Work Text
April 2010
A burning pain erupted in Gabriel's gut as Lucifer plunged his own blade into his stomach and he doubled over in shock and agony. He'd be lying through his teeth if he said that this turn of events was entirely unexpected, but the betrayal still seared like a dagger to his heart. In spite of his better judgement, there'd been a small, hopeful and oh so foolish part of him that had believed that Lucifer wouldn't really be able to hurt him like this. Not even now. Well, joke was on him, because the thing that had once been his favorite brother did not give a shit about Gabriel beyond that he'd gotten in his way.The feeling of his wings burning was a special kind of agony that pulsed alongside the stab wound in his gut, but the youngest archangel somehow managed to find the strength to leave a believable copy of himself behind and run before they'd been completely reduced to cinders. Better that they think he was dead; they had no way of knowing that Dad had made sure that no archangel could be killed by his own blade and as far as Lucifer was concerned, Gabriel had been more than sufficiently dealt with.He crashed into a bed and took a moment to be relieved that he'd landed in the right place. Gabriel didn't know how long he'd be incapacitated for, but it would be for long enough that holing up somewhere with what he knew were good people was definitely for the best. Sure, they'd be confused as hell to see him here, unconscious, looking very nearly exactly the same as when he'd last seen them, some twenty five years ago he was pretty sure, but these people were used to the weird and impossible. He'd just have some explaining to do when he woke up. And anyway, he'd meant to come over to check on them some years ago, seeing them would just have to wait a little longer and this time he wouldn't be able to procrastinate anymore about it. He hoped that they wouldn't be too pissed at him, especially considering he was pretty much totally at their mercy until he was healed, and Dad knew how long that would take.One thing was for sure. Gabriel wouldn't be waking up in time to help the boys anymore than he already had, that was for sure. He just hoped that he'd bought enough time for the Winchesters to get Kali the hell out and that they'd found his Casa Erotica CD with the instructions for opening and then closing the Cage again. Gabriel was almost loathe to admit it, but if anyone had even the slightest chance of being able to slam Lucifer back into his cage, it'd be those two knucklehead Winchesters, even if they only had Cassie for angelic assistance. Death, at least, would probably just give him his ring as long as he had access to junk food, and he was, for obvious reasons, by far the most deadly of the Four Horsemen. Mind, if Gabriel woke up and the Winchesters had gotten his little brother killed, it wouldn't matter if Samsquatch and Deano had managed to stop Lucifer and Michael's slug-fest, they were dead men no matter how cute the younger one's puppy dog eyes were. Same went for Dean Winchester specifically, if he broke Cassie's heart. If that happened, there was nowhere that the elder Winchester could run. Gabriel would find him and destroy him entirely. Cassie'd already been through enough.Of course none of that was particularly relevant just then. Gabriel would have to wait to find all of that out when he woke up, provided that the Winchesters didn't fail end of the world or his brothers didn't just kill him while he slept. He wouldn't put it past any of them at this point to track him down and end him while he was out of it, never mind that he was their little brother. Not like they'd ever bothered trying to know their charges beyond "Dad's annoying little new mud monkey favorites" anyway. They wouldn't care that he'd just been trying to protect the humans as best he could. It occurred to Gabriel that he might be a little bit bitter. Hah. Who was he kidding, he'd been more than a little bitter for a few millennia. Thanks for that Pops.That last little bit of his wings burned off, leaving a dusting of ashes to fall beside him on the bed. A tiny whimper managed to make it's way out past his lips as his thoughts went decidedly muddled with pain. It hurt more than any of the other, many things he'd gone through. Still, if it meant that the boys, Kali and any of the pagans who were left had managed to get out alive, it was worth it because that meant for maybe the first time since he'd left Heaven, what he'd done had counted for something. He hoped it had anyway, and at this point hope was about all he could do.His last thought before he drifted off was that something didn't seem quite right here. Something was missing, something very, very important, but the archangel was too tired and too injured to even really register that thought before his eyes fell closed, his body slumped, and his mind quieted for the first time in a very long time.What Gabriel had noticed subconsciously was this: the manor he'd landed in was completely empty, and had been that way for over two decades. No one was there to notice the archangel asleep in the spare room on the second floor. And the manor would continue to remain empty but for it's single sleeping occupant for several more years to come until a boy and a man, both on the run, were led there by a large black dog who at that point in time was a whole ocean away, trying to get back home.
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Mar. 6, 2016
Sam was having a bad day. Which, thinking about it, was probably one of the biggest understatements he'd ever thought in his life. God was dead, and who knew where Cas'd gotten blasted off to, or if he was uninjured. Sam himself had hole in his shoulder that he was fairly certain was still bleeding and was currently stuffed into the trunk of a car. Presumably, they were taking him to an airport for a flight to Great Britain where he would "answer for the crimes against humanity committed by he and his brother." God these assholes were full of bullshit. They might have broke the world a little a few times, but they'd always been the ones to fix it, even when it hadn't been their fault.Oh, and Dean had just killed the Darkness by making himself into a living soul bomb; he was dead too. So really, it would be more accurate to say that Sam was having a Hell day. Literally; this was uncomfortably similar to a number of the scenarios Lucifer had put him through during his time in the Cage. Similar enough that Sam had caught himself pressing down on the scar on his hand, just to make sure this was real. He kind of wished that Toni Bevell had aimed a few more inches to the left and just killed him. As it was she'd given him a lovely gunshot wound in his shoulder that reared its ugly head every time they hit a bump in the road. Every. Damn. Time. Sam was pretty sure that he'd passed out from the pain a few times; they hadn't bothered to give him anything for the pain.Finally, several pit-stops, five different cars, and a rough patch up job of his shoulder to ensure he wouldn't bleed out later, they slowed to a stop. Sam was unceremoniously yanked out of the trunk, no mind paid to the hole in his shoulder, sonuvabitch that hurt."Watch it," Sam snarled when the encroaching cray had cleared out of his vision. He was summarily ignored in favor of barking and acknowledging orders; none of these assholes had spoken so much as a word to him since he'd been shoved into the trunk of the first car.Preoccupied as he was with cursing enough to have made Dean proud and struggling against being manhandled into the plane, and as busy as the Men of Letters people were with doing the manhandling, they all failed to notice the huge black dog that had made his way into the small cargo hold of the plane and hid behind the luggage.A very large black dog lay, crouching behind the numerous suitcases that also occupied the cargo hold of the plane, and pondered his luck. He hadn't had much of it these past two decades that he;d been stuck here. He couldn't change out of this form, for one, which made it extremely hard to go anywhere fast, much less cross an ocean. No one sold plane tickets to dogs. He'd tried plenty of times, of course, but each time, he'd either been caught or wound up in the wrong place. Coming down from Alaska had taken him two years and had nearly killed him. Winters up north were not to be messed with.So, not so much for good luck, so much so, that he'd been close to giving up on ever getting home. Still, his bad luck streak couldn't manage to hold out forever.His nose had caught the wiff of fresh blood as he'd been slinking, careful not to be seen, around this tiny airstrip looking for a plane that seemed as though it might be headed in the vicinity of the UK. He'd gone to investigate it, and seen the blond woman and what appeared to be her goons shoving an extremely tall young man with bloodstained bandages wrapped around his shoulder into the plane.She, at least going from what he could hear of her voice as she barked orders, was most definitely British. Excellent. It looked like this little plane might just turn out to be his ticket home. Hopefully.It's a risk, Sirius Black realized as he his behind the luggage in the cargo bay, but then again, I've really been one for being careful. At this point he didn't even care where he ended up, just so long as it was east of the Atlantic. If he ended up in Asia, he could damn well walk.This was the first even remotely concrete chance he'd gotten in well over twenty years to get back to his godson and remaining best friend. There was no way in hell that he was passing this up.
Mar. 4, 2016
Dean was still reeling. He'd just managed to freaking Dr. Phil the two most powerful beings in the freaking universe into making nice with each other. As in God and his freaking sister. The world wasn't ending, for once, and he wasn't dead. This, he reflected, was something of an anomaly. Usually, Sam, he and/or Cas were dead, almost dead or might-as-well-be-dead-right-now in the aftermath of the prevention (or cause, if he was being honest) of one apocalypse or another. This time, they were all alive, and, unless Cas and Sam'd somehow already managed to bury themselves in trouble again, uninjured. They could kick back a little, relax some, and take some time to integrate the newest curveball that Amara had thrown them before something else insane happened.Speaking of said curveball, Dean was glancing over to the passenger seat every few seconds to make sure that the woman sitting there wasn't just a figment of his imagination. Because, oh yeah the freaking Darkness had decided that she owed him and brought his freaking mother back from the dead. His mom was alive for the first time since he was four (and no, he wasn't counting the time-travel incidents, that had been the woman who would become his mom). His mom was alive. And Dean was firmly believing that there wouldn't be another shoe-drop to make that temporary. He figured that he was entitled to some reeling. Dean was still having trouble believing it.They'd been in this car for a good few hours, well away from the park where the God Twins had made up and they hadn't said much to each other at all. Of course she herself was having her own trouble believing that Dean was actually her son and that the second incident with ol' Yellow Eyes and with the poltergeist weren't just bizarre nightmares. But that was okay, Dean could work with that and he could hardly blame her for it. They could talk later. If Dean was her, he wouldn't believe that the random fully grown dude calling him mom was actually the son he'd last seen at four years old either. She needed time, and he'd just have to prove to her that he was telling the truth, and he could do that along with Sam and Cas just as soon as they got back to the bunker. God, Sammy. Dean's foot pressed just a little harder on the accelerator. When the sun stopped going out, his little brother and Cas must've thought that Dean had died taking out Amara. He needed to get that cleared up as soon as humanly possible, and if that meant breaking the speed limit pretty much constantly? Well that was just how it was gonna be.Castiel was quickly going beside himself with worry. He'd crash-landed in the middle of nowhere Manitoba of all places, and he'd had to knock some poor truck driver out cold to get transportation back to the bunker. He just hoped that Sam was still there. Cas was fairly certain that that eventuality was highly unlikely, given that the young woman who'd banished him knew that he knew where it was and that Sam hadn't answered any of his many phone calls. No, Cas didn't think that Sam would still be there, but he could hope. Still the whole thing was very worrisome.The fact that she'd known how to banish him worried him that much more.Cas also hoped that Sam would be alright when Cas found him, but the Winchesters had a habit of landing head first in the biggest trouble that could find them and so he doubted that too, especially since Dean was no longer alive to look out for him.The angel's grip on the steering wheel tightened so hard that the leather creaked. Sam would be fine. He had to be. Cas would make sure that he was. He couldn't lose Sam too, not so soon after Dean, and not after he'd promised Dean that he'd look after him. He felt the corner of his mouth twitch upwards just slightly at the thought that if if he did lose Sam, Dean would likely find some impossible way out of the Empty just to kick Cas's ass for not looking after his little brother properly.Grieving would have to wait. There was still a Winchester that could be saved, and Cas would be damned to the Empty himself in he failed him again.
Feb. 28, 2016
Harry Potter was pacing; had been for that past hour. Teddy had been missing for at least three hours, probably longer. Teddy'd left a week prior, with plans to return the day prior. He'd been on an Auror mission investigating rumors of muggles who'd gotten turned into werewolves in Sheffield, and were, apparently, very different than wizards who'd been Turned.He'd not come back, and had missed the scheduled check-in for three hours ago that he should've called in to say that he needed more time. When his handler had gone to check on him, he'd been gone from his hotel room, with no clue as to where. Harry'd been trying to track him to no avail, which in his experience, was never a good thing. Not for the fist time, Harry cursed his Godson's decision to become an Auror. He was proud as all hell to be sure but it was a dangerous job, and Teddy being a part of it scared Harry just as surely as if Teddy were his own son. Which, of course, he was in all the ways that counted.Harry's musings were interrupted when the door to his office abruptly burst open to admit his out of breath best friend. "Any news?" Harry asked him immediately, stopping his pacing.Ron nodded, catching his breath. He must've run all the way here from where ever he'd gotten the update to be that out of breath, Harry realized. God, he hoped that they'd managed to find Teddy. "We've got a lead mate. It's definite, but I don't know that it's a good one." The look on Ron's face told Harry all he needed to know.His blood ran cold, and he was out his office door running flat out before Ron had even managed to finish his sentence, his best friend his heels. He didn't think he'd been this scared for someone since the War, and judging by the look in his best friend's eyes, Ron hadn't been either. Whatever they'd found, it hadn't been good. And if someone had killed his godson, they'd find out exactly why he'd been the one leading the defense group whose members spanned all seven Hogwarts years and had stood against Voldemort when no one else had at the age of fifteen. There would be hell to pay.
Mar. 4, 2016
Mary Winchester was very confused, and not a little bit scared. This situation that she was finding herself in had reached a level of crazy that even she had never thought would be possible. If this was a trick, whoever was behind it was getting their asses kicked into the next century for bringing her back into this supernatural bullshit. One moment, she'd been at home, in her nice stable, normal house in Kansas, going upstairs to check on her youngest son. The next she knew, she was standing in a park in her nightgown, with a grown man claiming to be her four year old son and that she'd somehow come to be over thirty years in the future. Because she'd been dead for all of that time, but had been resurrected by someone who was apparently God's sister as a thank you. Now, she was in a car with him, going to where, he'd told her, he could give her proof as to what had happened. If she didn't believe him after that, he'd told her that she'd be free to go. Ordinarily she'd dismiss the whole thing out of hand as completely impossible and possible a very, very bizarre djinn dream, and the man as batshit insane. She'd seen a lot in her life, but time travel had never been one of them. But...They seemed like dreams, and she was almost sure that that was all they were. But what if they weren't? What if they were memories? The Yellow Eyed Demon, burning on the ceiling. Being a ghost for years, protecting, and saving the tall young man from the poltergeist. Being absolutely sure, down to her ghostly bones, that that young man was her baby, her Sam all grown up.The other young man in the maybe-dream. The other young man, who was the reason she hadn't just slapped the man in the car next to her and ran. Because she'd still somehow wound up in a park in the middle of the nowhere. Because in the maybe-dream, she'd been sure that the other young man had been Dean, her Dean, and he was the same man, albeit older, who had stopped dead the instant he'd seen her in the park and called her Mom. The same man she now rode in this stolen car with. What if he was right and she'd died and become a ghost haunting her house for a good twenty-odd years before sying a second time facing down a poltergeist. Mary was confused, but she was a (ex)hunter, and she'd never been stupid. She'd dealt with what most deemed to be impossible for most of her life. This man said that he could prove to her what he'd told her. If he was telling the truth, and he could, well she just might have to believe him. And then she would have a very long talk with her sons about how, exactly, they'd come to be hunters. If he wasn't telling the truth? Well, she might be a bit out of practice, but Mary was still fully capable of kicking his ass. If it was a djinn dream? Well that sorry bastard would be dead before they knew what'd hit them.Mar. 6, 2016Teddy Lupin had decided that this was officially the worst (almost) two weeks of his life, by far; he'd never been this bad off before. The rumors he'd been investigating in Sheffield had turned out to be true. Muggles had been turned into werewolves, and they were nothing like any werewolves he'd ever seen, heard of, or read about. Then again, he'd never seen, heard of, or read (barring that they weren't a thing) about Muggle werewolves at all, so there was that.The thing, his main problem until he'd been freaking abducted was these werewolves didn't just kill and/or turn, they ate hearts, and to make things even worse, they had no idea that they were behind the killings. It was just a handful of werewolf-turned innocent and unknowing muggles who went on killing sprees that they couldn't remember one night a month. Then one of those batshite insane "Men of Letters" muggles had come to investigate, and found Teddy rolling around, trying to subdue one of the Muggle weres who he'd managed to track back to her house. Problem was, it was the full moon and Teddy was both beyond pissed and fighting for his life. Thus, he'd been in the one form that came unconsciously and consistently, and only, on the night of the full moon. Hair longer than he ever kept it at any other time, eyes glowing yellow and lupine, teeth elongated into fangs. It was as close to being a fully fledged were as Teddy ever got, and it certainly wasn't human looking. Not to mention that he and the other were had been throwing each other around the room with inhuman strength that left dents in the walls and rendered furniture into piles of useless junk. The man had shot the other were dead, then regarded Teddy with a kind of shocked fascination as his features came back to what they usually were. Hair that was shorter and turquoise, dark amber eyes, normal teeth, and a good few inches shorter. The man had cocked his head, eyes cold, and pulled out another gun. The next thing Teddy knew, he'd been knocked on his arse unconscious and come to in an honest to Merlin dungeon. Handcuffed. To chains that dangled from the ceiling. Like what in the name of Merlin's scraggly beard was wrong with these people?!?!?!According to the "Men of Letters" as these people called themselves, Teddy was a "unique curiosity" that just had to be "studied as much as possible". That was, in Teddy's humble opinion, complete and utter bollocks. Though his cuts and bruises from his scuffle with the strange werewolf had long since faded, he'd long since acquired plenty more to replace them throughout the course of this so-called "studying". More like recreational torture. That Harry hadn't found him yet was Not Good. And until his godfather did find him, Teddy was completely at the mercy of these psychopaths (he'd lost his wand in the fight with the werewolf.)Bollocks he thought, I'm really screwed this time.
Mar. 4, 2016
Gabriel was sleeping. Well, unconscious due to being ran through with his own blade or even comatose would probably be more accurate, but that was just semantics anyway, and there was no one here but him. The point was, he'd been sleeping for what he was pretty sure had been a good few years, and it hadn't been even close to being in any way peaceful.He'd been dreaming, nearly constantly, always something different. Most of it was full of candy, Kali, and/or any one of his other lovers, occasionally simultaneously (with an occasional cameo from a certain moose-man that he'd never admit to while conscious), but occasionally Gabriel caught glimpses of what he thought must've been happening out in the real world while he slept.Sam, or was it Lucifer? Falling into a massive hole in the ground with someone he though might be Michael. Had to've been, Gabriel couldn't think of anyone else that the youngest Winchester would drag down into the cage with him and damning the Samsquatch to an eternity in the Cage was the only thing they'd been able to come up with? Damn it. His oldest brother must've found another vessel. Poor schmuck. No one deserved that, certainly no human who'd been tricked into saying yes to Gabrie's douchebag of an oldest brother. Sam, but not Sam, then Sam again, and in so much pain my Dad how was he alive? Cassie, his baby brother Cassie, lying comatose, but then awake and babbling about bees, so heartrendingly clearly out of his mind. He and Deano standing next to an exploding was that Leviathan, what in the hell, and then vanishing. Abbadon but hadn't she been killed, Naomi Dad what a bitch get your Daddanmed claws the hell out of Cassie, Metatron what did that slimy asshole think he was doing the MARK OF CAIN WHAT THE HELL, Aunt Amara, well shit, we're screwd now, Lucifer again oh come on, but then Dad, holy shit, he's back, and then. Well that lucky son of a bitch. Dad and Amara are okay again, well yay for them, but hell, Sam's not doin' so hot, not that he isn't hot, but ouch that looks like it hurts and then dark, calm blackness for the first time since he'd been unconscious.And then a voice. Familiar, and oh so comforting, even as he'd spent the last few thousand years dearly wishing he could punch it's owner squarely in the face.
"Hello, Gabriel. I'm so sorry, for everything, and so very glad that you're alive. I won't be here when you wake, your Aunt and I have gone a way for a while to finish repairing out relationship, and I don't know when, or even if, we'll be back. You should wake up soon. When you do...well it looks like the Winchesters could use some help. Good luck, my son. I love you."
Dad? But then he was gone, and Gabriel was back to dreaming. That had probably been a dream too, anyway. After all, Dad had never apologized, not to any of them, ever.
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Mar. 7, 2016
Teddy had been locked in the absurdly medieval dungeon for almost exactly two weeks when they brought the new bloke in. The guy was seriously tall and was sporting injuries that included but might not have been limited to, a spectacularly colored black eye, several scratches varying in depth, and whatever it was on his shoulder that required so many worryingly bloodstained bandages. Teddy figured he'd either been shot or stabbed. With these arseholes it could've been either. It didn't look, or smell for that matter, like it'd been well cared for either. Pricks. New Bloke (Teddy resigned himself to calling him that until he got the man's name) hissed in pain as his arms were roughly shoved above his head and into the cuffs dangling from the ceiling about a meter to Teddy's left. Teddy winced sympathetically. The Arses of Letters were never what one might call gentle, and with that shoulder...Seriously. Ouch. Still, New Bloke managed a sly grin directed at their captors and said, with no small amount of snark even as his voice was strained, "I've gotta admit, your dungeon's better than ours."That earned him a slap on the face hard enough that he rocked backwards with the force of it. That couldn't have felt good on that shoulder. Teddy winced in sympathy again, even has he wondered who this (apparently American, going by his accent) bloke was that he had a dungeon to compare this one to. Because seriously, in this day and age, who the hell had dungeons what didn't come with a medieval castle? And these days who the hell owned a castle? Especially in America? The Men of Letters pricks swanned off to do whatever it was they did when not torturing people at the leisure, and New Bloke's scorching glare followed them out. They stood in silence for a while, but Teddy got bored with that rather quickly and he hadn't had anyone even remotely friendly to talk to in days, so he decided to try his hand at starting a conversation with his new cellmate. "So...," he said, "Are you gonna bother giving me your name, or are we just going to sit here in silence waiting for one of those arseholes to come back while I call you New Bloke in my head and make up your life story?"New bloke snorted something that vaguely resembled a strangled sort of laugh, and looked over at Teddy, "I'm Sam. Who're you?""Teddy."The now-named Sam glanced around their cell again, tugged on his cuffs, presumably to test them, and cringed at the pain it must've inflicted on his shoulder. He then sighed, giving Teddy a wry smile."Well Teddy, what'd they decide to throw you in here for?"Teddy snorted."Well, apparently," he began sarcastically, "I'm a 'uniquely fascinating inhuman being" and apparently, that means that I 'must submit to through studying to better enhance the knowledge of those better qualified". "Not," he added, "That I've been informed as to what these people are better qualified to be doing. It's not studying, that's for bloody sure. What these pricks call science I call low lever torture."Sam raised his eyebrows, looking curious."What is it that makes you so 'uniquely fascinating?"Oh, no. This bloke wasn't getting all his secrets that easily."Nuh uh, not just now, It's your turn. What're you here for?"Sam gave another laugh, this one sounding less like he was being strangled, and more like he was actually amused."Fair enough. I'm here because I'm a 'jumped up hunter mucking about in things he doesn't understand.' Oh, and apparently that 'mucking about' had included a whole bunch of 'committing crimes against the human race' or something equally as stupid. Teddy let out a whistle. Damn."Well, can't say that I know what a 'hunter' is supposed to be, but I'm definitely curious. These Men of Letters blokes've definitely got a real obnoxious 'holier than thou' deal going on, don't they?" Sam let out another rusty chuckle and gave Teddy another half-smile."That's for damn sure."Something dark flickered behind his eyes, and Teddy realized with a jolt what it had been about the older man that had been niggling at him since the bloke'd been tossed in here with him. Even when his chuckled and grinned, both actions half-arsed at best even when they were genuine, he never lost the infinitely sad look lurking in his eyes. Teddy was pretty good at reading people, but he didn't need that skill to suss this one out. He knew that look. It was in his Uncle George's eyes every time he turned to joke with a twin who was no longer there. He'd seen it in Harry's eyes, Ginny's, all the adults in his family really, whenever someone brought up the War or someone they'd lost. It was the look of someone who'd fought long, fought hard, and had lost far, far too much in the process. It was old, but new too, like something had happened, not long ago either, that took existing wounds and tore them right back open with a loss that brought everything else crashing back. He was grieving, both for something or someone he'd lost very, very recently and, unless Teddy was very much mistaken, many, many things and or people he'd lost in the past. Merlin, Mordred, and Morgana, just what the hell had this man been though?"Teddy?" "Sorry, what?" Teddy realized that he'd been so caught up in trying to figure his cellmate out, that he'd completely missed him trying to get his attention. "What were you saying?"The corner of Sam's lips twitched up, though he didn't say anything except to repeat his question."I told you why I was here, so it's back to your turn now. Why are they calling you an "uniquely fascinating inhuman?"Teddy laughed in site of himself, ignoring his protesting bruised ribs, and decided to try his hand at being a little cryptic."I suppose I do owe you that. There are two-well I suppose there could be three, but they only know about one even though they've seen two, because they've attributed the second to the first."Sam raised his eyebrows again, looking even more curious then before."Now I'm really interested. Are you inhuman?"He sounded just that: interested, and Teddy got the distinct impression that Sam wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised, or even phased, should Teddy tell him that he wasn't human in the slightest. Again, Teddy found himself wondering just what the hell it was that this guy did. "Some might say so, not that I or my adopted family agree with them," Teddy told Sam, "My father was a werewolf.""And you're not?" When Teddy shook his head, then his cellmate was surprised. This bloke was weird. "I thought that lycanthropy was hereditary."Now it was Teddy's turn to be surprised. Was this guy a wizard? He hadn't seemed like it, and anyway, these days anyone worth their salt knew that it couldn't be passed down, not fully. But then again, maybe..."No, it isn't. At least...not that kind."The eyebrows went up again."There's more than one?"Teddy shrugged as best he could with his arms chained above his head, though he doubted that it was very effective."Apparently. Just over a week ago, I'd've told you there was only one. Believe me, I was just as surprised when I ran into the kind I'm guessing you're used to."Sam still looked somewhat skeptical, but he just said."We should talk some more about that later. Right now I'm more curious about the other two things.'Teddy smiled. This could turn out to be just a bit fun. Maybe he should be more worried about the whole "Statute of Secrecy" thing, but he was stuck here, and besides. Sam clearly knew about supernatural stuff, and worst comes to worst? When Harry finally finds him, they could just obliviate Sam, though the thought made Teddy sad. Sue him, he liked the odd probably-Muggle. "Here's the first thing, the one they noticed," Teddy told Sam. As he said it, Teddy gave his legs a few extra inches of length, just to take the strain off his sore shoulders and wrists, while simultaneously shifting, or rather un-shifting, his features. His hair lost it's spike, and lengthened a few inches while bright turquoise faded to sandy brown. His eyes reverted back to their natural blue-gray, and his faced went a good few shades paler then he usually kept it, though the shape of them all stayed the same. With the sole exception of his height, Teddy was now in the form he'd have been in if he'd never been a metamorphmagus, which only came when he let go of all his morphs. It was something that had taken him years to learn how to do, a dogged attempt to learn how much he really looked like his parents, or his dad at least. It wasn't something that he did often, for all that, apart from his wolf-ish form, it was his easiest from to take. Teddy very nearly always vastly preferred his look to be of his own creation. Plus for whatever reason, it just felt weird. Still, the downright priceless look currently on Sam's face made the weird feeling well worth it. His cellmate's eyes were as wide as saucers, and his jaw was hanging open. Sam blinked once, twice, then regained himself enough to say,"The hell?"Sam watched in utter disbelief as his fellow prisoner completely changed his appearance right before his eyes. Just what the hell was this kid? A shifter maybe? But no, his basic facial structure and the shape of all his features were staying the same, just turning different colors, plus the added few inches of height. Teddy hadn't changed to look like a different person, just a different version of himself. Sam was years and many, many insane happenings past being anything approaching easily surprised, but this was something even he had never seen before."The hell?" he choked out, brain racing. Teddy seemed to be fully enjoying his astonishment, grinning in amusement, all the while something started to niggle at the back of Sam's mind. Something about all of this was ringing a bell somewhere in his brain, something about this was very familiar, but what? And where from? "In addition to being half werewolf, I'm also what's called a metamorphmagus," Teddy started to explain. And just like that, all the puzzle pieces plunked into place all at once to form a complete picture. A fairly absurd picture if Sam was honest with himself, but...'It's not like it'll be the first time I've met supposedly fictional characters in the flesh before' Sam reasoned with himself, 'and really, this wouldn't even be in the top five weirdest things that've ever happened to me. Anyway, only one way to find out. Ask him. "Are you trying to tell me that you're Teddy Lupin," Sam said somewhat incredulously in spite of himself, "like Teddy Lupin from freaking Harry Potter Teddy Lupin? That Teddy?"Teddy looked surprised, then confused, then recognition seemed to dawn, like he'd figured something out."Ohhhh...you've read that series of books, haven't you?""Uhhh, yeah, I have," Sam said, thinking who hasn't? He'd read the books, and had then forced Dean read them, which hadn't been nearly as hard as Dean would have anyone believe. In return Dean had made him watch all the movies with him and...Not thinking about that right now. Nope. If he started in on Dean stuff, he'd end up sobbing right here in this dungeon, chains and all. Teddy smiled again, and laughed a little."To answer your question, yes, I'm that Teddy."He laughed again, like he couldn't help it, and when Sam looked questioningly at him explained,"Harry hates those bloody books with a passion, he'd burn 'em all if he could. Spent years trying to figure out how that author woman knew everything in them, never figured it out. It drives him completely bloody spare."It was Sam's turn to laugh, feeling better then he had in days despite the circumstances. He really was starting to like this kid."Oh, I know that feeling well. My brother and I have our own infuriatingly accurate and detailed book series to deal with."Teddy looked intrigued."Really? What's it called?"Sam made a face."You probably don't know it. It's called Supernatural, and it might be one of the most annoying things that've ever happened to us. We've got our own fans, conventions, goddamned LARPing." Remembering Becky, he shuddered. That woman could probably compete with Toni Bevell on pure 'crazy.' "It sucks. Like completely, epicly sucks, and the fans can be damn creepy to boot."The kid's jaw dropped."Supernatural? You're bloody joking!"Well damn. Teddy did know the series, or at least of it. That surprised Sam; he hadn't thought that the series would have made it to the UK, much less to the wizarding community. His surprise must have shown on his face, because Teddy, having evidently accepted that Sam wasn't kidding without him having to do any convincing, explained. "My godbrother loves those books," he told him, "And I think my girlfriend might actually be a tad bit obsessed. She was pissed at the way that last book ended."Sam groaned. Of course she was."She won't go completely crazy if I ever happen to meet her, is she? And for the love of God please, please tell me that neither of them are Sam slash Dean shippers." That was something he'd, for all he wished otherwise, would never be able to un-know was a thing. He vastly preferred the whole Destiel thing. That, at least, was based in the goddamn truth. Teddy laughed."She's not a psycho fan, I swear, and neither is Jamie. And neither of them would ever ship the Sam slash Dean thing, that's just gross." Sam could not put into words how much he agreed with that statement, and couldn't be bothered to dwell on the subject long enough to try. "Although," Teddy continued, seemingly as an afterthought, "Vic at least, though I think Jamie also, think that your brother, and that angel-Castiel, right?"Sam, thinking that he could see where this was going and liking it, grinned and nodded. "Okay, so your brother and Castiel. They think that the two of them are completely and utterly mad for each other, but both of them are to thick to go about doing anything about it, because they're each completely blind to how the other feels."Sam, despite himself, burst out laughing. That was just too good."Oh my God, you have no idea how right your god-brother and your girlfriend are. Those two are so obvious it's a little sickening. I think even Gabriel might've picked up on it, and we only saw him with Cas was with us once. Those two idiots have been pining for each other for-"Jesus. He'd been so caught up in his conversation with Teddy that he'd somehow managed to forget that there was no, 'are' no 'have been' for Dean. Not anymore. Tears were ricking at the backs of his eyes, and his face must have fallen pretty spectacularly, because Teddy was suddenly looking very concerned. The kid opened his mouth, probably to ask what the hell was wrong with him, but he never got the chance. The lock on the door to their cell clicked, and Toni freaking Bevell strutted into the room on the heels of a Man of Letters Sam didn't recognize. The man, who was dark haired and surprisingly young for how much authority he carried himself with, gave Teddy an extremely nasty smirk to which Sam's cellmate responded with a heated glare. Huh. So looked like this guy had very probably been the cause of at least some of the injuries covering Sam's new...friend? At the very least, at this point, good acquaintance, and Sam had already decided that he liked the kid a lot. So he glared at the guy too, then shot a venomous look at the Bitch of Letters who ignored him.The man rubbed his hands together, looking, for all that he seemed to be trying to appear impassive, far too gleeful for Sam's peace of mind.Well, looked like he wasn't planning on leaving any time soon. Damnit. Sam had really been looking forward to seeing where he and Teddy could go with the whole different werewolves thing. Now he'd have to wait on account of these dicks. "Well now. Mr. Winchester, pleasure to make you acquaintance at long last. I've been wishing to speak with you for some time now, and now here we are!" he said, as conversationally as if they were meeting in a cafe. Sam glared at him. Speak with him his ass."Really?" he said sarcastically, "You know, last I checked, 'speaking' with someone doesn't involve abduc-"Sam saw goddamn stars, pain shooting through his face as the man's fist slammed into his mouth and split his lip, and he could hear Teddy let out an indignant yell on his behalf. Ow, ow, ow ow. The force of the blow sent Sam careening backwards in his chains yanking on his wounded shoulder in a way that sent agony racing through his body. This punch had been a lot harder than the slap he'd gotten earlier, and this time he was pretty sure he'd felt the stitches Bevell had reluctantly had one of her goons give him to keep him from bleeding out pull apart. Great. More blood. It was all he could to to keep himself conscious, and he nearly wasn't able to keep a pained groan from escaping him. He'd been through worse to be sure, far worse, but still. Pain was pain was pain, and Sam had a horrible feeling that this particular son of a bitch took great pleasure in inflicting it on whoever he could. Toni Bevell was smiling at him like a kid in a candy store, the bitch. If he got loose, these two would be the first on his shit list. Sam hadn't decided whether or not he'd kill them if and when he got the chance, but either way. They'd better keep close watch on him, because if they slipped up? Sam fully intended on making the both of them wish they'd never been born, and if Teddy was so inclined, he'd be fully welcome to help out. Shaking off his fist, the man turned to the woman."Bevell," he barked at her, "You can have your fun with the boy. I'm going to take a little quality time with Sam here, and ensure that he was indeed being truthful with you in regards to the death of his brother.""It would be my genuine pleasure, Mr. Ketch."At a word from the Head Bitch (as Sam decided to start calling her) two enormous goons came lumbering into the cell to transfer Teddy to handcuffs not attached to the ceiling and cart him off God knew where. The kid gave him a worried look as he was manhandled out of their cell, and Sam tried to give him a reassuring look. And iron grip that was sure to leave bruises clamped down on Sam's jaw. It forced him to look at Mr. Ketch, or as Sam had decided to dub him so as to match Head Bitch, Head Dick. The man had adopted a disturbingly placid thoughtful look, and Sam groaned inwardly. Whichever way this went, it wasn't boding well for him. He hoped that Cas, wherever he was, was okay and looking for him. Sam wasn't entirely sure that if he wasn't found soon he wouldn't be joining his brother in the Empty sooner rather than later.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mar. 7, 2016
Dean felt some of the tension drain out of his shoulders as he steered the stolen car onto the exit ramp to Lebanon. This was the last stretch; they were nearly home. All that was left to do now was to ditch the car somewhere in the town, and walk down the road to the bunker. He hoped that Sammy and Cas were holding up alright and taking care of each other. He'd thought about calling them, but...Even if he could convince them that he was alive, how could he possibly explain Mary over the phone? No, it was better to wait and explain it in person. He'd see them soon enough. They'd taken longer reaching Lebanon than Dean would've liked by a few days, but it really couldn't have been helped. His mom had needed clothes; she couldn't very well have gone on a cross country road trip in just her nightgown. That meant they'd needed money, something they didn't have. Sue him, Dean hadn't seen the point of taking money with him on what he'd thought had been a suicide mission (though by now, what with the Winchester family track record, he realized he probably should've known better.) Not to mention they'd both been exhausted and greatly needing sleep. So, Dean picked the pocket of the most stuck up looking schmuck he could find, and wound up with just enough to set them up in a crappy motel room in a Podunk town a few hours out from the park (which, as it turned out, had been so far up into Maine it was practically Canada. Go figure). They'd stayed there for two days while Dean barhopped, hustling enough pool to get the money they needed for clothes and gas. Again, longer than Dean would've liked, but the locals were good sports and if they hadn't stayed, they would've had to stop somewhere else along the way regardless.Mary had joined him in hustling as soon as she'd been properly clothed, and as it turned out, Dean had a complete card shark for a mom. Between her crushing the opposition in poker, and Dean's kicking ass in pool, they'd managed to stay fed and housed the whole way to Lebanon, and made far better time than they would've otherwise. Go them.Still, after they'd left that first town, it'd taken three days and most of a fourth before they finally reached the bunker. Not all of the locals were as willing to bet as big as the ones in that first town. On the bright side, Dean was moderately sure that Mary didn't think that he was a lying monster anymore, and they'd managed to stay out of any bar fights. The walk up the road to the bunker took them another forty five minutes, which gave Dean a little time to tell his mom about the Bunker. And as it turned out, she'd never met any of the Men of Letters, but her parents had worked with them. Well, ya learn something new every day. He knew that she was a hunter and probably expected what would happen when they met up with Sam and Cas, but Dean stopped them a few steps before they reached the door anyway and turned to his mom. "Uh Mom...Don't be surprised if we get welcomed by holy water to the face and a silver knife to the arm, okay? It's just-""We're both supposed to be dead, so they need to check." she finished for him. "Right."Dean nodded, took a deep breath, and opened the door to show his mom his home. Immediately he into high alert as he was hit with the distinct sense that something was very, very wrong.He slowly stepped through the doorway, Mary a step behind. "Sammy? Cas?" he called, "I'm, uh, I'm back, Amara made up with Chuck, so...not dead."No response. The bad feeling was getting worse. They started making their way down the stairs. "Sam? You here? Cas?"Nothing. Nada. Zip. Shit. "Ummm, Dean?" Mary was standing in the entryway to the library, looking at something on the side of the arch, "Does this mean anything to you?"Pulling out the gun they'd stuck to the bottom of the war room table and sticking it in his waistband, Dean walked over and took a look at the bloody sigil on the wall."Oh, sonuvabitch."Damnit, damnit, damnit. This qualified as Not Good. "Dean, what is that?"Dean was already running full tilt for the garage. If Sam had-He didn't want to think about what that might mean. "It's a angel banishing sigil," he threw over his shoulder. "A what banishing sigil?!" He could her her footsteps; she was running after him and Dean knew that he owed her an explanation, but whatever had happened to Sammy and Cas came first. Especially if Sam had wound up doing something monumentally stupid. God Dean hoped he hadn't decided to banish Cas and run off. He skidded to a stop upon reaching the garage. Baby was still there, and none of the other cars had gone missing. Dean couldn't decide if he thought that was a good thing or not. His mom was saying something about the Impala, but Dean was turning around and running back through the Bunker, looking everywhere.No one. Not in any of the bedrooms, not in the bathroom, not in the shooting range, not in the computer room, not in the dungeon, not in the kitchen. Dean and Mary were the only ones here. Shit, shit shit. Sammy was missing, it was looking more and more like he'd been abducted, Cas had been banished, and Dean was left with a great big stinking pile of absolutely nothing. If this was Rowena or Crowley, he was going to skin them alive. Slowly. Dean leaned against the kitchen wall, trying to think, and Mary came to stand beside him. He felt her hand on his shoulder, and leaned into her touch despite himself. "Dean? The only clue we've found is that sigil, so I thought maybe we should-""Go back and look around over there?" Dean turned around to face her, rubbing a hand over his face, and gave her a tired smile. "Yeah, that's a good idea."Levering himself up off of the wall, Dean led the way back into the war room, and stopped dead, an unprepared Mary bumping into his back, as he saw what he'd missed earlier and the bottom of his stomach dropped out. He froze, staring at the floor, so it was Mary who knelt on the ground to examine the pool of blood on the floor. Shit. If someone had hurt his little brother...he could hear a roaring in his ears. Dean snapped himself out of his stupor and crouched down beside her. "It's dry," he said, running a finger over it. Completely dry, which meant-"I'd say a few days old at least," Mary told him, "What do you think?"Huh. Funny, somewhere down the line he'd forgotten that his mom had been a hunter too, and a damn good one at that. Family business. No kidding. He cleared his throat. "Yeah. I'd say whoever it was that drew the sigil was waiting for them when they got back to the bunker," which out-ruled Rowena and Crowley, but meant they were days behind whoever had done this, "I guess-"Dean was cut off by the clanging sound of the bunker door being slammed open. He was on his feet and turning around in a second, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Mary had done the same. Running footsteps came down the stairs, and Dean reached for the gun in his waistband, only to stop when Cas burst into view at the bottom of the stairs. The angel stopped dead and stared at both of them in shock, blue eyes wide. He looked completely frazzled and out of breath but also totally uninjured, and a bolt of pure relief coursed through Dean. Cas, at least, was alright. Thank God. "Dean?" His voice sounded strangled and Dean wondered if he needed to revise his initial thought of Cas being fine. He didn't much sound it. Despite that, and Sam still being missing, Dean couldn't help smiling at his best friend. "Hey Cas," he said, going for nonchalant, but he wasn't entirely sure that his voice wasn't just as strangled as Cas's had been, "Amara decided that ending the world wasn't really what she wanted to do with her-oof!"Dean didn't get to finish his sentence, because Cas had bolted from where he'd been standing, and directly into Dean. Dean, caught off guard, fell back a step before he was able that Cas hadn't been trying to tackle him, but rather enveloping him in a crushing bear hug that Dean was only too happy to return. Cas pulled back a little and, before Dean could register what was happening, leaned back in to crush their mouths together. Dean, completely taken aback, froze for a second in shock and immediately Cas pulled back, looking more than a little embarrassed and just a little bit scared. Well, that wouldn't do at all. "I-sorry, I shouldn't have," Cas stammered, but he didn't get any further than that, because that was about when Dean grabbed him by the lapels of his trench coat and hauled him back in, slamming their lips back into each other. Castiel made an agreeably surprised noise in the back of his throat, and brought his hands, calloused from years of fighting, up to cradle Dean's face. Cas's lips were chapped, and he was far from an expert kisser, but that was okay, it was fine, because he was Cas and they were kissing each other, and goddamnit Dean had wanted this to happen for far longer than he'd like to admit. A little uncoordinated was just fine. Dean tugged a little on the coat still clenched in his fists to pull the angel, his angel if he had anything to say about it, even closer and then someone cleared their throat. Oh. Right. Mom was here, Sam was-Sam was missing and Dean needed to find him. As much as he was enjoying this, there would be time for more later, and it couldn't be his priority right now. Sam needed to be his focus right now, not to mention that he was going to need to explain Cas to Mom. With no small amount of reluctance, Dean pecked Cas's lips one more time and pulled back. "Cas, what happened? Sam-"The angel's shoulders slumped, and his mouth turned down at the corners. "He's not here," he said dejectedly. It wasn't a question, more like he'd been expecting it, but had been hoping to be wrong. It was Mary who answered him. "No, and we think he's been injured."
Don't think about Sammy being hurt, don't think about Sammy being hurt, don't think about Sammy being hurt.
Cas sighed, his eyes slipping closed for a moment, and Dean didn't think he'd registered just who it was who had responded. "A woman was waiting for us when we returned to the bunker. She knew, or a least suspected that I'd be there, because she already had the sigil drawn and ready to use when we came in. She banished me the moment we came off the stairs; I wound up in Manitoba. She's blonde, and I think she might be British, but...I only heard her say two words, so I can't be sure."Dean sighed, and rubbed his hand over his face. Great. Juuuust great. "So what you're telling me is, you have no idea who that woman was, what she wanted with Sam, or what she might've done to him." "I-that is correct. I'm sorry Dean." Cas was looking very much as though he was waiting for Dean to rip him a new one for losing Sam, and a part of him wanted to...But that wouldn't be fair, to Cas or to him. Dean was just spoiling for a fight and he should, could, and would save that for the bitch who'd kidnapped his little brother. Besides-"It's not your fault Cas, there's nothing you could've done. We'll find him." Cas nodded, still looking worried, but less than he had been, so Dean counted that one as a win. Then, Cas looked past Dean to see Mary, still standing behind him, and finally seemed to actually see her. "Dean...Is that?""Yeah."Cas's eyes were wide with shock again."But how did she? And actually, how are you-"Dean grinned at him, though he suspected it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Long story short, Amara decided that she didn't want to destroy the world after all, fixed Chuck who fixed the whole soul-bomb thing, and brought Mom back as a thank-you."That explanation only served to make Cas look more confused, but Dean would have time to explain it all better when they were on their way to Sam. As for right now, they needed to figure out where he'd been taken. "We should check the cameras, see if we can get anything off of them."Cas nodded in agreement. Great. Now they had something to do. "You guys have cameras?" Mary asked, a little incredulously. Despite everything, Dean couldn't help his grin as he slung his arm around his Mom's shoulders, leading her to the computer room. "We, Mom," he corrected her, "We have cameras."She smiled at him while Cas fell into step beside them. And he might have been jinxing it just with the thought, but Dean couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, the three of them could get Sam back, and things could turn out to be something resembling okay. Mary wasn't quite sure that her head wasn't going to implode. Dean had told her about advances in technology, and she'd seen some of them herself on the way to the bunker, but it was something else to see her son going through video footage on a tiny computer that they called a 'laptop'. To look for her son, her baby Sammy, who was now thirty-three. She had, to be perfectly honest, accepted that Dean was telling the truth long before they'd reached the bunker. If this was a djinn dream, it was weirder by far than any she'd ever heard of. Another surprise had been Castiel. Dean had told her some things about him on the way over amidst stories of Sammy while he was growing up. He'd told her that Castiel was an angel, though Mary was pretty sure that that hadn't sunk in for her yet. He certainly didn't seem like an angel, more like your friendly neighborhood tax accountant. And he'd kissed her son...Dean might not actually be four years old anymore, but Mary couldn't help but see her baby every time she closed her eyes. To see him kissing someone like that...well it had been a bit of a shock. And the fact that that someone was a man...it wasn't that Mary had anything against it personally, but she did come from the 1980's. It would take a little getting used to, simply because she'd never known, been around, or or even seen, two men together like that. 'Just another thing to add to the adjusting to pile, I suppose' she thought. Mary was startled out of her musings when Dean suddenly pounded the table with his fist. "Gotcha!"Mary rapidly scooted closer to her son so that she could see the screen. Castiel, who had declined the offer of a chair moved into the computer room, came up to lean over Dean's and her's shoulders. "What've we got?" Mary asked. "I'm not sure yet, but this is the footage from a few hours before you and Sam got home, Cas, and the door's opening. Let's see who the blonde bitch is, shall we?"With that, Dean started the video.The woman was young, blonde, and dressed sharply in a pantsuit and, even through the video feed, seemed to have a distinct air of self-importance. They watched closely as she cut her hand to draw the sigil. A few minutes later they saw Sam and Cas come in and she slammed her hand down on it, and Castiel vanished in a blaze of blue light. Cas made a disgruntled sound, but all Mary could so was stare at the young man her youngest son had become. "God, he's so tall," she breathed. Dean chuckled. "Yeah, he's a regular Sasquatch."Cas leaned forward more to glare at the screen. "It would be nice if we could hear what they were saying.""Well we can't, Cas," Dean snapped at him. Mary jumped at his suddenly harsh tone. "Dean."He shot her a look, and she glared back before his gaze turned vaguely guilty and his shoulders slumped. "Sorry, Cas, I shouldn't have snapped at you, I just- oh that BITCH!"Dean wasn't the only one who'd shouted, Mary had screamed the same thing in tandem with him at the screen, which had just shown them the woman shooting Sam in the shoulder. Cas growled a few words in another language that did not sound complimentary, before switching to English."She's going to pay for that. In blood.""Oh, is she ever," Dean snarled. Mary was too angry to speak, so she just nodded wordlessly as the video showed Sam being manhandled up the stairs and out of the bunker by a pair of goon-ish looking men. "What now?" she gritted out. Dean turned to her with the same steely glint in his eyes she'd seen in her mother's whenever someone got injured in a hunt. It was a look that promised a world of pain in store for the hapless soul who'd hurt someone they loved. If she hadn't just seen that bitch shoot her baby, she might have felt sorry for her. "Now," he said, "we find out who the hell that blonde bitch is, why she took Sam, and most importantly, where she and her goons took him. Then, we hunt her down and get him back."Castiel nodded firmly. "Okay, but how?" she asked, "We don't have a license plate number to track whatever car they used to cart off Sam, and we have no way of-" Mary cut herself off as she realized that the two men were both looking at her in some amusement."What am I missing? Do you two have a way to find out?"Dean grinned at her."Let me show you the wonders of hacking into traffic cams."A few short minutes later they had a license plate number, and Mary and Castiel were marking down locations on a map as Dean called them out. Five times they had to stop and wait while Dean poked at the laptop muttering curses, until he found the car they'd switched to. Soon, they'd marked down a distinct trail headed straight for the East Coast. When it got to the coast of North Carolina, the trail stopped. "That doesn't bode well," Castiel muttered. "Didn't you say that you thought the Blonde Bitch might be British?" Mary asked him, recalling the rushed explanation of what had happened that Castiel had given them.Dean groaned and dropped his head into his hands. "So now we're thinking that Sam might be in the freaking UK?"Castiel sighed. "So it seems. Do we have the means to be sure?"Dean huffed out a sigh of his own, muttered something about flying that Mary didn't quite catch, and returned to the keyboard. "Let's see, c'mon c'mon...damnit Sammy's so much better at this..."It took Dean longer to hack his way into finding the plane that Sam had been loaded in to. By the time he had, Mary was wishing that she'd brought something to much on with her; she was starting to get peckish and she couldn't bring herself to walk into the kitchen to find a snack. Dean had muttered to himself the entire time as he typed quietly, something that Mary was fairly certain involved a copious amount of swearing.Finally, and so suddenly that Mary jumped (she was fairly sure that Castiel had as well), Dean's hand came down hard on the table. "I've got something."Mary and Castiel leaned forward for a better look. The laptop was now showing surveillance feed of a small plane in an equally tiny airstrip. "This is from a few days ago. I tracked the car to the city, and this is the closest airstrip to where it was last caught on the traffic cameras. It's a private one, it was rented out to someone I can't find a few days before the whole Amara thing went down, and a good chunk of the footage has been scrubbed.""That does seem promising," Castiel remarked.Dean looked up from the screen, the most genuine smile Mary had seen from him yet crossing his face. "Yeah it does. Let's go check it out." Harry was rapidly going from worried to completely frantic. Ron's lead had gotten them to where they could be reasonably sure Teddy had last been. After poking around the frankly suspiciously clean house for well over an hour, one of Harry's Aurors had turned up with Teddy's wand, but they hadn't been able to find anything else. That his wand wasn't on him explained why Harry hadn't been able to track his godson; the spells they'd used tracked the quarry's magic through their wand, which meant the wand had to be with the person being tracked. The finding also served to make Harry even more worried than he already had been. Where ever Teddy was, he didn't have his wand on him, and that meant that there was a strong possibility that he'd been abducted. And they'd have to figure out another way to track him. He knew that Ron was getting just as worried, and from the looks he kept getting from his best friend, that worry had just as much to do with Harry himself as his missing godson. Well, Ron could worry about him all he liked; Harry wasn't resting until Teddy was safe and sound. 'Hang in there,' Harry mentally begged his missing godson, 'We're coming for you kiddo, just hold on.'It was time to tell Andromeda and the rest of his own family. The kids were probably already wondering why he hadn't been responding to their letters, Ginny knew that something was wrong, and he was sure Hermione did too. The pair of them didn't miss much, and Ron and Harry had both been working far overtime for the last week. All of them deserved to know. Auror Lupin was officially missing in action. Still, Harry was dreading their reactions more than a little, especially Andy, Vic and Jamie. None of them would take it well, but Vic and Jamie were closest to him out of the kids, and Andromeda...She'd already lost so much, Harry couldn't think of it might to do her to find out that she might have lost her grandson too. He had to focus on the important thing though. They would find Teddy, and they would bring him home where he belonged, and they would damn well do it soon. Sirius was confused. His original plan had been just to sneak off the plane and to go try and find Harry right away, but...The tall man that those people had been shoving into the lane had been injured. He was clearly a captive, and it wasn't really in Sirius's nature to ignore something like that. Also, his nose was picking up on a weird smell. At first it had just been the barest of wiffs, not even really noticeable, but as he followed the tall kid and his captors (carefully sticking to the shadows), it gradually grew stronger and more familiar. It wasn't until Sirius and the people he was tailing reached a lift that he'd been able to place why the scent was so damn familiar too him.Reeling a little, and actually rather glad that he had absolutely no way of following the group into the lift without getting immediately caught, Padfoot retreated to a dark corner to process out of sight. The instant the lift door had opened he'd gotten slammed with a nosefull of the strange scent, far stronger and more fresh than it had been before. With the new intensity of the smell, the familiarity had become glaringly obvious. Remus and Dora, his best friend and his cousin, mixed together and blending in a way that either meant that they'd both been there bleeding in that lift (mixed in with the person-smell there was enough bloodscent coming from that lift to make his blood boil) or they'd had a kid together...Kid, definitely a kid. A son, if he wasn't sorely mistaken. And wasn't that a turn and a half. His baby cousin and his bloody best friend had had a son together, and he'd missed it. He'd missed so much...And that was definitely not a rabbit hole he needed to go chasing down right then. More important was the fact that that kid and the older (but still young, at least to Sirius) man were both injured, possibly quite badly, and with how old the kid's scent had been before the lift, neither of them were getting out of here any time soon. So, rescue mission it was. With a bit of a sigh, Sirius crept out of his hiding place, and after a bit of trial and error due to being canine, managed to hit the button to call the lift. He'd managed to catch the floor number that the blonde woman had pressed to take the tall bloke to, and so that was the button he pressed. If his current stroke of luck held, they'd all be ditching this place before the end of the day.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mar. 7, 2016
Teddy had been nursing a tentative feeling that things might had been looking just slightly up for him. It cut and ran the instant he was marched out of his cell. It had been nice to have a roommate to talk to, not to mention that said roommate was Sam freaking Winchester (it was possible that Teddy was more familiar with the Supernatural books than he'd let on; they were unfairly addicting. Also, Vic was persistent. Not that he fought her that hard after he read the first one. But whatever.)Unfortunately, it was more than likely that the next time they saw each other neither of them would be in any fit condition for good conversation. If the Arses of Letters were good at anything, is was making sure you were damned hurt and miserable. Plus, Sam wouldn't heal as fast as Teddy. You know what? Scratch that, having a roommate wasn't nice. It just meant that someone else was getting carved up by these pricks too. His captors gave a particularly nasty yank, and Teddy broke out of his musings to to glare at the men frogmarching him down the hall as he stumbled. That had been entirely unnecessary, plus it had hurt. He still had scratches and bruises thank you very much. What a bunch of arseholes. Not that any of them had ever shown the slightest sign of giving the tiniest of fucks about the comfort of their prisoners. Much the opposite. They'd actually had him in silver cuffs before they'd decided that he wasn't some bizarre mutant werewolf. (That was a good thing, he wasn't overly sensitive to silver, but if it touched his skin long enough he got a nasty rash that would've been hell trying to explain away.)Teddy was understandably preoccupied with the thugs dragging him down the corridor and what was going to be done to him when they reached their destination, so he never heard the the elevator doors slide open then shut or the light clicking of claws as the little group was followed. Another shove, and Teddy let out an irritated grunt as he stumbled into The Room. The Room was the place the Arses of Letters (as Teddy had mentally dubbed them) dragged him to preform their 'experiments'. Hah. As if any of these people knew the first thing about any kind of actual science. Unless you counted torture as a science, which he supposed some people probably did. Psychopath type of people. With some difficulty, Teddy managed to restrain his eyes from inadvertently shifting to red or black from the fear-anger-hate that came with The Room as his arms were roughly wrenched above his head and his wrists manacled. They wanted him so shift, and he wasn't going to show them a damn thing more than they'd already seen. He wasn't even going to show them that again, if he could help it. No sense in giving them any more data then they'd already been able to gather from that first encounter. Teddy could probably break the chains if he pulled on them hard enough, and he could definitely shrink his hands and slip out if them but...He had he doubts about what he could do all of the pesky Men of Letters themselves and their extensive security without his wand; all of the ones he'd seen had been packing the same stupid silver-infused dart guns that they'd used to capture him in the first place.Besides, revealing his world to Sam was one thing. Sam wasn't an enemy. The Men of Letters most definitely were enemies all, and Teddy had no intention of revealing even the tiniest aspect of the Wizarding World to them unless it became totally necessary. He needed to make it out of this alive, if only to warn the Wizarding World about the organization. If they were really as tuned into the supernatural as they seemed to be, it was only a matter of time before some other hapless witch of wizard found themselves of the Men of Letters' radar. He needed to do his part to try and make sure that didn't happen. He let his eyes roam seemingly aimlessly around the room, going through one dud escape plan after another to distract himself from thinking about whatever new method the Arses of Letters would be using to try and force him to morph for them this time. It was usually excruciatingly painful; best not to dwell because all it served to do was make Teddy more anxious than he already was. So, Teddy kept himself busy trying to think up any and every way to get himself out of this mess, something that now had new variables as he changed his brainstorming to introduce Sam into the equation. He most certainly wasn't leaving the older man behind, and not just because Vic and Jamie would kill him if they found out. When Teddy left, his new friend was coming with him. Still, those thoughts hadn't kept his mind entirely away from what his eyes were doing. This meant that while the Arses of Letters were occupied which preparing whatever the hell it was they had in store for Teddy, he saw the door handle turn down. He also saw the door open, along with, and there he took a moment just to make sure that two weeks in this place hadn't driven him completely mad, the enormous black dog that crept through it. Because, what? What???? Nothing that big, or that ill-groomed, should have been able to move that quietly, but that dog wasn't making a sound that could have been detected by someone who didn't possess Teddy's enhanced hearing. The young wizard could only gape as the dog carefully walked across The Room and oh-so-gently lifted the ring of keys off the table in the corner where they'd been left.He (Teddy might not be a full blooded werewolf, but he could damn well smell the difference between genders thank you very much) then backed carefully to the door. He paused under the door-frame, from where Teddy could have sworn the bloody thing winked at him (what????), before backing the rest of the way out, pushing it closed then, by the sound of it, running down the corridor. Teddy blinked rapidly, trying to puzzle out what the hell it was that had just happened. How had a dog even got in here? Why? WHAT EVEN?????He didn't have much time to dwell on it though, because his captors had decided that they were ready for him. This go-round they were apparently going for a new kind of drug again (they'd tried it with a few different cocktails over the past week) and Teddy groaned internally. He'd always hated even mild painkillers, and the last two times they'd drugged him in addition to the rather nasty effects (hallucinations and a burning pain respectively,) Teddy had been left feeling more groggy than he did after even the worst of full moons, and a pounding headache that rivaled the one he'd gotten that time he'd taken a bludger straight to the head. Ketch and the others had seemed intrigued at how fast the drugs had worn off. They'd asked, Teddy'd played dumb. He wasn't sure if they'd bought it; he wasn't about to tell them he had a faster-than-normal metabolism because he was half werewolf. The Men of Letters could thinK whatever they damn well wanted. Cronies one and two, standing behind him, forced his head to tilt to the side as the Head Bitch, as Teddy had quickly dubbed her (not to be confused with His Prickness, as he'd dubbed Mr. Ketch on the first day. The man was insane, and his high and mighty attitude pissed Teddy off) went for his neck with a syringe. Miraculously, before she'd managed to plunge the thing into him, there was a loud crash from somewhere outside; the same direction the strange dog had run off to. All three of the Arses of Letters jumped, and Head Bitch thankfully moved the syringe away from Teddy's neck. Cronies one and two took off, presumably to go investigate. Head Bitch eyes Teddy, going to lift the syringe again. Oh, hell no. Not gonna happen lady. Teddy bared his teeth at her, snarling deep in his throat. He was not letting that thing anywhere the hell near him if he could do anything about it. Without those goon to hold him, he could bloody well do something about it. Head Bitch actually took a step back, and Teddy felt a small surge of vindication, before he took in the deadly look in her eyes. Ooookay, so maybe he couldn't have done that. Before she could do anything to him though, there was a thump, a scream, a BANG!, then another thud. Silence. Head Bitch put the syringe down and pulled her gun out of her waistband. She brandished it at Teddy for a second, and glared at him. "Don't you even think about trying anything."Then she was gone out the door after her two goons. Teddy was torn between trying to figure out what was going on out there or just trying to bust out now, while they were distracted. He'd just decided he was going to give busting out a shot when from the corridor came a deep growl, a yelp, and another thud. Teddy froze, straining his ears for anything else, and picked up the click click click...of dog paws?There was no way, that was impossible, no dog could've...But then the door to The Room swung open and there was the huge black dog from earlier, pilfered keys swinging from his jaws. Seriously, what the HELL? The dog trotted inside and stopped just in front Teddy, looking up at him. His tail was wagging slowly and his head was cocked to the side as if he was thinking about something and trying to reassure Teddy at the same time. What even? Then, so suddenly that Teddy wasn't able to step back, the dog surged up onto his hind legs, planting his front paws squarely upon Teddy's shoulders, and shoving his head upwards towards...Teddy's hands? What? The jangling keys clinked against the manacles encircling Teddy's wrists, and with a startling jolt of clarity, Teddy realized that the dog was trying to hand the keys to him. This dog was, as utterly insane as it sounded even in the privacy of Teddy's own mind, trying to help him escape.
WHAT THE HELL??????
As unbelievable bizarre this was, Teddy wasn't about to pass up any chance he got to get the hell out of this place. He wasn't stupid. The dog, who because of his size and coloring Teddy decided then and there to call Snuffles, was still straining up to reach Teddy's hands so he could grab the keys. One more unsuccessful stretch later, and Snuffles dropped back to the floor with a frustrated whine. Teddy, now sufficiently out of shock enough to actually do something Merlin Mordred and Morgana, grinned down at him, feeling more cheerful than he had in weeks. "Thanks for clearing the way, and for tryin' to get me those keys, but I'm pretty sure I've got this one."With that, Teddy shrunk his hands and wrists, hands slipping effortlessly out of the manacles. Oh, that was much better. "C'mon," he said to Snuffles, "I've got a friend I need to grab before we leave, and I'm guessing we don't have long before those Men of Letters blokes you took out raise the alarm."Provided the dog hadn't just killed them, but Teddy didn't smell any blood on him. Besides, Snuffles didn't really seem like the type to kill when knocking unconscious would be sufficient. And yes, he realized that he was assigning personality traits to a dog, thanks, and no he didn't know what about the dog gave him such a strong impression. It was just shaping up to be that kind of a day. Mental. Teddy shook out his hands, restoring them to their proper size while he grimaced at the bruises encircling his wrists. Oh well, they'd be gone soon enough; they'd just ache in the meantime. He turned back to Snuffles. "Now, I've no idea if you've understood a single word I've said, or even if you can. Still, I'm thinking that after what you just pulled, the odds are fairly high that you can understand me just fine so...shall we test it? One bark for yes, two for no. Can you understand what I'm saying?"
Bark!
There was a small crash as the keys, which Snuffles had still been holding in his mouth fell to the floor, and Teddy put a hand on his mouth to muffle his laugh. The dog wagged his tail a little, looking sheepish, an expression Teddy hadn't realized was possible on a dog's face. Oooookaaaaay. Definitely way, way smarter than your typical dog. Curiouser and curiouser. Shoving all speculations of what pretty much everything to do with this dog seemed to implicate to the far corners of his mind to be examined later, Teddy turned his attention back to his new canine friend. First thing first. And the first thing in this instance was definitely getting to Sam. So, he needed to wrap this up with Snuffles, which reminded him..."So I've been calling you Snuffles in my head, is it okay with you if I do that out loud too?"Woof! More tail wagging, this time more enthusiastic. Alright then. Speculations for later, Teddy, later. Teddy palmed the keys and hoped to Merlin that one of them would unlock Sam. He didn't want do have to damage the older man's wrists pulling apart the cuffs. "Alright then Snuffles, let's do this. "Teddy charged out of the Room, Snuffles on his heels. He was his way to being free, Merlin help any of these pricks who tried to shove him back in a cell. He'd never done anything of the kind before, but Teddy was fairly certain that he'd kill before he let anyone try to lock him back up in a cage. These weeks had been enough. And Mr. Ketch was long overdue for a date with Teddy's fist.
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Mar. 7, 2016
CRACK! Sam's head snapped back as he rocked in in his chains and managed to stifle another groan of pain. Going on the sound and the feel of it, Sam was pretty damn sure that that one had just broken his nose. He cataloged the break in his mind alongside the many, many bruises and several cracked ribs that Mr. Ketch had already inflicted on him. Plus his neck, which was starting to seriously hurt from all the times his head had been thrown back. When Sam got out of here he was paying the asshole back in kind, plus whatever he'd done to Teddy to earn that glare the kid had given him. Sam spat at the blood congregating at his mouth from his nose; Ketch just examined the blood on his wrapped hand with a sort of clinical indifference. "My my, Samuel," he said lightly, as if he were discussing what flavor of ice-cream he wanted to order and not the mess he'd just made of Sam's face, "this is quite a lot of blood, and I do believe I felt something crack there. Perhaps now you'd like to rethink your response to my question. Let's try this again, shall we? And do keep in mind what happens when I don't like your answer. Where is Dean Winchester?"Sam glared at him through the pain, wishing furiously that looks could kill. He forced out the words he'd been repeating for the past...minutes? Hours? He wasn't actually sure how long they'd been doing this. "My brother is dead." He still choked on the words as they came out. Every time he had to say them, an ache in his chest that had nothing to do with his battered ribs deepened in both depth and agony. Every repetition felt like a confession, an admittance of something he was no where near ready to face. Not here. Not with this man. "Well, assuming that you're telling me the truth, which given that, well, we're discussing a Winchester I very much doubt," Ketch continued in that same damnably conversational voice he'd been maintaining from the moment he stepped foot in this cell, "How will Dean be returning to the land of the living this time?"Sam dearly wished that his hands were free. He'd dearly love to bash the bastard's mouth in until he wasn't physically able to even mumble Dean's name, much less sneer it with that derogatory inflection as if it was a slur instead of the name of Sam's big brother. This sick asshole didn't have the goddamn right. "He won't" Sam spat, "be coming ba-AHHHRG!!!"This time, Ketch had decided to forgo inflicting any new injuries, and gone for an older one. His hand clamped down on Sam's injured shoulder, found the bulled wound, and squeezed, fingers digging right into the not-yet-healed injury. White-hot agony radiated from the spot, intensifying as Ketch's hand clamped down harder. This time, Sam couldn't help a low moan of pain. Later, looking back, Sam thought that it was probably that involuntary admission of pain, that last loss of control that made Sam's frayed temper snap like a kite string in a goddamn hurricane. Sam grit his teeth against the pain, stretched his arms up to grasp the chains above his head, and lifted. His feet caught Ketch square in the chest, slamming into him with all the force Sam could muster. Ketch went reeling, caught off guard, and staggered into the wall of the cell and slid to the floor. Hah. Sam hadn't thought he'd be able to hit him quite that hard, but the bastard had it coming. "MY BROTHER," Sam roared, not giving a damn that his voice had cracked, or that this was bound to piss Ketch off to a level that probably wouldn't be good for Sam's continued existence, "IS DEAD! HE IS DEAD, YOU SON OF A BITCH, AND HE IS NOT COMING BACK, DEAN IS DEAD!," his voice cracked again, and Sam gave up on yelling, feeling more drained than he had since he'd decided not to go looking for his brother after the Leviathan. His next words forced their way out of his throat in a cracked whisper. "My brother is dead," he repeated. "For good, and you can torture me all you want, you sadistic psychopath, but nothing you can do to me will change my answer or magically make it untrue and nothing, no words, no sick torture method that you or anybody else can come up with will be worse than that."He was breathing hard, too hard for his abused ribs which reminded him of their battered state with every breath he took. He clamped his teeth together through the pain, and ruthlessly shoved back the tears that were burning at his eyes to be released. "I can't be broken more than I already am," he snarled through his teeth, "So screw you."Ketch was picking himself up off the ground where he'd fallen, and glaring at Sam, eyes burning with rage and a madness that would've made Sam nervous if he was currently capable of feeling anything at the moment other than a deep, yawning grief-rage-despair. It seemed as though Sam had managed to break past that carefully constructed, infuriatingly composed outer shell and the look that Sam was getting from him didn't bode well for the parts of Sam that remained undamaged. He might've even pushed far enough that Ketch would actually kill him. If that happened...Well...To be honest, it didn't seem like the worst thing to Sam, but he wasn't so far gone yet that he wouldn't go out fighting like hell. This man needed to hurt for what he had done, to to Sam sure, but mostly for Teddy. If he injured Ketch badly enough, this sadistic asshole wouldn't be able to beat on the kid. Sam would count that as a win. If Sam managed to kill him, all the better. Besides, that was how Dean had gone out, fighting for someone, everyone else. And Sam would truly be damned if he did anything less now that it was his time.He'd never thought he'd last long after Dean had truly gone anyway. As for Cas...Sam didn't let himself think about Cas.Ketch was back of his feet, reaching for the cart he'd had wheeled in after Teddy'd been taken out. He hadn't done anything with it so far. Now, he pulled a wickedly sharp knife, polished to the point that it glinted sharply even in the crappy lighting in the cell, and stalked back over to Sam. Ketch's lips were pulled back in a deranged snarl of a smile, revealing teeth that, like the rest of him, were incongruously neat and well maintained. So it was going to be like this then. Death by stabbing. Not the worst way he'd died, but that didn't mean that Sam was going to make this easy for Ketch. He wrapped his hands around the chains again, more securely this time, and prepared to fight back. His teeth bared in his own snarl. Sam Winchester was done hanged there and taking it. He was done, period. "You really shouldn't have done that," Ketch drawled, taking two, three steps towards Sam, not realizing just how geared up Sam was to fight. Still, Sam knew that even if he caught Ketch off guard that this wasn't something he was likely to get out of alive. And Sam was done railing against the odds.He took a breath, a deep one regardless of his protesting ribs, braced himself for one last fight, and then CRASH! the door to the cell slammed open. Ketch whirled around, knife up, and Sam couldn't help but gape at Teddy. The kid was standing in the open doorway holding an enormous key ring, eyes glowing an eerie yellow, canines elongated into fangs. Sam could see the exact moment that Teddy took in Sam's newly acquired injuries because that was when a low snarl erupted from the kid's throat. It was a guttural, animal sound, and Sam was viscerally reminded that Teddy's father had turned into a full blown rabid wolf once a month. Holy shit. "I," Teddy growled, flashing eyes burning holes into Ketch (and oh how Sam wished that was literal), "Have been waiting to do this for two bloody weeks."Ketch never stood a chance. Teddy's fist collided squarely with his face with inhuman strength. Sam could distinctly hear the sharp Crack of Ketch's nose breaking. Hah. See how it feels douchebag, see how it feels. Said douchebag went flying back, narrowly missing Sam. He craned his neck to look just in time to see Ketch hit the wall and slide to the floor for the second time that day. He was out cold, and good riddance. Sam slumped in his chains, looking back away from Ketch and leaning to take some of the pressure off of his wounded shoulder. (It was throbbing nonstop. Sam was a little worried that he'd managed to reopen the hole) Teddy shifted (morphed? He'd have to ask the kid what he called it) back to the form he'd been in earlier (turquoise hair, amber eyes) and rushed over to Sam. He looked concerned, which Sam figured said something for how beat to hell he looked. He figured it probably wasn't pretty. Something else had come into the room on Teddy's heels, but all Sam could see of it was a black blur. What, what?He blinked once, twice, and realized that he'd finally lost his battle with his grief, rage and pain. The tears that he'd been forcing back had broken free without him noticing. Dimly, he registered Teddy stretching up to unlock the shackles around his wrists. They clicked open and Sam wasn't able to stop his knees from buckling out from under him. He started to collapse to the ground, only to crash into something warm and let out a pained grunt as Teddy caught him. Ow, ow ow. Freaking ribs. "Sorry, I'm sorry," Teddy apologized instantly, "Oh, Merlin. Okay, here let's-"Teddy moved, and Sam could tell that the kid was being careful not to drop him or aggravate his injuries (as far as was possible, there was hardly a square inch of Sam that didn't hurt) as he managed to wrap Sam's un-shot arm around his own shoulders. Sam himself was in a haze, the grief, the anger, and the physical pain that he'd been through the past few days all were crashing down on him at once. He was shaking, he knew, and the blur that was his vision only got worse as more tears escaped him."Sam?!" that was Teddy again, and Sam faintly recognized that he was starting to sound outright scared, "Sam hey. God, what happened, what did he do to you?"Sam took a great shuddering breath that came out a sob, and struggled to get his feet back under him. Teddy shifted his position, trying to help."Sam, what's wrong? Besides the obvious-did something happen before this lot nabbed you?"Sam turned his head to look at the kid, who at the moment looked like nothing so much as a concerned blob. He tried to wipe at his eyes, but his only free hand was attached to his gun-shot-wounded shoulder which screamed in protest. "Goddamnit,"God. Just FUCK. "Here, let me," and Teddy used the tattered remains of his own shirt to dab at the tears in Sam's eyes. God, this kid. Sam took another shuddering breath, and forced himself to let it out slowly, managing to shove his erupting emotions down. His head that much clearer, he could see that all signs were pointing to Teddy having figured out a way to escape this hellhole. Sam could fall apart later; he couldn't afford to now. He'd just have to hold himself together until they were safe. Yay compartmentalization. "I'm good, I can stand now," He managed, realizing that he sounded like he'd just swallowed gravel, and pulled away from Teddy. He wobbled a little, but managed to stay upright. "You sure?" Teddy asked, clearly still worried. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine, I'm fine." He took a few step forwards. Well, it hurt (duh) but his legs had made it through relatively unscathed, and if he could walk, Teddy would be unencumbered. Sam could manage. He staggered over to the unconscious Ketch and, gingerly, knelt on the floor beside him. Teddy hovered anxiously over him, and Sam was getting the distinct impression that the kid was just barely keeping himself from asking what the hell all of that had been about. Thankfully, he stayed quiet for now. Sam would tell him once they'd gotten to someplace Sam could fall apart without endangering him. Teddy had saved his life. Sam owed him at least that much. Sam rifled through Ketch's clothes with his good arm and came up with a gun. Nice. It was loaded, and there was another clip in his pocket. If they were lucky, and if Sam was very, very careful, this would be enough to get them out. He tucked the extra clip into his back pocket, grabbed the knife. Then he swayed back to his feet, and turned back to Teddy, holding the knife out for the kid to take."Shall we?"Teddy looked uncertain, and he was eyeing the weapons (particularly the gun) with some trepidation, but finally he nodded and took the knife. Sam limped back across the cell and, for the first time, got an unobstructed view of Teddy's new companion standing guard at the door. It was a dog. What?????"Teddy?" he asked. "Yeah?""Why is there an enormous black dog guarding the door?" he asked, then, upon noticing something else, added, "And why does it look like it understands exactly what I'm saying and finds it funny?""He broke me out of the other cell," Teddy told him, "knocked out the guards and stole the bloody keys.""What?" That was bizarre, even for him. "Yeah. Really intelligent, really large black dog rescued me, and he likes being called Snuffles. I asked him. We've got a one bark, two bark yes/no system going. I realize exactly what this looks like, and I'm trying to hold off thinking about it until I can freak out without getting shot."Snuffles, Sam remembered, was the code name Harry, Ron, and Hermione had used for Sirius Black-Ah. Oh boy. "Yep," he said faintly, "that's probably a good idea."What even was his life? That was a question Sam had been asking himself for years, and he still wasn't anywhere near an answer. Every time he thought he'd figured it out, something new and completely weird showed up to prove him wrong. Snuffles the dog-possibly-Harry-Potter's-supposedly-dead-godfather barked impatiently, and that was when the alarms stared to go off. Oh, just great. Teddy jumped. The dog flinched. Yeah, that couldn't be nice on their sensitive ears. "Elevator!" Sam shouted over the din, "Make for the elevator!"Galvanized into action, the little group started out. Snuffles let the way, Teddy was in the middle, and Sam brought up the rear, stolen gun at the ready. Moving as fast as they (Sam) could manage, they made it to the elevator without incident. As soon as the doors dinged open on the ground floor though, the large assortment of Men of Letters with guns became readily apparent. Sam, who'd been expecting as much, was already standing at the front of the elevator with the pilfered gun pointed straight at the doors ready to empty his first clip into the waiting goons. The Men of Letters, evidently not expecting any of them to be armed, scattered. Sam charged out of the elevator, Snuffles shooting ahead of him to jump on a few of the armed henchmen, and Teddy right at his heels. The three of them bolted down the hall, adrenaline enabling Sam to disregard his injuries and run. Forget Harry Potter, He thought to himself, Any more running, and this'll turn into a Doctor Who episode. Snuffles was still in the lead, and Sam and Teddy followed him as he wove is way down hallways and through corridors, taking turns seemingly at random. Sam had had some idea that the path Snuffles was following was the same route that Sam'd been taken down upon his arrival, but he wasn't sure until the dog stopped in front of the door that led to the garage. Had Snuffles come in with Sam? Whatever, not the time. They burst through the door, slamming it shut behind him. Whatever they did from here, they'd have to be quick about it. The garage was full of cars, trucks a motorcycle, and a four wheeler, and Sam debated stealing one of the cars but...Sam had a completely bum shoulder; he was in no shape to be behind the wheel. Teddy couldn't drive (Sam'd asked) and Snuffles definitely couldn't. Besides, the Assholes of Letters seemed like they'd be paranoid enough to have low-jacks on every one of their vehicles. So...nope. Better to make sure they couldn't use said vehicles to follow them. Sam loaded the other clip into the gun, and took aim.
BANG! BANG!
Two tires down, way too many to go. "Hang on," Teddy said, "It's a good idea, but don't waste your bullets. Here."The kid handed Sam the knife, then walked over to a large metal table covered in various tools that was set up against the wall. There was a screeching grating noise that made Sam wince, and Snuffles whimper and cover his ears with his paws. Teddy was dragging the table over and upending it so it was blocking the door. He stepped back, dusting his hands together, and nodding. Damn, the kid was strong. "There," Teddy said, a smug grin on his face, "Now we've got some time."Teddy morphed his fingernails into deadly looking claws, Sam palmed the knife, and they got to work. Working together, mindful of which car the other was on, they slashed every single one of the tires on each and every vehicle in that garage to ribbons. Then they destroyed every spare they could find. They worked quickly, Teddy more so than Sam. By the time they were finished to their satisfaction, there was a loud banging and shouting at the blocked door. Time to go. Teddy aimed a wild grin at Sam. Yeah, this was definitely the son of a Marauder alright. Dean would've loved him. "That's our cue!" Snuffles, who had been sitting on the floor watching them with interest, got to his feet, and led them through another door to the outside. Both Teddy and Sam had to take a moment to let their eyes adjust to the sunlight, and then they were off, following Snuffles into the woods that surrounded the sprawling complex. Sam didn't know where they were, or where they were going, but Snuffles seemed to, and after everything that the dog had already done for them? That was good enough for Sam, Sirius Black or no.They were free. All Sam needed to think about right now was getting far enough from the complex that they could stop and catch up on some well needed rest. He stuck his gun in his waistband and followed the dog.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mar. 10, 2016
Objectively, Castiel had already known that Dean harbored an intense dislike of flying. However, having never seen his friend (more than friend? Probably??) actually deal with it, he hadn't been in a position to realize how much Dean truly despised traveling by plane until they'd actually had to do it to find Sam. Getting that far had taken them another day. Through more hacking (with much cursing) and some pointed questions posed while impersonating federal law enforcement, they had determined that Sam had indeed been taken across the Atlantic Ocean and into Great Britain. Thus, the three of them being required to fly if they were to rescue Sam in any kind of haste. Dean, as the only one out of the three of them who knew how to operate computers with any kind of efficiency (though Mary was learning at astonishing speed), had been the one who bought them their tickets on the first available flight 'across the pond'. He had, quite frankly, turned a vaguely alarming light green color simply purchasing the tickets online. Cas had claimed the passenger seat in their borrowed truck. (Jody Mills had lent it to them, and would be retrieving it after they left. Dean had refused point blank to leave the Impala in the parking lot of an airport or in the Bunker now that it had been breached. Mary and Cas hadn't bothered to try and change his mind.) As such, he could see clearly that the closer they got to the airport, the faster Dean's fingers tapped on the steering wheel and the tenser he got. Judging by the looks she kept sending Dean's way, Mary was beginning to grow concerned. Cas himself had to admit that he'd never seen Dean this...agitated. Of course, Cas knew that he was worried for Sam (he was too, incredibly, and he was sure Mary felt the same) but this wasn't how Dean acted when he was worrying over his brother. Neither was this Dean angry, annoyed, sleep deprived, sad, in pain, or despairing. It certainly wasn't Dean's normal fear reaction, (normal being relative; Castiel had long since determined that the Winchesters' responses to fear were far from any typical human's.) No. This was Dean totally, seemingly irrationally, terrified and trying (failing) not to show it. And Cas didn't know (yet) what he could do about it. Boarding the plane had Dean's knuckles white from how hard his hands were clenched around the arm rests, before they'd even taken off. His humming had become frantic, his eyes were squeezed shut, and when the plane lifted off the ground his body became so tense that Castiel was fairly certain that he was actually vibrating. If Dean continued like this he'd be so exhausted by the time they reached Great Britain, he'd not be in any condition to look for Sam at all productively. Cas needed to do something. "Dean."Nothing."Dean."Still no response. "Dean."Still nothing. Cas frowned to himself. This was not good. He needed to get Dean out of his head. He reached over and placed his hand on top of Dean's. Obviously startled, Dean's whole body jerked in a massive flinch, and he turned panicked eyes over to Cas who, despite his greatly reduced power, could physically feel the distress his was projecting rolling off of him in waves. So Cas did the only thing he could think of to 'snap him out of it.'Palm to cheek, lips to lips, gently and oh so carefully. The tension coiled all through Dean's body wound impossibly tighter and for exactly one point four five horrified seconds Cas thought he'd somehow made it worse, but then...The only appropriate word Cas could think of in the English language for what Dean did just then (it truly was sadly limited) was melt. All of the tension bled out of Dean's body as he softened into their second kiss (Cas was sure he'd be counting them for some time to come). A soft moan made its way out of his throat and Cas swallowed it. This. This was. Castiel did not think he had the words in any language to describe how much he loved Dean Winchester without any reciprocation, and now. Well. Now, Dean was kissing back in kind, the hand that had been under Cas's own flipped over and held it, warm and grounding and Dean. It was wonderful and Dean, and perfect and Dean, and Castiel had not felt want this bright and sharp since he had first seen this man's damaged, perfect, gleaming soul shining through the gloom of hell and he-The plane hit a small amount of turbulence and Dean went rigid again.Remembering why he'd kissed his hunter in the first place, Cas immediately pulled back. Dean's eyes popped open and he scowled, looking more angry with himself than with anything else. "Damnit," he muttered, "I'm sorry Cas, that wasn't you, I was just being stupid. I'm fine, won't happen again, c'mon."Dean leaned back into Cas, and unfortunately...no. As much as he enjoyed kissing Dean, these were clearly not the circumstances under which to do so. He reached out and caught Dean's head between his hands before his lips could reengage Cas's own. Dean's scowl deepened and he opened his mouth to say something. Assuming (correctly, given that this was Dean) that he was preparing to argue, Cas spoke before he could get so much as a work out. "Dean."Dean's mouth snapped shut and he deflated again, blowing out a frustrated breath through his nose. "Dean," Cas said again, then he paused, trying to find the words that would rankle the least on Dean's not-inconsiderable pride, "This will be a long flight. You will be better able able to help Sam if you sleep. If the turbulence is going to keep you awake, I can help."Dean puffed up again, seemingly gearing up for a fight, so Cas narrowed his eyes at him. Dean opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again and spoke. "I...yeah. Y-you're right. You don't mind?""Of course not, Dean," Cas told him. Did he mind. Oh, please. "You will not wake until we've landed."He pressed a gentle kiss to Dean's forehead and the man slumped back in his seat, fast asleep and looking as peaceful as Castiel had ever seen him. Neither turbulence, nor worries, nor nightmares would trouble him now. "Well done," came a woman's voice. Startled, Cas turned from the sleeping Dean to-Oh. Yes. Cas had quite managed to forget about Mary, who was currently looking at him with a warm smile. "Me?"She laughed, a small chuckle that reminded Cas strongly of Sam."Yes, you. I haven't known Dean as an adult for very long, but I can already tell that he's as stubborn as he was as a four year old, if not more. I was just about to try and step in when you did, but...I'm not sure how well it would've been received so...Thank you. And well done."Cas frowned. Mary was clearly unhappy, but he wasn't quite sure...Oh. She was...Grieving? Perhaps not the most precise word, but the only one Cas could think of. Mary Winchester was grieving for the time that had been lost with her sons, sad because she did not truly know them anymore and, if Cas was not gravely mistaken, worried that she had no place with her family anymore. While the first two were indeed valid grievances,the third...Well that was simply untrue and as Dean was currently unconscious and in the seat between them and therefore unable to reassure her, Castiel would have to attempt to ease her mind in his stead. "They don't blame you, you know," he told her. "Sorry?""Sam and Dean," he clarified, "they've never blamed you for dying and leaving them. John Winchester didn't either, though I don't believe that he handled it particularly well and Dean just missed you. He's happy that you're back. Sam never really got to know you as his mother, but he will also be happy that you've returned. You have a place with them, Mary Winchester."She just stared at him, eyes wide, and Castiel was beginning to think that he shouldn't have said anything at all (particularly about John) but then she unfroze and smiled softly at him, "Thank you Castiel."She seemed like she was going to add something else to that, but then she closed her mouth and frowned at him instead. "What did you mean when you said that Sam never knew me as his mother."Ah. Well, Dean evidently hadn't told her about the time traveling. He cleared his throat. "Around five or six years ago, Dean, and then at another time Dean, Sam, and myself ahh...We were involved in some instances of...time travel." "Time travel," she repeated flatly, "Right. Go on."Castiel hesitated, not entirely certain that he should be the one telling her this story, but she just gave him a look that he'd seen on both Winchester brothers when they Were Not going to be dissuaded from knowing something. Well, he could at least try. "I wasn't present for most of the first time it happened, it was just Dean, though I was involved with sending him back...To Lawrence Kansas on the day that John bought the Impala...He met both of you there."Mary frowned, looking confused. "I don't remember that happening."Cas hesitated, she glared again, he sighed and continued. "You would't, though...I had thought that perhaps dying and being resurrected would have restored your memory."Her eyebrows were rapidly climbing up her forehead."My-my memory? But how...?" Mary trailed off, seemingly at a loss for words, and Cas realized that his attempts at an explanation had only given her more questions. So, he went back and started at the beginning. "It started when the angels decided that Dean needed a lesson in how destiny worked and sent me to send him back into the nineteen seventies..."He told Mary everything he could remember from both trips to the past. Though she frequently looked as though she very much wanted to, Mary let him talk without any interruption. He couldn't tell her everything; he didn't know any of the details of the interactions of Sam and Dean with the young couple who would become their parents, and what he did know...It was not his place to tell her. That was between Mary and her sons (he told her as much, and she agreed), and so he summarized. Later, after they'd brought Sam home, he would attempt to unlock those memories for her, if she wanted him to. After he finished, Mary sat quietly for a moment, deep in thought."That...is a lot." she said finally, and Cas found himself unable to help sympathizing with her. After all, he did know what it was to have everything he (thought he) knew completely overturned and shattered in the space of a very short time by the Winchester brothers (particularly Dean). "I...yes. I imagine that it is," he told her, "Any revelations to do with your family, particularly your sons, tend to be. You get used to it eventually, as far as it's possible to get used to anything with them."Mary looked back to him then, mouth quirked up at the corners. For another few moments she was silent again, eyes carefully on him. She was assessing, a habit and expression she had in common with both her sons (and, Castiel rather suspected, hunters in general). He wondered what she was looking for, but she didn't leave him uncertain for long. "I think you're good for him."It was abrupt, matter of fact, and not clear in the slightest. "What?" he asked. What exactly was it that she was trying to tell him?"Dean," she clarified, "I think you're good for him. You-he talked about you almost as much as he talked about Sam on the drive to the bunker, and...You look each other like my parents used to, how John used to look at me and how I'm sure I must've looked at him. And you take care of him, or try to at least, even when he's being stubborn. So...I haven't known, well either of you really, for very long, but I do see things, and I think you're good for him. "I know that you don't need my seal of approval...but you have it. I don't give a damn that both of you are, physically at least, men as long as Dean's happy. So the two of you don't have to worry about me being a bitch about it unless you break Dean's heart. Not that I think that you will, but. Just don't."Taken aback and stunned into silence, Castiel had spent the time she took to speak studying her in turn. This woman was surely a hunter down to her bones, hiatus or no. She was smart, taking all of this remarkably well, and...Cas so dearly wanted her to be right about him being good for Dean, though he wasn't sure that it was actually true. Still, there was one thing he could always be sure of. "I will do everything in my power to ensure that Dean's heart is safe with me."He meant it, with everything he was, and he willed her to see the truth that he was sure was writ all over his face. Her expression softened. "I know you will. And for what it's worth, I think the same goes for Dean."Castiel smiled at her. He very much looked forward to getting to know this woman better. No, Mary Winchester would not have much difficulty rediscovering her place among her family. She smiled back, then covered her mouth as she yawned. Oh, of course. With this family, Cas should't known better than to assume that Dean was the only one pushing their limits. "Would you like me to send you to sleep as well?" he offered. Looking embarrassed, Mary lowered her hand from her mouth and bit her lip. For a moment, Castiel was sure that she would refuse, but then she sighed and nodded. "Yeah, that sounds pretty great actually, if you don't mind. I'll be no use to anybody if I spend the whole flight awake and worrying.""Your sleep will be undisturbed," Cas assured her, and pressed his fingertips to her forehead. She slumped back in her chair, face relaxed in sleep, and Cas smiled to himself in private satisfaction. Two Winchesters resting and one left to find. He'd gotten better at wrangling them over the years. He settled back in his own seat and wished he were next to a window. He dearly missed flying and though an airplane had nothing on being under the power of his own wings, it would have been nice to see the world from such a height again. Perhaps on the return flight. Anyway, he had to admit that no other view could compare to that of the man sleeping next to him, face relaxed and peaceful as it never was during his waking hours. Yes, Dean Winchester, body and soul, was by far the most beautiful thing Castiel had ever seen. Once they'd retrieved Sam back from the people who'd taken him, Cas fully intended on taking as much time and effort as was required until Dean believed that. And perhaps he should also encourage Sam to find someone other than his brother who would do the same for him. Both Winchesters thought entirely too little of themselves for Cas's comfort. Zachariah and Uriel would no doubt tell him he'd become unforgivably sentimental. The thought didn't bother him, beyond that they'd take exception to that and try to have him taken in for reconditioning. They were both dead after all, as was Naomi, and they would not have been wrong. Cas was not entirely sure of the person he'd become, whether he was good, bad, or (most likely) something that dwelt in the shades of grey in between. Regardless he was not, nor would he ever be, ashamed of the care he had for these humans who's somehow become his family than almost the entirety of the angelic host (with very few exceptions, all of them dead.) If Castiel had his family, he was content. He watched over the sleeping Winchesters quietly throughout the duration of the rest of the flight. He woke both of them just after the plane stopped at the off ramp. Mary woke calmly, smiled, and thanked him for the rest. Dean, unsurprisingly, started awake violently but calmed upon realizing that they were now on the ground. Then he grinned at Castiel too. "Thanks Cas," Dean said, then yawned, "That was the best sleep I've gotten in months. He looked sleep rumpled and softer than he was while fully awake, and he was smiling at Cas. A warm feeling took root in Cas's stomach, as always happened when a genuine smile from Dean was directed his way, and he dearly wanted to kiss him. Before he got the chance to, however, Dean bit his lip, leaned in before Cas realized what was happening, and kissed him. It was light, quick, and far more gentle than Cas would have expected from him. It was also the first time Dean had made the first move. Father, Castiel loved this man. Dean pulled back and looked away, and Cas was almost entirely sure that he was blushing. Oooooh. That was new. He wanted to make him do that again. "Right," Dean said guffly. Then he leaned in again quickly, and pecked Cas on the cheek before getting up and squeezing past Mary into the aisle. Since when was Dean this sweet? Cas loved it. He was fairly certain that the expression currently on his face would best be described as beaming, something that he might have found embarrassing were he not currently so deliriously happy. Then he noticed that Mary was looking between the two of them and biting her lip like she was trying not to laugh. She noticed him noticing her, and then winked, getting up out of her own seat to follow Dean. Cas followed her out through the plane, into Manchester Airport, and to the rental car that would take them to the nice, but relatively inexpensive, B&B Mary had found for them upon figuring out how to work TripAdvisor (her first successful foray into the internet). That was where they would rest and plan out how they were going to find Sam. Dean, though he did drive, complained strenuously about the rental car, and driving on the 'wrong' side of the road. Knowing that he was only trying to distract himself from Sam until he could actually do something, Cas simply traded exasperated looks with Mary, and let him rant. Luckily, the airport wasn't far from their destination and less than half an hour after pulling out from the airport's parking garage, they pulled in to the driveway at the Ladybower Inn. Dean looked at the building dubiously. "This looks pretty swanky. You sure this place is cheap?""Yes Dean," Mary answered him patiently, "The rooms are as inexpensive as we're going to get here, there's free wifi, free parking, and breakfast comes included. Also, they have a bar. Can we go in now?"Properly chastised, as well as motivated by the promise of free food and alcohol, Dean finally popped open his door and got out of the car. Mary and Cas followed him in, baggage in hand (a duffel bag apiece, plus one for Sam with a few changes of clothes, weapons, and a hexbag each to hid the weapons from airport security). Dean checked them in, then they tramped upstairs to get settled. The young man at the desk had informed them that breakfast would be available until eleven. As it was after ten and the humans were hungry, Mary and Dean then went back downstairs to eat while Cas warded the rooms-just in case. When Mary and Dean came back, the three of them gathered in the room that Dean and Cas were sharing to spread out everything they had so far and find their errant Winchester. According to the GPS, the plane Sam had be taken in had touched down somewhere near the center of the Peak District, which was why they'd landed in Manchester-the airport was as close as they could get to the district by plane. (This, along with the fact that the Peak District was a national park, also made Cas question the legality of landing any kind of plane there at all. As this was hardly relevant just then he stored the thought away on the off chance that it would be useful later.)Other than the general area of landing (the GPS had been strangely vague-they suspected some kind of warding interference) they didn't have much to speak of. While facial recognition had come up with a match for the blonde woman who'd abducted Sam, it really didn't give them much beyond her name (Lady Antonia Bevell, evidently went by Toni.) She was a minor member of British nobility, was widowed with a son, and kept a low profile-no scandals, no kind of record, didn't even own a gun on paper and nothing in her background, familial or otherwise, to suggest that she'd ever have cause to use one. As far as they could tell, she'd never even taken a martial arts class, or ever been even remotely interested in the occult. So no clues as to how she'd been able to take down one of the most experienced hunters on the planet, how she'd known about the bunker or the angel banishing sigil, or why she'd done any of it. They'd briefly entertained the idea that she'd been possessed, but...No smell of Sulfur, a demon would have just killed Sam outright, and a quick call put into Crowley confirmed that all the demons in hell were accounted for. (Not that they trusted him, but as his clsim lined up with their evidnece, they decided he was telling the truth. Anyway, even crowley couldn't just barge into the Bunker uninvited as this woman had.)Not a lot to go on, but it was all they had, so they had to make it work. Dean joined Cas on his bed to pour over every map of the Peak District they'd been able to get their hands on, trying to narrow down their search radius, while Mary was perched on Dean's bed with Sam's laptop trying to dig up whatever more information she could on Lady Bevell. (She truy had taken to the new computers with an impressive speed- Dean had only needed to show her some of the basics and she was researching online as well as Cas had ever been able to.)It was quiet; the only noise they generated for well over two hours was from the rustling of paper maps, the clicking of keys, and the occasional murmur as Castiel and Dean compared notes or Mary read something she'd found aloud to herself. Finally, just as Cas and Dean had narrowed down their possibilities to two or three stretches of privately owned wooded areas, Mary let out a triumphant whoop!"Hah! Gotcha!"Dean was off of Cas's bed and at his mother's side in an instant, and Cas followed close behind, taking with him the map they'd used to mark out their possible destinations on. "What've you got, Mom?" Dean asked. Mary turned her head to grin at them. "Well, I was going through any old newspaper articles that I could find with the Lady Bitch's last name in them, and there's an article from 1951 (that's the year the Peak District became a national park) detailing some contention regarding the ownership of a piece of land in the district. It's one of the wooded areas, and it's been owned by the same family since the 1700's. The National trust wanted the land, the family refused to give it up, and they were backed by their longtime family allies...The Bevell's.""Wait, seriously?" Dean grabbed the laptop to look at the article for himself. He then (rather unnecessarily) tilted it to show Cas. "Huh. Well, I get where you're coming from, but that was like sixty years ago. The families could not be as tight anymore."Mary grinned at him."I'm not an amateur, honey, I do know what I'm doing. I recognized the family name from the list Lady Bitch's Facebook friends; members of that family make up nearly a quarter of it. They're still close."Dean was beaming now, and Cas had to forcibly remind himself that Mary, Dean's mother was in the room with them and that they were working Castiel, now is not a good time to kiss Dean until he turns that wonderful pink color again no matter how much that look makes you want to. He cleared his throat. "Where is the land?"Mary went back to Sam's laptop, pulling up a map, and Dean took theirs from Cas to compare. The three of them sat there and simply looked at the two plots of land that matched up perfectly on both of the maps, and then turned to look at each other. Cas knew he was probably smiling ridiculously again, while Mary and Dean were both grinning with the elated fierceness that always preceded a particularly vicious hunting culmination. They had found Sam. Now, they simply needed to retrieve him.
Mar. 3, 2016
Harry took the last step to stand at the front door to the Burrow, then stopped. He squared his shoulders and took a deep breath as he tried to prepare himself to deliver to his family what he was almost positive was the worst news he'd had to deliver since the war had ended. Ron was a solid presence at his back, for all that Harry knew damn well that his best friend was dreading this nearly as much as he was. It had been three days since Harry had determined that he had to inform the rest of his family of Teddy's disappearance, but he simply had not gotten the chance to before now. His team had found a handful of silver darts and a bullet (also silver) at the scene not long after they'd discovered Teddy's wand. However, because the Auror who had found them was a Pureblood from a ridiculously conservative family (the man was, himself, not overtly prejudiced but he knew absolutely nothing about Muggles) it hadn't been until Dennis Creevey had seen them that his team realized the significance. Harry was giving him a raise as soon as this was over; Dennis had immediately brought them to his attention.Not for the first time, Harry resolved to hold a mandatory seminar for every single one of his non-Muggle-raised Aurors as to the mechanics of muggle weaponry and customs, residual Pureblood hangups be damned. He'd have to ask Hermione to help him with it (she was still far better at organization and diplomacy than he was), and he'd made a physical note for himself to start work on that as soon as they rescued Teddy. It was patently ridiculous that it hadn't been done before; having his Auror's miss that obvious of a clue when it could be easily avoided was downright hazardous, and if Dennis hadn't seen the leftover ammunition...Well, that wasn't worth dwelling on. At any rate, with a lead like that it had quickly become obvious that neither Harry nor Ron would have any spare seconds with which to inform their family of anything whatsoever and so they went on blissfully uninformed. Teddy had clearly been abducted, of all things, by Muggles. Muggles who apparently, given the silver, had been hunting the same werewolf-like creatures Teddy had been investigating. Werewolf hunting Muggles were, a new and pressing problem in and of themselves, but of far more importance and no small amount of concern to Harry (and Ron, and, to be perfectly honest, most of the rest of the Auror Department) was that they had Teddy. And they still didn't know how long it had been since they'd taken him. Every single one of Harry's Aurors that weren't already neck deep in critically important cases of their own were now on this one. Every single one of them, from Harry, to old Williamson who'd be retired by this time next year, to the greenest of the trainees, had been pouring over books and news reports, old and new, magical and Muggle alike, all trying to find out if anything like this had happened before. And lo and behold, it had. Muggle reports, most of them decades old if not older, of "animal attacks", the heart ripped out of all of the victims, and always, always on the full moon. Then one, two, or more deaths by silver bullet or knife, and/or people missing with only a silver dart of two left at the scene, and the attacks stopped. It wasn't new, it had just, for whatever reason, never come across the attention of any Wizards before. (As far as any of them knew. Two wars and a Ministry effectively run by Voldemort had been hell on the records.)And now, whoever and these people were (Harry thought that the were probably some kind of secret organization or something equally ridiculous) they had a wizard, and one who was both half-werewolf and a metamorphmagus to boot. They had Harry's godson, and Teddy had all too obviously not gone willingly. If Harry found Teddy hurt, then by Merlin there was going to be bloody hell to pay, Muggles or no, and he needed to find him now. Harry had immediately sent his liaison to the Muggles to in the hopes that their Ministry had anything on these werewolf hunters that he could find. Once that had been done...Well Harry and Ron had then been left with nothing to do but wait for news, so they called a family meeting at the Burrow (including Andromeda Tonks.) And now he was standing at the doorstep, trying to summon up the courage to tell his family that their oldest child was missing. A weight settled on Harry's shoulder as Ron let a bolstering hand fall there and clasp it gently. Harry leaned gratefully into the touch, and then, shaking himself, best friend, brother, and second in command at his back, he walked through the door. All of the kids bar Teddy, Lily and Hugo were at Hogwarts, but everyone else (bar Charlie, who was in the midst of dealing with a particularly difficult dragon in Romania) were gathered together in the Weasleys' living room. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had claimed the loveseat, Ginny the space on the floor next to them with Lily and Hugo next to her. She looked worried, as did both Hermione and Andromeda (neither Harry nor Ron had been home in days, both working through the night and catching naps in Harry's office when they slept at all, and Andy knew that Teddy should've sent news days ago; all three women knew that something was wrong), both squeezed onto the couch with Angelina and Fleur. George was perched on the arm of the couch next to his wife, Bill was seated in the big armchair next to the couch, and Percy and Audrey and both brought in chairs from the kitchen. All of them turned to look as Ron and Harry walked in. The worried frown on Andromeda's face deepened as she saw them and Harry knew that she had taken note of Teddy's glaring absence. Hermione quickly conjured two more chairs in between the couch and the loveseat, and Harry sank down into his gratefully, knowing Ron was doing the same to the left. This...was not going to be fun. It was Mrs. Weasley who finally broke the silence. "Well, now that we're all here, are you boys going to tell us why we're all here and what's got you so worried?"Harry exchanged a look with Ron, who was now holding onto Hermione's hand, and swallowed. "Actually, Mum, we're not all here," Ron told her carefully, "We've got news we'd really rather deliver just the once, so we-"The rest of his explanation was cut off by the fire turning green with a crackle-snap-pop and four shapes arriving from it into the room in quick succession. Victoire came first, followed closely by James, then Albus, and then Neville Longbottom. Lily jumped up to crash into her brothers with glee (they hadn't seen each other since Christmas Break) while Angelina waved up a chair for herself and ceded her spot on the couch to Vic. Vic smiled at her and sat herself between her mother and Andromeda while Neville gave Harry and Ron a tight smile (he already knew) and sat by the kids on the other side of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's chair. For a moment, chaos reigned: talking, greetings, and questions all flowed together to create the din typical of a family gathering and to Harry's surprise, it was James (ordinarily precisely at the center of whatever pandemonium was occurring) who called for quiet. He'd evidently noticed through the bedlam that both Harry and Ron had been uncharacteristically quiet and realized that something was very wrong (sometimes Harry forgot just how observant his oldest son was.) Jamie looked around the room once more, gave Harry a piercing glance, then stood from his place on the floor (dislodging Lily, who'd deposited herself upon his lap, to Albus) and let out an earsplitting whistle. Startled, the rest of the family fell silent, and James turned back to him. "What's happened, Dad? Where's Teddy?"Now they were all looking at Harry with considerable worry and he sighed. He was really going to have to do this. Damnit. Damn that this was happening, Damn that those godforsaken Muggles had kidnapped his godson, and damn that he was the one who had to be the messenger of this news. Just...Damn it all. "Some-some of you know that Teddy has been on a mission looking into reports of strange, werewolf-like, creatures attacking and killing muggles," he began hesitantly. Most of the room immediately paled, knowing what a start like this implied,and Andromeda and Vic grabbed for each other's hands while Mrs. Weasly covered her mouth with a hand and Ginny reached out hers to grab onto Harry's. He was infinitely grateful to her and squeezed it once before letting go. "He, ah...he was supposed to be back three days ago but he never made his check-in. We sent a team to find him and..."Andromeda was so pale she was grey, and she and Victoire were clinging to each other's hands so hard that Harry could see the whites of their knuckles from across the room. "We know he's not dead," Harry added, knowing that they needed the reassurance and to remind himself of the fact, "That much, we're certain of. And we've almost definitely found the place where he was taken from. But...he is missing in action...and we found his wand."James and Albus flinched, Vic and Mrs. Weasley both let out small, dismayed cries, and the rest of them bar Andy, even Ginny whose hand was back (Harry gripped it like the lifeline she was offering it as), and Hermione and Percy (who rarely swore) let loose several particularly vicious curses. "Do you know who has him?" Andromeda asked sharply, "Do you know who has taken my godson?"Her voice trembled, but she was marginally less pale, and her grip on Victoire and loosened ever so slightly. Ron answered her question for Harry. "Not exactly," he told them, "We've found evidence, rather conclusive, that there are Muggles who have been...well, 'hunting' seems to the the best word for it, the were-like creatures that Teddy was going after, for decades. And...that they apparently ran into Ted at some point in their investigation and for whatever reason took him.""We don't know who they are," Harry added, "But we have leads and people liasoning with the Muggle Ministry and...we're going to find him, Andy. We're bringing him home."Somehow his voice didn't shake, and his words came across as far more confident than he felt. He wished he could be as sure as he'd sounded...but he'd been through too much to be anything other than angry and utterly terrified that when (because there was certainly no question of that, they were finding Teddy if Harry had to tear the world apart) they found his godson it would be too late. "We should have the-"
BANG!
The door to the Burrow burst open nearly off its hinges, and Harry was on his feet in an instant, wand drawn and in front of him, secure in the knowledge that Ron and the rest of his family (at the very least the adults, but likely Vic, Jamie and Al as well) had done the same. Someone ran into the room, only to squeak and freeze at the sight of over a dozen wands, all wielded by very capable (some even rather vicious) witches and wizards pointed directly at them. Harry took one look at their face and relaxed, putting his wand away as he heard the others doing the same. It was Dennis, and when Harry tried to apologize, he just waved it off and dove into his report. "I just got back from the Muggle Ministry," he told the room at large, "We've been working with them to pool our collective intel and...you've got to come, Harry, Ron. Right now We're pretty sure we've found him."Merlin, Mordred and Morgana, finally. Harry whipped back around to face his family. "I-We-we've got to-"Ginny cut him off with a quick kiss then pulled back, eyes blazing, a hand resting gently on his face. "Go.""You bring him back Dad, you go bring him back." That was James, hand in hand with his brother, both their eyes blazing with their mother's fire, speaking for all the others in the room. They were nodding, and Hermione stepped forward to hug Harry, then her husband, whom she also kissed once, hard. "You need us, you call," she told them in no uncertain terms. "That goes for me as well," Neville put in. "You bring him right here when you find him," Mrs. Weasley said from Andromeda's side (she'd apparently moved when Dennis came in), "You bring him right here, and we'll all be here to take care of him."If Harry knew her at all, she was planning on keeping Andy (and possibly her oldest granddaughter as well) in the Burrow with her and Mr. Weasley until they found Teddy, and Harry smiled at her. Good. Andy would need the companyand the support. "We will," he promised.It was as much to himself as to them and, heart in his throat, he kissed Ginny again and gathered his remaining children into his arms for a quick hug. Then, letting them go reluctantly, he smiled tightly at all of them."We will," Harry said again, then knowing that Ron and Dennis was going the same behind him, he turned on the spot and Dissapparated, reappearing in his office with a CRACK! They had work to do. He turned to Dennis. "Tell us everything."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mar. 8, 2016
Sirius did, in fact, know where he was going. It was one of the many benefits of the very, very extensive wards surrounding the Manor that he'd been keyed into: he always knew what direction he had to go to get there, so he'd been trotting ahead of Teddy and Sam (names being one of the first things he'd picked up on), leading them to safety (grateful that for whatever reason, they hadn't been questioning it) and listening to them talk to each other. He'd figured out pretty quickly that they both had some idea of who he was, though both of them seemed content to linger in the limbo of 'But is he though?' and Sirius still wasn't entirely sure how Sam knew. They'd said something about a couple of series of books that Sirius didn't really understand, it would just have to be another thing that he asked them if he ever got back to being human. Anyway, it'd been about a day and a half since Sirius had managed to break the kids out of that ridiculous compound and, bar the whole book series thing, they'd been pretty damn informative. Not that it was, on the whole, in a good way. Every hour that passed only made Sirius want to be human again more and more, if only to give both of these kids a damn hug, and maybe cry some (a lot, he was going to cry a lot) himself.He'd already been concerned about Sam from pretty much the moment he laid eyes on him in that tiny airport, and he knew that Teddy had been worried too. The man smelled of anger, despair, and grief so strongly that Sirius had had to stop himself from sneezing from it multiple times. He wasn't sure if Teddy could smell it at all, or if the kid was just that perceptive, but the concern coming off of him was almost as strong. To Sam's credit, the kid had somehow managed to hold himself together until they'd settled down for the night. They'd made remarkably good time despite Sam's injuries and emotional turmoil which, while helpful, also gave Sirius the distinctly uncomfortable feeling that Sam was far too practiced in pushing his way through significant pain to do...whatever it was he did. At that point they's still been in the woods, though Sirius was pretty sure they were nearing the edge, so the kids had each picked a tree and slumped down against them for the night, Sirius curled up in between their resting places. Sam had immediately leaned his head back against his chosen tree with his eyes closed, seemingly with every intention of dropping to sleep right then and there. Sirius, who had originally planned on letting the man get some well earned rest before he'd smelled fresh blood coming from his shoulder area, had gotten up and batted at Teddy's leg with his foot, whined softly at him, and shoved his nose in the direction of Sam's wounded appendage. Teddy had breathed in deep and, obviously taking in the same scent that Sirius had (maybe he could smell the emotions wafting off of Sam in waves after all) gently prodded Sam in the leg. "Sam. Hey, I should take a look at your shoulder and-" he'd broken off, scooting closer to Sam's face to peer in at it, "I should really set that nose."Sirius had looked too; he'd forgotten about Sam's broken nose, but Teddy had definitely been right about it needing to be set. If Sirius were human and had his bloody wand he could've healed Sam right up, down to the last bruise. Damnit Bella. Mind, if he was human, they wouldn't be in this mess in the woods in the first place because he would've bloody Apparated them out of it by now, Merlin, Mordred, and Morgana. There wasn't anything he could've done at that moment, so he'd flopped back to the ground with a disgruntled sigh, and resigned himself to more listening. Sam hadn't even opened his eyes. "It's too dark Teddy, go to sleep.""I can see well enough," Teddy had insisted, "I've got really bloody good night vision perks of having a werewolf for a Dad, and don't even bother to try and tell me you're fine, I can smell the fresh blood coming from your shoulder. I think that Snuffles can too, right?" That last bit had been directed right at him, so Sirius'd obligingly lifted his head and gave an affirming yip.Sam had heaved a sigh, wincing, but opened his eyes, and Sirius had narrowed his own. The kid's torso was bruised pretty badly. Oh brilliant, the kid probably had broken ribs on top of everything else, dammit. They were fresh out of anything to wrap them with. Sirius just hoped there wasn't any internal bleeding going on there. "Fine. Do the nose first."Teddy'd nodded solemnly, relief that Sirius felt as well coming off of him in waves, and leaned forward, face crewed up in concentration. Oh, Merlin. That was the face Moony got whenever he was working the kinks out of a particularly inspired prank (albeit with less unholy glee.) He couldn't wait to see Remus again. A light snap had reached his ears and he'd jumped, but it'd only been Teddy moving Sam's nose back into place. Sam himself hadn't made a sound, which had reinforced Sirius' suspicions as to the kid's worryingly high pain tolerance. He knew firsthand just how painful getting one's nose set was, even when it was with magic. He couldn't imagine that doing it that way was any less painful. Then he'd watched as Teddy gingerly peeled back the bandages covering Sam's shoulder. He'd gotten up to look a little closer, and oh. Oh dear sweet Merlin, that was...Sirius hadn't been able to help the distressed noise that had sounded in the back of his throat, and Teddy'd looked vaguely nauseated. Me too, kid, me too. Sam's shoulder had been a bloody (and he did mean that literally) mess of nasty a looking hole that was seeping fresh blood and stitches (and yes, of course he knew what stitches were, Lily had forced all four of them to go to several Muggle first aid training courses; he also know how to do CPR) that looked as though they'd been forcibly ripped apart. Going from the smell, Sam was all too close to a nasty infection. Sirius shuddered just thinking back on it. They needed to get to the Manor, and fast. At least there was clean water there. Teddy had bitten his lip, then eased the bandages the rest of the way off of the shoulder before turning them over. Good kid. He must've had some kind of basic healer training at the very least, because out of their current options, that was really the best course of action he could've chosen. It certainly wasn't ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but at least the outside of the bandages had managed to stay relatively clean. Teddy'd carefully placed the bandages back over the wound, then stripped off the tattered remains of his own shirt. Eerily silent up to then, Sam had protested, but Teddy had quelled him with a look that he had most definitely inherited from his Dad. "I run hotter than you do, I'll be fine. I need to bind your shoulder tighter to stop the bleeding, so unless you particularly feel like dying slowly from blood loss, I suggest you shut up and let me help you."And there was Dora (she herself had gotten it from Andy). Merlin, but she and Remus must've been so proud of their sprog (shows what he'd known.) As any sane person did when confronted with that particular tone of voice and expression, Sam had shut up and let Teddy work. When he was finished, Teddy had sat back on his heels and given Sam a long look. "What happened?""What do you mean?" Sam had asked.Which, bullshit. Sam had clearly known exactly what it was Teddy had meant. "You're grieving," Teddy had told him, not unkindly, "You've lost someone and, whatever it was that happened, it was recent and you're not handling it well."Sam's opened his mouth, face set stubbornly, and Teddy had quickly cut him off before he could argue. "Compartmentalizing everything doesn't count and you know it."Sam had closed his mouth, and for a moment he just looked, but then he sighed, defeat written into every line of his slumped body and hunched shoulders. "Dean," he'd said softly, face crumpling just a little. Sirius had had absolutely no idea who Dean was, but Teddy clearly had if the shocked look spread all across his face had been anything to go by. He didn't push anymore though, and it had turned out that he hadn't needed to. Once Sam had started, it had seemed as though he almost wasn't able to stop. Over the next several minutes, Sirius had learned that 'Dean' had been Sam's older brother. He'd gone out saving the world (Sirius had, at the time, wondered what had been going on with the sun right along with everyone else, but a fight between God and his sister had never crossed his mind.) Apparently Dean had died and come back to life enough times that Sam had felt the need to clarify that he definitely wouldn't be this time. According to the 'reaper' (which apparently were a thing now) had informed both brothers that the next time they died (seriously, what in the name of Merlin's favorite pair of polka-dot boxer-briefs???) they'd be thrown into the Empty. Sirius had absolutely no idea what that was, but apparently there was no coming back from it. (Sirius hadn't previously been aware that was a way of coming back from any kind of death in the first place; Horcruxes didn't count. That wasn't coming back from the dead, that was not having really been dead in the first place, and also not something he wanted to think about.)So, Sam's story? Not an even remotely happy one and Sirius, who knew exactly what it was to lose a brother and a best friend (and James, who had been both) grieved for and with him. But it was what he'd learned after that that still had him reeling hours later. Remus and Dora were both dead. His one last remaining best friend and his baby cousin had both been dead for over twenty years, and he hadn't know. He hadn't known. The whole time he'd been working to come home, it'd been can't abandon Harry and can't leave Remus alone like that, ever again. But for almost all of that time there hadn't been a Moony to come back to. And it wasn't just Remus and Dora either. Ted. Cheerful, Hufflepuff Ted who wouldn't have hurt a fly (and Merlin, Andromeda, how had she survived it?) and Dumbledore. Sirius was neither stupid nor naive. He'd left those behind a long time ago. He knew that war had casualties, he knew that dammit. But somehow...They'd lost so much already, so much. He'd thought, and maybe he'd been naive after all, but he'd thought that he and Remus, last of the Marauders would make it through at least. (Harry making it had never been a question, not for Sirius. He just would. Something he'd been right about at least.)(And he couldn't help but wonder...who else had they lost? Who else was years and years dead and gone, and Sirius still had no idea and no way of knowing?)So...yeah. Sirius was grieving and in shock and confused. He wasn't giving any thought to it being a full moon beyond Teddy's being grumpy and grouchy, having better light to travel by, and missing Moony. After all, no one knew where they were. So, when he heard leaves crunching in the woods around them, he figured it was a deer or something. The smell didn't even register, and Sirius had absolutely no idea that Fenrir bloody Greyback was anywhere in the vicinity until the bastard came crashing through the trees into the little clearing they were walking through with a blood-chilling howl and lept straight at Teddy. Thankfully, Sam had somehow been more aware of their surroundings than him. Before Sirius accepted that he hadn't fallen asleep and wasn't actually having a bizarre dream, and before Teddy had even registered that anything was happening, Sam had emptied the rest of his gun directly into the charging werewolf. It didn't stop him. The gun would've, at the very least, had to have been loaded with silver bullets to do that. It did however, slow Greyback down enough that Teddy had time to scramble back and the snapping teeth closed around his thigh instead of his neck and for Sirius to finally get his wits back about him. Damn Fenrir Greyback and his bloody-minded vendetta against Remus. And damn him to the deepest pits of Hell for taking it out on Remus's bloody kid. He let loose the growl building deep in his chest and launched himself on top of the werewolf. No one else was dying, he was not losing anyone else, not today. Not Moony's kid. Not Harry's kid. Sirius landed square on Greyback's back, and sunk his teeth deep into the back of the murderous arse's neck. All Sirius could hear was Teddy screaming and all he could smell was blood. He bit down harder, aware somewhere in the back of his mind that he was snarling like a wild animal.Greyback roared, and the next thing Sirius knew, he was slamming hard into the trunk of a tree at the far side of the clearing with three stinging gashes running down his side. He'd definitely felt some of his ribs crack but he didn't think that the cuts were too bad, so as soon as his ears stopped ringing he was up and leaping back at the minger mauling Teddy. Sam, though he was moving slower than Sirius thought he would normally be capable of, had retrieved his knife and was currently slashing it at every part of Greyback he could reach. Seeing that, Sirius decided to change tactics: This time, he went for the throat. Greyback's jaws were still clamped on Teddy's leg like he was some kind of pit bull, and Teddy was still screaming, but there were already gouges on Greyback's muzzle where Teddy had grown claws and fought back. The gouges were bleeding, heavily, and Sirius allowed himself a moment of burning pride for this kid.
Your sprog's fierce, Moony, Dora. You'd've been damn proud.
Barking furiously, Sirius lunged for the monster's throat teeth closing around it just as Sam's knife found itself lodged itself deep in the monster's shoulder. Greyback howled in pain, rearing back and releasing Teddy's leg. Teddy scrambled back to get out of the way and put pressure on his bleeding thigh, but not before clocking his attacker a good one, right on the nose.
So. Damn. Proud.
Sam yanked his knife to the side, then out, cleaving a wound long and deep enough that Sirius was almost sure it would leave a nasty scar, then jumped out of the way. Greyback overbalanced and went own hard, Sirius on top with his teeth still lodged in his throat. Blood was flooding into his mouth thick, hot, coppery and completely disgusting. Gagging, he released Greyback's throat and went for his shoulder instead. Greyback made to claw him off, so Sirius jumped away, and growled, low and menacing. He could smell his own rage rolling off of his fur, and he made sure that every single one of his blood covered teeth were bared.Sirius knew that Fenrir Greyback was, among other things, a sniveling coward, and he'd been heavily injured. He was bleeding heavily from his neck, face, back, chest, shoulder and side, and Sirius could smell the noxious scent of his fear. He stopped growling to bark viciously, once, twice. Once more, and that was it. Fenrir Greyback, the most feared werewolf in the Wizarding World, turned tail and ran. Sirius, ears pricked so that he'd be warned should the bastard try to come back, turned and limped over to where Teddy was slumped on the ground. Sam was already with him and, between the two of them, they'd already managed to more or less successfully bind up Teddy's thigh with the bottom half of his mangled jeans. Sirius sniffed worriedly at Sam, but the giant had somehow managed to come through the attack no more damaged than he'd already been at the start of it. He turned his attention back to Teddy, and licked a little at his face. It was salty and wet, and Sirius had to fight the urge to turn around, hunt down Greyback, and rip his fucking throat out. He'd made Moony's kid cry. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option just then. Besides, Teddy's well being was far more important. Instead, he gently licked the rest of the blood and tears from Teddy's face and thanked Merlin that Greyback hadn't managed to bite into Teddy's femoral artery. That done, he eased himself down onto his uninjured side and started licking at his own werewolf-induced wounds. Ugh. At this rate, he'd be tasting blood for days. He hated the taste of blood. A hand rested lightly on his back, and he tensed, but it was just Teddy who froze the instant he did. "Is-is this ok?" he asked hesitantly.Sirius yipped once, then went back to his cleaning. Kid was as sharp as a hippogriff, that was for sure. Sirius vaguely wondered what House the he'd been sorted into. Teddy's hand moved on Sirius's back, stroking lightly (carefully avoiding his wounds), and oh. That felt wonderful. Sirius had always been tactile, something that only became more prominent when he was Padfoot. In his school days and the precious few years after before That Halloween, he'd rarely gone a day (bar in the summers he'd still been living with his family) without having draped himself over one or more of his friends, as a dog or a human, often for a nap or just to have his hair petted. If he was honest with himself, and he did try to be these days, his childhood had probably resulted in him being rather touch starved, something in which all of his friends, including Lily, had indulged him. Azkaban had exacerbated the touch starvation to the point of it being painful. While he'd been stuck at Grimmauld Place he'd spent as much time as he physically could curled up next to Remus and Dora (the only two members of the Order he'd really been comfortable enough around to be that close to, though the Weasly twins hadn't been that bad, just easily distracted, and Professor McGonagall and Madeye had been known to give him a few pats while he was a dog every once in a while.) The point was, Sirius was very tactile and, with the exception of a kind Muggle here and there over the years, no one had touched him at all except to shoo him away for about two decades. What was happening now? It was glorious. He sighed happily and let his head fall to the grass and then, wonder of all wonders, another hand came over and started to scratch him behind the ears. That had to be Sam, the hand was far too big to be Teddy's. Rather against his will, he could feel his tail starting to wag in the grass.And, oops, Teddy was saying something to him. "...to thank you Snuffles. Greyback would've torn me to shreds if it hadn't been for you charging him like you did."And he was still talking to him like he was a person and not just some dog.
Moony, Dora? Your kid is fucking amazing.
"And...If you're actually Sirius Black and I'm not just imagining things, I've got no idea how you're alive or where you've been or why you've not changed back but...if you'd like, I could tell you some of the stories I've heard about my Dad from when he was teaching at Hogwarts."Dora and Remus, I really hope you're up there watching this, because your sprog? He's brilliant.One bark and an enthusiastic tail wag. But... they couldn't do it just then. They had to keep moving, injuries and all because if Greyback had been able to find them, who else could? They needed to get to safety. Sirius reluctantly levered himself to his feet and nudged at Teddy's shoulder with his nose. He hated, hated that the kid would have to walk on that leg, but they really couldn't stay here. They were getting close, he could tell, and once they got to the Manor, they'd at least have some supplies to treat the wounds and a place to sleep, maybe even food. They needed all of those things, badly. So, he nudged, nosed, poked, and prodded at the boys until they were both up and (more or less) on their feet, Teddy leaning heavily on Sam's good shoulder. It would be slow going and painful for all three of them, but Sirius knew they'd make it. These boys were survivors, and Sirius was damned if he was going to give up getting back to Harry now. Once they were safe and healed (at least somewhat) they'd figure out how they were getting back to their people. Yeah, Sirius thought to himself as Teddy launched into the timeless story of Remus, Neville Longbottom and the Snape-boggart, we're going to be just fine.
Mar. 3, 2016
Vic was pacing a groove in the Common room floor (again, she'd been doing this on and off since they'd gotten back). Al was huddled up with Rose and his new friend Scorpius, Dom and Louis were watching Vic with no small amount of concern, Fred and Roxie had gone to raid the kitchen for some comfort food, and James Sirius Potter sat on the bright red sofa with his knees tucked into his chest and tried desperately not to scream. They'd all been sent back to Hogwarts not long after Dad and Uncle Ron'd left and when Vic and Gran Andy had been able to let go of each other. Upon returning, Uncle Neville had hugged them all and told them to come to him if they needed anything before leaving them in the common room with their cousins and friends. Now, Jamie had absolutely nothing to do and it was driving him batty. He knew, he knew that that his Dad and Uncle Ron were the best. He knew that they had a good lead, and he damn well bloody knew that Teddy was more than capable of taking care of himself. Precisely none of that knowledge was in any way helping him just then. Jamie had never had even the slightest interest in becoming an Auror (he, Freddy and Roxie had all long since decided that they were going to work for the twin's Dad in Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.) Right then? Well, right then he'd have given anything to be working under his Dad to find his god-brother, to be doing something, anything to help bring Teddy home where he belonged. And it wasn't even like something like this had never happened before. Dad and Uncle Ron had both gone missing in the line of duty, more than once. They'd always come through. But...well...that was Dad and Uncle Ron, who had, with Aunt Hermione, gone up against Voldemort himself at least once a year nearly every year they'd been in school and who had survived loads and loads of other mad, dangerous stuff besides. And of course he was always worried and scared that that they might not be coming back that time regardless, but...This wasn't them. This was Teddy, who'd fixed up loads of Jamie's scraped knees and nearly botched pranks, Teddy who'd helped teach Jamie the difference between funny pranks and cruel ones. Teddy who hadn't hexed that berk McLaggen, even when he'd spent months mouthing of about his dad. Teddy, who even though he'd gone off and become an Auror like Jamie's Dad and his mum hated to hurt anyone. Teddy, the most Hufflepuffish Gryffindor who'd ever lived, who was Jamie's big brother genetics be damned and who'd never gone missing before, had been abducted, and James was more terrified than he'd ever been in his life. Suddenly, he couldn't bear to sit there in the Common Room and watch Vic's incessant pacing (and Merlin, she must be nearly as scared as he was) and Al talking with Rosie and Scorp (who James had taken a liking to despite himself; kid was bloody brilliant and mad as a hatter), and he wasn't hungry so much as nauseous. So, he did what he always did when he was stuck on anything. "Al, let me borrow the Map, I want to talk to Them."Al surfaced from his huddle and eyed him warily, but produced the Map from where it was hidden inside his robes and held it out carefully. "Just talking, Jamie. Remember the Rule."(The Rule being the First Rule of Fun Pranking: Never pull a prank when you're angry, scared, or otherwise upset, because that's how the cruel ones are born.)James swallowed. "Yeah. I'm not going to do anything, I just want to ask them something."Al stood up and handed him the map, hesitated, then flung his arms around him and clung. Jamie started in surprise, but hugged his little brother back fiercely, squeezing him just as hard."He'll be fine, Jamie," Al whispered in his ear, "He'll be fine, and he'll c-come, b-back."Jamie, eyes prickling in response to the hitching in Al's voice, clutched him tighter. "Yeah. Yeah he will, and then he'll laugh at us for being so bloody worried about him."Al gave a wet laugh. "No he won't.""No he won't," James agreed, because it was true. Teddy was far too nice to do that. "He'll all of hug us and apologize for scaring us so bad and let Mum, Dad, his Gran, and our Gran cry all over him and then he'll go and be gross with Vic for ages.""Yeah."Al pulled back from Jamie and wiped furiously at his eyes, sniffing hard. "Tell me if they've got any new stories?""'Course."Al went back to Rose and Scorp who both wrapped themselves around him, and Jamie (discreetly wiping his own eyes) escaped up to his dorm room to talk to the teenage versions of his namesakes, Teddy's dad, and the Rat. He sat down on the foot of his bed and stared at the battered bit of parchment until his eyes weren't so wet anymore and the Map came into focus. Then, he got out his wand and gently tapped the parchment. "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good and I need the advice of my predecessors."His voice only wavered a little, and he let out a sniffle of his own as the comfortingly familiar loopy writing scrawled itself across the previously blank surface.
Messers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs bid the Prongslet a chaotic day, and ask him what mischief he's up to that he needs to call upon the wisdom of those who came before him?
Ten minutes later, and after a quick 'Mischief Managed' Jamie came down to snag some of the scones Fred and Roxie had brought back with them and ran out of the Tower. He had an idea. If this worked, he might just be able to help find Teddy after all.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mar. 11, 2016
Mary was on edge and it was glaringly obvious that Dean and, to a lesser extent (which she suspected was due to an inherent patience and calm that neither she nor her oldest son possessed) Cas were too. The three of them had been combing the area that they'd dertermined to be the place that the people who'd abducted Sam had taken him to for hours and coming up with absolutely nothing. Dean was getting snappy, lashing out at both herself and Castiel (though, to Dean's credit, he did always look extraordinarily like a kicked puppy once he realized what he was doing.)Castiel was being extraordinarily patient with him (Mary was getting the impression that Dean was like this whenever he was worried about Sam and that the angel was just used to it) but Mary was getting dangerously close to snapping right back (for all that she wasn't actually angry with him,) which wouldn't help anything. Thus, when she stumbled upon a chain-length fence that most definitely not supposed to be there (she and the others had poured over every single map and bit of information of they'd been able to find on that section of the Peak District, and by all accounts no part of this property had been developed in any way), she was relieved because of that as well as because it meant that she'd found something that might point to Sam."Boys!" she called to Dean and Cas (they'd all split up to cover more ground an hour ago), "Over here! I found something!"She turned back to inspect the fence but looked up when she heard someone run up behind her. It was Dean, who'd apparently sprinted from wherever he'd been. Castiel was nowhere to be seen."Hey, where's," she started to ask him, but she was interrupted by a shout coming from the woods to her right."Mary! Dean! I found a fence over here! It has a hole ripped through it!"Dean immediately took off at a run towards Cas's voice and Mary hurried after him. She might have found the edge of the place they were keeping Sam but, from the sound of it, Cas had found the way in, which definitely came out on top in terms of usefulness. Mary was only a half-step behind Dean when they reached Cas, who stepped a little to the side to give them a better look at the gaping hole that had been torn through the fence. It was definitely large enough that even Dean should be able to squeeze through without too much trouble and, inexplicably, it looked like it had been ripped open with someone's bare hands.
What the hell?
They all took a moment to stare at it suspiciously but then Dean just shrugged and climbed through. Cas threw an exasperated look at Dean's back, but followed behind. While they were both being rather reckless, neither of the boys had sprung any traps, so Mary shrugged to herself and followed them into the woods on the other side of the fence. Dean was clearly analyzing his surroundings, but he still charged through the trees full steam ahead like he didn't care if there were any traps or not.He probably doesn't, Mary realized, as long as he finds Sam.After that, she realized what Cas was doing and joined him in taking in every detail to try and keep any of them from falling into anything. There were tripwires here and there, but evidently Dean was paying more attention that she's initially thought, because he stepped over all of them without so much as a pause. The trees began to gradually thin out, and Dean started to accelerate his pace. By the time they reached the edge of the treeline, he was all but sprinting and Mary was left cursing her shorter legs as she had to run to keep up.The only thing that stopped Mary from running straight into Dean's back, like she had at the bunker, when he stopped dead just after stepping into the clear area beyond the treeline was Castiel's hand on her shoulder. She smiled at him gratefully, nodded, and stepped around from behind her son to get a look at whatever it was that had him stopping so suddenly."Oh my God."An enormous swathe of trees had been cut away, in a place she knew damn well it wasn't supposed to be. A huge building dominated the clearing, jutting up from the ground for three stories and spanning nearly the entire space. The rest of it was taken up by a small gravel road that Mary could just barely make out behind the building that disappeared into the trees on the other side of the clearing and a huge strip of concrete that didn't seem to lead anywhere. They'd found their illicit landing strip. This was where that blonde bitch had taken her baby. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Dean squaring his shoulders."Okay," he said quietly, not looking at either Mary or Cas but scanning the compound, "We go around, see if that road across over there leads so some kinda garage or something. If it does, we go in that way, if it doesn't, we find something else.""We goin' in guns blazing?" Mary asked, wanting to be sure on exactly what the plan was once they actually got into the compound."If we can catch someone alone, we may be able to make them tell us where Sam is without alerting the entire compound to our presence," Castiel suggested.Dean nodded shortly in his direction."Yeah, let's go with that. If it doesn't work, we go quick, we go hard. Sammy's probably told them I'm dead, so they won't be expecting me, much less you, mom."For a cobbled together on the fly plan, it wasn't as bad as some of the others she'd taken part in back in her hunting days. It wasn't great to be sure but she'd most definitely worked with worse, and Cas and Dean had so far proven themselves to be very capable hunters. They could get this done."We've got the element of surprise, and we should use it while we still can."Dean nodded at her, smile lost, and and Mary suddenly got the distinct feeling that her oldest son was very good at what he did, particularly when his brother being in trouble blended with hunting like it was now. Very, very good. Dean stalked back into the trees. Castiel was right on his heels, face equally focused. Mary followed them, letting herself sink deep into the hunting calm. They had a job to do.Mary had one gun in the waistband of her jeans, another tucked into the inside pocket of her jacket. She drew the gun at her waist, holding it in front of her and shifted her feet while she was walking to check the position of her boot knives. All good. One of Dean's guns had found its way into his hand; Mary had seen him pack at least two more, but she didn't know where he'd put them and while Cas did have a gun on him, he wasn't holding it. Instead, Mary could see a telltale silvery glint of some kind of highly polished metal told her that he had some kind of knife up the sleeve of his trenchcoat. It seemed like an odd first choice of weapon, but Mary figured she could ask him about it later. Now was not the time.It didn't take them long to circle back around to the back of the compound and to the road. It did, in fact, lead up to the massive door to the huge garage that protruded from the back of the building (these people clearly weren't winning any awards for attractive architecture) nearly all the way to the tree line. The door was just slightly open. Bingo. Castiel went first, lying flat and sliding through the gap. Mary went through next, then turned around to help Dean up as he came through. Then she noticed something weird."Dean, take a look at that."Dean followed her gaze, and joined her frowning in confusion at the two dents at the bottom of the garage door."Do you think those look like-?""Hand prints, yeah. This just gets weirder and weirder," Dean muttered."No kidding.""This certainly doesn't seem...normal." That was Cas, from behind them."Yeah, no-wait, what the hell?"Mary turned around to see what they were talking about, since apparently it was something other than the bizarre dents in the door, and stared. There was a truly ridiculous amount of various vehicles in the garage but that wasn't (she was pretty sure) what Cas was referring to. Rather, she thought that it was the fact that every single one of the tires on every single one of the vehicles seemed to have been, of all things, clawed beyond repair. Exchanging a glance with the boys, she crept forward to take a closer look. Well, maybe not all of them had been clawed, but most of them had been, and where they weren't they'd been slashed with a knife."Seriously, what the hell?""Someone really didn't want these guys goin' anywhere anytime soon," Dean said from where he was inspecting one of the more viciously clawed tires."Mary? Dean? I found a way into the main building."Cas again, from the far side of the garage. Mary stood back up, exchanged another glance with Dean, then followed Cas's voice to the source. He was standing at the other end of the garage, frowning at an open doorway, and it was truly a testament to how preoccupied Mary was with the tires (she could see at least one over here that had been shot) and the dents in the garage door that she didn't immediately realize why until Dean burst out with,"Okay, seriously, what the hell is going on here?"Mary blinked. The door had been knocked clean off its hinges. It was lying on the floor a few feet from the doorway beside an overturned metal table. Around it, an assortment of tools (she assumed that they had been on the table) were scattered around all over."It almost looks like someone's...broken out of here."Dean swung around to stare at her for a moment before he bit his lip and nodded, once. She knew they were thinking the same thing. Someone? Maybe, but it sort of seemed more like..."Or something," Castiel said darkly, glaring at the thoroughly destroyed tired of the nearest Land Rover. (There were four in total.)Dean grimaced."Yeah. Or something. Let's keep moving, but stay on guard and remember: we are trying for some stealth here but if that fails, we start kicking ass and taking names until we find Sammy, got it?"Without bothering to wait for any kind of reply, Dead readjusted his grip on his gun, and stepped through the ruined doorway, Cas on his heels. Mary caught another glint of silver as a long, wicked looking knife dropped into his waiting hand. She sighed, knowing the look that had come into their eyes all too well: it was a hunter's look, the one that meant blood. She was sure that others had seen it in her eyes more than once.
Here we go.
Mary let the hunting calm that the confusion over the tires had dispelled come over her again, retrieved her gun back out of her waistband, and followed the boys down the hall. Nobody. She watched the boys' backs as they charged down hallway after hallway, room after room. Nothing. No one in sight, and they hadn't so much as heard a single sign of life.
What the hell?
There had been plenty of rooms that people had clearly been in recently and they kept finding bullet holes in the walls, but other than that? Nothing. Finally, after nearly an hour of fruitless searching (all on the same floor; the place was a maze and bigger on the inside than it had seemed), Mary had to say something. This wasn't getting them anywhere fast."Boys this isn't working. We're not finding anything or anyone, much less Sam. I think we need to reevaluate our plan and figure out what the hell happened here, alright? It's a big compound, so there has to be something here that can help us find Sam, even if they moved him. It's not like they were particularly careful about covering their tracks last time."For a long moment, Dean just looked at her. His eyes had turned into rings of green fire, and his face was all but blank, save for the muscle jumping in his jaw. He looked, quite frankly, like one of the most dangerous men Mary had ever seen in her life, the kind of hunter she avoided working with if at all possible and she, to her consternation, found herself fighting the urge to back away slowly from her own son. And then she saw the way that Cas was reacting to him. The angel was standing just to the side of Dean's right shoulder, unearthly blue eyes fixed on his face and the fingers of the hand not holding his knife were twitching in little aborted movements towards Dean's arm.And the look in Cas's eyes...There was no fear there, not of Dean. Just so much soft concern, and so much love that it took Mary's breath away. He wasn't reaching out in case he had to restrain Dean, or course he wasn't, he was just barely holding himself back from a comforting gesture that he wasn't sure would be welcomed.Mary, seeing all of that in just a few seconds and well on her way to kicking herself, turned her focus back to her son. There was rage there, written in every line of his body alongside a barely contained violence that seemed to be waiting to erupt: he was a hunter after all, through and through (and she'd never wanted this for her boys goddammit John, not for them.) But as Mary looked at her oldest son's burning eyes and clenched jaw, she saw underneath all of that terrible rage and scarcely checked death and saw a bone-wrenching terror that in anyone else, anyone who hadn't been in the Life for years (too long, he'd been doing this for too long) would've had them shaking so hard they couldn't see straight. Dean's body was held completely still.Mary knew that fear, of course she did. She'd felt it on more hunts than she cared to count, and she was terrified here and now as well (her baby was missing, her little Sam who smiled more than he cried, of course she was scared) maybe more than she'd ever been. But...this was something different, something both old and new that had been there for far too long. Mary had no idea what to do with this.Dean just missed you...Castiel's words from the plane echoed in her mind, You have a place with them, Mary Winchester.Mary took just another beat to look at Dean, to take in his rage and his fear. Then she did something that went against every hunter's instinct ingrained in her from the time she could read a lore book, but called to her mothers' down to her very bones. Her gun went back into her jeans and she reached out and pulled Dean in for a crushing hug. He leaned down to accommodate her but he stayed as rigid as the metal of the gun she could feel through his jacket. This wasn't quite working. She needed something more."Dean..."she trailed off, not sure what she meant to say, but then she realized...What the hell? She was a mother, she was Dean's mother, and she was going to damn well be his goddamn mom, "Baby, listen, I know you're scared, I'm terrified. But we're going to find your brother, okay? We will, just like we're going to find that blonde bitch and whoever else she's working with and we're going to kick their collective asses and we're gonna bring our Sammy home, you hear me? And he's gonna be just fine, even if he isn't right now or when we find him, 'cause he's got you, and me and Cas, and we're gonna take care of him and make sure he's fine. And baby? You're gonna be okay too."Mary could feel the shudder than ran through Dean's body as he finally relaxed against her, buried his head in her shoulder, and wrapped his arms around her so tightly that she could feel her ribs creaking, before easing his grip just enough so she could breathe.Mary felt the telltale prickle of tears coming into her eyes, and Oh, God. This-This was the first time she'd hugged either of her sons since she'd come back. They'd been so caught up with tracking down Sam that...Jesus Christ, the closest they'd come before now had been Dean slinging an arm around her shoulders back at the bunker. How-How had she-?Mary blinked against the encroaching tears and squeezed Dean just a little bit tighter. That was when she noticed Cas still standing off to the side looking distinctly awkward. He met her eyes briefly, looked down and away, and Mary gave an internal huff. Well, that just wouldn't do. From what she'd seen, he was clearly a member of the family, and she'd seen how much he'd wanted to comfort Dean. It was hardly fair to leave him hovering on the outskirts.There was only one thing for it: Mary stopped rubbing up and down Dean's back soothingly just long enough to reel the angel into the hug. He came hesitantly but willing enough, slipping an arm carefully around both of them one he was close enough. Dean made a small noise in the back of his throat and tilted his head just enough so that it rested at the hollow of Cas's throat while still nestled against Mary's shoulder. There. That was much better.If it had been up to Mary, she probably would've stayed there with her boys (because Cas was hers too, now) for at least another hour, but Dean sighed, sniffed once, then pulled back. Mary reluctantly let him go (deciding that she wouldn't mention the little wet spot now on her shirt if he didn't), though Cas (looking somewhat terrified) left his arm looped around Dean'd waist. Dean leaned into him for a moment then pulled away, but not before giving his (boyfriend? lover? had they even-nope, not going there) Cas a swift kiss on the mouth. Looking mildly embarrassed, Dean patted Cas on the shoulder and turned to her."Thanks Mom," he mumbled, feet shuffling like a gradeschooler's before he straightened up and squared his shoulders. That hunter's look was back, but he didn't seem nearly so on edge, so Mary counted it as a win."You're right, Mary, we need another plan," Cas said. He turned to Dean. "What about security footage? There are cameras everywhere, we should be able to find somewhere we can access them, right?"Dean nodded at him, a small smile (that Mary was perhaps disproportionately glad to see) tugging at his lips before it disappeared."There's gotta be a control room or security or something somewhere in the building that we can access the feeds from. That's what we're looking for now."With that, Dean turned on his heel and stalked back down the hall, gun at the ready. Cas gave Mary a shrug and followed down the hall after him. Mary gave a shrug of her own (to herself) pulled her gun back out, and followed the boys.Dean was moving fast, casing rooms at a glance and muttering something to himself about jackasses who didn't label anything. Mary forced down a chuckle, biting at her lip. He did have a point.Eventually, they happened upon an elevator (Mary really didn't know how that many twists and turns fit onto one floor) and all piled inside. Dean inspected the buttons, thinking out loud."How many damn sub levels does one lair need? Let's see...we could try-Aha!"The exclamation was shouted loudly enough to make Mary jump, and she gave her son a reproachful look that he was too busy with whatever it was he had found to see it."What did you find?" asked Cas, apparently unaffected by the volume."Floor listings, they've got 'em all behind this panel. Now...we're on the ground level which is the garage and one of the research floor. I wonder what kind of-Never mind," Dean cut off his own thought as he looked further down the list. "Okay, they've got three floors of holding cells, just. Why? Why could they possibly need that many? And...Hah! Yahtzee! Here we go, Administration and security, floor three. That's where we'll find the security feeds."He turned back to Cas and Mary with a wild grin that she couldn't help answering."We're back in business baby!"He reached for the button, then hesitated, suddenly looking uncertain."You guys think we should go for the cameras first or straight for the holding cells?"Cas didn't say anything, just shrugged, deferring to Dean. Mary thought about it for a moment."You said that there were three floors, just for holding cells, right Dean?" she asked him."Yeah.""Well, with the way this place is laid out, we could spend all day wandering those floors trying to find Sam. If we look on the security cameras first, then we'll be able to see exactly where he is and go straight there."The grin was back."My thoughts exactly."Hesitation gone as if it had never been there in the first place, Dean pressed the button for the third floor. Slightly startled by the sudden turnaround in mood, Mary got the distinct impression that she's just passed some kind of test but before she could ask about it, Dean suddenly snarled, punched the wall of the elevator and let loose with a string of truly blistering expletives."What, what is it?" Mary asked in alarm, sharing a confused look with Cas.Dean just made an inarticulate sound of rage as he gestured wildly at the elevator button that had lit up as soon as he'd pressed it. Castiel inhaled sharply and muttered a curse under his breath. (At least, she was pretty sure it was a curse; she didn't recognize the language.)Completely baffled, Mary looked to Cas for clarity and found him glaring in angry bewilderment at the glowing button. Looking closer, Mary could see that that glow was coming from some kind of illuminated symbol that hadn't been previously visible. Something niggled at the back of her mind. She'd seen that before, recently too, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it...Castiel, glancing over, seemed to realize her confusion and took pity on her as Dean continued to rage under his breath."It's the symbol of the Men of Letters, it's everywhere in the Bunker. I suppose its presence here explains how Antonia Bevell was able to find the Bunker and get in but...I don't understand how it's here, I thought that the whole organization had been wiped out in the fifties. What is their symbol doing here?"That last question had been aimed at Dean, who stopped muttering curses to himself and ran a frustrated hand over his head."I dunno, Cas, maybe it was just the American branch that was wiped out by Abbadon, but that doesn't explain why the Bunker doesn't have anything on any international branches, or what they want with Sam and why they shot-"Dean was cut off by the damnably cheerful ding! the elevator as it came to a stop and the door opened. There the symbol was again, huge and etched into the marble of the opposite wall. Dean actually growled at it."I don't know." he repeated, "but I'm damn well about to find out."He stalked on down the corridor, Mary and Cas dogging his heels. This floor, thank God, seemed to be much more organized than the ground floor so they navigated with relative ease until Dean stopped short and held up one closed fist."What is it?" Mary asked him.Silently, Dean out a finger to his lips. Mary fell quiet and listened. A beat, and then Mary heard it: voices. They were coming from, by her estimation, about two doors down. Dean started to move again, creeping slowly, crouched close to the wall, not making a sound. Cas went next, and then Mary followed suit, and the voices gradually got louder, though Mary still couldn't make out anything that was being said.There was a small window in the door, and Dean and Cas carefully sidled over (keeping low to the ground), then reached up until they could see through. They stayed there for only a few moments, then came back down, looking more confused than ever."Dean," Cas whispered, urgently, but also like he couldn't quite believe what he was saying, "That man, the one with the glasses and the untidy hair. He-He has a scar that looks like-""A lightning bolt," Dean finished, nodding,"I know, baby, I saw it too."Cas looked briefly as though he'd been slapped upside the head, but when Dean didn't seem to realize what he'd just said (oh, her poor, apparently oblivious, son) he shook himself and entered back into the conversation."But Dean, his appearance and that scar-he looks like that-""Yeah, you're right, he does.""But...Dean that's impossible, he's not-""Yeah, I know, but remember us telling you about that whole thing with Dorothy and Charlie? It's not like this would be the first time we've some across something like this, and...well, we've seen weirder."Cas shrugged, nodding his acquiescence to Dean's point."True enough."Mary was so lost."What the hell are you two talking about?" she hissed at her boys.Dean exchanged a look with Cas."Sorry Mom, wasn't a thing until the late '90's, I'll try to explain it later if we have time. C'mon."The boys made room and Mary shuffled over and craned her neck up to look through the little window. There were seven people in the room, but only three of them (all men) seemed to be conscious, and one of them was tied to a swivel chair. The other two men (one shortish and bespectacled with messy black hair and the strange scar Dean and Cas had been talking about, the other tall and thin with a shock of bright red hair and more freckles than she'd ever be able to count, both in their mid-thirties) were looming over the third (dark hair, black or brown, recently broken nose, about the age of the other two give or take a few years) and appeared to be interrogating him.Behind the odd trio was a huge desk that housed several computer monitors, all showing something she couldn't quite see, though she could tell they were all different.The security feeds.She was shaken out of her analysis of the room when she realized that she could now make out the men were saying. It was the man tied to the swivel chair at the moment."...must really care about that ridiculous-haired freak of nature for you to have gone to all of-ARGH!He'd been cut off by the scarred man rearing back and punching him so hard in the face that he went spinning around in the swivel chair. Mary winced. That his had probably re-broken the guy's nose. The tall redhead, who was glaring nearly as much as the dark haired man, watched for a moment, then reached out and stopped the spinning. The other man resumed looming."You're right. I do care about that young man quite a lot, so I'm sure you'll understand that the more times you make me ask this, the more pissed off I'm going to get. With taht in mind, I suggest that you answer me this time, without the snide remarks. Where. Is. My. Godson?"Mary exchanged a look with her boys. Dean nodded and straightened up. Mary and Cas followed suit and Dean reached for the doorknob. He looked back at them and they both nodded. Time to get some answers. Dean opened the door.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mar. 11, 2016
In the end, Ron and Harry went by themselves to get Teddy. With five days of every remotely available Auror working around the clock to find the kid, a truly astonishing backlog of undone work had piled up. So, in the interest of not spawning a semi-permanent bureaucratic nightmare in the Department, Harry had dismissed everybody else to do what they needed to do. Some of them had protested, but not for long. After all, there wasn't a body among them who didn't harbor a deep and abiding hatred of paperwork, something that seemed to multiply with every minute spent doing something else, so it was really better for them and general department morale (and sanity) for them to stay behind, no matter how much most of them wanted Teddy back.(Teddy, the freak, didn't actually mind paperwork very much, something that many people had assured more or less every member of the family that he'd gotten from his father. Tonks, apparently, had been in the habit of sending her paperwork to Romania to be incinerated by Charlie's dragons whenever it got to be too much for her. Ron, who was often tempted to do the same, didn't blame her in the slightest.)Besides, everyone knew that Aurors Potter and Weasley worked best together, without the help of anyone else (except in the case of departmental cooperation with the legal side of the DMLE, in the instance of which, Hermione Granger could be added to the duo to make a truly terrifying trio of justice [Ron had, in point of fact, heard them referred to as just that by some junior members of both departments, and had taken nearly two full minutes before he could stop laughing]), and were therefore best qualified to finding and bringing home their errant metamorphmagus.Ron was actually glad for it, despite it meaning that a lack of backup was immediately available to them. Both he and Harry were on edge and worried sick, but Ron hadn't seen Harry quite like this since Sirius had died and his best friend had gone chasing after Bellatrix Lestrange with every intention of killing her. Better that it was only the two of them: If Harry lost control, Ron would much rather that it was only him there to see it and/or bury any bodies of the people who'd hurt Teddy. Hermione would be needed to defend them in court in the event that they were caught out and so was far better off where she was.(And yes, he did know that maybe those weren't the best thoughts to be having as a man sworn to uphold the law, nor were they particularly healthy, at that. He didn't really care: Harry was his best mate, first and foremost, and Teddy was his family too. If getting him home safe required dropping the bodies of some evil arseholes, then so be it. Ron certainly wasn't going to stop Harry from doing it. He might even help.)He was equally, if not more so, thankful for the fact that the information that Dennis had obtained had panned out neatly: That a stretch of privately owned land in the Peak District that had been in the same family for over two hundred years, and that, for some reason, the Muggle government had next to no information on it, not even Satellite imaging. Satellite Imaging was something apparently important but Ron had absolutely no idea what it was.(He had gotten much better with all of the Muggle stuff over the years, really, but he was still a Pureblood wizard and his muggleborn and halfblood friends could only give him so much information at a time. He'd have to ask 'Mione about that Satellite thing later.)A simple navigation spell had gotten them to the compound (which, seriously? A secret lair in the middle of the woods? Great Merlin, did these Muggles have no class?) which, for its size, had been shockingly empty. Starting from the top (they'd flown in, not wanting to risk being heard Apperating), they'd made their way through the populated floors quickly with the help of a quick homenum revelio so they'd know which to skip for now, taking down everyone they saw (not all that many really, only three of the ten floors had anyone in them at all, and none of them had more than five.) Once each floor was cleared, they’d piled all the unconscious muggles (thoroughly tied up) in the room on that floor that was closest to the elevator and magically locked the doors. If they hadn’t found anyone with any kind of authority by the time they were finished clearing the building, they'd come back and question them.The third floor was the last one in the building that had any people in it, and while Ron had no objections to taking down security lackeys, it had been starting to look like they were the only type of people here. Still, there was a bank of computers off in the side of the room they'd just finished clearing (three security people, now hogtied on the floor and out cold) that Harry had told him led to the feeds of the cameras in the building and was trying to figure out how to make work.(Harry, bless him, only had the computer experience that had been necessary for sneaking downstairs to play his cousin's video games when he still lived with the Dursleys. In a lot of ways, he was nearly as clueless of the Muggle world as Ron was.)Harry'd been cursing ineffectually at the unresponsive screen when the last conscious muggle in the building (a man Ron had dubbed That Smarmy Prick in his head, a nickname that continued to prove more and more accurate) had shown up.The man had strutted into the office, still managing to look superior despite the tape across his nose and the black eyes, then stopped dead in his tracks upon noticing Harry and Ron. He gave off such a strong 'Draco Malfoy When They Were All Still At Hogwarts' vibe that it had immediately earned him the aforementioned derogatory nickname. It also meant that when Harry gestured, Ron might have kicked his legs out from under him with a little more force than was strictly necessary.That Smarmy Prick suitably distracted, Harry had inconspicuously conjured up enough rope to tie him to the most uncomfortable-looking of the three swivel chairs that occupied the room. The man really didn't like that."Who in the bleeding hell do you think you-you can't just do this to me, I have rights, you boorish, trespassing brutes! Release me this very instant!"Ron had exchanged a humorless grin with Harry."Nah," he'd said casually, "Don't think we will. See, me and my mate here have some questions for you, you smarmy prick, and you are are going to answer every single one both quickly and accurately."The man had looked extremely affronted."I have a name you uncultured plebeian, it's Arthur Ketch if you must call my anything at all, and I have not a thing to say to the likes of yeeeou! "The last word had come out a strangled squeak that was a direct result of Harry's suddenly looming over Ketch, his hands planting firmly on the arm rests and forcing him back in the swivel chair."At some time in the past few weeks, you and/or some of your associates were tasked with investigating deaths caused by some kind of 'inhuman creatures' that your lot have been hunting for decades if not longer in Sheffield, is that correct?"Harry put just a bit more weight on his arms and Ron grabbed the back of the chair before it could roll away and knock Harry off balance. Ketch spluttered."Inhu-inhuman cr-creatures? Of all the, the preposterous accusations-I've absolutely no-""Don't even try," Ron advised him. "You're a bloody awful liar, just answer the damned question."Ketch let out a breath through his nose, hard, and immediately looked like he'd regretted it. Ron had no sympathy for his, from the looks of it, very sore nose. He had the distinct impression that That Smarmy Prick had brought it on himself."Fi-fine. Yes my organization and I have long since been involved in protecting the ignorant from the monsters that prowl the night, but I entirely fail to see how that should lead to this, this mistreatment ! Really, you should be thanking me, not breaking in and tying me to a chair; I really must insist that the pair of you—""Shut. Up." Harry glowered at him. "You are in no position to be insisting upon anything from us, so unless you happen to be answering my questions, so keep your slimy little mouth shut, got it?"Ron honestly couldn't blame Ketch for the squeak that the man let out this time, or for the scared little gulp that followed directly after. Harry could be bloody terrifying when he wanted to be (or when he was particularly angry, right then it was both.) A tiny nod came after the little gulp. Harry leaned back just slightly and bared his teeth at him in what the uneducated might have called a smile."Excellent. Now, were you involved in this particular 'protection' mission?" Harry asked, tone perfectly amiable, and really, if not for the really rather ferocious body language and expression that his best friend was exhibiting, he could have been asking That Smarmy Prick how he took his tea.Apparently, Ketch had recovered rapidly from his fright, as he scoffed before he spoke."I don't participate in field work ," he drawled with more than a little derision (really, the man's resemblance to an adolescent Draco Malfoy was becoming more pronounced by the minute). "I am the head of the esteemed research department of the Men of Letters, they hardly send me out to go shoot at things."A chill ran down Ron's spine. With Ketch's attitude, he very much doubted that 'research division' meant anything good at all."The Men of Letters, that'd be your organization, then?"Ketch's eyes widened and his mouth snapped very firmly shut. Huh. Apparently he hadn't meant to let that particular tidbit slip if they hadn't already known. Still, it was quickly becoming clear that the man had an overdeveloped sense of pride that was all too easy to exploit. Harry leaned back in."Do you need me to repeat my question, or do you think you've got it?" he sneered, apparently also channeling adolescent Malfoy.Ketch looked rather unnerved at being addressed in the way that he'd been talking to them and pressed himself back against the chair as far as he could go before answering."I-yes, of course I remember the question, but I really don't see what you want with that information, and it's not as though it would be of any use to you anyway, you can't prove...whatever it is you're trying to prove, without records and the only place that there are any is—"He cut himself off this time, scowling furiously and paling. Wow. This man had clearly never gotten anything in the way of interrogation training."I think that those records he's talking about are somewhere in this building, mate," Ron told Harry, grinning slightly despite himself. This was just too easy.Harry grinned back, apparently realizing the same thing."I think you're right. We'll look into that later, see if we can't make some use of it. For now"—he turned back to Ketch to glare at him—”What kind of research were you involved in, exactly?"Ketch let out a derisive chuckle that, like most of the rest of what came out of the man's mouth, grated on Ron's nerves, and sneered up at them."As if you'd be able to wrap your tiny, barbaric, little minds around such— OW!" He glared balefully up at Ron who glared unrepentantly right back, withdrawing the hand that he'd just used to flick the irritating little man's ear."I suggest that you keep any further rude comments to yourself and answer my friend here before he gets even more pissed off than he already is," he told him.Ketch huffed."It's not as though anyone would believe you even if you happen to believe me, I suppose.”He drew himself up as best he could whilst tied to a swivel chair, again reminding Ron strongly of one Draco Malfoy. (This time it was because the man looked exactly like the little ferret had done whenever he proclaimed that his father would be hearing about something.)"I and my fellow esteemed researchers study the unnatural, the dangerous freaks of nature and otherwise what prowl about preying on the unsuspecting. We learn what makes them tick while they live, work out the best way to kill them, and then we study their remains. Our work enables our hunters to find and eradicate them and our noble mission is to keep at it until we wipe the monsters from— eeeep!" Ketch's (yet another) undignified yelp cut off his words as Harry slammed his hands back on the armrests of the swivel chair and shoved the chair, hard, back into the desk holding all the monitors. Ron (who felt sick to his stomach after that self-righteous bastard's tirade and had been moments from doing something similar himself) stepped neatly to the side to avoid getting sideswiped. Ketch looked terrified."Alright, alright, look, if you're trying to find Winchester, I don't know where he is alright, he took off days ago and—"Harry held up a hand, still looking murderous, and Ketch stopped his babbling with a gulp."Right. I have no bloody clue who Winchester is, he's not the person we're here for. Now, you are going to keep your slimy mouth shut until I am finished telling you exactly what information you're going to give us and then you're going to give it. Is. That. Clear. ”Harry's voice could have been made out of iron and Ron wasn't the least bit surprised when Ketch gave a little gurgle and nodded (though the man had looked slightly mutinous at the 'slimy mouth' comment).Harry nodded and, still angry but satisfied for the moment, leaned back out of Ketch's personal space. Ron pushed the chair back out from the desk, just in case Harry decided that further slamming was needed and went to stand back at his friend's side to glare."Now, as I said before, your organization was involved in one of those 'protection' missions about a week or so ago, correct?""Yes.""Excellent, thank you. I am only going to ask this question nicely, but only once, so are you listening?"A shaky nod. Ron suppressed a shiver. Sometimes, during interrogations like this, when Harry got so unnervingly polite, he couldn't help but wonder if his friend wasn't (at least subconsciously) channeling Dolores Umbridge before she'd decided to go the way of the Cruciatus curse."Brilliant. On that mission we've been chatting about, your people picked up a young man, probably had turquoise hair and amber-ish eyes. With the way your lot picked him up, he might have had grey hair at some point, maybe even abnormally sharp teeth. You are going to tell me where he is."Ketch actually snorted . Ron so dearly wanted to slap that smug little sneer right off the man's face."What the hell do you want that freak for?" he asked incredulously.Harry's eyes went dangerously cold, and Ron could feel his own fingers twitching with the need to hit something, preferably Ketch. Who was still talking. "What did he do, kill your chickens or your cousin or something? You'd really be better off leaving him to us: we are, after all, the exp errrrrts!" The last word broke off into a terrified squeal as Harry decided that he'd had enough and abruptly shoved himself back into Ketch's space, this time grabbing the back of the chair for leverage."I," he snarled, "have been frantically looking for that boy for nearly a week. You are going to tell me where the hell he is right bloody now, and if you don't or if he is in the slightest sense harmed I and my friend here are going to do things to you that you won't like."Ron glared harder, all the better to emphasize Harry's all-too-true point. Then. Ohoho, then the slimy dirtbag began to laugh. "Oh, oh you poor bastard, you're not scared of him, you're scared for him! You must really care about that ridiculously-haired freak of nature for you to go to all of — Aaaargh!" Ron watched with deep satisfaction and vindictive glee as Harry hauled back and punched Ketch in the face so hard that Ron could actually hear the CRACK! of his nose re-breaking and that the chair went spinning. He allowed himself a moment to grin at Harry before reaching out to slam a hand down on the back of the chair to stop the spinning. Harry was looming again.“The more times I have to ask this, the more pissed off I’m going to get, so I suggest you answer me this time. Where. Is. My. Godson?” Ron was fairly sure that Ketch was actually whimpering now. His nose was bleeding heavily, and his eyes were watering. Served him right, but he wasn’t saying anything, which was what they really needed to have happen. Completely exasperated, Ron turned around to ask Harry if he wanted him to provide Ketch with a little incentive and that was when he saw the movement outside the door. “Harry-” Ron batted at his friend’s shoulder and they turned in tandem to face the door and three people burst through and Ketch let out a short scream while trying to backpedal away. Completely nonplussed, Ron, momentarily disregarding the intruders, turned to stare at the man in total confusion.
‘What the hell was that?’
For a few moments, there wasn’t any noise except for Ketch’s heavy breathing. A quick glance around told Ron that Harry was glancing between Ketch and the newcomers, who had also stopped to stare at the man’s bizarre behavior. Ketch looked scared, more scared than he’d been of Harry even, and Ron took a closer look at the intruders and realized that two of them were holding those muggle fire-stick things...Oh, what were they called...Guns! Yes, that was right. Not good. The silence stretched and Ron glanced back over at Harry, debating whether or not he should draw his wand. Then one of the newcomers, a blonde woman on the tall side of average height, snorted out something that sounded suspiciously like a laugh and tucked her gun somewhere behind her. “Well boys, it looks like someone recognizes you two.”The other two newcomers, both men, (one blonde, carrying a gun, tall, the other dark haired, no gun and a trenchcoat) glared at Ketch suspiciously. The big one, the one with the gun, also tucked it away and turned to Ron and Harry, hands raised placatingly. He took a step forward which, for some reason, made Ketch flinch back again with a strangled yelp. The big bloke and the blonde woman both snorted and Trenchcoat frowned at him. At that point, Ron decided that he liked these people on principle. Big Bloke took another careful step, Ketch actually squawked , then shouted, sounding as though he was recovering from being choked:“But-you-you’re supposed to be dead!” Hmm. Well that was certainly interesting. Ron looked at Harry, Harry raised an eyebrow, and they both turned back to watch the byplay. “Yeeeah. About that. With all that you people apparently seem to know about us, I’d have thought that you’d know that that kinda thing tends to not stick. Now how ‘bout you shut up and let the big kids talk until I’m ready to make you tell me what you did with my brother.”Ron stood corrected: He’d previously thought that no one was quite as terrifying as Harry when he was out for blood, but this man...This man had ‘danger’ written over every single inch of him, from his head to his muddy boots and if that tone and expression had been aimed at him, Ron was fairly certain that he’d be blubbering nearly as bad as Ketch. He was suddenly very glad that he’d had nothing whatsoever to do with whatever it was that had happened to this man’s brother. Ron inched closer to Harry, hand going into his pocket to brush against his wand. These people may not like Ketch either but a once over told Ron that the other man, while quieter, would be no less dangerous to cross and that the woman, seemingly the most innocuous of the bunch, looked ready to tear Ketch apart with her bare hands should the opportunity arise. If this went South...well, Ron knew that if wouldn’t be an easy fight, Muggles or no. Thankfully, Ketch had shut up (at least for the moment) and Ron to devote his attention to the more pressing (again, at the moment) situation. Big Bloke turned back to Harry and Ron and Ron tensed but the murderous look had all but left the man’s face when he turned away from Ketch, so he allowed himself to relax, just a little. “Sorry about that,” Big Bloke started to say, and that was when Ron realized what he’d been too preoccupied to notice before: Big Bloke was American. He thought back a little...yep, so was the blonde woman. “Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?”That was Harry, who’d evidently gotten fed up with not having the slightest idea of what was going on. Ron appreciated it because Harry had just saved him the trouble of asking the same question. Big Bloke blinked at them and opened his mouth but it seemed like he was suddenly at a loss for words because as soon as he made eye contact with Harry, his mouth snapped back shut and his cheeks pinked slightly. This was such a strange turnaround from his earlier behavior that Ron was at a complete loss and so, it seemed, was the blonde woman, who was looking at her fellow intruder with bewilderment. The dark-haired man in the trenchcoat, however, heaved a sigh and rolled his eyes, stepping just slightly in front of the other man. “My name is Castiel. These are Dean and Mary Winchester. We are looking for Sam, Dean’s younger brother. And I do apologise for Dean.” Here he shot a dark look at the man in question (who was looking decidedly sheepish).“This is, in fact, not his first time meeting someone who we had previously believed to be an entirely fictional book character but I’m afraid you have made rather more of an impact on him than the one whom he met previously.”After he had finished, three things happened in quick succession: Ron gave a heaving inward groan and glanced worriedly at Harry, fearing his reaction to the Books That Must Not Be Mentioned only to find him looking completely gobsmacked. Then, very nearly at the same time Harry recovered and he and the blonde woman, with some overlap but in the following order, respectively, said:“Your name is Castiel? And you and a bloke named Dean are looking for his brother, who is Sam? Are you sure that you’re not the book character, mate?”And,“What the hell are you talking about, Cas? Book characters? What book?”This was followed by Big Bloke letting out a supremely irritated sigh. “Those books got to the damned UK? Jesus Christ on a cracker, it was bad enough when they were just at home, now they’re across the freaking Pond too?” ‘Oh, dear. Oh, bloody hell. Here we go.’ “Well at least you’re not a bloody worldwide phenomenon,” came Harry’s swift rejoinder, “And you don’t have any movies or any damned merchandise. Do you have any idea-” And the two men were off debating violations of privacy, rabid fans, and the need for secrecy. Ron sighed. With the way those two were going they’d all be there for a while, and they still didn’t know whether these people were actually allies. Although...He looked back over at Castiel and Mary (who still looked utterly confused)...Now that he thought about it, those named did sound familiar to him and not just because Ketch (who was currently looking both lost and annoyed) had mentioned someone named Winchester earlier. Was it-no. What about-oh bugger, he’d think of it later. For now Harry and Dean were deep enough in their debate (currently something about Dean’s brother and a fan in Las Vegas) that he knew that they’d be at it for long enough that Ron might as well socialize, see what he could find out. He crossed over to Mary and Castiel. “—is going on Cas? What the hell are they—oh, hello!”Ron, feeling deeply uncomfortable, forced his hand out of his pocket and held it out to her. “Hullo. Ron Weasley. I figure that since our friends seem a bit wrapped up in their discussion at the moment that we might as well try and get to know each other.”Smiling, (a bit uncertainly, Ron thought), she shook the proffered hand. “Mary, but I guess you know that already. You have any earthly idea what those two are talking about?”He grinned back at Mary and released her hand. “Only Harry’s—that’s my friend over there—only his half of it. Your names do sound familiar to me, but I have to admit that I can’t place them.”Castiel grimaced at him. “We have a book series as well, it is called Supernatural. Perhaps that is how—”
‘OH!’
Castiel cut his sentence short and both he and Mary both looked at Ron expectantly. Ah. Apparently, that had been out loud as well as in his head. Ron cleared his throat, feeling the tips of his ears heating up. “Ah. Sorry. It’s just—I remember where I’ve heard your names before. Harry’s oldest—Jamie’s his name—he’s read those books and so has his cousin Vic. They talk about them quite a bit.”And there was something else, niggling around at the back of his mind...Something he’d heard about Mary...who, he suddenly realized, was still looking lost. “Book series? What are you two talking about? What books and what do they have to do with us?”Aaaaaand, it was back to being Ron’s turn to be confused. Between Harry’s scar and eyes, he was pretty distinctive, and the Muggles were pretty much collectively in love with that damn book series, or at least the movies. So how did this woman not even have the tiniest inkling of what they were talking about? Even Dudley’s kid knew about Harry Potter, and Harry’s only cousin had spent most of his daughter’s childhood keeping her away from anything that even mentioned him, except for the man himself. (Something about respecting Harry’s privacy and that of Dudley himself and his parents. Ron couldn’t really blame him for that, no one wanted the ugly parts of their past aired out like that, and especially not to one’s on kid. Ron might not like Dudley overmuch, but he’d definitely gotten better, as had his mum. His dad on the other hand, not so much.)“Not to be rude but how can you not know?” Ron asked her because honestly, he might not like that the books existed, but he was aware what it had become a worldwide phenomenon, especially in America, so what the hell?She still looked lost but Castiel actually looked somewhat contrite, so Ron turned to him for answers while noting that Harry and Dean were now commiserating the horrors of LARPers that paraded around as them. “Mary died in 1983 and was resurrected earlier this week,” Casitel blurted out, then looked horrified with himself for his bluntness but kept on, turning to Mary before Ron had even begun to process that sentence. “Mary, Harry and Ron are, in addition to apparently being real people, characters in an extremely popular book series.“The series details, from Harry’s point of view, their school years from ages eleven to seventeen. The first book came out in 1977, which is why you have not heard of them despite the fact that they are known and popular world-wide. I believe that Sam forced Dean to read the books, while their friend Charlie insisted that they both watch all of the movies. All three of them ensured that I did the same.”Ron grimaced. He might not despise the books with quite Harry’s level of burning hatred, but they were a horrible breach of privacy, and not just for his best friend. “It’s bloody awful ,” Ron told them. “Harry can hardly go out in the Muggle world without people thinking that he’s doing ‘that cosplay thing’, and I’ve got it on good authority that Muggleborns have started to think that the Hogwarts letters they receive are just pranks.”Mary, who had just seemed like she was beginning to grasp what was going on, went back to looking confused. “Muggles? Hogwarts? What are you talking about, what are those?”Castiel answered her before Ron could. “They are wizards. Muggle is their word for non-magical people, Hogwarts is Britain's school for magic. Muggleborns are witches and wizards whose parents are both Muggles, and their existence spurs, or has in the past, great consternation amongst certain wizards, which lead to most of the conflict detailed in the books. “Harry, along with Ron and several of their friends were responsible for stopping those wizards from...” Here he hesitated, apparently struggling to find the right words for what the Death Eaters had been trying to do. Ron, who had no such difficulties, picked up where the dark-haired man left off. “The Death Eaters—that’s the bastards who hated Muggleborns and the like and decided to do something about it—decided (with some help, mind you) that we, wizards that is, would be far better off without Muggles or Muggleborns, and went around trying to kill and/or enslave the lot of them. Loads of the rest of us weren’t about to let that happen, so we wound up with the Wizarding Wars: The first ended with Harry’s parents dead, his godfather wrongfully imprisoned and the assumed death of Voldemort (the Death Eaters’ leader). “The second kicked off when the old arse came back from being only mostly dead and started gathering back his followers at the end of our fourth year of Hogwarts. That one ended at what should’ve been our seventh year, when Harry managed to kill him.”Mary blinked once, twice, opened her mouth, shut it, then opened it again. “How old—you know what? I’ll process and ask questions later. Just—why is it all in books and why, in the name of God—Chuck—whatever, would there be a book series about my sons?”Her...sons? Ron looked over at Dean, then back at Mary. He looked like he could be older than she — oh. Right. Died in ‘83. Merlin’s best polka-dotted shirtsleeves, this was weird, even for him. With a start, he realized that both Mary and Castiel were looking at him, apparently expecting an answer to the first question. “Oh! Er...we’re not entirely sure, actually. Harry and Kingsley paid a visit to the author after the second book came out. She’s definitely a Muggle and she doesn’t know that we’re, you know, real. Thought that they were just some sleep-deprivation induced hallucination and told them to go away because she refused to be pestered by people she’d made up.”He shrugged, smiling slightly at the indignant faces of his listeners. “Nothing more we could do about it—it didn’t make any of us happy, mind.”“Riiiight,” Mary said, visibly filing that away with the other stuff to process later. She turned to Castiel, looking plaintive. “Please tell me that you boys know who’s been writing books about you.”What Castiel did next could only be described as pulling a face, which (much like Mary’s earlier plaintive expression), wasn’t something that Ron would previously have assumed the man was capable of doing. “Well...Yes. Sam and Dean found out about the books not long after I met them and tracked down the author. He wrote them under the pen name Carver Edlund and, um..”Castiel broke off briefly as Dean’s voice rose (something about his sex life being detailed in writing—Mary pulled a face that Ron whole-heartedly agreed with—they did not want to know) and waited for him to quiet down before continuing. “We, that is, the angels,” ‘ What??’ “Were under the impression that he was a prophet,” ‘ What???’ “who had visions of what was happening to Sam and Dean.”“I’m sorry, you were under the impression that he was a prophet?!” Mary asked incredulously, “What was he actually?” Castiel cleared his throat uncomfortably. “The ‘actual’ name that he was going by at the time was Chuck Shurley.” That meant absolutely nothing to Ron, but Mary’s jaw dropped. “”Are you seriously telling me that a book series, a published book series about my boys, was written by God?!”
‘What. The. Fuck.’
“Well...yes, though we didn’t find out who he was until He showed up to help us with Amara.”“Amara?” Ron asked. “Amara is His sister.”Okay, really, what the hell, okay? Ron had a much higher tolerance for weird than most wizards, it came with the territory of being Harry Potter’s best mate, but this was just ridiculous. “God wrote Supernatural?” he asked as soon as he regained function of his mouth. Then- “Wait, God’s real?” Castiel looked as if he might actually be fighting a smile. “Yes, on both counts.”
‘What. What? WHAT????’
A scoffing noise interrupted Ron’s imminent breakdown. The three of them all turned to Ketch, who seemed (at least temporarily) to have forgotten his terror of Dean now that he was occupied with a heated discussion about fans and their weird tattooing habit and had apparently also been listening in on Ron’s conversation with Mary and Castiel. Now, despite the fact that he was still tied to a chair and therefore several feet below them, Ketch was managing to stare down his nose and laugh at them. “I always knew that you lot were self-centered but I’d never actually thought that you were so full of yourselves that you’d be able to delude yourselves into thinking that God had written those ridiculous books. If the chap is even real in the first place, or still alive for that matter, he’s off somewhere not giving a damn about the rest of us poor sods. Besides, it’s not even good writing.”Castiel frowned down at him. “I never said He’d written them well ,” he pointed out to the captive.
‘What.’
Even Mary looked stunned at this pronouncement. “You expect me to believe that God, as in capital G-o-d God has been hanging around producing badly written books about a pair of jumped up hunters and their pet angel?” Ketch asked in disbelief. Ron hated to admit it, especially in principle he definitely could have been less offensive about it, Ketch had a point. He kept that opinion to himself as Castiel continued to frown at Ketch. “What possible reason could I have for lying about it?” Castiel questioned.“And speaking of hunters,” he continued, not giving anyone any time to think about it and suddenly looking deadly. “ What. Have. You. Done. With. Sam. Winchester.” Cue the gibbering. Impatient, Castiel did a flicking movement with his wrist and Ketch wasn’t the only one to make a startled noise as a large, silvery, knife dropped into the (apparently) angel’s hand. “We can do this the easy way, or very, very, painfully. Do you want me to call Dean over here?”Ketch glanced nervously over to where Dean was still talking to Harry. “Ah..no. No, that won’t be necessary. Anyway, Samuel isn’t here.” Castiel made an angry noise in the back of his throat that sounded suspiciously like a growl. “I would strongly advise that you rethink your choice of words, Arthur Ketch. We tracked him here.”There was a small yelp and Ketch squirmed around in the chair, trying to get further away from Castiel’s knife. “I’m not bloody lying,” he hissed, voice high pitched from panic, “He and that shape-changing thing they,” a head flick to Ron and, by proxy, Harry, “came here looking for broke out! I don’t know where they went, just look at the security tapes if you don’t believe me!”Castiel looked at Ketch for another long moment, not even blinking that Ron could see, before apparently coming to the same conclusion that Ron had: Ketch was telling the truth.“Very well.”He straightened back up and pushed the swivel chair out of his way, then turned back to Ron and Mary, waving an arm to the computer screens. “Shall we?”Mary grabbed the other chair for Castiel to sit on, then joined Ron in leaning over the angel’s shoulders so that they could see the screens. “Have you ever gone through surveillance footage before, Cas?” Mary asked him. To Ron’s surprise, he shook his head. “No, but I’ve seen Sam do it often enough that I—There!”Ron wasn’t entirely sure what Castiel had found, exactly, so he kept quiet. Mary looked back over to Ketch. “When did they get brought in?”“Winchester got here about three days ago, the freak about two weeks.”Ron felt his shoulders go tense. That was even longer than he and Harry had thought, damn it all.Castiel did something with the computer and suddenly they were looking at footage of a cell containing a young man whose arms were chained to the ceiling. The light wasn’t great and the video quality was a bit rubbish, so it wasn’t until he lifted his head that Ron could tell who it was. “Teddy,” he breathed, mostly in relief, but also choking back a snarl of rage at Teddy’s imprisonment. The kid had bruises all over his face but he was glaring up at the camera, eyes just as amber and firey and stubborn as ever. ‘So they haven’t hurt him too badly, thank Merlin,’ Ron thought, blowing out a shuddering breath, and jumped when a warm hand lightly clasped his and squeezed gently. With some effort, Ron tore his eyes away from the screen and looked up to meet the kind blue eyes of Mary Winchester. “I’m guessing he’s who you’re here for?”“Yeah, he managed, “That’s Teddy, Teddy Lupin. He’s Harry’s godson, but both of his parents died at the end of the Second Wizarding War and...well, he’s family.”She squeezed his hand again and he thought she’d been about to say something else, but Castiel’s gasp brought their attention back to the screen. The door to the cell had opened and two men were dragging a third with them through the opening. The third mad was tall, that much was obvious even with him slumped over from how close his knees came to brushing against the ground. That wasn’t really what caught Ron’s attention, though. Even with the rubbish video quality, it was painfully obvious that the man had the kind of injury (to his shoulder) that required a mess of darkened (‘ bloodstained’ Ron’s mind supplied helpfully) bandages wrapped around it. From the vice grip Mary suddenly had on his hand and Castiel’s low, agitated, rumble, Ron was going to go out on a limb and guess that this was the absent Sam Winchester. The two free men yanked Sam’s arms above his head to secure him in the same way Teddy was and Ron hissed through his teeth. He didn’t know exactly what was wrong with the man’s shoulder, but judging by the state of those bandages, there was no way that what they’d just done wasn’t excruciating. Despite the pain that he must have been in, Sam Winchester only smirked and said something that had one of the men dish out a vicious slap. On the screen, Teddy visibly winced as Sam rocked back in his chains, and beside Ron, Mary gave a low snarl. Castiel’s shoulders tensed. Thankfully, the men left the room before anything else happened and Ron sighed in relief, wincing slightly as the hold Mary had on his hand eased up. That woman had a very strong grip. For a moment, nothing else happened, then Teddy wiggled around so that he was facing his new cellmate and said something. Sam responded, and there was a small byplay before Sam tested his cuffs and cringed. They kept talking, Sam laughed at something Teddy had said and Ron felt a little more tension bleed out of Mary. Sam and Teddy kept conversing on the screen, easier now it seemed, with one or the other laughing every now and then. With each smile, Ron could feel himself relax just a bit more. Then, he watched in incredulous disbelief and Teddy morphed, right there in front of Sam!
‘What the hell does he think he’s doing?’
Mary jumped in surprise. “Judas’ priest, what the hell?”“He does that,” Ron muttered absentmindedly, eyes glued to the screen as he tried to work out just what Harry’s mad godson was thinking. “it’s rare, a wizard thing, got it from his mum.”Sam seemed to relax, and then they were laughing again.
‘What are they saying?’
Teddy looked almost as shocked as Sam had just a minute earlier, Sam himself slightly startled, then Teddy laughed. “I wonder what they could be talking about,” Castiel mused. “No idea,” Ron told him, wishing dearly that he did. Both Sam and Teddy looked happy enough as to be completely inappropriate for their situation and as they watched, Sam burst into the most exuberant bout of laughter yet—then stopped what seemed like mid-sentence, looking suddenly devastated.“What’s happened, what’s wrong?” Mary asked, sounding slightly desperate. Ron squeezed her hand in a way that he hoped was comforting, not sure what else he could do.“He does think that Dean is dead,” Castiel pointed out quietly, “neither of them has ever dealt with—oh dear.”The door to the cell opened again and in walked Arthur Ketch, head held high, nose intact. Even with the grainy quality to the video, Ron could see the heated glare that Teddy leveled him with. ‘Hmm.’ On Ketch’s heels was a blonde woman who Ron didn’t recognise but judging from Mary’s and Castiel’s under-the-breath mutter that Ron couldn’t quite make out, they did. Ketch-on-the-screen said something, Sam responded with a sneer and both Mary and Castiel went rigid as Ketch drew back and punched his prisoner right in the mouth. Teddy looked like he was shouting. Ketch turned to the blonde lady, his back to the camera, and he must have said something to her, because she said something in the direction of the door and the two goons who’d chained up Sam came back in. The goons unchained Teddy and, pulling the kid along with them, followed the blonde lady out of the cell.Ron tensed and came close to asking Castiel if they could follow the group on the cameras but—Ketch had stayed behind in the room and had Sam by his jaw. Ron didn’t say anything, but watched silently with the others as Ketch started to (he thought) interrogate Sam. When the tenth hit that Sam took with remarkable resilience had Mary letting out a small, hurt, sound, Castiel hit something on the keyboard (with more force than Ron suspected was strictly necessary) that caused the video to move much faster. Ron glanced down and realized that Mary’s free hand had found its way to Castiel’s shoulder and that the angel’s own hand had covered it and was holding on tightly. Ron felt a familiar anger bubbling low in his stomach, remembering that horrible night spent in Lucius Malfoy’s basement forced to listen to Hermione’s tortured screams and, without a word, lifted his unoccupied hand to Castiel’s other shoulder. Mary gasped and Ron jerked his gaze up to see that the feed had gone back to its normal speed. Sam was roaring something at Ketch, who was at the other end of the cell, picking himself up off of the bloor. Ron couldn’t be sure, but he thought he could see tears on Sam’s face. Mary was shaking next to him, Castiel so tense that Ron could feel his shoulder vibrating. Ketch-on-the-screen got back to his feet and went for the little cart at the side of the cell and came back with a knife. Mary’s hand tightened convulsively and Ron had to bite down a pained yelp. Really really strong grip. Neither she nor Castiel seemed to notice, not that Ron could blame them seeing as Ketch-on-the-screen was not advancing towards Sam with the knife. Sam had done something with the chains and his hands and seemed to be readying himself for a fight that Ron wasn’t all that sure he would come out on top of. Ketch took one step, two, then Ron, Mary, and Castiel all jumped as they saw the door spring open to admit Teddy. Ron let out an explosive WHOOSH of breath at the sight of the (no more harmed than he’d been before, thank Merlin) kid. Teddy took a step into the cell, seemed to look at Sam, then to Ketch, said something (Ron wasn’t sure to whom), then reared back and hit Ketch-on-the-screen’s face so hard that he flew back and hit the opposite wall. Ron heard Castiel let out a small cheer, echoed by Mary, and Ron felt his own mouth spread into a wide grin. ‘ So that’s what happened to the bastard’s nose. Good job, Teddy Bear.’ Castiel and Mary were both still utterly focused with Sam, but now that he was satisfied of Teddy’s relative wellbeing Ron allowed his attention to wander a bit to the rest of the screen. And froze. “Stop the video,” he choked out, “Castiel, stop it now.”Castiel threw back a startled look, said,“You can call me Cas,”but complied quickly, leaving Ron to stare for a moment at the screen in abject disbelief. “What is it?”Ron lifted his hand from Castiel’s (Cas, the angel had said to call him Cas) shoulder and slowly pointed to the dark figure at the opened door of the cell. “Can you make the picture bigger there?” he asked. “I think so,” Cas replied, frowning in concentration as he poked at the keys. After a moment, the image grew on the screen. Mary made a small inquisitive noise but all Ron could do was look. There it was, unmistakable even with the rubbish video quality and the fact that it had been over twenty years since Ron had last seen him: the massive black dog that was the animagus form of one Sirius Black.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mar. 10, 2016
Teddy's fucking leg hurt like a motherfucking bitch . He sent a mental apology to his Grandmother and Gran Weasley for the language but the point still stood. In spite of the best efforts of himself, Sam, and (oddly enough) Snuffles, the wounds he'd gotten from Greyback’s mauling had gotten infected.Sam wasn't in much better shape, though he did have an easier time of it when it came to walking than Teddy and while bullet wounds were undoubtedly horrible, nothing quite measured up in terms of pain and difficulty healing like the claws of a werewolf. Snuffles was in the best shape out of the three of them: the injuries that the dog had sustained were the least severe and he'd apparently been able to ward off infection by way of cleaning his wounds with his tongue.Between the three of them, it had been slow going ever since the attack and it was only getting slower as the condition of Teddy's leg worsened. Thankfully, Snuffles had managed to unerringly lead them to clean water (mostly small streams, with the occasional pool) that they could use to clean out Sam's gunshot wound, Teddy's leg, and their bandages, which unfortunately hadn't been dry in over a day. The fact that Snuffles seemed to know exactly where he was leading them made Teddy more grateful by the hour because the further they went, the more apparent it became that not only did neither Sam nor Teddy have any earthly idea where they were, Teddy couldn't even walk without leaning heavily on Sam's shoulder.(Within a few hours, he couldn't put weight on the leg at all.)They were making progress, though, albeit slow and painful progress, towards wherever it was that Snuffles (whom Teddy was quietly becoming more and more convinced was Sirius Black) was leading them."—and that's why the Ghostfacers—what is it?"Sam broke off from his story and stumbled the two of them to a halt just behind Snuffles, who had abruptly stopped just in front of them to sniff at the air."Sn'ffles?" Teddy asked. "Wh'ts wr'ng?"Teddy cringed internally at how muddled his voice came out. His thoughts had grown increasingly hazy due to a combination of pain and exhaustion, and he was pretty sure he was getting a fever. Wherever they were going had best be close because Teddy was pretty sure that he wouldn't be able to go on for much longer and it wasn't as though Sam or Snuffles would be able to carry him.There was a jolt, and Teddy was startled out of his speculation as he realized that they had started moving again. Teddy could see Sam's concerned gaze out of the corner of his eye, but just the same he could see the glassy sheen that had developed over the older man's eyes. Sam might be faring better than Teddy but he wasn't much further from fever, and wouldn't be going for too much longer either.They'd broken out of the latest copse of trees a few feet ago and, as far as Teddy could tell, they were headed to another forested area on the other side that he could just make out from where they were. Snuffles had slowed down a bit and seemed to be staring at the distant trees intently. Maybe they were getting close.It was his turn for storytelling, but for the life of him he couldn't bring himself to think of one. Sam didn't seem inclined to pick up the slack and so the two of them limped after Snuffles in silence. After what seemed like hours but was probably only about forty-five minutes, the trees seemed to be getting closer. Sam suddenly stopped dead in his tracks. Teddy stumbled slightly and cursed as the sudden movement jarred his leg."Sorry, sorry," Sam muttered distractedly, looking around in apparent confusion. "What-what were we doing?""F'll'wing Sn'ffles," Teddy said slowly, a spark of concern piercing through the haze in his head. Sam didn't seem like he was getting more feverish."Right, right," Sam mumbled, still frowning in confusion.They started moving again but they'd barely gone three shuffling steps before they were stopped again."Wh't?" Teddy asked.Sam shook his head rapidly, as if he were trying to clear it."I-I don't-where were we going?" he asked, sounding dazed.Teddy frowned, thinking muzzily. Something was trying to poke at the back of his mind but he couldn't...quite...catch..."W're f'll'wing Sn'ffles," Teddy repeated.Snuffles, having noticed the delay, turned back and woofed softly at them. Sam shook his head again."Right. Let's...keep doing that, then."Four more steps this time and then Sam stopped as abruptly as if they'd just collided with a brick wall. Teddy stumbled again, this time losing his balance entirely, and pitched forward, dragging Sam down with him. They hit the ground hard, Teddy groaning as his leg erupted with white-hot agony, Sam letting out a soft, pained, grunt as he landed on his bad shoulder.Teddy turned over onto his back with some difficulty, unable to help the tiny whimpers that escaped him from the stabbing pain that lanced up from his thigh at the movements. Finally, he flopped down, blinking away the black spots that were dancing across his vision so that he could watch the clouds creeping towards them from across the sky. It was really nothing short of a miracle that they hadn't gotten rained on yet, and from the looks of it their good luck wouldn't be holding out for much longer. Beside him, Sam blew out a frustrated breath. "God, Teddy, I'm sorry.""S'alr'ght.""I don't know what happened, I-I was doing okay, I knew what we were doing, then the next thing I know I just...didn't." The frustration in Sam's voice was palpable.Teddy couldn't help it. He just started laughing, high pitched and not a little hysterical."Teddy?!" The frustration in Sam's voice rapidly turned to worry, with a side order of panic."S'rry, I-s'rry. 't's o'ly I know wh't h'pp'ned, 't's s' bl'dy ' bv'us an'-an' 't t'k ush f'lling ov'r an br'kin' thr'gh the M'rl'n-d'mned an'i-M'ggle w'rds f'r me t' r'lize th't th't w's wh't w's h'pp'ning!"(Translation [for end-notes] Sorry, sorry, it's only I know what happened, it's so bloody obvious and-and it took us falling over and breaking through the Merlin-damned anti-Muggle wards for me to realize that that was what was happening!")"Muggle wards?""Y'h, 've n' bl'dy 'lue wh're w' 're b't w're s'mewh're n'r s'me kine' 'f w'z'rdin' h'se'old th't's c'nspic'us 'nough t' n'd to k'p m'ggles ou' an' you j's' cr'ssed th' d'mned w'rds!" (Yeah, I've no bloody clue where we are but we're somewhere near some kind of wizarding household that that's conspicuous enough to need to keep Muggles out and you just crossed the damned wards!) Sam made a kind of huffing noise."I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that that shouldn't be possible.""N't 't all ," Teddy cackled. "Y', y' gr't th'mpin' g'nt 'f a m'ggle, y' h'v'n't 'v'n b'n pr'p'rly b'n ' n th' w'z'rdin' w'rld an' y're 'lr'dy br'kin' th' r'les!"("Not at all ," Teddy cackled. "You, you great thumping giant o f a muggle, you haven't even been properly been in the wizarding world and you're already breaking the rules!")Sam chucked along slightly."Do-do you think it could have anything to do with, like, practicing different kinds of magic? Cause- eurgh !""Wh't, wh't?" Teddy glanced over at Sam and burst into another fit of giggles.Distantly, he registered that he was more than a little delirious and that he should probably be worried about it because it was a definite sign of his progressing fever. At the moment, he was preoccupied with the sight of Sam cringing away from Snuffles as the dog licked at his face."I, uh-stop that!-think that he's telling us we need to get going," Sam decided."Y'h, pr'bly."In the spirit of things, Teddy tried to sit up, only to flop back down as the pain in his leg flared back up."Ow.""Here, hang on, I've gotcha," Sam grunted, levering himself up onto j=his feet with his good arm.Something wet landed on Teddy's face."'ey, S'm?""Here." Sam gripped Teddy's arm and hauled him up, wrapping the arm up around his own shoulder. "What is it?"" ' thn'k ' f'lt r'ndr'p. 'S r'n'n."Yeah, kiddo, it sure is," Sam told him gently, "C'mon we've gotta move before it starts coming down harder.""Y'p."Teddy didn't really register much after that. Later, he'd remember Sam's increasingly concerned commentary as they staggered on and that, between them, Snuffles and Sam had managed to find a smooth enough path that they hadn't stumbled once. No jarring Teddy's leg.At the moment though, all of the tattered remnants of his fever-ravaged concentration was entirely devoted to hopping forwards, not collapsing, and blinking the rain out of his eyes. Then, suddenly, they'd reached and gone through the trees and were looking straight at the back of one of the most enormous houses Teddy had ever seen. Dimly, he registered a feeling like something was tugging at his navel.Unfortunately, he wasn't in a good-enough state to notice anything beyond that while the building seemed to be in perfect condition, the grounds were even more overgrown than the garden at Gran Weasley's. Snuffles was clearly excited, bounding ahead, only to circle back and bark at them eagerly. Sam and Teddy (mostly Sam) picked their way after him through neglected bushes and overgrown grass to a small door with no handle tucked into the side of the mansion. Snuffles gently touched his nose to the lock, Teddy heard a soft click and the door swung silently inwards. Gratefully, Sam and Teddy followed Snuffles in out of the rain.It was dim inside, but not quite so dark that Teddy couldn't see perfectly well and even Sam with his entirely human eyes seemed to have no trouble seeing where he was going. The tugging sensation intensified. They walked on.Teddy, whose energy had been bolstered by both the promise of shelter and Snuffles' enthusiasm, was flagging fast, leaning more and more heavily on Sam as they went. The tugging grew almost painful, then disappeared altogether. His leg was a distant but somehow inescapable source of stabbing ache and his vision was starting to get a bit blurry around the edges."'m sl'ppy, S'm," he told his friend."I know, kiddo, I am too. Just a little longer, I think, then we can get cleaned up and rest."That sounded nice, though Teddy thought that he might like to do the resting bit first. As they walked it gradually became lighter, and in less than a minute they'd emerged into a large room with an enormous fireplace surrounded by an equally huge couch and several other very comfortable-looking over-stuffed chairs. Snuffles was leading them there and Teddy stumbled along with Sam gladly, noting the huge staircase on their left as they went. Suddenly, Snuffles froze, then turned to face the staircase, ears pricked. Teddy and Sam stopped and listened and even with his thoughts as hazy as they were, it didn't take Teddy long to hear what Snuffles had: running footsteps, coming towards them. A moment later, Sam pressed something cold and hard into Teddy's hand and Teddy knew that the older man had heard it too. Shuffling and hopping, the two of them managed to turn themselves around to face the steps. Teddy gripped the knife in his hand but it was shaking and he didn't know that he'd be any kind of use in a fight, should it come down to it."Steady, kid, you just stay awake now," Sam murmured in his ear."Y'p, n' sl'p, n't pr'bl'm," Teddy mumbles back.The footsteps grew louder and Teddy tensed and then a man was running over to the landing at the top of the stairs."Sh'rt," Teddy said, because he was.Sam made a sound like a choking hippogriff and Sirius barked once, sharply, almost like he hadn't meant to, but had been so surprised that he couldn't help it." Gabriel?" Sam asked, still sounding like he was being strangled.The man grinned and started hopping down the steps, two at a time, grinning."Heya, Samsquatch, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" suddenly, the short man frowned, still getting closer. "You're not lookin’ so good, bucko, what happened?""wh-wh-but-" Sam spluttered, apparently too shocked to form a complete sentence.The new bloke reached the bottom of the steps and Teddy barely had time to register...something...tired? Before Snuffles had firmly insinuated himself between the mystery man and Teddy and Sam. He was rumbling like he wasn't quite sure whether or not he should be growling.There was something about this room...The short man stopped and frowned down at Snuffles, looking more surprised than anything else.Something about..."Good Dad, Sirius Black what on earth has happened to you?"The colors?Snuffles woofed."You've really gotten yourself stuck, haven't you? How's about I take care of that for ya?"There was a lot of...red.Teddy heard a snap and there was a small flash of light and now there was a really tall bloke where Snuffles had been Sam jumped.And...also...gold."That's better, isn't it?" he heard, as if from far away. Then he saw a pair of whisky puddles looking at him."Who's the kid?" Then the whiskey was gone and Teddy thought that someone had fallen and someone else had caught them.Red...and...gold."Teddy?"Gold...and...red."Teddy?"...Lions?"Teddy, hey, moonlet, you alright? Can you look over here?"That was right. Redandgoldandlions."This place is...very...Gryffindor-y," Teddy realized, voice more clear than it had been in hours and with that, the blackness that had been gathering at the edges of his vision rushed over it and he could feel his knees buckling as he finally lost the fight to stay conscious.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mar. 11, 2016
Harry Potter. Harry James freaking Potter. Dean was actually, legitimately, in real life, having a bitch-fest with Harry Potter about the books sent from (Chuck) hell. God, he wished Sammy was here for this, the kid would be freaking out just as much as Dean was. Probably more. “-actually came up to me with no warning, in the middle of the sidewalk, just touched my forehead without so much as a by-your-leave, and asked how I’d managed my scar! It doesn’t even look the same as in those damned movies! And I can’t bloody well tell her that it’s my own physical scar because, well, Statute of Secrecy, which is really beside the point because who? the hell?? walks up to a man they’ve never met in their life and decides that the thing to do is touch their face???” Dean laughed. “Man, there was this one time, Sam and I were minding our own business for once and-” “Harry!” the sharp exclamation came from across the room, cutting Dean off mid sentence. He turned around to see that Cas, Mary, and (freaking) Ron Weasley were all huddled around the computer monitors. They must’ve been watching the security feeds while Harry and Dean talked. Clearly, something had happened. Ron’s multitude of freckles stood out starkly against his suddenly bone-white face. It almost seemed like he was in shock. “What’s wrong?” Harry demanded immediately. Ron beckoned to him wordlessly, and Harry walked over to join him at the screen. Dean followed, peering over Mary’s head. “What’s going on?” he whispered. “I don’t know,” she replied under her breath, “that dog came on the screen and Ron just-” Whatever it was that Ron had just done, Dean didn’t hear, because Harry’s extremely loud hissed breath drowned out the rest of Mary’s whisper. “That-that’s not-”“I know.”“But he’s-”“I know.”“I saw-” “Believe me Harry, I know, I was there too, remember? He just...he just appeared there, in the doorway.” Were they seriously talking about the dog? It definitely seemed like it and both brits seemed seriously freaked out.
What the hell was going on?
“What was happening?” Harry asked. It was Cas who answered. “We found Sam and Teddy in the footage. The Men of Letters removed Teddy from the cell and when he returned it was without his escorts and with that dog.”There was a tightness in Cas’s voice, anger, something he wasn't saying. Dean frowned to himself, but decided that he could wait before getting to the bottom of whatever it was that was bothering the angel. “Did-did he do anything?”Before Dean could ask to clarify just which ‘he’ he was talking about, exactly, and why it really, really, sounded like they were talking about this dog like it was a person, Ron answered his best friend. “I had Castiel stop the video as soon as I recognized him. All I’ve seen him do so far is just stand by the door, like he’s guarding it or something.”Harry nodded, taking a deep breath, then letting it out, shaky. “Cas,” he swallowed, “Can-can we keep watching?”Dean was definitely missing something blatantly obvious, he just knew it. No one had this kind of emotional reaction towards random dogs on security feeds. “Of course,” Cas told him kindly, “let me just…”He tapped at the keys, the image blew out, and Dean froze. The video quality was pretty crappy and the lighting clearly wasn’t great, but even with that in the way, Dean could see very clearly that his baby brother had been beat to hell and back. And, what do you know, but that crumpled heap in the corner looked suspiciously like one Mr. Ketch. Slowly, very slowly, Dean straightened up and turned to the man still tied to the swivel chair. The look on his face must have really been something, because the man immediately scooted away from home until he hit the wall. In other circumstances, Dean probably would’ve found that funny. Ketch’s knuckles were scabbed over and bruised. He looked terrified. ‘Good,’ Dean thought savagely, ‘Good, because you had better be scared of me, you worthless, b-list slimeball who tortures people’s kid brothers and locks up other people’s shape changing kid godsons who haven’t done a damn thing wrong, you better be freakin’ terrified of me because buddy, I’ve been to hell, and I’ve learned some things that I really, really, like to-” “Dean.”There was a hand on his shoulder, restraining him gently. He hadn’t noticed it. He turned to round furiously on Cas, who met him with a steady, unflinching, blue-eyed gaze. “Dean, not now.”Not now? Not now? Was he serious? “Cas, he-”“I know. Dean, I know, but Sam’s gone now, he’s escaped, so right now it’s our job to find him and Teddy...and that dog. We’ll deal with Ketch. But later.”Right. Yeah. Totally made sense. Reasonable, even. He’d get right on that. But right now…Dean whipped back around to drive his fist into Ketch’s jaw. Crack. Oops. “That was for the first time you hit my brother,” Dean told him over the whimpering, “Now I don’t have the goddamn time to pay you back for everything you did to Sam, but when this is over, you wanna know what’s gonna happen?”More whimpering. “You and me, sweetheart, are gonna have a nice, long, chat, all by ourselves, until I’m good and satisfied and then Cas, and my mom here, Ron and Harry if they want to, Sammy if he feels like it, are gonna take turns, now how about that? Sound fun?”Still with the whimpering, Jesus. Dean patted Ketch none too gently on the broken side of his face. “Good talk.”He turned back around. Harry looked stunned, Mary’s eyes had gone wide, Ron still looked shocked, but also vindictive and Cas just nodded at him with the same hardness in his eyes that had bothered Dean earlier. Mystery solved. All good. Dean took a deep breath, let it out. “So,” he said brightly, gesturing to the computer screen, “What’s the deal with the dog?”“I-” Harry began, looking over at Ron, “Well, um, it looks-” Ron was nodding. “Yeah, it really sort of seems-only he-”Ron didn’t finish either. Dean blinked at the two wizards. Cas sighed. “I believe what Harry and Ron are trying to communicate is that there is a large black dog of apparently great familiarity and also possibly intelligence and-”Oh. Oh. He’d been right, it was so freakin obvious. “Sirius Black,” he cut in, hardly able to believe the words that were coming out of his own mouth, “You’re saying that that dog is Sirius Black.”“I know it sounds absolutely bonkers,” Ron said quickly, “but he’s really rather distinctive and-”“Dude, relax,” Dean told him, not feeling at all relaxed about anything himself, “Do you have any idea how many times I’ve died and come back to life? Hell, Mom was dead until last week and it’s not like Cas and Sam have never kicked the bucket before. This ain’t exactly a stretch for us.”Ron blinked rapidly, apparently trying to absorb this information. “Ummm...right. Yeah. Okay.”“Can-can we go back to the video now?” Harry asked, a little desperately. Right, the video. They should definitely do that. “Of course,’ Mary said kindly, “Cas?”“Yes-although, actually, Dean I believe that you are far better versed in these matters than I.”“Sure, babe, no problem,” Dean told him absently and walked back over to the computers. Someone made a strangled noise behind him, which Dean ignored in favor of figuring out how this damn keyboard was supposed to work. The others came up behind him. “Alright, everybody ready?” he didn’t bother waiting for a response before continuing, “Great, let’s do this.”Aaaaaand, yep that was, in fact, the key that started the video when pressed. Yipee. Dean turned his attention back to the screen itself. A kid who had to be Teddy Lupin was holding on to Sam-actually, it looked more like the kid was holding Dean’s little brother up to keep him from falling. Sam;s shoulders were visible shaking. Another wave of blinding rage threatened to overtake Dean straight back to Ketch, but he fought it back. Finding Sam was what was most important right now, and Ketch couldn’t help them with that. Beating on the bastard who’d hurt him would have to wait for later. Dean would make sure there was time for it, after he found his baby brother. He watched with a sort of floating detachment as Teddy helped Sam pull himself together and and as his giant of a brother staggered uncertainty back over to Ketch and came up with a gun and a knife. The two conscious humans on screen talked, then flinched, maybe some alarms? The dog (Sirius Black, Jesus Christ) barked, and they all left the room. Moving more or less on autopilot, Dean followed the trio through the security feed as they ran and got shot at holy shit (he thanked Chuck that these Men of Letters were apparently terrible shots) and finally made their way to the garage. ‘Oh. So that’s what happened.’ Then they were running off to the woods. Then they were gone. “So,” Dean said into the continuing (to the point of becoming awkward now that the video was stopped) silence, “that dog is definitely way too smart to be normal.”There was a choked laugh from behind him that he thought was probably Ron. He turned his chair around, and sure enough, the redhead was just taking his hand down from his mouth where he’d clearly (and ineffectually) been trying to stifle the noise “But it doesn’t make sense! ” Harry burst out, “I saw him fall through the bloody Veil! How could he have survived? Where the hell has he been? Why hasn’t he come home and he had his wand with him, why couldn’t he at the very bloody least, cast a fucking patronus charm and tell us he’s alive?”Harry was breathing hard, eyes wide and wild, and Dean realized with no small amount of alarm that his new friend was valiantly fighting back tears.“It isn’t as if he doesn’t know how to cast the charm, I’ve seen him do it , just, just why wouldn’t he tell me -”“He never changed back,” Ron interrupted the increasingly (and understandably) hysterical Harry softly, “that whole time, while he and Teddy and Sam were running, he never once transformed back from Padfoot. Why?”Harry just shook his head wordlessly, gasping, and a few tears managed to escape him. Dean followed suit (minus the tears) and handed him a tissue from the desk. “Dean, honey, why don’t we go back to the footage and see if we can find where, his name’s Sirius, right, like the star?”At the collective nod, Mary continued. “See if we can find where he got in, and when. It might give us some clues.”“Right, yeah, good idea.”Dean turned back around and the room went silent again except for the clacking of the keys and thrumming with tension as he combed back through the Men of Letters’ security footage. Finally he found where the dog Sirius Black had come in out of the plane, just after Sam. They watched the footage through to where Teddy decked Ketch (Dean was buying that kid and possible whatever else he wanted when they found him,) then Dean stopped the feed again and turned back around to face the others. “He’s been in America?” Harry asked, sounding so plaintive and confused that Dean felt a pang of sympathy for him. He thought back to the books, the was the relationship between boy and god(dog)father had been written. Harry was right. Nothing about this made sense. They were missing some pieces to this puzzle. “Perhaps he was rendered unable to return,” Cas offered. “Yeah,” added Mary, “I mean, he rescued Sam and Teddy, didn’t he? That’s not something he would have done if he didn’t care. If he came on that plane with Sam…” she trailed off. Ron picked up where she’d left off with enthusiasm. “Maybe this is the first time he’s been back in Britain since…” there, Ron seemed to lose steam, “since 1995?”“Maybe he’s stuck,” Dean said, before he’d even fully processed the idea. “Stuck?” asked Harry, who looked pale and unsure of how he ought to feel but was staving off figuring it out, because whatever he decided on, it would probably involve crying, “Stuck how?”“Think about it,” said Dean, warming up to his theory now that he’d had a second to figure out what he was saying, “I think that mom and Cas and Ron are right. What if the Veil did something to him and he got stuck? Like he can’t transform back. And if the Veil dumped him somewhere across the pond stuck as a dog...well, I don’t know about you but if I was stuck an ocean away from home with four legs, a tail, and a mouth that only works for barking, I’d have one hell of a time trying to get back.”Everyone stared at him in shock, and he squirmed, suddenly feeling a bit defensive. “What? I’m allowed to have ideas, Sam doesn’t have the monopoly on thinking of stuff.”Cas shook his head at him, but he was smiling slightly, so Dean took it as a win. Ron was leaning on the desk and staring at the wall like it contained the secrets to the universe. Harry ran a hand up across his face and through his hair, looking completely overwhelmed. “Okay, let’s just...for a minute, let’s just say you’re right. Sirius came out of the Veil somewhere in the Americas and now he’s stuck as a dog. Aside from the fact that Sirius getting on exactly the right plane by accident is...just a massive coincidence...he went for Teddy first. How did he know? Teddy wasn’t born until after he’d died and even if he had been...how would Sirius know that he was there?”Ron shrugged, still staring at the wall, but apparently paying more attention than Dean had thought he was. “Probably smelled him,” when no one said anything, he kept talking, “well, Sirius’s a dog, isn’ ‘e? Teds prob’ly smells like Professor Lupin and Tonks or at least kinda wolfy, you know? Other dogs are always weird ‘round him for a while until they get used to him.“I reckon Sirius probably smelled him in the compound and went to investigate. He’s not the type to ignore somethin’ like that Harry, you know that.”“Oh, God," Harry groaned, “I can’t believe that we’re actually talking about this like it’s sane.”Dean could sympathize. He’d left any semblance of actual sanity behind a long, long, time ago. “Yeah,” said Ron, “But we’ve been dealing with mad stuff since we were eleven. And Harry, mate, this is Sirius we’re talking about. He’s alive, yeah? That’s good, innit?”Harry choked out a laugh.“Yeah, ‘course it is, it’s brilliant. It’s just-”“A lot, right?”Harry looked at him, slightly confused. “Look, man, I get it. This ain’t my first rodeo. I mean, it's like I said, mom just came back a few days ago, and she’s not the first member of my family to pull something like this. Hell, I’ve done it, more than once. So has Sam. So has Cas. It’s a lot, every time.”Harry blew out a shaky breath. “Yeah. Dear Merlin, our lives are weird.”Dean, unable to help himself, laughed.“Yeah, you’ve got that right.”“Right, yeah, okay,” Harry said, clearly still trying to process, “but how in the name of Merlin, Mordred, and Morgana did he survive the bloody Veil? And why would it land him, out of the country, stuck as a dog?”Dean had nothing. Mary shrugged. Ron shook his head. Cas looked thoughtful. “This Veil, in the books it was referred to as the Veil of Death, is that correct?”Harry and Ron exchanged looks and nodded. “That’s right,” Ron supplied, “It’s supposed to be this… kind of portal thing, to the afterlife? Like you step through, or you fall, and that’s it. You’re dead and have a one way ticket to wherever it is you’re going.”“Was it created?” Cas inquired. Harry answered this time. “No, at least it’s never been recorded. I did a lot of research, after, after the war. The Department of Mysteries was built around it by the ancient Celtic wizards over two thousand years ago, before even the Romans came to Britain. That whole room, it’s older than most of the Wizarding World, the whole Ministry got built right on top of it.“The idea that it’s some kind of doorway to the land of the dead is ancient too, and there are two reasons for it. The first is that nothing and no one who goes through is ever seen again. The second is because there are these whispers that come from the arch and you can only hear them if you’ve lost a loved one. They’re supposed to be the voices of the dead.”“Gee, thanks Hermione,” said Ron completely devoid of sarcasm, looking slightly awed. Cas was frowning. “I’ve never heard of any doorway to Heaven or to Hell that behaves that way. Perhaps it leads to Purgatory?” He looked at Dean, who thought about it for a minute. “I don’t think so, but I guess it’s possible. Still wouldn’t explain the whole stuck as a dog thing, if we’re right and that’s really what happened.”“No,” Cas admitted, “It does not.”“You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” Dean asked him. That faint smile was back. Dean kind of wanted to kiss it, and had to remind himself forcefully that now was not the time. “Most likely,” Cas said, then turned slightly to better face the wizards, “Would it be possible for me to take a look at the veil? Perhaps if I can see it I can determine what it really is, or at the very least come up with a working theory. It could gain us some insight towards to figure out what is going on.”Harry and Ron had a sort, whispered conversation. Most of it was completely unintelligible, and a good portion of what they said seemed to be conveyed entirely through facial expressions alone. Still, Dean was able to catch a few words, not that they made any sense without the context of whatever else they were saying: Unspeakables, the Department, and something about mysterious bleeding secret keepers. That last one had definitely been Ron. After a few minutes, they broke off and Harry turned to Cas. “I’ll see what I can do. The Department of Mysteries can be difficult,” Ron snorted and Dean gathered that that had been an understatement. Harry ignored him, “but I think I can get them to let us in. The department Head is fond of Hermione and she’s been wanting to help, so we’ll take her with us.”“You two will be with me,” Ron told Dean and Mary, “We’re gonna figure out how to track down our missing people. Is there any reason we wouldn’t be able to use a tracking sell to find Sam?”Dean grimaced. “Yeah, actually,” at the same time that Mary said, “Not that I know of.’Mary looked at Dean in surprise. He shrugged. “It seemed like a good idea at the time and it’s saved both of our asses multiple times, probably more than we know about.”“Okay,” Mary said slowly, “but what is ‘it’”?Cas answered her before Dean could. “While the Apocalypse was going underway, it quickly became necessary for Sam and Dean to be hidden from angels and demons. The warding I placed on them is very strong, and permanent.”“Permanent how?” Ron asked, followed quickly by Mary.“But wards that powerful have to be renewed, don’t they?”“I carved the sigils onto their ribs,” Cas informed them. Mary blanched. “You have got to be kidding me.”“Nope,” Dean said, as cheerfully as he could with the shape he’d just seen Sam in, “hurt like a bitch, but it only took a few seconds and the x-rays are badass.”Harry looked unimpressed.“Not to mention that nice side benefit of being hidden from things that want to kill you.” he deadpanned.Dean grinned at him. “Yeah, there’s that too.”“So, we’re not trying to find Sam with our tracking spells,” Ron clarified. Dean shrugged. “I mean, I don’t think it’d hurt to try, but you’re probably not going to get anywhere with it.”Ron sighed. “Well, I guess it’s worth a shot, just to be sure. Our only other option is to try and track Sirius, but…”“Would that even work with him transformed?” Mary wanted to know. “Dunno,” Harry said, “Might as well try it anyway, Ron, but you might want to ask Professor McGonnagal. If anyone knows how to use a spell to track a transformed animagus, it’s her.”Ron sighed again. “Yeah, and I can check on the kids while I’m at it. Touch base with Neville.”“So, how do mom and I help?” Dean asked, “Between the two of us we probably both know a handful of tracking spells that work differently from yours do. Maybe the difference would be enough that we could track down Black if your spells don’t work.”Ron looked to Harry who shrugged. “It’s your call, Ron, you’re running point on this part.”“Yeah,” Ron decided after a pause, “Yeah, I reckon we could start from there. If it doesn’t work, we’ll just have to try something else.”“Sounds great,” Dean said, “Mom, Cas, we all good?”“Sure.”“Yes.”He clapped his hands together. Finally, they were getting somewhere. Just one more thing to take care of.“What’re we gonna do with him?” he asked, jerking a thumb in the direction of Ketch (who had apparently decided, after Dean’s attack, that it would be in his best interest to keep his mouth shut,) “You guys got anywhere we can stash him? Our dungeon’s back in the States.”That earned him a few weird looks, including one from Mary. He’d have to explain that to her later. “I mean,” Ron said hesitantly, “he is a muggle, it’s not like we can just chuck him into Azkaban for a while, even with all the dementors gone.”Harry sighed. It seemed to be a theme today. That and shrugging. “Give me a few minutes, I’ll make some calls and I can drop him off somewhere on our way to fetch Hermione and head off to the DoM.”“Hey, speaking of being muggles,” Dean said, suddenly remembering something from the books, just after Harry left for the hallway, “are Mom and I even gonna be able to come with you to Hogwarts? ‘Cause if the books got the warding that;s on the grounds right…”Ron groaned in irritation. “Damn, no, you’re right, you won’t be able to. They’ve been trying to figure out how to alter the wards so we can let the muggleborns’ parents in, but they haven’t gotten anywhere yet. Where are you staying? I can Apparate you two straight there, easy as anything, then come back when I’ve got the information.”Dean swallowed his disappointment. It wouldn’t have felt right to go without Sam, anyway. “I think we’ll pass on the Apparation. From what I’ve read, it’s even worse than Angel Air, and I’d really rather not puke on the floor of my room.”Mary looked like she was trying not to laugh. Well, she hadn’t read the books, anyway, or traveled via the Cas Express, it wasn’t her fault she didn’t know what it was like. “We have a rental car anyway,” she told Ron, “and it’s probably better if we don’t just leave it on the side of the road. We’ll drive it back to our B&B and we can meet up there when you’re done. Here, let me just-” She cut herself off to dig out a brochure from one of the inside pockets in her jacket and handed it to Ron. “The address is on there, just ask for us at the desk, we’ll tell whoever’s manning it that we’re expecting you.”Dean raised his eyebrows (the fact that he couldn’t raise both still frustrated him almost daily) at Mary, and she flushed slightly. “It got mixed up with the maps and I didn’t have anywhere else to put it. It’s good that I had it isn’t it?”There was a definite edge to her tone. Dean put his hands up, laughing slightly. “Absolutely,” he turned back to Ron, “We can work out the spells on our end while we’re there. Are you gonna be hungry when you get back?”Ron grinned.“Always.”“Awesome, we’ll have some grub ready when you get there. How long do you think that this is gonna take?”Ron took a few seconds to think about it. “Oh, probably an hour or two, maybe just a bit longer, depends on how the kids are holding up.”“Alright,” he glanced at Mary, “think that’s everything?”“Yeah, I think so.”“Cas?”I believe so. Also I think that Harry is finished.”Sure enough, Cas had barely finished his sentence when Harry came back from his calls. He looked tired. “Right, got that sorted. Castiel, if you could help me with Ketch…”“Of course.”Together, Cas and Harry untied Ketch and wrangled him, suddenly protesting wildly, so that the three of them were standing together in what looked like the most awkward triangle that ever existed. “We’ll be off then,” Harry announced. Oh, no they didn’t, Dean had something to do first. “Hang on just a minute,” he said quickly.Spurred on by his sudden inspiration, Dean stepped over to Cas and with a gentle hand on his chin, tilted the angel’s face over just enough so that he could kiss him, quickly and soundly. “Alright, now you can go.”Cas was blushing, just a little bit, and Dean really couldn’t help feeling smug. Just a little. He’d been the one to put that bit of color into his angel’s cheeks. He really, really wanted to do it again, as many times as Cas would let him. Harry looked amused, but didn’t comment. A moment later, with a loud
CRACK!
Angel, wizard and dickbag were off… to wherever it was that Harry had found to stash Ketch. “Right,” Ron said, “I’d best be off too, I’ll see you in a few hours.”“Good luck,” Mary told him. “You two too!”With a quick grin and another loud
CRACK!
Ron was gone as well, leaving Mary and Dean alone with the unconscious Men of Letters.“Shouldn't we do something about them?’ Mary asked. “Nah,” said Dean, already half-way to the door, “Just leave ‘em, we can come back later and deal with everything. We’ve got work to do.”Mary opened her mouth like she was gearing up to argue with him, then seemed to decide against it and followed him to the door. “Alright, let’s go.”… It wasn’t until they were over halfway back to their Bed and Breakfast that a sudden realization struck Dean like a hex-bag to the head. “Oh my god.”“What?”“I-Cas, I called Cas, I called him-”“Oh, honey. Yeah, you sure did.”“Holy shit. Do- you you think he-”“Dean, you’re my son and I love you dearly, but you're an idiot. Now shut up and drive.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mar. 10, 2016
Sirius blinked, glanced down at the suddenly unconscious man slumped against him, then to the floor where Sam and Teddy lay crumpled after Sam’s ill advised attempt to catch the kid with his bad arm, then blinked again. “Ummm,” he said, wincing at how wrecked his voice had become, then broke into a very uncomfortable fit of coughing. Bloody hell, his voice was worse off than it’d been after his twelve-year stint in Azkaban . His human vocal cords were woefully out of practice, just like the rest of him. The giant known as Sam (and Sirius was not short, alright, this kid was just huge; if he didn’t know better he’d suspect him of being related to Hagrid) groaned and began to pick himself up off the floor, trying to bring Teddy up with him. Yeah, okay, with the condition that Sam was in, that definitely wasn’t going to work. “Leave,” Sirius rasped, then had to pause for some more coughing. “Leave him there for now. I’ll bring Gabe here,” another spark of absolute weirdness, by the way but hey, why not, “to one of the chairs over there, then I’ll—” more coughing, he really needed some water, this hurt ”—I’ll come back for Moonlet. You need to rest your shoulder.”Without waiting for a reply, Sirius bent down and hoisted Gabe over his shoulder and staggered over to the Potters’ ridiculously massive and equally ridiculously comfortable sofa, willing his legs to get used to being bipedal again. Falling over right now would...not be great. It was a near thing, but Sirius managed to cross the room without tripping over his own feet or just plain tipping over. He deposited Gabe in the armchair closest to the fire. As far as he could tell, the (supposed to be older, seriously, what was going on here?) man was completely uninjured, and Teddy was going to need the couch. Plus, Gabe was short. Sam could have the loveseat. That done, he made his way back over to his injured companions.(Whatever the hell Gabe had done to Sirius to change him back to being human had left him completely injury free. He was also pretty sure that was why he hadn’t fallen flat on his face yet. He had so. Many. Questions.)Sam, having managed to mostly detangle himself from Teddy, had evidently decided against getting up at all and was just sitting on the floor with the kid’s head in his lap, looking slightly dazed and not a little depressed. Yeah, definitely not in good shape. Better than Teddy, definitely, but he still had an infected shoulder, and probably also a fever. And there really wasn’t much that Sirius could do about that at the moment. He had been pretty good with healing spells if he did say so himself, but he’d barely gotten his spellwork back up to snuff after his time in Azkaban before losing all access to his wand for two decades. Normal, easy spells like ‘lumos,’ for instance were going to be difficult enough. If he tried a healing spell, he was liable to make their injuries worse, possibly drastically. The Muggle way it was.
Thank you Lily.
Oh well, at least they had clean water and cloth for bandages now. Sirius bent down and lightly touched Sam’s shoulder. “C’mon, kiddo, let’s get you somewhere more comfortable.”Sam blinked up at him, eyes bleary and glazed over slightly and Sirius fought the urge to curse out loud. Definitely feverish. “But-Teddy…”“I’ve got Teddy, you worry about yourself. Alright now, up you get.”Sirius gently transferred Teddy’s head from Sam’s lap to the floor and gripped Sam’s uninjured shoulder to help him to his feet. When Sam was upright and Sirius relatively sure that he wasn’t just going to fall right back down, he bent down and scooped up Moonlet, staggering slightly under his weight. Sirius’s muscles were going to hate him for this, he just knew it. “Come on then,” Sirius said to Sam, and started making his way to the couches. Remus’s son, Teddy— he’s Teddy, his very own self, no more Remus than Harry is James, have to remember that — was warm in his arms, too warm, and again Sirius thanked Lily for the enforced Muggle First-Aide classes. That he was somehow, suddenly the right species to use that knowledge, down to the gashes he’d gotten from Greyback and had absolutely no idea how that had happened? That was all being firmly deposited in the ‘later’ box in Sirius’s head. After Sirius had done something about Sam’s shoulder and Teddy’s leg, he’d try and find out. Though, maybe he’d take a nap first. And find something to eat. And maybe take a shower too. Not necessarily in that order. Sirius put Teddy down, stretched out on the sofa and turned to see that Sam had found his way to the loveseat by Gabe’s armchair. “We need water,” he told Sirius, “water and bandages.”“And food,” Sirius agreed. “You stay put there, I’ll go find them.”“And alcohol,” Sam added. “For disinfecting. The stronger the better.”“I think we’ve got some firewhiskey around here somewhere,” Sirius told him, only lying a little bit. He knew exactly where the whiskey was, he just really didn’t want to think about it. “That’ll do,” Sam said. Sirius turned to go, but Sam’s voice stopped him once more. “You’re really Sirius Black, aren’t you?”Sirius turned back around. “Yep, that’s me, alive and in the flesh.”Sam huffed out a laugh. “How about that,” he murmured, so quietly that Sirius was pretty sure Sam hadn’t meant him to hear, then louder, “Where are we?”“This was where my best friend’s parents lived,” he said readily, studiously ignoring his growing urge to cry. “James closed it up after they died, shut everything down, but I’m keyed into the wards on the place so I can always find it when I need to.”“So this is where you came when you were sixteen?”Okay, what the hell?“How could you possibly know about that?!” he demanded incredulously, knowing that he sounded more than a little defensive and not particularly caring. Sam sighed.“Right, sorry. Um. Someone wrote a book series about Harry and his years at Hogwarts with actually kind of disturbing accuracy, apparently, and you sort of told Harry about the whole running away from home thing in his fifth year, so…”Sirius blinked rapidly, trying to process that little tidbit of information. So that was what they’d meant when they were talking about books. It also made next to no sense whatsoever. “The two of you are going to explain that to me better later, right? Because…”“Yeah, definitely, I get it.”He did?
Later, now is not the bloody time Sirius and you know it.
“Right. Anyway, yeah, I did come here. This is Potter Manor.”“Cool,” said Sam. “Y’know, Teddy was right.”“About what?” Sirius asked, curiosity getting the better of him despite Sam’s twitching lips. Now he was full out smiling, mischief dancing across his face. Much better than his previous default expression of ‘depressed.’ They were going to have to work on that, probably for both of them. Sirius was pretty sure he’d been depressed since Lily and James had died. Possibly longer. “This place is really, really Gryffindory. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen so much red and gold in one place in my life.”That startled Sirius into a laugh. “You aren’t wrong. There’s actually a story behind that, it wasn’t always like this. I’ll tell you lot when the others are awake.”Sam grinned at him.“Sounds like a plan to me!”Okay. Speaking of plans. Water, sheets for bandages, food, a bottle or two of that firewhiskey sequestered under the bed of James’ old room. First stop, the kitchen. He left Sam to...nap or brood, or whatever he wanted to do while Sirius was gathering the supplies. Sam probably would’ve helped Sirius with this if he’d asked, fever or no fever, but...aside from the more obvious reason of, Sam needed to rest already for the love of Merlin, this was something Sirius needed to do by himself. There were so many memories in this place. The house (as James and his parents had always called their home as if it weren’t a huge bloody mansion) was still mostly shut down: the portraits all slept, (although one or two with other frames might come visit at some point,) and all of the lights were out. Sirius’ connection to the wards was enough to get them all inside unscathed, but it would take Harry or one of his kids to fully wake the manor. The kitchen was quiet and, despite the light coming in the windows, dim. While the spells that kept the house in stasis also kept any dust from forming, it all still felt distinctly abandoned. James had been in a hurry after his parents were killed. He couldn’t stand to be in the place, so they hadn’t taken much time (only a few hours) to clear out the house; Sirius was pretty sure that he still had clothes in the closet of his room. The Potters had been called away in the morning, just after breakfast. A lone glass still sat on the kitchen counter. Sirius stared at it for a long moment before he had to lean his elbows against the counter and convince himself that he remembered how to breathe without sobbing. Thirty years, more even, since Sirius had been in this house. Death Eaters had killed Fleamont and Euphemia Potter barely a month before they’d all graduated from Hogwarts. Sirius could barely remember taking his Newts. They’d had to wait until summer to do anything with the house. James’d always said that they’d come back, when the war was over and Death Eater’s weren’t a threat to his home. He, none of them really, not any of the Maurauders, even fucking Peter, could bear the thought of bringing the war here, not for anything. This was their safe place. Sirius had thought that he’d bring Harry, after everything was over, but then he’d fallen through that thrice cursed Veil and...Remus must’ve died before he could tell Harry about it. As for anyone else...well...James had shut down the house completely and activated the long-term protection wards: Everyone who hadn’t been specifically keyed into the wards found their memories of the Manor...muddled, blurred. Nothing had been erased, exactly, they knew that James had lived somewhere other than Godric’s Hollow with his parents before their deaths, but they couldn’t quite remember where and it never registered as important. It was old magic, old and powerful and it had served its purpose: the manor hadn’t seen any more of the war than the Marauders practicing dueling in the grounds and it’d stayed hidden for decades. Unfortunately, now it pretty much just meant that no one had any idea of where to look for them. Sirius had a feeling that they were going to be stuck here for a while. He needed to get to work.The Potters’ wood stove was ancient and Sirius was pretty sure that no one had ever actually tried to use it without magic, but there was a pile of nice, dry wood in a basket next to it. Sirius loaded a few chunks in and sighed. “Well, here goes nothing,” he said to himself, and drew out his wand to try and cast sparks. The first try resulted in a single spark that had gone out by the time Sirius blinked. The second didn’t manage any at all. Frustrated, Sirius closed his eyes, reached deep within himself to try and get a hold on his own well of magic, and pushed. With the third try came an explosive rush of sparks, shooting from his wand to the wood. Sirius opened his eyes in surprise and immediately reared back with a yelp as fire erupted from the stove with a
FWOOM!
And a wave of scorching heat slammed into his face. Well, he’d definitely achieved fire but he was also pretty sure that he’d just singed his eyebrows. And possibly set his beard just a little bit on fire. He really needed to find a razor. Well, final confirmation attained: Sirius was not going to be doing any healing spells any time soon. From there, he operated mostly on autopilot:Grab a pot, fill it with water (wait for the sink to stop sputtering and actually work,) put it on the stove to boil. Find the linens cupboard, grab the oldest looking sheets, cut them into strips, carefully. Half into the water to sterilize, grab the whiskey and a pitcher for drinking water and some glasses, realize that it’s really bloody cold in here and also, that there’s no way to carry everything in one trip. Put everything down, light a piece of kindling in the stove and bring it back to the couches. Notice that Sam’s gone and fallen asleep, light the fire, add blankets to the mental list. Back to the kitchen, hand the freshly boiled sheet strips up to dry, add a piece of wood to the stove, two trips to bring the dry bandages, whiskey, and water to the boys. Another for blankets, one on Gabe, two on the empty chair for Sam and Teddy later. Remember to breathe. Don’t fall apart.
Breathe.
Sam started to stir just as Sirius was straightening up from depositing the blankets on the chair. He yawned, then started to stretch, only to cringe and stop moving entirely. “You’ve really got to stop moving your shoulder,” Sirius told him. Sam narrowed bleary eyes at him, clearly unimpressed. He...actually looked kind of like a disgruntled puppy, and Sirius had to bite his tongue to keep from telling him so. “Gee, thanks doc, however would I have figured that out for myself?” The deadpan sarcasm, paired with the puppy-look, was enough to startle a laugh out of Sirius. “Well, par don me ,” he shot back with feigned offense, hand to his chest as though he’d been hit.Sam smiled a little, but didn’t otherwise respond-this kid was way too sad. Decidedly ignoring the little voice in the back of his head (which sounded far too much like Lily) informing him that he was throwing stones from inside the most fragile of glass houses, Sirius resolved to at least try and get the kid cheered up, even if it was just a little. Starting with doing something about that shoulder. The supplies weren’t quite in reach, he scooted them to the end of the table and sat next to Sam, reaching slowly for the injury.“May I?”To Sirius’ dismay (though not his surprise) Sam shied away, hunching in on himself slightly. “Later, I’m fine for now. We should get Teddy taken care of first.”Merlin, Mordred, and Morgana, it was like trying to reason with Remus right after a full moon if anybody else had gotten banged up. After taking a deep breath, both to ignore the sharp pang from that thought and to summon up his best effort at channeling Madame Pomphrey, Sirius said severely, “You aren’t doing anything with your shoulder like that, so that ‘we’ is going to be a ‘me’ and only me, unless you let me do this first.”Sam looked slightly startled, and a little bit like he’d been slapped across the face. For a moment, he seemed to be seeing someone else when he looked at Sirius, but then his eyes refocused and straightened up to give Sirius better access to his shoulder. Sirius frowned slightly to himself, not quite sure what had just happened, but set it aside for the moment to gingerly unwrap the mess of bandages from the younger man’s shoulder. As he worked, he finally gave the voice to the question that had been niggling at him for the past hour.“So...How do you know Gabe?”Sam looked surprised. “You-you mean him?” he asked, gesturing to the unconscious man in the armchair. “Er, well, yes.” Sirius said, nonplussed (who else could he have been talking about?), before being distracted for just a moment as he uncovered Sam’s wound and winced. What a mess.“Huh.” Sam said thoughtfully then, when Sirius paused in his ministrations, “Clean it out with warm water, then the whiskey.”“Right.”Sirius hadn’t brought any warm water with him, so he went back to the kitchen to grab the still cooling (but no longer boiling) water from the stovetop and a few of the still-drying sterilized bandages, then back to his patient. With a slight groan at his protesting knees (and when had that happened?) Sirius resumed his seated position on Sam’s loveseat and began to clean the injury. “I guess I didn’t really answer your question,” Sam said, somewhat ruefully. Sirius snorted softly. “No, not at all.”“Sorry,” and to the younger man’s credit, he did look at it, “I’m just having some trouble figuring out how to explain...him...when you don’t...there are some things that you don’t know.”“That is rather while I’m asking,” Sirius pointed out dryly, “So why don’t you explain them to me? Here’s one: how did he heal me? And another: he should look a handful of years my senior, not only a decade older than you.”Sam was quiet again, but he did seem to be thinking, so Sirius let him be. “When you met him,” Sam said finally, “He actually told you that his name was Gabriel?”“Yeah,” Sirius told him, unsure of what that had to do with anything, “We met him the summer after our Sixth Year, he told us his name, said he was on a post-graduation trip from America with his family, though...Come to think of it, I don’t think we ever met his parents.”Sam smiled wryly.“No, you wouldn’t have.”They paused for a bit while Sirius put the firewhisky to use, but started up again, as Sirius started rewrapping the shoulder. “Gabriel isn’t human.”Um. What?“What?”“He’s not human. Or a werewolf, or vampire, or anything like that. And...from what I can tell, he must have really liked you and your friends.”Sirius was so damn confused. “What makes you say that?” he asked, because it honestly seemed like the safest of his many, many questions. “Aside from the fact that his first reaction on seeing you was to heal you? He told you his real name. And from what I know, until about six years ago, he was barely acknowledging it at all, even to himself.”This explanation...wasn’t really explaining anything. His being at an utter loss must have shown on his face, because Sam sighed and looked apologetic.“Sorry, that’s...probably not helping much. I’m usually better at this, it’s...been a long week. You finished?”The question was so off topic from that they’d been discussing that it took Sirius a second to figure out that Sam had been asking about the dressing on his arm. “Oh, yeah, all finished.”“Great. Let’s take care of Teddy, and I’ll try and explain better, deal?”“Deal.”Sirius handed the bandages to Sam and moved the rest of the supplies over on the table so that they could get to Teddy. “Gabriel is his real name,” Sam began as they used his knife (freshly cleaned with firewhiskey) to cut Teddy out of his ruined jeans, “but we-I-didn’t know that when Dean and I first met him, or the time after that. It was...the third time we ran into him, I think, when we found out. Cas was with us, and-anyway, that’s not important right now. “The point is, he must have really trusted you and your friends a hell of a lot because, as far as I know, he hadn’t gone by Gabriel at all for, like, at least two thousand years.”“Two thousand years? ” Sirius choked out, freezing in shock.Sam gave him a half smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.“Not human, remember? Anyway, De-Dean and I met him when we were looking into the death of this ethics professor in Ohio and the most bizzare things kept happening…”Once Sam Winchester got into the stride of a story, it just kept coming. He was a brilliant story-teller, and even as the tale got weirder and weirder, Sirius was entranced. Aaaaaand, apparently, Gabe, who’d they’d known for all of an (admittedly eventful) summer and who had once laughed so hard at one of James’ pranks that butterbeer had come out of his nose, Gabe who’d given the Marauders ideas for some of the best pranks they’d ever pulled, that Gabe...was the bloody fucking actual Archangel Gabriel. And he’d been masquerading as the Norse God of Mischief for the past few millennia.Sirius knew more about Norse ‘Mythology’ than he did about Christianity (which was, according to most of his family, a filthy Muggle religion and therefore not worth their time) and by the time Sam was finished, his brain was so overloaded from all of the new information on top of the stress and exhaustion of the last few days, that he could only think of one question to ask.“Did he actually give birth to an eight legged horse?”It was really for the best that they’d already finished up with the firewhiskey (and bandaging), because otherwise the shaking from Sam’s sudden bout of laughter would’ve spilled it all over the unconscious metamorphmagus whose leg they were treating. “Oh-hahaha-og, God, I needed that, thank you,” Sam said, once he’d gotten himself mostly under control, “and to answer your question, I have absolutely no idea but we are definitely asking him when he wakes up.”“Oh, definitely,” Sirius agreed, tied off the last of Teddy’s bandages, then grabbed the bottle that contained what was left of their firewhiskey, took a swig, and handed it over to Sam.“Here, after the week we’ve had, I reckon we could both use it.”Sam took the bottle and poured a good half of what was left straight down his throat as he settled back onto his loveseat. “You have no idea,” he said, “And...anyway, now you know how he healed you, and all that. Frankly, I have no idea why he’s here, other than that he knew you and James Potter. I’m still getting used to the idea that he’s not actually dead.”Sam’s voice broke on ‘dead’ and he slumped back into the backrest, looking utterly defeated and so, so tired. Sirius cursed to himself; he had, just for a moment, forgotten that Sam was dealing with his own boatload of grief. He sat on the cushion next to the younger man and stole the rest of the ‘whiskey.“I’m sorry about your brother, Sam,” Sirius told him, “It’s-It’s fucked up.”“Story of m’life,” Sam mumbled, already half asleep, “s’way it goes. I’ve got some, something to...remind me when I wake ‘p.”And then he was out, slumping over against Sirius. Sirius stood up, groaning, and gently maneuvered the younger man into as comfortable looking a position on the too-short couch as he could manage. Merlin’s pants, he was pretty sure that his joints hadn’t ached this badly when he was Snuffles. He was definitely not getting any younger. With no small amount of longing, he looked back at his armchair, or even that little rug in front of the fireplace (wouldn't be the first time) but he knew that if he sat back down now, he wouldn’t be moving again for at least four hours. He sighed, tucked the blankets around Teddy and Sam, reorganized the supplies on the coffee table, and set off in search of food.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mar. 11, 2016
Crash.
Gabriel woke up with a startled jerk and fell to the ground. Disoriented, he untangled himself from the blanket that had come with him and picked himself up off the floor to take in his surroundings. He’d been moved from where he’d passed out (which was...new) and put in an armchair, which was what he’d fallen from. Okay. One Samsquatch was passed out on the loveseat, shoulder wrapped in what appeared to be shredded sheets. He looked exhausted, even sleeping, and he had a little frowning furrow in his brow that Gabriel probably would’ve found cute if he didn’t look so unhappy. As it was, something niggled at him, the desire to smooth the pain away from the hunter’s face with his hands, which, no, not happening, absolutely not, but maybe...maybe he could do something about that shoulder, all those bruises. He reached for his power and was abruptly aware of why he’d gone down like a ton of bricks. There was barely anything there, just a great expanse of mostly nothing where he’d always had so much. Even his stores of pagan magic evaded him. That’s when Gabriel realized that he hurt , all burnt out and aching, there was nothing but charred ashes where his wings should be and he almost let himself fall apart right there, because no, no, no, can’t fly, can’t anything , but then. There! The tiny, almost undetectable remaining spark of his power was working, healing and, yes, growing, slowly, so slowly, but it was. He would heal, was healing. Lucifer had damaged Gabriel badly, but he was not broken beyond repair.
Thank you Dad.
Unfortunately, his little spark was definitely not going to be up to the task of healing anyone else anytime soon, unless he wanted to be knocked on his ass again, which, no, thank you, once was more than enough. What Gabriel had done for Sirius (and seriously, what had happened to him?) had burned through... too much of what little strength he’d gathered while he slept; if he tried anything like that again, on Sam or the unconscious kid with the bandaged leg (and who was he, anyway?) he wasn’t sure that it wouldn’t do what Luci hadn’t quite managed and finish him off for good. Soooo, fixing Sam and the kid was out. And actually, where was Sirius anyway? He should probably go and find him. Reluctantly, looking back with no small amount of longing at the armchair he’d recently vacated, Gabriel set off to find his old friend. It didn’t take him very long, all things considered. The crash that had woken him in the first place was repeated (how were Sam and New Kid still asleep, that was loud ), and this time the archangel followed the noise into the kitchen. As he came to the door, he began to hear something else—cursing. Quiet, like the curse-er was trying not to disturb anyone, but very creative, and very... heartfelt. Yep, definitely Sirius. The wizard was picking up a pan from where it had fallen to the floor (hello crashing noise), and even from the doorway Gabriel could see him shaking.
Not good, not good, not good.
Sirius set the pan down beside the sink and then he stopped moving, just stood there with his back to Gabriel, still trembling. Okay, so, things that Gabriel had figured out during his search:
This house was empty, way too empty.
It had been like that for a long time, years before Luci’d gotten stab-happy.
James Potter and co. wouldn’t have just left this place so completely abandoned for so long.
They clearly had, and on top of that, the manor felt like it was asleep somehow, or dormant, therefore,
Going by that and what he’d seen of Sirius so far (the man really needed a good shave) something bad had happened, probably something really bad and so
If Gabriel wanted to know what the hell was going on, he was going to have to talk to Sirius, probably about feelings.
Ugh. This was going to suck. At least he probably (hopefully, please) wasn’t going to have to talk about his own feelings. Why couldn’t he just not care, and therefore avoid awkward emotional conversations? Damnit. Now he was just stalling. ‘C’mon Gabriel,’ he told himself, ‘time to put on your big-angel pants and try and take care of your friend. Okay? Okay.’ “Hey, kiddo,” he said aloud, stepping gingerly into the kitchen. Sirius immediately went rigid, then relaxed a hair. He turned around. “You look younger than I do, Gabe,” he said. Okay, yeah, so Sirius was definitely Not Okay. His beard was singed, his voice a complete wreck, and he actually looked like he’d been fighting back tears. Oh, boy. “I mean, yeah,” he said, instead of doing something stupid and irrational like hugging him or something. “But I’m uh, you know, not-” Sirius let out a mirthless laugh. “Not human. Yeah. I know. Sam told me. What—what the hell did you think you were doing, oh, great Archangel Gabriel, running around with a gang of, of teenaged mortals for one bloody summer, then buggering off and disappearing without so much as a goodbye and not even- damnit Gabe, the things that happened after you left, James-” And Gabriel watched in stunned horror and Sirius Black, Padfoot, rebel and Marauder extraordinaire just... broke. Awful, heaving, sobbs, like the world was ending and they were being ripped from him, and Sirius started sliding down the side of the counter to the floor like his legs just couldn’t hold him anymore. This. This wasn’t fucking normal, okay. Gabriel might have spent the last few millennia avoiding any real emotion like the plague, but it wasn’t like he’d never seen a person cry before. This was what had to be years, oceans of pain coming out all at once and what had happened to Sirius, where was James, where was Remus, where was Peter , who had been lost, why was this coming out now? Wait. How long had Sirius been stuck as a FUCKING DOG???? Gabriel might have been panicking. Just a tad. He was frozen with it completely for a moment, because how in Luci’s hell was he supposed to deal with this? He could literally feel the agony coming off of Sirius in waves. He couldn’t just keep standing here, but what was he supposed to do? Then, a old memory, so old he’d thought it lost:
‘Gabriel, look at me, see how high I can-’
Snap!
‘Ahhh!’
‘Little one!’
‘Gabriel, it-it h-hhhhuuuuuurts!”
‘Sh, sh, fledgling, hush little one, I’ve got you, it’s alright, you’re okay, you’re fine, c’mere, let’s get you to Rafi.’
He’d been okay at comforting his siblings, once. This was...really not quite the same thing, but it looked like he was about to find out if his rusty skills were sufficient. Slowly and oh, so, carefully, as if he were approaching Kali in a bad mood, Gabriel crept over to Sirius and crouched on the floor beside his friend. (He was beginning to wonder if he still had the right to that friendship.) He placed a gentle hand on Sirius’ shaking shoulder to draw him closer.“C’mere, kiddo, I’ve got you. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Sirius didn’t put up any resistance, just pitched sideways into Gabriel with a sound like a wounded animal and started sobbing into the archangel’s shoulder instead of his own hands. The position was more than a little awkward, what with Sirius being only a few inches smaller than Sam and also basically trying to curl himself into Gabriel’s lap. Gabriel wouldn’t have moved if Dad Himself had come roaring in with a world-ending emergency, Sirius’ entirely too-sharp shoulder digging into his side notwithstanding. Some minutes later Sirius had stopped shuddering quite so violently and Gabriel decided that it was probably safe for him to ask. “What happened Sirius? To you, James, the others? Why is the house asleep?” Sirius was still crying, apparently unable to stop, but slowly, haltingly, he told Gabirel everything, from Death Eaters to Azkaban to the British Men of Letters. Dead. All of them dead at the hands of a genocidal maniac and James and Remus had both gone and had kids— Gabriel had missed all of it because of his own thrice-damned idiocy and cowardice and avoidance. And it wasn’t like he hadn’t heard of the Harry Potter books or movies. Of course he had, they were pretty much unavoidable at this point. He even knew some of what happened in them, but he’d heard the words ‘Potter’ and ‘wizards’ and started avoiding any mention of them like the plague because, and here was the damn kicker, it had reminded him too much of the group of friends he’d made and it had been painful. Even if he’d pounced on the series as soon as the first book had come out, it would’ve been too late. The author hadn’t started writing them until everything had already happened. It felt like some kind of sick joke, but he knew that it wasn’t. At least that Voldemort bastard was dead. Gabriel should’ve come back sooner, checked in, gotten involved. He already had a few ideas for a few ways he’d have liked to... take care... of that particular monster. He was sure that, given some more time, he could up that few up to several, to be enacted consecutively. His own Dad-damned unwillingness to deal with, well, with anything that really, truly mattered (i.e. the upcoming apocalypse and knowing that the Marauders would be alive when it happened [like they fucking well should have been]) had ensured that he hadn’t been around when it actually counted. There also wasn’t anything he could do about it now. Even if he had both his wings and his power, fucking with the timeline that much ... no. He’d just have to live with it and make the best of the time that he had now, until Sirius came to his senses and made him go away. “I’m so sorry, Sirius,” he murmured. “I’m sorry I wasn’t here, I should’ve been. I’m so sorry. ” Sirius gave a rusty chuckle and leaned back a little. “None of it was your fault, Gabe. I’m sorry, I just—Azkaban, being on the run, and living in my parents’ house weren’t exactly the best... processing environments, then I got stuck as Padfoot for so long... I think I was mostly just due for an epic breakdown.” “Oh, more than,” Gabriel agreed for lack of anything better today. “I-uh-yeah.” His capacity for dealing with human emotion for the day had been pretty well used up. “Umm, so what were you doing before...I came in?” Gabriel asked. Sirius smirked, finally looking a little more like the teenager that the archangel remembered, though he definitely still needed that shave. “You mean before I dropped two pans and started sobbing on the floor in your arms like a damsel in a trashy romance novel?” Gabriel snorted. Yep, definitely coming back to himself. “Yeah, before all of that.” “...We should probably get up.” “Yeah.” For a moment, neither of them moved, then Sirius groaned dramatically and levered himself to his feet. “Ugh, I’m getting bloody old.” “Forever young at heart, my friend, that’s the key,” Gabriel said and tried to follow suit. Tried being the operative word. He’d forgotten how much his everything hurt and sitting on the floor for so long had apparently done him no favors. If this was what being human felt like, he had to wonder what the hell his dad had been thinking. This was clearly a serious design flaw. Sirius clicked his tongue sympathetically and reached Gabriel up. “Ugh, thanks. Ow.” “You okay?” “Yeah, yeah, just, you know. Wings and power getting burned to a crisp from you brother stabbing you in the gut with your own sword leaves a body a little... sore.” Understatement of the millenia, not that he was going to tell Sirius that. “Dear Merlin. Are-wh-wait, if your power’s all burned out, how did you unstick me?” “Hm. When I did that, I didn’t actually know how burnt out I was—I’d just woken up, and I’ve never had this happen to me before. I’m not going to be able to do anything like that again until I’m waaaay more healed up than I am now. “Still glad I did it though. Being the only one both with opposable thumbs who’s not in immediate danger of bleeding out of something would've been... unfortunate. My caregiving instincts are suspect at best.” “Well, can’t say that I’m not glad to finally be human again, but I think you’re selling yourself a bit short there. Your caregiving instincts really aren’t that bad. “Anyway, to answer your question, I was trying to get us some food.” Gabriel hadn’t even thought about that. Shit. “Damn, do wizards do canned food? You can’t really live on water, is the vegetable garden still here? So we have nuts or something?” Sirius laughed. “Yeah, the garden’s still here, but it’s way overgrown and the vegetables that I could find weren’t ripe yet. I’ll look some more later.” “Then you humans are going to starve?” That wasn’t okay. Maybe he could part with enough energy to snap them up something to eat. “Oh, no, ‘course not. We’re having eggs.” “Eggs? Aren’t they…”—what was that word that humans used for food that went bad?—“...perishable?” “Yeah, but James bought his mum a couple dozen chicks by mistake a few months before... everything happened and I guess some of them were roosters because we’ve now got a thriving chicken population living outside and eggs lying about underfoot. Nobody’s starving.” “Oh, good. That’s lucky.” Gabriel was starting to get the sinking feeling that, for the first time since Michael and Lucifer had really started fighting, he was really, truly useless. Maybe he could get Sirius to teach him how to cook. “How can I help?” he asked, wondering when he had become the kind of person who asked that question and actually meant it. Damn wizards. Damn Winchesters. He was going soft and couldn’t even bring himself to care. Sirius sniffed. “Okay- cupboard over there,” he pointed, “is, for one, bigger on the inside, and, two-” “Has that stasis spell for food,” Gabriel finished, remembering. “Whaddya need?” “Erm... butter, and some onions if there are any in there.” “That, I can do.” Things were still awkward, the span of years since they’d last seen each other yawning between them and exacerbated by Sirius’ breakdown. Both of their upbringings and the lives that they’d lived ensured that neither of them were particularly comfortable with the amount of emoting they’d both just done. Plus, Gabriel wasn’t entirely sure that his own epic breakdown wasn’t eminent, and though he realized that it was massively hypocritical of him, he didn’t want to have it right in front of his friend. (Or Sam.) (Or the kid on the couch.) (Or anyone.) Still, they made do despite the awkwardness. Sirius, out of necessity, did most of the work, but Gabriel could crack eggs and move pens and generally make things easier for the wizard, so he did. (And really, this was the least he could do.) About an hour later, they’d managed a respectable breakfast scramble between the two of them: eggs, onions, and the cheese that Gabriel had also found in the stasis cupboard. (He hadn’t managed to find any butter, but there was cooking oil in a different cupboard that somehow hadn’t gone rancid, so they used that instead.) They hadn’t spoken much, only what was necessary for their work, and though the silence grated on Gabriel’s nerves (he’d never cared for quiet), he couldn’t come up with something to break it. (That was untrue. He could think of plenty, but none of them felt right.) So the wizard and archangel cooked in near silence, quietly dished up the food, and carried it out of the kitchen and over to the couches without saying a word. Gabriel hadn’t noticed before, but Sam looked uncomfortably cramped. That loveseat was way too small for him. He said as much to Sirius, finally feeling that words spoke out loud wouldn’t shatter something intangible and terribly fragile, and he agreed. “We’ve got plenty of rooms upstairs. I think we’ll be able to get Teddy to Remus’ old room if we’re careful, and Sam can have the guest room next to him. We can plan for what we’re going to do tomorrow.” Part of Gabriel wanted the four of them to sit and talk until they all knew exactly what was going on, what they were going to do about it and where they all stood with each other, just to get it all over with. The rest of him saw how exhausted Sirius looked, even with the healing that Gabriel had done earlier, the bruise-dark circles under Sam’s eyes as he slept, and the sweat beading Teddy’s forehead. “Well, we’ve gotta get them to eat before anything else,” Gabriel said. Sirius smiled, a quick flash of white behind his singed beard. He set the two plates in his hands down onto the coffee table. Gabriel followed suit and when Sirius went to wake the kid, he turned to Sam.The archangel hesitated, not wanting to disturb the hunter from whatever sleep he was managing to get, then reached out gently. Sam visibly needed to be fed and unfortunately, he had to be awake for that to happen. Gabriel had hardly touched Sam when he startled awake and unsteadily attempted to lunge upwards.Acting on instinct, Gabriel caught the hunter by the shoulders (careful, gently, mind the bandages) and kept him from flailing his way right onto the floor. “Woah, hey, easy there tiger,” Gabriel joked. To his surprise Sam made a hurt sound and tried to pull away from him, still half asleep. Without any real idea of what he’d done, (What he’s said, had he grabbed a bruise?), Gabriel dropped his hands and leaned back a little, giving Sam some space. “Sorry, I’m sorry. You alright there, Sam?” The hunter’s panicked breathing evened out and his eyes cleared up. “Shit. Sorry. I’m fine. Hi.” Right. So, Sam? Way super obviously not fine. Whatever. It wasn’t Gabriel’s place to push and he’s already used up his emotional sensitivity quota for the day. “Hi,” he said, in lieu of anything else. “Sorry for passing out on you earlier. Hungry?” “Yeah. There food?” “Yep.” They didn’t say anything else. Gabriel pulled back more to get Sam his plate and to give the hunter room to sit up. Sam’s right shoulder looked pretty well fucked up, so Gabriel went ahead and plopped the plate directly onto his lap with the fork on the left side, then sat himself into the newly available space next to the hunter. Sirius was still rousing Remus’ kid. Teddy was bleary eyed and appeared to be more or less incoherent. Looked like a pretty bad fever. Gabriel’s fingers itched to snap and fix him. With a scowl, he stamped down on the urge. “You gonna eat something?” Sam asked. “Hmm?” Gabriel said absently, before registering what the hunter had said, “Oh, nah. One of you three can have mine, or split it, whatever. I don’t need—” And then he was cut off by his own abdomen making a strange gurgling noise. He looked down in utter bewilderment. “What the hell?” Sam smiled at him, just a little crooked (it didn’t reach his eyes, at all what was wrong ), and gingerly reached out with his un-shot arm to grab the extra plate of food. “How low are you on power?” he asked. Gabriel scowled some more. He really didn’t like this. “Very,” he admitted quietly. “Lower than I’ve ever been, I think.” Sam just nodded as if that was the answer he’d been expecting and Gabriel hadn’t just exposed a huge weakness. “Abdomen cramping?” “Yeah?” “Okay, you’re hungry. You’re gonna need to eat for energy, just like the rest of us mere mortals. And I know it’s not cake or a candy bar, but these eggs are actually pretty good.” “Okay,” Gabriel said, and left it at that, absurdy grateful that Sam seemed content to do the same. He had a bite of food, then another. Sam had been right, this was good. Across the coffee table, Sirius had managed to get Teddy mostly upright and was helping him eat. “Teddy’s gonna need water,” Sam said. “Fevers are dehydrating.” “Yeah,” Sirius said absently, then, “Hey, before you fell asleep earlier, you asked me to remind you about something but you passed out before you could tell me what.” “Huh,” Sam said around a mouthful of eggs. He swallowed, then reached for the water. When he was done with that, the hunter set his glass down, looking sheepish. “Sorry, you’re going to have to give me a sec, I was pretty out of it.’ “Sure.” A few beats of silence and another bite of food and Sam remembered. “Oh. Yeah, that,” he said, looking uncomfortable, “Okay, so you remember what it said about the books?” “Yeah.” “Right. So...did, um, did Dumbledore ever get around to telling you about Voldemort’s horcruxes?” Sirius went pale. “Horcrux es ? As in more than one?” Gabriel grimaced in agreement. That was wrong on so many levels. “Right, so that’s a no,” Sam muttered. “Yeah, so he kind of made seven but-” “ SEVEN?!” Gabriel burst out in unison with Sirius. “Bloody fucking hell,” said the wizard. “No wonder the git wouldn't die. That is-” “Sick. That is so sick. Do you have any idea the kind of damage to the soul-” “Okay, okay,” Sam interrupted, looking like he was regretting having brought it up at all. “Yeah, horcruxes are evil, sick, and wrong, but that’s not actually the focus of what I was trying to talk about, so if you two could just... chill for a sec, that would be great.” Gabriel shut up, but put down his fork. He didn’t really feel like eating anything else. “So what did you want to tell me?’ Sam sighed, looking even more uncomfortable. “Okay, look, get that this really isn’t my place, but it,-” he sighed again. “It’s about your brother.” Sirius raised his eyebrows. “What, Reg? What about him?” Gabriel winced internally. Regulus Black had been a sore spot for Sirius even back when Gabriel had known him. Sam cleared his throat. “Yeah, him. He, um, well Harry found out about... two years after you died, I think, that, well. Sirius your brother didn’t just die trying to back out of the Death Eaters. He was killed trying to destroy the only one of the horcruxes that he knew existed.” Sirius turned an alarming shade of gray. “What happened,” he whispered hoarsely. “Um, Voldemort sort of borrowed Kreacher and took him to this cave in the middle of an infiri-infested lake and made him drink this bowl of nightmare potion called Dementor’s Draught so that he could hide the horcrux in it and…” Gabriel didn’t think that Sirius breathed at all while Sam told the story. Gabriel felt a little sick himself—Regulus couldn’t have been more than a teenager when he’d died. And death by inferi—blech. What an awful way to go. By the time that Sam was done, Teddy was unconscious again and Sirius had buried his head in his hands and was shaking. “Um...you gonna be okay?” Gabriel asked tentatively. Sirius straightened up and pushed the mess of his hair back. “Yeah. Yeah, just. Need a minute. I’m uh—I’m just gonna go ahead and take Teddy to an actual bed. I’m—my brother died a fucking hero, you hear me?” The last sentence was said with such sudden vehemence that Gabriel jumped a little. “Yes.” Sam said firmly. “He did.” “Damn right,” Gabriel agreed. Sirius nodded fiercely, once. “Right.” With that, the wizard picked Teddy up and began carrying him up the stairs. “He’s had a rough few decades,” Gabriel said by way of an explanation; for what he wasn’t sure. Sam snorted. “Haven’t we all,” he said, though not unkindly. “How are you not dead?” “Luci stabbed me with my own blade,” Gabriel told him, “Old failsafe on the archangel swords to keep anyone from stealing one and just offing one of us. Hurt like a bitch, burned up my wings and power down to almost nothing, but it didn’t quite kill me. “Came here because I knew it was safe and there’s a lot of residual energy lying around to help me heal a little faster. I didn’t wake up until you guys got here.” “Huh.” “So...how’d the Apocalypse go?” Gabriel asked to break the ensuing awkward silence. “It...went. Saw your video, that was helpful, so, you know, thanks for that. Locked Lucifer in the cage. It was with him and Michael in there for a while.” “That actually happened?!” Gabriel burst out in disbelief. “What do you mean ‘that actually happened’? Sam demanded. “I...saw some stuff while I was unconscious. Thought I was just dreaming, but…” “What else did you see?” “Umm...okay, you without a soul?” “That happened.” “Shit. Cassie going crazy and obsessing over bees?” “Yup, though I think he might like bees anyway.” “He always did. Leviathan?” “Uh huh.” “Abbadon?” “Total bitch.” “Naomi and the nightmare drill thing?” “Might actually have been even more of a bitch.” “Metatron?” “Oh, yeah. Biggest bitch.” “Mark of Cain.” “Not a fun year.” “Amara? Luci? Dad?” “Yep, uh-huh, and yeah.” “ What the hell?” “I’ve been asking myself that same question for years.”
“Jesus Little-Brother Christ.”
“Funnily enough, haven’t run into him.” Gabriel laughed and Sam did too, but then the hunter’s face fell. “So, uh, I guess you know what—what happened to Dean.” “Yeah, sure I...” Gabriel trailed off trying to reconcile the utterly heartbroken look on Sam’s face with what he’d last seen of the elder Winchester. He really couldn’t think of anything, except... Oh. Oh, no. Shit. Sam had gotten Winchester-napped before Dean had gotten back and—Shit. Sam thought that his brother was dead. “Um, Sammy?” “Yeah?” “Okay, so just keep in mind that I actually kind of like you madmen now and also that I might be an asshole, but I’m not so much of a dick that I’d lie to you about this, ‘kay?” “Ummm, sure?” “Right. Yep. Okay.” Gabriel took a steadying breath. Apparently it was his turn to drop a brother bombshell. “Sam, Dean...Dean isn’t dead.”
“WHAT?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mar. 6-8, 2016
Jamie was acting weird. Like, weirder than normal, which (for Jamie, and honestly probably the rest of their family, and most of their friends) was already pretty weird. Anyway, the point was that Dom’s baby cousin was being downright bizarre and everyone else was too busy worrying over Teddy’s abduction to notice, so it was up to her to figure it out. (To be fair, Dominique was also extremely worried about Teddy; of course she was, he was her future brother in law, after all. Also, which Dom was pretty ashamed to admit, even to herself, it had taken an outside influence for her to notice how weird Jamie was being in the first place. She really needed to step it up. She was a Ravenclaw, and a journalist to boot—if anyone should have noticed on their own, it was her!) Dom, her siblings, their cousins, and a good chunk of their friends had all been spending most of their free time in the Gryffindor Common Room for about two days when she finally noticed that something beyond their missing metamorphmagus was going on. And really, spending that much time in close proximity to Jamie should have made it blatantly obvious. But Dom was preoccupied, okay? Teddy was missing, all of her cousins were freaking out, Vic was a total mess, Gracie Wood had hugged her when she’d found out about the aforementioned missing person, and fucking Joanne in the year below her was back on trying to get her bullshit into the school paper. Why she kept trying, even though: a, she wasn’t actually part of the paper; b, every piece of writing she’d submitted for the Guest Column had been rejected from the moment she’d introduced said bullshit into her fantasy series; and c, she damn well knew about Louis and therefore it would be a cold, cold day in hell before Dominique let that anywhere near her paper. It was beyond frustrating and Dom struggled with the urge to punch Joanne on a regular basis but, ironically, this latest attempt was (indirectly) the reason that Dom finally clued in about Jamie. The Golden Sitch was student run, had been since the day it was started, but Luna [also known as Aunt Luna (she really preferred her first name, but some of her niblings just couldn’t bring themselves to be that informal), Professor Lovegood (to first years for, like, the first week, to the consternation of most of the older professors) or the Batty Professor (which she mostly just ignored)] was their supervisor/sponsor and so was indirectly involved. (She also occasionally wrote a story for them, mostly at the start of the school year, as they tended to detail her creature-discovering expeditions with Rolf and also because hardly anyone ever understood most of what she wrote about.) Anyway, Dom, like she often did when she was frustrated (especially when the frustration was paper-related and/or Vic was dealing with her own stuff), went to see Luna. Luna’s advice rarely, if ever, made sense immediately, but once you accepted that, she wasn’t that hard to understand. Most of Dom’s family disagreed (except Jamie, who was already crazy, Uncle Harry who... honestly probably was too, and one or two of the others) but most of the rest of her family also didn’t get the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy either, so. Their loss. In this particular instance (during lunch a day and a half after they’d gotten the news), Luna sat quietly and let Dom rant about Joanne’s bigoted, outdated, irritating, infuriating, transphobic bullshit until she ran out of steam. This took a few minutes. When Dom was done, Luna put down her tea and said, “Joanne has had a very persistent Wrackspurt infestation for at least as long as she’s attended Hogwarts. It’s only gotten worse with time, and as she’s never seemed to be at all inclined to deal with them, (from what I’ve heard and noticed, she seems to have embraced them, actually), there isn’t much anybody else can do about it. “It’s sad, and yes, rather infuriating, but you aren’t her Wrackspurt exterminator, Dom. You can offer the positive thoughts, but you can’t force her to think them, and neither can anyone else.” Dom sighed. Luna was actually being pretty clear this time, for her. “I know, Luna. Thanks.” Luna smiled. “Anytime.” Dom let a beat of silence pass before giving voice to a frustrated groan. “She was right about something though.” Luna raised her eyebrows. “Oh?” Dom sighed again. “We haven’t had anything actually, you know, interesting in the Guest Column for ages, and people actually liked Joanne’s stuff, you know, before she started spewing rubbish. I don’t suppose you might have any ideas?” For a few moments Luna was quiet, and looked about as thoughtful as she ever did. Dom really, really hoped that she could come up with something, because Dom was way too stressed to be that creative. Plus, Luna actually cut down on the abstract stuff when it came to the actual running of the paper, which made Dom’s life much easier than it would’ve been otherwise. “Hmm. I suppose I could come up with an article or two, Rolf is on a trip to find some Blibbering Humdingers and he’s been sending letters. But I suppose it’s not very fair to the students... and you were saying that they did like Joanne’s stories.” “Yeah. I did too, actually, they were pretty good.” Which was the worst part, really. Luna shrugged. “Perhaps you could do a ‘throwback,’” here she used actual air quotes , “series for the Guest Column, reprint some of the more popular articles while you look for some other guest writers.” Dom actually laughed out loud, she was that relieved. “Hah! That might actually work, thanks Luna!” Luna’s smile widened. “You’re welcome. Maybe you could ask Jamie. He might’ve gotten a story or two from whatever’s making his aura go all gray-purple.” “What?” What was that supposed to mean? Dom had the hardest time understanding Luna when she got into auras, partly because she didn’t that often, so Dom hadn’t gotten the practice. Luna only raised her eyebrows again. She wasn’t going to be elaborating any more than that. Alright then, Dom would just have to go bother her cousin until she figured out what Luna was on about. Dom had hugged Luna goodbye, and was halfway out the office door when Luna called out after her, “How are things going with Gracie?” Dom made a squeaking noise she would forever deny ever left her mouth. “What? Nothing! Is going, I mean. Why do you ask?” Ugh, now she looked smug. “Your aura goes all pink whenever you see her.” Now that , Dom had no trouble interpreting. Blushing furiously, Dom made her escape to the sound of giggles. Honestly. Luna really needed to stop coming up with new ways to tease her every time she got a crush. Dom herself had only just realized she liked Gracie a few days ago! It wasn’t like she was in love with the Keeper. Just because she was tall, and had glorious upper body strength, and was so nice and bold at the same time and really good at Quidditch— Ahem. Anyway. Between Luna’s remarks and sorting out the Guest Column problem, Dom’s mind was taken neatly off of Jamie until after dinner the next day. When she finally did notice, it was... kind of blindingly obvious. She couldn’t fault her cousins for not noticing, they were all caught up in their own worries and schoolwork and also didn’t have Luna bringing their attention to whatever it was that was going on. As for Jamie, he was acting downright fishy. Which really, really, wasn’t normal for him. Jamie hardly ever acted fishy. Maniacal? Sure. Ominously placid? Yup, and you’d better watch out because that usually meant he’d been plotting. Weird beyond all measure? More often than not. But never fishy . Jamie was up to something, and it wasn’t his usual brand of mischief. For one thing, he wasn’t even in any kind of a pranking mood just now (he actually looked like he hadn’t slept a wink since he’d found out about Teddy). For another, judging by the fact that they both looked well rested, if worried, neither Fred or Roxanne were in on it, which, again, really, really odd. Those three told each other everything. Dom groaned quietly, kissing at least a good chunk of her night’s sleep goodbye. It was a time-honoured family tradition to do whatever it was you were doing and didn’t want anyone else to know about in the middle of the night. Ergo, Dom was going to need to stage a stakeout just outside of the entrance to Gryffindor’s common room if she wanted to find out what Jamie was up to. Well, there was nothing for it. Dom left for her own common room, dropped off her bookbag, shrunk a blanket, and, after a moment’s consideration, grabbed her well-loved volume of the Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide and a small reading light. Next, she headed straight for the kitchens. She always ended up hungry if she stayed awake late enough, and Jamie was never not hungry. Plus, Dom’s cousin was easily bribed with food, and if he decided that he was going to be stubborn, she really ought to be prepared to use that against him. Treacle (for Jamie) and custard (for herself) tarts in hand, Dom cast a Disillusionment Charm on herself, hurried back to Gryffindor tower, re-enlarged her blanket, opened her book, and settled in to wait. And wait. And wait. When it had become almost two in the morning with no sign of Jamie, Dom was down to her second to last custard tart, halfway through Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and starting to think that she’d somehow gotten the wrong impression. Finally, just as she was about to give up and get some sleep and to her combined relief and consternation, Jamie emerged from the portrait. Dom followed behind him as closely as she dared and as quietly as she could. Jamie snuck through the corridors, using as many secret passages as were on his route (Al must have the Map, which was working out rather well for Dom) until he came to the Great Hall. Then he ducked into the side chamber that held Violet’s portrait. Dom waited for a few seconds, but once it became clear that this was actually Jamie’s end destination, she lifted her Disillusionment Charm. “What’s this about, then?” she asked, not bothering to lower her voice. Jamie jumped about a foot in the air with a sound somewhere between a shriek and a squeak. Heh. Dom kind of wished she’d brought her camera, that picture would’ve made for excellent blackmail material. “What in the bloody—” James sputtered, “Oh— Dom. Hi?” Her poor cousin looked like nothing so much as a deer caught in headlights. Hmm. Maybe next time she was planning on startling someone, she could bring along Jeanie Creevey to capture the moment. “‘Lo Jamie. What’re you up to?” Jamie swallowed nervously. Seriously, what had happened to his poker face? Kid could pull off the most ridiculous pranks and not tip anyone off that he didn’t want to be, and right now he was practically an open book. “Up to? Me? I’m um... not up to anything, why would you think—” Oh, for Merlin’s sake. “For someone who’s pulled off pranks that would make your granddad proud without so much as a hint, you’re a really, really, bad liar Jamie. Also, I followed you from your common room. And it’s two in the bloody morning.” Jamie deflated all at once, and his shoulders slump. Okaaaay? Had she hurt his feelings? She hadn’t been that, mean, right? “How’d you know?” Dom shrugged. “I mean...I didn’t, not really. Just— Luna said something about your aura, and then I noticed that you were acting even weirder than you normally do and also you look like you haven’t slept at all since we... got the news, so...” Jamie huffed, looking slightly incredulous. “So, what, you got a, a hunch and just decided to lie in wait for me with”—he squinted closer at her book—“ The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? ” “And some custard tarts.” Jamie was looking a little better. Maybe she hadn’t been too mean after all. Whew. “You are such a journalist, bloody hell.” Dom grinned at him, and held up the bag with her kitchen bounty. There, that was better. “Thanks. Treacle tart?” “Merlin, yes.” Dom waited until he was mostly done with his first (enormous) bite before asking, “So what are we doing here?” Jamie made a muffled noise, thought the better of it, then swallowed. “I’m—” He was cut off by a gaggle of painted shapes tumbling into Violet’s portrait all at once, then whipped eagerly around to face him. “Any luck?” he asked them, looking and sounding so painfully hopeful that, even though Dom had no clue what he was talking about, her heart hurt. It wasn’t Violet that answered him, though she’d come with the rest, but a young girl Dom recognized as Ariana Dumbledore. Dom had seen her in the Room of Requirement, but she hadn’t had any idea that she could leave that frame for the others in the castle. “Sorry Jamie,” she said, smiling sadly. “Nobody’s found or heard anything yet. We’ll all keep looking.” Aaaaaaaand, Jamie’s shoulders were slumping again. Yeah, this definitely wasn’t a prank. What was he doing with the portraits? What did it have to do with Teddy? “Yeah, um. Thanks anyway, for trying, all of you.” Percival Pratt shoved his way to the front of the group. “Don’t become discouraged, my dears, we’ll keep a lookout, just calm your fears. We’ll not get bored, this is the most excitement that we’ve had for years!” Most of the others choursed their agreement, though a few were preoccupied with groaning and trying to smack Percival for his rhymes. When they were done, they trickled out of Violet’s portrait one by one until she was the only one left. She smiled at Jamie. “Don’t worry dear,” she said kindly. “Even if we’re not able to find him, your father and uncle will. They were always very good at what they do.” Jamie smiled, though he looked teary. Dom needed an explanation, now. “Thanks, Vi.” “I’m going to visit Olivia,” the painting said. “Take as long as you need, loves.” With that, she left, and Jamie and Dom were left alone in the chamber. Dom studied the gray stone on the wall on the opposite wall, and wondered idly if Violet might like something more interesting to look at. She’d have to ask. When Jamie had gone a few minutes without volunteering any information, or doing anything other than look lost in thought and vaguely miserable, Dom decided that she’d need to prod him, or they’d be here all night. She pulled her blanket off from around her shoulders and onto the floor, and dragged Jamie down to sit with her. “Alright Jamie, spill. What’s all this about?” Jamie sighed, picking at the rest of his tart. “After Dad and Uncle Ron told us about what had happened to Teddy, I-I needed to feel like I was doing something. Anything. So I borrowed the Map from Al, it’s his week, and asked the Map Marauders if they had any ideas…”
/Two Nights Before/
Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs bid the Prongslet a chaotic day, and ask him what mischief he's up to that he needs to call upon the wisdom of those who came before him?
Jamie swallowed. He really needed this to work. “I-It’s not mischief, exactly. But I do need your help.”
Mr. Padfoot would like to know why the Prongslet is asking us for help if he’s not actually up to mischief.
“It’s—look, I know that you lot are mostly in it for the pranks and stuff, but if you can do that, it means that you’re really clever, even as words on a map, and I need that right now.”
Mr. Prongs would blush if he were able to, and admits to being flattered.
Mr. Moony seconds Mr. Prongs and imparts to the Prongslet that we will help him in any way that we can.
Jamie sighed his relief, already feeling a bit more steady.
Mr. Wormtail asks the Prongslet to tell us what the problem is.
“Teddy—the Moonlet—is missing. He got taken on an assignment for the Aurors. Dad and Uncle Ron are saying that they think it was Muggles, and I— I—” Jamie suddenly found himself fighting to speak through his tears. “I’m just so scared for him, and I don’t know what to do and I know that Dad and Uncle Ron are really, really good and they can find him, but I’m stuck here and I can’t help and I’ve got to be able to do something or I’m going to go mad-” Jamie cut himself off, gasping for breath as he tried to dash the tears from his eyes with his sleeves so he could see. It took him several deep, shuddering, breaths but he could finally focus his eyes enough to read the responses.
Mr. Moony expresses his concern for his physical self’s offspring.
Mr. Padfoot wants to know how Muggles were able to overpower the offspring of a Marauder.
Mr. Prongs agrees with the Prongslet as to the abilities of Prongs Jr. and Ron Weasley, but also sympathizes with the Prongslet’s plight, as his physical self also hated feeling hopeless.
Mr. Wormtail inquires as to what we can do to help the Prongslet.
Jamie chuckled. “Sorry, Padfoot, I’m not sure exactly what happened. Teddy was looking into something that was ripping out Muggles’ hearts during the full moon and umm...I guess there’s some group of Muggles that sort of, hunts?, whatever was doing it, and they ran into Teddy, and took him. For some reason. “And... I was just... hoping that you lot might have, just, any ideas of something I could do from here to help look for him.” There was a long pause during which the Map remained blank. Jamie waited, heart in his throat, hoping desperately that they would have even the barest beginnings of the worst of plans. Just. Something. Finally, writing spilled back over the grubby parchment.
Mr. Moony would like to thank the Prongslet for bringing such an interesting problem to us, as we don’t think we’ve had something so challenging to do since we were created.
Mr. Wormtail agrees with Mr. Mooney and wishes for the Prongslet to know that we’ve done our best thinking as a Map and have come up with an idea.
Mr. Padfoot is slightly put out that Mr. Prongs is hogging the idea-revealing all to himself, but defers to him as the sort-of-but-not-really grandfather of the Prongslet, and wishes the Prongslet good luck.
Mr. Prongs would like to know if it has occurred to either the Prongslet or Prongs Jr. that the muggles might have allies in the wizarding world.
“No,” James said, startled. “At least, I haven’t thought of it, and Dad hasn’t said anything. Why?”
Mr. Prongs has conferred with his fellow Marauders, and while you are constrained to Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, we think that you might be able to help the Moonlet by...
/Present Day/
“...and then Prongs gave me the idea to ask the portraits in the castle for help. Loads of them have portraits in other places, you know—the Ministry, people’s houses, St. Mungo’s—and those places have other portraits that might have secondary frames in more other places, so if you can set up a network, you basically have spies in all of Wizarding Britain. “So if the muggles who got Teddy are working with wizards and they take him to somewhere that has a portrait, or even if they’re not and Teddy escapes to somewhere that has one, the portraits can tell me, and I can tell Dad,” Jamie finished, and then hesitated, looking uncertain. “I know it’s a really long shot, Dom, that’s why I haven’t told anyone. I don’t want to get any hopes up for no good reason, especially Vic and Al and—” Jamie’s voice dropped down to a mumble that Dom had to strain her ears to make out. “—and I don’t want them to think I’m being stupid. I mean. Like I said. I know it’s a long shot.” “I think it’s brilliant,” said Dom, with complete honesty. “And so would the others. But I won’t tell them if you don’t want me to.” Jamie sniffed, looking at her hopefully. How such a little shit could have such effective puppy eyes was beyond Dom. “You do?” Seriously. He was like a little brown-eyed puppy who thought you might kick him and was asking you really, really nicely not to. “And... thanks. I appreciate that.” “Yeah, ‘course I do, ‘cause it is.” Jamie finally relaxed, then leaned into Dom sideways, arms wrapping tightly around her waist. “Thanks.” “No problem,” Dom said, hugging him back with an arm around his shoulders. “What else are cousins in oddly tight-knit families for?” Jamie muffled a laugh in her shoulder. “I dunno. You really think this could work?” Dom let out a sigh that became a breathy laugh. “Jamie, if Douglas Addams can come up with the idea for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy while lying drunk in a field in Austria, you can find Teddy with the help of a magical map and some portraits without leaving this castle.” “Thanks Dom... Wait, Douglas Adams did what?” Dom laughed again, properly this time, and used the arm she had slung around Jamie to pull him in a little closer. “You would know, cousin mine, if you had ever, I dunno, read the bloody book. It’s all right there in the forward.” Jamie squirmed for a minute, scowling, then accepted defeat and went limp. “Okay.” “Okay?” “Okay, I’ll read the book, you’ve been nagging me about it for years, but only after Teddy’s safe at home.” Dom couldn’t help it, she squealed. “Yes! Yes, finally, Great Merlin, I need to be able to talk to someone other than Luna about the perfect lunacy of the Hitchhiker’s Guide. You’ll love it Jamie, promise, it’s absolutely brilliant. Douglas Adams was a genius.” Jamie, well versed in Dom’s (and Vic’s, and Molly’s, and Al’s, and—oh, never mind) book-related enthusiasm, just rolled his eyes as if he, too, was not also a giant nerd. (Dom had seen the kind of research that went into some of his, Roxanne’s, and Fred’s greatest pranks, okay? Way too many of them stemmed from something one of the three has seen/read in their book/show/movie of the week. Giant. Nerd.) “Alright, if it’s as mad as you keep telling me it is Dom, it should at least keep me interested.” “Luna likes it, Jamie.” “... Good point.” They sat there in a comfortable silence for a while, finishing off their respective (post-)midnight snacks (and making a right mess, these really weren’t supposed to be finger food.) When Dom finished licking the last crumbs of her last custard tart from her fingers, she gave her cousin a once-over and sighed to herself. Jamie was leaning on her heavily, eyes drooping. He’d had one too many all-nighters, and at the rate he was going with these nightly portrait meetings, he’d be passing out from exhaustion in the halls sooner rather than later. Dom didn’t want to infringe on his plan (because it really was absolutely brilliant) but this wasn’t sustainable. “Hey, Jamie?” “Yeah?” “When was the last time you got more than a few hours of sleep?” Jamie froze, eyes wide like Bambi caught in headlights. “...Umm...” She sighed. “You can’t go on like this.” Jamie sat bolt upright and pulled away from her, looking hurt and a little betrayed. “I can’t just stop! What about Teddy?” his voice was high and indignant, and he actually seemed like he was near tears. Crap. “I thought,” he swallowed, looking at her pleadingly, “I thought you were with me on this.” Shit, shit, shit. That had come out wrong. “Jamie, I am , I’m not saying that you should stop completely, but you can’t keep coming down here in the early hours of the morning on a daily basis! You need to sleep. I can help, but since you don’t want any of the others knowing, we’re both going to end up sleep deprived and cranky.” Jamie was still glaring, but it had softened a bit and he looked slightly less tense. “Do you have a better idea?” he asked. “Ask the ghosts for help,” Dom replied, sounding probably more confident than she had any right to be, considering that she’d come up with the idea on the spot, though the more she thought about it the more she warmed up to the idea. “They don’t need to sleep, and I know a few of the house elves have insomnia; they take turns working at night, they might be able to help with this too. We can still go to these meetings ourselves, but we’ll take turns, only do it once a week each. If the ghosts or house elves learn anything, they can tell us, and if we do, we can tell each other. That way, we can do this and still be functional.” Jamie stared at her, looking slightly shocked and (thankfully) not at all betrayed anymore. “Dom—you—how—you’re a bloody genius , you know that? How in Merlin’s name did that not occur to me?” Dom shrugged. “You’re exhausted, worried, and stressed out to boot? For now at least, I’m only two out of three.” Jamie laughed, finally smiling. Dom smiled back, teasing. “So...does this mean that we’re adding shifts into your plan?” “Wha-of course it does, thank you so much, I’m so tired-” Dom leaned over and hugged him again. “We need to get you some sleep, you daft idiot.” Jamie hit her arm weakly, but Dom could tell that he was still smiling. “We’re really gonna do this.” “‘Course we are.” He pulled back, and he already looked far less exhausted. Mission accomplished. “Let’s go find Nick!” Hah. Dom snorted. “What, now?” “Yeah, now.” “Hmm, let me think about it... no.” “What do you mean, ‘no’?” “Jamie, it’s gotta be almost three in the morning by now. We need to go to bed. We’ll talk to the ghosts tomorrow.” “But—” “Tomorrow, James, meet me in the trophy room at lunch.” “Ugh. Fine. Tomorrow.” They got up; Dom shrunk her blanket back down, gathered up her book, and walked with Jamie back to the entrance to his common room. If Dom hadn’t already been sure that she’d made the right call, the way that Jamie swayed while he walked would’ve convinced her. She just hoped that he made it all the way to his bed before he passed out. After dropping off Jamie, Dom made her way back to Ravenclaw Tower. By the time she got to her dorm, she was yawning almost constantly and she barely remembered to put her book away before collapsing face down into her bed and falling asleep. (She never had handled late nights that well.) The next morning came around way too quickly. Dom barely managed to drag herself out of bed in time for breakfast (and Lysander really did most of the dragging, bless them, they really didn’t deserve how grumpy Dom was about it), and once she was in the Great Hall, she made a point to glare over at Jamie at the Gryffindor table... And almost immediately felt bad about it. Jamie looked worse than Dom felt, and it looked like Fred and Roxanne were finally starting to notice that something was off, because Roxie had come over from the Slytherin table to help her twin hover and make Jamie eat something. With any luck, they’d be able to convince him to take a nap at some point, hopefully before they met up during lunch. Lorcan was staying over with his housemates at the Hufflepuff table this morning, but Lysander was apparently taking up the role of the mom-friend in their twin’s absence and refilling Dom’s tea whenever she wasn’t looking. She might have otherwise been irritated, but they didn’t pry, and anyway their covert refilling kept her caffeinated enough to make it through her classes to lunch without falling asleep, so she couldn’t bring herself to be annoyed. By some miracle, Dom managed to avoid both of her best friends at lunch, and (after checking in with Louis to make sure he was okay, which he was), she was able to escape the Great Hall with her food and make her way to the trophy room to meet Jamie. There was just one thing she had to do first. Jamie, his own lunch in hand (he must have been late, she hadn’t seen him in the Great Hall) found her in the trophy room and stopped dead. “Erm, hi? Peeves?” The poltergeist blew a raspberry and flipped over in midair. “So,” he asked giddily. “What’re we doing? Prank? Destruction? Are we setting something on fire???” Jamie just blinked, used to Peeves, even though Dom hadn’t told him that he’d be here. “Erm...” he repeated.“No. Dom, why is he here?” “I’m cashing in a favor he owes me,” Dom said, steadfastly ignoring the flabbergasted look on her cousin’s face. “I couldn’t find any of the other ghosts to meet us on such short notice. “Peeves, Jamie’s godbrother has been abducted. You remember Teddy Lupin right?” Peeves scoffed, straightening out of the full-body pout he’d fallen into when Jamie had told him that destruction wouldn’t be involved. “Of course I do, that’s Moony’s spawn. Who do you take me for?” “Right, sorry—anyway, Jamie’s set up a system with the portraits to try and help find him, and I was hoping that you and the other ghosts could take shifts and help us check in with the portraits and let us know if they’ve found anything.” Peeves looked thoughtful. “Hmmm. Let’s say I did help you? What do I get out of it?” Dom smirked at him. “You won’t owe me a favor anymore, and I don’t tell anyone what I did for you. Also, if you muck this up on purpose, neither of those will hold. Deal?” The full body pout was back. “Oooookay. Deal. How do you want to set this up?” “Ummm...” Dom hadn’t thought about shift days yet. She looked at Jamie for help. “Ummm,” he said. “I guess I could take Fridays?” Dom nodded, thinking. “And, I could take, er, Tuesdays…” “And the house elves could do Wednesdays and Thursdays.” “Yeah, alright. Peeves, your lot have Mondays, Saturdays and Sundays. You check in with Violet’s portraits around two in the morning.” Peeves nodded. “Mondays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Got it.” He started to float off, until Jamie called after him. “Wait!” The poltergeist turned back and Dom stared at Jamie, wondering what he was up to now. “I’ll give you two packs of glitter-dungbombs if you use them to ward off prefects and teachers on the days that Dom and I are on shift.” Peeve’s answering grin was downright maniacal and Dom mentally apologized to all of the prefects. They were in for a nasty surprise. “You have a deal.” The second he was gone, Jamie rounded on Dom. “Since when does Peeves owe you a favor?” Dom shrugged. “Sorry, can’t tell you. You just heard all you’re going to until I’m well out of Hogwarts. Now are we going to the kitchens to talk to the house elves or not? Jamie grinned. “Not. Fred and Roxanne are getting suspicious, so I got my lunch in the kitchens to avoid them and recruited Winky and Dally. I’m trading them Gran’s shortbread recipe and one of Uncle George’s trick hats each in exchange for their help, so they're both totally on board.” Dom blinked, impressed despite herself. Still... “Are you sure that you don’t want to tell at least them about this? You know they’d want to help.” Jamie glared at her. “Yes. We’re not dragging anyone else into this.” “Okay.” Jamie subsided, and they both dug into their food. Then a thought occurred to Dom, and she snickered. “What?” “Nothing, it’s just-Luna was right. This would make a great story for the Guest Column.” “Wait, what?”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mar. 12, 2016
Ron felt a bit of his tension melt away the instant he stepped foot on the grounds. It was really quite ironic, he supposed, how safe this place (well, most of it, at least) made him feel even after all this time, considering how many times he’d nearly died here. How many people actually had. Still, he’d made the best friendships he could ever ask for within those walls, and anyway, Voldemort was long since gone and dealt with. Maybe that was it, actually. Voldemort had come to Hogwarts and he had not left again. The castle had never been taken before, not completely, not by anyone, ever. Maybe it was that whatever problems they’d come across here, they’d also solved here, together. There was a funny sort of security in that. (It took Ron a long time before he could even walk by the Great Hall without flinching, after. He never was able to stand going near the corridor that Fred had died in. There were ghosts in the castle beyond the ones that were visible. He still loved the school with all of his heart. It was strange.) His feet remembered the way to his old common room with ease. After he’d sent the patronus to Professor McGonagall letting her know to expect him and why, she’d sent hers directly back with the password for the Tower and hinted strongly that their business could wait until after he’d gone to see the kids. (Ron honestly wasn’t sure whether she’d done that to help him or to help her current students. It might have been both. Knowing her, it probably was both.) One of the other portraits must have already told the Fat Lady that Ron was coming, because she didn’t seem at all surprised to see him, just greeted him with a smile. “Hello, dear. They’re all up there, even everyone from the other Houses. I’m sure they’ll be very glad to see you.” Ron smiled back. “I hope so, thanks.” “Ah, no news on young Mr. Lupin, then?” Of course she knew about Teddy. The portraits always knew. They were worse gossips than the ghosts. “Well, some news, but we still haven’t found him. Flummadiddle.” That had been abrupt and probably not a little bit rude, and Ron knew it. He couldn’t worry about that now; he just needed to get to the kids. He really didn’t want to go over this any more times than he absolutely had to. Thankfully, the Fat Lady had known him all through his school years; she knew how he operated when he was this worried about someone he cared about. Ron was sure that he’d feel bad about snapping later, and he was definitely going to need to apologize at some point. She’d forgive him. Eventually. Probably. He’d worry about it later. Now, he needed to check on the kids. When he emerged into his old common room, looking largely unchanged in the years since he’d last seen it, he saw that the portrait had really not been kidding: All of his niblings, Rose, and what looked like most of their friends, regardless of what House they actually belonged to, were all crowded on and around the couches. Given how early it still was (and Ron really hadn't gotten and iota of sleep last night, had he?) they'd probably all slept here. Rosie spotted him fist, and with a cry of, “Dad!” she catapulted herself out of her armchair, dislodging both Albus and Malfoy’s kid, who were sitting on the floor and had been leaning against her legs, and ran straight at Ron, launching herself into his arms. He held his daughter close for just a moment, burying his face in her hair, and taking a moment to breathe, before letting her step back to give the rest of the kids a chance to mob him. "Uncle Ron!" "What are you doing here?" "Hi!" "Have you found Teddy?" "Where's Dad?" "Do you have any leads?" "Did he really get nabbed by Muggles?" "Is there anything-" A piercing whistle cut through the chatter, and Ron was a bit bemused to look up and find that it had come from Scorpius Malfoy who, now that everyone had quieted down, was stepping down from where he had been standing on one of the armchairs. Huh. Scorpius winked at him and Ron, rather against his will, found himself wanting to grin at him. Thankfully for his little remaining sanity, Ron was both extremely stressed and had news to deliver and therefore was saved from contemplating the fact that he might actually like Malfoy’s kid. “Okay, alright, I do have an update on Teddy.” “You haven’t found him though,” said Roxanne, sounding absolutely sure. “If you’d found him you wouldn’t be here.” “And why are you here, anyway?” Jamie asked. “Not that I’m not, you know, glad to see you and it’s great that you’re bringing an update, but you could’ve sent a patronus or something and kept looking.” Why did they all have to be so damned smart? Ron sighed. At least none of them were sneaking out to try and find Teddy on their own, which is what he, Harry, and Hermione would’ve been doing. Thankfully, these kids could actually trust their adults and therefore didn’t have to. “Yeah, no, we haven’t found him yet, but we’ve got a lead, and I need to consult Professor McGonagall while Harry’s following up with the Ministry, so I thought I’d come see how you lot were holding up.” “Can you tell us what the lead is?” Vic asked. Ron chuckled wryly. “Yeah, umm, well it’s sort of a more ‘seeing is believing’ kind of thing, but we found somewhere he was, and we’ve stumbled across some unexpected help in the case, so the Headmistress is going to try and help, and then if that doesn’t work, we’ll work off the rest of what we have. I really can’t tell you more than that right now, but we’re getting closer, I promise you that.” “‘Where he was’?” Rose asked sharply. “Dad, what do you mean you found somewhere he was?” Ron sighed internally, wishing that he and Harry had thought to discuss exactly what they were going to be telling the kids. “Look, Rosie, I’m sorry, but that’s all I can tell you right now. We’ll have one hell of a story to tell when we get Teddy back, but until then, you lot’ve gotta be patient.” There wasn’t a single one of them who didn’t look disappointed, but what was he supposed to tell them? That Teddy had escaped from a secret Muggle creature-hunting agency with a dead man (who may or may not be stuck as a dog) and a fictional character, and now he and Harry had teamed up with two more fictional characters, one of whom was an angel, to try and find them? For that matter, how in the bloody hell was he supposed to tell the Professor what she needed to know and not have her call the mental ward in St. Mungo’s? “Alright, I’m not only here to give you spotty updates, how are you all holding up?” “Fine.” “We’re fine, Uncle Ron.” “Doing as well as we can be I guess, just get Teddy back alright?” “Dom’s been dealing with Joanne from Fourth Year again, but she’s got an idea now, so that’s going okay.” “We’ll be just brilliant as soon as we know that Teddy’s fine.” “We’re good, go see the Headmistress.” “Yeah, go get ‘em we’re fine.” “Thanks Uncle Ron, we’re good.” Well, he knew a dismissal when he heard one. “Right, yeah.” He paused, not wanting to miss anything. “You sure there isn’t anything else I can do, can I get you anything?” The kids all looked at each other, then Al shrugged. “We could go for a hug, I guess.” Laughing, Ron opened his arms and was immediately pounced upon by all nine of his niblings and his daughter, who squished him between them in a massive group hug that was over as quickly as it had started. “Alright,” he said, loath to leave, but already moving towards the door, “You lot take care of each other, you here? And with any luck, the next time I see you, Teddy’ll be here too, so keep you fingers crossed!” “We’ve got ‘em Mr. Weasley,” Lysander Scamander promised, their twin nodding fiercely. Scorpius, the Longbottom kids and the rest of the assorted friends chorused their agreement. “We’re holding you to that,” Molly called, “so you better find him quick!” “Make sure Dad’s eating! Oh, and sleeping too!” Albus added. “And take care of yourself as well!” Rosie finished. “I’ll do my best,” Ron promised, then started making his way back through the tunnel. He was stopped by a hand on his elbow, and turned to find Jamie standing there, looking uncharacteristically solemn. And, actually, also sort of drawn and pale, like he hadn’t been sleeping well or eating enough. “Hey, Jamie, what’s up?” Jamie opened his mouth, closed it, then bit his lip. Finally, when Ron was just about ready to call for Fred or Roxanne to tell him what was wrong with their partner in crime, he stuck out his fist, a ball of silvery fabric spilling out. “Just...be careful. And here, you and Dad might need this.” Ron reached out and gently took the Cloak from him. “You sure Jamie?” A small smile tugged on the corner of his nephew’s mouth, but he still looked more wan than Ron was at all comfortable with. “Yeah. I talked about it with Al, and anyway, it’s not like I’m much in the mood for pranks right now. You never know when you’ll really need to be invisible for a rescue operation, so you’re probably gonna need it more than we do, anyway.” Ron nodded and tucked the Cloak away into his inside pocket. Jamie was right. This would almost certainly come in handy, it always did. “Okay. Thank you.” Jamie sniffed once, then darted in and hugged Ron around the middle, hard enough to almost to knock the breath out of him. “Just find him,” he mumbled into the front of Ron’s robes, then pulled back abruptly, sniffing. Ron reached out to ruffle his Nephew’s messy, Potter-black hair. “Yes, sir. And I’ll come and get you myself when we do.” Jamie nodded, blinking rapidly. “Thanks.” He turned to go, but Ron held out a hand to stop him. “Jamie,” he asked, “Are you sure you’re alright?” “Yeah,” Jamie said firmly. “I’m fine. Just-” “Find him,” Ron finished. “Right.” Jamie disappeared back into the common room, and Ron left for McGonagall’s office. This was going to be interesting. He hoped things at the Ministry were going well.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mar. 12, 2016
Hermione groaned in frustration, pushing the documents on her desk away from her and dropping her head down into her hands. She couldn’t concentrate, couldn't even think. The longer Teddy was missing, the more distracted she got, and now she couldn't even bloody well do her job! Why, oh why couldn't the boys find something they needed a lawyer for? She needed to do something to help or she was going to go spare! No one was even letting her help with the research! She was so good at research. With another aggravated groan, Hermione pulled her papers back in, determined to at least try and get this one thing done. It’s not like it (or most of her work, really) wasn’t important. It was: sixteen years working on it, and most people were still holding onto their house-elves as slaves, never mind what she’d uncovered about their origins, and the precedents, and the fact that Hogwarts had freed every single one of their house-elves largely without incident... And there it was, the headspace she needed to work. Righteous indignation did it every time. Hermione managed to lose herself in her work for a few hours, drown out her worry in all of the t’s that needed crossing and the i’s that needed dotting and had actually made decent progress on the case she was working on when a knock sounded at her door. She opened her mouth to tell whoever it was to come in, but before she could, the door opened with a click, and Harry (pale, wide eyed, looked like he hadn’t slept a wink) stuck his head in. Just like that, all her worries about Teddy came crashing back in. “Harry!” “Hermione, hey, got a minute?” “Of course,” she said, pushing aside her papers and gesturing to the chair in front of her desk. “Come in, what do you need? Have you got any leads? What can I do to help? Actually, Harry you look like you’ve seen a ghost, are you alright? Is Ron here?” Her friend smiled and laughed slightly, still looking a bit wild around the eyes. “Heh, funny you should say that, actually, you’re not gonna believe the day I’ve had. Umm, Ron’s at Hogwarts right now, we’ve got a lead and he’s going to see if Professor McGonagall can help and check on the kids and we—here, Cas, c’mon.” Harry finally came all the way into her office, followed closely by a dark-haired, serious-faced man in a trenchcoat whom Hermione had never seen before in her life. “Who’s this, then?” she asked. “Right. Cas, this is Hermione, Hermione this is Cas. Erm. Well. Castiel. He’s helping.” Hermione frowned; she knew that name. “What, like Castiel from those Supernatural books the kids like so much? Or like the angel of Thursday?” Harry coughed. “Well, not, like Castiel from the books, he is Castiel from the books.” “I’m also the angel of Thursday,” Cas supplied. Hermione blinked. Well, Harry had said that she wasn’t going to believe the day he’d had, and she was starting to think that he’d been right. “Look,” Harry said, looking slightly frantic, “We tracked the arseholes who grabbed Teddy to this, compound...thing, out in the woods and Cas and, well, Dean and his and Sam’s previously dead mother were there looking for, umm, Sam, right?” “Right,” said Cas.
Previously dead mother??
“Right, and we ran into them there and Hermione—” “Har-Harry.” Hermione interrupted, “You can’t seriously—” “Hermione, I know how mad this sounds but—” “Mad? Harry we’ve been dealing with mad since we were eleven bloody years old, this is—” “If I may,” Cas broke in. Hermione rounded on him. “I don’t know who you are or what game you think you’re playing, but I swear…” Hermoine blinked and lost her train of thought. That was—wasn’t— were his eyes glowing? She blinked again, and suddenly she could feel a kind of energy or, or power or presence pressing down around her and yeah, Cas’s eyes were definitely glowing. She could hear a faint ringing sound. Another blink and she could see the outline of wings behind him , huge and shadowy against her office wall. “I am Castiel, Angel of the Lord. And also of Thursday” The light faded and the feeling of power, the glow and the wings went with it, leaving the man in the trenchcoat standing there, looking slightly awkward. “The people who had Teddy Lupin took my friend. We’re trying to help each other.” Hermoine took a deep, shuddering breath, let it out, and believed him. “Alright then, go ahead and sit down. Tell me everything.” And so they did. It took them several minutes, and she was dearly wishing she had something stronger to put into what was left of her tea very nearly the entire time, but... it was true, all of it. Harry, unless he’d been royally pissed off, was a truly rubbish liar and he wasn’t easy to fool, not after everything they’d been through. She trusted him. Also, every time it got to be a little too unbelievable, she blinked and saw wings and glowing eyes burned into the backs of her eyelids. When they were done, she took a minute to collect her thoughts. Harry, though she knew that he had to be bursting with impatience, let her. “You—you’re sure that it was Sirius that you saw, not some other shapeshifter that can turn into a dog?” “I’m sure.” “ Merlin, Mordred, and Morgana,” she mumbled to herself. “Okay. Alright. Angels are real, book characters, Sirius Black is alive, got it. What do you need from me?” “We need to see the Veil, ‘Mione.” Oh, great, bloody, buggering hell . “Of course you do. Why?” Cas leaned forward. “I’ve been around for a very long time and I’ve never heard of any portal like the one Ron and Harry described leading to any afterlife. If I can get a look at it, I might be able to determine what it actually is, and if I do that...” “We’re one step closer to figuring out how Sirius is alive and how he fits into all of this,” Hermione finished. She was about to stand and suggest they get a move on when something else occurred to her. “What did you do with that Ketch man?” Harry looked sheepish. “Harry, what did you do?” “Well, it’s not like I could just chuck him into Azkaban—” “ Harry.” “IlefthimwithGinnyinGrummauldPlace.” “Come again?” “I left him with Ginny in Grimmauld Place, alright? She’s been wanting to help, and she’s more than capable of keeping an eye on him. Lily’s with Hugo over at the Burrow, they’ll be fine. Besides, she’s a licensed consultant for the DLME and she knows how to keep things Muggle safe—” “She locked him in the attic with the portrait of Sirius’ mother, didn’t she?” “Well. Yes.” Hermione sighed. “Well, can’t say that he won’t be secure. Or that he doesn’t deserve it. Alright, let’s go.” Harry was on his feet in an instant.“Great, thanks, Hermione.” She snorted. “You don’t need to thank me, I want to find Teddy almost as much as you do, Harry, and it’ll be wonderful to see Sirius again. Besides, Unspeakables get twitchy when they owe someone a favor, this’ll help.” With that, she swept past the men and out of her office, glancing back one to make sure they were following her, before making a beeline for the lift. Hermione could practically feel the excited tension radiating off of Harry the whole way, and to be honest, she wasn’t much better. Her friend hadn’t had nearly enough time with his godfather, and if they were right and he really was still alive... she really hoped that they were right, because she remembered the way that Harry had just...shattered seemed to be the best descriptor, after the animagus’ apparent death and she’d do just about anything to ensure he never went through that again. It took her a few moments to smooth things over with Croaker, given that Cas didn’t even work for the Ministry in any capacity (and wasn’t even a wizard, though they didn’t tell Croaker that), but he did owe her that favor and when she vouched for the angel, the old Department Head let them through with a dire warning of the consequences should they mess with the Veil. Harry led from there, and Hermione suspected that he’d looked more into this than any of them knew. Hopefully they’d finally get him the answers that he’d been searching for. He paused in front of the door to the Death Chamber, hand shaking slightly where it reached out for the doorknob, and Cas spoke for the first time since they’d left Hermione’s office. “You don’t have to come in, Harry. Neither of you do, actually, all I need is to see it.” Harry set his jaw, and Hermione wished that someone had thought to tell Cas that one of the easiest ways to get Harry to do something was to tell him that he didn't have to do it. “I’m fine. Let’s just get this over with so that...so that we know. One way or the other.” Hermione reached for Harry, to do what she wasn’t sure, but before she could figure that out, he’d gone through the door, Cas right on his heels. Sighing, and wishing that her friend would at least try to take care of himself for once in his life, Hermione followed. Though she was friendly with Croaker, this was a part of the DoM that Hermione had never been back to before. It had unsettled her the first time, and then with what had happened to Sirius... well she’d never felt the urge, to say the least. She wasn’t particularly happy to be back either, the Chamber had lost none of it’s unearthly eeriness and the feeling of wrongness that had struck her so soundly the last time she’d seen the Veil was back with a vengeance. Harry was staring at it with a lost look on his face. Gently, Hermione reached out to touch his shoulder. He shuddered, almost a flinch, then spoke. “I—I haven’t been back here since—” He broke off. Hermione reached down to grab his hand. He squeezed hers gratefully. “Let’s just make this quick. Then we can leave, and with any luck, we’ll never have to come back,” she told him softly. “Yeah,” then, looking past her, “Cas? Anything?” Hermione had been so caught up in her memories and being worried about how Harry’s were affecting him that she’d completely forgotten about the angel. Cas was looking at the Veil intently, a peculiar expression on his face, and walking towards it. “Whispers... yes, I can hear what you meant, though I don’t believe these to be the voices of the dead…” The angel walked closer to the Veil and Harry made to follow him, but Hermione stood her ground. “Don’t you start,” she muttered at him. “I remember how you react to that thing, we are staying right here.” Castiel circled the Veil but stayed a good meter away. “Definitely not a portal to the afterlife...” he muttered. “I know what this is, why can’t I—?” Frowning, Cas darted in from the side to poke at the arch, then jumped back like he’d been shocked. “Ah.” “Ah?” Hermione asked. Cas made his way back over to them.“I know what the Veil is.” “And?” “It’s a rip in the fabric of time and space. I hadn’t thought that there were any left.” Hermione blinked. “What, like the rip in Amy’s bedroom? What’s our exploding Tardis then?” “War,” Cas said grimly, (and apparently the angel watched Doctor Who, who’d’ve thought?) “the rips were opened by Michael and Lucifer fighting, back when Lucifer first Fell. I thought that Raphael had healed them all, but evidently they missed one.” Right. Because angels and, apparently, the devil were now a part of Hermione’s world. “What does that mean for Sirius, though?” Harry asked. “It means that he’s incredibly lucky. Tears like this...they can lead to anywhere in time and space, literally. And it means that Dean was right, he’s definitely stuck. If he hadn’t been an animagus...there are very few things that can come through the Veil intact. If either of you fell through, you wouldn't have to worry about coming out into the cold void of space because the damage to reality would have torn you apart with it.” “What does Sirius being an animagus have to do with anything?” Cas sighed, though he didn’t look put upon. “From what I can remember, something about the way the tears work...nothing that goes through can come out the same, it’s not possible. Sirius is an animagus, which means that he had a whole other, already fully intact aspect to be forced into. There are other shapeshifters who can make it through, like skinwalkers, most pagan gods, probably. Everyone else is either ripped to pieces or driven completely insane. “Sirius is stuck until someone else can undo it, and frankly... there might be some wizarding magic that can fix it, but from what I can remember, only the archangels could, for lack of a better word, ‘unstick’ those who were unlucky enough to stumble across such tears.” Right okay, there was a solution, mad as it might be. Hermione could work with that. They just needed the right plan. “So,” she said briskly, “Where might we find an archangel?” Cas frowned, and Hermione’s stomach sank. “That’s the problem. Raphael’s dead, Michael’s in the Cage and, according to Lucifer, has been driven insane. Gabriel would be our best bet, but…” “Also dead,” Harry said glumly. “Right.” Cas said, and he actually seemed sad about that, more than the others. “So unless there’s some wizarding magic that can un-stick Sirius, our only option is Lucifer, and, well. He’s only technically an option, and even if we could manage to trap him, there’s no guarantee that he’d help us, or that we could make him.” “We’d best find a wizarding solution then,” Hermione decided, mostly to get rid of the terrible look on Harry’s face. “I’ll ask around, do some research. It might even be as simple as the animagus reveal spell. If worse comes to worse, we figure out how to trap the devil and if he won’t help, we’ll find some way to communicate with him regardless. We just have to find him.” And they would find him, that she was certain of. It was just a matter of when. Harry set his jaw. “Right. We should probably get back to that then.” He turned on his heel and marched back out the door. Hermione sighed and went to follow him, but was stopped by a gentle hand on her shoulder. She turned and was hit with the full force of Cas’ solemn blue gaze. “I admire your dedication,” he said quietly, brow furrowed in concern. “But you do know—” “That it’s very unlikely Sirius is ever going to be human-shaped again?” The furrows deepened and the angel nodded, looking truly sad about it. Hermione smiled slightly at him. “Yes, I do know. I still have to try though, you know?” He nodded. “I do. And,” he added, looking a little less dour, “if there was anyone who could find a spell to change him back, I have a feeling, Hermione Granger, that it would be you.” She grinned. “Well, they didn’t call me the brightest witch of my age for nothing!” That made him laugh. “No, they most certainly didn’t.” Angel or not, Hermione decided that she liked Cas. “We’d better catch up to Harry.” “Yeah.” With that, Hermione led the way out of the Chamber of Death, with the fervent wish that she’d never have to go back. Ever. They caught up to Harry back at his office, where he was updating his Aurors on the situation. “Look, just put down that we’re working with ‘outside consultants’. I’m honestly not sure how else to put it, Ellie, I’ll brief you more later— hey ‘Mione, Cas, what took you so long?” “Got distracted by the brain room,” Hermione lied blithely. “Took us a minute. What now?” “Would your department mind terribly if I stole their Head for a while?” Harry asked. “Not for this,” Hermione told him. “Let me just run and get that sorted out, and I’ll find all of my books on Animagus transformation and meet you...” Cas reached into a pocket of his trenchcoat and produced a brochure that he then handed to her. “This is the Bed and Breakfast that we’re meeting at, just ask for the room under ‘Sam Carter’ and they should tell you where we are.” “Thanks,” she told him, then turned to Harry. “Almost like old times, huh? Only, we’ve got more people with us this time.” Harry managed a smile, though it still looked strained. “Yeah, almost. See you in a few.” “Yeah.” With that, Hermione whirled around and didn’t quite run back to her office. She had something to do, something she could do to help. A quick pop in on her coworkers (who didn’t seem at all surprised when she announced that she had to go help Aurors Potter and Weasley on their case) and another quick run to the house to grab her books (that Undetectable Extension Charm was still one of the most useful bits of magic she knew) and then she Apparated to the building on the brochure. She stood there before the door for a few moments before taking a deep breath, squaring her shoulders and striding inside. There was work to do. It only took a quick question at the desk and Hermione was directed to a room on the second floor. An hour and a half later: Ron still hadn’t showed, Harry and Hermione had attempted every tracking spell they knew to no avail, Mary had thoroughly ruined the comforter on Dean’s bed attempting the other kind of tracking spells to find Teddy, and Cas and Dean had paused in their work no less than five times for brief makeout sessions. (It really didn’t seem like the time, but Dean seemed a little less tense every time it happened, so Hermione supposed that Cas knew what he was doing). After what must’ve been at least the fifteenth puff of fire from her bowl, Mary sighed. “Okay, that’s all I know to do to find Teddy. I haven’t tried Sirius yet, but I need a hair or something from him for the spell, preferably one from his Animagus form for most of these to work.” Harry groaned. “Yeah, we don’t have any of those.” “What about from a close relative?” Hermione asked. It was Dean who answered. “A sibling would be best, then parent, then parent’s sibling, but a cousin would do in a pinch if that’s what you were thinking, Probably gonna be less accurate though.” “As long as it gives us a general direction, it’s better than anything we’ve got now.” Harry pointed out. Hermione sighed. “I suppose we’re going to have to go and bother Andromeda, though I’d really rather not,” she said. “No we’re not,” said Ron from the door, then walked into the room and planted himself face first onto Cas’s bed, letting loose a heartfelt groan. Hermione patted his shoulder. “You alright there, love?” He groaned again. “I’ll be fine, just gimme a sec.” “So why don’t we need to go see Andy?” Harry asked. “All of the spells to track transformed Animagi need the same thing,” Ron told them, flopping over and sitting up. “I already went to see Narcissa Malfoy, she gave me what we needed, plus some extras just in case.” Well, that explained the slightly nonplussed look on his face. Dealing with Mrs. Malfoy tended to have that effect on people. “How’d that go?” Ron laughed. “Oh, you know, the usual. There was a lot of staring down the nose and being generally terrifying, and she wouldn’t give me a damn thing until I went over everything with her, but when I did she swore she wouldn’t say a word until everything had got sorted. Then she threatened me with some very creative disembowelment should I ever use her hairs against her or her family, so, you know, that was nice. “Anyway, any luck on your end?” “Not really,” Dean said, at the same time Harry said, “Sort of.” Ron blinked. “Well, no luck finding anyone,” Harry amended. “But we’ve got a pretty good idea of what happened to Sirius now.” Ron kept quiet through their explanation of what the Veil actually was and what that meant for the animagus. When they were done he whistled lowly. “Damn. How is it that he has simultaneously the best and absolute worst luck in the world?” Harry sighed. “No idea. You said that you got the, what, hairs?” “Yeah.” “Right, hairs from Mrs. Malfoy for spells. I’m guessing that means Professor McGonagall had something?” Ron nodded, and pulled three books and a long roll of parchment paper out of his robe pocket and handed them to Hermione. “This is everything she had on Animagus tracking, plus her personal notes. She made me tell her everything too, and I’ve gotta say Harry, I’m pretty sure that if we don’t find them soon she’s going to try and do it herself.” Harry smiled faintly. “She probably could, too. Did you get a chance to check on the kids?” “Yeah,” Ron said, then, “They’re doing alright, worried as hell, but holding up well as far as I could tell. Oh! That reminds me! Jamie wanted me to bring you this, thought it might come in handy.” He reached into his pocket again, this time producing a very familiar ball of silvery fabric. “Woah.” Dean leaned in to get a better look. “Is that what I think it is?” Harry grinned, taking the Cloak from his friend and shaking it out. “If you think it’s my Invisibility Cloak, then yeah.” “Invisibility Cloak?” Mary asked curiously. “How does it work?” “No one’s really sure,” Hermione told her. “It’s ancient, more than any other. Most invisibility cloaks are either just normal cloaks with charms on them or woven from the hair of a Demiguise and they tend to fade after a few years. This one is ancient, it’s been passed down in Harry’s family for generations and no one knows—” “This cloak is Death-touched,” Castiel announced, who was now holding the wad of fabric, having evidently gotten it from Harry. Ron choked on air. “Wait, you mean—” “If Death didn’t make this Cloak himself, he certainly had it for a very long time before passing it on. I can still feel echoes of his essence all over it.” Looking over at Harry, his eyes were as wide as hers felt. “But then the story, the three brothers and the bridge—” “Would appear to be, at least in part, true,” Castiel confirmed. “Though I would have to handle the other two Hallows to be certain, and I understand that it isn't an option.” “Definitely not,” Harry murmured. “It would've been nice to know, but they’re better off lost, I think.” Dean nudged Cas grinning. “If you really want to know you could probably poke around the Forbidden Forest to find the Stone, track Death’s essence.” The angel rolled his eyes, and despite herself, Hermione felt a stab of disappointment. Harry was right, they really were much better off with the Wand broken and the Stone lost, but it would have been nice to know. “I’m not going to do that, Dean. And perhaps if someone hadn’t killed Death last year, we could just ask him.” Hermione squeaked and Ron and Harry both turned to stare at the American men. Mary’s mouth dropped open. “Killed Death? ” she said, slightly shrilly, which Hermione really couldn't blame her for. Dean looked embarrassed and Hermione groaned inwardly. Hadn’t she had enough bombshells today? “He was trying to make me kill Sam,” the hunter mumbled, “And I had a curse that basically made me Mr. Murder, alright? I didn't have a lot of options, anyway.” “How do you kill Death?” Hermione asked incredulously, finally finding her voice and choosing to ignore everything else he’d said, at least for the time being. “With his scythe,” Dean told them, “And I really don’t want to talk about it anymore, thanks. “Yeah, that’s probably fair,” Harry said faintly. “I wonder if Billie would know,” Cas said thoughtfully. “Absolutely not,” Dean looked alarmed. “We are not asking the Reaper that wants me and Sam dead permanently.” Cas sighed. “It will remain a mystery, I suppose. Though Chuck might be willing to tell us if he ever comes back.” “If he even knows,” Dean muttered. Hermione decided that it was probably time to change the subject. “We’re getting off track,” she pointed out. “We’ve still got spells to try and research to do.” “Right,” Mary said, still looking fairly overwhelmed. “Here, Ron, hand me a few of those, and I’ll get started on some spells we might be able to use.” With that, they all went back to work, Hermione setting aside her own research in favor of Professor McGonagall’s and diving into it. With any luck, they’d have their answers in a few hours.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mar. 12, 2016
Sam, Dean... Dean isn’t dead.
Dean... Dean isn’t dead.
Dean isn’t dead.
It had been hours since Gabriel had said those words, but they were still ringing through Sam’s head.
He had been so sickeningly sure that that had been it, he was never going to see his brother again, even in death, and now...
He believed Gabriel, of course he did. The archangel might have a history of being a pretty big asshole, but even he wouldn’t be so cruel. Not now, after everything that had happened.
Dean isn’t dead.
He hoped that, wherever he’d ended up, Dean had been able to find Cas again. Their friend deserved to know that he was alive, and who knew? Maybe this would be enough for one of them to finally make a move. If they hadn’t by the time they found him (or he found them) Sam was going to give into temptation and just lock them in an angel-and-Dean-proofed closet until they sorted themselves out. Jody and Claire would probably help him, if it came to that.
Dean isn’t dead.
Gabriel had told him that Dean had pulled some next-level Dr. Phil-type stuff with Chuck and Amara, and it really said something about their lives that Sam wasn’t actually that surprised.
(It also might have been that he was in shock. Or both. Most likely both.)
He’d managed to get some sleep, which he attributed to his injuries and all-around exhaustion; if he hadn’t been on the verge of just straight-up passing out, Sam was pretty sure he wouldn’t have gotten a wink.
Dean isn’t dead.
He was equally sure that Sirius hadn’t slept at all. The Animagus had taken the news about his brother hard, and while he’d been pleased upon hearing of Dean’s survival and didn’t falter in his caring for Teddy, his face was drawn and pale and he moved around the house (mansion, really) like he really had died in the Department of Mysteries and was haunting them. Sam was pretty sure he was in shock, but Sirius
definitely
was, and even Gabriel, exhausted, in pain, and, Sam suspected, not really all that used to actually dealing with emotions, had looked worried before passing out on the bed where he’d spent that last six years.
Well. Teddy was still feverish, and Sirius definitely needed someone to knock him out of his funk. Never let it be said that a Winchester passed up an opportunity to avoid his own issues. And he had just the thing, too.
Dean isn’t dead.
Sirius wasn’t in with Teddy or in his own room but Sam found him soon enough, sitting on the bed and staring at the wall in a room that could only have belonged to James Potter.
There were Quidditch posters all over two of the walls, the remaining space dominated by a large bookcase stuffed with books and nicknacks (but mostly books, somewhat to Sam’s surprise), and on the wall Sirius was staring at, a sprawling collage of pictures, mostly the moving wizard kind, but also a fair few stationary shots as well as some drawings.
Sam followed the wizard’s gaze to a photo in the center of the collage. He took a seat on the bed next to Sirius and as he waited for the older man to speak, he studied the picture, partly out of fascination (it was, after all, the first wizarding picture he’d ever seen), but mostly because of the look on Sirius’ face.
It showed five teenagers and two adults out in the snow-covered grass in front of what looked like (from Sam’s somewhat feverish recollection) Potter Manor, all tangled up with arms around each other and smiling. There was Sirius, squished in between two boys who could only be James Potter and Remus Lupin, laughing, with a wide grin far more real than anything Sam had seen from him in the last few days. On the other side of James was a grinning redhead (
Lily Evans,
Sam realized) who leaned into his side, then back out to whack him in the arm, and behind them were the adults, an older couple who looked far too much like him to be anyone other than James’ parents, who both reached forwards to ruffle their son’s already wild hair periodically. Next to the future Professor Lupin, smiling just as enthusiastically as the others, had to be Peter Pettigrew.
Jesus. No wonder Sirius was staring at it with longing, and also like his heart was being ripped out. Just when Sam was starting to think that he’d have to prompt the older man to get him to say anything, he spoke.
“We took this Christmas Break of our Seventh Year at Hogwarts. James and Lily had been dating for a month, and it was the only time we were all there. She went home for Easter, and James’s parents were killed a month before we graduated. We helped him seal up the house, and...”
“This is the first time you’ve been back,” Sam realized.
“Yeah.”
“You look happy.”
He laughed bitterly.
“We were, and then four years later everyone in that picture and my brother died damn fucking
heroes
except for me, Remus and Peter, and Moony had to go and die a damn fucking hero too. I’m still here, and for all I know that
rat
—”
Shit. Sam had somehow forgotten that Sirius didn’t know.
“Dead,” he interrupted, “definitely super dead, before
—
a little more than a month before Professor Lupin, actually.”
Sirius nodded, looking a bit relieved, but not any happier.
“All dead,” he whispered. “Save for me. And a fat lot of good I’ve been. I couldn’t save a single one of them.”
That was a guilt Sam knew all too well.
“I keep thinking,” Sirius continued. “How didn’t we notice? When
—
when did Peter start
—”
“That way madness lies,” Sam told him firmly.
Sirius laughed mirthlessly. “That ship has long since sailed.”
“You know what I meant, and the point still stands.”
“...Yeah. That doesn’t help as much as it should.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Thanks,” Sirius said glumly, which was right about when Sam remembered why he was there in the first place.
“Anyway!”
—
and yes, he was aware that this was a blatantly transparent change of subject, but he couldn’t bring himself to care
—
“Teddy’s still feverish.”
Now Sirius was glaring at him. “Are you
trying
to make me feel worse?”
And... yeah, he probably could have phrased that better. He’d apparently lost his tact in the last few weeks
since he’d lost his brother
.
Dean isn’t dead.
“You’ve got chickens and some vegetables, right?”
“...Yeah, there’s a vegetable garden. It’s pretty overgrown, but it’s still got stuff. Why?”
“I was thinking that we should make Teddy some chicken soup. We don’t have noodles, but I can remember the recipe Dean,”
not dead not dead, “
uses, and even if all we managed was broth....”
“It’d be good for him. Probably for us too,” Sirius finished, looking at least a little less ghost-like than he had been.
“Exactly.” Sam huffed out a sigh of relief that Sirius was on board and levered himself up off the bed, wincing a bit (they hadn’t been able to find any painkillers, except a few long-since expired potions that Sirius wasn’t sure would have worked on Sam anyway, since he wasn’t a wizard.)
“Wait,” came from behind him. Sam turned around to see Sirius, who seemed to have paused half-way getting up from sitting furrowing his brow in thought. “How are we going to catch the chickens?”
A half hour later, and they still weren’t getting much closer to the answer to that question.
Gabriel was still asleep, and therefore not any help whatsoever (though Sam had a sneaking suspicion that he wouldn’t have been much use in the first place), Teddy was still feverish and
also
unconscious, and they’d figured out very quickly that Sam’s shoulder and broken ribs had no place chasing chickens, so he’d been forced to the sidelines to call out encouragement and advice to Sirius, who wasn’t having much luck.
Still, they were both thoroughly distracted, and Sam, at least, was vastly entertained watching his friend running around the yard after the flock (not one of whom had even seen a human before yesterday and were having none of this nonsense), right up until Sirius, intent on his prey and evidently on instinct, suddenly became a dog, and triumphantly caught a hen in his mouth. He then promptly froze, turned man-shaped again, and dropped the hen, an expression of pure panic on his face, offset only slightly by the chicken feather hanging off of his lip, as he frantically raised his hands up to his face, Sam assumed, to make sure that they weren’t still paws.
“Well, I guess that’s one way to do it,” Sam supplied, not sure what else to say.
Sirius shook himself, then glanced over, suddenly grinning broadly.
“Yeah, not the first time; I had to get food while I was stuck somehow, and the people weren’t always that nice. Now I can turn back and it’s fun again!”
With that panic seemingly forgotten (at least for the moment), Padfoot was off again, barking happily after the running birds and quickly snagging one, which he brought back to deposit on Sam’s lap before becoming human again.
“Think she’ll do?” he asked.
Sam grinned. “Sure! Let’s make some chicken soup.”
...Which turned out to be easier said than done. Sam really should’ve remembered the last time Dean (
isn’t dead)
had tried to teach him how to cook but, well, it had been a very stressful week for him, and Sirius had done well enough with the eggs and things with only
Gabriel
to help, so he’d figured they’d do just fine.
Several hours, many mishaps, and a nice helping of mostly-unhelpful commentary (courtesy of Gabriel, who’d woken up from his nap almost halfway through, poked fun at them, then wandered off to sit with Teddy), they had a respectable batch of chicken soup in spite of themselves.
(Plus, Sirius seemed to be sufficiently distracted, so Sam counted it time well spent. Plus, now they could feed the kid. And themselves. And then Sam was taking a nap.)
Soup went into bowls, Sirius dug out a tray from... somewhere so that they could carry all four while sparing Sam’s arm, and then they marched back upstairs to where Gabirel was telling a semiconscious Teddy in detail about something he and the Marauders had done involving brightly colored feathers, honey, and a very disgruntled sheep.
Sam wasn’t sure how much of the story Teddy was actually taking in, given that he looked seconds away from passing back out. Still, he and Gabriel both looked happy enough, so he handed the archangel his soup and settled in on the couch cushion that someone had dragged up from downstairs to listen, while Sirius perched on the bed next to Teddy to feed him soup and correct Gabriel’s storytelling.
Looking at them, Sam felt the corners of his mouth quirk up, and let out a breath he felt like he’d been holding since Dean had first volunteered to be a soul bomb. This wasn’t so bad, all things considered. They had a safe space to lay low until they were healed enough to brave the British Men of Letters, and Dean was alive and out there for Sam (and Cas) to find, or to find them. Not so bad at all.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Mar. 13, 2016
Sam would’ve been so much better at this, Dean knew. He was so fucking smart, would’ve been
fascinated
by all the different spellwork that they were working. (Trying to work, anyway.) Dean was sure that his complete nerd of a little brother would’ve long since have come up with some whacky their magic/wizard magic hybrid spell that somehow would’ve beaten the rib warding and/or whatever was keeping them from tracking the kid and Sirius, and they’d have been halfway to wherever they were already.
But Sam wasn’t here to do any of that, he was who knew where (not Dean, which was completely unacceptable) and he was hurt. He was
so hurt
and he thought that Dean was dead.
Again.
His baby brother was out there, injured, with those British Men of Letters out there chasing him and only strangers for company and protection (one of whom was barely more than a freaking
teenager
) and he had no idea that Dean was coming for him.
That was not an acceptable state of affairs, and it was ruining his finally-with-Cas-like-
that
buzz, which made it even worse.
(They still hadn’t actually...talked about it and Dean, for once, knew that they needed to, but he was pretty sure they were more or less on the same page so that conversation would keep for now. In the meantime, Dean was probably going to keep accidentally dropping pet names and being embarrassed about it later, but he could live with that if Cas could. Anyway, that was the least of his current problems.)
Dean really,
really
wanted to go and punch that dick Ketch in the face again but he couldn’t do that because he had to be here, working to find Sam. He was rapidly losing what little patience he has left because nothing. Was. Working.
If it hadn’t been for Cas pausing every few minutes to steal kisses, Dean was pretty sure he’d have snapped hours ago. As it was, he was reaching the end of the fraying rope that was his patience when a glowing silvery french bulldog (
a Patronus
he realized with some awe) appeared in front of Harry.
(Harry
freaking
Potter. Dean was still not over this.)
The patronus message was quiet and Dean was too far away to hear what was said, but Harry’s face went bone white and he stood up abruptly, grabbing for his wand.
“I have to go.”
“Harry, wai-” the
Crack!
of Harry’s Apparition cut Hermione off, and Dean was left blinking in surprise.
The door opened to reveal Ron, who’d gone to retrieve snacks for them all. He frowned.
“Where’s Harry?”
“He left,” Dean told him.
“Berrycloth sent him a Patronus,” Hermione said quietly, “They’ve caught Greyback.”
Ron looked a bit affronted.
“Why’d he not call me? I could’ve gone and Harry could’ve stayed here!”
Hermione just shook her head.
“He asked for Harry, urgently, so he went. All we can do now is wait for him to come back.”
Ron deflated, nodded, and handed out bags of chips. Dean took his own bag, handed Cas his and was just lifting his first handful out of the bag, when another loud
Crack!
heralded Harry’s return.
“We have to go,” He said, eyes wild, “Right now, the muggles can come.”
Dean exchanged a look with Cas, then his mom, and saw his own confusion reflected back at him.
“Erm, Harry,” Hermione said, “Why are they coming with us? Can’t we leave Greyback to Berrycloth for now? It is his department.”
Harry just shook his head.
“He’s seen them, all three.”
The bottom dropped out of Dean’s stomach. Sammy was good, he knew that, but he was also injured and unarmed and so was Teddy. Greyback was dangerous, very dangerous, and if he’d seen them…
Some of this must have shown on his face, because Cas reached over to squeeze his hand and Mary shot him a concerned look. Ron and Hermione looked mildly ill.
“Harry-” Ron started, then stopped, chewing on his lip.
To Dean’s shock, Harry looked at them and grinned.
“Don’t look so bloody depressed, it’s good news! Greyback’s beat all to hell, and from the swearing, they were all alive when they chased him off, I just figured you’d want to be there for the interrogation.”
A good half of Dean’s considerable tension left him all at once and he slumped back where he sat, shoulder bumping against Cas.
“Well why didn’t you lead with that?” he grumped, sweeping his papers into some semblance of order, “Let’s go!”
“Right.” Hermione said, “I’ll take Mary. Dean, you can ride along with Harry and Cas, you go with Ron.”
“Umm,” said Cas, “You’re referring to Apparation, correct?”
“Yes,” Hermione replied, “of course. Is...there a problem?”
Dean turned to look at his...boyfriend? Paramour? Beau? They really needed to talk about...whatever was happening sooner rather than later.
“Cas?”
The angel frowned, looking thoughtful.
“I’m...not so sure that taking me along is the best idea.” he said. “My wings might not work any more, but I’m still very much an angel and my true form is…”
“About the size of the Empire State Building,” Dean finished, remembering.
“The Chrysler Building actually,” Cas corrected him, “but yes.”
The witch and wizards exchanged glances while Mary, looking slightly shell shocked, stared at Cas as though he’d sprouted at third eye.
(Which, now that Dean thought about it, he might actually have. Note to self: ask Cas more about his true form later.)
“...yeah,” Ron said after a moment, “That’d be a problem.”
“I can just stay here and continue to research,” Cas offered, “I don’t mind.”
“Don’t be silly,” Hermione told him, “We’ll just all take the Knight Bus!”
“The Knight Bus?” Mary asked.
They explained it to her, and she grinned.
“So, it’s either going to be really fun or utterly terrifying.
“Or both,” Dean muttered, remembering from the books. “Probably more comfortable than side-along Apparation anyway, though. Unless you get motion sick.”
...He didn’t know that, did he? He had absolutely no idea whether or not his own mother got motion sickness. Thankfully, before he could spiral down
that
particular depressing rabbit hole, Mary responded cheerfully, “Nope! No motion sickness for me! Cas?”
“...No.” Cas said, shooting Dean a look that he couldn’t quite decipher. It didn’t seem to be a bad one though so Dean decided that it could wait and said, “Great, Knight Bus it is, let’s go!”
With that decided, none of them were in the mood to waste any more time. Dean launched himself up off the bed and he and Cas quickly shoved their papers into a vague semblance of order. Mary, Ron, and Hermione did the same while Harry bounced impatiently on the balls of his feet, and the next thing Dean knew, they’d run down the stairs (which probably didn’t endear them to the owners of the B&B) and into the parking lot.
They were almost to the road when Mary realized that somewhere along the way, they’d somehow misplaced Harry.
“He Apparated back to the Ministry to let them know we’re all coming,” Hermione told her when she asked. “We’ll see him when we get there.”
They ran the rest of the way to the road, and the Knight Bus was summoned in short order. Hermione herded Dean, Cas, and a wide-eyed Mary onto the purple double-decker bus as Ron paid the fee (apparently the bus didn’t take Muggle money) and into their seats.
They’d just barely sat down (Cas got the window seat, and Dean was squished in between him and Mary while Ron and Hermione settled in across from him) before the bus gave a great lurch and was off.
Pretty soon, Dean was giving serious thought to revising his stance on motion-sickness: He was no stranger to crazy driving, but this was something else; even reading the descriptions in the books hadn’t prepared him for this. Cas and Ron looked fine, though Ron was studiously avoiding looking out the windows but Hermione looked vaguely green and judging by how hard Mary was gripping Dean’s arm, her thoughts were running along a similar vein as his own.
Thankfully, the way the Knight Bus operated made for a short trip as well as a terrifying one, and before too long, they were staggering off the steps and back onto solid ground.
“Eurgh,” Hermione said, staggering slightly into her husband and covering her mouth. “
Eurgh.
I just
hate
traveling like that, it’s
awful.”
Ron reached out to steady her and said, “You should’ve just Apparated with Harry, ‘Mione, we wouldn’t have minded.”
He gave Dean a look which eloquently conveyed what would happen if they
did
mind and Dean found himself both highly amused and thankful that he really wouldn’t have.
“Well,” Hermione said, looking a bit less peaky for her seconds off the bus, “Harry
had
to, you know, and it wouldn’t have fair really, to leave you all -”
“Really Hermione,” Dean assured her, “We’d’ve been fine.”
That apparently hadn’t been quite the right thing to say, because Hermione began to get a bit pink in the cheeks and Mary elbowed him lightly.
“Dean just means that, while we definitely appreciate that, if there’s a next time, you don’t have to put yourself through that again. We’ll be alright if you take the shortcut.”
“Right,” said Dean, “Yeah, that.”
“We wouldn’t have to worry about it at all if my wings worked,” Cas said, rather morosely.
Dean jabbed him gently in the ribs.
“Don’t be stupid Cas, that was fun!” he fibbed just slightly, “Anyway, if Apparating is anything like Angel Air, I’d rather stick with the crazy-bus anyway.”
That seemed to cheer his angel up a bit, and he even smiled slightly when Dean grabbed his hand as Ron and Hermione ushered them into the Ministry of magic.
The minute that they stepped into the Atrium, Dean knew that he was going to regret that they were in such a hurry. The description from the books really did no justice to the real thing. Magic was...everywhere in a way that would normally have made Dean excruciatingly uncomfortable and gun-happy. But...with all of the people (witches and wizards, his mind supplied) going about their day as if everything was completely normal (and, he supposed, it was to them) he couldn’t find it in himself to be anything other than awed.
Paper airplane memo’s flew everywhere, there were hairdos that defied the laws of physics and tattoos that moved and changed and the occasional shining silver patronus. Beside him, Mary was gaping, and even Cas seemed to be impressed. Still, for every amazing thing that he saw, there was three other impossible things lurking at the corner of his eyes that he had no time to stop and look at.
They had a job to do, that was the only reason that they were here, but even as everything in Dean was screaming at him to sprint after Ron and Hermione, see Greyback and shake him down for information about his brother, he couldn’t help the excited kid in him that was jumping up and down and yelling at him to slow down and see everything.
Look!
Shouted the little boy that Dean had never had the chance to be,
Look at all this, look at everything! It’s magic, everywhere, and it’s amazing, it’s
good!
It’s incredible!
Charlie, he thought with a sharp pang, would have loved this more than any of them. She should’ve had the chance to see it.
Still, even the most grieving and maudlin of his thoughts couldn’t keep him down for long. Not here, not now, not with his mom gasping in wonder at his side and Cas, hand still clasped firmly in Dean’s own, smiling softly at everything he saw.
Of course, like everything good in Dean’s life, it didn’t last forever. Far too soon, he’d crossed the Atrium, ridden the elevator, and crossed several more hallways before arriving at what, for all that it was magic, looked more or less like all the other holding cells he’d seen back home.
Harry was waiting for him there, mouth pressed into a grim line which only softened slightly when he saw them.
“Greyback’s at the end,” he said shortly, “A healer’s been in to patch him up, they had to sedate him to stop him biting, but he should be coming out of it in the next few minutes.”
“Has he said anything?” Ron asked, adopting what seemed to Dean to be an uncharacteristically sombre and businesslike tone.
Harry scowled.
“Not as such. He just keeps cursing out Teddy and,” here his scowl slipped into a smirk, “to quote him, ‘that damned feral dog’. I’m afraid he’s been mauled rather badly.
Ron barked out a laugh, and even Hermione’s lips twitched.
“That’ll be ol’ Snuffles alright,” he said cheerfully, “Don’t you think?”
The smirk became a small, but genuine, grin.
“Yeah. I reckon so, though we’ll know more for certain once we get in to question him, and about Sam.”
“You said a few minutes, right?” Mary asked, sounding nearly as anxious as Dean felt.
“Yeah.” Harry said, “there are some benches over there” he gestures vaguely behind him, “We can wait there until the healer gives the go ahead.”
Judging by the look on Mary’s face, she likes the idea of having to sit and wait more about as much as Dean does. If they were at the Bunker, Dean would’ve taken her to the firing range, offered to spar, or seen how she felt about stress baking. But they aren’t at the Bunker, and given that Dean is almost certain that, being Muggles, he and his mom aren’t supposed to be here at all, it’s better that they avoid attracting attention.
(He’s not sure where angels fall on the allowed-not allowed spectrum with wizards, but it’s probably best if Cas keeps a low profile too, not that he thinks that will be an issue unless someone decides to attack them or something.)
Besides, Mary doesn’t know Greyback from Adam, and going by what he remembers of the werewolf from the books, it’s probably a good idea to give her some forewarning of what to expect, hunter or no.
Cas must’ve been thinking along the same lines, because as soon as they’re seated, he turns to the wizards and asks them for intel.
Ron frowned, looking slightly puzzled.
“Don’t you lot already know, from the books-that-shall-not-be-mentioned?”
Before Dean could comment on the fact that Ron had, in fact, just mentioned the books in question, Hermoine smacked him lightly on the arm.
“
Honestly
Ron, have you forgotten that Mary’s never read them?”
Ron’s expression turns sheepish; apparently he had. Hermione’s expression went even more exasperated and she looked as though she might go in for a further scolding (Harry, looking on in some amusement, showed no signs of stopping her) and Dean decided that he ought to step in before things got even more off track. Unless they’d both changed a great deal more than it appeared since they’d been teenagers, Ron and Hermione’s bickering could very easily last the rest of the time it took Greyback to recover enough to be interrogated.
“Besides, the intel in the books is decades out of date. If there’s anything we need to know before going in, this is the time we have to go over it.”
Harry nodded, expression going solemn again.
“Fenrir Greyback,” he began with the sort of forced detachment Dean recognized from hunters (himself included) laying out a case that had gotten personal, “is a werewolf, just about the most infamous Britain’s ever had to deal with. He was a Death Eater, one of Voldemort’s followers, and even before that he was foul.
“He’s got a penchant for biting children and trying to steal them away from their parents to raise and brainwash as his pet monsters, and while he’s not had nearly so much luck with that since the Battle of Hogwarts, neither has he done anything approaching mellowing with age.”
“He’s a right slippery bastard too,” Ron put in, “the Aurors have been trying to catch him since before the First Wizarding War, and we’ve not been able to keep him caught. We’ve lost a fair few of us to him, not to mention the war casualties.”
“He’s been nursing a grudge against my family since before I was born,” Harry continued, “See, he bit one of my dad’s best friend’s, Remus Lupin when he was four,”
(“That’s Teddy’s dad,” Hermione put in quietly, “best Defense against the Dark Arts professor we ever had.”)
“And dad, and Sirius and…” Harry trailed off for a moment, and expression of extreme distaste gracing his face, then continued, “anyway, the friends he made at Hogwarts helped him during the full moons, which helped him to get all the way through school. Most werewolves didn’t get that; it made it a great deal more difficult for Greyback to get hold of Remus, which he...was displeased about, to say the least.”
“He’s a right beast even outside of the full moon,” Ron started up again, “Something about the way he’s embraced the Wolf...most werewolves are perfectly human outside the Full, except for heightened sense of smell, better night vision, little stuff like that. If Professor Lupin’d ever gotten it into his head to bite someone outside his time of the month, it might as well have been me or Harry doing that biting for all the difference it made. But he got my oldest brother, Bill, real bad during a Death Eater attack at Hogwarts and he’s not a ‘wolf by any means but he developed a taste for raw steak and he gets achy and really bloody grumpy around the full moon, sometimes even worse than Teddy does.”
Mary frowned. “So he’s the human kind of monster as well.”
“Worst kind there is,” Dean muttered, thinking of some of the more disturbing cases he’s worked with Sam in the past.
“Most werewolves aren’t any kind of monster, really,” Hermione said gently, “Just people with...a bit of a furry little problem, and there are ways that they keep themselves safe, even on the Full.”
“I believe the wizarding werewolves are somewhat different to the kind you are accustomed to hunting, Mary,” Cas said quietly.
“
Hunting?!”
Ron screeched quietly.
“They don’t eat hearts, for one,” Dean said, ignoring the spluttering wizard, “and they have ways to be safe on full moons. Anyway, there are some of our kind who aren’t really monsters either.”
“Garth,” Cas said solemnly, nodding.
“Yeah, and his family. They’ve figured out how to control themselves; none of them eat humans, Mom, we can introduce you when we bring Sam home.”
Mary looked skeptical but didn’t say anything, which, fair, it had certainly taken Dean time to get used to the idea. Something for them to work on.
It was too bad, he thought with a pang, that they didn’t have any friendly vamps around anymore. He thought that his mom might have liked Benny.
“You’re werewolves eat
hearts?
” Hermione asked incredulously, “
Human hearts?”
Harry looked vaguely green, but unsurprised: he must have picked that up from the books.
“Yeah,” Dean told them, “It’s...really not pretty.”
Her nose wrinkled, “No, I’d imagine not.”
“Anyway,” Harry said, bringing things back on track, “Greyback is a piece of work, and a bloody disturbing one when he puts his mind to it, which is most of the time, and he has a fondness for mind games. You lot should be mostly fine, considering that he has absolutely no way of knowing who you are, but keep your guard up. He’s irritatingly perceptive for someone as mad as he is.”
“We can deal with mind games,” Cas said solemnly, directly contradicting, just...so many times they had most definitely
not
dealt with mind games. Still, Dean was actually with him on this one: Greyback had no way of knowing which buttons of theirs to push, and if they were smart about this, he never would.
Sam was at stake. They would be smart about it.
A few minutes later, ones they spent discussing the finer points of wizarding werewolves and Greyback’s bloody, bloody history, a short witch with the kind of scars that would have given Dean pause had he not been thoroughly used to that kind of thing, emerged.
She had a thoroughly disgusted look on her face, and though she held herself with admirable poise even as Dean could see her hands shaking.
“He’s awake,” she told them, and Dean truly couldn’t tell whether it was the scars or the sneer that distorted her face more, “And he hasn’t changed a damn bit. You lot should be careful.”
Harry, who along with Ron and Hermione, had stood the instant she came into the room, nodded.
“Thanks, Lavender. We will.”
“Alright, Lav?” Ron asked, having evidently also noticed the shaking.
“Yeah,” Lavender (Lavender Brown, Dean realized, gotta be) said, letting out an explosive sigh that melted her sneer into a small but sincere smile, “I am. Seeing him in chains was rather...cathartic. You should tell Bill.”
Ron grinned, though it lacked most of his usual humor.
“I’ll do that.”
Hermione stepped around the boys to give Lavender a hug, which surprised Dean, given what he remembered of their relationship from the books.
“You should take the rest of the day,” she told her once she’d stepped back, “Go snatch Parvati away from whatever she’s up to and stay in.”
Lavender’s smile grew warmer.
“I’ll do that, thanks Hermione.”
“When this is all over, the pair of you should come over for dinner, make a night of it,” Harry said, grinning despite the tension writ over every line in his body.
“With the six of us, we might as well make a reunion of it,” Lavender told him, “Get the rest of the DA.”
“I’ll talk to Hannah,” Ron said, “She’ll be able to get hold of everyone.”
“Right,” Lavender said, “Well, let me know the day. I’m off to abduct my girlfriend for ice cream and cuddles. Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
Then she was gone, and Dean, Mary, and Cas were standing, waiting. For a moment, they just stood; Harry stared after Lavender with a faraway look in his eyes. Then, the wizard shook himself and clapped his hands together.
“Right then. Let’s do this.”
He turned on his heel and started for a door to a room that Dean would’ve thought was an office if not for the obviously heavily reinforced lock. Ron and Hermione flanked him with the ease that came with time, and Dean followed them, Mary and Cas beside him.
Fenrir Greyback looked like the kind of werewolf one could find on the cover of a trashy romance novel, if the werewolves on the covers of trashy romance novels were old, covered in scars and bandages, and looked completely insane. His mad yellow eyes glowed in the light, his teeth were too sharp as he snarled at them, and his wild grey hair looked like the mane of a wolf.
Unnerving. Yeah, that was one work for it.
“Harry Potter.” The werewolf’s voice came in a rasping growl. “It’s been too long.”
Harry snorted.
“Not hardly.”
Greyback ignored the wizard, gazing past him at Ron and then settling on Hermione.
“Oh, I remember you,” He bared his teeth at her, “Back in the manor, oh Bella had
such
fun with you. Your screams and,” Greyback inhaled sharply, eyes closed and a truly disturbing expression of fond memory crossed his face, “The smell of your blood and your fear was truly-”
“We’re not here to bring up ancient history,” Dean snapped, having seen Hermione go rigid and Ron’s ears go red. “We have questions, and you’re going to answer them.”
Greyback's yellow eyes slid from Hermione and fixed on Dean. He supposed that, if he’d had the history with the werewolf that his friends did, if he hadn’t gone up against the likes of Lucifer and Death, this gaze might have fazed him. As it was, he stood his ground, and met those glowing eyes head on. Greyback was not Dean’s yellow eyed demon; he held no candle to Azazel.
He also stood between Dean and his little brother, which was never a safe place to be.
When Dean didn’t so much as blink, Greyback’s expression turned considering.
“Well,” he said, drawing out the word for all it was worth. “You’re new. And,” he drawled looking past Dean to Mary, “You, my good lady, look delicious.”
Mary only rolled her eyes at him, entirely uncowed, and Dean did nothing.
‘He’s irritatingly perceptive for someone as mad as he is.’
Dean couldn’t give this monster an inch, and his mom could take care of herself.
Beside him, Cas stiffened slightly as Greyback looked at him.
“Well, what have we here?” Greyback smiled, “Blue eyes, blue eyes, what
are
you-”
Cas went rigid and out of the corner of his eye Dean could see his suddenly blazing glare. Greyback’s smile disappeared and his eyes went wide and, almost unbelievably, scared.
“What-what
are”
the werewolf stammered in a completely different tone.
“Something far less human than you,” Cas told him, every word laced with all the angelic power he still had at his disposal, “and yet I seem to be a lot better at it.”
Part of Dean wanted to snort at that, but the rest of him was busy wanting to climb his angel like a damn tree.
So angry Cas was hot. Sue him.
“I’ve never seen him go speechless before.” Harry murmured, mouth turned up at the corners, completely unafraid.
“Maybe Cas should do the interrogating.” Mary said quietly, “If he can actually intimidate Greyback, he’ll probably have the best shot at getting answers.”
“I’d be happy to.” Cas ground out, still glaring.
The Golden Trio exchanged a significant look, then Harry shrugged.
“As good an idea as any I’ve had.” he said, “Go for it, Cas.”
They all stepped back to give Cas to Greyback, who pressed himself back in his chair, all sleazy bravado gone as if it had never been there in the first place.
Ron whistled lowly. “This is a first. Wish we could sic him on all of our criminals.”
Dean snorted. “Not a chance, dude, he’s coming home with us.”
“No,” said Ron, grinning, “I know. Still. Would be nice.”
Hermione rolled her eyes.
“I think you might have to start looking for a new deputy, Harry,” she said, “the one you’ve got now seems to be getting lazy.”
Harry huffed in amusement, but exchanged a quick glance with Ron that Hermione didn’t seem to see.
“Is he just going to keep staring at him?” he said at the corner of his mouth.
“Nah,” Dean said back, “just until Greyback’s as unnerved as he’s going to get. Then, he’ll strike.”
Harry nodded, and it was at that moment that Cas asked his first question.
“How did you get those injuries.”
Well. For a given value of asked, anyway.