The Aftermath

Chapter 14

Dean was sitting in the common room Drawing. He'd skipped out on dinner. He was drawing Hermiones Dracanis who seem who seemed to have taking a real liking to him for some reason. Sometimes he swore the animal understood him on a human level. Or the way animials understood animals. But that had to be in his head. Unless he was somehow part Dog or Dragon himself. The thought of him not being human made Dean chuckle to himself. When he was done he flipped through the sketchbook. Something was definitely strange. Even for him there were an unusual amount of Seamus sketches. Even the doodles in his note books seemed to be Seamus related.

He didn't think it was a bad thing or a good thing per se. It was just curious and he knew it wasn't normal. Dean wasn't sure saying it wasn't natural was true. And if it was natural and just not the norm then what was going on? He needed answers but that would mean coming out and only his family and the people he'd had sex with new he was gay. And doing the research himself would be suspicious. He had a decision to make. As if on cue Hermione was coming in early from dinner. She seemed to be in a rush. Dean thought if he could tell someone she would be the one and she'd be best to find out what his situation was.

When she came down from the girls' dorms, still in a rush, he called out to her. She turned, clearly annoyed at being interrupted. Dean almost lost his nerve. He imagined her crossing her arms impatiently if she didn't have a backpack on and even more books in her hands. He decided the easiest way to explain his problem was to hand her one of his textbooks. One he hadn't charmed Seamus out of yet. Hermione took a seat on the sofa as she skimmed through and sighed.

"I had a feeling you would come to me eventually." She whispered a spell and all the sketches of Seamus left the borders of the text.

"You did?"

"Yeah. Something about how you look at Seamus. And how Severus interacts with you." Seamus walked in the room with a girl he was obviously planning on doing stuff with. A Hufflepuff. He nodded in Dean's direction and then rushed up to the rooms. Dean became agitated. Hermione rested her hand on his thigh to calm him down.

"Calm down. You don't want someone asking why you look annoyed."

"I don't know what's happening. It's like I've crossed some kind of line from crush to obsession. It's getting difficult. Really difficult for me." He wasn't handling it nearly as well as Draco. She had to find out what was going on and fast.

"Is it that obvious?"  Dean said, not entirely sure he wanted an answer.

"Only to someone who's looking for it."

"I just. I only hear him talk about girls. And he's up there now with one. I'm here getting more enamoured with him and as far as I can tell he's straight. It doesn't make sense."

"I'm already researching this exact problem. I'm on my way to McGonagall now so I can get to the ministry for the weekend. When I know you'll know. But for now. I'm almost late." Hermione got going and as she hurried off to the headmistresses office she stumbled upon an idea. It would definitely help Dean, and Draco might find it useful in certain instances. When she reached the Phoenix at the entrance she said the password. She walked up the steps almost as fast as they were revealed, anxious to get going on secret research.

"This floo will take you directly to where you need to go. You must be back before midnight Sunday. Here is a clearance badge. If you're right." Minerva stopped talking. She wasn't sure if this situation and what might come of it would be a good or bad thing.

"I know." Hermione said acknowledging Minerva's unspoken words "But I feel like it will be a good thing. It has to be." Then Hermione stood in the floo and headed to the restricted archives at The Ministry of Magic.