i think i'm going back! [alexander]

[DOMINIQUE AMELIE WEASLEY]

dominique had been waiting for this day since summer vacation had begun.

dom hated summer. she hated the heat, and the thunderstorms. she hated all those days with nothing to do, and the fact that she wasn't allowed to use magic out of school yet. but the one thing she hated more than all of that combined was the fact that summer vacation meant she had to go home. dominique did not like spending time with her family. they drove her up the walls, with their loud personalities, and their crazy plots and schemes. not to mention the fact that they clearly did not understand privacy, or personal space. every time she had tried to shut herself up in her room this summer, someone would come barging in demanding her to join them. most of the time, it was her mother. apparently, wanting to be alone wasn't lady like enough for her. you'd think that her mother would have gotten the picture that she didn't want to be a perfect lady when she chopped off her own hair and permanetly dyed it red. obviously, she didn't want to be like her mother. her mother was obnoxious, and rude. not to mention a terrible mother. who yelled at their children for wanting to take a nap? seriously, it was just awful having to live with her for two months.

however, it wasn't just her hatred for summer that caused the excitement that bubbled in her stomach. it was also the absolute adoration dominique held for hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. it was like her home. she was more comfortable in her bed in the dorms than her one at home, and the food in the great hall was better than anything her mother cooked at home. plus, the people there were much more fun to be around. sure, there were some jackasses in her house, and lame kids in hufflepuff, but the ravenclaw and slytherin houses were fairly normal. at least, they didn't have to prank anyone that moved, like most gryffindors did.

"write us everday!" her grandmother had called as she and her siblings boarded the train. dom shot her a nice smile, but it was completely fake. the only member of her family who recieved letters from her during the school year was her father. her grandmother was alright, she meant well. but she was just like her parents, she was wrapped around victoire's finger. everyone in the weasley family thought victoire was just the most perfect thing to fall on the face of the earth. everyone except her. she saw through victoire's shield, she knew her sister was really just a cold bitch. plus, grandma molly's christmas sweaters were gross.

dominique separated from her family as fast as possible when she had boarded the train, searching for either an empty compartment, or one that phoenix was sitting in. she had soem business to discuss with the lestrange, and it couldn't wait until hogwarts. the first three weeks were always too hectic for her to find time to talk to anyone. but, she didn't see the slytherin boy anywhere, so she settled for an empty compartment near the back of the train. she set down her stuff, and sat down. it was a long ride to hogwarts. but every second of it was worth it.

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[ALEXANDER TYLER DOUGLAS]

Alex had been waiting for this day since summer vacation had begun. He loved it at home, but as much as he loved his parents, the Muggle library was nothing compared to the majesty, the wonder, even the scent of the Hogwarts library.

So, with a hug to both of his parents and a bag of home cooked brownies, the potioneer boarded the train, already planning what he would do this year. He'd finally get to learn more about alchemy and such, a practice that wasn't gone over until 6th year.

He didn't much mind the summer. He stayed inside most of the time. He could do with a tan, though. Maybe next year, he'd read outside more often? The young wizard sighed, trying to find a somewhat empty compartment.

Finally finding one with a red headed young lady and she was alone. Maybe he's get lucky and no one else would join them? He wanted to start digging into to the books as soon as he could. Alex slid the door open quietly.

"Hi! Do you mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is kinda full. I won't be much of a bother."

[DOMINIQUE AMELIE WEASLEY]

dominique reached into the shoulder bag she had brought on the train with her, packed with reading material for the long ride. she pulled out a rather large, hardcover book and opened it to the page she had left off on. the book was filled completely with hexes and curses, spells that were off limits in hogwarts. however, on the outside it appeared to be a simple copy of hogwarts a history. a simple charm had done that. and a more complex charm had made it so that if someone attempted to read over her shoulder, all they would see is a page of text talking about the second wizarding world. she was completely safe from someone discovering what she was reading. the only way to break the charm would be the counterspell, and one would only use that if they suspected she wasn't reading hogwarts a history. and why would anyone suspect her? after all, she was a weasley, and a paper angel. she was innocent. completely innocent.

dom was completely engrossed with a section of the book on the imperious curse, she hadn't even heard the door to the train compartment open. so she jumped when she heard her visitor speak, and fumbled with her book, dropping it. it hit the floor with a rather loud bang, her page lost. it was rather unlike dominique to be so clumsy. she had been raised by a mother who believed that woman needed to move gracefully. but she was always a little nervous that her spell wasn't working, and that someone would see exactly what she was reading. it was nervewracking.

she bent down to pick up her book, and then finally turned to face the person who had interupted her. it was a boy, rather attractive, but she didn't recognize him at all. she raised an eyebrow elegantly, studying him for a moment. how did she want to play this? nice, gryffindor dominique? cold, hard and cruel? she settled for average, until she could determine more about the boy. he was pretty damn hot, maybe she should keep him around. "it's fine." she replied, waving a hand over to the seat across from her. "take a seat, make yourself comfortable."

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[ALEXANDER TYLER DOUGLAS]

"Ha. Thank you miss. I appreciate it. Sorry to startle you!"

The Ravenclaw sat down across from the redhead, not commenting on her clumsiness. After all, he himself would often get so engrossed into a book that he'd jump if something suddenly came out of nowhere. Some folks just weren't graceful, either. He had in his other hand a copy of Advanced Potions. Putting the bag of brownies down, he turned to the last he had marked, and began reading.

He was taking mental notes, already trying to memorize recipes for potions, and making a mental checklist of things that he'd likely have to buy in Hogsmeade over the year to keep his personal stock filled.

[DOMINIQUE AMELIE WEASLEY]

dom nodded, watching as the boy took a seat across from her. she reopened her book and glanced down, to appear like she was reading. but dominique wasn't focused on the words on the page, she was studying him. she was a curious person, and a rather big spy, so when she didn't know someone, she always tried to figure out who they were from their actions. he was reading a book of advanced potions, most likely meaning he was either a slytherin or a ravenclaw. plus, she didn't recognize him, meaning he wasn't a gryffindor. he was polite, another point for ravenclaw, and he was engrossed in his book, one more. from the first few moments of meeting him, she was guessing he was a ravenclaw.

now, what did she do? did she return to her book and act like he wasn't there? or did she get to know this boy, seeing what he was like, and finding out if she had been right with her guesses. it couldn't hurt to talk to him, because that was an opportunity she may never get again. her book could always wait. he could not. "dominique weasley." she said. she didn't waste time with polite introductions and hand shaking. she just said her name. however he reacted to it was his problem.

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[ALEXANDER TYLER DOUGLAS]

Alex looked up, wondering who she was talking to and what was going on. After a second, he realized that she was introducing herself. A kind smile grew on his face.

"My name is Alex, Alex Douglas. Nice to meet you! May I ask as to what book you're reading?"

The young man used the bookmark he'd been using for a while to mark his spot in the book before focusing his entire attention onto the girl. Now that he was actually paying attention, he noticed she was rather pretty. Red hair, though it didn't seem natural. Alex wasn't a stranger to hair dye though, knowing both magical ways to do it and Muggle ways to get it done.

"I'm going to venture and assume that you're from the lovely house of Lions, yes?"

Weasley said it all. While Alex didn't care about blood status (having no way of knowing his own), he had read several histories. Clans that were related to the Blacks tended to go into Slytherin. And the Weasley's were notorious for being in Gryffindor. That, and the red hair just screamed Lion to him. She didn't look to be a 7th year, and while Alex was terrible with names, he didn't forget a face. He came to the conclusion that she was likely younger than him, but only a year or two tops.

[DOMINIQUE AMELIE WEASLEY]

a slight grin passed over dominique's face at his confusion. obviously, he hadn't been expecting her to speak to him. or maybe he hadn't wanted her to. maybe he wanted to stay locked up in his book, antisocial. a ravenclaw would likely do that. then again, she had been planning on doing that, and she was a gryffindor. but she was a special case of gryffindor. not like the usual. in fact, if she was to be sorted again, she probably would be a slytherin. or maybe a ravenclaw. which was sort of funny, because in her first year the hat had been arguing with itself between gryffindor and hufflepuff. funny how people changed through the years.

his name did not cause any bells to ring in her head. he was no one of any importance, at least family wise. that was nice. dominique was sick of dealing with people who thought they were all that because of their family. pretty much everyone in hogwarts was like that nowadays. it made her sick. "you as well." she replied, and then grinned. definitely a ravenclaw, because he asked about her reading material. score one for her. "just an old classic." she said, raising the book so he could see the cover, which appeared to be hogwarts a history.

it was hard to hold her grin when alex brought up her house. she despised beign a gryffindor, it went against everything she believed in. the only house worse than hers was hufflepuff. if she had been a badger, she would have dropped out and went to beauxbatons, like her mother had wanted her and her siblings to go to. but she held her smile, and nodded. "yes, i'm a gryffindor. i'm going to take a guess on you and say ravenclaw." now she would find out if she was right. she'd be very surprised if she wasn't.

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[ALEXANDER TYLER DOUGLAS]

The potioneer looked at her book and nodded. Hogwarts, a History.

"Yeah. Old classic. Nice way to put it. It's good for a bit of light reading, no?"

Light reading? Only after the first few times. Then it got boring after a while. But, it was a timeless classic, and Alex honestly thought that at least an abridged version should be required reading at Hogwarts. But, he didn't make the rules. He followed them.

Alex barely noticed the strain on her smile as he brought up her House. That was... odd. He had never met a Gryffindor that wasn't obsessed with their house. He filed that away in a corner of his mind reserved for the quirks in people.

She then responded, which made Alex chuckle lightly at her guess.

"You're sharp. Maybe you should be the one wearing theu blue robes. Though that would contrast horribly with your hair. Maybe. I don't really know. I'm not a stylist. Did you get your hair done with muggle dye, magic dye, or a spell? I've actually made some hair dyes before on a slow day."

[DOMINIQUE AMELIE WEASLEY]

dominique hated hogwarts a history. when it had been assigned for them to read in their first year for history of magic, she had gotten through about half a page before putting the thing down, it was so terrible. as a child, she had always been interested in the stories about the four hogwarts founders, and the battle of hogwarts. but thye way the book worded things just made everything seem so boring. it took all the fun out of the timeless stories, and made it into something that no one wanted to read. dom didn't know anyone who enjoyed the book. some people liked the part about the battle, but that was it. it was just so dull, and uninviting. there weren't even photos. it was just paragraph after paragraph of useless text in small font. awful.

"yes, i figured i'd give it another read. i haven't touched the book since first year history of magic, after all." that part was true. she hadn't touched the book since that time. and even then she had barely read any of it.

dominique grinned when she heard that she was right. she nodded at the compliment, trying to acknowledge it in a way that wasn't making her look conceited. she knew she was sharp, because she had a lot of practice with trying to figure out things about people. mostly about what they were thinking. after all, she needed those sorts of skills, because she was a double agent. working for the wicked wands, spying on the paper angels. she imagined herself in ravenclaw robes with her hair and made a face. "muggle dye and a spell actually. i dyed my hair, then used magic to make it stay. haven't had to dye it since."

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[ALEXANDER TYLER DOUGLAS]

"There's loads of information in it. It can get tedious to read, yes. I enjoy reading, but to be honest, nonfiction usually bores me. I only read it to study or research for my potions work or on occasion, my herbology studies. I like to fancy myself a pretty skilled brewer of potions, actually," he said, though very little arrogance was in his voice. He honestly believed it without a shadow of a doubt, and if ran into someone his age better, he'd learn from them and work harder on his own until he was better. That's how one improved.

The Ravenclaw chuckled at the girls face, presumably at the thought of wearing Ravenclaw Blue robes with her hair color.

"Okay, so it would clash horribly. But I'm sure that if you ever found a way to transfer to Ravenclaw, I could whip up a blue hair dye for ya. But it looks nice red. So, are you ready for the... "best" year at Hogwarts? I'm assuming you're a 5th year, no? OWLs are not very exciting. They aren't as hard as people make them out to be, but they could use a touch more practical application. I'm no good at spellwork, though, so I suppose its for the best."

[DOMINIQUE AMELIE WEASLEY]

dominique looked at the book in her hands. she should have picked another book to disguise it as, because everyone always thought they had to have a conversation about hogwarts a history. who knew why though. probably because hogwarts was a home to so many people. but when she had been looking at the size of her book, the first one she could think of that was a similar size was the history novel. so she had used it. "i've been reading it in small portions. i feel like i should at least know about the second wizarding war, after all, my family was a key part of it ending."

dominique was trying to imagine what it would look like, ravenclaw robes and her red hair. it would look absolutely awful. people with naturally red hair would look okay, because their hair wasn't nearly as bright as hers was. but on her? awful.

"so you like potions. that's cool. do you try and invent new ones? or just try to learn all the ones that already exist?" blue hair? definitely not. if dominique had been a ravenclaw, she probably would have dyed her hair brown, or black. something natural. blue was just a bit too far out there for her. "yes, i am a fifth year. and i'm definitely looking forward to OWLS" she put as much sarcasm as she could into the final part of her sentence, sighing afterwards. she wasn't a fan of big tests. "i'm pretty good at most spells. i'm sort of average all around, not good at anything, but not terrible either. flying is my forte. but of course, we aren't graded on that."

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[ALEXANDER TYLER DOUGLAS]

He nodded his head. The Weasley family was famous for it's part in the stand against Voldemort.

"Yeah, I understand. Being a part of history like your family is would make me want to study up on it too. My dad's a squib from America who came to France to learn under a famous chef, and my mom works for the Ministry. That's my family's history, all right there. Not even enough to tell a bed time story to a kid," Alex said, smiling in amusement. He'd read up on the pureblood families of Britain in his first year, wanting to make sure he knew what he'd deal with on the off chance he'd be put in Slytherin where most purebloods ended up. As she asked him about his potionswork, you'd have thought Christmas had come early by the excited look that grew on his face.

"Oh, I mostly practice with potions that are already wrote up, though I do experiment with them to see if I can alter how they're made or what goes in them to change the effects, or maybe strengthen them or weaken them. It's rather like a chef's work. You use the recipe to learn how to make it, and then when you get comfortable, you branch out: you change how much pepper you mix in with stuffing, or you put more sugar in a cake. But I am working on a potion of my own that is getting mixed results. I've been working on a 'Happy Memory' potion to try and give an average person a joyous feeling strong enough to make a corporeal patronus, though that's just a side effect I want. I think that it could be a wizard alternative to laughing gas, or maybe in combination with the Wolfsbane Potion, ease the pain of transformation a lot more. "

Alex grinned and blushed lightly, realizing he had started going into a rant. Potions made him excited, though. He couldn't help it.

"Well, like I said, they're not as hard as everyone makes them out to be. You just have to remain calm and take it like its a normal test. I mean, I know it sounds like I'm just a smart Ravenclaw coming out and saying tests are fun, but it's not. I suck at most spells, and I still didn't make below an A, and that was in Arithmancy. No one gets above an A in arithmancy. No one," he said, chuckling, "and I'm rather glad we don't get graded on flying skills. I'm not the best. I'll definitely never be on the Quidditch pitch."

[DOMINIQUE AMELIE WEASLEY]

dominique didn't even want to think about her family history. being a pureblood, and a partial veela, she had a long line of ancestors who were very important. after all, all pureblood families were related to one another, meaning that if you wanted to talk about the weasley family tree, you also had to talk about the black family, and the malfoy family, and various others. she didn't even know all the families she was related to. plus, even talking about the last part of her family, her direct family, would take forever. after all, there was so much the weasley family had done in the past thirty years. to be honest, dominique didn't give a damn about any of it. but, she had to pretend she did because why else would she read this damn book?

dominique really didn't want to listen to him rant on and on about potions. she didn't really like the class, although she was alright at brewing. she just did what she had to do to get good grades, and stopped there. she didn't want to do anything than the absolute necessary. "ah." was all she said to his long rant. she hadn't even been paying attention to it. it didn't mean anything to her. she was just trying to make polite conversation with an attractive ravenclaw.

dominqiue smiled back when he grinned. his smile was pretty. maybe that would distract her away from the complete and utter boredom he had bestowed on her while ranting on and on about potions. "I'm usually alright for tests. i can get a good mark without trying as hard as the ravenclaws, and as long as i get E's in the important subjects, my parents won't flip out. they are fairly chill about grades, since they've already go a daughter that gets O's in everything."

dominique didn't know how people lived without flying, the feeling was just so perfect, the wind flowing through her hair, whipping across her skin and making her eyes tear up because she was going so fast. and quidditch was the most fun she would ever have. she loved performing twirls and flips while she grabbed the quaffle before it went in the hoop. the cheers when she saved a goal made her want to grin. "i don't understand how people don't like flying. it's my favourite thing to do."

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[ALEXANDER TYLER DOUGLAS]

Alex sighed as all she said was "ah". Not many people could ever match his obsession for the brewing arts. It kinda made him feel dejected, but he understood. Most people tended to let their minds wander when he started to rant. He'd once put a first year to sleep.

"Haha. Sorry. I tend to forget that people don't tend to like potions as much as I do. It's all I'm good at, honestly, so I tend to get lively about them. In retrospect, it's probably why I haven't really had a girlfriend."

She had a sister? Alex started thinking. He was terrible with names.

"Erm... Weasley, Weasley... I think there's a Weasley in my year, is that your sister? I don't really pay attention to people, often. My mom says that when it comes to me, if it's not potions, it's not important. I hate to say that she's quite right," he smiled, apologizing again about his tendency to go on a long-winded rant about his passion.

"But don't get me wrong, I love flying. I just suck at it. I mean, I can fly, but not acrobatically like most Quidditch players."

[DOMINIQUE AMELIE WEASLEY]

dominique wondered how close they were to hogwarts. probably about a quarter of the way there. when they were about twenty minutes away, she had to go change into her robes. students weren't allowed to just wear their robes to the train, because kings cross was full of muggles and it would attract far too much attention if a bunch of kids dressed oddly were walking around. so dom was wearing a navy blue skirt and a plain white blouse, muggle clothes. she didn't like muggle clothing too much. it made her feel awkward and uncovered. she had a bit of a self esteem issue, which was odd for someone with veela blood. it was all because victoire was so beautiful. dom felt like the frumpy little sister.

dominique wanted to laugh when he said he had never had a girlfriend, but she held her straight face. it was quite obvious to her that he couldn't hold down a girl. sure, he was attractive as hell, but he also was a huge bore. she shouldn't have expected more from a ravenclaw. most of them were utterly boring, buried in their studies. the only ones she liked were the few who would talk with her about hexes, and the dark arts. but she had to be very careful with who she spoke of those things about. she was supposed to be a paper angel, they had to believe she was good.

"yeah, that's my sister." she replied, with a monotone voice. she hated talking about her sister, because then people began compare her to victoire. in comparison, dominique always lost. she wasn't as pretty, or smart, or confident. she wasn't as friendly or happy. and dominique didn't want to be any of those things. she just wished her sister wouldn't be either, so others wouldn't try and make her be like the other weasley girl. dominique did not want to be her sister.

"it isn't hard to learn. it took me a couple years to get quidditch down, but now i'm solid. i can play pretty much any position, although i'm best at being a keeper or seeker. those are the ones that involve the most speed and accuracy. plus, they are the ones that get all the cheers from the crowd."

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