Dean gaped at the man. "You're Harry?! Why didn't you say so? I'm, err, sorry that I said you couldn't help and, erm, thinking you were the waiter."
Harry mock saluted them with his beer. "It's ok. It's better than the worship I get most of the time. So, which one of you wants to explain why there are three hunters, a prophet and an angel in my bar?"
"You know that he's an angel? How?" Bobby demanded.
Harry turned toward the standing figure behind the hunter. "I can feel what you are." He closed his eyes and raised his right hand. Shadowy wings appeared behind the angel and slowly disappeared again. "When you have been around this kind of thing for long enough, you pick up a few things. It is a pleasure to meet you, Castiel."
The angel nodded to the immortal before him. "The pleasure is all mine, I assure you. I have never met such a powerful being outside my own brothers and sisters."
Harry shrugged and looked uncaring. "Power isn't everything."
"Dude, how can you say that? You're immortal!" Dean exclaimed. "No matter what you do, you will never die. You can do anything you want!"
Dean jumped back in his seat when Harry leaned forward and slammed his beer hard onto the table. "You think I want to be like this?" he hissed dangerously, causing tingles to run up the hunter's spine. "I am going to have to watch those around me – everyone I love – grow old and die! I'm stuck on this shithole for all eternity."
"Dean." Sam warned. "Please don't take offense about what he said. Dean tends to say things without engaging his brain. We are all just really tired and edgy."
Harry continued to glare icily at Dean, who sunk further and further into his seat. Draco sighed and stepped forward, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder. He leaned down and quietly spoke to him so that none of the others could hear him. Harry shook his head and said something sharply back. Draco hesitated for a minute before nodding and quickly leaving the room, watched nervously by the hunters present. No one wanted to be in a room with an angry Harry.
"I accept the apology." Harry's tone was still cool but the angry edge was gone. Dean couldn't help but watch the younger man in front of him. He only looked to be in his early twenties but his piercing green eyes held veiled emotion. Dean was good at reading people – it came with the job. But if he hadn't been a hunter so long, Harry would seem like he was emotionless and void of human emotion.
"Harry, what do you need?" The entire group turned towards the doorway, the hunters automatically reaching for their weapons. They relaxed when Harry stood and greeted the older woman, although they were confused by the bow he gave to her. The woman had elegant and aristocratic features and an air of authority about her.
"Andromeda, these are hunters, a prophet and an angel. They say they have something to tell us that is important." Harry waved a hand in the group's general direction, his eyes never leaving the older woman's face.
"Hmmm." Andromeda looked over the group, her gaze sharp and calculating. Her stare paused on Dean for a moment and she looked him up and down. "What are they here for? It's the early hours of the morning. And to be honest, they don't seem like the typical group we get looking for tips on hunts."
"That would be why we are talking to them now." Draco re-entered the room and got a glare for his sarcasm. Andromeda moved faster than her age would appear to allow and smacked him upside the head.
"There is no need for that sarcasm. Show some respect for you aunt. She gives a mean smack when she is in a bad mood." Dean couldn't help but stare as Harry's features lightened when he was joking with Draco.
"Whatever." Draco smoothed his hair back down. "Ron told me to tell you that we are closing up and the last of the customers have left." Draco looked once again at the seated group. "Oh, and he said that there was no chance in hell he is going to deal with anymore hunters this late at night after the day he has had."
"Ok, no problem." Harry turned back to the group. "This is a small town, so there is only one motel. I know the owner and he is a nice guy. He doesn't ask too many questions – he is used to the hunters passing through that come here."
"We really need to talk to you though." Sam stood and said desperately. "It is really important!"
Harry looked up and down Sam's tall height. "Look, whatever you came here to tell me can wait until tomorrow. Right now, I need to speak to a few hunters and sort some things out." Harry nodded to Castiel and gave Chuck one last look before sweeping out of the room.
"Great, an immortal diva. Just what we need." Dean muttered sarcastically, but he was still heard by Andromeda.
"You cannot possibly contemplate what Harry has to go through! What he has already been through!" She hissed dangerously, he dark eyes flashing. "Harry has died so many times and every time he hopes to never wake up again. He may never say it, but I know what he is thinking. The thought of the people he would leave behind is the only thing that keeps him going!"
Draco pulled Andromeda into a tight embrace as tear began rolling down her anger-flushed cheeks. "The thing is…. we all quietly dread what he would do once we are all gone." Draco said quietly.
"You can come around tomorrow afternoon and we can talk about what you think is so important." Draco gave them one last nod and gently pulled his still sobbing aunt out of the room, leaving three hunters, one prophet and an angel in confusion behind him.
Oak's Motel
When Dean woke up the next day, he could see that it was past morning by the amount of light that was streaming in through the partially closed curtains. It didn't surprise him when he rolled over and saw on the bedside clock that it was midday. They had spent over an hour drawing salt lines and any seals of protection that they could think of in the two rooms they were staying in. Once Dean's head had hit the pillow, he was dead to the world.
Pulling himself off the bed and making his way to the bathroom for a shower, Dean couldn't help but think of Harry. He an enigma and it frustrated Dean no end that he couldn't figure out even the tiniest details of the dark haired man. This afternoon, Dean was determined to get at least some information on the man who had cast Lucifer back into hell.
Once he was done in the shower and had got dressed, Sam was just out of bed and was staggering around the room. Dean looked at him in concern. Sammy would never admit to him that he had really intense nightmares about Lucifer's rising. Just like Dean would never admit to him that he still had vivid dreams about his time in hell. Only this time, the dreams had shifted from his own torture to himself torturing others. And him enjoying the feeling.
Dean shivered and then looked up as Castiel suddenly appeared in their room. "I have got the directions to Harry's home from the owner of this motel."
"Ok, so we should pack up and clean all the protections lines and symbols up. Sammy, could you do that and tell Bobby to do the same?" Receiving Sam's nod, Dean exited the room and called back as he left, "I'm gonna go and check us out."
Black Mansion
Harry felt the wards around his house tingle in the early afternoon. He sighed and put the book back into its place on one of the dark wooden bookcases. He had spent most of the day in his study, trying to research information for a hunter that had contacted him a few days before. He was frustrated because he kept coming up short. There was little information about the type of ghost that the hunter had said he was hunting. The books Harry had in his own study were hard to find and obscure. Harry was annoyed that he now had to search his expansive library to find the information, which would take him some time to do.
Closing his eyes and concentrating, Harry felt the wards that he had personally established around the property and identified the five souls that had just entered his hallway. Although he could tell that they weren't demons, the feel of them was only adding fuel to his frustration. He could immediately identify Castiel's angelic presence, Bobby's strong and constant soul and the prophet's fluctuating presence as visions bombarded him. The youngest hunter, Sam, had a strong, shining soul, but it had a taint clinging to the edges that hovered like a dark cloud. Harry could tell that it had been stronger, but was slowly loosening its grip from the young hunter and soon would be gone. Harry had a few theories on how it had got there in the first place, but all seemed as incredulous as the last.
The soul that confused him most was Dean's. It was one of the strongest Harry had ever encountered, yet was riddled with contradictions. There was dark veins running through it, but these were merely shadows. The rest of his soul was unusually pure, as though he had never done something wrong in his life. Hunters' souls normally had some kind of taint that they gained in their line of work. Harry had never seen anything like it before, and he could feel the soul of everyone he encountered thanks to being master of the Hallows.
Dean stood in the hallway of Harry's house and couldn't help feeling overwhelmed. It wasn't anything at all like what he had been expecting. The house was a huge manor house, with a long driveway and large glinting windows. There were subtle protective symbols all over the house that one would have to know what they were looking for to be able to find them. The gates at the entrance of the property had a wrought iron intricate design that Sam had pointed out was a complex devils trap. And the paving was another, more archaic protective design. There were even smaller details that the hunters wouldn't have noticed but for Castiel pointing them out. Like the fountain. Castiel had pointed out that there was a cross just above the spout that all the water had to touch. He told them that he could feel the power in cross and could identify it as a sacred cross – a cross that had personally been blessed by the Pope. He also told them that there were tubes of salt concealed in the walls and in the doorway as they passed into the hallway.
Dean, whilst overwhelmed by their surroundings, also felt reassured. Nothing evil or demonic could get with a mile of Harry's home and it allowed him to relax in a way that he had not been able to in a long time. Looking at his companions, he could see that they were feeling the same way. Chuck looked even better than any of them.
"Yeah, I feel great." He answered when Dean asked him if he was ok. "Its like the visions are still there, but they are shadows that I have control of. They aren't just popping up in my mind."
"Where is everyone?" Sam looked around nervously. "They now we are stopping by today."
"I have no idea, man." Dean looked around the marble floored and wooden panelled room. He spotted a set of double door on the left hand side that were slightly ajar and headed in that direction. The others followed him closely, Sam mildly protesting that they shouldn't invade without permission.
Upon entering the room, Sam fell silent, his protests dying at the sight that met them. They found themselves in a large library that was split over two levels. There was a large fireplace on one side with tables and comfy chairs. There was a staircase that led up to the higher floor on the other side of the room, and the group could see the bookcases on the next floor set slightly back from the balcony. Everything was decorated in dark blues and burnished bronze.
"Dean." Sam drew his brother's attention away from the room and towards the tables that he had merely glanced at. Sat at one of them was a kid, maybe 10 or 11 years old. He had his head bent over a notebook and was carefully writing away. Spread in front of him was a few books. They could see that he had dark brown hair that fell slightly forward as he looked between the books in front of him. Having heard Sam's voice, the kid looked up and they saw he had bright amber coloured eyes that were narrowed in concentration but danced with mischief.
"Can I help you?" the boy asked when they all stood there for a few moments without saying anything. "I mean, is there a reason you are wandering around our house?"
"Erm, yes." Bobby was pulled out of his surprise. "We are looking for Harry. He told us to stop by today so we can talk to him."
"Oh, why didn't you say so?" The kid got up and closed the books. "You guys are hunters?" Receiving a nod, he grinned at them. "We normally don't get that many here. In fact, it has been years since a hunter has been allowed to come here and not the bar."
"You know about hunting?" Dean could see the emotion in his younger brother's eyes as he asked the question. Sam had never really gotten over his desire to be normal and Dean knew he wished that he had a normal childhood.
"I know about it in theory. But I'm never allowed to go on a hunt when any of my family does." The kid gave a glare at that.
"Your family is just trying to protect you." Sam told the kid quietly. "Erm, do you think we could talk to Harry?"
The kid looked at them all for a second before nodding. "Sure. Dad should be in his study, doing some research on some supernatural activity. Ghosts, I think." The kid stepped around them all and quietly left the room.
"Hang on." Bobby said gruffly. "Did that kid just refer to Harry as 'Dad'?"
"Yeah." Dean shook his head. "Harry isn't that old and the kid looked at least 10. He must have knocked some chick up when he was a teenager." Dean grinned at the thought, amused.
"At least now we can understand his reaction." Everyone turned to look at Castiel, as it was the first time the angel had spoken since they had arrived at the house. Seeing everyone's confused expressions, the angel elaborated. "He had such a strong reaction when discussing his own immortality. He knows that he must watch his son age before him and one day die, knowing there is nothing he can do and that he will outlive his grandchildren and all the other generations after."
"Damn. I never even considered that." Dean looked down, his mind whirling with thought. It did nothing to abate his frustration, however, because it merely added to the growing list of questions that Dean had. He didn't even know why he was so determined to find out information about Harry. It must just be that he was curious – after all, Harry had stopped the last apocalypse and now they were faced with the same situation. Dean tried to believe that, but found he could, even though he couldn't work out why.
"Dad is in the drawing room with everyone and told me to bring you there." Dean jumped when at the sound of the voice behind him. He calmed himself and turned slowly to find the kid stood there, looking expectantly at him. Shaking himself for his foolishness and lack of concentration, Dean followed the others as they trailed behind the kid. They were lead across the hallway and through another set of doors.
This room was just as elegant as the library, but none of the groups focus was on the room and its furnishing. Sat on the chairs was a group of people, Draco and Andromeda they recognised from the previous night. Harry was stood in front of the fire, leaning on the mantle, but he walked forward as they entered the room.
"Thank you for coming." Harry was polite but emotionless. "Allow me to introduce my family. Andromeda and Draco you met last night. Next to Draco is his wife, Luna." Dean turned and saw a blond haired woman. She had a delicate face and the brightest eyes that Dean had ever seen. She had looked dazed and dreamlike when they had entered, but now her gaze was quick and sharp. "And this is Hermione and her husband, Ron." Moving his gaze quickly from Luna's brilliant orbs, he saw a brown and curly haired woman sat next to red-haired man. Dean nodded to them politely. "And you have already met my son, Theodore. Or Teddy, for short. Who at this moment should be doing his homework." Harry crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at Teddy.
"But Dad" Teddy protested. "You know that I read a lot of books and could help you! You never let me help you hunt!"
"I blame your Aunt Hermione for encouraging and allowing you to spend way too much time in the library." Harry continued with his parental glare. Dean was suddenly reminded of his mother when he was young, just before she died. Dean would try the very same puppy dog eyes that Teddy was trying, but they worked on his mother. Teddy seemed to be out of luck as well. "No. Go and finish your homework."
Teddy's gaze flicked to Andromeda, who looked at him just as sternly, before huffing and leaving the room. Harry watched him go, a strange expression on his face, before he uncrossed his arms. "My apologies. He can be stubborn and headstrong when he wants to be. Traits from his mother no doubt." Harry sent a playful look towards Andromeda who glared at, confusing the group who had no idea what was going on.
"Erm, well." Sam looked to Bobby for a moment before saying. "Well, we should introduce ourselves as well." Harry nodded and indicated that they should sit down, so they all crammed themselves onto a sofa. Only Castiel and Harry chose to remain standing.
"You have no need to introduce yourselves." Luna turned her bright eyes towards the group and they seemed to pierce them to the depth of their souls. "You are Castiel, and angel of the Lord. Robert Singer, a hunter for many years who also runs a salvage yard. Chuck Shurley, God's new prophet and a writer who goes under the name Carver Edlund. And you two are Dean and Samuel Winchester."
"How do you know our names?" Dean demanded.
"My wife is a seer. But unlike Chuck, she cannot see everything. She has a different kind of gift." Draco explained, holding Luna's hand tight. "She will be sent random visions, normally with no context and they appear as riddles. Recently, however, it has been difficult for her to connect with her gift because of the massive increase of supernatural activity. It would be impossible for her to see it all. Chuck is receiving divine visions, because he was chosen as a prophet."
"Hang on." Hermione sat forward and looked at the Winchesters eagerly. Dean was strongly reminded of Sam when he found some new information whilst they were researching for a case. "You're the Winchester boys. John's sons."
Dean's heart leapt into his throat. "You met our Dad?" He managed to force out of his tight throat.
"John came here about five years ago, asking for information on a certain demon. The trail he had been following for years suddenly went cold and he couldn't find another way." Harry calmly explained. "I found the information for him and picked the trail back up. He left after a few days. I'm sorry to hear about his death. We only found out about a year ago through the hunter's grapevine. He was a good man." Harry seemed sincere in his condolences.
"Thanks. He was….he was killed by the demon." Sam stuttered, rubbing his hand nervously together. "But Dean, he wasted the bastard."
Harry turned a surprised gaze to Dean. "Really? You must be a good hunter. Even using the colt that John told me about, or any of the other various items designed to kill demons, killing a General of the demonic army would be difficult. I'm impressed." Dean turned away from Harry's gaze for a moment as he flushed red. He had no idea why he was reacting such a way to Harry's praise. It's because he sent Satan back to hell, he thought fervently to himself as he squashed a nasty little voice at the back of his mind before it could even get a malicious word out.
"We have come because we know that the account in the Black Bible is true. We know that Lucifer rose 10 years ago and that you sent him back to perdition. We do not, however, now how." Castiel made a point of getting straight to the crux of the why they were there. "The magical community has been difficult for angels to observe anyway, but Voldemort made it so we could not observe him raising Lucifer or any of his actions after."
"You didn't know because Lucifer was set free by a magical gateway into hell being opened." Harry leant back against the mantle. "There are gateways all over the world, as you know. But each one has a specific way of being opened. The one in England was sealed by wizards, so need magic to be opened. Voldemort used magic and set Lucifer free. However, none of use new until Lucifer started raising an army." Harry took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "The ordinary people – those without magic- had no clue what was going on. They thought that it was a radical terrorist group and they closed the borders. Nothing in and nothing out."
"You sent Lucifer back to hell because Voldemort used your blood to regain a new body, so in essence he used your blood to open the gateway." Sam looked at the dark haired man, who opened his eyes again and looked hard at Sam before nodding. "So, it was a one time thing that you sent Lucifer back to hell? You wouldn't be able to do it again."
"Why are you asking such things?" Andromeda demanded, worry evident on her face.
"The demons have broken the seals." Castiel said bluntly.
"When the seals are breaking, it means that the war is truly being prepared for. When he was raised in England, it was spontaneous that he managed to escape. Normally he is too powerful to be bale to get through the gateway." Harry explained. "Breaking the seals is a sure way of him escaping. Unless new seals are created by God, then Lucifer can't be locked away in the pit. He must be fought and killed by the breaker of the first seal."
"But if seals are being broken, doesn't that mean that we are facing a demonic war?" Draco locked his gaze with Harry.
"The last seal is near impossible to break." Harry shrugged. "You need a very powerful psychic to be able to kill the first corrupted human that turned into a demon. But the psychic would have to be a latent psychic – if they had access to all of their powers, then they would be able to sense what Lucifer was doing. It is rare that psychics with that amount of power never come into their gift. And no human, unless they were being controlled, would willingly cause the end of the world."
Sam stood suddenly, a devastated and guilty look across his features. Harry stared at him for a moment in surprise, before he strode towards him. "What have you done?" He demanded in a hard voice.
"The last……the last seal was broken." Sam whispered. He flinched when Harry looked at him with a completely dumbfounded expression, but Sam could see the intense anger in his eyes. He stumbled back as Harry continued to stare at him, only to be grabbed by Dean, who steadied him and protectively placed himself in front of his younger brother.
"What does that mean?" Andromeda had also stood and was looking bewildered and anxiously between Harry and the Winchester brothers.
"You know what it means." Castiel said calmly.
"Say it!" Harry hissed, surprising the hunters. "I want you to be honest and look me in the eye when you say it. I have to know that it is truth." Harry glared at them and shouted when no one said anything. "Tell me what is happening. Say it!"
Dean stared into the emerald eyes. He could so much emotion fighting in the green depths. On the surface there was cold rage and anger but underneath Dean could see deep fear. Fear not for himself, but for those who were surrounding him – his family. And unfathomable terror for his son. Harry's features calmed as he managed to pull his emotions back and get a rein on them. He looked hard at Dean and whispered, "Please. Say it." It was the begging and desperate edge that caused Dean to look straight at him and answer.
"The Apocalyse."
