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It had been a long day at Dalton for Derek. He’d dealt with a pissed off home economics teacher, an unmotivated and uncooperative rowing team, got into a yelling match with Hughes (No he did not steal Wes’s girlfriend, No he did not appreciate being called a man-whore) and had been cornered by another ex who seemed not to understand the notion of “breaking up”. So he was grateful to enter Julian’s room and observe that it didn’t appear as if Dalton’s new “Golden Couple” had had another domestic.
In fact it appeared to be quite the opposite; Logan was reclining on Julian’s bed, reading their new required text for English, with Julian, complete with sunglasses perched on his nose, strewn across his legs. Derek paused for a moment, though he’d deny it if you asked, to admire the scene before him and, while he considered leaving to give them some privacy, decided to go and join in the cuddle-fest.
It took Derek a moment to realise that Julian was murmuring into his hand, it took another few seconds before he realised that his friend was talking into his phone (he’d had a long day, he wasn’t allowed to be judged). Derek collapsed onto the bed next to Julian and received a grunt from Logan and a brief smile from Julian as acknowledgement. Niceties out of the way, Derek began to eavesdrop on Julian’s conversation. It sounded like the typical one-sided conversation, with Julian’s agent, he was privy to hearing often. It also sounded as if Julian was on board with this new venture, if Logan’s scowl was anything to go by, and quite keen to take the opportunity.
“So you say it’s quite likely I’ll be cast?”
Julian’s voice raised a couple of notches in his excitement, both of the other boys lifted their heads to exchange twin glances of speculation.
“Who else did you say might be in it, Carmen?”
Julian’s signature grin faded and turned into a look of mild horror when he heard the answer.
“I’m sorry, Carmen, I can’t do it. I’ll call you back later.”
He pouted while poking angrily at his phone to end the call. Logan lifted a hand to stroke Julian’s hair, seemingly bewildered as to what else he could do. In the end Derek, with a glare at his blond friend, was the one who plucked up enough courage to enquire about the odd occurrences of approximately 2.5 minutes ago.
“Erm, Jules? Do you want to talk about it?”
“No,” was the immediate reply, accompanied with a pout, from Julian.
“Will you?”
“Maybe.”
Derek grinned, he was making progress,
“I’ll babysit Sonic, like you keep asking, if you tell me. US!”
Julian exhaled a breath of air as if he’d been asked to create a forgery of the Mona Lisa using only finger paints and spaghetti,
“Alan Rickman.”
“What? I’m sorry, are you not taking a film because ALAN FRICKING RICKMAN is in it?”
Logan was staring at his boyfriend in utter confusion, an expression Derek imagined was being mirrored on his own face. Julian scowled at them both before answering,
“Yes.”
“Why?”
That last “why” was said by Derek, Logan being too busy mouthing Alan Rickman repeatedly to echo his friend’s sentiment.
“You will never repeat this, EVER! Either of you. I don’t care who’s torturing you, how much someone is willing to pay, how desperately you want to get into their pants. You will never tell anyone what I am about to tell you.”
Taking his word as law, Julian carried on without pausing for his friends to agree to his demand.
“HeMadeMeCryWhenIwasElevenJustBecauseIKnewAndHeThoughtHeWasTheOnlyOneThatKnewAndThenIGotScaredBecauseHeWasSnapeAnd. . . .now you’re judging me aren’t you?”
The other two boys, reclining on the bed, stared at Julian unsure of where to begin.
“Okay,” Derek started, “Alan Rickman, made YOU cry when you were eleven?”
Julian simply nodded. Derek gestured for Julian to continue.
“We were at an awards ceremony and I’d bumped into him and asked for his autograph. We talked and I gave my theories about certain Harry Potter loopholes. Well it turned out that I was correct in my speculations and. . . that, well, Alan Rickman thought I’d pouted my way into getting the truth out of J K Rowling.”
“So he made you cry?”, Derek interrupted.
“So he made me cry.” Julian repeated.
Logan shook his head, before pulling Julian up to his chest for a cuddle. Derek took his cue to leave knowing, from experience, that pushing Julian any further at that point would simply make him close off.
He didn’t even have to ask, as he was sure Logan would have, what it was Julian knew. Even before meeting Logan, Julian would have picked up on Snape and Lily. So if Derek smiled to himself when he saw Julian adjusting a scarf, despite the heat, the day after; it obviously WASN’T because he’d re-read all the Potter books in the night due to feelings. He was just pleased that Julian was happy now.
And if, a few weeks later, Alan Rickman privately rang Julian to apologise, it wasn’t because of a series of threatening emails to his manager suggesting an exposure of his previous mis-deeds. After all Derek doesn’t have time to devote to making his friends' lives perfect.