Title: Closure
Author: smolder
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Angel the Series belongs to Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt. Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling.
A/N: These drabbles won't always be in strict chronological order.
A/N 2: Yes, I have started these again, but I won't be posting them regularly like I was doing the last two batches. Just a fair warning.
A/N 3: Reviews are Good. This has been a subtle hint from the author - Please return to your regularly scheduled reading.
Oliver stares. It's hard not to. Hard to remember this man as the cheerful, almost annoyingly energetic, boy who would tag along so faithfully after his older brother.
Dennis Creevey, although not extremely tiny, never grew to be a large man – neither tall or bulky. And with his dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, and soft spoken voice you might expect him to fade into the background.
But, oh, he never would.
He had a quiet intensity. In all of the years he's taught Oliver has never heard of his fellow professor raising his voice; he hasn't needed to. When he talks, you want to listen. You feel that if you aren't, you are missing out on a vital life lesson.
And this is all so very intimidating for Oliver now when he wants to tell him something. When he finally wants to get this off his conscious after all of these years.
Those sharp eyes seem to sense his stare and come up from the book they were reading and skewer him for his unwelcome intrusion. Starting this all of on the wrong foot before even a word is spoken.
And there haven't really been many words spoken between them in the past either. Dennis is not a social person. Millicent seems to be the only odd exception to this rule and Oliver doesn't even want to touch how to classify that relationship.
The only people he might consider Dennis' friends are Susan and Padma. And that only occurred after repeated forced exposure due to the monthly Head of House meetings. As well as, all of the times the various Heads of Houses had to speak on manners pertaining to issues with certain students and inter-House conflicts.
So, even after working and living in the same building with the man for decades now, Oliver has only barely reached friendly acquaintance levels with him.
But now Dennis' glare is becoming even more irritated the longer he simply stands in the man's classroom doorway. So, Oliver tries to say what he came here to tell him – what it's taken him so long to get up the courage to let him know.
"Dennis," he starts walking into the room. And even that feels weird because they are not on first name basis, but to call him Creevey with the rest what he wants to say….
"I-I, it's," Oliver stumbles. He had this all planned out (had discussed it with Parvati many times) but saying this while having the other man simply watch him flatly is incredibly difficult. "I was there that night," he gets out. "With the Battle and – and when your brother...I carri-"
"Stop, Wood," Dennis interrupts him quietly rising from his chair. "Stop talking, right fucking now."
"But-," Oliver tries to continue, tries to explain.
"No," Dennis says laying his hands flat on the desk for a second with his head bent and takes a deep breath. When he looks up his eyes are blazing but his voice never raises above a whisper.
"I'm finally living, Wood. Living and not just surviving. Do you know how long that took me? How many years to not fucking hate all of you people?" he asks.
He rounded his desk and Oliver had to stop himself from backing up a step at the smaller mans intensity.
"I still don't know why the Hat made me Head of Gryffindor," Dennis continued standing only a few feet from him, "because I am not selfless and I am certainly not brave. My brother is dead, Oliver," he stated bluntly and his jaw clenched, "and I have finally buried him. I am not going to let you dig him up just so you can get shit off your chest and have some closure. Deal with your own life and let me deal with mine."
They simply stared at each other for a long moment. Oliver had no idea what to say.
Dennis broke the silence. "I would prefer it if you left now," he pointed at the door.
It seemed to take a beat for the meaning of the words to sink into Oliver's brain. He didn't want to just go. He wanted to apologize. He wanted to try to explain again.
He wanted to make it all better somehow.
So Oliver did what was probably best for Dennis, he didn't say a word and he simply left the classroom.