Thank you very much for reading so far (and congratulations on managing to get so far!)
I've been on a roll recently, typing stories/chapters pretty fast (not only for this one but also for other stories), because obviously, having summer holidays means I have a lot of spare time on my hands. However, I was recently bit by my dog and typing, drawing and writing is pretty hard so I have to do most of it with my left hand... Chapters might come at a slightly slower pace for the next week or two or so. Sorry!
Harry's agreement to help them for the time being caused an unprecedented tension in the bunker. It was as though everyone constantly expected Harry to blow up, even as he went about his daily routine. Currently, they were trying to track down Harry's grace, while actively searching for Lucifer, a.k.a. Castiel. So far, they didn't have many leads on both accounts. When Sam had proposed the idea of resurrecting Gabriel, Chuck had instantly shot it down. According to him, Archangels took a shitload of time to create and they didn't have that time right now.
So, they were stuck searching and brainstorming for ideas as to where Gabriel, the prankster would/could have potentially hidden Harry's grace. After a few days of deliberating the fact, they came down to two top candidates; a carny festival or fair (pranksters, after all liked to hang around such places), or something belonging exclusively to the magical world.
As a result, Sam and Harry had spent the past few hours at the Winchester's laptop, hacking servers of a variety of scientific departments of different Universities, trying to see if someone had noticed a certain spike of electromagnetic energy. Sam and Harry were currently sitting at one of the numerous tables in the library. Sam was staring at his screen as though mentally willing the decoding and searching process to happen a little faster, while Harry was leaning back in his chair while using a whipped cream dispenser to fill his mouth with said dessert.
"Ew, man, you're almost as disgusting as Dean," Sam said, finally turning his gaze at his fellow researcher. Harry shrugged and tried to swallow the cream as best as he could.
"Why, what does Dean do?" He asked, voice a little muffled as he spoke with a mouth full of whipped cream. Sam grimaced and gestured at Harry's face.
"Well, pretty much that with hamburgers."
"So, you're more of a 'salad-kinda-guy'," Harry said with a laugh. Sam's sarcastic reply was cut off, as his laptop pinged and both men's gazes zeroed on the screen which was displaying one single result. Exchanging a nervous glance, Sam clicked on the result, and started paraphrasing the text: "It's an abandoned carny fair area, just outside Oklahoma City. Apparently, they've had weird electromagnetic fluctuations for about a week now. Could be a coincidence."
"Harry fell into a coma a week ago. It's not a coincidence," Chuck had appeared on the other side of the table. He was holding a bag of skittles in one hand, and was popping them into his mouth. His feet were resting on the table. "The grace must've realised that it's owner is aware of it's existence."
"I won't even start with how twisted that sounds," Said Dean, walking into the library with a paper plate and a peeled banana. "Hey! That's where the whipped cream went-" He wrestled the dispenser out of Harry's hand (who pouted angrily) and sprayed a healthy, generous amount of cream on his banana. Sam started at him, disgusted.
"So… Um… that's the right place then?" Harry mumbled slowly, facing the elephant in the room. Dean and Sam exchanged a glance; a wordless conversation. Chuck cleared his throat and let his feet fall to the floor. The skittles he'd been munching on disappeared from his hands and he stood up.
Dean, who had just been in the process of cutting up his banana, stopped and looked from Chuck to Harry and then back to Chuck. "So, we're all going - to get Harry's grace?"
Harry swallowed uncomfortably when everyone turned to stare at him. He'd originally disagreed with their plan. Evidently his primordial self had decided to disappear from Heaven and the world. He had evidently wanted some peace and some… normality. And now, Harry was diving back in. Would he - the primordial being - be happy with Harry's decision?
"Yeah, ok. Let's do this."
…
They appeared just outside Oklahoma City. Somewhere in the distance, Harry could hear the typical sounds of a city: cars, traffic, airplanes etc. The sun was setting, casting a golden light over the landscape. Their little group of people was standing on a gravel road which to the right, lead to the city in the distance, and to the left lead to what looked like an abandoned carny fair.
Slowly, and not speaking a word to each other, Team free will, minus Cas and plus Chuck and Harry, made it's way down to the centre of the fair. It was abandoned, that much was certain; the smallish circus tent had imploded in on itself. Most lightbulbs attached to the perimeter of various attractions and booths were broken and those that weren't looked like they had stopped working long ago. The merry-go-round place to the right of their little group was depressingly silent, save for a few disemboweled figures of horses that creaked when gusts of wind hit them.
"If this is a representation of your grace or the state your conjured body is in, it's no wonder that it was starting to wear thin before I repaired most of the damage," Chuck said quietly, taking in the scene with widened eyes. Sam and Dean were similarly shocked.
"Dude, even I didn't look so crap when Cas pulled me outta Hell."
Harry's laugh was sardonic when he turned to look at the group. "The more I find out about your brother, Chuck, the less I want to be him." Harry sighed and took a step backwards, now in the very centre of the carny fair, "But I guess it's not about what I want, it's never been about that, but about what's good for the greater good-"
It was at that moment, that Harry had taken a step into the very middle, the pinnacle of the fair, that something extraordinary happened. As if by magic - or grace, Harry corrected himself - the attractions (even those with the broken lightbulbs) lit up, casting merry light into the darkening landscape. The merry-go-round started turning, and various attractions started blaring music over their loudspeakers. The most prominent song however, the song that they could all hear loudest, was 'Staying Alive', which Harry thought was quite an ironic touch.
"Your grace is reacting to your presence," Chuck said quietly, stepping forwards to stand next to Harry, side by side while Dean and Sam hung back. Harry bit his lip and raised his hand so that he could look at it closer. He wriggled his fingers and watched as golden tendrils of light danced and curled around his fingertips.
"It's beautiful," He breathed as he took it all in. He could feel it in the air; that power, that… magic. "The air is saturated with my grace," He mumbled to Chuck, watching as more and more attractions turned on and started either blaring music or flashing lights. Similarly, Harry could feel his own body reacting to that immense power. Suddenly his senses were hypersensitive, and he could feel that power coursing through his body, fixing what needed to be fixed. It tried to gain entry into his essence but for now, Harry denied it entrance.
And then, something even more shocking happened:
The merry-go-round had done a few full turns by now, and one of the only full sculptures upon which Harry supposed children had once sat on, had turned back to face them… And sitting on one of these miraculously unharmed sculptures was… the Archangel Gabriel.
.
Gabriel hopped off the pink platypus he had been riding on, and strode over to them, before stopping a few feet away. The little group just stared at him for a moment or two, as their minds tried to wrap around the fact that Gabriel wasn't dead and that, somehow, he had managed to trick Lucifer and… well… pretty much everyone into thinking that he had died. *1
Chuck was the first to react; he took a step forwards, raising his hand as though to initiate a hug with his youngest archangel, but Gabriel did the exact opposite; he took a step back and crossed his arms, a scowl evident on his face. Chuck's hand dropped and he stared sorrowfully at his son.
"What the fuck-" Dean started, perfectly summarising what both Sam and Harry were also thinking, but he was interrupted by Gabriel.
"Language, Dean-o! Don't want to get the Big Man pissed off here, do we?" His hateful smirk - directed at Chuck was ugly and very out-of-place on the kind, innocent face Harry remembered from his dream.
"I am so sorr-" Chuck was rudely interrupted by the no longer smirking Gabriel. Instead, the Archangel's face had become expressionless as he turned to stare at his father.
"Sorry 'bout what?" Gabriel countered in a falsely cheerful voice.
Chuck bit his lip, "I left you - all of you and I am so sorry." At those words, Gabriel's face transformed into something much more vicious. His eyes became simultaneously cold and hot with anger, and an ugly frown appeared on his face.
"Sorry doesn't cut it, dad. Do you know, how much we care, how much we all loved you? Did you hear our prayers? Not just the Humans' but ours? Did you hear them?"
"I heard them," Chuck confessed causing Harry to look at him, shocked at this revelation. He didn't know what he'd do if suddenly, he started hearing prayers of all of Humanity combined. "I was human, but sometimes I heard them in my dreams."
"And you did nothing." Gabriel said with disgust, staring at his father, betrayal now clear in his eyes. Harry bit his lip and tried to look away, suddenly feeling as though this meeting between father and son was too intimate for him to witness. A glance back at Dean and Sam revealed that they too, were uncomfortably staring at the scene unfolding in front of them.
Shaking his head, Gabriel turned away from his father, apparently declaring him to be a lost cause. He paced for a little, before he came to face Harry. When their eyes met, Harry had a sudden deja vu moment. Standing in front of him wasn't the Gabriel they had all witnessed mere moments ago, but instead a less jaded more innocent version of him. This Gabriel's eyes were softer and more forgiving.
"So?" Gabriel questioned.
"So what?"
"So - What do you think?" Gabriel elaborated, wildly gesturing around the fair with his hands; the mischievous smile was now back. "Pretty awesome, don't you think?"
Harry felt himself smile faintly, "Yeah, you did a good job hiding my grace," He paused as he breathed in the grace-saturated air, "Thank you for that, Gabriel."
"Are you really going to take it back - are you going to become His brother again?" His voice was full with undeniable hope and Harry bit the inside of his cheek.
"Yeah, I have to, for the sake of Chuck's creations. You know, I've sort of become quite attached to a few of them," He smiled, as suddenly flashbacks of his early years at Hogwarts, the Christmases, the Halloween parties, the balls, all came crashing back to him. "I sort of owe Humanity a little thank you."
Gabriel snorted, and glanced at the Winchesters, "Yeah, Humans really grow on you."
"So you ready?" Gabriel asked after a lapse in their conversation. Harry nodded once and closed his eyes briefly, so as to compose himself. When he opened his eyes, Chuck had moved back to his side, and Gabriel was awkwardly holding something wrapped up in a ratty old cloth.
Harry frowned as he looked down at the innocent-looking wrapped up 'present'. "I guess that holds some sort of significance."
Gabriel chuckled, "Yeah. You see, I thought a carnival fair was a tad too ostentatious so I sort of transferred the Grace into - wait for it-" Gabriel transferred the wrapped up parcel into his left hand and with his right pulled off one corner of the cloth, revealing three items. The Deathly Hallows.
For a moment, Harry stared at the objects with bemusement, and then he understood. The very thing that Voldemort had killed him with all those years ago, was now his salvation. "So this is it? This is my Grace - in the Deathly Hallows?"
Gabriel smirked, "Ding! Bullseye! Got it in one!" He twirled exuberantly on his spot, before finally coming face to face with Harry again. "I created this fair to reflect your Grace and I hoped that one day, you might walk in here and it would react as a sort of summoning to me; like that I would be able to bring the Deathly Hallows - the real hosts of your Grace - to you!"
"But how did you get them? I mean, I put the Elder Wand in Dumbledore's grave, and I abandoned the stone somewhere in the forrest. I left the cloak to Andromeda so that she could give it to Teddy when he grew up a little."
Gabriel scratched his head uncomfortably, "Well, uh, I sort of… eh… stole them?" Seeing Harry's stern gaze, Gabriel put up his hands in defence, "I swear I'll return them, when they're empty of their grace!"
"Wait, wait, wait - what're these Deathly Hallows?" Dean asked suddenly, remind Harry that the Winchesters were also there. Harry tapped his chin thoughtfully, wondering how to best explain the situation.
"Eh, they're these really powerful objects from my world. They're supposed to have been created by Death - apparently not." Gabriel waggled his eyebrows as a response to that.
"So what do I do?" Harry asked after a moment, then his jerked his head at the glowing Hallows - they were pulsating with golden light. "What do I do to get my grace back?" Chuck had by this time, taken a few steps back to give Gabriel and Harry some privacy and presumably catching up time, but now, Harry felt God's hand on his shoulder.
"You told me back then to tell you now that you are missed by your family, and that if future-Human-you wants to become the In Between again, you'll know what to do." With that, Gabriel dropped the Hallows into Harry's arms.
Before Harry could even open his mouth to formulate a proper response to that, he found himself hurling through time and space. The feeling resembled that of a portkey, but more powerful and more… dominant and violent. When they finally landed, Harry's knees buckled under him and he almost fell into the plush grass.
Wait… Grass?
He felt someone hoist him up and when he looked around himself, he found that he was in one of the most beautiful gardens he had ever been in. And helping him up was Chuck. Harry jerked his arm away from the man, glaring at him succinctly.
They were standing next to a perfect white bench and Harry could only guess that this was Paradise. Nothing could feel so real and yet so surreal at the same moment. Also, there was nothing else that could make him feel so at home and yet so far away from it as well. It was only as Harry started gazing around himself, that he saw a dark-skinned man standing a little farther away from them.
Joshua, his mind supplied - or rather - Harry looked down at the Hallows containing his grace and he frowned; he was almost certain that the whispered name had come from them.
"Welcome home, Harry," Joshua's voice was deep and he had a faint accent which Harry couldn't quite place yet.
"Son, could you please leave us for a moment?" Chuck demanded gently, and Harry suddenly realised how odd it all looked; a ca. thirty-year-old man was calling a fifty-year-old man his 'son'. Then again, appearances weren't everything, Harry mused, thinking about Chuck's real identity. Joshua smiled at his father, very happy to do whatever he asked, and with a short, respectful bow, he vanished. Chuck sighed and turned back to Harry.
"We're in Heaven." Harry stated after a moment. Chuck nodded and smiled nostalgically.
"Yeah, it's the most peaceful place in creation, great for making decisions. Actually, I spent several millennia here wondering what to do about Luci-"
"-Is that what we're doing here?" Harry said dangerously, as he took a threatening step forwards, "To make a decision?" Harry held up his Hallows to elaborate what he meant. Chuck bowed his head in defeat for a moment.
"Yeah, Harry, I want to make sure that you know what you're doing."
"A few hours ago you were totally for me becoming your brother," Harry said acerbically. Chuck frowned.
"You don't have to become my brother. You already are my brother - Harry and Chuck are brothers-"
"Damnit Chuck! You know what I mean!"
"Look, Harry, I just don't want you to feel like Dean, Sam, Gabriel or me or whatever are pressuring you to accept your grace. You can always just stay here, in Heaven and meet your parents - Lily and James Potter. You can spend an eternity with Sirius and Remus and everyone else. You don't have to do this."
Harry's smile was bitter, "Yeah, well if Amara wins, there won't be a Heaven to hide in, will there?" Harry didn't even have to wait for a verbal answer; the look in Chuck's eyes and the way his shoulders slumped downwards was enough. Sighing deeply as though the entire weight of the world was on his shoulders, Harry tossed the cloak over his shoulders and gently grabbed the stone.
He stood there like a king: a stone in his left hand, and the ruling sceptre (or in this case the Elder Wand) in his right. And over his shoulders hung a priceless cloak. "Didn't think I cleaned up this good, did you?" Harry exclaimed in an over-exaggerated show of enthusiasm after seeing Chuck's shocked expression.. Harry winked sarcastically at Chuck before saying; "See you on the other side, mate." And with that, he closed his eyes and dived into his subconsciousness, in search of the Grace locked in the Hallows.
Pfew, I can't believe that after 20k words, Harry is finally God's brother again. Wow. That took some time...
So um... Gabriel is back! An' kickin' ass. I can't wait to fully integrate him into Team Free Will. Gabriel and Chuck are my favourite characters so I just love writing them. And omg - we have 110 reviews! I can't believe it - thank you! (also, I really, really can't believe that so many people have decided to follow and fav this story! I love all of you guys! Honestly, I wasn't very sure about posting this story in the first place, because I didn't think people would really want to read something like this. I am really enjoying writing this so I'm glad you guys like to read it!)
ANs:
*1: My reasoning was that Loki's been around for aaaages. Lucifer has spent that entire time in his cage, so I think it would be reasonable that the Trickster Loki managed to trick Lucifer.
Anonymous Reviews:
Guest: Hahahah so true! Thank you!
Jaden Xiang: Hm.. I guess my reasoning was that Harry has deserved the right to be selfish. I mean, he's always so incredibly selfless in the books, I mean... he gives EVERYTHING up, so in his place I would also go 'Fuck it'. I don't think he'd feel like participating in yet another war. Anyway, thank you!
Guest 2: Thank you!
Chapter 8 Preview:
"Sasquatch - want some liquorice?" Out of nowhere Gabriel produced a pack of red sweets. Sam stared at him for a moment, before he finally shook his head and gulped down some coffee.
"Why are you reading the bible?" Sam finally asked. Gabriel gave him a winning smile.
"Well obviously 'cause I'm in it, those are the best bits after all, Sammy."
"Don't call me that," Sam muttered half-heartedly. Then turning to Harry and Chuck, he continued, "Any leads on Amara? Where she is - and where she's hidden Lucifer?"
