Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine.
Chapter 18 – His First Family Photo
Dean woke up with a start and realised he was sleeping in his favourite four poster bed at Hogwarts, all around him, his roommates snored softly. Had it all been a dream? Dean quickly threw the covers off him and ran towards the window in their dormitory. And his heart sank.
It hadn't been a dream, of course. Half the castle was destroyed and through the window, Dean could see the collapsed walls, the debris, the rubble, the crumbled face of Hogwarts.
"But we're still alive," came Seamus' voice behind him, echoing Luna's words last night.
"Harry-" began Dean.
"-Is snoring safely in his bed over there," finished Seamus, pointing at the boy's body, "Use your eyes Dean."
"You mean he's alive! But how – then is Vol-?"
"Yep, he's dead, Harry killed him, it was the most magnificent thing ever, too bad you were knocked out."
"Knocked out?!"
"Shh!" warned Seamus, looking at Ron who had suddenly snorted in his sleep, "I think we should go down to the common room."
They walked down the stairs leaving Harry, Neville and Ron snoring and snorting in their beds, and entered the common room where Parvati was looking out the window forlornly.
"Morning Parvati," greeted Seamus.
"Morning," echoed Dean.
"You alright?" she asked, her eyes now on Dean, "I'm so sorry about last night."
"Sorry? For what? Am I missing something here?" asked Dean, puzzled.
"What, can't you remember anything?" said Seamus, slightly concerned.
"Er," said Dean, racking his brains, "Greyback tried to bite me…"
"Yeah, don't know why he did it when I was around, I mean, doesn't he know that I aim my spells with exact precision?"
"You?" Dean snorted, "Yeah, whatever."
"Anyway, aimed a stunning Spell at him, caught him square on the chest," said Seamus proudly, "Only problem was-"
"I had aimed a stunning spell too," continued Parvati, "the two spells collided and mine kinda hit you," she finished with an awkward laugh.
"Oh, is that all," said Dean, "Your stunning spells were always formidable in DA"
Parvati smiled weakly.
"Oh yeah," said Seamus, fingering in his pockets for something, this fell out of your pockets when Parvati stupefied you," he said, holding up the golden key in Dean's face, "And why didn't you ever tell me you had a vault at Gringotts? I always thought you were really tight on wizard money."
"What? I never had a vault at Gringotts!" replied Dean, "What are you talking about?"
"Then why do you have a key to a vault?" asked Parvati suspiciously.
"This is a vault key? I never knew, no way! We're going to Gringotts right now!" said Dean, grabbing the key from Seamus.
"See ya Parvati!" said Dean as he ran through the portrait hole, dragging Seamus with him.
"Alright," said Seamus as they headed towards the room of requirement, "this is the key that creepy guy from the Leaky Cauldron left behind isn't it? How do you know what's in his vault? This might not be such a good idea."
"That creepy guy," said Dean through gritted teeth in all the excitement, "was Otus, I know it, and whatever's in this vault it has to be what Oleta was talking about, the stuff my dad left me."
"Whose Oleta? And why are we going to the room of requirement?" asked Seamus.
Dean ignored Seamus' first question, "Before we go to Gringotts, I want to go to the Hog's Head first and that's why we're going to the room of requirement."
"That stinky pub, but why? Aberforth can get pretty cranky at the worst of times."
They entered the room and scrambled through the tunnel and out in front of the fireplace in Aberforth's sitting room and snoring on the saggy couch was the man himself, who woke up with a start when Dean and Seamus landed with a thud.
"You?! What now?" grumbled Aberforth, while he tried to flatten down his frizzy hair.
"I need to ask you something and you need to answer me truthfully," demanded Dean, "You knew Hoot was Otus didn't you? Was it Otus who told you I was a quidditch player, told you I played chaser didn't he? How long has Otus been watching me? And why didn't you tell me Hoot was Otus earlier?"
"What? Yeah, yeah I knew Otus was an owl, known him since he was at Hogwarts, always used to come down 'ere," began Aberforth grumpily, "An' yes, when you dropped into my pub with him, he told me everything about you, couldn't stop himself, real happy he was, talkin' about yer. Bin watching you fer 2 years already, ever since Al began convincing the whole wizard population that You-know-who was back after that Diggory died. An' what was the last question you rudely spat in my face after trespassing my house and wakin' me up? Hmm…yeah…had no right to tell you son, the right was his…the right was his…Yer happy now? Can you leave an old man to sleep in peace?"
"Yeah, yeah, sorry for waking you up, but thanks anyway, I'll leave you alone for now," said Dean, smiling at Aberforth's grumpy mood which was the one thing that never changed.
"You gonna be there at the funeral ceremony?"
"What? Oh yeah, course," replied Dean.
"Well then I'll see you later today at Hogwarts then. Where are you two off to now?"
"Gringotts."
"Gringotts? Now?" Aberforth asked, clearly bewildered.
"Yeah now, we'll be off soon."
"Yeah well, have a nice day," grunted Abeforth.
And with that the two apparated to Gringotts.
"Stop here," commanded the four guards before they entered the hall of the bank. Two of them began searching Dean while the other two began searching Seamus. One was doing a body check while the other was conducting spells quickly under his breath.
"…human revelio…"
"What is this?" muttered Seamus as the two guards twirled their wand around him.
"New security measure since the break-in yesterday," grumbled one of the guards.
"That's great," said Dean sarcastically, "Do you think I'll be able to get in before nightfall?"
"Alright you guys are done," grunted the guard.
Dean swiftly entered the doors, walked to the nearest counter and placed the key in front of the crouching goblin.
"Erm, my name's Dean Thomas I want to open my vault…"
"Wand identification," demanded the goblin, reaching out with his crinkled arm.
"What? I don't have a wand!"
"Squib then? Follow me,"
"No, I'm not – just let me –"
"I'll take him to his vault, I know him," came Griphook's toneless voice.
The old goblin handed the key to Griphook and glanced twice at Dean before returning to his seat behind the counter and slouching once again.
"Griphook!" said Dean, for once delighted at seeing the fussy goblin.
"Follow me," he said, as if he didn't know Dean.
They followed Griphook through a dark, twisty corridor leading underground which looked rather like a coal mine and walked for a while, turning infinite corners, before stopping at a door with a long number printed on it and the name "Carrophs".
"You're the only descendant left," grumbled Griphook, opening the door for him, "I'll wait for you outside."
"Thanks," said Seamus in the same indifferent tone as Griphook and raising his eyebrows at Dean.
"Ladies first," said Dean, beckoning Seamus to enter first.
Seamus pushed Dean into the room first, then followed behind.
"Wow!! How many cleansweeps can you get with this?" wondered Seamus aloud.
"Enough to last my lifetime and my grandson's and my grandson's grandson and…"
The golden sheen from the piles of galleons was reflected on their faces as Dean stared at the money his family had left him and Seamus, mouth hanging open, seemed to swallow the golden glow from the coins.
"Look Dean, over there!" said Seamus suddenly, pointing at a rectangular wooden box, lying about at the foot of the coins and looking completely out of place with the riches contained in the vault. But it was the box that Dean was attracted to. It was exactly the kind of thing that looked as if it had been passed down for generations, something that his father had no doubt fingered too.
Dean ran towards the box, opened the lid gently and took out the wand which looked like it was sleeping inside, cuddling against the red cushioning. Dean took it out and a photo fell out.
He waved the wand about and red sparks flew out, as he curled his fingers around the wand, he felt another hand hold his.
It was his father, Theodore Smith, Dean knew it, he felt it in the blood pumping through his heart and the magic flowing through his wand; this was his father's wand.
"What's this?" asked Seamus, picking up the photo and flipping it over.
"Awww, Dean, look at this!"
Dean stuck his head in front of the photo, it was a photo of his mum and his dad and there he was, a small baby, held in his mother's arms. It was a picture taken from the hospital Dean was born – a muggle hospital – and what's more, it was a muggle photo, so no one could ever leave it.
"My first family photo," whispered Dean, taking the photo from Seamus' hands and sitting down, staring at it for a long time.
Next to him, Seamus sat silently, not completely understanding his friend's feelings, but there to share them.
-
Thanks to everyone who shared Dean's story and a huge thanks to everyone who reviewed, and before you all go reading some other fanfic I would just like to say the following;
Firstly, I had great fun writing Dean's story. This is the first multi-chapter fic that I've finished so it was a huge commitment on my part and I apologise for any slow updates.
Secondly, I'm going to change the title to 'Family Photo' because 'What about Dean?' really was a crap title, but I didn't want to change it until I had finished the story in case anyone got confused.
Thanks again for reading this and I hope everyone writes some good fics, gets some good reviews and don't suffer from writer's block.