Dean Winchester and the Book of Dreams
Chapter 9: Home for the Holidays
Gabriel was not happy.
"You know, I wish that I could say that I'm disappointed in you, but really I wasn't expecting anything different. Dean was obviously going to get himself involved and you were obviously going to follow him even though you're supposed to know better."
Castiel looked at his brother in confusion. Gabriel was getting more upset by his and Dean's misadventure in the Forbidden Forest then he would have expected.
"Why do you care?"
"Because believe it or not, I enjoy watching you two idiots running around and I can't very well do that if you're dead."
Castiel blinked. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that your little buddy Dean isn't the righteous man anymore- no more special treatment from upstairs. And you're- well, mostly human; human enough to where you can be killed. So if either of you die then that's it. You're dead. And then I'm going to have to find a new hobby- As much as I might want to I'm not going to be upsetting the natural order and bringing you back just for my own amusement. Even I have standards."
Castiel felt a sudden chill as he realized what Gabriel was saying. He and Dean had had a genuinely close brush with death.
The news was troubling, to say the least.
"Was your brother mad at you?" Dean asked as soon as Castiel returned to the Hufflepuff common room.
Castiel shrugged. "I honestly can't tell. He's hard to read sometimes. But he did raise a few good points."
"Like what?"
"We both could have been killed."
Dean normally would have argued with this point, insisted that he knew what he was doing and that he had everything under control. But he knew that the words were true- he had totally blown his first attempt at hunting. If Cas hadn't been there, hadn't taken control of the flamethrower at the last minute, he probably really would have been killed. His Dad would have been so pissed if he could have seen him- training for it practically his whole life and when it came down to it, he had frozen. And if that wasn't bad enough, some insane part of him was actually almost sorry for the goddamned monster.
"Gabriel says that he's sent a letter to Bobby telling him what happened."
Dean groaned. Bobby was sure to give him an earful when he got back. "I'm never going to hear the end of this am I?"
The ride back to Kings Cross station was made somewhat awkward by the fact that Professor Novak had invited himself into Dean and Castiel's train car and spent the entire time munching on an oversized chocolate bar. Castiel sat next to him, even stiffer then usual, as though he was somehow expecting his older brother to snap and start beating both of them to death with a baseball bat or something. Dean felt kind of guilty for getting Cas in trouble- if the uncomfortable silence in the train was anything to go by the dude probably wouldn't be able to have much fun this Christmas.
Then again, judging from the pissed-off looking expression that Bobby was wearing as the train pulled into the station; the break wouldn't be a cakewalk for Dean either.
Bobby was waiting for them outside the train, Sam standing beside him. As soon as Dean stepped onto the platform, Sam ran out and gave him a big hug.
"I missed you, Dean."
"Yeah, me too Sammy."
Sam abruptly broke the hug and looked up at Dean with an entirely serious expression. "You're in so much trouble, Dean. What were you thinking sneaking into the Forbidden Forest? Anyone could tell you that was a bad idea."
Dean made a face and shoved his brother. It was bad enough that he was going to have Bobby and Professor Novak telling him off, but they were adults and it was their job to disapprove of the things he did. Sam was another matter entirely. As far as Dean was concerned, as long as he was taller than him, Sam was not allowed to call him out on anything.
Professor Novak climbed out of the train behind him and approached Bobby.
"Mr. Singer! A pleasure to finally meet you- young Dean has told me quite a lot about you."
'No I haven't.' Dean thinks, looking to Castiel who merely shrugs.
"Good things, I hope."
"Oh, of course. How has the magical world been treating you? I imagine that it must be quite an adjustment."
"Not really."
"Well that's good to hear. I suppose that you got my owl?"
"You bet. Do you have any idea why these two would do a fool thing like sneak into a monster infested forest?"
"Apparently it was on a dare from a fellow classmate."
Dean looked at Castiel again. He knew that he had not provided the Defense teacher with that particular lie and judging by the confused expression on Castiel's face, he hadn't either.
It was just as well though- Bobby would certainly handle the idea of him going into a forest on a dare better then him intentionally tracking down a dangerous beast.
Bobby nodded. "You ready to go, Dean?"
"Yeah. Hey, Cas- I guess I'll see you later." Dean said.
Castiel looked at Dean with barely contained panic as Gabriel started to drag him away.
Sam had somehow managed to become even more obnoxious while Dean was away.
"Come on, tell me!"
"I already told you and Bobby that we went into the Forbidden Forest on a dare, now shut up about it!"
"You may be stupid but you're not an idiot, Dean- you wouldn't go into a monster infested forest just because somebody dared you to. So tell me the real reason, or I'll never stop bugging you about it."
"Fine! But if you ever tell Bobby I will literally murder you in your sleep."
'Deal." Sam said, leaning closer.
"Me and Cas went into the Forbidden Forest on a hunt."
Sam gaped. "A hunt? You mean like Dad's kind of hunt? I change my mind. You are an idiot."
"There was this thing called a Nunda attacking the students, so we tracked it down and killed it."
"Why?"
"What do you mean why? I couldn't just let it go around hurting people."
"I mean- why did it have to be you? This is the magical world, Dean, there are people who are trained to deal with this sort of stuff."
"Not well enough, apparently. Look, it all worked out in the end, so no big deal. You should be glad- this just proves that your big brother is a badass."
"My big brother is a dumbass."
"Hey!" Dean shouted, shoving Sam. "Respect your elders!"
Sam stuck out his tongue and ran out of the room as Dean started pelting him with throw pillows.
Christmas was just around the corner and Bobby had taken Sam and Dean to Diagon Alley for some last minute Christmas shopping. After several minutes staring at a currency conversion chart that Bobby had drawn for him, Dean had finally given up on ever understanding how the ridiculously counterintuitive wizard currency system works and decided that so long as he doesn't run out of wizard money he doesn't care how much the stuff costs.
He buys Sam a pretty awesome wizards chess set (Sam had mentioned playing the game with his friend Ron and even though Dean hated chess he had to admit he could see the appeal when the pieces beat the shit out of each other).
He got Bobby some old and impressive looking book about protective charms because that just seemed like the sort of thing he would like.
He still had two Galleons and one Sickle left over (whatever that translated into), and he figured that he should probably get something for Castiel. He had never bought a present for a friend before- never really had a friend before, and Castiel was distressingly hard to shop for. Finally, after wrapping Sam's and Bobby's presents in several layers of bags, he went to go get help.
Sam looked at him like he had just asked the stupidest question in the world. "Just get him what he likes."
"That doesn't help me, Sam!"
"What, don't you know what he likes? I thought he was like, your best friend or something."
"He is, it's just… he doesn't really talk about himself that much. Like, even less then I do and I actually have a valid reason for not talking about myself."
Sam rolled his eyes, clearly thinking that Dean was being an overdramatic idiot. "Well then what does he talk about?"
"School?"
"Besides school. Hasn't he ever mentioned anything that stands out?"
"Dude, you don't know Cas. Everything he says stands out. Did I ever tell you about the one time I started complaining that you can't use phones in Hogwarts and he starts going off about subsonic damper fields or some crap?"
Sam blinked. "Sounds like he's a fan of science then."
"Yeah, maybe, but I'm not going to get him something like that for Christmas. I want to get him something cool."
"Well then what else is there?"
'I don't know, man- the dude's weird. I mean, I guess it's because his whole family is wizards or something, but sometimes it seems like he's an alien or something. He has no idea what I'm talking about half the time."
Sam suddenly lit up into a smile. "That's it! You should get him something from the muggle world."
"What, seriously?"
Sam nodded. "Believe me- wizards get amazed by a lot of the stuff that we take for granted- like they think that our stuff is just as magical as theirs somehow. Mr. Weasley has this huge collection of plugs."
"Plugs?"
"Yeah, I know, it's crazy, but he's fascinated by the things. Half the times we go over there I think it's just because he wants to pick Bobbys brain. And this one time when Ron came over to our house, I suggested that we watch a movie and he had no idea what I was talking about."
"What, you mean like he'd never seen a movie before?"
"That's exactly what I mean, Dean."
Dean was stunned. No wonder practically all of Deans pop culture references seemed to go straight over Castiels head. It hardly seemed fair that Castiel had lived his entire life without exposure to pop-culture, and it was Deans duty as a friend to correct this in whatever way he could.
Since, according to Sam, if the Novaks were anything like the Weasleys, then they weren't likely to own a VHS player, or a TV, or even electricity, buying Castiel a movie was out of the question. Dean manages to get Bobby to promise to let Cas come over as many times as he wants this summer and buys him a copy of 'The Hobbit' instead, because he has to start Castiel's lessons on Muggle pop culture somewhere.
Bobby might not normally be big on celebrations but he was determined to make this Christmas a success. He knew that this had been a rough year for the boys- it would be their first year away from their father, the first in a new home in a new country. While both Dean and Sam seemed to be adjusting to this new world as well as could reasonably be expected, he wanted to give them a few extra good memories to help them through the transition.
Looking at the decorations now, however, he isn't quite sure that he succeeded.
"What the Hell, Bobby? What's up with these ornaments?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.
"They're protective charms from ten different religions."
"They make the tree look like it was decorated by a bunch of devil worshipers."
"I like it." Dean declared. "It looks kind of metal."
Sam was still not impressed. "Why does the tree even need protective charms? We've got all this stuff painted under the floorboards anyway."
"…I couldn't think of anything else to decorate with." Bobby admitted sheepishly.
"You know, I've been meaning to ask you this for a while now- where are you getting all the money to buy this stuff? Did you just have a secret stash of money hidden in a bomb shelter somewhere?" Dean asked.
"Well I do, but that's only for emergencies. The truth is, I've started something of an export business. A lot of hunters back home will pay good money to get there hand on some of these magic ingredients."
Dean blinked. "That's actually a really good idea."
"Well you don't have to sound so surprised." Bobby grumbled. "Come on, let's open presents."
Bobby had gotten Sam a series of books that Dean had never heard of but that Sam had apparently been meaning to read for a while. Dean, meanwhile, got a record player from Bobby and a copy of Star Wars from Sam.
Sam seemed to have been thinking along the same lines as Dean when he bought Bobbys present, and had gotten him a book entitled 'Protective Potions for the Paranoid'. Bobby grumbled a bit about that, saying that he did in fact have other hobbies besides researching protective spells.
Castiel had sent a heavy package by owl- inside were three smaller boxes labeled 'Dean', 'Sam' and 'Bobby'.
"Your friend got both of us presents too?" Sam asked. "Now I feel bad for not getting him anything."
Dean shrugged, opening the letter that was attached to the box.
Dean-
Your owl delivered your gift a few days ago, but Gabriel won't let me open it yet. I don't fully understand his reasoning but he insists that it is a holiday tradition. The house has been brightly decorated and very loud since I returned. Gabriel has parties almost every night and he keeps feeding me Christmas cookies no mater how many times I ask him to stop. This is the first time that I have ever celebrated Christmas so I don't know if this is also a holiday tradition or not. To tell the truth I don't understand this holiday very well at all- from what I understand it is meant to celebrate Christ's birth but if that were the case wouldn't it make more sense to celebrate it on his actual birthday instead of on December 25th?
Regardless, I've enclosed gifts for you and your family, and hope that the holiday is treating you well.
Castiel
"You want to open yours first, Bobby?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, it'll be nice to get something from someone who doesn't think that I'm a paranoid old coot." Bobby said before opening the box and promptly freezing.
"Bobby? What is it?"
"A book about Enochian warding symbols."
Dean burst out laughing while Sam tried his best to look sympathetic.
"Maybe next year, Bobby."
"What did he get you, Sam?"
"Uh … a criminal law textbook?" He said, looking at Dean for some kind of explanation.
Dean shrugged. "Hey, I don't know how the dudes head works."
"What did he get you?"
"Uh- a bunch of protective charms, I think. And a-"
Dean froze as he dug deeper into the box- inside was a scale model of a '67 Chevy Impala.
To be continued…
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