Dean knew he didn't have any thing he wanted to be honest and when his soul was mentioned and subsequently rejected the hunter snorted "Yeah, you bitches been tryin' to get your hands on it, heaven too, but think it's past it's expiration date now." No apocalypse looming, he and Sam had already seen to that, Dean figured his soul had out ran it's usefulness to the opposing teams, at least as much as a soul could, they'd no longer be fighting to get at him. Just to get revenge he figured.
"One favor, no questions, I can't say no. You find Sam, for one thing, I'm your whippin' boy, no matter what it is." It was a dangerous game and Dean knew it, but if Sam was going off now to take care of what ever Lorne had told him, then Dean didn't have time to wait and Crowley had means to use that the hunter did not, as much as that rankled him.
"You want it or not?" The hunter downed the last of that alcohol as he eyed the demon. The glass he returned to the table with a slight thump. He didn't have that normally cocky sneer, nor did he slouch back as he normally would have. Every muscle in Dean's body was set to one pace, tense.
Crowley considered the offer for a few moments, then nodded. "Fair enough. Half a moment, then." He went to a shelf and took down a map of Hogwarts and its grounds (not perfectly accurate, of course; that was physically impossible in this place, but it was accurate enough for their purpose,) then rummaged through a few drawers and a cabinet and brought several bottles, a mortar and pestle and three large black candles to the table.
Spreading the map out flat, he mixed and prepared the necessary ingredients. "No fee if the spell fails, naturally...but you will owe me a new map." He lit the three candles, set them around the map and said offhandedly, "Stand back if you don't want to lose your eyebrows."
With that, he launched into the necessary Latin invocation, lighting a corner of the map with one of the candles and shutting his eyes as the flame crept across the paper.
When his eyes snapped open again, they were a blank expanse of poisonous green, dancing flames reflecting eerily where his irises should have been. "En ye, fiat," he intoned, watching the flames rise up and engulf the paper.
"Out," he said finally, and shook his head as the fire was snuffed, revealing nothing but flaky bits of carbon. With a blink, his eyes were back to their usual unremarkable blue-gray. "Hmm. Right, nothing in the immediate vicinity. Let's try the greater Hogsmeade area..." He went back to the shelf, took down a second map, brushed away the ashes of the first and repeated the ritual, once again to no effect.
He shook his head with a sigh, looking up at Dean somewhat glumly. "No dice. Either he's left the region entirely or he's got a hex bag or some other sort of protection on him. Although..." He paused for a long moment, frowning as another thought occurred to him.
"You did check the plaque outside the popcorn room, right?"
Dean actually expelled a relieved breath when he saw this deal was not going to be sealed in the way he had belatedly thought of. He quirked up an eyebrow watching the demon as he performed the ritual. When his eyes came open, their color caused the man to start slightly and actually move back some. That was just god damn creepy and Dean Winchester knew creepy.
When Crowley came up empty handed after a second try, Dean's first response was an instant knot of panic which always came across as overwhelming rage in the older Winchester. His hands balled and for a moment it looked as if he might snatch Crowley right from across that table. But that last statement gave him pause.
The popcorn room, Dean hadn't even thought of that damn place "I don't owe you crap..." He wasn't going to admit that he hadn't thought of it as Dean felt like a fool for not even considering the place and was not going to admit to Crowley that he had been any kind of help "Screw this, I ain't got time to waste."
He really didn't because now Dean was almost certain that his brother had been taken back to their home and that meant he was out of range for Dean to save him, Dean had been forced to let go, rather he wanted to or not.
Typical. He considered offering to check Scotland at large or the London area (as the Hogwarts Express ran there,) but the larger the map the less precise any result, and Crowley frankly doubted that Sam Winchester would go to the trouble of disappearing without thinking to cover his tracks properly.
"I'll just send you a bill when things have simmered down a bit, then," he said mildly to the empty air, smiling slightly as he waved a hand to shut the door Dean had left standing ajar.
"One favor, no questions, I can't say no. You find Sam, for one thing, I'm your whippin' boy, no matter what it is." It was a dangerous game and Dean knew it, but if Sam was going off now to take care of what ever Lorne had told him, then Dean didn't have time to wait and Crowley had means to use that the hunter did not, as much as that rankled him.
"You want it or not?" The hunter downed the last of that alcohol as he eyed the demon. The glass he returned to the table with a slight thump. He didn't have that normally cocky sneer, nor did he slouch back as he normally would have. Every muscle in Dean's body was set to one pace, tense.
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Spreading the map out flat, he mixed and prepared the necessary ingredients. "No fee if the spell fails, naturally...but you will owe me a new map." He lit the three candles, set them around the map and said offhandedly, "Stand back if you don't want to lose your eyebrows."
With that, he launched into the necessary Latin invocation, lighting a corner of the map with one of the candles and shutting his eyes as the flame crept across the paper.
When his eyes snapped open again, they were a blank expanse of poisonous green, dancing flames reflecting eerily where his irises should have been. "En ye, fiat," he intoned, watching the flames rise up and engulf the paper.
"Out," he said finally, and shook his head as the fire was snuffed, revealing nothing but flaky bits of carbon. With a blink, his eyes were back to their usual unremarkable blue-gray. "Hmm. Right, nothing in the immediate vicinity. Let's try the greater Hogsmeade area..." He went back to the shelf, took down a second map, brushed away the ashes of the first and repeated the ritual, once again to no effect.
He shook his head with a sigh, looking up at Dean somewhat glumly. "No dice. Either he's left the region entirely or he's got a hex bag or some other sort of protection on him. Although..." He paused for a long moment, frowning as another thought occurred to him.
"You did check the plaque outside the popcorn room, right?"
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When Crowley came up empty handed after a second try, Dean's first response was an instant knot of panic which always came across as overwhelming rage in the older Winchester. His hands balled and for a moment it looked as if he might snatch Crowley right from across that table. But that last statement gave him pause.
The popcorn room, Dean hadn't even thought of that damn place "I don't owe you crap..." He wasn't going to admit that he hadn't thought of it as Dean felt like a fool for not even considering the place and was not going to admit to Crowley that he had been any kind of help "Screw this, I ain't got time to waste."
He really didn't because now Dean was almost certain that his brother had been taken back to their home and that meant he was out of range for Dean to save him, Dean had been forced to let go, rather he wanted to or not.
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"I'll just send you a bill when things have simmered down a bit, then," he said mildly to the empty air, smiling slightly as he waved a hand to shut the door Dean had left standing ajar.
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