(Harry Potter/SPN) One Thing in Common, Too for xover_exchange
Title: One Thing in Common, Too
Author: 55sunsets
Fandoms: Harry Potter/Supernatural
Characters Harry Potter; Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Castiel.
Pairings: Gen, but past Harry/Ginny
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 8205
Spoilers: Harry Potter: Up to and including the epilogue of Deathly Hallows, Nothing specific past season four for Supernatural
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and Supernatural belong to their respective creators
A/N: Thanks to timecake for being an amazingly patient and long-suffering beta! The title is from the Pet Shop Boys' song 'It's a sin'.
Summary: Harry Potter's life is beginning to fall apart at the seams when an angel appears in his kitchen with problems of his own.
HARRY POTTER'S WIFE SEEKS DIVORCE!
Soon-to-be Ms Weasley is seeking a divorce from famed auror and Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter, Rita Skeeter exclusively reports. In fact, according to sources close to the family, she has already moved out of the ancestral Potter home. Official representatives were unavailable for comment, but this reporter thinks -
Harry threw down the paper in disgust. He hated that he still made the news with alarming regularity. That didn't stop the article being true, though. He just had no idea who leaked the news before he made an official announcement.
He sighed and buried his face in his hands. It hadn't come as a shock, really. After Lily went to Hogwarts, Harry and Ginny had found themselves drifting apart, and he honestly hadn't been surprised when a week ago, she'd tearfully told him she was in love with Neville Longbottom. She had moved out the day after that, leaving Harry alone.
Harry glanced at his watch. He had a few days break from work, now, and was left with nothing to do. He pushed himself up from where he was sitting, in a plush armchair in the living room of his house, double-checked that his wand was in his pocket, and headed to the kitchen for lunch.
He'd just finished when he heard the flutter of wings behind him. It was probably an owl from Lily - she had been writing to him a lot since she'd found out about the breakup of her parents marriage.
When he turned around, however, what was behind him was most certainly not Lily's owl.
It was a man, approximately Harry's height, wearing a suit with a trenchcoat over it. Harry noted his appearance whilst he sprung up and took his wand out of his pocket, settling into a defensive stance instantly.
"Who are you?"
The man who had appeared in his kitchen looked decidedly unruffled to be looking down the business end of a wand. "My name is Castiel. I need your help."
Harry didn't move his wand any. "How did you get in?"
"I'm not going to hurt you. I just need your help."
His accent was American, Harry noted.
"How did you get into my house?"
The man sighed and promptly disappeared.
Harry blinked, and suddenly the man was behind him and took his wand from his hand, then disappeared again. He reappeared nearly instantly, back in front of Harry and holding his wand. Harry blinked.
"How did you-?"
The man raised a hand and Harry felt himself pushed backwards onto one of the chairs at the table.
"I'm not here to hurt you. I told you, I require your help. I believe you know of Death Eaters?"
Harry stared. Who was this man - who could apparate instantly and silently and who could do magic without a wand?
The man looked down at Harry with a solemn face. "My name is Castiel, and I am an angel of the Lord."
x
It was some time later that Castiel released Harry from his chair and gave him back his wand, after explaining the situation to him. Apparently some Death Eaters had resurfaced, decades after Voldemort's death, and were attempting to retrieve his soul from Hell.
"Voldemort's soul doesn't exist any more," Harry said. "Making the horcruxes damaged it irreparably in the first place, and when the horcruxes were destroyed, the pieces of soul were destroyed too."
"However," Castiel replied, "these death eaters - they did not know of the existence of these horcruxes. They assume that Voldemort's soul is intact, that he is simply dead and occupying Hell, not destroyed. They plan to open a gate to Hell and unleash Hell on earth to retrieve his soul."
"What do you need me for? Why can't you stop them?"
Castiel frowned even more - Harry didn't know if he had any facial expressions that weren't frowns - and admitted, "I am not an expert of magical humans. I was led to believe you are something an expert in detaining evil magic users?"
Harry smirked slightly. "I suppose you could call me that."
Eventually, Castiel persuaded Harry to travel to the gate with him. Harry had scribbled a quick letter to Ron and Hermione, then turned back to Castiel. "How are we getting there?"
Castiel just grasped his arm, then suddenly the sun was bright in Harry's eyes and there was grass below his feet. He looked around - he was in a graveyard.
Castiel smiled at him for the first time. "Welcome to Wyoming, Harry."
x
The graveyard was deserted when Harry and Castiel arrived, and stayed that way while Castiel showed Harry the devil's gate.
“There's no danger of them actually opening it, is there?” Harry asked, worried.
“No,” said Castiel. “The only key is secured.”
“But it can't be opened by magic?”
Castiel frowned. “I would not think so, but I do not know if Samuel Colt took any specific precautions against that.”
Harry looked at what was apparently a portal to hell. He wasn't particularly willing to find out if magic could open the solid-looking doors in front of him. “Lets not let them get that far, shall we?”
After Castiel had shown Harry the area around the gate, he vanished again. “I cannot risk being seen,” he had said. “I will be nearby if you need me.”
So, Harry settled in by himself to wait. He picked a secluded area where he still had a direct line of sight to the gate, pulled out his invisibility cloak, conjured himself a cushion to sit on, and made himself comfortable.
It was after dusk when he heard the first 'crack!' signalling an apparation. It was quickly followed by several more. Harry quickly and silently got to his feet and ran to the sounds, vanishing his seat with a flick of his wand.
There were six death eaters altogether - a mixture of American and English, judging by the voices. Harry didn't recognise any of their voices, though, and as he approached he realised they were all wearing masks.
“Are we all here?” one asked.
“Yes,” said another. “Rowan was the last.”
“I was seconds behind you, Ross,” Rowan sneered.
“Be quiet, the both of you!” the first one said. “We need to proceed with caution, and I'll be damned if you two get us discovered!”
Rowan laughed, and it wasn't a pleasant sound. “Who could possibly discover us here?”
Harry figured that was as good a time as any to start wordlessly stunning them.
Rowan fell first, and one of the quiet ones after that. Harry managed to take down another before the rest realised what was happening and started sending curses flying in his direction. Years of being an auror, however, had honed his skills and he avoided them with little trouble, sending his own curses back. He took down Ross quickly and easily enough with a bodybind, stunned the second-last, and was left with the death eater who had first spoken, who was dodging Harry's spells with surprising ease.
“Who's there?” the death eater shouted, pointing his wand straight at Harry. When Harry moved, the wand followed him, and Harry realised too late that the death eater knew exactly where he was - his footprints in the grass had given him away.
“Stupefy!” Harry shouted, at the same instant the death eater shouted “Sectumsempra!”
Harry got a shield up just in time to deflect the curse - just. The death eater wasn't as lucky, and fell backwards onto the grass. Harry walked over to him and removed his mask, frowning as the face registered - it was a nephew of Theodore Nott.
Without warning, Nott opened his eyes again, and Harry fell back in shock - they were solid black.
“Holy Shi-”
Suddenly, a twisting mass of black smoke poured from Nott's mouth into the air. Harry had never seen anything like it before.
“CASTIEL!” he shouted, and the angel appeared beside him just in time to see the smoke disappear into the sky.
“What was that?!”
Castiel looked down at him. “That was a demon. It was possessing him.”
“Did you know there would be demons here?” Harry demanded angrily.
Castiel remained calm. “I had considered that demons were behind this, but as demons tend to stay well away from your kind, I dismissed the possibility.”
“Yeah, well, looks like you dismissed it too soon,” said Harry, getting to his feet. He rubbed a hand across his face. “I didn't know demons existed. You're going to need to catch me up on that. Meanwhile -” Harry surveyed the five six fallen death eaters before him- “We're going to have to do something about this lot.”
At Castiel's request, Harry wiped their memories of the angel's existence, before rounding them up and having Castiel transport them all to the atrium of the Ministry of Magic.
It was the middle of the night when they arrived, but the Ministry wasn't empty yet. The Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, was about to floo away when Harry arrived with the six at his feet. Kingsley looked up at the sound of them arriving and his jaw dropped.
“Bloody Hell, Harry. You always know how to make an entrance.”
x
It didn't take as long as Harry expected for the death eaters to be arrested and for him to give evidence of their activities. He didn't go into too much detail on how they were planning on bringing Voldemort back, and Kingsley sensed his reluctance to talk about it. That, and how he knew they what they were planning.
After reassuring Kingsley and several other department heads who had appeared to sort things out that the planned resurrection would have failed anyway and that Voldemort's soul was definitely destroyed, Harry was able to apparate back to his house, where he collapsed into his bed. It had been a long day - but at least it had kept his mind off Ginny.
x
When Harry awoke the next morning, the first thing he was aware of was someone standing at the foot of his bed. He reacted lightning fast - his wand was in his hand and he'd fired off a stunning spell before realising that it was Castiel he'd just attacked.
Harry fumbled for his glasses and Castiel came into focus. The angel had easily sidestepped the spell and looked at Harry disapprovingly.
“Why are you in my bedroom?” asked Harry.
“I need you to accompany me back to America.” said Castiel.
“Again?” said Harry. “Didn't we get all the death eaters?”
“The demon controlling their leader escaped,” replied Castiel. “I have tracked it, but I do know know how much it knows about this Voldemort, or of dark magic. In addition to that, I suspect that there may have been more of these death eaters behind this plot, but only some went to the gate last night.”
“Demons are your thing,” said Harry. “I didn't know they existed until yesterday! What can I do against demons?”
“Nothing,” replied Castiel. “That is part of the problem. If a demon comes after you, which it now may, you are totally unprotected.”
“Hey,” interjected Harry, “I can take care of myself.”
“Not against demons.” Castiel stared at him intensely. “I have friends tracking this demon now. We will require your help in interrogation once we do find it. And if there are more death eaters than who we know of involved in this plot, these friends of mine have no experience against your powers. They won’t know what they’re up against.”
Harry sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Fine,” he said, “Just give me a while to get ready.”
Castiel said they would be at least several days, so Harry packed a bag and shrunk it so it fitted into his pocket. He sent an owl to Kingsley, explaining that he was extending his time off, and made a quick trip by floo to Ron and Hermione's house to explain that he'd be away for a bit. They were understandably curious as to what would have him travel to the US on such short notice, but he refused to answer any questions.
Eventually he arrived back to his house and found Castiel peering at the moving pictures in a Quidditch magazine.
“Shall we go?” asked Harry.
Castiel put down the magazine before turning to Harry. He grasped his arm again, and all of a sudden Harry found himself in a different continent for the second time in two days. He noticed that they weren’t back in the graveyard they were in last time. Now, they were standing in front of a cheap-looking motel. Castiel led Harry to a room on the ground floor and knocked.
It swung open after a few seconds, and the man who opened it looked at Castiel confusingly. “Why did you knock? You never knock. Not that I’m complaining.” He pulled the door open further and Harry followed Castiel in. It was an average-sized motel room, with two double beds. The one closest to the door was empty, but there was another man sitting on the other bed, balancing a laptop on his lap and sorting through papers scattered around him. He looked up at the visitors.
The man who had answered the door held out his hand to Harry. “Dean Winchester,” he said, “And that’s my brother Sam over there.” He nodded to the man on the bed.
Harry shook Dean’s hand firmly. “Harry Potter,” he said. “Nice to meet you.”
“Same. Cas says you’re some sort of specialist?”
Harry chuckled ruefully. “Yeah,” he said. “Not in demons, though. They’re kind of new to me.”
Dean raised his eyebrows. “You’re not a hunter, then?”
“A hunter?” That was... random.
Dean turned to Castiel and scowled. “Cas, do you just not tell anybody anything, at all?”
Castiel scowled back. “I tell people what it is necessary they know.”
“Sometimes,” muttered Harry, thinking of the black smoke spilling from Nott’s mouth. Castiel ignored him. Dean smirked.
“Alright,” Dean said. “Me and Sam - we’re hunters. We hunt evil, supernatural things.”
Harry blinked. “Okay.”
“Good,” said Dean. He looked at his watch. “Sam’s tracked this demon to a bunch of warehouses outside of town. We’ll go tonight to do some recon, get a feel of the place. But Sam and me have been up all right researching this thing, and we really need to get some sleep.”
Harry nodded. “I’ll go get another room.”
He left Castiel with Sam and Dean to go to the motel reception. He got the room next to Sam and Dean’s for a few nights easily enough with the debit card attached to his Gringotts account. He was glad it worked - he hadn’t thought to check that with the goblins before he left.
He was walking back to his room when Castiel appeared next to him. Harry glanced around - luckily there was nobody else around to see Castiel appearing out of thin air. They walked together in silence for a moment.
“Do Sam and Dean know? About what I am?”
Castiel looked at him. “I am not sure of your meaning.”
“Do they know I’m a wizard?” Harry asked frankly.
Castiel hesitated. “No.”
Harry raised an eyebrow. “Do they know wizards and witches exist?”
Castiel sighs. “The know of some, different witches. They aren’t witches by your definition, simply humans who sell their souls to demons for power. They’re not your kind. Your powers are genetic. Theirs are borrowed, for a heavy price.”
“And why haven’t you enlightened them?”
Castiel frowned at they reached Harry’s room. “Dean and Sam have been known to act first and think about the consequences of such actions later. They are good men, and I trust them, but I saw no reason to put you at risk.”
“So you think that they’ll assume I’m one of those bad magic-users and act accordingly?” Harry unlocked his door and went into his room, holding the door open for Castiel behind him.
“I am unsure what their reaction would be,” Castiel replied. “Besides, I was under the impression that your people wanted your existence kept a secret from other humans.”
Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair. It was still messy and stuck up at the back - he’d never managed to get it under control. “Yeah,” he said, “Yeah. But what will I say when they ask what exactly I’m here to do?”
Castiel looked at him impassively. “Tell Dean that you have dealt with the group of people that the demon was working with before.”
“You said earlier that there may be more wizards working for this demon. If they attack, the secret’s kind of blown anyway.”
“We will deal with that if and when it happens.”
Harry shook his head and started to say something, then thought better of it. He looked at his watch. It was early morning in Wyoming, but his body clock was telling him it was the middle of the day. Nevertheless, he hadn’t had very much sleep the night before and he was tired.
“I’m going to sleep as well for a while,” Harry told Castiel. “If I’m not awake when Sam and Dean get up, come get me.”
“Fine,” said Castiel, and he vanished.
Harry yawned and retrieved his shrunken bag and his wand from his pocket. He unshunk the bag and dumped it on the desk, before turning to the bed. He kicked off his shoes and carefully placed his glasses on the bedside table, then sprawled on top of the bed. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep.
He awoke to the sound of someone knocking the door of his room. Clearly not Castiel, then. He got up and headed towards the door, snatching up his glasses and double-checking his pocket for his wand along the way. He looked out through the peephole and saw Sam Winchester on the other side of the door. Harry quickly unlocked it and pulled it open for Sam to come in.
“Hey,” said Sam, and damn, that guy was tall. “Sorry I didn’t get to introduce myself properly yesterday. I’m Sam.” He held out his hand for Harry to shake.
Harry took it and smiled. “Harry Potter,” he said, “But you already knew that.”
Sam laughed. “Yeah,” he said. “Anyway, me and Dean are getting ready to go case these warehouses where I’ve tracked the demon to before we go back and take care of it tonight, if you wanna come along.”
“Sure,” said Harry. “Just give me a few minutes. Do you have the time, by the way?”
Sam checked his watch. “Just after noon.”
“Thanks,” said Harry, adjusting his own watch. At least he’d gotten a few hours sleep.
Sam left and after hearing the door to the other room open then close again, Harry pulled his toothbrush out of his bag and headed into the tiny bathroom.
x
Checking out the warehouses with the Winchester brothers was, ultimately, uneventful for Harry. He couldn’t pull out his wand and, seeing he was weaponless, Dean gave him a gun. Harry looked at it and handed it back. Dean raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment.
They sneaked into a warehouse after parking Dean’s car a few blocks away, so nobody, human or demon, could hear them coming. Dean pulled something out of his jacket pocket and Harry looked at it.
“Is that a walkman?” he asked.
“Yep,” said Dean, and he held it out in front of him. He didn’t seem to be forthcoming with any more information, so Harry turned to Sam instead.
“Why has he got his walkman out?”
Sam snorted. “It’s an EMF meter. He made it out of his old walkman.”
“And it, what, detects demons?”
“Well,” said Sam, “No. It detects ghosts and stuff like that. But with demons, especially powerful ones, sometimes they increase the level of spirit activity. You know, stir dead things up. They give off the EMF, not the demons themselves.”
“Okay,” Harry said. “You’re really going to have to tell me more about dealing with demons.”
They thoroughly explored each warehouse in turn, and it was in the last one that they finally found evidence of demon activity. There was traces of sulphur on the threshold, and Dean lead them in. He’d put the EMF reader away, and was now holding a sawn-off shotgun. Sam had quietly informed Harry that it was loaded with rock salt instead of normal bullets.
They covered every corner of the warehouse, Harry feeling rather useless armed with neither a weapon nor any real knowledge on demons. Finally it was declared clear, and Sam and Dean sprung into action, pulling out spraycans of paint. They painted symbols on the ceilings, under furniture, anywhere where they would be difficult to notice.
They were finished quickly, and in nearly no time at all were back in Dean’s car.
“Right,” said Dean, “That’s us done until tonight. I say we get something to eat, and then we can show Harry here how to handle a gun and deal with demons.” He turned and grinned wickedly at Harry, who was in the back.
They went to a nearby diner for something to eat. Harry, Sam and Dean all sat around a table and the waitress taking their order seemed rather taken with Harry’s accent. Harry insisted on paying, as he only had his card and no cash and it seemed easiest.
“Dude,” said Dean as they were leaving. “You could totally have gotten her number!”
Harry glanced down at his wedding ring. He hadn’t managed to take it off yet. “Nah,” he said. “I’m not going to be here for that long anyway.”
“Still more than enough time to hook up. Cas’ll zap you back whenever you want, doesn’t have to be right after this job is over. You know that, right?”
“Yeah,” said Harry.
Dean nearly said something else, but Sam had caught on to the object of Harry’s gaze and quickly elbowed Dean to shut him up.
“Anyway,” said Harry. “Where are we going now?”
“Now,” said Dean, “We are going to give you a crash course in demon hunting.”
It didn’t take long for Dean to find a deserted area a few miles out of town. He parked and opened the trunk of the car. Harry’s eyes widened at the sheer amount of various weapons below the false bottom.
“Bloody hell. You could take over a small country with that.”
Sam had gotten out of the car too, and he reached over and poked Harry. “Don’t encourage him,” he said. “Dean’s head’s plenty swollen as it is.”
Dean made a rude gesture at Sam, before turning back to Harry. He handed him a sawn-off shotgun, one of the ones Harry had seen earlier in the warehouse.
“You ever used one of these before?”
“Are you kidding me?” Harry replied. “I’ve never handled a gun before in my life.”
“Alrighty then,” said Dean. “This’ll be fun. Okay, do you know how to run the safety off?”
After an hour, Harry had managed to impress Dean with his aim, once he’d learnt how to actually handle the gun. Finally, Dean took the gun back.
“Thank God,, my shoulder was killing me,” said Harry, rubbing the injured shoulder.
“Recoil’s a bitch,” said Dean, nodding. “But you get used to it.” He glanced at his watch. “We got another few hours before sunset. I say we head back to the motel for a bit.”
Once back at the motel, they gathered in Sam and Dean’s room. Harry sat in a chair while Sam and Dean briefly explained the main methods of controlling demons.
“An exorcism sends them back to Hell,” said Sam, “but that takes a while to say and the demon can still more about and throw things at you and whatever while you’re saying it. That’s where devil’s traps and salt come in. A demon can’t cross a salt line, and it can’t leave a devil’s trap once inside, either, unless it’s broken. Neither will affect it’s powers, though. Then, there’s holy water. It burns them, but without causing harm to whoever the demon’s possessing. Alright?”
“Exorcism, devil’s traps, salt, and holy water,” repeated Harry. “I think I’ve got it. Devil’s traps - those were the things you were drawing earlier?”
“Yeah,” said Sam, but he was interrupted by a taptaptap coming from the window.
“Holy shit,” said Dean incredulously. “There’s an owl at the window!”
There was indeed an tawny owl perched on the windowsill outside, tapping the glass with its beak. Harry jumped up from his chair and walked towards the window.
“You’re not going to- Why did you let it into our room!” Sam and Dean watched in shock as the owl calmly hopped inside and onto Harry’s shoulder, before sticking out its leg. Harry untied the letter there and took the owl into the bathroom, closely followed by Sam and Dean. He ran some water into the sink and the owl hopped down to drink.
“Dude,” said Dean, “You can’t just let an owl into our bathroom!”
Harry looked at him guiltily. “Sorry,” he said, “but she’s had a long flight.”
Sam stared at Harry. “Are you saying that it flew across the Atlantic ocean to here?”
Harry was just now realizing how bizarre the entire thing must seem to the muggles. “Uh, yes?”
“Seriously?” asked Sam, who was cautiously approaching the bird, hand stretched out to touch the feathers on it’s back. He jump backwards when the owl fluttered its wings.
Harry laughed. “She won’t bite you,” he said. “That’s my daughter’s pet owl.”
This drew even more incredulous stares from Sam and Dean. “She sent you a message via owl?” said Dean. “What, does she not have a cellphone?” He paused. “I didn’t know you had a daughter.”
“Yeah,” said Harry, “and two sons.”
“What on earth are you doing over here, if you have three kids?” said Dean.
“They’re all in boarding school,” said Harry, and walked back into Sam and Dean’s bedroom, leaving the owl behind him. The Winchesters gave suspicious glances at the bird still calmly drinking from their sink, but followed him out.
Harry sat down in the chair he had been previously occupying and pulled Lily’s note out of his pocket.
Dear Dad,
I heard from Aunt Hermione that you went off to America for a few days. You’re going to have to do some explaining when you get back - she’s not very happy about you just dashing off like that! Are you in America? Why did you have to go on such short notice? I thought you were off work for a few days! Write me back, please, we’re a bit worried.
James and Al say hi!
Love,
Lily
Harry laughed. His daughter was inquisitive to a fault - she reminded him of Hermione sometimes.
“Everything okay?”
Harry looked up from his letter into Sam’s face.
“Yeah,” he said. “I just didn’t get much time to tell people where I was going before Castiel brought me over.”
Sam looked somewhat alarmed. “Does anybody - apart from us and Cas - know you’re here?”
Harry was surprised by the level of concern that Sam seemed to be showing for him.
“I told some friends before I left,” he replied. “I didn’t get have time to write to everybody. I knew the message would get passed on.”
Sam didn’t look particularly satisfied, but he let the matter drop.
Dean was still standing by the bathroom door, looking in. “I can’t believe your daughter has an owl,” he said. “Our dad wouldn’t even let us have a puppy.”
“All my kids have owls,” said Harry. Dean raised his eyebrows at him. “It’s quite a common thing where I live.”
“England sounds awesome,” Dean announced.
“Can I borrow some paper?” asked Harry. Sam passed him the motel notepad and pen. “Thanks.”
He scribbled a letter back.
Lily-
Yes, I’m in Wyoming. I’m supposed to be off work, but some urgent business came up. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be back soon. Tell your brothers to keep out of trouble!
Love, Dad.
Dean jumped as the owl flew out of the bathroom and came to land on Harry’s shoulder. Harry patted it, and she nipped his finger affectionately. “Everybody alright without me, girl?” he asked. She hooted at him.
“This is officially the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen,” said Dean to Sam. “And we’ve seen a lot of bizarre things.”
“What?” said Harry defensively. “She’s a sweet owl. Do you have any food?”
Dean frowned at the change in conversation. “Uh, yeah.” he went searching through his bag. “I gotta couple of twinkies, a pack of chips, and, uh, that’s it.” He emerged from the back holding the food items. Harry snagged the chip packet.
“You like these, don’t you, girl?” he said, opening them and pouring a few out onto his palm. She hooted happily and started eating.
“I was wrong,” Dean addressed Sam again. “That’s officially the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Does your owl have a name?” asked Sam, ignoring Dean.
“Lily named her Penny.” replied Harry.
“Penny the owl,” said Dean. “Sometimes I wonder if Castiel gets us into these things deliberately.”
“Ready for a flight back?” Harry asked Penny. She hooted and nipped his ear. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He folded the note and attached it to her leg, then carried her to the window. He opened it, and she hooted once more before soaring into the sky.
Harry glanced at his watch, and then at Sam and Dean who were staring at Penny becoming steadily smaller and smaller as she flew away. “Shouldn’t we be going soon?”
It took only a few minutes to get ready. It was obvious Sam and Dean were well used to this, with the speed they got the car loaded, weapons sorted out - Harry got tossed a shotgun and some spare salt shells to reload - and supplied of salt and holy water checked. Soon, they were on their way back to the warehouse.
Harry couldn’t believe the calmness in the car. The reality of what they were about to do had struck him. They were going to exorcise a demon, potentially one possessing a death eater. Harry wondered how he kept managing to get himself into these situations.
Sam turned around on the front seat, providing a welcome distraction. “So, you’ve got three kids?” he asked, sounding impressed.
“Yeah, here-” Harry fumbled to get his wallet out of his back pocket. He pulled a picture of his children out, quickly tapping it twice to turn stop it moving. He passed it over to Sam, who studied it and smiled.
“That one-,” he pointed to Albus, “-he looks just like you.”
“That’s Albus,” said Harry, “and that’s James, and there’s Lily.”
“Albus,” said Sam, “Unusual name.”
“He was named after an old mentor of mine. We call him Al.”
“Ah, right.”
Sam handed the photo back, and they lapsed into silence again, but this time Harry felt calmer
now too. It wasn’t long before they were approaching the warehouses. Dean parked the car, and they got out and headed towards the last warehouse, weapons carefully concealed. Harry made certain that his wand was in his pocket before following them closely. It was just before sunset.
Dean reached it first, and carefully looked through a window next to the door. “Still looks deserted,” he said. “We’ll go in, hide until this demon shows, exorcise it, and we’re done. Easy-peasy.” Harry doubted it was going to be so easy. Dean continued, “Sam and I’ll take care of exorcising the demons. Harry, you take care of anything else that decides to pop up. Okay?”
Harry nodded, Dean opened the door slowly and quietly, and they went inside.
Finding a hiding place was easy, due to furniture scattered about the room and the bad lighting casting black shadows. They settled in behind a pile of old furniture and crates in a corner and prepared to wait.
It wasn’t long before Harry heard the cracks of multiple apparations outside. Sam and Dean looked at each other, confused at the noise, but Harry mentally swore. Multiple wizards. It looked like Castiel’s suspicions were turning out to be right. The door opened and Harry heard the sound of people coming in, talking in low voices. More cracks sounded outside, and more people came in. Harry bit his lip. He hadn’t expected so many people. Neither had Sam or Dean, judging by the looks on their faces.
Harry moved silently around until he could see out through a hole in the wood of one of the crates. Sam and Dean watched him as he observed the gathering crowd. There were about seven or eight people so far, milling about in the centre of the room. All were wearing death eater robes and masks.
“Seven or eight people,” muttered Harry. “No clear leader. The demon mustn’t have arrived yet.”
Sam looked at Dean, “Maybe we should start taking them down now?”
Dean shook his head. “If this demon realizes something’s wrong, he won’t come in and we won’t get him at all, and then we’re going to have to start tracking him all over again.”
He had hardly finished speaking when one last crack had sounded outside and the voices in the room fell silent. The door opened and closed and Harry tracked the progress of the newest addition through the room, noting how the others drew away as he made his way through the crowd. He was also wearing the robes and mask, but Harry could see through the eyeholes of his mask into black eyes. He had blond hair and when he spoke, it was with an English accent
“As you all know by now, our plans last night were foiled and now many of our brothers are in
custody of the ministry. We failed to open the gate to retrieve our Master from Hell. We must try again.
"What you may not have heard, was that our plans were foiled by Harry Potter.”
Both Sam and Dean turned to look at Harry, who didn’t turn to look back at them.
The blond continued, “I too was unaware of his presence in the country, and I do not know how he discovered our plans, but it seems likely that we have a leak.” Black eyes surveyed the group of men in front of them coldly. “It may be one of you. It may be one of the six captured last night. I do not know, but rest assured that I will find out.
“However, we need to try again as soon as possible to free our Lord. While he rots in hell, our brothers are mingling with the muggle scum, who come ever closer to discovering our existence. Harry Potter is now after us, and undoubtedly that means the rest of the Order of the Phoenix - or what remains of it - is not far behind.”
There was no Order any more, not since the years following Voldemort’s death, but many of the past members were still ready to be called into service again if needed. Luckily, Harry knew that whatever else may happen, Voldemort was well and truly dead. However, the death eaters opening the door to hell would undoubtedly cause some awful destruction.
And they knew he was here. He should have realized that the demon saw him as it was vacating Nott’s body, but he hadn’t anticipated fighting a room full of murderous wizards who were now aware of the fact he was onto them.
Going by the look on Sam and Dean’s faces, they understood the seriousness of the situation, even though Harry was sure they couldn’t have understood most of the blond’s speech.
“When are we going to do this?” Harry muttered out of the corner of his mouth, while the blond continued talking.
Dean paused to process the situation. “Right. We’re going to need a distraction -”
“I can do that,” said Harry.
“Okay then,” whispered Dean. “You cause a distraction over there, while Sam and I attempt to get this guy under the devil’s trap on the ceiling. You’re sure he’s the possessed one?” Harry nodded, and Dean continued, “The rest seem to have been going in and out of the trap fine, so they’re not possessed. Are you sure you can deal with them?”
“Leave it to me.”
“Whenever you’re ready, then.”
Harry bit his lip, thinking. There was no way this was going to be possible without using magic. He thought of Castiel’s words - “Dean and Sam have been known to act first and think about the consequences of such actions later.” - and decided to risk it. “I’m going to move to a better location for this, then. Keep an eye out for the signal, and then go.”
“What’s the signal?” Sam hissed.
“I haven’t decided yet,” said Harry. “You’ll know it when you see it.”
There was cover in the form of more crates and the odd broken piece of furniture, so Harry slowly made his way down the room, pressed tight to the wall. Once he was out of Sam and Dean’s line of sight, he cast a disillusionment charm on himself, which made continuing around the perimeter of the room much easier. Once he was sufficiently far away from Sam and Dean, he sat up and took note of the junk lying around him. There was a table lying on its side, which Harry didn’t particularly want to get rid of as it looked like a good place to shelter. Beside it, however, stood a busted-up sofa. Harry grinned, and raised his wand.
“Locomotor sofa!” he whispered, and it raised off the ground by a tiny amount. A flick of his wand, and Harry sent the sofa flying towards the crowd of death eaters, knocking them over like pins hit by a bowling ball.
Nearly instantaneously, the death eaters aimed a volley of spells at the flying sofa, blowing it to smithereens before it hit the ground. However, they were too late. Harry was already up and on the move, and so were Sam and Dean.
As he was still invisible, Harry took a moment to cast shield charms over Sam and Dean, before turning back to the death eaters. He started sending stunner after stunner, hoping to take as many down as possible before they realised where he was. He took down three quickly - four more, not including the demon, to go. He was firing spells at an insanely fast rate - few of them connected, but the more confusion he could cause, the more time Sam and Dean would have to complete the exorcism unnoticed.
Sam and Dean were able to more to either side of the demon without being spotted, but that went out the window when Sam started chanting the exorcism. The demon screeched and spun around to confront Sam.
“A muggle?” he shouted, shocked, “Here!?”
The shout drew the attention of a few of the wizards dodging Harry’s spells. Harry couldn’t stop to defend Sam, but Dean stepped in, giving the nearest one a shotgun blast to the chest.
“Hurry the hell up, Sam!” he shouted as he reloaded.
Thanks to Sam and Dean drawing the attention away from him, Harry took down another two death eaters. Two to go, and when he dared to glance over to Sam and Dean and the demon, he saw Dean dousing it with holy water as it pulled out its wand. The wand fell to the floor as the demon doubled over in pain, steam rising from its skin.
“Petrificus totalus!” shouted Harry, and one of the last two death eaters fell to the floor. The last fired a barrage of spells at him, and Harry, tired from the sheer amount of magic he’d used, just about managed to jump out of the way. One skimmed him, though, and broke his disillusionment charm. He was immediately recognised.
“Harry Potter!”
Harry took advantage of his surprise to shout “Stupefy!” It hit the last death eater in the chest, and he fell to the floor.
Still breathing heavily, Harry turned to Sam and Dean just in time to see the blond fall to his knee. A demon poured out of his mouth, flew the ceiling in a mass of writhing smoke, and disappeared. The blond collapsed to the ground, motionless.
Sam and Dean turned to Harry with faces like stone and guns raised.
“Potter,” said Dean, “you have some explaining to do.”
They strode towards Harry determinedly. Harry stood his ground.
“What just happened here?” asked Dean angrily, brandishing his shotgun.
Harry took off his glasses and rubbed his hand over his eyes. “Remember when you asked what kind of specialist I was?”
“Yes?” said Dean impatiently.
Harry put his glasses back on. “I’m pretty damn good at magic.”
Suddenly, he noticed movement in the corner of his eye. The blond who had been possessed had awoken, and was going for his wand. He reached it before Harry had the chance to react, and shouted “Sectumsempra!”
Harry dived out of the way just in time, and the curse hit Sam in the shoulder.Suddenly there was blood everywhere, and Sam fell.
“Stupefy!” shouted Harry, raising his wand quickly, and the blond man fell motionless again. Harry turned to Sam, who was lying in a pool of blood that was growing steadily bigger. Dean was kneeling over him, applying pressure to the wound.
“We need to call 911-” he started to say, before Harry pushed him out of the way and raised his wand again. Dean started to shout “What are you-?”, but Harry wordlessly silenced him with a flick of his wand. He quickly vanished the blood around the wound to assess the damage, then started muttering healing spells, moving his wand along the injury, Dean cursing silently the whole time. Eventually Harry sat up straight again.
“Sam’s going to be fine,” he said. “I’m not the best healer on the planet, but I’m not bad.” He cancelled the silencing spell on Dean, who glared daggers at him before bending over to inspect what remained of his little brother’s injury.
While Dean was occupied with Sam, Harry got up and headed over to the blond man, who was still lying stunned on the floor. Harry conjured ropes to bind him, then pointed his wand at the man and said, “Enervate.”
The man’s eyes opened. He was still wearing his mask, so Harry removed it, looked at the man, and frowned. Harry didn’t recognise him, but his features were familiar. He was a lot younger than Harry expected - only around eighteen or nineteen. Not much older than James.
The man on the ground smirked. “You don’t know me, Potter, but I know of you.”
Harry didn’t feel in the least bit threatened now by the man - teenager - who lay bound in front of him.
“Who are you?” Harry asked.
The smirk widened. “My name is Antares Malfoy. I think you know my father.”
Harry leveled his wand at the man’s head. “I’m giving you one chance to explain yourself before I hand you over to the ministry,” he said, “And believe me, once they hear you’ve been attempting to bring Voldemort back from the dead, they won’t be nearly as nice as I am.”
Antares’ smirk faltered, and he hesitated, clearly weighing up his options. “Fine,” he huffed, finally. “I was born a squib, and my father, Draco Malfoy, was too ashamed of me to make my existence public, so I was hidden from the wizarding world for years. My father did let me move to America on my eighteenth birthday. I’m sure he was glad to see the back of me, what with little Scorpius fulfilling his every expectation of what a proper son should be. Dad-” he nearly spat the word out - “gave me some money and sent me on my merry way.”
“And then,” here he smiled darkly, “I discovered that there was more to the supernatural than the magic I didn’t have. I made a deal with a demon at a crossroads, and she gave me power. So much power! And I had ten years left to cause as much havoc as I possibly could. So when I encountered another demon with this proposition, I let it possess me.”
“You were stupid,” said Harry. “Voldemort’s soul’s not in Hell. It never was. It’s been destroyed.”
Antares’ smile widened further into a grin. “I know,” he said, “I just wanted to raise a little hell.”
Harry had heard enough. “Stupefy.” Antares slumped, unconscious once again.
When Harry went back to the Winchesters, Sam had recovered so much he was sitting up, though he still looked very pale. Dean looked up at Harry’s face, then his gaze dropped to the wand in Harry’s hand.
“You still owe us that explanation,” he said.
“I know,” said Harry, and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’ll explain everthing later, I swear. But right now, I need to sort this mess out. Where the hell’s Castiel when you need him?”
x
It wasn’t quite as late as the last time, but when Castiel dropped Harry and the still-unconscious death eaters off at the ministry, it was still well into the night in England. This time, Kingsley Shacklebolt wasn’t about to leave - but Deputy Minister Percy Weasley was. He nearly fainted when he saw Harry arrive.
“I’ll, er, go get the minister,” he said, and ran back the way he had come.
Kingsley came rushing up a minute later, closely followed by Percy. The Minister stopped and surveyed the scene in front of him - Harry surrounded by eight stunned death eaters - and shook his head. He didn’t even look surprised, this time.
“Someday, Harry,” he said tiredly, “you’re going to learn the meaning of the words ‘time off’.”
x
Castiel returned Harry back to Wyoming that same night, but dropped him in his own room instead of Sam and Dean’s.
“You look like you need the sleep,” was his only explanation, and Harry was only too happy not to have to confront the Winchesters right away. His body still exhausted from the fight earlier, he nearly fell into bed and was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
The next morning, Harry told Sam and Dean about magic - how it was supposed to remain secret from non-magic users, about the wizarding world, about Voldemort and his death eaters, and about the plan to raise Voldemort from the dead. It took hours to explain everything, and when he was done, Sam and Dean sat in silence for a few moments. Then Dean got up and retrieved three beers from the small motel fridge. He popped the top off them and passed one to Harry and another to Sam.
“I think we all need a drink after that,” he said, and drank. Harry and Sam followed suit.
“What are you going to do now?” asked Sam, later.
Harry shrugged. “Go home?” he said.
“You could stick around for a few days,” suggested Sam. “I mean, you’ve already got some time off, and you’ve a few days worth of clothes here already.”
Harry thought of the divorce papers he had to sign, the interviews that had been requested from the Daily Prophet, Witch Weekly, and the Quibbler, the paperwork he’d have to deal with for apprehending fourteen death eaters apparently single-handedly, facing Ginny and Neville and the prospect of explaining where he’d been and what he’d been doing to Hermione and Ron.
Dean saw the look on his face. “Or, you know, you could just stay.” Harry turned to look at him, and Dean just shrugged. “You’d make a hell of a good hunter once you got more used to using guns, and we could always use more hunters. Plus, you could go back to England whenever you felt like it, thanks to that appar-whatever thing you can do, or Cas could just zap you over and back. Me and Sam could train you up, no problem.”
Harry raised an eyebrow at them. “You could, could you?”
Dean looked offended. “There’s more out there than demons, you know.”
“Believe me,” said Harry, “I know.”
Dear Minister,
I am sorry to announce my resignation as head auror in the Ministry of Magic, effective immediately. I apologize for the short notice, but I am currently in the process of relocating and pursuing alternative career paths. I wish to thank you for the opportunities that you have given me and the trust you have placed in me in the past. I wish you all the best in the future.
Yours respectfully,
Harry Potter.
-END-
Author: 55sunsets
Fandoms: Harry Potter/Supernatural
Characters Harry Potter; Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Castiel.
Pairings: Gen, but past Harry/Ginny
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 8205
Spoilers: Harry Potter: Up to and including the epilogue of Deathly Hallows, Nothing specific past season four for Supernatural
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and Supernatural belong to their respective creators
A/N: Thanks to timecake for being an amazingly patient and long-suffering beta! The title is from the Pet Shop Boys' song 'It's a sin'.
Summary: Harry Potter's life is beginning to fall apart at the seams when an angel appears in his kitchen with problems of his own.
HARRY POTTER'S WIFE SEEKS DIVORCE!
Soon-to-be Ms Weasley is seeking a divorce from famed auror and Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter, Rita Skeeter exclusively reports. In fact, according to sources close to the family, she has already moved out of the ancestral Potter home. Official representatives were unavailable for comment, but this reporter thinks -
Harry threw down the paper in disgust. He hated that he still made the news with alarming regularity. That didn't stop the article being true, though. He just had no idea who leaked the news before he made an official announcement.
He sighed and buried his face in his hands. It hadn't come as a shock, really. After Lily went to Hogwarts, Harry and Ginny had found themselves drifting apart, and he honestly hadn't been surprised when a week ago, she'd tearfully told him she was in love with Neville Longbottom. She had moved out the day after that, leaving Harry alone.
Harry glanced at his watch. He had a few days break from work, now, and was left with nothing to do. He pushed himself up from where he was sitting, in a plush armchair in the living room of his house, double-checked that his wand was in his pocket, and headed to the kitchen for lunch.
He'd just finished when he heard the flutter of wings behind him. It was probably an owl from Lily - she had been writing to him a lot since she'd found out about the breakup of her parents marriage.
When he turned around, however, what was behind him was most certainly not Lily's owl.
It was a man, approximately Harry's height, wearing a suit with a trenchcoat over it. Harry noted his appearance whilst he sprung up and took his wand out of his pocket, settling into a defensive stance instantly.
"Who are you?"
The man who had appeared in his kitchen looked decidedly unruffled to be looking down the business end of a wand. "My name is Castiel. I need your help."
Harry didn't move his wand any. "How did you get in?"
"I'm not going to hurt you. I just need your help."
His accent was American, Harry noted.
"How did you get into my house?"
The man sighed and promptly disappeared.
Harry blinked, and suddenly the man was behind him and took his wand from his hand, then disappeared again. He reappeared nearly instantly, back in front of Harry and holding his wand. Harry blinked.
"How did you-?"
The man raised a hand and Harry felt himself pushed backwards onto one of the chairs at the table.
"I'm not here to hurt you. I told you, I require your help. I believe you know of Death Eaters?"
Harry stared. Who was this man - who could apparate instantly and silently and who could do magic without a wand?
The man looked down at Harry with a solemn face. "My name is Castiel, and I am an angel of the Lord."
x
It was some time later that Castiel released Harry from his chair and gave him back his wand, after explaining the situation to him. Apparently some Death Eaters had resurfaced, decades after Voldemort's death, and were attempting to retrieve his soul from Hell.
"Voldemort's soul doesn't exist any more," Harry said. "Making the horcruxes damaged it irreparably in the first place, and when the horcruxes were destroyed, the pieces of soul were destroyed too."
"However," Castiel replied, "these death eaters - they did not know of the existence of these horcruxes. They assume that Voldemort's soul is intact, that he is simply dead and occupying Hell, not destroyed. They plan to open a gate to Hell and unleash Hell on earth to retrieve his soul."
"What do you need me for? Why can't you stop them?"
Castiel frowned even more - Harry didn't know if he had any facial expressions that weren't frowns - and admitted, "I am not an expert of magical humans. I was led to believe you are something an expert in detaining evil magic users?"
Harry smirked slightly. "I suppose you could call me that."
Eventually, Castiel persuaded Harry to travel to the gate with him. Harry had scribbled a quick letter to Ron and Hermione, then turned back to Castiel. "How are we getting there?"
Castiel just grasped his arm, then suddenly the sun was bright in Harry's eyes and there was grass below his feet. He looked around - he was in a graveyard.
Castiel smiled at him for the first time. "Welcome to Wyoming, Harry."
x
The graveyard was deserted when Harry and Castiel arrived, and stayed that way while Castiel showed Harry the devil's gate.
“There's no danger of them actually opening it, is there?” Harry asked, worried.
“No,” said Castiel. “The only key is secured.”
“But it can't be opened by magic?”
Castiel frowned. “I would not think so, but I do not know if Samuel Colt took any specific precautions against that.”
Harry looked at what was apparently a portal to hell. He wasn't particularly willing to find out if magic could open the solid-looking doors in front of him. “Lets not let them get that far, shall we?”
After Castiel had shown Harry the area around the gate, he vanished again. “I cannot risk being seen,” he had said. “I will be nearby if you need me.”
So, Harry settled in by himself to wait. He picked a secluded area where he still had a direct line of sight to the gate, pulled out his invisibility cloak, conjured himself a cushion to sit on, and made himself comfortable.
It was after dusk when he heard the first 'crack!' signalling an apparation. It was quickly followed by several more. Harry quickly and silently got to his feet and ran to the sounds, vanishing his seat with a flick of his wand.
There were six death eaters altogether - a mixture of American and English, judging by the voices. Harry didn't recognise any of their voices, though, and as he approached he realised they were all wearing masks.
“Are we all here?” one asked.
“Yes,” said another. “Rowan was the last.”
“I was seconds behind you, Ross,” Rowan sneered.
“Be quiet, the both of you!” the first one said. “We need to proceed with caution, and I'll be damned if you two get us discovered!”
Rowan laughed, and it wasn't a pleasant sound. “Who could possibly discover us here?”
Harry figured that was as good a time as any to start wordlessly stunning them.
Rowan fell first, and one of the quiet ones after that. Harry managed to take down another before the rest realised what was happening and started sending curses flying in his direction. Years of being an auror, however, had honed his skills and he avoided them with little trouble, sending his own curses back. He took down Ross quickly and easily enough with a bodybind, stunned the second-last, and was left with the death eater who had first spoken, who was dodging Harry's spells with surprising ease.
“Who's there?” the death eater shouted, pointing his wand straight at Harry. When Harry moved, the wand followed him, and Harry realised too late that the death eater knew exactly where he was - his footprints in the grass had given him away.
“Stupefy!” Harry shouted, at the same instant the death eater shouted “Sectumsempra!”
Harry got a shield up just in time to deflect the curse - just. The death eater wasn't as lucky, and fell backwards onto the grass. Harry walked over to him and removed his mask, frowning as the face registered - it was a nephew of Theodore Nott.
Without warning, Nott opened his eyes again, and Harry fell back in shock - they were solid black.
“Holy Shi-”
Suddenly, a twisting mass of black smoke poured from Nott's mouth into the air. Harry had never seen anything like it before.
“CASTIEL!” he shouted, and the angel appeared beside him just in time to see the smoke disappear into the sky.
“What was that?!”
Castiel looked down at him. “That was a demon. It was possessing him.”
“Did you know there would be demons here?” Harry demanded angrily.
Castiel remained calm. “I had considered that demons were behind this, but as demons tend to stay well away from your kind, I dismissed the possibility.”
“Yeah, well, looks like you dismissed it too soon,” said Harry, getting to his feet. He rubbed a hand across his face. “I didn't know demons existed. You're going to need to catch me up on that. Meanwhile -” Harry surveyed the five six fallen death eaters before him- “We're going to have to do something about this lot.”
At Castiel's request, Harry wiped their memories of the angel's existence, before rounding them up and having Castiel transport them all to the atrium of the Ministry of Magic.
It was the middle of the night when they arrived, but the Ministry wasn't empty yet. The Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, was about to floo away when Harry arrived with the six at his feet. Kingsley looked up at the sound of them arriving and his jaw dropped.
“Bloody Hell, Harry. You always know how to make an entrance.”
x
It didn't take as long as Harry expected for the death eaters to be arrested and for him to give evidence of their activities. He didn't go into too much detail on how they were planning on bringing Voldemort back, and Kingsley sensed his reluctance to talk about it. That, and how he knew they what they were planning.
After reassuring Kingsley and several other department heads who had appeared to sort things out that the planned resurrection would have failed anyway and that Voldemort's soul was definitely destroyed, Harry was able to apparate back to his house, where he collapsed into his bed. It had been a long day - but at least it had kept his mind off Ginny.
x
When Harry awoke the next morning, the first thing he was aware of was someone standing at the foot of his bed. He reacted lightning fast - his wand was in his hand and he'd fired off a stunning spell before realising that it was Castiel he'd just attacked.
Harry fumbled for his glasses and Castiel came into focus. The angel had easily sidestepped the spell and looked at Harry disapprovingly.
“Why are you in my bedroom?” asked Harry.
“I need you to accompany me back to America.” said Castiel.
“Again?” said Harry. “Didn't we get all the death eaters?”
“The demon controlling their leader escaped,” replied Castiel. “I have tracked it, but I do know know how much it knows about this Voldemort, or of dark magic. In addition to that, I suspect that there may have been more of these death eaters behind this plot, but only some went to the gate last night.”
“Demons are your thing,” said Harry. “I didn't know they existed until yesterday! What can I do against demons?”
“Nothing,” replied Castiel. “That is part of the problem. If a demon comes after you, which it now may, you are totally unprotected.”
“Hey,” interjected Harry, “I can take care of myself.”
“Not against demons.” Castiel stared at him intensely. “I have friends tracking this demon now. We will require your help in interrogation once we do find it. And if there are more death eaters than who we know of involved in this plot, these friends of mine have no experience against your powers. They won’t know what they’re up against.”
Harry sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Fine,” he said, “Just give me a while to get ready.”
Castiel said they would be at least several days, so Harry packed a bag and shrunk it so it fitted into his pocket. He sent an owl to Kingsley, explaining that he was extending his time off, and made a quick trip by floo to Ron and Hermione's house to explain that he'd be away for a bit. They were understandably curious as to what would have him travel to the US on such short notice, but he refused to answer any questions.
Eventually he arrived back to his house and found Castiel peering at the moving pictures in a Quidditch magazine.
“Shall we go?” asked Harry.
Castiel put down the magazine before turning to Harry. He grasped his arm again, and all of a sudden Harry found himself in a different continent for the second time in two days. He noticed that they weren’t back in the graveyard they were in last time. Now, they were standing in front of a cheap-looking motel. Castiel led Harry to a room on the ground floor and knocked.
It swung open after a few seconds, and the man who opened it looked at Castiel confusingly. “Why did you knock? You never knock. Not that I’m complaining.” He pulled the door open further and Harry followed Castiel in. It was an average-sized motel room, with two double beds. The one closest to the door was empty, but there was another man sitting on the other bed, balancing a laptop on his lap and sorting through papers scattered around him. He looked up at the visitors.
The man who had answered the door held out his hand to Harry. “Dean Winchester,” he said, “And that’s my brother Sam over there.” He nodded to the man on the bed.
Harry shook Dean’s hand firmly. “Harry Potter,” he said. “Nice to meet you.”
“Same. Cas says you’re some sort of specialist?”
Harry chuckled ruefully. “Yeah,” he said. “Not in demons, though. They’re kind of new to me.”
Dean raised his eyebrows. “You’re not a hunter, then?”
“A hunter?” That was... random.
Dean turned to Castiel and scowled. “Cas, do you just not tell anybody anything, at all?”
Castiel scowled back. “I tell people what it is necessary they know.”
“Sometimes,” muttered Harry, thinking of the black smoke spilling from Nott’s mouth. Castiel ignored him. Dean smirked.
“Alright,” Dean said. “Me and Sam - we’re hunters. We hunt evil, supernatural things.”
Harry blinked. “Okay.”
“Good,” said Dean. He looked at his watch. “Sam’s tracked this demon to a bunch of warehouses outside of town. We’ll go tonight to do some recon, get a feel of the place. But Sam and me have been up all right researching this thing, and we really need to get some sleep.”
Harry nodded. “I’ll go get another room.”
He left Castiel with Sam and Dean to go to the motel reception. He got the room next to Sam and Dean’s for a few nights easily enough with the debit card attached to his Gringotts account. He was glad it worked - he hadn’t thought to check that with the goblins before he left.
He was walking back to his room when Castiel appeared next to him. Harry glanced around - luckily there was nobody else around to see Castiel appearing out of thin air. They walked together in silence for a moment.
“Do Sam and Dean know? About what I am?”
Castiel looked at him. “I am not sure of your meaning.”
“Do they know I’m a wizard?” Harry asked frankly.
Castiel hesitated. “No.”
Harry raised an eyebrow. “Do they know wizards and witches exist?”
Castiel sighs. “The know of some, different witches. They aren’t witches by your definition, simply humans who sell their souls to demons for power. They’re not your kind. Your powers are genetic. Theirs are borrowed, for a heavy price.”
“And why haven’t you enlightened them?”
Castiel frowned at they reached Harry’s room. “Dean and Sam have been known to act first and think about the consequences of such actions later. They are good men, and I trust them, but I saw no reason to put you at risk.”
“So you think that they’ll assume I’m one of those bad magic-users and act accordingly?” Harry unlocked his door and went into his room, holding the door open for Castiel behind him.
“I am unsure what their reaction would be,” Castiel replied. “Besides, I was under the impression that your people wanted your existence kept a secret from other humans.”
Harry sighed and ran his hand through his hair. It was still messy and stuck up at the back - he’d never managed to get it under control. “Yeah,” he said, “Yeah. But what will I say when they ask what exactly I’m here to do?”
Castiel looked at him impassively. “Tell Dean that you have dealt with the group of people that the demon was working with before.”
“You said earlier that there may be more wizards working for this demon. If they attack, the secret’s kind of blown anyway.”
“We will deal with that if and when it happens.”
Harry shook his head and started to say something, then thought better of it. He looked at his watch. It was early morning in Wyoming, but his body clock was telling him it was the middle of the day. Nevertheless, he hadn’t had very much sleep the night before and he was tired.
“I’m going to sleep as well for a while,” Harry told Castiel. “If I’m not awake when Sam and Dean get up, come get me.”
“Fine,” said Castiel, and he vanished.
Harry yawned and retrieved his shrunken bag and his wand from his pocket. He unshunk the bag and dumped it on the desk, before turning to the bed. He kicked off his shoes and carefully placed his glasses on the bedside table, then sprawled on top of the bed. It didn’t take him long to fall asleep.
He awoke to the sound of someone knocking the door of his room. Clearly not Castiel, then. He got up and headed towards the door, snatching up his glasses and double-checking his pocket for his wand along the way. He looked out through the peephole and saw Sam Winchester on the other side of the door. Harry quickly unlocked it and pulled it open for Sam to come in.
“Hey,” said Sam, and damn, that guy was tall. “Sorry I didn’t get to introduce myself properly yesterday. I’m Sam.” He held out his hand for Harry to shake.
Harry took it and smiled. “Harry Potter,” he said, “But you already knew that.”
Sam laughed. “Yeah,” he said. “Anyway, me and Dean are getting ready to go case these warehouses where I’ve tracked the demon to before we go back and take care of it tonight, if you wanna come along.”
“Sure,” said Harry. “Just give me a few minutes. Do you have the time, by the way?”
Sam checked his watch. “Just after noon.”
“Thanks,” said Harry, adjusting his own watch. At least he’d gotten a few hours sleep.
Sam left and after hearing the door to the other room open then close again, Harry pulled his toothbrush out of his bag and headed into the tiny bathroom.
x
Checking out the warehouses with the Winchester brothers was, ultimately, uneventful for Harry. He couldn’t pull out his wand and, seeing he was weaponless, Dean gave him a gun. Harry looked at it and handed it back. Dean raised an eyebrow, but didn’t comment.
They sneaked into a warehouse after parking Dean’s car a few blocks away, so nobody, human or demon, could hear them coming. Dean pulled something out of his jacket pocket and Harry looked at it.
“Is that a walkman?” he asked.
“Yep,” said Dean, and he held it out in front of him. He didn’t seem to be forthcoming with any more information, so Harry turned to Sam instead.
“Why has he got his walkman out?”
Sam snorted. “It’s an EMF meter. He made it out of his old walkman.”
“And it, what, detects demons?”
“Well,” said Sam, “No. It detects ghosts and stuff like that. But with demons, especially powerful ones, sometimes they increase the level of spirit activity. You know, stir dead things up. They give off the EMF, not the demons themselves.”
“Okay,” Harry said. “You’re really going to have to tell me more about dealing with demons.”
They thoroughly explored each warehouse in turn, and it was in the last one that they finally found evidence of demon activity. There was traces of sulphur on the threshold, and Dean lead them in. He’d put the EMF reader away, and was now holding a sawn-off shotgun. Sam had quietly informed Harry that it was loaded with rock salt instead of normal bullets.
They covered every corner of the warehouse, Harry feeling rather useless armed with neither a weapon nor any real knowledge on demons. Finally it was declared clear, and Sam and Dean sprung into action, pulling out spraycans of paint. They painted symbols on the ceilings, under furniture, anywhere where they would be difficult to notice.
They were finished quickly, and in nearly no time at all were back in Dean’s car.
“Right,” said Dean, “That’s us done until tonight. I say we get something to eat, and then we can show Harry here how to handle a gun and deal with demons.” He turned and grinned wickedly at Harry, who was in the back.
They went to a nearby diner for something to eat. Harry, Sam and Dean all sat around a table and the waitress taking their order seemed rather taken with Harry’s accent. Harry insisted on paying, as he only had his card and no cash and it seemed easiest.
“Dude,” said Dean as they were leaving. “You could totally have gotten her number!”
Harry glanced down at his wedding ring. He hadn’t managed to take it off yet. “Nah,” he said. “I’m not going to be here for that long anyway.”
“Still more than enough time to hook up. Cas’ll zap you back whenever you want, doesn’t have to be right after this job is over. You know that, right?”
“Yeah,” said Harry.
Dean nearly said something else, but Sam had caught on to the object of Harry’s gaze and quickly elbowed Dean to shut him up.
“Anyway,” said Harry. “Where are we going now?”
“Now,” said Dean, “We are going to give you a crash course in demon hunting.”
It didn’t take long for Dean to find a deserted area a few miles out of town. He parked and opened the trunk of the car. Harry’s eyes widened at the sheer amount of various weapons below the false bottom.
“Bloody hell. You could take over a small country with that.”
Sam had gotten out of the car too, and he reached over and poked Harry. “Don’t encourage him,” he said. “Dean’s head’s plenty swollen as it is.”
Dean made a rude gesture at Sam, before turning back to Harry. He handed him a sawn-off shotgun, one of the ones Harry had seen earlier in the warehouse.
“You ever used one of these before?”
“Are you kidding me?” Harry replied. “I’ve never handled a gun before in my life.”
“Alrighty then,” said Dean. “This’ll be fun. Okay, do you know how to run the safety off?”
After an hour, Harry had managed to impress Dean with his aim, once he’d learnt how to actually handle the gun. Finally, Dean took the gun back.
“Thank God,, my shoulder was killing me,” said Harry, rubbing the injured shoulder.
“Recoil’s a bitch,” said Dean, nodding. “But you get used to it.” He glanced at his watch. “We got another few hours before sunset. I say we head back to the motel for a bit.”
Once back at the motel, they gathered in Sam and Dean’s room. Harry sat in a chair while Sam and Dean briefly explained the main methods of controlling demons.
“An exorcism sends them back to Hell,” said Sam, “but that takes a while to say and the demon can still more about and throw things at you and whatever while you’re saying it. That’s where devil’s traps and salt come in. A demon can’t cross a salt line, and it can’t leave a devil’s trap once inside, either, unless it’s broken. Neither will affect it’s powers, though. Then, there’s holy water. It burns them, but without causing harm to whoever the demon’s possessing. Alright?”
“Exorcism, devil’s traps, salt, and holy water,” repeated Harry. “I think I’ve got it. Devil’s traps - those were the things you were drawing earlier?”
“Yeah,” said Sam, but he was interrupted by a taptaptap coming from the window.
“Holy shit,” said Dean incredulously. “There’s an owl at the window!”
There was indeed an tawny owl perched on the windowsill outside, tapping the glass with its beak. Harry jumped up from his chair and walked towards the window.
“You’re not going to- Why did you let it into our room!” Sam and Dean watched in shock as the owl calmly hopped inside and onto Harry’s shoulder, before sticking out its leg. Harry untied the letter there and took the owl into the bathroom, closely followed by Sam and Dean. He ran some water into the sink and the owl hopped down to drink.
“Dude,” said Dean, “You can’t just let an owl into our bathroom!”
Harry looked at him guiltily. “Sorry,” he said, “but she’s had a long flight.”
Sam stared at Harry. “Are you saying that it flew across the Atlantic ocean to here?”
Harry was just now realizing how bizarre the entire thing must seem to the muggles. “Uh, yes?”
“Seriously?” asked Sam, who was cautiously approaching the bird, hand stretched out to touch the feathers on it’s back. He jump backwards when the owl fluttered its wings.
Harry laughed. “She won’t bite you,” he said. “That’s my daughter’s pet owl.”
This drew even more incredulous stares from Sam and Dean. “She sent you a message via owl?” said Dean. “What, does she not have a cellphone?” He paused. “I didn’t know you had a daughter.”
“Yeah,” said Harry, “and two sons.”
“What on earth are you doing over here, if you have three kids?” said Dean.
“They’re all in boarding school,” said Harry, and walked back into Sam and Dean’s bedroom, leaving the owl behind him. The Winchesters gave suspicious glances at the bird still calmly drinking from their sink, but followed him out.
Harry sat down in the chair he had been previously occupying and pulled Lily’s note out of his pocket.
Dear Dad,
I heard from Aunt Hermione that you went off to America for a few days. You’re going to have to do some explaining when you get back - she’s not very happy about you just dashing off like that! Are you in America? Why did you have to go on such short notice? I thought you were off work for a few days! Write me back, please, we’re a bit worried.
James and Al say hi!
Love,
Lily
Harry laughed. His daughter was inquisitive to a fault - she reminded him of Hermione sometimes.
“Everything okay?”
Harry looked up from his letter into Sam’s face.
“Yeah,” he said. “I just didn’t get much time to tell people where I was going before Castiel brought me over.”
Sam looked somewhat alarmed. “Does anybody - apart from us and Cas - know you’re here?”
Harry was surprised by the level of concern that Sam seemed to be showing for him.
“I told some friends before I left,” he replied. “I didn’t get have time to write to everybody. I knew the message would get passed on.”
Sam didn’t look particularly satisfied, but he let the matter drop.
Dean was still standing by the bathroom door, looking in. “I can’t believe your daughter has an owl,” he said. “Our dad wouldn’t even let us have a puppy.”
“All my kids have owls,” said Harry. Dean raised his eyebrows at him. “It’s quite a common thing where I live.”
“England sounds awesome,” Dean announced.
“Can I borrow some paper?” asked Harry. Sam passed him the motel notepad and pen. “Thanks.”
He scribbled a letter back.
Lily-
Yes, I’m in Wyoming. I’m supposed to be off work, but some urgent business came up. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be back soon. Tell your brothers to keep out of trouble!
Love, Dad.
Dean jumped as the owl flew out of the bathroom and came to land on Harry’s shoulder. Harry patted it, and she nipped his finger affectionately. “Everybody alright without me, girl?” he asked. She hooted at him.
“This is officially the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen,” said Dean to Sam. “And we’ve seen a lot of bizarre things.”
“What?” said Harry defensively. “She’s a sweet owl. Do you have any food?”
Dean frowned at the change in conversation. “Uh, yeah.” he went searching through his bag. “I gotta couple of twinkies, a pack of chips, and, uh, that’s it.” He emerged from the back holding the food items. Harry snagged the chip packet.
“You like these, don’t you, girl?” he said, opening them and pouring a few out onto his palm. She hooted happily and started eating.
“I was wrong,” Dean addressed Sam again. “That’s officially the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Does your owl have a name?” asked Sam, ignoring Dean.
“Lily named her Penny.” replied Harry.
“Penny the owl,” said Dean. “Sometimes I wonder if Castiel gets us into these things deliberately.”
“Ready for a flight back?” Harry asked Penny. She hooted and nipped his ear. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He folded the note and attached it to her leg, then carried her to the window. He opened it, and she hooted once more before soaring into the sky.
Harry glanced at his watch, and then at Sam and Dean who were staring at Penny becoming steadily smaller and smaller as she flew away. “Shouldn’t we be going soon?”
It took only a few minutes to get ready. It was obvious Sam and Dean were well used to this, with the speed they got the car loaded, weapons sorted out - Harry got tossed a shotgun and some spare salt shells to reload - and supplied of salt and holy water checked. Soon, they were on their way back to the warehouse.
Harry couldn’t believe the calmness in the car. The reality of what they were about to do had struck him. They were going to exorcise a demon, potentially one possessing a death eater. Harry wondered how he kept managing to get himself into these situations.
Sam turned around on the front seat, providing a welcome distraction. “So, you’ve got three kids?” he asked, sounding impressed.
“Yeah, here-” Harry fumbled to get his wallet out of his back pocket. He pulled a picture of his children out, quickly tapping it twice to turn stop it moving. He passed it over to Sam, who studied it and smiled.
“That one-,” he pointed to Albus, “-he looks just like you.”
“That’s Albus,” said Harry, “and that’s James, and there’s Lily.”
“Albus,” said Sam, “Unusual name.”
“He was named after an old mentor of mine. We call him Al.”
“Ah, right.”
Sam handed the photo back, and they lapsed into silence again, but this time Harry felt calmer
now too. It wasn’t long before they were approaching the warehouses. Dean parked the car, and they got out and headed towards the last warehouse, weapons carefully concealed. Harry made certain that his wand was in his pocket before following them closely. It was just before sunset.
Dean reached it first, and carefully looked through a window next to the door. “Still looks deserted,” he said. “We’ll go in, hide until this demon shows, exorcise it, and we’re done. Easy-peasy.” Harry doubted it was going to be so easy. Dean continued, “Sam and I’ll take care of exorcising the demons. Harry, you take care of anything else that decides to pop up. Okay?”
Harry nodded, Dean opened the door slowly and quietly, and they went inside.
Finding a hiding place was easy, due to furniture scattered about the room and the bad lighting casting black shadows. They settled in behind a pile of old furniture and crates in a corner and prepared to wait.
It wasn’t long before Harry heard the cracks of multiple apparations outside. Sam and Dean looked at each other, confused at the noise, but Harry mentally swore. Multiple wizards. It looked like Castiel’s suspicions were turning out to be right. The door opened and Harry heard the sound of people coming in, talking in low voices. More cracks sounded outside, and more people came in. Harry bit his lip. He hadn’t expected so many people. Neither had Sam or Dean, judging by the looks on their faces.
Harry moved silently around until he could see out through a hole in the wood of one of the crates. Sam and Dean watched him as he observed the gathering crowd. There were about seven or eight people so far, milling about in the centre of the room. All were wearing death eater robes and masks.
“Seven or eight people,” muttered Harry. “No clear leader. The demon mustn’t have arrived yet.”
Sam looked at Dean, “Maybe we should start taking them down now?”
Dean shook his head. “If this demon realizes something’s wrong, he won’t come in and we won’t get him at all, and then we’re going to have to start tracking him all over again.”
He had hardly finished speaking when one last crack had sounded outside and the voices in the room fell silent. The door opened and closed and Harry tracked the progress of the newest addition through the room, noting how the others drew away as he made his way through the crowd. He was also wearing the robes and mask, but Harry could see through the eyeholes of his mask into black eyes. He had blond hair and when he spoke, it was with an English accent
“As you all know by now, our plans last night were foiled and now many of our brothers are in
custody of the ministry. We failed to open the gate to retrieve our Master from Hell. We must try again.
"What you may not have heard, was that our plans were foiled by Harry Potter.”
Both Sam and Dean turned to look at Harry, who didn’t turn to look back at them.
The blond continued, “I too was unaware of his presence in the country, and I do not know how he discovered our plans, but it seems likely that we have a leak.” Black eyes surveyed the group of men in front of them coldly. “It may be one of you. It may be one of the six captured last night. I do not know, but rest assured that I will find out.
“However, we need to try again as soon as possible to free our Lord. While he rots in hell, our brothers are mingling with the muggle scum, who come ever closer to discovering our existence. Harry Potter is now after us, and undoubtedly that means the rest of the Order of the Phoenix - or what remains of it - is not far behind.”
There was no Order any more, not since the years following Voldemort’s death, but many of the past members were still ready to be called into service again if needed. Luckily, Harry knew that whatever else may happen, Voldemort was well and truly dead. However, the death eaters opening the door to hell would undoubtedly cause some awful destruction.
And they knew he was here. He should have realized that the demon saw him as it was vacating Nott’s body, but he hadn’t anticipated fighting a room full of murderous wizards who were now aware of the fact he was onto them.
Going by the look on Sam and Dean’s faces, they understood the seriousness of the situation, even though Harry was sure they couldn’t have understood most of the blond’s speech.
“When are we going to do this?” Harry muttered out of the corner of his mouth, while the blond continued talking.
Dean paused to process the situation. “Right. We’re going to need a distraction -”
“I can do that,” said Harry.
“Okay then,” whispered Dean. “You cause a distraction over there, while Sam and I attempt to get this guy under the devil’s trap on the ceiling. You’re sure he’s the possessed one?” Harry nodded, and Dean continued, “The rest seem to have been going in and out of the trap fine, so they’re not possessed. Are you sure you can deal with them?”
“Leave it to me.”
“Whenever you’re ready, then.”
Harry bit his lip, thinking. There was no way this was going to be possible without using magic. He thought of Castiel’s words - “Dean and Sam have been known to act first and think about the consequences of such actions later.” - and decided to risk it. “I’m going to move to a better location for this, then. Keep an eye out for the signal, and then go.”
“What’s the signal?” Sam hissed.
“I haven’t decided yet,” said Harry. “You’ll know it when you see it.”
There was cover in the form of more crates and the odd broken piece of furniture, so Harry slowly made his way down the room, pressed tight to the wall. Once he was out of Sam and Dean’s line of sight, he cast a disillusionment charm on himself, which made continuing around the perimeter of the room much easier. Once he was sufficiently far away from Sam and Dean, he sat up and took note of the junk lying around him. There was a table lying on its side, which Harry didn’t particularly want to get rid of as it looked like a good place to shelter. Beside it, however, stood a busted-up sofa. Harry grinned, and raised his wand.
“Locomotor sofa!” he whispered, and it raised off the ground by a tiny amount. A flick of his wand, and Harry sent the sofa flying towards the crowd of death eaters, knocking them over like pins hit by a bowling ball.
Nearly instantaneously, the death eaters aimed a volley of spells at the flying sofa, blowing it to smithereens before it hit the ground. However, they were too late. Harry was already up and on the move, and so were Sam and Dean.
As he was still invisible, Harry took a moment to cast shield charms over Sam and Dean, before turning back to the death eaters. He started sending stunner after stunner, hoping to take as many down as possible before they realised where he was. He took down three quickly - four more, not including the demon, to go. He was firing spells at an insanely fast rate - few of them connected, but the more confusion he could cause, the more time Sam and Dean would have to complete the exorcism unnoticed.
Sam and Dean were able to more to either side of the demon without being spotted, but that went out the window when Sam started chanting the exorcism. The demon screeched and spun around to confront Sam.
“A muggle?” he shouted, shocked, “Here!?”
The shout drew the attention of a few of the wizards dodging Harry’s spells. Harry couldn’t stop to defend Sam, but Dean stepped in, giving the nearest one a shotgun blast to the chest.
“Hurry the hell up, Sam!” he shouted as he reloaded.
Thanks to Sam and Dean drawing the attention away from him, Harry took down another two death eaters. Two to go, and when he dared to glance over to Sam and Dean and the demon, he saw Dean dousing it with holy water as it pulled out its wand. The wand fell to the floor as the demon doubled over in pain, steam rising from its skin.
“Petrificus totalus!” shouted Harry, and one of the last two death eaters fell to the floor. The last fired a barrage of spells at him, and Harry, tired from the sheer amount of magic he’d used, just about managed to jump out of the way. One skimmed him, though, and broke his disillusionment charm. He was immediately recognised.
“Harry Potter!”
Harry took advantage of his surprise to shout “Stupefy!” It hit the last death eater in the chest, and he fell to the floor.
Still breathing heavily, Harry turned to Sam and Dean just in time to see the blond fall to his knee. A demon poured out of his mouth, flew the ceiling in a mass of writhing smoke, and disappeared. The blond collapsed to the ground, motionless.
Sam and Dean turned to Harry with faces like stone and guns raised.
“Potter,” said Dean, “you have some explaining to do.”
They strode towards Harry determinedly. Harry stood his ground.
“What just happened here?” asked Dean angrily, brandishing his shotgun.
Harry took off his glasses and rubbed his hand over his eyes. “Remember when you asked what kind of specialist I was?”
“Yes?” said Dean impatiently.
Harry put his glasses back on. “I’m pretty damn good at magic.”
Suddenly, he noticed movement in the corner of his eye. The blond who had been possessed had awoken, and was going for his wand. He reached it before Harry had the chance to react, and shouted “Sectumsempra!”
Harry dived out of the way just in time, and the curse hit Sam in the shoulder.Suddenly there was blood everywhere, and Sam fell.
“Stupefy!” shouted Harry, raising his wand quickly, and the blond man fell motionless again. Harry turned to Sam, who was lying in a pool of blood that was growing steadily bigger. Dean was kneeling over him, applying pressure to the wound.
“We need to call 911-” he started to say, before Harry pushed him out of the way and raised his wand again. Dean started to shout “What are you-?”, but Harry wordlessly silenced him with a flick of his wand. He quickly vanished the blood around the wound to assess the damage, then started muttering healing spells, moving his wand along the injury, Dean cursing silently the whole time. Eventually Harry sat up straight again.
“Sam’s going to be fine,” he said. “I’m not the best healer on the planet, but I’m not bad.” He cancelled the silencing spell on Dean, who glared daggers at him before bending over to inspect what remained of his little brother’s injury.
While Dean was occupied with Sam, Harry got up and headed over to the blond man, who was still lying stunned on the floor. Harry conjured ropes to bind him, then pointed his wand at the man and said, “Enervate.”
The man’s eyes opened. He was still wearing his mask, so Harry removed it, looked at the man, and frowned. Harry didn’t recognise him, but his features were familiar. He was a lot younger than Harry expected - only around eighteen or nineteen. Not much older than James.
The man on the ground smirked. “You don’t know me, Potter, but I know of you.”
Harry didn’t feel in the least bit threatened now by the man - teenager - who lay bound in front of him.
“Who are you?” Harry asked.
The smirk widened. “My name is Antares Malfoy. I think you know my father.”
Harry leveled his wand at the man’s head. “I’m giving you one chance to explain yourself before I hand you over to the ministry,” he said, “And believe me, once they hear you’ve been attempting to bring Voldemort back from the dead, they won’t be nearly as nice as I am.”
Antares’ smirk faltered, and he hesitated, clearly weighing up his options. “Fine,” he huffed, finally. “I was born a squib, and my father, Draco Malfoy, was too ashamed of me to make my existence public, so I was hidden from the wizarding world for years. My father did let me move to America on my eighteenth birthday. I’m sure he was glad to see the back of me, what with little Scorpius fulfilling his every expectation of what a proper son should be. Dad-” he nearly spat the word out - “gave me some money and sent me on my merry way.”
“And then,” here he smiled darkly, “I discovered that there was more to the supernatural than the magic I didn’t have. I made a deal with a demon at a crossroads, and she gave me power. So much power! And I had ten years left to cause as much havoc as I possibly could. So when I encountered another demon with this proposition, I let it possess me.”
“You were stupid,” said Harry. “Voldemort’s soul’s not in Hell. It never was. It’s been destroyed.”
Antares’ smile widened further into a grin. “I know,” he said, “I just wanted to raise a little hell.”
Harry had heard enough. “Stupefy.” Antares slumped, unconscious once again.
When Harry went back to the Winchesters, Sam had recovered so much he was sitting up, though he still looked very pale. Dean looked up at Harry’s face, then his gaze dropped to the wand in Harry’s hand.
“You still owe us that explanation,” he said.
“I know,” said Harry, and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’ll explain everthing later, I swear. But right now, I need to sort this mess out. Where the hell’s Castiel when you need him?”
x
It wasn’t quite as late as the last time, but when Castiel dropped Harry and the still-unconscious death eaters off at the ministry, it was still well into the night in England. This time, Kingsley Shacklebolt wasn’t about to leave - but Deputy Minister Percy Weasley was. He nearly fainted when he saw Harry arrive.
“I’ll, er, go get the minister,” he said, and ran back the way he had come.
Kingsley came rushing up a minute later, closely followed by Percy. The Minister stopped and surveyed the scene in front of him - Harry surrounded by eight stunned death eaters - and shook his head. He didn’t even look surprised, this time.
“Someday, Harry,” he said tiredly, “you’re going to learn the meaning of the words ‘time off’.”
x
Castiel returned Harry back to Wyoming that same night, but dropped him in his own room instead of Sam and Dean’s.
“You look like you need the sleep,” was his only explanation, and Harry was only too happy not to have to confront the Winchesters right away. His body still exhausted from the fight earlier, he nearly fell into bed and was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
The next morning, Harry told Sam and Dean about magic - how it was supposed to remain secret from non-magic users, about the wizarding world, about Voldemort and his death eaters, and about the plan to raise Voldemort from the dead. It took hours to explain everything, and when he was done, Sam and Dean sat in silence for a few moments. Then Dean got up and retrieved three beers from the small motel fridge. He popped the top off them and passed one to Harry and another to Sam.
“I think we all need a drink after that,” he said, and drank. Harry and Sam followed suit.
“What are you going to do now?” asked Sam, later.
Harry shrugged. “Go home?” he said.
“You could stick around for a few days,” suggested Sam. “I mean, you’ve already got some time off, and you’ve a few days worth of clothes here already.”
Harry thought of the divorce papers he had to sign, the interviews that had been requested from the Daily Prophet, Witch Weekly, and the Quibbler, the paperwork he’d have to deal with for apprehending fourteen death eaters apparently single-handedly, facing Ginny and Neville and the prospect of explaining where he’d been and what he’d been doing to Hermione and Ron.
Dean saw the look on his face. “Or, you know, you could just stay.” Harry turned to look at him, and Dean just shrugged. “You’d make a hell of a good hunter once you got more used to using guns, and we could always use more hunters. Plus, you could go back to England whenever you felt like it, thanks to that appar-whatever thing you can do, or Cas could just zap you over and back. Me and Sam could train you up, no problem.”
Harry raised an eyebrow at them. “You could, could you?”
Dean looked offended. “There’s more out there than demons, you know.”
“Believe me,” said Harry, “I know.”
Dear Minister,
I am sorry to announce my resignation as head auror in the Ministry of Magic, effective immediately. I apologize for the short notice, but I am currently in the process of relocating and pursuing alternative career paths. I wish to thank you for the opportunities that you have given me and the trust you have placed in me in the past. I wish you all the best in the future.
Yours respectfully,
Harry Potter.
-END-