AN- This is my first fanfiction, so please be patient! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, blah blah blah...

1-The Accident

Even before the yellow smoke and mutant owls, Dominique Weasley's day was far from ordinary. It started much earlier than normal, 5:03 in the morning to be exact. She was shaken awake, none too gently, by her cousin Fred. Now, while Fred was one of her favourite cousins, not to mention one of the only people who actually seemed to like her more than her sister, he should know that even for him waking her up too early would bring consequences. "W-What? Whaddaya wan'?" Dominique mumbled sleepily, rubbing her eyes as she shoved Fred off of her. Seemingly undeterred by his sudden topple to the floor, Fred leaped back to his feet, strangely awake for 5:00 in the morning as he landed on her again. Her half-awake brain wondered what had happened to get him up this early (or more appropriately, what he had done), and the part of her that was dedicated to self-preservation immediately kicked into overdrive, planning how to best avoid whatever prank he had conjured up. "Whaddid you do?" She was surprised when Fred rolled off of her, sitting up besides her on the bed and staring at her with wide eyes.

"Don't you remember what day it is?" he asked incredulously. Dom pulled herself upwards into a more vertical position, still struggling to keep her eyes open.

"Um… April 10th?" she yawned. Fred nodded, speaking to her slowly as if she was a confused five year old.

"Yes, very good, Dommity. And what happened on April 10th?" She blinked, completely bewildered. Was it her parents' anniversary or something? The date certainly seemed familiar, but her tired mind couldn't place its importance. Fred II waited a few more seconds before sighing. "It's your birthday, you idiot." Dominique shot up back into an upright position, suddenly wide-awake.

"It's my what?" she asked incredulously, everything suddenly clicking into place.

"And she finally gets it!" he cheered, jumping off of her bed and dancing around the room. His enthusiasm was contagious, and soon Dominique found herself awake enough to at least stand up and look around.

"Why did you wake me up so early, anyway? Don't I deserve to sleep in on my birthday?" she glanced over at her alarm clock, which now read 5:15am.

"Oh," he shrugged, "your boyfriend and his twin wanted to see you, they said they had something to show you."

"Lorcan's not my boyfriend,' Dom muttered, rolling her eyes. She didn't ask why they wanted to see her this early instead of at the surprise birthday party she knew was being thrown later, but she had long since given up trying to figure out the reasons behind why the Scamanders did anything.

"Anyway, they asked me to tell you to go to 'the place'," he made quotation marks in the air around the two words, "Apparently you know where that is…"

"Okay, give me a minute to get dressed," she commanded, shoving Fred out her door before he had time to protest.

The grey light of dawn was already seeping through the large window over her bed, illuminating the room with a harsh, cold light. Shivering slightly, Dominique quickly pulled on a pair of tan shorts and a grey sweater over top of her shirt, carelessly tucking up her blonde hair in her favourite olive green beret as she ran to the door. After she had tiptoed past her family's bedrooms, she ran out the door and looked around for Fred. He was waiting for her by the old apple tree, lounging around in the branches like he had all the time in the world. "Oh, come on, you." Dom muttered, grabbing his foot and yanking it down. Fred yelped as he tumbled out of the tree, grumbling under his breath about homicidal cousins as she pulled him along.

"Where are we going? Are we there yet? I'm tired!" he complained for the fifth time in the last three minutes.

"For Merlin's sake, we've been walking for barely a few minutes! If you don't want to come, just go home!" she snapped, stopping so suddenly that he ended up skidding past her. "Besides, we're already here."

"Here?" Fred asked, looking around as if he expected a giant tree fort to jump out from behind the cluster of trees. "Where?" Ignoring him, Dom silently pressed a finger to her lips, before casually wandering over to a nearby oak tree and looking around nonchalantly. All of a sudden, she quickly whipped out her wand, shooting a stunning spell straight upwards. Fred nearly jumped out of his skin when a body fell out of the tree, landing with a thump in a tangle of blonde hair and long limbs.

"Oh, hello Lysander!" Dom feigned surprise, a sarcastic smile tugging at her lips, "fancy seeing you here." The boy on the ground didn't respond, and just raised his head and glared at her reproachfully. "Of course," she continued in a slightly raised voice, "anyone else stupid enough to try and ambush me should know that Auntie Ginny has recently taught me some very useful hexes, which I'm just dying to try out…" She trailed off and cocked her head to one side as if listening for something. After a few seconds, there was a rustling in the leaves, and Fred just had time to look up with an alarmed expression before another blonde-haired and grey-eyed boy dropped on top of him. This boy was identical to the other in every way, except as soon as he landed he leaped back to his feet, brushing the dirt off his clothes as if falling out of trees was a regular occurrence. He turned around, starting slightly as he saw his brother and Dom. "Why, Dominique, whatever are you doing outside at this time of day?" he asked innocently, stepping away from Fred so the other boy could get up. Dom scoffed, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Oh, don't give me that, Lorcan, I know you were behind this. Was the thing you wanted to show me just a set-up to lure me into an ambush?"

Lorcan glanced at Fred as if wondering whether he could be trusted or not, before shrugging and turning back to Dom, his silvery-grey eyes shining with mischief. "I was just getting to that. You'll never guess what we found in our mother's room…" He looked from side to side as if trying to see where he had put it before Lysander cleared his throat softly, holding up spider-like object from where he was sprawled on the grass. "Right!" Lorcan grabbed the bizarre contraption from his twin's hands, holding it up triumphantly. Dominique eyed the thing warily. It didn't look dangerous, but you never really knew with her Aunt Luna. Still, she did not think it was wise to ask about the gadget, at the risk of looking ignorant or an idiot. Fred, of course, had no such qualms.

"What in Merlin's name is that?"

Lorcan smirked in that annoying way that told you he knew something you didn't. "Why, I thought it would be obvious. I mean, judging by the volume of the major segment, added with the stature of the supporting legs, any normal person would have no difficulty in at least placing an educated guess-"

Dom groaned, rolling her eyes. For some reason, every time Lorcan and Fred started talking to each other they each made it their goal to annoy the other person in whatever way they could. For Lorcan, that meant talking non-stop and using long, confusing vocabulary words, where as Fred simply settled on acting as dense as possible (then again, it did seem to come naturally). Exchanging an exasperated look with Lysander, she stepped forward, clearing her throat loudly.

"So, what is it?"

Lorcan broke off mid speech, and turned back around to face her, a mixture of smugness and pride written all over his face. "It's a time machine, of course."

"Dom! Dom! You'll never guess what we got you!"

Dominique sighed loudly, turning around from where she had just been about to take some food. It was quite a bit later on in the day, and her 'surprise' party had just started. So far it was pretty much the same as every year, where her mother none-too-subtly suggested that she go outside for a few minutes for some fresh air, she pretended that she didn't notice all her relatives arriving, and then acted completely surprised when she walked in to a room full of people and a big 'Happy Birthday' banner hanging from the wall. Still, she'd hoped that she might actually be able to relax a few seconds before she was interrupted.

As per usual, her hazel-haired cousin had a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, Fred and Louis on either side of him, and a totally unconvincing look of innocence on his face.

"Books?" she suggested, looking pointedly at the three novels clutched in her brother's hands.

"Dominique, Dominique," James drawled, shaking his head in mock disappointment, "have we taught you nothing? Did you really suspect, even for a second, that we would stoop to that level of desperation? Books!" He scoffed the last word, ignoring her eye roll at his dramatics. "These are not mere books, my dear ignorant cousin. These are treasures, legends, explanati-"

"All right, all right!" she interrupted hastily before he could continue. "But aren't presents supposed to be opened at the end of the party?"

James seemed to wilt with disappointment for a moment, but then brightened up again once he had caught sight of something in the crowd. "Come! I have sighted some mistletoe! We must protect the innocents from a nargle invasion!" he cried, disappearing into the crowd of gingers, Louis and Fred vanishing after him.

"What the..?" she muttered, shaking her head slightly before turning back to the food table. She was just reaching for some treacle pudding (Uncle Harry's favourite), when there was another tap on her shoulder. Sighing with annoyance, she put the pudding back down and turned around again. Lorcan and Lysander were standing there; Lysander holding the 'time machine' and Lorcan with a small, ruffled owl perched on top of his head. They greeted her with wide, identical grins, the owl hooting in indignation when it almost got crushed in a hug. Twittering with discontent, it flew off over the crowd with a strange, slightly lopsided flight. Seeing Dom's look of confusion, Lysander quickly explained, "Mum found him in the garden, one wing's smaller than the other. She told us to bring him here-"

His explanation was cut off by a sharp bang created by Aunt Hermione, who started to speak once everyone was silent. "Can everyone please gather round?"

Casting one last forlorn look at the still-warm treacle behind her, Dominique followed everyone else to the sitting room, cramming in between Louis and Lorcan on one of the sofas. At her questioning glance, Lorcan leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Sander's gone to feed the owl." She nodded, and then focused her attention back on her aunt, who was standing in the middle of the carpet clearing her throat.

"Now, as you're all aware, today is a very special day for one of us. It's not everyday you turn 16, and today we're here to celebrate Dominique's birthday! Why, it seems like only yesterday she was just learning to talk…"

As Hermione went on talking about her first words and steps, Dom was looking around the room. She caught Teddy's eye, and he winked at her before turning his attention back to the speaker. She carried on gazing around the room, seeing who was here. There was Teddy, Fred, James, Lorcan, no Lysander, but he would be back soon, Lucy, Molly, all of her other cousins, uncles, aunts and grandparents, as well as her brother Louis, and her sister Victoi- Wait! Where was Victoire? She could have sworn she was just standing next to Louis! Her eyes swept back across the room, but her sister's familiar silvery-blonde head was nowhere to be seen. Then, all of a sudden, as if her thoughts had summoned her, Victoire came bursting back into the room, cutting off the speech as she wildly waved a letter in the air, her face flushed with excitement. "I got it!" she squealed, jumping up and down like a little kid, "I've been accepted into Auror training!" At almost exactly the same time, everyone rose to congratulate her, and many shouts of 'I knew you could do it!' and 'Oh, isn't this great!' echoed around the room. Dominique, who was the only person still sitting apart from Lorcan, couldn't help but feel slightly ill. Once again, her moment had been stolen away from her by her older, and much more perfect sister. It had been happening as long as she could remember; when she took her first steps, her sister learnt how to do cartwheels. When she got a perfect score on a quiz, her sister got all O's on her O.W.L.s. She started to feel her eyes tearing up, and stood up abruptly, not wanting to cry in front of everyone. Dom started for the door, weaving in between all the people already planning how to celebrate Victoire's newest achievement, and ignored Lorcan's shouts behind her. She stomped towards the door, having to step to the side so that her relatives, who didn't even seem to notice her now, didn't knock her over. Making it to the door, she opened it just in time to crash into Lysander, who was fiddling with one of the dials on the machine while he walked, the owl on his messy blonde head swaying from side to side every time he took a step.

"Woah!" he cried as the time machine was knocked out of his hands, and he was knocked backwards. "Why are you-" he stopped talking as soon as he saw her face. Seeming to understand immediately, he pulled her into a friendly hug, patting her back reassuringly. Being one of her best friends, he knew all about her issues with her sister. The door opened again, and a small red head skipped through, stumbling to a halt as soon as she saw them and flushing red.

"Sorry," Lucy mumbled sheepishly, nervously pushing her glasses further up her nose as Lysander and Dominique immediately jumped apart. The owl pecked Lysander's head to express his annoyance at being jostled around so much, and Lysander jumped for a second time, having forgotten about the small feathery creature currently resting in his hair. Unfortunately, this time he stepped partly on the time machine he had dropped, cracking one of the leg-like things protruding from it. Almost instantaneously, thick yellow smoke began to flood from the crack, surrounding them with a smell like burnt toast.

"Oh Merlin-" he just had time to say, before the three children and the owl disappeared in a flash of light.