Not Alone

With two patients he knew in the hospital, Dean was starting to realise how painful this job could become. What if something happened to one of his friends? Could he actually Heal someone he loved?

The next few weeks were a blur of classes and working. The classes were getting steadily more difficult. There was a test per week each subject. Dean had, of course, been prepared for this as he'd seen the reams of test papers his father had sat in the one year he had studied here; the others hadn't realised how frequently testing happened at St Mungo's. Beth, in particular, was starting to show signs of strain, except in Transfiguration and Potions. She had been right when she said she could brew them; she just hated to do it.

Dean was getting very fond of her; she spent most of her free time with him, trying to keep him afloat in Transfiguration, while he helped her with Herbology. Her Charm work was improving under Katie, who had a gentle teaching technique that took the pressure off her. Nerves seemed to be Beth's biggest weakness; her Herbology was staying quite bad. She had just about passed the first test with fifty-two percent and the last two hadn't been any better. Professor Freeman and his cold manner and disapproving looks were the source of this, Dean was sure. Beth did much better when they were testing each other before the real tests.

As if to disprove Dean's theory that Danielle was using Quentin to cheat, he was achieving a perfect score on every test while she wavered in the mid eighties. Su and Ernie were both averaging around ninety in all subjects.

Dean was pleased with his own grades; with the exception of Transfiguration, he was averaging around eighty. He had also discovered somewhat of an instinctive gift for Healing Potions. He only had to read instructions once and he had it down, and occasionally felt a need to add something to a potion, or not add a listed ingredient, and it always seemed to work better.

They were working on a Burn-Healing Ointment, and when he had finished with the instructions on the page, he searched through his ingredients and found a phoenix feather. He took out his silver knife and cut a sliver off the end of it and dropped it into the potion. It emitted red and gold sparks for a few seconds, and then settled down. There was a faint red and gold sheen to the surface of the potion now, while everyone else's remained black with green highlights. The Professor, Smith, stopped beside him and gazed into his cauldron bemusedly. "Well, Thomas, what did you decide to do differently today?"

Feeling uncomfortable at the stares of the rest of the class, Dean muttered his response quietly. "I added a sliver of phoenix feather root."

"I see. And why?"

Dean stared at his potion, looking at the rippling surface. "I don't know."

"Well, let's go and see if it works, shall we?"

Feeling like he was standing alone on a brightly lit stage, Dean watched Professor Smith scoop up some of his potion into a vial. The rest of the class did the same and they headed down to Creature Induced Injuries. They were always brought to a ward to test out their potion on a patient, as long as they were happy with it.

Professor Smith led them to a bed where a wizard was lying with his whole right side wrapped in bandages. "This man took part in a failed experiment involving some Salamanders and Muggle Fireworks. Let us see these potions at work."

He unwrapped the man's arm from the bandages. Dean saw that his skin was blistered and red, even black in places. He made the others step forward first and apply some of their potion to the arm using a cloth. Everyone's potion made some improvement - Su's in particular reduced the redness by a significant amount. Dean began to feel a little panicky, as he did every time they tested a potion he had instinctively decided to alter. He lived in fear that sometime soon he would cause someone more harm, but he could not stop himself; he had to try these things.

When he stepped forward and poured his potion onto a cloth, his hands were shaking. He tried not to look at the man's face as he applied to the cloth to his arm. He rubbed the potion on gently and heard the man gasp. Dean recoiled and wrenched his hand away and saw, to his great surprise, that the burn was almost completely gone where he had been rubbing it. There was still some redness and a few blisters, but the peeled skin and black scorch marks had gone.

"It's gone! The pain is gone! What did you do?"

Dean stepped back so the man could see his arm. The man howled and grabbed for the cloth in Dean's hand. Professor Smith stepped forward and gripped the man's wrist. "That will do, Mr Milligan. I'll have your Healer look at this before she approves its use on the rest of your injuries."

Smith led them back to the classroom, stopping only to hand Dean's potion to the Healer in charge and whispering something to her. She gave Dean a startled look before taking the small bottle from Smith.

When the rest of the students had packed up, Smith asked Dean to remain behind. Dean was worried he was going to get yelled at, even though his potion had worked better than intended.

"Why did you decide to add phoenix feather to the potion, Thomas?"

Dean shuffled his feet. "I just had a feeling it was right." How am I supposed to explain instinct?

"No one has ever tried using phoenix feather in a burn curing potion before. There once was a master potion brewer who added phoenix blood to a potion which caused the burns to get worse, and of course the tears work almost instantaneously, but they are very rare to find. Since phoenixes burst into flames when they die, it was thought that the feathers would have the same effect as the blood, when in fact, it seems to be the regenerative properties that have been awakened in this potion."

Smith rose and came around the table to stand in front of Dean. He looked down at him with a touch of what Dean thought might have been pride. "Professor Slughorn wrote to me when you got accepted into this programme, as you hadn't got the O.W.L. grade we required for potions. He said he thought you had suffered under the hands of a teacher who had prejudice against your house."

Dean nodded. Snape had certainly never encouraged any of the Gryffindors.

"Well, Slughorn did tell me that you seemed to have a great aptitude for potions when he taught you privately last year. You have an instinctive grasp of what works and what doesn't. Keep up the good work. You should think about specialising in Potions in fourth year."

* ~ *

Dean had come to dread the days he spent in Magical Bugs and Spell Damage. Trelawney had been moved to the Janus Thickey ward and was kept secured to the bed and sedated. Percy Weasley was improving very slowly. The Dragon Pox had been so severe that it had damaged several internal organs and they were now healing these injuries as well as fighting the Pox.

Percy was distant with Dean when he had to give him potions, which was fine with Dean. He remembered how distraught Ginny had been when he had broken ties with the family. She had hated to see her mother so upset. Eventually, though, Dean cracked. One day in mid October, he spoke to him. "Why don't you let me send an owl to your mother? She'd want to know you're in here."

Percy looked up at him then turned his head away. "My mother would only fuss. And the rest don't want to see me any more than I want to see them."

"But you were all so close not too long ago... why can't you just?-"

"Apologise? For what? For getting a great job? For siding with my boss against an apparently mad old man and an unstable teenager? Yes, You-Know-Who is back, but they owe me an apology as much as I owe them. They didn't believe I could get this job because of talent." Percy turned his head back to Dean's disbelieving face. "I don't need them, they don't need me. I do not want them here."

Dean decided not to press the matter. He gave Percy his Strengthening Solution and left to check on the other patients.

* ~ *

Hr Kelly had brought in a specialist from Bulgaria to help with Professor Trelawney. After weeks of magical tests, he concluded that Hr Kelly had been right - the Death Eaters had indeed cursed her to open her Inner Eye permanently.

"Is there anything to cure it?" Dean overheard Kelly asking him while he was trying to get Lockhart to eat something instead of constantly signing photographs.

"Zey did manage to cure it a couple of times. It takes a very long time. Also I believe ze last patient affected relied on a daily Suppressant Potion the rest of zere life."

Dean's spirits sank. They'll probably never be able to help her. No one deserves that. He felt something cold and ugly rising in him, a hatred for people who could do this to others. We're all human beings - none of us better than the others!

He felt a need to do something, anything to stop them, knowing full well that he couldn't. All he could do was be there to pick up the pieces. He was beginning to understand how Gary had felt; Healing was all very well and noble, but Dean was itching to be out there, catching people who did things like this. All the pain in the world, she feels it all...

He was very distracted at dinner that night; he wasn't paying attention to the others conversation planning a Halloween party.

"What do you think, Dean?"

Dean raised his head to see Ernie looking at him. "What?"

Ernie rolled his eyes. "A Halloween party here. Apparently, each wing holds one. There's food in every kitchen and people just wander around mingling."

"Sounds cool to me."

He dropped his eyes back to his roast chicken dinner. Beth put her hand on his knee under the table. "Are you all right?" she whispered.

He half shook his head, not really wanting to talk about it. Su was as perceptive as Beth, however, and called him on it. "What's on your mind, mate?"

He took a deep breath and looked at his fellow Hogwarts classmates. "What's wrong with Professor Trelawney... it's really difficult to cure. I don't know if they'll ever be able to help her."

Silence fell over the table. Quentin was, as usual, staring into space and Danielle was there, staring at Dean with something like incredulity. "But you said she was a useless old fraud. Why do you care?"

Dean turned to look at her slowly. He was aware of the cold hatred rising in him again. She almost recoiled from his gaze. "You think anyone deserves what's happening to her? You think anyone EVER deserves feeling the pain and suffering of the whole world? You think any of us DON'T care that someone we know is stuck that way forever?" With that, Dean pushed his plate away in disgust, rose and left the table without another look.

* ~ *

For the next few days, Danielle gave Dean a wide berth whenever she saw him. She and Quentin stopped eating with them and avoided them at the start of the hospital shifts, which suited Dean just fine. He couldn't understand what attracted either of them to the profession of Healing - neither of them seemed particularly interested in helping people at all, especially Danielle after making such a callous comment about Trelawney's condition.

Approaching Halloween, the most talked about subject among all the Healing students was the huge party planned, which seemed to be encompassing the entire student floor. Dean had just found out that each of the Healing years had their own wing - the East wing was where the first year students lived, the North was for second years, the South for third years, and the West for the speciality study year. He had also just found out that Halloween was a public holiday in the Wizarding world and that there would be no classes or hospital shifts for the students on Halloween itself or the day after.

"I bet they added that extra day knowing how badly they performed with massive hangovers," Su joked when she saw the notice that Wednesday was to be a free day.

The first years, of which there were many, as there were four shifts of classes and work shifts, seemed especially excited. At any rate, most of them seemed to be making magical decorations for the corridors, their rooms, and the kitchens. On Monday, Dean was laughed at by an evil-looking pumpkin, attacked by a black and orange paper chain that tried to hang him before tearing in two, and a statue of a black cat spat an Acid Pop at him as he passed by it.

Dean spent Tuesday sketching ghosts, mummies, banshees, and various other creatures on the wall outside his room and in their shared kitchen. Beth was hugely impressed by these drawings and asked to see more of his work. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, as no one had ever seen his sketchbook before, Dean handed it over for her to look at as he worked on a burn-healing paste that had to be submitted before the break. He tried not to be distracted by the sound of turning pages, though it was difficult.

Eventually, just as he was adding Astragalus to the paste, Beth spoke up. "Who's this girl? There are half a dozen sketches of her here."

Dean's heart sank to the pit of his stomach and turned to ice there. Oh shit, I forgot about the pictures of Ginny! With an intense feeling of dread, he got up and went to sit beside her. She was looking at the last one he had drawn of her, about a month before they'd split up. She had sat for it after a Quidditch practice and her hair was windblown and wild-looking, the way he'd liked it best; her eyes were bright and alive and she had a glow in her cheeks from the wind. The picture was moving ever so slightly; he'd used a simple charm to make her hair look like it was blowing in a breeze. He took a deep breath. "That's Ginny."

He watched Beth take a breath and flick back through the pages at the other drawings. "She's pretty."

"I suppose so."

"What..? What... happened with her?"

Dean sighed deeply and leaned back against the wall. "Do you really want to know?"

Beth leaned back against the wall beside him, her eyes closed as if steeling herself. "Yeah. I do."

Dean took a deep breath, finding he couldn't look at her. "She found me right after I'd experienced my father's death in a Memory Glass in June and comforted me. We were together for a year and I thought we were pretty okay until around Christmas. She seemed distant when we got back, started snapping at me a lot and I found things that I used to love about her grated on my nerves. It happened pretty slowly - we grew apart, I was jealous of the attention she got from other boys. Like you said, she was pretty. I was almost relieved when we finally had a blazing row and split up in April. I didn't expect how much it would hurt when she started going out with Harry a couple of weeks later."

He finally opened his eyes to look at her. She was looking at him with a mixture of pity and anger. "She didn't know what she had, did she? What's Harry got that you don't?"

Dean was quite startled. Harry was someone who was famous worldwide, and Beth considered him equal, even better than Dean? "Well, he was her brother's best friend. I'd always thought there was something there... she talked to him a lot; I sometimes caught her staring at him. I never thought he was interested in her 'til he kissed her in the crowded common room after our last Quidditch match of the season."

"Ouch! Insensitive much? They kissed in front of you when you'd just split up?"

"Yep. It bothered me at the time; it doesn't now."

"Did..? Were you..? Did you love her?"

Dean was not happy with the way the conversation was going. He did not want to talk to his current girlfriend about his ex. Stalling for time, he looked down at the sketch at which Beth had stopped. It was one of the first - he'd sketched it during a Quidditch match when she was playing Seeker. "I don't know. I have nothing to compare it to, but I don't think so. Wouldn't it have taken me longer to get over it if I had loved her?"

He took the sketchbook out of her hands. "Did you look at all these?"

"The last one I saw was the moving one of her."

Dean flipped past the sketches of Ginny, determined to show Beth that Ginny was behind him. He'd glimpsed her jealous streak and didn't want her to have even the ghost of a thought that he still wanted Ginny. He handed the sketchbook back to her, showing her the only drawing he had had time to do since he had started at St Mungo's. It was a hastily coloured re-creation of their first meeting on the roof. It was a profile, her long hair blowing around her in the breeze, her barn owl on her wrist with its wings outstretched and looking at her. The sunlight on her face gave her an inner glow as she smiled softly, offering the owl a treat in her left hand.

"When did you draw this?"

Dean heard the catch in her voice and answered without really looking at her, afraid that she might be crying. "About two days after we met."

"And that's..? How I look to you?"

Dean felt the heat rising in his face. He was beginning to feel sorry he had started this. "Yes."

Beth set the sketchpad down and turned towards him. She took his face in both her hands and kissed him passionately. He could taste the saltiness of the tears she had shed and wondered why a little sketch that had taken him an hour at most had moved her so much. He slipped an arm around her, drawing her closer and tangled the other hand in her hair. One of her hands slid around his neck, playing with the hair on the back of his neck and sending a pleasant tingling sensation down his back.

Rising from the very depths of his soul were feelings he'd never felt with Ginny. He wanted to do a lot more than kiss Beth; he wanted all of her, heart, body and soul. It's too soon... and she's so emotional. I'd be taking advantage.

Reluctantly, he drew back, his fingers trailing out of her hair. Her hands were still on his face and neck, her face was glowing and her eyes were shining with happiness. He simply couldn't understand what was going on in her head. Surely she knew I liked her before she saw that?

"I... I'd better get that paste finished or Smith will have me working in the morning."

She smiled contentedly. "Of course. I'll see you tonight." She stood up, allowing her hand to stay on his face for a moment as she gazed down at him. "I don't know what I did to deserve you, but I'm glad for whatever it was."

Dean stared at her. "What you did to deserve me? What did I do to deserve you?"

He stood up and kissed her again, trying to keep his hormones in control so he would be able to do his homework without messing it up.

* ~ *

Come six o'clock, every Healing student in the building was to be found prowling the corridors with bottles of drinks Dean had never heard of before: Icewhisky Plus, Malaclaw Mead and Allusternt Juice. Giving in to the inevitable, he grabbed an Allusternt Juice from the table in the square between the wings. He scanned around for someone he knew, but there were just throngs of people he'd never seen before in his life.

Bored, he finished the drink in about three minutes and decided to go look in their kitchen. He found a large punch bowl full of some unidentifiable vivid pink liquid which he suspected Su was responsible for. He lifted a cupful and sniffed it carefully; the fumes almost knocked him out and he set it down again hastily.

"Not trying my punch, Dean?" He turned around to find Su behind him, pink-cheeked and incredibly cheerful-looking.

"What's in it?"

"Everything I could get my hands on, and pomegranate juice to colour." She grinned mischievously.

"Then no, thanks."

Su lifted the cup he'd just set down. "Oh, go on, you know you want to!"

He took it reluctantly, vowing to put it down at the first opportunity. He moved a few steps to his right to the refreshments and lifted a Pumpkin Pasty to his mouth and took a big bite. He choked on it and spluttered to Su, "God, who made these?"

"I did," said a small voice behind him. Dean froze, knowing he'd hurt her feelings, and tried to cover it by swallowing the piece and cramming the rest of it in.

He swallowed it with difficulty, turned and said, "'Cause they're great! They're quite tart; how much sugar did you use?"

Beth raised an eyebrow at him. "Sugar?"

Ah, that explains a lot... He decided to keep silent, Su, however, was not so tactful. "You didn't put sugar in them? You nut! They're supposed to be sweet!"

Beth flushed. "Okay, okay, baking is not my strong point. Not by magic anyway; my Grandma taught me to bake the Muggle way."

She turned to Dean. "Did you eat that just to please me?"

Dean flushed. "Yeah..."

She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. "You're the best."

He grinned while Su rolled her eyes. A moment later, Ernie stumbled in with a paper cup in his hand, looking very red in the face. "Dean! Mate! How are ya? Whatcha drinkin'?"

"Nothing much yet, mate." Dean told him, grabbing him under the shoulder to stop him falling over. "How much have you had?"

Ernie held up the cup which was more than half full. "About a half of a third of this punch."

Dean looked at Su. "Tell me again what's in this stuff?"

Su just laughed and propped Ernie up from the other side. "I hope you've still got some of that Hangover Cure!"

They made their way out of the kitchen, Dean and Su supporting Ernie the whole way.

"You really can't hold your alcohol, Ernie. Don't worry, I will educate you." Su was struggling under his weight. "Oh, to hell with this."

She reached into her pocket and drew out what looked like a large toffee. She fed it to Ernie and ten seconds later he was perfectly lucid again.

"What the hell was that thing, Su?" Dean asked her.

"An antidote to alcohol. It's a triple W product."

"A what?"

"Short for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Ernie, stay away from my punch. It's too much for you."

She walked away towards another table laden with drinks. Ernie was an interesting shade of scarlet and looked deeply ashamed of himself.

"What did you drink that stuff for?" Dean asked.

"She asked."

They spent the next half hour just chatting and drinking normal drinks as opposed to mind-blowing cocktails. Beth was standing very close to him and he could feel her body heat all down his right arm. Ernie kept craning his neck scanning the crowd, presumably looking for Su.

"Just go look for her if you want," Dean said.

"No, it's okay. What were you saying?"

Just then Su materialised behind Ernie, poking him in the back. "Hey. I said I'd meet some people in the Dragon's Claw; do you lot want to come?"

Looking around at the throng of people he had never seen before, Dean shrugged. "All right, anything to get out of here. I doubt half of these people are Healing students."

The street outside was deserted. Seeing as the department store that was the front for St Mungo's was nowhere near a residential area or any pubs that Muggles could see, there was nothing in the area to attract anyone on Halloween night. There was a fine, chilly mist that came up to their knees that gave Dean the disconcerting feeling that he was walking on clouds. The chill air seemed to be helping the alcohol flow through all of them, as two minutes up the street, Su got the giggles, Ernie clutched his head and Beth started skipping. Dean himself felt suddenly very giddy and inexplicably cheerful. He suppressed an urge to skip after Beth with difficulty, knowing he'd never live it down if he gave in.

Before they got to the Dragon's Claw, it started to rain. Dean groaned and drew his wand. He tapped himself on the head and said, "Impervius."

Beth turned back upon hearing him. "What are you doing?"

"Stopping myself from getting soaked!" he answered her as Su and Ernie caught them up and passed by, deep in conversation.

"Haven't you ever danced in the rain?" she asked him, her head tilted quizzically.

"No. Why would I do that?"

She grinned at him, walking backwards and holding her hands out encouraging him to follow. They were only about twenty feet from the Dragon's Claw and could hear the music pouring out the open windows. When he caught her up, she drew her wand and tapped him on the head saying, "Finite!"

Dean immediately felt the drops of rain running down his scalp. "Beth, come on, let's go inside."

She shook her head. "Nuh uh. Dance with me."

"What?" Is she serious? She wants to dance in the middle of the street in pouring rain?

"Dance with me." She held out her hands to him and he took them reluctantly. She stepped closer to him, leaning up to look at him. Their lips were millimetres apart. She spun away, and keeping hold of one of his hands, stepped back, twirling under his arm. He started to laugh and started waltzing with her, imitating Ernie from their last trip to the Dragon's Claw. Her tinkling laugh was infectious and he loosened up, dancing in circles with her, oblivious to the rain soaking him through.

She twirled close to him and stumbled; he caught her still laughing aloud. He set her back on her feet. She was dripping wet, her hair hanging in damp strings around her. She had patches of colour in her cheeks and her eyes were sparkling, alive and joyous. "Isn't it fun? We're sopping wet and we don't give a damn!"

Dean threw back his head and laughed. "You're a strange girlfriend."

Beth's laughter trailed off, leaving her looking suddenly serious. "I'm a girlfriend?"

Dean was a bit taken aback at this sudden change of mood. "Well, yeah, I thought-"

Beth grinned and kissed him, running her hands through his wet hair. Though he was soaking and a moment ago had been shivering, he felt a wave of pure heat wash over him. He sank his hands deep into her hair, running his fingers over the nape of her neck. She tilted her head back, eyes closed against the rain, her lips parted.

A wave of light spilled over them as the door to the pub opened, blinded by the sudden brightness they heard Ernie's voice saying, "What's keeping you tw-oh... sorry." The door shut again and they burst out laughing.

"This place is really good at killing romantic moments, isn't it?" Beth asked him.

"So far, just ours, it seems."

They stepped into the overcrowded pub and fought their way to the bar where Su and Ernie were still trying to get served. "Hey, you two, I'm getting the drinks. See if you can find somewhere to stand. Or better yet, Beth, see if you can get us seats again; you're good at that!"

Beth and Dean fought their way through the crowd. The DJ box was swamped with people, most likely trying to get their favourite songs played and every single seat in the place was occupied, sometimes by two or three people.

They fought their way back to the bar where Su presented them each with a shot glass full of blue smoking liquid and a bottle of Allustrent. "What the hell is this stuff?" Dean yelled to her, over the loud music.

"Just drink it and shut up!" she yelled back, grinning wickedly. She held it aloft and the others copied her. "To half-term breaks!"

Dean followed the others in throwing the drink to the back of his throat and swallowing. He could have sworn he felt it sear the lining on his throat all the way down to his stomach. "Woaaaaaah, what the hell is that stuff?" he managed to croak before taking a great swig of his Allustrent to cool down his throat.

"Junsip! Good, strong shot!"

"Su!" Dean turned to see a man who looked vaguely familiar to him about three feet away from them, with two other guys Dean recognised from the DA - Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein. The one who had called out to Su was holding out a hand over a crowd of people towards her.

"Kevin! There you are!" Su took the hand offered to her and fought her way past Dean, almost knocking him into the person behind him, and throwing her arms around Kevin. "I wasn't sure you were here yet! I only just got here!" She drew back after yelling this in his ear and kissed him.

Oops. Dean snuck a look at Ernie and saw a look that made Dean feel awful for him. I didn't know... she never mentioned him. Su broke apart from Kevin and turned to them.

"I don't know if you know my boyfriend. Ernie, Dean, Beth, this is Kevin Entwistle. He was a Ravenclaw in my year."

"Sure. Hi." Ernie muttered. Dean followed his gaze to their entwined fingers. Ernie turned abruptly back to the bar and ordered another Junsip. Dean felt Beth's cool hand in his and looked down at her. Her eyes were shining for a different reason than they had been ten minutes ago.

"How awful," she whispered to him.

"She didn't say anything to you about a boyfriend?"

Beth shook her head. "No, nothing. The subject never came up."

Ernie's mood put a definite damper on the evening; he hardly talked and drank steadily more and more Junsip without it having much of a visible effect. He grew more and more sullen watching Su dance with Kevin and his friends, and merely grunted when Dean told him that he and Beth were going up to dance.

Beth seemed very uncomfortable dancing with him on the dance floor. Dean wondered if she, like Dean, was aware that Ernie was staring at them, probably hating them for being a couple. Midnight came and went, Beth and Dean enjoying it less and less and Su completely oblivious to the atmosphere she had inadvertently created.

When they all spilled out into the street at the end of the night. It was still raining. Just being out in the chilly air and rain cheered Dean up, remembering his earlier experience of dancing in it for the first time. Su said goodbye to her boyfriend, verbally and not so verbally. Ernie's scowl deepened and he walked on without them, dragging his feet and kicking stones. Dean and Beth followed him at a distance. When Ernie turned a street corner ahead of them, Dean gave into temptation and took Beth's hand. I know he's disappointed, but I'm not going to feel guilty for holding my girlfriend's hand.

Su caught up, walking with a bounce in her step that Dean had never seen before. "Hey. What's wrong with Ernie? He was really knocking them back; is he sick?"

Beth turned on her, looking angry. "Yeah he's sick, but it's got nothing to do with alcohol!"

Su looked very startled. "What?"

"You! You never told any of us you had a boyfriend! Why didn't you say something?"

"What does it matter to you if I have a boyfriend?"

"'Cause Ernie likes you! Are you bloody blind, Su? Couldn't you see it?"

Su jumped back from the ferocity of Beth's look. "We're just friends. We've been friends for months now! What the hell gave you the idea that he fancies me?"

Beth flailed a hand in her face. "Oh you are bloody blind! Why do you think he kept asking you to go with him up to dinner? Why do you think he always sat beside you in classes? Switched shifts so you'd both be working in Spell Damage when you got assigned to it?"

Su blinked rapidly. "Okay. So I didn't notice that he liked me. Why is it bugging you so much that I have a boyfriend? I'm sorry we can't be a big happy couply group, but I've been with Kevin for two years. I thought Ernie knew that."

With that, she walked away and left them.

Dean took Beth's shoulders in his hands. She was crying freely and leaned into his chest, sobbing.

What did you do that for?

"Beth, come on; it's all right. Ernie will get over it."

Beth gasped for breath to speak to him. "But she's right! I hoped we were going to be a big happy family group, I thought it was just a matter of time!"

"It's all right. We can all still be friends."

Beth sniffed. "I hope so. If she'll ever speak to me again after that little tantrum. Why can't I control my bloody temper?"

Dean smiled, wiping tears from her cheek with his thumb. "She'll be fine. She's pretty easy going, our Su. And it might sound like a cliché but you're very pretty when you're angry."

Beth laughed feebly. "Wait 'til it's you I'm angry at."

When they got back into the reception area of St Mungo's, Beth suddenly became very dizzy. By the time they got up to the dormitory floor she was having trouble walking. Dean helped her down the East wing. They were about six feet from Dean's door when she staggered. She placed a hand on the wall to steady herself. "Woah, what's going on?"

"I don't know, you didn't drink that much."

"What..? What was that thing Su gave us? What colour was it?"

"Blue - it was Junsip she said."

"Oh, damn, I thought it was black. Junsip is the Wizarding version of Tequilla! Didn't I ever tell you that Junsip makes me hyper for a few hours, then I pass -"

Dean caught her as she slumped into his arms, out cold. Feeling exhausted and a little drunk himself, he heaved her up into his arms and managed to open his door with his elbow. He staggered in and laid her on his bed, pulling the covers over her. He conjured a pillow and quilt for himself and collapsed into a deep sleep on the floor before he'd even managed to kick off his shoes.

* ~ *

When Dean drifted awake the next morning, he could hear Beth's deep, even breathing. She was still sleeping soundly, one arm hanging over the edge of the bed, her dark eyelashes lying on her cheeks. She still had dark circles under her eyes, like she had the last time they had gone out drinking. She almost looked like she was pouting. Dean rose silently and changed into fresh robes behind the screen then went to the shelf above his desk and took down two of the little bottles full of jet black potion he had sitting there.

He sat down on the edge of the bed gingerly and stroked Beth's face, trying to wake her up without shaking her. She took a deep breath and her eyes flickered open. She buried her face in her arm and he heard her yawn. She blinked confusedly at her surroundings then up at Dean. "Did I drink Junsip?"

He smiled at her. "Yep."

"Did I collapse on you?"

He laughed a little. "Yep."

She rolled over and pressed a hand over her eyes. "Do I remember fighting with Su?"

Dean's good humour vanished. "Yeah."

Beth pulled a pillow over her head. "I don't want to get out of bed."

Dean lifted the pillow and threw it across the room. "You're getting up. The longer you leave it, the worse it'll be. I'm going to go and give Ernie an antidote; he'll have a monster hangover after all he drank. You go and find Su and I'll meet you upstairs for breakfast."

Beth scowled, but got up anyway. She took a swig of the bottle he offered her and he saw an immediate effect. The colour returned to her face and the dark circles disappeared from under her eyes. "Woah. That stuff is much better than Prairie Oysters. All right, I'll go wash up and apologise to Su."

She gave him a quick kiss on the lips and headed out the door.

Dean took Ernie a bottle full of his Hangover Potion which seemed to make him feel better. They sat in awkward silence for several minutes until Dean finally said. "You all right?"

"Yeah. At least now I know." He drank the last mouthful of the potion and threw the bottle towards his wastepaper basket. "Now. Breakfast."

When they got upstairs, they found Beth and Su deep in conversation which stopped as the boys got to the table. Dean reached for a box of cereal, giving Beth a questioning look as he did so. She beamed at him and nodded almost imperceptibly.

Su talked to Ernie quite happily, apparently having decided to act like she had no idea she knew Ernie liked her. Since Dean had had the sense not to tell Ernie Beth had let the cat out of the bag, he hoped the friendship would carry on as normal.

They spent the morning and early afternoon in Diagon Alley, stopping in at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. The shop's shelves were nearly empty and Fred and George both looked exhausted. "We never seem to have enough stock to keep us going over Halloween, no matter how much we make!" exclaimed George, who was sprawled in a comfy armchair he had conjured to take a break.

Lee was perched on the arm of George's, grinning meaningful at Dean who was perched on the edge of another chair, in which Beth was sitting. He was leaning his elbow on the back of the chair, his hand on the back of her neck. His foot was resting on the chair beside her and she was cupping his ankle in her hand. Catching Lee's amused look, Dean just shrugged and grinned at him shiftily. Lee leaned forward and stretched out a hand to her. "Hi. I'm Lee Jordan, Dean's cousin."

Beth took his hand, smiling at him warmly. "I'm Beth McKeown, his girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?" Dean's head swivelled to see Fred looking at him strangely. "Didn't take you long to get over our Ginny, did it?"

"Didn't take her long to get over me either -or didn't you know she took up with Harry a fortnight after we split up?"

Fred looked scandalised. "She never did!"

"Oh yes she did! In front of the whole of Gryffindor house, at that! Right after we won the Quidditch cup."

Fred looked at George. "Did Ron tell you?"

"Bloody sure he didn't! Little git, we'll get him for that!"

"Next time we see him, which could be months. Where did his last owl say he was?"

"Bulgaria, I think."

What the hell is Ron doing in Bulgaria? Knowing he'd be told to mind his own business, he said, "Well, you can ask Ginny when you next see her."

"She's gone to stay with Demelza Robbins for a while. They're doing a Kwikspell course together for a N.E.W.T in Charms."

Dean could feel Beth's tension at the subject and wound his fingers into the hair at the top of her neck. She shuddered slightly, her eyes closed and stroked his bare leg under the jeans he was wearing. The hairs on his leg stood on end, his skin becoming extra sensitive to her touch.

They spent a happy hour in Fred and George's shop, chatting amongst themselves. Beth seemed to get on pretty well with Lee. At any rate, they spent twenty minutes deep in conversation about their Quidditch team, the Ballycastle Bats, who were based in Northern Ireland. When Beth steered the discussion towards football, Dean interjected. "No point, Beth. I've been trying for two years now to get him interested in football. He won't hear of it."

Beth let out a tinkling laugh that sent a throb of sweetness through him centred in his chest. "Oh well, it was worth a shot. So, what do you do, Lee?"

"I work in the Ministry. Magical Creatures department. Were you part of the early admissions programme into St Mungo's?"

"Oh no, I've got my N.E.W.T.s. Well, most of them anyway."

"Ah so you're older than Dean?" Lee winked at him in a way that made his insides squirm uncomfortably.

"I guess so. But I'm young for my age group, my birthday is in May. I'd only just turned eighteen when we started there."

"Dean's eighteenth is this month. His mum wants to make a big deal of it, but-"

"But I can't really take the time out of school. We'll be well into revising for our exams by then."

"What date is it?"

"The seventeenth." Lee told her. Beth squeezed Dean's ankle briefly.

"Well, if nothing else, we can take a break from studying and go and get a drink."

Before they headed back to St Mungo's, they went to get more supplies for various classes. Dean went to the apothecary to collect various stones and crystals. He had been reading a library book about their various uses in potions. He got an ounce of powdered opal (it was too expensive to get any more), quartz, tiger's eye, obsidian, jasper and amethyst. Beth stopped at Flourish and Blots to get a new book on becoming an Animagus; Ernie bought a new book on Healing Charms and a new pile of parchment; and Su also bought parchment and a copy of The Dark Arts Rebounded.

While Dean stopped in to say goodbye to Lee, Beth sneaked off to a potion shop two doors up. When she got back, she didn't appear to have bought anything, but did appear flustered. When he gave her a questioning look, she just shrugged. "Ready to head back?"