time she'd be able to explain to her friends how these things worked.

She continued walking the length of the train until finally, she stumbled upon William's compartment, where he sat with four other Ravenclaws; Trent and Leanne Mitchell, who were actually twins, as well as Blaine Townsend and Karen Bonell.

"Hey Dominique," William greeted her, sliding across the seat to make room for her to sit. "What took you so long?"

"It's a long train," Dominique shrugged, taking a seat.

"Alright, well now that you're here, you can join in," Leanne said excitedly. "We were just in the middle of a structure debate."

"A structured debate?" Dominique asked with a frown. Was this really what Ravenclaws did for fun?

"Today's topic is the ban on experimental breeding," Leanne continued. "Karen and I have taken the pro side, while the boys have taken the con. You can join us girls for the affirmative."

"Oh," Dominique said, feeling more than a little caught off guard. She'd come here to spend time with William and get to know his friends, not to have a debate on a subject she knew precious little about. "Okay…"

"Getting back to what I was saying," Blaine said then, pretending like Dominique's arrival hadn't interrupted anything. "While I agree that experimental breeding was starting to get out of control when the ban was instituted, I don't agree that a full-out ban was the correct move. Look at what happened to Ernest Butters. He bred whole litters of crup puppies that were born without the forked tail, making it unnecessary to perform a severing charm on it. Today, over half the crups that are kept in wizarding households as pets are descendants of this cross-breed, and yet he was sent to Azkaban for two months and had to pay a fine so large that he'll never have the means to perform any more similar experiments."

"That's time," Karen said then. "Leanne, rebuttal?"

"Yes," Leanne nodded. "While you are right that his experiment was a success, it also could have been a terrible failure. The ban on experimental breeding doesn't prohibit the wizarding world from experimenting, but it necessitates that any experimental breeding be done under the control of the Ministry in a controlled environment so that we don't end up with any more fire-breathing chickens rampaging across the south of Wales. If Butters had simply applied for the correct permits and ensured the necessary protections, he still could have bred his crups and it would have been done in a legal way."

"William, your turn," Karen said when Leanne finished.

"The current ban is too strict," he declared. "How is the wizarding world expected to advance if every person with a creative idea is required to spend years conforming to Ministry standards for only the possibility that their project may be approved? The Ministry can enforce restrictions on breeding without banning it altogether. It's time that the law be reviewed and modified to reflect this."

"Alright, Dominique, your turn for a rebuttal," Karen declared.

Dominique froze, not having realized that they would expect her to join the debate so quickly. Honestly, she had no idea what anyone was talking about, or really what this ban on experimental breeding even was, let alone an opinion on it.

"I don't really want to take sides…" she said hesitantly.

"This isn't about taking sides," Blaine assured her. "Trust me, if it was, I wouldn't be arguing the negative. This is just about manipulating facts and arguments."

"Right," Dominique said. "Well then… I guess my response is that…" She scrambled as she tried to remember what William had said and to come up with a suitable counter-point. "Laws are in place for a reason?"

The entire compartment was silent for a moment after Dominique's weak rebuttal. Karen and Leanne blinked at Dominique a few times, seemingly appalled that she'd lost them their win.

"It's fine," Trent spoke up then. "We don't need to have a structured debate right now. We just got back from the Christmas holidays, let's talk about that instead."

Dominique felt instantly relieved. Talking about her holidays, she could do.

"Mine were great," Karen jumped in immediately. "I designed an educational scavenger hunt for my younger brother and sister, and then I hid their presents all around the house. They had to solve the clues and riddles before they could open anything."

"Trent and I spent the whole holiday reading," Leanne said next. "We each got six books for Christmas, which gave us twelve to read in total. There was this one about the centaur uprisings that goes way more in depth than Professor Binns ever did when he taught us about them last year."

"Oh, it is called Beast or Being? The Fight for Fair Classification?" Blaine asked excitedly.

"That's the one!" Leanne nodded her head frantically. "You've read it too?"

"Chapter eight was my favorite," Blaine confirmed. "Where they talk about Grogan Stump. Professor Binns never talks about how he was shunned in later life from his herd."

"It's true," Leanne said. "Professor Binns leaves a lot out."

"Well, it's not like we have the time to learn everything," Dominique said with a slight chuckle.

Immediately, five pairs of eyes fixed her with a glare and Dominique shrunk back.

"But that's the goal," Leanne said in a confused voice. "Why else would we go to school?"

"Well to learn, sure," Dominique said. "But not everything. Just… enough."

"Enough?" Karen echoed her looking bewildered. "I don't – "

"Don't listen to Dominique," William said loudly in an attempt to cut the tension. "She doesn't know what she's talking about. Of course the goal is to learn everything out there."

The Ravenclaws slowly recovered, but Dominique felt herself becoming smaller and smaller. She just didn't understand these people. They weren't her friends, they were William's friends, and she felt extremely out of place among them.

Maybe once she spent more time with them, once she'd gotten to know them better, then she'd start to understand them, she decided. Nobody made friends overnight. She just needed time.

She remained very quiet for the remainder of the train ride to Hogwarts, simply listening as the Ravenclaws covered every topic under the sun, from the benefits of the different wand cores to a discussion surrounding the differences between European and South Asian magic. Dominique found herself mostly unable to follow the thread of the conversation, as the Ravenclaws talked fast and used large words that she had difficulty understanding. By the time they arrived at Hogwarts, she was relieved to be able to part ways from them and find her own friends once again.

She was determined to make it work with William's friends though. Whatever it took, she was going to make them like her. She was determined.