Dominique Weasley would never claim to be beautiful, not because she wasn't aware of the fact, but because she had more important things to do with her time.

Such as watch her younger brother trial for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

There was nervous anticipation on his face as she plonked down in front of him at the breakfast table to find him nibbling on a waffle and slurping some disgusting looking green slop that was definitely very good for him, and as his older sister she should encourage.

"What in Merlin's name are you drinking Lou?" she asked scornfully.

"Kale, kiwi, lime, and pumpkin juice," he told her. "Dom."

"Don't call me Dom."

"Then don't call me Lou."

"Oh?" Dominique grinned. "Should I call you Louis then?"

She pronounced the 's' as their British family members had always done, leaving Louie to get very confused about his own name as a child to the point where he burst into tears at a family dinner due to the alternative pronunciations. In the end all of them had taken to spelling his name with an 'e' at the end to avoid confusion, but the entire situation annoyed their mother to this day as she had repeatedly explained the correct way to pronounce her son's name, only to have Aunt Ginny disregard her, along with a few people genuinely seeming not to take the hint.

While their mother still felt annoyance at the reminder of that day, Aunt Ginny still felt guilt, as she had never intended to upset Louie with her joking around. Whenever Louie wanted something from her, a subtle reminder was usually adequate to acquire it, but he used the tactic sparingly in case it's potency ever wore out.

Once Dominique had stopped joking, Louie's expression quickly reverted to being quite sombre, and he took another tiny nibble of his waffle, before setting it down again.

"Hey, Louie, you'll do amazing," she told him, flicking a grape at his forehead. "You've been sitting on a broomstick literally longer than you've been able to walk."

"I know," he replied with a cheerful grin that faded quickly. "It's not that. Leila wanted to trial as well, but stupid Karl Dawes spilt his failed potion all over her last period yesterday and she's still in the Hospital Wing being treated for burns and some kind of horrible blood infection."

The news was certainly upsetting to Doninique, as she knew that Leila had her heart set on at least trialling for Keeper due to the lack of a decent player already occupying the position. Kerry Marsland was playing it currently, but everyone knew that her true talent was as a Beater.

The fact that Leila couldn't try out for Keeper increased her brother's chances of becoming a Beater, but Louie would never deem that worth his best friend getting hurt.

Dominique felt obligated to keep him focused though, so she offered to go visit Leila together after the try outs and told him to get his game face on.

Twenty minutes later she was making her way up to the stands while her little brother shuffled awkwardly at the edge of the crowd of Gryffindors hoping for a spot on the team.

As the captain Kit Singh spoke to the assembled students, Dominique found a seat in the mostly empty stands next to a Gryffindor by the name of Callie Roy.

She could have sat alone, but she'd learnt throughout her long life as a member of a Quidditch obsessed family that the sport was good bonding material. There was always something to talk about when looking out over a Quidditch pitch, whether it be weather conditions, expected results, discussion of previous games.

It was one of the only environments in which Dominique felt comfortable initiating a conversation.

"Is Dian trying out?" she asked, as she settled herself down next to the girl who perched bird like on the edge of her seat, referring to Dian Kerry who was a Gryffindor in the same year as her, and was one of Callie's best friends.

The girl looked at her with wide eyes behind her huge glasses for a second, before shaking her head earnestly. "No -- Christopher is actually."

"Oh wow, I didn't take him for the sporty type," confessed Dominique. "What position is he hoping for? Seeker?"

Christopher Lu was Callie's other friend, a twig thin boy who stood fairly short and often gave off a fragile impression as he was always anxious about getting ill. That said, he was also fairly mouthy to hold his own in a friendship with Dian, and he more than kept up with his hyperactive best friend. Seeker seemed like it would be the perfect position considering his frame, but Callie shook her her again.

"His eyesight isn't good enough for that, he's trying for Chaser, and believe in or not he's actually really good. I've never seen anybody fly so fast, and he has great aim. He's not great at tackling, but catching and throwing are well within his repertoire. My only concern is that he can't take a hit to save his life, but he's fast enough that it shouldn't present a problem."

Dominique tried to pick him out among the students that had been divided into smaller groups in order to assess flying ability, and spotted his small frame next in the same group as her brother, due to fly next.

"It sounds like you've assessed his chances pretty thoroughly," she observed, and Callie bobbed her head enthusiastically.

"I wouldn't seek to play Quidditch myself, but my mama played for the Surrey Stackers, and I've grown up watching the game. Dian has been encouraging me to try my hand at commentating since I know so much about it."

"You should," encouraged Dominique. "Since Will Fallow's gone now they'll be looking for someone else. Speaking of Dian, where is he? I'd expect him to have been here since Christopher is trying out."

"He said he'd meet me here," Callie admitted, looking down at her watch. "I'm not sure what he's playing at."

It was at that moment the group that containing both Louie and Christopher was called forwards, and the two girls simultaneously leaned forward in their seats to watch, forgetting their ongoing conversation.

Kit blew a whistle and the group of seven were off, speeding towards the other side of the pitch.

A gap in ability soon made itself evident, with four students falling behind quickly. The fifth lost ground when he had to manoeuvre around each of the three hoops, leaving Louie and Christopher out in front, but a gap was widening between them too as they pushed towards the opposite set of hoops.

Dominique stared in awe as Christopher Lu had dodged around all three before Louie had even reached them. "He's out flying my brother," she said wonderingly, shock evident. "That's incredible."

"Is Louie good?" Callie asked, not taking her eyes off the fliers, only to see Dominique's brother deftly weave between the three poles, making up a small bit of ground. "Okay. He's good."

"He could fly before he could walk," Dominique explained, as her brother landed next to Christopher, the two of them still far ahead of the other five members of their group. Her words were drowned out by hollering and whooping from a boy that had positioned himself right at the front of the stands, jumping up and down and clapping his hands enthusiastically.

"Well that answers the question of where Dian is," sighed Callie, her expression betraying her fondness. "He must have just gotten here."

As the boy turned to make his way up to them, the two girls caught sight of his face that was split with yellow and red, along with all the Gryffindor clothing the boy was wearing.

"For the love of Merlin!" Dominique exclaimed at the assault to her eyes. "It's so bright!"

"For the love of Chris more like," muttered Callie, but Dominique didn't think she was supposed to hear. "You look like a clown," the girl informed Dian as he approached them. "And you are aware that everybody trialling is in Gryffindor. It's not a house match so what's the point of wearing the colours?"

Dian waved her off. "Can't I support everyone? Dominique! Don't you look lovely on this fine weekend morning!"

He wasn't staring at her in the same way that most boys did, but she still winced uncomfortably and tried to deflect. "Well you look... you look a picture."

With the paint caked onto his face Dominique didn't think she was far off. She noticed that he had the letters L and U painted in black on his cheeks.

It was enough to make her feel as though she'd done the bare minimum by coming to watch Louie, as she hadn't exactly made an effort when it came to her attire, merely donning jeans and a knitted jumper from last Christmas.

Over two thirds of the students were being sent away after the flying trial, but predictably Louie and Christopher Lu were not among them.

Next was more specific to what position they hoped to play, so Louie and Christopher were split up.

Her brother was put into a group with about eight other people, most of which were in the upper years and therefore far bulkier than him.

As the Beater trials began this seemed to present some minor problems, but Louie overcame them. He couldn't hit the Bludgers as hard or fast as the others, but he could aim them with incredible accuracy and was far more manoeuvrable than the other students, getting in far more hits and dodging far more effectively than they did.

All in all, by the end of the trial Louie's position was looking secure.

As they were about to leave to the hospital wing to see Leila, Callie rested a hand on her arm lightly. "It was nice talking to you today," she offered softly, giving the girl a small smile. Dominique flushed and inwardly high-fived herself for managing to hold a decent discussion with someone she hadn't spent much time with before.

Louie was bouncing around and relaying the finer points of the try outs to her with cautious optimism, but as they approached the hospital wing to see Leila he sobered up a bit, clearly hoping to avoid any jealousy that he had been able to partake in the trial.

They found her scribbling an essay as she sat up in bed. Her skin seemed to have mostly healed, with all the blisters being gone, but it had still taken on a mottled orange rash that had yet to fade as she seemed pretty embarrassed about.

Louie expertly steered the conversation away from Quidditch and onto the topic of the new covers of old Weird Sister songs that the band Love Potion had recently done, which all three present agreed weren't good at all, but eventually Leila insisted on hearing about the try outs, asking both of them their opinions on who would get the places.

Dominique's take on it was that it was fairly clear cut. In the absence of a decent Keeper, Kerry Marsland would have to keep up at the job. Kit Singh would remain as a Chaser, and would be joined by Christopher Lu and mostly likely Lila Brodie. The Seeker would stay as Kim Lycett, and the Beaters would be Louie and one of the bulky seventh years that had trialled alongside him, which would provide a good amount of variation in styles.

Louie said similar, although he wondered if the third Chaser might be Jack Dwire rather than Lila.

Leila did look fairly disappointed, but all three of them agreed that if Kit went with those decisions then Gryffindor would have a solid team this year.

"Though there's no way you could seek to challenge Ravenclaw of course," injected Dominique, feeling the need to insert a bit of house pride into the situation.