A/N: So. I'm alive! It's true. I haven't posted anything on here THIS YEAR. Which depresses me. So I whipped this up to be posted. I got the idea from St. Patty's Day, and an Irish-themed movie I was watching last night. I meant to post this then, but as I'm sick currently, I fell asleep before that got accomplished. My apologies. Uhm. . . This turned out angsty-er than I'd planned, so sorry about that. I didn't mean for it to be, but hopefully the ending redeems itself. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own them. . . *Sad face*

Warning: Here be slash! If you don't like; don't read. Consider yourself warned!

"Hey, what's wrong with Seamus?" Harry asked, as he walked into the common room. He was followed by Draco,—with whom he was holding hands—Ron, and Hermione.

Seamus was sitting on the couch, his eyes red and puffy, like he had just been crying, or was sick. It was very out of character for the usually exuberant Irishman. Dean was sitting next to him, looking morose.

Dean looked up, while Seamus just sniffed. "We. . . Well, we told his parents that we're together."

Draco cut in. "They didn't take it well?" he asked. He'd had experience with that very thing—while his mother had been very supportive of his and Harry's relationship, his father wasn't too pleased. Apparently, it had taken a lot of wheedling of his mother's for him not to disown Draco.

"Not exactly, no."

"Is it because you're both boys?" Hermione asked. "Because that's a totally unreasonable—"

"It's because he's not Irish," Seamus spoke up. His voice was hoarse, and cracked on the word 'Irish'.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Ron asked as he took a seat across from his dorm-mates. Harry and Draco sat on the floor beside the coffee table, and Hermione perched herself on the arm of Ron's chair.

Seamus sniffed again, and said, "It's stupid. But me family's an old Irish one, who follows the old traditions. It's traditional not to mix marry, or be in a mixed relationship. Irish boys are supposed to find nice Irish girls, and vice versa. They don' care as much that I'm gay as they do that Dean's not Irish."

Hermione gasped. "I read about that tradition when I was doing a culture study once! But. . . it seemed like it was very old—I wouldn't have thought it was still in effect today."

"That's just the thing," Dean said. "It's not, not really. Shay warned me when we went to tell them that they were old fashioned, but I didn't think it'd be such a whiplash."

"Nor did I," Seamus said. He looked like he was slowly recovering a bit, but he was still rough about the edges. How could his parents disapprove so much about a relationship that made him so happy? They didn't even care when he came out to them—they just said, "It's alright; we'll find you a nice, suitable Irish feller to be with." Again with the Irish thing! Seamus was all for Irish pride—the covering-the-tent-with-shamrocks thing at the Quidditch World Cup had been his idea. But this . . . this was a bit much. He just wanted to be happy with Dean, and it didn't matter to him one lick that his boyfriend wasn't Irish.

He sniffed again, hoping he wouldn't start crying all over. He felt like a wuss for doing it, but he'd never seen his parents look so disappointed in him. It ate away at him. The disappointment, and knowing that they wouldn't even give Dean a chance at being Seamus' boyfriend, on the sole purpose that he wasn't damned Irish.

"Ya know what?" Seamus asked, standing up. He startled everyone else out of their quiet conversations, but he didn't pay much mind to that. "I've decided something."

Dean looked at him nervously. "What's that, Shay?" he asked, even though he wasn't all too sure he wanted to know. Seamus had that . . . that look. The one that usually led to trouble, hilarity, or an appearance of his famed Irish temper.

"That me parents are being ridiculous and old fashioned. This is the 20th century! If they're okay with me being gay, then they should be okay with me dating someone who isn't Irish." Seamus nodded at the end of his speech, and marched off to the dormitories.

"Where are you going?" Ron asked, beating Dean to the punch.

"To write a letter to me mam and me da."

Harry cocked his head to the side. "I have a feeling this will lead to either something really good, or something really bad."

Dean looked at him and nodded. "Yeah."

"Why? I think it's great that Seamus has the courage to confront his parents about this! And he's right, you know. They shouldn't be prejudiced about this," Hermione said, matter-of-fact.

"Well, no, they shouldn't, but him causing a ruckus isn't going to help—" Dean was cut off by Seamus' return to the common room.

He was wafting a letter in the air, a smile on his face, which looked rather odd since his eyes were still red.

"What's that?" Ron asked.

"Duh, Weasel, it's a letter. Can't you see that?" Draco asked, his signature drawl in place, his head on Harry's shoulder.

Harry elbowed him rather hard in the ribs. Draco jumped, sat up, rubbed his ribs and glared at Harry. Harry just raised an eyebrow, and gave him a look that said, You deserved it. Draco sat back and looked apologetically at Ron, though he didn't vocalize his remorse.

"Uhm," Seamus looked between Ron, Harry, and Draco, then continued, "like Draco said, it's a letter. From me ma. Here, read." He handed the letter to Dean first, who passed it around.

Dear Seamus,

I'm very sorry that we reacted the way we did. You da and I feel very sorry about that. We've known Dean since you two were boys, and he's a very nice person. We just got it on our heads that you should marry an Irishman, since you won't be marrying a girl anyway. But . . . In reality, you should be marrying anyone who makes you happy. If that's Dean, then we couldn't ask for more. We hope you're not too upset with us. Love you, Seamus!

Love,

Mummy and Da

"Shay, that's great!" Dean exclaimed, getting up and swinging Seamus around.

"You're not tellin' me anythin'!" Seamus smiled.

"That really is good news!" Hermione handed the letter to an impatient Draco, who shared with Harry.

"Really! I'm glad they came 'round, Seamus," Harry grinned as he finished, moving to hand the letter back to his Irish friend, but was stopped by Draco.

"Hold it there, Potter! I'm not done reading," Draco sneered. Harry rolled his eyes at his blond boyfriend, but held the letter for him to read all the same. "Now, I'm done," Draco announced, taking the letter from Harry's hand—disregarding Harry's protests—and gave it back to Seamus.

"I know it's good news!" Seamus said again. He held onto Dean, and looked at the letter once more. Then, he looked up, and—catching Dean's eye—he leant up for a kiss, reveling in the knowledge that his parents were okay with his relationship choices, and that everything was going to be alright.

A/N: Sooo. I realize this is most likely nothing more than a piece of shit, but it's something I'm deciding to send out into the world. I dunno why, really. *Shrug* Just one of those things. Reviews make me happy! :]

-PieRSquared

*NOTE: Okay, so while my friend was reading through this, she mentioned something. That it kind of sounded like racism. It's not, I promise! While I was writing this, it didn't even cross my mind that it'd come out that way because Dean's black or whatever. This was based solely on a tradition that's probably not even real because I heard of it in a movie. I didn't mean for it to come across as racist, so please don't take it that way.