A/N: Sorry, that I didn't post last week but I was so busy that I wasn't able to get the chapter written. Now we'll be back to schedule though…hopefully.

2797 words

Chapter 31: Surprise, Surprise!

The woman pushed herself off the door frame, walked over to Alastair and came to a stop in front of her. She looked the demon straight into the eye for a moment having to look up slightly since Alastair was a bit taller than her even if it was not by much.

"Should you ever hurt my son...believe me hell will look like a summer spa in comparison to what I'll do to you," she told the demon in a no-nonsense voice.

"You should be glad that I value Dean too much or I'd gladly test that theory," Alastair replied with a smirk leaning in towards the woman who apparently was Mary Winchester.

"Don't make threats you cannot follow through with."

"Are you so sure about that?" Mary also smirked.

"Mary?" Dean suddenly asked, interrupting the conversation and openly gaping at her.

Sam, as well as the others, just stared at her in confusion. The only exception was Bobby, who looked at her equally shocked and surprised as Dean, and Loki who couldn't keep his snicker in.

"Mary?" Bobby asked carefully. "How is this even possible?"

Mary though didn't react at first, still in a staring contest with Alastair which neither of them wanted to break first.

"I like her," Alastair suddenly exclaimed with a broad grin and a chuckle before walking back over to Dean and gracefully sitting down on the man's lap.

Dean at first didn't react, too shocked and confused about what was happening even though it was Sam who finally asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

"Can someone please tell me what is going on here?" he asked no one in particular. "Is…is she…?"

Mary snickered lowly and sat down on the chair Loki had helpfully conjured for her. Dean in the meantime finally broke out of his stupor.

"I don't know how she did it, but yes Sam…this is Mary Winchester, she's our mother," he introduced the woman who now smirked mischievously.

Sam looked from his brother to the woman, who was evidently his mother, and back to Dean not knowing what to think anymore. In the end, he sighed and rubbed with his hand over his face. None of them though saw the glint in Loki's eyes.

"Perhaps it is the best you start at the beginning and tell us what happened," he said, having a feeling that this would be a long day.

Dean nodded slowly. "Well, when that stupid angel brought me to the past, and I found out exactly in what time I had ended up in, I wanted to sit out whatever the purpose of all this was without interfering at first. That was when I stumbled over John and what can I say…my curiosity got the better of me. I followed him to a car seller and hell, that idiot nearly bought a VW Bulli instead of the Impala," he told them and took a swig of the beer Bobby had served to the adults and a coke for Harry and Loki.

Sam when hearing that they nearly never would have had their beloved Impala, looked slightly ill. "Please tell me you changed that," he almost begged.

Dean looked at his brother with a deadpanned expression. "What do you think…of course, I prevented him from making that mistake," he retorted. "Anyway, after that I followed him around, well…until Mary here caught me snooping on them. Turns out she comes from a family of hunters."

"And you're still alive?" Sam asked surprised.

"It is refreshing to see just how much you care for your brother's life," Dean huffed.

"You know what I meant, idiot."

"Bitch!"

"Jerk!"

The name-calling went on for a bit after that until Bobby, who couldn't keep the grin from his face, interrupted them.

"Ladies, ya can continue that later. We have better things to do now ya idjits."

Dean gave Sam one last glare but continued his story. "Actually, I wondered about that too. The answer surprised me even more."

"The Campbells never cared for what someone is but what that person does. So as long as Dean doesn't endanger innocents I don't care all that much that he's a demon," Mary explained with a soft smile.

"Huh, that's different. Dad was always the kill first ask questions never kind of hunter," Sam replied musingly.

"And it pains me greatly that this is the case, but luckily I was able to prevent innocents from being killed because of those values," a painful expression flickered over Mary's face before she smiled again.

"Say what?" echoed Sam and Dean simultaneously before they looked at each other and snickered.

"Did you really think I would just leave you behind? I might not have been in your life because I didn't want to change things, but I still made sure that you were alright. I saved your life more times than I'm comfortable with because of John's less than ideal preparation during hunts, not that either you or he ever noticed it."

"How did ya even survive that night?" Bobby asked what all of them wanted to know. "I mean ya died…John said that he saw ya die."

"And in a way I did," Mary chuckled. "After Dean told me about everything that would happen I first tried everything in my power to save my parents from Azazel…but it was too short a notice…too little time. Anyway, after that, I began investigating things, Azazel, the seals…Loki," she said with a smirk towards the pagan who returned it. "It was one year before that fateful night that I finally managed to hunt him down."

"I never would have thought that a hunter would join in on that kind of fun, you can be quite inventive," Loki piped in, while conjuring some chocolate for everyone.

"Please, that guy was a bastard with how he treated his subordinates," Mary shook her head. "Not to mention that he slept with his secretary while being married."

Loki chuckled lowly and nodded. "True, but I didn't know that one could use office supplies in such a way."

"Never betray a woman, we can be very inventive in our revenge. However, when I tracked down Loki, I explained to him a few of the things Dean told me about. Not much mind you but enough so that he would help me. He supplied me with a method to contact him when the time would come, and we parted ways. When then a year later Azazel showed up I called him. We staged everything in the way Dean had told me about so that everyone would think I was dead. In the meantime, I vanished, but I never stopped looking out for you two. I wouldn't have forgiven myself had anything happened to you," she finished her explanation about how she survived.

"Yep," Loki said popping the p, waving his hand in a flourish. "What you saw dying was just one of my little illusions."

"So you were alive all that time? Why didn't you contact us, talked to us from time to time, let us know that you were alive?" Sam sounded hurt.

"Sam, believe me I wanted to, but I couldn't. I couldn't risk changing the future in such a way. What would have happened if I changed the future so much that Dean would never have ended up in the past? If dear Harry here would never have met Loki?"

Harry shuddered at that thought, and even Sam looked slightly ill at that prospect. When it finally sank in just what such a change would mean he stood up and hugged Harry as if he feared that the boy might vanish any second, much to the boy's indignation. Harry had long since become a part of their family and if Sam knew one thing, it was to protect someone who was family at all costs, even if it meant that he had to go to hell and back.

"From what Dean said I knew that you were happy even if you had a childhood I certainly never wanted for you. I'll never understand just how John could place his desire for revenge over your happiness. I'm so sorry for what you had to endure, and I would have changed that in a heartbeat but this simply really was the only option," Mary gave her youngest son a pained smile.

"We actually thought about it for quite some time. True, I could have gotten Harry out of there early, and I don't doubt that Mary would have taken him in, but that would have opened an entirely different can of worms," Loki said with a sigh.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked confused, wiggling out of Sam's embrace to look at the pagan god.

"You know the saying that Fate's a bitch?" Loki asked in return, Harry nodded. "Well, she IS a bitch when she wants to be. I cannot pinpoint it, but I have a feeling that she has her fingers in how your life has gone so far and believe me you don't want to witness her when something doesn't go along her plans. Actually, I wonder why she allowed me to meddle so much without at least some kind of warning, not that it would have worked mind you," he said with a grin, but this was something that was on his mind for quite some time now.

Either he was involved in Fate's plans for Harry which he didn't like one bit because he was in control of his destiny…or fate…or whatever, thank you very much. But then it could also be that he wasn't supposed to be part of Harry's life, but there was nothing even Fate could do against it. While he loved the thought of being more powerful than Fate, he knew very well that he wasn't. No, he must have some part in what was going to happen and that irked him something rotten.

"Anyway, then there is also the problem that a major change in not only your life, Harry, but also you two idiots could have caused a massive paradox, especially one where Dean consequently wouldn't have ended up in the past. That would have been even worse. Trust me when I say that I would prefer going three rounds with Fate to creating a paradox."

"Has that happened before? A paradox I mean," Bobby wondered, curious what the result of one would be.

"One time. Normally small changes in time resolve themselves like it did with Mary. A paradox, on the other hand, especially one on that magnitude…I had the misfortune of witnessing the creation of one once…well it wiped out the dinosaurs."

Silence reigned in the room only broken by Harry's exclamation. "Ouch!"

"Yes ouch, I hope you now see why I couldn't risk it," Loki said solemnly.

They all stayed silent after that each of them lost in their own thought. Okay, maybe not everyone since Dean and Alastair had begun to snog again.

"Seriously you two, get a room," Harry laughed, and even Mary couldn't stop chuckling about that display.

She had to admit that she had doubted her son when he told her that he fell for Alastair and that she shouldn't worry but seeing those two now it was evident that not only had Dean fallen for the demon but also the other way round.

"Sam," she addressed her younger son, ignoring the snogging for now. "As I already said I kept an eye on you two, but at the beginning of the year you suddenly vanished. What happened?"

Sam looked worriedly at his brother, but Dean was fully occupied with exploring Alastair's mouth as it seemed. That was until Loki snapped with his finger and the two vanished.

"What?" he asked when everyone looked at him in disbelieve. "Don't tell me you wanted to watch them when they get it on with each other."

"Yuck!" Harry exclaimed scrunching his nose.

"Language!" Mary scolded Loki at the same time.

Harry snickered when he heard Loki being scolded like a naughty little child. "Don't worry I heard worse," he said towards Mary.

"And would you mind telling me where you heard such language?" Mary inquired with a rose eyebrow.

"Dean," Sam answered slumping down in his chair while Harry snickered again.

"It seems that I need to have some choice words with my son about the choice of language in front of a child," she replied with a gleam in her eyes that spoke of nothing good.

"It's undoubtedly too late for that," Harry now outright laughed about the predicament Dean found himself in should he show up again any time soon, though considering what he was occupied with at the moment that was debatable.

"For that, it is never too late. However, Sam, I asked you where you vanished to. I was quite worried when I wasn't able to find you anymore," Mary inquired again, glad that she wouldn't be distracted by her son's behaviour anymore.

Though it wasn't Sam who answered but Harry.

"I think that was kinda my fault actually," he admitted sheepishly. "When I learned that he was a wizard and that he would be alone for some time because of Dean's trip to hell I suggested that he could come with Loki and me to Hogwarts. That way he would not only not think about his brother so much but also learn magic that would help him later."

Sam when he heard Harry telling his mother that he was a wizard, looked at him in shock, thinking that Mary would react negatively. During his time as a hunter, he learned that most hunters distrusted those who wield magic on principal, not because they were generally dangerous but because they had a hard time to discern between natural born and demon deal magicals, both used magic the same way.

"You went to Hogwarts? That's good!" Mary exclaimed but elaborated when she saw her son's surprised and confused gaze. "Oh yes, you don't know it yet, my mother was actually a squib."

At first, Sam didn't seem to understand the implication, but soon his face morphed into one of understanding.

"Oh!" he said.

Mary chuckled lowly. "Yes, she…," Mary began to explain, but Castiel decided to show up right at that moment.

The dopey gaze of the man scanned the kitchen, looking at each of them. With every person he looked at his confusion seemed to rise. When his gaze fell upon Mary, he didn't know what to think anymore.

"Where is Dean?" he finally asked.

"Shagging his girlfriend," Loki replied with a chuckle.

"Language!" Mary scolded him while Harry let his head sink onto the table.

"It is hopeless with him," he muttered earning himself a broad grin from Loki which he didn't see though.

However, that drew Castiel's attention to him. "Harry Potter?" he asked confused. "What are you doing here? … And Loki? What in the name of father is going on here?"

"Why would we tell you?" Dean's voice came from behind the angel. "And I'm not shagging my girlfriend as you can very well see."

That was when Mary had enough. She stood up walked to Dean and grabbed his left ear before pulling him out of the room.

"You're coming with me."

They all could hear her scolding her son for his language. It took them a few minutes before they returned and when they did, Dean looked subdued and wearily glanced at his mother. The only one not laughing was Castiel who looked at Dean strangely. However, before the angel could say or do anything, he jumped a foot into the air when Alastair suddenly appeared behind him and whispered in his ear.

"Well, well, if it isn't heaven's little foot soldier. What are you doing here all alone?" the demon asked him with a smirk before walking around him and gracefully sitting down in the empty chair that Dean had occupied before Loki had decided to dump them in one of his pocket dimensions.

Castiel, on the other hand, whipped around and stared at Alastair, his eyes going wide.

"Alastair?" he asked shocked mixed with a bit of panic and fear tinting his voice, having recognised the demon because of her aura which she hadn't bothered to hide. "What are you doing here? And…and…Harry Potter? What is going on here?"

It seemed that all of that was too much for the angel as he collapsed and if Loki hadn't conjured a chair for him, he would have hit the floor.

A/N: Soooo, this was the last of the more gloomy chapters for now but they were needed for the story. Anyway, next chapter…oh next chapter…the prank…all I'll say is that poor MACUSA will have a field day and a very hard time with Loki and Harry set loose in America *grins diabolically*. 'til next chapter!