A/N: I know it's been a couple of months since the first chapter, but I have good reasons for it being postponed. I've recently had to move due to basic training in the Air Force and also had a root canal done on my back molar. It's been daises for the past week or so. I hope this chapter is to your liking. Please review with questions or ideas. I know where I am taking this story, but I like a little audience interaction here and there. Enjoy!

Brothers

The young man couldn't stop the chuckle that escaped his throat when he thought about his first meeting with his...alternate self 'bloody physics messing with my brain.'

Done reminiscing for the moment, he caught sight of Bellatrix finishing the runic set that spiraled towards him from the outer-most sequence. Interested in the design, he followed it towards him.

Of course having to skip the lines that were out of sight behind him.

Voldemort was pacing in front of him, wondering about the supposed capture of Potter. He would casually glance Harry's way every now and again.

"I must admit, I am surprised at your seemingly uninterested appearance about being in our most pure company," He-who-must-not-be-named drawled towards Harry.

Harry, ever the most gracious of guests, just smirked genially and replied, "I came to the conclusion that your hospitality would be more welcoming than sitting in my apartment."

Harry was also a smart-ass.

You-Know-Who just gave a little chuckle despite himself, then turned towards Harry fully and approached. He bent down so you he could be face to face with him.

"You know this is going to end badly for you right? Why would you sacrifice yourself instead of fighting? Tired of seeing your friends die around you, Potter?"

"What can I say, I was bored," he also let fly a little chuckle himself.

"By the by, how did you get your eyes red like that? A little cosmetic surgery, Tommy?"

He topped it off with a salacious and over-exaggerated wink.

Voldemort just shook his head and leaned back. 'Why is he so unconcerned with events?'

"Ready to die, Harry?"

"When the time presents itself."

The tall wrath-like man walked out of the rune spiral and turned to a watching low-level death eater. He reached out and summoned the man by the throat to him, and in one swift motion cut his throat from ear to ear.

Harry sighed while Voldemort let the blood poured in the inverted dimple before the runes. 'Wasteful sod ain't he?'

While the runes started emitting a soft hum and shallow iridescent blue throughout the room, Harry did the one thing he usually did when situations like these arose.

He started humming his favorite Kansas song.

'What can I say, Kansas kicks all kinds of ass,' he thought to himself humorously.

Minutes that passed like lifetimes crawled by until he started to feel a pull from his head. Then all at once, pain that would usually accompany being kicked in the jewels spread throughout his body.

Harry didn't even move a muscle.

'Hermione always did say that I too used to pain.'

He crossed his eyes as he started to see a very faint white wisp leaking out of his head. The humor aspect did not escape Harry even though he was in a startling amount of pain.

Finally, what after felt like centuries, the wisp left his head and darted towards Voldemort's chest in hopes of joining with the macerated remains of his soul.

Harry had a whole plot-line for the lonely piece of soul trying to reunite with his homely brother. More like a brother who had numerous genetic defects and was dropped several times on his head as a child.

Then all at once, the tear jerking story came to a halting stop when Voldemort captured the piece in a soul jar. 'Damn Voldemort, even ruining my story time.'

"Well, that was anticlimactic. I'm pretty sure fate has lost interest in the plot of our story, Tom. I am so sorry." Harry finished that sentence with a downcast face and fake tears swimming in his emerald eyes.

Voldemort just looked over at Harry incredulously and just hiked up an eyebrow at Harry's antics, all the while his thoughts telling him something was eerily wrong with this event. He turned to Bellatrix and barked, "run a thorough check of the grounds and wards, something feels...off."

Finally, giving his sides thorn his full attention, he pulled out his wand and leveled it right between the mans eyes.

Harry just looked at Voldemort's red eyes and just waited for the predictability of Voldemort's' ignorance to kick in.

"Time to die, Harry."

The green was already swelling at the end of Tom's wand.

Harry just shook his head.

"Tom, death and life have nothing to do with what is to come in our future. We are but a blip in the cosmos. We are the protons and electrons of the atoms in our universe. If one of us goes, nothing will change. I tell you this, not to try and let you see the errors in your ways," here Harry paused for dramatic effect, "I tell you this so you know how irrevocably and undeniably how small and insignificant you are in the scale of things."

To say that Tom was angered by this would be like trying to say that politicians were slippery beings. Understatement of the millennium.

"I will change the world and be known for all time for my ideals. My practices will be held above all others, my magic will decimate all opposition, and the universe will fear my wrath," Voldemort bellowed with a manic gleam in his eyes and magic swirling his robes around his legs.

"And that is why, you mean nothing," Harry simply said. Simple and to the point. That is how things should always be. Simple. Straight-forward. Clean.

'Here we go.'

"Avada kedavra!"

Green light swam in his eyes.

Green on green.

Clean.


"So, Harry, I know you must have a lot of questions, but foremost I believe that with out names being the same, I should come into a new name so we can speak easily without confusion," the multidimensional Harry told...Harry.

'Yeah, I can see how this will get confusing. Even my thoughts are confused.'

The shorter and younger Harry nodded and asked, "What do you have in mind?"

Multidimensional Harry just hummed in his seat and shook his foot that was in the air while in thought.

"Gabriel. I always liked that named. Plus the namesake is a bit of a bad ass. Although, he can't hold his liquor."

Harry just blinked. And blinked once more. Then made some kind of choking sound in his throat.

"Are you saying Angels actually exist?"

Gabriel just laughed and stated, "Angels and demons exist on another plane of existence. Among other beings we won't talk about until the subject comes up. The angels and demons tend to show up on Earthern realms more often than not because the particle dispersion is easier to handle than going to the others. Here they can cause chaos and miracles more easily."

'Well...shit.'

Harry just stared at Gabriel and had to ask, "What happened to Sirius when he died?"

Gabriel, seeming to see the question coming, sighed.

"Sirius has left this plane of existence and passed into what you would call Heaven for judgment. It's wholly different than what your religions think it is, but the premise is the same. And no, I can't tell you much more about things to do with them. It's part of my deal with them."

"Will you get into trouble for being here?"

"When I started doing this gig, I did it for the right reasons. I didn't do it to just watch out for my other selves, I did it for the future of this planet. I like Earth, like I like my own. It's beauty can't be found elsewhere. The angels wouldn't have let me transverse the realms otherwise. They are strict when it comes to letting people meddle with Earth. They think of this place as their little brother or sister. To mess with it, you mess with them," Gabriel chuckled at that thought.

"For higher beings, they sure think like humans. I thought they would be...I don't know, indifferent to us."

"When humans first started to show up, or so I was told, the angels didn't particularly know what to think of us. They never had contact with other beings besides demons and the elven. But over-"

Harry interrupted with a question, "Elven? Elves exist?"

Gabriel mocked 'tisking' at Harry and started again, "Don't you know it's rude to interrupt? I hope not everyone on this realm is rude, too."

Then the multidimensional being did the mature thing and stuck out his tongue.

Harry followed suit with his own tongue wagging.

"Sorry, it's just this a lot to learn all of a sudden. It's startling. I mean, bloody hell, yesterday I would of said angels and demons were fictitious and and elves were over-romanticized beings from literature."

"Yeah, the elves are a prissy lot, but deathly stronger than you can imagine. They are more warrior than magic user. Even though they can use magic when needed. Just don't let them know I said that prissy bit about them to a elf or I'll be getting a beating from one of my trainers."

He just followed that up with a mirth filled laughed while clearly having a nostalgic moment.

Harry sat bewildered, he didn't know what to believe. He just met this...person not two hours ago and here he was humoring him by listening. But, seeing as he was in the best of positions and Gabriel knew a lot about him by the fact that he has never, ever, told anyone about his little crush for Hermione.

"Anyways, the angels just watched for thousands of years. Doing nothing in our times of strife or prosperity. Just watching. They didn't know what to think of us until one little tiny event changed their views. It was a woman trying to escape a group of men around eleven thousand years ago. This was a high time for our world as magic and technology was advanced more so than it is now, but that's beside the point. Well, they eventually cornered this woman, but all of a sudden a young man came to her aid out of the blue. The woman didn't know him, and he didn't know her. He was just doing what he thought was right."

Harry was enraptured with the story, it sounded hard to believe but he hoped it was true. He wished people existed on Earth like this young man.

Gabriel continued, "The young man fought as much as he could for as long as he could, but the group of wretches overpowered him soon enough. They planned on killing him then taking the woman as some sort of trophy. As the man laid dying on the ground, he looked up into the sky and whispered something that would change the angels mind about 'just watching'. He whispered, 'tevakna ni ziravdo,' which means justice is dead in their language."

"What did the angels do? Please, tell me this has a happy ending. I don't think I could do with another bad ending." Gabriel couldn't help but chuckle at Harry's pout.

"Well, the angels being emboldened by this courageous man's actions and words traveled to Earth for the first time since our first appearance on Earth. They ended the group of men that did this to the man and were harassing the young woman. That's the thing you have to understand about angels. They don't fight, they end. They are stronger than you could even imagine. But anyways, after all was said and done, they removed their presence from the woman's mind and traveled back to their realm but with the man this time. They took him in and trained him. They gave him power, he gave them morals and honor. It was the beginning of our unification with the angel realm."

"Holy shit, so humans can be recruited by angels?"

Harry was still blown away by the things he was hearing. It was amazing. It was hope.

"Sort of. Most of the time, when a person dies and goes on to judgment, they can recruit you there. Other times, with dimensions that have the ability to transverse dimensions and realms, like mine, can be recruited before death. But there isn't many universes like mine where we can do that. There is only, I believe, six of me with the ability to transverse realms. And I've had to end three of them when they did so by dark means. That was a depressive time for me, but it needed to be done."

"Wow, I don't think I could ever kill myself, even if it was another me, not me. Er, you know what I mean."

Gabriel chuckled and patted him on the shoulder and said softly, "After the first thousand years go by, you find that things get easier to do. I used to be deathly shy and introverted. Now, I enjoy going to outings with friends and I can actually talk during group tactics. All it takes is time."

"Well, seeing as your seemingly immortal and I'm not. I'm thinking I'm going to be stuck this way," he snorted out.

Gabriel winked and said, "You never know what the future holds for us, no one does. Not even fate."

Harry just shook his head, not wanting to open the can of worms labeled fate.

"On to the present then. I am wanting you to strengthen your body some, as malnutrition has pretty much stunted your growth and weight and this can also damage your magic. Healthy body, healthy mind and all that crap. But before we get into your future training regiments, I have a gift for you."

Harry looked at him wearily, "A gift? I am not going to have to sell my soul or anything am I?"

His alternate self barked out a laugh and continued, "No, your soul shall remain intact and yours. Although, for the first few weeks, you are going to think this gift is a curse. You shall look at the world differently than you have. What I'm going to do, is open your mind."

Harry blinked once again. He was never going to need eye drops in his life again.

"Open my mind? What does that mean, and why does it sound like something my Divination teacher would say?"

Gabriel graced him with another round of barking laughter.

"Well, it's not that kind of mind opening experience but one that will let you see things in a...different light. I can't really explain it to you, as everyone experiences it in a different way. This is totally your choice to accept it or not. I will not force you to take it. But it will give you and advantage you won't find anywhere else. Unless you happen upon a stubborn angel, but I doubt that."

Apparently, sarcasm runs rampant in Gabriel's world.

"Well, I just have this aversion to accepting people I barely know to giving me things. Last time that happened, one of my friends nearly died."

"Ah yes, well, I guess trust issues was going to come up eventually. I could do a bonding of truth to prove that I'm a swell chap and mean no harm?"

"You're a smart ass, aren't you?"

"Well I did get the wonderful duty of watching a realm that was known for every human being a liar. That was a confusing century and half, let me tell you. Okay, I'm a bit of smart-ass but I'm a charming smart-ass. But I promise you, by bonding of truth, that I mean you no harm."

Harry looked reluctant for a few seconds then decided he would do the bond and see how things went. Like he thought, things were going to get interesting, and he needed all the help he could get.

"How do we do the bond? I'm not particularly knowledgeable in magic like that, I just know a few spells and some basic Occlumency."

"Yes, we will work on your laziness in the future. You're a wizard, it's time you started acting like a responsible one."

Gabriel finished his sentence through Harry's exclamation of "Oi!" about the laziness.

"To do the bond, all we need is prick on our palms so blood will start to drip, and circle of salt and a firm handshake. That's pretty much it, but I will chant a few syllables to initiate the bond."

"How do I get into these kinds of situations," Harry asked no one in particular.

"Because, we are awesome," Gabriel stated like it was a known fact.

Harry snorted as his others antics.

"You know for an immortal, you are pretty childish."

"I have to stay sane somehow. Now give me your hand before you drag us off on another topical tangent."

After Harry handed his hand over, Gabriel pulled out a knife from inside his jacket and pricked his hand hard enough to draw blood.

He put the knife on the table behind him and withdrew a pouch of salt from his jacket as well, Harry got the impression that the jacket had expansion pocket built in and suddenly felt the need to get one these jackets as well. Being crafty is one thing, being crafty and looking snazzy is another.

With the salt circle around them Gabriel pricked his palm and put the knife back in his jacket, he turned to Harry and said as if knowing the question forming, "The salt is a pure symbol. It gives the bond strength in the fact that I'm doing this with pure intentions and pure motivation."

'Well that answers that' Harry thought with a snort.

"Alrighty then, give me a firm hand shake and don't let go until I do. This will feel a little weird."

Right after that statement, Gabriel smacked his palm into Harry's with a rumble of deep magic. Harry's eyes opened a little wider while Gabriel began his chant.

"Verikarum julictis brohol venool trasa!" A deep thrumming pulsed through Harry's body into his heart. Then to his head where a presence of familiarity and comfort. It was a feeling he would correlate to that of having a brother.

Family.

"Wow, it feels...good. It's like what I would think of having a brother felt like."

Gabriel turned compassionate eyes towards Harry and stated, "It is a wonderful feeling, I never tire of doing it with another one of me. Anyways, how this works is when ever one of us feel anger or untrustworthy of the other, that feeling with get sent through the link to let you feel aware of the other. It lets me trust you while you trust me to do what is right by both of us. And yeah, the only downside is, we can't prank each other. I usually get a prank or two in before I have to do the bond. Maybe I can bribe one of your friends to do them..."

Gabriel finished this with a truly devious look on his face while tapping his chin with an index finger. Harry just looked horrified. Rightfully horrified.

"Please, I'll be good. No pranks. I don't need to know the humility you can teach m. I'll be a good boy," Harry stammered out.

Gabriel just laughed for a few seconds and sat down once more in his comfy chair, "Don't worry, Harry, humility is good for the soul."

He finished with a wink. A wink following a conversation about pranks is never a good thing. Never.

Harry groaned feeling slightly doomed by force of embarrassment.

"I have a feeling, I am going to regret letting you help me. And here I thought I was a nice guy. I guess not everyone of me is nice. Well seeing as you had to kill some of us, it makes sense. But still, you are evil. Like the kind of evil that has a reserved spot in the deepest spot of hell."

"Well I am glad you are making jokes and still not moping about your godfather. You need to move on, Sirius will be fine, he is with your parents, I'm sure, and they are having a grand time doing something they enjoy."

Strangely, that did make Harry feel better.

"You know, you have the weirdest methods for self-improvement that actually works."

"Because I have the best method. Truth. Truth gives the best help."

Harry just shook his head and sat back down on his scruffy looking bed.

Gabriel crossed his right leg over his left again and returned to the conversation of earlier once more, "Now, would you like this gift or no? Like I said, I will only offer it, never force it. And it will be hard for awhile with it, but I promise to help with it how I can. I only can go so far, since it will be different than mine."

"I will accept the gift, but what did you mean by it being a curse?"

"I didn't say it was a curse, I just said you would think it one for the beginning. It's just harder for some people to grasp it's full potential and use it for bettering their mind."

Harry didn't know what to think about that but he knew he needed the help. That extra edge, and damned be the repercussions.

"Alright, let's do it."

Gabriel snorted but held back the retort his mind instinctively supplied and raised one hand to lay it on the top of Harry's head.

"Once I do this, I can't undo it."

This gave Harry pause, but he wasn't going back now. Gryffindor was his middle name. Well his other middle name.

"Do it."

Gabriel put his hand down on his head and for a few seconds nothing happened.

Then, out of the blue, Harry felt something shift in his head. Like when a tooth was loose and you could feel it move. Right after this anomaly, pain soared into his head like none other. Pain beyond the normal definition of pain. It felt like someone was pulling his brain in different directions.

Then the pain stopped.

"That was me pushing the neuron forest of your brain past the normal. Next I'm going to activate them. I suggest grabbing the arms of your chair and biting on this."

Gabriel produced a leather strap from his jacket and put it between Harry's teeth.

"Bite hard, regrowing a tongue is a pain."

Then the man put both hands on either side of his head and closed his eyes. By now, Harry was worringly waiting for the pain to start once more. Like waiting before a surgery, knowing you can't back out of it.

The pain didn't take long to start again.

It was a new pain. A strange pain. A pain that was unlike any he ever experienced before, even the pain a minute ago he experienced couldn't be on the same level as this pain.

It was pleasure mixed with pain. He wanted to moan as much as he wanted to scream his throat raw. It was as if his brain was berating him for now just waking him up. But only with the caressing touch a lover would have for their mate. It was a beautiful agony.

Then it stopped once more.

"It is done."

Harry, eyes still closed, was slumped over in his rickety chair. He breathed in deeply, finding satisfaction in the new understanding of what breathing did for him. The rejuvenation. The exhilaration of life entering his body and expanding his lungs for what would be once more in the millions of times they have filled. Yet this time was different. It brought tears to his closed eyes. It was beauty beyond his understanding of the concept.

It was simple. It was beautiful.

He opened his eyes, and looked at Gabriel in a new light. Eyes moist with the sensations he never knew to exist.

"I...I can see...everything."

Gabriel smiled like a brother would when his younger brother came home from his first day of school, telling him of his new friends and adventures he got into.

"Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life. Enjoy it."

Harry smiled at Gabriel.

"Thank you, Gabriel."

Harry cried dignified tears in front of someone for the first time.