Longing for You - Deamus

Hopeless

"Punished? Punished how? Are they alive?" Dean's words came out in a ballistic flurry but he didn't care, he needed answers. Hogwarts was meant to be the safest place on Earth, he wasn't supposed to be worrying about whether Seamus was okay. That was what Dumbledore had always told him; you're always safe at Hogwarts. He secretly hated Dumbledore for dying, none of this would've happened otherwise.

"They're alive, they wouldn't dare kill any students this early on." Dirk said, with a slightly sympathetic look on his face, "They've just had a bit of a lesson taught to them."

Dean let out a sigh of relief although he was not wholly happy. He didn't even want to think about what 'lesson' this might be.

"It was stupid, stealing what they did. Not that they knew that of course." Dirk continued, "See the Death Eaters are convinced that Harry's going to try and kill You-Know-Who. Personally, I think he's scarpered off but catching his friends with one of the most deadly weapons ever made, they must have been worried. They're probably scared that Harry's still in contact with some of the kids at Hogwarts."

Dean felt bile rising in his throat. "So that means... they're going to try and torture it out of them?"

No one spoke the sad expressions on their faces confirmed it. Breathing hard, Dean shut his eyes and allowed the tears to fall. Soon after, a pair of warm arms wrapped around his shaking body.

"Shh it's okay Dean. It'll be fine. We'll find your dad soon and we'll get you back to Hogwarts. We'll get you to him."

Neither Dean nor Ted saw the look that was passed between Dirk and the goblins during all of this but if they had, they probably would've gone home right then.

***

Seamus woke up in a nearly empty dormitory like always. It still confused him every morning when he didn't see Dean busying about getting his stuff ready for school; it was just him and Neville now.

He winced as he tried to crawl out of bed but was stopped by a stinging in his back. It was hard to decide whether the deep cuts from the sword hurt more than the word that was carved into his back. As much as he didn't like to show it, being called a faggot made him feel horrible.

Sleepily, he lumbered downstairs to the common room where he found Ginny and Luna cuddled up on the sofa only half awake.

"Hey," he grumbled to them, "are you both okay?"

Luna buried her head further into Ginny's hair as the latter replied. "We'll be fine. No more stunts for a while though."

"Yeah. Let it calm down a bit." Seamus agreed.

"What does yours say?"

Seamus clenched his jaw and took a deep breath. "Faggot. What about yours?"

Ginny's face visibly angered before she spoke. "Blood-traitor. Mine's not so bad I guess, I'm proud to be a 'blood-traitor'. Faggot though - that's just pure mean!"

"Mine says Looney Lovegood. I hope it scars otherwise I don't think anyone will believe I actually did anything." Luna's soft voice explained.

Seamus saddened. He knew Luna got called that name a lot and she tried not to show how much it hurt her (they were similar in that way) but he also knew why she wanted it permanently scarred into her skin. She was an unlikely heroine when you first met her and people regularly accused her of making things up. She needed proof that she had in fact fought against them and that she had been brave so that people might just believe her. That in itself was a shit thing to have to put up with.

"Listen Lun, if anyone says you're lying then I will personally beat them up. You don't need to take that shit; we know you did it, you know you did and the fucking Carrows know you did it! Everyone else is irrelevant okay." Ginny insisted.

"Thank you Gin." Luna smiled before embracing Ginny in a warm hug.

Tears stung Seamus' eyes. It was like everyone here was in a couple now except for him, it was like they were completely disregarding how broken he clearly was and they were just getting on with their happy little love filled lives. He couldn't deny that Luna and Ginny were good together (especially now that Ginny had gotten through all times that Harry had screwed her over) but with everyone in relationships, it was a bit excessive.

Everywhere he looked there were people kissing in corridors or in the common room or passing love notes across class. It was sickening. And every time he saw a couple being all cute and romantic their faces would somehow morph into his and Dean's leaving him wanted to rip his heart out and detach himself from all of his emotions. It was hopeless.

"Are you okay Sea?"

He couldn't answer before tears were streaming down his face and he found himself engulfed in the welcoming (and now damp) embrace of his pillow.

('>')
Alas, yet another chapter where a character cries! It's almost funny now.

Sorry this was short, it was kind of a filler chapter because I had no idea what to write.

Warning: massive time skips in the rest of the book because otherwise this'll be at 2994 chapters by the end.