Dean was twelve when he first learned his father wasn't his father at all, but his step father.
He told his mother about the basilisk targeting Muggleborns, and she told him it was okay.
She told him that she didn't think he was a Muggleborn.
It was one night, she said, one night where both of them knew it would never be more. She says it matter of factly, because Dean's mother has never been ashamed of anything.
He was gorgeous, she said fondly, but also very odd. His eyes were brown and warm and they glowed. But he also slept with a stick on the nightstand.
She hadn't understood until Professor McGonagall showed up on their doorstep.
His name, he'd told her, was Kingsley, except when she'd tried to look him up she'd found no trace. She'd thought to tell him that he had a son, but in the end she never could.
She told Dean that she wondered if it was a fake name, until she knew that wizards had their own secret, impossible world.
Dean wasn't sure what to do with this information.
He was twelve, and he already had a father — a man who bore the title well. A father whom he loved, with eyes dark as coal that sparkled when he laughed. He didn't need to go looking for a new one, chasing a dream. And besides, the basilisk was long gone.
...
He doesn't think about it a lot. Just, occasionally. It feels weird, to know that there's a man out there who made him possible but doesn't even know he has a son.
Except then the war comes and Dean can't go back to school because he's known as a Muggleborn.
As he packs his bags to flee, he wonders if now becomes the time to seek his father out. To prove his blood status.
He thinks about Seamus going back to school alone. He wonders if it would be worth it.
But then he thinks about showing up on some man's doorstep in the middle of a war and claiming to be his son. Dean doesn't know what kind of man his father is. He doesn't know what his father plans to fight for.
He doesn't dare risk it.
He packs his drawing notebooks in his bags, kisses his mother goodbye, and flees.
…
He spends eight months on the run, shivering in the forest, and then he's kidnapped, and then at Bill and Fleur's cabin, and then on the run again.
But then his Galleon burns.
His Galleon burns and he returns to Hogwarts and there is Seamus, skin even more vanilla-white than it used to be but just as beautiful, and they fight, because they can do nothing else.
The world is on fire and every muscle in his body feels so tight and he can't relax because everything is falling apart.
And then it's over and he's alive and Seamus is alive and he's holding Seamus in his arms and it feels like coming home.
"I missed you," he says.
And then Seamus is kissing him, and even amidst the devastation Dean feels hope for the future.
And then suddenly there is someone behind him saying, "Can you believe it's over, Kingsley?"
And Dean is whirling around and staring at the man sitting on the bench. The man who has Dean's warm brown eyes.
Dean wonders if now is the right time, but then he wonders if there's ever a right time, and before he knows it he's stepping forward and saying, "Do you remember a woman named Maggie Thomas? It would've been about nineteen years ago."
He watches understanding spread across the man's face. After that, it flickers through a myriad of expressions, each too fast for Dean to identify, before landing on shock.
"Are you…?" he asks.
"Your son?" Dean finishes. "Yes. I'm Dean."
"I didn't know," Kingsley says.
"I know," Dean says. "I thought it was high time you did." He sighs. "She looked for you. To try to tell you. But she was a Muggle and…"
Kingsley nods. "I understand." And it looks like he does. His brown eyes are looking at Dean carefully, taking him in. Taking in their similar tall, lean statures.
Dean breathes in.
"Do you think… could we get dinner, some time?"
Kingsley smiles at him, soft and almost familiar. "I think I'd like that, Dean."
Dean smiles, nods, and turns away.
Seamus takes his hand and kisses his cheek.
The war is over. Voldemort is gone. And Dean has Seamus at his side and Kingsley willing to get to know him.
Things are looking better than they have in a long time.
Prompts for HSW&W:
Writing Month: 781
Dragons: 781
Seasonal: Days of the Year: National Kissing Day: Write about someone being kissed.
Summer Prompts: word: relax
Colour Prompts:Vanilla
Element: (word) Glow
Shay's Musical Challenge: Hamilton - write about someone fighting for what they believe in. alt, write about someone who won't give up
Gryffindor Themed Prompts: Dean
Book Club: Aiko: (word) sparkle - (word) dream - (object) journal/notebook
Showtime: 5. Step One - (word) Impossible
Amber's Attic: 11. This is Hip Hop: Write about something being passed down to the next generation.
Buttons: W2: title
Lyric Alley: 20. Life within me that is better than any other
Who's Your Daddy: (cliché) absent dad
Sherlock: word: shivering
Debate: Slash: Deamus
Chocolate Frogs: (Silver): Dean Thomas: Challenge: Write about Dean Thomas.
Insane House: Trait - Easy Going