Lavender sat by the lake on a rather warm Saturday. She'd needed some air and more importantly some space from those that she'd been in close quarters with for the last… who even knew how long. Time didn't seem to exist anymore. All that seemed to exist was fear. Fear that she could practically feel radiating off of those around her. It was now in her bones. She could feel the fear spreading throughout her body like a cancer. She didn't even have as much as others to be afraid of though.

She'd left Seamus pouring over the list of the dead that one of the sixth years had transcribed from the radio. She knew he was looking for Dean's name. He was always looking for Dean's name. She couldn't blame him, it had been a month since the last sighting, and she knew that she was always going to play second fiddle to Dean.

She'd been very careful to keep her mouth shut, to keep her emotions in check though. Seamus didn't seem to suspect that her own feelings for him had been growing, that she was now pretty sure that she was in love with him.

She'd tried not to let this happen, but spending less time with him just wasn't an option. He needed her, especially as the time between the Dean sighting had grown. And even though she was getting hurt, that didn't matter.

With a sigh, Lavender dropped her head between her knees and allowed her eyes to close momentarily. She didn't know what to do. She supposed that she could just keep living like this. There was nothing particularly wrong with this. She was close to him, which was what she wanted. She got to sleep in his bed every night. She got to spend everyday with him, so really why rock the boat?

But she needed more. She needed something that she just wasn't getting. Something that she couldn't even describe because she didn't know exactly what it was she was even missing. Maybe it was just to know that she was loved in return?

Slowly she sat back up again as she felt a hand on her back. She didn't even have to look to know who it was. She knew him by the smell of him alone.

"Hey." Seamus' voice was quiet but he sounded at least somewhat okay so Lavender could at least breathe that Dean's name hadn't been on the list.

"Hi." She replied just as quietly before she turned her head to look at him. She wanted to remind him that no news was good news, but the words just wouldn't form as she watched him face, watched his lips. Part of her wanted to kiss them, part of her wondered if kissing them would bring back that cheeky little smile of his that she missed so dearly. Another part of her knew that doing something like that would be beyond stupid, beyond risky.

"What?" Seamus asked after a moment, his head tilted to the side slightly now, his voice snapping her out of her thoughts and back to the present, back to the real world.

"Nothing." She said quickly, shaking her head as she gave him a small smile. "Think I need a nap is all." She said as she pushed herself to her feet, but before she could make her way back up to the castle, Seamus had caught her hand.

"Lav…" There was something about his voice that made Lavender want to both run and cry at the same time, but she made herself stop in her tracks instead and slowly she turned to face him.

Seamus had been trying to put his finger on what was different about Lavender for a long time now, but no matter how he'd tried to look at things, he'd not been able to figure any of it out. She seemed distant, even though nothing about their routine, nothing about their daily lives had changed, and yet, she didn't seem to always be there any more.

He was worried about her. He was just as worried about her as he was worried about Dean if he was completely honest, and he hadn't up until that point thought that he could ever feel about someone else the way he did about Dean in any shape or form. And now here Lavender was practically pushing him away and he didn't know what he was supposed to do.

He tightened his grip on her fingers, scared that she would try to pull away if he gave her so much as an inch in which to do so. Whatever was going on with her, he needed her to tell him so that he could help her, so that he wouldn't lose her.

"Can you please let me go?" Lavender asked, her eyes not meeting his gaze but she wasn't pulling her hand away from his.

"Lav, look at me." Seamus reached out with his free hand and slowly tilted her chin upwards so that she wouldn't really have a choice but to look at him. "Please."

When she eventually met his gaze, he felt his breath catch in his throat. He couldn't understand quite why. She was still the same girl that he had always known, but there was something in her eyes, or maybe behind her eyes that spoke to his soul. He stood there, staring at her, words not forming as his heart hammered in his chest.

"Please, let me go." Lavender whispered after what felt like a lifetime, her voice breaking the silence and his heart hammering his chest as she spoke, but he did. He dropped her hand and watched as she took a few hesitant steps backwards away from him.

He watched her as she turned around and practically ran back up to the castle. He couldn't move though. He was frozen in place. He couldn't even feel his feet to try to follow her if he could have managed to form the thought to follow her in the first place. His brain was at that moment far too busy trying to work out what his heart had just tried to tell him.

But he couldn't understand it. How could he feel a connection that strong to someone that wasn't Dean when his feelings for the other boy were still there, would never change? It just didn't make sense.

He wasn't sure what snapped him out of his thoughts, but when he zoned back in, he found that Neville was by his side.

"Hey. You alright?"

All Seamus could do was shake his head as he tried to form an answer that wasn't him purely screaming 'what the feck' at the top of his lungs. He took several slow breaths and ran his fingers over his face before he let his gaze meet Neville's. He was somewhat relieved to note that the same wave of emotions didn't wash over him as he looked into the eyes of his other best friend, but that didn't make him feel any easier about the whole situation with Lavender.

"I.." He began slowly as he glanced up towards the castle, a part of him wishing that Lavender would walk back out to come find him. "I think I've just screwed everything up." He said quietly, swallowing thickly. And while he knew that he couldn't really leave it at that, he didn't exactly know how he was meant to explain this one to Neville. "I think.." He started again as he turned to look at the other boy. "I think I'm in love with Lavender."

Somehow saying the words out loud made them so much clearer to him as well. He knew that they were true now.

"But Dean…?" Neville asked the very question that was at the forefront of Seamus' mind.

"I still love him too." There was no question of that as he said it, which prompted him to ask "Do you think it's possible to be in love with two people at once?"

Neville paused for a long moment and Seamus realised that he probably wasn't exactly the person to ask considering that Neville had never been in love with anyone before, but it wasn't as if Seamus had anyone that he could ask.

"I don't know." He said finally. "I guess so if you are?"

Seamus gave a slight nod. Neville's answer was as helpful as he expected, but at least it wasn't a firm no and that did make him feel at least a little bit better. "Thanks." He said quietly, though he was genuinely grateful that Neville didn't think him to be entirely mad.

Dean woke to the sounds of the sea crashing against the shore. It was a very different noise to what he had become accustomed to and if he was being completely honest, it was actually a little unsettling that no-one was screaming in the room above him. He sat himself up, glancing up at the sofa where the blanket and pillow he had been given lay untouched. He couldn't bring himself to use either of them. It wasn't because he wasn't grateful for the hospitality that Bill and Fleur had shown him, but more that those were comforts he just wasn't used to. They hadn't had any bedding at all when they were in the dungeon.

He hummed as he stretched out his arms before pulling himself to his feet. He moved towards the window and looked out across the sand dunes towards the sea. He couldn't quite get over just how bright the world was. It was beautiful. Even though he knew the body of the elf that saved them lay out there. It was still beautiful.

He rested his hands against the glass, just letting himself watch the waves as they crashed down on the shore. He was free. Well, sort of. He was still in hiding, but he'd been assured that he was more than safe here so he didn't need to go back out on the run. He could stay here with Ollivander, Luna, and the Goblin Griphook who he had become close friends with while in the dungeon.

He had wondered, but hadn't asked about it yet, if there was a way that Bill could pass a message to his sister (and subsequently Seamus) that he was okay. He realised that was probably a very risky thing to do though and he didn't want to put everyone else in danger.

A sigh escaped him as he traced a line across the glass. He missed being able to draw. He hadn't been able to in so long now that he wasn't sure that he would even remember how. As daft as it sounded to even think that when art - drawing and sketching - was as much a part of his soul as Seamus was and he knew for a fact that he hadn't forgotten anything about his Irish boy.

He still knew exactly how Seamus smelled in the morning, how he ate his toast, how he smiled, how his body moved, how his body fitted against Dean's when they were in bed. Seamus was probably the one thing that he would never forget, no matter what.

Slowly Dean sat down next to the window. Part of him knew that he should go and find his hosts or one of the others who had been rescued with him just yesterday, but he was also just enjoying being alone. He hadn't truly been alone since the snatchers had captured him. It was nice just to be alone with his thoughts.