A/N: I am so sorry for taking so long with this! I know, it's been over a week, terrible. And I missed yesterday's deadline. Truth is, I've had a bit of writer's block, and One Direction have been in town, so I couldn't concentrate on anything at all. I'm a little behind on uni now, but I find that I write more when I am at uni, in between waiting for classes…so hopefully I can write more soon (:. From here on out, if you want to know how I'm going with my story, check out my profile, I'll be posting updates on there when I can. This chapter is a little…low quality, in my opinion. Let me know what you think? :) x

Disclaimer: HP belongs to JKR. :)

Chapter Six: The Plan

"Roxanne, I'm really sorry."
"Go away, Dominique. I don't want to talk to you."
Dominique took a deep breath. "Roxanne -"
"Save it, Dominique. I don't want to hear it."
"Ssshhhh!" Madam Pince swooped down on them. Roxanne packed up her books, glared at Dominique and left. Dominique sighed. Walking outside, she saw Victoire and Fred in mid-conversation.
"Fred, I just want to say sorry for -" Dominique began. However, Fred turned his back on her and walked away. "Fred," she repeated, in a small voice.
"He doesn't know," Victoire, who was still standing there, said.
"What?"
"He doesn't know about your condition."
"So he thinks that I...hurt his sister on purpose?" Dominique began walking towards the Great Hall. Victoire followed her.
"Yes," Victoire said.
"Why didn't you tell him the truth!" Dominique stopped walking and turned to face her sister.
"Do you want it to get out? The rumours were bad enough, Dominique. And then when you...hurt Roxanne, that was pretty bad too. Do you want people to keep talking about you?" Victoire asked her sister.
"Fred is family. I think he deserves to know," Dominique said. "As for the others, I'd prefer it for them to know the truth instead of spreading lies about me."
"That is fair enough," Victoire said quietly.
"Why are you talking to me?" Dominique asked suddenly. Victoire looked stunned.
"Why wouldn't I?" she shot back.
"Just the other day, you were avoiding eye-contact and you even called me stupid, and today...you're all...sisterly," Dominique pointed out.
"I didn't mean it and I'm your sister. It's my job to act sisterly."
"Well, you haven't been doing a good job of it lately," Dominique said before joining the Slytherin table for lunch. Victoire stood rooted to the spot, staring after her sister.

After lunch, Dominique headed to the Greenhouses for Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. Standing by herself in her usual spot in the middle, she was very surprised to see Alexandra come to stand next to her.
"Hi Dom," she said brightly. Dominique looked at her suspiciously.
"Hi Alex, finally talking to me again, are you?" Dominique said, rather aggressively, daring Alexandra to reveal more.
"Look, it was all a misunderstanding," Alexandra began.
"Not to the rest of the school, apparently," Dominique said rather contemptuously. "To them, I'm some psycho who assaulted her cousin and had some weird, contagious disease."
"Well, I've decided that you're normal now," Alexandra said, looking around. She made eye-contact with Ethan but looked away. Dominique made a note to question her about that later.
"So I wasn't normal before?" Dominique asked, her eyes narrowing.
"You were having some...issues..." Alexandra said carefully.
"Yes, I was," Dominique didn't deny it. However, she also added in a clear voice so that the whole room could hear, "But those issues were caused by you, Malfoy."
Dominique saw the scared look on Alexandra's face when she said that, she realised that Dominique knew what she was up to. Fortunately for her, Professor Longbottom came into the greenhouse and asked for silence. Dominique shot Alexandra a look of loathing before turning to the front.

Dominique couldn't focus on what Professor Longbottom was saying...something about asphodel and belladonna. She kept glancing at Alexandra, wondering what had happened. Why had she been so nice to Dominique at the start of the school year? Why was she being so mean now? Perhaps Uncle Ron was right, maybe the Malfoys were a bad family. That still didn't explain why Alexandra was so kind to her, taking her in, helping her when she was lost. She was going to get to the bottom of this. How though...? She had heard Aunt Hermione talking to Aunt Ginny about Legilimency, but only knew that it was a form of mind-reading. Besides, from what Uncle Harry says, the Malfoy family were good at Occlumency. She needed to know the truth, and she knew someone she could ask for help.
"Miss Weasley?" Professor Longbottom said.
"I'm sorry, what was the question?" Dominique asked quietly, a pink tinge appearing on her cheeks. Alexandra smirked at her.
"I asked for one use of belladonna," Professor Longbottom said patiently.
"Um..." Dominique looked around the room. Most of her classmates were staring at her. "In a potion?"
"Yes..." Professor Longbottom urged her to go on, but she shook her head. "Miss Weasley is correct. Belladonna is used in many potions, but it's very strong and can cause hallucinations. That's why it's mostly used in love potions…I'm sure Professor Slughorn will explain more when you do advanced potions in a few years' time." He shuddered.
The bell rang out from the school.
"Okay, class, your homework is to research what asphodel is used for. I'll be questioning you next time." Professor Longbottom called out over the noise of books getting shoved into bags, conversations starting up again and the sound of feet heading quickly for the door.

Over the next couple of days, Dominique worked up her courage to go and ask her sister for help. She also kept to herself a lot, not that a lot of people made the effort to get in her way. She saw Victoire talking to Flora Longbottom at the bottom of the marble staircase, swallowed her pride and headed over.

"Dominique, what a lovely surprise," Victoire said brightly, though there was a hint of sarcasm to her tone. She obviously remembered the way their last conversation had ended. "This is my sister, Flora."
"It's nice to meet you," Flora said, giving her a small smile. "I'll see you in there, Victoire." She walked through the double doors and into the Great Hall.
"What do you want?" Victoire asked her sister, dropping the facade a soon as her friend left.
"What happened to being all sisterly?" Dominique shot back.
"I tried that, obviously, it didn't work."
"So you're going to go back to hating me?" Dominique asked, feeling a little hurt.
"Hate you? Dom! I could never hate you." Victoire answered soothingly.
"Then why have you been avoiding me?"
Victoire turned bright red, and muttered a few words under her breath that Dominique didn't catch. She stared at her sister, but she didn't receive an answer.
"What do you want?" Victoire repeated, obviously ignoring the subject.
"I need your help," Dominique admitted.
"And what makes you think I'll help you?" Victoire asked. Dominique was annoyed by her constant changes in character.
"Because if you don't, I'll tell Maman and Dad about Teddy," Dominique taunted.
"You wouldn't! They would kill me!" Victoire stared at her younger sister.
"Then help me," Dominique stated plainly.
Victoire groaned. Sighing, she looked around the Entrance Hall worriedly, before nodding her head at Dominique.
"Fine."

"Veritaserum?" Dominique asked sceptically. She had told her sister everything that had happened with Alexandra Malfoy, and this was the suggestion that Victoire had come up with.

Victoire nodded, "Three drops and the truth comes spilling out."
"Does it really work?" Dominique tilted her head to the side.
"Apparently..." Victoire drifted off, before adding, "Yes. I read about it Uncle Harry's biography of his school-life. They used it on some Death Eater and he told them the truth."
"How am I going to get my hands on some?"
Victoire gave her a wicked grin, "I know just the person."
Dominique gaped at her sister. She couldn't believe that her sister had just grinned at her, Victoire never grinned. Hell, she couldn't believe that her sister was actually helping her.
Standing up, Victoire turned to face her sister, "Coming?"
Dominique nodded mutely, still thinking to herself.

Victoire stopped outside a portrait of a fat lady.
"I don't know if I'm allowed to let you in or not..." Victoire told Dominique a little awkwardly.
"Um, it's okay. I can wait out here," Dominique said quietly.
"Okay," Victoire gave her a fleeting look before heading into the Gryffindor Common Room.
Ten minutes later, she came out with Fred Weasley II.
"Fred," Dominique said.
"Dominique," he nodded at her. Dominique looked at her sister, who was looking amused.
"He knows now," Victoire said.
"I'm sorry," Dominique told Fred again. "I didn't mean to -"
"I'm sorry too," Fred interrupted, smiling at her. She gave him a small smile. "Vic told me about your need for Veritaserum."
"Yeah, I have no idea how or where I'm going to get some," Dominique told him.
"I thought you were meant to be a Weasley!" Fred teased. "And sly because you're a Slytherin."
Dominique's cheeks turned red but she said firmly, "I am a Weasley and I am in Slytherin."
Fred laughed, "I'm only playing with you. Relax!"
"You're in luck," Victoire piped up. "Fred has seen a bottle of Veritaserum in Professor Slughorn's office."
"We're going to steal it?" Dominique asked.
Fred's eyes sparkled as he confirmed, "Yep!" He pulled out a black rock from one pocket. "Peruvian Instant Darkness powder." He nodded and pulled a funny looking object out of his other pocket. "Decoy Detonators. That should keep Slughorn busy. Now I'll be doing the actual stealing, because I am the only one who knows where it is. You and Victoire will keep an eye on him. If he's not buying the distracting, talk to him about the Slug Club or something."
"We can do that," Dominique said, starting to feel butterflies in her stomach. She had never done anything so dare-devilish before. This, she supposed, was another reason why she wasn't Sorted into Gryffindor.
"Allons-y!" Victoire said. "Let's go!"

Half an hour later, they stood outside the Library laughing with one another.
"That was exhilarating!" Dominique said, still trying to catch her breath.
Victoire laughed at her, "Don't make a habit out of it."
"Don't worry, I'm not as brave as you Lions," Dominique said.
Victoire and Fred laughed some more.
"Here," Fred pushed the little bottle into Dominique's hand. "Remember, three drops."
Dominique nodded. "I'll do it tomorrow morning."
"You have to tell me everything when it's over, " Victoire gave her sister a concerned look. Dominique looked away uncomfortably.

Victoire had never been the comforting or worrying type. She wasn't even really sisterly. As a child, she kept to herself a lot, only seeing the family, and Dominique, at meal times and when there was a compulsory family party to attend. She and Dominique had never been close, and when Victoire got her letter to Hogwarts, the gap got bigger. Dominique didn't know what to think of her sister now.

Dominique nodded at Victoire, promising to tell her what she knew as soon as she found out.

Putting Veritaserum into a cup full of pumpkin juice proved to be harder than Dominique had originally thought. People were always looking at her, so she felt that she couldn't risk it, even if Alexandra had her back turned, deep in conversation with Tessa. Fortunately for her, Hagrid had somehow let one of his creatures loose in the Entrance Hall, which drew in many curious stares from the students, and the teachers. Dominique pulled off the lid of the tiny bottle of Veritaserum and poured three drops into Alexandra's pumpkin juice. She watched with satisfaction as Alexandra got bored with the spectacle in the Entrance Hall, turned around and drained her cup.

As soon as Alexandra stood up to leave for class, Dominique followed her out and cornered her.
"We need to talk," she said. Alexandra scowled, but nodded.
"We have class now," Ethan interrupted.
"Class can wait, Parkinson," Dominique fired back, without looking at him. "I just need to talk with Malfoy, preferably alone."
"That's not going to happen, Weasley," Alexandra spoke up. "Last time you talked to someone alone, they ended up being knocked out. If we are to talk, I need some backup."
"And Parkinson is your number one?" Dominique scoffed. "Fine."

They found themselves sitting in an empty classroom. Dominique sat facing Ethan and Alexandra. He glanced around rather nervously, while she stared at the blank wall.
"You spread the rumours about me?" Dominique prompted after some time.
"Yes," Alexandra replied, without hesitating. Ethan stared at her in shock.
"Do you know the truth?" Dominique asked, surprised at how calm she was, and surprised that the Veritaserum could actually be working.
"I know all about Chelsea, yes," Alexandra replied. Dominique looked at her suspiciously.
"Then why didn't you spread those rumours? Why did you make things up?"
Alexandra shrugged. "To get you back."
"For what? I didn't do anything to you," Dominique asked in bewilderment.
"Your family did," Alexandra replied shortly.
"What do you mean?" Dominique pressed on.
"She means that the Potter-Weasleys haven't been exactly civil with the Malfoys," Ethan interrupted. He figured that since Alexandra was telling the truth, he probably should too.
"Stay out of it, Parkinson," Dominique warned. She took a breath before continuing her interrogation. "Okay, so whatever the plan was, Parkinson was in on it?"
Alexandra nodded.
"What was the plan?" Dominique asked.
"I was to make life hell for you. Just like they did to my family," Alexandra said bluntly.
"But..." Dominique took a minute to consider. "Why are you taking it out on me? Why not just take uh...revenge out on the Potter children?"
"Potter, Weasley, they're the same thing now. You're all related," Ethan scoffed .
Ignoring him, Alexandra answered as if she had memorised this word-for-word from somewhere, "Every Potter-Weasley child to enter Hgwarts after this year will suffer the wrath of the Malfoys."
"I don't understand," Dominique said after a while. "Why were you so nice to me at the beginning of the year?"
Alexandra stared at the wall blankly. Finally, she shrugged, "I don't know."
"Were we even friends?"
"Yes."
"Then what happened!" Domimique raised her voice in frustration.
Alexandra shrugged again. Dominique banged her fist on the table. Ethan and Alexandra jumped in their seats at the noise.
"Sorry," Dominique said, out of habit. She composed herself, before asking, "Why don't you want to be my friend anymore?"
"You're a Weasley," Alexandra said shortly.
"Tell me something I don't know," Dominique rolled her eyes.
"My grandfather told me that all Weasleys were blood-traitors. They tainted the pure-blood line and the wizarding world would be better off without them. And that's what I'm doing. Getting rid of them, one by one."
Dominique gasped for two reasons. One, she hadn't expected Alexandra to answer her, and two, that proclamation disturbed her. She was worried, from what she had just heard, this didn't sound like the Alexandra that she knew. Then again, she thought darkly, she had thought that Alexandra would never turn against her because of her name. Dominique was determined to get to the bottom of this.

A/N: To be honest, I'm not very happy with the ending of this chapter. But I can work with it...I think. :/ Thoughts? x