Title: Touched by an Angel
Author: loonie_lupin
Fandom: HP, SPN
Rating: PG
Summary: Harry muses about his new teammates.
For: crossovers100
Prompt: 026. Teammates
Disclaimer: The characters are the property of their respective creator. I own nothing.
Note: Thanks to dixid who read through the story and corrected my mistakes. If some are still there, they are mine.
026. Teammates.
In the weeks that followed Harry's unexpected arrival at Bobby's, he felt himself becoming closer to the Winchesters, falling into a relationship that resembled the one he had with some of the members of the DA. They weren't exactly friends, they didn't know each other well enough, even if they were slowly heading that way, but they were teammates.
It deepened even more when Harry took on the role of the teacher with Sam, helping him understand how to use his powers in a way that Ruby hadn't been able to, letting the human part of him take over what the demon had gifted him with, changing what it felt like. Harry knew that Sam could feel the difference, becoming more at ease with his powers, now that he didn't have to battle with himself so much in order to avoid falling into the abyss.
It changed him. Not a lot, and neither Harry nor Castiel could really see it. They hadn't known Sam long enough. Dean though, was beginning to see the little brother he'd had before all that drama with his deal with the devil, except for the fact that he was no longer afraid of his powers. He was finally the old Sam he had always been and for that alone Dean would have considered Harry an ally – if not flat out a friend.
Harry had immersed himself into this new world, learning more about the type of demons they were fighting, mostly from Bobby who was more than happy to be able to pass on his knowledge once again, the way he did once upon a time for Sam and Dean, whenever their father let them with him before they were old enough for the hunt. Bobby could see the difference, though. Harry was already a warrior; he could see in his eyes that Harry had seen things that would make his skin crawl.
Harry hadn't told anyone but Castiel about his walk in hell. He knew it wasn't a good topic; especially with Dean having spent quite some time there himself. They probably didn't want to remember that time. He could understand. He would rather forget what he'd seen there himself and he hadn't suffered at all. He had barely gone there to get something and had no problem getting out. Yet, what he had seen was etched into his mind and he would never willingly put his new teammates through the pain of reminiscing about it.
All in all, he found out he was in a good place. He felt useful once again, in a way he hadn't felt since the end of the war. He wondered if the fact he would rather risk his life on a regular basis than live the normal life he'd once dreamed of made him insane or not but he knew it was in his blood and that he would get bored otherwise. It was really ridiculous, but he seemed to be condemned to a life of fighting and he couldn't be happier about it.
Of course, the downside was the near-constant presence of Ruby. It wasn't that he didn't like her. From what he had been able to see, she was nice enough – at least most of the time. He could see that she genuinely wanted to help, even if he couldn't really understand her motives. It didn't meant that he didn't feel uncomfortable around her. It wasn't the things she did, it was her nature. He could feel the demon and it made him uneasy.
Yet, he had never discriminated against a species and he was not going to begin now. He realized soon enough that she wasn't evil but that she wasn't good either. She was sort of a neutral ground. She had what it took to be good, she could also become evil to a point he could barely imagine. She was the only one able to decide which side of her would win.
For now, it seemed that it was her good side that had the upper hand. Harry could see that it was because she hadn't been a demon all that long; she hadn't had time to completely forget her humanity yet. Because that what was she had been, long before she had made a deal with the devil to get her powers: human. She could still feel her human soul, knowing that in the end it would not matter. Her nature would win over, even if it was centuries from now.
He talked about it with Castiel, the way he talked with him about everything. Except that,unlike when he had been a child, he had opinions of his own now and it seemed they weren't always on par with the angel's. It didn't change the love between them, Castiel would never forsake Harry just because he didn't have the same opinion, but it made the angel think on a different angle and, sometimes, his own opinions seemed to switch.
Yet, during his many conversations with Castiel, especially those which revolved around Ruby, Harry realized that the angel couldn't see the good into her because she was a demon and it was against angels' nature to see demons as anything but evil, Harry understood something regardingCastiel's punishment.
He finally became aware of God's reason to separate them. Castiel, being so close to Harry, would have influenced the young wizard's opinion too much. If Castiel had never been taken away from him, Harry would have ended up with a very similar vision, the one of good and evil and no real space in between. God himself had instilled that belief in his angels but He also knew that Harry, to be able to vanquish Voldemort and accomplish his destiny, would have to see the shades of grey and the only solution was to force some distance between Harry and Castiel.