(A/N- I don't mean to offend anyone religious here, I just couldn't help but think that some religious muggles might have a problem with magic, and wanted to play with the idea. Als

I'm sorry if this doesn't seem to have a plot, since it doesn't, really. It seems to be more of a set of connected episodes.

Disclaimer- I'm flattered that you'd even consider for a moment that I might be an internationally acclaimed author. What's that you say? It never occurred to you? That's why I probably won't bother disclaiming again.

Thanks a million to my lovely reviewers, MoonyIsTheMan and Chrys-Moony-Marauder. Reviews are like sunlight to me, they make my life worthwhile (yes, that is a hint))

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Seamus didn't even consider the possibility that he was probably the best friend Dean had as well until just over a year later. Somehow, the fact that he was one of the only people Dean even spoke to consistently just didn't register. No, it took another lightning bolt of realization before he made the connection.

They were fourteen and on the train home from Easter holidays. Dean had been uncharacteristically silent for the past hour and a half, and Seamus' mouth was working over-time to fill the void. He was in the middle of a particularly pointless story involving the neighbor's tailless dog, an unusual brand of shaving cream, and Seamus' mother, when Dean cut him off.

"They don't want me back," he stated in a calm but bitter and painfully matter-of-fact tone.

Seamus sat and blinked unintelligently for a moment, trying to wrap his twisted train of thought around Dean's cryptic but obviously important announcement. Finally, he managed to form a sensible, or at least pertinent, question.

"Who doesn't want you back?"

"My parents," Dean replied, voice still quiet and slightly dead. "Mum found religion, or something. Saw the light, I guess," he shrugged, "I didn't ask. Anyway, apparently, not only is magic somehow equivalent to devil-worship, but I'm too far gone to be saved. They don't want me back. They'll keep paying for school, but they don't want me coming home on holiday," and here the bitterness returned to his voice, "so I don't contaminate my sisters."

Seamus continued to stare blankly, and Dean continued after a moment's hesitation, sounding a little lost, "I can stay at school most of the time, but summer's going to be a problem. I suppose I could stay at the Leaky Cauldron, get a job in Diagon Ally, though most places probably aren't too keen on hiring a homeless fourteen year old with no work experience…"

He trailed off, staring out the window, before turning to Seamus with a sudden stab of desperation on his face. In that moment, Seamus felt the weight of implicit trust, of being the one person Dean turned to even as he shut out the rest of the world in a wall of untouchable silence.

"What am I going to do, Shay?" he asked softly, almost pleading.

Seamus could not bear to see the look of naked vulnerability on the face of his generally unflappably calm and confident friend. He reached for he only swift and plausible solution he could think of, not even considering the consequences, his only goal to erase the uncertainty in Dean's eyes.

He said, "You'll come home with me, of course. I'm sure mum won't mind."

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As it turned out, Mum did mind, a bit. She didn't really want to share her only time with her son with a school friend, particularly one who had seemed so remote when he'd joined them at the World Cup the previous summer she hadn't been able to get to know him. Indeed, as quiet and calm as he had been, he seemed like an unlikely friend for her charming, gregarious, and unfailingly active son.

Still Seamus rarely asked for favors, and he seemed so set on the notion that she found herself agreeing to let Dean stay on a trial basis, all the while wondering if she'd have the heart to turn the child out into the street to fend for himself if it didn't work out.

As it turned out, she needn't have worried, for Dean was polite and helpful, and he certainly loosened up a bit as she got to know him. She tended to think he had a good influence on Seamus.