A/N: So here as promised the weekly update! After the naughty little cliff-hanger last time *laughs evilly*…

2.954 words

Chapter 24: Shocks, Surprises and Demons In-between

When Harry saw Dean, or better yet his aura, he didn't know whether to smack himself on the forehead, Dean over the head, or start laughing uproariously. He watched how Sam ran over to his brother and embraced him in a hug – thankfully Dean was sitting, or it would have been hard with Sam being a child at the moment – without making sure that it was even his brother, when Harry couldn't keep it to himself anymore and started to snicker.

"Jesus Christ, you don't do things half-heartedly, do you Dean?" he laughed.

This earned him a snicker from Sirius who now stood in the kitchen leaning against the counter watching everything, and a glare from Dean over his brother's shoulder. The man's eyes were completely black.

"Dean, it is so good to have you back," Sam muttered into Dean's shoulder before he drew back again. "How are you? Are you alright? How was your stay in hell? What…" he started to question his brother but was quickly interrupted by an amused Dean.

"Sam. SAM! Calm down, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon," he laughed. "I'm well but…there are a few things we have to discuss."

Raising an eyebrow, Sam looked at Dean now, worried because his brother had tensed up.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he asked, sitting down on the chair next to Dean. "Your stay in hell…our plan worked, didn't it?"

"Yes, everything went according to the plan, but um...," he started helplessly looking at Harry, but the boy only smirked at him, telling him that this was his brother and his job to tell him. "I don't know how to tell you this…but…."

"Merlin, Dean…tell me already! It's not like you suddenly decided to say yes to Michael, have you?" Sam was increasingly frustrated now, but Dean quickly denied that.

"No that's not it…it's just…" Dean sighed deeply before looked Sam straight into the eyes, his eyes flashing black before returning back to normal.

Sam though, to Dean's utter surprise just stared blankly at him as if nothing had happened at all.

"Sam?" Dean asked after a few minutes of utter silence, no one daring to say anything.

"I'm only surprised that it took you that long," was Sam's only deadpan answer.

Dean started to splutter. "You…WHAT?"

"Dean seriously, I'm not stupid. When Loki informed me that Crowley told him that you and Alastair work alarmingly well together, I already suspected that something like that might happen. The next day then I took Loki aside, and he explained to me a few things about demons. You're a demon? So what? As long as you don't start to hunt down and torture innocents there are worse things that could have happened," he explained with a smile, his talk with Loki about demons really had been an eye-opener.

~ Flashback ~

"But what if Dean becomes a demon?" Sam nearly whined, he didn't know how else he could tell Loki that he feared what might happen if that was the case.

"Sam, do you know how many demons live on earth? Demons you'd never even suspect of being such because they live a normal life blending in and never doing anything to show up on a hunter's radar?!" Loki asked Sam in disbelief. "There are so many demons or other supernatural beings out there you'd be shocked if you knew. I won't say that those demons are saints, far from it, but most of them found their own little way to let out their darker nature, but they are mostly harmless. Like me when I teach some idiot who deserves it a lesson, they have their own ways to torture people without even breaking the law. I know for a fact that stockbroker is one of their favoured jobs or also lawyer. Bloody hell! There's even an entire demon race called Vengeance Demons that live off of making the lives of those who wronged someone a living hell. Sam, stop seeing the world in black and white, there is so much more to this world than only those two colours."

Sam at that point of their conversation looked towards the floor, he knew what the pagan was talking about. Ever since Harry and consequently also Loki had stumbled into their lives shortly after Christmas, he had started to see that there was more to this world than he thought. Sure, he already knew that not every "monster" they hunted was inherently evil and not every human a saint but that there was an entire society besides their own? No, he certainly hadn't known that until just then. The first thing to open his eyes had been the Rabbit Hole. Seeing first-hand how werewolves, vampires and whatever else peacefully attended to their businesses had been a shock at first.

However, now Sam could see what Loki meant and when he thought about it, how ruthless some banker could be or how a lawyer sometimes ripped into people destroying their lives with it, yes he could believe that they were demons who had found a way to let their darker desires out without alerting certain individuals. It's not that he thought it was okay, but he also knew that this was nothing he would be able to do anything against, it was just how life was.

In the end, he sighed deeply. "You're right, but up until lately that was everything we knew, those monsters were evil and we had to hunt them so that they couldn't hurt people. We had already learned that there was more to the world, that not every werewolf was a savage beast and that not every vampire wants to drain people dry, but this?" he muttered and ran his hand over his face before sighing once again. "It's just a bit much to learn that everything we thought we knew about the supernatural is mostly wrong."

"This is why I agreed that it would be good for you to come here to Hogwarts. Believe it or not but I like you and Dean, and I don't want to see you get killed only because your information was incorrect. Seriously…I think that by now my first-year class is better prepared than you two," Loki snickered.

~ Flashback end ~

So yes, Sam learned that there were far worse things that could happen to his brother than ending up as a demon.

They heard low laughter came from the adjourning living room and when they collectively turned around, they saw a brunette woman coming out of one of the other room. Sam had to admit that the woman was beautiful and could probably be the cover model on the Playboy magazine, though he somehow doubted that the woman would ever even contemplate becoming one. She was wearing skin-tight black trousers and a blood-red blouse with the first two buttons undone leading to many a grown man having plenty of inappropriate thoughts. Her eyes were a mesmerising blue, and her brown hair fell in waves down to her shoulder blades.

"Don't worry that is highly unlikely to happen," the woman said while walking over to them. "He became what is commonly known as a Vengeance Demon. So as long as the person didn't do anything to deserve any punishment…" she left it at that smiling at Sam while holding out her hand. "Alastair, it is a pleasure to finally meet you, Sam, Dean told me quite a lot about you. Oh, and before you start to bitch around, I made this body myself."

Sam looked at Alastair for a long moment before he took her hand and shook it. Once he let go the demon turned towards Harry with mild interest.

"You must be Harry Potter then. I have to admit that I'm impressed, you caused quite a stir in hell with killing Ruby," she now laughed.

"As long as you don't make the same mistake as she made and underestimate me, we'll be fine," Harry retorted fingering the hilt of one of the throwing knives he had brought with him and that was currently strapped to his forearm next to his wand, he wouldn't make the same mistake again and underestimate a demon.

That only made Alastair chuckle though. "I like you," she said with a bright smile while sitting down next to Dean placing a hand on the man's thigh which made him tense. "You're not like those normal idiots who either cower in the presence of a demon or try to get a good deal. It's refreshing to see."

Harry slowly lowered his hand that was upon the hilt of his knife while snickering lowly.

"You two are together, aren't you?" Sam suddenly asked having observed Dean and Alastair for the last few minutes. It was the only conclusion he could come up with in regards to how the two behaved.

Dean shrugged somewhat helplessly. "I stayed in hell for a very long time – 47 years to be precise – …it just happened…does it bother you?" he asked a bit tentatively but was surprised when Sam started to laugh.

"Once again, I already suspected something like this could happen," he finally said still chuckling. "And as long as she doesn't hurt you I don't care. But Alastair, one warning is all you get, should you hurt my brother in any way, believe me, there will be no place in heaven, hell or anywhere else you could hide! I would find you and end you!" he said with a ferocious glare towards the female demon that spoke volumes about how serious he was.

Alastair though wasn't intimidated in the least but instead simply smirked at Sam. They stared at each other not even blinking when just at that moment the front door opened and moments later Loki walked into the room. However, when his gaze fell upon the occupants, he blinked several times, turned around and left again only to come back a few minutes later.

"Loki? Everything alright?" Harry asked confusedly over the pagan's antics.

"Just wanted to make sure that I'm really in the right house. I mean Dean seriously? You definitely don't do things half-heartedly, do you?" he asked in disbelief.

Harry, hearing that, snickered, he had asked precisely the same question.

"Problem?" Dean glared at Loki.

Loki looked at everyone in the room. When he saw that they obviously knew about Dean's new "condition" and didn't even bat an eye about it, he shrugged.

"No, just surprised that's all," he replied while walking over to the others when a thought struck him. "Michael will be pissed when he learns about it, it really throws a spanner in heaven's plans, and I hope I'm there when he learns if only to see his face."

The grin Loki now sported could only be described as utterly mischievous, it seemed that there was no love lost between him and Michael and that he loved to mess with the archangel.

"You don't like Michael, do you?" Sirius asked speaking up for the first time since they had arrived in his house.

"Nah, I'm just not a fan of his fight with Lucifer. If they kill off the planet with their little war whom am I supposed to prank?" he now laughed.

"What about your family?" Harry asked though Loki only looked a bit confused. "Thor? Odin? Ringing any bells?"

"Do you really think that they would survive the clash between Lucifer and Michael?" Loki now raised an eyebrow.

"That bad?" Sirius wondered.

"Worse!" Loki replied in a serious tone. "Believe me, you didn't witness the first round between them…the second…it would be a wonder if anything would survive."

That sobered everyone up in an instant.

"Say, why arewe helping break certain seals again? I mean if it really would be that bad we'd only speed it up," Sam muttered.

Loki sighed before conjuring a chair and sitting down. "I don't honestly know, but what I know is that as long as Michael doesn't have a suitable vessel who says yes to him, we're safe. Somehow I have the feeling that there is more to the entire thing than we can see at the moment. I mean why did three independent seers say the very same thing? That the seals will fall and they even made it sound as if it's something good!"

Everyone could see that this was something that was weighing heavily on the pagan's mind. Harry had no idea what he could do to cheer Loki back up, so he did the first thing that came to his mind and wrapped an arm around his shoulder holding him close and giving him silent comfort. Loki looked up at him and smiled, slightly, thankful for it.

That was when suddenly a pillar of black smoke arose a few feet away from everyone and soon gave way to the form of Crowley. The demon quickly looked around taking in the sight before him before he chuckled lowly.

"Well that actually explains everything," he said with amusement in his voice.

"Crowley," Sam said tersely. "How can we help you? And what explains everything?"

"I actually came to talk to Loki about Dean vanishing from hell, but that obviously isn't necessary anymore. What is interesting though is that there's currently an angel roaming hell frantically trying to find Dean," he snickered.

"Well it seems you outpaced your rescuing party," Sam laughed.

"I told you they won't leave Dean in hell," Loki added his mood having improved over the misfortune of the angel that was sent to rescue Dean.

Harry on the other hand outright laughed. "I wonder how long it will take for him to realise that Dean isn't in hell anymore," he brought out.

"From what was observed it seems to be quite a dense specimen," Crowley said amusedly. "The demons in charge of Alastair's racks are currently having their fun with him by having him constantly turning around in a circle."

"Don't let it go on for too long…he might get suspicious that something is wrong," Alastair spoke up, she had been let in on the plan by Dean right from the start.

Crowley nodded. "On an unrelated note, you might want to stock up on salt and iron. I heard that Lilith wants to break the first seal soon, the Rising of the Witnesses."

Dean, Sam, Loki and Sirius all looked at each other sharing the same thought, this would be bad. All of them had lost one or more souls that they couldn't save, in Dean and Sam's case, or had to kill during the war in Sirius case, or were overall worried about the students in Hogwarts like Loki.

Harry though was confused. "What does that mean, Rising of the Witnesses?" he asked.

"It means that the souls of each and every person you killed, couldn't save or are otherwise connected to their death will come back and try to kill you," Crowley bluntly stated earning himself a glare from Loki of which he was utterly unimpressed before he vanished to hell knows where to without another word.

"What about my parents?" he now inquired anxiously.

"Harry, don't worry," Loki soothingly told him. "Even if they come back, always remember that they're not themselves because of the spell behind it. Besides that, I'll protect you!"

Harry nodded already calmer than before.

"I'll protect you too," Sam spoke up earning himself a curious glance from Dean. "Dean I'll stay here until the end of the term. Better having a hunter here who knows how to deal with vengeful ghosts in Hogwarts and it is only a bit over a month anyway. Loki do you know how to reverse that spell?" he asked Loki who only shook his head.

Dean hummed lowly. "I think I'll go to Bobby then and see whether he knows how to end it once it's begun," he finally said when he remembered something and let his head fall onto the table with a low thud.

Sam wondered what Dean's antics were about when he also remembered the problem and he began to smirk. "Have fun explaining your new…condition to him," he said with a vindictive grin.

"Idiot," Dean retorted with a heated glare.

"Jerk," came the reflexive reply.

"Bitch."

Alastair observed how the name-calling went on for several minutes before she interrupted them with a clearing of her throat.

"So Dean and I go to that Bobby to get the counter-spell while Sam stays here, correct?" she inquired.

"Yef," Loki said around a lolly he had just conjured and was now sucking on, giving Harry, who was demandingly holding his hand out, another one.

"I know a ghost banishing spell I can teach you two," Sirius spoke up telling Harry and Sam.

"That would be great," Sam answered, it would also help him later with his hunter business.

"So we have a plan! Sirius teaches Sam and me that spell while Dean and Alastair go to America and find out how to stop the mess. Loki stays with us here and helps us. Did I forget anything?" he looked at everyone expectantly.

"That sums it up quite nicely," Sam muttered while nodding.

"Good, then I'd say that everyone should get to work," Sirius said pushing off the counter and walking over to the others.

Everyone nodded and went to work on their part to keep those vengeful ghosts from making too much a mess once they were released. Dean and Alastair vanished, headed towards America while Sirius went to teach Sam and Harry the ghost banishing spell. Loki in the meantime also left to take care of some of his own business.

A/N: Sooooo, it seems that things are going to become interesting with the seals falling! 'til next chapter!