May 2004

Dean walked toward their home from the apparition site on the corner of the property. He yawned a bit to himself as he stepped through the front door. Work had been rather dull lately. He had to do a lot more formatting of the Daily Prophet than actual artwork now and it was getting a bit tiresome. But his boredom-induced tiredness quickly dissipated when he walked into his house. A dog ran up to him as he opened the door and jumped up onto him. Dean yelled in surprise and lost his balance, falling and landing hard on his bum. The dog scrambled up and started licking at his face. Dean pushed it away from him, "Off, off!"

Seamus came tearing around the corner from the living room, "Oi! Peanut, come." He shouted at the dog. The dog whined and ran over to Seamus who bent down and booped its nose with his index finger, "No jumping." The dog, apparently named Peanut, just licked Seamus' face in response. Seamus smiled, "Oh, you're too cute to get mad at." He ruffled the dog's fluffy brown head as Dean got back on his feet.

"Shay," He said cautiously as he watched the dog, "What the hell is that?"

"It's called a dog, Dean. Her name's Peanut." Seamus said calmly, still enraptured with the big, fluffy, golden mutt. "And she's such a good girl, yes she is." He said in a cooing baby voice to Peanut who was wagging her tail with joy.

"I know it's a bloody dog, but why is it in our house? Why do you know it's name? Seamus what did you do?" Dean said, getting more and more panicked.

Seamus finally looked up at Dean and walked away from the dog and toward Dean, "She was wandering around, covered in muck. So I brought her in and cleaned her off. I thought we could keep her. I always wanted a dog. Mum's allergic so we could never have one. Did you have a dog growing up?"

"No, and I don't know the first thing about taking care of one. And neither do you. I don't think we should take her in." Dean said, trying to be the voice of reason.

"Her name's Peanut, and she already knows some commands. We wouldn't have to train her too much, I don't think. She's a couple years old." Seamus tried to reason, hoping that Dean wasn't going to give up so easily. He whistled for Peanut and she ran over. "See, watch. Peanut," She looked up at Seamus expectantly, her tail still wagging all over the place, "Sit." She plopped down on her hindquarters without hesitation. "Peanut, lie down." She flopped down onto her belly. "See! She's a good girl. Aren't you?" She wagged her silly tail in reply.

Dean watched the dog patiently. She had this odd face that made her look like she was perpetually smiling at them, and he couldn't help but suspect that she actually was. He didn't want to admit it, but she was a really cute dog. "But she's going to need a collar, tags, a leash, a bed, she's going to cost a lot."

"Oh, you know we can afford all that."

"Sure, if we could buy it in Diagon Alley — which we can't. Most wizards don't own dogs, Seamus. They usually go for owls." Dean said with thick sarcasm.

"We can get an owl too, if you like. But I want Peanut." Seamus said stubbornly. "We can go get some galleons converted and buy her things in town. No big deal."

Dean looked from Seamus to Peanut and back again. They were both giving him puppy dog eyes. "Fine." He relented. Seamus cheered and excited Peanut into barking. "But you're the one getting all of her things and taking care of her, understand?"

"I'll get her everything she needs right now then." Seamus said delightedly, stepping around Dean toward the door "I know you're going to try and resist, but you're going to fall in love with her." He assured him before letting the door close behind him, heading toward the apparition point that Dean had just come from fifteen minutes ago.

Dean looked down at the dog. The dog looked right back. She seemed to act too much like a human. "You're not an animagus are you? Not some barmy Death Eater trying to get information out of us?" He asked accusatorily. Peanut just thumped that stupid tail against the hardwood floor. He pulled his wand out of his back pocket and muttered, "Homenum Revelio" as he waved the wand across the room. Nothing happened. Peanut was not an animagus. Dean assuaged any other paranoid ideas that the dog presented some other kind of threat. He was pretty sure this was just a silly old dog that wanted nothing more than to jump all over Dean and lick his face. "Listen, dog, we need to establish some ground rules." He said, pointing at her as if he was giving a lecture, "You absolutely cannot lick my face, you do not jump on people, you do not jump on my bed, you do not jump on my couch, you do not eat my food, and you do not piss on my floor. Understood?" Remarkably, Peanut barked. He had to think this meant that on some level she knew what he meant — kind of.

"Well," Dean said, "Good. I'm gonna … go now." He said, taking big steps around the dog. He didn't want to admit it to Seamus, but he actually loved dogs. However, he had never had such a frightening introduction to one. Perhaps if someone had sent an owl to the Prophet about this, he might not have been as startled when he was mauled by a dog upon returning home. But he had been the one that had been cheap and gone against buying an owl every year. Now he was really regretting it. An owl certainly cost less than a dog, that was for sure. They could at least eat their own food and wouldn't need giant bags of kibble. Given how big this thing was, he knew she'd be putting a dent in their wallets for some time. How long do dogs usually live? Dean asked himself as he wandered into the kitchen. The stress was making him desperately desire a butterbeer.

He grabbed himself a cold one from the fridge and turned around and nearly stepped on Peanut's paws. He looked down at her and realized she had been following him. "What do you want? I haven't got anything for you." He said bitterly as she stepped around her and went to the living room, flopping on the couch and turning on the telly. Peanut hopped up on the couch next to him. "What did I just get done telling you? No getting on my couch." He said, slowly edging her off the couch. He hadn't actually touched her until just then, and he vaguely registered that her fur was ridiculously soft. Seamus probably wasted the good shampoo on her. She begrudgingly got off the couch, but nevertheless sat right by Dean's legs. He glared at the back of her head but decided not to yell at her as he sipped his butterbeer and turned on the muggle news. But he couldn't shake Peanut's presence as she kept leaning into his leg. He sighed to himself and finally reached out with his hand and gently pet the top of her head.

Her head whipped around and she opened her mouth, her tongue lolling out as she looked over at Dean. His hand pulled back, nervous she would bite or lick him. He wasn't sure what to expect from this dog at any given time. But when she didn't do anything except stare at him, he slowly reached out again and scratched between her ears. That tail of hers went at it again. He had always been jealous of people who had dogs when he was growing up, but he had had little experience with them. He knew that his cousins had a dog, but he had met her once over the holidays his third year and then by the next year the poor dog had died. A few neighbors had them, but he only greeted them in passing if they ran across each other on a walk. He had pet a dog, sure, but he had never spent longer than fifteen minutes with one, until now.

But Peanut did not look all that ferocious as he pet her. If anything, she seemed to be enjoying the attention. Dean would pull his hand away, ready to lean back and pay attention to the news and she would whine and lean against him some more so that he would return to petting her. Just as he was getting used to her, the door swung open as Seamus returned and she bolted for him. "No jumping," Seamus warned as her nails clacked on the hardwood floor toward him. She dutifully did not try to jump on him. "Good girl." He said, tossing her a biscuit he had put in his pocket just for this reason. Dean stood and walked over and saw Seamus was transporting all of the dog supplies with the hovering charm. Dean reached out and pulled down the folded up dog crate, releasing it from the magic. He walked over toward the space between the couch and the dining room table and unfolded the crate here. This was as good a place as any. Seamus unloaded the rest of the supplies, putting a plush dog bed in the corner of the living room by the telly stand and the dog bowls in the corner of the kitchen.

"How was she?" Seamus asked curiously as he filled the bowls for her. The bag of food was almost as big as the dog.

"Fine, I guess." Dean said, not willing to admit he had liked petting her and liked her general company. He still wasn't sure about the dog.

Seamus pulled a big stuffed bunny out of the bag of supplies and held it up to Peanut who had been following him. She immediately recognized it as the toy it was and gently took it in her mouth. Seamus let go of it and the dog proceeded to shake it violently around. Seamus laughed, "She's so cute."

"Yes, if that was a real bunny it'd be gushing blood and squealing in terror until its neck broke." Dean said flatly, "But sure, it's cute."

"Oh, give it a rest." Seamus waved him off as he tossed something toward Dean. He caught it and looked down at a little black collar dotted with rainbow hearts. A little four leaf clover tag hung from it that read: PEANUT. "Go on, put it on her." Seamus said. Dean looked at him, not sure what to do. "Tell her to come over." Seamus said simply. Clearly he was going to have to train Dean more than he would have to train Peanut. Dean looked at the dog nervously before saying, "Peanut. Come." The dog looked up and ran over to him, the toy still in his mouth. "Sit." He said, trying to sound calm and certain. Peanut sat. Dean knelt in front of the dog and she dropped the toy, panting with her dumb tongue falling out of her mouth again. He reached out and wrapped the collar around her neck, clasping it shut with the buckle in the back. "Good girl." He murmured, scratching between her ears again.

"See, I told you you'd love her." Seamus said from where he was observing from the kitchen.

"Shut up, ye git." Dean said, walking away from the dog before he could actually fall in love with her. She was growing on him, but he wasn't completely used to her yet.

August 2004

Peanut stood at the foot of the bed. It was six in the morning and the sun had already risen. She waited to see if either of her owners was going to stir. They didn't. Seamus let out a snore. Peanut barked loudly. Dean immediately sat up, "Shhhh." He groaned as he swung his lead out of bed and put on his slippers. Seamus was still asleep. He had grown deaf to the sound of Peanut barking at them every morning. Peanut followed behind Dean as he walked downstairs and headed out the front door. "Go on, go pee." He yawned as she wandered off around the yard. She had picked a spot over by the fence. It was probably never going to grow grass properly again, it was one of only two places where she liked to pee in big yard. But Dean didn't care. As long as she wasn't pissing on his tomatoes, he could make do.

When she'd finished her business, she'd trotted toward the front door. Dean was still in a zombie like state as he let her back into the house and followed behind. He sluggishly made his way to the kitchen and made himself some coffee, using his wand to speed up the process. Peanut followed him diligently, hoping for a treat. But she wouldn't get one. He settled down in his spot on the couch and she hopped up and curled up beside him. He sipped his coffee slowly as he blearily tried to absorb the news, his arm around the dog, absentmindedly petting her. Once the coffee had woken him up properly, he sauntered off to his room to change and woke Seamus up as well. Peanut was waiting patiently by her food bowl as Seamus headed down. He poured some food into her bowl for her as he started his morning.

Dean came back down, fully dressed and fully awake, and opened the window in the living room just as their barn owl, Bernard, swooped in and landed on the window sill. Dean unwrapped the Daily Prophet from his ankle, along with a couple of letters. He flew out the window, likely to go up in his nest in the oak tree in the backyard. He handed Seamus the mail and kissed his cheek. "I'll see you later. Love you."

"Love you too," Seamus said, stifling a yawn.

Peanut ran up to Dean as he headed for the door. He knelt and kissed her on the head, ruffling her fur around the ears, "I love you too." She licked his cheek and he couldn't help but laugh.