Family Ties

The Hogwarts High Inquisitor dampened the spirits of students so much that the Halloween feast was not nearly as much fun as usual. Knowing she was sitting up at the teachers' table scrutinizing everyone (no one more than Harry, and any Gryffindors associated with him,) put people off their food. Everyone knew she was determined to expel Harry as soon as possible , and all the Gryffindors were on edge.

Approaching the first Quidditch match of the season, Dean did what little he could to console Ron Weasley; he was enduring the relentless psychological intimidation techniques of Slytherin for the first time. But Ron wasn't listening to anybody, not even Harry.

Besides, Dean had his own distractions. He had not yet had the opportunity to go back to the Room of Requirement outside of DA meetings. It was strange to open the door to a room and not know for sure what you would find inside. The DA meetings were fast becoming the high point of Dean's week.

Seamus was still refusing to apologise to Harry, and thanks to Seamus' blossoming romance with Anna, Dean was left on his own a lot. Ginny would sometimes sit near him in the common room, unwittingly distracting him from his work. Sometimes he had to retreat to the library when a deadline got disturbingly close.

On Friday, November seventeenth, Dean woke to a sunny, if very cold day. Feeling quite content, he rose and dressed kicking Seamus awake on his way past his bed to the bathroom. It was his birthday, and nothing was going to annoy him today. When he came back from the bathroom there were two cards and presents sitting on his bed.

Curious, knowing that his parents' card wouldn't get here until the post owls at breakfast and figuring that one card and gift were from Seamus, he opened them both. Neville had actually given him a card, and a gift by the looks of things. He looked at the plain card; it was signed 'Happy Birthday, thanks for letting me tag along in Hogsmeade, Neville'. Dean picked up the soft package beside it with the same handwriting on the brown paper. He untied the string, pulled open the folds of the paper and out fell a scarf of maroon and blue; it was sewn with a familiar logo.

Where on Earth did Neville get a West Ham scarf?

Baffled, he set it aside and opened Seamus' card and present, which was a set of guitar strings and a large selection of Honeydukes' best sweets. Hearing someone behind him, he turned around to see Neville looking vaguely embarrassed.

"I hope you like it."

"I do, but you didn't have to, you know."

"I know, it's just not many people want to be around me, and it was nice to have someone to wander around Hogsmeade with."

"Thanks Neville. I appreciate it. When's your birthday?"

"July thirtieth... I'm one of the youngest in the year."

"I'll remember to send you a card."

Neville looked flustered. "You don't have to -"

"I know... I want to."

Dean had never realised before how lonely Neville probably was. With Harry and Ron being best friends and himself and Seamus clicking from the first journey to Hogwarts, Neville was left out. His clumsiness didn't earn him any friends either. He vowed to spend more time with Neville in future, and not just because Seamus was distracted by a girl.

Seamus emerged from the bathroom, ready to go down to breakfast. He glanced at the open packages and smiled. "I thought you might like to string up that guitar in the Room of Requirement. Didn't you tell me you wanted to learn?"

* ~ *

At breakfast, a large tawny owl landed in front of Dean making his goblet of orange juice wobble precariously. It had a large envelope clamped in its beak.

"Hi, Helios."

He stroked the bird's head as he took the envelope off it. Dean gave the owl the crusts of his toast, and Helios hooted softly before taking off again.

Dean opened the card from his parents, to find four tickets to two different football games inside, West Ham matches in July and August the next year. He got a warm feeling in his stomach just thinking about going to those games with his dad, who shared his passion for the sport and the team. He wished he could take him to a Quidditch game. Maybe he could, someday.

Most of the day had drifted past before anything remotely bad happened. He was walking to the Great Hall for dinner with Seamus, just behind Hermione and Ron when a group of Slytherin Quidditch players passed them and started heckling Ron. Ron scowled, turned green, and bolted into the toilets they were just passing.

The Slytherins roared with laughter, making a hard little rock of anger glow in Dean's chest. He was on the point of telling them where to go when Ron emerged, looking a little less nauseous. Warrington drew his wand, pointed it and shot a blast of blue light from it before any of them could react. Ron crumpled to the floor, curling up and alternately crying and laughing hysterically. Hermione rounded on them, her eyes blazing yet terrified. "What did you do to him?" she yelled, while the Slytherins howled with laughter.

"Like I'm really gonna tell you, you dirty little Mudblood."

Hermione flushed scarlet, the fear in her eyes replaced with pure unadulterated rage.

"Twenty points from Slytherin! Get going before I make it more!"

The Slytherins moved on, still laughing uproariously. Hermione crouched beside Ron, who was still giggling and sobbing at the same time. She shook him by the shoulder as Dean and Seamus knelt down beside her. "Ron? Ron! Are you okay?"

Ron couldn't answer her, though he was looking straight at her. Hermione had tears shining in her eyes, drew her wand and raised it -

"Granger! What are you doing? Ten points from Gryffindor - no wands in the corridors."

Snape was striding towards them, looking like a surly overgrown bat.

"Professor, Ron's been hexed."

Snape's lip cured in a trademark snarl. "Hexing your own boyfriend now, Granger?"

"NO! It was Warrington-"

"I doubt that Miss Granger - it's more likely you can't control your frustration."

Snape raised his wand and Hermione flinched, but he stepped past her and pointed it at Ron. A blast of bright yellow light shot from the tip and Ron stopped his hysterics immediately. He clambered to his feet, his ears so red they could have been bleeding. "Next time, Mr Weasley, try not to annoy someone with Miss Granger's temper."

Snape turned and strode away towards the dungeons.

"I'm sure he only wears that robe so he can do that dramatic sweeping exit, the drama queen," Ron muttered. Hermione half smiled at him.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah, let's go eat, if that's the worst that happens this weekend, I'll be happy."

* ~ *

The next day, the weather was the same mixture of bright and cold. Dean awoke to the wonderful sound of retching coming from the bathroom.

I guess Ron's nerves are no better then.

Harry was dressed and watching the bathroom door with concern. Dean raised his eyebrows at him.

"Will he be all right?"

"It's just nerves, he needs breakfast - I was the same before my first match."

"I don't know, you were a lot younger - and nowhere near that nervous."

Breakfast was a noisy affair; the usual pre-match banter was in full flow, and Dean heard the cheers as Harry, Ron, Hermione and Angelina entered the Great Hall together. Soon after they sat down, another noise made everyone jump and lots of forks clattered onto plates.

Luna Lovegood from Ravenclaw was standing behind Harry and Ron, with her head just visible under an enormous hat with a lion on it. The lion had roared, twice as loud as a normal lion. She was telling them she'd meant to have it chewing a snake but hadn't had the time.

Dean wore his new West Ham scarf out into the stands. He and Seamus went and found seats just behind Hermione, who always conjured a small portable fire in colder weather and they were hoping to get the benefit. Ginny was sitting with her and Dean deliberately chose the seat behind her. When he saw Neville emerging from the stairs, he lifted his arm and waved him over. Neville smiled a rare smile and joined them, muttering thanks. The next people to come out of the staircase were Anna and Jenny, who took seats on Seamus' other side.

The Match was hell to watch. Ron's nerves failed him at every turn, and on top of yesterday's humiliating scene, the Slytherins had concocted a song to further distract him. It was Harry's spectacular capture of the Snitch that won them the game, even though Crabbe had deliberately hit Harry with a Bludger after the Snitch was caught.

As the Gryffindor stands cheered, Dean noticed Ron didn't go near the victory huddle but sloped off towards the changing rooms, looking more crestfallen than Dean had ever seen him.

So he wasn't looking at the victory huddle when the fight started; all he knew was that when the crowd's gasps and screams drew his attention back, Harry and one of the Weasley twins were kicking and punching the hell out of Draco Malfoy.

Dean's heart sank - as much as Draco Malfoy deserved it, Harry was going to regret it; knowing Umbridge, she'd have some nasty punishment ready for him.

* ~ *

When Harry and George entered the common room and announced their life-long ban, the atmosphere plunged into arctic conditions. The depression was so thick it could almost be seen, and the dejected team were one short still because Ron had disappeared after the match. Hermione kept shooting worried glances at the portrait hole. Dean looked around for Ginny, who also was shooting occasional glances to the portrait hole, and once or twice Dean saw her looking at Angelina thoughtfully.

Needing to get out of there, Dean told Seamus he was going back to the Room of Requirement. "Want some company? I could do with getting out of here."

Dean hesitated, he liked to be alone in there. "All right, I suppose."

Dean went up to the dorm and collected the guitar strings, not knowing what he was going to do with them because he didn't know how to string a guitar.

* ~ *

The Room looked the same as always. Dean headed this time for the second filing cabinet, which he guessed started into Gary's life post Hogwarts. Seamus hung back a little, looking around with interest. "Have you had a good look through those shelves yet?"

"No, I want to read all this stuff first. I need to know why I recognise him, maybe he did something well known and I've seen him in a textbook or something."

"He's not famous Dean, or I'd have seen him somewhere. He was just another guy the Death Eaters decided to pick on."

Dean didn't know, but he couldn't see any other reason Gary would look and feel so familiar to him when he himself was Muggle-born.

He took out his wand to open the cabinet, marked 1969 - 1973. Seamus came up behind him, "Can I look in the first one?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

Seamus stepped up to it, raised his wand and tapped the lock saying, "Alohomora!"

He tugged on the handle once or twice, but the drawer didn't budge. He looked quizzically at Dean, who shrugged. "It's always worked for me."

Seamus tried the Alohomora Charm once more then shrugged and went to look at the bookcases. He picked up the newspapers and started leafing through them. Dean turned his attention back to his open filing cabinet. The first thing in the drawer was a letter from St Mungo's Hospital, offering him a place starting in August at their Healer College.

St Mungo's training seemed to involve a lot of regular testing, as there were numerous marked test papers. None of them had less than a ninety-two percent written on the top. Buried behind all these old test papers was a formal withdrawl form stamped June third 1970.

"What'd he do that for?" Dean muttered, forgetting he wasn't alone.

"What?" asked Seamus, looking up from his newspaper.

"He was at St Mungo's College in 1969, and acing all his classes - then he dropped out on June third 1970."

A rustle of paper made him look up. Seamus had gone quite white, making his freckles stand out. "That's right after You-Know-Who came into the open - that's when it all started... May 1970."

Dean felt a block of ice settle in his stomach. He turned back to the cabinet and replaced the sheaf of test papers and the withdrawl form. In the next section was another form; this one was an application to the Auror College in London. Stamped and approved, June eleventh 1970. "He went into Auror training."

"Wow, brave guy... he must have dropped out to go after You-Know-Who and his followers."

Dean felt an inexplicable flash of pride. "Cool...he was brave as well as really smart!"

"Mate, are you getting a crush on this guy?" Seamus joked. Dean threw a cushion at him.

"Shut up, Irish."

Now instead of Healing tests, there were reams and reams of Auror tests, involving trials of endurance, speed, skill and even a random attack to see how he responded to pressure, and that was just his first year.

Second year tests were much more difficult, with long, extensive tiring assessments proving his adaptability. In third year, he was assigned a fully qualified Auror as a mentor, whom he went out in the field with to get on the job training.

He was assigned to an Auror called Gideon Prewett, who was ten years older than Gary, and had been an Auror before You-Know-Who had come to power. All the reports from Gideon were very positive, praising his sensitivity when dealing with families and his courage when dealing with Death Eaters and other Dark Wizards.

Behind all these reports was a large piece of thick parchment, a certificate which proclaimed he had achieved full Auror status with an Outstanding grade. Dean smiled, not surprised that Gary had passed with flying colours.

"Dean, mate, it's heading for nine, we'd better get back."

Dean looking longingly at the next drawer, which declared it had all the information for 1973-1980 (case files), confused, he glanced at the drawer below, which had the same years, but the suffix 'personal life'.

Intrigued, he vowed to return to the Room as soon as possible.