Dean Thomas might have had a minor supporting role in the storyline, but the hints we get about his family suggest that he might have lost his father in the First Wizarding War and not be fully aware of his magical parentage.

The Blackbird

"Dean…" Seamus nudged him, but his attention was focused a few rows ahead at the memorial ceremony. A grim-faced witch struggled with an armful of squirming, shape-changing infant. Widow Tonks, the late Ted Tonks' wife, and her grandson – Professor Lupin's boy. Professor Lupin had fallen in battle, Mrs Lupin too. He had seen the couple laid out in the Great Hall. Beside the witch, the boy's godfather, Harry Potter tried to coax him into cooperation with a teething rusk.

"He has his gramma, and Potter as godpa, I suppose he would be alright…"

Ted Tonks never met his grandson, though he had spoken with pride of his daughter and worried about her marriage at too young an age to the werewolf Lupin on those cold nights whilst on the run. Dean had reassured Ted that Lupin was a good teacher, to which Ted had retorted that even if a wizard knew his wandwork, it did not make him less a fool when it came to love.

In the heat of battle, Professor Flitwick had handed Dean the fallen wizard's wand after disarming the Death Eater who felled Lupin when he noticed Dean was trying to cast wandless.

"Master Thomas, you cannot fight without a wand! Take it or leave the field now!"

The borrowed wand had worked for him readily. He still had the wand. Mrs Tonks declined it when he tried to return it to her after the ceremony.

"Remus' wand has chosen you, boy. I believe Teddy's wand would be more akin to his mother's."

"But I would like him to have something from his father… My father was killed in the First War… My Muggle Mom and I have nothing of him…"

"Your father's magic flows in your veins. He lives on in you," Andromeda replied as she bounced her grandson on her hip. "As for Teddy, we will tell him about his father's courage…" she kissed the tot on the forehead.

"It probably worked for you because you share common traits with Mister Lupin. Both of you fought to defend Hogwarts. Cypress is an honourable wood… and wands of unicorn hair cores would never work for some Death Eater… even if won in battle," Ollivander had explained when he asked the wandmaker about it at the refreshments table. "Perhaps there is also the echo of the former owner's sentiment the wand found in you – the desire of a father to sacrifice all to protect his family?"

When he was barely two, his wizard-father stepped out of his life and vanished without a trace, leaving his mother saddled with their son as a single parent. He could not remember his birth-father's voice or his face. There were no photos. Only a name on his birth papers – Ray Crow. It seemed too pat. Even his mother confided that she suspected it was an alias. She kept her maiden name and tagged it onto her son's. Dean Smith was adopted by his stepfather at the age of seven, becoming Dean Thomas in the process. For all appearances, he was Muggle. No one suspected a thing until the admission letter came, hand-delivered by Professor Sinistra.

On hindsight, his mom related a scare when he was four. An electrical fire broke out in their fourth floor apartment while she was downstairs in the laundry room. She had run up all four flights of stairs screaming before the firefighters caught her. They put out the fire, but no child was found in the unit. They found him sitting safely in the small park two blocks away, still clutching his teddy bear. No one knew who had rescued the child from the burning unit. It was a classic case of protective magic, as his professors would call it.

At first, his mother had been fearful that the strange woman was from Child Services. The family had been going through a rough time with his stepfather ill in hospital and his mom forced to leave her son home to watch over the little ones so she could go to work at the store. Professor Sinistra reassured her otherwise. The professor also helped them apply for a bursary to cover Dean's school expenses until the family could get back on their feet. She also put Mrs Thomas in touch with a retired schoolteacher in the neighbourhood willing to look after the children while she was working. His stepfather would need an operation, but he would be back home within the year.

"Dean Smith Thomas. Is Mr Alex Thomas your father? You take after your mother in looks… mostly…" Young Dean could sense the professor's interest in him and how she was skirting the question.

"He's my stepdad. Mom said my real dad died when I was very young… but Mr Thomas is like a dad to me."

"Do you have any pictures of your real dad?"

"There was a fire and we lost everything… I cannot remember anything about him. Mom said he ran with a rough crowd, that is why when he disappeared, she believed him dead. Did you know my real dad, ma'am?"

"You just reminded me of a friend, that's all."

"Is his name Ray Crow?"

"Close enough…" Professor Sinistra helped him prepare for his arrival at Hogwarts. She did not tell him more about his father the rest of the time he was in Hogwarts.

Fearing he would endanger his Muggle family, Dean had gone on the run after the Death Eaters took over. Completing his studies at Hogwarts was out of the question as he was registered as a Muggleborn. He had fallen in with fellow Muggleborns Ted Tonks and Dirk Cresswell. Both were wizards who had done well for themselves until the Death Eaters took over.

"Your father might have been a wizard but unless the couple registered their marriage with the Ministry of Magic, any child born to a Muggle mother would be registered as a Muggleborn. An inheritance test might be done at Gringotts' to confirm the sire. Mind, it will cost you and no Muggleborn can enter Gringotts' now," Dirk had explained back when he was on the run.

Dean had experimented with wandless magic during his vacation weekends with Seamus' family. Underage magic could not be detected in the Finnigan household with so many grown wizards and witches pottering about. He was not particularly good, merely passable. He might be able to toss a stinging hex wandlessly at the opposing team, but that was about it. He squeezed in more practice at Shell Cottage with Bill Weasley's help.

He cast his first patronus during a DA meeting in the Room of Requirement. It was a memory of his little sisters and Mom greeting his stepdad on his return from the hospital. It was nothing more than a shivery silver cloud. By the time he went on the run, he could manage a shielding patronus.

Holding Lupin's wand, Dean was horrified to spot dementors closing in on a knot of unaware defenders, including Professor Sinistra, from behind as they fought Death Eaters and Snatchers. Running to them, he cast his patronus, expecting the wispy shield. Instead, he had seized on another memory, one he did not even know he had.

"How's Papa's little blackbird?" A father's kiss on his brow as he giggled in the crib. A slivery bird hopped on the edge of his crib, perhaps a crow or raven. The warmth as he was lifted into a hug.

"Sorry … Papa's got nothing to leave to you except these words – I love you and your mama, always… Find your own way, my blackbird. Fly free…"

A silvery bird burst out of borrowed wand and swooped at the Dementors. A blackbird.

"Reynard?" Sinistra had shouted in bewilderment at the sight of the winged patronus. Then her eyes met Dean's for a heartbeat before Dean had to defend himself from a Death Eater's curse. There was no time for further conversation even after the battle was over. He could not find the professor during the celebrations.

Dean Thomas sought the Astronomy Professor out after the ceremony. After he was Sorted in Gryffindor, there was little reason for him to interact with the professor outside the few Astronomy classes he had. Most of which he spent half-asleep.

"Professor Sinistra, please… I would like to find out more about my father."

"Your father is Mr Thomas, Dean. And he will be worried if you do not return home soon…"

"No, I mean my real father. During the battle, I had a memory of his voice… and his patronus. It was a crow or raven…"

"It was a raven, his family's emblem," Aurora sighed wearily and cast a Privacy Charm.

"Reynard was a brave wizard. He was in Slytherin and many of his housemates supported Voldemort, including his kin. He was pureblood but he refused to play by their rules. It was not enough that they cut him off, his brothers had to kill him as well. Had they known he had a Muggle wife and child, you would have been killed too…"

"My father was in Slytherin?"

"It is not the House but the wizard, boy. Few knew about your mother. I only knew because he had me agree to be your godmother should it become ever safe for him to acknowledge you. He obliviated the rest whom he did not trust. I am trained in Occulumency. Not even Snape has gotten past my shields. Dumbledore just didn't care to look."

"W-what should I do now?"

"You are of age if not close to it. You can decide. Before you do, you must know that your father would not have chosen to leave you were it not for the circumstances then. He left you nothing in order to protect you. No trust funds or vaults in Gringotts', nothing that can be traced to you. Even if he were his family's Heir once, he had been disowned. You will have no claim on the family name or fortune."

Aurora Sinistra paused for a while to fish out a worn-looking envelope from under her cloak and handed it to Dean.

"Dean Thomas, you have scraped through well enough all these years. Between your mother and stepfather, they have raised you into a fine young man. You have survived the war and proven yourself as a wizard by your own efforts. As your godmother, I am proud of you. So would your father. Given a choice, I would have left you ignorant about your father's identity. Here is a letter from your father that might clarify any questions as to your origins. I strongly recommend you burn it and continue as things are. The choice is yours."

With a swish of her cloak, the witch dropped the Privacy Charm and stalked off like a cat.

To my little blackbird…

Dean's eyes prickled with tears at the words written on the envelope in flowing script. No doubt his father's.

"Dean, you joining us? We think Ron might be popping the question to Granger soon!"

Seamus' voice echoed from the reception hall. Blinking his eyes, Dean cast a stasis charm on the letter and placed it into his coat.

"Coming! Did he remember the ring this time?"

Author's Notes:

I was wondering if I should out the identity of Dean Thomas' biological father or if I should just leave it at hints. In this fic, his father was in Slytherin and yes, like Sirius Black, his family contained Death Eaters who would not think twice about trimming 'blood traitors' off the family tree.