Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine, sadly (otherwise I would be a billionaire by now, sigh). J.K. Rowling owns all the characters (except maybe 3?) and parts of the plot.

Chapter 3 – The Warm Meeting

It was a week and a half before the galleon emitted its familiar warmth and the numbers changed to show the date on which Dean would visit Seamus at his house.

During the period of time, Dean had heeded Seamus' advice and decided to ignore the invitation. However, he couldn't stop being on the lookout for anything in the house which might relate to his father, he flicked through numerous photo albums, birth certificates, other documentation, willing the name "Christopher Thomas" to show up, but he never saw his father's name or photo.

He had also unpacked the last contents of his trunk and began packing things into a satchel that he thought he might need if he wasn't returning to Hogwarts. In went his wizard money, a quill, some parchment and a few other items. Finally, Dean packed some bottled instant darkness powder that he had bought last year from the Weasley twins.

After unpacking his trunk, he then filled it with his Hogwarts paraphernalia and some clothes, 'Who knows? Maybe a miracle will happen and I'll be able to go to Hogwarts like nothing had changed.' But the chance of that happening was slim, and besides, he didn't have his N.E.W.T. textbooks.

Upon completing this monotonous task, Dean began emptying his room of newspapers as well as the monthly editions of The Quibbler. He also resumed his daily apparation exercises and practiced a few spells on his pillow.

During these days the owl would often visit him, every time it flew off, Dean thought it was gone for good, but every time it would come back again. It had ignored every question Dean had asked concerning who had sent it, not that it could speak anyway, and Dean's junk food supply was diminishing rapidly.

One night Dean was eating dinner while listening to the weather forecast, "…and there will be more fog to come in this un-Summer-like Summer…" babbled the weather man. He heard his stepfather sigh, "All this fog, its becoming a nuisance on the roads." A conversation commenced between his parents about having to wake up earlier because the fog slowed traffic down. Dean wasn't listening and his siblings were whispering between themselves. Suddenly realisation dawned onto Dean, 'The dementors! They must be breeding fast for all this fog…which means they'll be all over the place!' Not a comforting thought.

As soon as Dean got up from his chair, the galleon in his pocket began to grow warmer, he quickly placed his plate in the kitchen sink and ran up to his room, where he was met with the still gaze of the owl.

"Just scare the living daylights out of me, why don't you?" said Dean, recovering from his shock. The pupils of the owl began to dilate and it gave a low hoot as if to say, "Yes, that is my life's goal," in an amused tone.

Dean ignored this and pulled out his galleon, the owl flew onto his shoulder as if to have a better look. The numbers around the edge of the galleon changed, the first six digits revealed tomorrow's date, the following four showed a time, 'Eleven in the morning, I'd better tell mum.'

The next morning Dean found himself wondering if he could apparate to Seamus' house without splinching himself, he squeezed his eyes tightly and with a loud crack (He could see his stepfather flinching) left his home and arrived with another crack in front of Seamus' house. Quick footsteps from the inside hurried towards the door and before he could knock the door was swung open.

"I thought I'd heard someone apparate, come in Dean dear, I think Seamus is expecting you up in his room."

"Thankyou Mrs Finnigan for allowing me to come, I hope I'm no inconvenience." Dean smiled.

"Of course not, why would you be?"

Dean ran upstairs, the last time he had seen Seamus felt like ages ago. He opened the door to Seamus' room without bothering knocking.

"Dean!"

"Seamus!"

They drew into a friendly hug, Dean noticed another figure standing in the room, he was a bit taller and his hair a bit longer since they last met, but otherwise, he'd recognise the round face anywhere.

"Nice to meet you too," said Neville.

"Neville! Nice to see you!" Dean patted his Hogwarts roommate.

Seamus quickly closed the door to his room, and joined the others as they sat down on the floor.

"You didn't tell your mum I was muggle-born by any chance?" asked Dean.

"After she believed The Prophet about Harry? Nah, I decided not to take any chances."

"Hang on," Neville silenced them and suddenly took his wand out of his jean pocket, waved it above his head and said, "Muffliato".

He was met with two pairs of eyes starring at him.

"Is this the same Neville who lost his remembrall?" asked Seamus.

"Or the one who accidentally jinxed himself in DA last year?" added Dean.

Neville gave a nervous chuckle, "Oh yeah that jinx…I'll never try that again."

A sigh of relief, it was the same clumsy Neville after all.

"It's Gran, she does it all the time now when she's speaking with her friends, I just learnt it from her, you never know, I'd preferred if no one could hear us. Anyway back to business, Seamus and I have been thinking about how we can help."

"About what? No doubt, I'd probably stolen my magic from some poor defenceless wizard," snapped Dean, thinking back to the article he had read earlier.

"It's ridiculous," agreed Seamus, "But I've been thinking, we could just tell the Ministry we're relatives, and I could teach you my family tree or something."

Dean felt a surge of gratitude for his friend.

"No, we can't do that," Neville said immediately, "Gran's friend works at the ministry, she said that all the muggle-borns who have presented themselves so far have disappeared without a trace. They don't even listen to you, basically if they've sent you an invitation, you're," – Neville pulled his finger across his throat.

"But, that's stupid, what if they're really half-bloods?" retorted Seamus desperately.

Dean and Neville looked at each other, they knew the answer to that one.

"It doesn't matter, long as their not pure-blood," – here Neville pulled a face – "then they'll just do whatever they do to them. Gran said they've started rounding up half-bloods they don't like in the ministry anyway, as well as blood traitors."

"Exactly," sighed Dean, "they won't listen to me, and I don't have any evidence anyway. If you help me, that'll just get your family into trouble."

"Which means –"

" – I'll have to leave Hogwarts," finished Dean.

Neville nodded. "They've set up death eaters all over the place I bet, and there's rumours Snape will become headmaster, walking into Hogwarts would just be like walking into the Ministry."

A depressing silence followed in which Seamus seemed to be thinking hard, Neville was frowning and Dean was looking at Neville in new light. It seemed like something had emerged from Neville and not really change, but added to his character, in any case, Dean knew there was something beneath him other than the clumsy and forgetful boy who lived with his dear old gran.

"One little problem though," said Dean, breaking the silence, "My parents don't know anything about this, and I'd like to keep it that way. They think I'm returning to Hogwarts, and my mum usually doesn't say goodbye till she's seen me cross the barrier at Kings Cross…and…uh…I have a feeling they're gonna send Ministry officials after me if I don't turn up by the 22nd."

"Why don't you live with me for the last few days?" asked Seamus, "The least I can do."

Dean smiled sadly and was about to say thank you when a thought occurred to him, "But your mum doesn't know I'm a muggle-born, I don't think it's a good idea if ministry officials find me here."

Seamus thought hard again.

"You could live with me?" Neville offered, "My Gran hates the Ministry and she'd love to help."

Seamus looked up, "Yeah, that's probably the best idea," though he sounded slightly sad about it.

Before Mrs Finnigan called them to lunch, the matter was settled. Dean knew his mum would agree since on September the 1st, everyone in his house started school and before 8am, it was already chaos. It would be one less worry for his parents if they didn't have to drive him to King's Cross.

A/N: Sorry for the delay, exams are coming up and I'm getting prepared for some intense cramming! Anyway, thank you very much for all the reviews, hopefully, I can put up my next chapter soon, otherwise (and I'm extremely sorry) it might take a while probably after the exams.