take a break [dom]

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It seemed that Jamie's unofficial title had become Weasley wrangler. The day previous she had had her spa day with Anna, and the day before that had been her run-in with Lucy as the Whomping Willow. At the rate she was going at, Jamie was going to run into all of the Weasleys by Valentine's Day. It just so happened that that day, Jamie had been asked to check on Dominique Weasley. They hadn't really spoken to each other, not since the time Jamie had gotten sick at their karaoke day, but apparently Dominique, like Anna, was throwing herself into her studies in an unhealthy way. Jamie had a contact inside the Ravenclaw tower who had given her a stack of the Ravenclaw's books, and just about now would be when Dom realized that her books weren't there for her to study from. Jamie had hidden them around the castle, and now she was waiting fro Dom to emerge, looking fro who had taken her books. Jamie hoped that the Ravenclaw wasn't going to be mad, but some people you needed to be a little firmer with in making them take a break.

@dominique

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Ever since her excursion from school, Dom threw herself into her studies. There were a few reasons for this. One being that she needed to study so she would be prepared to help Séamus when he needed it, but another was to help distract her from her thoughts. She didn't know why Ethan was at the forefront of her mind lately, but he was and she needed to get him out. Either that or risk going crazy. 

However, right now she'd run into a bit of a struggle. Her books were gone! Dom asked all the people she could think of where they might be, but no one knew. But it wasn't like her books could just disappear! Entirely frustrated by her inability to distract herself, Dom walked out of the common room, determined to go and take a walk outside. That normally helped her calm down, though it would do nothing to distract her from memories. She didn't even notice Jamie waiting outside the door.

@jamie

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Jamie was beginning to realize that she did a lot of loitering outside the entrances of the other houses’ common rooms, which would have been a problem, if the people she was looking for didn’t have an uncanny ability to show up just when her loitering was about to get suspicious. “Looking for something, Dom?” Jamie asked innocently. She winced a little to herself. She sounded like one of those awful Slytherin girls who hid people’s things just for the hell of it. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but now Jamie was a little worried that Dominique was going to hate her for the game they were going to play. “I set up a scavenger hunt.” Jamie said, hoping to dispel any ideas Dom might have gotten of her having malicious intent. “To help you take a break.” Jamie didn’t say who had collected Dom’s books for her, or who had tipped the Hufflepuff off to take a look at Dominique’s studying habits more closely in the first place, but she was willing to tell the Ravenclaw to stop studying, if only for a little while.

@dominique

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Dom froze when someone started talking to her, asking if she was looking something. Well, she didn't leave the common room checking the corners or anything like that so ... it must be the person who took her books. She spun around, taken by surprise when she saw Jamie Greyback standing there. Why would the Hufflepuff girl want to take her books? "I was a few minutes ago. Now I'm just on my way outside," she said with an easy grin, curious about how Jamie would respond to that. Then her mouth fell open when Jamie mentioned what she'd done. A scavenger hunt? It took a few seconds for her expression to settle, but when it did Dom definitely looked excited. "That sounds great! Is it all over the castle? Are there clues?" A scavenger hunt was perfect! It meant easy distraction and it would probably last for quite a while, considering all the books that had gone missing. Then her head cocked to the side when Jamie's last comment registered. "To help me take a break? Why do you care about me taking breaks from studying?" She wasn't saying it in a mean tone, Dom was sincerely curious.

@jamie

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Dominique said that she was just on her way outside, and Jamie nodded, though she was certain that her earlier declarations would keep the Ravenclaw from actually doing that. Dom seemed to be taking it the right way, though, seeing it as a game instead of something Jamie was doing to be mean. “Yes, it’s all over the castle.” Jamie confirmed. What was the point in having such a huge school if you never got to use its size every once in a while. When Dom asked if there were clues, Jamie shook her head. “All I can tell you is that there’s at least one book on every floor, but no more than two on any one floor.” Now that she was thinking about it, Jamie couldn’t remember how many books she had hidden. Hopefully Dom would realize if one of her books still hadn’t been found, Jamie thought with a shrug. When it came to why she wanted to help Dom take a break, Jamie shrugged again. “I have a vested interest in the mental and emotional health of the Weasley family.” Jamie said. That made her sound kind of weird, but there had been a point where she was convinced that she was going to marry into that family, so continuing to care about them wasn’t a bad thing.

@dominique

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Dom grinned as Jamie explained a little more what this was about. This was going to be fun. "Is this something I'll be doing on my own or are you going to join me?" she asked curiously, glancing around herself even though she knew it wasn't going to be this simple. She laughed when Jamie said she cared about the mental health of the members of the Weasley family. That was a little strange, but at the moment it was helping Dom so she was glad about it. "Ok, so where do we start?!" She asked, turning to look right at Jamie for the first warning.

@jamie

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Dom asked if Jamie was going to be coming along, and the Hufflepuff smiled. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to tag along. To tag along, steer you in the right direction, et cetera.” Jamie said. She wanted Dominique to take a break, but she didn’t want the Ravenclaw to get frustrated if it was getting late and she couldn’t find the books. Dom asked where they were going to start, and Jamie shrugged. “Since you know there’s a book on every floor, it might be smart to start on the first floor and work your way up.” Jamie said. She had placed enchantments on the books to keep anyone else from taking them, and to protect the books from water damage or dust – she didn’t anticipate that the latter spells were going to be needed, but Jamie was always more careful with others’ possessions than her own. “Or we could start at the seventh floor and work our way down.” The latter would require less stair-climbing, but since both girls played Quidditch, Jamie couldn’t see that physical exertion would be a problem for either of them.

@dominique

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With a wide smile, Dom shrugged and said, "The more the merrier! Let's get started." She waited a second to listen to Jamie's suggestions. "Hmm .... let's start at the top, since we're already on the fifth floor," Dom started moving toward the stairs, excited to see how this was going to turn out. "So are there clues or something or am I just supposed to look around until I find them?" She wasn't exactly sure what the parameters were with this game, or whether or not Jamie played it the same way she did. Either way it was something new to do and Dom was definitely up for that. 

@jamie

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Dominique seemed eager to jump into things, so Jamie was just as easy to follow. Dom asked again if there were clues, and again, Jamie shook her head. “I can make up clues, I suppose.” The Hufflepuff said. “But I thought it might not take as much time as it ought to if you have clues.” Jamie was certain that Dominique was cleverer than her, so any attempt the Hufflepuff made at making clues would probably be just the same as pointing to the place where the book was hidden. “We can play hot and cold though?” Jamie suggested. That way it wasn’t just mindlessly searching, but wasn’t too easy, either.

@dominique

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Dom laughed, "All right then. I can search for a bit and if I can't find anything then we'll try hot and cold or clues or something to make it more interesting. You sure you want to tag around? I mean, I don't want to bore you, making you help me look for the books you hid." Dom offered to let the girl go, though she hoped Jamie would stay. It was always more fun to do something with a friend than alone. "How is your year going?" she asked curiously as they climbed the stairs. Almost to the seventh floor ....

@jamie

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Jamie nodded when Dom said that they could try hot and cold if she couldn’t find anything without the clues, and nodded again when Dom asked if she was sure she wanted to tag along. “It’ll be fun for me. The anticipation of watching you get closer or laughing when you walk right past it…It’ll be fun.” Jamie assured the other girl. And part of taking a break was having someone else to take a break with. Dom asked about her year, and Jamie shrugged. The fact that a new year had started was making it a little difficult to answer those kinds of questions, because Jamie wasn’t in a habit of looking back, especially when there was so much to look forward to. “January’s been an interesting month.” She said neutrally. “You?” Jamie asked as they finished the stairs and reached the landing for the seventh floor.

@dominique

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Dom smiled, glad that Jamie was going to play with her. "Good. Then when you laugh I'll know I've done something wrong," she teased. She was surprised to realize that this was actually working. Jamie's game was doing quite a good job at distracting Dom from her ... troubles and she appreciated it, even though Jamie probably didn't know how much she was helping. "Yeah, we're definitely going to have fun!" As they reached the top of the stairs, Dom started looking around. There were a few plants in the corridor and so she started by looking around those. Maybe a book would be hidden there? Or would it be inside one of the rooms? "Ehh, you know. Learning a lot. I miss having Quidditch, but it's been all right." She wasn't going into specifics in the moment, mostly because this month had not been alright and she didn't want to emphasize on that.

@jamie

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Jamie shook her head when Dom said if the Hufflepuff laughed, the Ravenclaw would know she was going in the wrong direction. “I’m not going to be that obvious about it.” She teased back. Now that she had said that, though, Jamie was tempted to laugh at random times, just to keep Dominique on her toes. When she started peering at the plants, Jamie smiled. She hadn’t actually thought to put one there, because she hadn’t wanted the book to get ruined. It was actually in a pretty obvious place, on one of the window sills. Jamie figured it would either be an easy first find or a nice way to end the hunt. “Being a Captain in a year where there isn’t any Quidditch is kind of lame.” Jamie said, knowing that Dominique could commiserate with her, being the captain of the Ravenclaw team.

@dominique

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Dom shrugged, "Well it was worth a try," she teased. Actually, she made that comment just to make sure that Jamie wouldn't be too obvious about it. That would take away the fun. After she looked at the plants, Dom looked up and towards the end of the corridor and then laughed. It was right there! She skipped over to the window sill where her book was and picked it up, dropping it into her book bag, the one that was constantly with her. She nodded. "It is! I was so excited for this year and now I don't really get to do anything at all." She smiled, "Except use the special bathroom, of course." Not that that was enough of a prize for her.

@jamie

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Jamie smiled when Dom said that the laugh-o-meter was worth a try, and Jamie just winked. Not long after that, Dom saw the book on the window sill, and the Hufflepuff wondered if the Ravenclaw was going to keep looking or gamble in saying that the seventh floor was one of the places that only had one book hidden. Jamie was glad that Dominique agreed with her about the Quidditch thing, rather than seeing it as whining. “I’m hoping that I’m prepping the team to be good next year when I’m gone.” She said. She was the only graduating member of her houses’s team, so the work that she put in this year would hopefully carry over to the next year for the rest of them. Jamie chuckled when Dom mentioned the bathroom. “You probably use the bathroom more than me.” Jamie said. The prefect’s bathroom was closer to Ravenclaw’s common room than Hufflepuff’s. In fact, Ravenclaw’s common room was the closest of the four houses, period.

@dominique