"Oh girl, what did you do to yo hair?!"
It was not the first thing Dominique wanted to hear as her mother stepped off the Hogwarts Express.
"Had to cut it off..." she mumbled.
Coming out of that hole with the mooncalf, she had had an emergency trim. There had been so many roots and branches stuck in it, she couldn't even get her jersey off to get in a shower. And she just couldn't ask one of the other Slytherin girls for help. Then she'd never get their respect!
And since no-one had thought to develop a spell that mimics the effect of scissors, she had had to do it all by hand.
None of which she had told anyone. The last thing she wanted was to lose Slytherin House any points. It would've been a hell of a lot easier if Dumbledore hadn't given her a knowing look the next time he saw her.
And as for her parents! They had decided to visit Hogsmeade for the holidays. They figured an all-magic settlement in the middle of Scotland would be a reasonably safe place for a wizarding family to stay. Certain parties had been informed, and Professor Slughorn had even invited himself to tea, keen to interrogate Liberté Rosier about her connections to the Picquery family.
Of course, Dominique herself could only disappoint her family. Her mother spent the whole fortnight bemoaning the loss of her hair. Her father didn't seem to care that she had been sorted into Slytherin - something that would've been toasted for days in her cousins' families. Instead he looked very closely at her grades, and was none too happy with what he found.
In fact the happiest time Dominique remembered of the whole fortnight was when she went off to spend her Christmas money in Hogsmeade High Street, and her father started an impromptu snowball fight.
By the next time she saw them, she vowed she would have a full head of hair again.
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