I've always been a fan of lettiebobettie's (check out her tumblr) SPN drawings and this is one of my favorites so here's a oneshot. ~fluff~
Disclaimer: I don't own nothing.
"Dean, we shouldn't be out here past curfew." Castiel said while following Dean's every footstep.
"C'mon Cas, you know it's not healthy to follow the rules all the time. Rebel for once!" Dean yelled.
Castiel sighed and walked until Dean stopped at a small clearing.
"Here seems like a good spot to practice your patronus." Dean said.
"It's alright Dean, it's not that many extra credit points anyway." Castiel said, shifting between his feet as he pulled on his shirt.
"But they're easy points! It's a spell that just requires you to think of a happy memory and flick your wand, if I could do it so can you. It seemed as though you had the wand part down earlier so I guess you just need some help finding a better memory." Dean smirked.
Castiel looked down at his feet, he wasn't sure of what kind of memory to think about. The few memories he had of his mother made him more sad than happy and while he loved his father he couldn't think of a certain instance where he was the happiest.
"It might be helpful to close your eyes and concentrate." Dean said. "Concentrate on a moment where you couldn't believe how happy you were. A moment that you didn't want to end. Something that you think about and can't help but smile." Dean rubbed Castiel's shoulder a bit to relax him, "C'mon, try it."
Castiel looked at Dean, there was just enough light from the stars and moon to come through the trees to show how green Dean's eyes were. Castiel felt as if it were the color of soft grass that the sun was shining on. Castiel then closed his eyes on Dean's smile.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ flashback ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The train had barely came to a stop when Dean burst out of one of the carts, stretching his arms as high as he could then down to his toes. After a quick look around he noticed a tall bearded man and a kid standing close together while the kid faced the man. They were silhouetted by the single lamppost behind them. Dean walked over just as a stream of kids were exiting the train.
"That's odd, I thought I was the first out of the train." Dean said to the kid.
"I wasn't on the train." Castiel said plainly, not turning to face Dean.
"What do you me-" Dean was then interrupted by the booming and stern voice from bearded man.
"Hello everyone, I'm Mr. Singer. I'm the groundskeeper here and also the teacher for Care of Magical Creatures. All first year's will team up into fours and accompany me across the lake on those boats," he pointed to the boats that were a few yards away from the platform, "Got it?!"
A unison 'yes' was voiced by the kids and they started walking towards the boats. Dean was halfway to the boats when he looked back to see Castiel give a quick hug to Mr. Singer and then begin walking along with the others. Dean watched as Castiel walked behind everyone, while he walked with some confidence his face showed how nervous he was. Dean could see him shifting his eyes a lot, looking at other kids who were chatting with on another. Dean waited for Castiel to get close enough to take his hand and say "Hey, you mind if we get a seat together?"
Castiel shook his head, "I don't mind."
Dean smirked and didn't let go of Castiel's hand till they reached a boat. They sat down beside each other and waited for their other two open seats to fill up but it seemed that everyone had already had a spot since the boats suddenly started to move.
They jutted back a bit when they started to move, Dean instinctively held onto his new pal. "Sorry," Dean said as he let go of Castiel's arm once he felt stable. "I'm not used to being on a boat."
"That's alright, I hold onto my dad sometimes when I'm scared." Castiel said.
Dean pouted, "I'm not scared." He stared at Castiel to wait for him to laugh or make fun of him.
"My mistake, sorry." Castiel said.
Dean turned his head slightly, like a dog hearing dolphin sounds for the first time and he kept looking at Castiel as if he were a dolphin just sitting right next to him. Dean then saw how blue his eyes were as the moon was bouncing off the lake. Dean felt like he'd been staring at this tousled-haired boy for too long so he quickly looked down at his feet and noticed feathers near Castiel's feet.
"What is that?" Dean asked while pointing at the feather.
"Oh, I must still have some feathers on me from when I rode on the hippogriff earlier." Castiel suddenly stood up, opening his cloak a bit to see if there were more, none were on him that he could see. "I can't see behind me, are there more?"
Dean was taken aback when he saw one more gray feather on his upper thigh. Dean's face went pink as he quickly swatted off the feather into the lake.
"Thank you," Castiel then sat back down.
"No problem." Dean said as he looked away from Castiel. Dean noticed then that Mr. Singer was glaring at him.
"Whoa, is it just me or is Mr. Singer totally gonna murder me?" Dean smirked as he pointed over to Mr. Singer.
"My father wouldn't do that." Castiel said.
"Oh that's good," after a few seconds Dean registered what Castiel said and lost his grin, "Your dad? Your dad works here? And he saw me touch…..oh no, he's totally gonna murder me." Dean looked down at his feet as he held his head.
"I said he wouldn't. Are you hard of hearing?" Castiel asked.
Dean looked up at him as he raised an eyebrow quizzically and thought to himself that this was one odd kid. He thought he should change the subject, "Um no, so uh you're dad's the guy that takes care of the animals here? Is that why you were on a hippogriff? Does that mean you fly on them a lot? What other animals do you get to play with? Why weren't you on the train?"
Castiel was a bit shocked, he hadn't experienced anyone so curious about him to ask so many questions at once. "Well, yes my dad takes care of the animals. I've never flown on him on my own yet since it's not allowed but have road on him while he's walked around. We do have a lot of other magical and non-magical creatures that I get to interact with. I live on the grounds with my dad so I didn't need to be on the train to get here but wanted to ride on the boats like everyone else" Castiel noticed how attentive Dean's stare was while Dean was smiling and nodding.
"That's really cool!" Dean grinned as the conversation continued.
Their conversations lasted until they were standing near the sorting hat, ready to be assigned. Once Castiel's name was said and he walked up, Dean realized that they never exchanged names and thought that the name suited him for being such an odd guy. After a few seconds the hat exclaimed he was a Hufflepuff. Dean was a bit sad because he wanted to talk to Castiel more but also wanted to be in Gryffindor, the same as his dad. Dean was the last one to be assigned and as the hat debated with itself it shouted Gryffindor. The usual cheering commenced and died off as he sat down. After the last announcements and food appeared Dean turned around to the next table to find Castiel talking to a girl, he remembered her name was Tessa when she was called for the sorting. Dean then got the feeling he usually had when someone was eyeing his pie. When he looked back at the food on the table he saw just that and quickly grabbed a whole pie from a platter and put it on his plate.
"Nobody's going to touch my pie." Dean whispered to himself.
After Dean ate his weight in pie and bacon he noticed Castiel leaving the great hall. Dean quickly got up and ran over to Castiel to grab his arm.
"Hey Cas," Dean grinned.
"Oh, hey Dean." Castiel was surprised by his new nickname and blushed a bit.
Dean blushed too after hearing Castiel say his name out loud foe the first time. "I just wanted to ask if you'd be cool with us still being friends even if we're not in the same house."
"Oh, um, sure. We're friends?" Castiel said, looking at Dean, hoping he hadn't heard wrong.
"Of course!" Dean then let go of Castiel's arm to then take his other arm as he gave Castiel a side hug and didn't let go till they had to part ways to go to their individual dorms. Both had then fallen asleep with smiles on their faces.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ end of flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Castiel opened his eyes he could see Dean grinning right next to him.
"What is it?" Castiel asked.
"Nothing, just seems like you found a good one."
Castiel realized he was smiling too and playfully punched Dean in the shoulder.
"Alright, you ready for another go?" Dean asked.
Cas nodded. They stood side-by-side and concentrated on their wands and thoughts.
"Expecto-patronum!" They said together, and together their wands shoot out beams of light. Within seconds they started to whirl around and form into animals.
"Woah Cas, yours looks like a fennec! Understandably since you tend to stay up late at night and woah, look at those ears," Dean exclaimed, "they're way smaller than yours."
Castiel scowled at him, "my ears are perfectly normal, Dean."
"Haha, what do you think of mine? Doesn't it totally fit me considering their preference for younger guys?" Dean smirked, holding in his laughter.
"I don't understand. Do cougars statistically go after younger males to attack? Because they are weaker? Why would they choose a smaller prey based on their sex, Dean?" Castiel's quizzical look was the tipping point for Dean. Dean started to laugh at Castiel's obliviousness to the joke. Once Dean's laughter died down Castiel said, "I thought a cougar was fitting because of your strength, not so much physically but that you have a strong hold on your morals and values. You tend to be territorial when it comes to your friends and family and you won't back down from a fight if someone's in trouble. You have a strong will, Dean."
"Oh uh," Dean started looking up at the stars through the trees, avoiding any eye contact as his face grew pink. As both of their patronuses were disappearing they were left with nothing but the light from the stars again. "Can I ask what your memory was?" Dean said, trying to change the subject away from himself.
Castiel nodded, "It was the day we met. When we became friends."
Dean's eyes went wide, he started looking at anything that was directed opposite from Castiel so that Castiel wouldn't be able to see that now Dean's face was fully red.
"Can I ask what yours is, Dean?" Castiel asked.
"Sure," Dean waited for his face to return to normal to look at Castiel again. "It's with Sam,a couple years ago we got to shoot off a ton of fireworks, just us. We had a ton of fun and it looked really great. I felt like an actual kid without any worries."
"That's sounds nice." Castiel said, "I've never seen fireworks, if they'd ever go off it'd frighten the animals."
Dean smirked, "Well, I'll be sure to change that the next time I get a hold of some and we're alone."
Castiel smiled back, "We really should be getting back now, Dean."
"Alright, alright." Dean turn took Castiel's hand and led him back through the forest, Castiel following his every step.