“Oi, Dean! What’s this?”
Dean looked over at Seamus. He was lying on his back flipping through a book. Dean strained his neck to see the title.
“Oh, it’s an old science text. It’s my Mum’s.”
Seamus scrunched his nose and frowned at the book.
“What’s an electron?”
Dean shrugged. He hadn’t taken science very long, before going to Hogwarts.
“Dunno. Something to do with electricity and atoms, I think.”
Seamus nodded seriously, as if it made the most sense in the world. Then, he turned back to the text.
An hour later, Dean’s mother called them down to dinner.
“So,” she said, “what have you boys been up to?”
“I was drawing Seamus,” Dean answered.
Seamus looked up from his dinner. “You did? Can I see?”
Dean nodded and grabbed his notebook from the side table. He flipped the pages to his most recent picture.
In it, Seamus was lying on his back reading on Dean’s bed, just like he had been before. Dean had used simple pencil and pencil crayons, so the colours were soft. It wasn’t very detailed, but in the air around Seamus, Dean had drawn diagrams of atoms. They gave the picture an intellectual air, that complimented the intense look of concentration on Seamus’ face.
Seamus smiled at Dean. “It’s really good.”
“Why the atoms?” Mrs. Thomas asked.
“He was reading one of your old text books, Mum.”
Mrs. Thomas smiled. “Glad someone is getting use out of them. What did you learn?”
Seamus grinned. “It was about electrons and atoms. Orbits and stuff.”
Mrs. Thomas nodded. “Of course. Anything interesting?”
“Kind of,” Seamus shrugged. Then, his face lit up. “I made up a joke though.”
Dean rolled his eyes. “You make jokes about everything.”
“I thought you liked my jokes.” Seamus’ voice was light, but there was a twinge of hurt.
Dean smiled widely at him. “I love your jokes. Let’s hear it.”
Seamus grinned, having immediately forgiven and forgotten with Dean’s smile.
“Okay, so, two electrons walked into a 2P orbital...”