Even at a time like this, days still went by fast.
Dean had been on the run since the summer. Awful lot of people were after him now when his head was worth something - and only his head.
Many times he wished to just die rather than stay on the run, away from people he cared about. Time after another he pushed away the thought of giving himself in to the Snatchers and tried to believe that things would get better and he could come back when he didn't bring more danger to people anymore.
While being tortured, the only thought that kept him alive was that one day he would go back to Seamus and his other friends.
It had been painful journey - mentally and especially physically, but it wasn't easy for Seamus either.
Being away from Dean was never easy for him and now when there was no word of the boy, he spent so many restless nights thinking about what might have happened to his best friend. He did so many desperate things in order to find Dean but after months there was still nothing and Seamus was starting to lose his mind.
Dean didn't have clear memory of how he escaped but did anyways and through more hard paths, got to Hogwarts. That was the only thing that mattered to him.
The walk along the secret route underground towards Hogwarts Castle with Colin Creevey felt like forever to him and when he finally got to the destination, he was basically freaking out.
He didn't know what had been going on in Hogwarts during this time but it couldn't have been good. He didn't even know in what shape was Dumbledore's Army currently in.
The first thing he saw was the exact thing he had hoped to see.
Seamus' face in the crowd made Dean's stomach drop.
He didn't look happy and his face was almost unrecognizable because it was full of cuts and bruises.
The first person to notice him coming was Lavender who yelped out his name and stood up from where she was sitting.
After hearing that, Seamus' head jerked quickly towards the boy at the entrance.
"Dean..." Seamus muttered to himself and ran towards the boy, jumping to hug him so tightly that Dean almost lost his balance.
"Seamus..." Dean whispered while caressing the guy's hair softly. All the others were just looking at them. Some of them had surely missed Dean too but they decided to let Seamus and him have this moment.
"You have gotten so skinny", Seamus said when he noticed that Dean felt so much smaller than usual and that he could feel his ribs.
"And you look awful", Dean joked and Seamus had laughed.
Seamus didn't ask where Dean had been and Dean didn't ask what Seamus had been through.
Just a while later Harry came with the others and everyone knew what was about to happen.
-
War was beginning.
People around them were panicking and they weren't exactly calm either.
It would've felt much more safe for them to be together but they because the circumstances, they didn't ask for it. Dean didn't have a wand which made things even more difficult.
On the bottom of the stairs their ways parted. Dean went up with Kingsley and some other members of the Order. Seamus followed Neville and McGonagall.
