Summertime Findings (1/11)
Rating: PG

Genre: Romance/General
Pairing: Dean/Seamus
Summery: Seamus spends two weeks at Dean's house and they find a few things out.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Well, Dean's family is but that's all.
A/N: I would really love some feedback on this. Keeps me going. Oh and a special thanks to my beta LainIris who beta'd the first four chapters!

Chapter 1: Comforting
Day one

Seamus brushed his sandy blond hair. The comb was bristly and stung against his scalp. It didn't really matter though. He was going away for two weeks, over to his best friend, Dean Thomas's house. His mom had insisted that he should smarten himself up a bit. She had a bit of a thing for looking spick and span whenever going somewhere other people were going to be.

Seamus was also a bit nervous. Fresh out of his sixth year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry he had realized that he had a crush on his best friend. He was a bit surprised that he hadn't figure it out sooner, but if he would think back now he could see that he had a crush on Dean for a few years. Dean was presently going out with Susan Bones of Hufflepuff. She was nice and Seamus liked her well enough, but the cold twisting he felt inside his stomach every time he saw them together or Dean talked about her, tainted his view of her.

Seamus glanced at the old fashioned clock his mom had mounted on the wall when he was a baby. It was a light shade of brown wood and the hand was silver. It had no numbers, but by now Seamus didn't need to count the dashes to know what number it was on. Right now it read three in the afternoon, time to go. Seamus grabbed his trunk filled with clothes and homework. Seamus and Dean had each done half their homework and decided that they would get answers off of each other for the part they didn't do.

"Come on Seamus! You're going to be late. That's not very polite. You should show up when you say you will." Mrs. Finnigan called up the stairs disapprovingly to her only son. Seamus, used to the lectures of politeness, rolled his eyes and mouthed at the same time as his mom what she was saying. He came down with his suitcase thumping on every step along the way. "You are going to ruin the steps that way."

"Sorry." He heaved the suitcase up and struggled with it for a short amount of time before Mrs. Finnigan grabbed the other end and helped him carry it over to the fireplace.

"Shesh. What do you have in there? Bricks?"

"Nope. Just some schoolbooks. See what I have to lug around at school." Mrs. Finnigan smiled wearily at him; she was all too accustomed to his complaints about carrying books at school.

"You sure you packed everything? Got your pyjamas, shirts, extra clothes just in case, clean underwear?" Seamus nodded after each one and smiled at the clean underwear one. Once he went over to a friend's house and forgot underwear. He was eight then and had been so embarrassed that he wore the same underwear for a week straight. Let's just say he threw them out afterwards. Not that he told anyone. Well, he had told Dean but that was it. He wouldn't want to give his mom the satisfaction of knowing he forgot underwear.

"Yes, mom. Can I go now?" He asked eagerly, hopping from one foot to the other.

"Well, say goodbye to your dad before you leave." She gave him a short glare that easily said 'how dare you want to leave without saying bye.'

Seamus sighed and shouted "Bye dad! See you in two weeks!" His mom sighed and shook her head in displeasure.

"Just wait! I'm coming." Mr. Finnigan came bustling over and beamed at Seamus. "Have fun son. Don't get into too much trouble!" He then took Seamus into a one armed hug, which enticed a look of disgust on Seamus' face. He felt he was a bit too old for that stuff. Once let go he turned to go in the fireplace when he got caught up in Mrs. Finnigan's great bear hug.

"Yes, don't cause them any trouble!" She gave him a warning look as she released him from her grip.

"Why, mom, would I do that?" He then turned to the fireplace, tossed in some floo power and lost himself in the flames.

Dean woke up very happy indeed. Seamus was coming over for two weeks. That in itself was a miracle. When you had two brothers and two sisters, you didn't get to invite a friend over for a long time that often. His mom had given in though after two days of being annoyingly nice and helping out with everything. Also, the fact that she was quite curious to meet one of his friends from school changed her decision. The whole wizard thing interested her greatly as she was a muggle and naturally curious. She knew quite a lot about the wizarding world due to reading Dean's schoolbooks over the summer.

Dean dressed quickly into an old, worn-in pair of jeans and a t-shirt of the West Ham Football team. He opened the door, then stopped at the sound of a tapping on his window. The owl was a familiar tired looking barn owl belonging to his girlfriend, Susan. He sprinted over to the window and opened it. The owl came in and landed on his shoulder, holding her leg out to him. He took the letter and the owl flew out instantly, taking Dean by surprise. Usually it stayed for a bit, waiting for a reply.

"Hey, Dimple!" The owl was gone and his calling did nothing. He took a seat on his bed and unrolled the parchment to read it.

Dean,

I hope your summer is going splendidly. I'm not so sure how to say this but I think we should see other people. See, I feel the need to explain myself, I like you and enjoyed our time together but there's this other guy who I've had a crush on for a very long time. See, he just started showing interest in me and I feel very guilty liking him while dating you. I'll always cherish the times we spent together and I hope we can still be friends because no matter what I'll always like you.
You're (hopefully) friend,
Susan Bones
P.S. I heard Ginny Weasley is interested in you.

Dean stared at the paper, his eyes filling up with unwanted tears. He thought Susan and he had been hitting it off great. He really liked her, still did as a matter of fact. And what gave her the right to point him in the way of someone else?

Dean turned off the light and crawled under the blankets, forgetting about Seamus even coming over. It felt like his heart was shriveling. So this is what a break-up feels like, he thought bitterly before crying himself to sleep.

Seamus stepped out of the fireplace and entered the Thomas's living room. At its present state it was cluttered. The floor was covered with toys of different colors. He smiled to himself. His mom would never allow toys all over the floor like this. She would have a fit or something. He was beginning to like it here already.

A little kid of about two burst up from his place on the floor. Seamus had not seen him there and leapt into the air with a slight scream. The kid was wearing a bright fire-fighter hat and a Halloween costume of a pumpkin. It was no wonder he didn't see him there. The kid ran in front of Seamus.

"Hi! I Sam! I wost a toof!" He pointed joyfully at his missing tooth and Seamus smiled.

"Wicked. I have a baby tooth still. Which is weird, now that I think about it. I mean, you're what, two?" Sam nodded earnestly. "Yeah, and you lost a tooth, but here I am at the age of sixteen and still have a baby tooth. I think it's lodged in there." Sam just nodded his head, obviously not listening to a word Seamus said.

"I wost mine by fawling off the twicicle and hitting the cement!" He then jumped up and grabbed an apple off the end table. "Here!"

Seamus took it, slightly puzzled. "Thanks. Listen, do you know where Dean is?"

"Dean, Pean, Sean, Chean!" Sam sung to a tune of his own. "Yep! He upstairs crying! Bye!" The kid then dived into the toy box headfirst. Luckily it was full of stuffed animals.

Seamus headed up the stairs in confusion, still holding the apple. Why would Dean be crying? He rapped on the door to no answer and opened it to a very dark room. Seamus fumbled on the wall with his hand for a few minutes until he found the light switch. Dean grumbled and buried his head under the blanket to hide from the light.

"You're still sleeping? Get off your lazy arse and get up." The only response he got was a grumble. "Yeah, I was talking to your crazy brother, Sam. He's cool. He said you were crying." There was a thump as Dean fell off the bed. "You okay, mate? Anyway, I figured he was lying. Or wasn't he," he added at Dean's puffy red eyes. It looked rather adorable and sad. The sight of it tugged at Seamus' heartstrings, and he felt a burning desire to comfort Dean and punch whoever did this to him.

"No, I wasn't crying. Sam lies all the time. Don't listen to him." He sat up gingerly from his spot on the floor and rested his back against the bed. His head dipped down onto the blanket as he tried to surreptitiously wipe his eyes clean.

Seamus went over and plopped down next to Dean. "What's wrong?"

"No-nothing." His head came back up and he looked Seamus in the eye. "I forgot you were coming. Sorry."

"Ouch! That hurt, Dean. That hurt right here." He grabbed his chest and moaned in agony, slumping over onto Dean's shoulder, who chuckled a bit.

"Very funny."

Seamus sat up and took the opportunity to look around Dean's room. The walls were plastered with pictures of bands he didn't know, most likely muggle bands, and of course the West Ham football team. His room was cluttered with objects strewn all over the floor. Now that he looked around, it was a miracle that he hadn't fallen over anything. There were boxes stacked in the corners of the rooms.

"What's with all the boxes?"

"Oh, they're just things."

"Are you a pack rat? My mom would never let me be a pack rat. If I don't use it or need it I have to throw it away…want to change moms?"

"Ha ha. No thanks."

"So, heard from Susan lately?" Seamus asked while eying a picture of her on the nightstand. Dean visibly stiffened.

"Erm, yes."

Seamus eyed Dean intelligently, "Is what's wrong have to with her?"

"She broke up with me." His voice was void of emotion.

Seamus's eyes widened. From what he had seen of them together at school Susan seemed mad about Dean. They never had awkward moments in their conversations, always held hands, kissed, to Seamus's displeasure, quite a lot, and just seemed generally happy around each other. He laid a comforting hand on Dean's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Dean didn't answer for a few minutes and Seamus waited patiently, not one of his best qualities, but for Dean he would try to be patient.

"No." Seamus squeezed his shoulder and then Dean broke down crying. Embarrassed he laid his head on Seamus's shoulder. "I thought she liked me. We were getting along and she - she even said she might have loved me. I still like her." His talking grew quiet as sobs wracked through his body.

Seamus had never been good at the comforting thing. Once before he had tried to comfort Dean when his grandma died and he turned out making things worse. He wasn't sure how but the stupid comment about it not mattering probably was what made it worse. He wasn't even sure why he had said that, but he couldn't think of anything to say and that just blurted out of his mouth.

"I'm sorry. It's her loss… You want me to punch her?" Dean laughed while crying and the result made Seamus worry that he made it worse. Dean thought back to the last time Seamus tried comforting him. He was making much better progress this time. He felt slight shivers as Seamus traced circles on his back. A few minutes later the tracing died off and Dean fell asleep.

Glancing down at the sleeping form of Dean made Seamus smile in irony. Here was his crush, sleeping with his head on his shoulder. To bad it didn't mean anything.

Thumping at the door roused Seamus and Dean from their deep sleep. The door burst open and a young girl of about nine years stomped in. The two boys jumped away from each other, resulting in Dean tripping over the blanket tangled around him and falling flat on his face. The girl laughed while Seamus helped him up.

"What are you doing? We're eating now. I was yelling for you for five minutes. What are you, deaf? Come on." She then swiftly turned around and stomped out of the doorway.

"That's my sister, Angel. She is anything but an angel. She has a right temper too." He grabbed his head that had hit the floor painfully.

"I'll say." Seamus was uncomfortable and embarrassed. He hadn't meant to fall asleep.

"Let's go before she comes up. My parents will want to meet you." He grabbed Seamus' arm and pulled him down the stairs, unaware of the sensations the simple touch sent the sandy blond boy.

They went into a small kitchen and sat around the square table. The counters were cluttered with pots, pans, stuffed animals, and lots of papers. Mrs. Thomas was tossing some stuffed animals off the table so she could put the food on it.

"So you did arrive then. I didn't hear you come. Well, nice to meet you Seamus. Dean has told us all about you." She held out her hand, which still had a potholder on it. Seamus smiled, amused, and shook her hand.

"Thanks for letting me come."

"Of course. And you have manners." Seamus, Dean, Angel and the other boy and girl rolled their eyes. Sam just tried wedging his spoon up his nose. "No, no don't do that sweetie." Sam started crying when his mom took the spoon away. "Tim, would you shut him up please." A tall boy that looked slightly older then them handed Sam his spoon when his mom wasn't looking. Seamus snickered. "Did you have your music on loud again, Dean?"

"No. They were sleeping. I think they are deaf." Angel spoke up and shot them a glare.

Mr. Thomas walked in the room. He had an afro and disco clothes on. All of his kids groaned with the exception of Sam who laughed and threw some mashed potatoes at him, narrowly missing. Mrs. Thomas reprimanded him. Seamus's eyes widened as he looked at Mr. Thomas and he couldn't help but burst out laughing. It was the most ridiculous outfit he'd ever seen.

"What? It's my disco outfit. We are going out to a disco club later." He took his seat eagerly and started filling his plate up. "Nice to meet you."

"You too. What's a disco club like?" The rest of the dinner was spent talking about disco clubs. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas talked about how much fun it is while the kids warned Seamus with horror stories of what had happened before.

"You do not want to go. Trust me. Dad started discoing the one time and hit some big tough guy in the nose by accident. The guy then threw his beer bottle at dad. He had to go to the doctor's because there was glass in his head." The other girl, Marlene of fourteen years old, warned him.

"Yes. It's dead boring. All these weird disco fanatics dancing to sucky music." Dean tried unsuccessfully to stop Seamus from going.

"Sounds like fun! I'm going. Can I?" he asked Mr. Thomas, his eyes alit with excitement.

Mr. Thomas laughed. "Yep, and Dean you should go too since your friend is going." Dean groaned and nodded.

"I'm going over to a friend's house," Tim hastily said.

"I'm going. I want to see his reaction." Marlene nodded at Seamus.

"Ok then. Angel, you will have to go. No, I'm not paying the babysitter for two kids," Mrs. Thomas said right as Angel had opened her mouth to protest. She settled with a huff then. "Everyone get ready. We are soon going."

Dean and Seamus headed upstairs. "I can't believe you want to go."

"I will be fun!" Seamus hopped up the stairs, skipping every other step.

Dean looked darkly at him, "That's what you think. Obviously you never went with my dad."