Having lived with Harry for a year, it seemed really strange to think of him as the saviour of the wizarding world twice over. All the same, it wasn't something Seamus could argue with. While they'd all been living their first year at Hogwarts, something else had been going on, and Harry, Ron and Hermione had been onto it. It made him feel very juvenile and a little useless, and it didn't help that Dean's almost-fawning over whether or not Harry would wake up okay made him feel a bit jealous and defensive.

'Kind of wish we'd known to help, you know?'

'Maybe,' Dean agreed vaguely. 'I don't know. I think having a normal life is pretty underrated. I think I'd like to keep mine.'

Seamus tutted, ruffling his hair and flopping down onto Dean's bed where the boy himself was already sitting. 'Just muddling along, right? That's us.'

'That's us,' Dean agreed with a slight smile. 'We do that pretty well, I think.'

'Maybe if I didn't set stuff on fire so much.'

Dean laughed quietly, looking down at him before he turned back to the letter on his lap. His mum was a muggle, just getting used to having to use owl mail, but she were doing pretty well at it. She'd sent along some sweets and chocolate with it, even. Seamus was just reaching for it when Dean shook his head, glancing at him out of the corner of his eye. 'No, no,' he said distantly, trying to focus on both the conversation and his mum's writing. 'I think it's for Harry.'

'For Harry?' Seamus said incredulously. 'He's asleep, mate. He'd share anyway.'

'Then let's give him the option to later,' Dean said quietly. 'He deserves it, after all. Come and take him it with me?'

'Can't be arsed.'

'Are you really going to make me walk all the way to the hospital wing on my own?'

They shared a look briefly before Seamus tutted and sat up again. 'Manipulative git. Men shouldn't use puppy-dog eyes. Leave it out.'

'Works, doesn't it?'

'Leave it out.'

Thankfully for Seamus's lethargy, it wasn't really a very long walk to the hospital wing anyway. They were there standing at Harry's bedside within ten minutes, carefully trying to balance their confectionary contribution so that it didn't topple the rest of the pile. Attached was a note, declaring them to be from both Dean and Seamus. As far as Dean was concerned, they came as a pair anyway. That declaration pleased Seamus more than he liked to say – even if they had had the best friend talk far too many times already.

'Seriously,' Dean said, leaning away from Harry a little so as not to disturb him with his voice. 'You do think he'll be alright, don't you?'

'Of course he will. Give him a kiss if you care so much; I'm sure Sleeping Harry'll wake right up.'

Dean tutted, shoving him in the shoulder as they moved away from his bedside. 'Shut up. Shut up,' he repeated, gently smacking in the general direction of Seamus's face as he followed him along with kissy noises. It occurred to Seamus quite suddenly that they wouldn't be able to tease each other like this over the summer, and that once again he'd be back home alone with his parents – an only child, stuck inside just writing letters. It wouldn't be the same.

While he dared, he decided to press that thought, and tugged gently at the back of Dean's jumper. 'Hey. You are going to come and stay over summer, aren't you?'

The grin he got back in return was excited, and it surprised him. He had expected Dean to accept, definitely, but not with such eagerness. He knew he couldn't step inside Dean's head and fully understand him, even though they'd connected quickly this year, but he had a faint idea that this had been something Dean had been thinking about for a while too. He was just too shy to ask. 'Yeah. I'd love to. You come stay at mine, too?'

'Yeah, I will do.'

'Cool.'

'Yeah.'

They grinned at one another sheepishly until Seamus tired of it, looking away with his hands stuffed into his pockets. 'Going back to the dorm, or d'you want to go for a walk or something?'

'You were tired before. Let's just go back. Besides,' he said, throwing him a feline smile. 'We can't explore too much now, or there'll be nothing left to mooch around next year.'