Dominique Weasley was fed up with spending so much time pondering the many reasons she didn't want to acknowledge her outer beauty. It was the biggest drain on her time and energy that she could think of, and it was making her feel miserable all the time to compare herself to others.

She was determined to simply dress in the clothes she normally wore, without deliberating for hours over it as she usually did, and to get through at least breakfast without a single appearance related thought causing her to fall into an internal spiral of angst.

She would not be the person to sit lost in the maze of their own mind without even making an attempt to get up and find their way out.

She did not know where the sudden rush of determination came from, but it was time for her to embrace it.

Pulling out the first pair of jeans from her trunk, she decided on wearing a simple tank top under her school robes as the day seemed unusually warm considering how cold it had been yesterday. Of course British weather was often erratic, and it was possible that it would be raining again before lunchtime, but if that was the case she could simply run up and retrieve a jumper. With this in mind she laid one out on the edge of her unmade bed just in case.

The sight of her bare arms made her legs wobble uncomfortably, but true to the resolution she had made to herself before getting out of bed she pushed the thought down firmly and scrambled to pull a pair of school robes over her head.

Making her way into the bathroom she studiously ignored her reflection while brushing her teeth, and after taking a pained glance towards the hairbrush she shook her head firmly and simply tied her hair in a bun towards the base of her neck. Consciously avoiding to think about how she looked, Dominique snuck out of the dormitory, careful not to wake all the other girls who were still sleeping.

Her thoughts to get an early breakfast before the majority of people awoke were pushed aside as she entered the main space of the common room to find Keire scribbling away at a scroll, her forehead creased. Dominique wasn't planning to disrupt her, but as the girl looked up to check the time she caught sight of her lingering slightly awkwardly in the doorway.

"Minnie, I have a problem," Keire stated bluntly, and plans of food evaporated as Dominique made her way to her friend's side.

"To do with the spell?" she asked, worry lacing her voice. Of course Keire having personal problems would be bad, but the spell was far more important in the sense that Dominique was fairly certain that Keire had tied all her self-worth in its success. The girl was unusually confident for a teenager, but everyone had limits and if all her hard work turned out to be for nothing, well, it was safe to say that it wouldn't end well.

"In a sense," Keire allowed, pushing a scroll across the table. Briefly glancing at it the print was tiny and dense, but there were lines neatly ruled in emerald green ink underneath certain chunks of text. "Read the unlined parts."

Dominique winced slightly as she looked over what seemed to be a legal document, full of unnecessarily long words and ramblings. The notes in the margin helped her decipher it better, but it still took her a while to work through it.

NINETY-TWO (b)[iv] In accordance with the Wizarding Intellectual Property Act (WIPA) 1670, and provided it can be proven beyond reasonable doubt that the creator was indeed an occupant of the stated residency for more than four monthly cycles in twelve, with consecutivity being an unnecessary object, any and all theories, proofs, enchantments, charms, transfigurations, potions, essays, artefacts, etcetera, limited to physical and verbal manifestations of work including transferral by occulemency, encoded messages, pensive, and any other means of communication, intentional or otherwise, is deemed the intellectual and legal property of Hogwarts School of Wizardry and listed associates, provided the wizard responsible for the development of the work is at least partially credited and given financial compensation as deemed appropriate by whomever controls the school's finances at the time of instance, whether this be an individual or multiple. If the developer fails to comply with regulations and it can been proven that school resources were utilised in the bilateral development of the work then he shall be subject to being stripped of recognition and financial compensation for his work. In such an instance, full credit and economic rights pass to Hogwarts, under the conditions previously stipulated in TWELVE (a)[vi-xii].

The document went on, as did the areas that Keire had unlined, but Dominique had gotten the picture, and it led her to wince as she realised the implications of what she was reading.

"They could take your work?" she murmured disbelievingly. The way the document was worded suggested that with little effort the financial board of Hogwarts could leave Keire with nothing more than a few knuts and a glossed over mention in the footnotes of a journal.

Dominique kind of understood the reasoning behind it to a degree, as it made sure that no one could take advantage of school property to further their own ends, along with the idea that students could have received help from professors and fail to credit them. She had even acted in that manner herself when she questioned Professor Flitwick about the use of Transfiguration and Charms in conjunction. But at the same time, she could also see how it left the school open to exploiting the work of their students, as certain phrases definitely raised alarm bells. It seemed Keire had picked up on these areas as well, where she had underlined 'partially credited' and 'financial compensation as deemed appropriate', both of which left it up to the discretion of people who would probably be biased to make decisions about the degree of recognition the creator themselves would get.

"Technically, yes," asked Keire, her expression unreadable, stoic almost. "Although I doubt McGonagall would ever attempt to claim anything from me, especially not if I go to her with my work prior to anyone else. However I'm not going to deny that this discovery concerns me. There are certainly professors I don't trust to the extent of the headmistress, Professor Lynnet primarily, so I think you and I should keep it quiet until I have completed every aspect of my research, not to mention worked out how to empirically test it."

Dominique nodded sombrely. In spite of the unnecessarily harsh punishment that the headmistress had bestowed upon her, the woman was unfailingly fair. All of her family said so, spoke of her with the highest regard. It could be said with as much confidence as anything could that the woman would not attempt to cheat Keire out of acknowledgement. "From what I know of Professor McGonagall you're right," she nodded, "however I'm confused as to where your assessment of Professor Lynnet stems from? I understand that she does not foster the most comfortable of working environments, but surely sternness does not necessarily translate to untrustworthiness."

Professor Aderyn Lynnet was not the sort of woman with whom students felt comfortable conversing, and in general people were more like to step aside and incline their head towards her rather than offer a greeting if they met in the corridor, but other than her strict attitude towards discipline and propensity to set vast amounts of homework no one had put forwards any genuine complaints about her. As Transfiguration teachers went she was not bad, and even if she didn't quite fill the legendary shoes of Professor McGonagall she at least managed to hobble along in them. The implication that she was untrustworthy was not necessarily unwelcome, it just came as a surprise, because far be it from Dominique to assess the relationships of others, but it seemed that Keire and Professor Lynnet got on fairly well. The Transfiguration prodigy was hardly going to receive harsh treatment from the professor teaching the very subject at which she was so accomplished, and in fact she held pretty much free rein to do as she wished in the lessons, provided she didn't disrupt others and completed the work on the syllabus to a high standard.

Sure, Professor Lynnet wasn't the most approachable regardless of the brightly colour robes she wore, but Dominique didn't see the reasons behind Keire actively mistrusting her.

The other girl didn't reply for a long moment. "This is going to sound petty and judgemental, but I just get a feeling when I'm around her. I am by no means accusing her of anything, I'm just not about to place my faith in her either."

Dominique considered. "That's fair. McGonagall first, then."

Keire offered her a small smile. "No, first I figure out how to link all of this together."

"No, first you come and have breakfast with me."

Keire suppressed a smile and nodded, beginning to pack up all her various papers to store in the units inside the benches. Dominique knew by now that she wasn't exactly naturally organised, but the environment of having to work on a project with so many elements had led to the girl developing a system for storing everything so that she could find it more easily.

As the two were eating -- a simple bowl of porridge for Keire and a stack of banana waffles for Dominique -- Mellie approached them looking unusually chirpy.

Dominique waited for the greeting to be directed towards her as she assumed Mellie had come over to speak to her, but instead the girl immediately turned to Keire, practically vibrating with excitement as she brandished a thin volume.

"This book," she declared, "will walk us through every step there is to creating a Howler!"

Keire was nodded, but Dominique looked at the two in shock. "You guys are still planning on doing that?"

Their disbelieving looks matched as they turned to face her, and it was Keire that answered. "Obviously, Minnie. We wouldn't have made the offer if we didn't plan on following through with it." She turned to Mellie. "You're free this lunch, right? I'll meet you in Room 64, it's always empty."

While they made plans, Dominique looked on with a shocked expression as she honestly didn't understand how she had gotten so lucky. To others it may seem like a small thing, but she had never had anybody outside of her family as much as express concern at her wellbeing, let alone be willing to sacrifice time to defend her.

It was a strange feeling, because she couldn't help but feel as though it was temporary, but at the same time that didn't match up to the message Mellie was sending her, and now Keire was willing to give up time that she would have been spending making transfigurative history in order to exact petty revenge on a nasty woman.

It was strange, but there was no denying that it also felt flattering.