A/N: Hey guys! No, I'm not dead, yes, I know I should be writing on my other fic (believe me, I *am*), and yes, I know that this is not my regular fandom. But every writer *has* to write a Harry Potter fic, right? :P And, since I think these guys have far to little love, they got one.

Summary: Seamus has gotten himself pretty beat-up by one of the Death Eaters currently residing at Hogwarts. Again. But his best friend Dean is there to take care of him when he is in need. Rated 'T' for some blood, violence and swearing.

Warnings: Tiny spoilers for the last book, blood, violence, swearing, ... I think that's about it.

Disclaimer: I do not claim to own "Harry Potter", nor any of its characters, locations, etc.

Note: No slash intended (although if you manage to look at this as slash, be my guest...), no spelling program and absolutely no idea about how you write Seamus's accent (I'm Norwegian). If anyone spots any errors, please, help me correct them.

Guardian Angel

Low hisses emitted from the boy's dorm in the Gryffindor chamber. On one of the beds in the dark room lay Seamus Finnigan, his right arm bound, and eyes tightly shut in pain, while his best friend Dean Thomas cleansed his cut. Or rather, his gash. The nasty wound started a bit over the eye, and ran across his cheek to his ear. It was not particularly deep, yet it bled a lot, as head wounds usually do. And the fact that his eye was also cut...

"Ouch!" Seamus groaned as Dean ran the alkohol soaked cloth down his cheek. "It hurts, ya know!"

Dean mumbled a 'sorry' before carefully continuing his work. Every time the antiseptic cloth made contact with a sore or open spot on the Irishman's skin, the latter winced unwillingly, often making pained sounds or pulling away in addition. Dean would only mutter a small 'sorry' every time. He knew that it was little use in doing or saying anything else. He also knew that neither needed anything else. After being best friends for over six years, they were like brothers, and a lot of things went unsaid. Like how Seamus was sorry for not managing to lay still, or how Dean wished that he wouldn't have to do this, even though he wouldn't let anyone else do it either. But most of all, they both agreed that Seamus was an impulsive fool.

"Hey, Thomas!" a Slytherin, a sixth grade Slytherin, even, called to Dean. Dean and Seamus, who just walked out of the Great Hall, turned at the call.

"What?" The boy in question snapped. Seamus just scowled at the younger boy and his friends.

"Are you really sure it's really such a good idea to stay here?" The Slytherin smirked. Dean raised an eyebrow.

"Why wouldn't it? Because I'm a Gryffindor?" Seamus frowned. Both he and Dean knew why they said this. It was because Dean never knew his father, and his mother was a Muggle. If it turned out that Dean's father was a muggle, Dean would be labeled as a Muggleborn, or 'Mudblood' to the Slytherin assholes, and either murdered, or at least thrown out of school. Seamus felt his fist curl into balls. He knew what came next, but hoped for once that he was wrong. He wasn't.

"No, silly," The Slytherin said mockingly. "I mean, with your father possibly being a muggle, and all. And I mean, even if he isn't, you half-blooded losers should really get the fuck out of here, before something bad happens..." At this, Seamus growled and charged towards the Slytherin. But before he had even taken three steps, however, Dean grabbed his hand, halting him. Seamus turned back, with rage in his eyes. Dean, on the other hand, just shook his head.

"Never mind them, Seamus," he said quietly. "They're just Slytherins, anyway. You wouldn't like to get expelled, or hurt again, only because of them?"

At this Seamus calmed a bit, and the pair turned to leave. The gang of Slytherins, however, wouldn't let them. One of them, a huge and dumb-looking one, grabbed the two Gryffindors by their robes and pulled them back.

"As much as I advise you to listen to your Mudblood friend - " The boy who had speaken earlier started before he was cut off by Seamus.

"Ya better take that back, asshole!" He yelled angrily. But the Slytherins only laughed at him.

"What are you going to do?" One of them said mockingly. "Curse us? Punch us? Dirty us with your friends muddy blood?" At this, they laughed harder. Seamus, on the other hand, was dangerously close to trying one of the two first. Dean sighed, and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. 'Please, Seamus, control yourself...' He begged. He knew how impulsive his friend could be. He had seen it before. A little provocation, and Seamus would attack immediately. And later receive the punishment. What frustrated Dean, was his inability to do anything. Sure, he had tried to stop the other, to talk sense into him, but when they actually got into such a situation, simple logic seemed to fail Seamus. 'Please, for once, control yourself...'

Unfortunately, his prayers were unheard. Before he knew what had happened, the Irishman pulled his wand and charged towards the gang.

"Seamus, NO!" He cried, but to no avail. Seamus flung the Levitacorpus on three of them before they even realized that their preys had counterattacked. One of the last two was thrown backwards with a heavy Exitarmus, and the remaining one, the speaker, found himself pinned to the ground by the larger Gryffindor.

"Seamus!" Dean shrieked, his voice full of panic as he ran towards the struggling pair. Oh, how he hoped that no teachers were around.

Seamus landed punch after punch on the smaller boy, while the latter screamed, truly scared of the raging Gryffindor. Suddenly, though, Seamus was flung back against the wall with a distant cracking sound. Dean halted immediately, and stared towards the source of the curse. One of the Death Eathers, or 'teachers', had his wand pointed at Seamus, who groaned and tried to sit up while clutching his arm.

Dean's first instinct was to run and help his friend, check if he was okay, but the Death Eather's presence kept him at bay.

"Why, stupid boy," the Death Eather said calmly, approaching Seamus while keeping his wand pointed against the Irishman. "Why would you, a mere half-blood, charge and attack fellow students? Purebloods, even. Don't you know your place in this world?" At this, he flicked his wand, making Seamus's head jerk and crash against the wall again, this time leaving the boy motionless. Although his semi-long hair covered his eyes, his friend knew how pain-filled they were.

Dean bit his lip. It hurt him to watch Seamus suffer like that. Just like the other times. He had no doubt that Seamus was the one that had suffered most under Voldemort's regiment at Hogwarts. He was constantly punished in class, and pretty often outside too.

"Answer me, boy!" The Death Eater spat at Seamus, who stirred a bit again. As he raised his head, his eyes peeked out from under brown bangs. And they were full of defiance.

"I know me place in the world, allright," he said, dangerously quiet. "And that place ain't kneelin' at yer dirty feet!" At this, his head was once again jerked to the side. This time, though, a trail of blood trickled down his head.

"You better start respecting your superiors, pathetic half-blood," the Death Eater said. Then he bendt down and yanked some of Seamus's hair, forcing the younger to look at him.

"Don't you think we know of your opposition?" he whispered. "If you prove to be to much of a finger in the eye, we'll just simply remove you. We can't exactly brag about your will to cooperate." His finger trailed an older scar across the younger's jaw. Then he let go of Seamus's hair and straightened again, with a small kick to the Gryffindor's broken arm. The Seamus yelped and clutched his arm again.

"Just to prove my point," the Death Eater added, and with a new flick of his wand, blood started to gush out from Seamus's temple. Completely caught by surprise, the Irishman screamed and moved his uninjured arm to his head, frantically trying to stop the blood. The Death Eater seemed pleased with his work, and turned to leave. On the way, he caught Dean's eyes, mockingly staring at him. Dean, however, had nothing but fury in his eyes. The second the Death Eater turned to the confused Slytherins, he bolted towards his friend.

"Hey, Shay, buddy, you still there?" he asked gently while prying Seamus's hand of his head, ignoring his friend's blood on himself. With a weak moaning in protest, Seamus gave up and let his hand fall. Dean noticed how his eyes were closed, but with a pained frown. The gash even ran across one of them, and he resisted the urge to forcefully open his friend's eyelid, to check for any damage on the eyeball. Instead, he tore a piece of fabric from his robe and hastily bound the other's head.

"Me head hurts, Dean," Seamus groaned. Dean smiled lightly.

"I would've expected nothing less," he said bitterly. "Come on. I'll get you to the Gryffindor Tower. You might need some care for that head wound."

Seamus chuckled softly.

"Sure, Dean. Whatever you say."

So now he was playing nurse for that damned Irishman. It wasn't the first time, though. Seamus got in trouble all the time, but the teachers never bothered to help him. Dean was always left with the responsibility of looking out for his less calm friend. The other Gryffindors that were still at the castle never hesitated to help, of course, but Dean often reassured them that he would be fine cleaning up the mess alone. But there were those times when Dean got himself a beating too. You would expect that Seamus then took the role of nurse, but that never happened. Because each time someone hurt Dean, he would become angry, and attack whoever did it, thus getting himself a beating of his own. Then some of the others had to take care of both of them.

It actually bothered Dean that Seamus was so fiercely protective of him. Although he was just as protective over the other boy, he knew when he had to back down. Before it got even worse. He was also much calmer. If a Slytherin insulted Seamus directly, Seamus would get mad, but usually didn't do anything towards the villain. Nor would Dean, because he knew that nothing good came out of that situation. But if it was Dean the Slytherin insulted, Seamus would freak instantly. Dean had told him over and over how he needed to stop that before he killed himself. And Seamus would always agree. Until an insult was thrown their way again.

Dean sighed. He didn't know what to do. Oh well. It would soon be Christmas, which meant that half of the year was over. And they would soon be out out this hole Hogwarts had become.

"Dean?" The soft whisper brought Dean out of his thoughts again. He quickly soaked the cloth again and continued his routine.

"Sorry, I just spaced out a bit," he said, smiling. His smile did not affect Seamus, though. The latter stared aimlessly at the ceiling, only wincing when the cloth burned his face.

"Dean?" He finally said again. Sensing the insecurity in his friend's voice, Dean stopped his work and looked at Seamus's one open eye.

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry, buddy."

Dean frowned. "Why? What are you apologizing for?"

Seamus shrugged.

"For bein' me, I guess," he said quietly, and closed his eye again. "I know ya told me to keep outta fights and all, but... I just can't help it, ya know? This place can drive ye insane. I don't know if I can hang around here much longer. Especially not if I have to accept all that shit from those fuckings Slytherins. The fightin' just makes it all like... Thirty-seven times easier. But I always leave ya to clean up me mess..."

"Nah, that's fine," Dean said, smiling again, but for real this time. "I know how hard it is living here right now, and it must be harder for you when you can't avoid fights with that tiny brain of yours. But, as you said yourself, you're just being you. Unfortunately, you are a bit impulsive."

"I know, I'm a fucking bastard."

"Don't say that."

"I say what I want to say about meself."

"Not when I'm around."

Seamus grinned, cracking his one eye open again. "Fine, then I'll just wait for ye to leave, then?" Dean sighed.

"Stop it," he said, a bit tiredly, which Seamus caught, and sank back into his pillow again. Dean, sensing his displeasure quickly apologized.

"Sorry, Seamus," he said, still sounding a bit tired, but sincere all the while. "I'm just worried about you, you know? Always getting hurt by some of those bitches... I suppose I better get you a handcuff soon."

"Yeah, ye do that," Seamus sighed. "It's not like I wanna get hurt in fights all the time, either. It's just unavoidable. So ye just... Punch me."

"What?" Dean said, clearly surprised.

"The next time I do somethin' stupid again..." Seamus started confidently. "Just punch me. Ye have to knock some sense in that brain of mine, as ye said. So just do what ye have to do. It's better to get it from ye, instead of those screw-ups."

"Fine. Then you have to promise to calm down. Hogwarts is a dangerous place right now."

"Deal," the Irishman quickly said. "Although I'd rather just leave right now. I it were up to me, the two of us would be somewhere far away right now, or maybe just here, as long as it is far away from this stinkin' war." Dean nodded.

"Keep that thought, Finnigan," he grinned. "It's what you need to keep your sanity. And you know what, some day, that dream will become reality." Seamus snickered.

"Oh yeah?" he said sceptically. Dean nodded again.

"Yeah," he said, truly convinced of his own words. "Maybe we can't do much of a difference where we are, but we've gotta have faith in Harry and the rest. Right now, we worry about ourself. If we just survive one more day, we're one step closer to winning. You-Know-Who haven't beaten us if we're still alive, right?"

"Right," Seamus smiled. Although he was reluctant to admit it, he knew that Dean was right. Hell, Dean was always right. That's why he was Dean. "You go on survivin'. Meanwhile, I'll go sleepin' for a while, unless me nurse has anythin' to say against it?"

"Only if you haven't got a concussion," Dean replied. Seamus looked surprised.

"Wow, when did ye learn som much medicine?" Dean shrugged.

"Mom's a nurse," he replied casually. Seamus smiled, and yawned.

"Wow, the apple doesn't fall far from the trunk, or whatever ye say," he said. "Well, I'm pretty sure I haven't got a concussion. Me head hurts, allright, but I don't think I hit it against the wall to hard, or somethin'."

"Fine, then," Dean grinned. "Go to sleep, Wonderboy."

"Thanks, Guardian Angel."

Dean watched his friend adjust, making both his arm comfortable, and turning his head to the uninjured side. He sat like that for a while, before Seamus mumbled something.

"Take a look at me eye while I'm asleep, okay, buddy?"

Dean smiled, and took Seamus uninjured hand, giving it a light squeeze. "Sure, buddy." But Seamus had already fallen asleep. Still, Dean sat at his side, watching his friend's deep breathing and peaceful face. 'That's one stupid Irishman I've got here...' he thought. 'But I guess that's why he's my best friend.'

As he walked towards the door to the common room, he turned back to take one last look at the sleeping Seamus.

"Sweat dreams, Seamus."

So that was that. Hope you liked it! ^^ If it is requested, I might consider turning this into a multi-chaptered fic. But so far, it stands alone. And I beg you, please review, most of you probably know how it is to know that people read your story, but don't bother reviewing.

~Caellie~