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Dick is sitting alone in an empty train compartment, so excited and terrified at the whole prospect of being off to an honest-to-god real wizarding school that he thinks he might throw up. The train has just pulled out of the station when the door is thrown open with gusto and Dick only sees the back of a raven-haired boy’s head who crows “Going my way?” at him while trying to pull his case in after himself, and then when he turns around, takes one quick look at Dick and says “Are you a Weasley?”. Dick is very confused but his mother taught him to always be polite, especially to strangers, so he asks “What is a Weasley?”, hoping that the boy will clear things up and Dick will be able to help him with his Weasley-problem. The kid laughs, positively delighted, mumbles something along the lines of I guess that answers my question and Dick still doesn’t know what a Weasley is, but he thinks he just made a friend.A few hours later Nix (Dick likes that name) tells Dick that he’s thinking about making the Hat sort him into Gryffindor out of spite. Nix seems to accept his fate though, because after a few seconds on Nix’s head, the Hat puts him into Slytherin. Dick is the last one to be sorted and the hat immediately puts him in Hufflepuff. When Dick casually says ‘I’ll see you tomorrow’ to Nix as they follow their prefects to their respective common rooms after the feast, Nix thinks that he might just have made a friend who does not care one bit about him being a Slytherin and resolves to help Dick find his footing in this strange new world. By day three, Dick seriously considers writing flashcards with ‘No, I’m not a Weasley’ and ‘Yes, I’m friends with a Slytherin’ so he can just hold them up instead of answering the question for the millionth time.They both get a lot of shit for sticking together, but they really don’t care. They have a couple of classes together and Nix loves how excited Dick always gets about Herbology (his plants always grow the biggest) but makes fun of him for being a farm boy (“I don’t even live on a farm, Nix!”). Dick quietly excels at Potions and Professor Sobel absolutely hates him for it. Joke’s on him, though, because the extra-work he gives Dick as punishment only makes him better. The worst day in Sobel’s life is when headmaster Sink is there to observe one of his classes and Sobel has to give Dick five points to Hufflepuff for brewing a perfect forgetfulness potion that makes Lewis forget what a Nixon is (he drank it to prove how good it was). Dick tuts at him all the way to the hospital wing but really, those are the best thirty minutes of Nix’s life. Nixon is really good at charms. He’s the first one to get his feather into the air, then sits there for the rest of the class with his feet on the table and tickling Lipton with his feather to give Dick a head start against his fellow Hufflepuff. Flitwick notices and immediately takes back the ten points he just awarded to Slytherin but really, he might be a little in love with Nix, who looks way too happy at that anyway.Professor McGonagall doesn’t take any of his shit though, now matter how good he is at transfiguration. Transforming Norman Dike’s mouse into a poisonous snake earns him his first detention and the respect of Ronald Speirs who’s the scariest dude in the whole year and makes sure no one dares even looking funny at Nix (and by association Dick). Nix absolutely hates going home for Christmas, but Dick promised him to write (“What do you mean, you don’t have a telephone, Nix?!”) and his letter is the best gift he receives. Dick apologizes to Nix for not getting him anything on the train back after the break, but he’s wearing the socks with giant pumpkins on them (Dick really likes pumpkin juice. And pumpkin pie. And pumpkin soup. Just… pumpkins are great, okay?) that Nix sent him and that makes Nix happier than anything else Dick might’ve given him. People start calling Dick Pumpkin. Dick only sort of hates it and no, he does not want Speirs to take care of that for him, Christ leave his teeth where they are! Harry is eternally grateful to Dick for saving his teeth from Speirs. Harry, who comes from the longest and proudest line of Gryffindors you could possibly imagine, even forgives Dick for hanging out with a Slytherin. Then he sort of catches on that Nix might hate Slytherins just as much as he does and is really great to hang out and play cards with instead of doing their homework and they become really good friends. Dick is really excited about getting a baby sister and writes Nix lots of letters over summer break about how he’s going to be the best big brother ever, feed her pumpkin pap and teach her how to ride a broom when she’s old enough but then Bea Winters dies shortly after her birth. Dick has to leave for Hogwarts only a couple of weeks later and he’s not okay.Lipton can hear him cry himself to sleep every night. He makes sure Dick eats at least a little bit at every meal, helps him so he stays on top of his schedule and homework.Speirs becomes Dick’s self-appointed bodyguard and starts a fight with anyone who makes fun of Dick for being a weak cry baby. One of them is a sixth grader and Ronald wins, barely a feather ruffled, while the other guy’s nose will never be the same.Harry is somehow always there when Dick risks getting lost in himself to challenge him to another game of chess or invite him for a walk around the grounds or make him talk about plants.Nix serves weeks of detention for irritating Sobel at every turn just so he forgets about picking on Dick. When Sobel angrily shouts “WHAT’S THIS?!” and brandishes a picture of Sink with tiny hearts drawn all around him that Nix somehow managed to place on Sobel’s desk and Nix just goes “That’s a lovely picture of Professor Sink you have there, Sir!” (“You’ve earned yourself another week of detention, Nixon!”), Dick smiles for the first time since his sister died. It’s just a tiny twitch of his lips, but Nix sees it and it feels like the biggest victory of his life. Dick knows what his friends are doing for him and he loves them for it. They make the weight that’s pressing down on his chest a little more bearable with each day. Though it might never fully go away, the kindness they show him fills him with new life and slowly makes the colour return to his drab world. They all try out for their respective quidditch teams.Harry gets a Quaffle straight to the face because he’s too busy gaping at Kitty from third grade killing it as a keeper to actually look out for the ball and is not selected.Ronald is deadly with a bat and such a good beater that even his own team (and they are Gryffindors, for fuck’s sake) is a little afraid of him.Dick almost makes it. He becomes back-up keeper and gets to play one game in the season when the main guy, Meehan, gets pieces of a Slytherin’s exploding cauldron in the face during potions (there are nasty rumours going around that said Slytherin might have done it on purpose). They would’ve won, too, if Nix hadn’t caught the snitch for Slytherin (and he seriously considered losing it. He doesn’t really want to win for his house, but he loves quidditch more than life itself, and Hufflepuff or Gryffindor wouldn’t take him on. He’s asked.)Lip only went to try-outs because the others talked him into it, but he’s really more about watching Quidditch than playing it and he becomes the best and loudest cheerer in the whole of Hufflepuff. Sometime during third year when they are sitting in the library doing their Divination homework (Dick is diligently comparing his notes with his textbooks before writing down his predictions, Harry is making them up on the fly, as is Speirs, except that everyone’s dying in his [he will get the best mark], Nix is not bothering at all and Lip was the only one smart enough not to take Divination and is concentrating on his Arithmancy work instead), Harry suddenly asks “What the fuck are you even doing in Slytherin, Nix?” and Nix doesn’t know what to say to that because he just really, really wishes he’d asked the hat to get him into Gryffindor, or even better, Hufflepuff.Then he’d get to spend his evenings with his friends and not being lonely in his dormitory, avoiding all these people who are so much like his father it hurts Nix to even look at them, because he’s so afraid he’ll become just like them. The founders and that hat are colossally stupid, he thinks, because who’d believe it would be a good idea to stick people together just because they share some more or less admirable character traits, instead of thinking even for a second about where that child might thrive best.Nix knows he would’ve been so much happier in any other house. The only good thing about being a Slytherin is that Sobel always finds himself in a real pinch when he’s trying to punish Nix, because being the Head of Slytherin he doesn’t want to take any points from him but also can’t bear not doing it. Seeing his face turn red at the dilemma makes Nix laugh internally every time. But still, if Nix could ever get his hands on a time turner, he’d go back to that moment and tell himself Ask the hat to sort you into Hufflepuff. I know you don’t understand yet, but you will. Not-Weasley will be there. Nix gets really upset thinking about it, quickly makes his excuses and rushes out of the library. Dick follows him, his notes and books haphazardly clutched under his arm, his quill still in his right hand. They don’t talk much, just find some nook to sit down somewhere on third floor. Dick gives Nix’s knee a short pat before taking his quill and casually starts writing a letter home and that’s enough to let Nix know that Dick understands what Nix’s afraid of and that he doesn’t have to be alone. The next morning at breakfast, Dick sits down next to Nix slap bang in the middle of the Slytherin table like he’s done it all his life. His ginger hair and yellow tie make him stick out like a sore thumb though, and Nix feels like half the hall is staring at them. Dick calmly sips his pumpkin juice and then, to Nix’s utter horror, strikes up a conversation with Norman Dike who’s sitting next to him and gaping like the world’s about to end.The morning after that, Dick does the same. Except this time, instead of talking to Dike, he gets an owl and after reading the letter a big smile spreads on his face as he tells Nix that he’s asked his parents if it’d be okay if Nix spent the summer with them and they’ve said yes. Nix can’t believe his luck but still feels like he has to protest, especially when he finds out that Dick’s mom is pregnant again. Dick’s having none of it, though, and so at the end of the year he doesn’t apparate off platform 9 ¾ with his parents but gets into the Winters family car to drive up all the way to Lancaster (it’s his first time in a real muggle car and Nix can’t quite get over how cool it is).It takes him some time to settle in, though, and he still feels a bit like an intruder when Edith Winters’ water breaks sometime in early August. He carries Edith’s bag to the car, sits with Dick in front of the delivery room during labour, holding his hand for hours, tracing soothing circles at the back of it with his thumb, and when Dick gets called in to meet his little sister and Nix tries to stay behind in the corridor, Dick still doesn’t let go and pulls him right in with him. He cries happy tears with the rest of the family and when he even gets to hold tiny Ann Winters in his arms, surrounded by Dick and his parents, Lewis Nixon feels like he’s finally home. Nix isn’t sure whom he loves more: The baby, the dog or Dick. He decides it’s a tie. But now he really, really wants a dog. And so he’s pretty sad when he has to go back to Hogwarts, but Edith promised him to send him pictures of Ann and the dog every week and he gets to take Dick with him, so it’s not all that bad. When they invite him back for Christmas, he gets Edith a magical camera so the pictures are even better. The first one she makes is of Dick cradling his little sister in his arms, Nix sitting right beside him, holding the dog in the same fashion, their laughter brighter than the Christmas tree behind them, both unaware of the picture being taken. Edith gives it to him later that evening, when they are alone in the kitchen after doing the dishes, and Nix just starts crying to his own utter embarrassment. “Oh, Lewis,” Edith says, so kind and understanding, and gives him a warm, motherly hug like Nix’s never gotten one from his own mother and Nix doesn’t know what he did to deserve all this. He considers the photograph to be his most prized possession and keeps it close at all times. Lip gets hurt in Care of Magical Creatures class and it’s sort of Ronald’s fault. It’s not that he’s doing anything wrong as he approaches the hippogriff, he bows and does not blink even once, but the average hippogriff seems to be just as afraid of Speirs as the average human and rears up as Speirs gets too close. Lipton, who’s already had that exact hippogriff softly demand further cuddling with an almost affectionate nudge of its beak before he backed off to give Speirs a chance, tries to get between them and has his efforts met with a sharp claw straight to the face.Speirs and the hippogriff seem equally horrified at this and bend down at the same time to look worriedly at Lipton, who has fallen to the ground, completely forgetting about each other in the process. Speirs looks absolutely terrified. Lip laughs at the sight of the both of them, which really must mean it isn’t that bad. Ron still insists on escorting him up to the hospital wing (the teacher, too, seems to think it a good idea to get as much distance between Ronald and his hippogriffs as possible) and apologizes profusely when Madam Pomfrey tells Lip that that scar’s going to be permanent. Harry thinks that Lip’s new scar is incredibly cool and seems to wish that he, too, had such a cool scar because maybe that would make badass Kitty Grogan notice him for a change. He’d tried for the Quidditch team again, but this time he’d fallen off his broom as well and had only gotten away with all his bones (if not his dignity) still intact thanks to the cushioning charm Nix, who’d come to laugh at him, had quickly cast. Still, Harry does not stop his quest and keeps quietly pining for her.Ronald thinks that Carwood Lipton is incredibly cool. He is not pining for Lip, though, and anybody who says otherwise will be punched in the face. Except Richard Winters, because not even Ron can bear messing that gentle soul up. Dick messes up some stuck-up Ravenclaw who says pretty terrible things, first about him (which makes Dick not even blink twice) and then about Nix (which makes Dick pummel said Ravenclaw to the ground and mess him up pretty badly). Everybody is very surprised by this turn of events (“Never thought you had it in you, Pumpkin,” Harry says with a whistle as he observes the damage), but Nix looks actually more impressed as he softly presses an ice-filled cloth against Dick’s sore knuckles as per Madam Pomfrey’s instructions.Dick is appropriately sheepish about it all, seems almost more convinced that he deserves his punishment (cleaning the greenhouses for a month) than Professor Sprout. Dick really hadn’t meant to punch the guy, but then he’d gone after Nix and Dick had seen red, thought Not Lew, you asshole, and charged. Because Lew is family, and no one goes after Dick’s family unpunished. This little episode might be the reason why Lip is made Prefect in fifth year and not Dick, but maybe it’s just because Lip is generally awesome and the born papa bear. Dick still helps him with the new Hufflepuffs, because they are quite a handful. Especially one George Luz who’s even more of a prankster than Lew ever was, which makes Lew like him immediately and Dick spends quite a lot of time begging Nix not to spur Lutz on even further, with mediocre success.Nix, who’s now also a Prefect, does not give a shit about his fellow Slytherins, except maybe one Joseph Liebgott who somehow managed to get himself landed in Slytherin without any magical parents and seems angry at everything and everybody, but especially one nerdy Ravenclaw called David Webster. Nix is not sure why and just tries to make Liebgott a little less angry by giving him private quidditch lessons (Liebgott loves flying) and then suddenly, Webster and Liebgott are friends and Nix doesn’t understand any of it but is sort of happy that Liebgott’s happy. Being a dad is exhausting, Nix thinks, but then he looks at the weekly picture of Ann and the dog and thinks that it might just be worth it, too. Harry somehow manages to ask Kitty out on a date and she says yes. Harry is in love. He does not shut up about it for months. Dick starts stressing about his future, which is an unfamiliar sight, because Dick never stresses about anything. He has a schedule, a plan, and he gets it done, calmly and efficiently.Nix is no great help, because he doesn’t want to think about the future at all. His future is going to involve a job that his father will choose for him (probably Magical Law Enforcement) and a picture-perfect pureblood wife of his mother’s choosing, and he wants to throw up at the thought.Lipton, however, spends many evenings with Dick in front of the fire in the Hufflepuff common room, patiently talking Dick through his options. Being a halfblood, he understands where Dick is coming from but can offer insight that Dick has not yet gained during the short time he’s spent in the wizarding world.There are some careers Dick might feel good about, herpetology, potions, healing. But there’s something he still seems to be missing for things to finally click into place and he can’t figure out for the life of him what it is. Ronald has always wanted to be an Auror. He is going to be an Auror. Nothing will stop him. Not even the incompetence of their Defence against the dark arts teacher, Strayer.Now that the O.W.L.s are coming, they are starting to realize how far behind they are. Speirs studies and trains through the nights to get the spells down and then coaches the others in empty classrooms during the weekends. He’s never been prouder than the moment they all get their ‘O’s in Defence against the dark arts – the only ones in the whole year. It seems like they’re going to need it, too. Some asshole with weird hair has started sowing hate against muggles and muggleborns and it falls on fertile ground. The wizarding community is in upheaval and people start dying.Dick and Nix do what they can to keep the Winters safe, which is very little, seen as they are not seventeen yet, but talk Edith and Richard through the situation.One night, Dick has a terrible nightmare about his whole family being killed while he’s away at Hogwarts. Nix, who’s been sleeping on a cot right next to Dick’s bed since the guest room has been transformed into Ann’s, wakes him up before he screams the whole house down (the dog is already scratching worriedly at the door). Dick is terrified and shaking and so Nix gathers him up into his arms, whispers “I’ve got you” into his ear until Dick’s breathing evens out again. He lies down and falls asleep with Dick’s head still resting on his shoulder. At some point the dog manages to get the door open and joins them on the small bed and when Dick wakes up in the morning in a tangle of human and canine limbs he suddenly knows with absolute clarity what he’s been missing all along. Back at Hogwarts, Dick gets obsessed with learning how to apparate. Seen as it’s impossible for him to practice on his own, he pores over every book he can find on the subject before their first official practice lesson.The others’ bemusement turns into real worry when he almost cries in frustration because he doesn’t manage it during that first session and don’t let up until he tells them what’s going on. Dick wants to get protective charms around his family’s house as soon as possible, meaning right after his seventeenth birthday on January 21. The only problem is that the Easter break is a whole load off and he can’t wait that long. Seeing as Sink would never allow him to make the trip, he decided the best course of action would be to clandestinely apparate home on a Hogsmeade day, set the charms into place (which he’s been practicing, too) and apparate back before anyone notices he’s gone. He didn’t tell them because he didn’t want to get them involved into his mess.They tell him he’s stupid, because of course they’ll cover for him and make sure he doesn’t get caught. Together, they improve the plan and Dick’s spellwork by at least 56% percent (at least that’s Lip’s estimation).Nix is still worried sick the whole time Dick’s gone, even though Dick made his first successful jump out of his wooden hoop and right into Nix’s (that last part was not planned) at the end of the second lesson, and never splintered even once (Lip managed to, though, and was very worried about his reproductive organs there for a moment).When Dicks gets back exactly 47 minutes later, looking incredibly relieved, Nix gets right into his personal space, patting his arms as if to make sure that everything’s still where it should be before hugging Dick and not letting go for a long moment. His family is safer now. Lipton is the first one who decides to put his life plans on hold and sets his sight on becoming an Auror until said asshole with weird hair is put down and Lip can do something he actually wants to do - build things instead of destroying them. Lip just wants his mum to come out okay on the other end of this stupid, stupid war.When he tells Dick, his friend carefully thinks about it for about two minutes, then says “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea, Lip,” and it is therefore decided that Dick will do the same. Nix never really says it out loud, but everybody knows that he’s going where Dick’s going and Harry says “You’re all stupid,” and then wanders off to convince Professor McGonagall to let him transfer back to Transformation even though he’s already missed a whole semester and somehow gets her to say yes (apparently he promised her to stop trying out for the Gryffindor quidditch team before someone [namely his girlfriend who is Captain after all] gives him a position out of pure pity).Lew spends hours and hours with Harry to whip him into shape and Harry steadily works his way up from ‘Dreadful’ to ‘Exceeds expectations’ and even McGonagall seems impressed with both Harry and Lew.She still gives them detention when they transform Dike’s cat into a full-grown lion that almost eats him alive. Ronald, whose life plans coincide with his war plans, is not sure how to feel about this development. He would never admit it, but the thought of getting to keep his friends a little longer gives him a somewhat warm feeling in his chest. The thought of Carwood Lipton at the forefront of the fight, dancing on the edge of death every day, however, fills it right back up with heavy concrete. Ron just wants Lip to be okay, to be safe. He has no problem with accepting that he himself might not make it out alive, but the idea of Lip dying, Christ, does ugly things to his stomach.To deal with his feelings, Ron ropes the others into some kind of Duelling club (Ron calls it ‘Unofficial and therefore extremely efficient Auror training’) and makes them fire disarming, stunning and redactor curses at each other. He’s highly satisfied with the result. He’s really doing the others a favour, and not just because he’s preparing them better for war than Strayer ever could, but also because they are all teenagers who have to find an outlet to deal with their teenaged-feelings, and what better way than firing curses at each other, right? Nix gets more and more letters from home in which his parents express their worry about his lack of socializing with the right crowd. To appease them, he starts going out with Astrid Montague from seventh year. He doesn’t really like talking to her or taking her out on dates, but he’s a seventeen-year-old boy, so he likes kissing and touching her well enough. The whole thing still doesn’t work out though, because she does not like Dick and Dick does not seem to like her a whole lot, either (which is really saying something for Dick) and they break up around the two months mark. Dick is made Head-boy in seventh year. Though it is not unheard of someone who hasn’t been Prefect becoming Head-boy, it is quite unusual, and Dick is very pleased with himself over it all, even if he tries not to show it.His smugness evaporates quickly though, when he realizes that his fellow head-girl, one Theresa Jones from Ravenclaw, harbours a gigantic crush on him.Dick has no idea what to do. He does like her, she’s smart and a bit stubborn and the best chaser Ravenclaw has had in years (she’s scored more goals against Dick than anybody else) but he’s pretty sure that he does not like like her.He can’t get himself to tell her that though, blushes and stammers and sends generally mixed signals instead, and so the inevitable happens and she makes the first move at the end of one of their meetings.
Dick reflexively puts up his hands to keep her at a distance, but in the split second it takes him to complete the action, the image of Nix kissing Astrid flashes before his eyes and something ugly spreads within him that makes his hands fall uselessly against Theresa’s shoulders and he lets her kiss him. It feels so wrong he can’t stand it for longer than a few seconds, though, before gently pushing her away, an apology ready on his lips. Dick feels like a gigantic prick but Theresa’s surprisingly nonchalant about it and the two somehow manage to become friends over the whole ordeal. Harry is glum because Kitty has graduated, and he misses her. Hitting Ronald in the face with an Impediment jinx only manages to cheer him up for a couple of hours before he retreats back into his corner to mope and write sappy love letters to Kitty. So they are all sort of miserable in their own right, Lip mostly because his friends are and he can feel that there’s something that’s burdening Ronald but he can’t quite figure out what it is and it bugs him more than he would care to admit. Things hit rock bottom before they get better. He doesn’t know why it hasn’t happened before – probably because 75% of the Hogwarts population is still convinced that Dick is, in fact, a Weasley – and has seen it coming from a mile away, but it’s still a shock when his captain comes up to Dick – who has been captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team since sixth year – right before the game and spews something about Dick being a filthy mudblood.Nix is ready to punch his own captain in the teeth, but Dick holds him back with a hand on his chest. Dick isn’t there to stop him though when he purposefully misses the snitch three times and then, when he spots it for the fourth time and the Hufflepuff seeker still hasn’t had any luck, leads him right to it by flying around it in circles until his adversary finally gets wise and catches the damn thing.Lew is out of the team before his feet touch the ground, but it’s totally worth it. Lewis might love quidditch more than life itself, but well, he loves Dick even more. The Slytherins, and most of all Sobel, make Nix’s life hell after that. His bed has become a death trap and Sobel rains punishment after punishment after failed paper down on him.The entire house of Hufflepuff comes to his defence, not only because Nix helped them win the Quidditch cup but because they love their Captain and they love Nix for defending him. They organize a rotating protection schedule (Ron can’t always be there because sometimes he’s just busy not pining for Lip, okay?) and smuggle him into their dormitory at night.If Nix had known that losing a quidditch match was all it would take for him to become an honorary Hufflepuff, he would’ve done it years ago. Now he gets to spend his evenings with Lip and Dick in the cosy Hufflepuff common room and Nix feels safe and protected and loved. Dick is far happier than he ought to be. There’s still a war brewing and he’s worried about his family and what will happen once they all graduate and Sobel still hates him more than he even hates Nix, but oh, Nix. Stupid, kind, fiercely loyal Nix. Dick wants to kiss his stupid, beautiful face when he sits there in front of the fire like it’s the greatest privilege ever bestowed upon him, wants to hold his stupid, perfect hand that was supposed to catch the snitch but didn’t, for him. Dick is vaguely aware of the fact that he keeps looking at Nix like he’s the greatest human being ever invented, but Lipton thankfully keeps the fondly exacerbated looks he throws at Dick to a minimum.Looking is all Dick allows himself to do, anyway, because there’s still a war brewing and Sobel being a general nuisance and he doesn’t want to pressure Nix, who he knows is still figuring out how to be loved by anyone in any way at all, into something he’s not ready for. Dick is a very patient young wizard. Lip is a very patient young wizard as well, but he hasn’t only noticed the way Dick looks at Nix but fucking finally also the way Ron looks at him (Lip might be a bit oblivious about these things sometimes, but after waking up from an impromptu nap in the library and catching Ron looking at him like he’s a fucking silver treasure or something even he finally got wise).
And Lip has figured out how to let himself be loved a long time ago. His mum and his sister are truly great at loving people and so is Lip. And Lip loves Ron, too, so it’s all very convenient.He’s not even a little afraid when he marches up to Ron right after their last N.E.W.T.s exam, takes his hand and pulls him into the nearest empty classroom (one they’ve often used for Ron’s unofficial and therefore highly efficient classes). He presses Ron against the closed door very gently and kisses him just as softly, because Lip has never let himself be fooled by Ron’s rough edges. Ron makes this beautiful, happily surprised noise in the back of his throat and then kisses him back and Lip is about ready to face anything this crazy world might throw at him, knowing that Ron will be there right beside him. Sobel gives Dick an A in Potions instead of the O everyone and their mother knows he deserves.Slight correction: Sobel tries giving Dick an A in Potions. Because Dick, as soon as he gets the owl, marches first to Sobel, who refuses to change his grade and cockily suggests he take the matter to the headmaster, and that’s exactly what Dick does next. Sink seems to remember that class he sat in on during first year because he believes Dick, pulls his written exam and corrects it himself and lets him resit the practical one.This means that Dick is still studying (although he could probably brew every single potion on the curriculum with his eyes closed by now) while the rest of them get horribly drunk on a seemingly never-ending supply of butterbeer someone’s managed to smuggle into the castle (Dick suspects it was Lew, along with Luz’s help because Luz is suddenly very rich and Lew is suddenly very popular, even amongst Slytherins).Dick doesn’t really mind though and he aces that exam (one of the examiners almost cries at how, quote, perfect and beautiful his Amortentia is) and gets his O. The owl arrives during breakfast and Dick can feel Sobel’s eyes on him, fuming all the way over at the teacher’s table. Nix, who read the letter over Dick’s shoulder, hoots triumphantly even though the sound makes his own head hurt and loudly alerts the others to Dick’s ‘epic victory over Sobel’. In other words: things are going a bit too well. And so, during the party after the graduation ceremony, Nix’s parents figure out that the Winters are, in fact, not an ancient American pureblood family as Nix has led them to believe.Nix catches sight of his father’s murderous gaze and Edith’s apologetic face across the floor where he’s dancing with Dick, Harry, Lip and Ron (but really with Dick) and knows immediately what happened.He sighs dejectedly and stops moving for a moment, readying himself to go over there and face the storm but then he looks into Dick’s sweaty, happily glowing face, says “Fuck it, I’ll be disowned for this anyway,” and kisses Dick straight on the mouth.Or at least that’s what he’s going for, but Dick is still dancing like some new-born, extremely uncoordinated baby giraffe who’s not at all in control of its limbs and Nix misses, his mouth landing somewhere on Dick’s chin. Dick laughs, says “Maybe that firewhiskey wasn’t such a good idea, after all. Come on, let’s get some water into you,” and steers Nix right into the trap. Fuck. What follows next is not pretty. Nix loses overview of who screams at who and whose fist connects with whose jaw about five seconds into the confrontation.Nix knows that his father starts screaming at him and he screams right back while telling Dick to get Ann and his parents out of there but Edith refuses to let Stanhope Nixon talk to Lewis like that and gets right into the middle of it so Richard hands Ann over to Lipton who’s come to look what the commotion is all about and heads in right with his wife so the three Winters form a redheaded wall between Nix and his father.Stanhope loses patience quickly and draws his wand to point it at Richard but before he can get a spell out, Dick draws his and Nix has dodged the wall and beats the wand right out of his father’s hand.Everything gets very complicated after that – Nix is pretty sure that Speirs and Harry also get involved at some point – and he only really comes back into his own body after the whole thing has been broken up and he’s sitting in a little closet with Edith Winters cleaning little glass shards out of his right hand (he has no idea how they got there).Nix is still trembling and quite possibly crying out of rage and hatred at Stanhope Nixon, whom he could never forgive for trying to hurt Edith and Richard and Dick.Edith tries to soothe him, says “I’m sure it can all be cleared up, maybe if you go back home in a few days…” but Lewis shakes his head vehemently.He will never go back there. Everybody’s still on edge when they arrive back in Lancaster and to get their minds off of the whole clusterfuck, Edith and Richard pack their 2.5 kids and the dog right back into their old muggle car and drive and drive until they arrive in a little town next to a beautiful little lake where no one’s ever heard of Winters or Nixons or Weasleys or fucking wizards before and stay there for weeks.Dick and Lew go swimming in the lake every morning, little Ann happily builds sand castle after sand castle and when Ron and Lip come and join them after a week or so, she and Lip build the most spectacular castle that’s ever been made out of sand, ever. Therefore, Lip gets assigned on distraction-duty while everybody else decorates the chalet for Ann’s fourth-birthday party.Ron goes way overboard with all the glitter, the pumpkin pie Dick tries to make gets a little singed at the bottom (thankfully Richard has made an actual birthday cake as well) and the little hearts Nix tries to cut out actually look more like… well, nobody really knows what they look like, but certainly not like hearts.As Nix looks out on it from the balcony a few minutes before Lip and Ann are supposed to get back, it all looks sort of perfect, though, especially when Dick comes and joins him, carefully stepping around the dog lying lazily at Nix’s feet to lean against the railing right next to Nix, their arms and hips gently touching.Nix can feel Dick just breathing next to him, then clear his throat and finally coming out with what’s burning on his tongue.“Look Nix”, he starts a bit hesitantly, staring straight ahead, “I want to say I’m sorry about what happened with your father. I, uhm… I never meant to get you into trouble.”Nix turns his head and looks at Dick, at the bit of pumpkin-pie dough he somehow managed to get smudged right below his right ear, then he turns his whole body towards his favourite human being on the whole fucking planet and fastens his resolve.“You know, I’m not sorry,” he says, not at all hesitant. “He is not my real family. You are. And Edith and Richard and Ann and this lazy dog. You’ve all shown me what it means to be home. And I uhm… I love you all, okay?”He somehow manages to look up through his eyelashes at Dick whose red hair is shining golden in the sunlight and who’s wearing his gentle Dick-smile.“Okay,” Dick says and takes Lew’s hand which Lew has dangling over the railing. “I love you, too. And I’d like to stay with you, you know, quite possibly forever.”“Okay,” Nix says and gets lost in the circles Dick is tracing on his hand.“Lew?” Dick asks a couple of completed circles later and gently cups Nix’s jaw with his left hand, “Can I kiss you?”It takes a moment for Lew to get a grip on himself, what with all his dreams coming true in such a ridiculously short amount of time.“Yeah,” he breathes, “yeah, I’d really like that.”And then Dick kisses Lew and Lew thinks he might explode with how happy and warm this makes him feel, down to the tips of his toes where the dog is now springing up excitedly to great Ann and Lip who’ve just come in and are both squealing in equal measure at the decorations.Lew and Dick follow him inside and join their family to celebrate one of the happiest days of their lives. Their acceptance letters into Auror training find them two days later. They all know they’ve got a long and tiring road ahead of them. But with what they’ve already found along the way, they are absolutely confident that they’ll win this war and finally be able to get home again to live the rest of their lives in peace.