Stiles is eleven and Jackson is a douche. Stiles holds Scott as Scott cries. He mentally swears to make Jackson's life as horrible as possible for telling Scott his dad left because he didn't want a moron like Scott to be his son.
A second year enters the otherwise empty classroom where Scott and Stiles are holed up, takes one look at them and disappears. He reappears five minutes later with a glass of water and a piece of chocolate cake. He sets them down without a word and turns to go but Stiles croaks out a, "Thank you."
The second year turns and smiles at him. Then he whirls around and is gone in a second. Stiles returns his attention to consoling Scott.
Stiles is twelve when he sees the same second year on the Quidditch pitch during the Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff match. He's a chaser and he does pretty well up until he takes a bludger to his head and is knocked out. Stiles visits him in the hospital wing and brings him a piece of chocolate cake. The second year smiles at him. He sticks out his hand. "Hey, I'm Stiles." "Derek." They're sort of friends after that.
Stiles is thirteen when Lydia Martin asks him if his friend who was studying with him in the library is Derek Hale. Stiles and Derek are pretty good friends now so Stiles tells her yes.
Lydia tells him Derek's good-looking and flounces away. He's pretty sure he agrees.
The next day he writes a letter to his dad and tells him he's bisexual. He also tells Scott.
His dad responds with, "Okay. What do you want for Christmas?"
Scott responds with, "Okie Dokie. Do you want my chocolate frog card? I already have Dumbledore."
Kate Argent, who was apparently Derek's secret girlfriend, tries to burn down his house during Christmas. She doesn't succeed. Derek didn't come back after Christmas. Professor McGonagall calls him to her office. Laura is there and she begs him to visit Derek. McGonagall tries to argue a little on Stiles' behalf but she doesn't look like she supports it entirely. Stiles tells it doesn't matter. Derek is his friend and he'd be happy to.
Derek looks miserable. Stiles spends one week with him, mostly in silence, sharing chocolate. When Stiles is ready to leave and go back to school, Derek comes with him.
Kate Argent isn't send to Azkaban because she's a minor. Instead she's expelled and sent to a normal jail manned by witches and wizards.
Stiles is fourteen and his fourth year has nearly ended when he accidently stumbles onto a crime scene. He's technically not breaking any rules. He's out in the forbidden forest because he has detention. It is his fault that he wandered away from Hagrid and Scott but he has ADHD and he really can't be blamed for his mind not concentrating and him getting lost.
He's rooted to the spot, staring at the dead girl lying in a pool of her own blood. Then suddenly Derek's there beside him, looking panicked and frantic.
He moves to stand in front of Stiles and grabs Stiles' shoulders.
"Stiles? Are you okay?"
Stiles can't get his mouth to work. He's still staring at the gruesome sight in front of him. The girl's clothes glint bronze and blue in the moonlight. So she was a Ravenclaw. This discovery does not help Stiles in any way.
"Stiles, what are doing out here? It's not safe," Derek is saying.
Stiles feels a hysterical laugh bubble up inside him. Derek is blocking his view of the girl. The girl who is dead. The girl who looks like she was mauled to death.
He's able to move his mouth long enough to say, "I can see that."
His voice is choked and he struggles to spit out his words. He can feel a burning sensation in his throat.
"Stiles, I need you to go back, go back to the castle. Tell the first teacher you see. Tell them I'm here but I need help."
That finally snaps Stiles out of his daze for a moment.
"Are you fucking with me? You can't stay here. You've got to come back!" His voice is higher than it usually is and there's a prickling sensation behind his eyes. Some distant corner of his brain realizes that he's about to start crying.
"Stiles, I need you to go. Stiles, listen; I need you to do this for me. I won't survive the night if you don't go and warn them. Please, Stiles," Derek is begging him.
When Sties looks up at him, he sees Derek's determination in the way his jaw is locked tight, he sees Derek trying to the keep calm in his shallow breaths, and he sees the concern and the panic in Derek's eyes. In a moment, he realizes that the concern and panic are for him. Derek's not scared for himself and that- that is what makes up Stiles' mind.
He catches hold of Derek's shirt and grabs it tightly. "I'm not going anywhere," Stiles says with as much fierceness and determination as he can muster.
He raises his wand and sends up a shower of red sparks into the sky. Hagrid will recognize them and know where to look for him, he's sure. He hopes Hagrid's already left Scott to the Castle.
Derek sighs, a low, frustrated sound. He pulls his hands back from Stiles shoulder and opens his moth to say something, but before he can a loud howl pierces across the clearing. Derek whips around.
A huge grey wolf with glinting blue eyes is crouched across the clearing. But it isn't a normal wolf, because normal wolves are not that huge. Then right before his eyes, Derek transforms.
If the grey wolf is huge, Derek's wolf is massive. It's smooth black fur shines silver in the moonlight. He lets out a howl and it's louder than the one the grey wolf let out. The sound reverberates throughout the clearing. It sounds different. It sounds like a challenge.
The grey wolf stalks forward. As soon as it gets o the girl's body (the girl he probably killed, Stiles' traitorous mind supplies), Derek honest-to-God growls and launches himself through the air at him. He lands right on target.
He swipes at the other wolf who bears his teeth and tries to bite Derek's neck. Derek throws him against a tree.
Stiles doesn't know what to do with himself so he takes a step forward.
Derek lets out another growl. Stiles is pretty sure that was directed at him so he stops. He sorts through a list of spells mentally, trying to figure out which ones would definitely work against a werewolf. He would try them all out but he doesn't want to risk hurting Derek.
He sends up another shower of red sparks, wondering where the hell Hagrid is. Just seconds later, Hagrid and Professor McGonagall burst into the clearing.
McGonagall shouts out a spell and a jet of gold leaves her wand. Stiles wants to shout at her that one of them is Derek, yell at her not to hurt him, but his voice deserts him. He can only stand at watch as the golden light envelops them both.
But Derek seems to know that McGonagall is there. Seems to know what she's done because he jumps away at the last moment possible and the spell hits the other wolf directly. Stiles watches, fascinated as the golden shot spreads, turns into a web and captures the grey wolf. The strands of the spell turn red as the wolf struggles and suddenly there is a man in his place, wiggling against the web.
"Peter Hale."
Professor McGonagall's voice is cold.
The web flies into the air as she turns around and walks, presumably into the direction of the castle. The web follows her. Hagrid turns, spots the body and shudders. He looks like he's remembering a similar scene and Stiles' heart aches. Aches for Hagrid, for whatever misery he suffered to make him look so worn down.
He has an overwhelming desire to offer Hagrid comfort, to hug him or wrap him in a blanket, anything. But he feels like stone. His limbs are too heavy.
"I'd best be lookin' after her. Her folks would want to see her, yeh should go on to the castle."
Stiles nods and then turns around to ask Derek to come with him but he isn't there. Stiles is positive he did not follow Professor McGonagall, so where did he go?
Hagrid sees him looking around.
"He won' be hurt. He's bigger than mos' things here," he says, with a shake of his head.
Stiles does not feel better but he appreciates Hagrid's words. He nods at him and follows the path McGonagall took, now illuminated by a silver-ish light.
It's when he reaches the castle that he realizes he forgot to ask Hagrid about Scott.
Stiles is fifteen and he hasn't seen his best friend all summer. After being bitten by Peter Hale that unfortunate night in the forest, the Hales had taken Scott with them for the summer where they were apparently teaching him all types of wolfy things. Melissa had gone to the Hale's place to see him and had come back happy so Stiles supposed everything was okay. It isn't like they didn't have any contact at all though, Scott writes to him and vice versa.
Scott tells him Kate Argent had somehow procured a wand, imperio-ed a wizard manning the jail and had had that wizard imperio Peter.
Scott asks him to come visit for Christmas but he refuses.
Mainly because his dad and him had a tradition of celebrating Christmases together but also because he hadn't seen Derek since that night. Not because he didn't want to but because he hadn't had a chance to, and when Derek had seen him on the train back home he had darted into a compartment so quickly, Stiles suspected he'd used werewolf speed.
But that's okay, he hasn't been completely lonely this summer. He's made a new friend, a girl called Allison Argent who's just shifted to Hogwarts from Beauxbatons, and who Stiles caught playing Quidditch in the house next to theirs. Allison is as sweet as chocolate but also as sharp as knives. She is an angel until you got on her bad side.
Stiles still misses his best friend though, which is why he doesn't immediately complain when Scott comes out of nowhere, barreling into him so hard and hugging him so tightly that the both fall to the floor on platform 9 ¾ .
Stiles does complain about a minute or 7 into the hug that he can't breathe and Scott gets off him sheepishly.
"Sorry, I missed you," he says.
"You've grown taller. And you hair, dude. You didn't shave it off!" Scott beams at him and Stiles can't even be mad at him.
Who could ever be mad at Scott? Dude is sunshine and rainbows.
Speaking of sunshine and rainbows, Stiles gets to his feet and drags Alison over to meet Scott. And then leaves them alone within 2 minutes because he doesn't want to see their awkward attempt at flirting.
Stiles is so busy waving at Heather that he accidently walks straight into someone's back.
He starts apologizing. "Shit, sorry. I-"
He stops mid-sentence because the one and only Derek Hale is standing before him, looking like a deer in headlights.
Stiles can't help but snort at his expression. It's like just looking at Derek has made all his anger diffuse.
He reaches forward and hugs Derek as tightly as Scott hugged him. Tentatively, Derek hugs him back.
"Stupid fucker," Stiles mumbles and Derek laughs, a bright and clear sound.
Stiles is sixteen and he hates everything. Okay no, he has Scott and Derek and Laura and his dad. He actually also has Erica and Allison and Isaac and Boyd and Lydia and Danny and even Jackson's been less of an asshole lately. But he hates exams and he hates Professor Harris and he hates potions.
Derek finds him sitting under a tree near the lake, scribbling furiously in a notebook. They've grown closer and closer over time. It's not really 'Scott and Stiles' anymore as much as it is 'Scott and Allison' and 'Derek and Stiles'. Though that doesn't mean there is no 'Scott and Stiles'. 'Scott and Stiles' is going as strong as before. It's just 'Derek and Stiles' is stronger.
Derek grins at Stiles as he towers over him. "Sulking?"
Stiles glares at him from where he's sitting. "Stupid Harris with his stupid potions. I don't know why I took this subject in the first place."
Derek sits down beside him.
"Because you want to be an Auror," he reminds Stiles.
Stiles intensifies his glare. "No, I don't."
Derek leans back against the tree, unaffected. "Yes, you do."
Stiles tears off a page from his notebook and chucks it at Derek's face. Derek catches it.
"Shut up," Stiles says.
There's a moment of silence then Derek asks, "Why do you use those things?"
Stiles snorts. "What? A notebook?" Because they are so much more easier than parchment and it's easy to take notes in these and I can keep separate ones for each subject easily and they won't get mixed up and-"
"And you like using muggle things because it makes you feel smarter than everyone. Also, you want to show the world how efficiently and easily muggles function without magic and-"
Stiles cut him off by shifting and sitting on him mid-sentence. "Take it back."
"No," Derek says.
Stiles narrows his eyes at him. "I won't get off until you do," he warns.
"I don't care." Derek says, the picture of nonchalance.
"Fine," Stiles huffs.
"Fine," Derek says. And then he tickles Stiles.
Needless to say, Stiles forgets all about stupid Harris and his stupid potions.
Stiles is seventeen and he's not happy, not because the Appleby Arrows didn't win (godammit they'd been on such a good streak) and Puddlemere United (Derek's team) won but because Derek is an idiot and him getting injured is getting really old really fast.
He did not beg his dad and Melissa to let him go to this game with only Scott and Allison as company to see Derek score 7 times and then drop off his broom due to a foul.
He's waiting outside the Healers' tent as they work their magic and hopefully return an unbroken Derek to him.
It only takes a few minutes, because werewolves heal especially fast of course, for a healer to come out.
"He's asking for a Stiles?"
"That's me," Stiles says quickly.
She eyes him suspiciously for a moment before pulling aside the flap and letting him in. She then directs him to a room that looks exactly like a normal hospital room, except this one has Derek in it.
Derek, who is already standing up, is already wearing his everyday clothes and who is probably planning to leave even though the Healers probably told him not to.
His whole face lights up when Stiles walks in and Stiles can feel his own heartbeat speed up. Derek hears it, judging by his smirk.
Stiles isn't even embarrassed.
He does say, "Shut up." But then he kisses Derek so it's not like it really matters.