To kill a mockingbird

Without a light to the unknown [ Albus & Dominique ]

The common room felt as homely as ever, the fire ablaze and the cushions out of place. Actually, how could they be out of place if they had no exact place? That question puzzled Dominique, who thought about it for at least ten minutes before coming up with the answer of that they were, in fact, in place. If their place was out of place, then they were in place. Not like that made much sense to her, but it was a small sense of accomplishment coming up with that conclusion. If it even was one. She was reminded of the Irish guy, Dominique was sure he’d be proud of that question and answer. What with the way his mind worked; all those stupid phrases that hurt her brain. Maybe Albus would be proud if she told him of this new discovery. Or perhaps he’d just think she was trying too hard to seem smart, which was the bigger picture here. Whatever. All this intense thinking had made her lose track of what she was actually doing. Once she returned to actually getting her stuff, Dominique realised she must have been stood still for a good five minutes pondering her earlier thought. Kind of embarrassing, to say the least. But no-one seemed to be around, which was a comforting thought. Grabbing her scarf and pulling it on her head, Dominique searched her dorm for her thicker robes which would be needed for the harsh weather. Merlin she hated Scotland, the sun hardly ever showed and the winds could literally carry her away sometimes. Luckily, that hadn’t happened so far. Who knew, though, it could happen. Hopefully it wouldn’t, because being carried away by the wind didn’t seem the most pleasant thing to be faced with. You’d probably hit a lot of things along the way. Like another human. Or a lamppost. That happened in the muggle movies Dominique had seen before.

When she returned, snug in her warm clothing, Albus was already out. As usual, Dominique made other people wait. She didn’t mean to, it just happened and it was probably due to her lack of being able to concentrate on one goal. Time keeping sucked. How did people even manage to keep track of time when there were so many other things to be doing? It was one of the reasons she failed to do a lot of homework. After believing she had a lot of time to do it, Dominique would then proceed to do something else until it was too late and her time was up. It wasn’t exactly her fault. Okay, maybe it was but Hogwarts should have had some sort of magic spell that rushed through the castle at a certain time and made everyone fall asleep. Then again, that could be dangerous if a student wasn’t in bed and they were doing something stupid. But at least that way people would learn to be in bed after curfew. It would also stop the large amounts of people going to the kitchen and requesting food during the night. Now that was something the prefects hated. Speaking of prefects, Dominique had walked over to Albus and ignored him completely. “Hey Alby, sorry for the wait. My robe took longer to find, and I needed this one. The thin one would have made me freeze to death, and we both know I’m too precious for that to be happening.” She said matter-of-factly and linked her arm through Albus’s, even though he hadn’t offered it. “Aren’t we pretty.” Dominique observed, looking over Albus’s attire which matched hers. Silver and green.

The two of them made their way outside of the common room and into the warm corridors. Temperature change was always great during Hogwarts. Annoying thing was, during Summer Hogwarts didn’t think it needed to heat up which left it annoyingly cold during the night. Especially when you had nothing better to do than sit up all night, trying to do anything but sleep. Sitting in your warm dorm was alright, but exploring was still much more fun. Finally, the entrance was in front of them and Dominique looked at Albus before rolling her eyes and pushing the door open herself. The wind blew strongly as soon as it opened and Dominique had to grab onto her hat which she hadn’t pulled down far enough. When she placed it back on, she was sure to do exactly that. Grabbing Albus’s hand this time, Dominique dragged him outside and a thin layer of snow crunched between their feet. It was enough to know that the whole lake wouldn’t be frozen over. A thin layer, perhaps, but not so thick it would affect any of the creatures living underneath the water. Unfortunately. For one, Dominique wished the merpeople would just get the hint that no-one wanted them there and re-locate. If they could even do that. “How long do you think merpeople could be out the water before they died? I mean, I know they probably would strangle anyone that tried to drag them out the water but what if they wanted to relocate? Do you think they could sit in a small bit of water to move somewhere else or do they have to be submerged? I’m seriously wanting answers, Albus. If you can give me them. If not I suppose I can ask a professor. But you must listen in Johnson’s lesson? You’re good at this.” She frowned after asking all of this, more at herself than Albus.

“If you say so, dear.” Albus tutted quietly, not entirely sure himself whether his comment was on the fact Dominique thought she was too precious or the fact she’d just called him pretty. Possibly both, really. There was really no need to be calling anyone pretty, not even Dominique. But that was because she wasn’t. In order to be pretty, you had to have a generally soft set of features. Dominique was too edgy, with her make-up anyway. Without it, perhaps she could be pretty. But in this case, she was beautiful. Or, that was the safest thing for Albus to be thinking right now. Cousin restrictions and all. Not like he’d ever think of her in any other way, but it would certainly make him awkwardly question himself. Which was not what he needed. It would just add to the pile of shit he already had on his plate. For now, Albus concentrated on the fact that they were about to go out into the cold. Where the weather would bite at his nose, toes and fingers. Hopefully not his ears, seeing as his hat was so thick. Then again, so were his socks. Dominique opened the door, causing the gust of wind to take Albus by surprise and Dominique genuinely looked like she was going to blow away as quickly as her hat had attempted to escape from her head. She was too skinny. He made a mental note to remind her that she needed to put some weight on, because it was genuinely concerning Albus at that moment in time. She’d probably tell him to shut up. But where was the harm in trying?

They reached the lake and Dominique spoke for a long time about merpeople. Before she’d asked, Dominique had stared out into the lake in silence for a while and Albus had prepared himself for the questions he knew were coming. It always happened like that with her. Long silence, thinking, and then asking. It was a good process, at least that way Albus could tell whether or not her questions were serious. Because she’d thought about them. “I’m really not all that sure, I’m sorry. The best thing to do would be to ask the merpeople themselves, or Johnson. But I think they could relocate somehow. They have to have gotten here from somewhere in the first place, right? As for the all submerged thing, I think so. You wouldn’t want them mainly out of water anyway. They’d make that horrible high-pitched scrap which, apparently, really hurts your ears. Not like a mandrake, but it’s not a pleasant experience.” Albus remembered his time with the mandrakes, Slytherins had Herbology with the Gryffindors –unfortunately- and Lorraine hadn’t got her earmuffs on properly. After reporting this to his father, Albus found out Lorraine’s dad did exactly the same thing in their Herbology lesson. It made Albus wonder how alike Lorraine and Adam were to their parents, but also how alike other people were. Considering he wasn’t much like his parents, or so he’d thought, it was weird thinking of how other people connected with their parents in a sense that they carried personality traits their parents did. He probably did, but was just too down on himself to think he did.

“It’s a shame the lake doesn’t have a thick layer of ice over the top. We could have done ice-skating. Maybe another time, when there’s less of a risk of us falling in and catching our death. Which I’m certain we would. And, like you said, you’re too precious.” Albus mocked, pinching Dominique’s nose lightly with the free hand she wasn’t holding. It was nice, finally getting to know Dominique a bit better. Although they’d grown up together, got sorted in Slytherin together and he saw her every day – he didn’t really know her. He guessed her favourite colour was black, he knew her favourite thing to eat was chocolate and he knew she wasn’t sure whether or not she loved Scorpius. But that was it. He wasn’t even supposed to know the last part, though he doubted anyone knew. It was just easy to tell by her reactions. Scorpius had told her he’d loved her, Al was there, and Dominique seemed to dismiss the comment. But she wouldn’t string him along, or so Al guessed. He hoped. After all, as dicky as Scorp was, it would really suck should Scorpius get hurt by Dominique. Plus he was never really good with the whole comforting thing. Rose would have to do that, but Albus wouldn’t want her to. With Scorpius befriending him first, Al got sort of protective over wanting Scorpius to like him more than he liked Rose. It was stupid, but the jealousy seemed to overwhelm him when it happened. Dominique, though, that was different. He knew how Scorpius felt towards Dominique, and he knew that he could never compete for top spot. Being romantically involved with Scorpius was not his idea, but Albus was determined to stay top friend. As stupid as that sounded, even to himself. “C’mon, let’s go through the forbidden forest. It should look really nice.” He grinned, squeezing her hand gently.

Wonderful!

Without a light to the unknown [ Albus & Dominique ]

Wonderful!

Wonderful!

Wonderful!

Wonderful!

Wonderful!

Wonderful!

Wonderful!

Wonderful!