A/N: It's been a while since I posted on time, haha. Well, technically…I'm an hour late, as it's 1am (Thursday) in Australia right now. Please excuse any spelling and grammatical mistakes – my brain LOVES to play tricks on me, especially this late at night. Anyways, here is chapter nine…finally.

In this chapter, we see Alex as the person she was before she came to Hogwarts, but she also relapses back to the person we came to know – I guess that's who she is as a person. She's changed though.

Also, there's this super long conversation in the chapter...just assume that it takes place within a few minutes...conversations are usually pretty quick right? And assume that no one thinks anything is wrong...or different. Yeah, you'll know it when you read it.

Shoutout to: misspotter94, who has uploaded the first chapter of her Scorpius/Lily sequel – check it out if you've the time!

Disclaimer: JKR owns all.

Chapter Nine: Lost and Found

"Wingardium Leviosa," Dominique said.
"Wingardium Leviosa," Alexandra repeated.
"Don't forget the movement: swish and flick," Dominique reminded her.
Alexandra waved her wand in the air, muttering the words, but nothing happened. She dropped her arm in frustration.
"Here, watch," Dominique said. She waved her wand, "Wingardium Leviosa." The feather in front of her rose into the air.
Alexandra nodded to herself, "You can do this." She attempted the spell again and to her surprise, her feather joined Dominique's up in the air. They cheered until Dominique put her finger to her lip and made a shushing noise.
"What is it?" Alexandra whispered.
"Someone is standing at the door," Dominique said. "I'm going to go investigate!"
Alexandra giggled, "Okay."

Dominique pressed her ear up against the door, mentally cursing herself for forgetting her pair of Extendable Ears.
"-it's been an absolute nightmare," a male voice said hurriedly. "The Ministry is now enquiring as to how he died."
"Zat is terrible," a female voice replied. Dominique realised that it was her mother out there...possibly talking to Mr Malfoy.
"Yes, it is. Scorpius has gone to live with his Aunt Daphne until this is all sorted," Draco told her. "I only hope that it will be over soon."
"How is Astoria?" Fleur enquired.
"Shaken," Draco said. "But she'll be okay. Thank you so much for letting Dominique help Alex in recovering."
"Of course, they were friends before, why shouldn't zat be the case now?"

Dominique moved away from the door.
"Who was it?" Alexandra asked curiously.
"Your father and my mother," Dominique replied.
"Aww, does that mean you're going now?"
Dominique nodded, "My grandmother invited us over for dinner."
At that moment, Fleur and Draco entered the room.
"Hello Alexandra, 'ow are you?" Fleur asked kindly.
"I'm fine thank you, Mrs Weasley," Alexandra said. She grinned at Dominique before adding, "Watch this, father!"
Draco raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" she cried. Her feather lifted off the bed sheets and into the air.
Draco moved over to where Alexandra sat, and kissed the top of her head. "I am so proud of you."
"Um...gotta go now. Bye Mr Malfoy, bye Alex!" Dominique said, after trying to decipher the message her mother was trying to send her from across the room.
"Bye Dom, see you soon?"
Dominique looked to her mother, who nodded.
"See you soon."

St Mungo's was filled with people, as always, bustling about, minding their own business. Fleur and Dominique weaved in and out of patients and visitors. Fleur kept her head up, walking quickly. Dominique watched her feet as she walked, her eyes glued to the ground.
"Oi! Watch where you're going!" a voice rang out as she bumped into someone. Dominique looked up.
"Parkinson..." she said slowly, as she recognised the boy.
"Oh, it's you, Weasley," Ethan said. He glanced over to his mother, who was talking to the Welcome Witch.
Dominique raised an eyebrow at him, "Are you visiting Alex?"
He nodded and asked concernedly, "Is she well?"
"Yes," Dominique replied. She looked around as she heard her name.
"Allons-y, Dominique! Vite, vite!" Fleur turned around and realised that her daughter was no longer following her.
"Um, I have to go now..." Dominique said, a little awkwardly. She and Ethan had never spoken one-on-one before.
"Yeah, so do I..." he said, glancing at his mother.
"Bye..."
"See ya," he smirked at her. She just rolled her eyes, and followed her mother.

"Finally!" Bill said, when he saw Fleur and Dominique walk through the door. "What took you so long?"
"Dominique had some socialising to do," Fleur replied, smiling to show that she wasn't mad.
"Hey Vic," Dominique sat down next to her sister. "What did I miss?"
"Only James and Albus fighting over who gets to ride the new Firebolt 2 first," Victoire said seriously. James and Albus scowled. The other Weasley cousins roared with laughter.
"Who won?" Dominique asked, piling some of Grandma Weasley's homemade pasta onto her plate.
"I did, of course," James grinned. Albus pouted. They all laughed again.
"Rose, put the book down while you're at the table," Aunt Hermione scolded.
"So did the Chudley Cannons end up winning a game this Quidditch season?" Teddy brought up the topic. Aunts Hermione and Audrey groaned, while the others joined in the conversation energetically.
"One game," Uncle Ron said proudly.
Aunt Angelina and Uncle George shook their heads, chuckling.
"Oh, Dominique, are you still a Seeker for the Slytherin team?" Uncle Harry asked.
"I'm not sure," Dominique replied. "I didn't talk to Goyle about it before the end of term. I guess I'll try out again next year..."
"That isn't fair!" Roxanne said loudly. "I've seen you play, and you're brilliant!"
"Yeah, you bet our team, 150-0, in your first game!" Fred backed up his sister.
"Aw thanks guys," Dominique said, feeling very humbled. "We'll have to see, alright?"
"I'm going to get onto the team," James said confidently. Fred raised an eyebrow at him.
"Don't bother trying out for Beater," he said. "I've got that position covered."
"For your information, I will be trying out for Chaser," James said loudly.
"So am I!" Lily piped up.
"Lil...you're not going to Hogwarts anytime soon..." James said, not realising how harsh it had sounded.
Lily sighed. Aunt Ginny glared at her eldest son for making her only daughter sad.
"A girl can dream, can't she?" Aunt Ginny said. Lily gave her a small smile, as some of the adults around the table murmured in agreement.

Grandma Weasley came into the room and stood behind Teddy. She put her hands on his shoulders.
"Our little Teddy is going into his Seventh year this year!" she said proudly.
"Gran, I'm not little," Teddy said.
"Anymore," Lucy added. A few people chuckled.
"That's right, Luce, I'm not little anymore," Teddy said, a little embarrassed that all the attention had turned to him.
Grandma Weasley seemed to notice Teddy tense up, because she directed her attention to Dominique and Roxanne.
"I heard that you two received great exam marks?"
"They were the top of their year," Bill said proudly. He looked at Hermione, who was beaming at them.
"Victoire, are you worried for your OWLs?" Aunt Hermione asked. Victoire shrugged. "If you need help of any kind -"
"Don't ask me because I'll probably give you the wrong answers," Uncle Ron interrupted. Aunt Hermione paused to glare at her husband.
"As I was saying before Ronald rudely interrupted, if you ever need help, I'm always here," Aunt Hermione finished off.
"Ah, but Hermione," Fleur spoke up. "You forget that Victoire's father - my husband - came out the top of his year as well. He will be the one to help her eef she ever needs help."
Dominique watched her mother curiously. However, Grandpa Weasley cleared his throat to stop Hermione from retaliating.
"Let's go to the seaside, shall we?" he said. "You lot have been inside all day, we all need some fresh air."

The summer passed by quickly, with Dominique enjoying the time she had with all her cousins. She frequently visited Alexandra to help her catch up on the schoolwork that had been wiped from her memory. She saw Callum a few times, and occasionally ran into Ethan Parkinson at St. Mungo's. It would have been a good summer, had it not been for the nightmares. Dominique felt haunted by the death of Lucius Malfoy - he had that god-awful plan to bring revenge onto her family, and she had been the first victim. His granddaughter had recovered, but her memory had been wiped. Dominique's hadn't. Her mother, who had noticed that something was wrong, occasionally concocted a potion for her, but Bill had stopped her because he believed that Dominique would recover from them, and numbing the pain wasn't going to make anything better.

He was right. By the time she had to go back to Hogwarts, Dominique no longer had nightmares. In fact, she enjoyed her dreamless sleep so much that she slept through her alarm on September the 1st.
"Dominique, wake up!" Victoire, who was usually an early riser, yelled. Dominique heard her move down the hall to bang on Louis's door. "Louis! Time to get up!"
Dominique glanced at the clock and sat bolt upright. 10.15am. The train left in 45 minutes, and she was still in her pyjamas! Hating the fact that she had little time to get ready, she began chucking her belongings into her trunk.

Hurrying onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters, Dominique missed all the glances thrown at her by the other students and their parents. Her father helped to put her trunk into the compartment that she was going to be sharing with Alexandra, and then it was time to say goodbye. Her mother was a little teary, and Louis waved sadly at his two elder sisters. Her father hugged them both and made them promise to write. The whistle blew, and Victoire and Dominique scrambled onto the train. As it picked up speed, Victoire left her for her own compartment of friends. Dominique went to close the door of her own compartment when she noticed some third-years staring at her.
"There's that weird Weasley!" she heard one of them say. She scowled and slammed the door shut.

"Not the way you want to be starting the year, huh?" Callum asked Dominique quietly, after she had told him what that third-year had said.
"No," she replied, equally quietly. Alexandra and Ethan were chatting quietly by the window; Callum and Dominique were sitting by the door.
"What are you two whispering about?" Alexandra demanded.
"Nothing!" they said quickly. Callum gave Dominique a knowing look before moving over to join in with the conversation.

As a second-year, Dominique would not be crossing the Lake to get to the castle, as she had done in her first year. Instead, she followed the crowd out to the other side of the station platform, where hundreds of carriages awaited the students. Horseless carriages, Dominique remembered. She clambered into one with Alexandra. Her old Slytherin friends joined them.
Alexandra looked at Dominique blankly. Dominique stared back, wondering why Alexandra was looking at her like that.
"Good summer, Alex?" Spencer Richardson asked.
"Uh...yeah," Alexandra smiled. "You?"
"Oh, it was okay," Spencer said. "How was yours?" She turned to the other girls.
Dominique watched Alexandra attempt to remember who Spencer was talking to, and it finally registered with her that Alexandra had forgotten, though not on purpose, who these girls were.
"Spencer," Dominique addressed the right girl. She saw Alexandra throw her a grateful look. "You promised to write this summer, you too, Tessa, and Cass." She looked at each girl for a brief amount of time, so Alexandra could put names to faces, before moving onto the next.
"Sorry, Dom, we were busy," Cassidy smirked.
"It must have slipped our minds," Tessa added.
Spencer shrugged at her.
"Dom told me that her family played Quidditch all summer," Alexandra said, smiling at her. "I guess they all had to practice seeing as the majority of them make up the Hogwarts House teams."
Tessa exchanged a look with Spencer. They had reached the end of the driveway. Dominique hopped out of the carriage first.
"Coming?" she looked expectantly at Alexandra.
"You go ahead, Dominique," Cassidy said, waving her hand towards the double doors. "We'll be right behind you."
Dominique looked at her suspiciously before turning slowly. She took a small step forward, intent on eavesdropping. They closed the carriage door, so she just hung by the window where she could hear everything clearly.
"Why are you hanging out with her? She's a loser!" Spencer said scornfully.
"She's my friend," Alexandra replied shortly. Dominique had filled her in briefly about her past, and after getting permission to do so from Draco, explained how Alexandra had been not very friendly to her situation, but they had worked things out and overcome all obstacles in the way of their friendship.
"She's unstable," Tessa added.
"Rumour has it, she visited the hospital more than once this summer," Cassidy said, in a hushed voice. "How do we know that she hadn't killed someone or something? Roxanne was in the Hospital Wing for weeks!"
"Oh my Wizard God! Stop! Just stop!" Alexandra stood up. "Dominique is a good person!"
The three girls stared at Alexandra dumbfoundedly.
"Just last year...you were saying that she's a bad person and we shouldn't go near her," Tessa reminded her.
"That was last year," Alexandra said frustratedly. "Things change."
Dominique smirked as she heard the conversation unfold.
Cassidy raised an eyebrow at Alexandra, who crossed her arms and sighed.
"Defeat doesn't suit you," Spencer commented, tilting her head to the side thoughtfully. Alexandra only glared at her.
"Come on, we're your friends, you can tell us anything," Tessa said softly. "Whatever happened to all the Slytherins looking out for each other?"
Alexandra laughed, "Are you kidding me! You turn your back on Dominique, who, may I remind you is also a Slytherin, and you tell me the importance of sticking together?" She turned her back on them, and muttered to herself, "Unbelievable."
"Alex! Wait!" Cassidy called out as Alexandra began to climb out of the carriage. Dominique made sure she was hidden as the door opened.
"What?" Alexandra snapped impatiently.
"The rumours about her. Are they true? Was she at the hospital all summer?" Cassidy asked.
"What's it to you?"
"They're only rumours until you confirm them," Cassidy said. "And those two won't admit it, but we rely on you for this kind of thing. Rumours spread like wildfire here, we can either quell them or help them to grow bigger. Your call."
Alexandra looked at her, taking in everything that Cassidy had said to her, before saying, "She's been visiting me in St. Mungo's. If you must know, I...I haven't been feeling well. And to top it all off, my grandfather died." She turned and walked away. She spotted Dominique, who had come out of hiding and hurried to catch up to her.
"You heard it all?" Alexandra asked.
"Everything," Dominique replied. "Thank you."
Alexandra nodded. They entered the Great Hall.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the Sorting Hat shouted.
James Potter grinned widely and joined the cheering Gryffindors. Dominique clapped politely, and watched amusedly as James shook every hand that was thrust his way. She wasn't surprised that he was Sorted into Gryffindor, he may have looked like his father, but he had his mother's fiery passion. She couldn't be more proud of him.

"Dominique?" Cassidy turned to her as soon as the Headmistress concluded her Welcome Speech. "I'm really sorry."
"Are you?" Dominique asked, a little skeptically, despite knowing that she and Alex had had a talk earlier that evening.
"Yes," Cassidy replied. "I want you to know that those rumours are no longer circulating around the school. And as a fellow Slytherin, I want you to know that I never believed a word of it."
"Sure," Dominique said indifferently. Not being one to hold a grudge, Dominique waited until she had cleared her plate before letting Cassidy know that she had been forgiven. She looked toward Spencer and Tessa expectantly.
"What she said," Tessa shrugged.
"We've missed you, Weasley," Spencer said.
Dominique smiled, "I've missed you too."

"Weasley," Travis Goyle approached as the meals on the table transformed into desserts.
"Goyle," Dominique faced him.
He cleared his throat. "I uh...I want you to know that your position as Seeker on the Slytherin team is still there for you...uh...if you want it and uh -"
"Thank you," she said gratefully. "And?"
"And...I apologise for the way I acted at the end of last year."
Her bemusement must have been visible, because Travis added, "My father taught me many things, and one of the first things I learnt was to always apologise for wrongdoing. He said he regretted not being able to do it in his uh...younger days."
"Well, um, thanks, Goyle," Dominique said, surprised that he shared that story with her.
"So what do you say? Are you going to be Slytherin's Seeker again?"
"Of course," Dominique smiled. Travis made a grimace at her, which Dominique remembered was his way of smiling. She laughed.

"Oi! Weird Weasley!" a Hufflepuff called across the aisle which separated the two Houses.
Alexandra turned, "Her name is Dominique. Get it right, Bedford."
"And just because someone's weird - not that you're weird, Dom - does not give you any right to label them as that," Tessa piped up.
The Hufflepuffs looked at Alexandra in bewilderment.
"Malfoy..listen to what you're saying, it doesn't make any sense," one Hufflepuff boy - the one named Bedford - tried to reason with her.
"Why not?" Alexandra challenged.
"It's okay guys, I can fight my own battles," Dominique stood up. Professor Longbottom noticed the commotion and got out of his seat to have a look.
"Thank you though," Domonique directed at her friends. She looked at the Hufflepuffs with disgust, "You know nothing about me, so stay out of my business, and everything will be, as my grandmother phrases it, as peachy as pie."
They glared at her, but she didn't notice. She looked around the Great Hall, and caught the eye of each family member that attended Hogwarts. Teddy smiled widely at her, nodding his head in approval as he watched the scene. Fred winked at her, and Roxanne gave her a thumbs-up. Victoire and James cheered wordlessly from the Gryffindor table. She saw Callum, who of course, was not family but instead someone she would consider one of her very best friends, mouth a "well done" to her.
"Lose something, Dominique?" Professor Longbottom interrupted as he reached them.
"No, I think I've found just about everything I've been looking for."

A/N:This may or may not be the last chapter of this story (there will be an epilogue... definitely) but I'm hoping that I've tied up all loose ends with this chapter...if not, let me know and I can fix that with an additional chapter or add it into the epilogue or something.

For those who don't know French,

"Allons-y" means "Let's go", and "Vite, vite" means "Hurry, hurry".

I really want to thank you all for reading this story - I've gotten such amazing feedback for it, and I really appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you for making me feel warm and fuzzy :) I hope you enjoyed the journey so far. My days as a writer are far from over.

As always, tell me what you think :) x