A/N House: Ravenclaw

Category:Short

Prompts:"Hello, I knew your dad"

Word count: 946

"Hello, I knew your dad." Dean looked at the small kid answering the door, starting slightly as he saw the blue eyes that were an exact replica of his. The eyes he thought he had loved and lost from his life so long ago. The sight made Dean's heart stop in his chest. "Is he in?" he continued, clearing his throat nervously.'

"Yeah, let me just go get him," The young boy replied.

"Pa! Pa!" the boy shouted into the house "Someone's at the door for you."

"So, who are you?" the boy questioned.

"I'm Dean Thomas, I knew your dad."

"You said that! Hello Mister Thomas, I'm Aden."

"Aden" He liked the name. "Nice to meet you. It's Dean, please."

The boy stuck out his hand for Dean to shake. Dean took it and shook on the boys hand gently, the other seeming to try to squeeze as tightly as he could.

As this was happening, Seamus bounced down the stairs. Seamus' son released Dean's hand. The Seamus Dean once knew was no more; where there had once been a scrawny Irish teenager, now stood the tall muscular man he had become. He looked so different to that first time they met on the Hogwarts express the two bonding over their half-blood lineage.

Seamus visibly stiffened when he saw Dean.

"Dean." He said curtly.

"Seamus...How have you been?"

'Dean... er... yeah," Seamus shook himself. "Good... I've been... good. I see you met my boy 'ere"

"Yeah, yeah, I told him I knew his dad."

"Knew could certainly be a word for it." he said, a hint of sadness in his eye. "Come in, come in"

Dean did as was told, stepping through the front door, being greeted by the inhabitants of the home smiling down from pictures everywhere.

Two kids and a wife. A wife.

Dean knew he had no chance with Seamus, even before he disappeared without telling anyone for years. There had been nothing from the other boy to even indicate he might have been gay. Maybe that's why he disappeared, maybe he needed the distraction from him. Maybe that's why he decided to become an auror, enabling him to track down the untrackable.

"Tea?" Seamus asked awkwardly, a tension hanging heavy between them.'

"Please"

Dean sat down in the kitchen. Drawings from the kids covered every square inch of the fridge and everything just screamed the perfect family. His heart sank further, if only he hadn't disappeared maybe he could have owned the little irish cottage on the moors with the man he had loved since they were boys; whom he'd lost all hope of ever seeing again till a few weeks ago.

Seamus tried to break the awkwardness with a cough. "So...let's address the elephant in the room, shall we? Where in Merlin's beard have you been all this bloody time?"

"The guy they bought into the Ministry a few days ago? The one's that had been giving them the slip for the past few years? I did that. I got the job on my desk one day and it instructed me to tell no one. Just pack my things and disappear after him. Turns out he knew more people than we thought. Took me all the way around the world, China, Australia, Peru. The sights I saw."

He wasn't lying, Dean was amazed at the beautiful things he had seen on his travels. But nothing compared to this place, this little cottage on the moors. With Seamus.

"You couldn't write?" Seamus demanded, hurt in his tone.

"Seamus...look, I'm sorry. I had to disappear, it was top secret."

"It's fine...it's your job, I 'understand," he spat bitterly, very obviously not understanding.

At that moment Aden ran in.

"So how do you know my father?" he asked curiously.

"We went to school together, he was in some of my classes" Seamus said

"Oh! Did dad get into trouble at all? He always whines when I get into trouble," Aden continued, oblivious to the awkwardness.

Dean smiled "Yeah, a lot, Seamus was always getting into some kinda mess I had to clean up."

"That's not quite how I remember it." Seamus sighed and then smirked slightly as if recalling a fond memory "'Remember that time we swapped Snape's shampoo for grease?" He laughed. "I swear there was no difference."

'Dean smirked back. "Yeah, and that time you stuck a wildfire Whiz-Bang inside Filch's office?"

Aden's mouth hung agape. "You did that? Really?" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, me and your dad had a lot of fun."

"Yeah, we did." Seamus trailed off, his voice becoming heavy with sadness towards the sighed, but smiled and said amusedly: "Hell, I could never seem to stay mad at you, seem not much has changed, come here brother."

They spent the rest of the afternoon catching up over tea, Aden piping up occasionally but mostly listening to the stories of the older pair. As they shared more and more Dean realised how much of the other man's life he missed. As the afternoon continued he felt more and more as if he had lost the one his heart desired the most.

As it approached dusk, Dean insisted he had to leave, Seamus suggesting he should come for sunday lunch with their family for a proper catch up and to meet the rest of his family, his wife.

"Don't be a stranger now Dean, I've missed my best friend."

And he would never be more than that. Dean's heart shattered as he said his goodbyes to the love of his life, realising that it was just as much of a lost cause as before.