neville should know
“HAPPY HALLOWEEN!” Seamus yells, and Dean is met with a pillow to the face. God damnit, Sea. For someone so small you really are loud.
Dean groans. “Bloody hell, Sea, relax.” He turns over in bed and gets hit again with a pillow. “Alright, fine, I’m up, I’m up!” He quickly sits up and rolls his eyes at the grinning boy before him. “You’re exhausting me, honestly.”
“And that’s what your mother said to me last night. Now, get your arse up, and get ready.” Seamus replies, unfazed.
“Fine, bloody hell.” Dean says with a small grin of his own, finally pulling himself out of bed. He walks himself over to the bathroom, grabbing his uniform on the way in, and locking the door. He pulls his shirt over his head.
While he gets dressed, Seamus knocks on the door repeatedly. “For Merlin’s sake, Dean, hurry up!”
Dean buttons up his shirt quickly and opens the door. “Happy?”
Seamus nods and practically hauls the other boys out of bed, barely patient while they get ready. “Oh for Merlin’s sake, hurry up, Ron!”, he called, banging on the door while the ginger got ready.
Dean lets out a huff of laughter while he’s doing up his tie.
The door opens and Ron rolls his eyes. “Alright, calm your tits, I’m ready.” Harry had been up before Seamus, but he’s back on his bed now. Neville’s also been up and he’s sitting quietly examining a plant. Dean sighs and lets himself inevitably be dragged downstairs by Seamus with the other boys. When they reach the Gryffindor table, they are greeted with a breakfast feast of Halloween everything, cinnamon at every turn, and an inability to look anywhere without seeing a pumpkin.
Dean looks to Seamus, who is practically buzzing with excitement. He’s so cute.
He notices that Seamus is aggressively scooping extra pumpkin out of a carved decoration and mashing it up in a bowl with a sugar cube.
“What on earth are you doing, Sea?” He finally asks. Seamus’ eyes light up but an almost offended gasp escapes his mouth.
“What do you mean? You mean your mother never made you pumpkin hot cocoa?” He exclaims. Dean shakes his head.
“Oh, Merlin, Thomas, you have to try it. You put the pumpkin insides with the sugar in with the cocoa powder and then you pour boiling water on it and then warm milk and then you put whipped cream with cinnamon powder.” He says enthusiastically. Dean is utterly confused.
“That sounds disgusting.” He says with a breath of amusement.
“Try it, then.” Seamus hands Dean his cup of the strange pumpkin drink. Dean takes a sip and his face scrunches up.
“That’s bloody terrible.” He says.
“Well, I like it.” Seamus says, accepting the cup back from Dean. It’s only then that Dean realises he basically just put his lips on Seamus’-
No. Today is Halloween, not Obsess Over Your Crush On Your Best Friend Day.
“Anyway, I think we should throw a party tonight. Y’know, for Halloween. We can go down to Zonko’s and pick up some fireworks or something, and I’ll smuggle in some butterbeer from The Three Broomsticks.” Seamus explained, and the boys began to brainstorm their party.
“We could get some brooms from the quidditch cupboards and fly around on ‘em.”
“Decorations, too.”
“Definitely snacks. Harry’ll buy them.”
“Why me?!”
“Not everyone here is rich.”
Dean snorts. Thank Merlin it’s a Sunday, that means they can actually go to Hogsmeade to get supplies.
Little did Dean know they wouldn’t even need their party supplies…
— ⭒⭑🟊⭑⭒ —
That night was troubling to say the least. A mass murderer, fresh out of Azkaban, breaking into the castle? One would be foolish not to be concerned.
But Dean was particularly anxious about all this. It had, after all, been his house’s common room and dormitory that had almost been broken into. Sleeping on cold floors didn’t help.
Having Harry Potter as a roommate can be less than ideal, Dean had come to realise.
“Psst.” A voice behind him says.
He rolls over, face to face with Neville. “Oh. Hi, Nev.”
“Hi. Seamus is over there, by the way, if you were looking for him.” He whispers.
“Oh. Uh. Nah, I reckon I’ll just stay here.” He mutters, trying to ignore how much he wants to go see Seamus. “Are you alright? After the whole… Sirius Black thing?”
Neville nodded, although a bit shakily. “Yeah. It’s a bit… scary, though.” He admits.
Dean nods, and jokes. “Hey, maybe now they’ll talk about something other than girls.” He laughs.
Neville hums in agreement. “That’s probably wishful thinking, though. And I thought you had a crush?”
Dean’s face tints red at that. “What? I… who told you that?” He asks warily.
“Oh, I don’t know. I just assumed. You seem a bit quieter these days. You’re always blushing, too. You are right now. I won’t tease you, though.” Neville says in a hushed whisper.
“Oh.” Dean now had two options. He could either tell Neville he has a crush on Seamus, tell him he has a crush but not specify who, or outright deny it.
He can’t decide.
“Uh…” He scrambles for words. He wants to tell Neville, but… it’s so soon after he’s realised.
Maybe he’ll have to talk to Professor Lupin about this.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He lies. It’s obvious but he doesn’t care.
Neville nods. “Okay. G’night, Dean.” And so Neville rolled over and finally the two boys slept.
— ⭒⭑🟊⭑⭒ —
Dean shuffled around the next day while he waited for Professor Lupin to open the door. All the classes are done for the day, so maybe he’ll have more time now.
The door swings open, and Dean grins. “Hi sir.”
“Hello Dean. Come in.” Professor Lupin greets with a smile. Good. Dean could use some normalcy right now. He chose to ignore the fact that the professor’s eyebags got darker and he seemed much more tired.
Dean went inside graciously, beginning to talk while Lupin pours him tea and passes him chocolate.
“Sir, those two boys you were telling me about, did… who did they tell? Like, before they got together, who did they tell about their… uh… crushes?...” He asks.
The professor smiles, a tired smile, but a smile nonetheless. “I only know for sure one of them, but I can guess the other. The werewolf boy, he said… let me think… First he told his other best friend’s, we’ll call him Glasses, girlfriend. Well, they weren’t dating at the time. Actually that’s why I- he told her, because she had a crush on him… She got over that pretty quick, though, and… yeah.”
“Oh. Okay. Who’d Star Boy tell?”
The professor smiles. He seems to like the name Star Boy for the rich boy.
“The first he would’ve told was probably Glasses. They were… well, they were brothers. Inseparable. In fact, he… Well, Star Boy ran away from his house. It wasn’t his home anymore, it hadn’t been for a long time. He ran to Glasses’ house.” He says with a soft sigh.
Dean nods. That made sense, he thought. “Do you think I should tell Neville?”
Lupin thinks for a moment. “That depends. Are you ready to?”
“I think so. I think if anyone deserves to be one of the first to know, it’s Neville. He’d get it.” Dean tells him.
“Well, then by all means, go ahead.” Lupin says, a small smirk playing on his lips. “So how is Seamus?”
“He… He’s good. Still um… exploding things, yeah.” Dean manages. He likes listening to Lupin’s stories, but talking about Seamus was hard.
Lupin laughs. “I could imagine.”
There’s a moment of silence.
“Sir, I actually had another question.”
“Yes?”
“What’s up with the whole Sirius Black thing?”
“Maybe a different question, Dean?” The professor requests tiredly.
“Right. Sorry. Uh… Can you tell me more about the… the other people they knew? The two boys, that is.”
Lupin nods. “Right, yes.” He sets his tea down.
“Well, Star Boy had a younger brother. We’ll call him… King. King was quite like your friend Neville, but with stars and reading and things like that. He didn’t have an interest in romance or intimacy or anything else. His friends on the other hand…”
The professor breathes out in amusement.
“You couldn’t keep them off each other. We’ll call them Junior and Rose. They were two boys, too. A bit… crazy, mentally, but they worked out. They… Rose is dead now. Junior is in Azkaban. Again, not the best people… but nonetheless. They had two other friends. One was… we’ll call her Panda. And then there was… we’ll call her Cas. Panda, she started dating a lovely boy named… we’ll say Philly. They loved each other. And Cas, she started dating a girl called Marl. We- We’ll call her Marl, anyway.”
Dean’s head is spinning. “That’s.. A lot of people.”
“Yeah. Yeah, it is. There were more, in fact.” Lupin said quietly. “Most of them are gone now.”
Well that’s awkward.
“Oh. I’m sorry, sir.”
The professor instantly fixes his face. “No, no, it’s okay. They’ve been gone a long time, I’ve come to terms with it now.”
Suddenly the door bursts open and Seamus walks in. Dean swears he almost has a heart attack.
“Hey Sea. What- why are you here?” He asks nervously.
“Because Ron and Harry want me to “catch you in the act”. I don’t think that’s what I’ve done, so.” He replies, breathing out, looking around the room.
“Sorry, catch me doing what exactly?” Dean asks.
Seamus shrugs. “You snogging some girl I guess. They reckon you’re with your crush right now, but unless you have a crush on Professor Lupin, I don’t think you are.”
Again Dean almost has a heart attack. “Right. Ok. So am I supposed to come with you now to prove I wasn’t, or…?”
“Guess so.”
“Okay?...” Dean picks up his stuff and stands up. “Sorry Sir, I’ll see you next lesson. Bye.”
He exits the classroom with Seamus. “What was that all about?” Dean asks frustratedly.
“Merlin knows. They’re bloody lunatics.”
“Damn right.”
— ⭒⭑🟊⭑⭒ —
They arrive back at the Great Hall in one piece just before dinner, and they sit down.
Here come the questions.
“Who’s the girl?”
“What were you doing with her?”
“Why wouldn’t you tell us?”
Dean rolls his eyes. “There was no girl, I was talking to Professor Lupin, and I didn’t tell you because you’re all nosy arses.”
Seamus snickers quietly, but covers it with a cough.
“You talk to Lupin a lot, mate.” Ron points out.
“I know.” Dean replies.
“Why?” Harry asks.
“None of your business, that’s what.” He didn’t intend for it to be rude. He’s been hanging out with Seamus too much, clearly. “Sorry. I just mean… private stuff.”
“Right.” Ron replies with a grin. “We all believe you.”
“I do.” Seamus and Neville reply in unison, though Seamus’ tone is more snappy and defensive of Dean, and Neville’s tone is gentle and reassuring for Dean.
Dean could tell an insult was on the edge of Ron’s tongue, and Dean really hoped he didn’t say it. That would most likely result in dormitory warfare.
Thankfully he held his tongue. Barely.
“Anyway…”
And so the Gryffindor table delved into the usual chaos of dinner.
— ⭒⭑🟊⭑⭒ —
Later that night, Dean tiptoes out of his bed and into Neville’s. He casts a Muffliato charm.
“Alright, Nev, I have to be quick because Seamus will be creeping over to my bed to talk and stuff any second now. But… I want… I want to tell you something.”
Deep breaths, Dean. You can trust Neville, of course you can.
“I… I think I like boys as well as girls.”
Neville doesn’t even bat an eye. “Oh. Okay.”
Dean pauses. “And when I say boys, I… I mainly mean Seamus.” He whispers.
Neville shrugs. “I figured as much. Thanks for telling me, though. Goodnight, Dean.” Neville rolls over and squeezes his plant plushie while he falls asleep.
Wow. That was unnecessarily easy. He knew it wouldn’t be like that every time he tells someone, but that was certainly a great start.
When he creeps back to his own bed, he finds his favourite Irishman already asleep and buried in his sheets. He must’ve been ridiculously tired if he fell asleep within five minutes.
Dean lays down next to him and thinks. He doesn’t reckon he’ll tell many people, not for a long time anyway. Definitely not this year, that’s for sure.
He shifts his gaze to Seamus. God, he’s so… oddly cute.
Dean drifts off to sleep next to his crush and best friend. It felt safe, it felt right, and it felt warm.
— ⭒⭑🟊⭑⭒ —
With all the other strange things that happen in Hogwarts, he supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised to wake up in the other boy’s arms...