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Harry watched the Headmaster stalk out of the kitchen at Grimmauld Place, silently amused. The man had been there to talk to the recently arrived Charlie Weasley about becoming involved with the Order of the Phoenix. The redhead had readily agreed to join, with a focus on international recruitment, but had point blank refused to even discuss bringing the dragons into the equation as possible steeds of war.
Dumbledore had then been prevented from any attempts at persuasion or coercion by simply not being able to get a word in edgewise. Upon finding out that Charlie worked with dragons for a living, Sam and Dean had intensely questioned the young dragon keeper about the beasts he worked with.
Charlie was both amused by the Hunters' enthusiasm and quietly grateful for them derailing the Headmaster's manipulation attempts.
During a lull in the Hunters' questioning, Crowley finally managed to get a word in.
"Do you know much about other species? Besides wizards and your dragons?" He asked of the redhead.
"Sure. While it's called a 'Dragon Preserve' there's a lot of other creatures and beings that live there. I'm actually pursuing a Magizoology degree at the moment." Charlie replied, always happy to talk about his work.
"Hmm. You wouldn't know if it's safe to trim my horns a little would you? I've read that some Demonae horns are sensory organs or used to cast magic, while others they're just like fingernails. I'd rather know for sure before I start cutting. I feel like I'm wearing one of those silly reindeer antler headbands." He sneered at the end of his sentence.
"More like he's sick of getting hit on by overweight Merlin impersonators." Dean snickered, causing a round of laughter to go through the small grouping gathered around the table. Crowley grimaced at the reminder.
"Sure. There's some spells we use on the dragons for stuff like that to safely trim talons and horns. A lot of the time you can't see where the nerves and soft tissues run through the centre." Charlie agreed, still grinning from Dean's words. He rose from the table to stand behind the demon. "Just let me cast a few spells, then I can cut them for you."
"I don't know how people are confusing you for an incubus." Charlie talked as he worked. "You have a distinct Widow's peak, placing your horns in front of your hairline. An incubus, or succubus' grow behind the hairline. A bloke I work with can actually blend his in with his dreadlocks, since the horns grow smoothly over towards the back of the skull."
"Crowley's here, grow upwards away from the skull too much, and have a little twist to them." Charlie pointed out to both Harry and the Winchesters who had all stood and leaned in for a closer look.
"So what can be done?" Crowley interrupted the impromptu lesson. He did not appreciate the close scrutiny; He felt like a specimen being dissected for a school science class.
"Anything you like. They grow from right back in your skull, so it'll be just like cutting fingernails. What do you want me to do? Cut them all the way back?" The redhead suggested.
"Nah, then he'll have funny black circles on his forehead." Sam disagreed. "It'll look weird."
"What about like the muggle stereotype 'devil horns'? Just little ones. It'll work with that twist here." Harry pointed out, tracing what he meant with his finger.
Sam and Dean laughed at the idea until Charlie cut the horns as Harry suggested, and the effect wasn't nearly as funny as what they'd thought.
"Oh come on man, it was supposed to look silly, not make him look more⦠demony." Dean complained, his fun ruined. "Come on Sammy, we got research to do."
"Demony isn't a word. And you mean I do all the research while you nap on the couch." Sam replied, nevertheless rising and following his brother. The two could be heard continuing their arguing through the hallways towards the library. Charlie departed back to the Burrow now that he was no longer needed, eager to get in as much of his mum's cooking as possible before he had to return to Romania.
"So what do you think?" Crowley turned to face Harry, adopting a devilish smirk. The teen's breath hitched.
"L-looks good." He admitted quietly, blushing. Nothing spelled 'brave Griffindor' like blushing and stammering, Harry thought sarcastically to himself.
"Glad you think so." Crowley purred. He wound his hands around Harry's waist, drawing him in to steal the teen's first kiss. Such innocence to be perverted; the thought causing the demon's eyes to bleed red before they closed.
He released the wizard to allow him to breathe, before leaning back in for more. This time Harry responded less shyly, running firm hands up Crowley's chest and around behind his neck. One hand became adventurous enough to trace over a newly contoured horn.
A throat cleared from the doorway, and Harry pulled back startled. He didn't get very far, finding himself somehow seated on the kitchen table, while Crowley refused to relinquish his tight hold despite the interruption.
Harry's eyes flew from Sirius, who'd been doing the throat clearing, to Gabriel sitting calmly next to them, eating a chocolate bar. Harry hadn't even heard him enter the room.
"Gabriel!" Harry gasped.
"Don't stop on my account." The blonde grinned. "I was quite enjoying the view."
Harry noticed the candy in the angel's hand. "Is that my last choc-fudge bar?"
"I'll share with you." Gabriel stated around the final mouthful of the treat. He stood forwards, catching Harry's chin with one hand, and invaded the wizard's mouth with a chocolatey kiss.
Sirius, forgotten in the doorway, stepped forward casting an Aguamenti with the power of a garden hose. The amorous trio leapt apart like startled cats.
Seeing his godfather's seriously unimpressed face, Harry gave an excuse of needing a dry shirt and ran for it. Sirius kept his eye on the two demi-immortals while Harry retreated.
"I think it's time we three had a little chat."
"There was a prophesy about this you know?" Gabriel informed his brother while they partook in some 'Angel Time'; aka a mutual wing grooming session.
The two angels had spent the morning learning how to make their wings tangible, now that they knew it was possible to do so. They'd been Officially Welcomed into the Fae Courts via letter borne by a uniformed messenger/guide, who turned out to be a High Elf-Faery hybrid. The man hadn't stayed for very long, being leery of all the human wizards present. He delivered the letter and a few bottles of Faery-made absinthe from his family's distillery, gave an extremely fast paced overview of Fae law and society, hit on a rather uncomfortable Remus, and was gone in what looked like a sprinkling of sunlight.
Since Harry was still in a strop about all his choc-fudge bars having been eaten, Gabriel was left on Castiel-sitting duty, making sure the younger angel stayed at Grimmauld Place. The Winchester brothers had decided to continue their lives as Hunters, except they could get paid this time through bounties and selling potions ingredients. They were determined however, on not bringing Castiel with them until the angel had figured out what abilities he had in this dimension and how to use them. The first time he'd tried to fly to the potions lab in the basement, Castiel had ended up in the crawlspace of a house two counties away. He had made it back without problem though, so the issue required further testing.
"Prophesy about wing grooming?" Castiel asked, momentarily rising out of his preening haze.
"No." Gabriel laughed, "Though that would be funny if there was. The one about the Azrael, it's about this collision."
"I do not know that one."
"Ah. I don't remember the whole thing, but it involved 'the coming of the Azrael'. Michael figured 'Azrael' was a title, rather than an angel's name." The Trickster continued talking as he straightened feathers and tended to the hardest to reach areas of his brother's wings.
He was actually a little jealous of Castiel's wingspan. Built like a bat's wing, from shoulder joint to furthest fingertip, the dark grey-brown feathered wings were just over two and half metres each. Gabriel's own just barely reached six foot, or 183cm for the metrically minded.
Of course, Gabriel was quite a bit shorter than Castiel, so having any longer wings would look ridiculous. The archangel knew he had the younger angel beat on colour (nothing beat his multi-tonal gold) and number (six perfectly blended wings versus Castiel's two). In his own opinion that made Gabriel still the more awesome of the two of them.
"Turns out to be a whole family line, and not just the one." He continued as Castiel hummed contently. "I asked Harry why his father wasn't working for Death, and he told me that the last five or six generations of Potters had been dedicated to Amathaon, God of Agriculture. So the only reason Death took any notice of what was going on, was our arrival here. He'd lost a branch of the Peverell bloodline centuries ago, and only now realised it. Yet he's blackmailed us into fixing the effects of his inattention. How rude is that?"
His only response was a light snore.
"How rude are you? Didn't even groom the tricky bits for me, and I've got more of them." The blonde sulked.
Gabriel stood and stretched, leaving Castiel to sleep where he was sat on the floor, head resting on the seat of the squashy armchair that inhabited a corner of the room the younger angel shared. Gabriel reached out to nab the shade off a nearby lamp, and carefully placed it gently on the sleeping angel's head. Somewhat vindicated, the ascending demi-god left to hunt down the fudge Harry had received via owl that morning from his friend's mother. The evil little wizard had hidden it from him somewhere, and was refusing to share.
Hello everyone. Sorry there was a bit of a wait for this chapter - my muse was hiding under a rock. I was able to use the wonderful Reviewers' comments to lure it out again. Thanks too, Followers and people who fav'd.
You can thank Emerald Falcon & their H/G/C fic 'Puppy Love' for the word 'demony'.
Don't forget to pm me shenanigan & prank ideas. Or even just a situation you's like to see the SPN gang caught up in.
-Vengeance
