To Be A Magical Boy

Chapter 2 - Second Year

"About time you got here!"

Seamus crashed bodily into Dean, flinging himself on top of his friend and wrapping him in what was perhaps a slightly excessive embrace. He didn't care. If anything, the thoughts that arose were of excitement that Dean had finally arrived at Kings Cross and amusement at the heavy grunt that he heaved as Seamus knocked the wind out of him. Luckily – or perhaps unluckily, Seamus wasn't sure, because it would have been funny otherwise – Dean managed to retain his balance after a brief stumble, holding them both up.

When he did right himself, it was to meet Seamus' gaze with a grin spreading across his face. "Hey, Seam, how's it -?"

"You know the train is about to leave any second now, like?" Seamus interrupted him, before glancing over his friend's shoulder. He raised a hand to wave at the woman who stood behind Dean, standing alongside her son's trunk with a fond smile upon her face. "Hi, Mrs Thomas."

Mrs Thomas raised her hand to wave in a reply greeting. "Hello, Seamus. It's lovely to see you again."

"Yeah, you too." Seamus nodded, beaming up at her. He liked Mrs Thomas, had liked her as soon as he'd met her the one and only time he'd visited Dean over the summer break. She wasn't a small woman, was tall and the spitting image of Dean, from her warm, dark eyes to her perfectly symmetrical smile and stunningly white teeth beneath. She was also incredibly kind, calm and quietly spoken. Basically, if Seamus were to consider Dean to grow up into a woman, thirty years down the track it would be his mum he'd see. Which... might have been a strange thing for him to think but it was true nonetheless.

"Is the train really about to leave?" Mrs Thomas asked, glancing down at the delicate gold watch on her wrist before raising her gaze towards Seamus once more. "I thought it left at eleven o'clock."

"Yeah, it does," Seamus said.

"Seam, it's only ten forty-five," Dean laughed. "We've still got ages."

Seamus turned back to him with a heavy sigh and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but if you leave it till the last minute, like, then you won't get a proper seat. Maybe Ron and Harry and Neville and all of them have already got a cabin but you never can be too sure. Especially not when it comes to Weasley, like. He's probably not even here yet."

"Is Ron's partial to being late?" Mrs Thomas asked with a widening of her smile. Somehow she made her question seem not harsh, demeaning or patronising in the slightest.

"Ron just tends to sleep in a bit," Dean explained.

"Always," Seamus emphasised, shaking his head sagely. "We had to drag him out of his bed more than once last year, didn't we, Dean?"

Dean nodded, smirking slightly. "It's not like it's a bad thing, though, sleeping in. Not everyone wakes up exactly on seven o'clock every morning like you do."

"Well, it's wasting the morning if you don't, like. Besides, it's not like I could sleep in if I tried."

"Then that's sort of the same thing as Ron not being able to wake up earlier, isn't it?"

"How is that the same thing, exactly?"

"I mean he's not doing it on purpose."

"What, so you reckon sleeping for more than twelve hours every night is supposed to be normal?"

Before Dean could reply, Mrs Thomas interrupted them. "I'm sure it's not a problem, but it's a good thing he has both of you to make sure he isn't late for his classes." She spared a smile for Seamus that seemed to request one in return. Seamus easily obliged as she turned back to Dean. Stepping forwards, she wrapped an arm around his shoulder and planted a kiss on his cheek. Dean grimaced slightly but didn't pull away as Seamus had done with his own mum not ten minutes before.