Unfound

Prologue

Season 12

Sam was able to catch Dean late in the evening. The adrenaline from the day was still coursing through his veins. He was exhausted, of course. Being tortured by a deranged British woman for a couple of days straight while believing that your brother was dead did that to a person. Not to mention the life-changing revelation that his mother was alive.

"I thought you'd be asleep already," Dean said, drinking a beer while leaning against the counter in the kitchen.

"Yeah, me too," Sam said.

"Wanna beer?"

"Nah. I'm good. Dean…" he hesitated a second. He needed to tell his brother something about his time at Hogwarts, but it was a very sensitive subject. Dean had learned that Sam was a wizard at the worst moment possible. When they had needed Crowley to possess him. And the demon couldn't. Of course, this revelation also came after the angel that Dean had tricked Sam into saying yes to had killed Kevin and needed to be expelled. It was one of the biggest fights the two of them ever had and is what, Sam believed, ultimately led to Dean taking the Mark of Cain and becoming a demon.

So, they had done what they always did with tough subjects. They didn't talk about it. Ever.

"Yeah?" Dean finally asked when the silence went on for too long.

"That guy at the end – Mick?"

"What about him?"

"I've met him before. It took me a second to place him, but we've met."

Dean stared at him. He raised an eyebrow as if to say, "and?"

Sam sighed. "We met at Hogwarts."

"He's a wizard?" Dean looked alarmed.

"No," Sam shook his head. "I don't think so, at least. He was part of this…delegation. They were from a school that trained hunters that worked under both the British government and the Ministry of Magic. They were part of an organization that Harry had tried to get shut down. They never told me the name, but it must be the Men of Letters."

"Harry tried to get them shut down?" This didn't bode well, in Dean's book.

"Yeah. I think so. If what Ginny told me was right. Dean – I think we need to tread carefully here."

"He didn't say anything to you," Dean pointed out.

"No. But, when I met him, he knew who I was. Knew that I was known to be a squib. I got the feeling that he also knew about…well about our relationship with Harry."

Dean looked up sharply. The name was still a bit of a taboo between the two of them. This was the most they had discussed him in years. Dean was somewhat surprised at the sharp pain that still came with thinking of their dead brother.

Sam had finally convinced Harry's friends that having wizard guards around them at all times was too dangerous while Dean had the first blade. They had had almost no contact with the wizarding world since then. Even the weekly phone calls had stopped.

The only exception was when Luna and Charlie stopped by. The two of them were joined at the hip and very much in love. Without Luna, they would have lost Charlie in their battle with the Stynes. But Luna had come in at just the right time and staged Charlie's death well enough that it had fooled both the Stynes and Sam and Dean. Dean had slaughtered the entire family in rage, only to find Charlie safe and sound a couple of weeks later.

"What does it matter, if they know? Did that British bitch bring him up to you?"

Sam shook his head. "No. I don't know if they all know or if this Mick has special knowledge. But if they know about Harry…what else do you think they know?"

Dean finished his beer. "I dunno. But that's a problem for later. You need to get some sleep. I know Cas healed you and all but…"

"I know, I know. But I thought – " Sam craned his neck to be sure that their mother wasn't in earshot. He lowered his voice. "I thought we should also decide what to tell mom about him."

"About Mick?"

Sam gave Dean a bitchface. The one that meant "don't be an idiot."

"Oh. Harry," he realized with a sinking feeling in his gut.

"Yeah."

"Nothing. We don't say a damn thing."

"Really? Don't think she deserves to know? To know that he lived?"

"What just to crush her with the news of his death? With how he died? Are you trying to hurt her?" Dean also wondered if Sam was trying to hurt him. The idea of their mother knowing his deepest shame, that he was directly responsible for the death of his brother, it was unimaginable to him.

"Of course not, but…"

"No, Sam," Dean's face became hard and closed off. As it always did on the rare occasion that Harry came up.

Sam raised his hands in surrender. "Fine. We won't tell her. For now."

"Not ever, Sam," Dean said severely.

Sam turned to leave. Dean went to find something stronger than beer to drink.

III

Harry became suddenly aware of the world around him. Aware in a way that he hadn't been in a very long time. He felt – heavy. Like gravity was pushing him down on the bed he was currently lying in. But there was no gravity in heaven. Well, there was, but not really. It was more of a mass illusion than anything else. This felt real. The angels hadn't sent him to Earth in years though and this was clearly not the same – he started to try and sit up.

"Woah, there, big guy, take it easy," a voice said into his ear. "Don't think you're ready for that yet."

Harry blinked up. The face in front of him was – blurry? Like, "where are my glasses?" he asked, without really realizing the thought he was having. Weird. He could feel the vibrations of his voice. And since when had he actually needed corrective lenses? Not since he had been…everything came back to him in a rush.

He slumped back down in the bed.

"Gabriel?" He asked, remembering.

The archangel entered his vision as glasses were placed on his face. He was grinning ear-to-ear. "You have no idea how much I had to do to get you back," he said.

"Get me…back? But – I-I died. I'm dead." He remembered Heaven. He remembered meeting Lily and James and long discussions with Dumbledore. And he certainly remembered the arsehole angels that ruled the place.

"You were dead. I brought you back."

The words were not sinking in.

"I don't understand. I chose to die. I've been dead for hundreds of years."

"Ah – hundreds of heaven years, sure," Gabriel said. "Only five years here on earth. But you've got to take it, easy buddy. Your vessel hasn't quite caught up yet."

Harry laid back down. Mostly because he was just still so confused. It wasn't as if he hadn't visited Earth while he had been up there, but not in a physical body. He hadn't been corporeal. Wait a second.

"Vessel?!"

III

Mary faced the grave with her name on it grimly. 'Mary Winchester,' it read. '1954 - 1983 - In Loving Memory.' She couldn't help but let out a short, humorless laugh at that. Sam had told her that her uncle had been the one who had put this gravestone up - that John had refused to build a monument to her. Instead, he had built a life on the false belief that she had been some sort of martyred saint that needed to be avenged. She tried not to judge him - there was no way for him to have known what he was dragging their boys into.

She'd also be a massive hypocrite for being angry at him for searching for answers. It's not as if she hadn't done the same thing - only completely behind his back. When they had lost their baby - a hurt so bad that they had never even given him a name, she had been convinced that he had been stolen from her. That her encounter with Azazel - her deal for John's life is what had led to his disappearance. Sure, it wasn't the ten years that she had been promised, but demons were untrustworthy.

In the years after she had searched. In secret. In futility. And, when the trail had dried up and she had gotten pregnant with Sam, she forced herself to put it all behind. She was left with one conclusion at the end of it all.

Her child had been taken. Of that she was sure.

Her baby hadn't been with her in heaven. Mary couldn't imagine anything that a newborn would end up anywhere else. Or that their souls wouldn't have been reunited. She intended to ask Castiel about it, but she had yet to figure out how without clueing in Sam and Dean. It didn't seem like John had ever told their boys about the lost child.

And that was the first big difference in how the two of them dealt with tragedy. Mary wasn't going to pull her boys into this mess. They had enough to deal with.

She probably would have let the whole thing go again. But something happened when she was brought back. Memories started to resurface. Sort-of. Enough for her to know that the trail hadn't run dry. Enough for her to know that she had found something. And someone had taken the memories of that away from her. She didn't remember who. She didn't remember what she had found. But it had been something. And she was damn determined to find it again.

This is what had brought her to Greenville, Illinois, to her gravesite. She was hoping to speak with her Uncle Lionel. Hunter's contacts were usually a good place to start and she was hoping that since he had gotten out of the life, that he would be a reliable source of information. He was long dead before she got there and his own gravestone was located not too far from her own.

She was beginning to think this was all in folly. That she had already left her two living sons for long enough. They may be adults now, but she could feel the pull to return to them growing every day.

That thought ended when she saw something odd etched into the corner of her gravestone. She knelt down. Just in the corner, neatly carved was a symbol. A triangle with a circle in the middle and a line down the middle. She touched it and a shiver ran down her spine.

This was something. Her hunter instincts were on high alert. This mark meant something. She was sure that Sam and Dean hadn't put it there - why would they? She quickly pulled out a notebook she kept in her pocket and a pen and made an etching. This was something new. A clue for her to follow.

Baby Boy Winchester never got a gravesite. But maybe he had never needed one. Maybe he had left this for her. Maybe it was his mark.

She didn't know. But she sure as hell was going to find out. Or die (again) trying.


AN – And so we begin again. I am feeling so inspired and excited about the upcoming sequel that I couldn't wait to start sharing it with you. This is to whet your appetite and get you as excited as I am. The plan is still to begin posting real chapters (weekly) in February.

These three scenes are not in chronological order. Chapter One will take place at the end of Season 11 and all of these are solidly in Season 12, although you'll have to wait and find out which episodes. I am also still working on my adaption of the French Mistake – I'm hoping to have it up as a Christmas treat in a couple of weeks.

As always, thank you to everyone for your comments, reviews, kudos, and follows. I wish you all a very happy holiday season!