[Flashback Christmas] Christmas Gift: Louis and Dominique
Fuck he hated being home. Aislinn wasn’t going to be here until the end of the break, and until then he was stuck with his family, and the rotating door of his extended family coming and going as though they actually lived here. Aunt Ginny and Grandmother Molly were the worst; barging in and walking around the house and calling him in from the beach as though they were his parents, as though they had any right to tell him he was out too late and needed to come in, to which he’d always reply with a wave and a pretending that he couldn’t hear their actual words.
Though even their constant showing up was preferable to his immediate family’s constant presence. It seemed like while Victoire spent equal time out with Teddy or here talking about Teddy, his mother and second sister were always around, always bothering him and questioning him and talking to him when all he wanted was to wander the mostly-empty boardwalk and surf a little in the freezing water.
Like now. Dominique was already in the kitchen as he came in the back door, shedding his jacket and tossing it in the general direction of the hooks to the side of the door, not bothering to see if he’d made it. It had been a surprisingly good afternoon; a few of the townies had showed up at the boardwalk, hoping to replenish their personal stocks in order to make it through a family holiday, and he had a nice little chunk of change in his pocket. But the pleased expression morphed into an eye roll as he spotted Dominique at the table and passed her with only a nod in greeting as he went to the refrigerator to get a glass of tea.
Dom liked Christmas. Unlike the summer holidays, which dragged on far too long to have only the five of them in the house - she had to argue it felt a little small now they were all practically adults, no longer content to share toys and bedrooms and personal space - Christmas gave her time to hide. There was never a moment of downtime between the comings and goings of family members and colleagues and whoever else might happen to be walking down the beach at an opportune moment. Dom played the perfect hostess, helping her mother with food and drinks and asking all the right questions of their visitors before drifting off into the background, quite content to be an observer in the conversations that followed. And if it wasn’t someone visiting Shell Cottage, there was The Burrow and a million other family homes for them to visit, where Dom had even less to do. She liked the crowds and business offered by the holidays, because if there was one thing Hogwarts made her good at, it was blending in to a crowd.
The only black mark on this otherwise cosy image was Louis - not that Dominique would ever think of it so cruelly, but he was a source of upset for her whenever she saw him scowling about the house or disappearing off to Merlin-knows-where. She’d tried repeatedly - as she so often did - to involve him in things, to invite him wherever they were going, but he wasn’t having it. Tonight, though, she thought she might have some success.
As Louis passed her, barely giving a second glance, she spoke up, determined not to let him make her feel as small as she often did. “Everyone’s going to Cal- the Davies’,“ she corrected herself, her voice catching on the name that had spilled out automatically. She wasn’t sure if Louis had already been informed of the evening’s plans, or if he had bothered to remember, but it was worth saying. "I said I'd make us some dinner, if you have any requests?"
