"I think I got something." Dean said, staring intently at the screen of the laptop he had before him on the desk. Littered on the table were empty beer bottles and several wrappers from fast-food burgers. Though it was dirty, it suited the motel they were currently staying at which left much to be desired in the department of cleanliness. He glanced over to Sam, several books open on the bed surrounding him, and nodded to the computer. "Check this out."

Sam carefully got up from the bed, moving the books gently out of the way so as not to damage them. He crossed the room and pulled a seat around next to Dean as he began to read. "A Guide?" He read, frowning slightly. "I've never heard of them. Are you sure?"

"I mean, it fits." Dean said, scrolling down and beginning to read. "They are multidimensional beings that, apparently, exist on a higher plane than us. Basically it seems like these things are one step below Chuck. All the witnesses say that they saw someone step out of the air and start talking to the victim. Few minutes later and the vic gets Houdini'd out of there by the thing that appeared."

"Does the lore say how to kill them?" Sam inquired, frowning. "Something that powerful won't be easy to bring down."

"Well apparently you can't kill them." Dean said, scrolling down further and pointing at a symbol on the screen. "But you can banish them back to their plane, or whatever. Apparently if you stab them with an olive branch with this carved into it, instant one way trip back home for them."

"I think we have a few olive branches in the trunk." Sam said, frowning deeper as he studied the symbol. It was a triangle with a circle within it, and a vertical line intersecting the two shapes. "You know, I swear I have seen that symbol before somewhere."

"Maybe at the bunker?" Dean offered, shrugging his shoulders. "If this thing is as powerful as the lore says it is, I bet the Men of Letters would have something on them."

"Yeah, maybe." Sam said hesitantly, his face conveying his hesitance to agree. He shrugged away the disbelief and blew out a breath. "But I think we might need to call in backup for this one."

"Who were you thinking? Cas?" Dean asked, copying the symbol down onto a piece of paper.

"Yeah." Sam said slowly. He took a breath and then quickly added, "And Crowley."

Dean slowly looked to his brother and closed the laptop. "Seriously?" He asked, his eyebrows raised. "Why?"

"I don't like it either, Dean. But if this thing is really one step below God, we are going to need all the help we can get." Sam argued. "We can't just go into this thinking it will be like any other monster. Last time I checked werewolves and wendigos were on this plane of existence."

"Fine." Dean said with a grumpy sigh. "Call him and ask him if he can give Cas a lift here. The sooner we get them here the better."

Nodding his agreement, Sam grabbed his cell phone and headed out the door to grab the olive branches out of the trunk. Dean reached for one of the bottles strewn over the table and shook his head. Putting the opening to his lips he frowned when he realized that the bottle was already empty. "That figures." He grumbled.

"You know, a few of my demons and I have a running bet." An arrogant, accented voice came from behind him. "Which will kill you first, liver failure or a monster? My bet is on the former."

"Crowley." Dean said, rising from his seat and tossing the bottle into the trash bin in the corner of the room. "Long time no see. How's the hunt for Lucifer going?"

"Squirrel." Crowley answered mockingly. "It's going well, or as well can be expected. At least, it was until Moose called begging the harp-player and I for help."

"As I said before, I do not have a harp." Castiel said, striding into the room followed closely by Sam. "That is nothing more than a human construct to better relate themselves to the divine."

"Yes, well, humans always try to be more than they are." Crowley said fondly, sliding his hands into his pockets. "It's what makes getting their souls so easy, bless their greedy little hearts. But that's enough chitchat, I assume this isn't a social call Samantha?"

"We need your help." Sam said gruffly, tossing the stakes onto the table. "We're hunting this thing called a Guide, and it's-."

"A multi-dimensional being." Castiel finished gravely, a serious expression on his face. "You two were right to call, if you are truly facing a Guide you should not continue this Hunt."

"Look, we already figured out how to get rid of it." Dean said, patting the air soothingly. "Carve this number into an olive branch and stab the Guide, that's a wrap."

"Where did you find this knowledge?" Castiel asked skeptically, gazing with distrust at the computer. "From the internet? I would not believe everything I saw there."

"Yes, Cas, from the internet." Dean said with a sigh. The angel's distrust of the internet had only grown in the recent months since he had been caught in a credit card scam. "Sam's even seen the symbol before at the bunker, it will work."

"Is this true, Sam?" Cas asked, glancing at the bigger Winchester. "Have you seen that symbol before?"

"Uh, yeah." Sam said, hesitation once again entering his voice.

"That sounds confident." Crowley remarked, drawing a flash from his pocket and taking a draught. He sighed contentedly and began to slip it into his pocket before glancing to Dean. "Care for a taste?"

"I'll pass." Dean said with a cold smile. "Let's just get this over with."

"Really, boys, I'm hurt." Crowley said. "We are on the same side these days, you could at least show me a little kindness. I come around when you need help, don't I?"

"And you always ask for a favor in return." Sam reminded him pointedly.

"To my knowledge, that is what friendship is." Crowley said loftily. "Give and take."

"I do not like to agree with him, but he does make a fair point." Castiel said fairly. "Human friendships are very odd things, you say to expect nothing but you always do."

"Yeah, alright, let's head out." Dean said as he finished carving the symbol into the last of the stakes. "This Guide thing has been taking all of its victims in the exact same place, at the exact same time every day. We have about half an hour before its show time."

"And where is this spot?" Crowley asked, taking a stake from the table and slipping it into the inner pocket of his jacket. "If you don't mind, I would rather limit my time in that metal antique you call."

"Hey!" Dean barked, leveling the stake at Crowley. "Mock us all you want, but you leave my baby out of this."

"Your devotion to that car makes me question a lot of things about you." Crowley informed him with a roll of his eyes. He then paused and added, "But then again so does your… relationship with our feathered friend."

"Let's just go. It's the alley beside the local bar." Sam said, not at all willing to let those two get into any sort of argument. He stepped out the door and Castiel followed after him, Dean glaring briefly at Crowley before closing the door behind them.

True to his word, Crowley met them at the bar. He was speaking to a rather drunk fellow who was teetering precariously even as he stood stationary. The demon nodded at the Winchesters and continued to talk as they walked up to them. "Hello, boys. How was the drive? I'd like you to meet my new friend Tom." Crowley looked slyly at the drunken man and then back to the Winchesters. "He has big ambitions, wants to never have to be sober again."

"Alright, look, I'm going to stop you right there." Dean said, turning the drunken man around and pushing him away despite his weak, slurred protests. "Crowley, we had an agreement. You don't do your demon stuff around us and we don't gank you."

"Boys, boys." The demon said chidingly. "I was just having a conversation. Can't a demon have a normal conversation without an ulterior motive?"

"No." Sam said curtly, checking the time on his phone. "Alright, let's go. The Guide should be showing up any minute."

The four left the front of the bar and made their way down the alley, stepping past the police tape that restricted access to the scene. "So according to witnesses, this thing literally appears out of thin air." Sam informed Cas and Crowley. "Keep an eye out."

"I sense something." Castiel informed them warily, his angel blade sliding out from his sleeve and into his hand. He turned in a slow circle, his eyes moving up and down the alley's walls. "Something powerful."

"Oh, well, isn't that sweet of you?" A female voice asked, seemingly emanating from the alley's stone wall.

The four whirled on the spot to face the source of the voice, olive stakes at the ready. The voice laughed, this time seemingly coming from all around them. "I see you found my little article about how to banish me back to my world." The air at the alley's entrance rippled once and, just as witnesses had said, a figure seemed to step out of the air itself. She was a dark-haired, ghostly pale, woman with silver markings running up and down her neck, face, and arms. She wore loose green T-shirt and plain blue jeans, normal save for her eyes which glowed a luminescent blue. "I am glad. I had hoped I wasn't being too helpful and all. But if you couldn't find a way to actually get rid of me you might not show up, and I am not patient."

She had just finished talking when Crowley appeared behind her, his olive stake now protruding from her chest. "Sorry, love, but I don't have time to play with you." The demon said, stepping back and placing his hands into his pockets.

The Guide, almost in a bored way, gazed down at the stake in her chest and rolled her eyes. The branch disappeared and the wound closed immediately. Crowley's eyes widened slightly and he pursed his lips. "This was unexpected." He said, somewhat obviously.

"Perhaps that was my fault." The Guide said contemplatively. "I do have a tendency to ramble on."

"Oh, crap." Sam whispered. "What the hell do we do now?"

"Oh, don't worry." She said brightly, crossing her arms. "I'm not going to kill you or anything like that. Murder is so boring and mundane."

"Yes, well, this has been very entertaining but I am afraid I have prior business elsewhere." Crowley said, raising his hand in the air and snapping his fingers. For a brief moment he vanished, but then reappeared in the exact same place. "What the bloody hell is this?" He demanded, glancing around in confusion.

"Just going to disable your powers for now, I think." The Guide said, snapping her fingers. Crowley and Castiel staggered as though hit by an invisible fist, clutching their chests simultaneously in confusion. "There, much better. Now, I believe that I took a memory from you Sam. I apologize, you can have it back now."

Now it was Sam who staggered, blinking several times. "That symbol." He said, his eyes wild. "Now I remember: I didn't see it at the bunker, I read it. It's the symbol of the Deathly Hallows in Harry Potter!"

"That's right!" The Guide said, clapping her hands delightedly. "Terribly sorry about the intrusion of your privacy, but I couldn't have you ruining my fun."

"You know, for a monster, you are awful chatty." Dean said brazenly, determined to face down this creature with his bravado safely intact. "If you are going to try to take us out, get on with it."

"I already told you, that is not my intention." She said, frowning slightly. She then brightened and explained, "No, I had something much more fun in mind! I have been watching you Winchesters for some time now and I recently decided that it would be fun to have you be my next project."

"Your next project?" Sam asked, glancing worriedly to Cas who was running his hands over his body in confusion. Crowley, on the other side of the alley, was repeatedly snapping his fingers with no evident result. "You mean victims?"

"Oh, not at all!" She laughed and shook her head. "I don't really have victims. Everyone I play with is still very much alive, they just aren't here right now. They are living in their fantasy worlds, so to speak. Kinda."

"You sent them to another dimension?" Castiel asked uncertainly, apparently following the Guide's train of thought. "How?"

"Oh, it is actually very easy for me." She said brightly. "Here, I'll show you."

Her eyes blazed blue and, quite suddenly, Castiel was gone. Sam and Dean looked to one another in confusion and shock, gripping their olive stakes eve tighter. "What the hell did you do to him, you bitch?" Dean demanded roughly, tensing himself for a run at her.

"Oh, hush." She scolded, waving her hand and causing the olive stakes to disappear. "He's fine, just in a different dimension. Don't worry, I'll send you there in a bit. I just want to explain first, it makes everything so much more simple later, trust me."

"The hell you will." Dean said, scanning the alley for any potential escape routes.

"You can try to run, but every time you leave the alley you will appear right back where you are at." She advised, glancing to all three remaining figures. "All of you. And would you stop that snapping? It is very annoying and it won't change the fact that your powers are suspended."

"Where did you send him?" Sam demanded. "Bring him back!"

"Hogsmeade, to answer your first question." The Guide told him. "And, no, to answer your second."

"Hogsmeade?" Dean asked. "Where the hell is that?"

"It doesn't exist!" Sam told him. "It's a village in Harry Potter."

"Actually, that is where you are wrong." The Guide said, suddenly passionate. "Hogsmeade, Hogwarts, all of that. It exists. Just… not in your universe. Let me explain, briefly. You have heard the term 'books are a portal to another world'? Well, it is actually truer than you realize. You see, your books of fiction are very rarely actually original works. Authors don't realize it but they are actually writing down events that took place in another universe. It is one of those little undiscovered powers your universe's humans have. Basically what I do is... relocate people. I do so love watching it when people have to adapt to entirely new environments. You should see the fellow I sent to Jurassic Park, his expression of realization is one of my favorite memories."

"So you are a monster?" Sam challenged, raising his chin. "You send people to other universes and watch them die!"

"Oh no, not at all!" The Guide shook her head vigorously. "They never permanently die. You see, I make them live out their lives in the universes I send them to. If they somehow die, I just make the day restart. The fellow in Jurassic Park died several times but he is still fine. You met him earlier actually, that drunken man."

"What? How?" Crowley said, speaking up. "If he was in another universe we wouldn't be able to see him."

"Brilliant deduction." The Guide said dryly. "As I said, I make them live out their lives in the world I send them to. But, once they die, they come back to the exact moment I sent them away in their original universe. Lovely of me, isn't it? They get to live a fantasy and still live their lives."

"Look, I'm sure you think you are doing a good thing. But I am going to pass." Dean said firmly, opting for diplomacy rather than violence. It was painstakingly obvious that killing this Guide, or banishing it for that matter, had been nothing more than a lure to get them to show up. "I'm sure it would be awesome to go live in Baywatch or Dukes of Hazard but-."

"Oh, you aren't going there." The Guide said, her eyes blazing blue once more. "Have fun in the wizarding world, you three. Don't worry you won't be completely on your own. I took the liberty of arranging you some jobs I think are good for you… and entertaining for me. Along with some necessities, of course."

Sam, Dean, and Crowley suddenly felt a sensation like being hooked behind the navel and quite suddenly vanished in a flash of blue. Once they were gone, the Guide stood alone in the alley. She stared up at the sky and smiled. "Good luck, Professors."