To Be A Magical Boy

Chapter 3 - Third Year

To say the Kavanagh country manor was huge would be an understatement. When he first saw it, Dean was momentarily stunned. He wasn't the only one, either; his mum, stepdad and three younger siblings had been rendered just as speechless.

They'd travelled to Ireland on the first of August, taking the ferry and thence driving south in the direction of Waterford and Cork beyond. His mum had the directions from Mrs Finnigan and had directed Dean's stepdad the whole way. The entire car had grown quieter and increasingly speculative with each passing of the progressively extravagant estates. Dean didn't think his mum had meant him to hear her murmured words, "I didn't realise they were this wealthy", or his stepdad's hushed reply, "It's not going to be awkward, is it?"

Dean didn't really understand what they meant by that. He had enough of an understanding of money to know that encountering others of a significantly different economical standing could be a little uncomfortable, but this was Seamus. Seamus who, when Dean thought about it, looked and acted about as far from some wealthy family's son as could be. He always dressed as though he'd only just rolled out of bed and dragged on whatever rumpled clothes he could scavenge off the floor without bothering to do more than run his hand through his hair. Half of the time he forgot his tie entirely and McGonagall had long since given up attempting to remind him to wear it. He didn't act stuck up either, not exclusive or condescending towards others. Though there were times when he seemed to overlook people or even forget their existence entirely, there was no cruelty or superiority entailed. It was simply that Seamus lived so in the moment that he often seemed to forget that the world outside of what he was doing in that second existed.

Dean was almost flattered at times to consider that even a portion of Seamus' flighty attention span was reserved for him over the summer break. He really was the best sort of best friend in that regard. Seamus always set everything aside for Dean.

But more than that, Dean hadn't had a clue that Seamus was wealthy. Or, more correctly, that his family was wealthy. Though Dean had to ask him specifically in the letters they exchanged over the holidays, he'd mentioned offhandedly that it was more his second cousin's family that held the pureblood name and riches. Dean knew enough about purebloodedness from his time at Hogwarts to understand that such meant Seamus' own parents were upstanding too. Significantly higher than Dean's own middle-class.

Despite of that, however, and despite of the strangeness of the reality it suggested, Dean didn't think it really changed anything. Not with Seamus. Surely not.

The Kavanagh manor was at the end of a long driveway that wove around undulating hillsides. It sat behind a pair of pristine gates that weren't actually attached to a wall at all; they were just there, like an archway in the middle of nowhere. The entire car had fallen utterly silent, even Dean's little sister June who always had something to say. She must have picked up on the atmosphere, or maybe she too was just captivated by the manor as it drew into sight.

It was... huge. To Dean's wide-eyes, it looked like one of those farmhouses from the Jane Austen movies his mum was so fond of. At least three stories tall across its length, pale stonewalls rose towards flat roofs and pointed steeples, multiple windows facing the driveway and their arrival. Before the house – before the mansion, really – a large, sprawling garden of perfectly flatness and mown lawns, of flower beds and delicate little shrubs, lined the approaching driveway. A blossoming garden of its own decorated green in the middle of the roundabout end of the driveway with a short, slender little tree at its very centre.

Dean's stepdad slowed to a crawl as they approached the roundabout, leaning forwards in his seat to peer up at the house. Dean wondered if he knew his mouth had fallen open, cheeks visibly paling just slightly. That, and Dean's mum's similar response, only served to make him more discomforted.