He Blew Up My Heart

Chapter Four

In the morning, I found myself in the common room, sitting across from Dean yet again. Chin resting in my hand, I looked at him, eyes speculative. He was holding something back from me about the night before, as quiet as he was being, and I was going to get it out of him, one way or another.

"So, last night was certainly different," I said, keeping my eyes on him.

"Uh, yeah, pretty strange. I mean, the Tri-Wizard Tournament? What's that even about?"

Putting my hand on the arm rest of the chair, I leaned forward and narrowed my eyes, staring straight into his. "That's not what I'm referring to, and you know that."

He sat back in his chair, pulling at his collar nervously. "Yeah, yeah, I know. 'S just, right now, that stuff's kind of... need-to-know."

"Need-to-know? Are you bloody serious? Dean, I need to know. Seamus is my friend too, after all. We've grown up together."

"Yeah, I know, but..." He trailed off, considering his words carefully before continuing to speak. "Look, if he wants to tell anyone, you and I will be the first to know. Anyhow, we're going to miss breakfast if we wait around too much longer. Come on." He quickly stood up and grabbed my arm, roughly pulling me to my feet. If anyone was like a brother to me, it was certainly Dean.

The Great Hall was packed with students who seemed to be getting a late start to their mornings, just like us. I wasn't exactly surprised by this, since a lot of the older students would stay up fairly late the first evening back at Hogwarts, catching up with friends and talking the night away. Not that I'd gotten the chance to really do that this year since I'd been too busy worrying about Seamus and Lavender. Although I still couldn't figure out exactly what it was about her that set off alarms in my head.

Dean and I chose a spot sort of by ourselves, and though there were plenty of people around us, we didn't talk to any of them. I think we were both sort of just waiting for Seamus to show up; it would be weird to talk with other people without him.

Finally, I heard the harsh Irish accent cut through the air as Seamus came into the Great Hall, and I was rather pleased to see him by himself, rather than having Lavender clinging to him every step of the way. But for some reason, there was a huge grin stuck to his face, and it didn't waiver at all, even when one of the Slytherins tried very hard to trip him up. When he got to the table, he didn't say anything, just started piling food onto his plate and kept grinning.

"Hello, Seamus, anyone there?" I said, waving my hand in front of his face. He finally snapped out of the trance-like state and realized that Dean and me were waiting for some sort of explanation.

"Oh, uh, 'morning, you two," he said, looking between the two of us. "Lovely, isn't it?"

"Um, yeah, about as lovely as it's been all week," I said, not amused. "But seriously, Seamus, what's up with you today?"

"Oh, uh, well, you see-" Suddenly, he was cut off by a rather loud call from a few feet down the table.

"Oh, my little Seamey! There you are!"

Lavender plunked down right beside him on the bench, just across from me. Immediately, she grabbed his arm with both of hers and held onto it before planting a big smooch on his cheek.

"Ugh, I think I feel my eggs coming back up," I muttered, so that only Dean could hear.

"I've been looking for you everywhere!" Lavender cooed, still grasping Seamus's arm. Finally, she noticed both me and Dean also sitting there and said, "Oh, hello," in a voice that said, "I'm only saying hi because your friends with him." Oh, I wanted so badly to sock her one right in the jaw.