ship_manifesto

Title: Finding the Perfect Balance (Seamus Finnigan/Dean Thomas)
Authors:

misscora (Miss Cora) and

jlh (Clio)
Email: nightmare_poet at yahoo dot com ; jlh at livejournal dot com
Fandom: Harry Potter
Spoilers: All five books
Acknowledgments: Thanks to

evil_erato for looking this over. Thoughts and suggestions welcome.

Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, inseparable best friends and Gryffindor roommates of Harry Potter but well outside the action of the main plot of the books. In canon, they act as a "regular boy" balance to Harry, Ron and Neville. In fanon, they usually remain minor characters, and in slash fanon they are often presented as a couple in the background without much thought.

But oh, the hidden depths! Seamus is a halfblood Irishman and Dean a Muggleborn black Londoner; both of them have a reason to feel a fish out of water at Hogwarts. And their chemistry as friends--one outgoing and one retiring, each one looking out for the other--can be translated into romance with ease. Besides, as Cora says, what is more romantic than realizing the love of your life has been at your side all along?

Dean the artist
Dean Thomas is a Muggleborn who, like Harry, has suddenly been flung into a completely different world. But unlike Harry, he's no superstar, and clings to some much-loved artifacts from his past life, like his drawing and his beloved West Ham Football Club (he keeps a poster of them on the wall in his dorm even after he becomes fond of Quidditch). Despite all the change in his life, Dean is a normal boy--excited over the prospect of a Dueling Club, shy around girls, of the opinion that shooting gum up a poltergeist's nose is "cool"--who would rather be hanging out and laughing with his friends than doing homework. Being a brave Gryffindor, Dean was quite taken by Professor Lupin's defense classes and became one of the most enthusiastic members of the DA. By the end of book 5, Dean has gone from being a somewhat shy fish out of water to a skilled wizard.

Seamus the flirt
Seamus Finnigan's first words in canon are to blithely announce during the Welcoming Feast that he's "half and half", showing little or no concern for wizarding blood politics. While he's much in evidence in the first book, in the next three books he functions primarily as comic relief, mouthing off to those who seem a bit too full of themselves. He has the luxury of a yearning for adventure but is a little sulky about studying--he'd much rather be social. Seamus is often the one who brings the Trio the latest Hogwarts scuttlebutt, and is the only Gryffindor boy to get a date to the Yule Ball in GoF without much trouble (a fact that looms large in his fanon characterization).

Then, in Order of the Phoenix, Seamus suddenly turns very serious, doubting Harry and remaining estranged from him until the Quibbler article is published. However, once presented with the whole story, Seamus is quick to apologize to Harry, and Dean brings him to what turns out to be the last meeting of Dumbledore's Army.

Canon: Subtext? Um, well . . .
Given that these are minor characters, it cannot really be said that there is a vast amount of canon subtext, but that doesn't mean Seamus/Dean is the "SS Have We Met?" either. It's an uncomplicated best friendship: they look out for each other and their personalities complement one another. Social Seamus, who easily befriended Harry in book 1, becomes close to the shyer Dean and pulls him into the social flow. In canon they are shown attached at the hip, doing everything together, and by the end of book 3 they are finishing each other's sentences. They even "take in" Ron during his fight with Harry in book 4. But in much of book 5 Seamus is on the social out, and Dean keeps him close through furtive conversations until, in a reversal of their first year, it is Dean who gets Seamus back into the mainstream of life in the Gryffindor dorms.

Fanon: History of Us
The ship's beginnings were rather inauspicious--found in the background of many fics (particularly Harry/Draco) but with little work of their own. The boys were usually ignored as individuals and taken for granted as a couple, even used as a plot device. One of the earliest Seamus/Dean stories, Khirsah's Virgin Sacrifice, grew as an offshoot of another pairing's story. Along with giving the boys a chance to shine, Virgin Sacrifice also introduced one of the earliest tropes of the pairing--that of a highly exuberant, curious and talkative Seamus paired with a much more sedate, thoughtful and emotionally aware Dean.

From this it was a natural step to one of the pairing's biggest clichés: slut!Seamus. The fandom interpretation of Seamus as outgoing and talkative, coupled with the canon fact that he took Lavender Brown to the Yule Ball, has become an image of him as almost indiscriminately flirtatious and more than willing to sleep around. And Dean's being "good with a quill" has grown into another cliché: artistic!Dean. Fully a third of the Seamus/Dean stories feature Dean as some form of artist, and a goodly portion of them involve him drawing Seamus in some fashion. Outgoing Slut!Seamus is then paired with shy Artist!Dean in one of two ways: either Dean is seen as being so sure of their relationship that Seamus's flirting doesn't really matter or, more frequently, Dean is very unsure (if not totally unaware) of Seamus's real affections and is occasionally angry about his indiscretions. But while this yin/yang hinted at in canon has become something of a cliché, it is also the heart of the ship, the core of their interaction.

With the release of Order of the Phoenix, Dean fans were given both more interaction from Dean (previously seen almost exclusively in Seamus's company) and a new possibility in the guise of Ginny's last line to Ron on the train about dating Dean. Many post OotP Seamus/Dean fics explore the idea of a serious relationship between Ginny and Dean as the catalyst for Seamus to understand his feelings, as well as occasionally using Ginny a foil for the boys as a couple, either established or burgeoning.

Why we love them
Cora:
My interpretation of Seamus and Dean as a couple is all over the map. I can see (and have written) them together as anything from school boy crushes, romances and flings to being an established couple living normal lives together after school. The only thing I can't see them as is apart. The two of them fit so well that having them not be together just doesn't make sense. For me, they belong together because they compliment each other completely. Where Seamus is brash and impulsive, Dean is thoughtful and restrained. Where Dean is retiring, Seamus is outgoing. When Seamus is wildly energetic, Dean is calmly grounded, and when Dean becomes lost in worlds of his own artistry, Seamus is totally a part of the here and now. They match each other perfectly, playing off the other's strengths and weaknesses while being comfortable and secure in their friendship and their love.

Of course, the boys' friendship is as much a part of the pairing as their love is--they are inseparable friends in canon so, of course, that carries over into fandom. And there is something wonderfully romantic and comfortable about the idea of discovering the love that's been at your side all along.

Clio:
I agree with Cora--Seamus and Dean simply make sense together, and the moment I read my first S/D, I never really looked back. For me, they have many parallels with the traditional Sirius/Remus interpretation: one emotional and outgoing, one more rational and introverted. I love that sort of interaction, where Seamus pulls Dean out of his shell and Dean keeps Seamus from going too far. They're really good for each other as friends and as lovers. They aren't really opposites, but they can be opposing forces, which I think keeps the ship from being too fluffy, but also from being overly angsty. I am also fascinated with these two characters who are ethnically outside of the English mainstream in a way that the Trio aren't, and I often wonder if this is what brought them together initially. Because they are not at the center of the action in canon, their angst comes from within themselves and from the war waging outside, which I find more human and therefore much more fun to read and write.

Why you should love them
Because there is something lovely and sweet about finding love with your best friend. Because they can give you a break from Second War angst, or give you the grunt's eye-view on the war itself and how it interrupts innocent lives. Because interracial couples are hot. Because Seamus needs Dean to keep him grounded, and Dean needs Seamus to bring him out. Because now they'll have to start making some difficult decisions. Because the tall, dark boy and the small, sandy-haired one have an odd couple visual appeal. Because not all slash ships need to be running with "my father hates your father" angst. Because they won't mess up your other ships. Because minor characters leave more scope to the imagination.

Because not everyone is a hero or a villain.

Now that you love them, what should you read?
Luckily, the Seamus/Dean corner of the Harry Potter fandom is really quite small and accessible. The majority of the discussion of the pairing happens either on Fiction Alley's SCUSA thread, Kicks and Giggles, or on the Livejournal community

deamus. Most of the fanfiction can be found on Deamus, or on the pairing archive. There are also a number of short drabbles to be found in the pairing's cookie jar on FA.

To get you started, here are a few selections:

There are two completed, novel length Seamus/Dean stories, Eight Ways from Sunday by Clio and Friendship, Loyalty and Love by Miss Cora. Both stories feature the boys in their sixth year, but while Friendship, Loyalty and Love is mainly about the boys having an adventure together, Eight Ways from Sunday is more about their struggle to get together and find a balance in their life.

Abaddon's When Love Comes to Town is another story about the boys' difficulties in finding each other and themselves, while Catsapella's Farewell, Seamus Finnigan is about the pain of losing each other.

For re-imaginings of Seamus/Dean clichés, bruised_easily's Au Natural is a perfect example of Artist!Dean, while Bec's A Taste of Honey is one of the first (and best) examples of Slut!Seamus. Alternatively, Bec's Thousand takes the idea of Artist!Dean in a new direction and gives us an absolutely wonderful view of Seamus looking at some of Dean's work.

While it is practically taken as given in the Seamus/Dean corner of the world that Seamus is the outgoing and flamboyant one while Dean is quite and introspective, a few authors have turned this idea on its head. Notably, Drew's A Lesson Learned in Time gives us a chance to see Seamus as the introspective and considering one, sort of, and Poetic License's An Uncertain Week gives us a view of Seamus as almost manipulative, while ten miles from midnight gives us a very tricky sort of Dean in Pool Shark.

Of course, not all Seamus/Dean authors are of the opinion that the two of them found each other at school and lived together happily all of their days. Drop of a Hat, by Miss Cora, is a story about the two of them finding each other again after many years and falling in love, while Hito's Bone Scan is the story of Seamus and Ginny and Dean and an affair that never really seems to end.

Finally, Nimue1540 has explored for the fandom what the boys have to deal with in their relationship as far as opinions from the outside world (in this case, Dean's parents) in The Most Beautiful Sin.

We hope that we've inspired you to read these stories and write some of your own! At the end of the day, our motives are entirely selfish: We want more Seamus/Dean!

misscora (Cora) and

jlh (Clio)