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Author: Ladybug Story: A Whole Minute Rating: Young Teens Status: Completed Reviews: 3 Words: 9,197
Seamus Finnigan, on the other hand, refused point-blank to accompany his mother home; they had a shouting match in the Entrance Hall which was resolved when she agreed that he could remain behind for the funeral. (Ch. 30 The White Tomb, Half-Blood Prince)
I, Seamus Michael Finnigan, have just discovered the meaning of life. And I’m right disappointed to say that it’s not as good as I thought it would be. Do you want to know what it is, this secret I’ve discovered, the answer that I’ve just this minute found lurking in my mind? It’s this: Life Is Not Fun. Growing up, I always thought that the adults had more fun than the kids; that they were having secret fun all that time they were being grumpy at you and telling you not to do things. But now I know they were really just being grumpy. There’s no secret fun to be had, and there’s no joy in being an adult. Because Life Is Not Fun. And it’s taken the most embarrassing moment of my life to teach me this very upsetting lesson. I’m standing in the Entrance Hall with about three hundred tossers gawking at me while I have a shouting match with Mam. Did I mention that life wasn’t fun? A minute ago, not even that, I was passing through the hall on the way back to the tower, having just finished breakfast. Dean nudged me and I turned to see what had caught his attention. It was my mother, here at Hogwarts, storming into the Entrance Hall looking frantically about her. Looking for me. I looked at Dean and raised my eyebrows, and he shrugged his shoulders. ‘Seamus! Thank the Lord!’ Well, there was no doubting she’d spotted me. She practically flew over and hugged me tight until I managed to free myself. I hastily bent down to give her a light kiss on the cheek instead, trying to mollify her without looking like a baby being mollycoddled by his mummy. Yeah, I had to bend down – I’m taller than my mother now. I guess that was bound to happen sometime. ‘Hi, Mrs Finnigan, how are you?’ Dean said, right polite bastard he is. ‘Oh, Dean. Oh, you’re safe! You’re both safe,’ said Mam tightly, patting us both on the head, as if she couldn’t believe we were actually here. ‘Um, yeah, Mrs Finnigan. We’re fine.’ Dean looked at me bemusedly, deserted me with a pat on the back and trudged up the staircase. I glanced after him, thinking we could switch places and I wouldn’t mind in the least. ‘Mam, what’re you doing here?’ ‘I didn’t want you to travel home by yourself. Now get your things and we’ll be off.’ I cringed as she kept smoothing her hands across my shoulders. There were sniggers somewhere, too, I’m sure of it. Then I heard what she was saying. ‘ … and then you can Side-Along Apparate with me back home.’ ‘What?’ I shook my head, not understanding what on earth she was talking about. ‘I’m here to take you home. What did you expect? You can’t stay here now, Seamus dear. It’s too dangerous altogether.’ ‘What?’ I took a step back, being conscious of hundreds of prying eyes eagerly feasting on our very public, private conversation. ‘I said you need to be coming home. With me. Now.’ Her voice went up about a hundred decibels and she got that mother’s glint in her eye, the one that says ‘don’t you dare disobey me, young man’. I can’t stand that look, so I leant forward and hissed, trying to keep it down so everyone else would get the hint to bugger off and mind their own business, and she would get the hint not to embarrass me in public. ‘No, I don’t! I need to be staying here, at Hogwarts.’ It didn’t work. ‘Seamus, you can’t. There were Death Eaters here!’ I groaned inwardly. I can’t believe I used to be afraid of banshees – they have nothing on my mother. ‘Yeah, I had heard, thanks very much, Mam, along with the whole of the United Kingdom.’ Well, there was not much point in me keeping quiet now, was there. ‘You need to come home before it’s too late,’ she said very sternly. Honestly, I wonder where women’s logic goes when they become mothers. Because Mam is never logical when she’s yelling at me. ‘Too late? What, you think they went to all that trouble to get after me?’ The next bit came blurting out without me really even thinking it. ‘“Oh, sure and now we’ve killed Dumbledore let’s go after that Finnigan bloke. ’Cause he’s so scary”,’ I mimicked. Not very mature, I realise, but I was just a bit put out by having my mother tell me off in front of the WHOLE SCHOOL. Some clown in the crowd like my joke, at least. ‘No, Mam, I’m staying here.’ Pity Mam wasn’t so amused. ‘It’s not a joking matter, young man. You belong with me, at home. In Ireland. Come on, now, get your things. I’ll not be waiting around all day for you.’ So this is where I am. Staring in shock at my mother, fighting equal parts dead embarrassment that we’re in the most public place in the school, and right indignation at being treated like a child. And it occurs to me that Life is Not Fun. You’d think I would have worked that out last year, shocker of a year it was, or at least sometime this year – what with watching everyone but me play on the Quidditch team and my ex snogging her heart out with my roommate. I’ve been labouring under the delusion that life is mostly fun with a few unfortunate incidents thrown in the way. Despite evidence to the contrary, I can now say in hindsight. Now, since Dumbledore died, I realise that it’s back-to-front, that life is mostly not fun, with the odd fun incident breaking the monotony. ‘If you don’t get a move on, Seamus Michael, so help me … on the count of three –‘ ‘ON THE COUNT OF THREE?’ I yell in astonishment, our audience forgotten. ‘In case you hadn’t noticed, Mam, I’m SEVENTEEN, not seven, and I’ll not be doing anything on the count of three!’ ‘I’m still your mother, Seamus, and you will be respectful of your elders.’ ‘I’m of age now, Mam, and, respectfully, I make me own decisions. I’m not coming with you. Not now, not today.’ ‘Seamus,’ she’s pleading now – I can’t stand her pleading voice – ‘I need you to come home.’ Oh Merlin, she’s starting to cry. ‘I need you to be safe. With me.’ Well, I don’t care if she cries or prays to the Virgin Mary herself. I’ll not be leaving early, not like this. ‘Well, I need to be going to Dumbledore’s funeral,’ I say with such force that I surprise myself. And then inspiration strikes, and I know how to get my mother to back off. ‘And you know what? So do you.’ I point forcefully at her to prove my point. That’s given her a start, I can tell. She recoils, surprised by my outburst, so I move in, making it clear altogether what I mean. ‘Dumbledore’s the greatest wizard al– …’ I take a deep breath, ‘… was the greatest wizard who ever lived, Mam. You need to pay your respects. And that’s what I need to do – pay me respects. I’ll not be running off to Ireland like a baby. I’m staying, like a man, to pay me respects to Dumbledore. To show the bastards that they can’t frighten me. It’s only right and proper. And I’ll not desert my friends, either. We need to stick together. They can’t frighten us away.’ Bloody hell, my mother’s just burst into tears and is clinging to me around the shoulders. I’m dying of embarrassment here; not just for me, but for her as well. ‘Oh, Seamus, when did you grow up? Why did you have to grow up?’ she sniffles in my ear. Now she decides to whisper. I don’t know what to say, or what to do, but I think I end up vaguely patting her on the back and thinking that Life is definitely Not Fun.
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