Fic: Memories as a Teacup: Chapter 16
Title: Memories as a Teacup: Chapter 16
Author: wook77
Pairing:: Dean/Seamus (other slash and het pairings contained within)
Rating: PG (Eventual rating: Hard R to NC-17)
100quills prompt: 41. Heart
Warnings: Canon compliant through DH. Pre-Epilogue. Additional Warnings at the beginning of Chapter 1.
Wordcount: Overall: ~70k This part: ~2100
Summary: Four years ago, Dean Thomas died in the midst of a raid. Seamus saw it happen right in front of his eyes but seeing isn't believing and reality is in the eye of the beholder.
A/N: Many many thanks to nefernat and elanorofcastile for the beta job. All remaining mistakes are my own.
All Chapters
"I'm not asking you to be who you were. I'm asking you to be who you are. Now. I'm in love with him, too."
"How can you say that?"
Seamus grabbed the teacup from in front of him and hurled it at the wall. It shattered in hundreds of pieces. Seamus looked over to Dean and saw the shocked expression. "That was me, Dean, when you died. Thousands of sharp shards and I couldn't get put back together, no matter how many ways and times I tried."
Seamus stood and then stalked over to the remains. Grabbing one of the pieces of the bottom of the cup, he held it aloft. "This? This is our first meeting."
He put it on the table and then picked up another." This? This is all the Bertie Botts we shared." He picked up another and then another and then another, laying them on the table neatly. "This is all the games of Exploding Snap. This is when you knocked my head straight, back in fifth year. This is for the summers we shared running wild with one another. This is our training together."
"I get it, Sea-" Dean started to say but Seamus interrupted him.
"You don't, no. Not yet." Seamus held up the handle of the cup. "This is the way I love you, the way you kissed and loved me." He Summoned the smallest pieces and then let them cascade down to the table. "All of these? These are the thousands, millions of memories we shared."
He held up a hand when Dean made to interrupt again. With his other hand, he picked up the last few pieces. Holding them tightly in his clenched fist, he grabbed his wand and then cast Reparo on the pieces. The cup formed back together, fractures and holes where the pieces within his grip were missing. "You see this? This is me right before I found you. Mostly together, just a bit missing. I could almost function again." He opened his hand and showed Dean the pieces in his palm. After putting his wand down, he carefully picked up one. "This? This is finding you again. This one is having you here with me, willing to talk and get to know me. This is knowing that, even without you having our shared history, we can, at the least, be mates. This one? This is the way I feel about you being willing to risk everything to try to recover your memories. And this one? This one's the hope I've got that you could love me even without all the history, hope that you can love me even half as much as I love you." Seamus carefully placed the last pieces on the table and then once more cast Reparo.
The cup came back together, as good as new. "Do you see now? Do you?"
"I see, I do." Seamus looked over to see the gobsmacked expression on Dean's face.
"Then how can you ask me that? I love you for you, whether you're the you of before or not. I love you for your core because that hasn't changed." Seamus laid his hand on Dean's chest, palm flat over his heart. "Here, you're you and that's who I love."
When Dean reached up and gripped the back of his neck, pulling him closer, Seamus pulled back. "Not yet, not until you love me, too."
Dean started to speak and Seamus interrupted, placing a finger on Dean's lips. "Don't be saying things you're not meaning."
"All right," Dean agreed and then held on to the hand Seamus had over his heart. "Won't stop me from trying to take advantage."
"Wouldn't be you if you didn't."
~~**~~
"Sit back and relax. We're going to insert the first one now." Parvati's soothing voice came from just behind his ear. "Think about that smile and…"
"Got something better," Dean interrupted.
"Yeah? Tell me about it."
"Seamus threw a teacup. Best thing ever." Dean leaned back and relaxed a bit more as he felt the tingling start beside his ear.
"I'll need a bit more information than that," she said as the tingling turned into a buzzing sound.
"Told me he loved me with or without my memories and used the cup to show me. It was brilliant." Dean couldn't help the soft - and slightly sappy, if he were honest with himself - smile that came across his face.
"That is brilliant, Dean. I'm very glad for the two of you." There was a murmur of voices too quiet to hear with the buzzing noise and then the wand tip disappeared. "There. First one in. Try to remember the Yule Ball."
Dean concentrated and then gasped.
The Great Hall looked a dream. Seamus stood there with Lavender and Dean couldn't quite help the way that he kept staring. He told himself it was because they looked beautiful together but it was all a lie. It was because of the way that Seamus bounced, a contained ball of energy that pulled him in. It was the way that Seamus kept stealing glances at Dean in his formal robes and the way that Seamus looked in his own formal robes. It was the way that their hands would brush, back to back. It was all of this and more. In the end, it was Seamus in his entirety that grabbed his attention.
"Fucking brilliant, ain't it?" Seamus asked as he leaned over and yelled into Dean's ear over the applause as the Champions entered the room.
"It is!" Dean agreed and bumped against Seamus.
The Champions started to dance with their dates while Dean and Seamus exchanged a look and then burst out laughing. "Harry's a rubbish dancer!"
"Aye, that he is. It's rather hilarious watching it, though, isn't it?" Seamus yelled back.
"Poor Parvati, he's stepped on her at least three or four times. Please tell me you're a better dancer than that," Lavender said. Until she spoke, Dean had forgotten that Seamus had asked her to be his date to the Ball.
"Course I am, let me show you my moves." Seamus tossed a wink towards Dean and then escorted Lavender out onto the dance floor. Dean felt quite alone as the various pairs started the first waltz. Pulling back towards the edges, he made his way to the punchbowl where Fred and George Weasley were currently pouring something into the punch.
"Oi! What're you doing there?" Dean demanded as he walked up behind them.
"Making things more fun," one of them said while the other nodded sagely.
"Not going to poison the lot of us, are you? No Canary Creams or anything like it in there?" Dean looked at the punch bowl suspiciously.
"Of course not! What sort do you think we are?"
"The sort to turn people into giant birds?" Dean grinned as the Weasley twins exchanged a look and laughed.
"You have us there, mate. No date?"
"Didn't want one. Where are your dates?"
"Probably looking for the pair of us. So we're off to make our dates happy. Have fun and enjoy the punch!"
Dean looked at the punch suspiciously before casting one last look at the Weasley twins. With a sigh of trepidation, he dipped the ladle in and grabbed a glass. Just as he was about to take a sip, Seamus stole it from his hands. "Thanks, mate! Much obliged."
"Oi! That was mine and the…" he didn't get a chance to finish as Seamus downed the entire contents.
"What?" Seamus looked at the glass and then grabbed another ladle full. He downed that one quickly enough, as well.
"George and Fred dumped something in there. Don't know what, though."
"And you let me drink it? If I'm going to suffer, so're you!" Seamus ladled another glass and handed it to Dean. "You have two to drink to catch up. Down it goes!"
Dean drank first one and then another in rapid succession. There was a tingle and then nothing. He didn't sprout feathers and neither had Seamus. In fact, he didn't feel any different whatsoever. Perhaps it had been alcohol or something instead.
"Dance?" Dean gestured towards the floor.
"With you?" Seamus asked and Dean nodded. "Yeah, let's go."
The waltz reminded him of the way they'd practised so they wouldn't make arses of themselves with any possible dates. Dean took the lead and they swirled in time to the music, giant, exaggerated gestures. Both laughed and grinned as they manoeuvred around the floor. When the song ended, they stepped outside the Hall and leaned against the wall.
"Could do with a smoke," Seamus said.
"Disgusting habit. It makes you stink," Dean retorted as he changed to lean with a shoulder on the wall and facing Seamus.
"I don't smell."
"You do." Dean sniffed at Seamus dramatically. When Seamus turned to look at Dean, the moment shifted and all Dean could see was the fact that their faces were inches apart and if he moved a hair, he'd be able to kiss Seamus. As he was wondering about whether Seamus would taste like those illicit fags or if the punch would taste different from his mouth, he was finding out. Seamus's lips pressed against his and it was the best feeling in his life that he'd ever experienced. Hands threaded into his hair and pulled him closer, bringing their mouths more in line.
Dean hadn't snogged anyone before or, well, not since Mara back when they were six. Even then, it'd been a quick peck on the lips and nothing at all like this. Nothing could be like this, not with the way that Seamus's mouth was hot and wet and his tongue. Oh dear Jesus, his tongue was touching Dean's and that wet slipslide was too much for Dean.
Moaning into Seamus's mouth - which did taste like punch and not the fags - Dean shifted until he pressed Seamus against the wall while his hands held on to Seamus's arms, drifting up to his shoulders, along his collarbone, up his neck, over his cheeks, through his hair, brushing his ears before going back down. He didn't know what to touch and where to touch because there were too many options.
"Seem," he whispered as he pulled back before kissing once more.
He was hard. Seamus was hard. They were both hard and touching and rubbing and kissing and Seamus was thrusting against him while he thrust against Seamus. This was just about perfect, really, nothing could be better except for this to go on and on and on and… and the door to the Great Hall opened, the creak echoing loudly as the music poured out. They leapt apart and stood there panting as they stared at one another. Dean rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth, wiping the proof of their snog away.
"That was…" Seamus started before stopping. If it had been any other moment, if they had been doing anything else, Dean would give Seamus such shit for being speechless but they had been doing that and it had been a moment. A really important moment that shifted everything.
"Yeah."
"Don't know what the twins put in the punch but I'm sure that's why we kissed," Seamus said and Dean could tell he was trying to convince them both. A small frisson of loss crept through him before he realised that they were mates. Everyone knew that mates didn't kiss mates like that.
"Right. We'll laugh about this tomorrow. Good kiss, though. Lavender's a lucky lass. You going to try to kiss her, too?"
"Um, yeah, sure. Expected, isn't it?" Seamus looked to the door and then to Dean and then back to the door.
"Want to go back in?"
"Actually, I think the punch made me sick, I think I'll head up to bed." Dean kept staring at Seamus.
"All right. Have a good one."
"Good luck with Lav."
"Ta," Seamus said with a salute and then walked back towards the Great Hall. As he reached the doors, he looked back and then touched his lips. Dean watched the path of his hand and the way the fingers hesitated before echoing the gesture.
When he pulled out of the memory, his fingers were pressed to his lips. "I remembered."
As always, I'd love to hear what you thought.
Chapter 17
Author: wook77
Pairing:: Dean/Seamus (other slash and het pairings contained within)
Rating: PG (Eventual rating: Hard R to NC-17)
100quills prompt: 41. Heart
Warnings: Canon compliant through DH. Pre-Epilogue. Additional Warnings at the beginning of Chapter 1.
Wordcount: Overall: ~70k This part: ~2100
Summary: Four years ago, Dean Thomas died in the midst of a raid. Seamus saw it happen right in front of his eyes but seeing isn't believing and reality is in the eye of the beholder.
A/N: Many many thanks to nefernat and elanorofcastile for the beta job. All remaining mistakes are my own.
All Chapters
"I'm not asking you to be who you were. I'm asking you to be who you are. Now. I'm in love with him, too."
"How can you say that?"
Seamus grabbed the teacup from in front of him and hurled it at the wall. It shattered in hundreds of pieces. Seamus looked over to Dean and saw the shocked expression. "That was me, Dean, when you died. Thousands of sharp shards and I couldn't get put back together, no matter how many ways and times I tried."
Seamus stood and then stalked over to the remains. Grabbing one of the pieces of the bottom of the cup, he held it aloft. "This? This is our first meeting."
He put it on the table and then picked up another." This? This is all the Bertie Botts we shared." He picked up another and then another and then another, laying them on the table neatly. "This is all the games of Exploding Snap. This is when you knocked my head straight, back in fifth year. This is for the summers we shared running wild with one another. This is our training together."
"I get it, Sea-" Dean started to say but Seamus interrupted him.
"You don't, no. Not yet." Seamus held up the handle of the cup. "This is the way I love you, the way you kissed and loved me." He Summoned the smallest pieces and then let them cascade down to the table. "All of these? These are the thousands, millions of memories we shared."
He held up a hand when Dean made to interrupt again. With his other hand, he picked up the last few pieces. Holding them tightly in his clenched fist, he grabbed his wand and then cast Reparo on the pieces. The cup formed back together, fractures and holes where the pieces within his grip were missing. "You see this? This is me right before I found you. Mostly together, just a bit missing. I could almost function again." He opened his hand and showed Dean the pieces in his palm. After putting his wand down, he carefully picked up one. "This? This is finding you again. This one is having you here with me, willing to talk and get to know me. This is knowing that, even without you having our shared history, we can, at the least, be mates. This one? This is the way I feel about you being willing to risk everything to try to recover your memories. And this one? This one's the hope I've got that you could love me even without all the history, hope that you can love me even half as much as I love you." Seamus carefully placed the last pieces on the table and then once more cast Reparo.
The cup came back together, as good as new. "Do you see now? Do you?"
"I see, I do." Seamus looked over to see the gobsmacked expression on Dean's face.
"Then how can you ask me that? I love you for you, whether you're the you of before or not. I love you for your core because that hasn't changed." Seamus laid his hand on Dean's chest, palm flat over his heart. "Here, you're you and that's who I love."
When Dean reached up and gripped the back of his neck, pulling him closer, Seamus pulled back. "Not yet, not until you love me, too."
Dean started to speak and Seamus interrupted, placing a finger on Dean's lips. "Don't be saying things you're not meaning."
"All right," Dean agreed and then held on to the hand Seamus had over his heart. "Won't stop me from trying to take advantage."
"Wouldn't be you if you didn't."
~~**~~
"Sit back and relax. We're going to insert the first one now." Parvati's soothing voice came from just behind his ear. "Think about that smile and…"
"Got something better," Dean interrupted.
"Yeah? Tell me about it."
"Seamus threw a teacup. Best thing ever." Dean leaned back and relaxed a bit more as he felt the tingling start beside his ear.
"I'll need a bit more information than that," she said as the tingling turned into a buzzing sound.
"Told me he loved me with or without my memories and used the cup to show me. It was brilliant." Dean couldn't help the soft - and slightly sappy, if he were honest with himself - smile that came across his face.
"That is brilliant, Dean. I'm very glad for the two of you." There was a murmur of voices too quiet to hear with the buzzing noise and then the wand tip disappeared. "There. First one in. Try to remember the Yule Ball."
Dean concentrated and then gasped.
The Great Hall looked a dream. Seamus stood there with Lavender and Dean couldn't quite help the way that he kept staring. He told himself it was because they looked beautiful together but it was all a lie. It was because of the way that Seamus bounced, a contained ball of energy that pulled him in. It was the way that Seamus kept stealing glances at Dean in his formal robes and the way that Seamus looked in his own formal robes. It was the way that their hands would brush, back to back. It was all of this and more. In the end, it was Seamus in his entirety that grabbed his attention.
"Fucking brilliant, ain't it?" Seamus asked as he leaned over and yelled into Dean's ear over the applause as the Champions entered the room.
"It is!" Dean agreed and bumped against Seamus.
The Champions started to dance with their dates while Dean and Seamus exchanged a look and then burst out laughing. "Harry's a rubbish dancer!"
"Aye, that he is. It's rather hilarious watching it, though, isn't it?" Seamus yelled back.
"Poor Parvati, he's stepped on her at least three or four times. Please tell me you're a better dancer than that," Lavender said. Until she spoke, Dean had forgotten that Seamus had asked her to be his date to the Ball.
"Course I am, let me show you my moves." Seamus tossed a wink towards Dean and then escorted Lavender out onto the dance floor. Dean felt quite alone as the various pairs started the first waltz. Pulling back towards the edges, he made his way to the punchbowl where Fred and George Weasley were currently pouring something into the punch.
"Oi! What're you doing there?" Dean demanded as he walked up behind them.
"Making things more fun," one of them said while the other nodded sagely.
"Not going to poison the lot of us, are you? No Canary Creams or anything like it in there?" Dean looked at the punch bowl suspiciously.
"Of course not! What sort do you think we are?"
"The sort to turn people into giant birds?" Dean grinned as the Weasley twins exchanged a look and laughed.
"You have us there, mate. No date?"
"Didn't want one. Where are your dates?"
"Probably looking for the pair of us. So we're off to make our dates happy. Have fun and enjoy the punch!"
Dean looked at the punch suspiciously before casting one last look at the Weasley twins. With a sigh of trepidation, he dipped the ladle in and grabbed a glass. Just as he was about to take a sip, Seamus stole it from his hands. "Thanks, mate! Much obliged."
"Oi! That was mine and the…" he didn't get a chance to finish as Seamus downed the entire contents.
"What?" Seamus looked at the glass and then grabbed another ladle full. He downed that one quickly enough, as well.
"George and Fred dumped something in there. Don't know what, though."
"And you let me drink it? If I'm going to suffer, so're you!" Seamus ladled another glass and handed it to Dean. "You have two to drink to catch up. Down it goes!"
Dean drank first one and then another in rapid succession. There was a tingle and then nothing. He didn't sprout feathers and neither had Seamus. In fact, he didn't feel any different whatsoever. Perhaps it had been alcohol or something instead.
"Dance?" Dean gestured towards the floor.
"With you?" Seamus asked and Dean nodded. "Yeah, let's go."
The waltz reminded him of the way they'd practised so they wouldn't make arses of themselves with any possible dates. Dean took the lead and they swirled in time to the music, giant, exaggerated gestures. Both laughed and grinned as they manoeuvred around the floor. When the song ended, they stepped outside the Hall and leaned against the wall.
"Could do with a smoke," Seamus said.
"Disgusting habit. It makes you stink," Dean retorted as he changed to lean with a shoulder on the wall and facing Seamus.
"I don't smell."
"You do." Dean sniffed at Seamus dramatically. When Seamus turned to look at Dean, the moment shifted and all Dean could see was the fact that their faces were inches apart and if he moved a hair, he'd be able to kiss Seamus. As he was wondering about whether Seamus would taste like those illicit fags or if the punch would taste different from his mouth, he was finding out. Seamus's lips pressed against his and it was the best feeling in his life that he'd ever experienced. Hands threaded into his hair and pulled him closer, bringing their mouths more in line.
Dean hadn't snogged anyone before or, well, not since Mara back when they were six. Even then, it'd been a quick peck on the lips and nothing at all like this. Nothing could be like this, not with the way that Seamus's mouth was hot and wet and his tongue. Oh dear Jesus, his tongue was touching Dean's and that wet slipslide was too much for Dean.
Moaning into Seamus's mouth - which did taste like punch and not the fags - Dean shifted until he pressed Seamus against the wall while his hands held on to Seamus's arms, drifting up to his shoulders, along his collarbone, up his neck, over his cheeks, through his hair, brushing his ears before going back down. He didn't know what to touch and where to touch because there were too many options.
"Seem," he whispered as he pulled back before kissing once more.
He was hard. Seamus was hard. They were both hard and touching and rubbing and kissing and Seamus was thrusting against him while he thrust against Seamus. This was just about perfect, really, nothing could be better except for this to go on and on and on and… and the door to the Great Hall opened, the creak echoing loudly as the music poured out. They leapt apart and stood there panting as they stared at one another. Dean rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth, wiping the proof of their snog away.
"That was…" Seamus started before stopping. If it had been any other moment, if they had been doing anything else, Dean would give Seamus such shit for being speechless but they had been doing that and it had been a moment. A really important moment that shifted everything.
"Yeah."
"Don't know what the twins put in the punch but I'm sure that's why we kissed," Seamus said and Dean could tell he was trying to convince them both. A small frisson of loss crept through him before he realised that they were mates. Everyone knew that mates didn't kiss mates like that.
"Right. We'll laugh about this tomorrow. Good kiss, though. Lavender's a lucky lass. You going to try to kiss her, too?"
"Um, yeah, sure. Expected, isn't it?" Seamus looked to the door and then to Dean and then back to the door.
"Want to go back in?"
"Actually, I think the punch made me sick, I think I'll head up to bed." Dean kept staring at Seamus.
"All right. Have a good one."
"Good luck with Lav."
"Ta," Seamus said with a salute and then walked back towards the Great Hall. As he reached the doors, he looked back and then touched his lips. Dean watched the path of his hand and the way the fingers hesitated before echoing the gesture.
When he pulled out of the memory, his fingers were pressed to his lips. "I remembered."
As always, I'd love to hear what you thought.
Chapter 17