Dominique Weasley would never claim to be beautiful, not because she wasn't aware of the fact, but because she had been raised to know that there were far more important things to be.

Such as brave and confident, not in a flashy way, but so you had the strength to take happiness for yourself and grant it to others as much as possible.

Having so firmly resolved to sit with peers outside of her family, Dominique found herself struggling far more than could be expected to find anyone that she could muster the courage to engage with.

Peering in through the door of what must have been the tenth compartment she saw Louie eagerly chattering away to James, while Leila tapped her fingers on the windowsill and mouthed the words to some form of song under her breath. For a second she was tempted to enter, telling herself that she simply wished to ask the younger girl how her summer had been, but had she allowed herself to do so Dominique knew fully well that she wouldn't leave until the train arrived at Hogsmeade.

Continuing on she came across the first carriage that contained people from her own year, a group of Gryffindors that were happily catching up and reuniting after the holidays, one couple quite passionately snogging in the corner, but just as she was gathering the strength to push open the door the couple broke apart and Dominique caught sight of the familiar broad nose and close set eyes that marked the boy as James Limebrook. Strange to see him without his twin Krissy as it was, Dominique was not going to expose herself to his questioning again for the sake of curiosity to find out where the other girl was.

After three years, Dominique knew that it was unlikely that James still held the same interest in her family as he once had, surely he had developed as a person since then, and yet she still found herself lowering her hand and continuing on, not willing to put herself in such a position again.

The next compartment she found herself looking into seemed far more promising, holding four Hufflepuffs that she knew were very close with one another.

Jill Reisser was chirpy and bright, with round cheeks and an outgoing personality which was the exact opposite of her boyfriend Falin Martel who tended to glower at the majority of people, yet was known to be have been absolutely infatuated with his sunny best friend ever since they had met, until their inevitable and fairly dramatic transition to dating at the end of the previous year.

It was rumoured that Parson Green had held his own part in getting them to admit their feelings, yet Dominique held her own theory that Parson had merely been trying to deflect attention from Deirdre Acre, the final occupant of the compartment who had been facing a great deal of negativity from others of their year after hexing the ever-popular Jake Peterson to the point of him needing to go to St Mungo's upon finding him bullying some of the first years. His nose had never fully been fixed, and it was rumoured that when he got hiccoughs singing bubbles still streamed from his ears.

Leila's twin Col had been among those first years, and he had given Louie the truth of the scenario while all sorts of rumours had been circulating, especially among the Hufflepuffs that housed both members of the incident.

Jill and Falin quite dramatically admitting their feelings in the middle of the Hufflepuff common room had certainly shifted the attention of the rumour mill, to hear what Teddy Lupin had to say on the matter.

Dominique licked her lips and slid open the door. They were Hufflepuffs, she could expect a warm welcome. Right?

All she had to do was request to sit with them, yet the words stuck in her throat and she stood there like an idiot for several seconds. "Um... Could I sit?" she choked out eventually as the silence stretched on awkwardly.

Jill immediately nodded, gesturing to the seat to her right with the hand that wasn't holding Falin's, a welcoming grin on her face.

Dominique sank down gratefully, shoulders curling inwards and eyes downcast, until she made a conscious effort to straighten her back and smile weakly at the others.

Why was this so difficult? Just to sit in a compartment with others was draining her strength, where was the confidence and poise that had been built up by a supportive family her whole life?

She shifted and met Parson's eyes, which were staring at her with uncomfortable intensity. Across from Jill, Falin was doing the same, neither even seeming to notice what they were doing.

Jill glanced back and forth between her boyfriend and Dominique, and her expression crumpled slightly before she forced a smile.

"How was your summer?" she offered with forced cheer, though it was clear she was upset.

"It was good thank you," Dominique replied, her eyes darting between the four. "I got all the holiday work done for the first time ever."

Falin and Parson laughed uproariously, and Dominique flinched. What was the joke?

It seemed Jill and Deirdre had the same question, as Jill's smile was becoming more and more forced to disguise clear hurt as Falin fawned over another girl. Deirdre meanwhile didn't seem at all upset, but rather angry, openly glaring at the part Veela.

Dominique lasted a full thirty seconds longer before standing abruptly. "Thank you, but I think I'll go find my sister."

She was met with a chorus of protests from the two boys, and rather less sincere ones from the ever kind Jill, but Deirdre muttered something under her breath that sounded a lot like, "And don't come back."

Dominique departed with an overwhelming sense of relief, but she wasn't ready to give up just yet, and she wasn't about to go crawling to Victoire. Her sister deserved time to catch up with her friends.

One compartment among many, Dominique, one among many.

The next held third years, the next Krissy Limebrook comforting a sobbing Marina Smith, which solved the mystery of where she had been. Dominique suspected the hysterics held something to do with the fact that James Limebrook was currently snogging another girl, but while she was certainly sympathetic to the girl, it wasn't like she could relate. None of the boys that stared at her in the corridor had tempted her to go down the route of romance, perhaps because she didn't know any of them better than the scant observations she made of their interactions with others, and the knowledge that they didn't really want to date her, that was just her looks confusing them. Besides, she was fourteen, there would be plenty of time for such relationships when she was older, provided of course that she actually managed to build up friendships first.

It was as she was preparing to open the door to the next compartment that held a mixed group of students from her year, that Ricky Jordan knocked into her from behind, and stumbling to stop them both from falling over, he knocked his head against the wall, although the didn't seem to feel the pain that much. His eyes danced as he rubbed his head, and Dominique wondered whether she should yell or make sure the Gryffindor student was alright. The door at the end of the carriage swung open, and before she could react he grabbed her arm and pulled her into the empty compartment across the carriage.

"Hey! Get off me!"

"Shhhh," he hushed her quickly. "Give it a second."

Several seconds passed, and just as she was about to march out of the compartment, an infuriated Teddy Lupin stormed past, his hair red, not a Weasley ginger, but a vivid postbox red that almost matched the trim on the curtains that covered part of the door to the compartment. "Fredrick Jordan you little shit I swear to Merlin, if you don't come and scrape that sluggy string off my luggage I will make sure that your pillowcase is filled with the stuff, I have connections in Gryffindor mate, you hear me Ricky? For the love of..."

Teddy's threats trailed off as the seventh year continued to cut a hurricane of a path through the train, clearly having taken the compartment for empty in the brief glance he took inside it.

Dominique peeled herself from where she was pressed against the wall and burst out laughing. "I assumed it would be my cousin James Potter causing all the trouble for Teddy on this journey. I'm impressed you got there first."

Ricky ruffled up his hair like a bird preening its feathers and offered her a smug grin. "It's kind of my speciality. I doubt a first year could challenge me on that."

Clearly he'd never met James Sirius, but Dominique would allow her young cousin to disillusion Ricky himself.

"You're Dominique Weasley, right? I think my dad was friends with your uncle, George Weasley. His name's Lee Jordan."

Dominique couldn't believe she had never made the connection before, but while Uncle George had never mentioned Lee Jordan, she had definitely heard Angelina pushing him to talk to the man. Their friendship hadn't ended on good terms, that much she had inferred, and she was sure Ricky must be aware of this as well.

"Yeah..." she confirmed. "Angelina mentioned him."

Now Ricky was looking concerned as well, clearly thinking that mentioning a failed friendship between their relatives hadn't been the best of ways to start a conversation. He glimpsed down at his watch quickly, and looked back up apologetically. "The dungbombs covered in chocolate frog wrappers that I snuck onto the food trolley will be going off in ten minutes, and I need to be hiding in the driver's carriage with Turnhook by then. For Merlin's sake don't buy any. See you around!"

Dominique decided not to question the prank, but surely this conversation with Ricky counted as the social interaction she had promised herself to do. "Can I stay in your compartment?" she asked quickly before he could leave.

"It's not my compartment."

"Whose is the luggage then?"

"Dunno," the boy responded with a shrug, and then he was gone.

Regardless that there were bags there, Dominique decided she may as well sit rather than attempt to join any more compartments. Even if four out of the five people she'd spoken to would probably never wish to see her again, and the last had departed so quickly that she might get the same impression from him, at least there was an effort made.

An effort that had left her to feel mentally drained, as she sat in the seat nearest the window and rested her freckle-less forehead against the glass, twirling her hair that wasn't red in her fingers that tanned more of a brown colour than the skin of her cousins that went pink, and taking the smallest amount of comfort from the eyes reflected in the pane of glass that she shared with the majority of her cousins, even though they didn't seem to fit well in her face that was one of porcelain skin and high, thin features. It was a face of beauty that had never seemed to fit the person it belonged to, to the extent that Dominique found herself thinking more and more that it was her face that owned her and controlled her and not the other way around. Her body that grew in ways she never permitted it to.

Such long limbs and stature, it was not what Dominique expected or needed when she saw herself as standing lower than others, such striking features when all she wanted was to fade into the background. Such straight hair when the salty air of her home wasn't around to crinkle it into the messy imperfection that granted her so much more happiness.

Dominique Weasley would never claim to be beautiful, not because she wasn't aware of the fact, but because she didn't want it.