Onwards! I'm again sorry for the slight delay. I'm having some issues in finding time to write. It's all 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there - never enough to get into a proper flow. As a result the story gets all choppy and takes forever to edit. I hope you will enjoy it regardless and thank you for staying with the story.

...

Dean was taking stock of everything they needed for the rescue mission, which ended up being most of their arsenal. He had been given a rough description of the place they were infiltrating, and he was mentally reviewing what weapons would be best to use in each scenario. The… robes that he'd been given were slung over one of the chairs next to him. He had no idea why anyone would want to wear those things voluntarily. The only thing he could think of was how all that excessive amount of fabric could snag on something or be pulled or grabbed in a fight. But then again, he got the feeling that those wizard-dudes didn't get into many physical fights, relying more on those magic sticks of theirs. He planned on ditching the dress as soon as possible.

"Dean?" a hesitant voice said to his left. He turned around, somewhat startled that someone had managed to sneak up on him.

She was blonde with somewhat curly hair which was tied up in a bun. She had green eyes that were framed by light wrinkles.

"Uh, yeah?" He frowned at the woman who had managed to get the drop on him. No one other than Cas and maybe the kid had managed to do that in years, but he could blame that on the angel mojo.

"You probably don't remember me, but I'm Alice Campbell. I'm a second cousin to your mom." She smiled gently at him.

"No offence, lady, but I ain't exactly a fan of the Campbells." He tried not to sneer out of politeness but turned back to his inventory.

She chuckled "No, I'd heard you tangled with Samuel and his lot some years ago. I'll tell you that none of us you see here had anything to do with that crazy bastard. Your mom and I were friends back in the day. Haven't seen you since you were three years old though. You and Eric got on well back then too. He's half a year older than you but you probably won't remember."

Dean was startled. He'd had no idea that his mom even had contact with any of her family.

"We were all thick as thieves back then" she sighed, continuing as if she was reading Dean's mind. "We stopped seeing Mary and John when Eric started displaying accidental magic. Hell, we almost didn't see anyone for years until he got it under control. I don't think I have to tell you that bringing a five-year-old who makes the lights flicker when he's angry to a family gathering full of hunters is a bad idea."

Dean gave a chuckle. "No, I can't imagine it is." He thought for a moment how it would have been if Hermione had been with them. Would his father have understood? Probably not. He would have tried exorcising her and put her through all sorts of horrors to find out what caused her abilities. And as soon as he would have heard the word witch, would he accept it, or would he have put a bullet in his daughter?

He felt slightly nauseous that he actually didn't know. But was he that much better? Hadn't he threatened to kill Jack?

Alice smiled at him and gave his arm a squeeze. "Last I saw her, she just told me she was pregnant. She was kinda annoyed she had called you Dean 'cause she figured she would have a girl this time. We decided that she could just call her Samantha if that was the case. It would've been fitting." She winked at him.

"She's my sister, you know." He blurted out, having tuned out what she was saying in favour of his own internal monologue.

Her brow wrinkled in confusion. "Who?"

"Hermione. She's my sister – our sister." He smiled gently at her.

"What? Mary had a magical kid?" she breathed incredulously.

Dean grimaced. "Not exactly."

Alice's eyebrows flew high on her forehead "John? Can't imagine that went over well. I heard he went kinda bananas at the end of it."

"He uh, he didn't know about the magic. He didn't see her that much," he shrugged, brushing it off, "- we didn't even know about her till recently."

"But she's from England. How the hell –" she was luckily interrupted by Eric who called everyone over to go through strategy one last time.

They'd packed everything up and was loading things into the cars when he grabbed Alice's arm. "You heard she came back, right?"

"What d'you mean? Who came back?" she questioned with a frown.

"Mom. From the dead. She was brought back a few years ago."

She drew in a breath "But where is she then? Can I see her?"

Dean winced. "That's kind of a long story. She's somewhere else, but when she comes back, I think she'd like to have some family back." He gave her arm a squeeze and left her stunned to go put his duffel in the trunk of Baby.

He slid into the driver's seat and groaned when he realised that Gabriel was sitting behind to him in all his obnoxious glory. Well, half his glory, but fully obnoxious. This was going to be the worst road trip ever. At least Cas was there too, looking just as exasperated as he felt. Just as he was about to floor it, the door back door opened, and Eric jumped into the back seat next to Gabriel who looked disgruntled that he didn't get the space to himself.

"Dude, can't you just teleport there or whatever?" he whined.

Eric shrugged "Probably, but it's been ages since I've been in a car and this is one fine piece of machinery." He ran a hand reverently along the leather upholstery.

Dean smirked "They just don't make 'em like this anymore."

"Try ever." Eric snorted. "Wizards have no appreciation of cars. It's a damn shame. Imagine if this beauty could fly." he smiled.

Dean choked "Get out of my car!"

"But I – I just." Eric stammered wide-eyed. "Jeez, I'm not gonna do anything."

Dean huffed. "Just. Don't do anything to my car. She's perfect the way she is."

"Well, can't argue with that" Eric shrugged and went back to stroking the leather.

Dean looked in the rear-view mirror and caught Gabriel's eye. He was suddenly incredibly grateful that the angel was only going on half power. That smirk and that eye-brow waggle had never been good news. He took a deep fortifying breath and cranked up the volume on Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin. It was going to be a long drive.

…

It took far too long in Gabriel's opinion to get everything ready to roll. They had to wait because some of the Campbells took a wrong turn. Then they had to wait for everyone to find their places, then they had to wait for Eric to put up those damn wards and then they could go inside. He was so full of nervous energy that he was certain that if he'd had just a little more grace, he would have been floating several inches above the ground. Castiel silently put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed, grounding him, so to speak.

"I need to call our British buddies." He remembered.

"I hate British people." Dean grumbled somewhere behind him, but Gabriel opted to ignore him and flicked through the phone to find the contact he needed.

"Hello?"

"Hey Red. You guys ready?"

Ginny snorted "Born ready – you won't know what hit you."

"Well it's not us you're supposed to hit, you walnut." He said in mock exasperation.

"Whatever. Just get our girl back, yeah?" He could practically hear the eye roll.

"Will do." He promised "I'll text you when we're ready."

"We're on standby."

...

The interior of the Woolworth building was beautiful with its vaulted ceiling, but the way Dean was catching flies with his open mouth was getting embarrassing. Damn tourist. Gabriel closed Dean's mouth with a finger under hiss chin, causing the hunter to scowl and slap at his arm.

"Guys" Eric chastised "focus."

They walked down a hall off to the right and Gabriel shivered from the slight breeze that crept up on them.

"Did I feed the meter? I don't wanna get a ticket." Dean frowned and turned around.

Gabriel raised an eyebrow at him "You didn't need to feed the meter, you dolt. There's an app for parking."

"Right, right." Dean turned back towards them, but huffed "Dammit, I forgot to buy beer, we're almost out."

Eric sighed. "It's a charm made to repel no-maj's. Technically you guys must be magical beings since it doesn't work on you." He told Gabriel and Castiel. "Dean! Listen, man. I need you to grab onto my arm."

Dean frowned at him "But I gotta go." He pointed outside.

"Sure, you know what? Wherever you think it is that you need to go – I can get you there faster. I just need you to hold on tight, okay?" Eric tried to appease him.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Dean grumbled but did as instructed. They crossed the wards and he shook his head when they were on the other side.

"What the hell man?" He exploded and let go of Eric's arm as if he'd been burned by it.

"I know, I know. Just – look here. There's a changing room over here that people use when they travel to and from the wizarding world. It's off here to the left." Eric led them down a hall, through a door with golden patterns which resembled vines, swinging in a non-existent wind. Neat trick. Gabriel wanted it.

The changing room was lined with small cubicles along each wall. Luckily, it was empty so they could talk freely. "Almost no one go here. The only reason I know of it is because I'm no-maj-born. My parents were allowed to come through once when I was to get my first school supplies. Magical people just apparate or floo." Eric shrugged and changed his clothes with his wand.

Gabriel rolled his eyes and sighed. Being human sucked ass. He didn't want to waste what little grace he had, but man his fingers were tingling to show off how he could do it with just a snap. Instead he trudged into one of the damned little cubicles and started stripping.

"Where the hell is the front end of this thing?" He growled at the bright blue garment which he'd been given.

It was like putting up a circus tent without instruction. After struggling with buttons, ribbons (what the fuck?) and buckles, he was finally ready to join the others and get the show started properly.

"Okay. You guys ready?" Eric asked rhetorically.

"As ready as I'll ever be while wearing a dress." Dean shrugged.

Eric tried scowling at him but broke a small smile anyway. "Gabriel, you should text your friends. I'm not sure how well the phone is going to be once we're fully inside MACUSA. Tell them to go 5 minutes from now. I need you guys to take a wand from this bag. They're all tagged so you can see the wood, core and length."

Gabriel did as he was told and pulled out a stick much like Hermione's and still so hugely different from hers. This wand seemed harder somehow. It was thicker, in a light brown polished wood. It had several rings carved in the handle, but all in all it seemed rather simple. He checked the slip of paper which he realised was an evidence tag. Red oak – Thunderbird tailfeather – 8 ¾ inches

"Dude, where did you get these? Did you steal them?" Dean asked the wizard as he studied the tag on his own wand which was light – almost white in colour. Castiel had pulled an almost rosy-coloured wand out with a polished crystal in the handle.

Eric blushed and sighed heavily. "After the war, some years ago, I realised that there was great risk of it happening here. The British ministry fell so fast and while regular people were left defenceless – people like me were hunted. So, I may or may not have lost a wand or two, from evidence that were supposed to be destroyed, on some specific but undisclosable locations."

"Smart" Dean nodded to Eric's surprise. "Well, you obviously turned out to be right. And it's never not smart to have a back-up plan and a safehouse."

"I – Uh, well thank you." Eric stuttered.

...

The atrium of MACUSA was nothing less than beautiful. Of course, Gabriel had seen more stunning things and even created more awe-inspiring stuff. Cassie had seen the beginning of creation too and was also hard to impress, but Dean's human brain had difficulty with processing the golden halls of the American magical congress. Gabriel once again had to shut the man's mouth manually, which earned him a scowl. They followed Eric's lead through the large area that was lined with fireplaces and held clearly marked spots for apparition and portkey travel. A group of wizards were investigating said areas, probably wondering why no-one could apparate. Gabriel just hoped they wouldn't realise that the reason was because Eric had set up wards with his ministry issued key. Just in time as they reached what was supposedly the wand registration, a loud boom interrupted the normal hustle and bustle of people going through their normal routines. Eric wasted no time in leading the forward through the registration while the wizard overseeing the process was distracted. Just before they turned a corner, Gabriel turned around and just caught a glimpse of Ginny Weasley creating a scandal by zooming unstably around on her broom seemingly in a drunken argument with her earless brother George who was chasing her with a bat while several of their other friends were yelling at them from the ground. Some guy was taking photos with the flash going off again and again.

Damn she was good.

Eric led them down different halls. Several Aurors passed them along the way as they ran to the commotion in the entrance hall. As they reached the now nearly empty Auror department, Eric slowed them down.

"We don't have much time. I suggest we split up to cover more ground. I'll take Gabriel with me down to the holding cells and you guys can take the interrogation rooms, yeah? They're just down this hall."

They all agreed, and Gabriel followed Eric down another hallway further down the line.

...

The door swung open, revealing the man their captors had been looking for, closely followed by Castiel.

"Dean!" Sam shouted, in warning.

Ironwood turned towards the newcomer "Avada keda –"

"No!" Hermione screamed and ripped her right hand straight out of the enchanted bindings tying her to the chair. She threw her arm out to the side and watched in amazement as Rowena and Ironwood were thrown across the room and slammed into the far wall. Both crumbled to the ground unmoving.

Hermione stared at her hand in shock. Luckily, neither Sam, Dean or Castiel knew the limitations of magic, but Hermione knew that there was no way in hell she should have been able to break through those enchantments and yet, she had done so with ease as if she had been held down by toilet paper. Throwing people across rooms, wordlessly and wandlessly should not have been possible either. Her capabilities and strength had grown through the last period of time, but this broke the scale. She wondered if this was the magical equivalent to people lifting cars in freak rushes of adrenaline, but this was neither the time nor place for any deep contemplation.

She wasted no further time in trying to use her newfound skill again to release her other arm and breaking Sam free too.

"How did you get here?" she demanded.

"Eric Everglade" Castiel answered as he put two fingers to her forehead, wanting to heal her. He looked at her in confusion and was just about to speak when she cut him off.

"Is he here? Are there more of you?"

"He's here. He took Gabriel down to the holding cells. They're probably coming back soon, let's go." Dean rushed them

"And Arthur?" She asked. Dean faltered and she noticed.

"He – uh, he's not here." He floundered but pulled himself together soon enough when they heard footsteps running outside "We need to go – now!"

They opened the door exactly in time to see Eric and Gabriel come running down the hall towards them, with three wizards on their tail shooting spells at them. Eric answered the literal fire from time to time with his own spells which he fired over his shoulder.

"Granger!" He yelled and threw her wand which she had no idea how she caught. A fear of heights was not the only reason she didn't play quidditch – she was rubbish at catching things. She started throwing up shields leaving small openings for Eric to attack through.

"We need to get away from these guys. Are there civilians in the building?" She asked Eric without looking at him.

"In the Atrium. Your friends are keeping them occupied along with some of the Aurors. I assume there's going to be a lot of people out there."

"So, we can't move the fighting out there. Can we lock these wankers in somewhere?"

Eric grinned at her "Let's go!" He set off into a sprint and the others had no option but to follow since their pursuers were gaining in on them.

Eric and Hermione moved like a unit that had trained together for years. They ran down the hall and skidded around a corner with their friends. Hermione opened a door on the other side and just as their enemy reached them, Eric blasted them through the door which Hermione locked and warded with the strongest charms she knew. Their brief triumph was interrupted by the furious roar of Chief Auror Ironwood who came thundering towards them as fast as his corpulent body could carry him, which was much faster than Hermione had given him credit for.

"Impedimenta!" She cried, pointing her wand at the wizard she had come to greatly dislike. She had put slightly more force into the spell than intended though, so while in was only supposed to slow an opponent for a second or two, he ended up running in slow motion which looked bizarre to say the least. Eric looked at her with an impressed kind of horror. Even the two angels in the group, who had seen a great many strange sights, stood staring transfixed at the man coming towards them. His face was red with effort, but he only managed to move at the speed of a snail.

"His first name is Phallus." Hermione told Gabriel conversationally when she'd caught her breath.

"Huh." Gabriel was still standing in a similar stance as Castiel with his head tilted staring at the walrus who was ever so slowly closing in "What a dick." He deadpanned.

Dean snorted. "Right, so, what's the plan?" he asked no one in particular.

"Well, Chief is probably going to be released from the spell any minute, so we can't stay here. We need to make it back out again. Preferably the same way as we came in. It wouldn't hurt for people to see Granger in the state she's in. It'll suit our narrative well." Eric pointed out.

Hermione frowned and looked down at herself not having realised that she looked in any specific way. Then she noticed that her clothes were torn in several places and blood was flowing from a wound in her side. She grimaced at the sight and by the sting of her cheek she realised that she probably had a few cuts there as well. Sam didn't look much better either.

"Are you a politician by any chance, Eric?" She inquired with a grin.

Eric's cheeks reddened slightly, and he rubbed his neck self-consciously "I'd considered it to be honest. I just want to make the world a better place but a no-maj-born like me? I probably won't stand a chance."

Dean snorted "Well, there's a go-getter attitude if I ever saw one." He rolled his eyes and walked closer to the wizard who still looked like he was running through syrup.

"Don't" Castiel stopped him when he was about to poke the guy. "The spell is turning unstable. We should leave while he's still trapped."

"Or we could kill him." Gabriel suggested with a shrug that was meant to look casual. Hermione could read him like her favourite book though and judging by the twitch of his wings, lethargic as they still seemed, he was barely holding it together. He wanted to watch that man burn, but Eric was right. It wouldn't suit their purpose.

"Not yet." She murmured into his ear and gave his hand a squeeze.

Eric sent a stunner at the man, who fell straight to the floor when the impedimenta lifted simultaneously.

They started jogging towards the atrium, slowed down by the gash in Hermione's side.

When they arrived, it was to pure chaos. People were standing around in the large hall, watching in fascination as a dozen or so Aurors tried to take control of the situation. Ginny was flying around on her broom cackling in glee, George was hanging from a chandelier and Weasley Wizard Wheezes products were flooding the scene. Children picked up joke items and set them off, keeping the chaos running with fireworks, Decoy Detonators and Giggle Gas.

Suddenly there was a large BOOM behind them, and a dishevelled looking Rowena came limping out of the corridor they had just exited.

"You. Little. TART!" She screeched. Even through the explosions of the diversion their friends had provided, her voice carried to the onlookers, seemingly amplified.

"I told you it would bite you in the arse when you refused to join my coven." She growled at Hermione.

Hermione would never admit it, but she feared Rowena as she stood there looking insane. It was like watching volatile explosives being thrown around by baggage handlers at an airport. She had only seen Rowena in control of herself, maybe slightly bent, but never completely unhinged. It became obvious how powerful a dark witch she was, with the wind whipping uncontrollably and clouds gathering around her with purple sparks and lightning streaking through them. She thought idly to herself that they were only missing the green flames and they would have a full scene of Maleficent turning into a dragon.

By Merlin, she hoped the bitch couldn't turn into a dragon.

She didn't transform, but she did attack. Hermione was without further warning slammed into a nearby column so hard that it cracked, and dust and small pieces of rubble fell from the ceiling. Her ears were ringing, and her muscles and bones ached, but she didn't get any reprieve. An invisible hand was crushing her into the column, making it impossible to breathe and she swore she could hear ribs cracking. Her vision was getting fuzzy around the edges, but she saw the light change and felt the pressure drop. Gabriel stepped in front of her with his wings expanded and the light shining from him. She could see it took a lot of effort by the way the feathers were trembling, but she suspected she was the only one who could see that small detail. The pressure on her chest lifted and she slid down to the floor where she could watch the scene unfold through the gap between Gabriel's legs.

She felt rather than heard his voice filling the entire room with his rage and watched in morbid fascination as Rowena burned to a crisp. Cold hands were patting her down, checking her for injuries and her vision was blocked by Sam's frantic looking face. She couldn't focus on what he was saying, but assumed it was something along the lines of 'hold on' or 'stay with us'.

She tried, she really did, but her vision tunnelled, and everything turned dark.

...

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