A/N: G'day! This is a slightly longer chapter...so I hope it's okay. R&R if you'd like...I don't know when the next chapter will be up. Happy reading! x

Disclaimer: My idol, JK Rowling, owns everything here, except for the characters that I created (that is, the ones that were NOT in the Harry Potter series :)).

Chapter Two: Wandering

Dominique awoke as someone pulled back the curtain of her four-poster. She looked up at Alexandra and smiled.
"Rise and shine, sleepyhead," Alexandra said.
"I'm up, I'm up," Dominique muttered.
Alexandra left her side to call up the other girls. After getting dressed, during which there's as a meet and greet session, and hesitating to put on her Slytherin tie, the girls followed Dominique into the common room, where Madeleine was waiting to welcome them to their first day at Hogwarts.

"How was your sleep, girls?" she asked kindly as they stood around her.
"It was fine," the brunette girl who had introduced herself as Cassidy Rose said. "Those four-posters are really comfortable!"
"I know right?" Madeleine agreed with her. "Four years here, and I still can't believe how comfortable they are!"
"What are we waiting for?" one of the other girls asked. Dominique looked at her trying to remember her name. "I thought we were meant to go down for breakfast," she complained. Spencer, that's it! Spencer Richardson.
"Yes, we're waiting for the sixth-year Prefect to take you," Madeleine explained. "We take it in turn to care for the common room, and such. It's a tradition. And here she is..."
A dirty blonde with curly locks approached them. She addressed Madeleine, "Thanks Maddy, I can take it from here."
Madeleine nodded, smiled at the girls and left. The curly haired girl looked at them, evaluating them. Finally, she said, "I'm Amy Henderson, the sixth-year prefect. Come on, let's get breakfast."
"Finally," Spencer rolled her eyes.

As the Slytherin first-years walked through the Entrance Hall and into the Great Hall, Dominique spotted her sister. She walked over to her.
"Oh Dom, I'm so sorry," Victoire said, pulling her sister into a hug. Some people stared curiously at them.
"It's okay," Dominique mumbled. "It's not that bad."
"Have you told Maman and Dad yet?" Victoire asked.
Dominique shook her head. "Can you imagine the look on Grandpa Weasley's face when he finds out?"
Victoire gave her a small smile and said, "I'm sure he'll understand. I'm actually looking forward to Uncle Ron's reaction."
Dominique's mouth formed an o-shape. "Of course, he detests all those in Slytherin...I hope he doesn't hate me."
"Never," Victoire said. "Look, we'd better get in there, it's always a mad rush when it comes to handing out timetables..."
"Right," Dominique said, recognising the dismissal. "Okay."
"Write to me if you need help or someone to talk to..." Victoire offered. "If not, then I'll see you around."
"Yeah, see you, Victoire," Dominique stared after her a little sadly.

"Dominique Weasley?" Amy called, holding up a sheet of paper.
Dominique, who had just walked into Great Hall, walked quickly. She realised that the sheet of paper that Amy was holding was her timetable. As she reached Amy, she heard whispers flutter about the Slytherin table.
"Weasley, did she say?"
"Is there a Weasley in our house?"
"There she is. That must be her."
"Why doesn't she have red hair? I heard all Weasleys had red hair?"
Dominique ignored them all, collected her timetable and sat down between Alexandra and a first-year boy whom she had not been introduced to yet.
"You know what, Dom? That's a pretty fair question," Alexandra said.
"What?" Dominique looked at her.
"You're a Weasley...why don't you have red hair?"
Dominique laughed, "My mother is blonde."
"But your hair...it glows! It's more than blonde...it's like silver...and very pretty," Alexandra said. She was very honest and a little tactless at time, for example, now.
"I'm part Veela, that's why," Dominique explained.
"Ahhh," everyone chorused as they finally understood.
"My great-grandmother," Dominique said as she saw Alexandra open her mouth to ask another question.
"Was that your sister you were talking to earlier?" the boy sitting next to her asked. Dominique nodded. "She's got the genes too," he commented observantly. She nodded again, and looked up suddenly as she heard a screech.
An owl had flown into the Great Hall - of course, Victoire had told her about this. There was a flutter of wings and soon the Hall was filled with owls delivering letters and dropping off parcels for their owners.

After breakfast, the Sytherin first-years headed back down to the dungeons for their first class of the year. Potions.
As the lined up against the wall next to the dungeon door, another group of students came down the stairs. They looked like first-years, were wearing the usual Hogwarts black school robes, but instead of a snake on their crest, they had something which represented a bird of some kind. Their ties, instead of the Sytherin green, were blue.
"Ravenclaw," one of the Slytherin boys muttered audibly.
The Ravenclaw first-years stood along the wall opposite the dungeon door and across from the Slytherins.
"Looks like we've got Potions with the Ravenclaws," the boy who had asked Dominique about her sister at breakfast stated obviously.
"At least we're not with Gryffindor or Hufflepuff," she heard a boy snigger to Alexandra, who gave him a small smile.
"Hi, I'm Dominique," Dominique introduced herself to him. The boy raised his eyes at Alexandra, who, despite smiling to him just a moment ago, refused to make eye contact with him. Dominique made a mental note to ask her friend why later.
"Ethan Parkinson," the boy put out his hand.
Dominique shook it, "Nice to meet you, Ethan."
"Please, the pleasure is all mine," the boy said.
"Coming through, coming through, you wouldn't mind moving, would you?" they heard a wheezy voice at the bottom of the stairs. He was ladened with a bag, cauldron and many Potion supplies. He unlocked the door, and said, "Come on in."
The Slytherins and Ravenclaws followed him in and sat down in their respective groups. Dominique sat down between the same people that she sat with at breakfast: Alexandra and the boy whose name she still didn't know.

"I am Professor Slughorn and I am your Potions teacher," the man said from the front of the room. Dominique had heard Uncle Ron, Uncle Harry and Aunt Hermione talking about him, and from what she remembered, the man had favourites. "Today, we will be going through the basics of Potions, and discussing safety in the classroom as every week, there will be a different potion to brew."
A Ravenclaw girl put up her hand, and asked, "Please, Professor Slughorn, are we going to brew a potion today?"
"Er, no, we're not. As I just stated, we will be going over some rules today, Miss..." Professor Slughorn drifted off, as he did not know the girl's name.
"Beckett," the girl replied, but did not elaborate.
"Right, er, as I was telling Miss Beckett, we will not be concocting a potion today..." He looked around the room somewhat nervously.

Forty minutes later, Professor Slughorn had explained the basic classroom rules, which Dominique thought were pretty silly because it had a lot to do with common sense.
"Now, we've got ten minutes left, I'm going to split you up into groups of two. The person you are paired up with is going to be your uh...well, the Muggles call it a lab partner, er, they will be your Potions partner for the rest of term."
Everyone groaned, which made Professor Slughorn more eager to make this work. He knew that the students always stuck to their own friendship groups, which mostly consisted of their peers from their own house. He wanted to change that, that's why he was splitting his class up. This was the first year that he tried something different, and about time too, he thought. He had been brought back from retirement by his late friend, Albus Dumbledore, eighteen years ago and thought that his time as the Potions Master and the Head of Slytherin house was almost up. He wanted to make a difference before he left.

Dominique was paired up with a Ravenclaw boy who had scruffy brown hair.
"Hi, I'm Callum," he introduced himself in a friendly manner.
"Dominique," Dominique replied. "But you can call me Dom."
They made some small talk - asking each other about how they were finding Hogwarts, if they had family, and what their blood statuses were - before the bell rang for their morning break.
Alexandra motioned for Dominique to walk with her, but Dominique shook her head and decided to walk with Callum back to the Great gave her a small, confused look. Dominique didn't know what she was doing, all she knew was that she was glad she had made a friend who wasn't in Sytherin, and she enjoyed spending time with him, getting to know him.
Callum noticed that Dominique was still by his side as they left the Potions dungeon.
"Aren't you going to go hang with your friends?" he asked, a little surprised.
"Actually, I was hoping I could maybe hang with you for a bit...if you don't mind," Dominique said.
"Uh...sure, that's fine by me," Callum smiled.
When they reached the Great Hall, neither wanted to go in and sit in their respective houses, so they just stood in the Entrance Hall talking animatedly about Quidditch.
"My mother and my sister aren't big fans of Quidditch at all," Dominique explained. "But my father, brother and I are fanatics! Actually, I was hoping to maybe try out for a position on the Quidditch team this year," she admitted a little shyly. She hadn't told anyone that before.
"That would be so awesome!" Callum replied back enthusiastically. "What position would you try out for?"
"Oh, Seeker, definitely," Dominique laughed. "My Uncle Harry says I've got a good eye for seeing things. How about you? What is your interest in Quidditch?"
"Well, as my father is a Muggle, all he cares about is Muggle sports...and my mother, she doesn't like playing Quidditch, but she really likes to watch it, so my sister and I basically grew up watching Quidditch," Callum grinned.
"Which team do you support?" Dominique asked.
"Tutshill Tornadoes," Callum said proudly. "Premiers of last year's National Tournament. You?"
"Holyhead Harpies, for sure," Dominique said. "Actually, my Aunt Ginny played for them a while ago..."
"Is there anything that your family hasn't done?" Callum asked, laughing.
"Probably not," Dominique replied
"We should grab some fruit, there's only five minutes left of morning break, and I don't know about you but I really don't want to be late for my next class," Callum said.
"No, you're right. Let's go," Dominique led the way into the Great Hall. "What do you have next anyway?"
"History of Magic," Callum replied. Dominique grinned, she had heard all about that class from her family. "What?" Callum asked her.
"Good luck keeping awake," she said. "I have Herbology."
"Have fun," Callum said. He walked over to his friends who were sitting at the Ravenclaw table. Dominique went to her friends at the Slytherin table.

"What was that?" Alexandra asked as soon as Dominique sat down.
"What was what?" Dominique took a bite from an apple.
"You chose to walk and talk with that Ravenclaw boy instead of coming with us," Alexandra pointed out, as if it were very obvious.
"So?"
"So, we Slytherins have to stick together. it's one of our traits!" Alexandra said. "You can't just walk off with someone from another house."
"Well, I'm sorry I don't know the Slytherin way," Dominique replied, a little flustered. "I grew up from a family full of Gryffindors, and I'm sorry for wanting to make friends on my first day at school. Also, if this is the Slytherin way, I'm not sure I like it and I think some changes are most definitely needed."
Alexandra looked taken aback, but only for a moment. She then proceeded cooly, "Well, if that's what you think. You've got lots to learn, Weasley."
Dominique looked at her friend, "So do you, Malfoy."

Herbology passed quite quickly and in the same manner as Potions did. Professor Longbottom went through all the classroom rules, and warned them that if they didn't listen to him, he would kick them out of the classroom without a moment's hesitation. A few people had sniggered, but Dominique knew that he was serious.
After Herbology, the Slytherins made their way up many flights of stairs to Defence Against the Dark Arts. The classroom was empty when they walked in, but they were soon joined by the Gryffindors. Naturally, the Slytherins ignored the other house. There was still an unspoken rivalry between them, despite the many attempts to change that.
However, Dominique looked up when she heard her name being whispered. She looked across the room to Alexandra, who gave her a small shrug. They weren't sitting together as a result of their little fallout during morning break.
"What an embarrassment," she heard one of the Gryffindor girls say.
"A Weasley in Slytherin," another boy scoffed.
"What's it like being related to a blood traitor*?" the boy sitting next to him directed his question at Roxanne.
Dominique looked at her cousin, expecting her to stand up for her...but the words that came out of Roxanne's mouth surprised not only her, but everyone else in the room.
"She is no relative of mine," Roxanne said coldly.

A/N: Blood Traitor*: Back in Harry's day, the Weasleys were called blood-traitors because of their affiliation with Muggles, but things have changed since then. The reforms at the Ministry (passed by Harry, Ron and Hermione) made being half-blood and Muggleborn look "cool" because being a pure-blood normally meant that incest had taken place to keep that bloodline going, and that was not the social norm anymore. Dominique is now being called a 'blood-traitor' because she is in the company of Slytherins, widely known as the 'pure-blood' house.

So what do you think of Alexandra and Dominique's argument? Was Alex right to yell at Dom like that? And do you think that Dom will revolutionise Slytheirn for the better? Also, what did you all think of Roxanne's reply? Leave a comment/review telling me what you think. :) x