A/N: Yes, I realize that this one is a day late. But, in my defense, I was baking all day and babysitting all night. But regardless, I was not expecting this one to go as well as it did, so I hope you all enjoy it!

August 1998

"Would you like to go to the Fortescue's with me?" Dean tried to ask casually as he walked around the streets with Seamus. Seamus had come to visit Dean and his family in London, and the two were taking a late night stroll after dinner.

"Right now?" Seamus asked, a bit puzzled.

"No, no. It's a bit late for that." He acknowledged, glancing at Big Ben in the distance. It was already ten o'clock at night. There was no way that Fortescue's was still open at this hour. "I was thinking we could go tomorrow perhaps, just the two of us?"

Seamus glanced up at his tall companion, "Dean Thomas, are you asking me out on a date?" He said in mock amusement and shock.

Dean's darker skin graciously hid his blush, the warmth that spread through the cells, "I — yes. Yes I am." He said a bit boldly.

Seamus too was growing warm, his cheeks flushing. Dean didn't notice. He was too nervous to look directly at Seamus. He was afraid of what Seamus might say. But he did not need to worry, "I would love to."

…

The two stepped into the small front in Diagon Alley. The war had hit Diagon Alley hard, and Florean Fortescue was no longer alive. Rumor was that Death Eaters had killed him. But his nephew took over the ownership of the shop, keeping the name in honor of his uncle's memory.

"Have you been here before?" Seamus asked politely as they stood in a long line that winded through the shop in a zig zag.

"Actually, no. When I went to Diagon Alley with my mum we were in and out in an hour. She has a tendency to get what she needs quickly and be done. Grocery shopping with a ton of kids kind of forces you to do that I suppose." Dean explained.

"Oh, you're going to love it." Seamus said with a knowing smile.

"How could I not? Everyone loves ice cream. Or, at least, everyone should."

"This probably isn't like muggle ice cream." Seamus said.

Dean craned his neck over the heads of the line and looked at the rows of ice cream. It certainly looked normal. The colors ranged from white to pink to blue to rainbow. It certainly didn't seem out of the ordinary. "I don't get it, what's so different about it?"

"Well, for starters, it's not always made of cow's milk."

"That's not that odd. My little sister is lactose intolerant, we have lactose-free ice cream. I think it's made from almonds? Or tofu. I don't know. I get it all mixed up."

Seamus laughed, "Well, some flavors are made of mooncalf milk, which is way sweeter than cow's milk. And it has some stranger properties."

"Like what?" Dean said nervously.

"You'll see." Seamus said as they strolled up to the front. The flavors were all quite odd, and reminded Dean of Bertie Bott's. The flavors ranged from the predictable vanilla to the strange Snargaluff. Dean played it safe and went for the mint chocolate chip, his favorite. But as they stepped back outside and sat across from each other at a little table on the patio, Dean noticed that the ice cream had morphed slightly. It was now bright pink and the chips were rainbow. Dean looked down at his cone with a puzzled expression, "Did they give me the wrong one and I just didn't notice?"

Seamus was laughing, "No, no. That's the mooncalf milk. It tends to make things change colors, depending on the lighting. It usually looks normal under artificial light, but it will look very odd in sunlight or moonlight."

"What would it look like at moonlight?"

"I dunno," Seamus shrugged, "I once had chocolate ice cream turn orange in moonlight."

"Why were you eating chocolate ice cream under moonlight?"

"Because I could and ice cream is good?"

"Well look at that, you're a poet and you didn't know it."

"Oh shut it, Thomas."

"Not a chance, Finnegan." He shot Seamus a wicked grin as he ate away at his incredibly flamboyant ice cream.

Seamus couldn't help but laugh. This was how his friendship with Dean worked. Things were fine and dandy, then they would play fight. It worked pretty well for them. "You know, I have to admit. I'm a little surprised you didn't want to take me over to Madam Puddifoot's."

Dean shook his head, remembering the little tea shop in Hogsmeade. "Oh god, no. That place is atrocious. I don't think anybody actually wants to go there. I know I didn't want to go in there third year, but I did."

"Hang on. Dean Thomas has actually been inside Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop? I haven't been in the place meself, but its reputation precedes it." Seamus explained hastily.

Dean's ears became incredibly hot. He had never told a soul about that day third year. It was too mortifying. He tried to prevent having to tell Seamus about it by suddenly becoming very preoccupied with his ice cream. "Why doesn't it melt?"

"Ice cream melts?"

"Of course ice cream melts! It's cold and gets warm. That's how it works." Dean said, somewhat shocked that Seamus didn't understand this.

"Oh, it's probably always under a spell then. I've never actually seen melted ice cream. The things muggles have to deal with. Can't even enjoy their ice cream." He said in dismay, before catching on. "Hey, don't try to change the subject. Tell me. What's this about you in the tea shop third year?"

Dean whined a bit before fessing up, "Alright. But you can't laugh."

"Oh, I probably will." Seamus assured him.

Dean sighed and continued, intermittently licking off bits of his ice cream, "Third year, Fay Dunbar had a big crush on me. Don't ask why, I have no idea. Anyway, out of nowhere, she cornered me after class and asked me out. It was really scary, actually. She kind of just yelled it at me, as if I couldn't say no. Frankly, I don't think I realized that I could say no. Anyway, she decided we had to go to Madam Puddifoot's and it was a total trainwreck. Everyone around us was much older, mostly sixth years. At least half of them were snogging over their tea and scones. And here I am, shaking in my boots, terrified that this girl is going to try and kiss me. Sure enough, she tried to. But I was so unwilling that I literally dodged out of the way. But I literally fell out of my chair in my effort to get away from her, and she fell forward. The table crashed, the chairs were all askew, and everyone in the whole joint was staring at us. I think I mumbled something like 'thanks for the tea' and ran away as fast as possible."

Seamus' face was priceless. Dean was going to have to remember it and draw it later. His mouth was agape, but the edges were curled up in an odd smile. "That was the time you mysteriously vanished off to Hogsmeade without us. You insisted you wanted to go alone! Neville and I were convinced you were up to no good, to be honest. But no! Just embarrassing yourself in a tea shop. Merlin's beard, I can just see it." He cracked up in a terrible fit of laughter. Many people at nearby tables and walking by in the alley turned and looked at him. But most of them just smiled in amusement. Seamus had a tendency to laugh a bit like a hyena when he found something incredibly funny.

Dean didn't really mind that he was laughing. It was so long ago now that he wasn't as embarrassed by it anymore. It was far funnier now than it had been at the time. "So, yeah, I wasn't about to willingly go back there."

"I can see why," Seamus said, a hand over his stomach. He was hardly full, but his laughter had been so hard it had left an aching pain in his muscles. But it was worth it. "You poor thing. I had no idea you went out with Fay Dunbar."

"Oh, believe me, that was the one and only time." Dean assured him. After the incident at the teashop, neither were able to look or speak to each other for the rest of the year. And even after that, they only interacted if they had to.

"Fair enough. So Ginny was your only real girlfriend?" Seamus asked, his light tone switching into something a bit more serious.

Dean nodded quietly. He was, by no means, still upset about Ginny. He just didn't like having to remember their many unpleasant times together. In hindsight, he really regretted ever agreeing to go out with her. "Did you ever date anyone at school?" Dean asked, trying to deflect attention away from his past relationship.

It was Seamus' turn to get flustered. "Yes, but it was never anything serious."

"Lavender, right?"

"Once or twice," Seamus became very quiet. Normally, Seamus was rather eager and jumpy. But every once in awhile, he darkened substantially. Dean could tell he was thinking of the war. Dean and Seamus had fought side by side that day. They had nearly stepped on Lavender's corpse. At the time, they registered it and moved on. But afterwards, Seamus had gotten sick at the memory of it. Dean knew very well that he didn't care much for Lavender at all, but it didn't really matter. Death was death, and Lavender had been one of the few whose death was personal to Seamus. Fred's death was the only other one that had shaken Seamus. He knew Lupin and Tonks, and he liked them enough, but he'd hardly spoken to them. Lavender and Fred had been his friends once.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up." Dean apologized, suddenly lodged with guilt at making the conversation veer into the war. They tried their best to avoid talking about it.

"It's alright." Seamus said, shaking his head a bit and sitting up straight. Their ice cream had long ago been finished without notice or fanfare. He smiled, albeit rather weakly, "There was one other person I went on a date with. Sixth year, when you were off with Ginny, I went out with Terry Boot."

"Not that Ravenclaw git!" Dean said, happy to talk about something else.

"How's he a git?"

"I don't know, he just is."

"You're only saying that because I went out with him."

"Okay, maybe, but he's still a git."

Seamus' smile became more natural. His regular joviality showing up again. "You're really jealous of Terry Boot?"

Dean shrugged, "I mean, I would have much preferred dating you sixth year than Ginny Weasley, if I'm being honest. So yeah, I'm a little jealous Terry Boot got to you first."

Seamus grinned widely, his silly heart hammering in his chest. "You actually … you liked me back then?"

"Of course I did. Not that I knew it. But I did."

"How could you not know it?"

"Well I thought I didn't like you. Hindsight is 20/20 as they say." Dean tried to explain. "I just figured we were really close friends. A good team. But I don't think I ever considered the alternative, or how strong my feelings were. Not until seventh year anyway." Dean cursed himself internally. He didn't want to get back to discussing that year. It had been a terrible year.

"Come again?" Seamus said, needing to hear more. They had never talked about this. They had been quietly flirting with each other for weeks. It was no surprise that Dean liked him, but he had no idea when that interest had started.

Dean sighed, but reluctantly told him, "Well, we had heard that there were terrible things happening at Hogwarts. I worried about all of you. Frankly, I was concerned Ginny was going to get herself killed. But I was mostly terrified about you. It wasn't until I realized that you could die without me ever knowing it that I felt —" He paused and took a deep breath. He looked up, finally able to look Seamus in the eye, "I had a nightmare. I dreamt I returned to Hogwarts but you were already dead. I woke up screaming. I couldn't be reasoned with at first. Ted tried to calm me down, afraid I was going to give our location away to anyone within hearing distance. But it didn't help. The fear of you dying kept me going. The time I spent cooped up at Bill's was terrible. Luna was able to keep me somewhat calm, reminding me that at least as of Christmas you were alive. But it took a lot of willpower to not jeopardize everything by running to Hogwarts to make sure you were okay."

Seamus' expression was solemn again, although there was a look in his eye that Dean couldn't quite interpret. He reached out and took Dean's hand in his, squeezing it tightly. He didn't need to say anything, his meaning was perfectly clear. The same way it had been perfectly clear when Dean had arrived in the Room of Requirement that fateful day and Seamus had launched himself into Dean's arms. They exchanged words silently, almost telepathically, through their gestures for years.

As they left Fortescue's, it was incredibly obvious to both of them that while this had been their first date it was hardly going to be their last.