The Books Are Better

"Excuse me?" Charlie stared at Cas, complete and utter shock all across her face.

"About what?" He asked, confused. The angel saw no reason for her shock.

"Are you telling me?" She leaned closer to him across the table in the Bunker's library. Cas fought the urge to lean away from her. She was putting up a frightening aura. "You know all of this pop culture knowledge, but you haven't actually seen or read almost all of them?"

The confusion cleared up. Cas was grateful for that. "Oh, yes." He replied, ignoring the way her jaw dropped once more. "Metatron was impatient and sick of me not getting his references, so he 'downloaded,'" he made quotation marks around the word, "all of his pop culture knowledge."

"Agh!" Charlie wrenched herself away. "How could he?! This is scandalous, inhuman!" She ranted, obviously enraged though the angel didn't quite understand why. "It's one thing if a person purposely looks for spoilers and info on Wikipedia or something, but for this to be forced on someone!" She turned around from where she had been, and suddenly, Cas found himself being hugged. "You poor baby in a trenchcoat!"

Castiel frowned. He still didn't like being called that, but somehow it wasn't as insulting coming from Charlie as it had been from Dean. Maybe it was because of the way she said it with such utter fondness.

"What?" He asked, not getting why he was being hugged. "What's wrong?"

Charlie drew back with a sigh. "And Metatron dares to call himself a nerd." Scorn coated her voice. "Tell me, is this jerk still alive?" Her eyes were cutting into the angel with their anger.

"When I last saw him, yes." Cas winced at what had happened when he had finally retrieved his Grace. Metatron was certainly alive, though the angel had no clue where the now human had gone.

"When I find him, I am so going Dark on his butt. True nerds and geeks do want others to get their references, but that's better solved by having them join in." She seemed to be debating something internally. With a wave of her hand, she gestured for Cas to follow her. "Come with me."

Curious, Castiel followed her down the hallway into her room that had been set-up for when she was visiting. Figurines, books, and DVDs lined the walls along with several framed posters. Charlie walked over to one particular shelf and pulled out seven books.

"Okay," she said as she turned back to him, "I'm going to let you borrow these to read. If you haven't really been in a real fandom before, these are a great place to start." She set them down into Cas's waiting hands.

He looked down at them. The first one said, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. "Charlie, I do know what happens in these. Metatron has read these at least."

"Shhh." Charlie gently laid a finger on Cas's lips to prevent him from speaking. Surprised, he did so. "Knowing what's going to happen is totally different from reading it. Or watching it if you're talking about a movie or TV show." She stepped back and gave him a smile. "Just read them, Cas."

"Alright." Castiel agreed, though he wasn't sure if it was for his sake or hers.

Over the next couple of weeks, during which he is grateful that he doesn't need to sleep since he has more time to read that way, Cas manages to read all of the Harry Potter books. Even though he knew all that transpired in the books and the most famous quotes, several of the events still blindsided him, and he was surprised over how emotional he would get over characters who technically weren't real.

There were several times during that time when he had to go to Charlie to get out what she termed as "feels" over the events that transpired.

Overall, he was amazed at how he now understood the stories better because it wasn't just random information shoved into his head now. He had bonded with these characters.

"You were right." Castiel told her soon after he had closed the pages of Deathly Hallows. "It is different. It's more…" He struggled to find the right word until it finally popped up. "Personal."

Charlie gave an understanding smile. "Reading is generally considered a personal experience, because it's just you and the characters connected through words and imagination. But the best part comes after," she admitted. "Because you then have a shared, if somewhat different, experience that can help you connect with dozens of people."

A light bulb went off over Cas's head. "Is that why so many people enjoy making references?"

"Exactly." A huge grin took over Charlie's face. "Now," she clamped a hand onto Castiel's shoulder and got a menacing expression, "we're watching the movies."

Feeling intimidated once more by the slight woman, Cas readily agreed. After all, Dean had always told him that it was better to watch the movie of something than wait for the books.

Over 17 and a half hours later, with extra time for bathroom breaks and food, the credits were rolling for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Castiel had only one thing to say, which summed up all of the comments he had wanted to say during the movies but had known better than to talk through the first time watching them.

Cas turned to Charlie and said, "The books were better."

Charlie laughed.


AN: I think a lot of these chapters are going to be about Charlie getting Cas into a whole bunch of nerdy stuff (in other words, stuff that I myself watch/read). I noticed that just because Metatron dumped all of that info into Castiel (which truly is an inhumane act that warrants Metatron being fried in holy oil), that doesn't mean that Cas really understands it. Right after Metatron did that, Cas identified Metatron's quote and Dean's reference, but he didn't see how they exactly pertained to the situation. I think if he actually took time to read/watch them, it would really help. Therefore, I started with the first thing that I truly threw myself into besides Disney movies (I had seen Star Wars, but my brothers were way more into it than me though I do like it). Granted, the Harry Potter movies are really good for an adaptation though the books are still better. It could have been worse. *cough* Lightning Thief *cough*