They emerged in a small forest outside a small rural town in Kentucky. Hermione set up protective wards immediately, including some sigils in Enochian around the border and a muggle repelling charm. She did it with speed and precision and Everglade looked on in fascination as she did all of it wandlessly.

She then pulled her beaded bag out of her boot, pulled out the tent and erected it with a flick of her hand. She walked inside and held the tent flap open

"So, Auror Everglade. Welcome to my humble abode." She smiled at him.

"Just call me Eric" he shrugged. "It's a nice tent you've got. Mine smells like doxy droppings"

"Eric, huh? That's… surprisingly normal"

"Well, I'm No-Maj-Born. Just like yourself." He shrugged again and put his hands in his coat pockets self-consciously.

"Is that why you saved me?" Hermione inquired.

"Partly." he smiled at her crookedly. Y'see wizards don't really care so much about No-majs. They dismiss them entirely and when you're No-Maj-Born they don't really bother with background checks because they think No-Maj's don't have any influence on the wizarding world."

Hermione snorted "No kidding"

She certainly knew that. No one had ever cared to ask any deeper questions about her parents. They only asked out of politeness. All she ever had to say was 'dentists' and their attention went elsewhere. She even had a full cover-story, but she had never had to use it, because no one cared. Except for Mr. Weasley, but she could have told him that her parents were wobblygongers who fixed dinkelhoppers and he would have believed her. Poor man.

"They would never have let me into the Auror Corps if they had bothered to check, 'cause then they would have found out that my mom's maiden name was Campbell." he continued.

"Campbell as in… Mary Campbell?" Hermione lifted an eyebrow at him and went to sit down at the small dining table.

Eric nodded and joined her.

"But they're all… Are you seriously a wizard from a family of hunters?" she asked him incredulously.

"Yup" he popped the 'p' "No one in the family knows of course, other than my parents, but I'm a somewhat distant cousin of Sam and Dean's. And Campbells take family very seriously. I figured you wouldn't crack on the first day. You seemed like the loyal type from what I'd heard. I was worried that maybe you'd start to talk soon. Isolation does strange things to people. You're welcome by the way, for letting you keep your stuff."

"Oh! I thought that maybe you were just… you know. Being sloppy" she shrugged.

"Sloppy? C'mon. What kinda guy do you take me for?" he frowned at her in mock offence.

"Well, considering that I don't know you at all, I'll reserve judgement." she told him not unkindly.

He nodded "That's fair enough. If you don't mind my asking – how do you even know Sam and Dean? Last I checked they weren't exactly pro witches" he leaned forward, with his elbows on the table .

"Well, my boyfriend and I helped them with something a couple of years back." She shrugged, not willing to give up more information. "What will you do now?" she asked him.

He considered it for a moment "I'll probably just go home. I don't think anything can be traced back to me. Phillips didn't see me when I put the curse on him. He was the one who logged out your wand and you know how backwards the wizards are. They won't admit that something so No-Maj as video surveillance is a good idea, so there is none" he smirked.

Hermione chuckled. "Good. I'd hate to ruin anything for you."

Eric snorted "I can always go back to the family business" he winked at her.

Hermione nodded. "If – or when I tell Sam and Dean about this – do you want me to leave you out of the story?"

"Nah, it's fine. Just tell them that the son of Alice Campbell says hi." He smirked and stood. He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and put it on the table. "That's my number. Call me if you ever need anything. Hunter-ties or not, us No-Maj-Born need to stick together." he nodded, and Hermione showed him out. He waved in greeting and as soon as he had left her wards and disapparated, she packed the tent back up. The had the feeling that he was telling the truth, but there was no reason to take any chances. She cancelled the glamour charms and apparated to Massachusetts, making sure to be seen near the wizarding district in Salem before doing the same in Sweetwater, Texas; Williamsburg, Virginia; Charleston, South Carolina; Twin Falls, Idaho and Phoenix, Arizona.

When she was sure she had been seen by wizards and witches all over the US, effectively messing up the tracks, she apparated to the middle of nowhere in Monongahela National Forest, far off the beaten path to regroup. She set up her usual wards and the tent. She was officially a fugitive. Again. She tried to call Sam, but he didn't pick up. She needed to warn the brothers that wizards were out to get them.

She hesitated before calling someone else. She waited while it rang once. Twice, three times. Just as she was about to hang up, someone answered.

"Hello?" the sleepy voice responded.

"Harry? I'm sorry I woke you up"

She heard the noise of bedsheets being shifted around. "HERMIONE!" the voice exclaimed, now fully awake. "Hermione, what's going on? I heard you were taken into custody, but no one would tell me anything and I wasn't allowed to go to see you! Did they let you go? Where are you now? Do you need me to come get you?"

Hermione hesitated. "Not… exactly." She told him carefully.

Harry sighed heavily "Merlin's balls, Hermione" he grumbled. "You broke out, didn't you?"

"Yes. I did. But I shouldn't have been there to begin with!" she defended.

"Where are you?" Harry requested.

"Can't tell you, Harry. That would make you complicit. I just wanted to tell you that I'm out and I'm fine. Someone is probably going to want to interrogate you and I didn't want you to hear it from them."

Harry sighed again. "Are you sure you know what you're doing, Hermione?"

She snorted "I honestly haven't the foggiest, but I'm not one to sell out my friends. You know that."

Harry was silent for a while "What was it even about?"

"They accused me of breaking the Statute of Secrecy. They want to obliviate the Winchesters and tried to get me to give up their location in order to save my own arse." She growled

Harry snorted. "They don't know you very-"

He was interrupted by a loud banging "they're here" he sighed "take care of yourself. Don't do anything stupid"

Hermione chuckled "when have you ever known me to do something stupid?"

"Is that a rhetorical question? I need to go. Stay safe" he hissed and hung up.

She put the phone down on the table and went to find a cup and some tea leaves, but as soon as she had pulled the cup out of the cupboard, she heard the buzzing of the vibrating phone on the wooden table and the cheerful tune that followed.

She scrambled to get it when she saw that the caller ID was "Samsquatch"

"Sam?"

"Hermione! You're – we have him." Sam breathed at the other end of the line.

"What?" She asked confusedly.

"Gabriel. We have him." he sounded apprehensive and Hermione didn't like it one bit.

"Where are you, Sam?" she demanded, her heart pounding away in her chest.

"Look, Hermione, you should know that he really isn't himself." Sam said with pity in his voice. She hated pity.

"I really don't care, Sam. Where are you? Are you at the bunker?" she persisted.

Sam hesitated "Yes."

"I'll be right there" she hung up and packed her things faster than she ever had before. She turned on her heel and broke into a run as soon as she had landed in front of the bunker. She flung open the door and ran down the stairs

"Sam? Gabe?" She called out

Sam came jogging out of the library and met her in the war room. The first thing she noticed was the blood on his hands. He tried to stop her, but Hermione pushed past him and hurried into the library.

"Look, Hermione. He's not himself right now. I don't know exactly what they did to him, but-" Sam tried

Tears pooled in her eyes, and she slowed down when she saw Gabriel sitting in the chair in dirty clothes, covered in blood and with lips still halfway sewn shut. A medical kit lay unfolded on the table next to a bowl of water mixed with blood. He flinched when she entered his field of vision and wouldn't look at her when she knelt in front of him.

"Gabriel" She breathed.

She reached out a hand and he flinched and tried to get away, but she wouldn't let him. She caressed his right cheek slowly, pouring her love into the touch. Wherever her fingers had been, clean skin emerged. The wounds knitted themselves together and the blood disappeared. She reached out her other hand and this time he didn't flinch when she touched his left cheek. She used it to turn his face in her direction and he barely resisted. She looked directly into his eyes and even if it wasn't his fault, it still stung when he looked at her without recognition. She kept looking into those eyes though, determined to get through to him. She still moved her hands about his face, healing it as she went along. The wound on his cheekbone and the gashes on his forehead.

She moved one thumb down and slowly ran it across his lips, vanishing the thread and healing the skin as she went along.

…

Gabriel felt as if he was under water. He was constantly drowning, which was silly because he couldn't drown. Right? Something told him that it shouldn't be possible for him to drown. He didn't know though. He didn't know much other than that he wanted the pain to stop. He wanted the rough hands to stop grabbing him, he wanted the hands to stop hurting him, to stop taking his life – his grace from him. He wanted to be small as a mouse and hide from the rough hands.

But he couldn't. He was certain that he had been able to do that once. But not anymore. The rough hands had taken it from him. The rough hands and the White Suit.

He hated that white suit. And he feared it. But more than anything, he hated that he feared it.

He was supposed to be more, he was sure of it, but he was stuck. He might not have been able to turn himself into a mouse, but he could still make himself small. He had curled himself up inside his head, trying to protect himself from the next wave of pain that was bound to come soon.

He saw something come towards his face. It was the rough hands. He flinched, trying to get away, but when it touched him, it wasn't rough at all. The hand was soft and instead of moving fast to cause pain, it moved slowly, tingling his skin wherever it touched, making it feel better. He felt another soft hand on the other cheek and he reluctantly let it turn his head.

There were two orbs in front of him. Part of them had a colour he liked. Brown? Yes, brown. But it was a special brown. He felt something stirring in his memory and was reminded of a taste that he missed. But there was something more. He could feel his heart beat faster and for a moment he thought it was because of fear, but then he realized that he wasn't actually afraid anymore.

He felt one of the fingers from one of the soft hands touch the painful stitches of his lips, relieving them of the pain and the pressure they had been under for so long.

He kept staring at those orbs. No. Eyes – they were eyes. And he had seen those eyes before, long ago in something that seemed like a foolish dream.

"Her – Hermione?" He whispered uncertainly. His voice was almost gone. For a long time, it hadn't been used for anything other than screaming.

He started noticing the face around the eyes he was staring at. He recognised each and every feature and it sparked his memory. The way her eyebrow would lift when she thought he was being an idiot. The way her cheeks would turn pink when he said something obscene in public. Her lips were stretched into a wide smile. Oh, those lips and the memories they held.

"Gabriel" She gasped, and tears started pooling in her eyes.

…

Sam wasn't surprised that Hermione had appeared just a few moments after they hung up. What he was surprised by, was the fact that she was covered by dust and small bits of debris from what seemed to be a demolished house. He wanted to ask her about it but realised that it might not be the right time.

He watched the scene unfold in fascination. It felt like an incredibly intimate moment, but to see the two of them together was captivating. When she started healing Gabriel, the lights dimmed slightly and he figured that maybe she was drawing on the electricity to heal him – after all, healing an archangel probably took some juice.

She went about it slowly, and he could almost see, when Gabriel started emerging from the shell, he had buried himself in. Sam turned around when they finally reconnected. It was too private.

Suddenly the lights dimmed again, and Sam turned around to find them locked in a soft embrace. She was healing the rest of Gabriel's body, he realised.

They let go of each other soon enough, and Hermione eased Gabriel back onto the chair. She rummaged around in her impossible purse and pulled out a block of chocolate the size of a brick. She broke it into large pieces for all three of them.

"You don't have to say what happened Gabe. Not yet. Just eat some chocolate. You'll feel better." She winked at Gabriel as she passed a piece to him.

Sam huffed a small laugh when Gabriel bit it cautiously and then almost collapsed in relaxation with a moan of delight.

Hermione smiled softly at the angel. "Every bloody time"

"Hermione, where have you been?" He asked. "I've tried calling you so many times over the past few weeks."

"Prison." She deadpanned. "Just busted out today" She smirked at him and Gabriel choked slightly.

"Are you saying I'm dating an escaped convict?" He asked her hoarsely.

Hermione shrugged "Technically I was never convicted of anything." She smiled cheekily at the angel.

Sam huffed in laughter "is that why you're covered in rubble?"

"Oh! Yes. I'd forgotten about that. Anyway, did you find Jack?" She questioned Sam in concern.

Sam sighed heavily. "We did, but we lost him again."

"You what?" She hissed dangerously

"He's in Apocalypse World. Where our mom is."

Hermione sucked in a breath "It just keeps getting better and better"

"Actually, it kinda is. It's been a challenge, but with Gabriel's grace, we finally have everything we need to open another portal." Sam smiled in relief.

Gabriel frowned "Hate to break to ya Sammy, but I don't think I have any grace left. It's gonna take some time to recharge" he scratched his neck self consciously.

Sam debated with himself whether or not to show it, but eventually deciding that it wouldn't be fair to keep it to himself.

He pulled the two small vials of archangel grace from his pocket and set them down on the table. He saw Gabriel stand up straight and stare at them hungrily.

"I'd like that back, please." He ground out.

"Wait, Gabe." Hermione interrupted, standing up next to him, putting a hand on his arm.

"But my mojo, Hermione! My mojo!" Gabriel protested with the hint of a whine.

Hermione smiled gently at him "Your mojo will come back on its own, honey. Their mum won't. Jack – your nephew won't." Hermione smiled fondly "I've met him, Gabe. You'll love him. He loves Star Wars – and nougat. He's probably one of the sweetest persons I've ever met. But right now, that boy is trapped in another world. A world where the apocalypse did happen. Imagine what it's like over there. I want him to come home."

Gabriel sighed heavily and sat back down in defeat. "Do you need all of it?" He asked, looking Sam directly in the eye, almost daring him to lie.

"I uh – I don't know" he chuckled nervously. "We probably just need one, but maybe we could do the spell first and then you could have the rest?" he practically begged.

Gabriel frowned. "Fine" he relented. "But put it back in your pocket. It's too tempting to just have it standing there, looking at me.

Sam gave him a small smile "Thank you, Gabriel. It means a lot." He told the archangel earnestly.

"Yeah yeah, just don't waste it or I'm gonna be pissed."

Sam nodded. "Look, maybe you guys should go clean up. No offense, but you're both filthy" he gave the couple a crooked smile.

Gabriel smiled lewdly as he turned towards Hermione giving her a once-over. "Oh yeah. I think I need to wash you, honey. Thoroughly. And since I don't have any grace, it'll have to be the human way" he shrugged in fake apology and Hermione blushed.

Sam huffed "Maybe- maybe you should shower separately?" he suggested feebly.

Gabriel rolled his eyes "Fat chance of that. You could join it you wanted?" Gabriel offered and as always, Sam had a difficult time telling whether or not he was serious.

"He most certainly could not" Hermione hissed in outrage before Sam had a chance to. She grabbed the angel by the collar and pulled him towards the living quarters. Sam didn't know whether to be grateful or disgusted, but at least Gabriel was somewhat back to his normal self. That had to count for something.

He started cleaning up the stuff he had used, trying to help Gabriel. He frowned. Rowena was the most powerful witch he had ever met, but even she had to rely on spells and rituals. Hermione had healed Gabriel with her touch alone. Had Gabriel rubbed off on her (Bad choice of words, Sam, he thought in disgust) or was it something else?

He was sitting with a beer, bent over a book when he heard footsteps and looked up to see Dean come walking with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder and his arms full of ritualistic items. He paused slightly when he noticed Gabriel was gone but continued past Sam to the other end of the small library.

"All right let's do this" he nodded to himself as he set the things down on the last table and took stock of them to see that he had everything.

Sam looked at the place Hermione and Gabriel had been "Uh, shouldn't we wait?"

Dean frowned at him "Wait? Why? We got everything we need. Everything else is just burning daylight. Come on. Let's open this door." He started preparing the items.

"All right. I'll gather my gear" He shrugged and turned around.

Dean cleared his throat "Uh, hold on. I'm heading in alone."

"What?" Sam frowned in confusion. "You can't go in alone."

Dean walked closer and spoke to Sam in low tones "Look. We got a busted-up archangel here. And who the hell knows what else? Okay? Somebody's gotta stay here, just in case."

Sam frowned and thought of Hermione and Gabriel. He was certain that Hermione would be able to defend the bunker, even if Gabriel didn't have any juice.

He heard another set of footsteps and looked around to see Ketch coming in, wearing full tactical gear.

"And I'm coming with you. As I said, Asmodeus will be hunting me to the earth, so it's better if I'm not on this Earth." He shrugged, ever pragmatic.

"It's not much better over there." Sam warned. "You know it's a war zone, right?"

Ketch smiled with the air of slight condescension that his entire being seemed to be soaking in "Won't be my first, shan't be my last"

"Fine" Dean nodded

"Fine?" Sam questioned "So you want Ketch to go and not me?" he hissed in disbelief.

Dean shrugged "I don't care if he dies – Hell, I'm kinda rooting for it."

"Still... You can't-" Sam tried, but Dean cut him off

"No, I have to. It takes something that's been over there to open the right door, so that's either you or me. So, I'm gonna go. And if something happens to me, if time runs out, then I need you to come and save me and whoever else. Okay?" Dean argued.

It made sense. He hated when Dean made sense. Still, even if it made sense, he didn't have to like it.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of your brother" Ketch butted in unnecessarily.

Caught up in their bickering they hadn't noticed the other two people coming in.

"Arthur? What are you doing here?" Hermione's light voice interrupted in confusion.

Ketch turned around slowly, slack jawed and white as a ghost. His eyes widened in recognition when he saw the young curly-haired witch who stood, equally surprised at the entrance to the library, hand in hand with Gabriel.

"Hermione?" he breathed in reverent disbelief

...

So. A bit longer than usual, but there was also a lot of important stuff. I wanted to write from Sam's perspective because I wanted the reunion described from an outside source, and I felt like Sam would be the best one to do that.

And sorry - not sorry.

What do you guys think is going on? I'm curious to know.

Please leave a review

Lots of love