Dominique Weasley would never claim to be beautiful, not because she wasn't aware of the fact, but because she would much rather stay out of the limelight.

Off course, even with her own perpetual silence on the matter, there would be those that consistently brought it up.

The likes of Rita Skeeter mainly.

Coming down to the Great Hall after a time of wandering the corridors until it seemed socially acceptable to eat, Dominique found that she'd been lost in her own thoughts long enough that most people were already there.

Along with the morning post. Owls milled about on the tables, accepting coins and morsels of food, but Dominique's attention was quickly transferred to the students that were taking care of them, as they definitely appeared to be staring at her more than usual.

She was briefly entertaining the alternative explanation that her imagination was merely causing her to see things, maybe as a manifestation of the strange amount of self-consciousness she'd been feeling recently, however she quickly disregarded this as Mellie Igwe was making her way over with a dark expression.

In her hand was grasped a copy of the Daily Prophet, and it was a testament to the number of ridiculous media manufactured scandals focused around her family that Dominique's first reaction was relief that something worse hadn't happened.

"This is such a stupid article," Mellie opined with a sharp shake of her head. "Honestly, Skeeter isn't even trying to make her writing believable anymore. Though I think -- maybe you should read it, just to know what's been said."

Dominique held out her hand for the paper with a twitch of her lips. "I'm almost intrigued to see what lies she's come up with this time -- I guess this is why so many people read her stuff."

She looked down at the article, which had by some bizarre logic been placed on the front page. The photo paired with it was that of her family standing at the train station wearing afro wigs and oversized sunglasses, with Uncle Arry standing to the side with an amused expression.

Dennis Creevy, she recalled, aware that the photographer would most certainly be receiving some sharp words from her uncle, although maybe not as sharp as they should be. Uncle Arry seemed to have a soft spot for the man.

In all honesty, the picture didn't present as bad, in fact Dominique felt a sense of pride that her family was laughing and bickering in the photo with such ease in spite of their attire. The sunglasses and wigs were clearly to be taken as a joke, and it went a long way towards humanising the likes of Uncle Arry who was often idolised by strangers. To see the family fooling around, it was more a sign of amiability than foolishness.

The photograph wasn't bad. It was the article underneath that presented more of a problem, infuriatingly stupid as she skimmed through it.

...laughing while donning the rainbow Afro wigs presents a completely disregard for their cultural appropriation...

...Bill and Fleur Weasley have been having marital issues and it's easy to see why...

...sources claim Victoire Abigail Weasley, the eldest child of Bill and Fleur, stormed in anger from the scene after being caught in the act...

...Dominique Manon Weasley, the middle child, is sulky and petulant as always, the wig and sunglasses hiding her only good features and leaving her rude nature evident without beauty to disguise it...

...Harry Potter hasn't acclimatised well to a life of normalcy after his heroic defeat of Voldemort--

That was the spot at which Dominique stopped reading, because really? The fact that Skeeter would use Tom Riddle's self-assigned name just for shock factor was appalling. After the war the decision had been universally made that referring to him as Tom Riddle was an effective way to humanise him and strip away the fear left evident from his reign of terror.

The name Voldemort suggested that the wizarding world accepted his carefully crafted persona meant to inspire awe and terror, and the fact of the matter was that they did not. So the name Voldemort was all but dead, a footnote at the bottom of textbooks, puns made by Peeves, the slip of a tongue.

It was the final fuck you to the evil wizard. Referring to him by the name that he deemed too common for the likes of him, it was that which gave all those who he had hurt the ultimate power.

For Skeeter to use it in what was clearly a calculated move in order to spark outrage, it was beyond rude. It was disgusting.

And perhaps Dominique could have looked past it, were it not for the fact that Skeeter had targeted Uncle Arry so blatantly. As he was beloved by the wizarding community she couldn't gain traction by openly being rude about him, so once again she was painting him as a victim.

The piece was so patronising that Dominique could feel her eyes burning holes in the paper. Rude nature evident without beauty to disguise it? Skeeter could very well have been describing herself on a good day, but the words still stung, largely because Dominique did not want beauty to be a defining feature of hers.

Claiming that she was nothing without beauty, well, that was effectively claiming that she was nothing full stop, since physical appearance was not something that she deemed as important. In her own eyes, she was not outwardly beautiful, mainly because her looks didn't seem to correspond with the way she saw herself inwardly.

Skeeter claimed that her only positive attribute was appearance, yet with the fact of Dominique not caring for her appearance how was that supposed to come off?

Exactly how the journalist wanted: hurtful.

At that time Dominique wished that her Aunt Audrey could be there to recite her own version of the article dramatically, however the woman was probably doing so at her own home, while Dominique was hundreds of miles away at school. She wasn't prone to homesickness over people, usually it was limited to a longing for the environment around her home, but she certainly wished for some of her family members to be there in that moment.

She quickly flipped to another page of the newspaper, but the article it fell to didn't work to comfort her. It was talking about a breakthrough in the treatment of curses, yet how could such an important topic be relegated to the eighteenth page while Skeeter's trash was situation in pride of place as the headline.

It was ridiculous, so she passed the paper back to Mellie, meeting her eyes only to see that they were brimming with anger.

"It's rubbish isn't it?" she burst out the second it was clear Dominique had stopped reading. "She's grasping at bloody straws that she's pulled from her own cunt. Is it even legal for her to spout such bullshit without evidence?"

She allowed a slight smile to pull on her lips. "It's legal. Because it's presented as speculation and opinion rather than fact."

The main problem lay with the fact that the article clearly wasn't opinion or anything of the sort; it was just lies.

Mellie seemed to agree, as she ripped off the front page of the Prophet with entirely too much dramatic flair and pulled out a marker, leaving Dominique bewildered at the muggle writing implement in the hands of a Slytherin.

"Carson!" she yelled across the hall. A boy at the Slytherin table looked up from where he sitting among a group of six or seven other kids, munching on cornflakes, his cheeks puffed out like a chipmunks. "Bring your little friends over here!"

Dominique expected the younger boy to go back to eating, but with a look of equal excitement and fear he beckoned all the kids around him to stand up and make their way over.

"I tutor him in Astronomy," Mellie explained briefly, "nightmare of a kid, but I know how to deal with him."

Carson arrived with his group of friends, all of them suddenly appearing very shy. "H-hey Professor Igwe, what do you need?"

Dominique cast a look in Mellie's direction at the fact of Carson addressing her like a teacher, but the girl simply twitched a smile and snapped her fingers to draw the attention of the other students whose eyes had drifted to stare at Dominique. "Oi. See this article? It's a load of screwt taint. We're sending it back to the writer, so do your worst. Carson's in charge. If you can find any more of the same to cover with your own messages then feel free. Spread the word alright?"

The first years nodded eagerly, dispersing, Carson muttering something about Operation 'Squash the Bug' and Dominique allowed herself a moment to wince at the efficiency of the Slytherin students. Forget Dumbledore's Army that was taught in history of magic lessons, if the Slytherins decided to start such an enterprise then the world had better watch out. For all Dominique knew the take over had already begun.

She was about to finally sit down to grab a bite of food next to Mellie's vacated seat when Keire put in an appearance, and she looked icier than Dominique had ever seen her.

"You've seen it," came her first observation, her second following shortly after. "You aren't that bothered by it. Thank Merlin. I've done some research on how to send a Howler if you want...?"

Dominique felt her face crack a disbelieving grin, but before she could turn down the invitation Mellie was jumping in. "I'll help! We can disguise it as a love letter or something of the sort--"

"Amelia Igwe, right?" asked Keire, and the two were off, planning their words and how to ensure the letter reached Skeeter. Before they disappeared off in a whirlwind of quick fire discussion Mellie stuffed a piece of toast into Dominique's hand, and then they were hurrying off to the library to make a start before lessons.

Leaving the Ravenclaw student standing by the Slytherin table with a shellshocked expression.

But not for long, as it seemed she was destined to be Miss Popularity that morning, with Ricky Jordan making his way over. As it turned out he merely had a proposal in the sense that he wanted to organise a spitball competition and thought the article was the perfect excuse. And close behind him was James Sirius, who wanted to find wigs and sunglasses to put on all the suits of armour around the school. It seemed that the two were making a point of rivalry, which was incredibly amusing in the sense of Ricky stooping to engage in conflict with a first year, but even though they were taking advantage of the situation Dominique was grateful for the way they lightened the mood.

Honestly, it was all getting a bit overwhelming with the number of students making their way to reassure her.

But it was a strange situation in the sense that people clearly felt the need to make an effort to be sure she was alright, whereas in previous years no one would have given a toss. Dominique couldn't deny that it felt amazing to have people close ranks in such a way, as they made it clear as day that if you messed with a few of the Hogwarts students, you messed with them all.

In fact, in spite of house rivalries, the only house that hadn't become involved in retaliating against Skeeter in some way was Hufflepuff, but seeing as Teddy Lupin was in the process of cheering up a humiliated Victoire, it seemed all the houses had really come together.

But just as Dominique was preparing to make her way over to ensure that her sister was alright, she was waylaid by another couple of Hufflepuffs.

Deirdre Acre and Jill Reisser were the two that had requested she stop, and given the brief and awkward meeting she had had with them on the train a few weeks ago Dominique was expecting the streak of people being so nice to her that morning to come to a quick end.

However she was soon to be proved wrong, as Jill flicked a small smile in her direction.

"I-I just wanted to say that I'm sorry you have to deal with this sort of thing," the girl began hesitantly. "It's honestly ridiculous that such poison-pen stories make their way into the Prophet at all, let alone the front page."

"Yeah, well. It's been a slow week in politics," muttered Deirdre. "They need some form of scandal."

Dominique felt a laugh bubbling up her throat, and grinned at the two.

It was the strangest of things, that a toxic article could be the thing that proved that Dominique's hesitant attempts at socialising had not gone unrewarded.