Second Rate
She has always been second best, and now she's really starting to get sick of it. Everyone outshines her, even though she is mildly pretty. She shakes her head. People before have told her that she is pretty, so that counts. Even though at least a third of the people that have told her have either been family, or friends of the family, it has to count for something, right?
She sighs, rubbing her eyes tiredly.
Stupid Vic why did she get everything- the boyfriend, the looks, the brains.
Dominique Weasley was just second rate compared to her sister.
xxx
She twirls her wand lazily, half-heartedly staring at the book open in front of her. Hair twisted up into a messy bun, and not having the time to even look in the mirror this morning, she is sure that she looks a mess. But she really doesn't care anyway. There's no-one to impress, no-one suitable enough to date.
She huffs loudly at her reflection in the mirror and sighs.
Whatever, it's not like anyone wants her.
They are all going to look at Vicky and Molly and Lucy and Roxanne and Rose and Lily before they look at her, anyway. She is always the last one to ever be looked at. She doesn't even make it onto the scale when compared to her cousins and sister.
Blonde hair and blue eyes are nothing compared to Roxanne's sparkling auburn hair, or Lily's big brown eyes, or Molly's charming smile or Rose's wavy curls, or Lucy's perfect figure. Victorie has the exact same look as her, but yet she seems to pull it off with that much more charm than her. Her hair seems to be made of spun gold, and her eyes are the colour of the sea, big and blue, eyes that someone could drown it.
Dominique is stuck with flat and dead hair which is half-brown, the result of a bad dye-job the past summer, and dull eyes that appear grey most of the time.
She runs a hand through the afore-mentioned hair, sighing softly.
She slams the door behind her as she leaves the homework and her roommates sleeping, not caring one bit if she wakes them up or not.
xxx
Not as smart, not as pretty.
Why then, is the boyfriend of Ashley looking directly at her?
To be honest, his staring has started to creep her out. He's unrelenting, always watching. Bit of weirdo, honestly, but she can see why Ash likes him. He's the classic every-day equivalent of a Greek god statue, perfectly carved.
But he's never appealed to her.
She's more interested in the dark-haired, dark-eyed boys of Hogwarts, the one's who look like they have a past behind them, but possibly in another time she could have liked Gregory Thomas. If he wasn't the other half of one of her classmates, and if he had made a move on her before becoming attached to Ashley, and if she wanted to be a relationship-wrecker, and if the way he was staring at her wasn't creeping her out that much, well then maybe.
She pulls her eyes away, frowning.
What a total weirdo.
Sighing, she returns to her work.
xxx
She practically runs out of the classroom when the bell tolls softly, tugging her bag over her shoulder and making her escape. She doesn't want to talk to him, doesn't want to see him.
Honestly, he is really creeping her out, more and more each day. Potions is fast becoming her least-favourite subject now.
She ducks behind a well-placed statue when she notices him heading her way, glancing around him for any sign of her. Dominique places a hand on her heart to try and calm herself down, breathing heavily. That doesn't work, her heart thumps in her chest faster than ever, and her breathing hitches.
She shakes her head, hair loose around her shoulder, and glances around her. Good, he's gone. The corridor is destereted, and so she does something that is only used for her very last resort.
She blows on the tip of her thumb softly.
Her grandmother read somewhere probably in those Muggle magazines that Poppa Arthur collected, that doing so was a good way in slowing your heart rate, and thus calming yourself down, and surprisingly it exactly did work.
"What the in the name of Merlin are you doing?" a voice asks, startling her. She whips her head up, tucking her hand back into her pocket.
"N-n-nothing," she stutters out, scowling up at the boy. Ravenclaw, she notes, eyeing the blue tie around his neck. Of course, he would have to be, sticking his nose into her own personal business. What she did to try to calm herself down was her thing, and no-one else's, honestly!
He laughs, shaking his head. "It didn't look like nothing."
"Well I don't have to explain myself to you… what is your name anyway?"
He extends a hand out, expecting her to take hold of it. She doesn't, and he tucks it back into his pocket with a slight scowl. "William Corner."
"Dominique Weasley," she says, smiling softly.
He is quite attractive after all, very tall but not in the very-tall-but-also-very-lanky type. The dark brown, almost black hair and brown eyes completes his look, and she has to admit that the dark blue of Ravenclaw really does compliment well. Too bad he is an utter jerk, who thinks he can butt his nose into anyone and everyone's business.
But it did not hurt to be polite.
"French?" he asks, smiling back.
"My mother is," she begins, shifting her back around and stepping out from behind the statue. Thank Merlin that he is gone now, presumeabley down to lunch.
"Ah." He nods, falling into step beside her. "So what exactly where you doing before?"
She shoots him a dark look, shaking her head. "Why does it concern you?"
He shrugs softly. "I'd just like to know."
She purses her lips, an action that her mother often reprimands her on doing, claiming that the action will give her mouth wrinkles in the near future. She doesn't care, she isn't obsessed with make-up and clothes and looking perfect like everyone else is. She doesn't care about treating every boy like a prospective suitor, she just doesn't care anymore!
"Well, first of all I was hiding," she says, offering no explanation or reason.
He raises an eyebrow slightly. "From who?"
"Gregory Thomas," she grits out.
"And why is exactly is that?" he asks with a smile. He laughs softly. "Most of the girls I know would run at a chance to be near him, but here you are running away from him."
"Well I guess I'm not like most girls," she says softly. "And if you must know, I was running away from him because he has been staring at him in Potions for the last few days and it kinda does creep me out, just a little. Besides the fact that he's dating someone I know, he's really not my type and I didn't want things to be more awkward than they already were. And, I was blowing on my thumb before because my grandmother read an article that said that blowing on your thumb lowers your heart rate, which calms you down. I only do it as a last resort in stressful situations, and trust me it was one of those."
And all he got from that, all he said was, "What is your type then?"
She could have slapped him around the head if she had been bothered to. Honestly, he couldn't even ask if she was alright, if the fact that Gregory had been staring at her was creepy or just weird, he had to be like all of the other boys and ask what her type was. Had he been raised by wolves or something, because only that could explain for his total lack of manners?
She honestly didn't know exactly what her type was. She had dated so many types of guys –red-head's, rich, smart, funny, adorable, blond- and none of them had felt exactly right. And this guy would just be another who had ruined his chances.
Shaking her head, she points a finger up at him. "I'm going now," she tells him, and before he can utter any single word, she adds, "And you will not follow me, understood?"
He nods, and she turns and walks away with a sharp sigh.
xxx
"Tell me again!" Rosie demands, grinning childishly.
Dominique sighs. "Do I have to?"
They're playing Exploding Snap in the common room, seated in two empty chairs by the fire and Rosie won't stop bugging her for details of her encounter this afternoon. Honestly, they were treating it like it was the arrival of someone special, not some snobby, jerky boy.
"Please?" Lucy asks, smiling up at her.
"Fine!" she exclaims, slapping her card down on the makeshift table made out of books that they are resting on their knees. She shakes her head softly. "His name was Williaml, and he was a stuck-up jerk who thought it right to butt his nose in other people's business. Nothing else."
"Maybe he was just being nice?" Lucy suggested, playing with a strand of her hair.
"Trust me, he was the furthest thing from nice," Dominique says to Lucy, shaking her head as Rosie wipes all the cards away with a satisfied grin on her face.
"Still," Rosie buts in, placing a new card down on the books, "the whole personality doesn't count for squat if you have no romantic interest in him. One thing is, was he cute?"
"Rosie!" Roxanne says, slapping her lightly on the shoulder as she walks past, hair pulled up into a tight bun. "Seriously cousin, you should not ask such things," she tells her, shaking her head softly before moving onto the next set of chairs, settling down next to her brother and lightly punching him in the arm to attract his attention.
Rosie shrugs. "Well I'm getting sick of hearing about how amazing Scorpius is honestly, so I have to move on to Dom and her new lover. I do need someone's love-life to live vicariously through, after all."
"He is not my lover," she grits out, slapping a card down angrily. "And yes okay, for the record he was quite attractive. But in that I'm-too-good-for-you-so-don't-even-think-about-it, you-don't-have-a-chance-in-hell kind of way."
Rosie shakes her head softly with a wistfully sigh. "I hate those types of guys, they are simply the worst!" She places a card down with a giggle, smiling gleefully.
"I hate you, you know that," Dominique tells her, sighing softly as she looses half of her cards.
"No loss," Rosie says with a shrug, chuckling.
But still, even though she tried so so so hard, that stupid Michael Corner, that stupid arrogant jerk who thought himself better than everyone, would not get out of her head.
She wanted to take this heavy volume and smack herself a couple of times around her head, honestly.
A few brain cells were really important, anyway.
xxx
She corners Roxanne before breakfast starts, the common room deserted. "I need to ask your advice about something," she says, dragging her older cousin by the arm to a couple of empty chairs.
"You could have just asked at breakfast," Roxanne suggests, running her fingers lightly around her hand with a slight wince.
She dismisses the notion with a wave of her hand. "The others would have been there, and you know what they're like. Especially the boys," she adds with a shake her of head, her hair still damp from her early-morning shower.
"Well then, spill," Roxanne says urgently, "I have to meet Scorpius down at the Great Hall in five minutes, so hurry!"
"I dreamt about him last night," she blurts out, clapping her hand over her mouth when she realises what she has just said.
Roxanne frowns slightly. "Who, Scorpius?"
"Oh god no! Eww, why would you say that!"
Roxanne shrugs. "So who then? Please tell me it wasn't me, I couldn't bear that."
She rolls her eyes with a sharp sigh. "That Corner bloke, remember? Well I went to bed last night, and without any sort of warning I dreamt about it! It was horrible Rox, we were kissing and everything." She makes a disgusted face, shuddering.
Roxanne giggles. "I'm sure it meant nothing Minny, he was probably the most recent memory in your brain, and so that caused you to dream about him. Alright?"
She nods softly, forcing a smile.
Roxanne presses a kiss to her cheek, before standing up. "Don't worry about it," she whispers before departing through the door.
Why then, after her words, does she feel that dreaming about him meant so much more?
Dominique shakes her head, standing up and heading up the stairs quietly.
It wasn't like she was going to see him anytime soon, anyway.
xxx
Oh god, how wrong she had been.
Her face red with embarrassment, she hurries to the Gryffindor table, squeezing herself between Rox and Rosie, burying her face in her hands. "There should be some sort of law against this!" she wails, sniffling.
"Huh?" Rosie blurts out, turning around to face her. "Dom, what happened?"
"I ran into him. Literally, like I flung him and myself into the floor."
Roxanne lets out a cackle, snorting softly. Rosie shoots her a sharp look across the table, aiming a well-placed kick at her shins.
"Charming, sis," Fred adds, grinning.
Roxanne punches him in the arm. "Shut-up, we have a real-life crisis to deal with here!" She places a hand on Dominique's back, rubbing softly. "So, how exactly did this 'running into him' thing take place?" she asks quietly.
Dominique looks up at her, wiping her face with a sniffle. "Well, I was hurrying to make breakfast before it ended, and he was just there. I dunno. Oh god, I'm so embarrassed!"
Books flying everywhere, landing on the ground with a sharp bang. The pain in her hips, and the loud groan. The embarrassment when she realised that the person she had run into had been him. The utter feeling of wanting to die when the worst thing had happened. The sound of his laugh, the laugh that had been aimed directly at her. The sound of her sniffles as she ran away, face burning with shame and eyes watering.
She shook her head softly, clearing the memory away. "And of course, in true Weasley family fashion, that was not the end or the worse thing that happened."
Rosie laughs. "How much worse could it get!" she giggles out, Dominique glaring sharply at her.
"I'm going to kill you one day, you do know that," she mutters out, shaking her head.
"Dom, what happened?" Roxanne asks, smiling softly at her.
"''!" she blurts out in a rush, covering her eyes. "Oh god," she wails out. "I feel like I'm going to be sick."
"Sorry, please repeat," Rosie says. "We're not all super robots like you."
"My underwear," she grits out, teeth grinding again each other, "got caught on the edge of a portrait and he started laughing at me, and he couldn't stop. I was so embarrassed, and they were an old pair too!"
Rosie snorts loudly, covering her face with both her hands, her eyes watering with mirth. Even Roxanne, calm, cool and collected Roxie, starts to giggle softly into her goblet. Dominique rolls her eyes, stabbing her pan-cake sharply with a fork.
"I'm s-s-so sorry!" Roxie says between giggles, hiccuping loudly.
Rosie clasps a hand to her chest, trying to slow her breathing down. "Oh god that was the funniest thing I've heard in forever!"
"Great, glad you two found it completely hilarious while I endured the most embarrassing thing of my fifteen-year-old life," she says sarcastically.
"Aw, Dom don't be like that!" Roxanne exclaims, stabbing a strawberry and waving it in front of her lips. "You know if that you heard about one of us getting our underwear caught in front of a cute boy, you'd laugh!"
"That's true," she mumbles through strawberry.
"Plus," Fred chimes in, "if the guy is supposed 'hot' as Roxanne says he is, he will be like any other hot guy and like you more. Girls aren't supposed to flash their undies 'till the third date you know," he says with a sly wink.
Roxanne slaps him. "Honestly, even though you're my twin brother and I love you, Fred you are horribly crude sometimes."
"But it was my old, daggy underwear, the ones I wear when I have nothing else!"
"Underwear are underwear," Fred says with a shrug. "Boys don't care."
"As much as I hate to say it," Roxanne says, "He's actually right. Scorpius would die for a glimpse of my undies, and this guy got yours for free. So the next time you see him, be it today or tomorrow, or in the next minute, smiling confidently and act like that whole thing is nothing more than a mistake. Gets them every single freaking time!"
Dominique shakes her head, taking a sip of her juice.
Rosie nudges her in the ribs. "Oi, is that him?" she asks, swallowing her bite of pancake.
They all whirl around, including Fred.
Oh not conspicuous at all, Dominique thinks with a scowl.
She glances at the boy standing up and walking away from the Ravenclaw table, and recognizes the soft flick of his hair that he does. "Yeah that's him," she says, turning around. The others follow suit, Fred resuming his conversation with one of his friends.
"Dom, that's William Corner!" Rosie hisses softly, even though the noise around them is giving her a thumping headache.
She shoots her cousin a look. "Well, obviously."
Rosie giggles. "I mean, he's like the hottest guy here! Girls would die for a chance to talk to him, and you've practically undress in front of him!"
"Oh I wouldn't say that," Roxanne buts in, glancing over at the Slytherins. She smiles at Scorpius. "Some of the others go alright."
Rosie mimes throwing up, making Dominique giggle wildly.
"Oh, hush you," Roxanne says shaking her head.
"And anyways," Dominique says softly, "even if he is hot, his personality is lacking, and honestly who wants someone who is more obsessed with themselves than you? And a utter jerk to boot?"
Nobody.
xxx
She hums underneath her breath, smoothing her skirt as she walks out of the classroom, bag on her shoulder. Her hair high in a messy ponytail, she feels yuck after the lessons spent over a steaming cauldron.
The corridor is deserted, but she still resists the urge to skip down it, after all she practically died of embarrassment earlier this week and she does not need a replay of the shame she felt. Her cheeks redden slightly even at the thought of it.
Her shoes clack on the floor, and she clicks her fingers softly to relive the dead silence.
"Why were you staring at me on Monday?" a voice asks.
"Oh my freaking god, could you not!" she screams, her heart pounding so fast that she feels like it is going to erupt out of her chest. "Seriously, what is with you and sneaking up on people?"
He chuckles softly, making her smile. "I just like seeing your reaction," he explains, shrugging.
"Prick," she mutters with a scowl.
"Scaredy-cat," he teases, grinning. She likes his smile, it lights up his face and makes him look like someone who she might consider. She shakes her head softly.
"You're the one who gets some sort of kick out of jumping out in front of people and scaring them half-to death," she tells him, walking ahead. It's not that she doesn't want to talk to him, she does, but she just doesn't need this right now. This pang in her heart when she looks at him, the smiles that jump want to be seen, the way her arms itch to wrap themselves tight around them.
"Hey, hey, hey, wait up!" he calls. She pauses at the top of the stairs for a second. "You never did answer my question," he breathes out, staring at her.
She shrugs. "I didn't see the point," she answers curtly, before walking away, her shoes clacking on the floor.
He sighs, slapping the wall loudly.
She grins softly at the foot of the stairs, shaking her head.
xxx
"Aw, cousin that's so mean!" Rosie exclaims, giggling softly. "But sort of funny. You're definitely a pro at this sort of thing."
She shrugs. "I just didn't know what to say, so I walked away."
Rosie plays with the threads on the blanket, winking at her. "Smart idea, always leave them wanting more."
"It wasn't like that!" she exclaims, hitting around the head with a pillow.
"Sure, I believe you. Not."
xxx
A first-year slips her a note at breakfast the next morning, a noticeable blue tie around his neck. She purses her lips and looks around before opening it curiously.
D-
I don't what I've said or what I've done, but I thought you should know this.
The look on your face when I scared you that first time was beautiful, and that's why I did it again. Just so I could see that look, at least one more time. I know you don't like me, and I know that I probably acted like the biggest jerk, but I just thought you should know that. I'm way below you, and all I'm asking is for a second chance, to make things right.
-W
Her heart sinks.
Sure, he was a big jerk and all but still any guy who was able to put pen to paper and produce more than six words was noticeable better than the majority of guys in Hogwarts.
Or he was gay.
But he couldn't be gay, because that would just mean that she had failed at relationships once again, that she had another notch to add to her belt of 'guys she liked but never did anything about it.' And that would suck.
But that line about him being way below her was bullshit. According to Rosie he was the most-crushed after guy at Hogwarts, well except for Scorpius of course but he was taken, and most girls would die to talk to him.
She just wanted to know, how come he had noticed her, rude and ignorant, her who wanted nothing more than to never speak to him again, instead of one of those beautiful, rich girls that would do anything for him?
xxx
W-
Well, I forgive you.
-D
xxx
D-
Good.
-W
xxx
She bumps into him while she is entering the library, head down and hair ruffled a stack of books in her hand.
"Hi there," she says, smiling gently.
"I need to speak with you."
Ah, there it is. The five most feared words in the English language, the one sentence that could make or break a relationship. And she was on the receiving end of it, just great.
"Okay, just let me return these books and I'll be right with you," she says, smiling softly.
"I'll be over here."
Her heart thumps loudly in her chest. She breathes slowly, in and out, in and out, placing the book down on the desk. Walking away, she has to remember that one foot goes first and not two at the same time, walking slowly and steadily. God, she has never felt so nervous in her entire life.
"Okay, what is it?" she asks, settling down in a chair softly.
"I have no idea what is happening with us."
"Us?" she questions, frowning slightly. "There never was an us. There probably never will be an us."
"There could be."
She scoffs loudly, shaking her head. "Not even. Seriously, why are you even talking to me right now? You should be chatting up some girl who's rich and beautiful and that you love even though she can't string a proper sentence together."
"But I don't want to. Don't you see, the only reason I followed you on Monday was so I could see you again! Now tell me why I would go to that much trouble for a girl I didn't have any sort of interest in," he says.
"You followed me?"
"Well how else was I going to be able to speak with you again?" he asks, smiling softly.
"You shouldn't have wasted your time one me," she mutters. "You should have been charming some beautiful rich girl who even though she cannot string a proper sentence together, you love her."
"Why would I do that?"
"Because I'm not anyone! I'm not as pretty as Victorie, I'm not as funny as Rosie, I'm not as charming as Roxanne, not as smart as Molly, not as adorable as Lily. I'm nobody. I'm second-rate."
"Well, you're first-rate to me," he says.
And then he kisses her. And just like in the movies, it is perfect.
"You are completely what I want," he whispers after they pull away. "You, and you only."
She grins softly. "Kiss me again?" she asks.
And he does.
Because I could :) I forget what challenge this is for though :/ Review, yeah?